MAY I BELIEVE?
THE WARRANT OF FAITH.
BY THE
REV. ALFRED HAMILTON, D. D.
PIIILADELPHIA:
PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION,
NO. 821 CHESTNUT STREET.




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by
JAMES DUNLAP, TREAS.,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District
of Pennsylvania.
7'ESREO TYPED BY
JESPER IIARDING & SON,
INQUIRER BUILDING, SOUTH THIRD STREET, PHILADELPHIA.




CONTENTS.
PAGE
Preface,                                          5
The sinner secure,..        11
A change comes,...12
Difficulties-grounds of doubt,.                 14
Glimpses through the gloom,                      17
The indispensable,                               19
There is a warrant,                              22
Faith in Jesus Christ a duty,..                 23
What has been may be,. 33
What is true of all,                             35
Special cases,                                   39
A woman which was a sinner,.                    40
The thief upon the cross,                        43
Saul of Tarsus,                                  50
A group of cases,.                              53
The argument direct, from holy Scripture,.   72
A recapitulation,.                              84
What yet remains,                                86
The sufficiency of this warrant,                 88
Perplexing questions,                            93
Conclusion,                                  1. 32
(3)








PREFACE.
EARLY in my ministerial life I was sent to a
vacant church in the Presbytery of Ohio. I was
entertained at the house of a good man, a Ruling
Elder, but I missed the presence of his wife.
During the evening after my arrival, I learned
that she was an invalid and confined mainly to her
own room; that while she was oppressed by physical disease, she was yet more oppressed by a deep,
settled melancholy, arising from the firm belief
that for her there was no mercy with God. Her
whole countenance was haggard, and the very
sight filled one with distress.  She had been so
for a long time, and I know not that she ever was
relieved.
Before leaving the house for the church on
Sabbath morning, I was permitted an interview
1*                             (5)




6                  PREFACE.
with her, and spent perhaps a full hour, in endeavouring to awaken hope within her, by dwelling upon the nature of the gospel covenant, the
infinite sufficiency of Christ, and the eternal, unchangeable love of God. It was all in vain; her
reply was with painful persistency, " It may be for
others, not for me."
Later in my ministry, and after I had been
called east of the mountains, while assisting Bro.
WV., then of White Clay Creek, Del., a young lady
whose countenance and whole appearance indicated
deep distress was pointed out to me, with the request that I would converse with her.
I found her under a conviction of sin so deep
and clear as to justify her in the conclusion that
mercy was an impossibility in her case. She was
certainly a castaway, and was now experiencing a
foretaste of the anguish of eternal despair. No
presentation of the gospel offer, its freeness, its
fulness, its design for the chief of sinners, could
gain the least believing attention.  For a long time
she remained under the cloud.  I have not seen
her for years, but she found relief; and I was
gratified even recently, to learn that she was now
a cheerful, earnest Christian. In various other
instances I have met with persons who for a short




PREFACE.                  7
time have been overwhelmed with this fearful
conviction.
While I have learned that, in such cases, nothing
but the illumination and sanctifying work of the
Holy Spirit can give deliverance; yet I have also
learned that the Spirit works through the truth,
and that only as we learn and appreciate the truth
of God's word, can we arrive at clear, settled,
cheerful hopes of mercy through Jesus Christ.
Should any one therefore ask why I venture to
publish a book of this character, I have but one
answer to make.
A desire to aid all persons subjected to such
darkness of mind, to find the immediate and perfect
relief which the gospel of the grace of God gives,
has suggested the work and urged its preparation.
I have been personally greatly benefitted, comforted, sustained, and strengthened by the consideration of the various truths here presented. I have
written of things which I do know, by which I
have been raised from despair to hope, and in many
conflicts, made to triumph, through our Lord Jesus
Christ.
But are there not works enough on such a subject? Why multiply books?
There are many precious works which, if access.




8                 PREFACE.
ible, might answer every purpose of this kind; and
yet this particular subject has not been made a
specialty, except perhaps in a few cases. Owen
on the 130th Psalm contains the most extended
consideration of this point, of all the works I now
recollect. And this too is a work of great power;
but it is within the reach of few, and its style is
by no means attractive to the mass of readers.
Besides it seems a law of providence that, in some
form, each age must provide its own instruction in
every department, scientific or religious.  The
truth may be the same, must be, but then it must
appear in modern forms and in combinations
adapted to present, not past, trains and modes of
thought.  There is but one book of universal adaptation.
The most recent work on this subject, except perhaps some purely controversial issues, is the
" Warrant of Faith" by the late Dr. Thomas Scott,
author of the Commentary. Even this work is
more controversial than strictly practical.
Under these circumstances I have thought there
might possibly be room for some such work as this,
and though I have not been free from misgivings,
yet having the judgment of two friends whose praise
is in all the churches, I have concluded to ask for




PREFACE.                  9
it a birthright among the offspring of our Board
of Publication.
I tremble at the responsibilities of a preacher
of the gospel; those of an author are enhanced by
the fact that a book may reach where no living
voice can, may be read and exert its influence long
after the writer may have gone to his account.
Yet I must confess that a desire to be useful to
others, even long after my decease, has exerted its
stimulus in the production of these pages. -May
the good in them be blest; the evil forgiven and
overruled for good. My work in the preparation
of these sheets has by no means been continuous.
Many and long interruptions have occurred, and
this very likely has produced blemishes, which a
critic may severely condemn. Such as it is, it has
been prepared in the midst of many and widely
extended pastoral cares and labours.
If any one shall think it to be a very imperfect
work, I have this advantage of him that I have
thought so before him. Yet with all its imperfections I venture to send it forth on its errand, asking for it the tender charities of those who would
regard it simply as critics; and from those who are
in a condition to need such counsel and instruction




10                PRErACE.
as I have here attempted to give, I ask an earnest,
careful, and prayerful perusal.
My great desire is that it may be blessed of God
to souls under the various circumstances suggested
in its pages, that it may relieve mauy from a sorrow brooding despair, that it may set many a
burdened conscience free, decide many to an immediate choice of the gospel, and a firm, joyful
belief in the mercy of God through Jesus Christ.
If this desire can be granted, I shall feel perfectly satisfied to bear the reproach of all the
rhetorical blemishes which may be discovered; all
the defects of composition and style which no doubt
abound.
The minds of many are now turned to the subject of religion; my hope is that all such may be
aided, strengthened, stablished by these pages.
To their attention it is humbly but earnestly commended.
My brethren in the ministry may possibly find
it adapted to the spiritual condition of some in
their flocks; and in this hope I commend it also to
their attentive examination and cordial approval.
ALFRED HAMILTON.
AURORA, ILLINOIS.




MAY I BELIEVE?
OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.
THE SINNER SECURE.
THERE are times when men feel no interest
in religion, and no anxiety about personal salvation. Then no doubts disturb the peace of
the soul, and no fears harass the conscience.
The world is full of absorbing interest-business prospers-cares engross-pleasures allure. If there be another world, the best
preparation for it is to possess and enjoy the
utmost possible of this. God did not make us
and place us here with natures so adapted to
its objects, pursuits, and pleasures, to punish
us, if we committed ourselves to them, and
sought their enlarged enjoyment. "Whilst
(11)




12          MAY I BELIEVE?
we live let us live." "Adieu to melancholy."
"Drive dull care away." —So men argue; so
they try to feel and sing. This is their highest religion; they certainly are safe; they believe they are in no danger; indeed seldom,
if ever, think of danger.
Reader, are you in this state of mind? Are
you thus secure in your own estimation? Is
this world your whole possession? And
should you be suddenly called to part with it,
have you no lurking doubts about your final
safety? Perhaps you had better think.
A CHANGE COMES.
It is not always so with all. Many may be
at ease, and resolve every question of their
acceptance with God with unhesitating promptness; yet a few have their own difficulties,
and are often ready to conclude, that whatever may be the ground of hope or confidence
on the part of others, they certainly are not
safe-nay, not only not safe, but unworthy
to indulge a hope of safety —to think even of
the possibility of such a thing. Once they




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    1.3
might have indulged a hope; increasing experience, and knowledge of self, now so operate,
as not only to awaken doubt on this subject,
but to render hope a baseless presumption.
" I am truly a great sinner;" " I am wretched
beyond description, and have so treated God,
as that, though others may hope, I may not;
though there be mercy for others, can there
be for me? Others are called upon to live
and walk by faith- to find by faith the peace
of God which passeth all understanding; but
may I believe?
So one here and there feels, and reasons
with himself, and about his own condition.
Occasionally numbers are aroused from their
false and dreamy security, and after many
struggles, each one is led to ponder this momentous question-May I believe?  Reader,
how is it with you? Have you discovered
any thing in yourself, to suggest a doubt as to
whether you may enjoy such a privilege?
Truly, sir, I have; and for some time past,
I have thought of little else; and have felt
that if I might believe, I should be but too
2




14          MAY I BELIEVE?
happy. Sir, do you think such a privilege
can be mine? May I believe?
DIFFICULTIES-GROUNDS OF DOUBT.
Gladly will I endeavour to answer your
question, and remove your distress, but I
wish first to know why you desire to believe;
and then why you apprehend any difficulty on
the subject?
Why sir, I once was gay and thoughtless-a  lover of life and pleasure-and
neglected wholly the interests of the soul.
Religion was to me a gloomy, if not utterly
repulsive thing; and though I was carefully
raised, and taught to perform many religious
duties, and was even fond of some of them,
such as public service on the Sabbath; yet I
never had a heart to regard and appreciate
them as a means of grace-as acts of cheerful
obedience to God; hence I was a mere formalist-yet I was not happy. The conviction
often flashed upon my mind, that I was not
safe; conscience was only partially asleep,
and often gave me moments of intense agony.




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    15
This embittered my worldly pleasures, and
drove me for a time to more frequency and
earnestness in religious duties; but still permanent peace did not come; the conviction
deepened that I was a guilty sinner, without
a Saviour; and now, sir, my whole mind is filled
with this one thought, I must have an interest
in Jesus Christ as my Saviour, or perish; this
I can secure only by faith. I once thought it
an easy matter to believe; faith, in my apprehension, was something which I did not, indeed, clearly understand, but which, nevertheless, I supposed could be most readily exercised; and often on this ground deferred
the duty, even when urged from the pulpit or
the Bible to accept of Christ at once. I now
find my error, and am distressed to think that
many are similarly involved. I wish to believe,
therefore, that I may be saved; and my difficulty is that my sins are of so long standing,
so many, and so aggravated-that I have
slighted and neglected the calls of God so long,
that now he will either not permit me to believe,
or will not give me strength to do so.




16           MAY I BELIEVE?
I have learned in my struggles and distress
what I either did not know, or did not appreciate, both that faith is a privilege, and that
divine aid is essential to its exercise. And
this reminds me of another element in my past
folly, as well as of others, who think it easy
to believe, and that they can do so in their
own strength. I felt not, nor do they now,
that it is a gift of God and can be exercised
only under the quickening power of his divine
Spirit. When refused but once, when rejected
for the first time, God would be just to withhold the privilege, to withdraw the offer, and
withhold all spiritual aid to accept it; how
much more, when slighted, neglected, despised,
or misimproved for years!
Alas! sir, how long have I lived a wretch
upon God's footstool, despising his mercies,
and neglecting, nay, rejecting his unspeakable
gift, the Lord Jesus Christ as my Saviour!
Can I be forgiven, for such accumulated sins,
such  aggravated guilt?   May I  believe?
Will God still accord the privilege? Will he




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    17
still vouchsafe the strength and power by
which I may lay hold of eternal life?
GLIMPSES THROUGH THE GLOOM.
Whatever God may design to do for you or
with you, or whatever may be the result of
this conference, in reference to your peace and
joy in God, this I must be permitted to say:
first, that however clearly you may now see
your sin and guilt, or however deeply you
may feel them a loathsome burden before God,
justly exposing you to his displeasure, you
do not see nor feel a hundredth part of their
real enormity; and it is a far greater wonder
that God should permit you to live upon his
footstool than you can possibly conceive it to
be. His patience, his forbearance are indeed
beyond all creature apprehension, and you
therefore do well to feel and express the deepest wonder and the most grateful emotions
that he should have spared you under such
circumstances, and brought you to see yourself as you now do. He has surely done it;
and hence I say, secondly, that you appear to
2*




18          MAY I BELIEVE?
be thus far well and truly taught. This is in
accordance with the divine plan: "They shall
be all taught of God;" and surely they are
well taught whom he teaches.
This therefore is encouraging for you.
Why has he done so much for you? IHas he
brought you into the wilderness only to slay
you? Has he shown you your sins only to
plunge you into deserved despair and death?
He might do so. He might reveal your guilt
to awaken your self-condemnation, and thus
justify in your own conscience his righteous
judgment in rejecting you. He has done
much for you; but unless he do more, you are
wretched and miserable for ever.  But the
fact that he has done as he has, is an argument which you may use in prayer, and ask
him to bless, and crown his own work. " Dark
waters and thick clouds," seem to surround
him, yet here and there the dark masses are
not so dense, and thence come glimpses of the
star of Bethlehem, inspiring hope that the
storm may yet pass away, that the deep
fissures and lofty towers of that dark cloud




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    19
may yet be spanned with the bow of promise,
and the light which radiates from the mercyseat, may yet fill thy soul with joy and peace in
believing.  The leaden sky may yet "dapple
into day," and thy light be as the light of the
sun rising in his brightness.
THE INDISPENSABLE.
Still, encouragement is not consummation,
feeling is not faith, nor is anxiety, nor yet
deep distress.
Faith must be exercised or all will be lost.
"-He that believeth not shall be damned."
This you seem to feel; but do you comprehend
the precise nature of that state of mind, that
exercise of heart which you call faith or belief? Are you seeking merely some relief, or
do you feel that "none but Jesus can do helpless sinners good;" and is faith the only
method of communication with him, the only
principle which will identify you with him,
and give you an absolute interest in his entire
salvation? Feeling this, do you desire to receive and rest upon him, that you may be freed




20           MAY I BELIEVE?
from the present power and dominion of sin;
from its condemnation before God, and eventually from its very being? Are you sick of
sin? and tired, disappointed, and despairing
under the treatment of all other physicians,
do you seek to commit yourself without condition to his infallibly successful practice?
Do you understand his salvation to be a
sovereign remedy for sin in all its forms? Is
sin, your sin, your fountain of sorrow, your
source of anxiety and fear?  Do you understand that Christ in his person gave himself
as a vicarious sacrifice for sin;-that his sufferings were, and are accepted of God as a perfect satisfaction to his law and justice; —that
now he is "exalted a Prince and a Saviour" to
give repentance and forgiveness of sin, being
"able to save to thQ uttermQot, a1 that QQme
unto God by him;" —that now, moreover, the
entire work of salvation from the first saving
conviction to the crown of glory, is carried
forward only by Jesus Christ, through the
various means of grace? and is it your desire to
participate in this work and all its contempla



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.            21
ted blessings? Loathing sin, renouncing the
world, the flesh, and the devil, do you come
feeling that faith in Christ is God's only appointed means of salvation? And when you
ask, May I believe? do you mean to ask, Is there
warrant for one such as I, to accept of such a
Christ for such a salvation? Will God grant
me both the privilege and power to accept of
Christ as my sacrifice, to present him as my
substitute, and stand in his righteousness, with
joyous confidence that because he "lives I
shall live also?"
"' My faith would lay her hand
On that dear head of thine,
While like a penitent I stand,
And there confess my sin."
Or in the language of another verse of the
same hymn, do you desire to say,
"My soul looks back to see
The burden thou didst bear,
When hanging on the cursed tree,
And hopes her guilt was there?"




22           MAY I BELIEVE?
THERE IS A WARRANT.
In drawing out your views in reference, first,
to your own condition, and then as to the nature and effects of faith in Christ, I have had
an object before me; namely, so to concentrate
your attention upon your condition, and the
kind of remedy you really desire, as to guard
you against delusion on one hand, and prepare
you, on the other, to appreciate the important
truth now to be submitted to your consideration.
For any soul sincerely desirous to escape
from hell and fly to heaven, there is the fullest possible warrant to believe in Jesus Christ
as " the way, the truth, and the life;" more especially is this the case, where there exists a
deep consciousness of personal unworthinessa suitable appreciation of the appointed means,
and a settled purpose to abandon every thing
else, and depend wholly upon them. This I
take to be your case, and while I might perhaps say, as is true, that the desire of grace is
grace; yet such a truth you are not now pre



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    23
pared to appreciate; therefore in pursuing my
design of unfolding to you the fulness and
sufficiency of the warrant upon which you
may believe in Jesus Christ, let me ask you
to consider carefully and with prayer the following suggestions.
FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST A DUTY.
When the Great Teacher was on earth, certain Jews said to him, "What shall we do,
that we might work the works of God? To
whom he returned this answer, " This is the
work of God that ye believe on him whom he
hath sent." John vi. 28, 29.
While men, therefore, are inquiring now as
those did then, " What must we work?" the answer is the same as then, and everywhere
applicable. This is the work God now specially requires, " that ye believe on him whom
he hath sent."
Faith in Jesus Christ is then the first. duty
of every man under the gospel dispensation.
While the first covenant was in force, the service was called obedience; which of course




24          MAY I BELIEVE?
involved not only outward submission to, but
inward acquiescence with, all divine requirements. Hence supreme regard for the authority which prescribed the service.
Now that which was called, under or in
reference to the law, simply obedience, becomes
under the gospel, the obedience of faith.
Hence the Apostle Paul declares that the
preaching of the gospel was by the commandment of the everlasting God, to make known
to all nations for the obedience of faith, the
mystery which was kept secret since the world
began. Rom. xvi. 25, 26. And what in the
frrst chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, he
calls the faith, in the sixteenth chapter, he
calls obedience. Rom. i. 8, xvi. 19.
Of himself he says, that he had received
grace and apostleship, for obedience to the
faith among all nations. Rom. i. 5. And the
Evangelist Luke records, Acts vi. 7, "And
a great company of the priests were obedient
to the faith."
The service sought and claimed by God under the gospel is an obedience of faith, a work




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    25
of faith; and a moment's consideration will
enable us to perceive not only why it is called
the obedience of faith, but why this must be
the essential element of all obedience.
At and after the fall of man, his mind became alienated from God, and filled with fear
and suspicion both as to his power and purposes. In such a state of mind, no service
can be full and joyous, nor can any be really
acceptable to God. Love can find no place in
such a heart; and a service without love can
never receive the seal of divine approbation.
To remove this, God, in his infinite condescension, has given his well beloved Son as
the pledge of his reconciliation; as the surety
to men, that renouncing their sins, abandoning their rebellion, their suspicion and fear,
and accepting the pardon he offers in Christ,
they shall be received into his favour, adopted
into his family, and made heirs of eternal life.
To believe in Christ, therefore, is to believe
God's sincerity in the offers of pardon to the
guilty, and cordially to accept and rely upon the
fulness, the sufficiency of the provision-he has
3




26           MAY I BELIEVE?
made for a perpetual restoration to his favour.
God's word is law to the creature; compliance
with his word is obedience to it. His word
commands faith in Jesus Christ: " This is my
beloved Son; hear him." Luke ix. 35. "A
prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto
you of your brethren like unto me; him shall
ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say
unto you." Acts iii. 22. And this is his commandment that "we should believe on the
name of his Son Jesus Christ." 1 John iii. 23.
To believe in Jesus Christ as he is set forth
and offered to us in the gospel, is to obey God;
it is, therefore, the obedience of faith, an approval of God's law, confidence in his faithfulness, and an acceptance of the provision he
has made for reconciliation to him, and therefore of eternal salvation.
Faith in Christ is then not only obedience,
but the essential element of all obedience.
The first covenant being violated becomes'void; it can therefore afford or secure no communion with God.
The second covenant, which is the gospel, is




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    27
now in force, administered by a mediator,
even Christ; the acceptance of this covenant
is obedience to the will of God; this obedience
is faith.
That all men are bound in duty to accept
this covenant, and therefore to believe in the
Lord Jesus, is manifest from many considerations.
It is the duty of every creature to obey its
Creator. Will any one deny this?
The Creator of men commands them to believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ.
1 John iii. 23. Can this either be denied?
The law itself to which men cling with so
much tenacity, requires them to render implicit obedience to God, and to use all lawful
means to secure their own highest welfare.
But what can compare in value with the soul
and its salvation?
The law then urges the creature, and especially the sinful creature, man, to seek salvation in Jesus Christ, and thus, as the apostle
declares, "the law is our schoolmaster to bring




28          MAY I BELIEVE?
us to Christ, that we might be justified by
faith." Gal. iii. 24.
We might enlarge upon this point and expand the argument almost indefinitely, but it
is unnecessary. He who will deny the positions taken, might feel at liberty to deny anything. And with such we cannot now contend. God now commands all men every
where to honour the Son as they honour the
Father. John v. 22, 23. He who refuses,
refuses at his peril.
But if it be the duty of all men to believe
in our Lord Jesus Christ, then you reader,
you anxious inquirer, you doubting sinner,
may certainly believe. Your duty and your
privilege are, in this respect at least, co-ordinate.
That which God makes your duty, he puts
within the reach of appointed means; and
these not only involve the purpose of God
that the thing may be done; but the pledge
of efficiency, through divine aid, in every
scriptural use of them or dependence upon
them. Hence the exhortation: "Work out your




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    29
own salvation, with fear and trembling. For
it is God which worketh in you, both to will
and to do of his good pleasure." Phil. ii. 12,
13. And hence especially the promise, "Ask
and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall
find; knock and it shall be opened unto you."
Matt. vii. 7.
This matter of duty is not sufficiently considered; or if considered, not understood by
minds exercised for the first time about personal salvation. The duty involves the privilege; and the privilege the pledge of divine
acceptance in entering upon it as required.
To feel assured then that you, whatever
specialty there may be about your case, may
believe, you have but to settle the question of
duty.
If it be your duty, it is your privilege: and
while Satan may take especial pains to hide
this from you, or prevail on you to reject it;
yet before you can rightfully deny the one, or
doubt the other, you must prove either that
you are not a creature of God (for if you are,
you are bound to obey him, and the obedience
3*




30          MAY I BELIEVE?
of the gospel is faith in Jesus Christ); or that
God requires a duty which he will not aid or
enable you to perform; or that you, while
surrounded with the means of grace, and with
a conscience tender and distressed on account
of sin-with a heart esteeming it the greatest
privilege in the world to be permitted to believe in Christ, and therefore still under the
quickening influences and promptings of the
Holy Spirit-have either wholly sinned away
your day of grace, or are already in the world
of despair. But can you prove either of these
things? Will you deliberately undertake to
do either? If not, then admitting, in all its
force, the duty, will you doubt and reject the
privilege?
This is offensive to God, and ruinous both
to your own peace and usefulness. What
would you think of a child, who, when surrounded by special tokens of his father's
favour, should say, My father does not love
me; these are tokens of his favour, but they
are not for me? Who when called and commanded to come to his father's outstretched




OR THE WARRANT OF FAIT1H.   83
arms, should yet say, It is my duty to obey,
but I fear my father will not permit me to
come?
Is not such conduct to be condemned as
utterly inexcusable? And yet wherein does
it differ from yours? If there be any difference, is it not in favour of the child? An
earthly parent may invite only to taunt, may
command only to exercise authority and vex,
or may repent and repel the child in the very
act of coming; but this can never be with God.
" For the gifts and calling of God are without
repentance." Rom. xi. 29. His command
involves both an invitation and a promise, and
all the promises of God "in him  [Christ]
are yea, and in him amen, unto the glory of
God by us." 2 Cor. i. 20.
To doubt the privilege is to doubt the truth
and faithfulness of God in Christ; and this is
to tempt him to leave you a prey to your own
corruptions, or to the terrors of the adversary.
You will seek for peace, or hope for usefulness
in vain, while you hesitate and stand aloof
from Christ. Your only hope is to cry with




32          MAY I BELIEVE?
the distressed father, "Lord I believe: help
thou mine unbelief." Mark ix. 24.
The sincere willingness on your part to
accept the privilege, is the best evidence you
can have that you may accept it.
Such willingness is not natural, but gracious,
and therefore the assured evidence not only
that God has wrought it, but that he will accept his own signature, and crown his own
work with peace and joy. Be not faithless
therefore, but believing. John xx. 27. In
Christ you receive grace for grace, John i. 16,
and your strength comes by taking hold of
him. Isa. xxvii. 4. " IIe giveth power to the
faint; and to them that have no might, he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall
faint and be weary, and the young men shall
utterly fall; but they that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength; they shall mount
up with wings as eagles; they shall run and
not be weary; and they shall walk and not
faint." Isa. xl. 29-31.
In this, as in many other things, your power
comes with its exercise. Does duty urge you




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    83
to accept of Christ? Though feeling utterly
helpless, rise up to its fulfilment. Does the
privilege open to you through  the duty?
Enter upon it with what strength you may,
and you may soon have occasion to exclaim, " In
the Lord have I righteousness and strength."
Isa. xlv. 24.
WHAT HAS BEEN MAY BE.
But let me lead you into another field of
thought, where perhaps we may find something
to suit your case.
Suppose we can find instances in which God
has manifestly led and enabled persons to believe, who so far, at least, as overt, outward
acts are considered, were much more deeply
involved in guilt than you; would not this
afford a strong presumptive argument that
you too may have, nay, have, the same privilege?
While grace is sovereign, we cannot certainly
argue from one case to another; yet the same
sovereignty, which is at liberty to accept of
one, is under no obligations to reject another.




34          MAY I BELIEVE?
While God showeth mercy to whom he will;
it is not of necessity but of will, that he hardens
any; see Rom. ix. 18. And his independence,
as proclaimed to Moses, is still his glory, and
the strong encouragement of troubled, anxious
sinners, "and will be gracious to whom I will
be gracious, and will show mercy to whom I
will show mercy." Exod. xxxiii. 19.
When in doubt, therefore, as to a privilege
for which we cannot plead an express personal
warrant, we may look at the history of God's
sovereign grace, and from it conclude, at least,
that if you may not hope, you may rest assured you have no right to despair.
No matter what your case may be; whether
you be a Lazarus or a Dives; a thief on the
cross or a young ruler; you may not argue
similarity of treatment from mere similarity
of outward condition, nor indeed from mere
approximate moral character. With God,
there is no respect of persons; no sinner can
deserve Divine favour; and while no measure
of personal morality or goodness can demand
acceptance with God, no measure of guilt,




OR TfEl WARRANT 0P FAITH.    85
unless it involves blasphemy against the Holy
Ghost, need exclude from his favour, or justify
you in despair or even in hesitation, to accept
the overtures of the gospel.
There may be such peculiarity in your case,
that though to yourself, you may appear to be
worse than others; nevertheless, the way being
yet open, by this continual offer of the gospel
and the work of the Spirit, you still have the
privilege of entering into covenant with God,
and finding peace through Jesus Christ. The
value of examples, therefore, ought not to be
lightly prized by you.
WHAT IS TRUE OF ALL.
Consider then, first, that no one has ever
yet been saved but as a sinner-even a great
sinner.
The very object of the gospel is to save sinners. This was the purpose for which Christ
said he came. Matt. ix. 13. On the same
ground he said, " There is joy in the presence
of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." Luke xv. 7, 10. And did you never




36          MAY I BELIEVE?
think of the fact that the Saviour commanded
the gospel to be preached first in Jerusalem.
Listen to his words as addressed to his chosen
disciples just before his ascension, " Thus it is
written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer,
and to rise from the dead the third day; and that
repentance and remission of sins should be
preached in his name, among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. "Luke xxiv. 46, 47.
"Beginning at Jerusalem;" why?  That
Jerusalem sinners might be saved. But how
does a Jerusalem sinner differ from others?
Only in the fact that they enjoyed his personal
preaching and repented not; saw his miracles
and believed not; devised, or consented to, or
witnessed without protest his malignant persecution, his unjust condemnation, his shameful
crucifixion.
Does such conduct entitle them to any especial favour? Or does it create any antecedent probability that such could be saved?
By no means. Why then begin at Jerusalem?
(1.) Doubtless to display the tender, earnest,
compassionate sympathy which God feels for




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    37
poor, guilty, wretched sinners. (2.) To display
the mighty power of his grace as revealed
through the.gospel, in being able to subdue even
such hearts. (3.) And very especially to show
that the very chief of sinners need not despair.
If Jerusalem sinners can be saved, what
other class of sinners need despair? No one
is saved but as a sinner, and if God will accept
one, whose lips perhaps taunted and reproached that meek sufferer, whose eyes
gloated with delight upon the agony of his
breaking heart, or whose hand, perchance,
may be yet reeking with his blood, can any
one else doubt? Especially can you?
Take the fullest measurement of your own
sins you choose, can they exceed in magnitude
and guilt those of the Jerusalem sinner? Can
they exceed the reach of infinite compassion?
What, my friend, can go beyond infinity?
And is there not infinity of value in the blood
of Christ, to redeem, to pardon, to cleanse?
Admit, that you are the chief of sinners, are
you more or worse? Can you be? Can any
4




38          MAY I BELIEVE?
one? Though then you be chief, here are
others just as chief who are saved. Need
you, can you, without new and greater sin,
despair?
If in your darkness, and brooding upon
your sorrows, you are ready to say, "God
hath forgotten to be gracious," "he will be
merciful no more;" we answer, It is not so,
you are mistaken; " God is love," and therefore, "ready to forgive."  I John iv. 8, 16.
Ps. lxxxvi. 5.
Or if you ask, "What of the night?" the
answer is very clear and prompt to this, as
well as the prophet's question, " The morning,cometh and also the night; if ye will inquire,
inquire ye; return, come." Isa. xxi. 11.
What has been, may be; and though it be
but a peradventure, it is sufficient to encour-:age you to apply to Him, who has said, "I
will be gracious to whom I will be gracious;:and will show mercy to whom I will show
mercy."'
If none are saved but as sinners; and if Jeriusalem sinners may be saved, then you have




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    39
no right to despair.  "If ye will inquire,
inquire ye; return, come."  Before I leave
this point, let me recommend you to read, if
you can get it, Bunyan's " Jerusalem Sinner
Saved;" you will find much in it to instruct,
and it may be to profit.
SPECIAL CASES.
But general truths, however useful, are not
always as satisfactory as could be desired.
Will the general truth cover particular and
special cases enough to convince me that I too
may find a place among them? This must be
so; for if the general cover not the particular, either the general is not true, or the particular is removed by special exception.
To illustrate: we have the general truth
stated in 1 John i. 7, "And the blood of Jesus
Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin."
Now if this include not every sin; then it is
either not true, or the one not included must
be removed by special exception, and either
itself or its class recited that we may know
it,




40           MAY I BELIEVE?
But in this case the truth of every particular depends upon the truth of the universal, and hence we are justified in saying to
you that if any one may believe, you may.
If the general truth, " The blood of Jesus
Christ cleanseth us from all sin," must cover
every particular, unless specifically excepted;
so in like manner must the general invitation,
" Whosoever will, let him take of the water
of life freely," Rev. xxii. 17, embrace every
individual, unless excluded by name or by
class.
We really need therefore but the general
or universal truth that the chief of sinners
may believe and be saved, to present the fullest
encouragement to every troubled soul; yet a
few striking examples may not be without
theiN value.
A WOMAN WHICH WAS A SINNER.
Look then at that scene as described in
Luke vii. 37-50. While the Saviour was
dining with a Pharisee, an incident of a
peculiar and striking character occurred. Un



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    41
expectedly a woman bathed in tears stood
behind the Saviour at his feet-those tears
fell upon his feet-she stooped and wiped
them  with her hair-she kissed them, and
poured upon them her precious ointment.
Who was she? One of virtuous and respectable character and life? Directly the
reverse. A woman of notoriously bad character-of immoral and dissolute life. Her very
presence was an offence in that assembly, and
her touch thought to be defilement.  Surely,
thought the host, if this is a prophet, he will
know the character of this woman and forbid
her his presence; yet there she stood, and
wept, and washed and kissed his feet, and
filled the room with the odour of the precious
ointment she poured upon them. Was she
not a sinner? How deeply had she fallen!
Did not the Saviour know the full extent of
all her crimes? Surely he did. Why then
did he not spurn her from his presence?
Just because he came to call, not the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. But can
there be mercy for such as she? Can she
4*




42          MAY I BELIEVE?
hope to be forgiven? After all her life of sin,
can she now find pardon and peace with God?
Does not God abhor the sinner, and especially,
one so vile as she? The Pharisee loathes her
presence, and concludes against the Son of
man, because he did not at once reject her, and
cast her from him unpitied and unpardoned.
So man may judge his fellow man; but not so
He who came to seek and to save the lost.
Her tears flow from a broken heart, and these
acts are a public renunciation of her past life
of sin, a pledge of devotion to new obedience
in all time to come. Can she be accepted?
Yes, great as are her sins, numerous and aggravated and vile as any one can conceive
them to be, they cannot exceed the limits of
divine compassion; and hence when man
would command her departure, and forbid her
hope, the Saviour says: "Thy sins are forgiven." "Thy faith hath saved thee; go in
peace." What words are these! Can it be?
Thy sins are forgiven!  "Thy sins!" allevery one? Yes, all without exception. "Thy




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    43
faith hath saved thee: go in peace." What
precious words! Go in peace.
Troubled soul, is your case worse than this?
Take all your sins, with all their aggravations,
will they exceed the extremity of this case?
If not, then arise and go at once to Him who
says, "Whosoever will, let him take of the
water of life freely." Read this passage attentively and prayerfully, and see if it do not afford a full warrant for you to cast yourself on
the mercy of God in Christ.
THE THIEF UPON THE CROSS.
Here is another scene of painful, but deep
interest. The day on which the Prince of Life
was crucified was made memorable, not alone
by that one absorbing event, but by another,
in which, though numbered with the transgressors, and in form a weak and suffering man,
yet he manifested the dignity of his divine nature, exercised its prerogative, and confirmed
the great truth of his life, that he " came to
save that which was lost."
He refused to save himself from that hour,




44           MAY I BELIEVE?
though in view of it, his " soul was exceeding
sorrowful even unto death;" yet the ruling
object of his life could neither be forgotten
nor foregone.  aI He came not to destroy but'
to save." But what opportunity could occur,
in such extremity, to vindicate his divine nature and mission, as well as gratify the yearnings of his compassionate heart?
What thoughts could he spare from his own
deep sorrows to sympathize with the suffering
of others, or feel the deep fountain of his compassions stirred at the cry of a soul ready to
perish? Could it be possible that a charm so
potent could be brought to bear upon his burdened heart, so that he should forget himself,
to soothe another's woe; and, while struggling
with the thick coming billows of a sorrow,
which none but himself could measure or endure, speak words of hope, of peace, and life,
to a poor, suffering, guilty creature asking
mercy at his hands 1!
This wonder was signally apparent on that
day of wonders. Upon whom? One of
hitherto moral and respectable life? One




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    45
who by some legal wrong was subjected to
unrighteous suffering, and who, though treated
thus ignominiously by men, could have some
hope from the fairness of his moral character
with God? Far from it. He who now cries
to a suffering Saviour was steeped in crime; a
transgressor not only of man's laws but of
God's. He was suffering justly, as he himself acknowledged for the crime he had
committed against men, and was imminently
exposed to the righteous condemnation of God.
This too he doubtless felt, and necessarily implied in the earnest prayer he addressed to the
suffering Son of God: "Lord, remember me
when thou comest into thy kingdom! " Remember me! Even me! Was not such prayer
presumptuous madness? How could one so
vile venture to offer such a petition? Are
such creatures to be admitted to the society
of the sanctified in the kingdom of Christ?
Can'it be? Will Christ accept and pardon
such?
Why such questions? What is to hinder the
answer of this prayer and the admission of




46          MAY I BELIEVE?
this poor sinner'among the sanctified in the
presence of God and the Lamb?
Has not God said, "I will be gracious to
whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy
to whom I will show mercy?" Exod. xxxiii.
19. And did not the Saviour declare, "The
Son of man is come to seek and save that
which was lost?" Luke xix. 10. Is it not,
moreover, clearly said of God, " that the
blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from
all sin?" 1 John i. 7.
What then should hinder either the cry of
this poor malefactor, or its answer of peace
from the Saviour? If the lost may be saved,
why not this one? Could one be more lost?
If the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from
all sin, are the sins of this man beyond its
power?  And if God says, "Ho, every one
that thirsteth, come ye to the waters," (Isa. lv.
1,) may not this soul come?
But is he not a vile sinner, and utterly unworthy of such a blessing or privilege? Certainly; but what of that? Are men saved
because they deserve to be? I thought the




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITI.    47
gospel was a proclamation of grace, that salvation by grace was its great glory. Do
not you so understand it? If so, then the
very fact that he is a vile, unworthy sinner,
makes him the fitter object of grace. The
idea, that because he is a great sinner, he cannot be admitted to the mercy of God and the
society of the pure and blessed, is wholly inconsistent with the gospel. It emanates from
a legal spirit, is pharisaical and self-righteous.
Mercy can be extended only to the vile, the
guilty, the undeserving. The blessed at God's
right hand are but vile sinners saved by grace.
Salvation is the bestowment upon them of undeserved favour, and involves the cleansing,
sanctifying power of the Spirit to transform
them into the likeness of Christ.
So the Saviour thought; and therefore when
this cry reached his ears, he spurned it not,
nor did he reproach him for being a vile,
unworthy sinner, but promptly said to him,
"This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise."
Here then we have two great facts at which




48           MAY I BELIEVE?
to look. First, that the thief upon the cross
was indeed a great sinner, a sinner undeserving of any favour at the hand of God:
yet, secondly, the Lord Jesus, even in the midst
of his own sufferings, heard his penitent, believing prayer, and accorded to him the assured hope of eternal life in his heavenly
kingdom. Great as were his sins, they neither
deterred him from applying to the Lord Jesus
for deliverance from them; nor did they cause
this compassionate Redeemer to refuse his application. Whatever he was, and as he was,
the Saviour despised him not, but pardoned
and accepted him as righteous for his own
name's sake.
Does not this case afford sufficient encouragement for you to cast yourself as you are
upon the mercy of this tender sympathizing'Saviour? He rejected not a poor degraded
convict, will he reject you? He despised not
the cry of one whose crimes had brought him
to the cross, will he withhold from you the relief you need?
You may be indeed guilty; but are you




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    49
more guilty than this dying thief? Are you
even as bad?  Admitting all that you can
properly think or say of yourself, yet if Christ
withheld not the smile of his favour and the
assurance of his acceptance from the crucified thief, have you any right to feel that you
may not believe and be saved in like manner?
You need a fountain in which to wash away
your guilt; but is there not a fountain
opened? And may you not say, in the beautiful and expressive language of a familiar
hymn,
The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day,
And there may I as vile as he
Wash all my sins away?
Can you still have any cause to doubt or
fear? Beware lest you induce a morbid condition of mind, which will preclude your perception of the most appropriate truth, and the
most scriptural encouragement to cast yourself upon the Lord.  Many do this; you may,
and thus grieve the Holy Spirit, till he leave
you to long and bitter conflicts with your sins.
5




50           MAY I BELIEVE?
This has been done in many cases, and may be
in yours. The way is now open; will you enter
at once? The Saviour clearly says to you.
"Just as thou art, without one trace
Of love, or joy, or inward grace,
Or meetness for the heavenly place,
O guilty sinner, come."
Will you come now?
SAUL OF TARSUS.
But here is still another case.
A few pages back we were speaking of
Jerusalem sinners.  Let us look again at the
sinners of that city. There is a large crowd
of people, and all very much excited-watch
them a moment-look at those men in the
centre; they cast off their outer garments and
throw them at the feet of a young man, who
heartily approves their purpose, and urges
them to its fulfilment. They stoop and gather
up stones, and watch, with indignant and impatient anger, one near them, whose every
look betokens a calm, fearless, yet meek and
loving spirit. Their rage burns intensely;




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    51
they can restrain it no longer; they rush
upon him, and stone him to death! Who is
this man? The proto-martyr Stephen. Who
the young man that held the clothes of them
that did this deed, and applauded all as a
service done to God? Saul of Tarsus.
Who was he? And what has he to do with
a subject like this? It was he that had that
wonderful vision of the Lord, near Damascus,
and became pre-eminently a servant of the
crucified Nazarene and the great Apostle of the
Gentiles. What! this the man, who travelled,
laboured, and wrote, and suffered so much for
the cause and kingdom of Christ! This man,
who was " exceedingly mad" against all Christians, and persecuted them even unto strange
cities! Acts xxvi. 11. This man, who by
his own showing was a persecutor, a blasphemer, and injurious! 1 Tim. i. 13. This
man, with his heart full of enmity to God, and
his hands reeking even with the blood of suffering disciples, this man pardoned and accepted
of God? Can it be! Was he permitted and
enabled to believe?  Does God receive such




52           MAY I BELIEVE?
sinners? Does the blood of Christ cleanse
from such guilt? Yes, it is even so. Saul
of Tarsus was accepted of God for Christ's
sake, and became an eminently godly man.
He believed and was saved.
Is your case worse than his? Have you
openly blasphemed, and persecuted, and injured the church of God? Yet Saul did all
this. And though he did it, he was still permitted to believe; and believing, was "accepted
in the Beloved." Eph. i. 6.
Why then should you hesitate? Though
you had done deeds even perfectly similar
yet will not the case now before you fully warrant even you to come? Yes, this example
of mercy encourages you to say, in the language of humble confidence,
" Just as I am-without one plea,
But that thy blood was shed for me,
And that thou bidst me come to thee;
0 Lamb of God, I come.




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    53
A GROUP OF CASES.
But here are numerous other examples, to
which we can indeed scarcely more than refer,
but upon which you can dwell at your leisure; and
from them draw much encouragement for one
truly oppressed with a sense of guilt and unworthiness before God.
If the greatness of a man's sins will exclude
him from the privilege of believing, then all
men will be excluded; for one sin, even the
smallest, is of magnitude sufficient to warrant
his eternal condemnation. Sin, in its own naure, separates and excludes from God; so that
while " some sins in themselves, and by reason
of their several aggravations, are more heinous
in the sight of God than others;" yet " every sin
deserves God's wrath and curse, both in this
life and that which is to come." All sins are
great in their relation to the perfect and holy
law of God; all, therefore, may exclude from
the mercy of God through faith. Especially
may the sins involved in the present group be
regarded as great, and those who committed
5*




54          MAY I BELIEVE?
them, beyond the reach of hope; and yet we
find that God did not deal with them as they
deserved, he did not reward them according
to their iniquities, they were great sinners,
but they were forgiven; and forgiveness can
come only through faith, hence they were permitted and enabled to believe.
Have you ever read the sad story of David's
sin? I take it for granted that you have. I
suppose too, you have read the Psalm in which
he recorded his deep penitential feelings.
Psa. li.
How fearful was his fall!-the sin he committed, a cruel and bloody one —a violation of
the seventh commandment-then to conceal
this, a violation of the sixth! What a complication of guilt! How it struggles to conceal
itself!
Can such combined and aggravated sin be
forgiven? Can the royal sinner be restored
to Divine favour? We might think not. Judging on merely human principles, we should
say he ought not to escape, and could not be




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    55
admitted to share the mercy of One who hates
iniquity and cannot look upon sin.
So the royal culprit himself judged and
feared. Hear how he pleads in that Psalm,
"Have mercy upon me, 0 God, according to
thy loving-kindness; according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions."  "Hide thy face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities."  "Cast me
not away from thy presence; and take not thy
Holy Spirit from me."
Mercy exists only for the undeserving.
Mercy alone could relieve him from his dreadful guilt; therefore he pleads for this, for this
alone. Did he receive it?  Certainly.  He
felt, and therefore he left it on record, " The
sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit: a broken
and a contrite heart, 0 God, thou wilt not
despise." Mercy was accorded to him, and
therefore he could say, in reference to this as
well as other portions of his history, as in the
130th Psalm, " Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, 0 Lord. Lord, hear my voice; let
thine ears be attentive to the voice of my sup



56          MAY I BELIEVE?
plications. If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, 0 Lord, who shall stand? But there
is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be
feared." "Let Israel hope in the Lord: for
with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is
plenteous redemption." Or as in the 40th
Psalm: " I waited patiently for the Lord; and
he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He
brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out
of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock
and established my goings. And he hath put
a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our
God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall
trust in the Lord." Or again as in the 66th
Psalm: "Come and hear all ye that fear God,
and I will declare what he hath done for my
soul. I cried unto him with my mouth, and
he was extolled with my tongue. If I regard
iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear
me; but verily God hath heard me; he hath
attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed
be God, which hath not turned away my
prayer, nor his mercy from me."
"My thoughts are not your thoughts,




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    57
neither are your ways my ways, saith the
Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the
earth, so are my ways higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isa.
lv. 8, 9.
Only on the fact thus stated, can we account for such wonders of grace as are here
recorded. Saul the persecutor, David the
adulterer and murderer, were forgiven; not
only forgiven, but admitted to a sacred nearness to God, and made eminently useful to the
church and the world. Did e'er such grace
and mercy meet before? Could men ever
imagine that even God would reveal such, to
creatures so guilty as we? Yet here it is.
It is God who manifests it, and well may we
admire and adore.
"' I am the Lord, I change not; therefore
ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." Mal.
iii. 6.
Are there other such cases? Many. Here
is a remarkable one-one like the last, found
in the palace of royalty.  The story of
Manasseh, Hezekiah's son, is indeed a sad one.




58          MAY I BELIEVE?
Taught from his childhood the knowledge of
the true God, having the example of a pious
God-fearing father, and surrounded by forms
and usages of divine appointment calculated
to strengthen and sustain upright and noble,
to say nothing of holy principles and aims,
and coming too to the throne at an early age,
it might have been hoped, and doubtless was,
by the spritually minded of God's people, that
the good would prevail,'and that a pure life
and a righteous reign would be exhibited by
the son of so distinguished a ruler as Hezekiah.
But alas! holy precept, pious example,
seemed to be lost, the evil predominated, and
whether from his mother's influence, or that
of his counsellors and associates, it soon became apparent that a father's precepts and
prayers were to be without present fruit, and
that the tide of iniquity, idolatry, and sin, repressed by the father, was about to run to an
unexampled height under the son. So, too
painfully proved the result. The work of
reformation by the father was not only ar



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.        59
rested, but swept away. So that in the daring
madness of his impiety he set up an idol in
the very house of God, and abandoned himself to the cruelest, most revolting, and degraded acts of superstition and idolatry.
While of his father it is said, "He trusted in
the Lord God of Israel; so that after him was
none like him of all the kings of Judah, nor
any that were before him; 2 Kings xviii. 5;
of Manasseh the indelible record is made,
"He seduced them [his people] to do more
evil than did the nations whom the Lord
destroyed before the children of Israel." 2
Kings xxi. 9. And again: "Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had
filled Jerusalem from one end to another; beside his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin,
in doing that which was evil in the sight of the
Lord." 2 Kings xxi. 16.
Such is the sad picture of Manasseh's life.
Did he ever find mercy? Could even mercy
stoop to one so vile, so degraded? Yes, it is
even so recorded. By and by afflictions came;
captivity and deep distress fell upon him.




60          MAY I BELIEVE?
Where then were his idol gods? Where his
guilty counsellors and associates? Could they
help or hear him? In vain would he seek to
them. To whom else could he call? To the
God of his father? Him he had forsaken;
disobeyed his law; corrupted his worship; dishonoured his name; seduced his people to
falsehood and idolatry; and was now suffering
the tokens of his displeasure; could he now
call upon that God? upon him whose mercyseat he had despised, and whose Holy Place
he had desecrated with the presence of a
hideous idol? call upon him, with a life
loathsome by crime, his hands yet reeking
with innocent blood! his conscience now accusing him, and arraying not only his open
but his secret sins before him! Would it not
now be the height of presumption, an aggravation of his sin, even to look towards one
whom he had so deeply grieved and offended?
So, very likely Manasseh may have thought;
so, the tempter may have suggested; it is useless and hopeless to think now, that God will
hear you; rather, as Job was advised, "curse




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    61
him and die;" so, many think and feel at the
present day. But memory was possibly now
busy as well as conscience; remembrance of
truth taught to him as well as of evil done
by him. His father found mercy upon a sick
bed. The same father doubtless had taught him
how God had remembered him, had taught him
how merciful and gracious the divine character
was, and urged a dependence upon that mercy
which had been so signally manifested to himself. Perhaps too he may have read and now
remembered the words of Samuel to the people
of Israel, "Fear not: ye have done all this
wickedness: yet turn not aside from following
the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your
heart; and turn ye not aside: for then should
ye go after vain things, which cannot profit
nor deliver; for they are vain. For the Lord
will not forsake his people for his great name's
sake." 1 Sam. xii. 20-22. It may be also,
that divine promise, so adapted to his case,
may have been recalled to his mind; "Call
upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver
thee, and thou shalt glorify me." Psalm li.
6




62          MAY I BELIEVE?
15.  And the Psalmist's experience may
possibly have been revived in his memory: "I
cried unto God with my voice, even unto God
with my voice; and he gave ear unto me. In
the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my
sore ran in the night and ceased not; my soul
refused to be comforted." Psalm lxxvii. 1, 2.
Or as in another, "I sought the Lord, and
he heard me, and delivered me from all my
fears. This poor man cried, and the Lord
heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles." Psalm xxxiv. 4, 6.
Certain it is, however, that though we may
not be able to trace the history of his convictions and struggles, yet he was led to prayer,
and through prayer to the peace of forgiveness
and acceptance with God.
It is written of him, " And when he was in
affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and
humbled himself greatly before the God of his
fathers, and prayed unto him: and he was
entreated of him and heard his supplication,
and brought him again to Jerusalem, into his




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    63
kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord
he was God." 2 Chron. xxxiii. 12, 13.
If such could be forgiven, who should despair? Have you reason longer to doubt, to
hesitate, and refuse to cast yourself upon the
mercy of God in Christ? Press to his feet.
"Let not conscience make you linger,
Nor of fitness fondly dream,
All the fitness he requireth
Is to feel your need of him;
This he gives you,'Tis the Spirit's rising beam."
Unless you can show some enormity in
your case which no mortal has ever suspected,
you cannot insist that you are worse than
Manasseh. Even if you are worse, you have
no right to limit the mercy of God, and say, that
he could forgive no one whose sins exceeded
in turpitude and guilt, those of this man. But
if your sins simply equal them, then, if these
were forgiven, yours can be.  And while God
calls you, you have but one thing you can do
without sin; that is, to believe at once, to
accept of Jesus Christ as he is offered in




-64            MAY I BELIEVE?
the  gospel.  Christ is offered  to  you  for
all that you need. Be careful how you
longer doubt, how  you  refuse, lest it shall
be found in the end that you reject the mercy
of God against your own soul. Rather let me
urge you to say in deep sincerity,
"Here Lord, I give myself away,'Tis all that I can do."
On thy kind arms, incarnate God,
I cast my guilty, helpless soul;
I own the justice of thy rod,
Yet all my sills on thee I roll.
My God, accept me as I am;
For such as I, thy blood was shed;
My heart rejoices in thy plan
To grant me life, who once was dead.
I can no longer doubt or fear;
My heart though vile, to thee I yield,
Thou'st brought thy great salvation near;
Be thou my Righteousness and Shield."
Lest there should be a lingering suspicion,
let me refer you to that remarkable combination of cases found in 1 Cor. vi. 9-11.  " Be
not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters,




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    65
nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor
covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor
extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of
God." What a catalogue! Who could suppose that any such could be saved? Surely,
if any may be thought beyond the reach of
mercy, sinners of these classes must be? Can it
be possible that such material can be wrought
into the real texture, the substantial elements
of the church of Christ?  Who would be
willing to unite with a church composed of
such people? Is it not degrading to be associated with persons of such impure, immoral,
and sinful lives? And will not Christ be dishonoured and his gospel rejected, if pardon
and acceptance with God be offered so freely?
So, doubtless, the proud and the self-righteous
may feel and reason: so, doubtless, all who, ignorant of God's righteousness, go about to establish their own; all who have never seen the
depths of depravity in their own hearts, nor
felt the helplessness of sin. But so thinks not
the Holy Spirit, for such he calls; so thinks
6*




-66          MAY I BELIEVE?
not Christ, for such he came to seek and to save;
so thinks not the Apostle, for as a faithful
recorder and publisher of the truth, he adds,
"And such were some of you!" Some such
then, can be pardoned and accepted through
faith in the Divine Redeemer! Yes, it is true;
for it is written, " But ye are washed, but ye
are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our
God."
Could more encouragement be wanted?
Could more be given? To which one of these
classes do you belong? To any, or none? If
literally to none, does your guilt exceed that
of any? If not, then from all, if not from
each one of these examples you may gather
argument sufficient to warrant you to fall, as
you are, at the feet of the Redeemer, and take
him as your all. Will you now do so?  How
various these cases; how fearful the guilt;
how deep the sinfulness of some of them!
Yet they found warrant to believe, why may
not you?
But these are all cases taken from Scrip



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    67
ture, are there none others, none more modern,
nearer our own days? Plenty; but can they
be more appropriate, more fully illustrate the
great truth, that the word of God affords sufficient warrant for the chief of sinners to seek
and expect in the name of Christ, a free and
absolute remission of all his sins? The old
wine is the best. It were useless to refer to
others on the supposition that these failed to
make this truth sufficiently clear: yet as additional illustration, and to show that the grace
of God is unchangeable, that his word never
returns to him void, let us dwell a moment on
some similar facts developed in the history
of the church since the days of the apostles.
Beginning with Augustine, how fully do we
find the truth we are presenting, sustained!
His own confessions exhibit to us a type of
depravity and a course of sin, which but for
these we could scarce believe possible. And
yet these very confessions are the result of a
change which nothing could have effected but
this very grace of which we speak. From
depths and from kinds and courses of sin,




-68          MAY I BELIEVE?
to you now impossible; from years of wandering he was at length brought to sit at the feet
of Jesus, a most signal instance of a sinner
saved by grace, a sinner without a plea, without a possible warrant but that furnished by
the offer of pardon and acceptance with God
perfectly gratuitous. This offer he was enabled to accept, and accepting was saved.
His guilt was forgiven, and the faith he once
despised, he preached for many long years.
But if this be still too far off, let me remind
you of more familiar cases; of Col. Gardiner,
a history of whose life you will find in almost
every Sabbath-school Library-of John Bunyan, who for wickedness was the terror even
of his companions-of John Newton, whose
crimes against God and man were of the deepest, darkest character, so overwhelming to
himself, that to find relief he even meditated
self-murder; and if you doubt that such sinners could be forgiven, read the Pilgrim's
Progress of Bunyan, or his "Heart's Ease
for Heart's Ache," or the Jerusalem  Sinner
Saved, or the Cardiphonia of Newton, or the




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.            69
sweet volume of Olney Hymns. In these
works they spoke and sung of things which
they themselves had experienced, and the conviction must strike every mind, (1) that they
regarded themselves as the chief of sinners;
and yet (2) felt warranted to believe and rest
with joyful confidence upon the mercy of God
in Jesus Christ. Hear how Newton sings, in
praise of the great Physician by whom he was
relieved.
How lost was my condition'Till Jesus made me whole!
There is but one Physician
Can cure a sin-sick soul.
Next door to death he found me
And snatched me from the grave,
To tell to all around me
His wondrous power to save.
From men great skill professing
I thought a cure to gain;
But this proved more distressing,
And added to my pain.
Some said that nothing ailed me,
Some gave me up for lost:
Thus every refuge failed me,
And all my hopes were crossed.




70            MAY I BELIEVE?
A dying, risen Jesus
Seen by the eye of faith,
At once from danger frees us
And saves the soul from death.
Then come to this Physician;
His help he'll freely give:
He makes no hard condition,'Tris only, Look and live.
Are you in greater extremity, than "' next
door to death?" Newton was there indeed,
and yet found life and peace in believing;
why may not you?
We desire neither to astonish nor gratify
by the number and variety of examples; but
simply to show, that while one instance, though
a striking one, and in itself sufficient, might
yet be regarded as exceptional, rather than as
indicating the rule; there are numbers so
great, that no one not resolved to doubt, could
indulge the slightest suspicion of difficulty in
the way of the really sin-sick and sin-burdened
soul. We say then to you, look at any one of
these, and so far as example can have force,
they assure you, that even you, extreme as
you may really think your own case, even




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    71
you have warrant now to believe. And if
any one will give you warrant, then the whole
will not only do it, but leave you without excuse for the delay of a moment.
Could we call up Wesley and Whitefield,
Simeon and Legh Richmond, and Henry
Martyn, and Cecil, and Bickersteth; or Edwards, or Finley, or Davies, or Payson, and
hear the testimony they would give on this
vital question, we should gain nothing as to
the fact itself. This indeed cannot be more
fully established; but its wide-spread uniformity-a uniformity, universal so far as observation has extended, would be deeply impressed
upon our minds. And the clear establishment
of this uniformity must be attended with one
of two results, either to resolve your every
doubt-to dispel your every fear; or leave
you involved in the fearful guilt of unbelief:
an unbelief maintained where all classes of
minds have joyfully yielded; where the refined
and cultivated, the acute and logical have,
alike, accepted the truth and rested upon it,
with the humble and unlearned. A refusal,




72          MAY I BELIEVE?
on your part, under such circumstances, to
believe can be accounted for only on the
ground of incapacity to perceive the nature,
and feel the force of testimony; or a wilful
purpose doggedly to resist all argument, and
all evidence in the premises.
If such be the case with you, further parley
would be both unwise and hurtful; but earnestly hoping that it is not, I beg you carefully
to ponder one consideration further.
THE ARGUMENT DIRECT, FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE.
This argument is contained under various
forms, and is fully conclusive under each.
1. Duty. Faith in Christ is commanded;
and being commanded is a duty.
"This is my beloved Son; hear him."
Luke ix. 35. "A Prophet shall the Lord your
God raise up unto you of your brethren like
unto me; him shall ye hear in all things
whatsoever he shall say unto you." Acts
iii. 22.
"And this is his commandment, that we




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    73
should believe on the name of his Son Jesus
Christ." 1 John iii. 23.
This duty is universal. No one class of
men is exempt. The command is to preach
the gospel to every creature. Mark xvi. 15.
And as faith is the acceptance of the gospel,
every creature is required to believe it; else
some may reject it without guilt; but this
cannot be.  He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the condemnation, that light is
come into the world, and men loved darkness
rather than light, because their deeds were
evil." John iii. 18, 19.
The gospel enhances the responsibility of
men; and as it is the proclamation of God's
terms of pardon to the rebellious-of mercy
to the undeserving; it is clear that every
creature refusing to believe refuses to yield
his rebellion, and rejects the offered mercy,
thus aggravating his guilt, and braving the
terrors of the Most High.
But does God make that a duty, which he
7




74          MAY I BELIEVE?
will not permit to be done? Does he command, what he will not aid and accept? Far
be such conduct from him. The duty involves
and secures the great privilege. This duty,
moreover, is irrespective of the number or
magnitude of the sins committed.
It has no reference whatever to the question
whether you have committed many or few,
great or small sins. You may have committed
but one, or millions; still the duty remains unchanged. God deals with you as a sinful
creature. If you have but one sin, he offers
to you a gratuitous pardon for it in Jesus
Christ. If you have sins in countless multitude chargeable upon you, he offers you a
pardon and acceptance equally gratuitous.
He commands you equally to believe, and,
therefore, assures you equally of the privilege.
Do you deny the duty? If not, then embrace
the privilege. And as the duty is imperative
and pressing, so the privilege is immediate
and entreating.
Decide, my friend, and decide quickly.
God says to you, " Go work to-day in my vine



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    75
yard." Matt. xxi. 28. "Work to-day," not
to-morrow. And what is the work thus required at your hand? Nothing more, nothing
less, than that which I have already urged
upon you, even as it is written, "This is the
work of God, that ye believe on him whom he
hath sent." John vi. 29.
2. Invitation combined with promise.
" Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends
of the earth; for I am God, and there is none
else." Isa. xlv. 22.
"Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to
the waters, and he that hath no money; come
ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and
milk without money and without price. Incline
your ear and come unto me; hear, and your
soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of
David." Isa. lv. 1, 3.
" Come unto me all ye that labour and are
heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am
meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find
rest unto your souls." Matt. xi. 28, 29.




76          MAY I BELIEVE?
These are but examples of the nature and
kind of invitations and promises found throughout the Scriptures. We need not enlarge;
from these learn all. They include all classes
of persons; "all the ends of the earth,"
means every creature; and as though this
were not enough, they specify the thirsty, the
hungry, the poor, the thoughtless, the blind,
the deaf, the weary, the heavy laden, the
tempted; and as though even this were not
enough, the words of inspiration almost close,
uttering the unlimited invitation, "Whosoever
will, let him take of the water of life freely."
Rev. xxii. 17.
Clearer warrant none need desire, —none can
have, than God's invitation, and God's promise.
He against whom you have sinned-he has
provided a Saviour, and invites you to partake
of a gratuitous pardon simply by accepting
the mediation of this divinely appointed Saviour. He invites with a full knowledge of
your sins-their number, their aggravations,
and their desert of hell; and can you desire
other warrant?




OR T}HE WARRANT OF FAITH.    77
3. Exhortation combined with entreaty and
expostulation.
"Wherefore do ye spend money for that
which is not bread? And your labour for
that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently
unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and
let your soul delight itself in fatness." Isa.
lv. 2.
" Seek ye the Lord while he may be found,
call ye upon him while he is near. Let the
wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous
man his thoughts: and let him return unto the
Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and
to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."
Isa. Iv. 6, 7.
" Have I any pleasure at all, that the
wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not
that he should return from his ways and live?
Cast away from you all your transgressions,
whereby ye have transgressed: and make
you a new heart and a new spirit: for why
will ye die, 0 house of Israel? For I have
no pleasure in the death of him that dieth,
7 *




78          MAY I BELIEVE?
saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye." Ezek. xviii. 23, 31, 32.
"' Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord
God, I have no pleasure in the death of the
wicked: but that the wicked turn from his way
and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil
ways; for why will ye die, 0 house of Israel?"
Ezek. xxxiii. 11.
" Come now and let us reason together, saith
the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet they
shall be white as snow; though they be red
like crimson they shall be as wool." Isa.
i. 18.
" How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how
shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make
thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as
Zeboim? Mine heart is turned within me,
my repentings are kindled together." Hosea
xi. 8.
What mean all these and other Scriptures
of the same character, if they do not fully
warrant the unconditional acceptance of the
gospel offer? If they do not, not only authorize every sinner to whom they come to




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    79
believe God's mercy, but regard him as rejecting that mercy without cause if he do not
believe? If there be force in language, it
must be so. What interest, what motive,
would God have for addressing men thus, if
they were not welcome to come?
Among men to stand proof against such
exhortation, such expostulatory entreaty, is to
incur a charge of hardened insensibility or
perverse obstinacy, which leaves an indelible
stain upon the character; but can any one
treat God in this manner without incurring a
charge of deeper, blacker guilt? God invites,
then exhorts, then with earnest entreaty expostulates; and will you yet say, He means
not me; I have no interest in all that he
promises, and am not the object of any expostulation on his part? When your very case
is described, and your very class is designated, still you say, All this is not for me.
Take care that you make not this the truth
in reference to yourself. The privilege offered
to you, and which you put from you, has an
awful responsibility connected with it.  "Be



.80         MAY I BELIEVE?
cause I have called," says God, "and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no
man regarded; but ye have set at nought my
counsel, and would none of my reproof; I also
will laugh at your calamity: I will mock when
your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as
desolation, and your destruction cometh as a
whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh
upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but
I will not answer; they shall seek me early
but they shall not find me. Prov. i. 24-28.
You may bring about this issue, fearful as it
is. Be entreated in time. While the exhortation is addressed to you, yield to its gracious influence, and cast yourself upon the outstretched arms of a waiting Saviour.
But this warrant arises again in another
form.
4. As a fruit, or object, of the mission of
Christ and its publication in the gospel. Without this mission, this incarnation, death, and
resurrection of the Lord Jesus, such warrant
could never have been accorded to any sinner;




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    81
not only not to the greatest and vilest, but
not to the smallest or purest.
Sin alienates between God and man. Its
guilt must be atoned, its offence removed, or
reconciliation never can be possible. But
man can atone for the guilt of sin, only by
suffering its penalty; this would involve endless punishment, and of course exclude all
prospect of happiness and peace. The only
relief therefore can come through another;
and hence pardon is extended to the sinner,
not for any thing he has done, but for what
has been done for him.
Hence we have the record, " For God sent
not his Son into the world to condemn the
world, but that the world through him might
be saved."  John iii. 17. How are men saved
through him?  "He that believeth shall be
saved."  Mark xvi. 16.  "He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life." John iii.
36.    " Even so must the Son of man be
lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life."
John iii. 14, 15.




82           MAY I BELIEVE?
Faith in Christ is the means of salvation.
For Christ therefore to die that the world
through him might be saved, is to die necessarily that faith might be exercised, and of
course that a warrant for faith might exist.
That this reasoning is correct we are assured
by the testimony of this same Evangelist, who
declares that he wrote his gospel for the very
purpose of affording a warrant, an opportunity
or ground of faith. " And he knoweth that he
saith true that ye might believe." John xix.
35. "But these are written, that ye might
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
God; and that believing ye might have life
through his name." John xx. 31. The same
thing is also clearly asserted by the apostle
Peter: " Who verily was fore-ordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest
in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the
dead and gave him  glory; that your faith
and hope might be in God." 1 Pet. i. 20, 21.
We think it just, then, and therefore safe
to say, that the very object for which Christ




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    83
came, for which he died, for which God raised
him from the dead, was that this warrant
might exist, this great privilege be accorded
to men.
And now, what say you? If the very existence of the gospel is a witness that you, whatever your condition as a sinner, have ample
warrant to go to Christ that you may be saved,
will you go? If the whole Scripture record
is intended to assure you of God's willingness
to receive the very chief of sinners for Christ's
sake, then by what right do you hesitate to
believe it? By what right do you put any
judgment or opinion of your own between
your soul and Jesus Christ?  God says,
Come: you say, I dare not. God replies with
emphasis, But you may. You still rejoin, Nay,
I may not. What means this? Can you
justify it? Who knows best what God will
permit you to do?  He himself, or you? Delay no more; but fall at his feet, confess your
unbelief, and accept with joy his great salvation.
Other arguments we will not now offer




84          MAY I BELIEVE?
Enough has been presented to establish this
truth, viz: that if you believe not, and therefore perish, it will not be because God has
given no warrant to believe. On the contrary, you remain in unbelief in despite of all
that can authorize you to seek and find eternal
life now, in Jesus Christ.
A RECAPITULATION.
Let us see what has been ascertained in the
premises.
To meet every such case as yours in the
fullest possible manner, we have shown that a
warrant for your faith may be clearly and
fully established on the ground that it is the
duty of all men to believe; then by an induction of examples, both from Scriptural and
modern times, have seen that men of all classes,
and some even of the very vilest have been
admitted to faith; have been accepted in their
acceptance of Jesus Christ, and incidentally
have shown the nature and force of this testimony; and that to evade it, every exceptional
case must be recited, not merely inferred.




OR TEE WARRANT OF FAITH.            85
This is a wide field, and each  example
might well be made a separate study. Sin
assumes so many forms, and afflicts the soul
with so many evils, evils deeply seated and
obstinate, that it becomes important to consider
and exhibit the cures in the worst of cases.
"The worst of all diseases
Is light, compared with sin;
On every part it seizes,
But rages most within.
Tis palsy, plague, and fever,
And madness —all combined;
And none but a believer,
The least relief can find."
We have, therefore, purposely made a large
induction, hoping that thus every case may be
met.
In addition to all this, we have seen that
the Scriptures directly warrant this acceptance
of Christ, by urging it as a duty-a duty irrespective of the extent of a man's guilt: by
invitations and promises, and these often, not
general, but specific; by earnest expostulatory
entreaty, and finally, by assuring us that the
8




86           MAY I BELIEWE?
very design of the death and resurrection of
~Christ, together with its record or publication
by the sacred writers was, that this warrant
might also be proclaimed wherever sinners are
found. The gospel would be no gospel, but
for this great and glorious truth-this, which
gives it adaptedness and force wherever proclaimed, in America or Europe, in Africa or
Asia, in Australia or Micronesia.
The gospel is proclaimed to all, because God
is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them;
and requires-warrants all who hear it to believe, "obey, and take the promised" blessing.
WHAT YET REMAINS?
If by so many routes we have arrived at
the same terminus, may we not conclude that
this is indeed the great central spot to which
all things tend? That everything conspires
to convince the sinner that he, even in his
deepest degradation, in the deepest consciousness of his guilt, may go,-has a warrant to




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    87
go to Him, who is "able to save them to the
uttermost that come unto God by him?" Heb.
vii. 25.
Does anything therefore yet remain?
Nothing necessarily; but still there are some
minds so sensitive, some difficulties so unyielding; some temptations so subtle and persistent, that calm unbroken rest cannot be maintained. There is a conflict between hope and
fear; joy and sorrow follow each other, sometimes in lengthened intervals, sometimes in
rapid succession.
In the struggles of life, new positions are
assumed, new duties arise, new questions
emerge. New sins also may be committedold sins may be revived; old corruptions work
in new channels; old evidences, experiences,
and comforts, grow dim in the memory, or are
thrown into unfavourable positions to be seen
in their true character. Hence the conscience
is often startled, and the heart overwhelmed
by the sudden and vivid suggestion, " You are
too late; there is no hope;" or, " You are yet




88          MAY I BELIEVE?
a sinner, a hypocrite, and unworthy of any
place in the service of Christ."
Such suggestions, as by the power of a fearful hallucination, absorb the attention of the
mind, and preclude the discovery of the error
which is now oppressing it, prevent the detection of the subtle temptation under which it
labours, and by which its peace has been destroyed.
Dark struggles follow; long depression of
mind ensues, activity ceases, hopes are abandoned, and despair sits brooding upon the
heart. Is all lost? Not yet. May there be
hope? Yes, abundant. Where, whence?  In
the sinner? No. In man? Not the least.
Then whence? Christ still lives. The warrant to fly to him yet continues in full force,
and his power to save remains unbroken. " He
is the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever."
Heb. xiii. 8.
THE SUFFICIENCY OF THIS WARRANT.
Is this warrant sufficient to meet such variety and combination of new cases? Is not




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    89
something else necessary? or may not something be united with it to advantage? It is
all that is requisite. Alone, it is omnipotent.
Combined with anything else, it is weakened
and destroyed.
Let us look for a moment at this warrant.
What is it? It is God's command, to repent
and believe the gospel-his invitation to accept of Christ as the only Mediator between
God and men-his offer to accept and save
every'sinner coming to him, on the foundation
of Christ's work and satisfaction to the Divine
law.
It is, in short, a proclamation of pardon on
God's part, to guilty rebels against his government. It announces distinctly that sin can be
forgiven, that rebellion can be pardoned in
the case of every one accepting Jesus Christ
as his Surety before God.
Here then the question returns, Is this sufficient? Is this all that the sinner, any sinner,
needs to authorize him at once to accept of Christ
as his full salvation? There can be but one
answer. It is not only all that he needs, but
8*




90          MAY I BELIEVE?
the only thing which can confer any warrant
whatever.  That this may appear, consider1. God alone has a right to command or invite any one to return to him. He alone has
the right to say on what terms, in what way
he will accept the sinful and rebellious. No
creature, however exalted, can on his own motion, give warrant or encouragement to any
sinner to hope for pardon and acceptance
with God.
But if God himself does it, then aH who
hear it may comply, the first moment they
comprehend either the command or invitation.
Nay, they must comply, or prefer to remain
in sin and rebellion.
The child who rejects a father's authority,
and spends years in multiplied acts of hostility
and insult to that father, needs no other-can
have no other warrant to return and expect
forgiveness than the father's own command or
invitation. If the father command, he may
instantly obey; if he invite, he may instantly
accept, and at once partake of all the benefits
resulting from such return. No authority but




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    91
the father's could warrant it; but if this be
given, all is given that can be required.
So with God's command addressed to you,
sinner, to repent; you need no other warrant.
Nay, you must obey, or add fresh rebellion
to the fearful catalogue of your crimes. If
God invites, you have such warrant, that to
doubt or question it becomes at once an increased and aggravated offence. If Gabriel
invited, you might hesitate, and ask for his
authority; but when God himself commands
and invites, nothing is left but to comply.
What could strengthen such a warrant? Can
anything be added to God's authority? Is
not his word final?
As the Supreme Judge, no one but himself
can know or declare whether he will remit the
penalty of his law in favour of any transgressor, and if he will, on what terms, and to
whom? But when he himself declares his
own arrangement so to do, and invites the
guilty to come and partake of his clemency,
then his word becomes all that can be required
ini any possible condition.




92           MAY I BELIEVE?
Rest then in this; you will find it sufficient
for every exigence through which you may be
called to pass.
2. But consider again, that in the nature
of things, nothing can be substituted for, or
added to this warrant; and, therefore, it must
stand in itself sufficient and alone.
The warrant is God's word of command, of
invitation, of promise and entreaty addressed
to the sinner to turn and live.
Who can substitute anything for this?
God has given the warrant. Who can come
in and set this aside, and establish something
in its stead?  Can angels-can men —can
any creature, or any number of creatures?
Would it be safe to follow such?
Who can add anything? If there be no
authority to substitute, can there be to add
new provisions? Who will venture upon such
a scheme?
The thing is in itself impossible; and if
there can be neither substitute nor addition,
then this warrant stands for every sinner in
yvery Qooniitin SUffiZieat au) a1o3u.




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    93
But here many questions arise which often
cause great perplexity to the sinner, and under
the influence of which he is often led practically to attempt what reason and truth declare
he cannot do.
PERPLEXING QUESTIONS.
1. Do not the Scriptures require repentance,
before God can or will show me any marks of
favour or mercy? Must I not be a great deal
better before I can expect that Christ will look
upon and receive me?
I have not lived as I ought, and must prepare myself by prayer and reading the Scriptures and doing better in every way before I
can be ready to accept God's invitation; before
I can feel that I am permitted so to do. Must
I not?
Here are as many mistakes, or at least misapprehensions, as questions.
True: God requires sinners to repent; and
without repentance he will not receive any one
to his favour; but is not the acceptance of
God's invitation, the resting of your soul for




94          MAY I BELIEVE?
pardon upon God's promise, the very repentance you need? Is it not that which he requires? You have hitherto refused to do this';
and what could more distinctly manifest a repentance for your past course of life, than a
turning to God upon his own invitation, upon
the warrant of his own promise, and a hearty
acceptance of the finished righteousness of
Christ as the only ground of your hope?
And would not this be at once doing a great
deal better, than you have ever done? You
have not, indeed, lived as you ought, but:
would not this be the highest act of right and
duty to God which you could do? What:
ought you to do better than to turn from your
sinful ways, and accept God's free promise of
a free and absolute pardon in the name and
for the sake of Christ?
The truth is, you are overlooking the ground
upon which God proposes to save you, and
substituting a condition of your own which he
neither requires nor sanctions, upon which to
be accepted before him.
HIe proposes to pardon you absolutely on




OR TIEM WARRANT OF FAITH.    95
the ground of Christ's merit. And accordingly invites you to come and accept without
money and without price.
This you overlook, indeed practically deny;
and attempt to acquire, by your repentance,
your doing better, something to make you acceptable to Christ, something to recommend
you to him.
Thus you turn from God's foundation to lay
one for yourself, substituting your own for his.
He says, Come as you are, upon Christ's
merits. You say, "I must repent and do
better, first, and then expect God to receive
me.-"
He proposes, let me repeat, to accept and
save you wholly for the merits of the Lord
Jesus, and invites you to partake of pardon
and peace, on this foundation only: you refuse
and delay until you can add something of
your own, in the way of repentance, doing
better, and such like.
This is, on your part, a change of the whole
ground of salvation. It is another gospel.
God's provision is for the ungodly; yours is




96           MAY I BELIEVE?
for the sinner partly reformed, doing better,
and not so bad as before. God's plan regards
Christ's merits, only and alone, as sufficient to
procure eternal salvation; yours rejects Christ's
merits as insufficient, unless supplemented
by some improvement, reformation, or goodness of your own. After securing something
of your own to add to Christ's, you can then
feel that God is ready to accept you.
My friend, you will find nothing but delusion in this direction. You are on another
foundation, and can never attain real permanent peace with God. Christ is our peace;
not something of our own in addition to his
righteousness.
If you make yourself better, as shown in a
former Tract, (" Only believe,") you put yourself out of the range of gospel promises and
of course must perish.
But after all, what is a sinner to do, who
feels his guilt and unworthiness to be so exceeding great, as utterly to disqualify him for
an entrance into God's presence?
Oppressed with such a perception of his con



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    97
dition, what is he to do? Do? Nothing, but
to take God at his own word. When he knows
your whole condition, and notwithstanding,
says, " Come unto me, I have made the amplest
provision for your acceptance, peace, and
safety;" what ought you to do, but with his
word of promise in your ear and heart, cast
yourself upon his loving arms of mercy and
salvation?
Can compassion, can love like this, be met
in any other manner? Do as the prodigal
did, when, all conscious of his vileness, he not
only resolved to return to his Father's house;
but actually did so in his very rags, with all
the marks of his degradation and wretchedness
about him. "I am not worthy to be called
thy son," says he. Yet he delayed not, refused not to accept the best robe, the shoes
on his feet and the ring on his finger, until he
could remove his own rags and filth. The
father saw him, accepted, and embraced him
as he was. The deepest gratitude and the
strongest emotions of true penitence alike
forbade delay for any purpose. Unworthy as
9




98            MAY I BELIEVE?
he felt himself, he could but yield, and yielding secured all that the father's heart prompted
him to give.
Thus you must do. Anything else is tc
resist the grace of God; to make your own
judgment of your condition not only the rule
of your conduct towards God, but the measure of his gifts and graces to you.
You certainly have no right to put your
unworthiness, though you saw and felt it a thousand times more deeply than you do, between
the fountain of God's mercy and your soul's
salvation. The merits of a Saviour's blood,
not your own deserts, constitute God's measure
of grace: resist then no longer.
"Ho I ye needy, come and welcome;
God's free bounty glorify."
"Pore upon your sins no longer,
Well I know their mighty guilt;
But my love than death is stronger,
I my blood have freely spilt;
Though your heart has long been hardened,
Look on me, it soft shall grow;
Past transgressions shall be pardoned,
And I'll'wash you,white as snow."




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.           99
Thus Jesus calls you; let your reply i!e
in the appropriate sentiment, if not the language of another, of Newton's hymns,
"Lord, thou lEast won; at length I yield;
My heart, by mighty grace compelled,
Surrenders all to thee:
Against thy terrors long I strove,
But who can stand against thy love?
Love conquers even me."
The warrant is all sufficient, and an immediate acceptance of it will be and is the best
possible evidence of gratitude to God, of repentance for sin, and a fixed purpose of new
obedience.
Delay will but multiply your difficulties,
and endanger your acceptance at any other
time. Be wise, therefore, in season and
turn, as the poor prodigal, even now, to your
Father's outstretched arms.
2. But is it not presumptuous for one so guilty,
and so long, as well as so recently in the slime
and filth of sin, to expect an immediate acceptance with God, and an unconditional pardon of all my guilt?




100         MAY I BELIEVE?
Does not such a doctrine offer a premium
for sin, and expose the gospel to reproach
before the world?
Why, or how presumptuous? Does not
God invite? And when we answer the exact
condition of those to whom the invitation is
extended, can there be presumption in accepting it? If the vile are invited, the blind, the
deaf, the lost, may not each one in this condition embrace the opportunity of relief? And if
the invitation specifies the time, as now, the
present, passing moment, may not the vile
wash and be clean at once?
Was it presumptuous for the poor leper who
said to Christ, " If thou wilt, thou canst make
me clean," to accept and rejoice in the immediate cure which the Saviour extended, when
he replied, "I will, be thou clean?"  Matt.
viii. 2.
Was it presumptuous for the weeping penitent at the Saviour's feet to accept the gracious
pardon he granted when he said, " Thy sins
are forgiven; thy faith hath saved thee; go in
pecae?" Luke xviii. 48-50.  Or the poor




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.   101
paralytic on whom he bestowed both cure and
pardon in the same moment? Matt. ix. 1-7.
Can it ever be presumptuous to obey God?
So far from it, that to disobey, or for any reason or judgment of your own even to delay,
becomes an act both offensive to God, and
daringly presumptuous in his sight. He specifies the duty or privilege, the time in which
he desires attention to it, and the character
of all from whom he expects compliance; and
these very persons pause and say, " Oh no,
we cannot do it now, it would be presumption!"
Presumption to do what you are commandedto accept what is unconditionally offered to
you! What madness thus to act! The presumption is on the side of delay or neglect.
If the fact that you have long been a sinner,
that your guilt is unspeakably great, hinders
not the command or the invitation; then it
cannot originate or sustain a charge of presumption against you, in obeying the one or
accepting the other.
Nor can it offer any premium to sin to extend a free and immediate pardon to the trans9*




102         MAY I BELIEVE?
gressor. In the nature of things, there can
be no middle ground between a free pardon,
and an endurance of the penalty of sin. Pardon or atonement! If atonement be made by
the transgressor, he is not pardoned; he claims
release as a matter of right. Pardon has
being and place, only where the culprit deserves
the threatened penalty, and cannot offer an
atonement. If he suffers the penalty, he is
not pardoned.
If pardon were extended without atonement
in any form, and especially if it were done on
a system, and as a matter of course, then it
might afford encouragement or offer a premium
to sin. But is this the case under the gospel?
The sinner makes none we admit, but is none
made?
Does the free and immediate pardon offered
to the chief of sinners have no reference to an
atonement, made by him or for him? All
know that the very foundation of the gospel is
the atoning work of Christ, and that upon
this, and this alone, the pardon and remission
of sin is extended to the guilty. The pardon




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    103
of which the sinner is invited to partake, is
for Christ's sake, not his; free to him, not
because God is indifferent to sin, or disposed
in the least to let it pass unpunished, but because Christ has purchased redemption by his
own life's blood.
Instead of yielding encouragement to sin,
it is the deepest condemnation of it, and affords
the strongest and only available motives to
abandon its love and practice.
Christ suffered to the extreme demand of
the law, that satisfaction might be entered up
for the sinner.  It is so entered for every
sinner accepting of Christ. His suffering is
substituted for the sinner's; and while the sinner is, and can be freely pardoned, it is only
because he receives and relies upon Christ as
his surety. No sin is pardoned except through
Christ, no sinner accepted but " in the Beloved."
Christ grants his purchased pardon without
cost to every soul, however unworthy, accepting of his invitation.
Who could feel encouraged to sin because
freely pardoned, when he sees and feels that




104            MAY I BELIEVE?
that free pardon is the purchase of one who
loved him to the death, and suffered in his
stead?
What more surely awakens hatred to sin,
and enkindles a burning zeal against it, than
an apprehension of pardon secured only by the
life's blood of the dearest and noblest friend
in the universe?
"' But mercy has my heart subdued,
A bleeding Saviour I have viewed,
And now I hate my sin."
"Oh! how I hate those lusts of mine,
That crucified my God:
Those sins that pierced and nailed his flesh
Fast to the fatal wood.
Yes, my Redeemer, they shall die,
My heart has so decreed;
Nor will I spare the guilty things,
That made my Saviour bleed."
It is an old slander against the gospel that
if men are justified freely, that if they are
taken up from the very defilement of sin, and
accepted without goodness of their own, they
are thereby encouraged in sin, that they need




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.   105
make no effort to acquire personal purity. A
legal spirit, a self-seeking and self-righteous
spirit suggests, sustains, aud spreads this slander.
Those however who believe and act upon it,
reject the gospel; and while they send the
sinner to good works, to religious duties, to
doing better, as a preparation to accept of
Christ, or as means to be acceptable to him, they
send him from peace, and subject him to the
cruel bondage of an accusing conscience, or
expose him to the hopeless delusion of a heartless formality. He asks for bread and they
give him a stone-nay, a serpent.
A gracious, undeserved pardon cannot but
meet the sinner in all his guilt and defilement;
a relief from punishment by reason of personal merit is not pardon. Nor can a pardon
which is extended on the ground of personal
merit, if such be called pardon, tend in the
least to restrain or repress sin-to produce
real sorrow for sin and hatred of it. The
feeling in such case is, " I can easily work out
merit enough to secure a pardon!"  And




106         MAY I BELIEVE?
when pardoned in this sense, the inward
thought will be, "I know I have committed
great sins, but what of that? I can make
amends by good works, and good wishes, and
thus obtain pardon."
This is the system therefore which offers a
premium for sin, and not the gracious and
only real pardon of the gospel. The idea
that God would offer pardon on a basis which
would encourage sin is not only preposterous,
but blasphemous. To put away sin, he gave
his own Son as an expiatory sacrifice; and
upon the basis of this sacrifice, he proposes
freely to pardon sinners as the only means of
delivering them from the love and power of
sin; and yet there are found some who, both
in theory and practice, evade the truth, perplex the mind, and harass the awakened conscience with the idea that to expect, even when
God expressly offers it, a free and immediate
pardon of all sin is to act upon a principle
which will encourage sin! Encourage sin by
the very method which infinite wisdom and
goodness devised to suppress and destroy it!




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.   107
Was there ever such blindness of mind, or
such hatred of the truth?
Listen not to such a suggestion. It comes
from the pit: and will lead you there, if you
follow it.
You never can be safer than when resting
upon the word of the Lord: "I, even I, am
he, that blotteth out thy transgressions for
mine own sake, and will not remember thy
sin." Isa. xliii. 25.
You are never safe without this word.
Accept his invitation at once. With this
warrant you will stand scatheless at the judgment-seat, without it you must perish.
Equally futile is the objection, that such a
method of pardon will expose the gospel to
reproach before the world.
The reputation of the gospel is something
very carefully to be guarded and it is pleasant to find any one really anxious about it.
But yet none can be more alive to it than
God himself, and we may rest assured that no
judgment or care of ours can either supersede
his, or supply any supposed deficiencies, any




108         MAY I BELIEVE?
thing not precisely suited to the company or
the times. Let us remember too that our
judgment and God's may be so widely different, that that which we might suppose to be a
reproach, may be in reality an honour and glory.
The cross has never been esteemed an honour by
the world; and yet the highest honour men can
attain for time or eternity comes only through
the cross.  "No cross, no crown."  The same
principle may prevail here. What is there in
this method of saving men that can authorize
reproach?
Is it that salvation from beginning to end is
a free gift of God to men? To whom can it
be a reproach?  To God? Is it an unworthy
thing for him to give, to give without money,
without price?  Is it not his glory?  Suppose
he granted the blessings secured in the gospel
only to the highest bidder. What would then
become of the poor, the naked, the starving,
the helpless?  Suppose he pardoned only
those who pay largely for it. What would
then become of the destitute and ruined?
Who but the rich, the influential, could then




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.   109
be saved? Would not this be a reproach?
But now when he makes no difference, when
the richest and highest on earth can be saved
only on the same basis with the poorest and
most degraded; when salvation is a free gift
alike to all in Christ; is it in any sense a reproach? When each is alike undeserving,
and when neither can in reality pay even one
farthing; is it a reproach to God that he bestows freely all the blessings which infinite
love can devise?
But is it a reproach to men-to sinners?
On what ground? To be objects of undeserved favour, recipients of infinite bounty?
It may be a reproach to them that they are
sinners-sinners without cause, and against
all reason and right. It may justly be a reproach that they are vile and ungrateful; but
can it be that they are freely forgiven, saved
from hell, adopted into God's family, made
heirs of heaven, holy and happy for ever; can
this be a reproach even to the poor sinner?
From the depths of vileness and guilt to be
raised to purity and honour; from misery to
10




110         MAY I BELIEVE?
happiness unalloyed and unending; from the
depths of poverty and want to exhaustless affluence, to boundless fulness; from being a
homeless wanderer, an outcast, a companion
of the wretched, degraded, lost, to be sought
out by Him from whom he departed, against
whom he sinned, whose name he blasphemed,
whose honour he despised, whose cause he betrayed; brought back, restored to home, to
the favour of God, to the society of the blest,
and eternal life and peace in heaven; is this a
reproach or an honour? And yet this is that
which God gives you a warrant to expect in
the promise of a free acceptance for Christ's
sake.
The world is a lazar house of sin, corruptic.n, and death; the church is the hospital
where the only cure can be effected; the grace
of God the only medicated balm; the Lord
Jesus the only Physician; every prescription,
and all attention by the great Physician, are
free. " To the poor the gospel is preached."
Both these objections come with an ill grace
from those who make them; and the best ar



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.   111
gament after all, against them, is found in the
actual developments in the lives of men.
Who feel less at liberty to sin? Who feel
the necessity, and strive most for the attainment of universal purity and holiness-the
pardoned or the careless sinner? The sinner
who thinks he is not wholly depraved, has
some good in him, and can repent at pleasure,
or the poor, broken-hearted penitent who
casts himself wholly upon the mercy of God in
Christ, who gratefully and joyfully accepts
God's offer of an immediate and gracious pardon on the ground only of a Saviour's merits?
Look at the history of men before and
after conversion. Look at the aim, the earnest, honest labour of the church, and the
world. With whom do you find most fear and
hatred of sin? And whose moral virtues have
reflected most honour upon the race? Whose
benevolence, philanthropy, patient endurance,
and unyielding energies, have done most to
elevate man, to glorify God, to dry the mourner's tears, to illume the gloom of sorrow's




112           MAY I BELIEVE?
night, and convert the wilderness into a fruitful field?
The friends of this great doctrine are
willing that the severest scrutiny may be exercised; confident that salvation by grace,
sovereign and free, must for ever claim the
adoring admiration  of angels, and demand
from men everlasting songs of joy and praise.
" Grace!'tis a charming sound,
Harmonious to the ear,
Heaven with the echo shall resound,
And all the earth shall hear."
It is characteristic of sinners to glory in
their shame; but that which constitutes their
highest praise, and promotes their purest and
most permanent happiness, they regard with
distrust and often wholly reject. Thus it is
here. Invited to partake of a gratuitous pardon, and assured of the unchanging sympathy,
compassion, and love of God in Christ, they
nevertheless decline to accept, or delay, on the
assumed but futile plea, that it may encourage sin, or become the object of reproach to
the world.




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.   113
It is God's plan, and while it brings glory
to him, it confers the highest honour and
greatest safety on man. Accept it then without further hesitation, and esteem it your highest privilege to sit at the feet of Jesus, and
own yourself " a captive in the chains of love."
3. But I am not sure that I am one of the
elect, and therefore I am not invited, and
would be repulsed should I attempt to enrol
myself among God's people, or expect to be
accepted of him.
This is a frequent objection, and one oftentimes greatly perplexing; but without the
shadow of a reason.
You have far more evidence that you are
elected than that you are not. How does God
usually deal with those who are his elect?
Does he give them the gospel and afford them
some, at least, of the ordinary means of grace?
Does he send such providences as tend to make
these means impressive and effectual? Does
he add to all these an awakened, troubled conscience, through the presence of the Divine
Spirit applying the word and convincing of
10 *




114         MAY I BELIEVE?
" sin, of righteousness, and judgment to come?"
Does he thus so move upon their hearts as to
make sin odious and fearful to them, to impress
them with their desert of hell, and arouse them
to duties and efforts to escape this fearful doom,
and secure a place in heaven?  Does he give
them to see the vanity of earth, and awaken
within them earnest desires and longings for
heavenly things? Does he in short, by ways
of his own choosing, bring them to feel that
they must have an interest in Christ or perish?
Does he arrange it so, that Christ in all his
fulness as Prophet, Priest, and King, is offered
to them freely, and pressed upon their acceptance?
If each and all these questions can be but
answered in the affirmative; and if any one so
dealt with, may be regarded as hopefully
among the number of God's chosen ones,
wanting only the actual acceptance of Christ
to confirm the truth of his election; then what
is the difference between one in such circumstances and your own case? If he may feel
encouraged, why may not you? If he may




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.   115
rest upon God's warrant so freely and fully
extended, why may not you? And if he
would be without excuse for delay even, in
what condition are you? Has not God dealt
with you in a manner precisely similar? And
do you not now feel that unless you fly to
Christ, hell must be your doom?
Yes; but how can I, " unless I am sure that I
am one of the elect?" How can you be sure,
that you are within a house, except by going into
it? How can you be sure of being an actual
guest of a friend, except by accepting and complying with the invitation? How can you be
sure that you have the title deeds to an estate,
except by taking them into actual possession?
How can you be sure that your friend loves
you, except by believing him when he says so,
and accepting the tokens and proofs he offers
to you?
Such an objection is irrational, it expects
a result without a cause, a consequence without an antecedence. The only way that you
can be sure of your election is by doing what




116         MAY I BELIEVE?
the elect do. Read carefully Philippians ii.
12, 13. 2 Pet. i. 10, 11. 1 John iii. 18,19.
"Well, but are not'many called, and but
few chosen?' " Yes; but what has that to do
with you? If you accept of Christ, if you
believe as the few, does not that prove you to
be one of the chosen? If you deliberately
delay and refuse to believe in God's sincerity,
in the gracious offer of life in Christ he makes
to you, you not only have no present evidence
that you are chosen, but you never can have;
and what is worse, continuing to reject Christ,
you will die in your sins and be lost.
"But are not many wrought upon so as to
feel great distress, and fulfil many duties,
such as prayer, reading and hearing the word
of God, and abandonment of many sins, and
after all never are saved, obtain no evidence
that they are of the elect?" We admit it; but
what then? Do you mean to suggest that they
accepted Christ, believed God's word, and yet
were rejected? If so, we deny the whole
case, and ask you for the proof. But if you
mean only, that notwithstanding their convic



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.   117
tions, their troubles, and labours, they never
accepted the Lord's gracious offer; then we
say they acted as you are now doing, and the
result in their case is painfully indicative of
what it will be in yours, if you for any cause refuse to take God at his word, and rest upon the
absolute sufficiency of his warrant. The certain knowledge of your election is not only
not necessary to your believing, but cannot,
under present circumstances, be obtained, as
already suggested, except by the faith of the
gospel. Nor is the certain knowledge of your
election, in your sense of it, even essential to
your salvation; hence to delay or refuse to
accept God's gracious offer of absolute pardon
in Christ, is irrational as we have seen, offensive to God, a rejecting of Christ, a grieving
of the Holy Spirit, and places your own salvation in most fearful jeopardy.
If God arouses your conscience and gives
you to feel your need of Christ, it is his command to you to fly to him, accept of him and
rest upon him. This is your duty and your
privilege.  With God's secret purpose of




118           MAY I BELIEVE?
election or reprobation, you have nothing in
the world to do.
His decree or purpose of grace never prevented a single soul from coming to Christ.
never repulsed one who was coming or wished
to come; but has saved, and will save millions —
" a great multitude which no man can number"
-from rejecting him. But for this purpose
not a soul would ever have been saved.
"Grace first contrived the way
To save rebellious man;
And all the steps that grace display,
Which drew the wondrous plan.
Grace all the work shall crown
Through everlasting days;
It lays in heaven the topmost stone,
And well deserves the praise."
It will be time enough for you to investigate
this great doctrine, when you have given yourself to Christ on the simple, yet all-sufficient
warrant of God's sacred word. Grace calls
you, is ready to aid you, and waits to receive
you. Act, my friend, act quickly.




OR THE WARRANT OF PAITH.    119
"The Spirit and the bride say, Come,
Rejoicing saints, re.echo, Comet
Who faints, who thirsts, who will, may come:
Thy Saviour bids thee come."
Let your reply be,
" Just as I am, thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
Because thy promise I believe:
O Lamb of God, I come I"
4. "But I am afraid I shall not be able to
hold out, to fulfil the duties required of me.
I see so many who profess to be Christians,
who yet act as I would not, even now, that
I fear I should be no better, and am not
willing to be a reproach to religion. Besides
I think I can do quite as much good out of
the church as in it."
Against this objection we might say much;
we shall not, however, attempt an answer at
much length.
It is manifestly founded in a total misapprehension of the gospel covenant. The salvation offered to the faith of sinners is a finished
one; and therefore includes in its arrange



120          MAY I BELIEVE?
ments, provision for every possible want of
the believer. Christ is a perfect Saviour; " in
him it pleased the Father all fulness should
dwell, and he is made of God unto us, wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption."
1 Cor. i. 30.  " Christ is all in all."  Col.
iii. 11.
He undertakes for the sinner in everything,
and engages to bring him off conqueror and
more than conqueror over every possible
enemy. " Because Christ lives, the believer
also lives."  " He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for them."
Heb. vii. 25.
It is on this account that the very weakest
believer is sure to triumph; and the strongest
has nothing which he receives not from Christ.
The weak, therefore, need not fear, nor can
the strong glory in anything of their own.
On this account too, every class of sinners,
at every period of life, are invited to Christ,
and assured of a complete salvation. The
most wretched and degraded, the veriest slave




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.   121
to appetite, lust, and passion, may expect a
perfect victory as certainly as the outwardly
pure and morally elevated in character. All
are sinners: Christ is the only, yet he is a
glorious and mighty Saviour. All need him,
and all are equally safe in his hands. Hence
the guilt and folly of rejecting such a Saviour
are beyond comprehension.
The objection we are considering is also of
a character by no means free from guilt; for
while it mistakes the entire nature of the gospel covenant, it delays and refuses to accept
of Christ as the only yet all-sufficient Saviour.
The invitation which God extends to the
sinner, includes the offer of Christ and all the
blessings purchased by his atoning blood.
And as the duties of Christian life all arise
out of the gospel, they are provided for in the
fulness of Christ.
To refuse the call of God in the gospel on the
ground that you fear you will not be able to maintain your christian character, is to suppose that
you are expected or required to serve God in
your own strength; or that the Lord Jesus,
11




122         MAY I BELIEVE?
the great Surety of the covenant, has not power
to perfect his own work. Either supposition
is false, derogatory to God, dishonouring to
Christ, and ruinous to your own soul.
Paul said, "I can do all things through
Christ which strengtheneth me." Phil. iv. 13.
So you too may say, and find in Christ infinite sufficiency for every exigence or conflict
through which as a believer you may be called
to pass.  Your own strength  or wisdom
would of course be weakness and folly; but
when Christ volunteers to undertake for you, to
be your guide, the Captain of your salvation,
why, or what should you fear? To fear,
under such circumstances, is not only unmanly
but sinful. It is to doubt the wisdom, power,
goodness, truth, and faithfulness of God!
And while you are committing all this sin
against God, you think you are acting prudently-even respectfully to the gospel!
Rejecting Christ, prudent!-respectful to
his gospel! My friend, can you not see the
real character of your objection, that it is a
mere excuse; and yet as such, involves not




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.   123
only self-deception, but enormous guilt? You
reject Christ, and yet smile complacently upon
him, as though you should say to him, " I
think very well of you, but am afraid to trust
you to secure for me the salvation of my soul?
You may do for others, but I am afraid and
cannot commit myself to your care!" You
decline to accept the invitation to the marriage
supper of the Lamb, and yet profess great
respect for his service! Where can such a
course end? It can terminate only in eternal
death. Are you prepared for this? Then
turn to Him who offers you a gratuitous pardon in Christ, and who gives you perfect warranty that " all things are yours, and ye are
Christ's, and Christ is God's." "Escape for thy
life, look not behind thee, neither stay thou in
all the plain; escape to the mountain lest thou
be consumed." Gen. xix. 18. What then you
do, do quickly. Purge yourself from the
enormous guilt which attaches to your conduct.
" Be not afraid, only believe." Mark v. 36.
Accept now the offered mercy, and "rejoice




124         MAY I BELIEVE?
in Christ Jesus, having no confidence in the
flesh."
Look not to the failures of others: with
these you have nought to do, unless to weep
over them. The conduct of men, either in
virtue or folly, is not the standard by which
you are to be judged, nor yet, by which you
are to acquire either knowledge or motive for
your own personal duty.
If all should fail, it would not exonerate
you. Others act, and are responsible for
themselves, not for you, in your personal relations to God. It is your duty not only to
comply with the gospel offer, but to maintain
a walk and conversation becoming the gospel.
That you are not, or may not be able in your
own strength so to do, is no release from the
obligation; for the grace which offers a gratuitous pardon secures all needed strength
for your future walk, and final triumph. As
we have seen, it is the special office and purpose of Christ, to carry you safely through.
If others fail, you need not. They, not you,
must answer for it; and no failure of men or




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.   125
angels can justify you in neglecting your
personal duty to your God and Saviour.
Your own duty is plain, delay not to fulfil it.
Deceive not yourself, moreover, with the
idea, that you can be even more useful out of
the church than in it. You can't be useful as
a Christian, any where, until you become one;
and to be one, you must accept, upon God's
warrant, the promise of eternal life in Christ
Jesus. This is the first step. Every thing is
disobedience until you yield to the call of God.
If you delay to do this under the plea that
you can be more useful without it, or without
professing it, you arrogate a right to change
God's plans, and a wisdom superior to his, as
to the way in which you can do most for him!
Until you yourself have accepted an offered
pardon, and found the preciousness of a
Saviour, how can you recommend either to
others? What can you do, that will honour
Christ more and commend him more to men,
than humbly to accept him, and serve him
with sincere, earnest, uncompromising devotion?
11 *




126         MAY I BELIEVE?
Your wisdom is of the earth, earthy. To
satisfy an uneasy conscience you make this
concession to religion (a wonderful one indeed!) that it is all right to be a Christian;
but though Christ says, " Come out from the
world, and be ye separate;" " If any man will
come after me, let him deny himself, and take
up his cross and follow me;" yet in my case,
it is not necessary; I can do quite as much
good, if not more, by remaining among the
enemies of Christ, neglecting his commands,
and refusing to acknowledge him in his own
appropriate way!!
Does not such a statement carry its own refutation, and expose its own folly? But is it not
an exact counterpart to your own conduct, to
the principle on which you object to an immediate acceptance of a finished salvation offered
to you without money and without price? Are
your moral sensibilities so blunted that you
cannot perceive this? Others can, if you
cannot, and it behoves you at once to abandon
so fond but feeble a delusion.
Even if, in a special case, your influence as




OR THE WARRANT AOF FAITH.   127
an unconverted, non-professing man could be
exerted to restrain some vice, or promote some
moral virtue, more than one known to be a
Christian, or than you could, if you were
known to be such; this would not affect the
principle on which we are urging you to act,
in the least. Do you not see that it is not as
a Christian that your influence is exerted or
felt; or if it be, it is not known or acknowledged? and hence you are acting covertly,
deceitfully, and how far from hypocritically,
you may possibly be able to judge. And then
if your argument be good, it is too good; if
good for you, why not for another?  And
then, why not for all? What then would become of the Christian name and profession?
what of the church as a visible body? Utterly
unknown; worse still, reduced to hypocrisy
on principle. I am a Christian, but I must
let no one know it; for my influence will be
lessened, and what I do for Christ must be
done under false colours. Instead of wearing
the livery of heaven in which to serve the
devil, I must wear his livery in order best to




128          MAY I BELIEVE?
serve Christ!  Out upon such logic, upon
such delusion: it bears the broad seal of the
pit. It would reduce the church to the miserable character, which many now attribute to
her-that of an unmitigated hypocrisy.
More than all, it is an open, palpable rejection of God's plan; and involves a refusal to
obey his command, to repent and believe the
gospel: it is nothing more, nothing less, than
a rejection of Christ, the very thing we are
urging you not to do.  " He that is not with
me, is against me. He that gathereth not
with me scattereth abroad." Matt. xii. 30.
You are urging an objection, not against
accepting a free salvation, so much, as against
any salvation by Christ at all. You change
the whole question we are discussing with
you; it is not "may I believe?" but " need I?"
"' can I not do better without believing?"
Be assured that if God deem it necessary
or desirable to offer you the privilege, there is
seen, on his part, to exist a strong necessity
on yours to accept of it. He makes no idle
offer, and presents no privilege, which does




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.   129
not meet some defect in you, and by the
acceptance and improvement of which you
would not be happier and better.
The fact then that he makes to you the
standing offer of a gratuitous pardon and acceptance in Christ, is clear evidence that you
need it, and may this moment embrace it.
"'Do you mean to say, that without any
amendment, or preparation on my part I may
now believe in Jesus Christ, and rest with
cheerful hope and confident expectation upon
him for every blessing of salvation?"
Precisely. "And may every sinner hearing
the gospel offer accept it in like manner?"
Without a doubt, why not?  What amendment or preparation, did Peter make? John
i. 41, 42. Or Matthew? ix. 9. Or Saul of
Tarsus, when he said, " Lord, what wilt thou
have me to do?" Acts ix. 6. Or the Jailer
at Philippi?  Acts xvi. 30-34.
What amendment could the dying thief
make?
The offer is made to you now, in your present condition; not as you can make yourself




130         MAY I BELIEVE?
by amendment and preparation; you may
die, before the work be done, and what then
will become of your soul? The offer as now
made would not then meet your condition.
Besides, what preparation do you as a guilty
sinner need but to accept the pardon offeredto believe the truth and faithfulness of God?
And what amendment do you need, or can
you make, other or better than that which
Christ proposes and designs to effect for you?
Only on the principle that God's offer in
the gospel is the sinner's immediate, highest,
I best warrant to accept it, can we urge all
Lng men every where and in every condition
secure by faith an interest in the finished
vation of Christ Jesus.
Blessed be God, this is all we need. With
s, we may go to the palace, or descend into
haunts of vice, the very pathways of death,
i call upon men to repent and believe, asing them of immediate acceptance, peace,
I joy with God. To all we nay say in
d's glorious and gracious name:




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.    131
"We're travelling home to heaven above,
Will you go?
To sing the Saviour's dying love,
Will you go?
Millions have reached that blest abode,
Anointed kings and priests to God,
And millions more are on the road,
Will you go?
Ye weary, heavy laden come,
Will you go?
In the blest house there still is room,
Will you go?
The Lord is waiting to receive;
If thou wilt on him now believe,
Thy troubled conscience, he'll relieve,
Come, believe."
thing can give greater security than the
f God; and no warrant can authorize
nmediate acceptance of salvation from
faith in Christ more directly or posithan the offer he makes to you at this
Lt.
lieve and be saved." This is all. All
on earth, all desired in heaven. Conit is a finished salvation; everything
he first conviction to the crown of glory




132         MAY I BELIEVE?
is provided for, and secured by the Lord Jesus.
He says, " Come, for all things are ready."
Will you now believe?  Will you now accept?
CONCLUSION.
"You meet me so often with the declaration and proofs of a free gospel, that I am
shut up to the faith; but still my mind is harassed with this one remaining perplexity.
If to me who am so great a sinner, a finished
salvation is so freely offered, or rather if the
gospel be so free that all who will may partake
of it, why should any one be urged to faith?
Will not salvation come as a matter of course?
If all is provided for in Christ, why demand
anything of me?"
Truly, extremes meet.  "The corruption
of the best is the worst."  Out of this glorious doctrine of a salvation by grace, we have
the base and degenerate growth of many dangerous and even damnable heresies, plausible
at first sight, and claiming a logical descent
from this great essential and fundamental doctrine. But though to the ignorant or unre



OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.   133
fleeting these may appear veritable offshoots,
-a true natural growth; they are mere parasites concealing, and, if not removed, preventing, all true developments of the parent stock.
Those which now most distinctly intrude upon
our attention, are the presumptuous teachings of
Universalism with all its licentious tendencies;
and the carnal security and cold indifference
of Antinomian arrogance and assumption.
Though apparently wide apart, and one more
sanctimonious than the other, these are kindred
heresies, and die alike by the simple application of gospel truth. Of the one or other
of these you seem to be now specially in
danger.
But in answer to your question, let me say,
you mistake again the nature of the gospel
covenant and the gospel offer. This covenant
was never intended to secure its own application independent of any approval, choice, or
acceptance on the sinner's part, nor is the
actual gospel offer intended so to operate.
This would destroy moral agency, and render
salvation a mere opus operatum, the result of
12




134          MAY I BELIEVE?
power wholly from without. We can suppose
that bare omnipotence could thus save a soul,
but it would be a mere physical act, independent of any choice or pleasure; or, peradventure, against all choice or pleasure on the part
of the soul saved. On this principle it might
be a free gospel, but it would supersede all
moral feeling on the part of the sinner.
Willing or unwilling, he would be saved.
But is this the gospel of Jesus Christ?
Very far from it. This offers indeed salvation
freely, a full, a finished salvation; but the offer
must be accepted, the salvation must be chosen
to become  ffectual. Not that its power lies
in the will or choice of the sinner, but this
choice is the occasion of its development. It
places the soul in connection with the power.
How this choice is itself effectuated, we need
not now discuss. We speak simply of the
fact that a choice must be put forth.
Food may be offered to the hungry, or
clothing to the naked; but one must be accepted and eaten, and the other put on, before
any possible benefit can be obtained. The




OR THE WARRANT OF FAITH.   135
man suffering from thirst will continue to
suffer, if, though pure refreshing water be
offered to him freely, he yet persistently
refuses to accept the offered beverage. It is
but the universal law, that, no matter how free
any gift or privilege may be, it must be received; it must be appropriated before its
benefits can be enjoyed. Water may be all
around a thirsty one-may rise to his very
chin, yet if he never drink it will avail him
not; he may perish in the very presence of
that which would, if appropriated, revive and
sustain his life.
This act of appropriation, in reference to
the blessings involved and contemplated in
the gospel offer, is developed by faith. Faith
confides in the promise of a pardon and acceptance with God; and he who so confides, receives
and enjoys peace with God, and a happiness at
once of the purest and most purifying character. Faith is the deliberate, joyful acceptance
of God's method of reconciliation, and becomes the bond of union between Christ and
the soul.




136          MAY I BELIEVE?
Being one with Christ, it seeks and strives
to be like him. And thus each believing soul
lives, walks, and triumphs by faith. Faith
seizes upon every promise, and extracts from
it life-giving elements. It is the principle by
which the soul apprehends the elements of
life in Christ, feeds upon him, and assimilates
itself to him. Without this, therefore, the
entire work of Christ is of no value to the sinner, and every promise of a faithful and
unchanging God a dead letter.
Universalism can have no place in such a
system. Though the offer of pardon in Christ
be sufficiently comprehensive to embrace every
believer; it embraces, and in the nature of
things as a free gospel can embrace, none others.
The same principle, precisely, saps the deepest foundation of Antinomian security. Whilst
it is true that Christ has purchased a free and
full salvation, and nothing is now demanded
of the sinner to perfect or strengthen that
purchase, yet the work of Christ for the sinner must be accepted by him; he must be
identified with the atoning Surety; must be




OR TIEE WARRANT OF FAITH.   137
willing to abandon every hope and foundation
of his own and rest upon Christ. This can be
done but by faith; and while faith fulfils the
office of a receiver, it combines also the function of nutrition and assimilation. Where
these last are not developed, no reception has
ever taken place. Everything will act out
its own nature. If faith be in existence, however feebly, it will to that extent nourish its
own peculiar life in the soul, and assimilate it
to Christ. It cannot be otherwise.
What foundation then for a system so cold
and unfruitful in all the healthful activities
of a Christian life?
A candid consideration of these thoughts
will, I trust, commend these truths to your
entire confidence, and lead you to feel that
you are indeed shut up unto the faith.
God offers you now, upon the basis of the
Redeemer's work, a gratuitous pardon and the
fulness of peace, and hope for this life and
the life to come.
You may now believe, and believing, possess
the highest possible security for a perfect and
12*




138         MAY I BELIEVE?
glorious victory over sin, death, and hell.
You may now become one with Christ, and
receive his assurance that you shall be fully
fitted for the inheritance of the saints in light.
Will you so receive this free, this glorious
salvation? No objection can lie against it.
While many may be offered, none can endure
the test of a rational and scriptural examination.
You have but the one alternative placed
before you; believe and be saved, neglect or
refuse to believe, and you perish without the
possibility of hope.  "Turn ye, turn ye, for
why will ye die? Turn ye to the stronghold,
ye prisoners of hope."
With grateful, penitent, joyful, believing
emotions, fall at the feet of Jesus and cry,
"Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief."
"0 Lamb of God, I come, I come."