Zechariah 7:14

REFLECTIONS.

Reader! it is among the most important of all subjects to have a right apprehension of the method, whereby poor fallen man in every age of the Church, can rightly approach to God. Mankind have been always fond of commuting with God for sin, and when the Lord in grace saith return to me, and I will return to you, with the same boldness as those of old, we are apt to cry out, wherein shall we return? And then fastings, and almsgivings, and a few forms of prayer are set up, by way of atonement for the sin of the soul. Alas, alas! here is more spiritual pride in all this, than any real repentance, or true fasting, or sorrow. Amidst a thousand plans of false reform, and a thousand substitutions, instead of the real return of the heart to God, there is but one the Holy Ghost teacheth, and that is indeed infallible, namely, with an eye to Christ. Without faith (saith the Lord the Spirit by his servant the Apostle) it is impossible to please God. There will be no real sense of sin, no true compunction of the heart towards God, but where the Holy Ghost hath given a spirit of grace and supplication, to look unto Him whom we have pierced, and mourn. In every heart, where God the Holy Ghost hath arraigned that heart with an indictment for sin, there sin is felt, and known, and acknowledged to be exceeding sinful. And in every case of this kind, repentance and fasting will be the effect, and not sought to as a cause, to come before God with. Hence the Apostle strongly and satisfactorily reasons; if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin. Reader! do you feel prompted to ask, with the Sherezers and Regemmelechs of the present hour, should I weep, should I first in the fifth month as I have done these many years? hear the Lord's answer, and mark it well. Oh! for grace to eye Jesus in all, to go to Jesus for all, and to make him what God the Father hath made him, the all in all of the covenant. He, and He alone, in his glorious person, blood, and righteousness, is the only propitiatory, the only mercy seat, sacrifice, and sacrificer, for poor sinners to look to in all their approaches to God!