Christian Theology - Media Sabda Org

it may, and must, in many cases, be delayed (though the person is coming
in the most genuine humility, deepest contrition, and with the liveliest
faith in the blood of the Lamb,) is to say that there is still something
necessary to be done, either on the part of the person, or on the part of
God, in order to procure it; neither of which positions has any truth in it.
With Christ, God is ever well pleased; with all that he has done, with
all that he has suffered; and with the end and object in reference to which
he has lived, suffered, and died, he is well pleased: consequently he is
well pleased to dispense the benefits of his priesthood, and sacrificial
offering, to man. God requires no entreaty to induce him to pardon and
save: he is infinitely disposed to do so; and he has an infinite reason for
this disposition. This is a grand principle in theology; and a strong
encourager of faith. He that believes that God is thus disposed to save his
soul, and for the reasons above mentioned, can neither feel backwardness
nor difficulty in coming to the throne of grace in order to obtain mercy.
All the difficulties on the doctrine of faith have arisen from not
considering this principle: and it is both painful and shameful to see to
what magnitude and number these difficulties have been carried. Cases
of conscience, cases of doubt, motives to faith, encouragement to weak
believers, &c, have been multiplied by systematic preachers, and dealers
in "bodies of divinity," to the great distraction of the church of God, and
confusion of simple souls. And this is occasioned either by their not
knowing or not attending to the principle laid down above. Nothing is
plainer than the way of salvation by faith in Christ, had it not been
puzzled and blockaded, or broken up by the thriftless systems of men.
Is it not strange when man's circumstances and danger are considered,
that faith should be so little in action, that it is not one of the most
popular, so to speak, of all the Christian graces? And is it not one of the
wiles of the devil that persuades him that the exercise of this grace is the
most difficult of all, and, in short, almost impossible without a
miraculous power? Hence the saying, "We can no more believe than we
can make a world." It is readily granted that without God we can do
nothing; but as he gives us power to discern, to repent, to hope, to love,