By REV. JOHN COLQUHOUN, D.D., Minister of the Gospel, Leith (1813).
(Continued from page 17.)
7. Believers diminish their comfort much by not watching habitually against corruption within and temptation from without.
A good man loses much of his holy comfort by not observing cautiously and constantly the motions of sin in his heart. When he doth not accustom himself strictly to watch these, in order to detect, resist and mortify them (Rom. viii. 13), as early as they begin to appear, they will speedily acquire such force as will urge him on violently and irresistibly to thoughts, words, and acts of sin. If he would retain comfortable fellowship with an infinitely holy God, he must watch diligently the first motions and sallies of depravity in his heart in order that, by the lively exercise of the contrary graces, he may resist them without delay; for if he do not in such a case instantly try to exercise his graces, and especially his faith, Satan, who is always envious and watchful, will seize that opportunity to exercise his corruptions; and if, by being negligent to watch and resist the first motions of corruption in his heart, he suffer them often to obtain such force as to gain the consent of his will to actual transgression, he can have none to blame but himself for the loss of his holy consolation (Jer. ii. 19).
Seeing the remaining depravity of the heart is not only itself a source of temptation to actual sin (James i. 14), but is the inlet for all temptations from Satan and the world (Jer. xvii. 9); the believer, if he would retain spiritual consolation, must likewise be ever upon his guard against temptations from without. If he cease for a short while to watch against those temptations of Satan which that deceitful adversary manages in a way of subtlety and stratagem, he will soon be so ensnared by one or more of them as to fall into sin. Alas! Spiritual wickedness in high places, which are every moment watching for opportunities to ensnare his soul, are so many and so powerful and so subtle that it is in vain for the exercised Christian to hope that he shall be able to retain his comfort if he cease but for a moment to watch (Eph. vi. 12). Though he cannot shut Satan wholly out of his imagination, he should, however, be very cautious that he do not, even in the smallest measure, provide fuel for his flame. He should, for this purpose, often pray in faith that the Lord would so set a watch upon his eyes and his ears as to enable him constantly to reject and repel every appearance of temptation to sin. And if he would not be tempted by the men of the world, who are also the inveterate enemies of his comfort, he must always keep himself at a due distance from them. Christian, the snares of Satan and of his emissaries are continually set for thee. “Be sober, therefore, and vigilant” (I Pet. 8). “Watch thou in all things” (II Tim. iv. 5). And “watch unto prayer and supplication in the Spirit, with all perseverance” (Eph. vi. 18). If thou wouldst retain thy comfort, shake off carnal security and take good heed lest thy spiritual enemies surprise and overcome thee. Be continually solicitous to espy temptations while they are yet at a distance in order to prevent them from surprising thee: and that thou mayest be enabled to do so “be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might” (Eph. vi. 10).
Trust that the Lord Jesus will, and pray that He may, “strengthen thee with all might, according to His glorious power, by His Spirit in the inner man” (Col. i. 11).
8. Believers likewise forfeit their spiritual comfort by presuming, without necessity, to omit repeatedly some known duty.
When the Lord declareth, in the 89th Psalm, that He will visit the transgression of the spiritual seed of Messiah with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes, the phrases by which He expresseth the sins or modes of sinning which would procure for them, His paternal chastisements are four: and it is remarkable that he employs three of them to express the omission of duties, and but one to express the direct commission of sins—”If His children forsake my law and walk not in my judgments; if they break or profane my statutes and keep not My commandments, then I will visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes” (Ps. lxxxix. 30-32). Though sins of commission do, indeed, expose believers to fatherly chastisements; yet I believe it will be found that sins of omission do it much more frequently, because they are oftener guilty of these, and they yield to them with less struggle and remorse than they do to sins of commission. The spiritual declension of a Christian, especially at its beginning, discovers itself, for the most part, more by customary omission of some duties than by the positive commission of crimes (Isa. xliii. 22-24). For, although the omission of a present duty is indeed a sin, yet it doth not usually appear to a declining Christian, at first view, to be so horrible as the direct commission of a known transgression. And therefore nothing commonly but some violent and strong temptation can at first impel him to the downright perpetration of a crime; whereas a very small temptation will often suffice to move him to the neglect of an ordinance or the omission of a duty. If he should happen to be at any time fatigued more than usually, or to be under a very slight bodily distemper, or to have less time or less accommodation than usual, or to be disturbed and ruffled in his temper, or to be receiving or paying visits, etc.—any one of these will probably suffice as a temptation to prevail with him to shift off, at such a time, secret prayer, or family worship, or even public worship, or some other present duty; or at least to perform them in a cold and superficial manner. And having once begun to admit such frivolous excuses, he may, perhaps, be permitted for a season to offer to his conscience almost any sort of occurrence as an excuse for omitting the stated performance of one or other of these duties. On such occasions he commonly neglects likewise the exercise of his graces, especially of his faith and repentance; and it may be takes occasion, either from his sins or from his duties, to do so. Or, perhaps, he suffers himself to neglect for a season some relative duty (Eph. vi. 2, 3; I Tim. v. 8), or at least to perform it not “heartily, as unto the Lord” (Col. iii. 23). Now, inasmuch as every omission of known duty, is a sin against God (James iv. 17), the Christian, by allowing himself for a season often to neglect some known duty or not to perform it cheerfully (Mal. i. 13, 14), grieves the Holy Spirit of God and provokes Him to suspend consolation from his soul.
When he thus presumes to make the Spirit sad he must not expect that the Spirit will continue, as formerly, to make him glad. The moment his heart withdraws and hangs off from any present duty, as if it were an unpleasant or irksome task, it does in the same proportion withdraw from the Lord, and so it loses the comfort of serving Him, as well as of communion with Him (John xiv. 21).
To resolve to omit a present duty is even more sinful than actually to omit without intending so to do (Rev. ii. 4). Ah! how heinous a sin is it to be disposed, and without necessity, to be resolved either to omit or to curtail a single religious or moral duty! It shows how little regard a man has to the glorious Majesty of heaven when he can put Him off with slight and curtailed service (Mal. i. 6-8). Such behaviour as this will soon, very soon, raise such a thick and dark cloud as will intercept the cheering beams of the Sun of righteousness from the soul.
Alas! the omission, or slight performance of many duties, is far from being considered and lamented by true Christians as it ought to be.
I have already said that a believer loses his comfort by omitting repeatedly, and without necessity, some known duty: I must now go further and add that if he live for a long time in the omission of some duty, which he doth not yet know to be a duty, but which he might have known to have been required of him if he had diligently availed himself of his opportunities to know it—this instance of neglect may lie concealed, as a gnawing worm, at the root of his comfort. His neglecting the study of the moral law, in its spirituality and great extent, as his rule of duty so as to continue ignorant of his duty, in any one point, is when opportunity is graciously afforded him for attaining this knowledge, a greater sin than it ever will be possible for him, or even for the highest angel, to comprehend. It is not enough, in order to retain spiritual comfort, that a holy man study well the promises of the gospel. He must likewise study diligently the precepts of the law in order to obey them (Ps. cxix. 92, 165).
9. Believers procure for themselves the loss of comfort by sitting down contented with their spiritual attainments.
When a good man so far forgets himself as to rest satisfied for a time with his present degree of knowledge or faith or holiness, and to become remiss in his efforts to attain more and more of these; when he begins and continues to be so well pleased with his degree of knowledge as to read and hear the gospel with less relish and less diligence than formerly, to be so delighted with his measure of faith and experience as neither to complain so much of his unbelief nor to be so diligent and frequent in his actings of faith as in times past, and to be so fond of his attainments in holiness as to be less diligent than formerly in pressing towards perfection, he may assure himself that he shall thereby lose the comfort of communion with a holy and a jealous God.
If he accustom himself for a season, not only so to rest in his religious attainments as to be less eager in pursuing after higher degrees of holiness, but to rest on them or place his confidence in them, he adopts hereby the surest method of losing at once the sight and the comfort of them (Ezek. xxxvi. 25; Ps. xxx. 6, 7). In proportion as he trusts in his own knowledge or faith, or holiness or pleasant frames, in the prospect of any duty which he may be about to perform instead of trusting only in Christ, or in proportion as he looks to them for comfort, instead of looking solely to Him, he prefers them before Him. He idolizes them: he makes a saviour and a comforter of them instead of Jesus Christ; or, at least, he suffers them to share with Him in that honour. He relies on grace received, and so trusteth in his own heart. This is one sure way in which he provokes the Lord to hide His gracious countenance from him and to cover his evidences with a cloud in His anger (Luke ix. 33, 34). Spiritual comforts, if they be rested on, shall, as effectually as earthly ones, keep a man from comfortable communion with Christ. When the Lord Jesus vouchsafes to him the comfort of spiritual attainments, it is not that he may live upon it, but that he may be incited and encouraged by it to persevere in holy faith and evangelical obedience. But if he, on the contrary, allow himself to be elated with his attainments or comforts, and, like Hezekiah, invite others to see his treasures, then it will be time for the Lord to send the messengers of His anger to carry away from his view these idols which steal away his heart from Him. When his heart is swelling with self-importance and self-confidence, all that is then poured on it runs over into the gulf of self-conceit and self-sufficiency. If he rely on his own wisdom and strength, in the prospect, especially, of difficult duties, he must not think it strange if he should soon become discouraged and disconsolate. When he presumes to rest on the acting of his faith, rather than the glorious Object of it, and to draw consolation from that rather than from this, he so far prefers the act before the Object and becomes guilty of idolatry (Ps. xvi. 4). But when he at length begins, in his practical judgment, habitually to prefer receiving all his strength and comfort directly from Christ, to having them in and of himself, even if he might, his consolation by Christ will continue, and even abound (II Cor. i. 5; I Peter i. 8).
10. Christians deprive themselves of holy consolation by their indolence in the exercise of graces and performance of duties.
We read in the Song of Solomon (Song. v. 2-6) that the Church lost the comfort of a gracious visit from Christ by her sluggishness, which disposed her to neglect entertaining Him so kindly as she ought, and as the kindness of His manifestation of Himself required. When any of the saints have, by “joy and peace in believing” and by “rejoicing in hope” found that, “in keeping His commandments, there is great reward,” and yet afterwards become slothful in the service of Christ, counting His yoke uneasy and His burden heavy, “shall He not visit for these things”? They need not wonder that they lose their sense of His favour when they are conscious that they often pray for His grace as if they prayed not, when by their criminal indifference and the coldness of their petitions they show that they do not care much whether these be granted or not.
Were they duly concerned for the welfare of their souls they would frequently refresh them by exercising holy meditation and faith as they do their bodies by receiving food, thrice or oftener in the day. Diligence in holy exercises and moral duties is not only a debt to the Lord, but a privilege to believers themselves, and therefore, by being slothful, they discover at once injustice and unkindness, a contempt of the glorious Majesty of heaven, and a neglect of His redeeming mercy. When the Saviour draweth near, and they regard it not; when He knocketh, and they open not; it is indeed high time that, by withholding the comfort of His gracious visits from them, He should chastise their negligence and rouse them to diligence (Prov. x. 4; Heb. xi. 6).
It is equitable, as well as reasonable, that the consequence of spiritual sloth should be a loss of sensible consolation. Accordingly, in the administration of the covenant of grace, an intimate connection is established between diligence in holy duties and the fruition of spiritual comforts. The indolent Christian cannot retain tranquility of mind (Heb. vi. 11). What heavenly consolation must he lose, for instance, by his criminal inattention to the precious promises of God, and even to the daily dispensations of His holy providence to him! If his love, which was once an ascending flame, become a feeble spark; if his penitential sorrow, which once, like Jordan, overflowed all its banks, become “like a brook in summer”; if his zeal, which formerly did eat him up, be devoured by leanness or declension; if he who in times past could not “give sleep to his eyes nor slumber to his eyelids” till Jesus gave rest to his soul, can lie down securely, with contracted guilt in his conscience; and if he who formerly was diligent in spiritual exercise and holy obedience, becomes remiss and regardless, he thereby makes a wide breach for the entrance of spiritual trouble (Prov. xix. 15; Hos. v. 15).
It is indeed mercifully, as well as wisely, appointed that when he becomes indolent his comfort should decline in order that he may perceive in time that he is in a languishing condition, and may, without delay, entreat the Lord Jesus to restore his soul. Besides, if the Lord did not on such occasions withdraw Himself, the Christian would not prize His gracious Presence highly nor think it so comfortable as it is. Believer, “be not then slothful in business, but be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord” (Rom. xii. 11). See that, by grace received daily from the fulness of Christ, thy soul be vigorous and active in His holy service (Eccles. ix. 10). Be always diligent, in attempting the exercise of grace, in using the means of grace, and in doing every good work in the strength of promised grace. If persons linger on a journey they are sometimes benighted; if thou become slothful in exercising thy graces or in performing thy duties, wonder not if thou begin to walk in darkness. Be continually on thy guard, then, against every appearance of inward declension, and especially against slothfulness in the exercise of direct confidence in Christ and of secret prayer.
(To be continued.)