(continued from page 236)
Secondly, let us now inquire into the causes of this delusion.
The first and chief is, mistaking the forms and restraint of a religious education, or a little temporary excitement of the feelings, for a real change of heart. Nothing short of this change is true piety. As partakers of a fallen and corrupt nature, we must be renewed, and not merely a little altered. “Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.” The imagination may be interested, the feelings may be moved, the conduct improved, and yet the heart remain unchanged. As long as this is the case, there is no abiding principle, no root of godliness in the soul. Everything but the new nature, will subside; all will fall off but this. It is to be expected that under the exciting preaching of the present day (first half of the 19th century), many will be impressed, seem to be converted, and walk well for a time, who are not renewed; their opinions are Scriptural, their conduct is correct, and they are admitted into the Church upon a profession of their faith: and there is no reason why they should not be. After a while the novelty of religion ceases, their affections grow cold, and although they do not, perhaps, become profligate, or leave the Church, they settle down into a mere formal attendance upon the means of grace, and remain in this miserable state, till death sends them into the eternal world.
The danger arises also from the present external peace and unmolested liberty of the Church. In the primitive days of Christianity, and often since, the profession of religion was attended with imminent perils of goods, liberty, or life. Persecuting laws were in force against those who believed in Jesus, and confessed their faith. They had, indeed, to take up their cross, and it was through much tribulation they entered the kingdom of God. In such circumstances it might be imagined, no man would profess himself a Christian, who was not really one. We can suppose that a prison, and a stake, would be a sufficient check, not only upon hypocrisy, but upon mere nominal religion. But even this was not always effectual — self-deception existed even then. How much more likely is it that it should prevail now, when a profession of piety, so far from exposing us to scorn, contempt and suffering, is a means of procuring for us an increase of esteem and affection? Evangelical religion and an avowal of it, are become almost fashionable. There is now no fiery ordeal to pass through as a test of our sincerity; no sifting process to separate the chaff from the wheat; and as a natural, though fatal consequence, many profess religion, who are strangers to its power and efficacy.
The wide and easy access to communion, which is afforded by some Churches, increases the danger. It cannot be said of them, as it is of the Church mentioned in the Word of God, that their gates shall be open continually, and shall not be shut day nor night, for they can scarcely be said to have any gates at all; or if they have, there is no porter at the gate, to ask the sign of him who enters. True it is, the entrance ought not to be made narrower than Christ has made it. No unscriptural terms of communion should be imposed; no bars nor obstacles set up to keep out those who have a right to enter in; no scaring usages adopted to frighten away timid minds: but surely somebody, either pastor, or people, or both together, should with holy caution, Christian tenderness, and experienced minds, examine those who wish to be admitted to fellowship; not, indeed for the sake of indulging and showing inquisitorial authority, but for guarding the young disciple against deception; and, also, if he be not correct in his views either of the truth or of himself, for teaching him the way of God more perfectly. If, therefore, nothing more be required, than for a person to declare himself a Christian without any examination, how great is the danger of his “thinking he is something while he is nothing.”
The urgent persuasions of ministers and friends, have led many to make a profession of religion, before in fact they had any real religion to profess. A too eager wish to have a large church, and thus to magnify their pastoral importance, and to multiply the proofs of their usefulness, a most censurable, because an injurious kind of ministerial vanity, has made some far too hasty in introducing persons to Christian communion. Others from feelings of false delicacy have encouraged a profession, amidst many suspicions of its sincerity, rather than wound the minds of the candidates, by suggesting a doubt of their real conversion to God. While there are some, who acting upon the supposition that religious impressions are likely to ripen into conversion by the advantages of church fellowship, encourage the subjects of them to come forward and publicly profess Christ before they truly believe in Him. Nor is the conduct of good people less injudicious sometimes towards their relations. A husband feels a pang in his heart at every sacramental season, by the wife of his bosom rising and retiring from his side, when he is about to receive the eucharistic memorials. A wife, who to all her natural affection for her husband, adds a tender solicitude for his eternal welfare, feels it a great and painful deduction from her spiritual enjoyment, that she goes without him to the Supper of the Lord. Parents long to have their children with them in the fellowship of the Church. Hence, in all these cases, there is sometimes much persuasion used to induce the unprofessing relative to assume the name, and make the confession of a Christian. Now when there is a firm hope, a hope founded on convincing evidence, that the object of solicitude is truly regenerated, and made a partaker of saving grace, this is very proper: but where this evidence is wanting, where there is no good ground, for believing that a spiritual change has taken place, it is a most misplaced and mischievous anxiety to wish such persons to enter into the Church. It is aiding their self-deception, and being accessory to a delusion, which places them at the farthest remove from salvation. They are much more likely to be converted out of the Church, than in it. Many who have persuaded their friends to make an untimely, because an insincere profession, have lived to repent of their mistaken anxiety, by seeing accumulated evidence, that their relative, though a Church member, was certainly not a Christian.
The improper reliance that some professing Christians place upon the strict mode of examination adopted by most of our Churches is another source of delusion. They have been interrogated by the pastor, whose scrutiny had been aided by some of the deacons or members; they have submitted either verbally, or in writing, a statement of their opinions and feelings, as well as a history of their alleged conversion to God, and on this ground have been received and approved as truly regenerated. “Can such judges,” they ask themselves, “be mistaken? Such examiners, so competent, so impartial, so particular, form a wrong conclusion? No.” Their piety they suppose is thus authenticated, their profession attested, and their safety undoubted. All is right. Such is their reasoning, and when in after times a doubt is raised, raised perhaps on grounds which ought to be conclusive, as to the fact of the falseness of their profession, they silence the voice of conscience, by pleading against its testimony, their admission to the Church after the most rigid examination. Hence, the importance of the pastor’s never giving, at the admission of a member, an opinion that he is truly converted, but throwing the whole judgment of the case upon the member’s own conscience as in the sight of a heart-searching God; and thus making him responsible for the consequences of any wrong conclusion he may draw concerning his spiritual condition.
Look at these things, and learn whence the danger comes, and how imminent the danger is, of self-delusion as to our state before God, and our safety for eternity. It is not saying too much to affirm that multitudes are thus deluded. The dark memorial of the Laodicean Church, is a fearful proof that whole communities of professing Christians may be in this appalling condition. It is one of the cunning artifices, the deep devices, the artful machinations of Satan, to lead men into self-deception, when he can no longer hold them in careless indifference; to ruin their souls in the Church, when he cannot effect it in the world; to lull them asleep by the privileges of communion, when he cannot continue their slumber amidst the pleasure of sin. O how many is he leading captive this way! How many is he conducting to perdition, whom he has first blindfolded with the bondage of a false profession! How many are there in all our Churches who are in this awful state!
(To be continued.)