38 FORGIVENESS OF SIN. troubles, in like manner, put men on attempts for relief. To 'seek for no remedy is to be senselessly obdurate, or wretchedly desperate, as Cain and Judas. We may sup- pose, then, that the principal business of every soul in depths, is to endeavor deliverance. They cannot rest in that condition wherein they have no rest. In this en- deavor, what course a gracious soul takes is laid down in the first proposition, negatively and positively. He applies not to any thing but God he applies himself to God. An eminent instance of this we have in Hosea, 14: 3. "Asshur," say those poor distressed, returning sinners, "shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses, neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods; for in Thee the fatherless findeth mer- cy." Their application to God is attended with a renun- ciation of every other way of relief. Several things there are that sinners are apt to apply themselves to for relief in their perplexities, which prove as waters that fail. How many things have the Roman- ists invented to deceive souls! Saints and angels, the blessed virgin, the wood of the cross, confessions, pe- nances, masses, pilgrimages, and dirges, purgatories, papal pardons, works of compensation, and the like, are made entrances for innumerable souls into everlasting ruin. Did they know the terror of the Lord, the nature of sin, and of the mediation of Christ, they would be ashamed and confounded in themselves for these abomi- nations; they would not say to these idols, Ye are our gods, come and save us. How short do their contrivances come of his, who would fain offer rivers of oil, "yea, the fruit of his body for the sin of his soul, his first-born for his transgres- sion," Micah, 6 : 7; who yet gains nothing but an aggra- vation of his sin and misery thereby : yea, the heathen went beyond them in devotion and expense. It is no new inquiry, what course sin - perplexed souls should
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=