SERMON XVII.

RECONCILIATION OF SINNERS TO GOD.

ORDINATION OF REV. ZOLVA WHITMORE, NORTH GUILFORD, CONNECTICUT, SEPTEMBER 5, 1821.

Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, Be ye reconciled to God. - 2 Cor. v. 20.

EVER Since mankind became disaffected to God, he has been calling upon them, in various ways, to become reconciled to him. He has called upon them to return to him, at one time by his own voice; at another, by the voice of angels; at another, by the voice of prophets; at another, by the voice of his Son; and last of all, by the voice of those whom he has sent forth "into all the world," to "preach the gospel to every creature." Hence says the apostle, "All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead, Be ye reconciled to God." Here one thing is implied, and another asserted. It is implied that sinners are in a state of alienation from God; and it is asserted that he intends to reconcile some to himself in time to come, as he has done in time past, by the instrumentality of his sacred ambassadors, whom he has appointed for this important purpose. The whole import of the text may be comprised in this general observation:

It is the proper business of the ministers of Christ to exhort sinners to become reconciled to God.

In order to set this subject in a proper light, it seems necessary to show that sinners are disaffected to God; then, that it is the proper business of the ministers of Christ to exhort them to become reconciled to God; and lastly, that there is a propriety in their exhorting them to such a reconciliation.

I. I am to show that sinners are disaffected to God. This is plainly supposed in the text; for if they were not disaffected to God, there would be no occasion of their becoming reconciled to him. They have not the love of God in them, but are lovers of their own selves. Their supreme love to themselves excludes every spark of supreme love to God; and constitutes that carnal mind which is enmity against God, and not subject to his law, neither indeed can be. They are as really disaffected to God, as those who first rose up in rebellion against him. They wish there were no God, and the belief of his existence gives them pain. They say unto him in their hearts, "Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways." God describes them as ungodly, unholy, unrighteous, rebellious creatures, who would not have him to reign over them, but would fain flee out of his hands. Still they are unwilling to acknowledge that they hate their Creator, Preserver and Benefactor. But when they are constrained to look within, their hearts tell them that they have always cherished hard and unfriendly feelings towards God. They are conscious of having hard thoughts of God, for bringing them into the world in connection with Adam, who involved himself and all his posterity in sin and guilt. How many have complained that by the disobedience of one many should be made sinners! And there is no explanation of this doctrine that will satisfy their minds, or remove their complaint. They complain as much of being brought into the world depraved by Adam's sin, as for Adam's sin. It is not so much the way by which they are become sinners by Adam which makes them think hard of God, as his conduct in ordering it so that they should become sinners, by a constituted connection with their great progenitor. They are all displeased that God did not order it otherwise. They feel as though they never could forgive God for making Adam their public head, when he knew the fatal consequences which would flow from it, in this world, and in the world to come. Though secure and stupid sinners think but little about this subject; yet when they come to be awakened to realize their fallen guilty state, their hearts rise in enmity against God; because they make themselves believe that he has injured them, by

bringing them into existence under the wretched and deplorable calamity of original sin.

They are disaffected to God, not only because he has brought them into being depraved, but because he has required them, notwithstanding their depravity, to be perfectly holy, and made no allowance for their moral impotence. They admit that God might, with propriety, require angels and even Adam to be perfectly holy, while they continued in a state of innocence; but they think God is unreasonably severe in commanding them to love him with all their heart, with all their soul, and with all their mind, when he knows that they have a carnal heart, which is enmity against him. They have always been displeased with the extent, strictness and spirituality of this law. In Christ's day, they endeavored to explain away its meaning. They would not believe that it required any thing more than mere external obedience. And it is extremely difficult to make them believe that God does really command them to love him supremely. But when they are convinced that the law does mean what it expressly says, or that God does require them to love him supremely, notwithstanding the total depravity of their hearts; they murmur and complain of his unreasonable and cruel severity, and compare his conduct to that of the task masters in Egypt, who required the Israelites to make brick without straw. They say that they cannot love God without a change of heart, that they cannot change their own heart, and, of course, that they cannot obey the divine law. Though, under genuine conviction, they see and feel that the law is holy, just and good, yet their hearts rise in sensible opposition to it, and they had rather perish for ever, than cordially obey it. This has been found to be true by the experience of thousands of awakened and convinced, but unrenewed sinners. When the law comes home to their conscience, they always find within them the heart of an enemy. They feel the spirit and speak the language of the slothful servant. They call God a hard master, reaping where he has not sown, and gathering where he has not strewed. They resist and rebel against the clear convictions of conscience. They cannot bear to feel the obligation, by which the law of God binds them to love him supremely, while they hate him supremely.

Not only the precept, but the penalty of the divine law, is a ground of their disaffection to God. Indeed, they would not complain so much of the precept, were it not for the penalty, which gives it an awful sanction. God commands them to love him, upon pain of his everlasting displeasure. "It is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them." "The soul that sinneth it

shall die." "The wages of sin is death." The least disaffection to God is a transgression of the law of love, which threatens the least transgression with eternal death. Sinners not only think, but often say, that it is hard to obey the precept of the law, and much harder still to suffer its penalty. They are ready to ask, how it is possible for them to love God when he tells them that he feels disposed to punish them for ever for their unfriendly feelings, which they know are wrong, but which they cannot suppress; or how it is possible for them to love a damning God. Such questions as these have been seriously asked; and when asked, have clearly expressed that carnal mind which is enmity to God, not subject to his law, neither indeed can be.

Sinners are still more disaffected to God, when they realize not only what he has required, and what he has threatened, but what he has determined. He has told them that he has determined to save some, and not others, and will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, taking one and leaving another, according to his sovereign pleasure. They cannot support the thought that he should make such a distinction among those who are all in the same fallen, guilty state; and that he should determine, before the foundation of the world, whom he would save, and whom he would destroy. This enhances their disaffection to God, and renders him, in their view, the most odious object in the universe. They hate him more than any other, yea, more than all other beings. They are his most incorrigible and irreconcilable enemies. But yet,

II. It is the proper business of the ministers of Christ, to exhort and beseech them to become reconciled to their holy and righteous Sovereign. It is the appropriate office of ambassadors to negotiate a treaty of peace and reconciliation between contending parties. The ministers of Christ are his ambassadors, to bring God's disaffected subjects to a cordial reconciliation to him. "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, says the apostle, "as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." None will doubt whether ministers ought to exhort immoral sinners to become moral; and moral sinners to read the Bible, to call upon God, and externally perform every religious duty. For it is universally allowed that the most vicious can reform, and the most irreligious can become externally religious. But many seem to doubt whether the ambassadors of Christ may go so far as to exhort all sinners to repent, and return to God, and become internally and cordially reconciled to him, by whom they stand condemned. The apostle, however, represents this to be the proper business of the ambassadors of Christ. They are to exhort sinners to reform not only externally, but internally, and

to love God for the very same things for which they have hated him. God's faithful ambassadors have always exhorted his disaffected subjects in this manner. Hear the exhortation of Moses to the congregation of Israel. "I call heaven and earth to record this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live; that thou and thy seed mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him." Hear the exhortation of Isaiah to sinners. "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." This was such an exhortation, to such a sincere and cordial reconciliation to God, as would infallibly secure his pardoning mercy. Hear the exhortation of Jeremiah to the unholy and unsanctified in Israel. "Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it." Hear the exhortation of Ezekiel to the sinners in Zion. "Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed, and make you a new heart and a new spirit; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" In the same manner the prophet Joel exhorts the same degenerate people. "Rend your hearts and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil." Let us now hear how John the Baptist exhorted sinners. "In those days," we are told, "came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea; and saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Christ himself exhorted sinners in precisely the same language. "From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Peter said to those hardened and impenitent sinners, who had imbrued their hands in the blood of the Prince of life, "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out." And Paul told the elders of Ephesus, that he had made it his constant practice in preaching, to testify "both to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." Now if Moses and the prophets, John the Baptist, Christ and the apostles, did not mistake their office, and go be yond their duty, in exhorting sinners to repent and become cordially reconciled to God; then it is the proper business of the ministers of the gospel to exhort sinners in the same manner, at this day. They are ambassadors for Christ, as Paul was; and