A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians, in the Middle and Higher Classes in this Country, Contrasted with Real Christianity.Wilberforce, William
Religion
A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians, in the Middle and Higher Classes in this Country, Contrasted with Real Christianity.
Wilberforce, William
Christianity; Christianity -- Great Britain
Persons under these circumstances naturally seek for religious
instruction. They turn over the works of our modern Religionists, and
as well as they can collect the advice addressed to men in their
situation: the substance of it is, at the best, of this sort; "Be sorry
indeed for your sins, and discontinue the practice of them, but do not
make yourselves so uneasy. Christ died for the sins of the whole world.
Do your utmost; discharge with fidelity the duties of your stations, not
neglecting your religious offices; and fear not but that in the end all
will go well; and that having thus performed the conditions required on
your part, you will at last obtain forgiveness of our merciful Creator
through the merits of Jesus Christ, and be aided, where your own
strength shall be insufficient, by the assistance of his Holy Spirit.
Meanwhile you cannot do better than read carefully such books of
practical divinity, as will instruct you in the principles of a
Christian life. We are excellently furnished with works of this nature;
and it is by the diligent study of them that you will gradually become a
proficient in the lessons of the Gospel."
But the holy Scriptures, and with them the Church of England, call upon
those who are in the circumstances above-stated, to _lay afresh the
whole foundation of their Religion_. In concurrence with the Scripture,
that Church calls upon them, in the first place, gratefully to adore
that undeserved goodness which has awakened them from the sleep of
death; to prostrate themselves before the Cross of Christ with humble
penitence and deep self-abhorrence; solemnly resolving to forsake all
their sins, but relying on the Grace of God alone for power to keep
their resolution. Thus, and thus only, she assures them that all their
crimes will be blotted out, and that they will receive from above a new
living principle of holiness. She produces from the Word of God the
ground and warrant of her counsel; "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved."--"No man," says our blessed Saviour, "cometh
unto the Father but by me."--"I am the true Vine. As the branch cannot
bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except
ye abide in me."--"He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth
forth much fruit; for without" (or severed from) "me ye can do
nothing,"--"By grace ye are saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should
boast: for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good
works."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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