The Christian Citizen; The Obligations of the Christian Citizen with a Review of High Church Principles in Relation to Civil and Religious Institutions (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1843. Excerpt: ... The Christian Citizen. 143 S. We would now turn, for a moment, to consider the influence of such doctrines, on the spiritual state of those who are educated in their belief. Nothing can be more certain than this, that all the scriptural representations of the condition and character of men by nature, are deeply humbling and painful. Their direct tendency is to alarm the sinner, to lay him low in the dust before God, and to drive him to utter despair of relief from any human intervention or aid. They urge him to instantaneous and unreserved submission to God. Even in the most distinguished saints, we see the evidence of this humbling tendency. "I abhor myself," says Job, " and repent in dust and ashes." "I was shapen in iniquity," says the Psalmist, "and in sin did my mother conceive me." "Oh, wretched man that I am," exclaimed Paul, in view of the deep depravity of his heart. Now we ask, is there not the utmost danger, that impenitent sinners, under the influence of the sentiments in question, will fall entirely short of any such views of their character and condition? Is there no one whose eye now rests on these pages, to whom the language just quoted from the scriptures, seems strange and unaccountable? Is it not the tendency of the views in which multitudes are educated, to make them believe that their depravity is trifling, since it requires only such easy expe lients to remove it? Do they not feel that it is removed, and its curse avoided by the simple reception of ordinances--that they have only to be baptized, confirmed, and to continue in the observance of stated rites, and they are regenerated, their sins washed away, and themselves made children of God, and heirs of the kingdom of heaven? They enter on a course of religious du'y; they have been...