Jeremiah 18:12 And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart. I. SOURCES OF THIS DESPAIR OF AMENDMENT. 1. Indolence. It is the property of that quality of mind to be always seeking an apology for leaving things as they are. Sometimes it imagines difficulties, and sometimes dangers, neither of which have any real existence. There is what may be termed a vis inertiae, a power of indolence, in mind as well as in matter; and perhaps at the great day of account it will be found that where profligacy has slain its thousands, indolence has slain its ten thousands. 2. The secret love of sin. If we wish to be bad, how ready are we to believe that it is impossible to be better! The fallen heart is that marsh of corruption in which all things monstrous and mischievous find their birth and their dwelling place, and from whence they issue to the destruction of the peace of the individual and the injury of those around him. 3. A want of faith in the declaration of God. Will a merciful God command impossibilities? and yet He says, "Be ye perfect, as your Father which is in heaven is perfect": "Be ye holy, as God is holy." Will the holy God promise what He will not perform? II. SOME OF THE MOTIVES FOR ENDEAVOURING TO ESCAPE FROM IT. 1. This despair of amendment is altogether groundless. Imagine even your case to be as bad as possible. Suppose not only the spiritual health impaired, but the soul in a sense "dead," — still I am privileged, on the authority of God, to affirm that this death is not necessarily either final or fatal. It is rather suspension than extinction. It is a state from which your Redeemer is willing to raise you. 2. The despair of amendment is irrational. Right reason in every instance demands an implicit acquiescence in the revealed will of God. But I name the unreasonableness of this despondency of improvement on purpose to touch on a particular point. If it be possible that you may fail by the one process, it is certain that you must fail by the other. If the success of vigilance and prayer be equivocal, the ruin which must follow despair is inevitable. 3. Such despair of growth in grace and holiness is deeply guilty. There is a sort of morbid humility on this subject, which leads men to value themselves on those doubts in the compassionate promises of God, which are in fact nothing short of a capital offence against Him. Is the earthly parent flattered by his children refusing to place confidence in his declarations of pity and love? And can the God of truth and compassion be gratified to find that, in spite of the language of Scripture, of His past dealings with His creatures, and in the constant experience of His Church, we should still presume to question His mercies, and doubt whether He, who spared not His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, will with Him also give us all things? (J. W. Cunningham, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart. |
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