How could he bless such a wretch as thou art, whose heart is a heart of stone? But if he deal with thee entirely upon another ground, namely, his mercy, why I think I hear him say, "Poor hard-hearted sinner, I will pity thee, and take away thy heart of stone, and give thee a heart of flesh." Dost thou say," "I cannot repent?" I know the criminality of that sad fact. It is a great sin not to be able to repent ; but then the Lord will not look upon thee from the point of what thou oughtest to be, but he will consider what he can make thee, and he will give thee repentance. Has not his Son gone up to heaven, "exalted on high, to give repentance and remission of sins"? Do I hear thee confess that thou canst not believe? Now, the absence of faith from thee is a great evil, yea a horrible evil; but then the Lord is dealing with thee on terms of grace, and does not say, "I will not smite thee because thou dost not believe," but he saith, "I will give thee faith," for faith is "not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." He works our faith in us, and has pity upon us, and takes away the unbelieving heart, and gives the tender heart, the believing heart, in the presence of the cross of Christ. Oh, though I were black as the devil with past sin, and vile as the devil with innate depravity, yet, if the Lord's mercy looked upon me could he not forgive the past and change my nature, and make me, as bright a seraph as Gabriel before his throne? "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" O sinner, what a door of hope there ought to be open to thee in this truth, that salvation is altogether of grace.
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