EXTRACTS

FROM

THE RELIGIOUS WORKS

OF

FENELON.

ON OUR REDEMPTION THROUGH CHRIST AND THE FAITH WHICH IT REQUIRES FROM US.

1. How wonderful, how sublime, are the thoughts which fill the mind of a Christian, when he reflects on the great mystery of our Redemption, set forth to us in the life and sufferings of our Redeemer! that God so loved the world,

were yet in our sins, while we

When he sees

that while we

were grieving

his Holy Spirit, even then, God sent his only Son, the Prince of Peace, the Lord of Glory, to suffer for us; to expiate our crimes by

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submitting to the punishment due to them. How infinite the mercy, how unspeakable the love of our gracious Saviour, thus willingly to offer himself for us; to become the victim of the wrath of the Almighty! Let us for a moment consider the doom to which the justice of our Creator must have adjudged us for ever, without the interposition of Jesus Christ; who, by the sacrifice of himself, once offered," became a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world, not of a single generation, but of all who should faithfully believe his mission, and receive his holy Gospel to the end of time. Let us consider also, that the efficacy of this sacrifice is perpetuated by an express institution: for the Saviour has left to us miserable sinners, the means of remembering this great mercy, and preserving in our souls the due gratitude for it, in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper"Do this in remembrance of me."

2. In meditating on the great and wonderful subject of our Redemption, of God mani

fested in the flesh, it is not necessary that we should perplex our minds with examining those high mysteries of our faith, which we cannot comprehend. They are to be believed on account of the divine testimony which attends them, but they are not proposed as rules of our conduct in this world; neither is the comprehension of them necessary to our salvation in the next. We have abundant subjects of meditation in the works and ways of our Creator, which are plain and easy to the lowest capacity; and the rules and precepts of the Gospel are so clear and simple, that our reflections on them can never prove embarrassing or perplexing to us and in examining and meditating on these rules and precepts, we are to take especial care that our conviction of their truth be always followed by our sincere practice of them to the utmost of our power. For, to disregard the truth, to resist the grace of God, (that is, wilfully to neglect the Gospel, when we are once convinced of its divine origin and obligation,) is the sin against the Holy Ghost, mentioned in

Scripture as the most dreadful of all sins, and that which God will not pardon.

3. Are our minds tormented with doubts and distrust of the truth and reality of God's word? And because some of the great mysteries of our religion are beyond our comprehension, do we therefore refuse them our belief? Let us remember that we are not commanded to comprehend them, but only, to believe. Let us not presume to subject to our reason that which reason cannot explain. The mysteries and obscurities of our faith, are indeed very different from a state of doubt and distrust. Is our faith accompanied with any uneasiness to our minds? we have the consolation of being in a state of security, while we obey God's commands. Doubts of the truth of Revelation, are the troubles of a soul without a resting-place, desirous of discovering what God has seen fit to conceal. What have you to sacrifice to God but your own opinion, and your self-love? Would you pretend to virtue, and yet forfeit the first step

ness.

in your duty-an implicit reliance on God for every thing? Would you have God, the incomprehensible, the infinite God, subject himself to the limited faculties of the creature whom he has made? Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousHe hesitated not to offer up his only son a sacrifice to the command of God, though he could not comprehend the fitness of such command. And what reward can we expect for our belief, if we require miracles to assure us of the truth of his Word?-Our Saviour says, "Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed." If we believe in one Almighty God, we must necessarily believe all and every part of that which he has revealed to us.

4. The gospel tells us, that Jesus Christ is the true Light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world. As there is but one sun to give light to the material world, so there is but one Light, one Spirit to direct the soul of man; even the Word of Jesus Christ. This is the eternal Word, the Light