Part 57

They forget what light and what convictions they had. They forget what sorrow for sin they had. They forget what tastes of Christ and his word they had.

They forget what joy and comfort they had. They forget how fair for heaven they were. And they forget how cleansed once they were. "They have forgotten that they were purged from their old sins." 2 Pet. 1:9.

Now, forgetfulness makes things that are past as nothings; and if so, then it can lay no obligations upon the mind to engage it to delight in them; no, not in thoughts of them, as if they were remembered by us.

Forgetfulness is a very dangerous thing; it makes preaching vain, profession vain, faith vain, and all to no purpose. 1 Cor. 15:1, 2. Such profession is but a dream; and such professors but as dreamers; all vanishes in the morning. This made Paul so caution the Corinthians that they should forget not the preaching; arid the writer to the Hebrews so earnestly call them, in their backsliding, back to the remembrance of former days, and to the recollecting what it was that then made them so willingly endure their great fight of affliction.

Forgetfulness, I say, makes things nothings; it makes us as if things had never been; and so takes away from the soul one great means of stay, support, and encouragement. When choice David was dejected, the remembrance of the hill Hermon was his stay; when he was to go out against Goliath, the remembrance of the lion and the bear was his support; so when those that have had the power of the things of God upon them, can think of this when they are withdrawn, it will, even the thinking of it, have some kind of operation upon the soul. And therefore you shall find, that the recovering of a backslider usually begins at the remembrance of former things. "Remember from whence thou art fallen, and repent and do thy first works."

It is marvellous to see how some men are captivated with this forgetfulness. Those that sometimes have prayed, cried, groaned, and sighed for eternal life; those that sometimes thought no pains too much, no way too far, no hazards too great to run, for eternal life; those that sometimes were captivated with the word, and with the comforts and joy thereof, and who, had it been possible, would have pulled out their eyes, and have given them to gospel ministers, so dear and sweet were the good tidings which they brought. to such. I say, it is marvellous to see how such men are captivated with the forgetfulness of this. They are as if they had never been those men; they are as if they had had no such things, or as if they never had thought about them. Yea, they are strange, and carry it strangely to all those that still are under the power of that word, and of that mighty hand by which sometimes themselves were guided.

Should one say to them, Art not thou the man that I once saw crying under a sermon, that I once heard cry out, "What must I do to be saved?" and that some time ago I heard speak well of the holy word of God? how askew will they look upon one; or if they will acknowledge that such things were with them once, they do it more like images and rejected ghosts, than men. They look as if they were blasted, withered, cast out and dried to powder, and now fit for nothing but to be cast into the fire and burned. John 15.

THE UNPARDONABLE SIN.

THE MAN IN THE IRON CAGE.

"Now," said Christian, "let me go hence." "Nay, stay," said the Interpreter, "till I have showed thee a little more, and after that thou shalt go on thy way." So he took him by the hand again, and led him into a very dark room, where there sat a man in an iron cage.

Now the man to look on, seemed very sad. He sat with his eyes looking down to the ground, his hands folded together, and he sighed as if he would break his heart. Then said Christian, "What means this?" At which the Interpreter bid him talk with the man.

Then said Christian to the man, "What art thou?" The man answered, "I am what I was not once."

CRISTIAN. "What wert thou once?"

The man said, "I was once a fair and flourishing professor, both in mine own eyes, and also in the eyes of others; I once was, as I thought, fair for the celestial city, Luke 8:13, and had then even joy at the thoughts that I should get thither."

CHRISTIAN. "Well, but what art thou now?"

MAN. "I am now a man of despair, and am shut up in it as in this iron cage. I cannot get out: O NOW I cannot."

CHRISTIAN. "But how earnest thou in this condition?"

MAN. "I left off to watch and be sober; I laid the reins upon the neck of my lusts; I sinned against the light of the word, and the goodness of God; I have grieved the Spirit, and he is gone; I tempted the devil, and he is come to me; I have provoked God to anger, and he has left me; I have so hardened my heart that I CANNOT repent."

Then said Christian to the Interpreter, "But is there no hope for such a man as this?" "Ask him," said the Interpreter.

Then said Christian, "Is there no hope but you must be kept in the iron cage of despair?"

MAN. "No, none at all."

CHRISTIAN. "Why? the Son of the Blessed is very pitiful."

MAN. "I have crucified him to myself afresh; I have despised his person, I have despised his righteousness, I have counted his blood an unholy thing. I have done despite to the Spirit of grace, Luke 19:14; Heh. 6:4-6; 10:28, 29; therefore I have shut myself out of all the promises, and there now remains to me nothing but threatenings, dreadful threatenings, fearful threatenings of certain judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour me as an adversary."

CHRISTIAN. "For what did you bring yourself into this condition?"

MAN. "For the lusts, pleasures, and profits of this world; in the enjoyment of which I did then promise myself much delight; but now every one of those things also bites me and gnaws me like a burning worm."

CHRISTIAN. "But canst thou not repent and turn?"

MAN. "God hath denied me repentance. His word gives me no encouragement to believe; yea, himself hath shut me up in this iron cage: nor can all the men in the world let me out. O eternity, eternity! how shall I grapple with the misery that I must meet with in eternity?"

Then said the Interpreter to Christian, "Let this man's misery he remembered by thee, and be an everlasting caution to thee."