Читать книгу Plain Parochial Sermons, preached in the Parish Church of Bolton-le-Moors онлайн

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There is but one means by which the darkness of nature can be scattered, and that is by the light of God’s truth; but one means by which the evil spirit of the natural man can be cast out, and that is by the Spirit of God. The blessed Jesus came into the world to reclaim and redeem it from the grossness in which it was sunk; to open a new scene of things; to impart a new life; to banish the thick cloud of error and of sin, in which the world hopelessly and irrecoverably lay; and to raise it to the knowledge and service, the favour and blessing of an offended God. This is the description of the happy effects which the gospel is intended and fitted to produce; “the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.” [4] All, without the gospel, are in this miserable condition, whatever they may think of themselves: all who sincerely embrace it, are enlightened and happy, however poor and humble, and of whatever else they may be ignorant.