the Gospel at Macedonia there Lydia was converted but how Not by their Skill or Eloquence but the Spirits influence Acts 16. 14. The Lord opened the Heart of Lydia The Church could not be propagated without Conversion Conversion could never be wrought without Christs Influence and Spiritual Presence So that this Presence is of absolute necessity the Church cannot subsist nor the great ends of Ordinances attained without it The first Inference Is Christ really Present in all Gospel Administrations how awfully Solemn then is every part of Gospel Worship We having to do with Christ himself and not with Men only in Gospel Ordinances Happy were it if under this Consideration all our People did receive the Word we Preach as the Thessalonians did not as the Word of Man but as the Word of God 1 Thes. 2. 13. then it would Work effectually in us as it did in them But alas We have loose and low apprehensions of the Word we come to Judge the Gifts of the Speaker not to have our Minds informed our Consciences searched our Lusts mortified and our Lives regulated But oh that Men would realize the Presence of Christ in Ordinances and seriously consider that Word of his Rev. 2. 23. All the Churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the Reins and Hearts and I will give to every one of you according to your Works How would it compose vain and wandering Hearts unto holy seriousness Oh if Men would but consider that they are before the Lord Jesus Christ as Cornelius and his Family did Acts 10. 33. We are all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God. If they would consider the Word as the executioner of Gods eternal Decrees which returns not in vain but accomplishes that whereunto God sends it Isa. 55. 11. and eventually proves the savour of Life or Death eternal to them that sit under it 2 Cor. 2. 16. In a word were it but considered as the Rule by which its hearers shall be judged in the great Day Ioh. 12. 48. then how would Men tremble at the Word What mighty effects would it have upon their Hearts How would it run and be glorified But alas as Iob speaks Iob 9. 11. He goeth by me and I see him not he passeth on also but I perceive him not Few realize the Spiritual Presence of Christ in Ordinances Second Inference If Christ be really present with his Churches and Ordinances how vain are all the attempts of Enemies to subvert and destroy them That promise Matth. 28. ult supposes the continuance of a Gospel Church and Ministry to the end of the World else there would be a Promise without a Subject as de Iure there ought to be a Church so de facto there shall be a Church with Ministers and Ordinances let Satan and Antichrist do their worst I do not say this Promise secures this or that particular Church or Nation for the presence of Christ is moveable from one place to another but still the Church is safe And there are three things that secure it against all hazards First The invaluable Treasures God hath lodged in the Church viz. his Truths his Worship and his Elect such a precious Cargo secures the Vessel that carries it what ever Storms or Tempests may befal it Secondly The Covenant and Promise of God with the Church is its abundant security Matth. 16. 18. Vpon this Rock will I build my Church and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it The faithfulness of God is pawned for his Peoples security If the Church fail God's faithfulness must fail with it Thirdly But above all the Presence of Christ in the midst of it puts it out of all danger of miscarrying In that Promise Lo I am with you alway are found all munitions and fortifications whatsoever Here we have his Eye of Providence his Hand of Power and whatsoever else is needful to support and secure it God accounts his Presence our safety Isa. 41. 10. The Enemies of God and his People account it so too Exod. 14. 25. and shall it not be so in our own account Provoke not the Lord Jesus to withdraw his Presence and fear not the consultations and oppositions of Hell or Earth Third Inference From this Spiritual Presence of Christ all his faithful Ministers should draw incouragement amidst the manifold difficulties and discouragements they dayly encounter in his Work and Service Christ is with them they Work in Fellowship with him let them not be dismaid The difficulties and discouragements the Ministers of Christ meet with are great and many and the more faithful and successful any of them are in their Masters Work the fiercer opposition they must expect Besides all the discouragements rising out of their own Hearts which are not a few they must encounter First The opposition of Enemies from abroad Secondly The obstinacy and stubornness of the Hearts they work upon Satan is a jealous Prince and will raise all manner of outcries and oppositions against those heavenly Heraulds that come to Proclaim a new Prince in his Dominions and withdraw his miserable Subjects from their cursed Allegiance to him What is it to Preach the Gospel said Luther but to derive the fury of the World upon the Head of that Preacher But this would be easily supportable did our Work but prosper upon the hearts of our hearers but this alas is the killing consideration of all we know the worth of Souls and how great a service it is to save them from death Iames 5. 20. We also know the terrors of the Lord which excite our utmost endeavours to perswade men 2 Cor. 5. 11. We feel the compassions of Christ stirring in our own bowels which makes us long after their Salvation Phil. 1. 8. We preach we pray yea we travail again as it were in birth until Christ be formed in them Gal. 4. 19. And when we have done all we find their Hearts as Iron and Brass Ier. 6. 28. We mourn in secret when we cannot prevail and oft times our Hands hang down with discouragement and we are ready to say with the Prophet We will speak no more in his name Jer. 20. 9. But here is our relief under all discouragements from abroad and at home the Work is Christs the Power is his he is with us and we are Workers together with him There was a time when Three thousand Souls were born to Christ at one Sermon it may be now Three thousand Sermons may be preacht and not a Soul Converted Yet let us not be discouraged a time of eminent Conversions is Promised and to be expected in these latter days Ezek. 47. 9. when the living waters of the Gospel shall make every thing to live whither they come And when the Fishers i. e. the Ministers of Christ shall not fish with Angles as now they do taking now one then another single Convert but shall spread forth their Nets but inclose multitudes at
the cries of such Souls will be heard above the cries of all the other miserable wretches that are cast away 'T will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for Capernaum Matth. 11. 23. Oh Friends you little know the smart reflections of Conscience in Hell upon such hours as you now enjoy such wooing charming voices and allurements to Christ as you now hear There are many thousands of Souls in Hell that came thither out of the dark heathenish parts of the World where they never heard of Christ but your misery will be far beyond theirs your reflections more sharp and bitter Therefore delay no longer lest you perish with peculiar aggravations of misery 3ly Try the Patience of Christ no further I beseech you for as much as you see every day the Patience of Christ ending towards others Patience coming down and Justice ascending the Stage to triumph over the abusers of Mercy You dont only read in Scripture of the finishing and ending of God's Patience with Men but you may see it every day with your own Eyes If you look into Scripture You may find the Patience of God ended towards multitudes of Sinners who possibly had the same presumptions and vain hopes for the continuance of it that you now have If you look into 1 Pet. 3. 19 20. you shall there find that Christ went and preached to the Spirits in prison which sometimes were disobedient when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah The meaning of it is this that in the days before the Flood Christ by his Spirit strove with disobedient and rebellious sinners in the Ministry of Noah who then were living Men and Women as now we are but now are Spirits in prison i. e. damned Souls in Hell for their disobedience And truly Brethren you may frequently behold the glass of Patience run down the very last sand in it spent upon others Whenever you see a wicked Christless Man or Woman dye you see the end of God's Patience with that Man or Woman and all this for a warning to you that you adventure not to trifle and dally with it as they did 4ly Lastly Do not try God's Patience any longer if you love your Souls for this Reason because when Men grow bold and incourage themselves in sin upon the account of God's forbearance and long-suffering towards them there cannot be a more certain sign that his Patience is very near its end towards that Soul. 'T is time for God to put an end to his Patience when it is made an encouragement to sin God cannot suffer so vile an abuse of his glorious Patience nor endure to see it turned into wantonness This quickly brings up sin to its finishing act and perfection and then Patience is just upon finishing also That Patience is thus abused appears from Eccles. 8. 11. and when it is so abused look for a suddain change O therefore beware of provoking God for now the day of Patience is certainly near its end with such sinners Prov. 1. 24 25 26. Because I have calledâ— and ye refused I have streâ—ched out my Hand and no Man regarded But ye have set at nought all my counsel and would none of my reproof I also will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh When your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind Ah when sinners scolt and mock at the threatnings of God and bear themselves up upon his Patience as that which will never crack under them then look out for a whirlwind a suddain Tempest of wrath which shall hurry such Souls into Hell. Then misery comes like a storm blowing furiously from all quarters Well the Heavens are yet clear over you but a storm is nigh and may be certainly presaged from such vite abuses of the glorious Patience of Christ towards you That 's the first Exhortation try not the Patience of Christ by any further delays II. Exhortation Secondly Admire Christ's Patience and forbearance of you until now that he hath not cut you off in your sin but lengthned out his Patience unto this day and brought about your Salvation by his long-suffering towards you Here now I must change my voice and turn it unto those whose Hearts the Lord hath opened Stand amazed at the riches of his Grace towards you and see that you account this long-suffering of God to be your Salvation for in plain Truth it is so your Salvation was bound up in Christ's forbearance if Christ had not born as he did you had not been where you are I could heartily wish that all the time you can redeem from the necessary employments you have in the World may now be spent in an humble thankful admiration of this admirable Grace and Patience of Christ and answerable duties to the intentions and ends thereof To this end I shall subjoyn divers weighty Considerations which methinks should melt every Heart wherein the lest drachm of saving Grace is found Bethink your selves of the great and manifold provocations you have given the Lord to put an end to all further Patience towards you not only in the days of your vanity and unregeneracy but enen since your reconciliation to him Do you not believe thousands of sinners are now in the depths of Hell who never provoked the Lord at an higher rate than you have done Were you not herded once among the vilest of sinners 1 Cor. 6. 11. And such were some of you as vile as the vilest among them yet you are washed in the Blood of Christ and your companions roaring in the lowest Hell or if your lives were more clean sure your Hearts and Natures were as filthy as theirs And certainly your sins since the time of Reconciliation have had special aggravations in them enough to put an end to all further mercies towards you Light and Love have aggravated these sins and yet the Lord will not cast you off How often have you been upon the very brink of Hell in the days of your unregeneracy Every sickness and every danger of life which you escaped in those days was a marvelous escape from the everlasting wrath of God. Had thy Disease prevailed one degree further thou hadst been past hope and out of the reach of Mercies Arm now Doubtless some of you can remember when in such and such a Disease you were like a Ship riding in a furious storm by one Cable and two or three of the strands of that Cable were snapt asunder So it hath been with you the thread of life how weak soever hath held till the bonds of union betwixt Christ and your Souls are fastned and the eternal hazard over This is admirable Grace How often hath Death come up into your Windows entred into your Houses fetcht off your nearest Relations but had no commission to carry you out with them because the Lord had a design of Mercy upon your Souls This cannot but affect a
Verily verily I say unto you you must be born again Iohn 3. 5. O sinner that hard Heart of thine must be humbled thy stubborn and refractory Will must be bowed all the powers of thy Soul must be unlockt and opened unto Christ he must come into thy Soul or thou canst never see the face of God in peace It is Christ in you that is the hope of glory Col. 1. 27. Till thy Heart be opened Christ with all the hopes of glory stand without thee And if hopes from the death of Christ without us without the application of his person be enough to save Men then why are any damned Consult 1 Cor. 1. 30. Adams sin damns none but only such as are in him and Christs righteousness saves none but those only that are by faith in him the eternal purposes of the Father the meritorious death of the Son puts no Man into the state of Salvation and happiness till both be brought home by the Spirits powerful application in the work of saving conversion T is good news good indeed that Christ died for sinners t is good news that Christ is brought to our very doors in the tenders of the Gospel and that the Spirit knocks at the door of our Hearts by many convictions and perswasions to open to him and enjoy the unspeakable benefits of his death these things bring us nigh to Christ the next door to Salvation and yet all this may be eventually but a dreadful aggravation of our damnation and will certainly be so to them whose Hearts are but almost opened to Christ. V. Inference See hence the necessity of fervent prayer to accompany the preaching of the Gospel Without the Spirit and power of God accompanying the Word no Heart can ever be opened to Christ Alas such Bars as these are too strong for the breath of Man to break Let Ministers pray and the People pray that the Gospel may be preached with the holy Ghost sent down from Heaven 1 Pet. 1. 12. It greatly concerns us that preach the Gospel to wrestle with God upon our knees to accompany us in the dispensation of it unto the People to steep that seed we sow among you in tears and prayers before you hear it and I beseech you Brethren let us not strive alone joyn your cries to Heaven with ours for the blessing of the Spirit upon the Word How doth Paul beg of the People as a beggar would beg for an alms at the door for their assistance in Prayer Rom. 15. 30. I beseech you brethren for the Lord Iesus Christ sake and for the love of the Spirit that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me For want of such wrestlings with God in prayer there is so little efficacy in Ordinances Martha told her Saviour Iohn 11. 21. Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died and I may tell you that if the Spirit had been here your Souls had not remained dead under the Word as they do this day Oh when the Sabbath draws near let fervent cries ascend from every Family to Heaven Lord pour out thy Spirit with thy Word make it mighty through thy Power to open these Gates of Iron and break asunder these Bars of Brass Second Vse of Exhortation Seeing the Case stands thus that all Hearts by nature are barr'd and shut up against Christ let every Soul do what it can and strive to its uttermost to get the Heart and Will opened to Christ Strive to enter in at the straight gate Christ is at the Door Oh strive with your selves as well as with God now to get it opened now that Salvation is come so near to your Souls Object But have you not told us that no sinner can open his own Heart nor bow his own Will to Christ Answ. True he cannot convert himself but yet he may do many things in order to it and which have a remote tendency towards it which he doth not do and so he perisheth not though he cannot but because he will not Divers things may be done by poor sinners with their own Hearts which are not done and though in themselves they are insufficient yet being the way and method in and by which the Spirit of God usually works we are bound to do them As for Example 1. Though it be not in your power to open your Hearts to Christ yet it is in your power to forbear the external acts of sin which fasten your Hearts the more against Christ Who forceth thine Hands to steal thy Tongue to swear or lye who forces the cup of excess down thy Throat 2ly Though you cannot open your Hearts under the Word yet it is in your power to wait and attend upon the external Duties and Ordinances of the Gospel Why cannot those Feet carry thee to the Assemblies of the Saints as well as to an Ale-house 3ly And though you cannot let the Word effectually into your Hearts yet certainly you can apply your minds with more attention and consideration to it than you do Who forces thine Eyes to wander or closes them with sleep when the awful matters of eternal Life and Death are founding in thine Ears 4ly Though you cannot open your Hearts to embrace Christ yet certainly you can reflect upon your selves when the obvious characters of a Christless state are plainly held forth before your Eyes God hath given you a self-reflecting power The spirit of a Man knoweth the things of a Man 1 Cor. 2. 11. When you hear of Convictions of sin compunctions of Heart for sin deep concernments of the Soul about its eternal state hungerings and thirstings after Christ restless and anxious Days and Nights about Salvation others have felt you can certainly turn in upon your selves and examine whether ever it were so with you and if not methinks it were not hard to aggravate your own misery to take your poor Souls aside and bemoan them saying Ah my poor Soul canst thou endure everlasting burnings What will become of thee if Christ pass thee by and his Spirit strive no more with thee Why can't you throw your selves at the Feet of God and cry for mercy Prayer is a part of natural Worship distress usually puts Men upon it that yet have no Grace Ionah 1. 5. Do but this towards the opening and saving of your own Souls which though it be not in it self sufficient nor puts God under any meritorious obligation or necessity to add the rest yet it puts you into the way of the Spirit And is not thy Soul sinner worth as much as this comes too Have you not taken a great deal more pains than this for the trifles of this World And will it not be a dreadful aggravation of sin and misery to all eternity that you perished so easily Dont you see many striving round about you for Christ and Salvation whilst you sit still with folded Arms as if you had nothing to do for another World
now for no less than the prize of eternal Life 't is now for all or none for life or death for Heaven or Hell the powers of Hell are now all in Arms to destroy Convictions and secure the possession of the Soul against Christ as when a Granado falls into a Garison the first care of the Defendants is to stifle and choak it before it break Whilst Christ is speaking by his Spirit in one Ear the Devil is whispering in the other and the things he whispers to quench Convictions are usually such as these It is time enough yet what need such hast Enjoy thy pleasures a little longer thou maist come to Christ and be saved at last if that will not do then he changeth his voice to what purpose wilt thou go to Christ 'T is now too late the time of Grace is over hadst thou come to him in thy youth and obeyed his first call it had been somewhat but now it is â—o no purpose If this will not quiet the Soul then he saith Thy sins are too great to be pardoned there 's no hope for such a prodigious sinner as thou art If the Lord help the Soul to overcome this by discovering to it the riches of mercy pardoning the greatest of sinners then he represents the multitudes which are in the same case with the convinced sinner come fear not if it go ill with thee it will be as bad for millions of Men and Women if thou go to Hell thousands will go with thee but if the Soul be loath to be damned for company then he bids it look upon the train of troubles and afflictions that come along with Christ and will certainly follow him if the door be opened to let him in if Christ come in reproaches losses and sufferings will certainly come in with him troops of miseries and calamities follow him himself hath told thee so and art thou mad to ruine all thy comforts in the World and plunge thy self into a Sea of trouble for what thine Eyes never saw But if the Soul reply These are more tollerable than damnation better my flesh suffer for a time than my Soul be cast away for ever then he represents the insuperable difficulties of Religion what a hard thing it is to be saved how many painful duties and acts of mortification the Soul must pass through Thus you see what an allarm Conviction gives to the powers of Hell. 9ly Every effectual knock of Christ is followed on and new Convictions revive old and former ones and the Lord never leaves knocking till the door be opened if one Sermon will not do another shall if one wound be plaistered and healed by the art of Satan a fresh wound shall be made if a former Conviction vanish the next shall be sealed upon the Soul and when the Spirit of the Lord sealeth a Conviction upon the Conscience raze it out who can And here 's the difference betwixt special and common Convictions common Convictions come and go they put the Soul in a fright for a day or a month and then trouble it no more for ever but special Convictions will be continued one thing backs another for Christ is in pursuit of the Soul and will give it chase till at last he overtake and come up with it 10ly In the last place All the knocks of Christ cease and end when the sinners day of grace is ended This is of dreadful consideration when the time of Mercy is over no more strivings of the Spirit with a Man after that Christ saith to the drousie sinner as he spake to the drousie Disciples in the Garden Sleep on now and take your rest So here I called thee in such a Sermon but thou heardest not by such a providence but thou obeyedst not sleep on now and take thy rest My people would not hearken to my voice and Israel would none of me So I gave them up to their own Hearts lust to walk in their own counsels Psal. 81. 11 12. q. d. I have done with them the treaty is ended I will make no more essays towards their Conversion and Salvation So I gave them up Methinks it sounds as much as this Take him Sin Take him Devil I will have no more to do with him So Hosea 4. 17. Ephraim is joyned to idols let him alone His Heart is glued fast to sin he is enamoured upon other Lovers let him a lone O beloved 't is a dreadful thing for God to say let this Man alone in his formality and that Man in his carnal security Let not this be misapplied by poor trembling Souls under Conviction I know the fear of this Judgment is upon their Hearts nothing makes them tremble more than lest the day of Grace be ended with them But there is no ground for this fear whilst the Spirit continues Convincing and the Soul trembling lest his Convictions should prove ineffectual Thus much of the nature instruments and manner of Christ's knocking at the door of a sinners Heart Our way is now opened to a fruitful Application of this Point which will wind up in divers necessary Uses I. Vse for Information And first The Point before us will be useful for Information in the following Inferences and Deductions I. Inference Into how deep a sleep hath sin cast the Souls of sinners that Christ must stand so long and give such loud repeated knocks before it will awake and open to him There is the Spirit of a deep sleep fallen upon Men like that into which God cast Adam God speaketh once yea twice but Man regards it not 't is the hardest thing in the World to rouze and awaken a Man out of his carnal security Look over Satans Kingdom and you shall find a general stilness and quietness among his Subjects There 's no trouble for Sin no strivings after Salvation no cryings out What shall we do to be saved Go into the crouds of carnal Men and Women and you shall find them all intent and busie about other matters How long shall you be in their company before you hear one groan for sin Or see one tear slide from their Eyes on that account Oh what a marvelous thing is here Do not their Consciences know the guilt that lyes upon them Are they not aware of a day of reckoning which approacheth Yes yes these things are not hid from their Consciences What art then is used to keep them so still and quiet Why there are divers Rattles to still the Consciences of sinners and they do it effectually There are five causes and occasions of this wonderful stilness in the Souls of sinners 1. Ignorance of the nature of regenerating Grace taking that for regeneration which is none of it thus did the Iews Ioh. 8. 55. confidently affirm God to be their God and yet they did not know him How many proor ignorant creatures think there is no need of any other Work of regeneration but what passed upon them in Baptism They were
believing and hungering after Christ Their examples shall be your Judges These are Gods Witnesses Secondly Next let us consider what are the object matters unto which they give their testimony and that will be found two-fold according to the two-fold event the Gospel hath upon them that hear it of both which the Apostle gives us this account 2 Cor. 2. 16. Vnto some we are the savour of life unto life and unto others the savour of death unto death Accordingly a double Record is made 1. Of the obedience and faith of some which Record will be produced to their joy and comfort in the day of the Lord when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe because our testimony among you was believed in that day Ministers are Instruments of espousing Souls to Christ and Witnesses to those espousals and contracts made betwixt him and them 2 Cor. 11. 2. Both these offices are exceeding grateful and pleasant to every faithful Minister 2. A Record is made and Witness taken of all the refusals disobedience and slightings of Christ by others Thus Moses will be the accuser of the Jews John 5. 45. Do not think I will accuse you to the Father there is one that accuseth you even Moses in whom you trust This is the saddest part of a Ministers-work the fore-thoughts of it are more afflictive than all our Labours and Sufferings There is a three-fold Record made in this case 1st Of the time men have enjoyed under the means of Salvation how many years they have sat barren and dead hearted under the labours of Gods faithful Ministers Luke 13. 7. Behold these three years I come seeking fruit on this Fig-tree and find none Behold the same term of Notification with that in the Text applyed to the time of Gods patience towards them And again Ier. 25. 3. From the thirteenth year of Josiah even unto this day that is the three and twentieth year the word of the Lord hath come unto me and I have spoken unto you rising early and speaking but ye have not hearkened Oh consider all the years and days you have spent under the Gospel are upon your Dooms-day-book 2dly Records are also made of all the instruments that ever God employed for the Conversion and Salvation of your Souls So many Ministers whether fixed or transient as have spent their labours upon you are upon the Book of your account Ier. 25. 4. The Lord hath sent unto you all his servants the Prophets rising early and sending them but ye have not hearkened nor enclined your ear to hear They have wasted their Lungs dropt their compassionate tears and burnt down one after another as Candles to direct you to Christ and Salvation but all in vain 3dly Every call perswasion and argument used by them to espouse you to Christ is likewise upon the Book of account Prov. 1. 24. 25. Because I have called and you refused I have stretched my hand and no man regarded but you have set at nought all my counsels and would none of my reproofs These calls and counsels are of too great value with God though of none with you to be lost and left out of your account Thirdly we shall in the last place inquire into the grounds and reasons of these Judicial procedures of God why he will have every mans obedience and disobedience Registred and Witnessed for or against him under Gospel administrations and there are two weighty reasons thereof First that wherever the end of the Gospel is attained in the Conversion of any soul that soul and all that were instrumentally employ'd about the salvation of it may have their proper reward and comfort in the great day 2 Cor. 1. 14. As also you have acknowledged us in part that we are your rejoycing even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Iesus This will be matter of joy unspeakable both to you that shall receive and to them that shall give such a comfortable testimony for you Oh the joyful congratulations that will be in that day between Laborious Faithful Ministers and their Believing Obedient Hearers Lord this was the blessed instrument of my happy Illumination and Conversion though I might have ten thousand Instructers in Christ yet not many Fathers for by the blessing of thy Spirit upon this mans Ministry my Soul was begotten to Christ. And on the other side Lord these are the Souls for whom I travelled as in birth until Christ was formed in them 'T is a glorious thing to say as the Prophet Here am I and the children God hath given me Nay those that were but collaterally useful to help on the work of God begun by others must not lose their reward in that day Iohn 4. 36. And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life eternal that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoyce together Secondly Records are now made and Witnesses taken that thereby the Judicial Sentence of Jesus Christ in the last day may be made clear and perspicuous to all the world that every mouth may be stopt and no Plea or Apology left in the mouth of any condemned Sinner For Christ in that day cometh to convince all that are ungodly Iude ver 15. to convince by demonstration that all that are Christless now may be found speechless then Matth. 22. 12. Here it is said Psal. 1. 5. That the wicked shall not stand or rise up in the Iudgment And no wonder when so many full testimonies and unexceptionable Witnesses shall come point blank against them the Minister that preach'd the word they preached their own consciences and the examples of all Believers will be produced against them 1. INFERENCE First The undoubted certainty of a day of Iudgment is hence evinced To what purpose else are Records made and Witnesses taken but with respect to an Audit day this is a truth sealed upon the consciences of the very Heathens Rom. 2. 15. their consciences bear witness But in vain are all these Records made unless there be a day to produce and plead them and of that day the Prophet Daniel speaks Dan. 7. 10. The Iudgment was set and the Books were opened And again Rev. 20. 12. And I saw the Dead small and great stand before God and the Books were opened and another Book was opened which is the Book of Life and the Dead were judged out of those things which were written in the Books according to their works Believe it Friends these are no devised Fables but most awful and infallible truths according to the saving effects the Gospel now hath it will be a time of refreshing to our Souls Acts 3. 19. to all others a day of terrour wrath and amazement 2 Thes. 1. 7 8. The day in which the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming Fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not
the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ. 2. INFER What a spur is here to Ministerial diligence and faithfulness 'T is an awful work that is under our hands the effects of the Gospel which we preach will be the savour of life or Death to them that hear us If the Lord prosper it in our hands we shall be witnesses for you it will be an addition to our glory in Heaven Dan. 12. 3. They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and as the Stars for ever and ever But if we be Ignorant Lazy Men-pleasers our people will come in as swift Witnesses against us and their blood will be required at our hands it will be an intollerable aggravation to our misery in Hell to have any that sat under our Ministry thus upbraiding us O cruel man thou sawest my soul in danger and never dealt faithfully and plainly with me the same time and breath which was spent in idle and worldly discourse might have been instrumental to have sav'd me from this place of torment Let Ministers consider themselves as Witnesses for God and their People as Witnesses for or against them and under that consideration so study preach and pray that they may with Paul take God to record that they are free from the blood of all men no sort of men upon earth have more spurs to diligence and faithfulness than we have 3. INFER What a Pill is this to purge formality out of all that hear us every Sabbath every Sermon is recorded in Heaven for or against your souls at what rate soever you attend to the word all that you hear is set down in the book of your account think not you shall return as you came the word will have its effect and end it shall not return in vain but shall accomplish the end for which it is sent Isaiah 55. 11. The decrees of Heaven are executed by the Gospel some souls shall be quickened and others shall be slain by the words of Gods mouth Ezek. 47. 9 10. The Gospel is a River of the waters of Life which quickens and refreshes every thing that lives but the myre and marish places shall not be healed How weighty therefore is that caution of our blessed Lord Luke 8. 18. Take heed how you hear When you come under an ordinance you are sowing seed for Eternity Gal. 6. 7 8. Which will spring up in the world to come Preaching and hearing may be considered two ways Physically or Morally in the former respect these acts are quickly over and pass away I shall by and by have done preaching and you hearing this Sermon will be ended in a little time but the consequences thereof will abide for ever Therefore for the Lords sake away with formality no more drowsie eyes or wandering thoughts Oh when you come to attend upon the Ministry of the Gospel that such thoughts as these might prepare your minds The word I am going to hear will quicken or kill save or damn my soul if I sit dead under it and return barren from it I shall with one day that I had never seen the face of that Minister nor heard his voice that preached it 4. INFER What a dreadful condition are all those in that are real and professed Enemies to the Gospel and them that preach it That instead of embracing and obeying the message of the Gospel reject and despise it instead of opening their hearts to receive it open their blasphemous mouths against it to deride it and hiss it if it were possible out of the world Ah what a book of remembrance is written for such men I fear there never was an age since Christianity blessed this Nation that was more deeply drench'd in the guilt of this sin than the present age How are the Messengers of the Gospel slighted and rejected What have we done to deserve it Is not our case this day much like that of the Prophet Ier. 18. 20. Shall evil be recompensed for good for they have digged a Pit for my Soul remember that I stood before thee to speak good for them and to turn away thy wrath from them What bruitish madness hath possest the souls of these men but alas it is not so much they as Satan acting in them he is a jealous Prince the Gospel allarms him his Subjects are in danger of revolting from him No wonder therefore he makes an out-cry at the liberty of the Gospel as is used to be made when an Enemy invades a Kingdom In this case Christ directs his Ministers to shake off the dust of their feet for a testimony against them Mark 6. 11. The signification and meaning whereof is this that look as you shake off the dust of your feet even so Jesus Christ will shake off those men that despise the Gospel and abuse its Messengers 5. INFER Hence it likewise follows that the case of the Pagan world will be easier in the day of Iudgment than theirs that live and dye unregenerate and disobedient under the Gospel of Christ. There are more Witnesses prepared and Records filed against the day of your account than can possibly be against them they have abused but one talent the light of nature but we thousands even as many thousands as we have had opportunities and calls under the Gospel Upon this account Christ saith Matth. 10. 14 15. Whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words shake off the dust of your feet Verily I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Iudgment than for that City Ah what a fearful Aggravation doth it put upon our sin and misery that we are not only accountable for all the light we had but for all that we might have had in the Gospel day Capernaum was lifted up to Heaven in the enjoyment of means and precious opportunities and had an answerable downfall into the depth of misery from that height of mercy as the higher any one is lifted up upon a Rack the more terrible is the jerk he receives by the fall Matth. 11. 23. 6. INFER Lastly hence it appears that the day of Iudgment must certainly take up a vast space of time For if God will bring every thing into Judgment Eccles. 12. 14. not only sinful actions but words Matth. 12. 36. not only words but heart secrets Rom. 2. 16. If all the Records and Registers now made shall then be opened and read all the Witnesses for or against every man examined and heard judge then what a vast space of time will that great day take up Some Divines are of opinion it may last as long as the World hath lasted but this is sure things will not be hudled up nor shuffled over in haste you have taken your time for Sinning and God will take his time for Judging Consider the multitudes multitudes without number that are to be Judged in that day even all the posterity of
amidst such Hosts of potent and enraged Enemies If Christ were not among them they had certainly been swallowed up long ago 'T is he that holds the Stars in his right hand Rev. 2. 1. His walks among the seven golden Candlesticks is their best security The burning bush Exod. 3. 3. is a rare emblem to open this Mystery the bush burned with fire but was not consumed The bush was a resemblance of the Church of God in Egypt the flames upon it was their terrible Persecution the wonder that no ashes appeared as the effects of those terrible flames the reason thereof was God was in the bush Jesus Christ was in the midst of his people By vertue of this Presence we are here this day in the enjoyment of Gospel Liberties no Society of Men in the World have such security as the Church hath upon this account The mightiest Monarchies have been over-turned no Policies nor humane Power could preserve them but the Church and Ordinances are still preserved and shall ever be by vertue of that gracious Promise Ier. 30. 11. For I am with thee saith the Lord to save thee though I make a full end of all Nations whither I have scattered thee yet will I not make a full end of thee The Babilonian Persian Grecian Monarchies have destroyed and ruined one another Sic Medus ademit Assyrio Syroque tulit moderamina Perses c. but still the Church of Christ lifts up its Head and beholds their ruins Secondly This Presence of Christ in and with his Ordinances is undeniably evinced from their Supernatural effects upon the Souls of Men 2 Cor. 10. 4. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds 'T is the Spirit of Christ that gives them their success and efficacy The Sword of the Gospel hath its point and edge but it is impossible the Heart of a stupid hardned sinner should ever be prickt or wounded by it if the Spirit of Christ did not manage it When sinners fall down convinced under the authority of the Word they feel and readily acknowledge that God is in it of a truth I Cor. 14. 25. Ruffinus reports that at the Council of Nice a godly man of no great learning was the instrument of converting a learned Philosopher whom the Bishops with all their Arguments could not perswade of which the Philosopher himself gave this remarkable account Whilst you reasoned with me said he against words I opposed words and what was spoken I overthrew by the art of speaking but when in stead of words power came out of the mouth of the speaker words could no longer withstand truth nor Man resist the power of God. And this indeed is the true and just account of all those marvellous and gracious changes made upon the Souls of Men by the Preaching of the Gospel Can the vanishing breath of a dying Man think you inspire Spiritual and Eternal Life into the Souls of other Men Can he search the Conscience break the Heart and bow the Will at this rate No no this is the Power and Operation of Christ and of that Presence we must say saith a Reverend Author as Martha did to her Saviour concerning the Death of her Brother Lazarus John 11. 21. Lord if thou hadst been here my Brother had not dyed So say I if that Presence and Power of Christ were felt by all which hath been certainly experienced and felt by many they had not remained in the state of Spiritual Death as they do But though there be thousands under Ordinances that never felt this Power of Christ upon them yet blessed be God there are also multitudes of Witnesses and Evidences of this Truth that there is a Real Spiritual Energetical Presence of Christ in his own appointments which was the first thing to be evinced Secondly The second thing requiring Explication is the Uses and Ends which makes such a Presence of Christ necessary And they are 1. To Preserve and Support his Ministers and Churches amidst such Hosts of potent and enraged Enemies This Presence of Christ is as a wall of Fire round about them It was the Divine Presence with Ieremiah that was as a Life-Guard to him against the rage of the Princes and Nobles of Israel Jer. 15. 20 21. I will make thee unto this People a fenced brazen Wall and they shall fight against thee but they shall not prevail against thee for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee saith the Lord And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible It was easier for the Roman Army to scale the Walls and batter down the Towers of Ierusalem than for all the Enemies in Ierusalem to destroy this Prophet of God thus immur'd by the Divine Presence Athanasius and Luther had the Power of the Empire ingaged against them yet the Presence of Christ was their security The Witnesses could not be slain till they had finished their Testimony Rev. 11. 7. To this Presence alone the faithful Witnesses of Christ owe their marvellous preservation at this day had not Christ said Lo I am with you you had not said at this day behold our Ministers are still with us Secondly The Presence of Christ is necessary to assist and enable his Ministers in their Work for it is a Work quite above their own strength it is well we are Workers-together with God else we should soon faint under our Labours When Moses objected I am not eloquent the Lord told him I will be with thy Mouth Exod. 4. 10. When God guides the Tongue how powerful and persuasive must the Language be When the Apostles illiterate men were sent out to convert the World Christ promised to give them a Mouth and Wisdom Luke 21. 15. a Mouth to speak and Wisdom to guide that Mouth and then their words were demonstrations all their adversaries could not resist that Spirit and Power by which they spake Empires and Kingdoms full of Enemies received the Gospel but the reason of this wonderful success is given us in Mark 16. 20. They went out and Preached every where the Lord working with them 'T is sweet and prosperous working in fellowship with Christ The Spirit of Christ gives a manifold assistance to his Ministers in their Work 't is he that guides and directs their minds in the choice of those Subjects wherein they labour with such success to their Hearers He dictates the Matter influences their Affections guides their Lips follows home their Doctrine with success and this is a special Use and End of Christs Presence with his Ministers and Ordinances Thirdly The Spiritual Presence of Christ is necessary for the preparation and opening of the peoples Hearts to receive and embrace the Gospel to Salvation not an Heart will open to receive Christ till the Spirit of Christ unlock them Paul and Timothy were extraordinarily called to Preach
skin which are not accidental but connate as the reasonings of Men can prevail to remove the mighty power of customary sin Physitians find it a hard thing to Cure a Cakexia or ill habit of Body 'T is a grave and serious note of Seneca A teneris assuescere multum est 'T is a great matter to be accustomed this way or that from our childhood every repeated act of sin confirms and strenghtens the habit and hence it is that we see so few Conversions in old Age. It was a wonder in the Primitive times that Marcus Caius Victorius imbraced Christianity in the sixtieth year of his age take an habituated Drunkard a self-righteous Moralist lay before them the necessity of a change and you shall find it as easie to stop the course of a River with the breath of your Mouth as to stop them in an accustomed course of sinning That 's the fourth Bar to Christ. Fifth Bar. The Fifth Bar opposing and resisting Christs entrance into the Soul is the sin of Presumption this is the sin that parts Christ and thousands of Souls in the World presuming they hope and hoping they perish when Men presume their condition is safe already their Souls never make out after a Saviour This was the ruine of Laodicea Rev. 3. 17. Because thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked This damning presumption is discovered in three things 1 Many think they have that grace which they have not mistaking the Similar for the saving Works of the Spirit a fatal mistake never rectified with many thousands till it be too late 2 They presume to find that mercy in God which they will never find for all the saving mercies of God are dispensed to Men through Christ in the way of Regeneration and Faith Iude vers 21. 3 They presume upon that time for Repentance and Faith hereafter which their Eyes shall never see And thus presumption locks up the Heart against Christ and leaves sinners perishing in the presence of a Saviour They make a bridge of their own shadow and so perish in the Waters Sixth Bar. The Sixth and last sin barring up the Heart against Christ is a strong prejudice against holyness and the strict duties of Religion Thus in the very infancy of Christianity the World was scared and driven off from Religion by the common prejudices that lay upon the Professors of it Acts 28. 22. As concerning this Sect we know that every where it is spoken against Thus Iustin Martyr complains that Christians were every where condemned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by common same and upon this account Christ pronounces a wo upon the World because of offences Matth. 18. 7. Alas it will be the ruine of Thousands some have suckt in such prejudicate Opinions and vile Notions of Religio◠and its Professors as makes them irreconcilable enemies to it Satan hath drest it up in their fancies in such an odious form and representation that makes them loath both name and thing These prejudices are drawn from various things sometimes from the necessary duties of Christianity which are laid as crimes upon the people of God Psal. 69. 10. When I wept and chastned my Soul with fasting that was to my reproach Sometimes the groundless and malicious slanders and inventions of the enemies of Christianity are the occasions of real prejudices to the World Ier. 18. 18. Come let us devise devices against Jeremiah and let us smite him with the Tongue Sometimes the innocent and serious Professors of godliness are censured and condemned for hypocritical professors sakes who never heartily espoused Religion And lastly the ways of holiness suffer for the slips and infirmities of weak Christians who commonly give too many occasions to disgust the World against the ways of God. By these things multitudes are kept off from attendance upon the means of Grace and multitudes more have their Hearts shut up from receiving any saving benefit under them These are the common Bars and Locks by which the strong Man armed secures his possession in the Souls of sinners and these Bars are too strong for any power beneath the Almighty power and Arm of God to remove or break t is said Acts 14. 27. That the Lord opened a door of Faith to the Gentiles The Arm of the Lord must be revealed or none will open to Christ by Faith Isa. 53. 1. 1. The iron Bar of the Law that thundering terrible Law cannot force open the Heart of an unbeliever all the dreadful curses flying out of its fiery mouth make no more impression than a Tennis ball against a wall of Marble Deut. 29. 19. You read of them that hear the words of this Curse yet bless themselves in their Heart saying they shall have peace though they walk in the imagination of their Hearts to add Drunkenness to Thirst. They play with Hell and Eternal Torments rush into iniquity as the Horse rusheth into the Battle act as men in love with their own Death as those that are at an agreement with Hell. Oh the besotting hardning infatuating power of sin 2. The Golden Key of free Grace cannot in it self remove these Bars and open mens Hearts to Christ Matth. 11. 17. We have piped unto you but ye have not danced The melodious and delicious Airs of Grace Mercy Peace and Pardon affect not the dead Hearts of unbelievers Like deaf Adders they stop their Ears at the voice of the Charmer charm he never so wisely These Gospel melodies only dispose them to a more quiet sleep in sin 3. No works of Providence are in themselves sufficient to open the Hearts of Men to Christ. 1. The Judgments of God cannot do it thousands have been made sick with smiteing that yet cannot be made sick for sin I have consumed them but they refused to receive correction they have made their Faces harder then a Rock they have refused to return Jer. 5. 3. Messengers of Judgment are abroad smiting some in their Estates scattering in one day the labour of many years and therein giving a warning blow at the Conscience to make sure of Christ and the World to come since their comfort and happiness is scattered in this World. Some are smitten in their dearest relations Death knocks at their doors and carries out the delight of their Eyes and with the same admonisheth their Souls to place their happiness in more durable comforts Some are smitten in their Bodies with Diseases giving warning of the near approach of their latter end and bidding them prepare for another habitation but all in vain 2ly No mercies of God are in themselves sufficient to open the obstinate Hearts of sinners to Christ. God hath heapt up mercies by multitudes upon many of you all these mercies of God lead you to repentance Rom. 2. 4 5. They take you in a friendly way by the Hand and thus talk with you
him with his cross of sufferings and his yoak of obedience Matth. 16. 24. Matth. 11. 29. An exception against either of these is an effectual Bar to thy Union with Christ he looks upon that Soul as not worthy of him that puts in such an exception Matth. 10. 38. If thou judgest not Christ worth all sufferings all losses all reproaches he judges thee unworthy to bear the name of his Disciple So for the duties of Obedience called his yoke he that will not receive Christs yoke can never receive his Person nor any benefit by his Blood. V. Mark. Every Heart that opens sincerely and Evangelically to Christ opens to him in deep humility and sense of its emptiness and unworthiness all self-righteousness is given up as dung and dross thus Abraham came unto him as to one that justifieth the ungodly Rom. 4. 5. Now unto him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is accounted for righteousness Yea here 's the true way of Justification indeed where the imputed righteousness of Christ comes all self-righteousness vanishes before it By him that worketh not understand not an idle lazy believer that takes no care of the duties of obedience no no an idle Faith can never be a saving Faith but the meaning is he worketh not in a Law sense to the ends and intentions of the first Covenant to make up a righteousness to himself by his own working to cover himself-with a robe of righteousness of his own spinning and weaving a home-made Cloth no not a rag of that Thou must receive Christ into an empty naked unworthy Soul or not receive him at all Blessed Paul heartily rejected all his own righteousness cast down that House-Idol to the ground that he might be found in the imputed righteousness of Christ Phil. 3. 8. cast that Idol out of door it stands in the way of a better righteousness There be diverse ways wherein sinners maintain their own righteousness to their own ruin there is a gross and more refined self-righteousness the one more palpable and easily liable to conviction the other much harder to be discovered and cured Ask some Men upon what their hopes of Salvation are grounded And they will tell you they are just in their dealings with Men and constant in their prayers to God that 's all and therefore they doubt not of their Salvation Thus they substitute a righteousness of their own in the room of Christ's blood and are their own destroyers by seeking this way to be their own Saviours But then there is a more refined way of self-righteousness drest up with such pretences of humility that Men are hardly to be convinced of it I pitty many poor Souls upon this account who stand off from Christ dare not believe because they want such and such qualifications to fit them for Christ. O saith one could I find so much brokenness of Heart for sin so much reformation and power over corruptions then I could come to Christ the meaning of which is this if I could bring a price in my Hand to purchase him then I should be in couraged to go unto him Here now lyes horrible pride covered over with a vail of great humility Poor sinner either 〈◊〉 naked and empty-handed according to Isa. 55. 1. Rom. 4. 5. or expect a repulse for Christ is not the Sale but the Gift of God. VI. Mark. Lastly Whatever Soul opens savingly to Christ it opens finally and everlastingly to him the Heart once opened to Christ must stand open for ever to him never to shut out Christ any more And here is a very observable difference betwixt a Man that comes to Christ in a suddain fright of Conscience and parts with him again when that fright is over and a Man that receiveth Christ not to sojourn but to dwell in his Heart by Faith Eph. 3. 17. when Christ comes into the Heart he saith Here will I dwell for ever and Lord saith the Soul So I receive thee this is the day of union O let me never know a day of separation let it never be in the power of Life or Death Angels Principalities or Powers things present or to come to make a separation between thee and me Soul saith Christ thou shalt be mine whilst I am in Heaven and Lord saith the Soul I will be thine whilst I am on Earth I will never leave thee nor forsake thee saith Christ Oh my Lord saith the Soul hold me fast in thy Hand that I may never leave nor forsake thee my Estate Liberty and Life may and must go but it is in the fixed purpose of my Heart never never to let thee go The espousals betwixt Christ and the Soul are for ever Hos. 2. 19. I will betroth thee unto me for ever yea for ever and here lyes another great difference betwixt the Hipocrite that takes Christ with a politick reserve that will venture with Christ at Sea no farther than he can see the shore and the upright Heart that imbarks it self with Christ without reserves come what will that saith to him as Ittai to David when perswaded to go back in a time of danger nay saith he where my Lord Jesus Christ is whether it be in Liberty or in Prison in Life or in Death there also will I be Flesh may perswade to a retreat nay saith the Soul I cannot retreat but where-ever the truths of Christ the interest and glory of Christ are there also must I be for upon these terms I first received him and opened the door of my Heart to him These things are no surprises to me Christ and I have debated them long ago he delt fairly with me and I must deal faithfully with him Now Brethren view over these six Tryals Have your Eyes been opened to see sin in its vileness Christ in his beauty and necessity Have your Hearts been prick'd and wounded with compunction and sorrow for sin Are the loves and delights of sin gone out of your Souls Have you no exceptions either to the cross or yoke of Christ Have you given up all your own righteousness whether gross or refined for dung and dross and received Christ for ever Then thy Heart is savingly opened to him Fourth Use. The last Use that closeth this Point will be Consolation to all those whose Hearts the Lord hath thus opened to receive Christ at his knocks and calls of the Gospel Hath God indeed opened any of your Hearts and made you sincerely willing to receive Christ then there are ten sweet Consolations like so many boxes of precious oyntment to be poured forth in the close of this discourse upon every such Soul. And I. Consolation The first shall be this the opening of any Mans Heart to receive Christ is a clear solid Scripture evidence of the Lords eternal love to and setting apart that Man for himself from all eternity I do not say that every Man whose Heart is opened by Faith is thereupon immediately assured
will try what that will do go Poverty and blast his Estate and see what that will do go Sickness and smite his Body and shake him over the Graves mouth I will see what that will do Thus God sends to sinners as Absolom sent to Ioab who refused to come near him till he set fire to his field of Corn and then away comes Ioab 2 Sam. 14. 29 30 31. And thus the Lord opened the Heart of the Iaylor by putting him into a fright a panick fear of Death Acts 16. 27. And thus doth the Lord devise means to bring back his banished II. As God makes use of the Hammer of Judgments so he makes use also of Mercies to make way for Christ into the Hearts of Men. Every Mercy is a call a knock of God and truly if there be any ingenuity left unextinguished in the Heart one would think Mercy should prevail more than all the Judgments in the World Rom. 2. 4. Knowest thou not that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance q. d. Dost thou not see the Hand of Mercy stretched out to lead thee into a corner there to mourn over thy sins committed against so gracious and merciful a God By every Mercy you receive Christ doth as it were â—ee you to open your Hearts to him they are so many gifts sent from Heaven to make way for Christ into your Hearts It would be an endless task to enumerate all the Mercies bestowed to this end upon the unregenerate but surely this is the errand of them all and the Lord takes it very ill when his end is not answered in them hence is that complaint Ier. 5. 24. Neither say they in their Heart Let us now fear the Lord our God that giveth us rain both the former and the latter in his season Some of you have been marvelously preserved in times of common Contagion and Death when thousands have fallen at your right-hand and left then have you been preserved or recovered according to that Exod. 15. 26. I will put none of those Diseases upon thee for I am the Lord that healeth thee I am Iehovah Rophe the Lord the Phisitian many of you have been at the Graves mouth in many Diseases others upon the Deeps yet the Hand of Mercy pulled you back and suffered you not to drop into the Grave and Hell in the same moment O what a knock was here given by the Hand of Mercy at thy hard Heart Certainly if Men would but observe they might see a strange marvellous working and moulding of things by the Hand of providence for the production of thousands of Mercies for them and if Mercy would do the work and win you over to Christ many rods had been spared which your obstinacy hath made necessary O ungrateful sinners Doth your Redeemer thus woo and fee you by so many gifts of Mercy and yet will you shut him out Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise For which of all his benefits do your ungrateful Souls shut the door upon him III. You see what Christ's knocking at the Soul of a sinner implies and by what instruments it is performed In the last place we will consider the manner how this action is performed in the Ten following Particulars wherein much of the mistery of Conversion will be opened the Lord grant your experience may answer them VVe cannot indeed exactly describe and mark all the footsteps of the Spirit in this VVork upon the Souls of Men yet these things seem eminently observable 1. The knocks of Christ at the sinners Heart are silent and secret to all persons in the VVorld except the Soul it self at whose door he knocks here be many hundreds of you this day under the VVord if the Lord shall this day knock by Conviction at any Man's Heart none will hear that knock but that Man only for it is a knock without sound or noise to any but the particular Soul concerned in it It was fore-prophesied of our Redeemer and of this very act of his Isa. 4. 2. 2. He shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the Street The Kingdom of God cometh not into the Souls of Men with publick observation you read in 1 Cor. 2. 11. No Man knoweth the things of a Man saving the Spirit of a Man that is in him None knows what Convictions another Man's Conscience feels until he himself shall discover them you hear the same sound of the Gospel but you hear not the inward stroaks it gives to another Man's Conscience Christ's approaches to the Soul make no noise little do we know what the Spirit of Christ whispers in the Ear of him that sits next us 'T is said of the inward comforts of the Spirit I will give him the hidden Manna which no Man knows but he that eateth of it This is true also of inward terrors and troubles Christ's knocks by Conviction are but a secret whisper of his Spirit in the Ear of a sinner saying Thou art the Man this is thy case That is the first thing in the manner of Christ's knocking 't is a silent knock without publick sound 2ly These silent inward knocks of the Spirit of Christ though they are heard by none but the Soul it self yet do they greatly differ as to the terror or mildness of them in different subjects Some hear them with more terror and astonishment others in a mild and gentle manner when the Lord knockt at the Iaylors Conscience Acts 16. 29 30. it was a terrible stroak he called for a light and sprang in like a Man distracted and trembling and astonied fell down at the Apostles feet crying Sirs what must I do to be saved Here was a terrible knock indeed which almost affrighted his Soul out of his Body it is as if he had said Tell me for the Lord's sake and tell me quickly whether there be any way of Salvation and where it lies for I am a lost Man an undone Soul. But when the Lord opened the Heart of Lydia there were no such terrors the Lord spake to her in a more mild and gentle voice as you see verse 14. the Spirit of God varies his method according to the temper of the Soul he worketh on Knotty pieces need greater wedges and harder blows to rive them asunder and as he directs his Ministers Iude 22. to make a difference to deal tenderly and compassionately with some but others to save with fear so he himself observeth like different methods 3ly Some knocks of Christ are succesful and obtain the desired effect He knocks and the Soul opens but others are insuccessful he knocks once and again by Convictions which may cause the Conscience for the present to startle a little but there is no opening to Christ by Faith. O friends this is of dreadful consideration Prov. 1. 24. I called and you refused I stretched out my Hand and no Man regarded There 's a call without an answer a
slightly crying Peace peace where there is no peace Remember the foundation is now laying for Eternity and that this is the time of deep consideration Men and Women must ponder the terms and count the cost and deliberately accept and close with Christ before the Consolations of the Promises can be regularly administred to them III. Inference What a singular blessing is a rouzing faithful Ministry among the people By such a Ministry Christ knocks powerfully this is one of the greatest blessings God can bestow upon a people next to the saving effects of it when he sends among them Powerful Judicious Preachers of the Gospel under whose Ministry their Consciences cannot sleep quietly These are the proper Instruments Christ knocks at Men's Hearts by and as for those Prophets that sow pillows for drowsie sinners to sleep quietly upon the Lord owns them not for his Lam. 2. 14. Thy Prophets not mine but thine have seen vain and foolish things for thee they have not discovered thine iniquity 'T is true those Ministers that give Men no rest nor quietness in their sins must expect but little rest and quietness themselves What is it for Ministers to preach home to the Consciences of others but to pull down the rage of the World upon their own Heads But certainly you will have cause to bless God to Eternity for casting your lot under such a Ministry and the Lord accounts such a mercy sufficient to recompense any outward affliction that lyes upon you Isa. 30. 20. You fare richly under such Doctrine though the Lord should feed you with the bread of Affliction and give you the waters of Adversity to drink this makes amends for all Thine Eyes shall behold thy Teachers and they shall be driven no more into corners O blessed be God that Englands corners are this day emptied that its Pulpits may be filled with laborious faithful Ministers O that the knocks of Christ might this day be heard in all the Cities Towns and Villages of this Nation the Kingdom of God is come nigh unto us this mercy is invaluable pray that the Lord would continue it and make all your Ministers and Means whether more publick or private successful IV. Inference And then Lastly let all Men beware of those things that deafen their Ears and drown the sound of Christs knocks and calls in the Gospel What pernicious Enemies to the Souls of Men are all those persons and things that turn away Men's Ears from attending to the knocks and calls of Christ in his Word Such are 1. Prophane wicked Men who like Elimas the Sorcerer make it their buisness by wicked insinuations flouts and jeers to turn away Men's Ears from the Gospel Acts 13. 10. O full of all subtilty and all mischief thou child of the Devil thou enemy of all righteousness wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord All opposition of godliness hath a spice of Devilishness and no Child more resembles his Father than a scoffing Enemy resembles his Father the Devil But blessed be God for that good Providence which in a great measure hath stopt the Mouths both of the Father and his Children this day 2. Take heed of carnal and ungodly Relations which discourage and threaten their Children Servants and all that depend on them from attending upon on the means or giving way to the Convictions which God by them hath set on upon their Hearts Cruel Parents who had rather see their Children turned into their Graves than turning to the ways of serious godliness O that any should dare to quench the beginnings of Spiritual life in those to whom they were instruments to convey natural life 3. Take heed of the World its distracting cares and charming pleasures What a din what a confused buz and noise do these things make in the Ears of Men Mark 4. 19. The cares of this World choak the Word and it becometh unfruitful Tell not them of getting Christ they must study how to get bread These are some of those distracting and diverting sounds which drown the voice of Christ's knocks and calls in the Gospel As you value your Souls beware of them II. Vse for Exhortation Christ is now come near us in the Gospel Behold he stands at the door and knocks And I am here this day to demand your answer and in his name I do solemnly demand it What shall I return to him that sent me What sayst thou sinner Wilt thou open to Christ or wilt thou shut him out And with him thy own Pardon Peace and Salvation Once more let me try the force of a few more arguments upon your Hearts and refute your vain pleas to the contrary methinks no Heart should be able to resist such Motives and rational Perswasions as these following will be found to be First You are in exream need of Christ you want him more than Bread or Breath many things are convenient for your Bodies but Christ is the one thing necessary for your Souls Luke 10. 9. One thing is necessary Necessity is an Engine that will open any thing in the World that can be opened necessity will make all fly before it Now there is a plain present absolute necessity lying upon every one of you to open your Hearts to Christ and that without delay Necessity goes before the face of Christ to open the way for him into the Heart thou must have him or be lost for ever Christ and Faith are not among the may bees but the must bees to the happiness of thy Soul. A Man may be poor and happy reproached and blessed but he cannot be Christless and safe nor Christless and comfortable you must have Christ or you cannot have life Iohn 3. 36. You must have Christ or you can have no hope Col. 1. 27. Christ and life Christ and hope go together no Christ no life no Christ no hope sinner thou must have Christ or thou canst have no pardon for Christ and pardon are undivided Ephes. 1. 7. In a word you must have Christ or you can have no Salvation Acts 4. 12. Well then if thou canst have no life nor hope no pardon nor Salvation without Christ then a plain necessity goes before Christ to open his way into thine Heart methinks thou shouldst now say Then will I open to Christ whatever the terms be Come sufferings losses reproaches yea death it self all is one Christ I must have and Christ I will have necessity is layed upon me and my Heart is opened to Christ by it wo to me for ever if I miss of Christ. Secondly The Lord Jesus is this day come nigh to every one of your Souls I may say to you as Christ did to them Luke 10. 9. The Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you The Lord grant he be not as nigh to some of you as ever he shall be for he must come nearer or else you are lost for ever It is not Christ among you in the Means of
Fathers Face from Eternity before this time but now the smiling Face of God was hid and a strong impression of his Wrath made upon him And now Brethren you see what Christ hath endured both in his Body and in his Soul and all for the sake of Sinners What think you now is not Christ an earnest Suiter Doth not all this fully and plainly speak the ardours of his Love the fervencies of his desires after union and communion with us If this do not then nothing can demonstrate Love and Desire That 's the first thing the greatness of the Sufferings which he endured Secondly Let us next consider the Use and Intention of these Sufferings of Christ and how this also demonstrates the earnestness of his desires after Conjugal union with us Now there was a double Use and End of the Sufferings of Christ. 1. To make us free that we might be capable of Espousals 2. To win our Affections by the argument of his Sufferings I. One End of Christs death was to purchase our Freedom that we might be capable of being Espoused to him for you must know that we were not in a capacity whilst under the curse of the Law to be married unto Christ the Apostle Rom. 7. 2 3 4. compares the Law to a Husband to whom the Wife is bound as long as he liveth and not capable of a second marriage until her Husband be dead The Death of Christ was the Death of the Law as a Covenant of Works holding us under the bond of a Curse of it and so it gave us a manumission or freedom from that bond and a capacity of espousals to Christ as vers 4. Wherefore my brethren ye also are become dead to the Law by the Body of Christ that ye should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead A Slave to another is not capable of being disposed in marriage until made Free you were in bondage to the Law the slaves of of Sin and Satan Christ bought out your liberty for his Blood is call'd a ransom Matth. 20. 28. and so put you into a capacity of being espoused unto himself here you see Christ loved you not for any advantage he could have by you for you had nothing to bring him nay he must purchase you and that with his own Blood before he can be united to you O incomparable love O fervent desires II. Another design and end of the Death of Christ was to win and gain our Hearts and Affections to himself by the argument of his Death this himself hath declared to be the very end and intention of it Ioh. 12. 32. And I if I be lifted up from the Earth will draw all Men unto me this he said signifying what Death he should dye Christ endured all that you have heard and infinitely more than the Tongue or Pen of Man can express and all to draw thy Soul and win thy consent to come unto him the Lord Jesus by his sufferings casts a threefold cord over the Souls of Sinners to draw them to himself 1. The Death of Christ obtains compleat righteousness for guilty sinners and if any thing in the World will draw the Heart of a sinner this will the anxious search and enquiry of a convinced sinner is after a perfect righteousness to justifie him before God. O that 's it the sinner wants Conscience saith thou hast broken all the Laws of God and art therefore a Law condemned wretch the sentence of the Law casts thee for Hell Now what would a poor sinner give for a release from this sentence of the Law O ten thousand Worlds for a Pardon Why here it is saith Christ Come unto me and thou shalt receive a free full and final pardon my Blood cleanseth from all sin my righteousness answers all the demands of the Law. I have taken away the Hand-writing that was against thee and nayled it to my Cross Col. 2. 14. Come unto me and take up thy Bonds thy cancelled Bonds come unto me and that dreadful attribute of Divine Justice shall never scare or fright thy Conscience any more nay thou shalt build thy hope upon it you read Rom. 3. 25. That God hath set forth Christ to be a propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Iesus Here you see the justification and pardon of a sinner built upon that very Attribute which was so frightful and dreadful to him before Well then poor sinner is there guilt upon thy Conscience And doth thy Soul shake and quiver to think how it shall stand before the Just and Terrible God in the great Day Hearken to the voice of Christ crucified who calls thee to him to receive thy discharge which if thou refuse the Law still stands in its full force and vertue against thy Soul. This is one cord Christ casts from the Cross over the Souls of guilty sinners to draw them to him 2ly The Death of Christ purchases and procures perfect cleansing from the filth and pollution of sin to wash the defiled Souls of sinners from all their uncleanness For this is he that came by water and by blood not by blood only but by water also 1 Joh. 5. 6. He comes by way of Sanctification as well as by way of Justification Lord saith a convinced sinner what an unclean Nature Heart and Life have I O I am nothing but a heap of uncleanness an abhorence to God and my self how shall such an Heart as mine such an Augean Stable be cleansed Come unto me saith Christ I came by Water as well as Blood in me thou shalt find a Fountain for Sanctification as well as Justification come unto me and my Spirit shall undertake the cleansing of thy Heart he shall take away the pollutions of sin perfectly so that it shall be presented to God without spot 3ly And lastly The transcendent love of Christ shines out in its full strength upon the Souls of sinners from the Cross and there 's nothing like love to draw love when Christ was lifted up upon the Cross he gave such a glorious demonstration of the strength of his love to sinners as one would think should draw love from the hardest Heart that ever lodged in a sinners Breast Herein is love saith the Apostle not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 Joh. 4. 10. q. d. Here 's the triumph the riches and glory of Divine Love never was such love manifested in the World. There 's much of Gods love in Temporal Providences but all 's nothing to this this is love in its highest Elevation Love in its Meridian Glory before it was none like it and after it shall none appear like unto it And thus you
3. 10. And if God remove the Gospel from among us as our delays and triflings provoke him to do then the Treaty is ended and there 's little probability that any thing further will be done betwixt Christ and you Luke 13. 25. 3. Bring this matter to an issue with all due speed because you are not capable to give one sound reason for a moments delay of so great and weighty a concernment can you be safe too soon Can you be happy too soon Certainly you cannot be out of the danger of Hell too soon and therefore why should not your close with Christ upon the terms propounded be your very next work For certainly if the buisness the main work and buisness of every Mans life be to fly from the wrath to come as indeed it is Mat. 3. 7. and to fly for refuge to Jesus Christ as indeed it is Heb. 6. 18. Then certainly all delays are highly dangerous in such a buisness as this the Manslayer when flying to the refuge City before the avenger of Blood when his Heart was hot within him did not think he could recover the City too soon and now set all your own reason to work upon this matter put the case as really it is I am fleeing from wrath to come the Justice of God and curses of the Law are closely pursuing me is it reasonable that I now sit down in the way to gather flowers or play with trifles For such are all our other concernments in this World compared with our Salvation 4. Bring this Treaty to an issue with all due speed because most Souls that perish perish by delays Men think they have time enough before them and that to morrow will be as to day and so Satan gets part by part what he had not confidence to demand in the whole lump Most that perish under the Gospel had convictions upon their Consciences and vain purposes in their Hearts but not 〈◊〉 them to a speedy execution that was their undoing Iames 1. 24. He beholdeth himself and goeth his way and straight way forgetteth what manner of person he was It is an allusion to a Man that looks in the morning into a Glass where he discerns a spot upon his Face and resolves with himself anon to wash it off but some diversion or other falls in other matters take up his thoughts and so the spot remains all day and he carries it with him to bed at night O these delays are the undoing of millions 5. Delay not to close this Treaty with Christ because all delay increases the difficulty and the longer you neglect the more will your Hearts be hardned by the deceitfulness of sin Heb. 3. 13. Continuance in sin and quenching of convictions do sensibly harden the Heart and stiffen the Will Under the first convictions the Heart is tender the affections flowing O if this advantage were apprehended and pursued how soon might the work come to a comfortable conclusion but after a while those Soul-affecting words Sin Christ Heaven Hell Death and Eternity will become words of a common sound 6. And lastly Beware of delays in this matter because you can never expect a fitter and fairer opportunity and season for the dispatch of this great concernment than by the special indulgence of Heaven you enjoy this day 2 Cor. 6. 1 2. Now is the accepted time now is the day of Salvation You have now the Wind and Tide with you if you will not weigh Anchor now you may lye Wind-bound to your dying day what advantages can you reasonably expect which God hath not furnished you with at this day You have the means of Grace among you you have liberty and freedom to attend on those means without fear Say not I have such or such troubles and encumbrances in the World for you must never expect to be without them except you only shall find the World another thing than all others find it have you health O what a precious season and advantage is that Art thou sick O what a spur is that What is to be done must be done quickly III. Vse for Direction But it may be some Souls will plead ignorance that they know not how to manage and transact so great a concernment with Christ and therefore set not about it and it is very likely there may be much truth in that plea. For the help and assistance of such Souls I will gather up the sum of what hath been and ought to be further spoken about this matter in the following Directions so that nothing but your unwillingness and slothfulness shall remain to hinder you I. Direction First If ever you bring the Treaty betwixt Christ and your Souls to an happy issue and conclusion you must as before was noted sit down and count the cost Luke 14. 28. 't will be in vain else to engage your selves in the profession of Religion it is not Christs design to draw you under a rash inconsiderate engagement and so to reap more dishonour by your apostacy and hypocrisie than ever he shall have glory by your Profession No he would have you to foresee and seriously bethink your selves of all the outward troubles and inconveniencies you may afterwards meet with for his sake You are to embark your selves with Christ and abide with him in storms as well as halcyon days you must follow the Lamb whether soever he goeth Rev. 14. 4. There 's no retreating after engagement to Christ If any Man draw back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him Heb. 10. 38. 'T is eternal death by that martial Law of Heaven to run from Christs colours in the day of battle Well then retire thy self into the innermost closet of thy Soul sit quiet and patiently there till thou hast debated this matter fully with thine own thoughts and hast ballanced the good and the evil the profits and losses of Religion for want of this the Church is filled with hypocrites and Hell with inconsiderate and rash Professors the more we deliberate the better we shall conclude II. Direction Secondly Having debated the matter over and over in thy most sedate and serious thoughts let not Satan discourage thee from casting thy Soul at Christs Feet with an hearty consent to all his terms for want of such and such qualifications as thou canst not find in thine own Soul 'T is usual for Satan to suggest at this time the want of greater sorrow and humiliation for sin that the Soul hath not layen long enough under the humbling work of the Law that the aggravations of its sins have been such that there is no hope of acceptance free thy Soul from these snares of Satan by the consideration of this unquestionable truth That Christ expects from thee no more humiliation than what produceth such a hearty deliberate consent as thy Will is now to give and such a consent once gained no aggravation of sin is pleadable against the duty of believing III. Direction Thirdly Distrust not
are ordained to eternal Life shall believe and feel the power of Gods truths upon their Hearts Acts 13. 48. And methinks it should be of a startling consideration when you shall see others struck to the Heart cast into fears and tremblings by the same Word that doth not in the least touch your Hearts It may be you think this is but fancy and melancholy that very thought is an artifice of Satan to blind your Eyes I am sure Christ makes another use of it when he told the secure and self-righteous Jews Matth. 21. 32. John came unto you in the way of righteousness and ye believed him not but the Publicans and Harlots believed him and ye when ye had seen it repented not afterward that ye might believe him q. d. What shift did you make to quiet your Consciences when you saw other poor sinners so humbled and bronght to Faith under Iohn's Ministry 'T is strange there should be no reflections in your Consciences upon your own state and condition but thus it must be one shall be taken and another left to some it shall be the savour of life unto life and to others the savour of death unto death O who can look over so great a part of a Congregation without melting bowels of compassion Considering that unto this day the Lord hath not given them Eyes to see nor Ears to hear They have heard multitudes of Sermons they have heard also what effects they have had upon other Mens Hearts but none upon theirs O that such poor Souls would cry to the Lord Jesus in such Language as that Cant. 8. 13. The companions hearken to thy voice cause me to hear it Lord let me not sit under the Word any longer deaf to the voice of thy Spirit in it Open and unstop the Ears of my Soul that I may hear thy voice and feel thy power otherwise the external ministerial voice will be ineffectual to my Salvation 'T will be but a Rattle to still and quiet my Conscience for a little while and a dreadful aggravation of my misery in the issue II. Vse of Information Secondly The Point before us presents five other Truths with equal clearness to ous Eyes I. Inference In the first Place hence it follows That we have this day before our Eyes a great Seal and confirmation of the truth of the Scriptures No miracles can seal it firmer than the events of it do which are visible to all that will observe them What you read in the Word you may see every day fulfill'd before your Eyes you read 2 Cor. 2. 15 16. We are unto God a sweet savour of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish To the one we are the savour of death unto death and to the other the savour of life unto life And again Acts 28. 24. it is observed that when Paul in his lodgings had expounded and testified the Kingdom of God to the people and perâ—wading them to believe from morning till-evening it is observed I say that some believed 〈◊〉 things that were spoken and some believed not Here you see the different yea contrary events of the preaching of the Gospel according to the Scripture account of it it quickens some and kills others it brings some to Faith and leaves others still fixed in unbelief Compare this account with what is daily before your Eyes do you not see Souls differently influenced to contrary effects under the same word One melting and tender another hardned and wholly unconcerned Tell me you that are apt to ascribe all to nature how comes it to pass that men exercising reason alike men that have the same inbred fears and hopes of things eternal who have the same passions and affections and are in the self same condition and state with others yet one Mans Heart shall be wounded and go away trembling from under the self same word which affects the other no more than if it had been preached among the Tombs to the dead that lye there Say not some have more courage than others or clearer understandings for it is most certain the Word hath convinced as rational and courageous persons as those upon whom it hath had no such effect I doubt not but the Jaylor that was cast into such tremblings and astonishment Acts 16. 30. was as stout and rugged a person as any to whom Paul usually preached his very office bespake him such a Man wonder not what it is that makes Men fright at such a sound which you hear as well as they but it affects you not The Lord speaks in that voice to their Hearts but not to yours and so it must be according to the account the Scripture gives us of the contrary events of the Gospel upon them that hear it which is I say a fair and firm Seal of the truth of the Scriptures and highly worth the due observation of all Men. II. Inference What dignity hath God stampt on Gospel Ordinances in making them the organs and mediums through and by which Christ speaks life to dead Souls This greatly exalts the dignity of the Gospel and deservedly endears it to all our Souls I deny not but God can convey Spiritual life immediately without them but though he hath not tyed up himself yet he hath tyed us up to a diligent and constant attendance upon them and that with the deepest respect and reverence to them Luke 10. 16. He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me Behold how the sin is graduated and aggravated to the hight of sinfulness The contempt of the Gospel runs much higher than Men are aware of We think it no great matter to neglect or contemn a messenger of Jesus Christ but that contempt flies in the very face and authority of Christ who gave them their Commissions yea in the very face of God the Father who gave Christ his Commission Christ speaks in and by his Ministers they are as his mouth Ier. 15. 19. Moreover the sin sticks at our own Souls and we injure them as well as Christ For the Word preached is his appointed Instrument to convey spiritual life the best of Blessings to our Souls Upon which account it is called the Word of life Phil. 2. 16. and the power of God to salvation Rom. 1. 16. We then militate against our life and salvation when we despise and neglect the Ordinances of God. 'T is good for men to lye under them and continually wait on them who knows when the Spirit of God will breathe life to your Souls through them What if yet you have found no such benefit from them the very next opportunity may be the time of life the appointed season of your salvation Bring your carnal Relations to them as they did their sick and diseased Friends in the days when Christ was on Earth laying them in the way he was to pass Christ will honour his Ordinances
is a standing mercy never to be recall'd vacated or annulled Rom. 8. 33 34 35. The challenge is sent to Hell and Earth Men and Devils Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect 'T is God that justifies who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died c. Who can arrest when the Creditor dischargeth Who can sue the bond when the debt is paid 'T is Christ that died The Table is spread and the first mercy served in is the pardon of sin Eat O friends drink yea drink abundantly O beloved Now the labouring Conscience that rowled and tossed upon the waves of a thousand fears may drop Anchor and ride quiet in the pacifique Sea of a pardoned State. What joy must stream through the Conscience when the sweetness of that Scripture Rom. 8. 1. shall be pressed into thy cup of Consolation The pardoned Soul may speak and think of Death and Judgment without consternation yea may look upon it as a time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord Acts 3. 19. This is heavenly Manna the sweetness of it swallows up all expression all conceptions no words no thoughts can comprehend the riches of this mercy II. And yet this is not all behold another mercy in consequence unto this brought in to refresh and cheer the consenting Soul and that is peace with God. Pardon and peace go together Rom. 5. 1. Being justified by faith we have peace with God. Peace is a word of a vast comprehension peace in the language of the Old Testament comprehends all Temporal good things 1 Sam. 25. 6. And peace in the New Testament comprehends all Spiritual mercies 2 Thes. 3. 16. the blessings of Heaven and Earth are wrapt up in this word The Soul that opens to Christ hath peace of reconciliation in Heaven the enmity that was betwixt God and that Soul is taken away through the blood of Christ Isa. 12. 1 2. O Lord I will praise thee though thou wast angry with me thine anger is turned away and thou comfortest me This must be an invaluable mercy for the purchase of it cost the blood of Christ Isa. 53. 5. The chastisement of our peace was upon him He made peace by the blood of his Cross Col. 1. 20. and this peace of reconciliation is setled by Christ upon a firm foundation His blood gives it a more firm and steady basis and foundation than that of the Hills and Mountains Isa. 54. 10. And that which makes it so firm and sure is the Advocateship of Jesus Christ in Heaven 1 Iohn 2. 1. 2. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father There is also peace in the believers Conscience peace as it were by Proclamation from Heaven and this is built upon the peace of Reconciliation We cannot have the the sense of peace till we are brought into a state of peace the latter is the result of the former And this is a special part of that supper Christ provides to entertain the Soul that receives it How sweet this is is better felt than spoken A dreadful sound was lately in the Ears of the Law-condemned sinner but now his Heart is the seat of peace And this peace is 1. the Souls gard against all inward and outward terrors Phil. 4. 7. The peace of God shall keep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as the word is guard your hearts and minds The persons of Princes are secured by guards of armed and valiant Men who watch while they sleep Thus Solomon had his royal guard because of fear in the night Cant. 3. 7 8. This peace of God Christian is thy life-guard and secures thee better than Solomons threescore valiant men that were about him Time was when thou wast affraid to sleep for fear thou shouldst awake in Hell Now thou maist say with David I will both lay me down and sleep for thou Lord makest me to dwell in safety Now come life come death the Soul is safe the peace of God is its royal guard 2. This peace is ease as well as safety to the Soul 'T is heart-ease no sooner doth God speak peace to the Conscience but the Soul finds it self at ease and rest Heb. 4. 3. We which have believed do enter into rest It is with such a Soul as it was with the Dove Noah sent out of the Ark that poor creature wandred in the Air as long as her wings could carry her had her strength fail'd there was nothing but the waters to receive her O how sweet was rest in the Ark 3. This peace is news from Heaven and the sweetest tydings that ever blest the sinners Ear next unto Christ Heb. 12. 24. The blood of Christ speaketh better things than that of Abel And you are come to this blood of sprinkling the same day and hour that Christ is come into your Souls This is the voice of that blood Thou hast sinned I have satisfied Thou hast kindled the wrath of God And I have quencht it The Angels of Heaven cannot feed higher their joys are not more delicious than those prepared for believers are whereof this is a foretast whatever circumstances of trouble a man be in this effectually relieves him Paul and Silas were in sad circumstances shut up in the inner-prison their feet made fast in the stocks their cruel keeper at the door their execution designed in a few days God did but set this dish upon the Table before the prisoners and they could not forbear to sing at the feast Acts 16. 25. At midnight they sang c. III. After these two royal dishes Pardon and Peace a third will come in viz. Ioy in the Holy Ghost this is somewhat beyond peace 't is the very quintessence and Spirit of all Consolation The Kingdom of God is said to consist in it Rom. 14. 17. 't is somewhat near to the joy of the glorified 1 Pet. 1. 8. 't is Heaven upon Earth All believers do not immediately attain it but one time or other God usually gives them a taste of it and when he doth it is as it were a short Salvation O who can tell what that is which the Apostle calls The shedding abroad of the love of God into the Heart by the Holy Ghost which is given to us Rom. 5. 5. It is a joy which wants an Epithet to express the sweetness of it 1 Pet. 1. 8. Ioy unspeakable and full of glory It hath the very scent and taste of Heaven in it and there is but a gradual difference betwixt it and the joy of Heaven This joy of the Holy Ghost is a spiritual cheeriness streaming through the Soul of a believer upon the Spirits testimony which clears his interest in Christ and glory No sooner doth the Spirit shed forth the love of God into the believers Heart but it streams and overflows with joy Joy is no more under that Souls command and this will evidently appear if you consider the matter of it it arises from the light of
Satan standing at his right-hand to resist him 'T is well for thee Christian that thou hast an Advocate standing at Gods right-hand to resist and frustrate his attempts upon thee otherwise Satan would this way destroy your communion with God and make that which is now your delight to be your terror Many ways doth the Devil oppose the Saints communion with God. Sometimes he labours to divert them from it This business shall fall in or that occasion fall out on purpose to divert thy Souls approach to God but if he cannot prevail there then he labours to distract your thoughts and break them into a thousand vanities Or if he succeed not there then he attacks you in your return from duty with Spiritual Pride Security c. These fierce oppositions of Hell discover the worth and excellency of communion with God. VII Excellency 'T is the End of all Ordinances and Duties of Religion God hath instituted every Ordinance and Duty whether publick or private to beget and maintain communion betwixt himself and our Souls What are Ordinances Duties and Graces but perspective Glasses to give us a sight of God and help us to communion with him God never intended his Ordinances to be our rest but mediums and instruments of communion with himself who is our true rest When we go into a Boat 't is not with an intention to dwell and rest there but to Ferry us over the Water where our business lies If a Man miss of communion with God in the best Ordinances or Duty it yields him little comfort He comes back from it like a man that hath travelled a great many miles to meet a dear friend upon special and important business but met with disappointment and returns sad and dissatisfied God appoints Ordinances to be meeting places with our God in this World Exod. 25. 21 22. Thou shalt put the mercy-seat above upon the Ark and in the Ark thou shalt pâ—â— the testimony that I shall give thee and there I will meet with thee and I will commune with thee from above the mercy-seat from between the two Cherubims It was not the sight of the golden Cherubims or of the Ark overlaid with pure gold that could have satisfied Moses had not the special presence of God been there and he had had communion with them O God saith David my Soul thirsteth for thee that I might see thy beauty and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary Psal. 63. 1 2. Magnificent structures artificial ornaments of the places of Worship are of little account with a gracious Soul. 'T is the presence of God and communion with him which is the beauty and glory the Saints desire to behold VIII Excellency 'T is the Evidence of our Union with Christ and interest in him All Union with Christ must evidence its self by a life of communion with him or our pretensions to it are vain and groundless There be many of you I wish there were more enquiring after evidences and signs of your union with Christ why here is an Evidence that can never fail you do you live in communion with him May your life be call'd a walking with God as Enoch's was Then you may be sure you have union with him and this is so sure a sign as death it self which uses to discover the vanity of false signs will never be able to destroy 2 Kings 20. 2 3. Remember now O Lord saith Hezechiah that I have walked before thee in truth and in a perfect Heart O Professors 't will be a dreadful thing whatever ungrounded hopes and false comforts you now have to find them shrinking away from you as certainly they will do at death and all upon this account I have been a man of knowledge I have been frequent in the external duties of Religion but my heart was not in them I had no communion with the Lord in them and now God is a terror to my Soul. I am going to his awful bar and have not one sound evidence to carry a long with me that 's a remarkable place Gal. 5. 25. If we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit that is let us evidence the life of grace in us by exercising that grace in a life of communion with God. When all is said this is the surest evidence of our union with Christ and no gifts or performances whatsoever can amount to an evidence of our union with Christ without it IX Excellency 'T is Ease in all pains sweet and sensible ease to a troubled Soul. Look as the breathing of a vein cools eases and refreshes a severish body so the opening of the Soul by acts of communion with God gives sensible ease to a burdened Soul griefs are eased by groans heaven-ward Many Souls are deep laden with their own fears cares and distresses no refreshment for such a Soul no such Anodine in the whole World as communion with God is Psal. 32. 1 2 3. How did troubles boyl in Davids Soul Night and day Gods hand was heavy on him his Soul as Elihu speaks was like bottles full of new Wine he must speak to God that he may be refreshed and so he did and was refreshed by it I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin It would grieve one to see how many poor distressed Souls carry their troubles up and down the World making their complaints to one and another but no ease Away to thy God poor Christian get thee into thy closet pour out thy Soul before him and that ease which thou seekest in vain elsewhere will there be found or nowhere X. Excellency 'T is Food to the Soul and the most delicious pleasant proper and satisfying food that ever it tasted 't is hidden Manna Rev. 2. 17. By these things O Lord do men live and in them is the life of their Soul Isa. 38. 16. A regenerate Soul cannot live without it their bodies can live as well without bread or breath as their Souls without communion with God 't is more than their necessary food Here they find what they truly call marrow and fatness Psal. 63. 5 6. O the satisfaction and support they suck out of spiritual things by thoughts and meditations upon them To be spiritually minded is life and peace Rom. 8. 6. The delicates upon Princes Tables are husks and chaff to this Crows and Vultures can live upon the Carrion of this World but a renewed Soul cannot subsist long without God. Let such a Soul be diverted for a time from its usual refreshments this way and he shall find something within paining him like the sucking and drawing of an empty stomach 't is Angels food 't is that your Souls must live upon throughout Eternity and most happily too XI Excellency 'T is the Guard of the Soul against the assaults of temptation 'T is like a Shield advanced against the fiery darts of that wicked one Your
Learned Men and prudent men who it may be have less heat but more VVisdom than you VVhy will you be singular VVhy will you hazzard all for that others will hazzard nothing But certainly such sins as these will cost you dear 't is a dreadful thing to betray the Truths and Honour of God for base secular ends and you will find it so when you and your consciences shall debate it together in a calm hour Secondly There are also sins of Vnrighteousness against the Second Table in which many live against the plain dictates and warnings of their own Consciences though they know the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all unrighteousness of men who hold the Truth in unrighteousness To give some Instances of this I. Instance And first let me Instance in that sin of Defrauding and going beyond others in our civil Commerce and Dealings with them over-reaching cozening and cheating the ignorant or unwary who it may be would not be so unwary as they are did they not repose trust and confidence in your deceitful words and promises Conscience cannot but startle at such sins the very Light of Nature discovers the evil of it and the sober Heathen abhor it but we that live under the Gospel cannot but feel some terror and trembling in our Consciences when we read such a severe and awful prohibition back'd with such a dreadful threatening as that is in 1 Thes. 4. 6. That no man defraud or go beyond his brother in any matter because that the Lord is the Avenger of all such The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that no man overtop viz. by power or by craft and policy To this sin a dreadful threatening is annexed the Lord is the Avenger of all such The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but once more that I remember used in the New Testament Rom. 13. 4. and is there applied to the Civil Magistrate he must see Execution done upon Malefactors but here the Lord himself will do it he will be this mans Avenger This Rod or rather this Ax Conscience shews men and gives warning of the danger and yet its Convictions are overpowered and bound as Prisoners by 1. The Excessive Love of Gain 1 Tim. 6. 9. But they that will be rich fall into Temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful Lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition When a resolution is made for the world men will be rich by right or wrong this powerfully armes the Temptation Set Gain before such a man and he will break through the Law of God and convictions of Conscience but he will have it This drowns them in perdition and destruction that is it surely throughly and fully ruins them as he is a dead man that is only drowned but to be drowned in destruction yea in destruction and perdition too this must needs make his ruin sure as sure as words can make it and so all such persons shall surely find it who persist in such a Course 2. Pinching Necessities and Straights overbear Conscience in others Necessity hath no Ears to attend the voice of the Word and Conscience Here Conscience and Poverty struggle together and if the Fear of God be not exalted in the Soul it now falls a prey to Temptation This danger wise Agur foresaw and earnestly intreated the Lord for a competency to avoid the snare of Poverty Prov. 30. 8 9. Poor Wretch how much better were it for thee to endure the pains of a griping stomach than those of a griping Conscience such gains may be sweet in thy mouth but bitter in thy Bowels 3. The Examples of others who daily venture on such sins without scruple and laugh at such squeamish Consciences as cheque at such things this emboldens others to follow them Psal. 50. 18 and thus the voice of Conscience is drowned and Convictions buried for a time but it will Thunder at last and thy buried convictions wil have a Resurrection and it shall be out of thy power to silence them again II. Instance The truth of God is held in Unrighteousness when mens Lusts will not suffer them to restore what they have sinfully and unjustly gotten into their hands This Sin lies boking in the Consciences of some men makes them very uneasie and yet they make an hard shift to rub along under these regrets of Conscience Now those things which make a forcible entry into the Conscience take the truths of God Prisoners and bind them that they cannot break forth into the duty of Restitution are 1. The shame which attends and follows the duty to which God and Conscience calls the Soul. O 't is a shame and reproach they think to get the name of a cheat Loath loath they are these works of darkness should come into the open Light men will point and hiss at them and say there goes a Thief a Cheat an Oppressor this keeps many from Restitution But dost thou not here commit a greater Cheat than the former Which is the greater shame thinkst thou to commit sin or to confess and reform it to tye the snare upon thy soul by Commission or loose it off from thy Conscience by Repentance and Restitution to be the derision of wicked men for none else will deride thee for thy duty or to be the contempt and derision of God Angels and all good Men for ever To attain inward peace at this hazzard or to lie under the continual lashes and wounds of thy own Conscience 2. Poverty and inability is sometimes pleaded to quiet the troubled Conscience and indeed this is a just and very frequent blast of God upon ill gotten goods The curse of God is upon them They melt away O what a miserable snare have you now intangled your souls in once you could but would not restore a Worldly heart would not part with unjust gains now you would but cannot Thus a worldly heart and an empty purse holds you first and last under the guilt of a known sin A lamentable case 3. Vain purposes do often suppress and silence convictions my condition may after I may be in a capacity hereafter when I can better spare it than at present Or I 'le do it in my last Will when I dye and charge my Executors with it Thus do men bribe their Consciences to get a little quiet whilst they continue under known guilt and cannot tell how soon death shall summon them to the aweful Bar of a just and terrible God. Sirs As you value your peace and which is more your Souls release the Lords Prisoner which lyes bound within you with cords and chains of Satans making do it I say as you hope to see the face of God in peace You know without Repentance there can be no Salvation and without Restitution no Repentance For how can you repent of a sin you still knowingly continue in Repentance is the Souls turning from sin as well as its sorrow for sin You cannot therefore repent