knock or call Rev. 3.20 I stand at the door and knock if any man will open to me I will come in unto him and will sup with him and he with me Rev. 22.17 The Spirit and the Bride say Come And let him that heareth say Come Let him that is athirst come And whosoever will let him come and take of the waters of life freely Isai 55.1 He every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no money come ye buy and eat yea come buy wine and milk without money and without price Christ knocks not onely at the Hearts of his own people as here of the Spouse Open my sister my love my dove my undefiled But also at the doors of others such as are unregenerate and know him not Only with this difference at the doors of his own regenerate ones he calls for the awakening and â—â—â—â—ring up the grace which he hath bestowed upon them but to such as are unregenerate and yet strangers to him he calls them to Faith and Repentance and to come unto him that they may live and finde rest for their Souls Matth. 11.28 29 30. To Believers he calls to awaken their Graces that are already implanted in their Hearts But to Unbelievers he calls to awaken them out of their sleep in Sin and security And of these there is not the meanest Soul nor the greatest Sinner left out of his call and if any man will but open to him he will come in though their Sins be as Scarlet and crimson he will make them as Snow and Wool Isai 1.16 17 c. 3. The next enquiry is How or with what Christ knocks and calls And to this I answer Christ doth not ordinarily knock and call by an immediate voice from Heaven as he did upon Saul Act. 9. but under the Gospel God ordinarily calls some one or more of these ways 1. Christ knocks or calls sometimes by his Providences Christ many times sends some remarkable Providence or other to awaken Sinners out of their sleep in Sin and to awaken the Graces of his People when they are sleepy and sluggish and these Providences they are of two sorts sometimes such as we call Mercies though all his Dispensations in this case are Mercies and the fruits of his faithfulness but by Mercies I mean such things as are Joyous and desirable for the present He sometimes loads his people with Blessings and Benefits Hos 11.3 4. And every Mercy in this kinde is an awakening and quickning spur unto duty Therefore God complains Hosea 2.8 that they did not consider that he gave them corn and wine and oyl wool and flax silver and gold which they should have served him withal and because they did not threatens to take them away Therefore we finde this laid down as the ground of that God's Expostulation with his People Deut 32.6 9 10 c. The goodness of God should lead persons to Repentance God expects it and by this many times calls Sometimes God calls by his Corrections and Judgements striving by the smartness and severity of his Judgements to awaken Sinners that are rather hardned by Prosperity and to affright them out of their sleep in sin and to awaken his own people out of that sleep which they have lulled themselves into by Prosperity Thus we read Job 36.8 9 c. when he lays persons in Fetters and Irons of Affliction Then he shews them their way and their transgression wherein they have exceeded And of these two ways of knocking usually Mercy and Goodness leads the way and if that will not do then Judgement and the Rod follows after For God doth not willingly grieve and afflict the children of men Lam. 3.33 But if need be they must be in heaviness through manifold tribulations and temptations 1 Pet. 1.6 Thus God calls by his Providences 2. Sometimes God calls by his Ordinances reading the Scriptures and the Labours of his faithful Ministers hearing the Word preached and the like God hath qualified and sent forth his Ministers and Messengers to call and hire Labourers into his Vineyard to bid Guests to his Wedding-supper Matth. 22. and the beginning And this is their work which they are sent about and is given them in charge Matth. 28.19 20. Go teach all nations baptizing Teaching them to observe what I command you So Acts 26.18 Paul is sent to the Gentiles To open their eyes to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God Christ himself came and preached for this end and his Doctrine or Sermon was Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand Matth. 4.17 And John the Baptist came with this message Mark 1.4 Yea the Apostle tells us that this is the work of every Minister 2 Cor. 5.18 19 20. Hath committed to us the word of reconciliation so then we are Embassadors for Christ as if God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God So that every Sermon that the faithful Ministers of Christ preach is a call and knock from Christ to open unto him 3. Sometimes Christ calls by the secret impulses of his Spirit and convictions of our own Consciences Thus we read Acts 2.37 when they heard the Apostles Sermon They were pricked at their hearts and cried out Men and brethren what shall we do to be saved Here was an inward impulse of the Spirit upon their Consciences accompanying the outward preaching of the Word Thus God secretly opened the Heart of Lydia to attend to what was preached by Paul Acts 16.14 And thus the Jaylor was wrought upon by the Spirit of God Acts 16.29 30 31 c. This secret impulse of the Spirit and conviction of Conscience sinners many times have when they are going on in their sins though they do not always give heed and hearken to it And this many times the people of God have when they begin to be lazy drowzy and to fall asleep in security and therefore the Apostle bids us not to quench or grieve the Spirit of God 1 Thess 5.19 Ephes 4.30 And indeed the two former ways of Christ his knocking and calling are ineffectual unless they be accompanied with this last way of calling For neither Ordinances nor Providences can awaken sinners unless the Spirit of God work by them And therefore we read Job 36.8 9 c. that he first binds them in Cords and then opens their ears to discipline 4. The next thing to be enquired into is For what end Christ knocks and calls or what it is which Christ would have when he knocks And to this I answer In general That the end or reason of Christs knocks and calls are various according to the different state and conditions of those at the doors of whose Heart he calls But usually when he calls he would have or designes one or more of these ends or things 1. To awaken sinners out of their deep sleep in sin and security
such calls or let slip such opportunities And they are such times as these 1. Christ his knocks and calls are very remarkable under powerful Ordinances accompanied with secret strivings of the Spirit and convictions of our own Consciences God qualifies and sends forth his Ministers to preach the Gospel unto those to whom he sends them and hath promised to be with them always even to the end of the world Matth. 28.19 20. It is his work they are about and they must have his assistance and direction in the Work He must put words into their Mouths such as may accomplish the end and errand for which he sends them to such persons or people And hence it is that the faithful Ministers and Servants of Christ are not onely diversly gifted and qualified for their work but they find the Spirit of God variously directing assisting restraining or enlarging according as God is pleased to make use of them and call them forth upon some particular work and designe There is scarce a faithful Minister of Christ but may observe this in himself by frequent experience both in his private Studies and publick Exercises Now when God doth by his Spirit in a more than ordinary manner raise enlarge and direct his Servants in their studies warming the Word upon their Hearts and likewise inliven and enlarge and warm them in their publick work and at the same time the Spirit of God is busie at work striving with the people to whom this Message is sent by secret impulses of his Spirit and convictions of their Consciences doubtless this is a remarkable call from Christ and it would be of dangerous consequence to let slip such opportunities to stifle such Convictions and to quench such motions of the Spirit An eminent instance we have of this Acts 18. where we have Paul at Corinth inwardly pressed in his Spirit v. 5. and therefore warmed in his work and the same Spirit was also busie at work in the Hearts of his hearers for many believed v. 8. God encourageth him and bids him not fear but go on boldly with his work and he will be with him and defend him And the reason was because God had much people in that City v. 9 10. This was a remarkable time of Christ his calling and the Jews opposing the Apostle and rejecting this call proved of dreadful consequence to them v. 6. for the Apostle left them and preached to the Gentiles When Christ by his Spirit really warms the Heart of the Minister in his work and withal sends his Spirit to open thine Ears to attend to enlighten thy Understanding to apprehend to convince thy Judgment of the truth of what is spoken and to awake thy Conscience and make thy Bowels to stir within thee as here he did the Spouse Cant. 5.4 5. this is a special call from Christ and take heed how thou resistest it or lettest it slip 2. Christ his Knocks and Calls are eminent under special and remarkable Providences The more eminent and remarkable God's Providences are towards them the more loud and considerable are his calls upon thee As for instance 1. Under visible danger of Christ his removal or withdrawing If Christ shew signs and tokens of removing it is to correct our former negligence and to quicken us to lay faster hold upon him Thus in this Chapter whereof the Text is part the Spouse did but too much slight Christ in that she was so lazy that she would not arise to let him in and therefore he withdrew and made her seek him sorrowing with an â—aking Heaâ—â— and guilty self-condemning conscience long before she could finde him Upon this account it is that Christ's departure from a person or people is many times gradual He doth not depart on a sudden but by steps and degrees that every step may be a motive to lay hold upon Christ before he be quite gone Thus we find he departed from the Temple of old as is evident in Ezekiel's vision chapter 10.11 The glory of God first removed to the door of the house from thence to the Mountain and then quite away If we have any business with God it is high time to improve our present oportunity when God tells us by signes and tokens that he is removing and ready to be gone There is a wo immediately falls upon that person or people from whom God departs when he is gone Hosea 9.12 Wo unto them when I depart from them And therefore the signes of God's departure must needs be strong alarms to cause us speedily to lay hold upon God before he depart Therefore saith the Prophet Isai 55.6 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is neer 2. When God hath for some time withdrawn himself and afterward for some little space hath returned again and manifested his presence or nearness this is a loud call to improve our time and while it is called today to hearken and not harden our hearts We read in the parable of the barren Fig-tree Luke 13.6 c. that when the owner had come several years expecting fruit and found none he commands that the Tree be cut down because it but cumbred the ground but at the request and intercession of his Servant he spares it one year longer and takes more pains with it that year than he had done of other years before and if then it bear not fruit it must be cut down without remedy If after our many years barrenness in God's Orchard and his threatning to cut us down he takes more than ordinary pains with us by his Word Messengers and Spirit seeming more eminently and visibly to return to us for some space to dig about us and dung us this is a loud call from him to improve the present opportunity lest he cut us down and there be no servant to stand in the gap or speak a word for us God's Ministers are his Husbandmen and if God threaten to cut down any Tree they cry out Lord spare it a little longer let us take a littlâ— more pains with it and if then it will not be fruitful we will hold our peace and if hereupon God do for some time spare and yet no fruit be brought forth that Tree will be in great danger to be cursed and devoted to the fire If once God say to his Ministers as once he did to Jeremy Jer. 7.16 Pray not thou for this people neither lift up prayer nor cry for I will not â—ear thee such people must needs be in a sad condition and therefore if our time be but 〈◊〉 time of probation it is dangerous to let it slip lest God swear in his wrath that we shall not enter into his rest We finde that good and publick-spirited man Ezra chap. 9. v. 8 c. sadly trembling and astonished at such a thing as this God had punished his people by a seventy years Captivity for their sins and now for a little time grace had been shewed
another if one argument will not prevail they make use of another leave no stone no subject unturned unspoken to that they can imagine may prevail with you What bespeaks all this earnestness and industry but that Christ calls now in good earnest upon you for we are able to do nothing without him It is he that directs us to our subjects and puts a word into our mouths It is he that enlargeth our meditations blesseth our studies and warmeth the word upon our hearts It is he that toucheth our Lips with a Coal from his Altar and helps us to deliver our message in the evidence and demonstration of the truth and of power And all this is for your sakes that the call might be more convincing and effectual upon you And therefore if you finde a more than ordinary spirit upon the Prophets at this day you may conclude it is a more than ordinary call And therefore apply that to your selves which the Apostle speaks Acts 17.30 However Christ might wink at former ignorance or neglect yet now by way of eminency he commands every man every where to repent 5. Doth not Christ eminently knock and call at the door of thy heart by secret impulses of his Spirit and convictions of thy own Conscience Doth not the word of God sometimes come within thy bosome and not onely prove a general word spoken to all but brings some special message to thee and saith to thee as Nathan did to David Thou art the man or as Wisdom to the simple ones Prov. 1.22 23. How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity and the scorners delight in scorning and fools hate knowledge turn ye at my reproof c. May we not say that God is not wholly departed out of his Ordinances but that yet he walks in the midst of his Golden Candlesticks that his Spirit is yet striving with us and that yet he hath compassion of his heritage and is loth to leave his dwelling place Is there not now and then a secret word whispered in your ear that this word comes from Heaven and is sent a particular message to you Are not you ready to think within your selves sometimes How comes the Minister to know my case so particularly and to speak to those things that none knows but God and mine own Conscience Why you must know that this is God that speaks to you by us It is he that sends us unto you and puts words in our mouths and tells us what to say to you He who knows the secrets of all Hearts directs us what to speak and he by his Spirit opens your ear to hear and to take notice of what is spoken And he by his Spirit convinceth your Consciences that you are the persons to whom it is spoken And therefore when it is thus with you you may assuredly know that this a special knock and call from Christ May there not be the same inward working in your Hearts while this word is sounding in your ears or represented to your eyes in reading of it that was in the Disciples going to Emaus while Christ talked with them and opened the Scriptures Luke 24.32 Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us c. Have you not some secret motions gripings and prickings at the heart under this or other ordinance this is the voice of Christ saying Open to me c. and the more sensible and piercing these are the more loud is Christ's call 6. Are there no fears upon the hearts of God's people lest Christ his stay at our doors should not be long Are there no signes and symptomes of Christ's weariness and readiness to depart seen and taken notice of Is there not a general fear upon the Spirits of most men lest the Gospel should be ready to be removed what ground and cause men have for those fears from second causes I say nothing but that there is such a fear however it comes to pass or what it is grounded upon is evident and I am sure this cannot be without the hand of God This fear is an evil of affliction it disquiets and troubles the spirits of men and therefore must needs proceed from the hand of God For the Prophet tells us Amos 3.6 That there is no evil in the City but the Lord doth it This negative interrogation being a more vehement affirmation And if Christ should not wholly depart and take away his Gospel yet his particular calâ—s by inward convictions and strivings of his Spirit may not last long as he gives you a day so he will give you but a day and then he will swear in his wrath that ye shall never enter into his rest How much of this day may be spent you may better guess than any one can tell you knowing how long he hath called and waited how clear and full convictions have been and how they are now how hot the Gospel hath shined and how cool it is now and the shadows of the evening stretched out And if this be gone what will it advantage you to have the Gospel continued It will be but for your hardening and the sealing you up to everlasting destruction Isaiah was a powerful Preacher and yet you see what a message God sent him to Israeâ— Isai 6.9 10. It is a very uncomfortable message to a faithful Minister of Christ to be sent upon this errand but yet it is the message that God sends them to many an one with and if this be our message to you it will be sad However we must go what message our Master sends us and if it be sad to us it will be ten thousand times more dreadful to you Only our earnest desire is that you might know at least in this your day the things that belong to your everlasting peace before they be hidden from your eyes And these general fears are a loud call to delay or linger no longer but open to Christ 7. Are not all these Calls by Gospel-Ordidinances in answer to your Prayers Here I speak to you that do pray For I am not ignorant that there are a generation of prayerless souls in the world and I wish they were not so great a number There are but too many Families that call not upon the name of God which the Prophet prayes that God would pour his wrath upon Jer. 10.25 and dreadful will the wrath of God be when it comes But I speak here to those that do pray Hath it not been your Prayer that God would return into his resting place he and the ark of his strength Have not you prayed Arise O north-winde and come thou south and breath upon my garden Let my beloved come into his garden Have not you prayed that you might see and meet with God as sometimes you have done in his Sanctuary That you might sit down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit might be pleasant to your taste Have not you sighed and breathed out
company and communion with him may live in the light of his countâ—nance always beholding his most lovely face hearing his most pleasant voice and tasting of his most Royal dainties The breathings of a gracious heart towards Christ are the same for reality though not for degree that Christ his breathings are towards her Cant. 2.14 O my dove Let me see thy countenance let me hear thy voice for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance is comely It was thus with David Psal 27.4 c. If he might but have one request it should be that he might dwell in the house of the Lord and that for this end that he might behold the beauty of the Lord and enquire in his Temple and whatever became of other things this as the main would he seek after But alas is it not far otherwise with us in these days and that among those that profess love to Christ if we look what most men are busie about what takes up most of their thoughts what their discourse is most about in all companies what they spend most time in and weary themselves in the prosecution of from day to day shall we not finde it rather to be the World than Christ I will not say as is said of the wicked That God is not in all their thoughts but this may be too truely said of many that their most frequent pleasant and abiding thoughts are about the world These lie down with them these rise up these go out and come in with them as if these were their onely business Doth this argue that these Hearts are open to Christ where the door is open a man may enter in without obstruction But here it is an hard matter for a serious thought of Christ to get crowded in If it come to the door it gets no further hath little or no admission into the heart and affections no abiding there We read in Scripture of many very gross sins that the servants of God for some time have been overcome by but I do not remember any mentioned in Scripture that were sincere that were overcome with the love of the World Demas indeed is said to embrace this present World but whether this be to be understood of his total apostacy from the faith or onely his deserting his publick work or station the Scripture leaves us in the dark and leaves this brand of infamy and disgrace upon him We know what the Apostle speaks 1 Tim. 6.9 10. 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 for the love of money is the root of all evil which while some coveted after they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows And the Apostle John tells us 1 John 2.15 If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him Evidently manifesting that there is not room for Christ and the World to dwell in the same heart Christ himself tells us that we cannot serve God and Mammon These two contrary Masters will be encroaching upon each other and imposing their contradictory commands So that from hence I conclude that where the world hath a great share in the heart and affections there Christs interest is but small and the door of our hearts not sufficiently opened to him I am affraid that at the great day when all hearts shall be tried and made manifest there will be many a man found who prayed for Christ had a desire of him yea and hoped that he had an interest in him and a love for him and yet through the prevalency of the world never truely opened his heart to Christ Examine your hearts therefore how the case stands with you If Christ be there and opened to as he should be how comes his mortal enemy the world to have such an interest in you and to bear so much sway with you If your hearts were opened to Christ the world would be more despised and Christs company would be more delightful and more store set by 5. And lastly If the door of our hearts be open to Christ by faith How comes it to pass that there are so few fruits of Faith to be seen There is no question to be made but where Christ the Sun of righteousness shines into the Soul the door of the heart being opened by Faith but that it will be Summer-tide with that Soul Grace will bud blossom and bear fruit And if all other Graces be fruitful why not Faith If Faith therefore be fruitful where the Heart is opened to Christ it concerns us to examine what fruits of Faith we finde in our selves For as Faith hath a large root or foundation having the whole Word of God for its object upon which it acts and from which at all times it fetcheth direction so it hath a large office and work in the soul its work being to purifie both heart and life Acts 15.9 Purifying their hearts by faith Therefore the Apostle James tells us that Faith without works is dead being alone I may well compare Faith to a large and frugiferous tree whose root or foundation is the whole Word of God recorded in the whole body of Scripture The ground or seat of Faith is the heart the commanding power of the soul the body or trunk of this tree is the habit or principle of Faith infused into us and nourished in us by the Spirit of God The several branches of this tree spreading themselves every way are the several emanations or flowings forth of Faith guided and directed by the several parts of Gods word The fruits of Faith are the several particular actings of the whole man guided by Faith according to the direction of Gods Word Now where the ground of the heart is made warm by the presence and influential beams of the Sun of righteousness being opened unto Christ at his coming the tree of Faith must needs flourish and drawing in fresh supply of sap from the rock of truth which being digested in our hearts by Faith must needs bring forth suitable and proportionable fruit of all kinds in our lives and conversations If therefore thy heart be open to Christ by Faith Where then are the fruits effects actings and flowings forth of Faith in all the parts and passages of thy life and conversation Where is thy dependance upon and embracing of his Promises relying upon his All-sufficiency Where is thy universal obedience to his commands discharging duty in every part and condition of life living by and acting according to the rule of Gods Word in every thing thou goest about leaving the issue success and event of all thy business and concerns to God to his care and faithfulness Where is thy constant watch against the deceitfulness of thy Heart the temptations of Satan the allurements and enticements of the World and thy faithful resistance of all Temptations thy deep repentance for and faithful
is our ignorance of the excellency all-sufficiency and suitableness of Christ to our insufficiency and emptiness that makes our love to Christ so very cold For the proper object of Love is some suitable desireable good thing Were we better acquainted then with that fulness that is in Christ we should more fully and freely open our hearts to Christ Did we but see his loveliness in every respect the loveliness of his person the loveliness of his disposition and qualifications the loveliness of his works and undertakings and his suitableness every way to our condition we should from the inward sense of love in our own souls cry out with the Spouse He is altogether lovely Nay our love towards him and desire after him would be so fervent that we should say with the Spouse Tell him that I am sick of love If therefore thou wouldest have thine heart more open to Christ study Christ better for he hath said he will exalt or set on high such as know his Name and set their love upon him Psal 91.14 And how can he more highly advance thee than by honouring thee with his company Our ignorance of Christ makes us that we do not understand his voice when he calls and therefore we give no heed to his calls 2. Open thine heart to the commands of Christ search the Scriptures to know what it is that he requires of thee and as he teaches thee by his Word and Spirit let thine heart be open to attend thereunto as the heart of Lydia was who attended to the things that were spoken by Paul Yea let thine heart burn within thee while he is talking with thee as the hearts of the Disciples going to Emaus did while Christ talked with them Attend diligently to the Ordinances of Christ and come with the everlasting doors of thine heart open ready prepared to receive whatsoever divine truth God shall make known unto thee and resolving to practise what truths thou shalt receive let thine heart be ready to say when thou comest to every Ordinance as Samuel did Speak Lord for thy servant heareth or as Paul Lord what wouldest thou have me to do Or as the people to Moses but with a better heart and more stedfast resolution All that the Lord hath spoken will we do and be obedient Open thine heart to the commands of Christ and let none of his commands be grievous but say with David O how love I thy Law it is my meditation day and night Remember that Christ is thy Lord and Husband it is his work to command thee and it is thy duty in all things to obey and therefore take his yoke upon thee for his yoke is easie and his burden light and in keeping his commands there is great reward 3. Open thine heart to the counsels and advice of Christ thou maist assure thy self that Christ will advise thee to nothing but for thy good See what counsel Christ gives to the Asian Churches Rev. 2 3. chap. his counsel was very suitable to the several states and conditions of every Church To instance in that of Laodicea she was a very luke-warm Church and yet very proud self-confident Church she said She was rich and increased with goods and had need of nothing but knew not that she was wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked And what was Christs counsel to her I counsel thee to buy of me Gold tryed in the fire that thou maist be rich and white raiment that thou maist be cloathed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou maist see Rev. 3.17 18. Jesus Christ is a most faithful Friend and Physician will certainly give very seasonable counsel and advice he is called the wonderful Counsellor Isai 9.6 Open thine heart and listen to the counsel which Christ gives to thee he will instruct thee how to mortifie thy sins he will teach thee how to improve Ordinances to perform Duties to exercise thy graces he will teach thee in all respects to order thy conversation aright and to improve all the Dispensations of his Providence towards thee Take but Christs counsel and advice and thou canst never do amiss for he is wise in heart and communicative of his wisdome never fails any that trust and seek to him for counsel and advice Read James 1.5 If any of you want wisdom let him ask it of God who gives to all men liberally and upbraideth no man and it shall be given to him But know this that Christ cannot endure to have his counsel slighted to do this would highly displease him Read Prov. 1.24 c. I called 〈◊〉 but ye would have none of my counsels Therefore I also will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear comes Theâ— shall they call but I will not answer for that they hated knowledge they would none of my counsels Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices If thou wilt not open to Christ's counsels thou mayest follow thine own devices and see what will be the end of it Psal 81.11 12. write out the Text. 4. Open thine Heart to the rebukes and chastisements of Christ Be not too wise in thine own conceit as to think that Christ can finde no fault with thee But as David speaks concerning the Righteous so do thou from thy very heart say Let the Righteous Christ smite me it shall be a kindness let him reprove me it shall be an excellent oyl which shall not break my head Though thou knowest before hand that he will finde fault with thee at his coming yet be never the more afraid to let him in nor be thou weary of his rebukes It is unpleasant discourse many times when our Friends rip up our faults and tell us of them but it is really our fault so to account it for it is the real part of a Friend to reprove us and not to suffer sin upon our souls However it may be unpleasant yet it is both necessary and safe It argues a more than ordinary love of Christ towards thee if he deal thus faithfully with thee for whom he loves he rebukes and chastens Rev. 3.19 Let thy Heart therefore be open ready and willing to receive and embrace his most severe rebukes And take it as a kindness from him that he will rebuke thee for it is a piece of blessedness Blessed is the man whom the Lord rebukes and chastens and teacheth him out of his Law Psal 94.12 David having found the benefit of this saith Psal 119.75 I know O Lord that thy judgements are right and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me And v. 71. It is good for me that I have been afflâ—cted c. And the Apostle tells us that though no affliction be for the present joyous but greivous yet afterwards it works the peaceable fruits of Righteousness in them that are exercised thereby Heb. 12.11 open therefore
The sleepy Spouse of Christ alarm'd Or a WARNING To beware of DROWSINESS VVhen Christ Calls Lest he withdraw in a discontent BEING The Sum of some SERMONS upon Cant. 5th and the beginning By J. B. Minister of the Gospel Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand at the door and knock If any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me Matth. 23.37 38 39. O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not Behold your house is left unto you desolate For I say unto you Ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord. Psal 95.7 8. To day if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts Recommended in a Preface by M. Nath. Vincent LONDON Printed 〈◊〉 Samuel Crouch at the Princes Arms at 〈…〉 To Mrs. J. D. the Author wisheth all increase of Grace and Peace Honoured Friend IT was at your request and the earnest request of some of your Friends that I was induced to publish these following Sermons The reason whereof I suppose to be because your heart was in some measure opened to and affected with the voice of Christ in his Word when you heard it I must confess the matter or subject herein treated of is very sweet and precious and such as may well warm the frozen heart of any that hath the least drachm of sincere love either of complacency in or commiseration to Christ To see how ready Christ is to condescend to the requests of his Spouse how sweetly and with what melting 〈◊〉 irresistible Arguments he wooes her hoâ—â—â—â—â— and plentiful he is in the emanations of his Grace and Kindness towards her And then on the other hand to consider how sleightly she looks upon him how little account she makes of him and how she makes him dance attendance at her door with many other circumstances of her unkindness and withal to consider the danger and hazard which she runs by her unkind behaviour towards Christ These Considerations which are the subject of the ensuing Discourse being seriously weighed by a Soul that hath any love for or breathings after Christ among the number of which I hope I may truely reckon you cannot choose but in some measure awaken the sleepy Soul and warm the cold and frozen Affections This effect I perceive the Word had upon you for which you owe the thanks and praise to the Spirit of Grace which accompanied the Word to your heart and gave it entertainment there For man speaks only to the ear it is God that speaks to the heart You having therefore tasted the sweetness of this Word your self desired the communication of it to others who had not the opportunity with you to hear it and in order thereunto the publication of it Your designe I must own to be good for Grace where it is in truth is not only of a diffusive nature spreading it self through the whole man but also of a communicative nature wishing that all by-standers might likewise taste that sweetness which it self is much delighted with Grace desires not to eat its morsels alone but if any Banquet be given in by Christ or any refreshment by his company the Soul cries out to by-standers O taste and see how good the Lord is He is altogether lovely Come therefore and I will tell you what he hath done for my Soul But though your designe be good yet the weakness and insufficiency of the Author might well have pleaded an excuse For it is pity that such a sweet and precious subject should be rendred despicable by being handed into the world by so weak rude and unpolished an instrument as I must of necessity confess my self to be For I am sensible that many times the Truths of Christ suffer in the world through the weakness of the Instruments that hand them to us However yet sometimes it pleaseth God By the mouths of babes and sucklings to perfect his own praise that the work may appear to be not of men but of God Leaving therefore the work in Gods hand who is able to do what he pleaseth with and by it and waving the consideration of mine own weakness I condescend to your request and make bold to cast this my poor mite into Gods Treasury Saying to you and to all courteous Readers as Peter to the Cripple Acts 3.6 Silver and Gold have I none but such as I have give I unto you I hope the food is wholesome though it be but plainly and meanly dressed And though it may fall into the hands of some whose curious stomacks may loath such plain and homely diet yet possibly it may fall into the hand of some poor creature who is hungry humble and of a contrite Spirit and trembles at Gods Word Some poor hungry Soul may perhaps here meet with meat though there be little sawce to he had And if any poor Soul shall reap benefit by my poor labours and endeavours I hope I shall bless God for owning such a worthless creature in so glorious a work And if it do good the less of the instrument the more will there be of God seen in it I beg of you therefore and of all candid Readers into whose hands this small Treatise may come their and your serious perusal of it with their Prayers to God for a blessing upon it what you finde of humane weakness in it pardon and pass it by whatever you finde of God in it minde it and apply it And the very God of Heaven powerfully influence it with his blessed Spirit that it may do your Souls good and that you may readily open to Christ now that he may open to and own you at Death and Judgment Which is the humble and earnest Prayer of Yours In and for Christ my Lord and Master James Bradshaw TO THE READER Christian Reader THe Spirit of Slumber exceedingly prevails at this day as great security is to be found in this Nation as was in the old World and in Sodom before the one was Drowned and the other Burned God hath used several ways and means to awaken us but our Spiritual Lethargie proves a very stubborn Malady 'T were bad enough if onely profane persons were fast asleep in Sin 'T is worse that Professors are so too But 't is worst of all that the Wise Virgins slumber as well as the Foolish What may be the Issue of our carnal Security we may tremble to think of When men say they shall have peace though they walk on after the imagination of their evil Heart the Lord confutes their presumption by threatning all the Curses written in his Book and that he will blot out their names from under Heaven Promising safety to themselves is the forerunner of Sinners sudden
found encouragement enough to let him in If Christ had thus persumed her Lock with but putting in his Finger by the hole of the Door Oh what would his company be when himself came in And therefore without any more delay or excuse in all haste she opens to him v. 6. But Christ though he would not utterly forsake her and cast her off yet he would make her sensible of the affront which she had offered him and of her ungrateful carriage towards him and therefore withdraws and makes her who but now was so delicate and easeful that she could not put on her Coat or come barefooted over the house-floor to seek him in the streets and take many a wet and weary step in the dark night and that questionless with an aking Heart having his persumes so fresh in her Breast and her own guilt so fresh upon her Conscience before she find him This was the case between Christ and his Spouse at this time I shall but in a word mention those particulars in the Text upon which I designe to ground the Doctrine and so proceed to the Doctrine In the whole Conference or Relation I shall take notice of these things upon which I shall ground the Doctrine 1. The Churches Prayer chap. 4.16 Awake O North-wind and come thou South c. She prays for the breathing Influences of the Spirit whereby her Graces may be revived and made fit for action and then desires Christ's company when she is fixed and prepared for him 2. We have Christ his Answer to the Church her Prayer chap. 5.1 The Spouse no sooner calls but Christ makes Answer no sooner invites but Christ comes 3. The posture which he finds her in at his coming gone to bed and composing her self to sleep Believers do sometimes pray for that which they have no patience to wait for 4. Christ his Call and Proposal which he makes to the Spouse at his coming which is but very reasonable since his coming was at her request v. 2. Open to me my sister c. for my head is filled with dew and my locks with the drops of the night 5. We have the Spouse her unreasonable denial and excuses v. 3. She litte considered how wet and weary Christ was and manifested but poor respect to him when she will rather suffer him to stand there than she will be at the trouble to put on her Coat or defile her Feet Oh what difference is here between Christ's love to us and our love to him 6. We may observe the effect of this refusal and unreasonable denial Though Christ rouze up her Graces and give her some taste of his excellency which may make her unweariedly to seek him yet he will make her smart for her lazyness and indifferency and low value which she set by Christ He will make her take abundantly more pains before she find him She shall seek him with a fainting aking Heart and in seeking take many a wet and weary step feel a little of what he endured at the door before she find him v. 6. From all these considerations in the Text I gather this Doctrine That it is a dangerous thing and may cost us dear to be lazy and secure when Christ knocks and calls especially when his coming and calling is in answer to our Prayers This truth is not onely the sense and sum of this Text but we find the Holy Ghost speaking the same thing for substance in other parts of Scripture Prov. 1.24 and following verses Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded But ye have set at nought all my counsel and would none of my reproofs Therefore I also will laugh at your calamity I will mock when your fear cometh c. Psal 81.8 9 10 11 12 13 14. Hear O my people There shall be no strange God in thee I am the Lord thy God But my people would not bearken So I gave them up O that my people would have hearkned Luke 13.34 35. O Jerusalem Jerusalem how often would I have gathered thee as an hen gathereth her chickens under her wings but ye would not Wherefore your city is left to you desolate Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand at the door and knock If any man open to me I will come in unto him and I will sup with him and be with me In the further prosecution of this Doctrine I shall through Gods assistance observe this method 1. Speak something by way of Explication 2. Something by way of Confirmation 3. Something by way of Application In the Explication of the Doctrine I shall endeavour to shew 1. Where Christ knocks 2. At whose door Christ knocks 3. How or with what he knocks 4. For what end he knocks Or what it is that Christ would have when he knocks 5. What are the special times of his knocking I begin with the first of these Where it is that Christ knocks To this I answer That Christ's Knockâ— and Calls are at the door of man's Heart To have the Ear open to God's call signifies little if the door of the Heart be shut and Christ cannot get in there We see in the Text the Spouse though partly asleep heard Christs Knock and Call well enough and yet she caused him to depart from her because she did not open to him Wisdom cries Prov. 23.26 My son give me thine heart Christ will have the Heart open or else he will not come in and that for these reasons 1. Because as Christ is no dissembler but real in what he offers and gives so he loves no dissembling but expects that the Soul should be real and cordial with him Now to pretend to embrace Christ and not to do it with all the Heart is to mock him and dissemble with him This God complains of Jer. 3.10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned to me with the whole heart but feignedly saith the Lord. This is no better than flattery or lying in God's account Psal 78.36 37. They pretended to return and seek early after God Nevertheless they flattered him with their mouth and lied unto him with their tongue for their heart was not right with him Jeremiah complains thus of the wicked Jer. 12.2 Thou art near them in their lips but far from their reins That Son was rejected who said I go Sir but went not This dissembling and complementing with God is abominable to the heart-searching God And therefore he requires that the Heart be opened unto him and there it is that he knocks 2. Because the Heart is the chief part of Christ his purchase and therefore he knocks there It is true Christ is the Redeemer of the Body but had not that been an appurtenance to the more noble part the Soul Christ would never have paid so dear a price for it But the inward man the Soul or Heart was that which was chiefly in Christ's eye when he made his Soul
an Offering for Sin Psal 71.23 My lips shall greatly rejoyce and my Soul which thou hast redeemed The Soul is the Jewel which Christ hath purchased and therefore though he ought to have the Box or Cabinet with it yet the Cabinet without the Jewel will not give him content It is the Heart or Soul therefore that he calls for when he knocks 3. Because the Heart is the Royal Seat or Throne and Christ comes not to be a truckle-bed Guest but to rule and reign in us and and therefore if he have the Heart which is the commanding faculty the Will and Affections he may by that command the whole man but without this it will be in vain if not impossible to keep possession of the other parts of the man The Heart is the fountain from whence the streams that run in every part of the man proceed if this be not pure the streams must needs be filthy And therefore Prov. 4.23 we are commanded to Keep the Heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of Life The Heart is always full and is continually sending forth Legions of thoughts words and actions either good or bad How should Christ keep the outward man quietly if the heart be not for him Our Saviour speaks it as an impossibility Mat. 12.34 35. that they being evil should speak good things and gives the reason of it Because that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks and therefore according as the heart is disposed and qualified such are the thoughts words and actions The good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things the evil man out of the evil treasure of the heart evil things How should the fruit be good when the tree is bad The heart then if it be not for Christ will dayly be sending forth such troops of filthy molesting enemies that Christ shall have no quiet abode near it and therefore he will either have the Royal Fort delivered and opened to him or he will not come there If the heart be filthy the whole man is defiled with what issues from thence and see what flouds of stinking filthiness issue from the heart and defile the man Mat. 15.18 19 20. Evil Thoughts Murders Adulteries Fornications Thefts False witness Blasphemies And how then shall the sweet breath of Christ endure near such a sink of filthiness if he may not come to the spring or rise of it to purge it there will be no long stay for him 4. Christ will have the Heart or none because his chief suit and request is for our love and this he cannot have without the Heart because it is seated in the heart and though it send its servants abroad yet it self never stirs from thence and therefore Christ cannot have this unless he have the Heart Such is Christs love towards his Spouse that he earnestly desires to be married to her and the Terms he proposeth are Marriage-terms wherein Love is the chief and principal And great reason he should have this not only in regard of his great Love wherewith he hath loved us and the fruits and effects of it but also in regard we have nothing else to give him nor can he expect any other thing with us that may be desireable Portion we have none not so much as Clothes to our back oâ— to cover our nakedness nor Meat for our belly nor penny of Money in our purse Beauty and Comeliness we have none till he have beautified us with his Comeliness Wisdom and parts we have none for by nature we aâ—â— Fools Providence or good Housewifery wâ— have none for we had a good portion left us and we have wasted and spent it all Great Friends and Allies we have none that can dâ— any thing for us for we were cast out to thâ— loathing of our persons in the day wherein wâ— were born and none eye pitied us and as foâ— our descent our father was an Amorite and mother an Hittite a cursed generation as wâ— read Ezek. 16. beginning What have wâ— then that may commend us to Christ or thâ—â— may in any sort please him if he have not oâ—â— Love And surely it is but reasonable thâ—â— he should have this nay since he hath nothing else he will have this or not matâ—â— with us 5. Christ will have the heart opened where he comes because the Feasts and Banquets which he hath prepared and brings with him chiefly respect the heart the outward man is little or nothing concerned in them or advantaged by them unless it be by consequence Christ his Feasts are Spiritual and therefore but little grateful to the flesh or outward man The word that Christ speaks is part of his Banquet or Feast and David saith they are sweeter than Honey or the Honey-comb But what Refreshment or Feast would these be to the body or outward man if the Heart take no notice of them and be not affected with them and therefore Hos 2.14 Christ would allure his Spouse and take her into the Wilderness and there would speak comfortably to her or speak to her Heart as the word signifies Words yield but little comfort or refreshment if they be not spoken to the Heart John 6. Christ tells us he will give his Flesh and Blood to feed us and this but after an imaginary way neither for we must not really have his Body and Blood after a corporeal manner but spiritually represented and adumbrated by a little broken Bread and poured-forth Wine If this Feast therefore extend to or concern nothing more than the Body it will prove but a poor hungry Feast he findes it so that goes away from the Ordinance without finding and feeding upon Christ by Faith And therefore were not the Banquet Spiritual and such as immediately concerns the Heart the Scripture would never call it a Feast of Marrow and Wine setled upon the lees nor would David say Psal 63.5 that his Soul was satisfied as with marrow and fatness when he fed upon this And therefore Christ his Feasts being chiefly spiritual and respecting the Heart they would be lost and signifie nothing if the Heart were not opened to him And therefore the place where Christ knocks is the door of the Heart which he requires should be opened to him 2. The next thing to be enquired into is At whose door doth Christ knock To this I answer That Christ knocks at every ones door that lives under Gospel-Ordinances and Dispensations There is no person living under Gospel-Ordinances but at one time or another Christ knocks at the door of his heart requiring entrance and admission Thou that readest or hearest this Word whoever thou be Male or Female Bond or Free Young or Old Rich or Poor High or Low whatever order rank or degree thou be of in whatever condition or state thou be at thy door it is that Christ by this word knocks saying Open to me c. See the universality of Christ's
Open to me my dearest Spouse for I am come at thy request though I have not a dry hair upon my head or thread upon my back therefore open to me and let me in And she should say I am gone to bed I cannot get up I cannot take so much pains now as to put on my coat I am composing my self for rest have washed my feet have no minde to defile or dirty them with coming over the floor and therefore if you would have come in you should have come sooner Suppose all this would this answer be well taken might not this be of dangerous consequence to this proud beggar and give just occasion to blast all her hopes Have I undervalued my self thus may the King say to advance a proud beggar and doth she serve me thus But I will leave her in the condition I found her and come no more at her This is the case between Jesus Christ and his Spouse nay there cannot be that inequality between the highest Prince in the world and the meanest Beggar that there is between Jesus Christ and his Spouse And therefore we may easily imagine of how dangerous consequence it may be to shut out Jesus Christ when he knocks and calls especially when his coming is in answer to our Prayers 6. Consider the great wrong which we do to Jesus Christ if we do not open to him at his call The wrong that will fall upon Christ by our not opening to him is set down in the Text in these words For my head is filled with dew and my locks with the drops of the night which words as we told you before may be taken in a bad sense as well as a good denoting the misery sufferings and afflictions that Jesus Christ endures in making way and coming unto his people in which words I would observe 1. the great pains which Jesus Christ had taken to come such was the length and tediousness of the way so many obstructions and lets so many difficulties and hardships that he was benighted and it was got very late when he came and therefore pity to let him stand any longer wet and weary Oh what haste would a loving Wife make to arise and open to her Husband in such a case as this is And if she did not her Husband might well take it unkindly at her hands And yet the Spouse here makes an Apology I have put off my coat c. Such carriage as this may well cause him to withdraw 2. Here is mention made of Drops and Dews of the night which seem to denote Afflictions and Sufferings and Hardships for so we finde them made use of in Scripture when Jacob would set forth what hardship he endured with his Father-in-law Laban in his service he saith Gen. 31.40 In the day the drought consumed me and the frosts by night Afflictions in many places are compared to the Night and so they may well be understood here especially considering how wet and stormy a night it was And truely Jesus Christ had very stormy weather to come to his Spouse we read in Scripture what hardships he met with in the way See how Christ himself complains Psal 102.23 He hath weakned my strength in the way he hath shortned my days He met with the storms of divine wrath which made him to cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me The storm was so bitter that he prays Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me and yet it pleased the Father to bruise him and make his soul an offering for sin He bare our griefs and carried our sorrows the chastisement of our peace was laid upon his shoulders and with his stripes we were healed yet we accounted him stricken smitten of God and afflicted He endured hardship not only from enemies but from friends and therefore saith These were the wounds which I received in the house of my friends Zech. 13.6 And surely this was a stormy night that the Spouse therefore should deny him entrance such a night as this was especially when he had endured all this for her sake that he might come to her was great unkindness and might well provoke him to withdraw 3. His urging this argument seems to imply the great prejudice that might come to him by her delay and making him to stand wet and weary there The force of the argument seems to lie here and he thus argues O my Spouse I have undertaken a very sad and wearisome Journey for thy sake I am at last though late come in a weary wet and dropping condition to the door it may be very prejudicial to my health to stand long here in this condition I am in as thou pitiest my life and health and hast any respect for me open and let me in and suffer me not to stand here and catch my death What more forcible argument could be made use of to a Wise that hath any real respect for her Husband and yet in this sluggish humour she tells him She hath put off her Coats and cannot put them on she will rather suffer her Husband to starve at the door than she will be at the pains to put on her Coat and let him in Indeed such unkind carriages as these are prejudicial to Christ's health they wound and Crucifie him afresh as the Apostle speaks Heb. 6.6 It must needs take a deep and sorrowful impression upon the heart of Christ to think that this should be the requital of all his sufferings and that from the hand of his Spouse well may this then cause his Jealousie to burn and cause him in a rage to withdraw himself Consider this that every denial every delay to open to Christ cuts him to the very heart and doth as it were make his pierced heart to bleed afresh 4. The patience of Christ in all his sufferings seems here to be pointed at also He had not onely watched till he had felt a drop but drops yea till his Head was filled with drops he was wet to the very skin not a dry thred or free place about him and therefore could endure to stay no longer and therefore so earnestly calls Open to me my sister my love my dove my undefiled for my head is filled with dew and my locks with the drops of the night To refuse to open in this case must needs be a great wrong to Christ and may cost us dear if he should thereupon depart as justly he might being thus wronged and affronted by us But 5. There is one thing more in the Call which makes the wrong intolerable and that is the place where he calls is his own house the door whereat he knocks is his own door We told you before that the place where Christ knockt was at the door of the heart And the Spouse had before given her heart to Christ therefore it was his own door that he knocks at and to his own Spouse that he calls Open to me c.
dressed and all in order but we finde our friend in the door waiting and earnestly looking for us thinking our tarrying long we may reasonably conclude we shall be surely welcome now we are come So when Christ findes the Heart prepared and the Spouse in the door watching or looking in the way wherein she expects to see him coming he may thence conclude that he is a welcome guest to that soul Surely saith Christ I shall now be a welcome guest to my Spouse now she is so earnestly waiting and looking for me And this pleaseth Christ more than all the varieties that she can possibly prepare for him For alas she is but poor hath no rich entertainment for him but onely such as is of his own sending and preparing and therefore welcome is likely to be his best fare and all that she can give him and therefore Christ expects no great matters from her but to have the door open and himself made welcome when he comes And where he findes this he is so well pleased that he will suffer no want of any thing needful to be while he stays He will be at the charges of the Feast and of the dressing of it too And therefore we read Cant. 5.1 that he not onely eats but gathers his fruits himself I have gathered my myrrhe with my spice I have eaten my honey-comb with my honey c. 2. Finding us in this posture he may expect that we are at leisure from other company and business to entertain him with our company Christ loves not to come when his Spouse is in the throng or crowd of worldly company and business for then he shall have no time of private conference and discourse with her which is the main of his business and therefore in this case both he and she would lose the benefit and sweetness of the opportunity Friends account that time lost that they cannot enjoy one another though they be together all the while If by throng of company they cannot have their discourse and conference which they designed in their meeting they account their time lost and are ready to say What an unhappy thing was it that we met at such a season as this and that thus we were interrupted in our discourse The more intimate that friends are the more private matter of discourse they have and the less they care to be interrupted with company None more intimate than Christ and his Spouse anâ— having matter of private conference with her doth not care to come at such a time when she hath a crowd of other company about her but when she is alone And therefore when he comes if she be not alone he will endeavour to take her apart by her self and then his discourse will be most heeded and have most effectual influence upon her Therefore we read Hos 2.14 I will allure her saith God and bring her into the wilderness and there will speak comfortably unto her or speak to her heart as the word signifies Now when Christ findes the Soul waiting and looking for him all alone either in her door or in the high-way he may well conclude I come seasonably for yonder is my Spouse all alone free from cumber and other business waiting for my coming and therefore I may expect her company And this abundantly pleaseth him for it is her company he chiefly comes for Christ cares not to come when the Soul is crowded with the Flesh and the World He desires her company alone and is best pleased when he findes it so 3. Finding us in a posture of Watchfulness our clothes on and our loins girt he may reasonably suppose us not to be in a drowzy and sluggish condition and that therefore his company will be pleasant and not burdensome to us and his discourse will be better needed by us When Sleep and Sluggishness overtakes us the company of our best Friends is but burdensome and their discourse but little regarded we had rather have their room than their company their silence than their discourse because we are desirous to compose our selves for rest and sleep So is it with the Spouse of Christ when she is in a sleepy and secure condition his company is no whit pleasant and his discourse sinks but ear-deep if it do that and therefore doth little good Now Christ loves not to come and finde his Spouse in such a posture as this but when he findes her watching or busie at her spiritual work in a lively condition Now saith he my company will be acceptable now in a lively manner will she unbosome herself to me tell me her whole state and condition and I shall as freely impart my counsels and comforts unto her This therefore is the condition that I desire to finde her in and finding her in this condition it yields abundant satisfaction to Christ This therefore is a blessed posture wherein the Soul is in a posture to give Christ such abundant satisfaction 4. That they are thus blessed that Christ at his coming findes upon their watch will appear if we consider the honours and benefits which he will confer upon them He will commend and praise them he will give them honourable titles Well done good and faithful servants he will give them bountiful rewards and a sumptuous feast and he himself will come forth and serve them all which is sufficiently evident from what hath been said before and therefore needs no further enlargement 2. Hence we may learn the reason of the damnable and desperate condition of many Sinners and the mournful drooping and seeking condition of many Saints It is not because Christ seldome comes abroad and knocks at the doors of their hearts but because when he comes he findes such unready admission and entertainmet If the question be asked whence it is that so many sinners perish everlastingly and that under Gospel-light The answer must be not because he never calls or knocks at their doors but because they will not open and let him in Our Saviour tells us the reason John 3.19 This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light So Mat. 23.37 O Jerusalem how often would I have gathered thee as an hen gathereth her chickens under her wings but ye would not So also Prov. 1.24 c. Because I called and ye refused But ye set at nought all my counsels and would none of my reproofs I also will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh How often doth Christ knock and call by his Word by his Rod by his Messengers by the impulses of his Spirit and convictions of Conscience and yet sinners are in a deep sleep of Security and will not open to him This is the ground of their condemnation Again if it be asked why we see so many Christians walking in darkness and seeing no light enquiring as here the Spouse did Saw ye him whom my soul loveth If ye see him tell
Satan finding us idle that mostly gives advantage to his temptations Christ would have put his Spirit within thee that should have helped thee against temptations and would have purified thy heart by faith His grace should have been sufficient for thee and his strength made perfect in thy weakness He would have kept that thy foot should not have slidden who is the Keeper of Israel that neither slumbers nor sleeps He would have armed thee with the whole Armour of God whereby thou mightest have resisted and repelled or quenched all the fiery darts of the wicked He would have renewed thee with daily renewed strength in thy Soul Yea He would have kept thee by his almighty power through faith unto salvation Thou hadst not therefore had so many ghastly sins to have reflected and looked back upon with a trembling heart and griping conscience with horrour and consternation as now thou hast If there were no more but this consideration methinks it might be sufficient to silence all excuses and cavils of carnal reason and make the soul affraid of ever refusing to open when Christ calls and might fully convince us of the grand cheat and irreparable wrong which our enemies have put upon us by perswading us not to open to Jesus Christ 2. Consider the high affront and provocation which we have given to Jesus Christ by keeping him out so long He hath called again and again and was desirous to come in but we would not He hath stood knocking till his head was filled with dew and his locks with the drops of the night and yet could get nothing from us but frivolous and vain excuses And what do we think will be the issue of all this Will his patience never be worn out Will his wrath never be kindled in his breast Will the stirrings of his Spirit never have end Will the day of Grace never have a night Will he never swear in his wrath that thou shalt not enter into his rest Tremble O fond man to think at those things It hath been of dangerous and dreadful consequence thus to deny him admission He hath thereupon withdrawn himself and departed and sometimes never returned again But if he have been found it hath been after long weary and tedious seeking of him And why may he not do so again Nay certainly he will do so And therefore the wrong and cheat which the Devil the World and the Flesh have put upon thee is an unsufferable wrong which they can never make thee amends for let them therefore cheat thee no longer 3. Consider that every knock and call that Christ gives and we refuse doth lock the door of the heart faster against Christ than it was lockt before so that if ever Christ get in he must give fiercer knocks and louder calls than ever he did before he must take some other course with thee than ever he hath yet taken Therefore saith the Apostle Heb. 3.13 Exhort one another while it is called to day lest any of you be hardned through the deceitsness of sin Sin deceitfully and insensibly hardens the heart and by degrees cauterizeth or feareth the heart and conscience that it grows brawny and past feeling and then Christ may call and call again and to little purpose and therefore it is unspeakable wrong which thine enemies have already done thee and it would be wrong past recovery if they should go on to cheat thee still Vse 2. Is it of such dangerous consequence to be sluggish secure and sloathful when Christ knocks and calls especially when his coming is in answer to our Prayers Then this may afford matter of enquiry and examination to enquire how the case stands between Christ and our Souls at this day We profess our selves to be the Spouse of Christ and if so it is very probable 〈◊〉 he doth now and then visit us and comes to the door of our hearts We profess to be a candlestick in Christs right hand and if so it is likely he walks sometimes in the midst of the golden candlesticks We profess to be the Church and People of God and if Christ hath not intimacy and familiarity with and gives frequent visits to his Church where can Christ be expected to be found We have the Worship and Ordinances of Christ and his Name recorded among us and he hath said that where he records his name there he will meet his people and bless them We are under his special care and providence about whom he is in a special manner concerned And therefore it concerns us to know how we stand in his favour And as this is the state of the Church in general so is it the state of every particular Member and is the concern of every one of us to know how matters stand between Christ and our Souls Whether we be in his favour and have his pleasant company or whether he have turned his back withdrawn himself and be gone away from us in a discontent because he hath knocked and called and we have not opened unto him And it concerns us the rather to make this enquiry because the Providences of God for some time have been and still are considerable towards us and the Providences of God seem to be near some period Some great work or other God seems to have upon the Wheel in the Christian world which e're long may possibly be brought to light And such times of God's remarkable working are usually trying and shaking times To be sure it is a blessed thing at such a time to be in Christ his favour and under his wing In the prosecution of this Use there are two things to be enquired into 1. Whether Christ have not and do not at this day eminently knock and call 2. What entertainment Christ findes and what answer we have made 1. Let us enquire whether Christ have not and do not at this day eminently knock and call Is not the voice of our beloved to be heard at the doors of our Hearts saying Open to me my sister my love my dove my undâ—filed for my head is filled with dew and my locks with the drops of the night We have told you in the opening of the Doctrine that though there be no passage of God's providence exercised towards us but it hath something of a call from Christ in it yet there are some special times wherein Jesus Christ doth in a more especial manner knock and call requiring entrance and admission How we might know those times I have endeavoured there to shew It is not my business here to assigne new times of Christ's eminent calling but by reflecting upon those to make enquiry whether the case be not ours And whether according to those signes and marks of an eminent call Christ do not at this day eminently knock and call upon us to open unto him What I have to say upon this head I shall sum up into these nine or ten Queries And by them we may come to understand how
us had such calls as these if we have but observed and taken notice of them and if we have not the greater hath been our fault and our sin If we do but look through the Nation as the Mercies have been great that God hath undeservedly bestowed upon us so the Judgments that have befallen us have not only been various but very remarkable such as the hand of God hath been eminently seen in howsoever they have been handed to us by wicked instruments I need not to enumerate them they are obvious to every observant eye But what do these intimate and call for from us Surely the rod of God hath a voice and he that doth not willingly grieve and afflict the children of men doth not these things to us but there is considerable cause for it When God dealt so with his people of old we may read what cause God had for it And certain I am that the blindest among us cannot but see cause enough from the hand of God for all that is come upon us Only here is the misery that every one seeks to excuse himself and to lay the blame at some ones door else and so takes no notice of Gods particular call to him I would desire here to set before you and desire the serious Reader to peruse Gods threatnings to Israel of old and the causes there assigned and see how far they may concern us read Deuteronom 28.15 to the end And as for those that would lay the blame upon others and excuse themselves I shall only recommend to them that dreadful caution and intimation of Gods minde Deut. 29.18 19 20. It is but too common among us to promise our selves peace and drink away our fears but this will prove in the end an unpardonable aggravation of our sin If we would but take the pains to search the Scriptures and take a view of such Judgments as God hath inflicted upon Nations Families and Persons and consider the sins that have been the procuring cause of them for which they have been sent we should need no Prophet to read us our destiny nor any Expositor to shew us the sins that God points at in the evils which we labour under nor should we any of us finde cause to excuse our selves Sure I am the voice of God in his Judgments is eminent and by the circuits of them in that they meet with one sort of men after another and spare few or none they plainly shew the cause to be general And by the complication of them and their surrounding of us and hemming us in on every hand they manifest the greater displeasure and more unavoidable danger hanging over our heads and therefore the voice and call is very loud and must either be quickly hearkned to or else Christ may withdraw the decree may bring forth and there will be no remedy I would seriously recommend to your perusal that one dreadful Chapter Isai 24 and desire that your thoughts and meditations may dwell a little upon every verse as you go along and you will not need me to direct you how to apply it our present conditions and the passages of Gods Providence will sufficiently exemplifie it And therefore assuredly the call of God is somewhat more than ordinary at this day and none of us can say but that God speaks something more than ordinary unto us And know that they which think themselves least concerned in this call may come to finde themselves most concerned at last I will direct such to one Text of Scripture which calls for their serious observation Isai 28. throughout When God's Judgements come for sin our Refuge of lies and Covenant with Death and Hell will but little avail us But I pass from this which is sufficiently evident to be a loud call from Christ to a 3. Particular by way of enquiry Doth not God eminently call by the great liberty and plenty of the Gospel which undeservedly to this day we do enjoy There is a notable saying Psal 147.19 20. He hath shewed his word to Jacob his statutes and his judgements to Israel he hath not dealt so with any nation c. And may not I apply this very pertinently to these Nations for what Nation under Heaven hath enjoyed the Gospel more plentifully more plainly more clearly and for a longer time than we have done The doctrine of the Gospel hath not been more clearly taught in any Nation under Heaven than in this our British Island No Nation hath had more eminently burning and shining lights and many we enjoy at this day Never Nation was better instructed in the minde and will of Christ if we do not wilfully shut our eyes against this light so that other Nations are glad of the crums that fall from our table insomuch that we may truely say with the Apostle 2 Cor. 4.3 4. If our gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost in whom the God of this world hath blinded the mindes of them that believe not lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them And doth Christ thus stand knocking and calling to this day surely his long patience hath made his call the louder and to be the same with that Psal 95.7 8. To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts especially considering how emphatically and to our case pertinently the Apostle applies it Heb. 4.7 Again he limiteth a certain day saying in David To day after so long a time as it is said To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts The night is far spent and the day is at hand it becomes not us then who have slighted Christs call so long and at whose door he hath waited so patiently to linger any longer but speedily to arise and open to him lest his patience being worn out he should depart in a discontent 4. Doth not God at this day quicken his Ministers by his Spirit and make his Embassadors in a more than ordinary manner importunate with us to open to Christ Do not the faithful Ministers of Christ laying aside all circumstantial and lesser matters bend themselves chiefly if not onely and wholly to the main work of calling home sinners unto Christ and to all to open and open more fully and truely and cordially to Christ Is there not a more than ordinary Spirit resting upon the Prophets quickning and exciting them to this work insomuch that they are very urgent and importunate and will take no denial no excuse from sinners but cry and cry aloud call and call again We beseech you in the name of Christ to open to him and be ye reconciled to God Doth not God make Ministers more warm more zealous more importunate in their work So that notwithstanding all the discouragements they meet with and the repulses which you give they will take no denial but renew their suit And if one subject will not work they take
your requests to Christ saying Tell me Oh thou whom my soul loveth where thou feedest and where thou causest thy flocks to rest at noon c. Oh that I might enjoy powerful Ordinances and meet with the power and presence of Christ in them that mine eyes might see my teachers and mine ears hear a voice behind me saying This is the way walk in it Such-like Prayers as these you have been ever and anon putting up and in answer to these your Prayers Christ is come and stands knocking and calling Open to me my Sister my Love my Dove and my undefiled Those calls of Christ which are according to your real desires and in answer to your Prayers must needs be eminent and remarkable 8. Are not you the professed Spouse of Christ that have professedly given up your selves by a solemn Marriage-Covenant unto Christ engaged and swore that you will be his and at his service What deeper obligation can you lay upon your selves than you have done In your Baptism and renewed covenanting at the Lords Table and by solemn Vows and Covenants upon several occasions So that none in the world can be more solemnly engaged to open to Christ than you are And in regard you expect his coming every hour doth it not stand you upon to be always upon your Watch-tower waiting when your Lord will come that you may presently open to him And now when he both knocks and calls is not this a sufficient summons to you to open and let him in Every call of an Husband especially such an one as Christ is should have so much weight in it as to command the obedience of the Wise And therefore if not to others yet to you this call should be sufficiently eminent and remarkable or else your Husband may charge you with disloyalty and breach of covenant 9. Did ever Christ use more earnest intreaties and sweet compellations than he doth at this day Doth he not say as to the Spouse Open to me my Sister my Love my Dove my undefiled Do not the sweet expressions of his love in suffering bleeding dying for you speak thus much Doth not the sweet voice and loving intreaties of Christ by his Word and Messengers speak this language Doth not his constant care about you and providential kindness unto you in every respect and according to what your hearts could wish bespeak you in this loving manner Do not all these lay that Christ speaks like a most sweet loving tender and kind-hearted Husband to you Open to me my Sister c. and surely these soft words might break the bone and force open the doors of our heart without any delâ—â— I am sure Christ hath manifested as much love and dealt with as much tenderness towards us as ever he did towards a people And therefore his calls are loud enough to be heard 10. Is not his head filled with dew and his locks with the drops of the night If we take these words in a good sense that he comes fully fraught and furnished with all fulness and plenitude of blessings and benefits that our Souls can desire or stand in need of I appeal to any of your souls that ever did open to and let in the Lord Jesus Christ whether ever you found any want in him or were streightned in him whether he brought not more comfort and benefit with him than ever you were able to contain though you opened your mouths never so wide Hath he not fully answered and over-answered your most enlarged expectations so that you might have eaten and drunken far more abundantly if you had been able to contain it Every hair of his head hath a drop of some kinde of refreshment hanging at it which you might be welcome to And therefore his call is loud enough when he tells you what he hath brought with him But take the argument in a bad sense for the sufferings and afflictions of Christ and they are a loud call Hath not Christ suffered enough in his humiliation in making way to receive you into favour with God and into covenant with himself but you must put him to new pain and trouble by making him to stand waiting and dancing attendance at your door while you are snorting and stretching your self upon your bed of ease and security Was not his once offering up himself a Sacrifice for sin sufficient but you must crucifie him afresh and put him to new pain by your slothful and sluggish delays and unreasonable excuses Doth not Christ suffer enough in his Name and Honour from wicked blasphemous wretches who rend and tear his very Name wilfully reject him and will not have this man to rule over them but must he also be slighted and undervalued by you must he suffer in his Ministers by the revilings evil-speakings and persecutions that they endure in and from the world and is not this sufficient but their Hearts also must be made sad by your refusal to open to Christ The weight of this Argument makes this call to be very loud and especially at this day under the circumstances that we now are And therefore I desire it may be seriously considered By these enquiries we may see that the call of Christ at this day is very eminent and remarkable and therefore it concerns us to enquire what answer we make to this call Whether we have done and really do open to this call or no which is the 2. Enquiry which we proposed to make and I beseech you let us be serious in it It is a matter that greatly concerns us since Christ his calls are so eminent and his stay hath been so long at the door of our Hearts What answer have we made to the calls of Christ have we heartily sincerely and readily opened the doors of our Hearts that the King of glory might enter in But alas if we deal faithfully in the examination of our own Hearts and in the account which we give in this case it is to be feared that Christ hath had no better if so good an answer from us than he had here from his Spouse As will appear if our hearts make but true and faithful answer to these following Queries 1. If we have truely opened to Christ how comes it to pass that convictions are so ineffectual and fruitless as they are at this day We finde in the course of our Ministry the word of God sometimes working by way of conviction Persons are convinced by the word that they are the persons so and so guilty are a little startled and affrighted are pricked at the heart their Consciences smite them and tell them as Nathan did David Thou art the man to whom this reproof comes that art thus and thus guilty of sin art in a state of nature and unregeneracy in the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity and that if thou diest in this estate thou art undone for ever That there is no way or course left to avoid this but by opening to
Jesus Christ repenting of and forsaking thy sin turning to God with all the heart and taking up a new course of life Fleeing unto Christ alone for justification in a sense of thine own utter unworthyness Entering into covenant with him taking him for thy Prophet Priest and King giving up thy self unto him in all humble hearty and sincere submission to his will and obedience to all his commands This the word dictates and Conscience sets in with it and seconds it And to make up the conviction more full the Spirit of God comes in and tells thee that this condition thou art in is not to be rested in thou must either turn or die To day if thou wilt hear the voice of God then harden not thy heart ere long it will be too late thy Sun will be set thy day of grace over and these things will be hid from thine eyes Hereupon thy Conscience is startled and thou beginnest to think with thy self what thou must do and it may be hast some sudden earnest motions purposes and resolutions to turn and to break off from thine old ways and courses to become a new creature But alas how suddenly are all these vanished and gone again and thou fallest fast asleep again in security Convictions wear off Affections cool Fears abate Sin looks not so terrible thine own estate and condition not to dreadful and hopeless Death not so near the flames of Hell not so hot and scorching and so the wook is laid aside and left undone and thou returnest with the dog to the vomit and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire Or at most if these continue still thou goest with an inward griping wounded Conscience and dost not really come out of thy self unto Christ for healing Christ is little store set by or sought after but thou patchest up a Plaister for thy wounded Conscience of some pitiful poor and imperfect righteousness of thine own takest up some small formal Profession of Religion and thus stoppest the clamours of thy Conscience and Christ is shut out and stands without still Nay may I not say of some that instead oâ— opening to Chrst they are hardned in theiâ— sins and grown Sermon-proof the Word oâ— God affects them not takes not hold upoâ— them as sometimes it hath done but theâ— with less pain and torture of Conscience caâ— turn off reproofs than formerly they coulâ— have done and sit more quietly and undistuâ—bedly under Ordinances and that not becauâ—â— they are in a better condition than formerly for they are the same both in heart and life that they were before but because their hearts are more hardened and their consciences more brawny and their souls more sluggish and sensless than they were before Is this thy opening to Christ Is this the entertainment which Christ finds when his head is filled with dew and his locks with the drops of the night Oh consider this before it be too late before Christ be withdrawn and gone We have a sad complaint which God makes against Ephraim Hos 6.4 c. O Ephraim what shall I do unto thee For your goodness is as a morning-cloud and as an early dew it passeth away A morning-Cloud seems to promise rain but as the Sun ariseth it vanisheth away an early Dew seems to moisten and refresh the earth but when the Sun comes to be hot the dew is quickly gone and the grass scorcheth so much the more so was their goodness very vanishing and unconstant They seemed to take notice of Gods words to be affected with them and to promise and purpose amendment but alas their promises and purposes quickly vanished and came to nothing according to what you finde Psal 78.34 35 36 37. Hath it not been too much your case Under convictions you have seemed to promise God fair things and there hath been some hopes of your conversion and change But no sooner hath the heat of conviction been over but all these things have quickly vanished away and come to nothing Is this the entertainment that Christ hath found Blame him not then if he depart and make you seek him before you finde him But further since it is the Spouse of Christ that is here spoken of let me carry on this Query about Conviction a little further You who really are Believers and have entred into covenant with Christ and stand in a Covenant-relation to Christ Have you opened to the calls of Christ Hath there not been many strong convictions upon your spirits in many particular cases wherein you have been faulty and your Consciences have smitten you and yet for all this you have stifled these convictions and have not opened to Christ you have many times been convinced of your Pride Worldly-mindedness Vanity and Unsavoriness Sloath and Luke-warmness Backwardness to Duty Deadness in Duty Unbelief and distrust of God and of his Care and Providence and such like things and yet your hearts have not been willing fully to open to Christ in these things and to let conviction have its perfect work in order to your reformation you have heard the Word and known your selves to be guilty of such things as the Word hath reproved Conscience hath spoken and the Spirit of God hath spoken and yet you have not hearkned to the counsel and dictates thereof but have turned a deaf ear and gone on in your sin still Is this your opening to him who is the wonderful Counsellor who is your Lord and Husband and whose commands should have influence upon you Oh my friends we may all sadly complain that in this respect we have all of us made excuses and kept Christ out of our hearts 2. If the door be not shut against Christ how comes it to pass that the Ordinances of Christ are so little prized so little store set by at this day We told you in the opening of the Doctrine that one way of Christ his calling was by his Ordinances In and by them he convinceth of and reproveth sin directs in and encourageth unto duty communicates grace affords his company gives in nourishment refreshment strength and comfort unto the hungry panting Soul These are the Wells of Salvation and Waters of the Sanctuary that are for the refreshing the City of our God Where these therefore are slighted Christ must necessarily be shut out and not opened to We have the Spouse Cant. 1.7 8. enquiring where she may meet her beloved And he tells her she may finde him in his Ordinances and in the assembly of his Saints there he records his Name and there he meets his people and blesseth them And therefore they that carelesly turn their backs upon the Ordinances of Christ turn their backs upon and shut the door of their Hearts against him Persons may and often do frequent the Ordinances of Christ and yet keep the door of their Hearts fast shut against Christ But they are utterly out of the way of opening to Christ yea out of the ordinary way
mortification of all sin so far as discovered by the Word Where is thy sincere cordial constant universal obedience to the Word of God making that thy Rule in all thine Actions squaring thy whole life and conversation both in respect of God thy self and thy Neighbour according thereunto giving every Duty in thy general and particular calling its due time place and respect Not allowing the world to ingross to it self what properly and peculiarly belongs to God his Worship and Service and putting off God with such homage and service as might better fit and were more proper for our worldly concernments My meaning is our inverting or going in the course of our lives directly contrary to that command or advice of our Saviour Matth. 6.33 Seek first the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof and all other things shall be added In all that we do in our general and particular places and callings keeping God and his interest above and preferring it before the world If these be not the fruits of Faith wherein thy Soul in some measure abounds never tell me that thy heart is rightly and truly open to Christ but according to the measure of thy unfruitfulness remains in measure and part at least shut against Christ notwithstanding thy pretences to open to him How is it with you then friends In what posture do you finde your hearts are they open or shut It is evident that Christ his calls have been very remarkable but what entertainment he hath found in your hearts that is the question that is now put to your Consciences to make answer to And I beseech you suffer your Consciences to speak and to speak out what they know and can tell you in this case Stifle them not bribe them not turn not the deaf ear to what they speak they are God's Deputies within you And if these condemn you know that God is greater than your Hearts and knows all things You may deceive men you may deceive your selves but God you cannot deceive Christ knows what entertainment he hath found and he will make you to know it one day also and therefore deal faithfully with your selves And if by these things which we have laid before you we may try our selves this may lead many of us at least to another work which may be a 3. Vse Here lies before us matter of deep humiliation that so eminent and remarkable calls of Christ as we have been partakers of have been so little regarded by us that Jesus Christ notwithstanding his earnestness and importunity hath found such cold and poor entertainment in our hearts to this very day But this I will not much enlarge upon because I would keep within some convenient bounds It is too obvious and apparent to be denied that notwithstanding our great profession of love to Christ desire of him and frequent imploring his company by prayer we have in too sad and shameful a manner shut him out at his coming though his calls have been visible and convincing How may we then tremble to think how this our behaviour will be resented by him There are many that from what they behold in the world are astonished at the apprehension of the danger of Christ his withdrawing for a time if not total departure But from what usage Christ hath found in our hearts without looking any further abroad we may finde sufficient cause of fear and trembling I am very confident that by that time all reckonings and accounts be cast up if Christ do depart not the least part of the cause of his departure will be found among his own professing people Such as have called upon his Name cryed after him and professed themselves earnestly desirous of his company and yet when in answer to their prayers he hath come have not heartily and fully opened unto him Mistake me not I do not here mean by these persons of whom I am speaking onely Hypocrites and such as make onely an external profession of Religion though there be too many of these in the World but also sincere believers who have the root of the matter the truth of grace within them and shall notwithstanding all their blemishes be found at Christ's right-hand at the day of Judgement that yet have too sadly shut out Christ when he hath come and called in answer to their prayers Think not this impossible for in my Text it is the Spouse the Bride of Christ that thus unkindly treated him when he stood at her door And it is to be feared he hath found no better entertainment from us What cause then have we to fear and tremble lest Christ should deal with us here as he did with the Spouse and therefore with all humility and brokenness of heart to confess and bewail and for time to come resolve against this unworthy ungrateful and undutiful behaviour towards our Lord and Husband But I pass from this to a _____ 4. Use viz. of Exhortation to beseech you all in the name and fear of God to open to the calls and knocks of Christ laying aside all excuses whatsoever O! let Christ have your hearts let him have warm and welcome entertainment there Do I need here to use Arguments or summon in the Topicks of Rhetorick to quicken and perswade you to embrace this reasonable motion or if I should use all the arguments I could invent or that I might collect from the mouths and pens of other men would these be of any force with you if Christ his own words and arguments cannot prevail can I in this case or any man breathing say more for Christ than he can and doth speak for himself And therefore if Christ cannot how shall I think to prevail with you If either friendly compellations earnest intreaties or strong arguments may prevail none of these are wanting in the Text which I have been endeavouring according to my power and weak ability to unfold unto you in this whole Discourse to which I shall refer you and shall not here repeat the same things over again onely beg your serious meditation upon them And considering their weight and importance see whether they may not preponderate and outweigh all arguments that your carnal deceitful Hearts a subtile Devil and an alluring whorish World can bring against this duty Onely give me leave in a few words to expostulate the case a little with you And here let me ask you 1. How or what manner of lives you think to live without Christ and without his company in your hearts Seriously meditate upon this before you give an answer Do you think to live to more profit and advantage to your selves without than with Christ Is Christ no gain and advantage to your Souls will he bring no profit and advantage with him is not his head filled with dew and his locks with the drops of the night Hath not he the command and dispose of all things and hath not he promised to give grace and glory and to withhold
to mention here If thou wilt freely open to Christ now He will readily open to thee at Death and Judgment There are few but they are convinced of the trouble and restlesness of their present state and not fully satisfied with the present state they are in but are still seeking and labouring for something further in hopes another condition may be better and this they might gather from all their experiences that a rest is not to be had here And consequently all men in this life are but in a seeking condition seeking for rest and can finde none as our Saviour speaks in the Parable they have often something within that suggests This is not your resting place By dayly experience they also see that it is appointed for all men once to die And therefore they might conclude that a rest must be had in another world or not had at all for here no rest is to be had And certain it is that There doth remain a rest for the people of God and to them only and who are these people of God but they that open to Christ here for all power is committed into the hands of Christ He it is that hath the key of David that openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth And can we reasonably imagine that he will open to any at that day that will not open to him now No he tells us quite the contrary Prov. 1.24 c. You know the foolish Virgins cryed loud Open to us but he answered I know you not depart from me ye workers of iniquity If therefore there be any restlessness in this world that thou art weary of or in Hell that thou art afraid of or if there be any rest at death and in Heaven desireable open to Christ now as ever thou wouldest avoid the one or desirest to partake of the other So that to conclude this Use if either sense of duty love to thy self and thine own happiness the love of God and Christ or love to God and Christ may have any influence upon thee if any thing either of Divinity or Humanity may work upon thee here is fulness of reason and motives to perswade thee to open to Christ and therefore let reason prevail with thee But thou wilt say How shall I open to Christ And what would you have me in this case to do I am willing to open to Christ if I knew but how to do it and what is required in this case That I may help thee a little in this great and necessary work I shall give thee some directions how to carry and what to do and so shall conclude this subject And these directions shall be of two sorts 1. Such as may have respect unto the Heart and the manner or way of the Hearts opening to Christ 2. Such as may have respect to Christ and the several ways of his coming in and making himself manifest unto the Soul 1. I begin with such directions as respect the Heart and the way and manner of the Hearts opening to Christ Now that we may the better know how many ways the Heart must be opened to Christ it may not be impertinent to consider how many ways the Heart may be shut against Christ Now it is evident that the Heart may these several ways be shut against Christ By Pride and self-confidence by unbelief by impenitency by want of Love or coldness of affection by sloth and sluggishness either in our watch or work A little to open each of these and then you shall see by them what of the Heart or in what respects the Heart is to be opened to Christ 1. The Heart may be shut against Christ by Pride and self-confidence Such is the Pride and haughtiness of corrupted Nature that though the sinner be justly condemned for his sin yet he seeks to justifie himself and would not seem to be beholden to Jesus Christ nor his satisfaction for a pardon This is evident in our first Parents in their shifting off their sins and endeavouring to transmit the guilt upon some one else Adam when examined rather than he would be found faulty lays the blame upon Eve and in some sense upon God himself The woman which thou gavest me gave me c. and I did eat The woman when examined lays the guilt upon the Serpent The Serpent beguiled me c And the same principle of Pride remains in some measure in the Hearts of all Adam's Posterity which makes them use their uttermost endeavour to justifie themselves This is the true cause of all excuses that are made for sin and the reason why persons do so over-much value their own works of Righteousness judging in effect that every small parcel of duty and obedience is sufficient to expiate the greatest sin And by this means Jesus Christ is undervalued and little store set by For a man will never be wholly beholden to Jesus Christ for his justification while he hath any Righteousness of his own to lean to And by this means the Heart is shut against Christ As this Pride hardens God's heart against the sinner and makes God to resist or set himself in battle-array against the sinner as the word signifies James 4.6 and as this self-justifying confidence causeth Christ many times to pass by the door of such a sinner without calling upon him for he tells us that he came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance Matth. 9.13 that is those that are through Pride and self-confidence righteous in their own eyes So this Pride doth harden and shut the heart of the sinner against God and Christ And therefore the Psalmist saith The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God Psal 10.4 This therefore must be removed out of the way before the door of the Heart be truly and fully opened to Christ Wouldest thou therefore open to Christ get rid of all Pride and self-confidence labour to be humble low and vile in thine own eyes and to such Christ will look Isai 66.2 To this man will I look that is poor and of a contrite spirit and that trembles at my word And elsewhere The poor have the Gospel preached to them i. e. They that are of a poor humble self-denying spirit have the glad tidings of Salvation brought unto them to these the Son of Righteousness ariseth with healing under his wings And therefore blessed are these poor in spirit for they shall see God While David justified himself and hid his sin the hand of God was heavy upon him but when he humbled himself and confessed freely his sin God came in with pardon Psal 32. Oh therefore labour after humility and lowness of spirit for God resisteth the proud but gives grace to the humble Humble your selves therefore and in due time God will exalt you with his presence and company Christ must do all and have the glory as well as the command of all where he comes and
thy Heart to the rebukes of Christ and willingly receive them 5. Open to the comforts of Christ We read that when Christ came to his Disciples when they were met together his first salutation which he gave them was Peace be unto you Luke 24.36 And truely where Christ comes into the Soul he brings true inward spiritual peace along with him and freely bestows it upon his Spouse But yet such is the proneness of our natures to unbelief that we many times refuse the comforts which Christ brings and do not apply them to our selves Sinners indeed do many times snatch presumptuously at these comforts which do not of right belong unto them nor indeed are they offered by Christ to them But the People of God sometimes through a foolish and sinful modesty refuse or at least are afraid to take and apply those comforts which Christ at his coming brings with him insomuch that Christ is forced to invite and entreat them to accept of them as his free gifts which he is really willing and desirous to bestow upon them This is really a fault in peâ—itent sinners for Christs real dâ—signe in coming is to give that which may be the surest and best ground of everlasting peace and comfort to the Soul If he convince of and reprove for sin and thereby cause sorrow and sadness in the Soul this searching is but in order to the healing of their wound that they may afterwards have more solid peace and comfort If he frown it is but to make his smiles the more pleasant and make us to prize them the more If he call us to and put us upon more difficult and to the flesh unpleasant work it is but that thereby he may honour us the more and his comfortable presence shall be with us in it If he cast us down for a time he will be careful that we be not overwhelmed with too much sorrow and will in due time lift us up refuse not therefore his comforts which are the designe of all his carriage towards thee whatever Christ doth and however he may seem to carry towards thee the ultimate end of all is to do thee good and comfort thee and therefore hath promised Rom. 8.28 That all things shall work together for good to them that love God 6. Open to the love of Christ I did perswade you before to open and enlarge your Hearts in love towards Christ But now I advise you to open your hearts to receive his love When Christ comes and manifests real tokens and demonstrations of his distinguishing everlasting love do not you despise or reject these It is an hard matter to convince and perswade some Christians that Christ loves them or at least that his love is real and distinguishing such as he bears to his own children or Spouse They will easily grant that they love him but cannot so easily believe that he loves them But I would ask such a Soul this question How camest thou thus to love Christ If thy love be real it is onely a reflex beam of Christ his love to thee he must necessarily love thee before thou canst love him For certainly there was a time when thou didst hate as all unregenerate persons do and who made thee then to differ either from others or from what thou thy self once was It can be nothing else but his love shed abroad in thy Heart This is the argument pleaded Ezek. 16.1 to the 15 v. Love is an affection not to be forced but to be drawn as is intimated Cant. 8.7 If a man would give all the substance of his house for love it would utterly be contemned And it must be drawn by the discovery of some suitable and desirable excellency in the object beloved that may answer the need or desire of the Soul that loveth The Soul finding it self empty or void of something that might tend to the compleating of its happiness for happiness consists in the fulness of the Soul when it wants nothing while it wants any thing it is not compleatly happy upon this discovery of emptiness in it self seeks out where such a thing may be had and finding Jesus Christ to be that all sufficient object which may every way answer the need and emptiness of the Soul loves him with a love of desire and earnest longing after him as the onely person the enjoyment of whom can make her absolutely and perfectly happy And so far as she can enjoy him so far she is delighted and satisfied with him This is the true notion of love and if thy love to Christ be right it is such a love as this If thâ—refore upon the discovery of Christs excellency and perfection answerable to thine indigence and emptiness thy soul doth truely love Christ I would gladly know who discovered to thee this perfection and suitableness in Christ who is so generally dâ—spised in the world And who drew out thy heart in love to Christ upon this account Surely it must it can be none but Christ and if he thus with loving kindness have drawn thee certainly it is because He hath loved thee with an everlasting love Jer. 31.3 Thou hast less reason therefore to question the real love of Christ to thee than to question the reality of thy love to him Open therefore thy heart freely to the love of Christ and instead of questioning the reality of Christs love to thee rather study how thou maist by returns of love and thankful obedience answer so great love as he hath manifested towards thee Study to improve and highly prize his love for he first loved thee or else thou couldest not have loved him at all 7. And lastly Open to the company and presence of Christ If Christ come to thy door and would come in and afford thee his company in any Ordinance or by any Providence whether in publick private or secret Open to him let him in let him have thy company let him see all the parts of thine heart hide nothing from him deal as Hezekiah did with the Babylonish Embassadors shewed them all that was in his house hid nothing from them So deal thou by Christ fully unbossome thy self to him improve thy time with him and interest in him to the best advantage reveal to him thy secrets confess to him thy sins acquaint him with thy wants seek counsel and advice from him in all thy difficulties strength in all thy weaknesses support under all thy burdens victory in all thy temptations comfort in all thine adversities a sanctified use or and a seasonable deliverance out of all thy troubles Beg to be guided by his counsel here the continuance of his presence with thee alwaies even to 〈◊〉 end and thy safe reception and conduct uâ—â—â— glory And if thou thus open to Christ eâ—â—nestly desiring and being freely willing that 〈◊〉 should work all thy works in thee and for thee he will come in unto thee and will sup with thee and thou with him Will feast thee with his Graces here and will crown all thy grace with Glory hereafter FINIS