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
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
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
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
Sinners are by nature so fast asleep in such a dead sleep of sin and security that nothing less than the voice of the Son of God knocking and speaking at the door of their Hearts will awaken them hence we read John 5.25 That the time is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live Which must be meant not of a natural Death or of the day of Resurrection but of a Death in sin because he saith the time now is And therefore saith the Apostle Eph. 2.1 You hath he quickned i. e. by the powerful voice of his Spirit Who were dead in trespasses and sins Would you see what one of Christ's calls are in this case read Eph. 5.14 Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead and Christ shall give thee life This he speaks not onely to the Ear by his Word but to the Heart by his Spirit 2. Christ his calls at the doors of our hearts many times designe Repentance Repentance is a Gospel-duty incumbent upon every person Acts 17.30 But now commands all men every where to repent And for this end he sends forth his Ministers to preach the Doctrine of Repentance to shew the necessity of Repentance and that there is great reason or cause for Repentance because we have sinned and thereby departed from God and cannot come to him again but by Repentance It is called The Doctrine of Repentance because Repentance is properly a Gospel-doctrine a Doctrine that the Law preacheth not for the Law or Covenant of Works admits of no Repentance but upon our breach of the Law immediately pronounceth a Curse Gal. 3.10 Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to do them But the Gospel-covenant admits of yea calls for Repentance as the way and means to obtain Mercy yea promiseth Mercy and Pardon upon our Repentance Prov. 28.13 He that confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall find mercy Therefore the Gospel tells us that Except we repent we shall all likewise perish Luke 13 5. If persons be in a state of unregeneracy then Christ knocks by his Word and by his Providences by his Mercies and his business with them is to shew that there is a necessity of their Repentance and that they must either repent or perish everlastingly If persons be in a state of regeneracy and have by some temptation or other lapsed or fallen into Sin or it may be have some Sin lodging in them not yet truely discovered and consequently not particularly repented of Then and in such case Christ calls to renewed and enlarged acts of Repentance for Repentance is a grace that concerns us all our lives long And therefore the calls of Christ in this case may be such as these Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand 3. Christ calls to reconciliation with God When Christ comes to the door of thine Heart he comeS as a mediator and peace-maker to make peace between God and thy Soul which are at variance with each other and by reason of sin have an utter enmity against each other The cause of this enmity Christ hath taken away by his death upon the Cross and nailed it to his Cross The cause being removed he comes and calls to intreat that the enmity it self may be taken away and we would be reconciled unto God 2 Cor. 5.18 19 20. Though there be little reason for it yet man is hard to be wooed and perswaded to cast out of his heart the enmity that is lodged there against God and his wayâ— And therefore Christ is forced to knock and call again and again before we will in this case be perswaded to yield to his suit 4. Christ calls for a closure with himself by Faith as the onely way and means to obtain peace and reconcilation with God We by our Sins are indebted to God more than ever we are able to pay are therefore in danger to be arrested by Divine Justice and cast into prison where we may lie and rot to all eternity Jesus Christ seeing us in this misery and distress comes and calls at the door of our hearts offers to be our Surety to pay every farthing of our debt for us and that upon this condition only that he may have our full and free consent to do this for us and that we will accept of with thankfulness what kindness he shews herein and rely upon him for the perfecting of this work for us and where-ever Justice shall lay any charge or accusation against us we will by Faith confidently and stedfastly plead his Satisfaction for our Discharge This is all that he requires from us and upon this condition only promiseth to pay our Debt reconcile us to God free us from imprisonment and seal us an absolute and full discharge that shall for ever stand good to all intents and purposes And therefore Christ his calls in this case are such as these Matth. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Isai 55.1 Hâ— every one that thirsts come unto the waters and he that hath no money come ye buy and eat yea come and buy wine and milk without money and without price Rev. 22.17 Let him that is athirst come and whosoever will let him take of the waters of life freely and he assures us John 1.12 that As many as receive him upon these terms to them he will give power to become the sons of God to them that thus believe on his Name And surely one would think this call is worthy to be embraced with all readiness of heart and thankfulness 5. Christ calls to sincere and hearty obedience to his commands and subjection to his revealed Will and Law he calls to take his yoke upon us and learn of him Mat. 11.29 This call is like unto that of Boaz to his Kinsman Ruth 4. Buy Naomi's inheritance but know also that thou must buy it of Ruth i. e. buy the inheritance but thou must take her to be thy wife also to raise up seed to thy kinsman that is dead So saith our Saviour Come and take the inheritance that I have purchased for thâ—â— and thou art freely welcome to it but know that in the day whereâ—in thou dost this thou must also 〈◊〉 me to be thy Lord and Husband and 〈◊〉 solemnly engage to behave thy 〈◊〉 as a loyal faithful and obedient wife to me thou must take me wholly as I am onely absolutely and everlastingly not only for a Priest to make atonement for thy Sins and to sanctifie and offer thy gifts to the Father but as a Prophet to teach thee such Laws Statutes and Judgments as are fit and requisite for thee to observe and as a King to rule and govern thee by my Law Thy heart must be my Throne and there must I sit and exercise my Authority and have thy whole man
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
him that I am sick of love I have sought him but cannot finde him I have called him but he gives me no answer If it be asked what is the reason why it is thus with many Believers It may be answered there is cause for it they have given Christ some unkinde answer he hath called but they have not heard or heeded He hath knocked and they have not opened And therefore he will make them sensible of their affront and unhandsome carriage before they shall finde him again 3. Hence also we may learn what a gross cheat the Devil and our own Hearts have put upon us and the great danger we have many of us been in by our refusing to open to Christ at his knocks and calls A greater cheat the Devil could not put upon us nor greater danger can we possibly be in than to be perswaded by him to refuse or delay to open to Christ And yet how ordinary is it for the Devil and carnal Reason to put this cheat upon us and by being so often and so long cheated what dreadful and tremendous danger have we many of us brought our selves into Christ hath called and called again and again by his Word and Providences by his Mercies and Judgements by his Spirit and our own Consciences and yet from time to time to this very day we have put him off with frivolous and vain excuses and have not fully opened the door of our Hearts to him Christ hath pressed us so far with arguments and those convincing and startling ones and of all sorts so that we could not deny but this hath been the voice of Christ insomuch that he may say What could I have done or said more than I have done And yet what cold entertainment hath he found at our doors May he not justly complain of us as of Israel of old Isai 53.1 Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord made bare It would make a man to tremble to think at the loud knocks and calls that God hath given to sinners in these Nations and yet to this day hath been shut out few have sincerely received him into their Hearts nay may it not be truely said as is complained John 1.11 He came to his own and his own received him not Many that have made a large profession of the Name of Christ that yet have not truely received him into their hearts Nay may not Christ say I am neer in their Mouth but far from their Reins Nay are there not many that we hope are truely the Spouse of Christ and have many a time prayed for the breathings of his Spirit and his comfortable presence and yet at his coming have shut him out and yet where are there any but they have their plausible excuses though if they were all examined they would prove as unreasonable as this in the Text. But these we shall make further inquiry into under another Use onely here let us take notice what an horrible cheat the Devil and carnal Reason have hereby put upon us and what a sad and dreadful condition we have hereby brought our selves into Which will undeniably appear if we consider 1. What and who those pretended Friends and Lovers are that we have entertained in our hearts while we have shut out Christ and refused to open at his call Shall I tell you 1 what and 2 who they are 1. What they are The Lovers which we have doted upon and entertained in our hearts while Christ hath been kept out they are first False and flattering Lovers They do not love us really and cordially though they make great shew and pretence of love There is none that loves so really as Jesus Christ doth His love was towards us while we were Enemies to him and did him much disservice but these onely love us while we please and gratifie them Do but cross the Devil the World or Flesh and you shall finde they will hate you and manifest themselves your Enemies Christ's love is pure love without any by-ends but the love of these is onely a pretended love for their own ends and the carrying on of their own designes His love is a love indeed and he hath by what he hath done and suffered for us in real and great deeds manifested the reality of his love but their love is meerly verbal and complemental promising much but performing little or nothing of what they promise His love is chiefly manifested in adversity in straights in distresses when all others frown upon us and we have now hither to betake our selves but to him but their love is onely in prosperity and when we have the least need of them For if ever we really stand in need of them as at death and at Judgement then they will be the furthest off from helping us of affording any relief nay then they will appear to be our enemies and the first that shal set themselves against us And are these friends to be trusted and to be kept in our hearts when Jesus Christ must be shut out How do we suffer our selves to be miserably deluded by these errand cheats 2. These Lovers and pretended Friends they are unprofitable Lovers and Friends Let them afford the best help they can they can afford no such benefit and advantage as Jesus Christ can and doth The Wise-man speaking of worldly things saith Prov. 23.5 Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not Riches certainly make themselves wings and flie as an eagle towards Heaven There is no securing or holding fast these things When the Devil would have tempted our Saviour to worship him Matth. 4. he shews him all the Kingdoms of the World and the glory of them and faith All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me And yet this was not in his power to give But suppose these were in his power to give and that he would be as good as his word and really give them yet What would it profit a man to gain the whole world and loose his own soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul But suppose he would perswade you that you might gain the one and save the other yet the Apostle tells us the contrary 1 Joh. 2.15 If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him And I am sure if the love of God be not in him he cannot save his soul For the Apostle saith If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be accursed Gal. 1.8 and If we love not him that is begotten we cannot love him that begetteth for the Father and the Son are one and therefore there is no real profit to be got by them but are great losers and therefore in hearkening unto them we are miserably cheated 3. They are very uncomfortable Friends if compared with Christ They pretend Mirth and Pleasure and Delight but even in the midst of mirth the heart is sad
no real mirth or chearfulness can they give But he that hath but once tasted how good and pleasant Christ's company is he may truely say he never met with such a good and chearful and comfortable Friend in all his life he may say with the Spouse I sate down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was pleasant to my taste There is none of these pretended friends but there is much sowreness harshness and unpleasantness to be found in them but of Jesus Christ it may be said He is altogether lovely his very yoak is easie and his burden light there is comfort in his very Cross in his company a Believer may sing at midnight in a prison with his feet fast in the stocks but as for the pleasures of sin they are but short and they alwaies end in pain What Paul said of sin in respect of profit Rom. 6.21 What profit had ye in those things whereof ye are now ashamed So may I say What pleasure can you take in those pretended friends whose company will certainly end both in shame and pain 4. Their designe is destructive Whatever they may pretend and however they may flatter thee and promise rest and sleep and quietness it is but that they may destroy thee and that to all eternity They are but such-like friends to thee as Dalilah was to Sampson if she cause him to sleep upon her lap it is but that she may cut his Locks and deliver him weak into the hand of his enemy to torment him If they cry Peace peace unto thee and lull thee asleep in security it is but that they may binde thee with the Devils in chains of darkness to be reserved to the Judgment of the great Day Are these therefore friends to be trusted Who while they flatter thee purposely designe thy destruction and aim at nothing more than the ruine both of thy Soul and Body Oh how do persons suffer themselves to be cheated by the flattering pretences of false friends but real enemies and in the mean while keep out Jesus Christ out of their hearts who would be a friend indeed Thus you see what those are that are entertained in the heart while Jesus Christ is shut out But 2. Let us see who these are that do thus cheat us I will in short tell thee who they are though by the marks which I have already given of them thou mayest easily guess who they are They are the three grand Enemies of thy Soul The Devil the World and the Flesh These are thâ—y that thou taking them for thy friends and welcome guests into thy heart art cheated by Enemies they are and the greatest and most inveterate implacable malicious and unmercyful Enemies that thou hast Yea besides them thou hast not such Enemies in all the world and yet these dost thou receive for thy bosome-friends and that while thou shuttest out him that is the best and surest friend that thou hast in the world that hath done more for thee than all the world besides What Joab said to David when he mourned so excâ—ssively for Absalom that may I truely say to thee By this I perceive that thou lovest thine Enemies and hatest thy Friends For if these false dissembling and rebellious Absaloms might but live and be thy companions thou matterest not though Jesus Christ be starved to death at the door of thine heart Oh wretched cruelty and misguided blindfolded affection that will thus be cheated from time to time by the flatteries of them that seek thy life and these must needs be they that keep possession in thy heart for none but these who have ever been mortal Enemies to Jesus Christ would give thee counsel to keep Christ out of thy heart To be sure God would not give thee this advice for he loves and is ever well pleased with his Son and would have him seated in the Royal Throne of thy Heart Yea he is reconciling the world unto himself by Jesus Christ He hath appointed thy reception and entertainment of Jesus Christ as the onely way to happiness Surely it is not Christ that counsels thee thus for it is he that stands knocking at the door of thy Heart for entrance and admission It is not the Spirit of God for he is also the Spirit of Christ and is sent upon his errand to perswade thee to open to Christ yea he is heartily grieved when thou resistest these motions of his And if Christ may not come in he will not long stay there himself striving with thee It cannot be thy Conscience for that is a faithful witness and admonisher and will speak truely when it may be heard and the counsel it gives is according to the will of God whose vice-gerent it is and whose authority it bears in the Soul and therefore it can be no other that gives thee this counsel but those Enemies before mentioned Satan the World and the Flesh for the counsel is like them and rightly fathers it self and what folly is it thus to be cheated by such Enemies to thy Soul as these are and that from time to time 2. The greatness of this cheat and the wrong which we sustein by it will appear if we consider the advantage which these our Enemies have got by our hearkning unto them and suffering our selves to be cheated by them thus long I shall onely mention these three advantages they have got by perswading thee to keep thy heart shut against Christ Advantages they are to them and their designes but most fearful wrongs to thee and to thy Soul 1. They have occasioned thee to commit many a sin which might have been prevented if thou hadst long since opened to Christ at his call I do not here speak of thy great sin in refusing to open at Christ's call which is every time renewed and repeated when thou refusest to open whatever thine excuse be Nor do I speak of the sins that are couched and included in the unreasonableness of thy excuses though these be neither few nor little But I speak of that sinful frame of heart and course of life that thou leadest and livest it while Jesus Christ is kept out of thy Soul Reflect upon thy self and consider how long it is since Christ gave thee the first call and consider what course of life thou hast led since how many wilful and known sins thou hath committed one upon the back of another yea the same sins many a time over and over again these sins all of them might have been prevented and many of them doubtless had been prevented if thou hadst opened to Christ at his first call If thou hadst suffered him to have come in he would have changed the habit frame bent and inclination of thy heart and course of thy life and conversation he would have set thee about his work and kept thee employed in his business that thou shouldest not have had time or leasure to have hearkned to Satans temptations It is
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
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
no good thing Psal 84.11 and doth not he assure us that he that spared not his Son but delivered him up for us all will also with him give us all things that may be good for us Rom. 8.32 Do you think to live more to your own pleasure contentment or comfort Is it not in his presence that there is fulness of joy and at his right hand that there are pleasures for evermore Psal 16.11 Is it not in him alone that the Soul and Conscience can have true peace and a calm and that when nothing but storms and tempests are without read John 16.33 Tell me who but Christ can put your Soul into Davids frame of Spirit when in Davids condition Psal 63. banished hunted persecuted in the Wilderness destitute of maintenance friends a resting-place Ordinances every hour in jeopardy of his life and yet his Soul filled as with marrow and fatness in the company and enjoyment of God there could he sing and give â—raise In such a condition also was he when he penned Psalm 57. and yet his heart was fixed to sing and give praise If you think you can â—ive more profitably or more pleasantly without Christ in worldly and sinful ways and courses let me desire you to take a view of your time carriages and manner of life that that is by past And let me ask you the same question that the Apostle doth Rom. 6.21 What fruit had you then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed This I will assure you that either in respect of profit pleasure honour or comfort no company is like to Christs Oh! therefore let not him stand without while worse company is entertained in your hearts What is the reason why Christians hearts are so full of guilt doubts fears and dissatisfactions of every kinde but for want of the company and presence of Christ If this Sun of righteousness did but with healing under his wings arise upon and shine into our hearts he would quickly dispel and scatter all those midnight fogs and terrours that do so disturb and disquiet us and render our lives so uncomfortable 2. Suppose that you could live well enough without Christ while you live in this world Let me ask you what you will do or how you will make up your accounts at Death and Judgment without him You know that It is appointed to all men once to die and after death the judgment You know also that we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ for God hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world by Jesus Christ Acts 17.31 and that in that day We must give him account of all that we have done in the flesh whether good or evil whether secret or open whether in thought word or deed there then we cannot avoid the meeting with Christ how then do you think that Christ the Judge will look upon you at that day who have so slightly looked upon him when he stood knocking at the door of your hearts Read with seriousness Prov. 1.24 to the end Matth. 25.11 12. Oh! the countenance and looks of Christ which to you now is despicable but to the Saints lovely will to you then be most dreadful and terrible Then will you cry to the mountains and hills to fall on you and to hide you from the presence of the Lord and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of his wrath is come and who is able to abide it 3. Let me further ask you What is it that hinders you from opening to Christ at present Is it any thing that hath the colour or face of reason in it If not why do you suffer it to hinder you If it have let us examine it and see what strength of reason may be in it I can but at present call to minde these Three great and main hinderances that keep men off from opening to Christ at his call 1. The low and mean esteem which persons have of Christ's company feasts and banquets The generality of the world are clearly for some sensible good thing Who will shew us any good thing Psal 4.6 Something that may yield them some present advantage that may advance their estate their credit pleasure or honour something that they may see with their eyes or handle or taste c. something that is obvious to sense but as for invisible things an interest in Christ in the Covenant of Grace a future reward in another Life only for the present to be received and apprehended in the promise these things are little store set by If Christ would give them of these worldly good things then they would set store by him But if he tell them of spiritual Feasts of a Treasure in Heaven of a Crown of Glory and such like things these are not much taking with the generality of the world And therefore Christ his Feasts Company and Benefits being spiritual are little store set by by carnal hearts and when they are called upon to open to him they make light of it as not judging him worth the opening to But that this is a great mistake I might easily demonstrate for we have little reason to have so low an esteem and value of Christ his Benefits and Banquets if we do but rightly understand our selves We will suppose a man to have all that the world can afford him both in respect of profit pleasure and honour and yet want true peace of conscience true comfort in his Soul can these things give him this without Christ But where a Soul hath Christ he may have peace in his own Soul and Conscience in the absence of these worldly enjoyments David in a wilderness Paul and Silas in a dungeon with their feet fast in the stocks their stripes and wounds unwashed can sing praises to God with a merry and chearful heart Nay my Friends it is impossible for me to express that quietness and serenity of Spirit that abundant peace of Conscience Joy of heart contentation and satisfaction which a Believer enjoys in the company of and communion with Christ therefore it is called a Peace which passeth all understanding Phil. 4.7 It is called A Joy unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1.8 It is not what a man hath but what gives true Peace Satisfaction and contentment to the Soul that makes a man happy and this none but Christ can do And therefore his company and banquets must needs be not so despicable as many men account them But alas it is their ignorance and want of experience would they but be perswaded to open to Christ and make trial of the excellency of his company and rarity of his banquets they would have a more venerable esteem for Christ than now they have 2. Another grand hindrance that keeps us off from opening to Christ is the urgency of other business When Christ comes and calls persons are so crowded with other business that they cannot be at leisure to open to him or give
him any entertainment Men are generally got plunged so deep in the cares and cumbers of the World that they have no leisure to open to Christ no nor so much as to weigh the arguments and motives that Christ makes use of to procure admission into their hearts Oh how busie are men in the world head and heart hands and feet yea whole soul and body as busily exercised about the world as may be and they think all this little enough too they think they get little enough by it and how should these then have leisure to open to Christ no wonder though his calls be so ineffectual when perso◠〈◊〉 so deeply ingaged in the world that 〈◊〉 have not leisure to stand still and consider 〈◊〉 were best to be done whether that which they are about or some other thing We read in the parable of the Supper when the Master sends forth his Servants to invite guests one man is busie with his Farm another with his Merchandise but none of those which were bidden had leisure to come And the reason was they saw a present necessity and urgency of the present business which they were about but they saw none so great and present need of Christ Many in the world are worse employed than Martha was and yet think their time so well spent in that which they are about that they are loth to be taken off to wait and attend upon Christ and his Ministry Martha had invited the Lord Jesus to her house and with him many friends and that which she was busie about was to make ready provision for his entertainment a business one would think indispensible And yet our Saviour blames her for this Luke 10.40 41 42. But Martha was cumbered about much serving And Jesus answered and said Martha Martha thou art careful and troubled about many things but one thing is needful And Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her How many are â—oth 〈◊〉 employed than this and yet have not 〈◊〉 to consider whether any thing be more necessary to be done than what they are about To such as these I would speak these few words You think your selves well employed in your earnest and not pursuit of the world the cares and business that onely relates to this present life and you see nothing more needful at present to be done Let me ask you this question Notwithstanding the great business which you have to do in the world do you not sometimes finde leisure to eat drink sleep dress and adorn the body You will say Yes without these we could not live nor have any strength to follow our business Well will time be afforded for taking and feeding upon the meat that perisheth and no time allowed for feeding upon that meat which endures to everlasting life Read John 6.27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth but for that meat which endures to everlasting life Hath your Body more need of Clothes to cover your nakedness and keep your warm than your Souls to be clothed with the Righteousness of Jesus Christ as a Robe or Garment If you did but as really see how naked your Souls look in the sight of God Angels c. you would be as much ashamed of your selves as you would now be to have men see your Body naked And therefore consider with your selves whether there be not as great need to take fit and convenient time for the feeding and clothing your Souls as there is for feeding and clothing your Bodies And if there be as great need I pray you let not your precious Souls famish and starve while you so carefully pamper your Bodies and that notwithstanding your great and urgent business in the world Again you that are so earnest and busie about the world and have your time and thoughts so taken up about it let me ask you this one question more Whether do you judge that your success in your worldly affairs doth principally flow from your own wisdom care and pains or from the blessing of God upon your endeavours I believe that few or none of you will be so audaciously impious as to affirm the former whatever you think but rather that your successive business doth arise from the blessing of God upon your endeavours And if so I pray you to consider upon what ground or warrant you can expect the blessing of God upon your endeavours when you wilfully shut the door of your Hearts against his well beloved Son and when you make so light of him and his company that every worldly trifle must take place of him and be preferred before him Might not many of you succeed better in your worldly business if you would give Christ better entertainment in your Hearts and cumber your selves less about the world Christ bids us Matth. 6.33 Seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof and promiseth that all other things shall be added Intimating that the best way to secure a competency of this world to our selves is in the first and chief place to secure an interest in Christ for our Souls We say that he that would drive on a Trade must have interest and acquaintance And I am sure we cannot have interest in nor acquaintance with a better friend than Christ nor one that can bestead us more in the carrying on of our worldly business For It is the blessing of the Lord that makes rich and addes no sorrow therewith Prov. 10.22 O spare some time therefore in the midst of your worldly business to open your hearts to Christ 3. Another hinderance to our opening to Christ may be the difficulty and unpleasantness of the work either in opening to Christ or when we have opened to him 1. There is a difficulty in opening to Christ which a lazy sluggish Soul is hardly brought to grapple with and overcome Faith and Love are the two principal ways whereby the Soul is to open to Christ And these are two Graces not without much difficulty attained unto in the right exercise of them Many persons at a distance think it an easie matter to believe in a crucified Saviour but when they come to make proof of their Faith in particular cases they many times finde themselves at a loss See this in an instance Mark 9.24 we have a man bringing his child to Christ to be healed his coming argued something of Faith but when the Disciples had failed in the cure and the child was rather worse than better the mans faith begins to stagger as appears by his words vers 22. If thou canst do any thing have compassion on us and help us Hereupon Christ calls him to the real exercise of Faith vers 23. If thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth The poor man upon examination of his own heart finding some faith but yet this very weak and hardly to be raised to a firm and stedfast belief without wavering or doubting cries out
the object of Faith is little notice taken of To love him therefore and that with such a love as we ought whom we have not seen this is very difficult To open our Hearts and Affections to him that we never saw with our eyes but onely have heard tell of this is very difficult and scarcely attainable by a sluggish Soul that is unwilling to be at the pains to enquire after him But let not this hinder for we have such discoveries of him in the Word if we will but be at the pains to search them out as will render him altogether lovely far more desirable than the most precious thing in the world And therefore let not sloth hinder us from opening to Christ by love 2. As there may be difficulty and unpleasantness in opening so there may be difficult and unpleasant work when we have opened to Christ and let him in and the thought of this may make the Soul unwilling to open to Christ As for instance 1. Christ at his coming in may rip up our old sores and bring our sins to remembrance which may renew our torment and pain When Christ comes in he makes new discoveries in the Soul many a sin forgotten and not duly repented of is brought to minde and the sting of it wounds and cuts the Soul puts the Soul to new sorrow shame and pain and this makes the Soul afraid of opening to Christ There is in every one such an indeâ—ible sense of the holiness of Christ and of their own guilt that though the Soul may have a real desire of Christs company yet is really afraid to let him in lest Christ should discover there what the Soul is afraid to have seen And therefore it argues not onely the sincerity and truth of Grace but a considerable measure of the prevalency of Grace when the Soul without inward reluctancy or fearfulness can say as David Psal 139.23 Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts This is a work wherein the Soul would be tenderly dealt with and lest Christ in this case should deal faithfully and roundly the Soul is afraid to open to Christ Though Reason will pray with us to have our Wounds searched yet Nature it self is afraid to have the Surgeon meddle with it Such is the case here and upon this account many faint-hearted Christians are unwilling to open to Christ but rather shut him out But oh my Friends If this be the reason why Christ is not readily opened to by you let me tell you The longer you keep him out the worse it will be with you your Soul is ulcerated with sin it is not found at the bottom and if Christ be not let in at all you must unavoidably perish of this wretched disease And if you do let him in hereafter he must then search it to the bottom and in the mean time your sin frets as a canker eats deeper and deeper into your heart and will not your pain be the more intolerable when your wound comes to be searched And therefore let spiritual reason prevail with you to open to Christ without any more delay That which here thou makest use of as a reason why thy heart is shut against Christ should be a strong yea the strongest argument to the contrary to open to Christ quickly It is infinite Mercy that thou hast so precious a Surgeon at hand It would be a most childish thing then to shut him out of doors because thou needest his help but art afraid lest he should see and rip up thy sore This flesh-pleasing easefulness is that which ruines many thousands 2. He may call us off from our earnest pursuit of the world and worldly business which is urgent upon us He may say to thee Come follow me be not so hasty in the pursuit of the world lay aside thy business for a while I have other business for thee to do let me have thy company a little for for that end am I come This may be the language of Christ to the soul But this is very unpleasing unto the Soul that is hot and earnest in the pursuit of the world this soul will be ready to answer as the man in the Gospel Lord I will follow thee but suffer me first to go and bury my father let me but dispatch such or such business that is urgent upon me and then I will wait upon thee But O Soul consider with thy self what hast thou of greater concernment to do than to hearken to and obey the voice of Christ If Christs company be no more worth and his feast of no greater value he may resolve thou shalt not taste of his dainties His business with thee may be the correcting thy faults the illuminating thee with spiritual wisdome washing and spiritualizing thy cold and carnal A◠〈◊〉 to be sure his main business with thee â—oâ—â—tes to thy spiritual estate to the concerne of thy 〈◊〉 And this is of so much greater and 〈◊〉 â—â—â—port to thee than any worldly business whatsoever as thy Soul is of 〈…〉 than all the world For what will 〈…〉 thee to gain the whole 〈◊〉 and 〈…〉 precious immortal soul 〈…〉 give in exchange for thy soul 〈…〉 lost by thine earnest pursuit of 〈…〉 neglect of that spiritual work which Christ 〈◊〉 thee to 3. Christ at his coming into the Soul sometimes puts his Spouse or People upon some unpleasant work which they would gladly be excused from and this may be an hindrance to their opening to him Sometimes he calls to and puts them upon renewed acts of Repentance as was hinted before Sometimes upon the mortification of some beloved lust which may be as painful and as unwillingly yielded to as the cutting off the right hand right foot or plucking out the right eye Nay his Word may further be quick and powerful sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit and of the joynts and marrow discerning and discovering the thoughts and intents of the heart Heb. 4.12 which the Soul is not willing should be discovered or cut off or at least is afraid of the pain and trouble it may be put to in this work and therefore lingers and puts off Christ from time to time Sometimes again Christ may put his Spouse upon such duties as may cross her natural inclination or particular present and visible interest Such as denying her self taking up her cross following him Enduring hardship as a good souldier for Christ Enduring reproaches evil-speakings persecutions and the like all which are unpleasing to flesh and blood And wherein the Soul must say as to its natural inclination as our Saviour said when he prayed Not my will but thy will be done Here the Soul often sticks and upon these terms is loth to open to Christ the flesh having so strong an influence upon the soul Upon such terms as these the young man in the Gospel went away from Christ Mark 10.21
22. Go thy way sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven and come take up thy cross and follow me And he was sad at that saying and went away grieved c. I am afraid there are but too many in this age that would account these too hard terms to accept of Christ upon But if men would but argue rationally why should these be any hindrances to our opening to Christ for in all this Christ bids us no loss If he bids us part with Earthly he promiseth us Heavenly treasure If he bids us cut off a corrupt part or member though it be painful yet it is in order to the eternal salvation of the whole Matth. 5.29 30. and is it not better to lose a corrupt part than lose the whole 4. Christ at his coming may excite us to and quicken us in our work may call us to be quicker and more exact and curious in our work He may tell us that our work is great and our time but short He may bid us strive with all our might to enter in at the straight gate for many shall in a lazy and sloathful manner seek and wish to enter in and shall not be able He may tell us that this lazy sloathful working will not attain the end that we aim at for the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent onely take it by force It will not serve our turns to read pray hear meditate c. at the cold and careless rate which we do It will not do well to be such strangers as we are to our own hearts but we must examine our own hearts more deeply throughly and effectually must study and practice our duties more throughly must watch unto prayer and give our selves unto prayer Must make the Law of God our delight and daily meditation must in all things small as well as great exercise a Conscience void of offence towards God and Men Must set a watch before the door of our Hearts Lips and lives Must in short forgetting those things that are behinde and reaching forward to those things that are before press towards the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus He may come to ask us such questions as these What have you been doing since the last time I was with you what have you learned what have you practised what proficiency have you made what account can you give of the Talents which I betrusted you with in what forwardness is your work let me see how matters stand with you what designes have you on foot for my glory and what are the designes which you are now carrying on These and such-like questions may be asked by Christ at his coming in Now if the Soul have been idle and careless and not able in any measure to give a good account in these and such-like cases no wonder though she be unwilling at this time to open to Christ The fear of having her faults discovered and the guilt of them to disturb the quiet of her Conscience will make her very slow in opening to Christ as was noted before But if reason might take place this should be no hinderance at all for what Christ tells us is real truth that our work is great and our time but short passing on a pace and irrecoverable when gone and if we have slept or loitered is it reason that we should do so still Is it not high time to awake out of sleep the night is far spent the day is at hand If he should let us sleep or loiter on till his last call to come to the Wedding as he did the foolish Virgins Math. 25. in what a condition would you be when you should awake your lamps gone out no oyl in your vessels no neighbour to borrow of every one having little enough for himself and you must be forced to go to buy when you should enter in with him and by this means you come to be shut out and loose your whole expectation Were it not better let in Christ now and be content to shake off sleep while you have time to get oyl into your vessels with your lamps We use to say that delays in most cases are very dangerous and that it is bad putting off things to the last I am sure this is most true in this case that so greatly concerns the eternal state of our Souls Nay further if things be amiss in us is it not better to let Christ come in and put all things to rights in us then to let them go at random till they be past cure I am sure there never was Soul that ever repented of this whatever pain it was put to in the doing of it though many a Soul hath sadly repented the shutting out of Christ when it hath been too late It is better that Christ bring thy faults and sin to light and remembtance here while thou mayst repent and reform than that thy sin should finde thee out in the guilt shame and punishment of it to all eternity hereafter And be sure thy sin will at one time or other finde thee out Numb 32.23 Oh! therefore let none of these things have influence upon you to hinder you from opening to Christ at his call I dare be bold to say that there can be no true spiritual reason for any poor soul to refuse to open to Christ all reasons produced for that end are carnal and therefore ought to be pulled down and destroyed For the weapons of our warfare are not ought not to be carnal but mighty to the pulling down all imaginations or as the word signifies cavils or carnal reasonings One of these two causes doubtless both which are bad these carnal reasonings must proceed from either from a secret love to some sin or lust in the heart which we would not have Christ to discover or purge out which may well call in question the truth and sincerity of Grace in us for the Psalmist tells us Psal 66.18 If I regard iniquity in my heart God will not hear my prayer And it is certain He doth hear the Prayers of such as are sincere for he saith Psal 145.18 The Lord is nigh unto all that call upon him in truth So that thy sincerity is questionable Or else it proceeds hence viz. from Pride and Self-love Pride because thou wouldest not have Christ to see things â—miss in thee but know that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble From Self-love â—n that thou so much desirest the ease and gratification of the flesh Now if thy very life be more dear to thee than Christ thou art not worthy to be his disciple O let none of these base and sinful arguments keep thee off from opening speedily to Christ at his call I might tell thee also of the advantages that will come by opening to Christ but these I have largely spoken to before only this one give me leave
therefore he is fit company for none but those that are humble self-denying self-condemning sinners 2. The Heart is many times shut against Christ by unbelief Faith is the hand whereby Christ is received Faith must open the door to Christ and therefore where Faith is wanting the door of the Heart must needs be kept shut against Christ Unbelief is one of the great Bars or Bolts whereby the Heart is kept fast shut against Christ This Bar therefore must be removed before the Heart can be opened to Christ The Apostle tells us the reason why the Jews were rejected was because of their unbelief Unbelief is the great Gospel-sin the Rock upon which many a poor soul as plit Therefore saith our Saviour John 3.18 He that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God Beware therefore of unbelief and open to him by Faith Christ gives many invitations and calls such as you read Isai 55.1 c. Believe therefore that Christ is really willing to receive those that he makes such calls unto and of those number thou art if thou dost not wilfully exclude thy self through unbelief He makes many gracious promises of Pardon of Sin of Adoption Sanctification and Life Eternal and withal he tells thee upon what terms and conditions these things are to be had Therefore by Faith embrace these Promise apply them to thy self thankfully close with them and labour to answer the terms and conditions of them and if thou dost but on thy part manifest thy real willingness thou shalt finde that he will come in unto thee with comfort and assurance Therefore open to Christ by Faith believe his word embrace his promises obey his commands dread his threatnings give up thy self by covenant unto him that he may be made of God unto thee wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption 3. Sometimes the heart is shut against Christ by impenitency It is an opinion but too common and ordinary among Sinners that Repentance is only needful in some few gross cases for some great and notorious enormity but as for sins of a less magnitude they look upon them as pardoned in course without any considerable repentance And therefore if they finde not themselves guilty of such great sins they conceit that they need no Repentance In this sense are those words of our Saviour to be understood Luke 15.7 Joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance i. e. that think they need no repentance and this is the secret thought but of too many in the world and by this they shut out the Lord Jesus Christ as a person that they have no great need of or occasion for they think themselves whole and therefore see no need of a Physician But he that would have Christ to come into his soul must see a need of Christ must see himself to be a sinner a great sinner lost and undone without Christ must see himself an enemy to God by nature a rebel and traitor and this his enmity he must repent of be heartily sorry for must be really willing and desirous of peace and reconciliation with God must abhor himself for his former enmity and resolve through the Grace of God that he will stand no longer in opposition to God but must come with an humble broken melted heart to God begging pardon for what is by-past and deliberately resolving and promising new and faithful obedience for time to come and this he must do from a sense of the sinful and cursed nature of sin And upon this Repentance it is that Christ comes in and is willing to be a Mediator between God and man And therefore it thou wouldest open to Christ aright set thy self seriously to the work of Repentance perform that work throughly let no known sin or sin that thou canst possibly discover in thy self pass unrepented of Go therefore into secret examine thine own heart what sins thou canst finde lodged there meditate upon them with all the aggravating circumstances of them and dwell so long upon the thoughts of them till such time as thou hast brought thine heart to an utter loathing and abhorrence of them and of thy self for committing of them and allowing thy self in them and till thou comest to judge and condemn thy self as worthy of eternal damnation for hearkening to the temptation of them And then let God hear thee bemoan thy self and complaining of thine own folly and wickedness and what a sad and wretched condition thou hast brought thy self into by thy sins and beg help of God to turn thee and bring thee unto Jesus Christ and bestow him upon thee and when this is done sincerely and faithfully thou shalt finde Christ ready to come in unto thy soul See this exemplified in Ephraims repentance Jer. 31.18 19 20. Surely I have heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised as a bubock unaccustomed to the yoke turn thou me and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God After I was turned I repented after I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth Is Ephraim my dear Son Is he a pleasant Child For ever since I spake against him I earnestly remember him still therefore I will surely have mercy upon him saith the Lord. Ephraim by repentance opened his heart to God and then Gods heart was open towards him and Gods bowels yearn towards him Thus do thou humble thy self to God and in due time he will exalt thee Open thine heart by Repentance and thou wilt be fit for the reception of Jesus Christ 4. Sometimes the heart may be shut against Christ by decay or want of Love It is want of due love and respect to Christ that is the cause why he is shut out of the Soul did we love Christ more we should more readily open unto Christ and did we more really and fervently love him we should have more of his company If Love be wanting Christ cares not to come in that Soul neither indeed will there be convenient room for Christ in that Soul If thy love to Christ be cold thy heart will be shut against him for the Heart is naturally contracted and shut where love is wanting and it is the very nature of Love to open expand or enlarge the Heart towards the object beloved If therefore thou wouldest have Christ to come into thy Soul set Love to work Love will make Christ precious and desirable to thy Soul and thereupon set thee a longing for Christ when he is absent Love will enlarge thy desire and make thee impatient of his absence and spur thee on to a more diligent seeking of him Love will bid Christ welcome at his coming and therefore will endeavour not onely to remove whatever may be offensive and distasteful to him
but to have all things in a readiness and preparedness for his entertainment Nay Love makes the Soul to think no time lost in his company nor any cost too great for his entertainment And therefore if Love have been cold or wanting towards Christ let it be so no more but labour to get and maintain more fervent love to Christ and this will be the ready way to have his company For Love will make thee to hunger after Christ and he hath promised to satisfie the hungry soul We read Rev. 2. that God threatens Ephesus that he will depart and remove his Golden Candlestick from the midst of her because of her decay in her Love towards him she had lost her first love And well he might for the less she loved him the more was her Heart contracted and shut against him and therefore little room could he have in her Heart and consequently little heart to stay there Take heed therefore of suffering thy love to Christ to decay if thou hast any minde of his company but get thine heart filled with love to Christ and then the door of thine Heart will be open to him and he may have ready and welcome entertainment when he comes 5. The door of the Heart may be shut against Christ by negligence and sloth Now there is a two-fold negligence which Christians are subject unto 1. A negligence or sluggishness in their work Or 2. in their Watch by the means of both which Jesus Christ may be shut out of the Heart 1. Jesus Christ may be shut out by our negligence and sluggishness in our work Slothful working and labouring in our spiritual calling doth but keep Christ out of the Soul When a man prays after a sluggish and slothful manner he doth in effect say that he matters not Christ's company and therefore he cannot expect to finde him For Christ will be found of those that diligently seek him A slothful man will scarcely be willing to wait in the way of duty till Christ come but like the Spouse in the Text will have laid aside his work and be gone to bed when Christ calls and too lazy too to arise to open to him Some persons indeed are impatient of Christ's delays because of their earnest desire of his company they are sick of love to these Christ will come and will not tarry Others are impatient under delays because they are weary of duty love not to tug and toil and sweat in duty too long but would have Christ come that their work might be over and if he come not in their time they leave off their work these do shut out Christ Wouldest thou therefore have thy heart open to Christ be not slothful or sluggish in duty but be diligent painful and industrious in thy spiritual work Be diligent in mortifying sin in quickning grace in discharging duties and those of all sorts that so when Christ comes he may finde thee so doing busily employed in thy Lords work and then will he say to thee Well done good and faithful servant 2. Jesus Christ may be shut out by our negligence and sluggishness in our watch The Spouse here had laid aside her watch was composing her self for rest and now Christ at his coming found her door shut When Sinners grow lazy and let fall their watch they are in a fitter posture for Satan to finde them than Christ For Satan goes about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour and therefore his fittest opportunity is when he can finde them napping and secure But Christ comes as a friend and therefore would finde us watching he comes as a Master and therefore expects us to be ready to open to him If therefore thou wouldest have thine heart open to Christ keep a constant watch over thy self watch and pray that thou enter not into temptation Watch against the treachery deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of thine own heart Watch against the insinuations of an enticing alluring world Watch against the motions and suggestions of a malicious and subtile Devil Watch thy corruptions that they prevail not in thee Watch thy graces that they neither decay nor be idle Watch thy Faith that that may be ready to apprehend and embrace Christ at his coming And watch thy Patience that that wear not out but endure to the end And watch thy Love that by the decays and coolings of that thy Heart be not contracted and shut against Christ Keep up an universal constant and faithful watch if thou wouldest have the door of thine Heart open when Christ comes Blessed is he whom his Lord when he comes shall find upon his Watch-tower ready to open to him Thus have I shewed in what respects the Heart may be shut against Christ and consequently by directing you to the removal of them and the exercise of the contrary grace have instructed you how to get and keep the Heart open for Christ To all which I onely adde this one thing more Wouldest thou have thine Heart open and in a readiness to entertain Jesus Christ at his coming then live always in expectation of his coming look for his coming when the Servant thinks with himself My Lord delays his coming he will not come yet he grows idle and careless and neglects both his work and his watch But if we would but thus judge Our Lord and Master will come and I know not at what hour of the day or watch of the night this would be a means to make us always to keep our Hearts open and in a readiness to receive Jesus Christ at his coming whereas the want of this makes us suffer our Faith to decay our Love to cool and our Hearts to be shut and contracted against Christ at his coming And these are the the Directions which I intended to speak to with respect unto our hearts 2. I have some directions to give thee with reference to Christ and the several ways of his coming into the Soul 1. Wouldest thou have thy heart open to Christ aright then open thine heart to the knowledge of Christ The directions which here I give is the advice and councel of Christ himself called by the name of Wisdom Prov. 1.20 21 22 23. Wisdom cryeth without she uttereth her voice in the streets How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity and fools hate knowledge Turn you at my reproof behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you and will make known my words unto you The want of the right knowledge of Christ is the great reason or ground why the heart is kept so close shut against Christ You know that one way of opening to Christ which I told you of was by faith rolling and recumbing upon Christ and the Psalmist tells us They that know his Name will put their trust in him Psal 9.10 and the reason rendered is because by knowing him they come to understand his truth and faithfulness that he never forsakes them that diligently seek him Iâ—
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