whom shall it be filled but with vessels of mercy whom he had afore prepared unto glory Rom. 9.23 2. It is called a Throne of Grace because Grace hath here and here only a glorious display and discovery Till men get a sight of God in Christ they cannot tell what the grace of God is search Heaven and Earth you can never get a view of God's Grace till ye come to this Throne You may see Gods Infinite Power and Wisdom and Goodness written in great Characters in the great volume of Creation and Providence But till ye come to know God in Christ on this Throne you can never see that Divine Dainty and Saving Blessing the free Grace of God Grace as an everlasting fountain in the Heart of God pouring down streaming forth eternal Salvation on ruined unworthy sinners Men should make a visit to the Throne of Grace if they had no other errand but to get a sight of this precious Thing the Grace of God A right sight of it is saving Believers should long to be in Heaven if they had no other errand then to see the Spring-Head of that Flood of Grace that came down from Heaven to drag them out of Hell and to draw them up to Heaven 3. It is called a Throne of Grace because all the Acts and Sentences past at this new Court are all acts of Grace all the Blessings given from this Throne are all of meer Grace Nothing is here but Grace John 1.17 The law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ. Was there no Grace nor Truth under the Law Yes a great deal but it all belonged to Jesus Christ. There was Grace under the Law but none but what related to Jesus Christ There was Truth under the Law but only as Christ was pointed at otherwise all were but vain and beggerly Rudiments and empty dark Shadows The Jews see nothing of Christ in the Old Testament and therefore find neither the saving Mercy nor saving Truth of God in it And it is much worse with men Christians I cannot call them that see as little of Christ in the New Testament Take the Chain of Salvation and all the Links of it as the Apostle names them Rom. 8.29,30 and all of them are of Grace We are chosen by Grace we are given to Christ by Grace Redeemed by him by Grace By Grace we are justified through that Redemption by the same Grace we are adopted by the same Grace we are saved by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost and by Grace we shall be glorified And they that will not claim these blessings and hold them by this Tenure of free Grace I dare not say that they shall never have them for this Grace can overcome its greatest enemies but I may say that they have at present no part or portion in this matter and when they come to partake of Grace and to know the Grace of God in Truth as Col. 1.6 they will be of another mind and count it the best Tenure to hold all by even by free Grace Yea after all the Riches of Grace poured forth on Believers in this life when they come to receive the Crown of Glory they receive it as humbly yea more than they did any former Act of Grace from this Throne The overcomer by the Blood of the Lamb will receive the Crown from his Glorious Redeemer as humbly and with owning it as a gift of Grace as much as ever he did receive a pardon in that Blood when his head was on the Block and the Ax of Law and Justice lifted up to cut him off for his Iniquity There may be proud Pleaders for or rather presumers and expecters of the Crown of Glory but no proud receivers of it We must look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Jude 21. Merit and Worth are only for Hell and they have no room in Heaven nor in the way to it Justice reigns in Hell and Grace in Heaven So all will find that come to Heaven and so must they all know and believe that would be there Sinners that are for Merit will find it sadly in Hell Mens Merit makes Hell and Christ's Merit makes Heaven Rom. 6.23 4. It is called a Throne of Grace because the Glory of Grace is the last and highest end of the building of this Throne and of all the acts of Grace dispensed at it and from it That proud Monarch spoke vainly and wickedly Dan. 4.30 and was quickly by God punished severely for his sin If we may be allowed to allude to such words we may say of the Throne of Grace Is it not that high Throne that God hath built for the house of his Kingdom by the might of his power and for the honour of the Majesty of his Grace Are any chosen in Christ and predestinated to the adoption of Children by him It is to the praise of the glory of his grace Eph. 1.4,5,6 Do they believe by Grace it is to the praise of his glory vers 12. are they sealed and at last possessed of Heaven that is to the praise of his glory vers 14. Are they quickned when dead in sin and advanced in and by Christ Jesus this is to the praise of his Grace Eph. 2.4.7 All the blessings in Time and Eternity that the Heirs of Grace enjoy are all to the praise and glory of that Grace they spring from We read in the word of none of the Counsels of God before the Creation of all things but of his purpose of saving of a company of poor sinful men by Jesus Christ and of no other design in this purpose but to magnifie his Grace in saving of them this way So much of the signification of this word a Throne of Grace 3. What is it to come unto this Throne of Grace Though the prosecuting of the Exhortation in this Text will open up the nature of this coming more fully yet I would speak somewhat of it in this place 1. This coming implys a state of distance from this Throne in them that are called to come This is called being far off Eph. 2.13 and this state all men by nature are in Men are in God's Eye and Hand he is not far from every one of us for in him we live and move and have our being Acts 17.27,28 As the Psalmist speaks excellently in Psal 139. of the nearness of men to God and of his Omnipresence and Omniscience But his gracious presence as on a Throne of Grace is far from all then by nature and they far from it This presence is far from man's knowledge no knowing of it but by Revelation Far from mens attainment for no man can come unless he be drawn of God John 6.44 Far from their Experience and far from their Love for they are alienated from the life of God Eph. 4.18 And in his favour is life Psal 30.5 and in nothing else 2. It is also
come again Obs 2. Christians should pray before the time of need come for that grace that may help them when it comes The Prophet speaks of bearing for the time to come Isa 42.23 The Apostle 1 Tim. 6.19 of laying up in store a good foundation for the time to come So here Men must pray for the time to come Is any man afflicted let him pray Jam. 5.13 And because any Man may be afflicted he should pray before-hand 1. Because we know not but we may be surprized by a time of need Our Lord's Argument Mark 13.33 Take ye heed watch and pray for ye know not when the time is The Lord rarely gives particular warning of the time when special need is coming It ordinarily comes by surprize to us Death may but Sickness Losses and Affliction usually come on suddenly And surprizing Tryals are sore and searching ones 2. We should pray before a time of need come for often when that time comes we are thereby disabled for Prayer The distress may be such that even a Believer can do nothing The night may come when no man can work John 9.4 Pray much before it come 3. Because many Prayers have their answers delayed till a time of need comes Christians think that every day and hour of their Life is a time of need and so it is in some sense but there are some special Seasons of great need of which the Lord is the only Disposer and he fits such times with dispensings of that Grace that his People have many a day begged before There may be worse reasoning than this It may be there are some Blessings of Grace that I have oft sought and have not yet got that are reserved for me by the Lord against a time when I shall need them more than now I do Thus you see in the Scope of the Apostle in these Words that there is strong arguing for constant seeking of God's Grace You are either at present in a time of special need or if it be not present it may come Whatever case a Believer is in his Obligation is in a manner equal to this great Duty of coming to the Throne of Grace for Grace to help him as his Matters do require SERMON X. HEB. IV. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need YOU have heard that the gracious Exhortation in the Text to coming to the Throne of Grace is directed with respect to the getting of two great Blessings or of one under two Names God's Mercy and Grace Concerning this Grace I have spoken to 3 things 1. What this Grace is 2. What the finding of this Grace is 3. What is the Helpfulness of this Grace so found I also entered upon the fourth and last thing the Seasonableness of this helping Grace The Truth I am to speak to is this The Grace of God is specially helpful in times of special need My Work then is to shew What are those times of need 2. What the helpfulness of grace in them is Only I would usher in this Discourse with a general Consideration of the constant need that all stand in of God's Mercy and Grace And that I would branch into four We need God's Mercy and Grace as Creatures as Men as Sinners and as Christians and that always 1. As Creatures The native Notion of a Creature is that it is a contingent necessitous Being For his pleasure they are and were created Rev. 4.11 The Lord did not make all or any Creature because he needed them but he made them that they might need him He did not build this glorious Fabrick of Heaven and Earth as a House to dwell in or to contain him 1 Kings 8.27 But he made this World as a Stage on which to display his glorious Wisdom and Power and he made some of its Inhabitants Angels in the upper Rooms and Men in the lower to be Spectators and Praisers of his Glory It is not proper to say that Creatures needed their Being before the Creator gave it For when there was nothing but God there could be no need Need and Want is essential to a Creature and springs up with their Being As soon as the Creation receaved its Being by the word of his power it needs upholding by the same power Heb. 1.3 Our Lord Jesus upholds all things by the word of his power The whole Creation would fall back immediately into its Mother Nothing if the same power that gave it a Being did not every moment preserve it Would you have a joyful view of Heaven and Earth Look on all as in our Lord's Hand Why do the Heavens keep their Course Why doth the Sun shine so gloriously move so regularly and influence the Earth so virtuously with his light and heat It is because Christ upholds all things by the Word of his Power He is before all things and by him all things consist All things were created by him and for him Col. 1.16,17 Many are without Christ in the World Eph. 2.12 Man see daily the Works of Creation and Providence and never think on Christ as the Head of all But it is no wonder that Men that have no Eyes to see Christ in the new Creation of Grace cannot see him in the old Creation of Nature We as Creatures are needy of God's helping Grace and Favour for in him we live and move and have our Being Acts 17.28 In his hand our breath is and his all our ways are Dan. 5.23 2. Our need of God's Grace appears yet more as we are such Creatures Men. We are through the Bounty of God the most considerable part of this lower Creation Of Man some understand that elegant Phrase Prov. 8.26 the highest part of the Dust of the world But there is no earthly Creature needy of God's Grace but Man even in his natural Frame abstract from his sinful State The great Former of all things hath given to all a Being and to many of his Creatures no more To some of his Creatures he hath given Life a nobler sort of Being But to all living Creatures but Man he gives no more and they need no more they have not they need not eternal life When the Breath of the other living Creatures goes downward in the Word is Eccl. 3.21 there is an end of them But Man is created in that state that he must be for ever and therefore be eternally happy or miserable This State he is made in makes him vastly needy of God's Grace and Mercy 3. We grow yet more needy as Sinners Sinners are Creatures with this great blemish of Guilt Sin and Corruption A Sinner is needy of a Mediator to deal for him with God for he cannot deal with God for himself A Sinner is needy of the Righteousness of another to recommend him to God's Acceptance for he hath none of his own The Righteousness of a Sinner is a plain Contradiction And
his humane Nature and in our stead at his Resurrection He conquers and subdues that death the first Adam brought in and reigns over it by his Grace Rom. 5.21 Christians would you aspire after the Resurrection of the dead as Paul did Phil. 3.11 direct all your Aims build all your Hopes on Christ's Resurrection Because I live ye shall live also John 14.19 This living Head will in a little time have no dead Members with his dead body shall they arise Isa 26.19 6. Christ's Ascension to Heaven is a ground of Boldness in coming to the Throne of Grace So in the Context ver 14. He is passed into the Heavens This is great ground of Faith that Christ is in Heaven and for us hath entred within the vail Heb. 6.20 How dare a sinful Man adventure into God's Presence Because there is a sinless Man there that went thither on purpose to mind our business who are on Earth No Man ever went thus into Heaven and on this Errand but our High-priest John 3.13 All others go thither to get for themselves Christ ascended to get and to give Psal 68.18 Eph. 4.8 How kindly did our Lord deal with his Disciples about this and how hardly were they peswaded to submit to his going away He told them whither he was going and for what he told them of his returning again and receaving them to himself never to part more John 14.2,3,4 And yet sorrow filled their Hearts John 16.6 He again saith ver 7. Nevertheless it is expedient for you that I go away If you will not be content because it is necessary and fit for me I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away How hard was it to believe this What was to all Reason is more expedient yea necessary than that such weak Schollars should have their blessed Master's Company it was so far from seeming expedient to them that they thought they would be ruined thereby and were very near it Luke 24.21 Although the Matter be not so obvious to our Conceptions and liking yet really it is a greater Mercy and advantage to us that we have our glorified Mediator at the Father's Right Hand than if we had him present with us upon the Earth It is more expedient for us that he is where he is than it would be to have him where we are Poor distressed Believers they cry for Ministers and Christians to pray with them and for them O but if they had one hour of Christ's bodily presence with them and had him to pray for them as he did for some when he was on Earth what heavenly Consolation would it be to them Take in by Faith the comfort of his being in Heaven and his being as knowing and mindful of you and as able to help and that as speedily as he was on Earth or could be if he were now on Earth with you Lastly Our Lord's Intercession in Heaven is a great and strong ground of Confidence in coming to the Throne of Grace This is in the Context This is the last ground of Paul's Triumph of Faith Rom. 8.33.34 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect it is God that justifieth Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh Intercession for us His Faith begins at Christ's death and riseth out of his Grave with him ascends up with him to the Right Hand of God and concerns it self in his Intercession there Not unlike this Rising and Climbing of Faith is his account of the Rising of Grace on the Vessels of Grace Eph. 2.4,5 They are dead in sins when Grace finds them first The first thing Grace doth to them is to quicken them with Christ then raising them up together then setting them in heavenly places in Christ All our Life springs out of Christ's Grave John 12.24 Verily verily I say unto you except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit This heavenly Grain Jesus Christ must be sown in the Earth and die and from the virtue of that death all the Life of Grace and Glory grows up in all his Branches He is indeed the Tree of Life that now groweth in the midst of the Paradise of God Rev. 2.7 And he is the Glory of the Place and the eternal Food of all the happy Inhabitants thereof But he was once dead in his Grave and grew out of that Grave up to all that Glory and Dignity that we shall one day be blessed with the beholding of John 17.24 In this his Glory in Heaven he interceeds for us Intercession is a sort of Praying 1 Tim. 2.1 Supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks are commanded to be made for all men We have one fad Intercession Rom. 11.2 Elias made intercession to God against Israel He was a severe Prophet and had severe Service put in his Hand But our great Prophet and High Priest makes no Intercession against his Israel but all for them This Intercession of Christ ' which is so great a ground of boldness to us at the Throne of Grace stands in these 1. In his Appearing in Heaven in our Nature and in our Name before God Heb. 9.24 For Christ is not entred into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of the true and those were the places the High Priests of old entred into but into Heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us He is there not only for himself to reap the glorious Fruit of his hard Work on Earth but for his People as their Head and Representative All the Church the Body is now in Heaven it self because its Head is there Eph. 2.5,6 Christians you are now lying among the Pots and defiled with the Smoak and Sutt of this sinful World you are sometimes plunged in the Ditch till your own Cloaths abhor you as Job speaks chap. 9.31 You cry out Wo is me that I sojourn in Mesech that I dwell in the Tents of Kedar Psal 120.5 Let Faith say But where is my Lord and Head Is he not in Heaven in that Glory that I am not able now to bear a view of and he is appearing there as my nearest and dearest Friend I am ashamed to look on my self and my loathsom Deformity I am afraid that so foul and spotted a Face as mine should be seen in Heaven But Christ is there and my Christ is there and there he is to appear for me who must dread my personal Appearance there if it were not for this Appearance of my Head for me 2. Christ's Intercession stands in this That he in our Nature and in our Name presents continually the Savor of his Sacrifice Heb. 9.12 He went into the holy place not with the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood having obtained eternal Redemption for
better School for Men to learn weigh and duly to understand the things of God in than a frequent and near view of death What an edge would this put upon our Praying Hearing Worship and Walking Every thing that is done by Men as dying Persons is usually well done I shall only add this that there are some sorts of dying that are very desirable in which the Grace of God is very useful and needful 1. Patient dying Dying is not properly a Duty but a Suffering It is not our Act but there is a manifold Exercise of Grace called for in dying Never did any Man act in dying but Jesus Christ he could lay down his life and take it again John 10.17,18 We cannot lay down our Lives they are not our own We are bid keep them as long as we lawfully can and when the great Command comes Return we are to yield obedience to it It is a great Blessing to have Patience for dying and Patience in dying Heb. 10.36 You have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God ye may receave the Promise And we often need Patience most when just upon the receaving of the Promise We should run with patience the Race set before us Heb. 12.1 And must of Patience is usually most needful in the last Stage of this Race Patience should have her perfect work Jam. 1.4 And the perfect and perfecting Work of Patience is the last act of it We all know that usually death comes on by such steps as are grievous to the Flesh There are Pains Sickness and Languishings that are no small Tryals of Patience but these are in a manner but Tryals of the Patience of the Flesh There are other things about dying that Patience is tryed by as time and place and many Circumstances that it is no small or easie thing to be quietly submitted to Javob the Heir of the Promise goes down to Egypt to Joseph for Bread after he is starv'd our of the Land of Promise and must die in Egypt and leave his Family there where they were to be long and heavily oppressed as the Lord told his Grandfather Abraham Gen. 15.13 Moses must die on the other side of Jordan David must not see a Stone laid in the Temple Josiah must die in Battel and that by not hearkening to the words of Necho from the mouth of God 2 Chron. 35.22 But what of such sad Circumstances of dying did not our Lord himself die under a dark Cloud on his dear Father's Face and on his own blessed Soul My God my God why hast thou forsaken me were sad Words from the sad Soul of our dying blessed Lord. His Disciples forsook him the Sun forsook him Earth and Hell bandyed against him yet all was nothing to his Father's forsaking him How bitter was this to our Lord and yet how sweet is it to the Faith of Believers If you be called to die under a Cloud remember the Lord the Heir the Purchaser of Heaven went to Heaven in the greatest Storm that ever blew from Earth and Hell and Heaven on any man's Face at death Men are ashamed to express any quarrel against dying but there are many things about it that make us needy of much Grace to help to quiet submitting unto it both in substance and all circumstances attending it 2. Safe dying This is very needful and it is Grace's doing Many die Patiently as Men think that die not safely There are no bands in the death of the wicked sometimes Psal 73.4 Some go out of this Life to Hell more calmly than some of the Heirs of Glory pass to their blessed home Safe dying is to die without any hurt to the Soul that when the Cage of the Body is broken by death the Soul the Bird may take Wing and fly straight and safe to Heaven Death is the Believers 1 Cor. 3.22 as well as Life But what have we to do with death or death with us It is a black Boat that we must sail out of time to Heaven in And Christ steers the Boat and lands all Believers safely on Heaven's Shore This is all we have to do with death And when all the Passengers are brought over Christ will burn this ugly Boat Rev. 20.14,15 And death and hell or the Grave were cast into the lake of fire this is the second death And whosoever was not found written in the book of Life was cast into the lake of fire And then in the New Jerusalem there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away Rev. 21.4 Who would not venture to pass out of this bad World to that blessed Land under Christ's Conduct though sailing through the Gulf of death be unpleasant in it self to us Men for Gain will sail from one end of the Earth to the other through heat and cold and stormy Seas and Winds and manifold Perils in the probable hope of advantage But Balievers may be assured that they shall arrive at their Port. Never did a Believer in Jesus Christ die or drown in his Voyage to Heaven They will be all found safe and sound with the Lamb on Mount Zion Christ loseth none of them nay nothing of them John 6.39 Not a Bone of a Believer is to be seen in the Field of Battel They are all more than conquerors through him that loved them Rom. 8.37 3. It is very desirable to have an honourable dying It is a part of the Vanity of this World that many dote upon an honourable Burial Some respect indeed should be paid to the dead Bodies of Believers but honourable dying is a great deal more considerable than that Men call an honourable Burial Our Lord told Peter of his dying John 21.19 This spake Jesus signifying by what death Peter should glorifie God That is honourable dying that brings Glory to God Paul is confident of this as to himself Phil. 1.20 According to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed but that with all boldness as always so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body whether it be by life or by death The most honourable dying is dying for the Lord this Honour is not given to all his Saints All Saints die in the Lord and blessed are they Rev. 14.13 Our desire should be to be enabled by his Grace to hear our dying Testimony to Christ and his Gospel There have been strong Convictions given to the Consciences of Sinners wonderful Supports to the Hearts of surviving Saints by the honourable dying of some Believers Their example their words their very looks and Behaviour in the Shadow of death have been of great use to them that have seen and heard them 4. It is also desirable to have the Mercy of comfortable dying To have an entrance ministred to us abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1.11 The Lord's
implyed in this Call to come That there is a gracious provision made and revealed by God for the removal and making up of this Distance and getting of a gracious nearness to God This is in the Constitution and Revelation of this Throne of Grace 3. That the improving of this Provision is Mens Duty and should be their exercise in order to possess and enjoy the Priviledge and Advantage of this Provision What then is this Coming to the Throne of Grace 1. It is in Believing on Jesus Christ This is the first approach to the Throne of Grace He is the propitiation and Mercy-Seat and Throne of Grace 1 John 4.10 Believing on him is coming to him John 6.35 It is coming to the Father by him John 14.6 It is believing on God by him 1 Pet. 1.21 It is believing on him and on him that sent him John 12.44 Believing on Jesus Christ is an imploying of Christ in way of Trust as to all his fulness of Grace and our utter indigence thereof Whatever a man do whatever Exercises of Religion he be taken up in he never comes to the Throne of Grace till his heart and Soul go forth towards Jesus Christ for Righteousness and Life The first right step heaven-ward is saving faith in Christ. Nothing savingly good can preceed it and all saving good follows it for faith unites the man to Christ and all the fruits of Holiness and Righteousness spring from the virtue of the Vine Christ with whom the Believer hath first union by Grace and then communion of Christs grace by which he lives and works and grows 2. Coming to this Throne is acted in all acts of Gospel-worship and in the use of all Gospel-ordinances They all belong to the Throne of Grace are the Institutions of this Throne and appointed as means wherein we should approach to it and which when blessed by the appointer of them do convey to us the Blessings of this Throne Of them there are several 1. Prayer This is coming to to the Throne of Grace if rightly managed Though asking is not expressed in this ver yet it is strongly implyed both in the commanded Coming and in the expressed obtaining of Mercy and finding of grace to help in time of need All that make a fashion of Prayer do not come to the Throne of Grace yet all that pray rightly do come to it And because this approaching to the Throne of Grace by and in Prayer is plainly hinted in the Text and is so commonly understood by Christians I would have my eye principally upon it in handling this Scripture 2. There is the word Read Preached and Meditated on that is another principal means in which men should approach to the Throne of Grace In Prayer we pour out our heart before this Throne and express our Desires to him that siteth on it In the Word the King on this Throne delivers his Will and Mind to us And we should come to hear it and receive the Law from his Mouth Cornelius expressed an excellent frame for this Ordinance Acts 10.33 We are all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God This word is the word of his Grace Acts 20.32 It is the Proclamation of his Grace to Men. 3. Praising of God is a coming to the Throne of Grace This is the Sacrifice we should offer by our high Priest Heb. 13.15 Who minds this as they ought If we want we ask and so we should But where is the Christian that can say though I had nothing to ask I would yet go to the Throne of Grace that I might praise him that sits on it 4. Receabing of the Lord's Supper is a coming to the Throne of of Grace to feast on the King of Grace to feed on that Body broken for us and that Blood shed for us that is given to us in the Word for food to our Souls and is given to us by his Command in Bread and Wine at his Table that in eating and drinking of them we may remember him and show forth his Death till he come glorying and avowing and boasting that we have our salvation and all our hopes of it built and fixed on that man Jesus Christ that was rejected by the Builders in his Time and hath had little better entertaiment since because they knew him not Application Is there a Throne of Grace and doth God sitting on it invite and call men to come to it or to him on it We are called to admire adore and praise the Grace that shines in this Constitution of God and call to men That person is sadly out in his praises and such are never right in their Prayers that doth not deeply admire and heartily praise for this Mercy of a Throne of Grace We count a man ill imployed in prayer that asks many things of God but forgets to ask the One thing needful Is he any better imployed in praise who gives thanks for many Mercies but neglects or forgets to praise for the Greatest of all Mercies the Throne of Grace Before which all Prayer and Praise must come if accepted and for which highest praises should be given In order to the raising of more Sense of this Highest Favour that God now deals with us on a Throne of Grace Consider 1. The Deep condescendence of Grace that appears in this Dispensation There is a Glorious and Stately stooping in it The Lord had resolved in his own Heart from Eternity to have the company of many of Adam's Off-spring for ever with him in Heaven He seeth them fallen into a deep Pit out of which they can never get out by themselves God and Man by sin are at a vast distance Sinners cannot remove it nor make so much as one step towards God Saved they cannot be unless the Distance be removed Saved they must be because of his unalterable purpose In this case saith the Lord of Meer Grace if men cannot ascend up to me I will descend down to them and draw them up again to me This condescendence of Grace we should admire and praise When David had got a gracious Message and promise from God and Christ and the Throne of Grace was in it 2 Sam. 7. he sits down as a man amazed before the Lord and most significantly expresseth his Admiration and Praise Who am I O Lord God and what is my house and is this the manner of men and what can David say more and what can David say better to be swallowed up of Wonder is the best and highest praising who can forbear wondering at Grace that considers duly whose Grace it is where it finds us and whither it brings us When Paul speaks of it and it was his usual Theme how sweetly doth he discourse of it Eph. 2. Where did this Grace find him and the Ephesians what was their case and qualification for Grace They were dead in sin walking after the course of this world according to the prince of
men may grumble at but cannot hinder The praise of spotless Justice will rise up to eternity by the Torments of the Damned But he that is ignorant of Gods Righteouss can far less conceave the glory of Justice in brusing a sinless man who was also in the form of God and counted it not robbery to be equal with God Phil. 2,6 though some in our days think it blasphemy to say so a person beloved of the Father above all creature-thought and that for the sins of others and they also the beloved of the Father in his eternal purpose 2. God is just in not exacting the same debt of sin twice both of his Son and of his people in whose stead he paid it 3. God is just in discharging of his Son from whom he hath receaved the full and covenanted satisfaction for sin And he is just in discharging Them for whom this satisfaction was given He is just in raising Christ from the dead and he rose for our justification Rom. 4.25 We are justified freely by his Grace but this free free-grace flows to us through the Channel of Redemption by the Blood of Christ And both this Grace and this Blood is set forth in the Gospel to our Faith and must be applyed unto by Faith and applyed to us in believing Whatever the Thoughts of Men be of these things Free-grace and Dear-blood are the stay of all the Redeemed on Earth and the everlasting Song of all the glorified in Heaven 4. And lastly to raise your Thoughts of the greatness of this Favour of having a Throne of Grace to come to consider what rich provisions are made at this Throne for sinners This the Text speaks of and we shall in order handle them Only now a few words There is no Court in all Gods Dominions that a sinner can come to and find any mercy or grace but only at this Throne of Grace If you talk of Law or Justice or Equity these are all frightful Courts to sensible sinners they know their Cause and Case is bad and if they come to any Bar but that of the Throne of Grace they must be cast But at this Throne of Grace there they that have nothing may get all things they that deserve nothing may get every thing they that deserve Wrath may obtain Mercy they that are cast and condemned at the Court of Justice may be acquitted and freed from all sentences and be adjudged to eternal life by the grace of God in Christ Jesus All that is needful to Salvation is dispensed at this Throne Yet all that is given is old in the purpose of grace from eternity Old in the everlasting Covenant Old in the purchase of Jesus Christ Only it s newly given according to the sinners necessity 2 Tim. 1.9 Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling this was done as yesterday But how came we by this saving and this calling Not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace Paul still opposeth Works to Grace and Grace to Works in the matters of Iustification and Salvation and so doth his Lord and Master that taught him and so do all that know either grace or works rightly which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began Let this be still kept in mind that whatever you can need there is a suitable and abundant supply to be had at this Throne of Grace I shall conclude this Exercise with naming two sorts of people that will be specially welcome to the Throne of Grace 1. They that come to the Throne of Grace soon and early I mean young people Children that begin betimes to be Courtiers and Attendants at this Throne Prov. 8.17 I love them that love me and those that seek me early shall find me saith the King on this Throne of Grace O that young people would try and use this Throne of Grace betimes They would find Christ very gracious to them he would discover his Beauty and give them of his Love that would cool their Thirst after sinful pleasures They might grow rich and strong in grace before they be old Or if they die young they should be transplanted to a better soil and be nearer the Sun of Righteousness than they can be in this World Never did a Saint got safe ashore in Heaven bewail his arriving there too soon 2. They that come to the Throne of Grace to Get and and not to Give Take heed to your Spirits in this matter When you come to the Throne of Grace come to receive out of Christs fulness and come not to bring grace with you to add to Christ's Store He loves to give and glories in giving but he scorns to receive grace from you and in truth you have none but what he gives Bring your wants to him to supply but bring not your fulness to brag of Spread your sins before this Throne with shame and sorrow and plead for a gracious pardon But take heed you bring not your sorrow tears and repentance nay nor your Faith it self as a plea for that pardon How abominable is it to Christians ears and how much more unto Christ's to hear a man plead thus for pardon Here is my Repentance where is thy Pardon Here is my Faith where is thy Justisication I know men abhorr to say so but take good heed lest any thought bordering on it enter into thy heart Faith is the Tongue that begs pardon Faith is the Hand that receives it It is the Eye that seeth it but it is no price to buy it Faith useth the Gospel plea for pardon but it self neither in habit nor act is the plea it self that is only Christ's blood Christ's blood goes for the Remission of your sins if ever they be forgiven and is the only plea to be heard at the Throne of Grace There are too many like the Pharisee Luke 18.11 It would seem by Christ's words vers 14. that both came for Justification The Pharisce stood and prayed thus with himself God I thank thee that I am not as other men are nor as this Publican Poor wretch the Publican was a far better man than he as Christ testifieth He came to the Throne of Grace like a man that would carry something away It is a Rule of this Court. Luke 1.53 He hath filled the hungry with good things but the rich he hath sent empty away According to this Rule the Lord dealt with the Pharisee and the Publican and so will he deal with you as you are like the one or the other in your approaches to and pleadings at the Throne of Grace SERMON II. HEB. IV. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need I Did take up this Exhortation as containing an answer to four considerable Questions that usually are in the hearts of them that draw near to God seriously 1. Where may we find Him
On a Throne of Grace Seek him no where else for no where else is he to be graciously found 2. How should we come to this Throne Boldly with confidence 3. What is the ground of this boldness It had need be a great and solid ground on which a sinner may build Boldness in his approaching to God This ground is hinted by the Apostle in the word therefore wherefore Because of our great High-priest the Son of God in Heaven ver 14 15. Though there be nothing more commonly said and owned then that all men are sinners and that all the acceptance of a sinner with God is through Jesus Christ yet I can assure you that when a person seeth and knows what it is to be a sinner and knows what God is it is a wonderful difficulty to believe that it is possible that such a sinner and such a God should ever meet in Peace Peoples dry Notions and Opinions of Jesus Christ if there be no more will soon be blown away with a deen sight of the sinfulness of sin and of the Majesty of God provoked thereby 4. The last Question is What shall we get by coming and what should we come for The greatest blessings Mercy and Grace These blessings are comprehensive of all things needful to make a sinner happy To the first of these I began to speak last day That God hath erected a Throne of Grace in the Gospel to which men are invited to come What this Throne of Grace is is spoke to and that this Throne of Grace is to be distinguished from all other Thrones of God spoke of in the word The Throne of his essential glory is unapproachable by all Creatures The Throne of his Justiâ—… dreadful to all sinners we should pray against our coming before this Throne Psal 143.2 He must be a proud ignorant fool that would offer to come and plead at its Bar for here all Acts and Sentences pass according to strict Law and Justice and the Law is an everlasting condemner of all sinners There is also the Throne of the Judge at the last day But this Throne is not yet set though it will surely be and we know not how soon and should prepare for our appearing before it 2 Cor. 5.9,10 But this Throne of Grace is the Gracious manifestation of God in Christ reconciling the World to himself This is the light of the Glory of Gods Grace shining in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 ch 5.18,19 And to coming to this Throne of Grace and to God in Christ dispensing his grace from it we are here exhorted and encouraged In pursuing of this exhortation I would 1. Prove that all should come 2. Show whâ— will come 3. and who shall be specially welcomâ— 1. That all ought to come to the Thronâ— of Grace All sinners that hear of it shoulâ— improve this great priviledge and seek thâ— enjoyment of Gods Grace and Mercy in Jâ—sus Christ 1. Because God is not otherwise approachâ—… by men in accepted worship No man comâ—… to the Father but by me saith Christ Joâ—… 14.6 The light of Nature teacheth all 〈◊〉 in some measure that there is a God 〈◊〉 somewhat of his eternal power and God 〈◊〉 Rom. 1.20 And that this God should be wâ—…shiped Therefore 〈◊〉 some sort of worshâ—… is performed by all sorts of Heathens 〈◊〉 are yet without God and that because withâ—… Christ and therefore without hope in the world Eph. 2.12 Never was there nor will there be nor can there be any gracious approach unto God nor any address recieved favourably by God but at this Throne of Grace Therefore whatever may be said of the zealous devotion and of the Moral Principles and Practices of the Heathens yet never any of them did nor could offer up an acceptable prayer unto God nor obtain a gracious answer from him not only because they worshiped an unknown God Acts 17.23 Gal. 4.8 but mainly because they worshiped not at this Throne of Grace for there can be no Communion with God there can be nothing graciously given by God to Men nothing done by Men that can be accepted of God but at this Throne of Grace 2. All should come to this Throne because all men have need of the blessings dispensed at this Throne of Grace Where there is an universal urgent necessity and only one place of supply discovered Men are called to betake themselves thither The blessings dispenced at the Throne of Grace are equally needed by all Every Man every Woman young or old rich or poor are equally needy because all are unpeakably needy of the Mercy and Grace of God Some indeed have a greater sight and sense of their wants than others and that is Mercy but the real necessity is common to all every unpardoned man needs a pardon at this Throne of Grace but few if any value a pardon till they get it or value the Grace of God till they feel it Do you feel your need of what is given and got at this Throne Come then The Law thunders and roars against you that you may see your need of coming hither for what the Law cannot give nor hinder you from receiving nor rob you of when recieved Do you think in your heart that you are the most needy person in all the World that you need all the Grace and Mercy or more than ever any sinner recieved Then come the rather come the sooner The neediest soul the hungriest sinner the person most greedy of the Grace of God should come first to Christ's door and beg lowdest Is there any not needy Alas many think so but none is so Will you come for hunger and want A sensible hunger a sense and sight of need an appetite after Grace and Mercy is an Alms that Christ can give and many Professors want it sadly 3. The Command is Vniversal to all that hear it As the Apostle saith Rom. 3.19 These things saith the Law to them that are under the Law So I may say This saith the Gospel to all under the sound of it come to the Throne of Grace It is no indifferent thing God commands all men to come Believing that is coming is commanded 1 John 3.23 Are you afraid to come have not I commanded you Joshua 1.9 as God spake to the Captain of Israel Will Men own Gods authority in the Law and deny it in the Gospel Is he not the same God in both He that commands you to have no other Gods besides him doth command you to believe on his Son Jesus who is the true God and eternal Life 1 John 5.20 If coming to the Throne of Grace were not commanded not coming to it were no sin and who dare say so Not believing on Jesus Christ is the great Gopel sin because believing on him is the great Gospel-Duty and work John 6.29 Object But I am afraid he commands not me others he may command but not such a vile dead Creature as I am Answ
as if there was no Throne of Grace at all They that never hear of Christ must perish It is an idle dream that the efficacy of Christ's Death may be apply'd and profitable to the saving of adult persons that never heard of him There is no Salvation for Men but by Jesus Christ there is no knowing of it or partaking of it but by the word of Truth the Gospel of our Salvation Eph. 1.13 Christ and his name go together Acts 4.12 Neither is there Salvation in any other No Saviour but he For there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved No other way of getting good by him but by hearing of his Name and believing on his Name How shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard Rom. 10.14 It is a wonderful Mercy to hear of Him But Wo to them that hear and do not believe None can believe without hearing Rom. 10.17 But alas many hear and believe not Isa 53.1 2. Consider the great advantages of this priviledge of having a Throne of Grace erected for us and revealed to us All blessings may be had here by coming for them If there was such a Throne in this world for Silver and Gold and Health and outward Mercies what strange crowding would there be to it The Blessings to be had here are innumerable for multitude All spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ Jesus Eph. 1.3 Blessings invaluable for their worth Eternal in their duration most free in their Tenure and all given in Love Every act of favour from the throne of grace is more worth than all God's common Mercies Lord lift up upon us the light of thy countenance Psal 4.6,7 that will put joy into the soul Every thing given at the throne of grace is a blessing of Grace It s very name should teach people how to come and how to call what they get at it If it be a throne of Grace we should come to it as empty needy Beggars and when we recieve any thing there we should call and count it Grace Ask all Saints on Earth and they will witness that great and good things are to be had at the throne of grace Try it your selves and you will find it is not invain to beg here Nay the damned in Hell do bear sad witness that great are the blessings that are to be had at the throne of grace which they feel and know by their woful and eternal loss of them The glorified in Heaven know what a rich throne of grace this is Only sinners on earth will not believe this nor use this throne as they should 3. Consider that this Court and Throne is of short continuance It will not be kept up always There is a limitation of the time of its lasting As Heb. 4.7 He limiteth a certain day The day of the continuance of the throne of grace is bounded and limited with four days The day of a mans life the Gospel day the Worlds day and the Spirits day 1. The day of every mans life This hath bounds set to it by God Job 14.5 The throne of Grace continues unto men no longer than they live When men die they go not to the throne of grace but of Glory and Judgment If we have sped well at the throne of grace we shall be welcome to the throne of glory The uncertainty and shortness of life with the certainty of the expiring of all Treaties betwixt God and us about Salvation at the end of Life should make people careful to secure the main matter in Gods time 2. There is the Gospel day this is also set and limited by the Lord. He hath determined how many offers you shall have of Christ and when they come to an end there will not be one more And then the throne of grace is taken down as to you Luke 19.42 If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes saith our Lord to Jerusalem This was the ending determining day to Jerusalem as a City and to its Inhabitants as a Body though many particular persons had another day of grace Yet the slipping of that day hangs on that poor people and their Posterity to this very day 3. There is the Worlds day and then the day of grace will end as to all when the Bridegroom cometh they that are ready enter with him to the marriage and the door was shut Matth. 25.10 There was no more grace to be dispensed to men and we know not when that day will come Miserable is their case who shall see Christ coming in the Clouds of Heaven before they have seen him by Faith in the Gospel who heart the voice of the Archangel and the Trump of God before they have heard the quickning voyce of the Son of God from the throne of grace who have neglected calling on him in time and begin out of time Luke 13.25 When the Master of the house is risen up and hath shut to the door and ye begin to stand without and to knock at the door saying Lord Lord open to us Is it not just that they should be kept at the shut door that would not enter at an open door in Christ's time and when he called When Christ comes and hath shut the door no man will be let in knock as he will Now while the throne of grace is patent no man will be kept out be what he will that hath a mind to enter and knocks for entrance 4. There is the Spirits day Here is a great depth of Gods Soveraignty and Wisdom a great depth of his Severity an unaccountable and awful Judgment how the Spirit of God strives with men in the Gospel how near he comes to them sometimes how close he besiegeth them that they seem to be on the point of yielding and are not far from the kingdom of God and yet he draws back his hand and leaves them I believe that many ungodly men many reprobates have been sometimes in their life nearer to Heaven if such may be said to be near to Heaven that never come there then many an Elect person was half an hour before his Conversion Gen. 6.3 My Spirit shall not always strive with man What kind of striving this was and what became of them striven with we have 1 Pet. 3.19,20 Nothing will more bitterly aggravate the eternal misery of the Damned than the remembrance of this that they had a day and in that day grace offered to them and that they did reject the offer Mens carnal hearts are now full of cavils against the unsearchable methods and ways of God towards the Sons of Men but the last days Judgment will determine and declare That in the perdition of the Ungodly there was and is most pure and unspotted Justice and Righteousness and in the salvation of all the Elect pure perfect and predominant grace that
reigned in them and over them and through them till it brought them to Heaven Wherefore seeing the having of a throne of grace is a priviledge of so great importance and of so uncertain continuance there should be the greater care to make diligent and present improvement of it Why should any man let this throne of Grace stand empty Will men provoke the Lord to say in vain have I set up a throne of grace for sinners that come not at it Again consider the Wrath that will follow on the neglect and not improving of this great priviledge The Sin is many ways committed and the judgments of many sorts that are inflicted But I leave this to the next occasion Except you in your personal exercise and experience do know what this throne of grace is and what is got there you may be Christians hereafter but as yet you are none unless you experience what this throne of grace is by frequent repairing to it and by frequent receiving good at it That Man or Woman whatever his or her name be in the world or the Church of Christ that never found any need for or use of or benefit by this throne of grace is surely a dead sinner People may safely and surely judge of both the State and Frame of their Souls by their business at the throne of grace Never got any Soul life but by an act of grace and power from this throne No Soul can be kept in life but by daily entercourse with it It s as impossible that these Bodies of ours should be maintained in life and strength without Meat and Drink and Air as it is for the Soul of a Believer to prosper without daily plying the throne of grace Let therefore the Exhortation in the Text be complyed with come to this throne Say therefore Lord I am invited to come to the throne of thy grace and none have more need of that grace than I and there is enough of grace there for me and therefore I will come and beg and get and abide and bless the Giver and become happy by Recieving SERMON III. HEB. IV. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need I Have spoke of the first thing that this Text contains That God in Jesus Christ in the Gospel is on a throne of grace inviting men to come to him What this throne of grace is why all should come who they be that will come and who will be specially welcome you have heard I was pressing this Exhortation of coming to this throne You see the Apostle in delivering this takes in himself with them he exhorts Let us come He had oft come before and had been bountifully dealt with at this Court 1 Tim. 1.14 And the Grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant towards him This made him commend this Throne so highly and entreat others and stir up himself to frequent addresses to it I did use three Arguments to back this Exhortation and shall add a fourth 1. Was the greatness of the priviledge of having a throne of grace to come unto A priviledge denyed to fallen Angels and the knowledge of it denyed to the far greater part of Mankinde 2. This throne of grace is a priviledge full of rich advantages All Believers know somewhat of them All their acceptance with God all their access to God all their communications from him and fellowship with him all their Blessings in time and their hopes for Eternity are all owing to this that God is on a Throne of Grace 3. This priviledge is of uncertain duration and short The Lord the King is for ever but the Throne of Grace is not for ever it is but a Time dispensation and limited unto certain seasons The Gospel day is uncertain our life time is uncertain the Worlds day is uncertain to us though all determined by God But above all the Spirits day is uncertain How long he will strive when he will forbear who can tell Some godly men have thought that there are few if any that live under a powerful Ministry but at some time of their life the Spirit of God comes close to them so that there is not only a witness given for the Lord in the offers of the Gospel but there is a further addition to that witness by some special approaches of Gods Spirit to their hearts But whatever there be in that observation this is undoubted that where the Holy Ghost makes the strongest assaults on men if he be resisted and withdraws the most prodigious hardness is left behind Therefore extraordinary bold hardned sinners cruel Persecutors Apostates and Mockers of godliness are usually such as sometimes were under special Conviction not to speak of the sin against the Holy Ghost which consists in some high Rebellion against special workings of the Spirit of God on mens Consciences under the Gospel This dreadful sin Satan perplexeth many Believers with fears of it But its certain that a disturbing fear of this guilt is a proof of a persons innocency as to it For whosoever have fallen into this Abyss of wickedness are so far from fearing the sin though they may have a hopeless fear of wrath Heb. 10.26 that they glory in it therefore they are said to do despite to the Spirit of Grace Let all that find the Spirit striving with them take good heed to themselves comply with his motions and secure their state speedily by believing on the Lord Jesus for the season of his striving is the most critical part of our life and as it issues of greatest consequence to Salvation or Damnation 4. A fourth Argument I would conclude this point with is the greatness of the sin of not coming to the Throne of Grace and the dreadful wrath it draws on This sin is many â—ays committed and many ways avenged A â—…ttle of both It is committed 1. By mens despising and â—ontemning the Throne of Grace making light 〈◊〉 it Matth. 22.5 Neglecting so great Salvaâ—…on Heb. 2.3 There are many things from whence this contempt springs Either no sense â—f their need of what is to be had at the Throne of Grace or else a Dream that they â—ay be supplyed elsewhere or Gross Unbeâ—…ef that men think in their hearts that all â—his account of the Throne of Grace is but a cunâ—ingly devised Fable Or the nature of the Blesâ—ings Spiritual and Eternal unsuitable to and â—ot taking with their carnal Hearts who â—…ind earthly things If the Exhortation had â—un thus Let us come that we may get Silver and obtain Gold to render us rich in this World what leaping and striving would there be to obey it Whilst Grace and Mercy that men have no sense nor experience of are despised and therefore the Throne of Grace where only they are to be had is despised also The Spirit of God in the Scripture is at much pains to commend the Worth and Value
of the Blessings that Christ came to purchase and hath to dispense and to prefer them above all present sensible things yet notwithstanding all the bright light of the Word darting daily in mens eyes the dross and dung of this World is more precious in the eyes and savory to the heart of every ungodly man than all the Grace given on Earth and all the Glory to be given in Heaven 2. This sin of not coming is committed by delaying to come The call of God is Let us come The answer of many hearts is Let us delay to come Whence think you that these delays come We have it daily to bewail before God and you that a multitude will come together to hear and do so day by day yet all that can be said to them from their childhood to their old Age never prevailed with many of them to spend one hour in serious treating at the Throne of Grace with God in Christ for the eternal Salvation of their Souls It is undeniable that ye are but a pack of gross Hypocrites if you attend on the means of grace in the Assemblies of Saints and yet have no particular personal errand to the Throne of Grace for your own Souls The Salvation of the Soul is not carried on in a crowd The Grace of God must be particularly applyed to you and you must particularly apply it to your selves and your selves to the Throne of Grace if ever you be saved The fellowship of Saints was never ordained for this end to render personal applications to God needless and it is grosly abused when it is so perverted It is impossible that a person can have any true fellowship with Saints in any ordinance of God unless he have particular business at the Throne of Grace for himself He hath indeed no true Religion whose all of Religion is in Company and in Publick Yet we see how backward many Professors are to this personal treating with God how many shifts and delays they make To such I say would it not be a terror to you if either God or Man or Angels or the Devil should tell you this day that from this time to your dying day you shall never have leasure nor heart nor time to spend one quarter of an hour in dealing with God for your eternal Salvation Would not this be terrible to you But the same dreadful thing is daily done by mens delays The call of God is to day you say to morrow when to morrow comes then you say next day when that comes you put it still farther off This you may be sure of that whatever is the true spring and cause of delays in this matter will still remain and gather strength unless the Grace of God come in Men deceive themselves with vain pretences but the true spring of all delays in treating in earnest with God at the Throne of Grace is Unbelief and Unwillingness and the more they are indulged by delaying the stronger they grow Therefore the Holy Ghost saith to day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts Heb. 3.7,8 See how the Spirit of God fixeth an opposition betwixt these two present hearing and present hardening and a conjunction betwixt these two present not hearing and hardening If there is present hearing there is no present hardening if not there is The refusal given to the to days call of God hardens the heart against to morrows call O that men dreaded delays as most perillous things and the cause of the everlasting ruine of multitudes under the Gospel 3. Another way wherein this sin of noâ— coming to the Throne of Gods Grace is acted is iâ— refusing to come All do not so grosly buâ— some do There are two sorts of refusers thâ— Secure and the Discouraged There is a wofâ—… plague of secure despair a strange plague but â— certain one Some people find things are baâ— with them as to their Souls sins many corruptions strong they have made some essay to get matters mended and all in vain whereon they conclude that it will never be better and they sit down in security and give themselves up to their pleasures Isa 22.13 Leâ— us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die A strange Argument approach of death usually marrs the taste of pleasure The hand writing on the Wall even when not known marr'd Belshazzars cheer Dan. 5. This is a very miserable and sinful case It springs from mens being ignorant of the true remedy when they were sick of sin and because all the Physick and Physicians they used and tried did them no good they conclude their sickness is unto death But let such know that there is Hope in Israel concerning this thing Only come and see and try what may be done Beware of despair it is the Devils sin but he hath reason for it for he is condemned and all doors of hope are eternally shut upon him or rather none was ever opened to him But for a man that hath the riches of Gods long-suffering forbearance and patience Rom. 2.4 daily laid out upon him that hath the door of grace set open to him and the Lord calling entreating promising acceptance on his coming for such a man to give over all hope is a sin some way worse than the Devils a frame pleasing only to the Devil most dishonourable to God and his Son Jesus Christ and to the Holy Ghost I do not call it the sin against the Holy Ghost A reflection on all the glorious appearances and manifestations of the Throne of Grace and most surely damning if continued in Away with it speedily conclude thy case is not desperate and if you cannot shake it off come to the Throne of Grace and complain of it If ye can but see the Throne and him that sits upon it despair will vanish as a Night-Owl on the bright shining of the Sun of Righteousness Despair cannot live in the presence of the glorious grace of Jesus Christ. Come then and see and lay hold on the hope set before you The other Refusers to come are the Discouraged they do not despair that their case cannot be mended but they see so much and so many things out of Order that their hearts fail them in applying to the only Remedy In the time of their Carnal Security and Ignorance of God and of themselves that bred and kept up that Security they could rush into Gods presence without fear and call and count all the blessings of the Covenant theirs without any doubt and yet without any ground But when God begun to deal with them and to come close to them and to send in light and life into their Consciences then they see their former mistakes they see their utter want and great need of those blessings they once dreamed they were rich in the possession of they see their utter unworthiness of them and therefore find it hard to believe that ever the Lord will welcome them to the Throne of his
him No Man is converted and made a believer but by a Revelation of Jesus Christ A Man may be awakened with a view of God's Glory he may be alarmed by a sight of Sin and Hell and may be roused out of his sleep of security by the thunders of Sinai but he is never converted and made a Christian but by a Revelation of Jesus Christ as glorious in his Robes of Salvation Whence then is it that all Believers on him do not own his manifesting himself to them and their seeing of him It is in part from the weakness of their sight the greatness of the glory of him they see and their strong desire to see him better But for such as have spent their days about the throne of grace and yet never saw Jesus Christ and the Glory of God in his Face as a Saviour so as to disgrace all things in comparison with him so as to raise desires after more of him and so as to fill their Hearts with Love Wonder and Praise such have been at the Court but have not seen the King on his Throne 2. Are you come to the throne of grace What made you come what Errand did you come upon No Man comes without an Errand We need not make and seek one we have enow at hand if we would but use them What Wants felt you at home And what of his Fulness was taking with you Can you say I have a naked filthy Soul and I am ashamed to look on it but how well would the Robe of his Righteousness fit and adorn it I am empty of all Good and he is full of all Grace on purpose to fill perishing Souls and I come for a share thereof The Blessing of many ready to perish hath come upon him and I come for his rich Salvation and would leave my poor but eternal Blessing on him They that have no particular pressing business about their Soul's Salvation may talk of the Throne of Grace but do not indeed come to it 3. What got ye If you come indeed you receave If you receave not you come not Say not you have receaved nothing because you have not got all you would have It is necessary that such as come get somewhat but it is not fit that they should receave all that they want A life of Faith must be lived and dependance and begging still kept on foot But somewhat is still given and got though the Gift be not always seen and owned But tell me Christians indeed have you not sometimes got that at the throne of grace that ye would not take a World for Did you ever apply to this throne in earnest and found it in vain Have you not sometimes got a Glance of Christ through the Lattess Song 2.9 that hath made you forget your Poverty and remember your Misery no more Know ye not what it is to have a smile of his Countenance and a token that you have found favour in his Eyes Have you not got at this throne a word of Promise that hath fed and feasted thy Faith Jer. 15.16 Thy Words were found and I did eat them and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoycing of mine heart for I am called by thy Name O Lord God of Hosts Have you not sometimes got the Door of Faith opened and the Eye of Faith sharpened that ye could see within the Vail and behold the good Land and the blessed Lord of it and thy happy Interest in both Let not this Throne be disparaged both by the true emptiness of Hypocrites that are about it rather than at it and by the peevishness of real Believers There are no poor Courtiers at this Court they are all rich Rev. 2.9 They are only poor in Spirit but not so poor as they think for a Kingdom is theirs that is better than all Kingdoms under Heaven Matth. 5.3 The World count Believers poor because they see they often have not outward Riches and they are blind and cannot see their spiritual Riches in Possession and Reversion The Believer thinks himself poor because he seeth not all he hath in Possession 1 Cor. 3.21,23 and because he would so fain have all he hath a right to Phil. 3.12.14 and the hope of Or because his Charters are hid or his Eyes are dim that he cannot read them 2. Q. Will ye come All is ready Come to this Throne Matth. 22.4 If ye have never come begin just now If ye have come often come more often and come better come nearer and closer still Is there any thing wanting in you Come for all supply is here Are you guilty Come for Pardon Many drawn Pardons are at this Court drawn up sweetly by free Grace sealed with the Blood of Jesus Come to this Throne and add your Seal of Faith to one for your self and it shall be a Charter for Glory to you lying warm at your Heart as long as you live and will be your Pass-port at death But because the following Words of the Apostle in this verse contain Arguments for coming I say the less now So much for the first Head of Doctrine in the Text. The second Head is How we should come to this throne of grace Come boldly saith the Holy Ghost by Paul's Pen. The Point I would speak to from it is this That there is a Boldness in Mens approaching to the Throne of Grace that is allowed and commanded For the Apostle doth not only mention it as a Priviledge allowed but as a Duty or Frame injoined and commanded So that he that comes not with this Boldness not only sits down short of his Allowance but sins in disobeying a plain Command The Priviledge is spoke of in Eph. 3.12 In whom ouâ— Lord Jesus Christ as ver 11. we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him In Heb. 10.19.22 both the Priviledge is asserted and the Improvement of it commanded in drawing near with full assurance of Faith and that to the holiest of all On this Point I would shew 1. What this Boldness is that is allowed in approaching to the throne of grace 2. What are the Grounds of this Boldness 1. What is the Boldness allowed in coming to the throne of grace There is a Boldness that is not allowed and that I would warn you of 1. There is a Boldness of Ignorance and Irreverence When Men come into God's Presence and neither know him nor themselves nor the Matters they think they come about such are Fools that consider not that they do evil nor remember that he is in Heaven and they upon Earth Eccles 5.1,2 God is greatly to be feared in the Assembly of the Saints and to be had in reverence of all that are about him Psal 89.7 This Boldness is forbidden Psal 2.11 2. There is a Boldness of Peremptoriness that is not allowed to any Man not to a Believer himself People may and do often forget themselves as we use to say too much Familiarity
a Divine eternal Person I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen They that saw him dead could hardly believe he should ever live again and they that saw him alive had need of Faith to believe he had ever been dead He asserts both and we should believe both Since death entered into the World by Sin never was there a Man more truly really and fully dead than the Man Christ was who died for our Sins And there is no Man on Earth more truly alive than the Man Christ is now a living Man in Heaven He in his rising gave proof of his Divine Power He was crucified through weakness yet he liveth by the power of God 2 Cor. 13.4 There was never such an appearance of Weakness in the Man Jesus as when he expired and lay cold dead in his Grave Never did sin reign so unto death nor the Law 's Power more appear than in slaying the second Adam As great and greater was the appearance of his Divine Power in his rising again John 10.17 Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life that I may take it again Christ died that he might rise again He went amongst the dead that he might rise from the dead ver 18. No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again This commandment have I received of my Father Christ was bid both die and rise again Blessed be the Commander and blessed be the Obeyer for our everlasting life is in this Commandment John 12.50 Never any but Christ had this power of his own Life We must yield our Life when God calls for it and till then we must keep it and when that Call comes we must obey We die because we can live no longer and because our times are in God's hand And when it shall please the Lord to raise up our bodies at the Resurrection we receave our life again but have no power to take it up again till the powerful Word of Christ come Arise from your Graves And that Word gives us our life again None but Christ had power of his own life both to lay it down and to take it again We dare we can we should do neither but only obey and submit to the Sovereign Will of our High Landlord at whose Pleasure we are Tennants in these clay cottages 2. Christ's Resurrection was a Demonstration of the Acceptance of the Sacrifice of himself That the Blood he shed and Sacrifice he offered was savoury and acceptable with God that the Debt was fully paid and the Payment accepted when the Surety was discharged of his Prison Therefore we find it so often written that God raised him from the dead Acts 2.24 and 32. even when it 's said that it was not possible he should be holden of death Death and the Grave are strong and cruel Song 8.6 They have taken or will take all Mankind Prisoners and are able to keep them Only they took one Prisoner Jesus Christ who was too hard too strong for them Death had dominion over him but for a little while and by his own consent Rom. 6.9 but it hath no more dominion over him But he hath dominion over it I have the Keys of hell and of death Rev. 1.18 Courage Believers in and Heart-Lovers of Jesus Christ Death and Hell are indeed dreadful Jayls but as long as Christ keeps the Keys and that will be till he cast them both into the Lake of fire Rev. 20.14 no Believer shall ever be locked up in them If Hell were searched never so narrowly amongst all the condemned Prisoners there no Man or Woman could be found in it in whose Heart there was never one spark of true Faith in or Love to the Lord Jesus Heb. 13.20 God brought again from the dead the great Shepherd of the Sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant Christ also is often said to rise by his own power Christ put forth his Divine Power in his Resurrection the Father declared his full satisfaction with his Undertaking of the Work and Payment of the Price of Redemption by discharging of him in and by his Resurrection The Angels Work was only to roll away the Stone but by his own divine Power his blessed Soul did take possession of his dead Body and he did rise up immediately a truly living Man And this he did by his Father's Leave and Will and the Angels served only as Sergeants and Officers to unlock the Prison-doors of the Grave For Christ could easily have removed that Stone by his own power as he did greater things in his Resurrection No wonder the Apostle Paul made it one of his great aims in Christianity to know the power of Christ's Resurrection Phil. 3.10 It is not to know the History of his Resurrection nor is it to know the Mystery of his Resurrection but it is to know the Power of it the same Power that Christ raised himself from the dead by is put forth and no less is needful for the raising of a dead Sinner The same Power that raised the Saviour dead for Sin is needful for raising a Sinner dead in Sin Rom. 4.5 Therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into Death that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we should also walk in newness of life Eph. 1.19 There is an exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead c. How loath are Men to admit this that the saving quickening of a Sinner requires the same divine Power that quickened the dead Saviour All saving Conversions are the Fruits of Christ's Resurrection and of Almighty Power 3. Christ's Resurrection is the Pledge and Earnest of our Resurrection and of eternal Life How great things doth Paul build upon it 1 Cor. 15. He proves our Resurrection from Christ's Resurrection He argues for Christ's Resurrection by enumerating of Absurdities that must follow on the contrary As ver 14. If Christ be not risen then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain ver 15. We the Apostles are found false Witnesses of God ver 17. Then you are yet in your sins ver 18. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished ver 19. Then we are of all men most miserable But now Christ is risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that slept ver 20. For since by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead The first Adam was made a living soul ver 45. but when he became a sinner he became a killing Head to all his Posterity Rom. 5.12 The second Adam is a quickening spirit and gives eternal Life to all his Seed And he took possession of this eternal Life in
us Aaron and his Successors in the Office of High Priest were appointed to offer the great Sacrifice of yearly Attonement at the Altar and with the Blood thereof to enter into the Holy of Holies and to sprinkle the Mercy-Seat their Throne of Grace with that Blood Lev. 16.14 Our Lord Jesus the Anti-type offered the Sacrifice of himself in his death and in and with the virtue of that Sacrifice he entred Heaven to sprinkle the highest Altar therewith It is but a fond Popish fancy to think that there do remain visible Marks and Signatures of his humbled State on the glorified body of our Lord Jesus that is indeed to know Christ after the Flesh in a bad sense 2 Cor. 5.16 But his entring with his own blood is spiritually to be understood that Christ's Appearance in Heaven is to bring up a Memorial continually before God of the virtue and savour of that Sacrifice he offered without the Gates of Jerusalem Eph. 5.2 Christ loved us and hath given himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour This savour never spends or wears out The Blood of Jesus in the Virtue of it in the Merit of it and in the Power of it is as fresh this day as in the day it was shed on the Cross He is still the â—ew-slain way to the holiest of all Heb. 10.20 â—s fresh and fragrant as ever If Men by their â—nbelief count it old or stale and to have lost â—ts savour and virtue to themselves and if they will seek for somewhat else to procure them â—cceptance in Heaven let them try and peâ—ish for none can help them that reject Christ â—ut our Lord presents nothing for the Salvation of his Body the Church but his own Blood and nothing else is accepted in Heaven for this End but that precious Blood And all they to whose Consciences this Blood is applyed and who come unto it and feel its virtue and power will abhor all vain and dangerous mixtures of any thing with this Sovereign Balsom It is always savoury in Heaven and it is always savoury to all them that are in the right way to Heaven Our Lord in his Intercession fills Heaven with the Almighty and Eternal savour of his Blood and Heaven is filled with the Praises of it and of the shedder of it Rev. 5.9,12 If its savour do not fill the parts of the Earth where it is preached it is because Men have lost or rather never had the spiritual sense that only can take in this savour and not because this Blood is impaired in its virtue But this is the sin and misery of this condemned World that what is most savoury in Heaven is least savoured on Earth and what is most sought after prized and doted on in Earth is vanity and abomination in Heaven Luke 16.15 3. In Christ's Intercession there is his knowledge of and sympathy with the Ails and Distresses of his people This the Apostle takes notice of in ver 15. His knowledge of their Distresses we can more easily account for than for his Sympathy His Omniscience as God we believe Peter sweetly owned it John 21.15,16,17 O that Christ would with power ask the same Question at all of you and that you could give the same Answer Christ's Question is lovest thou me more than these Not long since thou said'st so what saist thou now Peter's Answer is Yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee And on the repeating of the Question Peter gives the same Answer ver 16. When Christ a third time ask'd the same Question Peter was grieved ver 17. and answers thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee As if he said I dare not compare my Love to thee with that of others to thee thou hast reason to question my love to thee because of my late woful denyal of thee but yet I dare call thee to Witness who knowest all things that I do love thee Though all my Brethren love thee better than I do or can though I be more unworthy than any to be loved by thee yet I am sure I love thee If the love of Christ were as a hot Fire within and its Coals were casting out a vehement Flame as Song 8.6 Believers would more often call Christ by that sweet Name sweet to us to speak and sweet to him to hear O thou whom my Soul loveth Song 1.7 Miserable Souls are they who love not Christ And dull unobservant people are they that know not what or whom their Souls love Is the love of Christ a meer Notion Is it not a most sensible holy and spiritual Passion or rather a heavenly Grace Can Men love Christ and not feel it Should they feel it and not avow it Is there any thing we should be ashamed of in the love of Christ but the shameful smalness of it That our highest and hottest love is so unsutable a Return to his incomparable Loveliness and his Wonderful Love to us and the dear Demonstrations of it All ye that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity look on him and love him more love him with all your Souls and blush with shame that you love him no better Blow the coals of Love by Faith and let the Flame mount up to Heaven and ascend ye in the Flame of the Altar as Manoah's Angel did Judg. 13.20 You that doubt of your Love to Christ go to him fall down before him answer Peter's Question according to the true sense of your Souls and it will be Lord thou knowest that I love thee Love Christ and ye will quickly feel ye love him A sight of Christ will beget Love and Love will quickly speak for it self 2 Cor. 5.14,15 But for Christ's Sympathy with his people this is harder to conceave than his knowledge of their Distresses It is a Sympathy different from what he had in the days of his own Infirmity it is as tender but not disturbing as real but not afflicting It is inconsistent with his glorifieâ— State to have any trouble His Sympathy it self is to be believed the manner how it acts is unsearchable Heb. 2.17 In all things it behoved him to be made like unto his Brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God Heb. 4.15 He is touched with the feeling of our Infirmities and was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin About this deep point of Christ's Sympathy we may soberly conceave 1. Our Lord's Remembrance of his own Infirmities Temptations and Afflictions in the days of his Flesh This is plain and certain 2. His sure and distinct particular Knowledge and Remembrance of his people and of all that concerns them within and without 3. His Interest in them and Care of them and Concern for them as his Members 4. His Power and Wisdom as their Head to send down vital Influences upon them as their Case requires Eph. 4.16 Col. 2.19 Lastly Christ's
of this Mercy of God We do not reckon a man miserable only on the account of what he feels but also on that of his just Fears And generally the smart of misery is raised from fear rather and more than from feeling If any thing renders a man's present State miserable the apprehension of the duration or increase of what he feels adds greatly to his misery Many things would be little complained of as great Evils were a man sure that in a moment they shall be removed But in a Sinner's Case for as bad as it is at present it will surely be worse with him shortly if mercy prevent not There is certainty of its coming and an eternal duration of it when it comes It is called the Wrath to come 1 Thes 1.10 Nothing like it ever came on them Present Wrath though dreadful is but a trifle to that that is to come It is Wrath to come for it will surely come As surely as God lives as surely as God is true in his word of Threatning this Wrath will come on the World of the Ungodly No putting of this evil Day far away but in vain Thoughts no diverting or keeping it back a moment All the united Force of the rebellious part of the Creation will not be able to stem or stop this fearful Tide of Wrath. It is Wrath to come for it is still coming and approaching As many Days and Years as an ungodly sinner counts in his life as many Days and Years Journeys hath God's Wrath made towards him Think on this Old Sinners God's Wrath and you are near to meet except mercy interpose You think you run from it but it runs after you it will come upon you and pursue you and overtake you as Deut. 28.45 It 's Wrath to come because it is always a coming and never past The Tide of God's Wrath on the Damned is an eternal Flood there will never be an ebbing Look down to Hell and see how they fare there Alas Men will not believe and fear and fly and therefore must feel How many daily hear of this Wrath to come and yet never have any fear of it till they be irrecoverably plunged into it Who never awaken out of the sleep of security till awakened by the Flashes of Hell fire Who will never believe God's Wrath till they feel it No true Believer goes to Hell all Unbelievers are sent thither but as soon they come there they become woful Believers because eternal feelers of this Wrath to come Mens danger of this dreadful State should make them cry mightily for God's Mercy as it renders them unspeakably needy of it But your own serious Thoughts about it would do you more good than many Words can The second thing proposed is What is the obtaining of mercy A frequent manner of Speech in Scripture 1 Tim. 1.13 Who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious But I obtained mercy 1 Pet. 2.10 Which in time past were not a people but are now the people of God which had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy This Phrase of obtaining mercy speaks forth 1. That the mercy is God's Gift Our obtaining is the fruit of his giving I obtained mercy saith Paul and may every Believer say How so he gave it he showed he demonstrated it as 1 Tim. 1.16 It is the Lord 's shewing it tendering and giving of it that is the only spring of our obtaining it We do not buy it we do not work it out we are no way meet for it but by misery God's mercy springs not out of the Earth but comes down from Heaven It is the Gift of God And as such must all seek it that would obtain it and as such will all eternally own it that do obtain it 2. This Phrase speaks forth a particular application of mercy to the Receaver by the Giver of it I obtained mercy saith Paul general mercy would not do my business another man's mercy would not save me I must have it of my own for my self and so I got it Mercy came to me made me a Visit and applyed it self to me in particular So must it be with you You will never be saved you shall never see God's Face in Glory unless his mercy deal with you and apply it self as particularly to you as if there were no other Person in the World to be saved by Mercy besides thy self There is indeed a blessed multitude of the Vessels of Mercy and the Captain of our Salvation brings many Sons to Glory Heb. 2.10 But yet there is a personal particular Application of saving mercy to every saved sinner And for this Application of mercy we should come to the Throne of Grace Though there be infinite mercy at this Throne and though many receave of this Mercy yet you must have of this Mercy for your selves or you cannot be saved Your Soul is your own and no man's else your danger sin and misery is your own and no man's else and the mercy that saves you must be as much your own and not another body's mercy That deep Discourse of of the Apostle looks this way Rom. 11.30,31,32 For as ye in times past have not believed God yet now have obtained mercy through their unbelief Even so have these also now not believed that through your mercy they may also obtain mercy For God hath concluded them all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all It is a great mystery of Judgment and Mercy the Apostle is speaking of the rejecting of the Jews and calling in of the Gentiles Mercy took occasion from the just casting off of the Jews to visit the Gentiles and will in due time bestow it self again upon the Jews But both of them must have mercy of their own Mercy to the Jews will not save the Gentiles mercy to the Gentiles will not save the Jews both must have their own mercy The Fountain is the same the Streams are the same but the Vessels are not the same and every Vessel of mercy must have its own measure of its own particular mercy So must it be with you if you be saved by mercy it must be your own and no man's else 3. Obtaining of mercy speaks forth the Receavers possessing of it Obtained mercy is not only bestowed and applyed mercy but it is possessed mercy Such things as cannot be possessed and kept are worth little pains in seeking But God's mercy is well worth the seeking because it may be both had by seeking and kept when obtained and is unspeakably beneficial when enjoyed Psal 103.17 The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him As if the Psalmist said Man is but a Flower his Life is a Wind and Vapour that quickly and surely passeth away but it is not so with God's mercy it eternally abides on all it falls upon O that Men would think on this As God lives and is true in his Word God's
for mercy are great Provocations Some beg only outward mercies Such people would like this Text well if it had been Let us come that we may obtain Gold and Silver and Health and long Life If Prayer was ordained by God for such mercies the Throne of Grace would be crouded with Supplicants But you will never ply Prayer rightly till you understand that there is something to be got at the Throne of Grace that is better in it self more needful for you and that will do you more good than all that the World hath to give Some beg mercy only when they are under God's afflicting hand Psal 73.34 When he slew them then they sought him Some beg God's mercy limitedly they only beg one mercy and desire no more His mercy is of a large extent and we should beg it all We may beg a particular mercy according to our present felt necessities yet we must not make an exception against any act of mercy We must not beg the mercy of Pardon with a Heart-quarrel against the mercy of Sanctification The Lord be merciful to thy servant in this thing 2 Kings 5.18 was a faulty Prayer if there was any sincerity in Naaman Though we may ask any particular mercy yet we must lay open our Hearts to the whole flood of mercy Psal 119.132 Look thou upon me and be merciful to me as thou usest to do unto those that love thy Name So Psal 106.4,5 Lastly Some beg mercy for themselves and for their Idols in the same Address One part of their Prayer is for mercy to themselves and another part of it is for mercy to their Idols Is not that a woful ill-made Prayer and yet how frequently is it done Idols are such things as have a greater nearer room in the Heart than God hath Whatever is more loved feared trusted and delighted in more than God that is an Idol be it the best or basest thing we can name or think on These Idols are of two sorts Lawful and Vnlawful Not that it is lawful to have any Idol but many make Idols of lawful things Such things I mean that in their proper place may be sought and lawfully used but are wofully abused when put in God's room These are the most dangerous because least perceaved Idols Christian it is lawful to love thy Relations to pray for Wife and Children to beg God's Blessing on thy lawful diligence in thy Calling but watch well that none of these lawful things come in betwixt thy Heart and God if they do thou will fall into this Snare of begging God's mercy to thy self and Idols in the same Prayer Vnlawful Idols or Idols in unlawful things are Sins Lusts and Heart-plagues Wo to him that begs God's mercy to them We should daily beg God's mercy against them The more mercy that is forbearance God sheweth to such Idols the more Wrath and the less mercy he showeth to the man himself God's mercy cannot be shown both to a man and his Idols The purest mercy is then shewn â—o a Man when the Lord dealeth severely with his Idols Kill my sinful Idols and save me is a fit Prayer at the Throne of Grace and he is a happy man that gets it answered 5. Sinful Addresses for God's mercy are great Provocations of his Wrath. His mercy is so Sacred a Name of God that he will hold no man guiltless that taketh it in vain In this matter the best contract much Guilt All have many sins in their holy things and in their Approaches to the Holiest of all the Throne of Grace and do stand in need of Attonement And we should all come to the Throne of Grace for mercy to pardon the Sins that are in our seeking of mercy But where then shall the Ungodly and Sinner appear He perisheth for want of mercy he should come for it and he cannot come for mercy while he is what he is but he provokes the Lord to more Wrath against him This is one of the inextricable Straits that every Unbeliever is in that nothing but Sovereign Grace and mercy can bring one out of Look to him for this deliverance and he will shew you mercy SERMON VII HEB. IV. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need THE last thing in this verse is What is to be had at the Throne of Grace and what we should come for And that is Mercy and Grace and we need no more and we should come that we may obtain and find them and we should in our coming design no less Of the first I began to speak last day and did open these three things 1. What is this mercy we should come for It 's God's saving mercy in Christ sutable unto and for relieving of that misery that every natural man is perishing under Mercy in God and misery in man are Relatives and happy is that person that hath them well married and matched together 2. What is in this Phrase Obtaining of mercy I told you that it implied three things 1. That mercy is God's free Gift We only come by it because he gives it 2. That there is a personal particular Application of this mercy to the Obtainer of it 3. That it is given as a Possession not as a Gift that may be recalled and retaken but is given for an everlasting Possession Whoever is made Partaker of God's special saving mercy it shall never be taken from him it shall never waste nor spend nor wear out but shall stay with him follow him and grow up with him to eternity The Burden of that heaven-like Song Psal 136. is 26 times repeated for his mercy endureth for ever How sweetly will it be sung from all the Mansions in Heaven and by all the blessed Dwellers in them O Give thanks to our God for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever Can you learn this Song as the Word is Rev. 14.3 Only the Redeemed of the Lord can say so but all they should say so Psal 107.1,2 His mercy is most sweet a Crumb of it will save a starving Soul as Matth. 15.27 A large measure of it on Earth is a Heaven But the eternity of this mercy is the mercy of this mercy Time-mercies in regard of this are no mercies 3. I spoke of the Design and End we should have before us in coming to the Throne of Grace Come that we may obtain mercy That which I would do at this Exercise is to apply this Truth And the Lord apply both Doctrine and Application And 1. I would put this Question to your Consciences and let them speak as in God's sight Whether have ye obtained mercy or not Can you say with Paul but I obtained mercy You must have it as well as he and may know it as really as he did though ye receave not so much nor know it so clearly as so great a Believer as Paul did See to get
your Consciences well resolved in this main Case that you may be able to give a peremptory answer The Importance of this Question is very obvious Can a Man retire within and look up to God and consider this I am a miserable Sinner in my self as all are nothing but God's special mercy can relieve me And not think it a matter of vast consequence to know whether he hath obtained this mercy or no Wo to them that never asked the Question and they are but in a sorry case that cannot answer it I would propose a few things to enforce the Duty of trying your selves in this matter 1. It is mercy you have been seeking If ever you made any fashion of Prayer surely it was mercy you sought most of you if not all pray at least sometimes Now whenever you pray unless you be wofully formal and stupid your Consciences must tell you it is mercy you seek Have you long and often begged God's mercy and will ye never enquire whether or not you have got it None ask in earnest but they will try how they speed There is no surer and plainer Argument of trifling in Prayer than when men are careless what they get by Prayer We would be called of the Generation of them that seek God's Face and shall we not enquire if we have found him Our Lord bids us ask that we may receave and shall we ask and not think of receaving nor try if we have receaved 2. A great many round you have obtained mercy therefore it becomes you to enquire whether you have obtained it If the mercy of God were so very rarely dispensed that none if any in an Age did partake of it this neglect would be a little more excusable But when mercy falls round about thee when one on thy Right Hand obtains Mercy and another on thy Left Hand obtains Mercy when this Mercy falls on some of the Family thou lives in on some of the Congregation thou hears in when this mercy falls on one that hath the same natural Parents that thou hast Will none of these things make you ask Have I also obtained mercy We find our Lord aggravating the misery of the damned by their seeing of the blessedness of the saved Luke 13.28 There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you your selves thrust out A most dreadful Passage Christ is telling Men that were to be excluded from Heaven what they would think say and do in that dismal Case Prevent this Misery in time by enquiring whether you have obtained mercy And do so the rather that ye may see others partaking of this Mercy When you see the saving mercy of God sought and obtained by others it should provoke you greatly not to envy them their share but to desire a share of your own for there is enough and to spare And the Lord doth shew mercy to some on purpose that he may encourage others to come and ask and obtain So Paul tells wherefore he got his Mercy 1 Tim. 1.16 Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy that in me first or the chief Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting There were other ends Christ had in shewing mercy to Paul The Lord shewed him mercy that he might be saved eternally he shewed him mercy that he might be an able Minister of the new Testament 2 Cor. 3.6 and a successful Apostle 1 Cor. 15.10 and the Church of Christ hath good Cause now for many Ages to bless our Lord Jesus for that rich mercy which that chosen Vessel obtained and was filled with But the Apostle in that place takes notice of another design of Christ's in his mercy to him and that was to set up Paul as a Pattern and Copy of the Freedom Riches and Power of saving mercy And Christ can when he will write another Copy like Paul and somewhat like it he doth in all that he calls savingly Eph. 2.4 Take in this Argument many obtain mercy and why not I none deserve it yet many have it None deserve it less and need it more than I Why then not I If you see the Lord shewing mercy to others and you care not for mercy to your selves how can you expect it or think you have got it 3. Inquire whether you have receaved God's saving mercy because this mercy is brought so near you that it must either be receaved or refused there is no midst No Man doth neither no man doth both All that have the offer of God's saving mercy in the Gospel do and must necessarily either receave or reject it This should make people inquire the more narrowly whether they have obtained mercy If ye have not obtained it ye have refused it Acts 13.46 It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you but seeing you put it from you and judge your selves unworthy of everlasting life lo we turn to the Gentiles This last is a strange Phrase I am perswaded in the Lord that no man shall ever get everlasting life that thinks himself worthy of it It is always to be sought by us always given by the Lord and always taken by the Receavers of it as an Alms of Grace for Christ's sake Nothing surely was further from Paul's mind than to have these foolish Jews to count themselves deserving of eternal life or that on the account either of their Priviledges or Works they did or could deserve Salvation at the hand of God But all the Apostle meant was this Everlasting Life is brought near to you in this Word of the Gospel you put the Word from you thereby you declare you are unwilling to receave everlasting life and God counts you unworthy of the Offer of it and we will carry it to others as he tells other Unbelieving Jews at Rome Acts 28.28 Be it known to you that the Salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles and that they will hear it Now for resolving of this Question whether you have obtained special saving mercy or not This seems easily determinable There is so great a difference betwixt that State of sin and misery that mercy finds Men in when it first visits them and that State that mercy brings them to That we are apt to think the change may be easily known See Eph. 2.1,18 Yet there are so many things that obstruct both them that have obtained mercy from owning it and them that have not obtained it from acknowledging their want of it of which I shall not now speak that searching is needful and for your help in that work I offer these few plain Marks 1. A high value of special saving mercy above common mercy is a good sign of one that hath obtained saving mercy There is a special mercy of God and there is a common mercy Special mercy
Christ's Grace and in which his Grace is specially helpful I have spoke to the first of these times of need A time of Temptation Though all Believers be not always tempted yet there is no Saint on Earth who is out the Devils Gun-shot No Saint on Earth hath reason to expect that if I may so speak God should serve the Devil with a Noli prosequi God gives 〈◊〉 in this life an utter discharge to the Devil from medling with or molesting of any Saint Till we come to Heaven this Adversary must be expected and prepared for This World is his Dominion he is the wicked God of it 2 Cor. 4.4 And all the wicked in it are his people Subjects and Children And all the remaining Corruption in the Saints is of the Devil 2. The second time of special need of God's Grace is the time of a spiritual decay a decay in the New Creature a decay in the Work of God in the Heart This passeth under many Names in the Word and well known in the Sense and Experience of Believers Sometimes it 's called darkness Isa 50.10 It is the misery of a natural State that they that are in it are darkness it is the blessedness of a renewed State that the partakers of it are light in the Lord their Duty is to walk as Children of light Eph. 5.8 Though they that are made light in the Lord are never suffered to become darkness again yet they may walk in darkness and have no light and the days of that darkness may be many as the wise Man saith Eccl. 11.8 We all know what natural darkness is All the natural light of the World is from the Sun and therefore natural Light and Darkness Day and Night have their Vicissitudes and Revolutions according to the shining or not shining of the Sun All the spiritual light Believers have is from the Light of God's Countenance as the Sun of Righteousness ariseth on them Mal. 4.2 or withdraws from them so is their spiritual Day or Night so do they walk in darkness or in the Light of the Lord. Sometimes this Decay is called Death and Deadness A State of Inability and Unactivity for working and doing what they are called to Hence so many Prayers for quickening especially in Psal 119. Natural Death we know not but Sickness Weakness and Fainting we do know Spiritual Death is known and felt by none that are under its total power but a Weakness in spiritual Life Saints do know Of this Decay I would speak in handling three things 1. Whence it comes 2. How needy such are of God's Grace 3. How Grace doth help in it 1. Whence comes this Decay on Christians It is a State too common to be questioned and too plain to need to be proved that true Christians are and may be in it I would name some of its Springs and Causes 1. It flows from the Infant infirm State of the new Creature in its first forming It is a new-born babe 1 Pet. 2.2 When the first Man was made he was as perfect and strong a Man the first hour he was made as ever he was in all his Life He came out of his Maker's hands a perfect Man But the new Creature is born a weak thing and is to grow up to the stature of a perfect man in Christ Eph. 4.13 and will never come to its full growth till it come to Heaven None on Earth knows what a perfect Christian is There are degrees of Perfection on Earth in respect whereof some are less some more perfect but the most perfect labour greatly under Imperfection Phil. 3.12,13,14 and press most after Perfection I will not speak of the wise design of God in framing the new Creature thus Only the glory of its preservation and of its Perfection is not due to the new Nature in Believers but to the Original of it God the Father to the blessed Root thereof Jesus Christ his Son to the Inhabitation of the Spirit and to the great Security of the new Covenant 2. The new Creature is not only in an Infant weak state but it is planted in bad and unfit Soil for it It is planted out of its Element Heaven is the proper Element and Country whence the new Creature came whence it is maintained and whether it natively tends But it is planted here in the Heart of a sinner Now the Heart of a Man though mended by Grace in part is a very unfit and unsuitable Soil for such a Foreign Heavenly Plant as the new Creation is And hence it is that the Grace of God in us is endangered by the place of its Residence 3. There is also much Corruption remaining in the Heart of a Believer as noisome Weeds growing near this precious planting of the Lord. The Lord never designed to root all Corruption out of the Hearts of his people in this life by the first planting of his Grace in them but only to give that Grace that shall break the dominion of sin and that shall maintain a War with in-dwelling sin and at last shall prevail compleatly So that it 's plain that on the account of those three if there were no more Christians are very lyable to spiritual decays And it 's sadly confirmed from frequent Experience It may be in some the work of Grace was in best case when it was first begun and that from the day of their Conversion to the day of their being Glorified they never had much of any remarkable growth But this is their Sin and their Shame 2. Hence you may see how needy such persons are of the help of the grace of God An inward decay in the work of his Grace in us makes us very needy of help from the Fountain of Grace in him For this decay gives great advantages to our spiritual Enemies to attack us and lays us under great disadvantages in resisting them I am apt to think I cannot now give the reasons of it that the Devil knows the frame of our Hearts though he do not know the Heart immediately that is God's Property Acts 1.24 and the Condition of the Work of God in us a great deal better than we our selves ordinarily do Great is the Intimacy he hath with our Spirits especially with the remaining Corruption in them Great is his Craft acquired by Observation Practice and Experience as well as by his malicious Sagacity And when he seeth a Believer in a bad Case if he have permission he will improve that desired opportunity to make their bad Case worse Psal 71.11,12 David prays for hasty help from God on this Argument his Enemies saying God hath forsaken him persecute and take him for there is none to deliver him Caleb and Joshua encourage Israel to go in and possess the Land Numb 14.9 by this Their defence is departed from them and the Lord is with us fear them not It is from this bad case that Believers are in that Satan hath so easie and speedy Victory
Christ saith John 14.17 3. There is Communion and fellowship with God much spoke of in the Word well known by Believers 1 John 1.3 But I shall name no more of these Enjoyments 2. As all Christians know what these special Enjoyments are so all of them do greatly desire them This is so sure that many do over-desire them This desire ariseth 1. From the Genius and Instinct of the new Nature What is more natural to the new Creature than kindly breathing after Heaven When a poor Soul hath got of the Water of Life from Christ it becomes in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life John 4.14 Immediately the Soul saith What shall I do to be saved When shall I be saved Now if desires of Heaven be the native breathing of the new Creature surely breathing after much of Heaven upon Earth must be so too For the highest Enjoyments of God on Earth are far short of what is reserved for Heaven 2. Experience of first Love and of the first gracious Welcome he gave to the Believer when he first fled to the City of Refuge makes them desire more of those Enjoyments 3. These special Enjoyments are very profitable as well as pleasing They are given for profit and do usually profit 1. They are supporting under Tribulation In the multitude of my thoughts within me and doubless they were sad ones thy comforts delight my Soul Psal 94.19 Usually much Affliction and Joy of the Holy Ghost are together 1 Thes 1.6 The Promises are fitted for distress and the performance of them given to Christians under it Some distresses are so great that nothing can bear up under them but a special appearance of Divine Grace and in that case such Blessings may be more importunately begged 2. Special Enjoyments do fit and strengthen for Work and Service There is a joy of the Lord that is the Believers Strength Neh. 8.10 Flijah's double Meal was to strengthen him for a forty days Journey in the Wilderness and the extraordinary Manifestation he had of God was to fit him for his Translation 1 Kings 19. Many Saints have found this so often in their Experience that they do with fear receave singular Enjoyments of God because they have so oft found them followed with some special Tryal and Difficulty 4. Although most Christians have somewhat of these special Enjoyments and all desire them and they be profitable in themselves Yet special spiritual Enjoyments are dangerous and render a Man very needy of the helping Grace of God 1. Because they do usually expose to special Temptation Satan is a constant Enemy to all Christians but there are two times specially that he would fainest assault the Believer when he is at his worst and when he is at best Let Believers be never so low if Satan get his Will he would bring them lower No Man is as low as the Devil would have him but he that is in Hell but thither he cannot bring a Believer If a Christian be never so high if the Devil be let loose upon him he will quickly bring him down Do not think that the Devil will fear to engage a Believer even when in his best State He that had the boldness to fall on sinless Adam in Paradise will think it an easie matter to deal with any sinful Man in this Wilderness He that had the Impudence to tempt our Almighty sinless Saviour will he have either modesty or fear in tempting a feeble Believer You whom the Lord makes at any time to ride on your high Places bless him and yet fear your Adversary 2. There are some special Corruptions that are apt to grow under special Enjoyments as Weeds by warm Sun-shine If there were any such Enjoyment of God to be found in this Life as would remove Corruption altogether out of the Heart there would be no fear of abusing it But now when the greatest Enjoyments that can be had in this Life are given to them that have a body of death dwelling in them there are some workings of that remaining Corruption that are very ready to appear in this Case As 1. Pride of Heart spiritual Pride All Pride is a spiritual sin but Pride that riseth on spiritual Blessings receaved is specially spiritual Pride Pride on the account of Beauty of body or Strength or Riches is a carnal foolish Pride If it rise on the account of Gifts and Endowments of the Mind it grows yet a worse Pride But if the Gifts of God be yet of a more high and noble kind as his special Love and the precious fruits of that Love in begun Conformity to Christ and Communion with him if Pride rise on such grounds it is yet the worst of all sorts of Pride For the more precious the Gifts of God be and the more eminently they be of free distinguishing Grace and the more plainly the design of God in giving those Gifts be to glorifie the Grace of the Giver and to save the Receaver to the Praise of that Grace Pride of Heart on the account of such Gifts is yet the worst of all Pride Now that such a Corruption may grow under special Enjoyments of God is past all doubt 2 Cor 12. Paul speaks of his being lifted up unto Heaven like a Man that had not fully recovered himself I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago whether out of the body or in the body I know not God knoweth It was a long while since but in the time of the Enjoyment and fourteen Years after it he could not tell whether he was in or out of the body He never speaks plainly of it till he came to speak of his Infirmities ver 7. Lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations there was given to me a thorn in the flesh a messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure Where we may perceave plainly that whatever was in that extraordinary Enjoyment Paul had in that Vision from Heaven or in that Visit to Heaven that was allowed him when he came back he found the same Heart he had formerly felt and the same body of Death he so often had groan'd under before Although we know not what Paul enjoyed in that time nor what the nature of that Exercise by Satan was that he was put to yet the Lord's design and Paul's danger is plain It is indeed a marvellous Passage Such an extraordinary Person as Paul was the chief of the Apostles and most eminent Saint in all the New Testament after such a great Revelation must be exercised with Hell to prevent harm by his being in Heaven before he was fully ready and fit for Heaven 2. Contentedness with a present good condition and dulness of desires after a better State is a common Corruption that is apt to rise up under special Enjoyments If the Disciples be on the Mount of Transfiguration and Christ be glorified in their sight and
fervent should our Applications be to Throne of Grace for that needful helpful Grace SERMON XII HEB. IV. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need HAving spoke of the need of God's Grace and of its helpfulness in general I came to condescend on some Seasons wherein the Grace of God is specially needful and helpful Of them I named six three of which I have spoke to and the other three remain to be handled 1. The first Season named was the time of Temptation There was never a Believer so little beloved of Christ as to be given up as a Prey to Satan And never lay a Believer so near Christ's Heart but the Devil may get him into his Sieve Therefore let us never flatter our selves in a state of security from disturbance by the Devil blessed be God we are brought into a state of safety from ruin by him 2. A Season of spiritual decay Soul-sickness a weakness in the New Creature There are some People that never knew by Experience what bodily sickness means but have enjoyed perfect Health all their Life But I am apt to think that few if any Christians find it so as to the new Creation in them 3. A Season of special Enjoyments Though these two seem to be very far from and contrary to one another yet they agree in this that in both Grace is needful and helpful The unaccountable Wisdom and Sovereignty of the Lord our God shines in his conduct of his People Some of them have extraordinary Receavings others know little what they mean There are some Christians whose way to Heaven lyes all along in the Depths and in the Vales when others ride on their High places Now these singular manifestations from God though desirable and profitable yet are not without special dangers to prevent which the Lord provides and ministers special Physick to them and it is strong and unpleasant but the Physician can bless it As Paul's Experience witnesseth 2 Cor. 12. He had been in Heaven he knew not how he had heard he could not tell what when he came back But he well knew what he met with on his return and how needful and useful it was for him Lest he should be exalted above measure with what he had seen and heard in Paradise Hell is sent to humble him May we not infer this How unfit are Believers while in the body and a body of death is in them to be in Heaven when any special Enjoyment of Heaven must have so dreadful a Remedy administred to prevent hurt 4. A fourth Season of special need of Grace is the time of Affliction Afflictions are of many sorts and kinds I am apt to believe that though there be some likeness in the Afflictions of many yet every afflicted Man hath a particular Affliction of his own As it is with peoples Faces so is it with their Crosses For as many thousand Faces as are amongst Mankind though all are somewhat like yet every one hath some distinction The World is full of Crosses yet every afflicted Person hath his own Cross Our Lord hints at it Matth. 16.24 Let a man take up his Cross The Lord appoints a proper Cross for every one Though people are ready to think and say that their Cross is unfit for them and that they would bear another Cross better In Crosses we must neither choose nor refuse David's Case was singular 2 Sam. 24. The Lord chooseth for us and we must not cannot refuse Job 34.35 Should it be according to thy mind he will recompense it whether thou refuse or whether thou chuse and not I therefore speak what thou knowest There is a general distinction of Afflictions Some are from God's hand for Sin or Tryal or prevention And some are from Man's hand for Christ's sake and the Gospel's In all of them Grace is helpful and needful But I would speak only something in general that every one may apply to themselves according to their experience and Exercise And that on these two Heads 1. The needfulness of Grace to the afflicted 2. The helpfulness of Grace to the afflicted whatever their Affliction be 1. Of the need of the grace of God to the afflicted Some sense of this is engraven on the Hearts of Men by the Light of Nature The Heathen Mariners in the Storm express this Jonah 1.5.6 What meanest thou O sleeper arise call upon thy God if so be God will think upon us that we perish not A sad case A Heathen Ship-master challenging a Godly Prophet for his neglect of seeking God He calls him by a shameful but well deserved name O Sleeper The Storm came on for Jonah's sake as he told them ver 12. yet he is the securest person in the Ship He only knew God yet he is last in calling on him An honest Pagan may out-do a distempered Prophet in some things at some times This Sense was expressed greatly by the King Nobles and Inhabitants of Nineveh Jonah 3.5,10 And they again go far beyond Jonah They believed God on Jonah's Preaching repented prayed and fasted and the Lord repented of the evil But Jonah was grieved at all chap. 4.1,2 If were not for his excellent Prayer chap. 2. and that he was a Prophet of the Lord and the Pen-man of the Holy Ghost to record his own Sin and Shame for the benefit of the Church we should be tempted to question this Man's grace of whose fearful Sins we have so large an Account He rebel 's against the Lord's Call to preach to Nineveh When he flees the Lord overtakes him by a Storm takes him by the Lot he is cast into the Sea scoold in the Whale's Belly three days and three nights a miraculous Chastisement and a miraculous Preservation He now obeys the repeated call but when his labour had a gracious Effect he is displeased exceedingly and prays most sinfully Jonah's Instance should teach Ministers and Christians to pray more Lord lead us not into Temptation As Nature's Light teacheth afflicted people their need of the Lord's Grace and Mercy the Word declares it more plainly Jam. 5.13 Psal 50.15 Hos 5.15 This need of the helping grace of God in Affliction I would instruct in these 1. Affliction-sins are readily fallen into without the help of the Grace of God Such Sins I mean that Affliction doth easily and naturally tempt unto as Fretting Impatience Murmuring and quarrelling with the hand of God It is sadly and frequently seen that Affliction hath not only brought along with it discovery of Sin but also the Actings and Workings of more Corruption than either the Person himself or any else thought was in the Man It was a sad Character of a very bad Man 2 Chron. 28.22 And in the time of this distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord this is that King Ahaz This is a Man noted for a never-do-well A Brother 〈◊〉 the same
as David resolved Psal 116.2 And when he comes to die and hath prayed his last Prayer with Stephen Acts 7.59 Lord Jesus receave my Spirit and gets it answered Praying Believing and the Throne of Grace it self as to him is at an end and everlasting Praises before the Throne of Glory of God and of the Lamb begin never to have an end Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly Finish thy Work fulfil all thy Promises answer fully all the Prayers of all thy People Put an end to Sin and Time and Trouble and Temptation And hasten the Marriage Day that thy people may be glad and rejoyce and give honour to thee Rev. 19.7 Let the Bride be made ready and let the Bridegoom appear in his Wedding Garments of Glory O how blessed will the Meeting and the Marriage be He married his Bride when on Earth in Garments dyed in his own precious Blood and the Bride receaves him as Glorious even in 〈◊〉 bloody Raiment This most precious Blood was shed in love to his Bride and for her Salvation and therefore he is amiable to her in that Dress Believers in Christ are contracted to a slain Husband but shall be married to him in a far other Manifestation of himself How great is the difference betwixt our dearest Lord Jesus under his Cross and under his Crown And yet under his Cross he is infinitely amiable to a Believer's Heart and Eye If it were not that the Light of that glorious day of his Appearance will prevent all Mistakes the Nations of them which are saved as they are called for their Multitude out of all Nations Rev. 21.24 might doubt but doubt they cannot but wonder they will both at him and at themselves 2 Thess 1.10 and say Is this that blessed Saviour I believed on so feebly whom I trusted with my Soul and its Salvation with so much fainting and with so many Fears is this he whom I loved so little and so coldly Is this he whom all the time I liv'd on Earth after he had revealed himself to me I depended and lived on by Faith and that with so many Staggerings through Unbelief because I knew not so well as now I do whom I then believed And until this blessed Day come and come it will for it is promised and sworn by him who cannot lie it is not far off for it is above 1600 years since he testified Surely I come quickly Rev. 22.20 It is his last Promise to his Bride Let his most excellent Name be poured out as Oyntment and let the Savour of his Knowledge be made manifest in every place Let his Saving blessed Death be remembered gloryed in and fed upon by all Believers the greatest Token of his Love to us the only Price of our Redemption 1 Pet. 1.19 and the only Food of our Souls Let his justifying Righteousness be only mentioned before God on Earth by believing Sinners as it will be only mentioned by glorified praising Saints in Heaven Let the Throne of Grace reared up by the Father in his Son and consecrated by the Blood of this Son God manifest in the Flesh be revealed to the darkened World and set up amongst the blinded Nations And let Grace from thence be dispensed to many thousands of perishing Sinners Let the glory of God's free most free every way free Grace in Jesus Christ shine so in the Nations as it may and when that Glory shines it will darken confound and put to shame all the Antichristian Darkness and Dreams of false Christs of men's making and of Works Hire and Merit under all their Names and Pretences and make it all hateful in Sinners Eyes as it is hurtful to their Souls and as it is hateful in God's sight Let the Praises of my Lord and my God as recovered Thomas calls him John 20.28 fill Heaven and Earth and fill the Hearts and fill the Mouths and shine in the Lives of all Believers on his Name and let his Praise fill all the Gospel Worship in all the Churches till the Day of the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Tit. 2.13 And unto these Wishes let every Believer on and sincere Lover of Jesus Christ say and every one that is such will say Amen So let it be so will it be FINIS