to manage it aright This verse gives us a great Directory how to perform in a right manner this great Duty 1. It tells us whether to come To a Throne of Grace 2. How we should come With boldness Addresses to God may many ways miscarry if not made to the true God God in Christ if not in the right manner We have here one thing about the right manner Coming with boldness On this I proposed two things to be handled 1. What is the Nature of this allowed Boldness 2. What Grounds are for it 1. On the Nature of this Boldness I began to speak last day and did mainly insist on the Negative Now it follows to speak of the Positive It is the boldness of Faith that is allowed and commanded here Eph. 3.12 Faith is a marvellous Grace both in its Original in its Foundation and in its Actings and Exercise It is the meanest and lowest of all Graces every Grace brings somewhat considerable Love brings a flaming Heart Repentance bring a bleeding Heart Obedience brings a working Hand Patience brings a broad Back for the Smiter but Faith brings only an empty Heart and Hand to be filled with borrowed and gifted Blessings And yet Faith is the highest and loftiest Grace it cannot rest till it be in at the Heart and Love of God in Christ Faith if I may so speak can both be in Heaven and Hell at the same time The Believer looking on himself as in himself the Apostle's distinction 2. Cor. 3.5 our selves as of our selves judgeth himself to the Pit of Hell as his deserved Lot but when he looks on himself as in Christ he sits high Eph. 2.5,6 and makes bold to enter into the Holiest of all Heb. 10.19 How many contrary Sentiments of himself doth a Believer express only salved from being Contradictions by this distinction that the Word reveals and Faith improves I know that in me dwells no good thing Rom. 7.18 How no good thing in a Man full of the Holy Ghost a Man rich in the Grace of Christ A Man that had laboured more abundantly than all the twelve Apostles 1 Cor. 15.10 Yea saith he in me that is in my Flesh dwells no good thing A Believer as in himself and a Believer as in Christ are in a manner two different distinct contrary persons A Believer as in Christ is a new Creature as in himself and the remainders of Corruption in him is an old Man still or rather hath much of the old Man in him A Christian hath two different opposite◠〈◊〉 in him as the Apostle elegantly and deeply discourseth Rom. 7.19 end This Genius of Faith is much to be heeded in its bold Addresses to the throne of grace This boldness of Faith in this Court of Grace acts in four 1. In a free access at all times and in all Cases It is a Priviledge allowed by the Lord to his People and embraced and improved by their Faith There is no forbidden time in which we may not come No such command as in that King's Court Esther 3.11 Here it is proclaimed Psal 62.8 Trust in him at all times Phil. 4.6 Be careful for nothing but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God There cannot be a more large and comprehensive account of the Matter of allowed Addresses to the throne of grace than this The Apostle prescribes Prayer as a cure of perplexing Care he hints that every thing that is or may be the matter of Care may lawfully be made the matter of Holy Prayer Turn your Care into Prayer and the Care will evaporate and vanish and your Cure will be felt Blessed be the Lord that hath made this good in the Experience of many who have gone before him with Hearts filled and oppressed with many Cares and have returned light and free and their countenance no more sad as Hannah 1 Sam. 1.18 2. The boldness of Faith acts in free speaking of all the mind to God This the Greek Word in the Text particularly points at Let us come with Boldness free speaking of all our mind pouring out the heart to him Psal 62.8 I poured out my complaint to him I shewed before him my trouble Psal 142.2 The Tongue is not to be tied at this Throne but all that is on the Heart is to be told to him He knows it before we tell it and better than we do but it is his Will that we should make all our Minds known to him A Believer the better Case his Faith is in he is the more open and free in dealing with God It is recorded of a Man that we should hardly have counted a Believer had not the Holy Ghost numbered him amongst them in Heb. 11.32 he utter'd all his words or matters before the Lord in Mizpah Judg. 11.11 So Samuel did 1 Sam. 8.21 And Samuel heard all the wordt of the people and he rehearsed them in the Ears of the Lord. It is a great favour that the Lord allows us so to do This is not after the manner of Men. It would be counted a troublesome Impertinence to vent all our Thoughts and Cases and Concerns to a Creature but we may do so to the Lord. When David refrained his speech and kept silence it went badly with him Psal 32.3 3. This boldness of Faith acts and should act in Familiarity with God Believers should come to the Throne of Grace not as Strangers and Foreigners but as fellow-citizens with the Saints and of the Houshold of God Eph. 2.19 Our Lord in his directing us to pray bids us begin with Our Father which art in Heaven The Spirit of Adoption helps to cry Abba Father Rom. 8.15 Gal. 4.6 When Faith speaks rightly this Word and fixeth on it all other desires will sweetly follow Abba and Amen uttered in Faith are the might of Prayer Strangers know not what Familiarity the Lord expresseth to his People nor how much Familiarity he allows them to use with him It was a great Word of a great Saint many Years ago in this Land when dying in a bright shining of the Sun of Righteousness on his Soul Tell it to the People preach it at my Funeral that God dealeth familiarly with Men. 4. This boldness of Faith acts in Importunity at the Throne of Grace This Importunity is nothing but the stiffness and tenaciousness of Faith Faith sometimes and then it is best will neither be beat back by delays from God nor by inward Challenges but when it hath got hold of God it will keep its hold Our Lord spoke several Parables to direct and encourage to this Importunity Luke 18.1 that of the unjust Judge and oppressed Widow And Luke 11.5,8 We must understand Parables warily No Importunity did ever or can ever prevail with God to do that for us or give that to us that he hath no mind to do or give All he doth and gives is in Love Yet he puts his people on
lifted up is not upright in him But the just shall live by Faith To bottom Expectations of grace from God on the account of any good real or apprehended in us or done by us is not only destructive of Humility but of Faith also A Boaster is an abominable Creature at the throne of grace but a Pleader for and Expectant of Grace for Grace's sake is an humble Believer and a right Courtier at this Throne Exhort 3. You must not only seek grace when you come to the throne of grace and expect it when you seek it but you must be careful to receave grace when it is given Make room for it What is said by the Lord in the Prophet Mal. 3.10 though spoke in another case is applicable to this I will open you the windows of Heaven and pour you out a Blessing that there shall not be room enough to receave it Felt Want and strong Faith make much room for the grace of God Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it Psal 81.10 It must be a wide-mouth'd Soul that takes in and a well-filled Soul that receaves a fill of God How mighty is that Prayer Eph. 3.17,18,19 We have all need not only to get it by heart but to get it into our Hearts and to send it up to Heaven daily from our Hearts Paul makes a special Preface to that Prayer ver 14 15. In it he prays for the strengthening of the inner man by the spirit ver 16. That Christ might dwell in their Hearts by Faith ver 17. That being rooted in love they might measure the dimensions of Christ's love and know it that passeth knowledge ver 18 19. Can any Man go higher in Prayer Yes one step higher That ye might he filled with all the fulness of God Now who hath room in his Soul for the answer of such a Prayer as this is If we had not these mighty Words in this way we should be tempted to think that it were rather a Prophecy of what is to be enjoyed within the Vail than a Prayer of Faith to be put up by Travellers in the way to Heaven and for Blessings to be enjoyed in the House of their Pilgrimage But a Prayer it is and some good performance is given within time though the main measure of the answer of this as of all the most spiritual Prayers of Saints in this lise is referved for the day of the Lord. It is a greater matter both of Duty and Dimculty than most Christians think to have the everlasting Doors of our Souls lifted up and cast open that the King of Glory may enter with his super-abounding grace Many Believers take much pains and make many Prayers for that grace of God which yet they teceave not when it comes and craves room and admittance Grace comes always in and with Jesus Christ Whatever therefore hinders his Welcome excludes his Grace from entering Grace comes in and by the Promise If the Promise be not receaved by Faith how can the Grace promised be receaved Grace comes always as Grace free and undeserved How can a proud Person receave it And there is Pride often working in the Discouragements of Christians They find they want much of the helping grace of God they ask it they see it in the Promises and in Christ's hand But they think should such as I lay hold on such a precious gift as his grace Why not It is grace grace offered of grace given of grace Do you need it Why do you not receave it and make room for it Some receave not that grace that is tendered to them because it is not the particular grace they sought and expected or because it comes not to them in that way they looke for it in Others receave not nor welcome the grace they beg because they think they cannot receave it They look on Receaving as a great and difficult business far above their ability But is refusing of it hard also Alas that is easie because natural to our Hearts Is not the seed of Receaving in all sincere asking and expecting of grace from God receaving of his grace is no more but a Heart-willingness that his grace may enter in and act like it self upon us And this receaving act of Faith doth greatly glorifie God Some think it very strange and hardly credible that any Believer can ask earnestly that grace which when tendered he is not willing to receave See how it was with some eminent-Saints Job 9.16 If I had called and he had answered me yet would not I believe that he had hearkened unto my voice Why so for he breaketh me with a tempest ver 17. But may not fatherly Love and Correction be together on a Believer Rev. 3.10 Yet the sense of the smart of Correction is a strong Temptation to question the Love of the Correcter David or Asaph Psal 77.1,2 I cried unto God with my voice even unto God with my voice and he gave ear unto me Who would think that this Man refused to be comforted Did he not pray for Confolation Yet he saith My Soul refused to be comforted I remembred God and was troubled I complained and my Spirit was overwhelmed There is a peevishness of Unbelief that Christians should watch against Exhort 4. You must take care to guide this helping grace of God when you have receaved it Guiding of grace is an Art and Mystery that Christians should study diligently The rule of this Art is this Guide the grace of God receaved by you for those ends for which it is given by him Now what ends hath the Lord in giving of his grace They are only two 1. For the Praise and Glory of the Giver 2. For the Benefit of the Receavers Guide his Grace for those ends and you guide and use it well Christians have little of his Grace and complain sorrowfully not because he gives and they receave little but because they guide and manage this richest Talent poorly Dare any Believer forbear to say if I had kept all I had got and guided well all he hath given I had been far richer in Grace than now I am Misguiding of Grace receaved is the greatest Sin because an abuse of the greatest Blessing Watch against it if you love his Glory and your own Weal I come now to the forth and last thing in the Verse about this Grace of God and that is the Seasonableness of its Help It helps always but especially in time of need On this I shall now only note some few things in general Obs 1. Whatever Believers present Case be a time of need may come And they should foresee it Though they know not particular Circumstances yet they should lay their account with it The Lord gives faithful Warnings in the Word Faith should take them We see the times of need that many others come in and we should take warning by their Experience Every Christian hath found times of special need formerly the like may
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
in him It is grounded on Jesus Christ as we shall hear further It is a great mistake in Christians to think that they cannot come to the throne of grace with Boldness because of the many Infirmities in their Hearts and in their Addresses Your complaint may be just and true but the Inference is not good Do you never in your counting your Infirmities put in this great one amongst them in your Confessions the want of Boldness of Faith For this Boldness stands not in any thing in us and done by us We must not come boldly because we can pray well and plead hard we must not think to be heard in Heaven neither because of our much speaking nor well speaking Matth. 6.7 as the Pharisees did The boldness of Faith hath a higher and more noble and firm Foundation even Jesus Christ I shall conclude this Discourse with these three Acts of this allowed and commanded Boldness of Faith 1. Believe firmly that the Throne of Grace is erected for poor empty sinful Creatures just such as you be As Paul saith of the Law 1 Tim. 1.9 It is not made for a righteous man but for the lawless and disobedient so may we say of the throne of grace it is not made framed and revealed for the holy and happy but for miserable Creatures that want Mercy and sinful helpless Creatures that want Grace By what is dispensed here we may know for whom and for what sort of Folks it was design'd and erected 2. Believe firmly that coming to the Throne of Grace by you is allowed and commanded by the Lord. Say confidently while I am coming to the throne of grace for Mercy and Grace I am in the Work that the Lord would have me to be in Take in all Discoveries you have made unto you or that you can find out by searching of the Weakness and Infirmities that are in your way of addressing to it own them humbly but maintain this stedfastly that though you cannot do as you would as others do nor as you are bid that yet you are doing what ye are bid They are called Luke 14.21 Who are the poor and the maimed and the halt and the blind See a Promise looking that way Jer. 31.8.9 Now may not the halt and maimed be confident that they are coming when called although they cannot go so fast and straight as others do Every Believer walks in the steps of the Faith of Abraham Rom. 4.12 though not his Pace When you draw near to the throne of grace assure your Hearts you are in your Duty though many do it better than you do 3. Believe firmly that upon coming you shall speed This is coming with the boldness of Faith We should not come with a may be the Lord will be gracious It 's true that in some particulars not absolutely promised nor simply needful to Salvation this may be is all we can have or should seek But in addressing for Saving Mercy and Grace people should come expecting Success It had been a cold Word if it had been said Let us come to the Throne of Grace it may be we shall obtain Mercy and find Grace No the Apostle speaks in another Dialect Let us come that we may obtain Never doubt of obtaining if you come I say not that the confidence of good Entertainment at this Throne is common to all comers to it But only that it is the Duty of all that come for God's Mercy and Grace in Jesus Christ to perswade their Hearts that they shall obtain and find it and good grounds there are for it as we shall hear How is it with you Christians you often come to this Throne What are the Thoughts of your Hearts as to the issue of your Addresses It may be you think it is well if you can reach so far as this It may be the Lord will receave and welcome me and therefore I will try Though there is often Faith lurking under such doubtings and though a may be should stir up Men to come yet this is far from the boldness of Faith which glorifies this Throne and him that sitteth on it and which is so becoming and profitable to all that approach it See how an Old Testament-Saint speaks Job 23.3,6 O that I knew where I might find him that I might come even to his Seat that is this Throne I would order my cause before him and fill my mouth with Arguments But cannot God easily stop this Man's Mouth and bring Arguments against Job that he could not answer Yes surely he can but he will not Will he plead against me with his great power No but he will put strength in me He that I plead with will help me to plead and prevail Few Christians know how much Glory is given to God by an enlarged Heart filled with believing expectations of good from him and how a Heart thus enlarged by Faith is fitted and disposed for receaving a large Blessing We easily conceave how sharp Hunger and Thirst strong Desires deep sense of Need and mighty Pleadings and Importunity do prepare the way for great Receavings but we little think how much force is in the bare-like Argument of Faith Psal 16.1 Preserve me O God for in thee do I put my trust Psal 33.22 Let thy merey O Lord be upon us according as we hope in thee Psal 57.1 Be merciful unto me O God be merciful unto me for my Soul trusteth in thee There is a mighty force in such Pleadings of Faith I know no help but in and with thee I expect it from thee and therefore beg it of thee Faith in a Believer never rose so high but the Lord 's gracious Answer went higher Eph. 3.20 Look well to your Faith Believers raise it high use it well and plead by it and plead upon it Blessed Jesus will never cast that Soul into Hell that cannot forbear to entertain in his Heart an expectation of eternal Life from him in the Virtue of his precious Blood and on the Warrant of his gracious Promise He that believeth on him shall never be confounded Never was any neither shall you if you believe It was a great Word of Faith spoke by a dying Man who had been converted in a singular way betwixt his Condemnation and Execution of whom Mr. Fleming speaks in the Fulfilling of the Scriptures his last Words were these spoke with a mighty shout Never Man perished with his Face towards sweet Christ Jesus SERMON IV. 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 IT is one of the Names given to the Godly in the Word that they are the Generation of them that seek the Lord that seek his Face Psal 24.6 And they must be bold and arrogant Pretendâ—…ers to this Name that are guilty of the utter neglect of this Duty Since it is a Duty of so great importance it is needful to know how
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
is saving it comes from the Heart and Love of God Eph. 2.4 and is treasured up for and laid out only upon his chosen It is the favour he bears to his people Psal 106.4 Common mercies are thrown about with a large and indifferent hand He maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust Matth. 5.45 Now these two sorts of mercies are as far different as Heaven and Earth The excellency of the one is far beyond that of the other though we be unworthy of either I am less than the least of all thy mercies said a great Saint Gen. 32.10 And so should all say But few do perceave this great difference and many give the preference to common outward mercy Who but a Christian doth count it a greater mercy to have the Conscience sprinkled with the Blood of Jesus than to have a large and prosperous Estate in the World That the light of God's Countenance and an hour spent in his Courts when the King's presence is in them is better than all the Enjoyments of this World Moses was a Man that obtained singular mercy from the Lord it appeared in this that he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt Heb. 11.26 He had excellent Balances and true Weights He put in the one Scale Egypt's Honours Treasures and Pleasures and how weighty are such things in the Worldlings Balances and in the other the reproach of Christ and affliction with the people of God His Judgment on this weighing is That this Reproach because of Christ's concern in it and this Affliction because it is of and with God's people is better than all the other things The true Test of Mens Spirit is justly taken from their setled inward Apprehension of the worth and value of spiritual saving mercy above all outward mercy Psal 4.6,7 There be many that say Who will shew us any good Most Men are for any good they know not well what and from any hand that can show it and give it But David knew what good he would have and who could show it Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us Why is he so earnest for this Blessing Thou hast put gladness in my heart Carnal Men seek Gladness and make it and take it to themselves as well as they can But Gladness of God's putting in their Heart they know not more than in the time that their corn and their wine encreased David doth not here compare though he doth discover the holiness of his Heart with the earthliness of that of others he compares not the tenderness of his Conversation with theirs But he compares the Joy God gave him by the Light of his Countenance not with the Joy he had but with that the Ungodly have in their sensual Satisfactions Try your selves by this Where is your Esteem lodged What sort of things are they that relish with your Spirits Common outward Mercies carry away the Hearts of the most part of Men and this shews that few Men have obtained special mercy 2. He that hath obtained special mercy hath a love to it and to the Giver of it and to the way God gives it and in which he receaves it He that is a lover of God's mercy in Christ is an Obtainer of it A natural Man may have a liking of God's mercy in general But mercy as from God through Jesus Christ mercy shown on the account of a full Satisfaction made to Justice in and by his Blood mercy given freely to glorious Ends and Purposes every natural Man seeth no Glory no Goodness no Beauty in it But every Obtainer of it doth admire every thing in it It is rich mercy saith he it flows from a blessed Fountain Free-love runs in a blessed Channel the Redemption of Jesus comes to me in a well-ordered Covenant and was shown me for his Praise in my Salvation from sin and misery 3. An Obtainer of mercy is a daily Beggar for more mercy Whenever God's special mercy is tasted hunger and thirst after more is raised No sooner did Paul obtain mercy but behold he prays Acts 9.11 There is more of mercy yet to be had mercy quickens the Soul's Desires and enlargeth them The greatest Receivers are the greatest Beggars 1 Pet. 2.2,3 Desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious This Mark is plain and will never fail They that drive not a Trade of Prayer for special mercy have not yet obtained it 4. An Obtainer of mercy from the Lord is a shower of mercy to others He is a merciful Man to others Matth. 5.7 Col. 3.12,13 Put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindness c. forbearing forgiving as Christ forgave you And Eph. 4.32 even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you How unbecoming it is that such should have Bowels of Brass on whom God's Bowels of mercy have been poured out This is a Mark that will never fail but in a high fit of Temptation All that have obtained God's mercy will be disposed to shew their mercy Forgiving one another is an easie thing it costs nothing but to think a kind thought Yet how hard is this to many through the power of Corruption There are some acts of mercy as Bounty and Charity that poor Christians have no ability for But the principal Act of mercy is in every Christians Power and that is mercy to Mens Souls We cannot give them that mercy we have obtained but we can and should wish the like to them Never did a Man obtain mercy from the Lord for himself but he wisheth that others should partake of it also The Woman of Samaria John 4. of whose Conversion we have the largest account of any Convert in the Bible as soon as she obtained mercy she forgot what she came to the Well for she had got somewhat better than the Water of Jacob's Well she met with Jacob's God and had got Jacob's Blessing she goes to the City and turns a sort of a Preacher to them Come see a man that told me all things that ever I did Is not this the Christ ver 29. She obtained mercy and would have all the City come and get mercy also And a great many came and obtained mercy Christ caught that Woman by his Grace and made her as a Bait to catch many more No Believer can deny his sense of such a Frame as this There are some Persons thou dost love and shouldst love thou prayest for them What dost thou mainly ask for Wife Children Brothers Sisters and all or any thou lovest heartily Is it not O that they might share in God's saving mercy If thou ask it for others as the greatest mercy thou thy self art an Obtainer of mercy Paul obtained mercy He loved his Countrymen the Jews dearly and on good grounds Rom.
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
glorified Saints from Heaven in his Company then it s good to be here say they not minding that which was more needful for them and all the Church and if they heard as is most likely the Discourse of Moses and Elias concerning the Decease of our Lord which he should accomplish at Jerusalem Luke 9 30,31 they were the more faulty It is very hard to be truly desirous of Heaven when we have much of Heaven on Earth yet it may be attained and Grace can help to it Of which in the last place 5. The Grace of God as it is needed so is it useful and helpful to Believers under special Enjoyments 1. Grace can humble the Soul under them and by them Though Satan make them Temptations to Pride the Lord can sanctifie them to be means of humbling Great Comforts do not natively tend to humble us but all discoveries of the Glory of God are humbling Isaiah found it so Isa 6.5 Wo is me for I am undone for mine Eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts The Vision was great and glorious it was a sight of God in Christ as John 12.41 These things said Esaias when he saw his glory and spake of him We would be apt to think the Prophet should rather have said Happy am I that I have seen now what I never saw before what few if any besides me have seen But such was the Impression the Spirit of God made on the Heart of this Man that this extraordinary Manifestation of God affects him with more deep self-abasement than ever he had before Happy is the Man that lies still the more low in himself and before God the more highly the Lord exalts him Job found this fruit of a clearer discovery of God chap. 42.5,6 Jacob in Gen. 32.30 Called the name of the place Penuel for I have seen God face to face and my life is preserved This place where he wrestled all night with the Lord where the Lord blessed him in the morning this place he calls Penuet to be the name of it to him and his Seed that whenever they saw the place or heard of it they might remember that there the great God and a poor Man met in great familiarity and the Man was not consumed Jacob wonders that his Life was preserved in such a meeting Near Approaches of God to his Children are sometimes too hard for them to bear This made one eminent Saint cry out under such a high Enjoyment O Lord destroy me not with thy Glory and another Hold thy hand O Lord thy servant is a clay Vessel and can bear no more And both these were Persons not oppressed by his Wrath but overcharged with his Love and Glory 2. Grace can help to record and remember special Enjoyment There are some spiritual Enjoyments of God that are like Lightening that dart from the one end of Heaven to the other that make a dark night to become like the Morning they come quickly and they are quickly gone they are of speedy Access and of as sudden a Recess But though they be but short in their continuance their fruit may remain And one way for making their fruit continue is to remember and record them I will remember the Years the Works the Wonders of the Lord. Psal 77.10,11,12 I will meditate I will talk of them saith the Saint Thus David prays for Israel 1 Chron. 29.18 Keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the Heart of thy people What was this he prayed for Israel's remembring of and for the Lord 's keeping in their minds It was that they might remember with what joy they made their willing Offerings for the Service of God We have a gracious Promise of Christ John 14.26 The Holy Ghost shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you And this Promise we should plead for bringing to our remembrance the things Christ hath done for us as well as for what he hath said to us And no Man can imagine but they that feel it how one of these Remembrances will fortifie the Soul in a day of distress Spiritual things are so unlike to carnal things that all comparisons betwixt them must needs halt greatly That a poor hungry starving Man should in a Dungeon or desolate Wilderness be refreshed and made strong by the bare remembrance of a Feast he had seven years ago this is impossible in nature But in spiritual things it is otherwise The savoury remembrance of a spiritual Enjoyment long since past can bring back the taste and power and virtue of it to the Soul that wants it Believers are usually upon their recovery from a sad disconsolate State when they are exercised in remembring with Savour their former Enjoyments Thus saith Returning Israel Hos 2.7 I will go and return to my first Husband for then it was better with me than now 3. Grace can help to improve Enjoyments to desires of and endeavours after Perfection We must not say when it is well with us it is good to be here but rather it is good to be there where it will be a great deal better Phil. 3.13 This one thing I do it must be a great thing doubtless that is Paul's one thing Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark c. There is a forgetting that is our Duty and a remembring that is our Duty also To remember so as to support our Faith and feed our praising of the Lord that is Duty but to forget Attainments so as to press after the mark that is another Duty Alas we are bad both at right remembring and right forgetting You and I think that if we had but a little of what Paul had in one day if we had but a little of what he had that night he lay in the Stocks when he prayed and sang praises unto God Acts 16.25 we could never have forgotten it as long as we had a day to live But Paul could forget all in his ardent desires of Perfection And so must you and this Grace can teach you These special Enjoyments of God are but rarely felt Dote not on them neither despise them mock not such as know them in their Experience though ye do not If you be sound Believers ye may live in your Souls and live to his Praise without enjoying any thing very extraordinary But if the Lord grant singular Communications of himself know that it is a season of special need of Grace to guide them well They would return more frequently and would rise and spring higher and last longer if they were better improved The greater the Blessing be the more provoking is the abuse of it The greater the Blessing be the greater is the difficulty of guiding it well And the more difficulty be in our Work the more is our need of the Grace of God and the more frequent and