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
all in the Gospel It s true that the Lord means and designs it to some particular persons but that design is secret and utterly unknown to all till the promise it self be apprehended by Faith or finally rejected by unbelief See Jer. 38.7,14 Ebed-mclech let down a Rope to draw Jeremiah out of the dungeon by The cords could never have pulled him up unless the Prophet had put them under him and unless his friend had drawn him up He did so and ventures on this mean of escape He ventures on the strength of the cold and on the trustiness of his friend if either of them had failed him he might have fallen down and broke his neck or stuck still in the mire and starved in the Pit The case is so here The promise of Salvation is a great security but it is so only to them that cast themselves on it and trust to it Whoever will trust Gods promise in Christ will find that it is able to bear all their weight if it were never so great Therefore lay this warm promise to thy cold heart and by the Lords blessing life and warmth will come in Try the strength of the promise by casting all thy burden on it and it will never sink under thee nor thou perish by its failing Christians think that the promises of God are a blessed Charter and so indeed they are but few mind the promises as Gods tendered and offered security to men whereby as means he works faith in his chosen and by the offer of them to all in the Gospel leaves unbelievers unexcusable Sinners perish under the Gospel not because there is no cord of salvation cast out to them but because they either love the pit they are in or cannot trust Gods faithful promise of salvation by Christ for their delivery So much of the first thing the proving that all ought to come to the Throne of Grace or to God in Christ sitting on it God is not otherwise approachable universal need of this Throne and of the blessings given at it an universal call and command of God to come an universal promise to all that do come all prove that all men should come 2. But though it be the Duty of all to come yet but few do come we would therefore see who they he that will come to the Throne of Grace Of such we have two words 1. Such as are given of the Father to the Son all they and they only will come to this Throne of Grace All that the Father giveth to me shall come to me saith Christ John 6.37 Ye believe not because ye are not of my sheep John 10.26 The high spring of all the effectual calling and coming of men to Christ is this they that are ordained to eternal life believe and none but they It would be very unfit that the Book of Life should be opened to and read by any preacher of the Gospel I think not that ever any Apostle had it opened to them with respect to others So that they should be able when looking on the multitude they preached to to say these are appointed for Eternal Life and these past by But they being happily in the dark as to this secret purpose of God did offer salvation through Jesus Christ to all that heard them So Paul Acts 13.38,39,40 Be it known unto you men and Brethren that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the Law of Moses Having told them this good news he ver 40.41 warns them Beware therefore lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the Prophets Behold ye despisers and wonder and perish after his repeated pains on them it s said ver 48. As many as were ordained to eternal life believed It was a severe application of this word that a very worthy Divine made of it that all the elect of God in this place were gathered in by Faul's ministry in it at this time The grace of election is the spring of Faith 2 Thes 2.13 1 Pet. 1.2 But this grace of Election is not seen but in the gift and light of faith 2. All such and only they will come to the throne of grace that are drawn by the Father John 6.44,45 No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day It is written in the Prophets And they shall be all taught of God Every man therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me Observe here the two Universals No man can come unless drawn every man that is drawn doth come The first decries the power of Nature the latter advanceth the power of God's grace The utter Impotence of Nature and Omnipotence of grace in the business of Mans Salvation are stumbling blocks to all the ungodly but are foundations in Christian Doctrine The one lays Man in the dust the other raiseth him on a new bottom of the grace of God When God hath a mind to draw a sinner to Christ and to make him a Believer on him to Salvation He teacheth him secretly and by a strong hand He whispers into his Heart the excellency of the Saviour and greatness of his Salvation so that surely the perishing sinner comes to Christ and as surely is welcomed and saved by him 3. But who shall be welcome Surely all that come shall be welcome as the word every-where winesseth and all that ever tryed it have found and testifie it by their experience For as the Son refused none that were given him of the Father in their eternal Counsel but took every one of them as his charge to redeem them so all they and only they being drawn by the Father and made willing to come to Christ are made welcome by him John 6.37 He knows his sheep when wandering on the Mountains John 10.16,27.28 and accordingly receives them when the Father drives home the lost Sheep to their great Shepherd Christ knows them before he opens the fold to them and because he knows them he lets them in that they may find pasture and feed on him and his grace to Eternal Life But there are some that are specially welcome to Christ and speed well at this throne of grace As. 1. They that come when they can do nothing else they that come to the Throne of grace as their last shift We know not what to do but our eyes are upon thee said Jehoshaphat 2 Chron. 20.12 Sincerest believing and strongest believing is acted when a man hath no prop at all to lean upon but God alone Believing is called fleing We have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us Heb. 6.18 Now who flees Only he that can stand no longer that is not able to deal with his Adversary and Danger that hath no hope of prevailing by his strength and
sense of his own great misery at least at sometimes 2 To come for mercy in Faith is to believe the Fitness and Sutableness of God's mercy to our misery Here many stumble wofully Their Question is Am I fit for mercy when it should rather be Is his mercy fit for me And this Question every sensible Soul can answer the other none in Heaven or Earth can answer If any man think himself fit for mercy of all men that man is most unfit for it and farthest from receaving of it But every sensible Soul will say Though I be unfit for and unworthy of mercy yet mercy is very fit for me Is there pardoning mercy with God who is it so fit for as a guilty vile sinner Is there saving mercy with him Who is it so fit for as for a lost man as I am Come to the Throne of Grace for mercy in Faith of this mercy is fit for me exactly though I be utterly unworthy of it They that think they are fit for mercy will never get it nor indeed can ask it But they that think they are needy of it and that it is fit for them will both ask it and get it 3. To come to the Throne of Grace in Faith for mercy is to believe that there is all good will in him that sits on this Throne to give and shew mercy It is implyed in the Text Let us come to obtain mercy But what if when we come he will not shew mercy That is an ungodly Supposition mischievous to our selves and reflecting upon God He hath mercy in abundance to give he delights in giving he never refused mercy to any that came for it he hath promised he never will and why should men harbour such a suspicion that we may come and not obtain Benhadad could adventure on a report that the Kings of Israel were merciful Kings and yet Ahab was one of the worst of them 1 Kings 20.31 And shall not sinners come upon a more sure Report of the mercifulness of the King on this Throne of Grace It is on this Truth of the Lord 's good will to shew mercy that our Faith so readily halts Many think they ought not to believe this good will to shew mercy I would have you consider some instances of Christ's dealing with Sinners John 4.10 Jesus answered and said unto her If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee Give me to drink thou wouldest have asked of him and he would have given thee living water Where we are to regard 1. To whom these Words were spoke by our Lord to a Samaritan a vile Creature as to the former course of her life a blind ignorant sottish Sinner that was guilty of refusing Christ a Cup of Water the greatest Sin she ever committed in her Life 2. What our Lord saith to her If thou knewest me thou wouldest have asked if thou hadst asked I would have given thee living Water And before he had done he made her know him made her ask and gave her of his living Water But that I mainly observe from the Word of Christ is a Truth which few will believe when they hear it even few Believers themselves will believe it as they ought That Christ is more ready to give begging Sinners eternal Life than they can be to give Christ himself a Cup of cold Water Our Lord saith it but men will not believe it Another of Christ's Words is in Luke 11.13 If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him Christ makes the comparison favourably ver 11 12. Of a Child's asking Necessaries will a Parent refuse that desire and give what is hurtful But consider our Lord's design in this saying It is plainly to encourage to seeking and the Argument he useth is from the greater Love and readiness in God to give the best things than earthly Parents have to give their Children the Necessaries of this life The preference is not here given to God's greater Riches and fulness than that of parents who may have their Children beg of them what they have not to give as in Lam. 4.4 But it is a preference given to God's greater willingness to give Now who believes this and makes the just Application to their own Case and say confidently The Lord is much more willing to give me saving mercy if I ask it than I am to give a bit of bread to maintain the life of the nearest and dearest Relation I have in the World Appl. I shall only add a few Words of Application 1. There is no principle of natural Religion engraven more deeply on the Hearts of men than that there is misery in men and mercy in God and that God's mercy only can relieve men under this misery This runs through the whole World in all Ages and will continue as long as sense of misery is in men and any Notions of God are preserved in the minds of men And these Sentiments are not to be defaced Attempts of Atheists are damnable to themselves but vain Efforts against the Rock of Ages 2. Notwithstanding of this God's true mercy in Jesus Christ is the greatest Riddle Offence and Stumbling-block to all natural men God's mercy they like well enough and would have applied to their own relief under misery But God's only and true mercy in Christ they cannot away with That there is no mercy with God for Sinners but what flows through the Blood of Jesus Christ That God's Love should appear in sending his own Son under the charge of mens Sin and under the smart and feeling of their miseries That as God shews mercy only this way so men that would have it must only seek it this way the World never did never can never will understand nor relish it nor betake themselves to it They would have mercy to come to them another way and so seek it and look for it in vain and perish by the miss of it 3. There is no Address made to God more honourable to God more acceptable to him and more becoming a miserable Sinner than an Address to God for his mercy It is his Glory to be the Sovereign Lord of mercy it is his Honour to be attended with the Addresses of miserable men it is his delight to dispense mercy to the Addressors What is more becoming God than to shew mercy and what can be more fit than that a miserable Sinner should beg his mercy 4. There is no Provocation more common than sinful ways of begging God's mercy I shall briefly instance in a few Many profane careless Creatures have this Word frequently in their mouths God be merciful to me who yet have no more sense either of God or of themselves of his mercy or of their misery than the Ground they go on This is a gross taking of God's Name in vain Undue Addresses to God
need and none can stand with Peace before that Throne but they that have been acquainted with this Throne of Grace in my Text. Christ on the Throne of Grace and Christ on the Judgment-seat is the same Christ Christ in the Gospel and Christ on the Clouds is the same Christ Yet we must distinguish Christ on the Throne of Grace is no Judge and Christ on the Judgment-Seat hath no Grace to dispense Now is his time of dispensing Grace then will be the day of his punishing the Despisers of Grace and of giving the Crown of Glory to the Receavers of his Grace In the last place I would give a few Directions unto real Christians in order to your providing of Grace to help in time of need 1. Lay the Foundation sure a time of need will try it 1 Cor. 3.11 Other Foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ The Father hath laid Christ for a Foundation Isa 28.16 Therefore thus saith the Lord God behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone a tried stone a precious corner-stone a sure foundation He that believeth shall not make haste Applyed to Christ 1 Pet. 2.6 The faithful Ministers of the Gospel lay Christ for a Foundation 1 Cor. 3.10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise Master-builder I have laid the foundation But how can a poor Sinner lay Christ for a Foundation to himself Turn but the Words and the Question is answered Thy laying of Christ for a Foundation is thy laying thy self upon Christ as a Foundation and it is neither more nor less nor any thing else Cast your selves and all your Concerns about Salvation on Christ alone Let him bear all He only can and calls for this from you One of the first Questions that riseth in the mind of a Christian in a time of need is this Is the Foundation right laid Am I founded on Christ The Storm will try the Foundation It were great wisdom to secure that before the Storm come 2. Clear up your Evidences against a time of need The Evidences of a Christian are not his Charters for Heaven the Covenant of Grace contains them but they are as Light by which a Christian reads his Charters Evidences are of great use in a time of need They stand in Gods Work in us Our Faith stands on God's word of Promise to us and on Christ's Work for us the Evidences of Believers stand in God's gracious working in and on and by them These four Words I would give about your Evidence 1. When you cannot perceave them search for them 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your selves whether you be in the Faith prove your own selves know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except you be reprobates or disapproved The Exhortation is so delivered as to perswade us that very narrow and exact searching is called for in this Work May not that Christian's Heart condemn him who is daily complaining of his Ignorance of his State when he knows that serious self-examination is neglected by him 2. If upon searching you cannot yet find beg the help of the Spirit of God to discover his own work in you 1 Cor. 2.12 Now we have receaved not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God The Illumination of the Holy Ghost is not only simply needful to give us a saving knowledge of the Mystery of the Gospel but is so also to give us a right knowledge of the my story of his Grace in us Eph. 1.17,18,19 where the Apostle prays for the Spirit for both these ends David prays for the Lord's help in his examining of himself Psal 139,23,24 A Heart laid open to God's search a Heart willing to have all in it viewed and discovered by the Lord is an upright sincere Heart Whoever is willing to know his worst is not stark naught Yet he that seeth but the least half of his badness will judge himself to be very bad 3. If you cannot yet find your Evidences make them presently Many Christians need this advice They formerly had Evidences of their Interest in Christ they had a clear fight of the Truth and Fruits of their Faith and Love and Repentance this refreshing Sight is gone and they mourn as without the Sun as Job speaks chap 30.28 Let such take this course Act afresh that Grace when you are doubtful whether you ever acted it before See you at present no clear Evidences of your former believing Act Faith presently There are few things more evident than strong believing is in the very acting of it And if the acting of Faith on Jesus Christ as speaking in righteousness and mighty to saue Isa 63.1 be evident to thee thou hast the best Evidence for eternal Life that is in all the Bible Most of the Promises run this way Whoever believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life John 3.15,16,17 It is the gracious and wise Constitution of the Lord that no Grace can be ordinarily evident to a Man in whom it is so as in and by the exercise and acting of it 4. When you find Evidences of God's Work in you Bless the Worker and Discoverer of them and believe more and more Say with David Psal 71.14 I will hope continually and will yet praise thee more and more It is just with God and merciful too that darkness should come upon that Man's Evidences who sits down upon them and blesseth himself in them more than he doth God for them and pleaseth himself in a life of Sense with neglecting the life of Faith 3. Make good use of your former Experiences of the Mercy and Grace of God helping you in former times of need The Lord's kindness is not shown to us for the present time only but for the time to come It is not given to us to play or please our selves with at present but for good and needful uses for strengthening of our Faith exciting of Praise and directing and encouraging us to come to the same Door we were formerly relieved at It is a part of the work of Faith to look back on formerly-bestowed Mercy and Grace as well as to look forward to the greater and better things to come It is a great Sin but very common that a Believer who hath many Years Experience of the Mercy of God if there be a stop put to the Stream of Mercy he is often as much shaken in his Faith as if he had never tasted that the Lord is gracious 4. In preparing for a time of need be careful to keep your Conscience's clean There is no worse Company in an evil day than an evil Conscience It is worse Company than the Devil 's His Company is that of a Tempter and Accuser but an evil Conscience is a Judge condemning and an Executioner tormenting a Man Therefore herein exercise your selves
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
breeds Contempt Condescensions from Superiours oft make Inferiours forget their place The Lord deals so graciously with his People hears their Prayers readily stoops low to them in his Love and Pity that unless they watch and keep a Guard on their Spirits they may soon fall into the Sin of being too saucy and peremptory with God The first Prayer in the Bible made by the greatest Believer in the World Abraham is upon a most condescending appearance of God to him The Son of God in humane shape becomes Abraham's Guest at Meat Gen. 18. Some think that Christ respects this appearance in John 8.56 Your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my day and he saw it and was glad He gives him the last Promise of a Son with a determination of the precise time of its accomplishment ver 10. He deals with him as a Friend and so Abraham is called 2 Chron. 20.7 Isa 41.8 and Jam. 2.23 But all Believers are called Friends by Christ John 15.14,15 and after a great Commendation of Abraham the Lord tells him his purpose of wrath against Sodom ver 17. to ver 22. The Angels are sent to execute the Vengeance and Abraham stands before the Lord to plead for Mercy With what Boldness and Reverence doth he plead The more the Lord stoops in condescending to his Petitions the more low doth Abraham lye before him He neither forgot the Lord's Majesty nor his own Meanness and expresseth again and again a holy Fear of offending by his renewed Suits ver 27 30 31 32. I would have you considering this Instance of Prayer because it is the first recorded in the Word and because it was excellently managed by the Father of the Faithful So Gideon prays in Judg. 6.39 And Gideon said unto God Let not thine anger be hot against me and will speak but this once I am afraid that many sincere Christians are guilty of this Peremptoriness The Lord hath been so condescending to them that they become too peremptory about some Particulars Beware of it and see how the Lord hath dealt with his People and the best of them Psal 99.6,7,8 See Moses's Lot in this Matter He had often sought of God and prevailed Psal 106.23 Therefore the Lord said that he would destroy them had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the Breach to turn away his Wrath lest he should destroy them A Man to whom God spake Face to Face a Man to whom God spake so amazing Words Let me alone that my Wrath may wax hot against them Exod. 32.10 and Numb 14.20 I have pardoned according to thy word Yet even this Moses in a small matter for Life to cross Jordan and to see the promised Land hath this Answer Deut. 3.26 Let it suffice thee speak no more unto me of this matter Samuel is check'd also in a small matter that had prevailed for far greater 1 Sam. 16.1 How long wilt thou mourn for Saul seeing I have rejected him A Case may be such that though Moses and Samuel stood before the Lord they should not prevail Jer. 15.1 It is the only Priviledge of Jesus Christ to be always heard John 11.42 Yet he in his Agony pray'd so as to teach us to beware of this sinful Boldness Matth. 26.39 If it be possible let this Cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt Believers must remember that in all Cases they must deal humbly and in some Cases they must take Denyals Patiently 3. There is the boldness of presumption Presumption is like Faith in appearance but in reality it is very unlike it Presumption works this way the Presumer may have the mercy in his eye but he hath no promise in his eye Take heed to this If there be strong desires after a mercy and that mercy not pleaded for as in the promise there is a spice of presumption in that pleading The reason why Believers ask so great things of God is because God hath promised so great things to them 2 Sam. 7.27 Hence it is that presumption acts ordinarily in pleading with God not for the main spiritual blessings but for some outward mercy that their hearts may be too much set upon It is about such that Believers should watch against this presumptuous boldness But if the pleading at the Throne of Grace be about Salvation and spiritual Blessings the difference betwixt Faith and Presumption appears in this Presumption can never plead with God neither in deep distress nor in the view of sin But it is the excellent property of Faith that it can plead with God in both cases Psal 65.3 Iniquities prevail against me but as for our transgressions thou shalt purge them away Spoken like a Believer and Psal 130.3,4 If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquities O Lord who shall stand But can David stand Yes and he stands on this ground But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared There is just cause to suspect that there is presumption in that Mans heart when his Boldness is only kept up when sin is out of sight and disappears A Believer believes most humbly and often most strongly when his Sinfulness and Unworthiness is best seen For true Boldness of Faith is not supported by any good and worth in us but by what is in Christ The boldness of Faith cannot be entertained with regarding of iniquity in the heart Psal 66.18 1 John 3.20 Yet it can with the being and seeing of Iniquity in both heart and life Rom. 7.24,25 1 Tim. 1.15 But of this furder from the next head of the Boldness of Faith I now touch it only as it differs from the presumptuous Boldness that is allowed to none Again Faith can stand under that distress that breaks the back of Presumption Job 13.15,16 Though he slay me yet will I trust in him but I will maintain mine own ways before him He also shall be my Salvation for an Hypocrite shall not come before him He hath taken away my Children all at once my Estate in one day hath taken away my health and made me miserable to a Proverb in all Ages although he should proceed and slay me with his own hand my slayer is my Saviour my death shall be my Salvation Great words and hard to be spoken in the day of heavy tryal God slaying Job is Job's Salvation God slays Job trusts and maintains his confidence under the stroke No Hypocrite can do this and many Believers do but bungle at the doing of it There is an extremity a coming on every man that will try and discover what mettle there is in his Faith Prepare for it What then is the Boldness allowed in coming to the throne of grace It must not be an ignorant peremptory or presumptuous boldness What must it then be Answ It is only the Boldness of Faith Eph. 3.12 Heb. 10.19 The Boldness of Faith hath this in general in it that it is grounded and bottomed on somewhat without a man and on nothing
in the Promises There is more of Grace in the Promise than there can be of Sin and Misery in the Man that pleads it Take heed how you compare your Necessities with the fulness of the Promises Nothing you can need but a Supply is promised Study your Hearts and God's Covenant and you will quickly find it to be so We may ask any thing for God hath promised every thing Psal 84.11 2. The Freeness of the Promises gives Boldness at the Throne of Grace That they are Promises of a Covenant of Grace proves they must be free A free Promise is a Bond given meerly from the Heart and proper motion of the Promiser without any motion or motive from the Party to whom it is made except it be that of his Misery that Grace works on If the Promises were not purely free to us there could be no Boldness in pleading of them See how the Shunamite pleads with the Prophet Elisha 2 Kings 4.28 Did I desire a Son of my Lord Did I not say do not deceave me As if she had said It was not at my desire but of thine own motion thou didst promise me a Son and I did not fully believe it at first but now the Son promised is dead So may the Believer plead Lord I did not ask of thee a promise of Grace and Glory I was sinfully contented in and with my natural lost Estate and thou didst call me and quicken me with thy Promise wilt thou not make out thy Promise The freeness of the Promise is the firmest Foundation of Boldness in pleading its performance No other Promises but free ones are in the Covenant of Grace and no other pleading of them but as free is allowed to them that come to the Throne of Grace If thou be for Merit and Worth in thy self go elsewhere there is no place for such proud rich Folks at this Court 3. The Sureness of the Promises of the Covenant of Grace is another ground of Boldness at the Throne of Grace They are the sure Mercies of David Isa 55.3 Sure because of grace Rom. 4.16 Therefore it the Promise or the Inheritance promised is of Faith that it might be by Grace to the end the promise might be sure to all the Seed A promise is made for Faith would ever God or Man promise but to be believed Faith is given for and acts on the Promise believing without a Promise is dreaming A Promise made by the God of all Grace 1 Pet. 5.10 to Sinners void of all Grace to give all Grace to them must be a Promise of Grace the Believer of this Promise must and can have nothing in his Eye but the Grace of the Promiser Now saith Paul it is this Grace of the Promise and Promiser that makes the Blessing promised sure to all the Seed Again the Promises of God are sure because they are his Heb. 6.17,18 Promises sworn for putting an end to the strife of Unbelief Balaam was a bad Man and therefore called a mad Prophet 2 Pet. 2.16 Yet by the over-ruling Spirit of God upon him spoke truly and highly Numb 23.19 Godâ— is not a man that he should lie neither the Son of man that he should repent Hath he said and shall he not do it or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good All God's Promises are sure because they are his Promises that cannot lie And they are yet further confirmed of God in Christ Gal. 3.17 So that the Believer in his pleading of God's Promises may lay down this Conclusion I want indeed great and many Blessings but I want nothing I ask nothing but what he hath promised who cannot lie and what is confirmed in Jesus Christ the Amen the true and faithful Witness Believers fail greatly in their neglect to quicken and strengthen their Faith by taking up the Promises in their full extent Fulness Freeness and Certainty It is always found that Faith is weak when the Promises are mean in our Eyes But if the Promise appear and shine in its Glory as God's faithful Word then Faith is aloft and acts strongly Hence it is that all strong believing gives Glory to the Promiser Rom. 4.20 and weak Faith reflects on him Psal 77.9 Hath God forgotten to be gracious doth his promise fail for evermore Alas it was the good Man's Infirmity to say and think so ver 10. but from his arguing I observe that where Faith is feeble a Man thinks the Promise fails as a giddy Man thinks the Rock he stands on shakes and reels when all the shaking is in his Head or Legs and when he thinks the Promise fails he thinks the Promiser is chang'd from what he was when he made it And it borders on Blasphemy to rob God by our Unbelief of his glorious Attribute of Vnchangeableness If you have a mind to believe keep still the Promise in your Eye if you would believe strongly view the Promise narrowly and steddily The Promise is both the Father and Mother of Faith it both begets Faith and feeds it Your first believing is from the power of the Promise and the continued and growing life of Faith is by sucking and drawing Nourishment from the Breasts of the Promise 5. Another ground of the boldness of Believers in their Approaches to the throne of grace is Their Priviledges that they are possessed of So the Apostle argues Heb. 10.19,20,21 to drawing near with full assurance of Faith ver 22. Some of those I shall name with this Caution that though all Believers have them yet all do not know they have them and therefore all do not use them as they ought and would if they knew them to be theirs But all should therefore labour to know them that they may use them to the glory of the Giver and to the Comfort and Edification of the Receavers 1. The first of these Priviledges is Election And justly its called the first for nothing can be before it for it self is before time and all that they afterwards receave flows from it Election is that eternal and adorable Act of Free-grace wherein God the Father passed over his Love to a select Company of Mankind that were to come into the World appointing them to Salvation appointing a Saviour for them and all means fit to accomplish his design of Love on them to the praise of his grace Eph. 1.4,5,6 This Blessing is revealed in believing When God gives Faith he makes known his electing Love and when we act Faith we may see it Faith is the Faith of God's Elect Tit. 1.1 This when seen is a great ground of boldness at the throne of grace Luke 18.7 Shall not God avenge his own Elect that cry unto him day and night This our Lord prays upon in John 17.9,10 I pray for them I pray not for the world but for them which thou hast given me for they are thine And all mine are thine and thine are mine and I am glorified in them As if our Lord
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
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
know what is to be sick to be in great pain to faint and fall into a swoun which is a little Image of death as also the Heathen Poet called Sleep Death 's elder Brother But none knows what dying is It was a very sensible Word a dying Christian in this City spoke to my self when visiting him a few Hours before his Death No Man can tell another what dying is I feel I am dying but I cannot tell you what it is Death is a Path that you never trode before you never walked in it hitherto you may have thought your selves to have gone a good way in the Valley of the Shadow of Death but you never walked through it Paul died daily 1 Cor. 15.31 he was in deaths often 2 Cor. 11.23 Yet he was a living Man then when he said so and he dyed but once All new Tryals require new supplies of Grace And the Tryal of Death is quite new When we are tempted one day we may know what Temptation is thereby and be thereby fitted for the next but no past Experience can teach us fully what dying is 3. Dying is not only a necessary and new Tryal but it is such a Tryal in which a Man 's All is concerned for Eternity Immediately on Death follows Judgment Heb. 9.27 Death is the dark Trance betwixt Time and Eternity While we live we are in time when we are a dying we are leaving time and passing into eternity When we are dead we are quite and for ever out of time and are in eternity for ever If a Man miscarry in this Passage if a Man stumble in the dark Valley of death if he fall here he falls for ever I would not have people to imagine that the stress of their Salvation depends on their Frame when a dying For some Christians when near to death have neither the use and exercise of Sense or Reason much less of Grace But surely when the case of Mens Bodies permits Acts of a Man or of a Christian there is great need of grace to enable us to die well 4. Dying is a great Tryal of Faith Tho' we know not fully what dying is yet we may know so much of it as to be convinced that it is much harder to die in Faith than to live by Faith and yet living by Faith is the hardest thing we have to do in this World To trust in an unseen God to believe his unchangeable Love when we feel his Anger to trust his bare Word when we see no appearance of Performance but many to the contrary are no easie things to the hest Our frequent Experience of the difficulty and of our many failings in this daily Exercise of living by Faith may justly make us sensible of our need of great help of Grace when we shall be called to the new and more hard Work of dying by Faith To enforce this a little consider 1. Usually when death draws near to Men and they draw near to it the Eye of the Mind is clearer and the Conscience more tender and sharp-sighted in the review of their Life and Actions Many never saw their Lives well till they are just at the end of them And many Believers walk so as a spiritual review of their ways breeds no small Storm in their Consciences and Tryal and shaking to their Faith Though Death be a dark Valley yet great light of Convictions and Challenges springs up in it Wo to them that never knew till they are a dying what an awakened Conscience is Ways that are pleasing to Men when the evil day is put far away look frightfully on them when that day approacheth and is very nigh 2. A dying time is a time wherein the Devil is very busie He fetcheth then his last stroke on Saints and on Sinners He doth his utmost to secure the Damnation of Sinners that he may not lose them at last The Devil 's Deathhold of a dying Sinner is a strong one He also doth his utmost against Believers if not to marr their Salvation yet to hinder their Consolation The Devil 's parting Blow hath been dreadful to many a Saint It is a weighty Word Heb. 2.14 Where he is said to have the power of death It is true there it is said also that Christ overcame him and through death Death is properly and strictly in the Devil's Dominions Sin and Death are properly the Devil 's though the Lord hath the wise ordering of both he permits Sin and inflicts Death and Death lyes near the Devil 's great Prison Hell Through the Valley of death there are two Passages one leading to Hell and another to Heaven Most fall into the Pit others are brought through safe and sound by the Skill and Mercy of their blessed Guide Christ It fares here with Believers as with Israel and with Vnbelievers as with the Egyptians Heb. 11.29 By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry Land which the Egyptians essaying to do were drowned 3. Judgment and Eternity when near and seen at hand are awful things And a near view of them will try Faith greatly This view blows away the Presumption and Hope of the Hypocrite Job 27.8 What is the hope of the Hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his Soul Job 11.20 Their hope is as the giving up of the Ghost His Hope lived as long as he lived and when he dies it dies also Wo to them that have a dying hope a hope that cannot out live Death Christians are begotten to a living or lively hope 1 Pet. 1.3 He hath hope in his death Prov. 14.32 The Man's body dies but the Christian's Hope and Faith lives He lyes down in the Grave in hope Psal 16.9 He dies in that Faith he lived by Heb. 11.13 2. What is the helpfulness of Grace in this time of great need a time of dying I am speaking to living Men but to such as must die and know not how soon I shall only insist on one thing at this time The Grace of God helps Believers by strengthening of their Faith That is the help they mainly need in that hour And this help stands in these 1. When a dying Believer is helped by Grace to see death in Christ's hand There is a vast difference betwixt Death in the Devil's hand who hath the power of it and Death in Christ's hand who is Master both of Death and the Devil Betwixt a Man's seeing Death approaching and the Devil behind it and with it and a Man's seeing Death coming on him and Christ with it Paul's Triumph rose on this ground 1 Cor. 15.55,56,57 O death where is thy sting O grave or Hell where is thy victory The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law but thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. That by which Death stings Men is Sin unpardoned and God's Holy Law binding Sin and Wrath on their Persons Victory over both Sin