and the Law comes by Jesus Christ When this Victor and Victory in Christ is seen by a Believer Death is defied and despised as a sting-less overcome thing Much and strong Faith is needful to enable a Man to play on the hole of this Asp Christ reveals himself to John almost dead with fear Rev. 1.17,18 Fear not I have the keys of Hell and of Death Behold them in my Hand and behold me as the Lord of them Should a Believer in Jesus fear any thing that Christ hath the power of The bitterness of death is past to all Believers by Christ's death and Victory over it And if their Faith was strong their Fears would be small 2. To have Faith enabled to look through death and beyond death If a Man's Eyes be fixed on Death only and see no further it is Death to look on Death But when the Believers Eye of Faith is so quickened that he can look through the Trance of Death and see within the Vail where Christ is that is a blessed help fo Grace Christians Faith and Hope enters within the Vail Heb. 6.19 And a view within the Vail is specially desirable and useful when the Christian is walking in the Valley of the shadow of death Psal 23.4 3. Faith is helped when the dying Believer is enabled to cast his Anchor on God in Christ confidently in this last Storm This last act of Faith is a great one The more sensible a Man is that he is on the point of eternal Ruin the nearer he is to drop into Hell without divine help the more sensibly he acts Faith Then the clingings and graspings of Faith on Christ are sensible and strong When a Believer looks on himself and on his way and seeth nothing in them pleasing or staying to his Soul he looks into the dark Passage before him and its frightful to Heart and Flesh he looks on Judgment and Eternity as just at hand and his Thoughts are swallowed up with their Greatness In this case to stay his Soul and say with dying David 2 Sam. 23.5 Although my house be not so with God tho' my Heart my ways be not so with God as they ought to have been yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure and this all my salvation and all my desire requires singular help of the Grace of God To shut the Eyes and give the hand to Christ and to quiet the Mind by trusting our Guide in this last Step is a mighty Blessing I would conclude this Discourse with these four 1. It is a great Mystery of Faith and a great Tryal of Faith that the way to eternal Life should lye through the midst of this dark Valley of Death Our Lord Jesus Christ bought eternal Life for us by the price of his Blood he went through death to take possession of his Kingdom and Glory and yet his People must go through death to take Possession of the Gift of eternal Life If there were any allowed Room or Place for Prayer in this Affair how many and how earnest Prayers would we make to be delivered from going in this way to Glory But after a Life of Tryals Temptation and manifold Tribulations this last is still before us and we must pass through and set our Feet in the cold Waters of this Jordan ere we enter the heavenly Canaan After all the lively hopes of Heaven and sweet fore-tastes of it we have had after our Faith hath risen to a full assurance yet through death must all the Heirs of Glory pass 2. There is no Wisdom like that of preparing for this awful Hour Job 14.14 If a man die shall he live again all the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come I will think on it I will look for it I will prepare for it Men are wise or foolish according to their faithful diligence or unbelieving negligence in this preparing for death Many have bewailed their neglect never did any repent their diligence in this Work 3. There is no right and sure way of preparing for Death but by seeking saving acquaintance with Jesus If you set about the study of Holiness without Christ you mistake your way and will never reach your end But labour to be intimately acquainted with Jesus Christ and the Communications of his Grace will make you holy Death deals with Men and billets them into their eternal Quarters in Heaven or Hell as Men are in Christ or out of Christ Their Works according to which they are judged are but the Fruits and Effects of their different States These two different States of Men in this Life in Christ or not in Christ are the Foundation of the two different States in the next Life in Heaven or in Hell Tho' all in Christ are holy and all out of Christ are unholy 4. There is no Life truly comfortable but that which hath a comfortable prospect of Death and Judgment Never envy the condition of them who seem to be the only chearful Men in the World whom one quarter of an hours serious thought of Death and Judgment is enough to make them like Belshazzar at his great Feast Dan. 5.6 Whose countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joynts of his loins were loosed and his knees smote one against another Amazement seized on Soul and Body How can a Man be said to live comfortably that dare not think of Death for fear of marring his comfort Miserable is that Consolation that cannot bear a serious thought of an approaching unavoidable thing This is the Wisdom and Mercy of the Lord to his People that their true Consolation doth not only stand and abide in the view of Death and Judgment but it ariseth from that view that is so terrible to all natural Men. This is the blessedness of Believers that his Grace allows them a right to and can give them a possession of And therefore we should come to the Throne of Grace for it Then you are happy Christians when serious thoughts of Death breed serious Joy SERMON XIII HEB. IV. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need YOU have heard of the helpfulness of the Grace of God in time of need both in geneneral and with particular instances of some special times of need The last whereof is the time of dying This I left at last day and would speak a little more unto it and then conclude all in a few Words Death is a Theme of great importance and of very obvious Influence If people would let it enter into their serious thoughts and would take a serious and steddy view of it they would quickly find more in it and about it than ever they did or could hear by all that is told them Next to the saving Illumination of the Holy Ghost with and by the Word there is no
whom shall it be filled but with vessels of mercy whom he had afore prepared unto glory Rom. 9.23 2. It is called a Throne of Grace because Grace hath here and here only a glorious display and discovery Till men get a sight of God in Christ they cannot tell what the grace of God is search Heaven and Earth you can never get a view of God's Grace till ye come to this Throne You may see Gods Infinite Power and Wisdom and Goodness written in great Characters in the great volume of Creation and Providence But till ye come to know God in Christ on this Throne you can never see that Divine Dainty and Saving Blessing the free Grace of God Grace as an everlasting fountain in the Heart of God pouring down streaming forth eternal Salvation on ruined unworthy sinners Men should make a visit to the Throne of Grace if they had no other errand but to get a sight of this precious Thing the Grace of God A right sight of it is saving Believers should long to be in Heaven if they had no other errand then to see the Spring-Head of that Flood of Grace that came down from Heaven to drag them out of Hell and to draw them up to Heaven 3. It is called a Throne of Grace because all the Acts and Sentences past at this new Court are all acts of Grace all the Blessings given from this Throne are all of meer Grace Nothing is here but Grace John 1.17 The law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ. Was there no Grace nor Truth under the Law Yes a great deal but it all belonged to Jesus Christ. There was Grace under the Law but none but what related to Jesus Christ There was Truth under the Law but only as Christ was pointed at otherwise all were but vain and beggerly Rudiments and empty dark Shadows The Jews see nothing of Christ in the Old Testament and therefore find neither the saving Mercy nor saving Truth of God in it And it is much worse with men Christians I cannot call them that see as little of Christ in the New Testament Take the Chain of Salvation and all the Links of it as the Apostle names them Rom. 8.29,30 and all of them are of Grace We are chosen by Grace we are given to Christ by Grace Redeemed by him by Grace By Grace we are justified through that Redemption by the same Grace we are adopted by the same Grace we are saved by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost and by Grace we shall be glorified And they that will not claim these blessings and hold them by this Tenure of free Grace I dare not say that they shall never have them for this Grace can overcome its greatest enemies but I may say that they have at present no part or portion in this matter and when they come to partake of Grace and to know the Grace of God in Truth as Col. 1.6 they will be of another mind and count it the best Tenure to hold all by even by free Grace Yea after all the Riches of Grace poured forth on Believers in this life when they come to receive the Crown of Glory they receive it as humbly yea more than they did any former Act of Grace from this Throne The overcomer by the Blood of the Lamb will receive the Crown from his Glorious Redeemer as humbly and with owning it as a gift of Grace as much as ever he did receive a pardon in that Blood when his head was on the Block and the Ax of Law and Justice lifted up to cut him off for his Iniquity There may be proud Pleaders for or rather presumers and expecters of the Crown of Glory but no proud receivers of it We must look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Jude 21. Merit and Worth are only for Hell and they have no room in Heaven nor in the way to it Justice reigns in Hell and Grace in Heaven So all will find that come to Heaven and so must they all know and believe that would be there Sinners that are for Merit will find it sadly in Hell Mens Merit makes Hell and Christ's Merit makes Heaven Rom. 6.23 4. It is called a Throne of Grace because the Glory of Grace is the last and highest end of the building of this Throne and of all the acts of Grace dispensed at it and from it That proud Monarch spoke vainly and wickedly Dan. 4.30 and was quickly by God punished severely for his sin If we may be allowed to allude to such words we may say of the Throne of Grace Is it not that high Throne that God hath built for the house of his Kingdom by the might of his power and for the honour of the Majesty of his Grace Are any chosen in Christ and predestinated to the adoption of Children by him It is to the praise of the glory of his grace Eph. 1.4,5,6 Do they believe by Grace it is to the praise of his glory vers 12. are they sealed and at last possessed of Heaven that is to the praise of his glory vers 14. Are they quickned when dead in sin and advanced in and by Christ Jesus this is to the praise of his Grace Eph. 2.4.7 All the blessings in Time and Eternity that the Heirs of Grace enjoy are all to the praise and glory of that Grace they spring from We read in the word of none of the Counsels of God before the Creation of all things but of his purpose of saving of a company of poor sinful men by Jesus Christ and of no other design in this purpose but to magnifie his Grace in saving of them this way So much of the signification of this word a Throne of Grace 3. What is it to come unto this Throne of Grace Though the prosecuting of the Exhortation in this Text will open up the nature of this coming more fully yet I would speak somewhat of it in this place 1. This coming implys a state of distance from this Throne in them that are called to come This is called being far off Eph. 2.13 and this state all men by nature are in Men are in God's Eye and Hand he is not far from every one of us for in him we live and move and have our being Acts 17.27,28 As the Psalmist speaks excellently in Psal 139. of the nearness of men to God and of his Omnipresence and Omniscience But his gracious presence as on a Throne of Grace is far from all then by nature and they far from it This presence is far from man's knowledge no knowing of it but by Revelation Far from mens attainment for no man can come unless he be drawn of God John 6.44 Far from their Experience and far from their Love for they are alienated from the life of God Eph. 4.18 And in his favour is life Psal 30.5 and in nothing else 2. It is also
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
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
9.1.5 What prays he for them Roin 10.1 My hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved All right Prayer should be the Hearts desire Salvation is the best thing we can pray for to our selves or to them we love And no Man can heartily pray for Salvation to others who hath not got it himself 2. I would now direct some Words to them that have obtained mercy and know it Blessed be the Lord that there are not a few in the World not a few in this City and I hope not a few in this Meeting that have obtained mercy of the Lord and know it also Who can remember when their misery was great and when the mercy of the Lord made a visit to them and what great things it brought to them and wrought in them 1. Let such be very thankful for special saving mercy Praise is a great Debt as well as a great Blessing Let none take this as an ordinary Duty but let all Christians know that the main point of the Life and Practice of Christianity lies in the performance of it 1 Pet. 2.9 Praise should rise according to the worth of what we praise for Greatest Favours call for highest Praises and special mercy from the Lord is the highest favour It is a good Custom and a Duty also that people when they receave their daily bread from God do give him thanks for it as well as beg his Blessing on it Pray then how do you think the Lord will take unthankfulness for his special mercy How many hath the Lord to give in this Charge against I never gave thee a nights rest but thou gave me thanks for it in the morning but I have by my mercy raised thee up to newness of Life and I was never thanked for it I never fed thy Body but thou blessed me for my Bounty but I have given thee my Son for the bread of thy Soul but no praise for this Gift When thou wast near death I did in mercy restore thee and was praised for it but special mercy hath delivered thy Soul from eternal destruction but when didst thou praise for that Have a care this Charge be not given against you Live to his Praise and let Praise be the main Work of your Life 2. Walk tenderly under God's special mercy The more special the mercy be the more carefully it should be improved God's saving mercy is a Load a Burthen not indeed hard to be born but it is hard to bear it aright A Burden that will not break the Back but will weigh heavy on the Shoulders of the Bearers and such as are under it are in no small danger of stumbling Isa 38.15 What shall I say he hath both spoken unto me and himself hath done it I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my Soul And that there was special mercy in his Eye see ver 17. Thou hast in love to my Soul delivered it from the pit of corruption for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back Here is a right sense of mercy and a good Resolution about the guiding of it I will walk softly all the Years fifteen of them that God hath added to my Life But what performance was there 2 Chron. 32.25 But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done to him for his heart was lifted up 3. Obtainers of mercy should ask grace to guide mercy and ask it the more earnestly and confidently because they have obtained mercy Be not discouraged in asking more mercy because you have made so poor improvements of what you have received Every mercy lays us under an Obligation for more service and Grace to enable for that Service must be given and therefore should be asked We need mercy God gives it when we get it we should guide it well and in order to that we must beg more New mercy to enable us to guide the old No mercy from the Lord but it may be ill guided but the last eternal Life Jude 21. A Christian is not out of all danger of abusing any mercy of the Lord till he receave perfecting mercy in Heaven To them that have not obtained mercy or at least do not know that they have only four things I would say to such Ask mercy Receave mercy Plead mercy Hope in his mercy 1. Ask mercy The Lord hath two designs in offering and dispensing his mercy to Men To be honoured by the Prayers of them that want it and to be glorified by the Praises of them that get it This Duty of asking mercy is frequently commanded by the Lord commonly practis'd by his people and never in vain 1. Ask mercy like it self Ask some way according to your Need and its Worth If our begging bore any tolerable proportion to the great Blessing of God's saving mercy what mighty praying would there be Let not mercy be sought as a small thing it 's the one thing needful and it 's the one thing we should seek of the Lord. God's mercy Saving mercy Free mercy Mercy great vastly above all our misery O how would it be asked if asked like it self 2. Ask mercy at the right Door There is not a Crumb of saving mercy that comes to any perishing Sinner but by Jesus Christ. There is no Corn in Egypt but what comes through this Joseph's Hand He is a mad Beggar of mercy that forgets Christ 3. Ask mercy in God's time He that commands us to ask and tells us at what Door to beg and promiseth to give tells us also when we should ask Men have their times as in great distress when dying and at Judgment Beware of putting off asking till God's time of giving be past It is an awful Word of Christ Luke 13.25 When once 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 c. There are two sad beginnings here Beginning to stand without when the door is shut such will eternally stand without Beginning to knock at the door Such as begin to knock at God's shut Door will never get in There is no good answer to be given by God to such for eternity Is not that a very unhappy beginning So our Lord tells us in the Parable of the Ten Virgins Matth. 25.10 The foolish came when the Door was shut They were foolish that they came no sooner and miserable that they came too late I believe the Damned will see more of the Blessedness of the Saved than the Saved will see of the Misery of the Damned Christ expresly aggravates the misery of the Damned by what they shall see of the Bliss of the Saved Luke 13.28 But all we see in the Word that the Saved shall see or hear of the misery of the Damned is their Resurrection to Damnation John 5.29 which is a most miserable one better were it for them to have their Bodies lye eternally in
Bones a Consumption is coming on upon his Soul and the holy flesh is passed from him as Jer. 11.15 The Savour and Relish the Soul finds in approaching to the throne of grace is the surest Test of Soul-prospering In this I appeal to the Consciences of all that ever knew Communion with God Is it not best with you every way when you are most with him Do not your Burdens grow light when you cast them on the Lord Is not your Path plain when his Candle shineth upon you And doth it not shine when you are much in his Company Difficulties evanish and hard Work grows easie when the Lord is with you and you with him See how the Apostle joyns things together Jude 20,21 But ye beloved building up your selves upon your most holy Faith praying in the Holy Ghost keep your selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Your Faith your Love your Hope are all to be acted in Prayer and are cherished by Prayer and strengthened by the Answers of Prayer Would you have plenty of the Grace of God Here is a plain and sure way taught you by the Apostle and he joyns himself with them he exhorts Let us come to the Throne of Grace that we may find Grace SERMON IX HEB. IV. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help intime of need THE Gracious Call and Invitation contained in this Text hath been often spoke to An Invitation frequently deliver'd in the preaching of the Gospel and as frequently flighted by most of the hearers of the Gospel It is such an Invitation as if it were delivered in the last day to the miserable Company on Christ's left hand we may think what complying with it would there be if there were a Throne of Grace set up then for but one hour where mercy and grace might be had in that time of need Think ye not that there would be coming and crouding and crying and roaring for mercy and grace but that day will afford no such Priviledge Now you have it and the Lord knows and next to him your Consciences know how this is entertained What this Throne of Grace is what coming to it is what Boldness in coming is allowed what ground there is for this Boldness have been spoke to The last thing in this verse what Blessings may be had by coming hath been spoke to also Of the mercy to be obtained and of the grace to be found Of this last I have handled two things 1. What is the grace that is to be found 2. What the Phrase of finding grace imports There are two things more that remain in the Text. 1. The Helpfulness of this grace We are called to come to find grace to help 2. The Seasonableness of this help of grace It is grace to help in time of need So our Translation carries it and pretty well The Original runs in fewer Words grace unto seasonable help or Help in due season Of these two I would speak at this time 1. Of the helpfulness of Grace God's grace is a most helpful blessing 1. It is promised by him that gives it as help Isa 41.10 Fear thou not for I am with thee Be not dismayed for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness Alas who hath Faith enough to draw at this deep Well of Salvation Every Word hath rich Food for Faith Whenever God would engage the Heart of a poor Creature to a dependance on him he doth it by promising to be that to them and to do that for them that none besides himself can be or do No Man can truly act Faith on God for that he thinks a Creature can do for him You never believe soundly but when you look to and wait on God for that that is impossible utterly to the whole Creation to give to you or to do for you 2. Again we find the Saints beg God's help Whenever they come to God in earnest they come to this Lord help for all other help is vain There is no more common Prayer in the Old and New Testament and to this day than Prayer for the Lord's helping grace All our Prayers in their greatest variety center in this help us by thy grace The great Believer Matth. 15.25 Came and worshipped him saying Lord help me A short Prayer but mighty and full of Faith A weaker Man in Faith than this Woman Mark 9.22 Have compassion on us and help us praying for himself and his Son ver 24. He prays for himself alone Lord help my Vnbelief There is no Believer on Earth who may not daily pray this Prayer 3. All the People of God find the helpfulness of his grace All that seek it find it and all that find it find the helpfulness of his Grace I would in a few things shew the helpfulness of Grace 1. The Grace of God helps always to purpose and effectually This grace helped Paul to labour more abundantly than all the Apostles 1 Cor. 15.10 I say not that this is always sensible to the Receaver but only that grace given is always really effectual for the end for which it is given It is not given in vain 2. The grace of God helps universally there is no case wherein it is not helpful As without Christ we can do nothing John 15.5 So through him strengthening we may do all things or any thing Phil. 4.13 A Christian can imagine can foresee no Condition no Tryal no Difficulty wherein the Lord's grace cannot help him So the Text runs that we may find grace to help in time of need Let the time be what it will and the need what it will grace can help in it It were a sad weakness of Faith for any Christian to say I am in that condition that the grace of God cannot help me in His grace is Omnipotent 3. Grace helps sweetly I mean that it doth not help as an External help but as an Internal As for a familiar Similitude A weak and weary or lame Person may be helped by the strength of another or by being carried but this is but external help This weak or lame person is helped far better when his Infirmity is removed and new strength given to him so that he can pleasantly walk and run Psal 138.3 In the day when I cried thou answeredst me and strengthenedst me with strenth in my Soul It s true the grace of God wherein our strength consists is without us and in him but it is inwardly applyed to us when strength is found and felt Therefore is it that Believers not only find by the dispensings of of his helping grace an effectual strength for their Work and Duty but a great deal of sweetness and easiness in the exerting of that gracious help So Psal 119.32 I will run in the
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
complained of Some Professors spend all the little Religion they have upon their Afflictions Take heed to your Hearts under Afflictions It is to be bewailed that many Christians their Afflictions come on them they know not whence they lye on them they know not not wherefore and they go off they know not how that if I may allude to such sacred Words and apply the Phrase to such a sinful Frame Afflictions come on many and they feel the smart of them but know not whence they come nor whither they go They come on them when they are sent and go off when they are called but they neither knew what God meant by them nor did by them No Christian can ever make a spiritual and hearty Song of Praise for Afflictions unless there be some Sense or Hope of Profit thereby If the Profit be seen the Wisdom and Love of God in afflicting will be heartily acknowledged 5. Time of special need of the grace of God is a time of special Duty and Service to God called for All the course of our Life is to be constant Service we ought to live to his Praise we are made as Creatures and as new Creatures for this end Isa 43.21 1 Pet. 2.9 But there are some Seasons in which special Work is called for and then there is great need of grace to help in that Hour It is a mighty Word of the Preacher Eccl. 8.6 Because to every purpose there is time and judgment therefore the misery of man is great upon him And it is only the wise man's heart that discerneth time and Judgment ver 5. I would name four of those times 1. The time that Men are called to believe on Jesus Christ and to secure their eternal Salvation by a full closing with him This is a now a day an accepted time a day of Salvation 2 Cor. 6.2 All that hear the Gospel are bound by the Call of God in it and warranted by the Promise of it to receave by Faith Jesus Christ and eternal Life every time they hear the Gospel But sometimes this Duty is specially called for which if neglected may be of fatal consequence to Men. Hence that Exhortation Isa 55.6 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near When Christ is knocking at the Door of the Heart then it is special Duty to open to him Rev. 3.20 This was the day Jerusalem had and neglected and that that Christ mourned over them for Luke 19.41,42 Unspeakable is Mens need of the prevailing help of grace when their Hearts and Consciences are warmed with the Calls of grace in the Gospel In such Seasons the everlasting Bargain is either fixed by the power of grace working Faith in the Heart or people are left to themselves and are further from Heaven than ever 2. Some special Call to Men to give their Testimony to Christ and his Gospel by suffering The Lord comes and craves Mens Testimony to his Truth and chargeth them thus If thou hast any love to me and my Honour I demand thy Witness venture thy all take up thy Cross Many Christians have neglected such trying Seasons which in vain and sorrowfully they have wished for again There is much of God's Grace needful to discern these Seasons and wisely to improve them 3. There is another remarkable Season of Mens need of God's Grace to help them in and that is The Season of the Lord 's calling them to a Duty-Tryal A Duty called to by way of Tryal The Lord gives the Call to try Men and very great are the Consequences of obeying or disobeying of such a Call Many instances are of this in the Word One is in Numb 14. The Passage is plain and awful When Israel had been above a Year in the Wilderness twelve Spies are sent to view the Land they all bring back an evil Report save Joshua and Caleb the People murmur God threatens them with Judgments They seem to be sensible of their Sin it 's like by the Plague that slew the ten false Spies ver 37. and by what Moses spake to them They acknowledge their Sin and resolve to go up next Morning ver 40. Moses tells them they now sinned again and that the Lord was not among them ver 41 42. What severe dealing is this The Lord was among them vesterday not this morning They were bid go up yesterday they are forbid next morning Because they did not what the Lord bid them do in his time he will not protect them when they do the same thing in their time Thus Saul was tryed twice 1 Sam. 3. Samuel bid him tarry for him seven days at Gilgal Saul tarried six days and part of the seventh and then offered Sacrifice not as I think that he did invade the Priest's Office himself but commanded some Priest to do it Profane Princes never want profane Chaplains What a severe Sentence doth Samuel pronounce against him ver 13.14 Again the same Man is tryed with another Duty 1. Sam. 15. and fails therein and is punished therefore This sort of trying Men by Duty is like that in 2 Kings 13.14.20 which Elisha did put Joash unto How may of the people of God through the want of the present help of Grace in some Duty-Trials have stepped into such Paths and have fallen into such Pits and Snares as they have never got well and clearly out of as long as they lived 4. It is a Season of great need of Grace to help us in when the Lord by his Providence puts several things in a persons choice and leaves them to choose The fullest of this kind was that offer made to David about Judgments 2 Sam. 24.12,13 A hard choice but David did choose wisely His Son Solomon had another Offer but it was of Blessings and not of Judgments 2 Chron. 1.7 Ask what I shall give thee And he chose wisely and by his choice proved that he had already receaved a good measure of Wisdom Moses had a great Offer and things of vast difference were in his Choice and he chose like a Man taught of God Heb. 11.24,25,26 Moses in his last Sermon to Israel Deut. 30.15,19 puts them on choosing I call Heaven and Earth to record this day against you that I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing therefore choose life that both thou and thy seed may live that thou mayest love the Lord thy God and that thou mayest obey his voice and that thou mayest cleave unto him for he is thy life and the length of thy days So did his Successor Joshua when he had setled Israel in the promised Land a little before his death Josh 24.15 Chuse ye this day whom ye will serve Elijah did so with Apostate Israel 1 Kings 18.21 Somewhat like this is laid before Men in the daily Ministry of the Word The Curse of the Law or the Blessing of the Gospel is in Mens Offer And Men get as they
THE THRONE OF GRACE Discoursed of from HEB. IV. 16. By Robert Trail M. A. Minister of the Gospel LONDON Printed by J. Orme for Nathanael Hiller at the Prince's Arms in Leaden-hall-Street over against St. Mary Ax Church 1696. PREFACE WHat is in this Book offered to your Reading was some years since preached in the ordinary Couse of my Ministry on a Week day with no more thought that is none at all of Printing it than I had of Publishing this way anything I have preached these Seven and twenty years wherein I have been exercised in the Ministry of the Word save one single Sermon extorted from me about fourteen years ago The Publishing of such plain Discourses is singly owing to the Importunity of some of the Hearers and to the Assistance they gave me by getting what I spake transcribed from two Short-hand Writers without which I could not have Published it My own Notes being only little Scraps of Heads of Doctrine and Scriptures confirming them In the same way I had brought to me what I spoke from Heb. 10.23,24 and have it lying by me which may also see the Light if the Lord will that I live and if this be accepted of such whose Testimony I only value I mean such as are sound in the Faith and exercised in the life of Faith I know no true Religion but Christianity No true Christianity but the Doctrine of Christ of his Divine Person the Image of the invisible God Col. 1.15 of his Divine Office the Mediator betwixt God and Men 1 Tim. 2.5 of his Divine Righteousness He is the Lord our Righteousness Jer. 23.6 Which Name is also called upon his Church Jer. 33.16 and of his Divine Spirit which all that are his receave Rom. 8 9. I know no true Ministers of Christ but such as make it their Business in their Calling to commend Jesus Christ in his Saving fulness of Grace and Glory to the faith and love of Men. No true Christian but one united to Christ by Faith and abiding in him by Faith and Love unto the glorifying of the Name of Jesus Christ in the Beauties of Gospel-Holiness Ministers and Christians of this Spirit have for many years been my Brethren and Companions and I hope shall ever be whithersoever the Hand of God shall lead me Through the Lord's Mercy to me as to many in London I have often heard what is far more worthy of the Press than any thing I can publish I have not been negligent in desiring such able Ministers of the New Testament to let their Light shine this way but have little prevailed It may be this mean Essay may provoke them more to that good Work Whatever you may think of my way of managing this Subject and indeed there is nothing in that either as designed or expected by me or that in it self deserveth any great Regard Yet the Theme it self all must judge who have spiritual Senses is of great Importance and always seasonable It is concerning the Throne of God's Saving Grace reared up in Jesus Christ and revealed unto Men in the Gospel with the Application all should make to that Throne The great Blessings to be reaped by that Application and Men's great need of those Blessings This greatest of Subjects is meanly but honestly handled in the same Order in which it was Preached and mostly in the same Words Some few Passages out of History are inserted which were not spoken May the Lord of the Harvest who ministred this Seed to the Sower make it Bread to the Eater and accompany it with his Blessing on some that are called to inherit a Blessing and I have my End and Desire the Reader shall have the Benefit and the Lord the Glory For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be Glory for ever Amen London March 25. 1696. Ro. Trail ERRATA PAge 2. line 3. read Acts 9.22 and 17.2,3 and l. 18. for held r. hold p. 3. l. 3. for exhortation r. expression p. 20. l. 24. r. receaving p. 26. l. ult r. Righteousness p. 47. l. 5. for 4. r. 3. p. 78. l. 10. for considering r. consider and l. 16. r. I will p. 97. l. 23. r. God p. 127. l. 4. a. f. for better r. bitter p. 128. l. 5. for a r. as p. 135. l. 3. for Lord r. God p. 138. l. 25. for never r. ever p. 141. l. 9. a f. dele is p. 162 for Creations r. Creation p. 177. l. 6. for 73. r. 78. p. 189. l. 7. for it is r. is it p. 213. l. 15. r. able to take and l. 20. r. Rom. 8. p. 222. l. 11. r. for sa r. as p. 239. l. 9. r. inverting p. 249. l. 13. for Man r. Men or Many p. 250. l. 4. for in r. as p. 253. for on r. one ADVERTISEMENTS THE Righteousness of God through Faith upon all without difference who believe in two Sermons on Rom. 3.22 By Nathanael Mather Preacher of the Gospel 1694. The Conquests and Triumphs of Grace Being a Brief Narrative of the Success which the Gospel hath had among the Indians in New England By Matthew Mayheu 1695. Batteries upon the Kingdom of the Devil By Mr. Cotton Mather Author of the late memorable Providences relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions and of early Piety exemplified 1695. A Learned and accurate Discourse concerning the Guilt of Sin Pardon of that Guilt and Prayer for that Pardon Written many Years ago By the Reverend Mr. Thomas Gilbert Minister of the Gospel lately deceased at Oxford 1695. A Letter to Dr. Bates concerning a Vindication of the Doctor and my self necessitated by Mr. W's his Answer to Mr. Humfrey By S. L. 1695. All Printed for Nath. Hiller at the Prince's-Arms in Leaden-hall-street over-against St. Mary-axe 1695. HEB. IV. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need THE main drift of the blessed Apostle the Holy Ghosts Penman in this Excellent Epistle is to set forth the preheminence of our Lord Jesus Christ first in his Divine Person far above all Angels who are bid Worship him even when dwelling in Man's Nature If the God-head of our Lord Jesus Christ be hid from the readers of this Epistle it must be by a special Power of the God of this world on their unbelieving minds 2 Cor. 4.3,4 Will blinded men forbear to call the Son God when the Father speaks so Chap. 1.8 Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever Then the Apostle speaks of his Incarnation chap. 2.11 c. and therewith speaks of his Priesthood chap. 3 The Apostle compares Christ with and prefers him above Moses chap. 3. then above Aaron as a Priest chap. 7. and compares him with Melchisedech an eminent Type of Christ By this Epistle we may know what Paul's reasonings with the Jews were Acts 9.23 and what is the right way of dealling with the Jews at this day till Christs Divine
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
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
had said I am sure to be heard for I pray for them that are partakers of thine everlasting Love They are thine by Election and giving to me they are mine by receaving and redeeming of them We are bid give diligence to make our Calling and Election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 They are sure in themselves and sure to God but we should make them sure to our selves and many Christians smart sadly by neglecting this Diligence 2. The gift of Christ for us is a great priviledge that gives boldness at the throne of grace So the Apostle argues Ro. 8.32 He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all you may see who this all are ver 28 29 30. How shall he not with him freely give us all things As if he said it is a small thing to God to give us all other things when he hath given his Son We receave now many Blessings blessed be the giver we have greater things in the Promise than we yet receave or can yet receave but shall surely receave in his time yet all we get and shall to Eternity receave is far less than the gift of Christ. It is like our Lord had respect to this in that Word to the Woman of Samaria John 4.10 If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee give me to drink thou wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee living water If she had known Christ as the Well of Salvation to Sinners she would have employed him and should have been accepted of him But here many Christians stick they doubt not but Christ was given for his Church and People but they know not how to apply this to themselves If I knew say many that Christ was given for me I would then come boldly to the throne of grace and ask any thing confidently I answer None can know that Christ was given for them till they come unto him And all that come to him may know that he was given for them and should believe it He was given by the Will of the Father and his own for his Elect. This is a Secret hid with God He comes to Men in the Gospel offering himself and all his Purchase and Fulness to all that hear of it He that hath his Heart drawn forth to like this Bargain and accepts by Faith of the Saviour and his great Salvation hath possession thereof immediately and by that may come to know that it was designed for him in God's purpose of Love So Paul Gal. 1.14,15,16 He was one of the Holiest and most Religious Jews in their Church and yet was at the same time one of the most wicked young Men in all the Country a very Hypocrite a proud self Justiciary and a bloody Persecutor of Christ and his Church Yet of this wicked Creature it is here said That God had separated him from his Mother's Womb and Acts 9.15 He is a chosen Vessel unto me I will pour out of my grace on him and will do much for him and by him When did all this break out When he called me by his Grace and revealed his Son in me Then he can say Gal. 2.20 He loved me and gave himself for me And again 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sirners All say so but had he any mind of thee and hast thou any share in his coming to save Sinners Yes saith he of whom I am chief He came to save me the chief of Sinners Any Sinner may come after me and expect Mercy at Christs hand when Paul hath sped so well ver 16. He hath made me a Pattern of his Mercy for the encouragement of all Sinners that have a mind for a good turn from Jesus Christ 3. The Priviledge of Actual Reconciliation and of being brought into a State of Grace is a ground of Boldness in coming to the throne of grace Rom. 5.9,10 where the Apostle having shewn God's Love in giving Christ to the death for us ver 8. he adds the Blessings that flow from this Gift Justification by his blood and therefore much more Salvation from Wrath through him ver 9. And Reconciliation to God by his death and therefore much more Salvation by his life ver 10. The Improvement he makes thereof is in ver 11. And not only so but we also joy in God the Original is we glory and boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now receaved the Attonement A State of grace is a State of boldness all that are in it should and all that know they are in it will use boldness of Faith at this throne of grace Rom. 5.1 to ver 6. 6. The Experiences of Believers are a great ground of boldness Experience works Hope Rom. 5.4 The Experience of others as well as our own are of great use herein Sometimes we find David improving the Experience of others for the strengthning his own Faith sometimes he offers his own Experience for the comfort of others Psal 66.16 Come and hear all ye that fear God and I will declare what he hath done for my Soul Because David was in distress of Conscience and got Peace and Pardon Psal 32.1,6 For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found Psal 119.74 They that fear thee will be glad when they see me because I have hoped in thy word There is no Christian that hath not Experience As he hath a Soul that needs much to be done for it so the Lord doth much for all he saves And because the Lord dealeth variously with his People therefore there is much difference in their Experiences Yet because all Believers are Members of the same Body and receave all from the same Head Jesus Christ there is some Skill and Capacity in every Christian to understand and to be profited by the Experience of any Christian Hence it is that communicating of Experiences is a Christian Duty and a good part of the Communion of Saints But there is much Christian Prudence requisite in the discharge of it Let no Man boast of a false gift and pretend to that he hath no sense of Nor talk vainly and proudly of what God hath done for him All true Experiences are Acts of Grace from God felt on the Soul And Grace is humbling 1 Cor. 4.7 For who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou didst not receave Now if thou didst receave it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not receaved it Three Questions confounding the Pride of Men and Christians Of these Experiences that should give boldness in coming to the throne of grace I shall name three 1 The Experience of the first visit of Grace is a good ground of Confidence in asking any blessing of God Can you remember when you were dead in sin and had no thought
and the Question then is Is this or that or the other Action pleasing or displeasing to God And this is to be determined by the light of Conscience acting according to God's Holy Law For God is the only Lord of Conscience and his Will the only Rale and Law of Conscience Conscience therefore may be three ways defiled 1. By the unpardoned Guilt of a natural State as it is in all Unbelievers Nothing can purge the Conscience but the Blood of Christ Heb. 9.14 An Unbeliever doth not apply to it nor apply it to himself and God applys it to none but by Faith Therefore all such Unbelievers have all the loathsome filth of their natural State lying on their Consciences defiling it The answer of a good Conscience towards God is by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 3.21 All Unbelievers Consciences can speak nothing towards God by any thing Christ hath done or suffered for they know him not and are not in him They would give an Answer or make their Plea from their good Works and honest Meanings but all such answers and pleas are rejected by God in his judging of a Man's State For all God's Judgment of Mens State proceeds on these two in Christ or out of Christ And as it is with them with respect to one or other of these two so do Men stand or fall before God's Judgment whatever the Judgment of their Consciences be 2. Conscience is defiled by Sinful Actions known to be such Now if these be loved and delighted in they do justly marr Confidence neither can any Man in this Case draw near to God but with the Mouth and hypocritically Isa 2.9,13 This is a Frame not to be found in a Believer He may be guilty of known Sin but it is not delighted in To this David's Words refer Psal 66.18 If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me It is not If there be iniquity in my heart for who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my Sin Prov. 20.9 It is not If I see iniquity in my heart For where there is least sin it is best seen Paul saw enough Rom. 7.23,24,25 and groaned under it and yet blesseth God through Jesus Christ for the hope of Victory But it is only If I regard iniquity in my heart if I look kindly on it God will not hear me and indeed the Man in this Case cannot pray It is as impossible that a person approving and loving Sin can make a real approach to God as it is for a Man to depart from and approach to one at the same time and with the same motion 3. The Conscience is defiled by doubtful practice Of this the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 8.7 And their conscience being weak is defiled To this belongs also the Words in Rom. 14.5 Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind and ver 22 23. Whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin In deliberate Actions especially of Worship to God to act without a clear Warrant from the Word of God defileth the Conscience 2. Sin disturbs the Conscience And Conscience is disturbed by Sin two ways 1. When the evil and filth of Sin is seen a man loaths himself therefore No defilement on the Conscience disturbs it till it be seen Men like Swine wallow in the puddle and see no filth therein till God open the Eyes of their Consciences 2. When the danger of sin is seen and the Wrath it deserves is perceaved then perplexing Fears and sensible Sorrow works in the Soul Now what is the course such a poor Creature should take The Sin is committed the Guilt is contracted the Conscience is defiled the Defilement is seen Disturbance and Trouble is felt in the Conscience What should such a sick Soul do Will any say to him wash thy self where thou canst and cast away the burthen of thy sin the best way thou canst and then come to the throne of Grace This would be strange Gospel indeed We know no other course a Man should take in this Case but coming to the Throne of Grace to have the Conscience sprinkled with the Blood of Christ the only Cordial for a disturbed Conscience and the only Purger of a defiled Conscience Therefore Peter was quite out in his Prayer he prayed backward when he said Depart from me for I am a sinful man O Lord Luke 5.8 Were ever worse Words uttered at the Knees of Jesus Christ He had said better if he had prayed Lord come near to me and abide with me and let me ever abide with thee for I am a sinful Man Where can a sinful Man be better than with the Saviour of Sinners But Peter's Prayer is the natural Prayer of every Man that seeth his Sinfulness and is ignorant of Jesus Christ The Publican understood Prayer and plyed it better Luke 18.13 when he said God be merciful to me a Sinner I feel my sinfulness I see thy Mercy Lord let them meet and thy Mercy shall be glorified and I saved Whoever therefore are distressed with the guilt of Sin in their Consciences or with the power of it in their Hearts and Lives must seek all their relief at this Throne of Grace It is only the power of that Grace revealed and dispensed at this Throne of Grace that is too hard for Sin and all its powers And for any Man to think to subdue Sin except by the power of this Grace or to think that he shall have this powerful Grace without coming for it to the Throne of Grace is to dream to his own destruction Object 2. I am in the dark about my Interest in God and Christ and therefore I cannot come boldly to this Throne If I did know that God was at peace with me and I reconciled to him and justified then I might come boldly Answ 1. Whose fault is it that thy Interest in Christ is not put out of question Were Christians more in self-examination more close in walking with God and if they had more near Communion with God and were more in acting of Faith this shameful darkness and doubting would quickly vanish It is a thing to be heavily bewailed that many Christians have lived twenty or forty years since Christ called them by his Grace yet doubting is their life they doubted when they began they go on doubting and many die doubting when the blame is justly to be laid on themselves There is an assurance of Faith that is a Duty as well as a Blessing Heb. 10.22 And were it more minded as a Duty it would be more often attained as a Mercy That assurance of Faith I press you to have stands in firm and strong Believing The faithful Promise of Christ in the Gospel is the Foundation of it And the Ground will bear all the weight we can lay on it This Assurance is not only a Blessing that comes down from Heaven but it may by his blessing of Means spring up out of the
not turn away from me A most blessed Answer to a dreadful Question ver 4. Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me my Father thou art the guide of my youth An Interest in God by Christ is offered and promised to all in the Gospel plead it by Faith and it is yours 3. We find Instances in the Word and the like the Lord can make again of great Confidence in some at their first coming to the Throne of Grace As the blind man Mark 10.46 end He only heard of Christ's passing by He staid not for Christ's calling him but began to cry out Jesus thou Son of David have mercy on me When many charged him to hold his Peace he cried the more a great deal Thou Son of David have mercy on me Christ was never in my way before and he shall not pass now without shewing mercy on me if crying may prevail And that his crying was in Faith Christ witnesseth ver 52. In all appearance the Woman of Candan was never at the Throne of Grace before Matth. 15.22,28 at least never at Christ's Feet before yet she managed her first Address with that confidence that she not only got her desire but that high Commendation with it O woman great is thy Faith So the Centurion Matth. 8.5,10 But above all Instances is that of the believing Thief on the Cross Luke 23.40,43 Never had the Throne of Grace so little to encourage an Address to it as when the King of Grace was dying on the Cross Never had a Sinner less encouragement to come to the Throne of Grace than when the Saviour was nailed to one Tree and the Sinner to another Marvellous Faith a dying Sinner dying for his Sins imploys a dying Saviour for Salvation Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom How little did Christ nailed to and dying on the Cross look like a King How strong was the Man's Faith to believe that Christ through death was going to his Kingdom And that Christ's gracious thought of him would save him And Jesus said unto him Verily I say unto thee to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise As if our Lord had said this is thy first and thy last Address to me verily it shall be heard Believers do not think how pleasing to the Lord large and high thoughts of the Sufficiency Fulness and Freedom of the Grace that is in Jesus Christ be Believers should devise liberal things and by liberal things they shall stand Isa 32.8 Let a Believer ask and think on the Warrant of the Promise as much as he can the Lord is able to do exceeeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us unto him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all Ages world without end Amen Eph. 3.20,21 SERMON V. 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 God's great and wonderful Mercy that ever there was a Throne of Grace erected and revealed and that he makes such a Proclamation as this in his Word Let all Men come boldly to it I have spoke unto two things in the Text. 1. Of the Throne of Grace to which we are invited to come 2. Of the Boldness allowed in coming to it The third thing follows to be spoke to the Ground of this Boldness implyed in this Therefore And we must look back to ver 14.15 for the finding the force of this Therefore The Words are Seeing then that we have a great High Priest that is passed into the Heavens Jesus the Son of God let us hold fast our profession For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our Infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin Let us therefore come boldly The Doctrine I am to handle from this Inference of the Apostle is this That the main ground of all the boldness allowed in coming to the Throne of Grace is in our Lord Jesus Christ The Interest and Room and Place that Christ hath in this Throne of Grace is the ground of all allowed boldness in coming to it When people are secure nothing is more commonly practised by them than fearless rushing into God's Presence Any carnal careless Sinner can when he will bow the Knee and make that he calls a Prayer to God But when Conscience is awakened and Light darts in to make them know somewhat of God and of themselves it is then found a matter of wonderful Mystery and difficulty to perceave any thing that can justly and sufficiently support the confidence of a self-condemned Sinner in his Approaches to God for Mercy Hence it is so often seen that this is the common way of all the ungodly and of such as are ignorant of God in Christ while they are secure and blind and hardened they feel nothing and fear nothing But when Death and Judgment approach and stare them near in the Face and when they begin to think in earnest that they must stand before God and receave their eternal Doom being ignorant of a Mediator and quite estranged from any believing imploying of him they sink in discouragement and Despair And alas How many miserable Sinners are there that are never awakened out of the sleep of security until they are plunged in the very Pit of Despair The Resolution therefore of this Question How a Sinner may draw near to the Throne of Grace with confidence so as he may be welcomed by him that sitteth on it and may receive good things thence is only in this that this Boldness is all in and by Jesus Christ My Work therefore at this time and it is indeed the main Work of Ministers at all times is to declare and shew you how our Lord Jesus Christ is the Ground and Foundation of true confidence in coming to God And herein I would lead you to such things that concern the Lord Jesus as are commonly known usually talked of but rarely duly pondered and improv'd 1. Let us consider the Person of this Mediator by whom we may have access with boldness Eph. 3.12 A wonderful Person The Son of God made Man a marvellous Man by whom all Men may be accepted with God when there is not a Man in the World that can be accepted of God in his own Name Yet all that come in Christ's Name are accepted Our Lord Jesus Christ is God's own Son the Son of God tabernacling in the Flesh God manifest in the Flesh The brightness of the Father's Glory and the express image of his Person Heb. 1.3 There is one God and one Mediator betwixt God and Men the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time 1 Tim. 2.6,7 In due time it will be seen what this Ransom was paid for and for whom for every one of the Ransomed shall get
their Liberty and Inheritance in God's Time and Way People commonly profess the Faith of this Truth That our Mediator is God and Man but how little is it improved by Faith We do not consider him how great a Person he is and how fit for us Heb. 3.1,2 Such as have any serious thoughts of God and of themselves and they are in a forlorn State that have none find a Necessity of a Mediator when they consider the strictness of his Justice the Power of his Wrath the perfect Purity and Holiness of his Nature compared with the sinfulness and vileness of their own Nature Hearts and Lives But there is another deeper Thought of God that will discover as great necessity of a Mediator and that is of his Greatness with God is terrible Majesty with God is unsearchable Glory How can there be a bold and acceptable Approach to him of whom we eannot frame a right sutable Thought How is it avoidable but that all our Worship must be to an Vnknown God for no man hath seen God at anytime John 1.18 Here comes in the Mediator Jesus Christ who is not only a Screen betwixt Justice and us but is a Glass wherein we may behold the glory of God This glory is only to be beheld in the Face or Person of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 All other Views of God's glory are either confounding or but vain unprofitable Notions All the Speculations of the Pagans that polished the dim Light of Nature and all the curious Studies of some called Christians about the Nature Being Properties and Attributes of God are nothing but pretty pieces of Philosophy there is nothing of sound Theology in those Thoughts unless they be all stinted limited directed to and determined by that discovery that God makes of himself to us in and by his Son Jesus Christ The Mediation then of Jesus Christ is not only an Argument which and on which we may plead with God but is the Mean by which only we must approach to God and the Light wherein we see and know savingly the God we worship He knew the Way best who is the Way to the Father and said No man cometh to the Father but by me And did answer Philip's weighty and very natural Desire Show us the Father and it sufficeth thus Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known me Philip He that hath seen me hath seen the Father And how sayest thou shew us the Father John 14.6,7,8,9 They all Worship an Idol or wander in a perfect Maze and Labyrinth that seek God out of Jesus Christ No where else is he to be sought or found but as a consuming fire God of old put his Name at Jerusalem to it they must come with their solemn Sacrifices when afar off they must look to it as Dan. 6.10 When they are bid remember the Lord afar off it 's added and let Jerusalem come into your mind Jer. 51.50 Now Jerusulem Temple Altar Holy of Holies Mercy-Seat Priests Sacrifices c. were all but Shadows of Jesus Christ Under the New Testament when Christ is come the Name of God is in him and all Worship and Approaches are to be made to God dwelling in this true Tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man Heb. 8.2 2. Let us consider our Lord's Office of High Priest So the Apostle calls him our great High Priest and we have him ver 14. This is a great ground of boldness in dealing with God that we have Christ for a High-Priest He was of God's own choosing and calling he is not of our choosing but he is for our using Should that Man be called a Christian who hath no use for this great High-Priest High-Priests were taken from among men and ordained for men in things pertaining to God Heb. 5.1 Consider the Honour of this Office to Christ and its usefulness to his People He glorified not himself to be made an High-Priest but he that said to him ver 5. Christ's Offices of King and Prophet carry visible plain glory in them But to be made an High-Priest especially when he is to be both Priest Altar and Sacrifice seem to have no glory but abasement But if we look to the inside of this Office it excels in glory What unconceavable glory is it to Christ to be the Reconciler of all things to take up so honourably the grand Quarrel betwixt angry Heaven and sinful Earth to purge our Sins by the Sacrifice of himself and then sit down at the Right Hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 1.3 To offer a Sacrifice in the Virtue whereof an innumerable Company out of all Nations Tongues and Languages are redeemed and justified and glorified for which he shall be eternally praised in Heaven by all the happy Inhabitants of that blessed place Rev. 5.9 As for the usefulness of this Office to his people I shall only name two things 1. In this Office he manageth all our Business with God such as we could never have done our selves and must be eternally undone if it were not done for us To satisfie Justice fulfil the Law and bring us in a sure Title to the Inheritance of Heaven 2. By Him we offer all our spiritual Services and have them presented by him for acceptance Heb. 13.15 We must do all in his Name Col. 3.17 3. Let us consider what our Lord did when he was on Earth And thence we have great ground for Confidence in coming to the throne of grace This the Apostle hath in his Eye ver 15. and ch 5 7. Two things I would take some notice of on this point 1. He had the same things for substance as Errands to the throne of grace that we have 2. That he did ply the throne of grace as we should Only premitting this that there is but a likeness in what he did to what we should do at the throne of grace and that likeness consistent with manifold differences as we shall regard 1. Our Lord Jesus Christ had the same things and the chief of them that are to us Errands to the throne of grace I shall instance in some of them and answer an Objection 1. Our Lord had Affliction for an Errand and more of it than any of his people He was afflicted yea smitten of God and afflicted Isa 53.4 He was oppressed and afflicted ver 7. If any man be afflicted let him pray Jam. 5.13 When Christ was afflicted he prays 2. Our Lord was deserted Blessed be his Name for it We should rejoice that he had not a life without Clouds The bitterest and saddest Desertion that ever a Believer was under is nothing to what Christ met with when he cryed out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me None are so much to be pityed as a Saint under Desertion When Affliction is heavy and pressing if all be clear above tho there be Clouds round about yet if the Lord smile from Heaven a Christian's Case is not much
can fully apprehend Christ prayed with great servency and with great confidence We rarely have them join'd in our Prayers If we have confidence of a good issue we are apt to grow cold in asking Christ knew the blessed issue of all his distress and believed it confidently Isa 50.7,8,9 Yet prayed earnestly He was heard and knew it John 11.41,42 Father I thank thee that thou hast heard me And I know that thou hearest me always Christians take encouragement and direction to pray and how to pray by Christ's Practice when he was on Earth 4. Let us consider Christ's Death for encouraging us to confidence in coming to the throne of grace This is the main ground of boldness in coming Heb. 10.10 Having boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus There is precious Blood must be shed or we cannot enter we must see it by Faith or we dare not venture We must come to the Blood of sprinkling Heb. 12.24 We dare not step one step into God's awful Presence unless we see the way marked consecrated and sprinkled with the Mediator's Blood How shall the Unholiest of Sinners venture to come into the Holiest of all God's Presence Yes faith the Holy Ghost such may by the Blood of Jesus Let us therefore consider what this Blood of Christ doth and speaks in order to our boldness in approaching to the throne of grace 1. This Blood satisfies Justice and answers all the Claims and Charges of the Law against us What marrs boldness like fears of a standing Controversie betwixt Heaven and us God is Holy we are vile Sinners God's Law is strict we have sinfully broke it and deserve Hell most justly No answer can be given but by this Blood What would the Law have but Christ gave Would the Law have a sinless Man to answer it as it was first given to sinless Adam Lo I come saith our Lord Jesus without all Sin a Man against whom for himself the Law hath no Charge or Challenge Would the Law have perfect sinless Obedience Christ did perform it Must the Law have Life and Blood for every breach of it Christ never broke the Law but the Burden of Millions of Breakers and Breaches of it lay on him and his Blood was shed for them And thereby he fulfilled the Law put away-sin by the sacrifice of himself Heb. 9.26 finished the transgression made an end of sin made reconciliation for iniquity brought in everlasting Righteousness sealed up the vision and prophecy and anointed the most Holy Dan. 9.24 You can never have boldness at the throne on grace unless by Faith you apply this Blood Christ is set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 The Propitiation is in his Blood Faith in it makes it our Propitiation 2. This Blood as it is satisfying Blood so it is purchasing Blood It is both an Attonement and Satisfaction and it is a Price It is Redeeming Blood for Persons and Purchasing Blood for Blessings All the Blessings we come to the throne of grace for are all bought by this Blood So that we may say that though we have nothing and deserve nothing yet when we ask all things we ask nothing but what is well and truly paid for by our Lord Jesus 3. All the Blessings purchased and bought by Christ's Blood are bequeathed to us and left by him that shed it Christ's Blood is a Test amentary bequeathing Blood And Believers in their coming to the Throne of Grace may come as Suers for the Execution and fulfilment of the last Will and Testament of our Lord Jesus For Christ by his death turned the Gospel and new Covenant into a Testament Heb. 9.15,16,17 His Death confirms his Testament His last Will is that all the Blessings his Blood purchased might be secured and laid up for and in due time given forth to them they were purchased for and bequeathed to The whole Legacy of Grace and Glory and all the Legatees are and were well known to the Testator and Executor though not to us particularly and the Testament will be punctually fulfilled So much for the assistance to Faith that Christ's death affords Learn to feed on it He that cannot make a Soul-meal and take a Soul-fill of a slain Saviour is a sorry Christian A true Christian is a poor starving Sinner digging in Christ's Grave for eternal Life There it only is and there he surely finds it 5 We find further in our Lord Jesus and indeed every thing in and of him helps forward our confidence in coming to God that this great Person the Son of God in our Nature this great Officer that lived so holily and died so virtuously That he also rose again from the dead The Resurrection of our Lord is also a mighty ground of boldness 1 Pet. 1.3 Blessed be the Lord and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead If Christ had lain still in his Grave our Hope had lain there too but because he rose our Hope also riseth with him So 1 Pet. 3.21 where the Apostle hath an elegant Similitude He compares Christ to the Ark of Noah All that were in this Ark were saved and they only the Deluge drowned all the World besides They that were saved in the Ark were saved from drowning in the Water and were saved by water The like Figure whereunto Baptism now saveth us Will bare Water-Baptism save No not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ As if the Apostle said He that by Faith hath sucked in the Virtue of Christ's Resurrection and can by that Faith plead it before God is a saved Man If all the World perish in the Deluge of God's Wrath this Man is in the Ark and nothing shall hurt him But alas Christ's Resurrection is looked upon by many Professors as a part of Gospel-History and Truth that it is a shame for any to be ignorant or doubt of and therefore they profess the Faith of it but they consider not that a great part of the Food of our Souls and of our Faith doth lye in this point of Truth This I would shew in three things 1. Christ's Resurrection was a Demonstration of the Divine Dignity of his Person Rom. 1.4 He was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of Holiness by the Resurrection from the dead The glorious Rays of his God-head did appear in his Word and Works and some had eyes to behold his Glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth even when he dwelt amongst Men. John 1.14 But his Glory was under an Eclipse till his Resurrection How stately and how sweetly doth he himself express it Rev. 1.17,18 I am the first and the last high Names of
a Divine eternal Person I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen They that saw him dead could hardly believe he should ever live again and they that saw him alive had need of Faith to believe he had ever been dead He asserts both and we should believe both Since death entered into the World by Sin never was there a Man more truly really and fully dead than the Man Christ was who died for our Sins And there is no Man on Earth more truly alive than the Man Christ is now a living Man in Heaven He in his rising gave proof of his Divine Power He was crucified through weakness yet he liveth by the power of God 2 Cor. 13.4 There was never such an appearance of Weakness in the Man Jesus as when he expired and lay cold dead in his Grave Never did sin reign so unto death nor the Law 's Power more appear than in slaying the second Adam As great and greater was the appearance of his Divine Power in his rising again John 10.17 Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life that I may take it again Christ died that he might rise again He went amongst the dead that he might rise from the dead ver 18. No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again This commandment have I received of my Father Christ was bid both die and rise again Blessed be the Commander and blessed be the Obeyer for our everlasting life is in this Commandment John 12.50 Never any but Christ had this power of his own Life We must yield our Life when God calls for it and till then we must keep it and when that Call comes we must obey We die because we can live no longer and because our times are in God's hand And when it shall please the Lord to raise up our bodies at the Resurrection we receave our life again but have no power to take it up again till the powerful Word of Christ come Arise from your Graves And that Word gives us our life again None but Christ had power of his own life both to lay it down and to take it again We dare we can we should do neither but only obey and submit to the Sovereign Will of our High Landlord at whose Pleasure we are Tennants in these clay cottages 2. Christ's Resurrection was a Demonstration of the Acceptance of the Sacrifice of himself That the Blood he shed and Sacrifice he offered was savoury and acceptable with God that the Debt was fully paid and the Payment accepted when the Surety was discharged of his Prison Therefore we find it so often written that God raised him from the dead Acts 2.24 and 32. even when it 's said that it was not possible he should be holden of death Death and the Grave are strong and cruel Song 8.6 They have taken or will take all Mankind Prisoners and are able to keep them Only they took one Prisoner Jesus Christ who was too hard too strong for them Death had dominion over him but for a little while and by his own consent Rom. 6.9 but it hath no more dominion over him But he hath dominion over it I have the Keys of hell and of death Rev. 1.18 Courage Believers in and Heart-Lovers of Jesus Christ Death and Hell are indeed dreadful Jayls but as long as Christ keeps the Keys and that will be till he cast them both into the Lake of fire Rev. 20.14 no Believer shall ever be locked up in them If Hell were searched never so narrowly amongst all the condemned Prisoners there no Man or Woman could be found in it in whose Heart there was never one spark of true Faith in or Love to the Lord Jesus Heb. 13.20 God brought again from the dead the great Shepherd of the Sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant Christ also is often said to rise by his own power Christ put forth his Divine Power in his Resurrection the Father declared his full satisfaction with his Undertaking of the Work and Payment of the Price of Redemption by discharging of him in and by his Resurrection The Angels Work was only to roll away the Stone but by his own divine Power his blessed Soul did take possession of his dead Body and he did rise up immediately a truly living Man And this he did by his Father's Leave and Will and the Angels served only as Sergeants and Officers to unlock the Prison-doors of the Grave For Christ could easily have removed that Stone by his own power as he did greater things in his Resurrection No wonder the Apostle Paul made it one of his great aims in Christianity to know the power of Christ's Resurrection Phil. 3.10 It is not to know the History of his Resurrection nor is it to know the Mystery of his Resurrection but it is to know the Power of it the same Power that Christ raised himself from the dead by is put forth and no less is needful for the raising of a dead Sinner The same Power that raised the Saviour dead for Sin is needful for raising a Sinner dead in Sin Rom. 4.5 Therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into Death that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we should also walk in newness of life Eph. 1.19 There is an exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead c. How loath are Men to admit this that the saving quickening of a Sinner requires the same divine Power that quickened the dead Saviour All saving Conversions are the Fruits of Christ's Resurrection and of Almighty Power 3. Christ's Resurrection is the Pledge and Earnest of our Resurrection and of eternal Life How great things doth Paul build upon it 1 Cor. 15. He proves our Resurrection from Christ's Resurrection He argues for Christ's Resurrection by enumerating of Absurdities that must follow on the contrary As ver 14. If Christ be not risen then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain ver 15. We the Apostles are found false Witnesses of God ver 17. Then you are yet in your sins ver 18. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished ver 19. Then we are of all men most miserable But now Christ is risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that slept ver 20. For since by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead The first Adam was made a living soul ver 45. but when he became a sinner he became a killing Head to all his Posterity Rom. 5.12 The second Adam is a quickening spirit and gives eternal Life to all his Seed And he took possession of this eternal Life in
us Aaron and his Successors in the Office of High Priest were appointed to offer the great Sacrifice of yearly Attonement at the Altar and with the Blood thereof to enter into the Holy of Holies and to sprinkle the Mercy-Seat their Throne of Grace with that Blood Lev. 16.14 Our Lord Jesus the Anti-type offered the Sacrifice of himself in his death and in and with the virtue of that Sacrifice he entred Heaven to sprinkle the highest Altar therewith It is but a fond Popish fancy to think that there do remain visible Marks and Signatures of his humbled State on the glorified body of our Lord Jesus that is indeed to know Christ after the Flesh in a bad sense 2 Cor. 5.16 But his entring with his own blood is spiritually to be understood that Christ's Appearance in Heaven is to bring up a Memorial continually before God of the virtue and savour of that Sacrifice he offered without the Gates of Jerusalem Eph. 5.2 Christ loved us and hath given himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour This savour never spends or wears out The Blood of Jesus in the Virtue of it in the Merit of it and in the Power of it is as fresh this day as in the day it was shed on the Cross He is still the â—ew-slain way to the holiest of all Heb. 10.20 â—s fresh and fragrant as ever If Men by their â—nbelief count it old or stale and to have lost â—ts savour and virtue to themselves and if they will seek for somewhat else to procure them â—cceptance in Heaven let them try and peâ—ish for none can help them that reject Christ â—ut our Lord presents nothing for the Salvation of his Body the Church but his own Blood and nothing else is accepted in Heaven for this End but that precious Blood And all they to whose Consciences this Blood is applyed and who come unto it and feel its virtue and power will abhor all vain and dangerous mixtures of any thing with this Sovereign Balsom It is always savoury in Heaven and it is always savoury to all them that are in the right way to Heaven Our Lord in his Intercession fills Heaven with the Almighty and Eternal savour of his Blood and Heaven is filled with the Praises of it and of the shedder of it Rev. 5.9,12 If its savour do not fill the parts of the Earth where it is preached it is because Men have lost or rather never had the spiritual sense that only can take in this savour and not because this Blood is impaired in its virtue But this is the sin and misery of this condemned World that what is most savoury in Heaven is least savoured on Earth and what is most sought after prized and doted on in Earth is vanity and abomination in Heaven Luke 16.15 3. In Christ's Intercession there is his knowledge of and sympathy with the Ails and Distresses of his people This the Apostle takes notice of in ver 15. His knowledge of their Distresses we can more easily account for than for his Sympathy His Omniscience as God we believe Peter sweetly owned it John 21.15,16,17 O that Christ would with power ask the same Question at all of you and that you could give the same Answer Christ's Question is lovest thou me more than these Not long since thou said'st so what saist thou now Peter's Answer is Yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee And on the repeating of the Question Peter gives the same Answer ver 16. When Christ a third time ask'd the same Question Peter was grieved ver 17. and answers thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee As if he said I dare not compare my Love to thee with that of others to thee thou hast reason to question my love to thee because of my late woful denyal of thee but yet I dare call thee to Witness who knowest all things that I do love thee Though all my Brethren love thee better than I do or can though I be more unworthy than any to be loved by thee yet I am sure I love thee If the love of Christ were as a hot Fire within and its Coals were casting out a vehement Flame as Song 8.6 Believers would more often call Christ by that sweet Name sweet to us to speak and sweet to him to hear O thou whom my Soul loveth Song 1.7 Miserable Souls are they who love not Christ And dull unobservant people are they that know not what or whom their Souls love Is the love of Christ a meer Notion Is it not a most sensible holy and spiritual Passion or rather a heavenly Grace Can Men love Christ and not feel it Should they feel it and not avow it Is there any thing we should be ashamed of in the love of Christ but the shameful smalness of it That our highest and hottest love is so unsutable a Return to his incomparable Loveliness and his Wonderful Love to us and the dear Demonstrations of it All ye that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity look on him and love him more love him with all your Souls and blush with shame that you love him no better Blow the coals of Love by Faith and let the Flame mount up to Heaven and ascend ye in the Flame of the Altar as Manoah's Angel did Judg. 13.20 You that doubt of your Love to Christ go to him fall down before him answer Peter's Question according to the true sense of your Souls and it will be Lord thou knowest that I love thee Love Christ and ye will quickly feel ye love him A sight of Christ will beget Love and Love will quickly speak for it self 2 Cor. 5.14,15 But for Christ's Sympathy with his people this is harder to conceave than his knowledge of their Distresses It is a Sympathy different from what he had in the days of his own Infirmity it is as tender but not disturbing as real but not afflicting It is inconsistent with his glorifieâ— State to have any trouble His Sympathy it self is to be believed the manner how it acts is unsearchable Heb. 2.17 In all things it behoved him to be made like unto his Brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God Heb. 4.15 He is touched with the feeling of our Infirmities and was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin About this deep point of Christ's Sympathy we may soberly conceave 1. Our Lord's Remembrance of his own Infirmities Temptations and Afflictions in the days of his Flesh This is plain and certain 2. His sure and distinct particular Knowledge and Remembrance of his people and of all that concerns them within and without 3. His Interest in them and Care of them and Concern for them as his Members 4. His Power and Wisdom as their Head to send down vital Influences upon them as their Case requires Eph. 4.16 Col. 2.19 Lastly Christ's
of this Mercy of God We do not reckon a man miserable only on the account of what he feels but also on that of his just Fears And generally the smart of misery is raised from fear rather and more than from feeling If any thing renders a man's present State miserable the apprehension of the duration or increase of what he feels adds greatly to his misery Many things would be little complained of as great Evils were a man sure that in a moment they shall be removed But in a Sinner's Case for as bad as it is at present it will surely be worse with him shortly if mercy prevent not There is certainty of its coming and an eternal duration of it when it comes It is called the Wrath to come 1 Thes 1.10 Nothing like it ever came on them Present Wrath though dreadful is but a trifle to that that is to come It is Wrath to come for it will surely come As surely as God lives as surely as God is true in his word of Threatning this Wrath will come on the World of the Ungodly No putting of this evil Day far away but in vain Thoughts no diverting or keeping it back a moment All the united Force of the rebellious part of the Creation will not be able to stem or stop this fearful Tide of Wrath. It is Wrath to come for it is still coming and approaching As many Days and Years as an ungodly sinner counts in his life as many Days and Years Journeys hath God's Wrath made towards him Think on this Old Sinners God's Wrath and you are near to meet except mercy interpose You think you run from it but it runs after you it will come upon you and pursue you and overtake you as Deut. 28.45 It 's Wrath to come because it is always a coming and never past The Tide of God's Wrath on the Damned is an eternal Flood there will never be an ebbing Look down to Hell and see how they fare there Alas Men will not believe and fear and fly and therefore must feel How many daily hear of this Wrath to come and yet never have any fear of it till they be irrecoverably plunged into it Who never awaken out of the sleep of security till awakened by the Flashes of Hell fire Who will never believe God's Wrath till they feel it No true Believer goes to Hell all Unbelievers are sent thither but as soon they come there they become woful Believers because eternal feelers of this Wrath to come Mens danger of this dreadful State should make them cry mightily for God's Mercy as it renders them unspeakably needy of it But your own serious Thoughts about it would do you more good than many Words can The second thing proposed is What is the obtaining of mercy A frequent manner of Speech in Scripture 1 Tim. 1.13 Who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious But I obtained mercy 1 Pet. 2.10 Which in time past were not a people but are now the people of God which had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy This Phrase of obtaining mercy speaks forth 1. That the mercy is God's Gift Our obtaining is the fruit of his giving I obtained mercy saith Paul and may every Believer say How so he gave it he showed he demonstrated it as 1 Tim. 1.16 It is the Lord 's shewing it tendering and giving of it that is the only spring of our obtaining it We do not buy it we do not work it out we are no way meet for it but by misery God's mercy springs not out of the Earth but comes down from Heaven It is the Gift of God And as such must all seek it that would obtain it and as such will all eternally own it that do obtain it 2. This Phrase speaks forth a particular application of mercy to the Receaver by the Giver of it I obtained mercy saith Paul general mercy would not do my business another man's mercy would not save me I must have it of my own for my self and so I got it Mercy came to me made me a Visit and applyed it self to me in particular So must it be with you You will never be saved you shall never see God's Face in Glory unless his mercy deal with you and apply it self as particularly to you as if there were no other Person in the World to be saved by Mercy besides thy self There is indeed a blessed multitude of the Vessels of Mercy and the Captain of our Salvation brings many Sons to Glory Heb. 2.10 But yet there is a personal particular Application of saving mercy to every saved sinner And for this Application of mercy we should come to the Throne of Grace Though there be infinite mercy at this Throne and though many receave of this Mercy yet you must have of this Mercy for your selves or you cannot be saved Your Soul is your own and no man's else your danger sin and misery is your own and no man's else and the mercy that saves you must be as much your own and not another body's mercy That deep Discourse of of the Apostle looks this way Rom. 11.30,31,32 For as ye in times past have not believed God yet now have obtained mercy through their unbelief Even so have these also now not believed that through your mercy they may also obtain mercy For God hath concluded them all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all It is a great mystery of Judgment and Mercy the Apostle is speaking of the rejecting of the Jews and calling in of the Gentiles Mercy took occasion from the just casting off of the Jews to visit the Gentiles and will in due time bestow it self again upon the Jews But both of them must have mercy of their own Mercy to the Jews will not save the Gentiles mercy to the Gentiles will not save the Jews both must have their own mercy The Fountain is the same the Streams are the same but the Vessels are not the same and every Vessel of mercy must have its own measure of its own particular mercy So must it be with you if you be saved by mercy it must be your own and no man's else 3. Obtaining of mercy speaks forth the Receavers possessing of it Obtained mercy is not only bestowed and applyed mercy but it is possessed mercy Such things as cannot be possessed and kept are worth little pains in seeking But God's mercy is well worth the seeking because it may be both had by seeking and kept when obtained and is unspeakably beneficial when enjoyed Psal 103.17 The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him As if the Psalmist said Man is but a Flower his Life is a Wind and Vapour that quickly and surely passeth away but it is not so with God's mercy it eternally abides on all it falls upon O that Men would think on this As God lives and is true in his Word God's
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
and not impoverish the Giver What can such as I beg of such a God as he is but mercy His Name is Mercy my Name is Misery I would have my misery relieved by his mercy and his mercy glorified in my relief 4. Hope in his mercy Psal 147.11 The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him in those that hope in his mercy Psal 130.7 Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy It is from the Devil for whom there is no mercy that any of the most miserable out of Hell are tempted to think there is no mercy with God for them He envies Men God's mercy he doth not only tempt to sin but also to security in it till the day of mercy be past If God awaken a sinner to see his need of mercy in time Satan tempts them to think that it is out of time In such temptations he acts most like himself a reprobate damned Spirit and in managing of them he hath great advantages from his own Craft and Malice and Men's just deserving of Wrath. Look on all such Thoughts as from that Adversary and treat them accordingly When you beg mercy look for it Expect to obtain it when you would lay hold on it The Lord will never keep back his saving mercy from a sinner that would have it as his life When you plead for mercy for mercy's sake hope to prevail and that will help you to plead better So much for this Exhortation Will ye go home and do so Will you study more your misery and the greatness of his mercy and ask and plead for it more earnestly There is never better fruit of Preaching than when the Hearers are sent away hungering and thirsting after the Lord's mercy SERMON VIII 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 to the first of the Blessings to be got at the Throne of Grace which we should come for Obtaining of mercy The second is the finding of Grace to help in time of need This Expression finding of Grace is probably borrowed from the Old Testament wherein the bestowing of Favour is usually so expressed We find it in Mens Pleadings with one another So Jacob to Esau Gen. 32.5 and Gen. 33.8 These are to find grace in the sight my Lord. And he pleads upon it ver 10. If I have found grace in thy sight then receave my present at my hand for therefore I have seen thy face as though I had seen the face of God and thou wast pleased with me Jacob had seen God's Face that morning and had found grace in his sight and he remembers it when he finds grace in the sight of his angry Brother So we find the Phrase used in dealing with God by Moses Exod. 33.12,13 Yet thou hast said I know thee by name and thou hast sound grace in my sight Now therefore I pray thee If I have found grace in thy sight shew me now thy way that I may know thee that I may find grace in thy sight The first thing I would remark here is the Connexion betwixt these two Blessings and Errands Obtaining of Mercy and Finding of Grace Mercy and Grace are joined together by God and are not to be put asunder by Man Many would separate them they would be content to obtain mercy but they care not so much for his grace But such are only profane ignorant persons that know neither God nor themselves nor his Mercy nor his Grace The Lord will not give Mercy without Grace nor Grace without Mercy all that receave either receave both and all that would have either must ask both and none can ask either aright but he that asks both This Grace we are called to come to the Throne of Grace for the finding of is specified from its great advantage and usefulness It is Grace to help in time of need The Words in the Original are Grace for seasonable opportune help It is the nature of this Grace that it is helpful its helpfulness mainly appears in a time of need A time of need will come this Grace is to be asked before that time come it is to be waited upon till the time of need come and used when it comes The Truth to be spoke to is this plain one That all that hear of God's Offer of Grace should come to God to ask it to get it to find it Men should come to God's Throne of Grace for Grace for themselves They should come to God in Christ Jesus for the Grace of God in and by Christ Jesus This is a Truth so bright in its own evidence that there is no need to confirm it What hath been said of coming to obtain mercy is equally binding unto coming to find Grace Two things then I would speak unto at this time 1. What is this Grace we are called to come to the Throne of Grace for 2. What finding of Grace is what specialty is there in this expression It is certain never did a Man find Grace before Grace found him Grace is always the first finder But the sense of it and our knowledge of our having found it follows after 1. What is this Grace we are to come to the Throne of Grace for finding of We have need to know this distinctly The reason why many are so confused and dark and barren in their Prayers is because they know not what is to be got by Prayer If we had a a clear knowledge of the full extent of this Grace that is to be dispensed at this Throne of Grace we should quickly know what to ask and find matter for asking continually This Grace of God that we are invited to come to the throne of grace for finding of comes under three different Considerations 1. As it is in the Fountain from whence it flows 2. As it is in the Channel in which it runs 3. As it is in the Vessels that do receave it 1. Grace considered as in the Fountain from whence it flows is Grace in God The Scriptures take notice of the special Interest that each of the Three blessed Persons of the Godhead have in the dispensing of Grace We find the Father called the God of all Grace 1 Pet. 5.10 and there Christ is also named and the Holy Ghost implyed The Father the God of all Grace is the Caller he calleth us to his eternal Glory by Christ Jesus we are fitted for the possession of it by the Grace of the Holy Ghost Our Lord Jesus Christ is oft spoke of as the Fountain of Grace John 1.14 Full of Grace and Truth and that we might know that this Fountain-fulness in him is for Communication ver 16. And out of his Fulness have all we receaved and grace for grace The Holy Ghost is called the spirit of grace Heb. 10.29 of grace and supplication Zech. 12.10 Of Faith 2 Cor. 4.13 When
By his Fall he hath lost Happiness and Purity but retains his Knowledge which his Corruption hath turned into Craft Malice and Wiles 3. His long Experience in cheating of Men. 4. That in Men that his Wiles are proposed to it is to the Heart deceitful above all things and desperately wicked Jer. 17.9 It is to the Old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts Eph. 4.22 Such a Devil dealing with such a deceitful Heart must have many dangerous Wiles Christ's Grace only can enable a Man to discern them and it should be much prayed for Many have been skilful in the Theory and Knowledge of the Doctrine of Satan's Wiles that have been notwithstanding prevailed upon by them A Man must know his own Heart well and observe its motions narrowly and be much at the Throne of Grace that would know Satan's particular Wiles on himself 2. Grace helps the Tempted in helping to hate the sin they are tempted to Many Believers though they cannot tell well whence the Wind comes that drives them whether from their own Heart or the Devil yet they know whither it drives them to Sin that they are averse from Tempted Joseph spake like a Man that had present assistance of Grace when he said Gen. 39.9 How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God As far and as long as the sin tempted to stands black and ugly in the eye of the tempted Person so far and so long is the Temptation ineffectual Temptation prevails when the sin tempted to takes with the Heart and Will Jam. 1.14 A man is tempted i. e. successfully when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed Sin was without him but near to him by the Temptation now it is within him and it is his sin The Temptation to numbering of the people took with David but his Command about it was abominable to Joab a Man far short of David's Grace if he had any 1 Chron 21.6 3. Grace can help the Tempted to resist and stand Eph. 6.13 No Man is overcome of Satan till he flee and yield Resisting is overcoming of him Jam. 4.7 Resist the Devil and he will flee from you 1 Pet. 5.9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith Eph. 6.16 Above all taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the Devil They are Darts they are the Devils Darts they are fiery Darts there is an all of them yet by Faith you may be able to quench them all Why is so much said of Faith Because as Christ's strength is the Believers strength so Faith is that only in a Believer that acts on this Strength draws it in and acts in it Separate Faith from its Object Christ either in Justification or in Sanctification and it becomes an Imagination a Vanity a Nothing Now consider how cunningly Satan deals with Believers and how simply they are gulled by him in Temptation He perswades and often prevails with them to lay aside the Shield of Faith when they should mainly use it How foolish were that Man that would yield his Arms to an implacable Enemy Christ knew Peter's danger and provides graciously for it I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not Luke 22.32 4. The helping Grace of God assists tempted Believers in preventing an utter Foyl by Satan and in recovering them from a begun Foyl So did Christ for Peter and Paul 2. Cor. 12.8,9 The Devil never gets all his Will on a Believer nor are any Wounds he gives to a Saint mortal in the issue whatever they be in their own nature in Believers Fears or in the Devil's Design All the Glory is due to the Grace that is in Christ Jesus Lastly Grace can rebuke the Tempter and call him off This Joshua the High-Priest needed and got Zech. 3.2 And the Lord said unto Satan who was standing at Joshua's right hand to refist him when he is standing before the Angel of the Lord ver 1. The Lord rebuke thee O Satan even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire This Mercy was the first thing in Paul's Prayer 2 Cor. 12.8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me This Messenger of Satan was of Christ's sending and giving There was given to me a thorn in the flesh a Messenger of Satan to buffet me ver 7. Lord save us from such gifts will Christians be apt to say there is no reason to pray for them if the Lord see them needful he will send them But it is comfortable that all the Devil's Assaults are of Christ's ordering He must have Christ's leave to tempt Luke 22.31 And our Lord when he pleaseth can and will call him off When Christ was tempted Matth 4. he resists all his Temptations by the Word as his people should at last he put forth his Divine Power ver 10. Get thee hence Satan c. Then the Devil leaveth him This we cannot do but Christ can do it for us It is a blessed Promise Rom. 16.20 The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you Amen Poor tempted Christians think that they are not only in Satan's Sieve and in his Hands but that they are often under his Feet But lift up your Heads by Faith on this Promise Compleat Victory is coming and the Faith of it should not only encourage you to resist but this Faith is a present Victory Faith is our Victory 1 John 5.4 The Believer not only shall be but is an Overcomer SERMON XI HEB. IV. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need THE Lord hath been pleased so to order and determine the State and Condition of his Children while they are in this Life that they shall be constantly needy This Dispensation we should submit unto with all quietness of mind not quarrelling with the Wisdom and Mercy of our God therein Yea more than Submission is called for There is a further Duty required though it be hard to perform it to take pleasure and to rejoice in this needy State that the power of Christ may rest upon us For as the Lord hath laid us or left us under manifold Necessities So hath he laid up and is ready to lay out of his Grace for helping us under them And surely such Wants as lay us open for those Supplies of his Grace will be found to have a great deal of Mercy in them in the issue The Exhortation in the Text implies that Grace can help in every time of need There are some times of need contrived by the Lord on purpose that the helpfulness of his Grace might the more shine and appear I was speaking last day from this Truth That there are some special necessitous Times in which Believers are specially needy of
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
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
better School for Men to learn weigh and duly to understand the things of God in than a frequent and near view of death What an edge would this put upon our Praying Hearing Worship and Walking Every thing that is done by Men as dying Persons is usually well done I shall only add this that there are some sorts of dying that are very desirable in which the Grace of God is very useful and needful 1. Patient dying Dying is not properly a Duty but a Suffering It is not our Act but there is a manifold Exercise of Grace called for in dying Never did any Man act in dying but Jesus Christ he could lay down his life and take it again John 10.17,18 We cannot lay down our Lives they are not our own We are bid keep them as long as we lawfully can and when the great Command comes Return we are to yield obedience to it It is a great Blessing to have Patience for dying and Patience in dying Heb. 10.36 You have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God ye may receave the Promise And we often need Patience most when just upon the receaving of the Promise We should run with patience the Race set before us Heb. 12.1 And must of Patience is usually most needful in the last Stage of this Race Patience should have her perfect work Jam. 1.4 And the perfect and perfecting Work of Patience is the last act of it We all know that usually death comes on by such steps as are grievous to the Flesh There are Pains Sickness and Languishings that are no small Tryals of Patience but these are in a manner but Tryals of the Patience of the Flesh There are other things about dying that Patience is tryed by as time and place and many Circumstances that it is no small or easie thing to be quietly submitted to Javob the Heir of the Promise goes down to Egypt to Joseph for Bread after he is starv'd our of the Land of Promise and must die in Egypt and leave his Family there where they were to be long and heavily oppressed as the Lord told his Grandfather Abraham Gen. 15.13 Moses must die on the other side of Jordan David must not see a Stone laid in the Temple Josiah must die in Battel and that by not hearkening to the words of Necho from the mouth of God 2 Chron. 35.22 But what of such sad Circumstances of dying did not our Lord himself die under a dark Cloud on his dear Father's Face and on his own blessed Soul My God my God why hast thou forsaken me were sad Words from the sad Soul of our dying blessed Lord. His Disciples forsook him the Sun forsook him Earth and Hell bandyed against him yet all was nothing to his Father's forsaking him How bitter was this to our Lord and yet how sweet is it to the Faith of Believers If you be called to die under a Cloud remember the Lord the Heir the Purchaser of Heaven went to Heaven in the greatest Storm that ever blew from Earth and Hell and Heaven on any man's Face at death Men are ashamed to express any quarrel against dying but there are many things about it that make us needy of much Grace to help to quiet submitting unto it both in substance and all circumstances attending it 2. Safe dying This is very needful and it is Grace's doing Many die Patiently as Men think that die not safely There are no bands in the death of the wicked sometimes Psal 73.4 Some go out of this Life to Hell more calmly than some of the Heirs of Glory pass to their blessed home Safe dying is to die without any hurt to the Soul that when the Cage of the Body is broken by death the Soul the Bird may take Wing and fly straight and safe to Heaven Death is the Believers 1 Cor. 3.22 as well as Life But what have we to do with death or death with us It is a black Boat that we must sail out of time to Heaven in And Christ steers the Boat and lands all Believers safely on Heaven's Shore This is all we have to do with death And when all the Passengers are brought over Christ will burn this ugly Boat Rev. 20.14,15 And death and hell or the Grave were cast into the lake of fire this is the second death And whosoever was not found written in the book of Life was cast into the lake of fire And then in the New Jerusalem there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away Rev. 21.4 Who would not venture to pass out of this bad World to that blessed Land under Christ's Conduct though sailing through the Gulf of death be unpleasant in it self to us Men for Gain will sail from one end of the Earth to the other through heat and cold and stormy Seas and Winds and manifold Perils in the probable hope of advantage But Balievers may be assured that they shall arrive at their Port. Never did a Believer in Jesus Christ die or drown in his Voyage to Heaven They will be all found safe and sound with the Lamb on Mount Zion Christ loseth none of them nay nothing of them John 6.39 Not a Bone of a Believer is to be seen in the Field of Battel They are all more than conquerors through him that loved them Rom. 8.37 3. It is very desirable to have an honourable dying It is a part of the Vanity of this World that many dote upon an honourable Burial Some respect indeed should be paid to the dead Bodies of Believers but honourable dying is a great deal more considerable than that Men call an honourable Burial Our Lord told Peter of his dying John 21.19 This spake Jesus signifying by what death Peter should glorifie God That is honourable dying that brings Glory to God Paul is confident of this as to himself Phil. 1.20 According to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed but that with all boldness as always so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body whether it be by life or by death The most honourable dying is dying for the Lord this Honour is not given to all his Saints All Saints die in the Lord and blessed are they Rev. 14.13 Our desire should be to be enabled by his Grace to hear our dying Testimony to Christ and his Gospel There have been strong Convictions given to the Consciences of Sinners wonderful Supports to the Hearts of surviving Saints by the honourable dying of some Believers Their example their words their very looks and Behaviour in the Shadow of death have been of great use to them that have seen and heard them 4. It is also desirable to have the Mercy of comfortable dying To have an entrance ministred to us abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1.11 The Lord's
and set in a clear Light before the Eyes of your Mind all the particular Providences Tryals and Afflictions and Temptations you are to meet with in seven Years time to come what a dread would it be to you You would soon beg that it might be forgot again It is a great deal better for us that future things that belong to God are secret and kept from us and that we are led on believing and come to the Waters in our way to Heaven one after another and get through them by the gracious Conduct of our blessed Guide Christ He will give no Christian a particular and exact Map of all his Way and Stages and Entertainment in this Wilderness-Journey to Heaven though our Lord hath fixed them all in his Decree Should it not be enough for us that he will lead us well and safely that no Water shall drown us that he will never leave us but be with us wherever he leads us and will bring us safe home at last to his Fathers House 4. Be satisfied with this part of his wise Order That this Supply of his Grace to help in time of need must be come for Not only that we may come for it which is a great Priviledge but that we must come for it if we would have it Is there any so unreasonable as to find fault with this Order is it not fair and easie ask and have Would any have Grace to help them unsought If you would have it you are asking it Is it not fit then to come for it and tell Christ you would have it If you would not have it you are praying against it And wicked are those Prayers that are in aversion from the Grace of Christ Every Believer will find his Heart reconciled to this Order They know that there is a Blessing in coming as well as a Blessing to be got by coming And most Christians I am apt to think continue their Approaches to the Throne of Grace as much if not more from the Delight they find in coming as from the Profit they find by coming though these two are not inconsistent He that delights not himself in the Lord will not always call upon God Job 27.10 So much for this general Exhortation 2. Exhort In the next place I would speak somewhat to them that are not acquainted with the Grace of God nor with the Throne of Grace Graceless people is so bad a name that few will own it tho' many deserve it Such fill up much room in most Assemblies and sometimes may step up into the Pulpit in the name of Ministers of that Grace of God they never knew but in a Book But God calls all by their right names and only can make Men answer to those names Let these four things enter into such Folks Thoughts 1. Vnavoidably a time of need will come that the Grace of God can only help in None but a great Atheist can make any doubt of this Dost thou believe there is a God that thou art a Mortal Man whom a few more days will turn out of this World Dost thou believe that thou hast an immortal Soul that must be for ever and how much a Beast is that Man and worse than a Beast that doubts of any of these If thou believe these plain Principles canst thou doubt but a time of need will come wherein nothing can stand thee in any stead but only this God's Mercy and Grace 2. This present time you have is the only time given you for preparing for the time of need that must come How little is that precious golden Talent Time laid out for that the Lord gives it for Can Men think that God gives them time to spend it in the ways they spend it That must be ill-spent time that is spent so as Men know they must either repent of or perish by We are bid redeem the time Eph. 5.16 But most Men throw it away or fell it to Sin and Satan as if they had no the for it The best use of time is to spend it in preparing for Eternity All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come Job 14.14 These are well-spent Days But how few of the Hours of your Days are thus spent 3. There can be no greater folly than to neglect this present only season of preparing for an unavoidable time of extremity Our Lord in the Parable calls the five negligent Virgins foolish Matth. 25.2 If a Man throw away his Estate in Folly and Vanity the World will brand him with the name of a Fool and justly If a Man throws away his Health and Life there is Folly in that too But for a Man to throw away his Soul and all his hopes of well-being for Eternity is the rankest of all Folly yet is the World so full of such Fools that very few give it its true Name He must be greatly plagued with blindness and stupidity that is not convinced that that is the greatest Folly that shuts a Man eternally out of Heaven and locks him up in Hell 4. There can be no reflexion and remorse more sad and bitter than that that riseth on the Review and Sense of this Folly when it is remediless We read of the worm that dieth not Mark 9.44,46,48 This is commonly understood of Conscience Conscience stings two ways and one way more dreadfully than the other Conscience stings for Sin as it is an offence against God a breach of his Holy Law and as it exposeth the Sinner to God's dreadful Anger But Conscience stings more dreadfully for neglecting the Remedy for Sin provided in Christ and revealed to Men in the Gospel Therefore our Lord lays the Condemnation of the World that perisheth under the Gospel on this John 3.19 It is not laid on the evil of their deeds but on this that their love to their deeds made them hate the Light that discovered them and the Grace that only can pardon and heal them Men perish not under the Gospel because they are Sinners against God's Law though the least Sin deserves Hell and they that have not the Light of the Gospel are justly judged by the Law but because they believe not in Jesus Christ John 3.18 And Believers in Christ are not saved because they are Holy though all that believe are Holy but because they are in Christ by Faith That the Glory of Salvation may be Christ's entirely and the blame of Mens Perdition under the Gospel may be their own intirely Let Men therefore prevent this dreadful Ruin by giving an ear to him that calleth them Christ offers you Salvation from a Throne of Grace Come and take it Come and put forth your Hand and take and eat of the Tree of Life and live for ever You must all shortly stand before Christ's Throne when it will be no more a Throne of Grace 2 Cor. 5.10 We must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ That will be a time of great