Grace and Mercy 3. There is a Throne of Gods Justice spoken of This is that Throne David deprecates his being brought before Psal 143.2 Enter not into judegment with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified If a man be wronged and oppressed by men stronger than he he may appeal to this Throne of Justice and expect redress But if a mans business be with God he should be afraid of this Throne of Justice Men are oft proud and vain in their thoughts and before others but if the Lord call them before this High Court of Justice they will surely be cast Job 9.2,3 How should a Man be just with God! If he will contend with him he cannot answer him one of a thousand When God sits on a Throne of Justice to judge men according to his Law and their Works nothing but Condemnation can justly be pronounced on sinners Whoever he be of sinful Adam's seed that expecteth saving favour from God's Throne of Justice will find himself wofully deceived 4. We find the Throne of the last judgment before this all must appear 2 Cor. 5.10 Rev. 20.12 This is not the Throne of Grace in the Text. No grace nor mercy is shown to any from this Throne but to them that have plyed and sped at the Throne of Grace before When our Lord comes and sits on the Throne of his Glory Mat. 25.31 no sinner that hath despised his Grace now will find any quarter then Luke 19.27 What then is this Throne of Grace It is God in Christ dealing with men according to the Grace of the Gospel It is God in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing to them their trespasses 2 Cor. 5.19 It is Christ set forth by God to be a propitiation Rom. 3.25 This is the true Mercy-seat or Throne of Grace or Propitiation 1 John 2.2 1 John 4.10 This is the New Court or Throne erected by God and declared in the Gospel to which sinful man is invited to come 2. Why is it called a Throne of Grace Passing what is said of the Apostles alluding to the Mercy-seat in the Tabernacle and Temple of Old 1. It is called a Throne because of the Glory and Majesty of God manifested here God's condescending to display and dispense his Grace and Mercy to sinners is no debasing of God but an advancing of his Glory When he gives Grace he acts Royally and as a King with Majesty Araunahs offering to David is said to be like a King 2 Sam. 24.23 he was no King but a Subject but he had a free noble Heart The Lord on this Throne of Grace dispenseth all acts of Grace with great Majesty and as a King But not as a King-Judge and Ruler but as a King-Benefactor and Giver This Royalty of Grace shines 1. In the greatness of the Gifts Grace and Mercy Vastly above all that the Creation can give 2. In the manner of giving Free Soveraignly free Grace and Mercy is his own and he doth with them as he will When Moses prays Exod. 33.18 I beseech thee shew me thy Glory We cannot conceive what was in his holy heavenly heart He was now just come down from the Mount the first time he is going up again to spend other 40 days there in such Communion with God as never meer man enjoyed before or since out of Heaven he had prevailed with God for Israel and hath a most gracious answer vers 17. And the Lord said unto Moses I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken for thou hast found grace in my sight and I know thee by name What means Moses then by this prayer Ver. 18. What ever he meant the Lords answer is much to be observed Vers 19. And he said I will make all my goodness or Beauty pass before thee and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee What is in this Name that hath so much of Glory and Goodness in it as should satisfie such a mighty hungerer for more of God as Moses was I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy God's Glory shines highly in his being the Soveraign disposer of his own Grace and Mercy and happy is the Believer that adores this glorious Soveraignty Paul in Rom. 9.15.25 makes a deep improvement of it Jer. 17.12 A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary See then that you in all your pleadings for Grace and Mercy remember that you are before a high stately Throne Approaches to God on the Throne of Grace should be managed with the deepest Reverence and Humility So did the Publican when he came to it Luke 18.13 God be merciful propitious to me a sinner or me the sinner the great singular sinner So the Greek runs as Luke 7.37,39 The deepest profoundest adoration of the Glorious Majesty of God is performed by a self-condemned sinner pleading at this Throne for the obtaining of the soveraign free grace of God Lastly it is called a Throne because Grace reigns and is enthroned here Rom. 5.21 Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Blessed Reign and blessed are all that are under the Reign and Dominion of the Grace of God Sin reigned through the unrighteousness of the first Adam unto eternal death if men be let alone and if Grace do not break this Reign of sin and Grace reigns through the righteousness of the Second Adam unto etrnal life and nothing can dethrone Grace it will prevail and reach its end eternal life in all it falls upon O that captives to Satan and slaves to Sin and the Law would long to be under the Reign of this stately power the Grace of God And that Believers themselves would give a more free and large subjection to it 2. It is called a Throne of Grace 1. Because Grace erected and reared it up Psal 89.2 Mercy shall be built up for ever Nothing but Grace and Mercy framed the Throne of Grace I may allude to the Lords stately words to Job 38.4,5,6 speaking of the first Creation but this Throne of Grace was fixed before as the King himself saith Prov. 8.23 I was set up from everlasting from the beginning or ever the earth was Where wast thou when I laid the foundation and who laid the corner stone thereof No creature was on the Counsel It is a Divine Contrivance but now it is revealed our faith on the ground of this Revelation may and should go back and take a refreshing view of this eternal Contrivance The Lord builds a House of Mercy that a company of sinners may dwell in with him for ever What laid the foundation of this house but Grace What laid the Corner Stone of this Throne but Grace What brings in the Inhabitants preserves them and perfects them but Grace For whom is it prepared and by whom shall this House of Mercy be possessed and with
therefore betakes himself to his heels It is mens great sin to endeavour to seek that elsewhere that only is to be found here Mercy and Grace But it 's the greatest Sin of all to count all lost as long as this Throne stands and the Lord calls men to come to it Be deeply humbled and covered with shame yet come noâ—withstanding Such is the corruption of oâ—… hearts and the Lord seeth it well that 〈◊〉 Sinners could find grace and mercy aâ—… where else they would never come to thâ—… throne of grace for it Christ is the last shiâ—… of a distressed sinner yet blessed be his namâ—… he welcomes the comer The woman Marâ—… 5.25,35 tryes many means ere she comes tâ— Christ Yet sped well when she came aâ— last 2. They are welcome to the throne of gracâ—… that come oâ—test and ask the greatest thingâ—… It s otherwise in addresses to friends or greaâ— men on earth You may be welcome tâ— them if you come now and then and iâ— you ask little things but if you come daily and ask great things and grow in your suit they will quickly be weary of you But whaâ— saith the King on this Throne of Grace Johâ— 16.24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in mâ— Name ask and ye shall recieve that your jâ—… may be full Had not they asked formerly great things that he would expound his worâ— to them Matth. 13.36 that he would teaâ—… them to pray Luke 11.1 That he would increase their faith Luke 17.5 But all thiâ— was as nothing to Christ nothing in regarâ— of the great things he had to give and theâ— stood in need of This is a great word oâ— Christ's Ask and I will give and ye shall recieve ask still more and ye shall recieve morâ—… even till your joy be full The reason whâ— our souls are so empty of joy is because oâ—… mouths are empty of prayer Christ's love quarrels with his people are 3.1 That they do not ask great things and often 2. That they do not receive what he is so ready to give Our narrow Vessels cannot take in large â—…oods from the fountain of living water 4. They thâ—… do not praise for what they recieve It is his due our duty and our great mercy Both prayer and praise widens the heart for recieving more of Christs fulness 3. They are specially welcome to the throne of grace that come to stay resolving never to leave it That not only come to it at a pinch and strait but come to abide there Our Lord teacheth several Parables to encourage and direct us in plying the throne of grace Luke 11.5,13 and Luke 18.1,8 Jacob was a blessed man and knew well the manner of this Court When he wrestled with the Angel Gen. 32.24.30 And that Angel was the King of the Throne of Grace Hos 12.3,4,5 After a long nights wrestling with weeping and supplications saith the Lord Gen. 32.26 Let me go for the day breaketh Jacob answers I will not let thee go except thou bless me I will or I will not looks like ill manners in speaking to God he saith not How can I hold thee if thou hast a mind to go is it possible that I can detain thee Can a man hold God when he hath a mind to be gone But Jacob knew his party and percieved that he tryed him if he would part without a blessing Nay saith Jacob if thou ask my leave and consent to part so I will never give it let the day break and the next night come the great Blesser and lame halting Jacob shall never part with Jacobs consent without a blessing And he prevailed He had got his Fathers blessing by the cunning of his Mother Gen. 27. had it again ratified by his Father Gen. 28.3,4 He had the Lords Blessing Gen. 28.12,16 He got it renewed again on the Lords calling him to return to Canaan Gen. 31.3 Yet he was in a new strait and wanted a new blessing and wrestled for it and obtained it Let all the Seed of Jacob imitate his practice and they shall share in his Blessing and be fed with the heritage of Jacob their Father as the word is Isa 58.14 In pressing the Exhortation in the Text I shall lay before you a few considerations 1. Consider the Greatness of this priviledge That there is a throne of grace erected for sinners and revealed to them This throne is only erected for sinners it had never been but for sinners A throne of grace supposeth that there are guilty sinners to stand before it and to get good by it The greatness of this priviledge is apparent in comparing the State of fallen Man with that of fallen Angels And in comparing their State that have the Gospel with theirs that are without it 1. Compare the state of fallen Man with that of falten Angels Whatsoever the proper meaning of that word is Psal 8.5 Thou host made him a little lower than the Angels these two may be well concieved that Man in his original make was lower in dignity than the Angels and that Man was made a little after the Angels were made And long after it could not be for the whole Old Creation was compleatly finished in six days The Angels that fell are so sinful and miserable that we cannot speak any good of them Yet in their first make they were a very glorious part of the Creation Notwithstanding when they sinned there was no throne of grace provided for them God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down to Hell 2 Pet. 2.4 Yet for his Elect he spared not his own Son Rom. 8.32 The Devils for such sin made them immediatly upon their sinning were as much condemned as ever they shall be I say not as much executed for it seems that their full torment is reserved to the last day Jude 6. 2 Pet. 2.4 Art thou come to torment us before the time Matth. 8.29 say they to Christ No wonder the Devil be such an Enemy to the Gospel of Man's Salvation and a hater of the Throne of Grace The wonder is that men should be deceived by Satan to despise and slight this great priviledge Let Christians take a view of this astonishing appearance of Gods Grace that fallen Angels are all past by and fallen Men taken up not indeed all of them but a great many as one day will declare Heb. 2.16 For verily he took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the Seed of Abraham 2. Consider the greatness of this priviledge in the Revelation of it You have it but the greatest part of the World have it not They that cannot receive the Truth of God revealed in the word about the Soveraignty of Grace in Election and the Efficacy of distinguishing Grace in Calling must see the same Soveraignty acted in dispensing or witholding the means of Grace as pleaseth him And to be utterly ignorant that there is a Throne of Grace renders people as miserable
for mercy are great Provocations Some beg only outward mercies Such people would like this Text well if it had been Let us come that we may obtain Gold and Silver and Health and long Life If Prayer was ordained by God for such mercies the Throne of Grace would be crouded with Supplicants But you will never ply Prayer rightly till you understand that there is something to be got at the Throne of Grace that is better in it self more needful for you and that will do you more good than all that the World hath to give Some beg mercy only when they are under God's afflicting hand Psal 73.34 When he slew them then they sought him Some beg God's mercy limitedly they only beg one mercy and desire no more His mercy is of a large extent and we should beg it all We may beg a particular mercy according to our present felt necessities yet we must not make an exception against any act of mercy We must not beg the mercy of Pardon with a Heart-quarrel against the mercy of Sanctification The Lord be merciful to thy servant in this thing 2 Kings 5.18 was a faulty Prayer if there was any sincerity in Naaman Though we may ask any particular mercy yet we must lay open our Hearts to the whole flood of mercy Psal 119.132 Look thou upon me and be merciful to me as thou usest to do unto those that love thy Name So Psal 106.4,5 Lastly Some beg mercy for themselves and for their Idols in the same Address One part of their Prayer is for mercy to themselves and another part of it is for mercy to their Idols Is not that a woful ill-made Prayer and yet how frequently is it done Idols are such things as have a greater nearer room in the Heart than God hath Whatever is more loved feared trusted and delighted in more than God that is an Idol be it the best or basest thing we can name or think on These Idols are of two sorts Lawful and Vnlawful Not that it is lawful to have any Idol but many make Idols of lawful things Such things I mean that in their proper place may be sought and lawfully used but are wofully abused when put in God's room These are the most dangerous because least perceaved Idols Christian it is lawful to love thy Relations to pray for Wife and Children to beg God's Blessing on thy lawful diligence in thy Calling but watch well that none of these lawful things come in betwixt thy Heart and God if they do thou will fall into this Snare of begging God's mercy to thy self and Idols in the same Prayer Vnlawful Idols or Idols in unlawful things are Sins Lusts and Heart-plagues Wo to him that begs God's mercy to them We should daily beg God's mercy against them The more mercy that is forbearance God sheweth to such Idols the more Wrath and the less mercy he showeth to the man himself God's mercy cannot be shown both to a man and his Idols The purest mercy is then shewn â—o a Man when the Lord dealeth severely with his Idols Kill my sinful Idols and save me is a fit Prayer at the Throne of Grace and he is a happy man that gets it answered 5. Sinful Addresses for God's mercy are great Provocations of his Wrath. His mercy is so Sacred a Name of God that he will hold no man guiltless that taketh it in vain In this matter the best contract much Guilt All have many sins in their holy things and in their Approaches to the Holiest of all the Throne of Grace and do stand in need of Attonement And we should all come to the Throne of Grace for mercy to pardon the Sins that are in our seeking of mercy But where then shall the Ungodly and Sinner appear He perisheth for want of mercy he should come for it and he cannot come for mercy while he is what he is but he provokes the Lord to more Wrath against him This is one of the inextricable Straits that every Unbeliever is in that nothing but Sovereign Grace and mercy can bring one out of Look to him for this deliverance and he will shew you mercy SERMON VII HEB. IV. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need THE last thing in this verse is What is to be had at the Throne of Grace and what we should come for And that is Mercy and Grace and we need no more and we should come that we may obtain and find them and we should in our coming design no less Of the first I began to speak last day and did open these three things 1. What is this mercy we should come for It 's God's saving mercy in Christ sutable unto and for relieving of that misery that every natural man is perishing under Mercy in God and misery in man are Relatives and happy is that person that hath them well married and matched together 2. What is in this Phrase Obtaining of mercy I told you that it implied three things 1. That mercy is God's free Gift We only come by it because he gives it 2. That there is a personal particular Application of this mercy to the Obtainer of it 3. That it is given as a Possession not as a Gift that may be recalled and retaken but is given for an everlasting Possession Whoever is made Partaker of God's special saving mercy it shall never be taken from him it shall never waste nor spend nor wear out but shall stay with him follow him and grow up with him to eternity The Burden of that heaven-like Song Psal 136. is 26 times repeated for his mercy endureth for ever How sweetly will it be sung from all the Mansions in Heaven and by all the blessed Dwellers in them O Give thanks to our God for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever Can you learn this Song as the Word is Rev. 14.3 Only the Redeemed of the Lord can say so but all they should say so Psal 107.1,2 His mercy is most sweet a Crumb of it will save a starving Soul as Matth. 15.27 A large measure of it on Earth is a Heaven But the eternity of this mercy is the mercy of this mercy Time-mercies in regard of this are no mercies 3. I spoke of the Design and End we should have before us in coming to the Throne of Grace Come that we may obtain mercy That which I would do at this Exercise is to apply this Truth And the Lord apply both Doctrine and Application And 1. I would put this Question to your Consciences and let them speak as in God's sight Whether have ye obtained mercy or not Can you say with Paul but I obtained mercy You must have it as well as he and may know it as really as he did though ye receave not so much nor know it so clearly as so great a Believer as Paul did See to get
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
On a Throne of Grace Seek him no where else for no where else is he to be graciously found 2. How should we come to this Throne Boldly with confidence 3. What is the ground of this boldness It had need be a great and solid ground on which a sinner may build Boldness in his approaching to God This ground is hinted by the Apostle in the word therefore wherefore Because of our great High-priest the Son of God in Heaven ver 14 15. Though there be nothing more commonly said and owned then that all men are sinners and that all the acceptance of a sinner with God is through Jesus Christ yet I can assure you that when a person seeth and knows what it is to be a sinner and knows what God is it is a wonderful difficulty to believe that it is possible that such a sinner and such a God should ever meet in Peace Peoples dry Notions and Opinions of Jesus Christ if there be no more will soon be blown away with a deen sight of the sinfulness of sin and of the Majesty of God provoked thereby 4. The last Question is What shall we get by coming and what should we come for The greatest blessings Mercy and Grace These blessings are comprehensive of all things needful to make a sinner happy To the first of these I began to speak last day That God hath erected a Throne of Grace in the Gospel to which men are invited to come What this Throne of Grace is is spoke to and that this Throne of Grace is to be distinguished from all other Thrones of God spoke of in the word The Throne of his essential glory is unapproachable by all Creatures The Throne of his Justiâ—… dreadful to all sinners we should pray against our coming before this Throne Psal 143.2 He must be a proud ignorant fool that would offer to come and plead at its Bar for here all Acts and Sentences pass according to strict Law and Justice and the Law is an everlasting condemner of all sinners There is also the Throne of the Judge at the last day But this Throne is not yet set though it will surely be and we know not how soon and should prepare for our appearing before it 2 Cor. 5.9,10 But this Throne of Grace is the Gracious manifestation of God in Christ reconciling the World to himself This is the light of the Glory of Gods Grace shining in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 ch 5.18,19 And to coming to this Throne of Grace and to God in Christ dispensing his grace from it we are here exhorted and encouraged In pursuing of this exhortation I would 1. Prove that all should come 2. Show whâ— will come 3. and who shall be specially welcomâ— 1. That all ought to come to the Thronâ— of Grace All sinners that hear of it shoulâ— improve this great priviledge and seek thâ— enjoyment of Gods Grace and Mercy in Jâ—sus Christ 1. Because God is not otherwise approachâ—… by men in accepted worship No man comâ—… to the Father but by me saith Christ Joâ—… 14.6 The light of Nature teacheth all 〈◊〉 in some measure that there is a God 〈◊〉 somewhat of his eternal power and God 〈◊〉 Rom. 1.20 And that this God should be wâ—…shiped Therefore 〈◊〉 some sort of worshâ—… is performed by all sorts of Heathens 〈◊〉 are yet without God and that because withâ—… Christ and therefore without hope in the world Eph. 2.12 Never was there nor will there be nor can there be any gracious approach unto God nor any address recieved favourably by God but at this Throne of Grace Therefore whatever may be said of the zealous devotion and of the Moral Principles and Practices of the Heathens yet never any of them did nor could offer up an acceptable prayer unto God nor obtain a gracious answer from him not only because they worshiped an unknown God Acts 17.23 Gal. 4.8 but mainly because they worshiped not at this Throne of Grace for there can be no Communion with God there can be nothing graciously given by God to Men nothing done by Men that can be accepted of God but at this Throne of Grace 2. All should come to this Throne because all men have need of the blessings dispensed at this Throne of Grace Where there is an universal urgent necessity and only one place of supply discovered Men are called to betake themselves thither The blessings dispenced at the Throne of Grace are equally needed by all Every Man every Woman young or old rich or poor are equally needy because all are unpeakably needy of the Mercy and Grace of God Some indeed have a greater sight and sense of their wants than others and that is Mercy but the real necessity is common to all every unpardoned man needs a pardon at this Throne of Grace but few if any value a pardon till they get it or value the Grace of God till they feel it Do you feel your need of what is given and got at this Throne Come then The Law thunders and roars against you that you may see your need of coming hither for what the Law cannot give nor hinder you from receiving nor rob you of when recieved Do you think in your heart that you are the most needy person in all the World that you need all the Grace and Mercy or more than ever any sinner recieved Then come the rather come the sooner The neediest soul the hungriest sinner the person most greedy of the Grace of God should come first to Christ's door and beg lowdest Is there any not needy Alas many think so but none is so Will you come for hunger and want A sensible hunger a sense and sight of need an appetite after Grace and Mercy is an Alms that Christ can give and many Professors want it sadly 3. The Command is Vniversal to all that hear it As the Apostle saith Rom. 3.19 These things saith the Law to them that are under the Law So I may say This saith the Gospel to all under the sound of it come to the Throne of Grace It is no indifferent thing God commands all men to come Believing that is coming is commanded 1 John 3.23 Are you afraid to come have not I commanded you Joshua 1.9 as God spake to the Captain of Israel Will Men own Gods authority in the Law and deny it in the Gospel Is he not the same God in both He that commands you to have no other Gods besides him doth command you to believe on his Son Jesus who is the true God and eternal Life 1 John 5.20 If coming to the Throne of Grace were not commanded not coming to it were no sin and who dare say so Not believing on Jesus Christ is the great Gopel sin because believing on him is the great Gospel-Duty and work John 6.29 Object But I am afraid he commands not me others he may command but not such a vile dead Creature as I am Answ
breeds Contempt Condescensions from Superiours oft make Inferiours forget their place The Lord deals so graciously with his People hears their Prayers readily stoops low to them in his Love and Pity that unless they watch and keep a Guard on their Spirits they may soon fall into the Sin of being too saucy and peremptory with God The first Prayer in the Bible made by the greatest Believer in the World Abraham is upon a most condescending appearance of God to him The Son of God in humane shape becomes Abraham's Guest at Meat Gen. 18. Some think that Christ respects this appearance in John 8.56 Your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my day and he saw it and was glad He gives him the last Promise of a Son with a determination of the precise time of its accomplishment ver 10. He deals with him as a Friend and so Abraham is called 2 Chron. 20.7 Isa 41.8 and Jam. 2.23 But all Believers are called Friends by Christ John 15.14,15 and after a great Commendation of Abraham the Lord tells him his purpose of wrath against Sodom ver 17. to ver 22. The Angels are sent to execute the Vengeance and Abraham stands before the Lord to plead for Mercy With what Boldness and Reverence doth he plead The more the Lord stoops in condescending to his Petitions the more low doth Abraham lye before him He neither forgot the Lord's Majesty nor his own Meanness and expresseth again and again a holy Fear of offending by his renewed Suits ver 27 30 31 32. I would have you considering this Instance of Prayer because it is the first recorded in the Word and because it was excellently managed by the Father of the Faithful So Gideon prays in Judg. 6.39 And Gideon said unto God Let not thine anger be hot against me and will speak but this once I am afraid that many sincere Christians are guilty of this Peremptoriness The Lord hath been so condescending to them that they become too peremptory about some Particulars Beware of it and see how the Lord hath dealt with his People and the best of them Psal 99.6,7,8 See Moses's Lot in this Matter He had often sought of God and prevailed Psal 106.23 Therefore the Lord said that he would destroy them had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the Breach to turn away his Wrath lest he should destroy them A Man to whom God spake Face to Face a Man to whom God spake so amazing Words Let me alone that my Wrath may wax hot against them Exod. 32.10 and Numb 14.20 I have pardoned according to thy word Yet even this Moses in a small matter for Life to cross Jordan and to see the promised Land hath this Answer Deut. 3.26 Let it suffice thee speak no more unto me of this matter Samuel is check'd also in a small matter that had prevailed for far greater 1 Sam. 16.1 How long wilt thou mourn for Saul seeing I have rejected him A Case may be such that though Moses and Samuel stood before the Lord they should not prevail Jer. 15.1 It is the only Priviledge of Jesus Christ to be always heard John 11.42 Yet he in his Agony pray'd so as to teach us to beware of this sinful Boldness Matth. 26.39 If it be possible let this Cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt Believers must remember that in all Cases they must deal humbly and in some Cases they must take Denyals Patiently 3. There is the boldness of presumption Presumption is like Faith in appearance but in reality it is very unlike it Presumption works this way the Presumer may have the mercy in his eye but he hath no promise in his eye Take heed to this If there be strong desires after a mercy and that mercy not pleaded for as in the promise there is a spice of presumption in that pleading The reason why Believers ask so great things of God is because God hath promised so great things to them 2 Sam. 7.27 Hence it is that presumption acts ordinarily in pleading with God not for the main spiritual blessings but for some outward mercy that their hearts may be too much set upon It is about such that Believers should watch against this presumptuous boldness But if the pleading at the Throne of Grace be about Salvation and spiritual Blessings the difference betwixt Faith and Presumption appears in this Presumption can never plead with God neither in deep distress nor in the view of sin But it is the excellent property of Faith that it can plead with God in both cases Psal 65.3 Iniquities prevail against me but as for our transgressions thou shalt purge them away Spoken like a Believer and Psal 130.3,4 If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquities O Lord who shall stand But can David stand Yes and he stands on this ground But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared There is just cause to suspect that there is presumption in that Mans heart when his Boldness is only kept up when sin is out of sight and disappears A Believer believes most humbly and often most strongly when his Sinfulness and Unworthiness is best seen For true Boldness of Faith is not supported by any good and worth in us but by what is in Christ The boldness of Faith cannot be entertained with regarding of iniquity in the heart Psal 66.18 1 John 3.20 Yet it can with the being and seeing of Iniquity in both heart and life Rom. 7.24,25 1 Tim. 1.15 But of this furder from the next head of the Boldness of Faith I now touch it only as it differs from the presumptuous Boldness that is allowed to none Again Faith can stand under that distress that breaks the back of Presumption Job 13.15,16 Though he slay me yet will I trust in him but I will maintain mine own ways before him He also shall be my Salvation for an Hypocrite shall not come before him He hath taken away my Children all at once my Estate in one day hath taken away my health and made me miserable to a Proverb in all Ages although he should proceed and slay me with his own hand my slayer is my Saviour my death shall be my Salvation Great words and hard to be spoken in the day of heavy tryal God slaying Job is Job's Salvation God slays Job trusts and maintains his confidence under the stroke No Hypocrite can do this and many Believers do but bungle at the doing of it There is an extremity a coming on every man that will try and discover what mettle there is in his Faith Prepare for it What then is the Boldness allowed in coming to the throne of grace It must not be an ignorant peremptory or presumptuous boldness What must it then be Answ It is only the Boldness of Faith Eph. 3.12 Heb. 10.19 The Boldness of Faith hath this in general in it that it is grounded and bottomed on somewhat without a man and on nothing
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
have of misery is this that it stands in a deprivation of good and the greater that deprivation be and the more good things a Man is deprived and destitute of the more miserable we count the person to be He is a miserable Man that is blind because the light of the World is so pleasant and useful and the Eye simply needful to behold and use it It is a great addition to this Man's misery if he be dumb also because the Tongue is a Man's Glory and the Organ of expressing our Thoughts and of Communion with our own kind The misery is yet further heightned if a Man be also deaf for the Ear is the Door of Knowledge both of things Natural and Divine If you go to the inward Senses or Powers if a Man be deprived of those his misery is yet greater As it is a greater misery to be void of Understanding and Memory to be an Ideot an Innocent as we call them than it is to be deprived of any of the bodily Senses Now if one wanted all the Senses of the Body and Powers of the Soul if such a Creature should be called a Man would we not account this a most miserable Creature But if there be yet somewhat better than all these surely then he that is altogether void of that must be more miserable still That there is somewhat better than all these good Gifts of Body and Mind and that every Man by nature is without it is most manifest in the Word To be without God without Christ without Hope Eph. 2.12 is more and worse than to be without any or all outward good things This destitute State is expressed by our Lord Rev. 3.17 Because thou sayest I am rich and encreased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked What a great difference is there betwixt Christ's and their opinion of their State And must not Christ's be right and true and theirs false if it contradict his Were they any thing the less miserable were they not rather much more so that they so mis-judged Our Lord aggravates both their sin and misery from their ignorance because thou knowest not Spiritual Blessings are of that nature that all are miserable indeed that are without them but no Man is sensibly miserable till he seeth that he is without them It is the knowledge of this Want that brings in the sense of misery As every unpardoned Sinner is a miserable man but he never counts himself miserable till he feel the weight of Sin and see the want of Pardon 2. Every natural Man is needy of God's Mercy because he is a condemned Man A condemned Man is a dead Man in Law As there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 so there is nothing but condemnation to all that are not in him John 3.18,36 He that believeth not is condemned already and the wrath of God abideth on him You may have seen and heard how Malefactors will cry for Mercy from the Judge when he cannot and ought not to pity them so as to spare them When they are bid hold up their hand at the Bar to receave their Doom how earnestly on their Knees with Tears they will cry Mercy my Lord mercy for God's sake Every natural man is condemned But how few of their Consciences can witness for them that they ever sought God's Mercy so as convict Criminals an earthly Judge's Mercy The Mercy they beg is small in regard of what Sinners stand in need of from God An earthly Judge may reprieve or pardon to day and the pardoned Man may die to morrow But if the great Judge condemn you and you are not pardoned you are sentenced to a never-dying misery Prisoners beg Mercy of a Man who may be is bound up by Law and Conscience of his Oath to shew none but to execute Justice Here the Case is just contrary the Lord bids Men beg his Mercy and condemns them only that despise it We have his Command and Promise and many acts of Pardon for our encouragement What pleading for Pardon would there be at earthly Bars if they had the Judge's Command to ask his Promise to grant it and his Hand and Seal to that Promise Such is our Case yet few beg it in good earnest Be ashamed and convinced of your sin when you see Men begging a frail short life of a Judge and say Alas I never begg'd the mercy of eternal Life so earnestly at the Throne of Grace as these Wretches do a frail short uncertain life 3. The natural Man hath all the Creation against him and therefore is needy of God's mercy The whole Creation groans under him he is a burden to God's Earth a plague to the Creations Rom. 8.20,21,22 What a noise do Men make and what pains do they take to heap up Dust If God prosper their endeavours they think he blesseth them and count themselves happy in their Enjoyment But what is all this for to a natural unrenewed Man All these Creature-comforts will but be as so many Witnesses against them in the day of the Lord. Jam. 5.1,4 Men seek the Creatures to satisfie their carnal desires and supply their outward Wants but they do not remember that unless the special saving Mercy of God come along with them the Creatures are abused and in their way witness and groan to God against them They groan to be put in God's room in Men's Hearts and to be made Fewel for Mens Lusts They all wait but for God's call to execute Vengeance on his Enemies Is not such a man needy of God's mercy that hath the whole Creation of God at War with him 4. But there is worse than all these The man himself and all he is hath and doth is under the Curse of God Gal. 3.10 What is the Curse It is the malediction of God on a man It is God's devoting him to ruin He is cursed in his Body cursed in his Soul cursed in his Family cursed in his Trade and Estate cursed in his Crosses cursed in his Mercies cursed in his Life and cursed in his Death cursed in Time and cursed to Eternity Ah how long and broad is this Curse Zech. 5.2,3,4 O what need is there of God's mercy for it is this mercy only that can take away the Curse There is no evil we are in danger of from an angry God but must be removed or prevented by the opposite Good from a reconciled God If God's Anger be our Plague nothing can remove it but his Love If his Curse be our Burden only his Blessing can take it away The whole Creation cannot make up the loss of God's Favour And this they know well that ever saw the Face of an angry God So much of the necessity of God's Mercy from the present misery of natural men 2. I might proceed to speak of that which is coming on them without the intervening
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
everlasting mercy or God's everlasting wrath will eternally lye upon every one of you And what an amazing difference is there betwixt these two and yet how many behave as if indifferent which of these two shall be upon them God's faving mercy is such a Jewel that though the Lord give it but to few yet he will never take it away from any he hath given it to Psal 89.28,33 Believers God may take any thing from you but his mercy and you may spare any thing but his mercy If God come to take away your Children give them if he come to take away your Estate let him have it If he come to take away your Health and Lives yield them strive not with him bless a giving and bless a taking God If he crave thy Right Eye or Right Hand and what is dearest to you give yield all to him But say Let me only keep thy mercy I cannot part with that it is the only thing I cannot spare The blessed Canaanite's striving with Christ was about his mercy Be silent disown reproach me I care not but thy mercy I must have It were a Cruelty that only Unbelief can charge God sinfully with to take away so precious a Gift as saving mercy is Let but this mercy follow me as Psal 23.6 and it s no great matter where I go If I be in the lowest Hell mercy will bring me out Psal 86.13 For great is thy mercy toward me and thou hast delivered my Soul from the lowest Hell There is no time-Hell that a Vessel of mercy can be in but mercy will bring him out again and this Mercy will secure him from the eternal Hell This mercy is God's mercy therefore soveraignly free therefore Almighty therefore eternal You sin Believers when you fear his taking away his mercy He gave it at first that you might be eternally possessed of it Mercy gave mercy and mercy will keep mercy and mercy will stay with you and keep you for ever The third thing to be spoke to is the end and design of coming to the Throne of Grace and that is that we may obtain mercy Not only that this mercy is to be got at the Throne of Grace and there only nor that this Throne of Grace is erected on purpose to dispense this mercy nor is it only that we should come to the Throne of Grace to ask and beg this mercy but that we should come to obtain it This is the Duty exhorted to in the Text. And in setting about this Duty two things are required 1. Come as sensible of your need of mercy No man can come truly without this sense He that hath no sense of misery complements God in asking mercy and takes this saving Name of God in vain It is dreadful to provoke God to Wrath in our way of asking his mercy And all such contract this Guilt and expose themselves to his Wrath that have no Heart-sense of their need of this mercy It is an amazing stupidity that the power of sin hath brought on men that in a world of sinners sinking into everlasting misery so few are really sensible of their need of saving mercy and no man is sensible till God by Grace make him so 2. Come in Faith of his mercy you cannot come at all without this Faith Faith is coming to God Heb. 11.6 Unbelief is departing from the living God Heb. 3.12 No man can come but he that is sensible of misery for coming is the act of a man drawn and moved by the Cords of a man No man can come but in Faith for there is no other coming for a Christian These three things should be in this Faith 1. A believing that there is abundance of mercy with the Lord which if shewed and put forth to you and on you would save you abundantly So argues the Prodigal Luke 15.17,18 And when he came to himself he said how many hired servants of my Father's have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger I will arise and go to my Father and say c. Psal 130.6 Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption The highest working of Unbelief is when men judge their misery greater than his mercy The great work of Faith is to get these two to meet fairly and mercy will surely prevail His tender mercy is over all his Works much more is his abundant mercy above a sinner's misery Cain's words should be left for himself and used by none else Gen. 4.13 And Cain said unto the Lord my punishment is greater than I can bear Or My iniquity is greater than that it may be forgiven Words sounding like the Language of Hell and not to be spoken by any that would escape it I know many secure people find no difficulty in that they count believing of this that there is mercy enough with the Lord. But yet the matter is far otherwise It is mighty difficult to believe the abundance of his mercy when men are in great pressures of misery The best of Saints have sometimes stumbled here When Moses is pleading with the Lord for mercy to Israel Numb 14.17 And now I beseech thee let the power of my Lord be great according as thou hast spoken and pardon I beseech thee the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy mercy As if Moses had said Lord thou hast proclaimed thy Name and I heard it and believed it but I did not think that their wickedness would have been so great as now I find it to be Was not Moses a great Believer yet he stumbled in this point of the power of God's Mercy Numb 11.18,23 Israel murmureth for flesh God promiseth a whole months diet of it What saith Moses ver 21 22 How doth the Lord answer him ver 23. And the Lord said unto Moses Is the Lord's hand waxed short thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass to thee or not This great man's Unbelief was greatly aggravated in that he saw the Lord bring that people out of Egypt with Signs and Wonders and with a mighty Hand he saw them daily fed cloathed and led and protected with Miracles of divine power and mercy yet one new difficulty shakes his Faith When Paul gives us his last account of his Faith for that Epistle was his last Writing he lodgeth his Faith on divine Power 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day If I be perswaded that he is able I shall not doubt of his being willing to keep that charge safe I have committed to him Let the eye of Faith take up clearly the power of mercy and the Faith of its application to thy benefit will be the more easie But he is a rare Believer whose view of the power of mercy is not darkened by a clear sight and deep
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
the Grave than to be raised for Damnation their Sentence of Condemnation and their vain Pleas and Pleadings for mercy But O that Men would come in at God's time and cry for mercy as they will do out of time How much better would it be for them God's time is now to day the present time 2 Cor. 6.2 Now is the accepted time now is the day of Salvation If Men refuse God's mercy in his time he will deny his mercy when sought in their time and out of his Isa 30.18 He waits to be gracious and willing to be exalted in having mercy Notwithstanding all the mercy with the Lord all the mercy that is offered in the Promise the Lord never promised a Sinner his mercy to morrow If you will beg his mercy to day you may have it and it shall endure for ever But God never gave an Allowance and Liberty to any Man to spend one Day or Hour in consulting whether he should beg God's mercy or not David had indeed a sad choice of Judgments laid before him 2 Sam. 24.13 and is bid by the Prophet Advise now and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me But for a perishing Sinner that hath an Offer of God's mercy in Jesus Christ there is no delay allowed but only he is bid ask it presently 2. Receave God's mercy Receaving is easier than asking Asking requires some pains Receaving is but a consent of the Heart to take what is offered Asking supposeth a great and needful Blessing that he that wants it would fain have and therefore he begs it Receaving implies that this great Blessing is in his Offer fully and freely and therefore he must accept it Here is the State of things betwixt God and Men in the Gospel The Lord brings his mercy near to them offers it to them bids them take and receave it but many will not God offers Quarter to Rebels in Arms against him but they stand upon their Sword and will not take Quarter Ministers Work is to entreat and beseech in Christ's stead 2 Cor. 5.20 God only can perswade and prevail with Men. Mercy comes prepared and ready for Men. It is prepared in the Purchase of Christ it is prepared in the well-ordered Covenant and as prepared and ready it is tendered freely to Sinners All things are ready Come to the Marriage Matth. 22.4 All things are ready God himself is ready to give mercy Christ is ready he is slain for us let us come and keep the Feast 1 Cor. 5.7,8 The Holy Spirit is ready to seal you to the Day of Redemption if you will accept of God's mercy in the Redeemer Heaven is ready the Way is plain and all hinderances of Law and Justice removed Heb. 10.19,20 The City of Refuge is ready and its Gates are open continually to receave and give entrance to all that flee for safety Heb. 6.18 Alas all things are ready but Men are not willing there is not a moments time needed to ripen God's mercy for Men. No perishing Sinner that seeth his need of God's Mercy and is willing to receave it needs stay a moment till mercy be ready for him or he more ready for it Rom. 10.6 The Righteousness which is of Faith speaketh on this wise how very few have Ears to hear such a Speaker and such a Speech Say not in thine heart Who shall ascend into Heaven that is to bring Christ dowu from above Or who shall descend into the deep that is to bring up Christ again from the dead Christ is come down already from Heaven and is gone back again to Heaven ver 7. But what saith it The word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the word of Faith which we preach Mercy and Salvation for lost Sinners is prepared by Christ's coming down and going up again and he hath lodg'd the Power and Vertue of his Undertaking in the Gospel suck at that Well with Faith and thy Soul shall be saved There thou wilt find Christ and all his fulness There was never such a Treaty made in the World We can fetch no Similitude fully like this amongst Men. Thus the Lord pleads with Men in the Gospel You are already undone with sin and misery lying on you and you are every hour sinking into greater Let but my mercy in my Son enter in and it will cure all that is past and present and prevent all the misery that is coming on you And will not miserable Sinners receave God's mercy Are you afraid of saving mercy Will it hurt you Why do ye not give it entrance It is one of the greatest demonstrations what Monsters sin hath made Men that they are unwilling to be saved by free mercy in Jesus Christ Open a Door for God's mercy by a free receaving of it or else you will find the Door of his mercy shut against you when you need it most Your giving way to his mercy is your receaving of it Say with the Heart Let God's mercy enter in upon me and save me its own way A yielding and giving and putting of a lost Soul into the hand of Christ is the nature of saving Faith in him Will ye not trust in his mercy Is it not able to save you Your want of a sense of your need of his mercy is a giving the lie to all the Threatenings and Curse of the Law Your doubting of the Ability of his mercy to save you is to give the lie to all the Faithfulness and Truth of God declared and sworn in the Gospel 3. Plead mercy When you beg it use no other Plea for mercy but mercy When you beg mercy you must beg mercy only for Mercy 's sake That that moves God to shew mercy must be our Argument in pleading for mercy Wherefore doth God show mercy because he will show mercy and delights in it Micah 7.18 and therefore should we plead it Mercy in his Heart is the only spring of mercy from his Hand David who knew God's mercy well had tasted of it often and needed it greatly when fallen into a foul Pit Psal 51.1 thus pleads for mercy Have mercy upon me O God according to thy loving kindness according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions Have a care of making any other Plea for mercy from the Lord but that of mercy with him And stick to this Plea and it will prevail If the Lord for trying of your Faith or Satan for shaking it should say How dare such a vile sinner as thou art beg so great a Gift as saving mercy from so holy a God The poor Pleader hath a ready answer I want mercy as much as my Soul is worth in vain do I seek it of any Creature nothing but his mercy can save me I beg mercy only for mercy's sake I bring nothing but a starving Soul and an empty hand I beg his mercy as an Alms which will eternally enrich the Receaver
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
that he waters and carefully looks after When a Believer comes to the Throne of grace for this grace he comes to beg that the new Creation in him may be visited refreshed and strengthened and brought to Perfection They that have no planting of Christ in them want this Errand to the Throne of Grace that Believers daily come upon So much for the first thing What this grace is 2. What is the finding of this grace why the Apostle useth this Phrase different from the former about mercy That was obtaining of mercy this is finding of grace Mercy and Grace are near a-kin and so is obtaining and finding Besides the Hebrew Phrase remarked already these things I would note in it 1. I conceave that this Phrase of finding grace doth imply the Duty of seeking it According to our Lord 's own direction Matth. 7.7 Ask and it shall be given you Seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you Where and in ver 8. our Lord gives three Commands to one Duty of Prayer under three several Names and six Promises for Encouragement under three different Names also redoubled 2. This form of speaking points forth the giving and bestowing of Grace His Grace and Favour is what is given to bestowed on and enjoyed by them that come to the throne of grace When the old World was exceeding bad all stark naught and but one good Man in it you must needs think that it was a bad World then and that was Noah Gen. 6.8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. This Word we should regard the more that it is the first place where the grace of God is mentioned in Scripture Thee have ' I seen righteous before me in this generation saith the Lord to him Gen. 7.1 And how this Man came by his Righteousness see in Heb. 11.7 By Faith Noe being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an Ark for the saving of his house by the which he condemned the World and became Heir of the Righteousness which is by Faith Who but the Spirit of God by Paul who I think was the Pen-man of this Epistle would have found the Righteousness of Faith in Noah's building of the Ark Many nay most of Men called Christians cannot see this Righteousness that is by Faith in the Gospel it self There was a brave inheritance and Estate in this Righteousness of Faith secured and revealed in the first Gospel Gen. 3.15 Of this Estate Abel and Enoch were possessed and Noah became that is declared himself an Heir of it by his Faith and the Fruits of it The whole World had the Warning Noah from God the World by Noah all were equally concerned in the danger Noah preached it to them and God's Spirit was with him striving with them 120 Years But not one Man found grace but he alone A prodigious depth of Judgment and Mercy Such a Man aâ— Noah preached so long to a world of the ungodly as 2 Pet. 2.5 and not one single Man or Woman believed He only found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Jer. 31.2 Thus saith the Lord the people that were left of the Sword found grace in the wilderness even Israel when I went to cause him to rest It is a great blessing to find grace any where but to find grace in the Wilderness to find grace where and when the Sword of God's Anger and Justice is destroying multitudes is heightened grace Grace falls still on Remuants Justice and Wrath seizeth on the Bulk and whole Piece Rom. 11.5 A Remnant according to the election of grace ver 7. The election obtained it that is grace and the rest were blinded and hardened The more be left and the fewer be savingly taken the greater is the grace shewed to those sew and the more happy are they that find it 3. In this Phrase of finding grace there may this be conceaved if you will understand it rightly the Casualty of the getting of grace There is no such thing as Casualty to God He always knows when and where and on whom to bestow his grace But the bestowing of his grace is a meer Casualty to all Men both to them that receave it and to others that look on My meaning is grace comes unlooked for undeserved undestred unexpected in its first visit especially So that all Receavers of it may say as Hagar the only good Word we have of that Bond-woman Gen 16.13 And she called the name of the Lord that spake to her Thou God seest me happy are they that can name God from his grace and mercy to them David calls him the God of my mercy Psal 59.10,17 for she said Have I also here looked after him that seeth me The Lord hath had his Eye on me for good when I was not thinking on him Grace always comes at first by surprize How many are there that attend diligently on all the means of grace and never find grace When some that come but by accident as we think grace finds them and they find it This is the Treasure hid in the Field of the Gospel blessed is he that finds it Matth. 13.44 Many dig in this Field and never find the Treasure in it Men should use means Prov. 8.33,34 Ministers should design wisely to catch Souls and labour painfully in it but the Lord in his Application of his grace passeth by many that we would fainest have saved and lights on others we never thought on And let him do with his own grace as seemeth him good Little thought little Zacheus of Salvation when he climb'd the Tree to see Jesus pass by Luke 19. If Christ had not call'd him down the poor rich Publican was as like as any in the Company to have let Christ pass on in his Journey When Saul was going his wicked Journey Acts 9. who would have thought that grace would have fallen on him as it did All Partakers of grace that can remember its first Visit can witness that their finding of grace was a meer Casualty to them they thought not of it they sought it not yet it found them and was found by them Isa 65.1 I am sought of them that asked not for me I am found of them that sought me not Seeking is our Duty and finding is our Mercy but both right seeking and gracious finding are singly owing to his grace The Apostle after a deep Discourse of the Sovereignty of God in dispensing his grace saith Rom. 9.30,31 What shall we say then that the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness have attained to righteousness even the righteousness which is of Faith But Israel which followed after the law of righteousness hath not attained to the law of righteousness The cause of Israel's missing Righteousness he gives ver 32. Because they have sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the Law for they did not build and believe on Christ as a Foundation but
come again Obs 2. Christians should pray before the time of need come for that grace that may help them when it comes The Prophet speaks of bearing for the time to come Isa 42.23 The Apostle 1 Tim. 6.19 of laying up in store a good foundation for the time to come So here Men must pray for the time to come Is any man afflicted let him pray Jam. 5.13 And because any Man may be afflicted he should pray before-hand 1. Because we know not but we may be surprized by a time of need Our Lord's Argument Mark 13.33 Take ye heed watch and pray for ye know not when the time is The Lord rarely gives particular warning of the time when special need is coming It ordinarily comes by surprize to us Death may but Sickness Losses and Affliction usually come on suddenly And surprizing Tryals are sore and searching ones 2. We should pray before a time of need come for often when that time comes we are thereby disabled for Prayer The distress may be such that even a Believer can do nothing The night may come when no man can work John 9.4 Pray much before it come 3. Because many Prayers have their answers delayed till a time of need comes Christians think that every day and hour of their Life is a time of need and so it is in some sense but there are some special Seasons of great need of which the Lord is the only Disposer and he fits such times with dispensings of that Grace that his People have many a day begged before There may be worse reasoning than this It may be there are some Blessings of Grace that I have oft sought and have not yet got that are reserved for me by the Lord against a time when I shall need them more than now I do Thus you see in the Scope of the Apostle in these Words that there is strong arguing for constant seeking of God's Grace You are either at present in a time of special need or if it be not present it may come Whatever case a Believer is in his Obligation is in a manner equal to this great Duty of coming to the Throne of Grace for Grace to help him as his Matters do require SERMON X. HEB. IV. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need YOU have heard that the gracious Exhortation in the Text to coming to the Throne of Grace is directed with respect to the getting of two great Blessings or of one under two Names God's Mercy and Grace Concerning this Grace I have spoken to 3 things 1. What this Grace is 2. What the finding of this Grace is 3. What is the Helpfulness of this Grace so found I also entered upon the fourth and last thing the Seasonableness of this helping Grace The Truth I am to speak to is this The Grace of God is specially helpful in times of special need My Work then is to shew What are those times of need 2. What the helpfulness of grace in them is Only I would usher in this Discourse with a general Consideration of the constant need that all stand in of God's Mercy and Grace And that I would branch into four We need God's Mercy and Grace as Creatures as Men as Sinners and as Christians and that always 1. As Creatures The native Notion of a Creature is that it is a contingent necessitous Being For his pleasure they are and were created Rev. 4.11 The Lord did not make all or any Creature because he needed them but he made them that they might need him He did not build this glorious Fabrick of Heaven and Earth as a House to dwell in or to contain him 1 Kings 8.27 But he made this World as a Stage on which to display his glorious Wisdom and Power and he made some of its Inhabitants Angels in the upper Rooms and Men in the lower to be Spectators and Praisers of his Glory It is not proper to say that Creatures needed their Being before the Creator gave it For when there was nothing but God there could be no need Need and Want is essential to a Creature and springs up with their Being As soon as the Creation receaved its Being by the word of his power it needs upholding by the same power Heb. 1.3 Our Lord Jesus upholds all things by the word of his power The whole Creation would fall back immediately into its Mother Nothing if the same power that gave it a Being did not every moment preserve it Would you have a joyful view of Heaven and Earth Look on all as in our Lord's Hand Why do the Heavens keep their Course Why doth the Sun shine so gloriously move so regularly and influence the Earth so virtuously with his light and heat It is because Christ upholds all things by the Word of his Power He is before all things and by him all things consist All things were created by him and for him Col. 1.16,17 Many are without Christ in the World Eph. 2.12 Man see daily the Works of Creation and Providence and never think on Christ as the Head of all But it is no wonder that Men that have no Eyes to see Christ in the new Creation of Grace cannot see him in the old Creation of Nature We as Creatures are needy of God's helping Grace and Favour for in him we live and move and have our Being Acts 17.28 In his hand our breath is and his all our ways are Dan. 5.23 2. Our need of God's Grace appears yet more as we are such Creatures Men. We are through the Bounty of God the most considerable part of this lower Creation Of Man some understand that elegant Phrase Prov. 8.26 the highest part of the Dust of the world But there is no earthly Creature needy of God's Grace but Man even in his natural Frame abstract from his sinful State The great Former of all things hath given to all a Being and to many of his Creatures no more To some of his Creatures he hath given Life a nobler sort of Being But to all living Creatures but Man he gives no more and they need no more they have not they need not eternal life When the Breath of the other living Creatures goes downward in the Word is Eccl. 3.21 there is an end of them But Man is created in that state that he must be for ever and therefore be eternally happy or miserable This State he is made in makes him vastly needy of God's Grace and Mercy 3. We grow yet more needy as Sinners Sinners are Creatures with this great blemish of Guilt Sin and Corruption A Sinner is needy of a Mediator to deal for him with God for he cannot deal with God for himself A Sinner is needy of the Righteousness of another to recommend him to God's Acceptance for he hath none of his own The Righteousness of a Sinner is a plain Contradiction And
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
fervent should our Applications be to Throne of Grace for that needful helpful Grace SERMON XII HEB. IV. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need HAving spoke of the need of God's Grace and of its helpfulness in general I came to condescend on some Seasons wherein the Grace of God is specially needful and helpful Of them I named six three of which I have spoke to and the other three remain to be handled 1. The first Season named was the time of Temptation There was never a Believer so little beloved of Christ as to be given up as a Prey to Satan And never lay a Believer so near Christ's Heart but the Devil may get him into his Sieve Therefore let us never flatter our selves in a state of security from disturbance by the Devil blessed be God we are brought into a state of safety from ruin by him 2. A Season of spiritual decay Soul-sickness a weakness in the New Creature There are some People that never knew by Experience what bodily sickness means but have enjoyed perfect Health all their Life But I am apt to think that few if any Christians find it so as to the new Creation in them 3. A Season of special Enjoyments Though these two seem to be very far from and contrary to one another yet they agree in this that in both Grace is needful and helpful The unaccountable Wisdom and Sovereignty of the Lord our God shines in his conduct of his People Some of them have extraordinary Receavings others know little what they mean There are some Christians whose way to Heaven lyes all along in the Depths and in the Vales when others ride on their High places Now these singular manifestations from God though desirable and profitable yet are not without special dangers to prevent which the Lord provides and ministers special Physick to them and it is strong and unpleasant but the Physician can bless it As Paul's Experience witnesseth 2 Cor. 12. He had been in Heaven he knew not how he had heard he could not tell what when he came back But he well knew what he met with on his return and how needful and useful it was for him Lest he should be exalted above measure with what he had seen and heard in Paradise Hell is sent to humble him May we not infer this How unfit are Believers while in the body and a body of death is in them to be in Heaven when any special Enjoyment of Heaven must have so dreadful a Remedy administred to prevent hurt 4. A fourth Season of special need of Grace is the time of Affliction Afflictions are of many sorts and kinds I am apt to believe that though there be some likeness in the Afflictions of many yet every afflicted Man hath a particular Affliction of his own As it is with peoples Faces so is it with their Crosses For as many thousand Faces as are amongst Mankind though all are somewhat like yet every one hath some distinction The World is full of Crosses yet every afflicted Person hath his own Cross Our Lord hints at it Matth. 16.24 Let a man take up his Cross The Lord appoints a proper Cross for every one Though people are ready to think and say that their Cross is unfit for them and that they would bear another Cross better In Crosses we must neither choose nor refuse David's Case was singular 2 Sam. 24. The Lord chooseth for us and we must not cannot refuse Job 34.35 Should it be according to thy mind he will recompense it whether thou refuse or whether thou chuse and not I therefore speak what thou knowest There is a general distinction of Afflictions Some are from God's hand for Sin or Tryal or prevention And some are from Man's hand for Christ's sake and the Gospel's In all of them Grace is helpful and needful But I would speak only something in general that every one may apply to themselves according to their experience and Exercise And that on these two Heads 1. The needfulness of Grace to the afflicted 2. The helpfulness of Grace to the afflicted whatever their Affliction be 1. Of the need of the grace of God to the afflicted Some sense of this is engraven on the Hearts of Men by the Light of Nature The Heathen Mariners in the Storm express this Jonah 1.5.6 What meanest thou O sleeper arise call upon thy God if so be God will think upon us that we perish not A sad case A Heathen Ship-master challenging a Godly Prophet for his neglect of seeking God He calls him by a shameful but well deserved name O Sleeper The Storm came on for Jonah's sake as he told them ver 12. yet he is the securest person in the Ship He only knew God yet he is last in calling on him An honest Pagan may out-do a distempered Prophet in some things at some times This Sense was expressed greatly by the King Nobles and Inhabitants of Nineveh Jonah 3.5,10 And they again go far beyond Jonah They believed God on Jonah's Preaching repented prayed and fasted and the Lord repented of the evil But Jonah was grieved at all chap. 4.1,2 If were not for his excellent Prayer chap. 2. and that he was a Prophet of the Lord and the Pen-man of the Holy Ghost to record his own Sin and Shame for the benefit of the Church we should be tempted to question this Man's grace of whose fearful Sins we have so large an Account He rebel 's against the Lord's Call to preach to Nineveh When he flees the Lord overtakes him by a Storm takes him by the Lot he is cast into the Sea scoold in the Whale's Belly three days and three nights a miraculous Chastisement and a miraculous Preservation He now obeys the repeated call but when his labour had a gracious Effect he is displeased exceedingly and prays most sinfully Jonah's Instance should teach Ministers and Christians to pray more Lord lead us not into Temptation As Nature's Light teacheth afflicted people their need of the Lord's Grace and Mercy the Word declares it more plainly Jam. 5.13 Psal 50.15 Hos 5.15 This need of the helping grace of God in Affliction I would instruct in these 1. Affliction-sins are readily fallen into without the help of the Grace of God Such Sins I mean that Affliction doth easily and naturally tempt unto as Fretting Impatience Murmuring and quarrelling with the hand of God It is sadly and frequently seen that Affliction hath not only brought along with it discovery of Sin but also the Actings and Workings of more Corruption than either the Person himself or any else thought was in the Man It was a sad Character of a very bad Man 2 Chron. 28.22 And in the time of this distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord this is that King Ahaz This is a Man noted for a never-do-well A Brother 〈◊〉 the same
implyed in this Call to come That there is a gracious provision made and revealed by God for the removal and making up of this Distance and getting of a gracious nearness to God This is in the Constitution and Revelation of this Throne of Grace 3. That the improving of this Provision is Mens Duty and should be their exercise in order to possess and enjoy the Priviledge and Advantage of this Provision What then is this Coming to the Throne of Grace 1. It is in Believing on Jesus Christ This is the first approach to the Throne of Grace He is the propitiation and Mercy-Seat and Throne of Grace 1 John 4.10 Believing on him is coming to him John 6.35 It is coming to the Father by him John 14.6 It is believing on God by him 1 Pet. 1.21 It is believing on him and on him that sent him John 12.44 Believing on Jesus Christ is an imploying of Christ in way of Trust as to all his fulness of Grace and our utter indigence thereof Whatever a man do whatever Exercises of Religion he be taken up in he never comes to the Throne of Grace till his heart and Soul go forth towards Jesus Christ for Righteousness and Life The first right step heaven-ward is saving faith in Christ. Nothing savingly good can preceed it and all saving good follows it for faith unites the man to Christ and all the fruits of Holiness and Righteousness spring from the virtue of the Vine Christ with whom the Believer hath first union by Grace and then communion of Christs grace by which he lives and works and grows 2. Coming to this Throne is acted in all acts of Gospel-worship and in the use of all Gospel-ordinances They all belong to the Throne of Grace are the Institutions of this Throne and appointed as means wherein we should approach to it and which when blessed by the appointer of them do convey to us the Blessings of this Throne Of them there are several 1. Prayer This is coming to to the Throne of Grace if rightly managed Though asking is not expressed in this ver yet it is strongly implyed both in the commanded Coming and in the expressed obtaining of Mercy and finding of grace to help in time of need All that make a fashion of Prayer do not come to the Throne of Grace yet all that pray rightly do come to it And because this approaching to the Throne of Grace by and in Prayer is plainly hinted in the Text and is so commonly understood by Christians I would have my eye principally upon it in handling this Scripture 2. There is the word Read Preached and Meditated on that is another principal means in which men should approach to the Throne of Grace In Prayer we pour out our heart before this Throne and express our Desires to him that siteth on it In the Word the King on this Throne delivers his Will and Mind to us And we should come to hear it and receive the Law from his Mouth Cornelius expressed an excellent frame for this Ordinance Acts 10.33 We are all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God This word is the word of his Grace Acts 20.32 It is the Proclamation of his Grace to Men. 3. Praising of God is a coming to the Throne of Grace This is the Sacrifice we should offer by our high Priest Heb. 13.15 Who minds this as they ought If we want we ask and so we should But where is the Christian that can say though I had nothing to ask I would yet go to the Throne of Grace that I might praise him that sits on it 4. Receabing of the Lord's Supper is a coming to the Throne of of Grace to feast on the King of Grace to feed on that Body broken for us and that Blood shed for us that is given to us in the Word for food to our Souls and is given to us by his Command in Bread and Wine at his Table that in eating and drinking of them we may remember him and show forth his Death till he come glorying and avowing and boasting that we have our salvation and all our hopes of it built and fixed on that man Jesus Christ that was rejected by the Builders in his Time and hath had little better entertaiment since because they knew him not Application Is there a Throne of Grace and doth God sitting on it invite and call men to come to it or to him on it We are called to admire adore and praise the Grace that shines in this Constitution of God and call to men That person is sadly out in his praises and such are never right in their Prayers that doth not deeply admire and heartily praise for this Mercy of a Throne of Grace We count a man ill imployed in prayer that asks many things of God but forgets to ask the One thing needful Is he any better imployed in praise who gives thanks for many Mercies but neglects or forgets to praise for the Greatest of all Mercies the Throne of Grace Before which all Prayer and Praise must come if accepted and for which highest praises should be given In order to the raising of more Sense of this Highest Favour that God now deals with us on a Throne of Grace Consider 1. The Deep condescendence of Grace that appears in this Dispensation There is a Glorious and Stately stooping in it The Lord had resolved in his own Heart from Eternity to have the company of many of Adam's Off-spring for ever with him in Heaven He seeth them fallen into a deep Pit out of which they can never get out by themselves God and Man by sin are at a vast distance Sinners cannot remove it nor make so much as one step towards God Saved they cannot be unless the Distance be removed Saved they must be because of his unalterable purpose In this case saith the Lord of Meer Grace if men cannot ascend up to me I will descend down to them and draw them up again to me This condescendence of Grace we should admire and praise When David had got a gracious Message and promise from God and Christ and the Throne of Grace was in it 2 Sam. 7. he sits down as a man amazed before the Lord and most significantly expresseth his Admiration and Praise Who am I O Lord God and what is my house and is this the manner of men and what can David say more and what can David say better to be swallowed up of Wonder is the best and highest praising who can forbear wondering at Grace that considers duly whose Grace it is where it finds us and whither it brings us When Paul speaks of it and it was his usual Theme how sweetly doth he discourse of it Eph. 2. Where did this Grace find him and the Ephesians what was their case and qualification for Grace They were dead in sin walking after the course of this world according to the prince of
men may grumble at but cannot hinder The praise of spotless Justice will rise up to eternity by the Torments of the Damned But he that is ignorant of Gods Righteouss can far less conceave the glory of Justice in brusing a sinless man who was also in the form of God and counted it not robbery to be equal with God Phil. 2,6 though some in our days think it blasphemy to say so a person beloved of the Father above all creature-thought and that for the sins of others and they also the beloved of the Father in his eternal purpose 2. God is just in not exacting the same debt of sin twice both of his Son and of his people in whose stead he paid it 3. God is just in discharging of his Son from whom he hath receaved the full and covenanted satisfaction for sin And he is just in discharging Them for whom this satisfaction was given He is just in raising Christ from the dead and he rose for our justification Rom. 4.25 We are justified freely by his Grace but this free free-grace flows to us through the Channel of Redemption by the Blood of Christ And both this Grace and this Blood is set forth in the Gospel to our Faith and must be applyed unto by Faith and applyed to us in believing Whatever the Thoughts of Men be of these things Free-grace and Dear-blood are the stay of all the Redeemed on Earth and the everlasting Song of all the glorified in Heaven 4. And lastly to raise your Thoughts of the greatness of this Favour of having a Throne of Grace to come to consider what rich provisions are made at this Throne for sinners This the Text speaks of and we shall in order handle them Only now a few words There is no Court in all Gods Dominions that a sinner can come to and find any mercy or grace but only at this Throne of Grace If you talk of Law or Justice or Equity these are all frightful Courts to sensible sinners they know their Cause and Case is bad and if they come to any Bar but that of the Throne of Grace they must be cast But at this Throne of Grace there they that have nothing may get all things they that deserve nothing may get every thing they that deserve Wrath may obtain Mercy they that are cast and condemned at the Court of Justice may be acquitted and freed from all sentences and be adjudged to eternal life by the grace of God in Christ Jesus All that is needful to Salvation is dispensed at this Throne Yet all that is given is old in the purpose of grace from eternity Old in the everlasting Covenant Old in the purchase of Jesus Christ Only it s newly given according to the sinners necessity 2 Tim. 1.9 Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling this was done as yesterday But how came we by this saving and this calling Not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace Paul still opposeth Works to Grace and Grace to Works in the matters of Iustification and Salvation and so doth his Lord and Master that taught him and so do all that know either grace or works rightly which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began Let this be still kept in mind that whatever you can need there is a suitable and abundant supply to be had at this Throne of Grace I shall conclude this Exercise with naming two sorts of people that will be specially welcome to the Throne of Grace 1. They that come to the Throne of Grace soon and early I mean young people Children that begin betimes to be Courtiers and Attendants at this Throne Prov. 8.17 I love them that love me and those that seek me early shall find me saith the King on this Throne of Grace O that young people would try and use this Throne of Grace betimes They would find Christ very gracious to them he would discover his Beauty and give them of his Love that would cool their Thirst after sinful pleasures They might grow rich and strong in grace before they be old Or if they die young they should be transplanted to a better soil and be nearer the Sun of Righteousness than they can be in this World Never did a Saint got safe ashore in Heaven bewail his arriving there too soon 2. They that come to the Throne of Grace to Get and and not to Give Take heed to your Spirits in this matter When you come to the Throne of Grace come to receive out of Christs fulness and come not to bring grace with you to add to Christ's Store He loves to give and glories in giving but he scorns to receive grace from you and in truth you have none but what he gives Bring your wants to him to supply but bring not your fulness to brag of Spread your sins before this Throne with shame and sorrow and plead for a gracious pardon But take heed you bring not your sorrow tears and repentance nay nor your Faith it self as a plea for that pardon How abominable is it to Christians ears and how much more unto Christ's to hear a man plead thus for pardon Here is my Repentance where is thy Pardon Here is my Faith where is thy Justisication I know men abhorr to say so but take good heed lest any thought bordering on it enter into thy heart Faith is the Tongue that begs pardon Faith is the Hand that receives it It is the Eye that seeth it but it is no price to buy it Faith useth the Gospel plea for pardon but it self neither in habit nor act is the plea it self that is only Christ's blood Christ's blood goes for the Remission of your sins if ever they be forgiven and is the only plea to be heard at the Throne of Grace There are too many like the Pharisee Luke 18.11 It would seem by Christ's words vers 14. that both came for Justification The Pharisce stood and prayed thus with himself God I thank thee that I am not as other men are nor as this Publican Poor wretch the Publican was a far better man than he as Christ testifieth He came to the Throne of Grace like a man that would carry something away It is a Rule of this Court. Luke 1.53 He hath filled the hungry with good things but the rich he hath sent empty away According to this Rule the Lord dealt with the Pharisee and the Publican and so will he deal with you as you are like the one or the other in your approaches to and pleadings at the Throne of Grace SERMON II. HEB. IV. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need I Did take up this Exhortation as containing an answer to four considerable Questions that usually are in the hearts of them that draw near to God seriously 1. Where may we find Him
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
Peace and Acceptance only in that blessed Beloved beloved of the Father both as his Son and our Saviour and beloved of all that ever saw but a little of his saving Face and Glory Let such go and prosper the Lord is with you the Lord is before you He will welcome the Mediator in his bringing you to him 1 Pet. 3.18 and welcome you with Salvation who come in his Name for it The Prodigals Welcome Luke 15. is but a Shadow of what ye shall meet with Christ welcomes dearly all that come to him And the Father welcomes the Believer that cometh in Christ's Name and is brought in Christ's Hand to this Throne SERMON VI. 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 FROM this Text I have already spoken to three of the things I did take up in it 1. Unto the Throne of Grace it self that is erected for and revealed to Sinners in the Gospel That new Court of Grace which the Lord invites the fallen Seed of Adam to come unto 2. I have spoke to that Boldness that is allowed and commanded in coming to it We are not only allowed to come but we must come or perish and bring the guilt of our own Souls Blood upon our Heads by refusing Acts 18.6 We not only may come and try but we may and must come boldly and confidently expecting to speed in coming 3. I have spoke to the great Ground of this Confidence couched in the Word therefore in the Text and relating to ver 14 15. Were it not for Christ's Place and Business and Heart in Heaven no Man on Earth could have boldness at the Throne of Grace The fourth and last thing in the Verse is the end we should come for and the great Blessings we may receave by coming expressed in two Words That we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need God's Mercy and Grace are the most comprizing comprehensive Blessings and these Expressions of them contain all that is needful for our Happiness Nothing can be added to them No Blessing but is in them no Blessing is without them It is the common Apostolick Prayer and such Prayers made by the Pen-men of the Holy Scripture under the immediate guidance of the Holy Ghost are equivalent to Divine Promises yea are such Grace be to you sometimes Grace Mercy and Peace be to you So that these Words as they stand in the Text do equally answer those two Inquiries 1. What good things shall we get at the throne of grace The Spirit of God answers You may and shall obtain Mercy and find Grace to help in time of need And are not these well worth coming for Are they any where else to be had And here they may surely be found How should this endear the Throne of Grace to us and engage to coming to it 2. Wherefore should we come with what design What end should be in our Eye Come saith the Spirit by the Apostle's Pen that ye may obtain the one and find the other Come that ye may get both Design this getting in your coming I would first speak of our coming that we may obtain Mercy and on it discourse of these three things 1. Of the Mercy that is to be got at the throne of grace 2. Of the import of the Phrase Obtaining of Mercy 3. Of the Duty required of coming with this Design that we may obtain this Mercy 1. Of the Mercy that is to be obtained at the Throne of Grace You see it is only Mercy that is named without any mention made whose Mercy it is or of what sort it is But when miserable Sinners are invited to come to God's Throne of Grace for Mercy it may be easily known whose it is and what it is It is God's Mercy in Jesus Christ who is the Mercy-seat or Throne of Grace it is uot Angel-mercy or Creature-mercy but God's Mercy And who can tell what a great and vast thing his Mercy is Mercy in the proper Notion of it is a kind relieving Compassion to the miserable The Object of Mercy is a miserable creature Divine Goodness shines in giving Being to Nothing and in creating all things Wisdom in ordering them and guiding them to his Glory Justice in disposing of them according to his Will the essential Rule of Righteousness But Mercy hath no fit Object till Misery appear for Mercy to act on The Shower of Mercy is a compassionate Person its Nature and End is to relieve the miserable Mercy with God is another sort of Mercy than what is required of and can be practised by Creatures We may and should have compassion on the miserable whom we are not able nor allowed to relieve The Judge that condemns the Criminal should do it with Mercy and Compassion but he breaks the Law if he suffer his Mercy to delay or divert a Righteous Sentence and Execution But the Lord's Mercy is not only Tenderness and Compassion in his own Heart so we borrow Words by the pattern of sound Words in the Scripture to speak of God after the manner of Men but it is always relieving to the Person on whom it is bestowed Let the misery be never so great and of what kind soever it be whoever they be that are the Objects of his Mercy they are certainly relieved thereby There is no Redemption out of the Pit though their Misery that are there is the greatest Why because there is no Mercy for them If it were possible that God's Mercy in Christ could enter into Hell it self as it falls on many very near to it that Mercy would bring them out But the Door of Mercy is quite shut upon them and the Lord hath resolved and declared that his Mercy shall never visit them That we may the better understand what this Mercy of God is the getting whereof we should make our great Errand to the Throne of Grace it will be needful to consider that misery in men that renders them needy of this mercy And this I would consider as it actually lies on them and is incumbent or as it is coming on them and imminent 1. The misery that all natural Men lye under It 's true they do not see it nor feel it but this makes not their misery the less but the greater For insensibleness of misery especially where it is removeable and when this insensibleness is a hinderance of using the right means of removing it is a great plague and an aggravation of the misery I shall give you a few Scripture-accounts of this misery 1. The misery of a natural Man and of all natural Men is that they are utterly destitute of all true good In me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing Rom. 7.18 Must it not be so much more with them that are Flesh and in the Flesh and have nothing in them but Flesh The first notion we
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 before he came to you Woful is that Cure and worse than the Wound Many poor Creatures are wounded by the Law and to the Law they go for Healing But God never appointed the Law to heal a wounded Conscience and it never did nor can nor will to the end of the World nor to Eternity It is Christ's name and property and glory to be the only Physician of Souls and all must die of the Disease of Sin that are not his happy Patients 3. There is common restraining grace An Act of God's grace and wisdom which he often puts forth in his ruling of this wicked World How quickly would this Earth become a Hell were it not for this restraining grace If all unrenewed Men were permitted by God to commit all the Sin Satan tempts to and their Natures incline them to there would be no living in this World for the golly This restraining grace we find a Heathen â—ad Gen. 20.6 I with-held thee from sinning against me faith the Lord to Abimelech And which is more we find a great Saint praying for it Ps 19.13 Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins let them not have Dominion over me That is lay a powerful restraint on me by thy grace that when I am tempted my way may be hedged up and I may be kept from complying with the Temptation But yet bare restraining grace is not desired by a Christian in good case without sanctifying grace He desires not only the restraining of the outward Acts of Sin but the removing of inward Inclinations to Sin he begs the renewing and changing of the Heart So David when he had fallen foully by the strength of inward Corruption and God's leaving him to himself when recovered by Grace and renewed unto Repentance prays like a wise Believer Psal 51.10 Create in me a clean Heart O God and renew a right spirit within me 4. There is common assisting grace Many a bad Man hath had good Assistance from God in a good Work The Spirit of God hath cloathed many and enabled them to great and good Works which God gets Service by and the World good by though the Doers thereof be not accepted Matth. 7.22 Many shall say to me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name have done many wonderful works All great things and all done in Christ's Name and done by his Assistance In their casting out of Devils and in working of Miracles there was an exerting of Omnipotency with and by their Faith which is the greatest divine Assistance we can imagine And no doubt they were assisted by Christ's Spirit in their prophecying in his Name Now such things they thus did Christ in his Reply denies not their doing of them finds no fault with the Works in themselves but all his Quarrel is with the Workers I never knew you you are workers of iniquity 5. To common Grace belongs some Comfort and Joy reaching the Heart in hearing the Word Our Lord expresly explains the Stony ground this way Matth. 13.20 He that receaved the seed in stony places the same is he that heareth the word and anon with joy receaveth it Lastly There is reforming grace that belongs to common grace The power of the Word may come so on natural Mens Consciences that they may reform many things As Mark 6.20 Herod when he heard John Baptist did many things and heard him gladly So 2 Pet. 2.20 If any say What should we come to the Throne of Grace for common Grace I answer Not for it alone but for it and better It is a mercy to have common grace it is grace that is undeserved but it is a woful Snare to him that rests in it If the Lord restrain your Corruptions if he enlighten your Minds and awaken your Consciences if he assist you with Gifts for good Works if he help you to mend any thing that is amiss in your Conversation bless him for all but rest not on any of these things It is a higher and better Grace that is Saving and that you must seek after Saving grace as distinct from and beyond all that is common respects three things 1. It respects and works a change in a Man's State which common grace never performs Saving grace changeth a Person 's State by this grace an Enemy is reconciled to God a guilty sinner is justified freely through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus a Stranger receaves Sonship by Christ Common Grace never alters the State of a Man's Person but it leaves him where it found him it never doth nor can take him out of the old Stock of fallen Adam he still lyes in that Pit and is never by it translated into Christ and engraffed in him as a new Head But saving grace when it comes doth all Eph. 2.4,18 2. Saving grace respects Man's sinful nature and changeth it And this grace thus working is called Regenerating Sanctifying and renewing of Men. Christ calls it being born again John 3.3 If any man be in Christ through this grace he is a new Creature 2 Cor. 5.17 This the Apostle calls Tit. 3.5 According to his mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Natural Men are apter to look to their Conversation than to their Nature They may see many things amiss in their way who are loath to look into their Heart and if Light shine in to discover inward Heart-faults they are still backward to own that all is naught and that there is no good in their Hearts If the Light pursuâ— them yet closer and make them see that all is stark naught within they are still more backward to own the true Spring of their Disease and the true Remedy for it That all this Dominion of Sin over them flows from the natural State of their Persons as standing still in and under the first sinful Adam and can never be altered and mended but by Grace putting them into Christ as the Root of their New Life 3. Saving grace respects and works on the new Nature Special grace not only changeth a Man's State nor his old corrupt Nature only but it works on this new Nature wrought by Grace The special Operation of the grace of God in and from the Fountain is upon his own new Creation in the Hearts of his Children We cannot conceave it fully our Minds are not able take in these depths of God We hear from and read in the Word of the intimate Correspondence the Lord entertains with them in whom he dwells Christ dwells in the heart by faith Eph. 3.17 His Spirit dwells in his people Rom. 5 9,10,11 But what is it in their Hearts that he dwells in He dwells in his own Workmanship in their Hearts in his own new Creation in his own Garden he hath planted in them There his Presence is and there his Eye is on that his hand is this is
way of thy Commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart When he draws we run Song 1.4 When such helping Influences of grace come on Believers holy Obedience becomes in a manner as sweet easie and natural to them as it is to a Man that hath bodily strength to use it in speaking walking or working Isa 40.31 They that wait upon the Lord shall renew or change their strength they shall mount up with wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint Psal 103.5 Thy youth is renewed like the Eagles is one of the Notes in the Psalmist's sweet Song No Saint is ignorant of this in his own Experience Who knows not that at some times their Work is heavy and is a Burden too heavy for them at other times it is as light as a Feather and as pleasant and easie to them as for a Bird that hath Wings to fly Lastly The grace of God helps very mysteriously Sometimes its help is very secret and at other times it is very plain to be discovered It s help is sometimes so secret that the Saints cannot know or discern it at present but they are made to know it afterwards Psal 73.2 But as for me my feet were almost gone my steps had well nigh slipt ver 22. So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a beast before thee This is the account he gives of the power of the Temptation he was under and of the bad frame it had brought upon him ver 23. Nevertheless I am continually with thee thou-hast holden me by my right hand He did not know this till he was brought out of the darkness of the Temptation but then he did discern that there had been a secret support given him otherwise he had fallen utterly 2. What Encouragement have we to come to the Throne of Grace for this helping Grace 1. The Proposal and Revelation made to us of this grace as helpful is an Encouragement to come for it Hath the Lord revealed his grace as only helpful to his people and should they not come for that help Your Faith is not very strong and active unless you can catch at the grace of God without a plain particular Promise I say not but there are Promises many and great of this helping grace and that Faith must build upon them and doth But I only mean that the bare Revelation of the Treasures of grace that are with the Lord should when an Interest in the Promises is dark encourage a poor Soul to come for a share of this grace of God Psal 130.4 But there is forgiveness with thee He saith not there is forgiveness for me but there is forgiveness with thee So ver 7. Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption Wherefore is this forgiveness this mercy this redemption with the Lord and why is it revealed but that the guilty should come for this forgiveness the miserable for this mercy the many-wise Captives for this plenteous redemption The Lord's fulness of grace is an Argument for our Faith as well as his Goodness and Faithfulness in making and performing Promises of grace 2. But we have Promises also for our Encouragement Promises imply God's fulness of grace but do express his Good will to dispense it and do bind and engage his Truth to fulfil them to all that take God at his Word and trust him on his Word It is a pity that ever the exceeding great and precious Promises 2 Pet. 1.1,4 and precious Faith should be parted Mark 10.49 And Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called and they call the blind man saying unto him be of good comfort rise he calleth thee They had no Promise but they understood Christ's calling of the blind Man was an Act of mercy and on a design of shewing more mercy But we have many Promises of grace 3. We have all the experience of the Communication of his grace according to his Promises for our encouragement in coming for grace Every Supplicant for grace should encourage his Heart by all the Lord's dispensings of his grace How many of these are reyealed in the Word and many like them daily are to be seen in the Church of Christ. If you have such Experiences of your own build upon them praise for them and beg more If you have none of your own behold the Showers of Grace that have fallen upon many as bad as your selves and which have changed them into that same blessed State that you desire to be in Appl. 1. Is the grace of God thus helpful and should we come to the throne of grace for the help of grace Then we see that weak Christians should pray most Such as can do least for themselves have most need of grace to help them and should seek it most Is any Man under a clear Conviction by the light of the Word and his own sensible Experience that he is extreamly weak and utterly unable for any good Word or Work This Man of all Men should pray most Manage your sense of weakness as a Call to ask much of this helping grace of God 2. Surely then Coming to the throne of grate for grace to help must be hopeful work If at any time Satan or an ungodly World should tempt you or your own Heart fail you in fears of the unprofitableness of seeking God have this as a ready answer I am fit for nothing his grace can help me in every thing whither should I go but to a throne by grace what can I beg there but his grace Say with David Psal 57.2,3 I will cry unto God most high unto God that performeth all things for me He shall send from Heaven and save me God shall send forth his mercy and his Trath And will not these save any Man Exhort I would give you a few directions in the practice of this Duty of coming to the throne of grace for helping grace 1. Come to seek this helping grace 2. When you seek it expect it 3. When you expect it receave it 4. When you receave it guide it 1. Come to the throne of grace to seek helping grace Seeking as is already remarked is not expressed in the Text yet it is plainly implyed both in the Duty of Coming and in the Blessings of obtaining and finding You must seek grace to help you Grace will not help to Sin but helps against it yet blessed be God grace can and will help sinners otherwise we were in a forlorn state indeed Grace will not help to laziness that were an hinderance and no help but grace will help lazy people and help them out of it To engage your diligence in seeking helping grace I would shew you what help grace gives 1. Grace helps to save you If people come to the throne of grace if Men pray and have not Salvation in their Eye they come not aright they pray not We are
the Wilderness and in the Temple of Solomon in Canaan But both Aron and his Successors and the Tabernacle and Temple were but Types and Shadows of Jesus Christ in his Person and Office There was the Holiest of all into which the High-Priest went alone and only once a year in this was the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat and Cherubims covering it whence these common expressions in the Old Testament of Gods dwelling between the Cherubims and of believers trusting in the shadow of his wings Now the holiest of all was their Type of Heaven and the Ark Cherubims Mercy-Seat were but all shadows as the Apostle calls them heb 10.1 of our Lord Jesus Christ and of that peace with God and access to God that he hath wrought out for men More particularly that most sacred of all things in the Jewish Old Testament-worship that was called the Mercy-Seat the Apostle calls a Throne of Grace thereby teaching us that whatever of Divine Grace was revealed and tendred to or perceived and received by the faith of the Old Testament Believers in their right use of these sacred old Institutions of God to his Church the same with great advantage Believers under the New Testament have in Jesus Christ the Body Antitype and substance of them We find 3 most solemn Things in the Old Testament in which the Mercy-Seat the Type of the Throne of Grace in the New Testament was applyed unto 1. The most solemn approach was made unto God in the High-priests going in once a year to the holiest of all where the Mercy-Seat was This was made not by the people in their own persons nor by any ordinary Levite who were priviledged with a greater nearness to God then the people Numb 16.9 Nor by any of the inferior Priests of the House of Aaron to which family the Office of Priesthood was by divine appointment confined nor by the High-priest himself but only once a year at a determinate time and with many appointed Ceremonies of preparation and performance Some tell us of a custom in their Worship that Musick by Singing and Instruments was used by the people to express their Joy and Praise when the High-priest returned safe out from that Sacred and Awful place the Holy of Holies 2. The most solemn attonment for the sins of Israel was made at the Mercy-Seat This was done in that yearly entrance of the High-priests into the Holiest of all Lev. 16.12,13 especially ver 14. And he Aaron the first of that Order of Priests shall take of the blood of the Bullock and sprinkle it with his finger on the Mercy-seat castward and before the Mercy-seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times ver 30. On that day shall the Priest make an attonement for you to cleanse you that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. 3. The most solemn answers were given by God to their High-priest Exod. 25.17,22 where we have the Institution of the Mercy-seat and the form of it And there saith the Lord will I meet with thee and will I commune with thee And again Exod. 30.6 What the Old Testament Vrim and Thummim was and what their Shechinah was neither Jew now nor Christian know though they guess Only that they were special manifestations of the grace and favour and mind of God which expired with and some of them its thought before the end of that ministration But all these three Glories and Dignities and advantages of their Mercy-seat are all to be found in Christ Jesus who represents his people before God and presents them to him who hath made the perfect attonment for all his Israel and who declares to his Church all the saving will of God which he heard and received of his Father The Apostle here in this Epistle and in this Text would have all Belivers in Christ to know that the New Testament Throne of Grace is the same in substance with and with great advantage above the Old Testament Mercy-seat See Heb. 9.4 8. The Truth I would speak to is this That God in the Gospel sits on a Throne of Grace and from it calls and invites sinners to come unto him Let us come to the Throne of Grace certainly means Let us now come to God sitting on a Throne of Grace Let us take both direction and encouragement to come to God because he is on a Throne of Grace In handling of this point of Doctrine I would shew Three things 1. What this Throne of Grace is and how distinguished from other Thrones of God spoke of in the word 2. Why it is so called a Throne and a Throne of Grace 3. What coming to this Throne is 1. What is this Throne of Grace and how distinguished from other Thrones of God spoke of in the Word These other I would first name to prevent mistakes 1. We find a Throne of Glory much spoke of a Throne of the Essential Incomprehesible Glory of God This no man can approach to Of this the Apostle speaks 1 Tim. 6.16 He dwelleth in light that no man can approach to whom no man hath seen nor can see Marvellous is this Light We find the more light there be in or about a person or thing the more easily and clearly it is perceived As the Sun is such a glorious Body that though it be at a vast distance from the earth we dwell on we yet can take it up with our eyes immediately assoon as it shines we can see it because of its light It is its own light and nothing else that doth or can discover it If the Sun did withdraw its own light all the eyes of men and all the artificial Fire and Light men can make would never help us to find it out But such is the Majesty of God that he is clothed with it Psal 93.1 Men are dazled and confounded by a little Ray of his Glory With God is terrible Majesty Job 37.22 This is not the Throne we are called to come unto They are but triflers in Religion that know not in their Experience how overwhelming the Views and Thoughts of Gods Majesty and Glory are when he is not seen as on a Throne of Grace I remembred God and was troubled saith one Saint Psal 77.3 I am troubled at his presence when I consider I am afraid of him saith another Job 23.15 No wonder Manoah said unto his Wife we shall surely die because we have seen God Judg. 13.22 When a view of the Heavenly Glory of Jesus Christ makes John who was wont to lean on his bosom in his humbled State to fall down at his feet as dead Rev. 1.17 2. There is a Throne of Gods Government of the World oft spoke of Psal 9.4,7 On this Throne God fits and rules all things at his pleasure and in Infinite Wisdom This Throne is to be believingly regarded by us but it is not the Throne of Grace that sinners are called to come unto for