â—ffigies of Iohn Flavell Aetatis suoe 59 AnÌ„o Dom 1689. Englands Duty Under the Present GOSPEL LIBERTY FROM Revel III. vers 20. Wherein is Opened The Admirable Condescension and Patience of Christ in waiting upon trifling and obstinate Sinners The wretched State of the Vnconverted The nature of Evangelical Faith with the Difficulties Tryals and Means thereof The Riches of Free-grace in the offers of Christ Pardon and Peace to the worst of Sinners The invaluable Priviledges of Vnion and Communion granted to all that receive him and the great Duty of opening to him at the present Knocks and Calls of the Gospel with the danger of neglecting these Loud and it may be last Knocks and Calls of Christ discovered By Iohn Flavell Preacher of the Gospel at Dartmouth in Devon. Rom. II. 4. Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance London Printed for Matthew Wotton at the Three Daggers near the Inner-Temple Gate in Fleetstreet 1689. Licensed Septemb. 29 th 1688. AN EPISTLE TO THE READER Candid Reader THE following Discourse comes to thy hand in that Native plainness wherein it was Preached I was conscienciously unwilling to alter it because I found by experience the Lord had blessed and prosper'd it in that dress far beyond any other composures on which I had bestowed more pains Let it not be censured as vanity or ostentation that I here acknowledge the goodness of God in leading me to and blessing my poor Labours upon this Subject Who and what am I that I should be continued and again employed in the Lords Harvest and that with success and encouragment when so many of my Brethren with their much richer Furnitures of Gifts and Graces have in my time been called out of the Vineyard and are now silent in the Grave 'T is true they enjoy what I do not and 't is as true I am capable of doing some Services for God which they are not In Preaching these Sermons I had many occasions to reflect upon the mystical sense of that Scripture Amos 9. 13. The Plow-man shall overtake the Reaper and the Treader of Grapes him that soweth Seed Sowing and Reaping time trod so close upon one another that in all humility I speak it to the praise of God it was the busiest and blessedst time I ever saw since I first Preached the Gospel England hath now a day of special Mercy There is a wide door of opportunity opened to it O that it might prove an effectual door 'T is transporting and astonishing that after all the high and horrid provocations the Atheism Prophaness and bitter enmity against Light and Reâ—ormation this sweet Voice is still heard in England Behold I stand at the door and knock The Mercies and Liberties of this day are a new Tryal obtained for us by our potent Advocate in the Heavens If we bring forth fruit well if not the Ax lieth at the root of the Tree Let us not be secure Jerusalem was the City of the great King The seat of his Worship and Symbols of his presence were fixed there It was the joy of the whole Earth the House of Prayer for all Nations thither the Tribes went up to Worship the Tribes of the Lord unto the Testimony of Israel For there were set Thrones of Iudgment the Thrones of the House of David Psal. 122. 4 5. These priviledges she enjoyed through the succession of many Ages and had ramained the glory of all Nations to this day had she known and improved in that day the things that belonged to her peace but they neglected their season rejected their mercies and miserably perished in their sins for there ever was and will be found an inseparable connection betwixt the final rejection of Christ and the destruction of the Rejecters Matth. 22. 5 6 7. The contemplation whereof drew those compassionate Tears from the Redeemers eyes when he beheld it in his descent from the Mount of Olives Luke 19. 41 42. Let all that are wise in Heart henceforth depose their animosities sadly reflect on their past follies encourage and assist the Labours of their Brethren in the Lords Harvest and rejoyce that God hath set them at liberty by Law whose assistance in so great an opportunity is so necessary and desirable It is against the Laws of Wisdom and Charity to envy the Liberty and much more the Success of our Brethren 1 Cor. 13. 4. If the Workmen contend and scuffle in a catching Harvest who but the owner suffers damage by it If after so miraculous recent and common a Salvation as this we still retain our old prejudices and bitter envyings if we smite with the Pen and Tongue when we cannot with the Hand and study to blast the Reputations and Labours of our Brethren and still hate those we cannot hurt In a word if we still bite and devour one another we shall be devoured one of another let us not lay the fault upon others we our selves have been the Authors and Instruments of our own ruin and this must be the inscription upon our Toomb-stone O England thou hast Destroyed thy Self I am more afraid of the rooted enmity and fixed prejudices that are to be found in many against holiness and the serious Professors of it and inflexible obstinacy and dead formality in many others the tokens of a tremendous infatuation than I am of all the whispered fears from other Hands or common Enemies upon our borders To prevent these mischiefs and promote zeal and unanimity among the Ministers of the Gospel I have presumed to address to them in the following Epistle I judged it necessary on several reasons to write it in Latin as what allowed me a greater freedom of expression than might seem convenient in the common Language I am conscious of my own unworthiness to be their Monitor and of the defects their Iudicious Eyes will easily discern in the style wherein it is written and yet can promise my self a becoming reception of what is so faithfully seasonably and honestly designed for their good I am satisfied that no candid and ingenuous Person will put Words upon the Rack quarrel a Similitude or expose a Trifle when he finds the design Honest and the matter Good and Necessary As to the Treatise it self thou wilt find it a Persuasive to open thy Heart to Christ. Thy Soul Reader is a magnificent Structure built by Christ such stately Rooms as thy Vnderstanding Will Conscience and Affections are too good for any other to Inhabit If thou be in thy Vnregenerate state then he solemnly demands in this Text admission into the Soul he made by the consent of the Will which if thou refuse to give him then Witness is taken that Christ once more demanded entrance into thy Soul which he made and was denied it If thou hast opened thy Heart to him thou wilt I hope meet somewhat in this Treatise that will clear thy
applied to the Bleeding Wounds of Afflicted Saints 12 o. A Sermon Preached at the Publick Thanksgiving Feb. 14. 1689. for Englands Deliverance from Popery Books Printed for Matthew Wotton Smith's David's Repentance Great Assize David's Blessed Man. Dent's Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven Farnaby's Rhetorick Inet's Devout Christian in Three Parts first Prayers for a single Person secondly Prayers for a Family thirdly A Discourse on and Prayers at the Sacrament Winchester's Phrases Markham's Master piece 4 o. English Gardner 4 o. Salmon's Dispensatory Doron Medicum or Supplement to the Dispensatory Baker's Arithmetick York's Arithmetick Lucian's Dialogues Greek and Latin. ERRATA Si accentus Comma Colon Periodus omittantur vel id genus lelevior a occurr ant festinantis preli 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tuam rogatam velim indulgentiam graviora quod attinet exhibeo tibi indicem ut videre est In the Latin Epistle PAge 5. line 9. after ita add neque ib. read Regimen p. 7. l. 6 for r. ut and l. 18. r. aperuit p. 10. l. 12. r. iniquiratum p. 13. l. 6. for quam quâ—â— p. 15. l. 4. r. judicium l. 23. for aliis r. alies p. 25. l. 7. for atques r. aqtue l. 19. r. Cognitionem Dilectionemque In the Book it self Correct thus Page 17. l. 23. r. how To. p. 26. l. 3. r. Co extended p 39. l. ult for but r. and. p. 40. l. 15. r. Angel of God p. 41. l. 14 for World r. Word p. 53. l. 4. r. a point p. 57. l. 24. r. the Doctrine of Free Grace p. 65. l. 23. for though r. because p. 95. l. 4. r. fell p. 142. l. ult r. home p. 159. l6 r. Four. p. 177. l. 19 for too r. some p. 192. l. 21. r. the Curse p. 216. l. 28. r. your p. 227. l. 21. r. hold p. 246. l. 1. r. once p. 251. l. 26. for by r. for p. 256. l. 20. r. Thousands p. 264. l. 9. for seem r. serve p. 268. l. 17. r. which p. 269. l. 17. dele the. p. 270. l. 29. r. scared p. 275. l. 23. for that r. the. p. 278. l. 1â— song p. 281. Marg. for est r. p. 284. l. 22. for have r. hear p. 291. l. 23. dele and. p. 305. l. 19. r. Word p. 311. l. ult r. strikes p. 312. l. 19. r. you p. 318. l. 7. for means r. signs p. 322. l. 5. r. Christ's p. 326. l. 17. r. gaining p. 329. l. 25. add not p. 342. l. 20. for in r. with p. 394. l. 7. r. to sit p. 414. l. 17. r. believers p. 417. l. 14. r. hides and l. 28. r. poured out P. 445. l. 3. r. first is this the. l. 19. dele a. In the Appendix Page 17. line 11. add to p. 41. l. 13. r. when it p. 54. 1. 27. r. by their p. 62. l. 18. r. abeneus SERMON I. Revel 3. 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me THis day hath our compassionate Redeemer opened unto us a door of liberty liberty to us to preach and liberty for you to hear the glad tydings of the Gospel This is a day few looked for how often have I said in the years that are past God hath no more work for me to do and I shall have no more strength and opportunities to work for God And how often have you said in your hearts we have sinned our Ministers out of their Pulpits and our eyes shall no more behold those our Teachers But lo beyond the thoughts of most hearts a wide and I hope an effectâ—al door is now opened in the midst of us Oh! that it might be to us as the Valley of Achor was to Israel for a door of hope Hosea 2. 15. i. e. not only making the troubles they met with in that Valley an Inlet to their mercies as ours have been to us but giving them that Valley pignoris nomine as a pledge of greater mercies intended for them Upon the first appearance of this mercy my next thoughts were how to make the most fruitful improvement of it amongst you lest we should twice stumble at the same stone and sin our selves back again into our old bondage In the contemplation of this matter the Lord directed me to this Scripture wherein the same hand that opened to you the door of liberty knocks importunately at the doors of your hearts for entrance into them for union and communion with them It will be sad indeed if he that hath let you in to all these mercies should himself be shut out of your hearts But if the Lord should help you to open your hearts now to Christ I doubt not but this door of liberty will be kept open to you how many soever the Adversaries be that envy it and will do their uttermost to shut it up Ezech. 39. 29. The mercies you enjoy this day are the fruits of Christs intercession with the Father for one tryal more if we bring forth fruit well if not the Ax lyeth at the Root of the Tree Under this consideration I desire to Preach and even so the Lord help you to hear what shall be spoken from this precious Scripture Behold I stand at the door and knock c. These words are a branch of that excellent Epistle dictated by Christ and sent by his servant John to the Church of Laodicea the most formal hypocritical and degenerate of all the seven Churches yet the great Phisitian will try his skill upon them both by the rebukes of the rod ver 19. and by the perswasive power of the word ver 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock c. This Text is Christs wooing voice full of Heavenly Rhetorick to win and gain the hearts of Sinners to himself wherein we have these two general parts 1. Christs suit for a Sinners heart 2. The powerful Arguments enforcing his suit First Christs suit for a Sinners heart wherein we have 1st the solemn Preface ushering it in behold 2dly the suit it self The Preface is exceeding solemn for beside the common use of this word behold in other places to excite attention or exaggerate and put weight into an affirmation it stands here as a Judicious Expositor notes as a term of notification or publick record wherein Christ takes witness of the most gracious offer he was now about to make to their souls and will have it stand in perpetuam rei memoriam as a testimony for or against their souls to all Eternity to cut off all excuses and pretences for time to come 2. The suit it self wherein we have 1. The Suitor Jesus Christ. 2. His posture and action I stand at the door and knock 3. The suit it self which is for opening If any man open 1. The Suitor Christ himself I stand I that have a right of Sovereignty over you I that have shed my invaluable blood to
Adam which are as the Sand upon the Sea shore that not only so many persons but all that they have done must come into Judgment even the very thoughts of their Hearts which never came to the knowledge of Men their Consciences to be interrogated all other Witnesses fully heard and examined how great a day must this day of the Lord then be The Second Vse But the main Use of this Point will be for Exhortation that seeing all the offers of Christ are recorded and witnessed with respect to a day of account every one of you would therefore immediately embrace the present gracious tender of Christ in the Gospel as ever you expect to be acquitted and cleared in that great day take heed of denials nay of delays and demurs For if the word spoken by Angels were stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation Heb. 2. 2 3. The question is put but no answer made How shall we escape The wisdom of Men and Angels cannot tell how to enforce this Exhortation I shall present you with Ten weighty Considerations upon the matter which the Lord follow home by the blessing of his Spirit upon all your Hearts I. CONSIDERATION Consider how invaluable a mercy it is that you are yet within the reach of offered Grace The mercies that stand in offer before you this day were never set before the Angels that fell no Mediator was ever appointed for them Oh astonishing mercy that those Vessels of Gold should be cast into everlasting Fire and such Clay Vessels as we are thus put into a capacity of greater happiness than ever they fell from Nay the mercy that stands before you is not only denied to the Angels that fell but to the greatest part of your fellow Creatures of the same rank and dignity with you Psal. 147. 19 20. He sheweth his Word to Jacob his Statutes and his Iudgments unto Israel he hath not dealt so with any Nation and as for his Iudgments they have not known them praise ye the Lord. A mercy deservedly celebrated with a Joyful Allelujah What vast Tracts are there in the habitable World where the name of Christ is unknown T is your special mercy to be born in a Land of Bibles and Ministers where it is as difficult for you to avoid and shun the Light as it is for others to behold and enjoy it II. CONSIDERATION Consider the nature weight and worth of the mercies which are this day freely offered you Certainly they are mercies of the first Rank the most ponderous precious and necessary among all the mercies of God. Christ the first born of mercies and in him pardon peace and eternal Salvation are set before you it were astonishing to see a starving Man refusing offered bread or a condemned Man a gracious pardon Lord what compositions of sloath and stupidity are we that we should need so many intreaties to be happy III. CONSIDERATION Consider who it is that makes these gracious tenders of pardon peace and Salvation to you even that God whom you have so deeply wronged whose Laws you have violated whose mercies you have spurned and whose wrath you have justly incensed His patience groans under the burden of your daily provocations he loses nothing if you be damned and receives no benefit if you be saved yet the first motions of Mercy and Salvation to you freely arise out of his Grace and good pleasure God intreats you to be reconciled 2 Cor. 5. 20. The blessed Lord Jesus whose blood thy sins have shed now freely offers that blood for thy Reconciliation Justification and Salvation if thou wilt but sincerely accept him ere it be too late IV. CONSIDERATION Reflect seriously upon your own vileness to whom such gracious offers of Peace and Mercy are made Thy sins have set thee at as great a distance from the hopes and expectations of pardon as any sinner in the World. Consider Man what thou hast been what thou hast done and what vast heaps of guilt thou hast contracted by a life of sin and yet that unto thee Pardon and Peace should be offered in Christ after such a life of Rebellion how astonishing is the mercy The Lord is contented to pass by all thy former Rebellions thy deep died Transgressions and to sign an Act of Oblivion for all that is past if now at last thy Heart relent for Sin and thy Will bow in obedience to the grâ—at commands and call of the Gospel Isa. 55. 2. 1. 18. V. CONSIDERATION Consider how many offers of mercy you have already refused and that every refusal is recorded against you How long you have tried and even tired the patience of God already and that this may be the last overture of Grace that ever God will make to your Souls Certainly there is an offer that will be the last offer a striving of the Spirit which will be his last striving and after that no more offers without you no more motions or strivings within you for evermore The Treaty is then ended and your last neglect or rejection of Christ recorded against the day of your account and what if this should prove to be that last tender of Grace which must conclude the Treaty betwixt Christ and you what undone wretches must you then be with whom so gracious a Treaty breaks off upon such dreadful terms VI. CONSIDERATION Consider well the reasonable mild and gracious nature of the Gospel terms on which Life and Pardon are offered to you The Gospel requires nothing of you but Repentance and Faith Acts 20. 21. Can you think it hard when a Prince pardons a Rebel to require him to fall upon his Knees and stretch forth a willing and thankful Hand to receive his Pardon Your Repentance and Faith are much of the same nature Here is no legal satisfaction required at your Hands no reparation of the injured Law by your doings or sufferings but an hearty sorrow for sins committed sincere purposes and endeavours after new obedience and a hearty thankful acceptation of Christ your Saviour and for your encouragement herein his Spirit stands ready to furnish you with Powers and Abilities Prov. 1. 23. Turn ye at my reproof behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you I will make known my Words unto you and Isa. 26. 20. Lord thou hast wrought all our Works in us VII CONSIDERATION Again consider how your way to Christ by Repentance and Faith is beaten before you by thousands of sinners for your encouragement You are not the first that ever adventured your Souls in this path multitudes are gone before you and that under as much guilt fear and discouragement as you that come after can pretend unto and not a man among them repulsed or discouraged here they have found rest and peace to their weary Souls Heb. 4. 3. Acts 13. 39. Here the greatest of sinners have been set forth for an ensample to you
of me for I am meek and lowly You are going to Meekness and Mercy it self he is the Lamb of God that is his name go on then poor trembling sinner dont stand any longer at shall I Shall I with Christ but make a bold but necessary adventure of Faith try him once and then report what you find im to be Certainly if he exercises such Patience towards the Vessels of wrath whilst they are sitting to destruction as he doth Rom. 9. 22 he will not want Patience for a Yessel of Mercy preparing by Humiliation and Faith for Christ and Glory Doth he forbear those that stand out in defiance and will he fall upon those that are mourning to him upon the Knee of submission Shall a damnede wretch that is preparing for Hell find so much forbearance and a poor broken hearted sinner none It cannot be If Jesus Christ forbare thee when thy Heart was as hard as a Rock and could not yield one Tear one Sigh for sin will he execute his Wrath upon thee will he shew thee no Mercy when thy Heart is broken all to pieces with sorrow and filled with loathing and detestation against sin and thy self for sin Did he forbear thee when sin was thy delight And will he destroy thee now it is thy burden It cannot be Moreover if the Lord Jesus had not a mind to shew Mercy to thy poor Soul Now now that thine Eyes are opened and thy heart touched to the quick why hath he forborn the execution of his wrath so long He might have taken his own time to cut you off when he would he might have made any day the execution day But sure among all the days of thy life the day of thy Humiliation the day of thy Faith is not like to prove that day Again as great and vile sinners as thy self have adventured upon the Grace of Christ and sound it infinitly beyond their expectation These the Lord Jesus hath set forth as incouraging examples to all the broken hearted sinners that are coming after that they seeing how it hath fared with their forerunners to Christ might be incouraged to come on with the more confidence 1 Tim 1. 16. But I obtained mercy that in me first Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern for them that should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting Well then shut your Ears against all the whispers of Satan entertain no evil reports of Christ the Devil loves to draw a false picture of Christ and represent him in the most discouraging form to poor trembling sinners but you will not find him so What can Christ say more to convince and satisfie Souls than he hath done He hath left the bosom of the Father he hath taken union with thy Nature he hath poured out his Soul unto Death he hath told us Those that come unto him he will in no wise cast out Thousands are gone before us in the paths of Repentance and Faith and found it according to his Word you have been spared all your Life to this day of Mercy O do not stand off now upon such weak objections III. Inference The long-suffering of Christ toward Sinners instructeth and teacheth his Ministers to imitate their Lord in a Christ-like Patience and Long-suffering Christ is our pattern of Patience if he wait much more may we we think it much to stand from Sabbath to Sabbath Woing Pleading and Inviting and are apt to be discouraged when we see no fruit follw The want of success is apt to cast us under Ieremiahs temptation To speak no more in his Name and to lament with Isaiah That we have laboured in vain 't is a hard case to Study Pray and Preach and see all our labours return in vain 'T is not so much the expending as the returning of our labours upon us in vain that discourageth our Hearts Ministers would not dye so fast saith one of them nor be gray-headed so soon did they see the fruit of their labours upon their people But let us look to our pattern in the Text Behold I stand at the door and knock If the Master wait let not the Servants be weary The Servant of the Lord must not strive but be patient towards all wasting if at any time God will give them repentance 2 Tim. 4. 24. Though the beginnings be small our latter-end may greatly increase though we now fish with Angles and take but now one and then another the time may come and we hope is at the door when we shall spread our Nets and inclose multitudes Aretius a pious Divine comforted himself thus under the insuccessfulness of his Labours Dabit posterior aetas tractabiliores fortasse animas mitiora pectora quam nostra habent tempora Future days will afford more tractable Spirits and easier tempers of Mind than our present times afford Beside the fruit of our labours may spring up to a blessed harvest when we are gone Iohn 4. 37. One Man soweth and another reapeth but if not our reward will not be measured by the success but the sincerity of our designs and labours Our zeal for conversion of Souls to Christ will be accepted but our discouragement in his service will certainly displease him If Israel be not gathered yet shall we be glorious in the Eyes of the Lord. However let this be a caution to you that hear us that you cast not our Souls under such discouragements If I may speak the sense of others from my own experience then I can assure you that the fixedness of your Hearts in the ways of sin and your untractableness to the calls of God are a greater burden and discouragement to us than all the sufferings we have met withal from the World yet are we contented to Pray in hope and Preach in hope incouraging our selves the Lord grant it be not without ground that a crop shall yet spring up which shall make the Harvest-men laugh IV. Inference From the Patience and Long-suffering of Christ we may learn the invaluable preciousness of Souls and the high esteem Christ hath for them Though your Souls be cheap in your own Eyes and you are contented to sell them for a trifle for a little sensual pleasure and ease some of you will hazard them for a Shilling yet certainly Jesus Christ hath an high asteem of them else he would never stand knocking with such importunity and waiting with such wonderful patience for the Salvation of them Christ knows their worth though you do not he accounts and so should you one of your Souls more worth than the whole World Matth. 16. 26. The Soul of the poorest Child or meanest Servant that hears me this day is of greater value in Christ's Eye than the whole World and he hath given three great evidences of it 1. That he thought it worth his Heart Blood to redeem and save it 1 Pet. 1. 19. You were not redeemed with Silver and Gold but with the precious Blood of
the cries of such Souls will be heard above the cries of all the other miserable wretches that are cast away 'T will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for Capernaum Matth. 11. 23. Oh Friends you little know the smart reflections of Conscience in Hell upon such hours as you now enjoy such wooing charming voices and allurements to Christ as you now hear There are many thousands of Souls in Hell that came thither out of the dark heathenish parts of the World where they never heard of Christ but your misery will be far beyond theirs your reflections more sharp and bitter Therefore delay no longer lest you perish with peculiar aggravations of misery 3ly Try the Patience of Christ no further I beseech you for as much as you see every day the Patience of Christ ending towards others Patience coming down and Justice ascending the Stage to triumph over the abusers of Mercy You dont only read in Scripture of the finishing and ending of God's Patience with Men but you may see it every day with your own Eyes If you look into Scripture You may find the Patience of God ended towards multitudes of Sinners who possibly had the same presumptions and vain hopes for the continuance of it that you now have If you look into 1 Pet. 3. 19 20. you shall there find that Christ went and preached to the Spirits in prison which sometimes were disobedient when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah The meaning of it is this that in the days before the Flood Christ by his Spirit strove with disobedient and rebellious sinners in the Ministry of Noah who then were living Men and Women as now we are but now are Spirits in prison i. e. damned Souls in Hell for their disobedience And truly Brethren you may frequently behold the glass of Patience run down the very last sand in it spent upon others Whenever you see a wicked Christless Man or Woman dye you see the end of God's Patience with that Man or Woman and all this for a warning to you that you adventure not to trifle and dally with it as they did 4ly Lastly Do not try God's Patience any longer if you love your Souls for this Reason because when Men grow bold and incourage themselves in sin upon the account of God's forbearance and long-suffering towards them there cannot be a more certain sign that his Patience is very near its end towards that Soul. 'T is time for God to put an end to his Patience when it is made an encouragement to sin God cannot suffer so vile an abuse of his glorious Patience nor endure to see it turned into wantonness This quickly brings up sin to its finishing act and perfection and then Patience is just upon finishing also That Patience is thus abused appears from Eccles. 8. 11. and when it is so abused look for a suddain change O therefore beware of provoking God for now the day of Patience is certainly near its end with such sinners Prov. 1. 24 25 26. Because I have calledâ— and ye refused I have streâ—ched out my Hand and no Man regarded But ye have set at nought all my counsel and would none of my reproof I also will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh When your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind Ah when sinners scolt and mock at the threatnings of God and bear themselves up upon his Patience as that which will never crack under them then look out for a whirlwind a suddain Tempest of wrath which shall hurry such Souls into Hell. Then misery comes like a storm blowing furiously from all quarters Well the Heavens are yet clear over you but a storm is nigh and may be certainly presaged from such vite abuses of the glorious Patience of Christ towards you That 's the first Exhortation try not the Patience of Christ by any further delays II. Exhortation Secondly Admire Christ's Patience and forbearance of you until now that he hath not cut you off in your sin but lengthned out his Patience unto this day and brought about your Salvation by his long-suffering towards you Here now I must change my voice and turn it unto those whose Hearts the Lord hath opened Stand amazed at the riches of his Grace towards you and see that you account this long-suffering of God to be your Salvation for in plain Truth it is so your Salvation was bound up in Christ's forbearance if Christ had not born as he did you had not been where you are I could heartily wish that all the time you can redeem from the necessary employments you have in the World may now be spent in an humble thankful admiration of this admirable Grace and Patience of Christ and answerable duties to the intentions and ends thereof To this end I shall subjoyn divers weighty Considerations which methinks should melt every Heart wherein the lest drachm of saving Grace is found Bethink your selves of the great and manifold provocations you have given the Lord to put an end to all further Patience towards you not only in the days of your vanity and unregeneracy but enen since your reconciliation to him Do you not believe thousands of sinners are now in the depths of Hell who never provoked the Lord at an higher rate than you have done Were you not herded once among the vilest of sinners 1 Cor. 6. 11. And such were some of you as vile as the vilest among them yet you are washed in the Blood of Christ and your companions roaring in the lowest Hell or if your lives were more clean sure your Hearts and Natures were as filthy as theirs And certainly your sins since the time of Reconciliation have had special aggravations in them enough to put an end to all further mercies towards you Light and Love have aggravated these sins and yet the Lord will not cast you off How often have you been upon the very brink of Hell in the days of your unregeneracy Every sickness and every danger of life which you escaped in those days was a marvelous escape from the everlasting wrath of God. Had thy Disease prevailed one degree further thou hadst been past hope and out of the reach of Mercies Arm now Doubtless some of you can remember when in such and such a Disease you were like a Ship riding in a furious storm by one Cable and two or three of the strands of that Cable were snapt asunder So it hath been with you the thread of life how weak soever hath held till the bonds of union betwixt Christ and your Souls are fastned and the eternal hazard over This is admirable Grace How often hath Death come up into your Windows entred into your Houses fetcht off your nearest Relations but had no commission to carry you out with them because the Lord had a design of Mercy upon your Souls This cannot but affect a
of sin by are these 1. There be sins of infirmity committed out of weakness and there are crying sins in the Ears of the Lord of the former sort sins of infirmity you read Gal. 6. 1. where it is called an overtaking in a fault here 's no premeditation nor deliberate consent but a surprize these go not to the account of gross and heynous enormities called in Scripture crying sins such as are the sin of oppression Hab. 2. 10 11. The stones shall cry out of the wall aud the beam out of the timber shall answer it The meaning is that the injustice and oppression which Men have used in raising their own Houses shall cry in the Ears of the Lord for vengance The Stone in the Wall shall say I was digged out of the Quarry hewen and layed here by the unrewarded labours of the poor Mason and the Timber out of the Beam shall say I was hewn squared and placed here by the unrewarded Hands of the poor Carpenter This is a crying sin so also is the sin of Murder when our Hands have been defiled with innocent Blood this makes a dismal cry in Heaven Gen. 4. 10. The voice of thy Brothers blood cryeth unto me from the ground A sin that makes an horrid outcry in both Worlds at once in Heaven and in the sinners Conscience Such also is the sin of unnatural lusts the sin of Sodom made a cry which came up to Heaven Gen. 18. 20. Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grievous Compare these sins with the sins of common infirmity which come by way of involuntary surprize and what vast odds will be found in the weight and aggravations of them 2ly You find in Scripture a great difference put betwixt sins committed against the clear shining light of Knowledge in the sinners Conscience and sins of Ignorance which are committed for want of Knowledge Christ himself puts a great difference betwixt them Luke 12. 47 48. and so doth the Apostle Iames 4. 17. To him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is sin Sin with a witness 3ly There are single acts of sin and continued or repeated acts of sin Sins committed after Conviction Promises and Resolutions Now there is not so much of guilt in a single act of sin as there is in a repeated and continued course of sin called Deut. 29. 19. Adding of drunkenness to thirst and Isa. 30. 1. Adding sin to sin For as it is in numbring so it is in sinning if the first figure be one the second is ten the third an hundred the fourth a thousand and every addition makes a greater multiplication O what a dreadful reckoning will here be for the Consciences of poor sinners 4ly Contrivers and studiers of sin are always in Scripture placed in the first rank of sinners The best servant God hath in the World may be surprized by the deceitfulness of sin against the gracious bent and resolution of his Soul but the contrivance and plotting of sin is quite another thing therefore it is said of the wicked Iob 15. 35. They conceive mischief and bring forth vanity and their belly prepareth deceit That is sin like the Foetus in the Womb hath its time of conception growth and birth and all this by the deliberate consent of the naughty Heart and Will which fosters and cherishes it 5ly There are ring-leaders in sin and single personal sins which spread no farther than our selves a ring-leader in sin is in Scripture reckoned amongst the greatest of sinners so Revel 2. 14. Thou hast them that held the Doctrin of Balaam who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the Children of Israel thus Ieroboam the son of Nebat made Israel to sin There is the same difference betwixt these and single personal sins as there is betwixt a chain shot and a single bullet Mind this you that have induced others to sin by your counsel or example 6ly There are sins in which men glory and take pleasure and sins for which men groan and mourn Now the more pleasure any man takes in sin the greater doth the sin arise in its aggravation We read of some Iob 20. 12. in whose mouths wickedness is sweet and they hide it under their tongue that is they draw a great deal of contemplative delight before and after the commission of sin as well as in the commission of it 'T is bad enough to sin and sigh to sin and weep but to sin and boast to sin and make a mock of sin what a prodigious way of sinning is this O Sinner what an heart hast thou that canst play and sport with that which grieves God crucified Christ and with without deep and sound Repentance will damn thine own Soul 7ly The more Bonds of Restraint any man breaks asunder to commit sin the greater and more aggravated always that sin is in the sight of God. There be some persons upon whom God hath laid more bonds of restraint to keep back their souls from iniquity than he hath upon others The more mercies he hath bestowed upon you the more restraints from sin So many mercies so many tyes Ier. 2. 5 6. especially spiritual mercies as light in your minds pardons sealed to your consciences love manifested to your souls Such also are your own Vows Promises and Resolutions Ier. 2. 20. Thou saidst I will no more transgress Didst not thou promise me saith God more care and circumspection for time to come And such are all the Examples and Warnings God hath given us by his Judgments upon others 1 Cor. 10. 11. These things put an Accent upon sin and make it out of measure sinful And now my Friends what have have I been driving at all this while in opening the greatness and aggravations of sin The design of all this is to shew you the indispensible need of Repentance and Faith to carry you to Christ. But I am the person upon whom these crying aggravated sins are found you tell me of going to Christ alas there is no hope of mercy for such a wretch as I am There it sticks Poor sinners think 't is to no purpose they had as good go on in sin for they conclude there 's no hope for them Come sinners give me leave to tell you you have a Text before you that the clears the way of your duty and salvation at once If any man be he what he will be his sins never so great yet if he hear my voice and open the door I will come into him saith Christ. There is mercy in Jesus Christ for thee who art guilty of crying sins For thee that hast added sinned against light and knowledge For thee that hast drunkenness to thirst For thee that hast contrived sin with deliberation For thee that hast induced others to sin by counsel or example For thee that hast taken pleasure in iniquity and made a sport of sin Yea and for
thee also that hast broken asunder the bonds of mercies vows and warnings provided thou wilt now hear the voice of Christ and thy Will open to him with an hearty firm consent Isa. 55. 4. You are great and heinous sinners but I shew this day a Great and Almighty Saviour One that is able to save to the utmost all that come unto God by him Hebr. 7. 25. There is a Sacrifice laid out and appointed for these sins O bless God for that They are no where excepted from the possibility of forgiveness Nothing but the impenitency of thy heart and obstinacy of thy Will can bar thee from a full and final pardon Jesus Christ can save thee to the uttermost Say not within thy self Can the virtue of his Blood extend it self to the remission of this or that sin He can save to the uttermost Look round about thee to the uttermost Horizon of all thy guilt and Christ can save thee to the uttermost that the Eye of thy Conscience can discern yea and beyond it too but then thou must come unto him You speak of the greatness of sin and you have cause to have sad thoughts about it but in the mean time you consider not that your Unbelief by which you stand off from Christ your only Remedy is certainly the greatest of all the sins that ever you stood guilty of against the Lord. This is the sin that binds the guilt of all your other sins upon you Let me therefore address my self 1 To you who cry out of the greatness of sin and that discourages you from going to Christ 2 To lesser sinners who because they are clear of great Enormities see not their need of Christ. 1. This Exhortation speaketh to you whose Consciences are â—eared with the horrid and hideous aggravations of your sins by reason whereof your own misgiving hearts assisted by the policy of Satan discourage you from all Attempts to gain Christ and Pardon in the way of Repentance and Faith. Let me at this time hint three or four Considerations to you by way of Encouragement 1 The sparing goodness of God till now gives some encouragement that God may have a reserve of mercy for so great and vile a sinner as thou art O what a mercy is it that thy life hath been spared hitherto Many of thy Companions in sin are beyond hope and mercy whilst thou art left I confess this is no sure sign of Gods gracious intention to thee unless the goodness and forbearance of God did lead thee to Repentance then the gracious intention of God in prolonging thy life would evidently appear But however it is in it self a very great mercy because without it no spiritual mercy could be expected 2ly 'T is matter of encouragement and hope That though your Disease be dreadful yet it is not desperate and incurable The Text takes it within the compass of mercy O bless God for that If any man c. 3ly As great sinners as you have been have found mercy 1 Tim. 1. 16. and God would have it to be recorded for your encouragement If now the Lord shall make thy heart to break and thy Will to bowe whatever thy sins have been they shall not bar thee from mercy and forgiveness But if thou resolve to go on in sin or sit down desponding or discouraged and wilt not come in at the Invitation and Call of Christ then thy wound is incurable indeed and there is but one way with thee thy Mittimus is already made for Hell and that Scripture in 1 Cor. 6. 9. will tell thee whither thou art going But God forbid that this should be the Issue of Christs gracious invitations to thee and forbearance of thee Seeing mercy is tendred to any man that will accept it upon Christ's terms exclude not thy self when he hath not excluded thee 2. I will close up this Use of Exhortation to another sort of persons who are not of the notorious infamous rank of profane Sinners but their lives have been drawn more smoothly through a course of Civility These have as great need to be prest to Repentance and Faith as the most notorious Sinners in the world These are a Generation that bless themselves in their own eyes and thank God with the Pharisee Luke 18. 11. That they are not as other men They acknowledge Conversion to be the duty of the profane that such Sinners as I last dealt with stand in apparent need of it But as for themselves they scarce know where to find matter for Repentance nor do they feel any need of Christ. Now I would lay three Considerations before such persons to convince them that their Case is as sad and hazardous yea and in some respect more hazardous than the state of the most notorious Sinners in the world and that a Change must also pass upon them or else it had been good for them they had never been born I. Consideration Let the civilized part of the world lay this thought close to their hearts That though their sins be not so gross and horrid to appearance as other mens are yet continued in they will prove as mortal and destructive as those greater Abominations of other men No sin absolutely considered is small Every sin is mortal and damning without Christ Rom. 6. ult The wages of sin is death 'T is no great odds if a man be killed whether it were by a broad Sword or by a small Penknife The least sin violates the whole Law Iames 2. 10. He that offendeth in one point is guilty of all The least transgression of the Law pulls down the guilt and curse of the whole Law upon the Sinners head And this is your misery that are out of Christ and stand under the rigorous terms of the first Covenant Moreover the Law of God is violated grosly and externally or spiritually and more internally Thus every unchast thought is Adultery And the very inward burnings of Malice and Anger in the heart is Murther Now if the Lord shall bring the spiritual sense of the Law home to your Consciences as he did to Paul's Rom. 7. 9. You will certainly give up that plea that you have not so much need of conversion as other Sinners have There are sins of greater infamy and sins of deeper guilt There may be more guilt in those sins that are stifled in thy heart and never defamed thee than there may be in some sins that make a louder noise in the world II. Consideration You are guilty of one sin how civil and blameless soever your lives are which is certainly more great and heinous than any outward act of sin can ordinarily be and that is your trusting to your own Righteousness as the Pharisees did Luke 18. 9. He spake this Parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others Here 's an Idol of Jealousie set up in the room of Christ 'T is true this sin makes not so loud a noise
his paths are peace Prov. 3. 17. Now you know where to go and unload any trouble that presseth your Hearts whatever prejudices and scandals Satan and his instruments cast upon Religion this I will affirm of it that that man must necessarily be a stranger to true pleasure and empty of real comfort who is a stranger to Christ and the duties of Communion with him 'T is true here 's no allowance for sinful pleasures nor any want of Spiritual pleasures Bless God therefore for converting grace you that have it and list up a cry to Heaven for it you that want it V. Inference Lastly If there be so much delight and pleasure in our imperfect and often interrupted Communion with God here O then what is Heaven What are the immediate visions of his face in the perfect state 1 Cor. 2. 9. Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him You have heard glorious and ravishing reports in the Gospel of that blessed future state things which the Angles desire to look into You have felt and tasted joys unspeakable and full of glory in the actings of your faith and love upon Christ yet all that you have heard and all that you have felt and tasted in the way to glory falls so short of the perfection and blessedness of that state that Heaven will and must be a great surprize to them that have now the greatest acquaintance with it Though the present comforts of the Saints are sometimes as much as they can bear for they seem to reel and stagger under the weight of them Cant. 2. 5. Stay me with flagons comfort me with apples I am sick of love Yet I say these high tides of present joy are but shallows to the joys of his immediate presence 1 Cor. 13. 12. And as they run not so deep so are they not constant and continued as they shall be above 2 Thes. 4. ult Ever with the Lord. And thus much for Information I. Vse for Exhortation The last improvement of this Point will be by way of Exhortation 1. To Believers 2. To Vnbelievers First Is the privileged state into which all believers are admitted by Conversion Then strive to come up to the highest attainment of Communion with God in this World and be not contented with just somuch grace as will secure you from Hell but labour after such an hight of grace and communion with God in the exercise thereof as may bring you into the suburbs of Heaven on Earth Forget the things that are behind you as to satisfaction in them and press towards the mark for the prize of your high calling 'T is greatly to your loss that you live at such a distance from God and are so seldom with him Think not the ablest Ministers or choicest Books will ever be able to satisfie your doubts and comfort your hearts whilst you let down your Communion with God to a so low a degree O that you might be perswaded now to hearken obediently to three or four necessary words of Counsel I. Counsel Make Communion with God the very level and aim of your Souls in all your approaches to him in the Ordinances and Duties of Religion Set it upon the point of your compass let it be the very thing your Souls design let the desires and hopes of Communion with God be the thing that draws you to every Sermon and Prayer Psal. 27. 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may see the beauty of the Lord and enquire after him in his Temple That was the mark David aimed at And Mens success in Duty is usually according to the Spiritual aims and intentions of their Hearts in them both sincerity and comfort lye much in mens ends II. Counsel In all your approaches to God beg and plead hard with him for the manifestations of his love and further Communications of his grace Hear O Lord when I cry with my voice have mercy also upon me and answer me When thou saidst Seek ye my face my heart said unto thee Thy face Lord will I seek Hide not thy face far from me put not thy servant away in anger Psal 27. 7 8 9. How full and thick of pleas and arguments for Communion with God was this prayer of David Lord I am come in obedience to thy command thou saidst Seek ye my face thou bidst me come to thee and wilt thou put away thy servant in anger Thou hast been my help I have had sweet experience of thy goodness thou dost not use to put me off and turn me away empty III. Counsel Desire not comfort for comforts sake but comforts and refreshments for service and obedience sake that by it you may be strengthned to go on in the ways of your duty with more chearfulness Psal. 119. 32. Then will I run the ways of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart As if he should say O Lord the comforts thou shalt give me shall be returned again in chearful services to thee I desire them as Oyl to the Wheels of obedience not food for my pride IV. Counsel As ever you expect to be owners of much comfort in the ways of your Communion with God see that you be strict and circumspect in the course of your Conversations 'T is the loosness and carelesness of our hearts and lives which impoverishes our Spiritual comforts A little pride a little carelesness dashes and frustrates a great deal of comfort which was very near us almost in our hands to allude to that Hosea 7. 1. When I would have healed Israel then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered So here just when 〈◊〉 desire of thy heart was come to the door some sin stept in the way of it your iniquities saith God have separated between you and you God and your sins have hid his face from you Isa. 59. 2. The Comforter the holy Spirit is sensible and tender he hath quick resentments of your unkindnesses and offences As ever therefore you expect comfort from him beware of him and grieve him not Secondly In the last place this Point speaks necessary counsel and advice to Vnbelievers to all that live estranged from the life of God and have done so from the Womb Psal. 58. 3. To you the voice of the Redeemer sounds a summons once more Behold I stand at the door and knock Oh that at last you might be prevailed with to comply with the merciful terms propounded by him Will you shut out a Saviour bringing Salvation Pardon and Peace with him Christ is thy rightful owner and demands possession of thy Soul if thou wilt now hear his voice thy former refusals shall never be objected If thou still reject his gracious offers mercy may never more be tendered to thee there is a call of Christ which will be the last call and after that no more Take heed what
you do if you still demur and delay your damnation is just inevitable and unexcusable Hear me therefore you unregenerated Souls in what rank or condition soever providence hath placed you in this World whether you be rich or poor young or old Masters or Servants whether there be any stirrings of conviction in your Consciences or not For however your conditions in this World differ from each other at present there is one common misery hanging over you all if you continue in that state of unbelief you are now fixed in And first Harken to the voice and call of Christ you that are exalted by providence above your poorer neighbours you that have your Heads Hands and Hearts full of the World men of trade and business I have a few solemn questions to ask you this day I. You have made many gainful bargains in your time but what will all profit you if the agreement be not made betwixt Christ and your Souls Christ is that treasure which only can enrich you Matth. 13. 44. Thou art a poor and miserable wretch whatever thou hast gained of this World if thou have not gained Christ thou hast heaped up guilt with thy riches which will more torment thy Conscience hereafter than thy estate can yield thee comfort here 2ly You have made many assurances to secure your floating Estates which you call Policies but what assurance have you gotten for your Souls Are not they exposed to eternal hazards O impolitick man To be so provident to secure trifles and so negligent in securing the richest treasure 3ly You have adjusted many accounts with men but who shall make up your accounts with God if you be Christless What shall it profit a man to gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Matth. 16. 26. Say not you have much business under your Hands and cannot allow time you will have space enough hereafter to reflect upon your folly Secondly You that are poor and mean in the World what say you Will you have two Hells one here and another hereafter No comfort in this World nor hope for the next Your expectations here laid in the dust and your hopes for Heaven built upon the sand O if you were once in Christ how happy were you though you knew not where to fetch your next bread Poor in the World but rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which God hath promised James 2. 5. O blessed state If you had Christ you had then a right to all things I Cor. 3. 22 23. You had then a Father to take care for you but to be poor and Christless no comfort from this World nor hopes from the next this is to be truly miserable indeed Your very straights and wants should prompt you to the great duty I am now pressing on you and methinks it should be matter of encouragement that the greatest number of Christs friends and followers came out of that rank and order of men to which you belong Thirdly You that are Seamen floating so often upon the great deeps you are reckoned a third sort of persons between the living and the dead you belong not to the dead because you yet breath and scarcely to the living because you are continually so near death What think you friends have you no need of a Saviour Do you live so secure from the reach and danger of death Have your lives been so pure righteous and innocent who have been in the thick of temptations in the World abroad Ponder that Scripture I Cor. 6. 9 10. Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Effeminate nor Abusers of themselves with man-kind c. Ponder it I say and think whether you have not as great and pressing a necessity of Jesus Christ as any poor Souls under Heaven You have had many temporal Salvations from God great and eminent deliverances and will these satisfie you Is it enough that your bodies are delivered from the danger of the Sea though your Souls sink and perish in the Ocean of Gods wrath for ever If you will yet accept Christ upon his terms all that you have done shall be forgiven Isa. 55. 2. The Lord now calls to you in a still voice if you hear his voice well if not you may shortly hear his voice in the tempestuous storms without you and a roaring Conscience within you Poor man think what an interest in Christ will be worth wert thou now as shortly thou maist be floating upon a piece of wreck or shivering upon a cold and desolate rock crying mercy Lord mercy Well mercy is now offered thee but in vain wilt thou expect to find it if thou continue thus to despise and reject it Fourthly You that are aged and full of days hearken to the voice of Christ God hath called upon you a long time When you were young you said 't is time enough yet we will mind these things when we are old and come nearer to the borders of Eternity Well now you are old and just upon the borders of it will you indeed mind it now you have left the great concernments of your Souls to this time this short very short time And do the temptations of your Youth take hold upon your Age what delay and put off Christ still as you were wont to do Poor Creatures you are almost gone out of time you have but a short time to deliberate what you do must be done quickly or it can never be done Your night is even come upon you when no man can work Fifthly You that are young in the Bud or Flower of your time Christ is a Suiter for your first Love he desires the kindness of your youth your Spirits are vigorous your Hearts tender your Affections flowing and impressive you are not yet entred into the incumbrances and distracting cares of the World hereafter a crowd and thick succession of earthly employments and engagements will come on sin will harden you by custom and continuance now is your time you are in the convertible Age few that pass the season of youth comparatively speaking are brought over to Christ afterwards 'T is a rarity the wonder of an Age to hear of the conversion of aged Sinners besides you are the hopes of the next Generation Should you be Christ-neglecting and despising Souls how bad soever the present Age is the next will be worse Say not we have time enough before us we will not quench the sprightly vigour of our Youth in melancholy thoughts Remember there are Sculls of all sizes in Golgotha Graves of all lengths in the Church-yard You may anticipate those that stand nearer the Grave than you seem to do O you cannot be happy too soon As young as you are did you but tast the Comforts that be in Christ nothing would grieve you more than that you knew him no sooner Behold he standeth at thy Door in the morning of thy Age knocking this day for admission into thy Heart Sixthly You that
have had some slight ineffectual vanishing Convictions upon you formerly the Lord Jesus once more renews his call will you now at last hear his voice 'T is an infinite mercy to have a second call I doubt not but there are many among you whilst you have sat under the Word have had such thoughts as these in your Hearts sure my condition is not right nor safe there must another manner of work pass upon my Soul or I am lost for ever External duties of Religion I do perform but I am a stranger to Regeneration Such inward convictions as these were the Knocks and Calls of Christ but they passed away and were forgotten your Convictions are dead and your Hearts the more hardned for it is in puting a Soul under Conviction as it is in puting Iron into the Fire and quenching it again which hardens it the more You have been near the Kingdom of God but the more miserable for that if you be shut out at last The quicknings of your Convictions is the right way to the saving of your Souls The Lord make you this day to hear his Voice Seventhly Such as have come hither upon vain or vile accounts for meer novelty or worse ends to catch advantages or reproach the truths of God. Scoffing at the most solemn and awful Voice of Christ. The Word that you have slighted and reproached the same shall Judge you in that great Day except the Lord give you Repentance unto Life and make the Heart tremble under it that hath scoffed at it Be not mockers lest your bands be made strong Isa. 28. 22. Eighthly To Conclude Let all whose Hearts the Lord hath opened this day for the enjoyment of the Gospel the blessed instrument of their Salvation bless the Lord that hath made it a Key by Regeneration to open the door of Salvation to your Souls And as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in him AN APPENDIX To the Foregoing TREATISE FROM ROMANS 1. 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness IN all the foregoing Sermons I have been pleading and wooing for Christ. And as Abrahams Servant to win the Damsels Consent told her what Treasures his Masters Son had so have I laboured to shew you some part of the unsearchable Riches of Christ if by any means I might allure your hearts and be instrumental to close the happy Match betwixt him and you and as the Apostle speaks espouse you to one Husband even to Christ. But alas How few stir towards him The most seem to be immovably fixed in their Natural State and sinful Courses All our Arguments and Intreaties return to us again and effect nothing 'T is amazing to think what is the matter that Souls which have in them the inbred Hopes and Fears of the World to come and self reflecting Powers cannot for all this be prevailed with to quit the way of sin and to embrace the way of Holiness though their Consciences mean while stand convinced that Eternal Damnation is the issue and result of the one Life Peace and Eternal Joyes of the other This hath put me upon a serious search what may be the cause and reason of this fixed and unreasonable obstinacy and in this it seems evidently to lye with most that live in an unregenerate state under the Gospel that they put a force upon their own Consciences and do imprison and hold the Truth in unrighteousness though the Wrath of God be revealed from Heaven against all that do so If by this Discourse I can but set truth at Liberty and loose the Lords Prisoners which lye bound in your Souls I shall not doubt but the value of Christ will quickly rise among you and free Convictions will make the work of your Ministers much more easie and successful than they now find it 'T is hardly imaginable but the things you have heard must leave your Souls under Convictions but if you suppress and stifle them they produce nothing but aggravations of Sin and Misery Now in order to the free and effectual working of all your Convictions and begetting that reverence which is due to them from every Soul as to the Voice of God I have chosen this Scripture the scope and sense whereof I shall next give you The true scope and aim of this Context is to prove the Justification of Sinners to be only by the imputed Righteousness of Christ in the way of Faith. To make this evident he distributes the whole World into Gentiles and Iews the one seeking Righteousness by the dim Light of Nature or the Law written in their Hearts the other viz. the Iews by the works of the Law or External Conformity to the Law of Moses but that neither can find what they seek he distinctly and fully proves He proves it first upon the Gentiles from this verse to the 17th verse of the second Chapter and then he proves it upon the Iews also from thence to the end of the third Chapter As for the Gentiles he acknowledges that they had inbred Notions of God imprinted in their Nature they had also the Book of the Creatures before them enough to leave them without Excuse ver 20. they have no pretence of ignorance but these common Notices of God and of Good and Evil they did not obey and put in practise but acted against the very Light and Dictates of their Natural Consciences For which cause the Wrath of God was revealed from Heaven against them as the Text speaks Wherein note 1. A clear and dreadful Revelation of Divine Wrath. 2. The Object or impulsive Cause thereof Vngodliness and Vnrighteousness 3. The special aggravation of this their Ungodliness and Unrighteousness that they held the truth in unrighteousness 1. Here is a clear and dreadful Revelation of Divine Wrath the wrath of God saith the Apostle is revealed from Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the indignation or vengeance of God. 'T is a word of deep and dreadful signification the Damned that feel the weight of it have the fullest sense ot it 'T is said in Psal. 90. 11. Who knows the power of thine anger according to thy fear so is thy wrath That is the fears of an incensed Deity are no vain Bug-bears Nor the effects of Ignorance and Superstition as Atheists Fancy but let mens Fears of it be what they will they shall find except they repent the Wrath of God to be according to yea and far above their Fears of it If the Wrath of a King be as the Messengers of Death what then is the Wrath of the great and terrible God This Wrath is here said to be revealed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 discovered or made manifest and so it is divers wayes it was revealed to them by the light of Nature their own Consciences gave them notice and warning of it Thus it was revealed to them by an internal Testimony
to spend our blood for the Saints So it was in the primitive times Behold â—said the Christians Enemies how they love one another and are willing to dye one for another But that Spirit is almost extinguished in these degenerate dayes VI. Instance How many stand convinced by their own Consciences what a sin it is to spend their precious time so idly and vainly as they do When a day is lost in vanity duties neglected no good done or received at night Conscience reckons with them for it and askes them what account they can give of that day to God. How they are able to satisfie themselves to lye down and sleep under so much guilt and yet when the morrow comes the vanity of their hearts carries them on in the same Course again the next day and whilst they keep themselves in vain Company they are quiet till Conscience finds them at leisure to debate it again with them Now the things which master Conviction are 1. In some men their Ignorance and Insensibility of the Preciousness of time They know 't is their sin to spend their time so vainly but little consider that Eternity it self hangs upon this little Moment of Time and that the great work of their Salvation will require all the time they have and if it be not finished in this small allottment of time it can never be finished Ioh. 9. 4. 2. The Examples of other vain persons that are as Prodigal of their precious time as themselves and entice them to spend it as they do 3. The charming power of sensual Lusts and Pleasures Oh how pleasantly doth time slide away in Playes Alehouses in relating or hearing taking Stories News c. 4. Inconsiderateness of the sharp and terrible rebukes of Conscience for this on a Death-bed or the terrors of the Lord in the day of Judgment In all these Instances you see how common this dreadful evil of holding the truth in unrighteousness is yet these are but a few selected from among many 5. In the next place I am obliged to shew how and why the imprisoning of Convictions or holding the Truths of God in Unrighteousness so dreadfully incenseth his Wrath. And this it doth upon several accounts 1. Knowledge and Conviction of sin is an excellent means or choice help to preserve Men from falling into sin There be Thousands of sins committed in the World which had never been committed if Men had known them to be sins before they committed them Every Sinner durst not make so bold with his Conscience as you have done The Apostle tells us the reason why the Princes of this World crucified the Lord of Glory was because they knew him not 1 Cor. 2. 8. Had they known him they would not have dared to do as they did And so it is in multitudes of lower and lesser sins than that Satan mops their Eyes with Ignorance then uses their Hands and Tongues in Wickedness he is the Ruler of the darkness of the World Eph. 6. 12. But when Men do know this or that to be sin and yet venture on it here an excellent Antidote against sin is turned into a dreadful aggravation of sin which highly incenses the Wrath of God. 2. Knowledge and Conviction going before adds presumption to the Sin that follows after it and presumptuous Sin is the most provoking and daring Sin from this way of sinning David earnestly beseeches God to keep him Keep back thy servant saith he from presumptuous sins When a man sees sin and yet adventures on it in such sinning there is a despising of the Law of God A Man may break the Law whilst he approves reverences and honours it in his heart Rom. 7. 12 13. but here the Commandment is despised as God told David 2 Sam. 12. 9. 'T is as if a Man should say I see the Command of God armed with threatnings in my way but yet I will go on for all that 3. Knowledge and Conviction leave the Conscience of a Sinner naked and wholly without excuse or apologie for his sin In this case there is no plea left to extenuate the offence Iohn 15. 22. Now they have no cloak for their sin if a man sins ignorantly his ignorance is some excuse for his sin it excuses it at least a tanto as Paul tells us thus and thus I did but I did it ignorantly Here is cloak or covering an excuse or extenuation of the sin but knowledge takes away this cloak and makes the sin appear naked in all the odious deformity of it nothing left to hide it 4. Light or Knowledge of the Law and Will of God is a very choice and excellent Mercy 't is a choice and singular favour for God to make the light of Knowledge to shine into a Mans mind or understanding 'T is a Mercy withheld from multitudes Psal. 147. 19. and those that injoy it are under special engagements to bless God for it and to improve it diligently and thankfully to his Service and Glory but for a Man to arm such a Mercy as this against God to fight against him with one of his choicest Mercies this must be highly provoking to the Lord 'T is therefore mention'd as an high aggravation of Solomons sin in the 1 Kings 11. 9. that he sinned against the Lord after the Lord had appeared unto him twice 5. This way of sinning argues an extraordinary degree of hardness of heart 'T is a sign of little tenderness or sense of the evil of sin Some Men when God shews them the evil of sin in the glass of the Law they tremble at the sight of it So did Paul Rom. 7. 13. When the Commandment came sin revived and he died he sunk down at the sight of it But God shews thee the evil of sin in the glass of his Law and thou makest nothing of it O obdurate heart When the Rod was turned into a Serpent Moses fled from it was afraid to touch it but though God turns the Rod into a Serpent and discovers the venomous Nature of Sin in his Word thou canst handle and play with that Serpent and put it into thy bosome this shews thy heart to be of a strange complexion 6. To go against the convincing warning voice of Conscience violates and wounds a Mans Conscience more than any other way of sinning doth and when Conscience is so wounded who or what shall then comfort thee 'T is a true Rule Maxima violatio Conscientiae est maximum peccatum The more any sin violates a mans Conscience the greater that sin is The sin of Devils is the most dreadful sin and what makes it so but the horrid violation of their Consciences and malicious Rebellion against their own Light and clear Knowledge Iames 2. 19. They know and sin they believe and tremble 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they roar under the Tortures of Conscience like the Rote of the Sea or noise of the Rocks before a Storm O then if there be any degree of sense
skin which are not accidental but connate as the reasonings of Men can prevail to remove the mighty power of customary sin Physitians find it a hard thing to Cure a Cakexia or ill habit of Body 'T is a grave and serious note of Seneca A teneris assuescere multum est 'T is a great matter to be accustomed this way or that from our childhood every repeated act of sin confirms and strenghtens the habit and hence it is that we see so few Conversions in old Age. It was a wonder in the Primitive times that Marcus Caius Victorius imbraced Christianity in the sixtieth year of his age take an habituated Drunkard a self-righteous Moralist lay before them the necessity of a change and you shall find it as easie to stop the course of a River with the breath of your Mouth as to stop them in an accustomed course of sinning That 's the fourth Bar to Christ. Fifth Bar. The Fifth Bar opposing and resisting Christs entrance into the Soul is the sin of Presumption this is the sin that parts Christ and thousands of Souls in the World presuming they hope and hoping they perish when Men presume their condition is safe already their Souls never make out after a Saviour This was the ruine of Laodicea Rev. 3. 17. Because thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked This damning presumption is discovered in three things 1 Many think they have that grace which they have not mistaking the Similar for the saving Works of the Spirit a fatal mistake never rectified with many thousands till it be too late 2 They presume to find that mercy in God which they will never find for all the saving mercies of God are dispensed to Men through Christ in the way of Regeneration and Faith Iude vers 21. 3 They presume upon that time for Repentance and Faith hereafter which their Eyes shall never see And thus presumption locks up the Heart against Christ and leaves sinners perishing in the presence of a Saviour They make a bridge of their own shadow and so perish in the Waters Sixth Bar. The Sixth and last sin barring up the Heart against Christ is a strong prejudice against holyness and the strict duties of Religion Thus in the very infancy of Christianity the World was scared and driven off from Religion by the common prejudices that lay upon the Professors of it Acts 28. 22. As concerning this Sect we know that every where it is spoken against Thus Iustin Martyr complains that Christians were every where condemned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by common same and upon this account Christ pronounces a wo upon the World because of offences Matth. 18. 7. Alas it will be the ruine of Thousands some have suckt in such prejudicate Opinions and vile Notions of Religio◠and its Professors as makes them irreconcilable enemies to it Satan hath drest it up in their fancies in such an odious form and representation that makes them loath both name and thing These prejudices are drawn from various things sometimes from the necessary duties of Christianity which are laid as crimes upon the people of God Psal. 69. 10. When I wept and chastned my Soul with fasting that was to my reproach Sometimes the groundless and malicious slanders and inventions of the enemies of Christianity are the occasions of real prejudices to the World Ier. 18. 18. Come let us devise devices against Jeremiah and let us smite him with the Tongue Sometimes the innocent and serious Professors of godliness are censured and condemned for hypocritical professors sakes who never heartily espoused Religion And lastly the ways of holiness suffer for the slips and infirmities of weak Christians who commonly give too many occasions to disgust the World against the ways of God. By these things multitudes are kept off from attendance upon the means of Grace and multitudes more have their Hearts shut up from receiving any saving benefit under them These are the common Bars and Locks by which the strong Man armed secures his possession in the Souls of sinners and these Bars are too strong for any power beneath the Almighty power and Arm of God to remove or break t is said Acts 14. 27. That the Lord opened a door of Faith to the Gentiles The Arm of the Lord must be revealed or none will open to Christ by Faith Isa. 53. 1. 1. The iron Bar of the Law that thundering terrible Law cannot force open the Heart of an unbeliever all the dreadful curses flying out of its fiery mouth make no more impression than a Tennis ball against a wall of Marble Deut. 29. 19. You read of them that hear the words of this Curse yet bless themselves in their Heart saying they shall have peace though they walk in the imagination of their Hearts to add Drunkenness to Thirst. They play with Hell and Eternal Torments rush into iniquity as the Horse rusheth into the Battle act as men in love with their own Death as those that are at an agreement with Hell. Oh the besotting hardning infatuating power of sin 2. The Golden Key of free Grace cannot in it self remove these Bars and open mens Hearts to Christ Matth. 11. 17. We have piped unto you but ye have not danced The melodious and delicious Airs of Grace Mercy Peace and Pardon affect not the dead Hearts of unbelievers Like deaf Adders they stop their Ears at the voice of the Charmer charm he never so wisely These Gospel melodies only dispose them to a more quiet sleep in sin 3. No works of Providence are in themselves sufficient to open the Hearts of Men to Christ. 1. The Judgments of God cannot do it thousands have been made sick with smiteing that yet cannot be made sick for sin I have consumed them but they refused to receive correction they have made their Faces harder then a Rock they have refused to return Jer. 5. 3. Messengers of Judgment are abroad smiting some in their Estates scattering in one day the labour of many years and therein giving a warning blow at the Conscience to make sure of Christ and the World to come since their comfort and happiness is scattered in this World. Some are smitten in their dearest relations Death knocks at their doors and carries out the delight of their Eyes and with the same admonisheth their Souls to place their happiness in more durable comforts Some are smitten in their Bodies with Diseases giving warning of the near approach of their latter end and bidding them prepare for another habitation but all in vain 2ly No mercies of God are in themselves sufficient to open the obstinate Hearts of sinners to Christ. God hath heapt up mercies by multitudes upon many of you all these mercies of God lead you to repentance Rom. 2. 4 5. They take you in a friendly way by the Hand and thus talk with you
The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force Matth. 11. 12. Why should other Mens Souls be dearer to them than yours unto you What discouragements have you which other Men have not Or what encouragements have they which you have not Say not we have no assurance our pains shall prosper or our strivings be made effectual to Conversion if there were any promise in the Gospel that such endeavours should be seconded from Heaven and made available to Salvation then we would strive as long as breath and life should last but all this may be to no purpose we may be Christ-less and hope-less when all is done But yet remember it is possible God may bless these weak endeavours and come in by his Almighty Spirit with them Nay it is highly probable that he will do so and is a strong probability nothing with you Do you use to do no actions about your civil callings without an assurance of success When the Merchant adventures his Life or Estate at Sea is he sure of a good return Or doth he not adventure upon the meer hopes and probabilities of a gainful voyage When the Husbandman plows his Lands empties both his bags and purse upon it is he sure of a good harvest May not a blast come that shall defeat all his hopes Yet he ploweâ—h and soweth in hope and ordinarily God maketh him partaker of his hope but without such industry his expectations would be vain Away then with vain excuses up and be doing in the use of all appointed means and the Lord be with you Third Vse for Tryal Before I dismiss this Point let us try our selves by it whether God have opened our Hearts to Christ broken these Bars of Ignorance Unbelief Custom Prejudice c. and the Will stand wide open to receive Christ Jesus the Lord. This is a solemn Use the consequence of it great Oh that our faithfulness and seriousness in the trial might be answerable Try your selves by these following marks I. Mark. If your Eyes be not opened to see sin in its vileness and Christ in his glory suitableness and necessity then sure your Hearts were never yet effectually opened by the Gospel I confess Mens Eyes may be opened to see sin and yet their Hearts at the same time shut up by unbelief against Christ but no Mans Heart can be opened to Christ whilst his Eyes are shut Iohn 6. 40. This is the will of him that sent me that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life The work of Faith is always wrought in the light of Conviction the cure of the Heart begins at the Eye of the Mind Acts 26. 18. To open their Eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. God opens Mens Hearts by shining into them 2 Cor. 4. 6. If therefore any Mans Eyes be still blinded with Ignorance Prejudice c. so that he apprehends not his own guilt and misery nor sees the worth and necessity of a Saviour that Mans Heart is still under Satans Lock and Bar sin is shut in and Christ is shut out of that Mans Soul. II. Mark. No Heart opens to Christ by Faith till it be first prickt and wounded by Compunction and Humiliation this Heart-wounding work is always antecedent to the work of Faith. I doubt not but your thoughts fore-run my Discourse to that famous Scripture Acts 2. 37. where Peter preaching to those that had crucified Christ and bringing up his Discourse close to their Consciences in the application of that Sermon convincing them not only what an horrid and atrocious crime the crucifying the Son of God was in it self but also charging it home upon them Whom you have taken and with wicked Hands have crucified and slain When they heard this they were pricked at the Heart and cried out Men and Brethren what shall we do Upon this outcry three thousand Souls opened in one hour to Christ Now consider whether your Hearts have been thus prickt and wounded Hath sorrow for sin pierced thy Soul Vain sinner that frothy Heart of thine must be made to bleed under Compunctions for sin or there will be no room for Christ in it Come Souls t is in vain to flatter your selves in your own Eyes reflect upon the frames of your Hearts call back the days that are past and say When was the Time and where was the Place when thou layest at the Foot of God sobbing and mourning upon the account of thy Sins Did ever God hear such a cry as this from thy Soul Ah Lord my Soul is distressed I rowle hither and thither for ease and comfort but find none O the insupportable weight of guilt Oh the bitterness of sin My Soul fails under it Lord undertake for me I do not say The degrees of Compunction and Humiliation are equal in all Converts neither their sins nor abilities to bear sorrows for them are equal but this I say Thy Heart must ake for sin or it will never open to Christ he binds up none but broken Hearts Isa. 61. 1. III. Mark. If Christ be come into thy Heart then the love and delight of every sin is gone out of thy Heart Christ and the love of sin cannot dwell together what Christ said to the Soldiers that apprehended him in the Garden the like he saith to every Soul that comes to apprehend him by Faith If you seek me let these go their way away with the sin thou most delightest in Christ cannot come in till these be gone Isa. 55. 6 7 8. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous Man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Here be the terms of your Acceptation and Salvation plainly laid down forsake thy ways and thoughts the way notes the external acts of sin and the thoughts the internal acts both of contrivance and delight in sin both these must be forsaken and that 's not all for this makes up but a negative holyness Let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy It is in vain for Men to make the door of Salvation wider than God hath made it we cannot bring down Christs terms lower than he hath set them if we will not come up to them Christ and we must part And this makes the great struggle the sharp debate in the Souls of Converts Oh t is hard to give up pleasant and profitable lusts but away they must go a Bill of Divorce must be signed for them or you cannot be espoused to the Lord Jesus This will be found to be a harder tug than to part with all externals for Christ sake IV. Mark. No Heart can open truly to Christ that is not made willing upon due deliberation to receive
the returns of your Prayers in bearing the cross and sufferings of Christ or in waiting for the day of your compleat Redemption and enjoyment of Christ This single consideration that Christ stood and waited so long upon you is enough to fortisie your Patience against all the difficulties it shall encounter VII Inference Lastly If Christ thus patiently wait upon trifling and obstinate sinners then let no godly person be discouraged because their unregenerate Relations have not yet made their first step towards Christ in the way of Repentance and saving Faith. It may be you have layed up a great stock of Prayers for them the believing Husband hath prayed for his unbelieving Wife and the believing Wife for her unbelieving Husband godly Parents for their ungodly Children and the gracious Child for his ungodly Parents and yet no returns of Prayer appear Many cries are gone up to Heaven like that of Abraham Gen. 17. 18. O that Ishmael might live before thee Well be not discouraged Christ is contented to wait and therefore well may you Those cries of Parents Lord my poor Child is in the state of Nature look in mercy upon him open his Eyes break his Heart for sin draw his Will to Christ these cries may not be lost though the fruit of them yet appear not consider how long Christ waited upon you There be three things that encourage hope 1. That your Hearts and theirs were of the same natural complection and temper and the same power which opened your Hearts can open theirs thy understanding was once as dark thy Heart as hard and thy Will as inflexible as thy carnal Relations now are The same Hand tha opened thy Heart can open theirs Dont think Christ had an easier task to win thy Heart than he will have to win theirs Almighty Power wrought upon you and the same Power can work effectually upon them the Lord's Hand is not shortned 2ly You have reason to wait for as much as it is probable you your selves have put stumbling-blocks into the way of their Souls to Christ and hindred the returns of your own Prayers for the conversion of your carnal Relatives Oh Christians there is more due to them than your Prayers Prayers must be backt with examples had they not only heard your cries to God for them but seen your suitable encouraging pattern set before them also you and yours might have rejoyced together long ago But 3ly consider that God many times makes the fruit of such Prayers to spring up after those that sowed them are dead and gone The Lord may give life to your Prayers when you are dead Certainly your Prayers dye not with you 'T is the opinion of some that Paul's conversion was the return of Stephen's Prayer Lord lay not this sin to their charge Stephen died but his Prayers lived and were answered upon one that stood by and consented to his death But however it be wait on if your Prayers come not into their bosoms they will certainly return into your own Here 's duty discharged love to Christ and their Souls manifested which will be your comfort howsoever God disposes the event II. Vse Secondly The Doctrine of Christ's Patience puts a great and serious Exhortation into my Mouth this day to press one of the greatest Duties upon you that ever I pressed in the whole course of my Ministry among you And could I deliver this Exhortation to you upon my Knees with Tears of Blood mingled with my words might that prevail I would surely do it My Exhortation is to all that are in an unregenerate state that they presume not to try the Patience of Christ any longer If you have any regard to your eternal Happiness exercise not his Patience beyond this hour Oh that this hour might put an end to Christ's waiting and your danger Hitherto you have wearied Men but will you weary God also Christ hath called but you have resused he hath stretched out his Hands but you have not regarded Your thoughts have been wandering after vanity whilst the voice of the Gospel hath been sounding in your Ears some of you have been sottish and uncapable to apprehend spiritual Truths others of you sensual given up to the pleasures of the World and abandoning all serious thoughts about the World to come Some of you have been buried alive in the cares of the World and others setled upon a dead formality in Religion and to this day Christ hath called upon you in vain Now that which I exhort you to is that you venture not to try the Patience of Christ one day longer if you have any regard to the everlasting happiness of your Souls come not under the guilt and danger of one denial or delay more if you ask me why Why may we not venture a little longer Christ hath born all this while and will he not bear a little longer May we not take a little more pleasure in sin May we not hazard one Sermon or Sabbath more and yet not perish I answer No. If your Souls be precious in your Eyes let there be no more denials nor delays to Christ's suit For 1. how patient and long-suffering soever Christ hath been yet there will be an end of the day of his Patience a time when he will wait no longer when his Spirit shall strive no more with you There is a knock of Christ at the Heart which will be the last knock that ever he will give and after that no more knocks A time when the Master of the house will rise up and the door be shut You have had to do with a meek and patient Christ hitherto but believe it sinners there is a day called the day of the wrath of the Lamb and that day is dreadful Rev. 6. 16. where you find sinners crying to the Rocks and Mountains to fall upon them and hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. O if his wrath be once kindled though but a little blessed are they that trust in him that have finished their agreement with him The day of Christ's Patience towards Ierusalem was a long day but it had an end Matth. 23. 37. and it ended in their desolation therefore try the Patience of Christ no further you know not the limits of it it may end with your next refusal and then where are you 2ly The longer Christ hath exercised his Patience already towards you the more terribly will he avenge the abuse of it in Hell upon you 'T is past doubt with me that there are different degrees of Torment in Hell the Scriptures are plainly and clearly for it Now among all the aggravations of the Torments of Hell none can be greater than the reflections of damned Souls upon the abused Patience and Grace of Christ. Those that had the best means the loudest calls and the longest day under the Gospel will certainly have the hottest place in Hell if the goodness and long-suffering of Christ do not now lead them to Repentance
will try what that will do go Poverty and blast his Estate and see what that will do go Sickness and smite his Body and shake him over the Graves mouth I will see what that will do Thus God sends to sinners as Absolom sent to Ioab who refused to come near him till he set fire to his field of Corn and then away comes Ioab 2 Sam. 14. 29 30 31. And thus the Lord opened the Heart of the Iaylor by putting him into a fright a panick fear of Death Acts 16. 27. And thus doth the Lord devise means to bring back his banished II. As God makes use of the Hammer of Judgments so he makes use also of Mercies to make way for Christ into the Hearts of Men. Every Mercy is a call a knock of God and truly if there be any ingenuity left unextinguished in the Heart one would think Mercy should prevail more than all the Judgments in the World Rom. 2. 4. Knowest thou not that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance q. d. Dost thou not see the Hand of Mercy stretched out to lead thee into a corner there to mourn over thy sins committed against so gracious and merciful a God By every Mercy you receive Christ doth as it were â—ee you to open your Hearts to him they are so many gifts sent from Heaven to make way for Christ into your Hearts It would be an endless task to enumerate all the Mercies bestowed to this end upon the unregenerate but surely this is the errand of them all and the Lord takes it very ill when his end is not answered in them hence is that complaint Ier. 5. 24. Neither say they in their Heart Let us now fear the Lord our God that giveth us rain both the former and the latter in his season Some of you have been marvelously preserved in times of common Contagion and Death when thousands have fallen at your right-hand and left then have you been preserved or recovered according to that Exod. 15. 26. I will put none of those Diseases upon thee for I am the Lord that healeth thee I am Iehovah Rophe the Lord the Phisitian many of you have been at the Graves mouth in many Diseases others upon the Deeps yet the Hand of Mercy pulled you back and suffered you not to drop into the Grave and Hell in the same moment O what a knock was here given by the Hand of Mercy at thy hard Heart Certainly if Men would but observe they might see a strange marvellous working and moulding of things by the Hand of providence for the production of thousands of Mercies for them and if Mercy would do the work and win you over to Christ many rods had been spared which your obstinacy hath made necessary O ungrateful sinners Doth your Redeemer thus woo and fee you by so many gifts of Mercy and yet will you shut him out Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise For which of all his benefits do your ungrateful Souls shut the door upon him III. You see what Christ's knocking at the Soul of a sinner implies and by what instruments it is performed In the last place we will consider the manner how this action is performed in the Ten following Particulars wherein much of the mistery of Conversion will be opened the Lord grant your experience may answer them VVe cannot indeed exactly describe and mark all the footsteps of the Spirit in this VVork upon the Souls of Men yet these things seem eminently observable 1. The knocks of Christ at the sinners Heart are silent and secret to all persons in the VVorld except the Soul it self at whose door he knocks here be many hundreds of you this day under the VVord if the Lord shall this day knock by Conviction at any Man's Heart none will hear that knock but that Man only for it is a knock without sound or noise to any but the particular Soul concerned in it It was fore-prophesied of our Redeemer and of this very act of his Isa. 4. 2. 2. He shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the Street The Kingdom of God cometh not into the Souls of Men with publick observation you read in 1 Cor. 2. 11. No Man knoweth the things of a Man saving the Spirit of a Man that is in him None knows what Convictions another Man's Conscience feels until he himself shall discover them you hear the same sound of the Gospel but you hear not the inward stroaks it gives to another Man's Conscience Christ's approaches to the Soul make no noise little do we know what the Spirit of Christ whispers in the Ear of him that sits next us 'T is said of the inward comforts of the Spirit I will give him the hidden Manna which no Man knows but he that eateth of it This is true also of inward terrors and troubles Christ's knocks by Conviction are but a secret whisper of his Spirit in the Ear of a sinner saying Thou art the Man this is thy case That is the first thing in the manner of Christ's knocking 't is a silent knock without publick sound 2ly These silent inward knocks of the Spirit of Christ though they are heard by none but the Soul it self yet do they greatly differ as to the terror or mildness of them in different subjects Some hear them with more terror and astonishment others in a mild and gentle manner when the Lord knockt at the Iaylors Conscience Acts 16. 29 30. it was a terrible stroak he called for a light and sprang in like a Man distracted and trembling and astonied fell down at the Apostles feet crying Sirs what must I do to be saved Here was a terrible knock indeed which almost affrighted his Soul out of his Body it is as if he had said Tell me for the Lord's sake and tell me quickly whether there be any way of Salvation and where it lies for I am a lost Man an undone Soul. But when the Lord opened the Heart of Lydia there were no such terrors the Lord spake to her in a more mild and gentle voice as you see verse 14. the Spirit of God varies his method according to the temper of the Soul he worketh on Knotty pieces need greater wedges and harder blows to rive them asunder and as he directs his Ministers Iude 22. to make a difference to deal tenderly and compassionately with some but others to save with fear so he himself observeth like different methods 3ly Some knocks of Christ are succesful and obtain the desired effect He knocks and the Soul opens but others are insuccessful he knocks once and again by Convictions which may cause the Conscience for the present to startle a little but there is no opening to Christ by Faith. O friends this is of dreadful consideration Prov. 1. 24. I called and you refused I stretched out my Hand and no Man regarded There 's a call without an answer a
slightly crying Peace peace where there is no peace Remember the foundation is now laying for Eternity and that this is the time of deep consideration Men and Women must ponder the terms and count the cost and deliberately accept and close with Christ before the Consolations of the Promises can be regularly administred to them III. Inference What a singular blessing is a rouzing faithful Ministry among the people By such a Ministry Christ knocks powerfully this is one of the greatest blessings God can bestow upon a people next to the saving effects of it when he sends among them Powerful Judicious Preachers of the Gospel under whose Ministry their Consciences cannot sleep quietly These are the proper Instruments Christ knocks at Men's Hearts by and as for those Prophets that sow pillows for drowsie sinners to sleep quietly upon the Lord owns them not for his Lam. 2. 14. Thy Prophets not mine but thine have seen vain and foolish things for thee they have not discovered thine iniquity 'T is true those Ministers that give Men no rest nor quietness in their sins must expect but little rest and quietness themselves What is it for Ministers to preach home to the Consciences of others but to pull down the rage of the World upon their own Heads But certainly you will have cause to bless God to Eternity for casting your lot under such a Ministry and the Lord accounts such a mercy sufficient to recompense any outward affliction that lyes upon you Isa. 30. 20. You fare richly under such Doctrine though the Lord should feed you with the bread of Affliction and give you the waters of Adversity to drink this makes amends for all Thine Eyes shall behold thy Teachers and they shall be driven no more into corners O blessed be God that Englands corners are this day emptied that its Pulpits may be filled with laborious faithful Ministers O that the knocks of Christ might this day be heard in all the Cities Towns and Villages of this Nation the Kingdom of God is come nigh unto us this mercy is invaluable pray that the Lord would continue it and make all your Ministers and Means whether more publick or private successful IV. Inference And then Lastly let all Men beware of those things that deafen their Ears and drown the sound of Christs knocks and calls in the Gospel What pernicious Enemies to the Souls of Men are all those persons and things that turn away Men's Ears from attending to the knocks and calls of Christ in his Word Such are 1. Prophane wicked Men who like Elimas the Sorcerer make it their buisness by wicked insinuations flouts and jeers to turn away Men's Ears from the Gospel Acts 13. 10. O full of all subtilty and all mischief thou child of the Devil thou enemy of all righteousness wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord All opposition of godliness hath a spice of Devilishness and no Child more resembles his Father than a scoffing Enemy resembles his Father the Devil But blessed be God for that good Providence which in a great measure hath stopt the Mouths both of the Father and his Children this day 2. Take heed of carnal and ungodly Relations which discourage and threaten their Children Servants and all that depend on them from attending upon on the means or giving way to the Convictions which God by them hath set on upon their Hearts Cruel Parents who had rather see their Children turned into their Graves than turning to the ways of serious godliness O that any should dare to quench the beginnings of Spiritual life in those to whom they were instruments to convey natural life 3. Take heed of the World its distracting cares and charming pleasures What a din what a confused buz and noise do these things make in the Ears of Men Mark 4. 19. The cares of this World choak the Word and it becometh unfruitful Tell not them of getting Christ they must study how to get bread These are some of those distracting and diverting sounds which drown the voice of Christ's knocks and calls in the Gospel As you value your Souls beware of them II. Vse for Exhortation Christ is now come near us in the Gospel Behold he stands at the door and knocks And I am here this day to demand your answer and in his name I do solemnly demand it What shall I return to him that sent me What sayst thou sinner Wilt thou open to Christ or wilt thou shut him out And with him thy own Pardon Peace and Salvation Once more let me try the force of a few more arguments upon your Hearts and refute your vain pleas to the contrary methinks no Heart should be able to resist such Motives and rational Perswasions as these following will be found to be First You are in exream need of Christ you want him more than Bread or Breath many things are convenient for your Bodies but Christ is the one thing necessary for your Souls Luke 10. 9. One thing is necessary Necessity is an Engine that will open any thing in the World that can be opened necessity will make all fly before it Now there is a plain present absolute necessity lying upon every one of you to open your Hearts to Christ and that without delay Necessity goes before the face of Christ to open the way for him into the Heart thou must have him or be lost for ever Christ and Faith are not among the may bees but the must bees to the happiness of thy Soul. A Man may be poor and happy reproached and blessed but he cannot be Christless and safe nor Christless and comfortable you must have Christ or you cannot have life Iohn 3. 36. You must have Christ or you can have no hope Col. 1. 27. Christ and life Christ and hope go together no Christ no life no Christ no hope sinner thou must have Christ or thou canst have no pardon for Christ and pardon are undivided Ephes. 1. 7. In a word you must have Christ or you can have no Salvation Acts 4. 12. Well then if thou canst have no life nor hope no pardon nor Salvation without Christ then a plain necessity goes before Christ to open his way into thine Heart methinks thou shouldst now say Then will I open to Christ whatever the terms be Come sufferings losses reproaches yea death it self all is one Christ I must have and Christ I will have necessity is layed upon me and my Heart is opened to Christ by it wo to me for ever if I miss of Christ. Secondly The Lord Jesus is this day come nigh to every one of your Souls I may say to you as Christ did to them Luke 10. 9. The Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you The Lord grant he be not as nigh to some of you as ever he shall be for he must come nearer or else you are lost for ever It is not Christ among you in the Means of
Grace but Christ within you by the Work of Grace which must be unto you the hope of Glory Colos. 1. 27. He is not only among you in respect of external Means but he is come into your Understandings and Consciences Yea some motions of his you may feel upon your affections there wants but a little more to make you eternally Happy O what would one effectual touch upon your Wills be worth now The Head-Work is done but O that the Heart-Work were done too You are almost saved but to be almost saved is to be wholly and eternally Lost if it go no further 'T is a sad thing for a Man that hath one Foot in Heaven to slide from thence into Hell. 'T is sad to be Shipwreckt at the Harbours mouth Thirdly Jesus Christ hath an unquestionable right to enter into and possess every one of your Souls Satan is but an Usurper Christ is your lawful Owner and Proprietor thy Soul sinner hath not so full a Title to thy Body as Christ hath to thy Soul. Satan keeps Christ out of his right Christ knocks at the door of his own House he built it and therefore may well claim admission into it it is his own Creature Col. 1. 16. By him were all things made whether they be visible or invisible Bodies or Souls The invisible part thy Soul is his Workmanship a stately Structure of his own raising He hath also a right by Redemption Christ hath bought thy Soul and that at the invaluable price of his own Blood. Who then can dispute the right of Christ to enter in to his own House But alas he cometh to his own but his own receive him not Fourthly Open the door to Christ for a train of blessings and mercies comes in with him a troop of privileges follow him In the same day and hour that Christ comes into thine Heart by a full consent and deliberate choice a pardon comes with him of all the sins that ever thou committedst in Thought Word or Action Will such a pardon be welcome to thy Soul Then let Christ be welcome for where Christ comes pardon comes if you open to Christ you open to peace and who would shut the door of his Soul against Peace If peace be welcome let Christ be welcome for peace follows faith in Christ Rom. 5. 1 Where Christ comes liberty comes Iohn 8. 36. If the Son therefore shall make you free then are you free indeed Are you in love with Bonds and Fetters Satans Laws are written in Blood Christs yoak is easie and his commands not grievous If you love liberty love Christ. In a word where Christ comes Salvation comes for he is the Author of eternal Salvation to all them that obey him If therefore you love Pardon Peace Liberty and Salvation shut not the door against Christ for all these follow him where-ever he goes Fifthly Christ this day solemnly demands entrance into thy Soul he begs thee to open to him 2 Cor. 5. 20. He commands thee to open to him 1 Iohn 3. 23. He denounceth eternal Damnation to those that refuse him entrance Now consider well here is entrance demanded under pain of the eternal Wrath of God this demand is filed and recorded in Heaven at your own peril be it if you shut the door against him only this I will say in my Redeemers behalf if you refuse bear witness Heaven and Earth this day that Christ solemnly demanded entrance into thy Soul and was refused bear witness that the door was shut against the only Redeemer who intreated commanded and threatned eternal Damnation to the rejecters of him O methinks that Scripture Prov. 1. 24. 25. is able to strike terror into the very center of that Soul that refuses the offers of Christ. Sixthly And so I have done my Masters errand if you now refuse the knock of Christ at your Hearts he may never knock more and where are you then There is a knock which will be the last knock a call which will be his last call and after that no more knocks or calls but an eternal Silence as to any overture of Mercy or Grace But if I do open to Christ he will never come into such a filthy polluted sinful Soul as mine is Who saith so Who dare affirm so impudent a falshood in the very face of the Text If any Man open unto me I will come in to him If I open to Christ I must bid farewel to ease and rest in this World reproaches sufferings losses follow him If Christ Pardon and Salvation be not worth the enduring and suffering these small things sure thou valuest Christ and thy Soul at a low rate Oh who can sufficiently bewail the ignorance and folly of Unbelievers that will fell their Souls and hopes of Heaven for such trifles And if Christ and thy Soul must part upon these terms then hear me sinner and let it sink into thy Heart thy Damnation will be both 1. Just and Righteous 2. Unavoydable and sure 1. Thy Damnation will be Just for thou hadst thy own choice and deliberately preferredst the insignificant trifles of this World before Christ and Salvation It was plainly told thee what the issue of thy rejecting Christ would be and yet after sufficient warning thou adventuredst upon it whatever other sinners will plead I know not but as for thee thou must be speechless Matth. 22. 12. If thou dye Christless thou must appear at his Bar speechless and the day of Judgment will be the day of the revelation of the righteous Judgment of God Rom. 2. 5. 2ly It will also be Unavoidable for there is no other way to Salvation but this Acts 4. 12. No Christ no Heaven no Faith no Christ How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation Heb. 2. 3. Mercy it self cannot save thee out of Christ for all the saving Mercy of God is dispensed to Men through him Iude vers 21. 'T is to no purpose to cry Mercy Lord Mercy when Christ in whom all the Mercies of God are dispensed to Men is rejected by thee III. Vse for Consolation This Point winds up in Consolation to all such as hearing the knocks of Christ have opened or are now resolved to open their Hearts unto him and that nothing henceforth shall keep Christ and their Souls asunder To such I shall address the following grounds of Comfort I. Consolation An opening Heart to Christ is a work wholly and altogether Supernatural A special work of the Spirit of God never found upon any but an elect Soul. There are common gifts of the Spirit such as Knowledge vanishing Convictions c. but the opening of the Heart by Faith is the special saving and peculiar work of the Spirit Iohn 6. 29. This is the work of God that ye believe Yea it is the effect of the Almighty Power of God the exceeding greatness of his Power is exerted in the work of Faith Eph. 1. 19. it
injuries thou hast done against him that 's a very considerable Scripture to this purpose in Isa. 55. 7 8 9. Let the wicked for sake his way and the unrighteous Man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts Man lies under a double misery one by reason of Affliction another by reason of Transgression concerning both these Gods thoughts are not as ours but far above what we can think either 1. with simple cogitation i. e. we cannot think such thoughts to others under misery in themselves or under transgression against us as God doth towards as Or 2. by way of reflexive comprehension i. e. we cannot conceive what those thoughts of God are towards us when we are under misery or sin just as he thinks them still his thoughts will be above ours as the Heavens are above the Earth such is the altitude of Heaven above the Earth that the vast body of the whole Earth is but a small inconsiderable point to it the highest Cedars Mountains Clouds cannot reach it Gods thoughts are infinite ours finite his thoughts are continued ours interrupted and at a stand his are immutable ours changable his are intuitive ours discursive therefore never measure his by your own the thoughts of pardoning Grace in him are rich plenteous and glorious but when our unbelieving Hearts have practised upon them they are quite another thing Thou saist how can such a Wretch as I obtain mercy Thou knowest not but the Lord knoweth O if we could take in such a proper Idea and apprehension of the mercy and goodness of God as he hath given of them himself in Exod. 34. 6 7. this would bring you to Christ with much incouragement VIII Direction Eighthly Be not discouraged in the work of Faith though no peace or comfort should come in by the first act of it Nay though there should be an increase of trouble for the present the first saving act of Faith certainly puts you into a state of peace but it may not presently produce the sense of peace you may after you have believed and really closed with Christ meet with some discouragements which may make you question whether Christ have received you or no Whether he have any love for your Souls or no Yet held on whether comfort come or come not though Christ and comfort are inseparable yet Christ and the sense of comfort are not so think not that all your troubles shall be over as soon as ever you believe because it is said Heb. 4. 3. We which have believed do enter into rest That Scripture speaks of a state of rest and not of the present or continued sense of rest the Woman of Canaan in Matth. 15. 26 27. did really believe in Christ yet met with sore tryals under the first act of her Faith yet this took her not off from the work of Faith but rather quickned and inflamed her the more she was glad of a word from Christ and she expected deeds O but the words were discourageing It is not meet to take the Childrens bread and give it to Dogs yet this beats not off her Faith the Dog belongs to the Family and crumbs to the Dog. O Woman saith Christ great is thy Faith. If you resolve for Christ you must not be discouraged a resolute Faith overcomes all difficulties You pray you believe and yet no comfort well the vision of Peace is for an appointed time at the end it will speak and not lye IX Direction Ninthly In your treating with Christ have a care of all secret reserves that will spoil the bargain betwixt Christ and you If I regard iniquity in my Heart God will not hear my prayer saith David If there be but a reserve of one lust that reserve will break off the Treaty be honest with Christ and say not of any sin the Lord be merciful to me in this and be sure there be no secret purpose or reserve in thy Heart for a retreat in time of danger but imbark thy self with Christ for Storms and Tempests Troubles and Afflictions as well as Peace and Prosperâ—ty Christ bestows himself wholly upon you and he expects the same from you give up all or you will get nothing from him X. Direction Tenthly Close up your Treaty with Christ by a solemn Covenant with him ingage your selves to be the Lords One shall say I am the Lords and another shall subscribe with his Hand to the Holy One of Israel Here you have two things to do 1. To give your selves up to Christ according to that expression 2 Cor. 8. 5. You gave your selves to the Lord Make over Soul and Body Time and Talents henceforth to be dedicated things to his Service 2. Take Christ in both his Natures and in all his Offices to be yours and to this Covenant you are to stand to the last breath whatever times or troubles shall come this consent of thy Heart to be Christs this choice of thy Will in taking him for thine is but the eccho of Christs choice of thee and I would rather have such an evidence of my interest in him than a voice from Heaven to assure me that Christ is mine SERMON VII Revel 3. 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock if any Man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me If any Man. THIS expression extends the gracious offer of Christ and brings it home to every hearer 'T is a Proclamation with a Si quis If any Man as if Christ should say I will have this offer of my Grace to go round to every particular person if thou or thou or thou the greatest the vilest of sinners of what quality or condition soever old or young prophane or hypocritical wilt hear my voice and open to me I will come in to their Souls And hereby all objections are obviated as for Example I am the greatest of sinners saith one I have been a self couzening hypocrite saith another I have resisted Grace too long and doubt the time of Mercy is past saith a third the ground of all these and a thousand more objections is taken away by the gracious extent of Christs offer in the Text For who is he that can limit where Christ doth not This gives us a Seventh profitable and comfortable Observation which is this VII DOCT. That Iesus Christ will not refuse to come in to the Soul of the vilest sinner when once it is made heartily willing to open to him If any Man open I will come in to him It is not unworthiness but unwillingness that Bars any Man from Christ thousands have mist of
most satisfying of all Come on poor trembling Soul dont be discouraged stretch out the small weak Arms of thy Faith to that great and gracious Redeemer open thy Heart wide to receive him he will not refuse to come in he hath sealed thousands of pardons to as vile Wretches as thy self he never yet shut the door of Mercy upon a willing hungering Soul. It is a great matter to have the Way beaten and the Ice broken before thee in thy way to Christ. If thou wert the first sinner that had cast his Soul upon Christ I confess I should want this encouragement I am now giving thee but when so many have gone before thee and all found a welcom beyond their expectation What incouragement doth this breath into thy trembling discouraged Heart to go on and venture thy self upon Christ as they did what an Example have we in Manasseh 2 Chron. 33. from vers 3. to 12. An Idolater one that used Enchantments and Divinations familiar Spirits shed innocent Blood in the Streets of Ierusalem a Man might rake the World and hardly bring â—o sight a viler Wretch a greater Monster in sin and wickedness yet his Heart being broken and his Will bowed this Man found Mercy How great a sinner was Mary that came to Christ in the House of Simon the Pharisee Luke 7. 39. So notorious a sinner that Simon took offence at Christ for suffering so vile Wretch to come into his presence If this Man were a Prophet saith he he would have known who and what manner of Woman this is that toucheth him for she is a sinner Yet Maries Heart being broken for sin and made willing to accept of a Saviour what a gracious demonstration of welcom did Christ give her and to all other sinners a singular encouragement in her Example Once more you have an eminent Example of the abundant welcom of another sinner to Christ who owned himself for the greatest of Sinners a Persecuter a Blasphemer Injurious but saith he I obtained Mercy 1 Tim. 1. 16. And the Example of his gracious Entertainment with Christ is recorded on purpose for an encouragement unto all that should hereafter believe How many thousands are there now in Hell that never stood guilty of greater enormeties than the Corinthians did Fornicators Idolaters Adulterers Thieves Covetous Drunkards Revilers Extortioners such were some of them yet Sanctified Washed Justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. If ever Christ would have shut the door of Mercy upon any if ever he would have been coy and shy of coming into any Souls certainly these were the Souls he would have disdained to come near O what a demonstration is here of that comfortable Point before us That Christ will not refuse to come into the Soul of the vilest Sinner when ones it is made Heartily willing to open to him IV. Evidence A further Evidence of this comfortable Truth shall be taken from the Scripture resemblances of the abundant Grace of God and riches of Mercy in Christ towards all broken Hearted and willing Sinners There are some chosen resemblances and excellent Emblems which bring down the Grace of God before the very Eyes of Men amongst which I will single out three glorious Resemblances of Free Grace chosen by his Wisdom on purpose for the incouragement of poor drooping Sinners A Resemblance from the Heavens a Resemblance from the Sun and a Resemblance from the Sea all such as the Wisdom of Men and Angels could never have chosen for such a purpose as this is I. A Resemblance from the Heavens those vast extended Heavens that cover and compass this Earth what an inconsiderable spot is the whole Terrestrial Globe to those high and all-surrounding Heavens and yet these Heavens are not at so vast a distance above the Earth as the pardoning Grace of God is above the guilt yea and the very thoughts of poor Sinners For of the pardoning Grace of God to penitent and willing Souls that precious Scripture speaks Isa. 55. 8 9. Let the wicked for sake his way and the unrighteous Man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon O saith the Soul I cannot think God will ever have Mercy on such a Wretch as I why saith he vers 8. My thoughts are not your thoughts and 't is well they are not but as the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are my thoughts higher than your thoughts You cannot take the height nor sound the depth of my pardoning Grace That 's one Emblem from the unconceivable height of the Heavens above the Earth II. Another is taken from the Sun in the Heavens a Creature of admirable Power and Vertue you know that anon this part of the World will be the Throne of Darkness the Sable curtains of the Night will be spread over all the beauties of this part of the Earth and it may be in the Morning a thick Fog or Mist will cover it thick and dark Clouds may darken the Heavens but behold this glorious Creature the Sun chasing before him the darkness of the Night breaking up the Mists and Fogs of the Morning scattering the dark and thick Clouds of Heaven they are all gone and there is no appearance of them Just so saith God shall it be with thy sins and thy Cloudy fears arising out of sin Isa. 44. 22. I have blotted out as a thick Cloud thy transgressions and as a Cloud thy sins Thy Soul is beclouded thy fears have bemisted thee so that thou canst not see the grounds of thine encouragement but my Grace shall arise upon thee like the Sun in the Heavens and scatter all these dismal Clouds both of guilt and fear and make a clear Heaven over thee and a clear Soul within thee Vnto you that fear my Name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing under his wings Mal. 4. 2. III. Another Resemblance you have from the Sea the great Abyss that vast Congregation of Waters whose depth no line can fadom Veer out as much Line as you will you cannot touch the bottom To this unfathomable Ocean the pardoning Grace of God is also resembled Mich. 7. 18 19. Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage he retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy He will turn again he will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the Sea. If the loftiest Pyramid or highest Mountain were cast into the depth of the Sea it would never be seen more by the Eyes of Men. God hath on purpose chosen this Emblem of his Grace to obviate that common discouragement of Satan taken from the greatness and aggravation of sin and in that case thou art to make use of them and bless the Lord for them he
Gospel which you enjoy leads you to the Fountain of pardon and peace Iâ—a 53. 5. By his stripes we are healed The voice of the Gospel is peace peace to every one that believeth a rational peace founded upon the full satisfaction of Christ Ephes. 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his Grace Here you see Justice and Mercy kissing each other God satisfied and the Sinner justified for Conscience demands as much to satisfie it as God demands to satisfie him if God be satisfied Conscience is satisfied O blessed are the people that hear this joyful sound Psal. 89. 15. And doubtless it is a joyful sound to every convinced humbled Soul Beautiful upon the Mountains are the Feet of them that bring good tydings that publish peace It is a Gospel worthy of all acceptation 1 Tim. 1. 15. it brings with it a fulness of blessings among the People O England O Dartmouth Provoke not thy God to extinguish this blessed light Great is our wantonness and ominous is our barrenness and ingratitude Yet a little while the light is with you walk whilst ye have the light lest darkness come upon you for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth John 12. 35. Should God blow out this light whither will you go Who shall pour in Balm to your distressed bleeding Consciences ' II. Inference Hence in like manner it follows that the greatness heinousness of past sins is no bar to believing and accepting Christ upon Gospel terms Let no sinner be dismaid by the atrocity and heynousness of sins past from coming unto Jesus Christ for remission and peace I am awar what mischievous use Satan makes of former sins to discourage Souls from the work of Faith by heaping them together he raiseth up a Mountain betwixt Christ and the distressed Soul but behold this day Christ leaping over these Mountains and skiping over these Hills Could this objection be rouled out of the way sinners would go on in hope but certainly if God have given thee a broken Heart and a willing Mind the greatness of thy sin need not discourage thee from believing For 1. thou hast sufficient encouragement from the sufficiency of the causes of pardon whatever thy particular enormities have been there is a sufficiency in the impulsive cause the Free Grace and Mercy of God Exod. 34. 6 7. Micah 7. 18 19. Isa. 55. 7 8 9. It is well there is Mercy enough in God to heal and cover all and there is no less sufficiency in the meritorious cause of pardon the Blood of Jesus Christ which taketh away all sin 1 Iohn 1. 7. 1 Iohn 29. And it must needs be so because it is Divine Blood Acts 20. 28. Neither is there any defect in the applying cause the Spirit of God who hath already begun to work upon thy Heart and is able to break it and bow it and bring it home fully to Christ and to compleat the work of Faith upon thee with power thou complainest thou canst not mourn nor believe as thou wouldst but he wants no ability to supply all the defects of thy repentance and faith Well then if the mercy of God be sufficient to pardon the sin of a Creature if the Blood of Christ the Treasures and Revenues of a King be able to pay the debts of a Beggar if the Spirit of God who works by an Almighty Power be able to convince thee of righteousness as well as sin Iohn 16. 9. I say if all the three causes of forgiveness be sufficient every one in its kind the first to move the second to purchase and the third to apply what hinders but thy trembling Conscience should go to Christ and thy discouraged Soul move onward with hope in the way of believing whatever thy former enormities have been 2. If God raises glory to his Name out of the greatness of the sins he pardoneth then the greatness of sin can be no discouragement to believing but so God doth he raiseth the glory of his Name from the multitude and magnitude of the sins he pardoneth Ier. 33. 8 9. I will cleanse them from all their iniquity whereby they have sinned against me and I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned and whereby they have transgressed against me And it shall be to me a name of joy a praise and an honour before all the Nations of the Earth which shall hear all the good I do unto them And they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it As a cure performed upon a Man labouring under a desperate Disease it magnifies the Physitian and spreads his Name far and near The Devil envies God this glory and thy Soul this comfort and therefore scares thee off from Christ by the aggravations of thy sins David was willing to give God the glory of pardoning his great iniquities and with that very argument moves him for a pardon Psal. 25. 11. Pardon mine iniquitie for it is great You see there are strange ways of arguing in Scripture which are not in use among Men this is one Lord pardon my sin for it is great he doth not say Lord pardon it for it is but a small offence no but pardon it because it is great and the greater it is the greater Glory wilt thou have in pardoning it And then there is another way of arguing for pardon in Scripture which is peculiar and that is to argue from former pardons unto new pardons when Men beg their pardon one of another they use to say I never wronged you before and therefore forgive me now but here it is quite otherwise Lord thou hast signed thousand of pardons heretofore therefore pardon me again such is that plea Numb 14. 19. Pardon I beseech thee the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy mercy and as thou hast forgiven them from Egypt even until now 3. As great sins as those that now stare in the Face of thy Conscience have been actually forgiven to Men upon their humiliation and closing with Christ. Poor sinners under trouble of Conscience are apt to think there is no sin like theirs God forbid I should diminish and extenuate sin but certain I am that Free Grace hath pardoned as great Sinners as thou art upon their repentance and faith What think you had you had a Hand in putting Christ to Death would not that sin have been as dreadful as any that now discourages you Yea certainly you would have thought that an unpardonable sin and yet behold that very sin was no bar to their pardon when once they were pricked at the Heart and made willing to come to Christ Acts 2. 36 37 38. 4. If it be the design and policy of Satan to object the greatness of your sins to prevent the pardoning of them then certainly 't is neither your duty nor interest
to plead it to the same end the Devil doth to lay a confederacy and joyn with your mortal enemy in a plot against the honour of Christ and Salvation of your own Souls take heed what you do seal not Satans conclusions do you think it is a small matter to be confederate with the Devil Certainly this is his design he magnifies your sins on purpose to discourage you from faith while you were secure and carnal the Devil never aggravated but diminished your sins to you but now the Lord hath opened your Eyes and you are come near to the door of hope mercy and pardon now he magnifies them hoping thereby to ham-string and lame thy faith that it shall not be able to carry thee to Christ. 5. If thy sin be really unpardonable then God hath somewhere excepted it in the Gospel grant He hath somewhere said The Man that hath committed this sin or continued so many years in sin shall never be forgiven but now in the whole Gospel there is but one sin that is absolutely excepted from the possibility of pardon and that such a sin as thy sorrows and desires after Christ do fully acquit and clear thee from the guilt of this sin indeed is excepted Matth. 12. 31. But the sin against the Holy Ghost shall never be forgiven This is that which the Scripture calls a sin unto death Let Apostate Professors transformed into Persecutors Scoffers and Haters of godliness and the Professors of it look to themselves the dreadful symptoms of this sin seem to appear upon such But the humbled thirsty Soul after Christ stands clear of the guilt of that sin 5. If there were no forgiveness with God for great sinners then great sinners had never been invited to come to Christ. The invitations of the Gospel are no mockeries but things of most awful solemnity Now such sinners are called and invited under the encouragement of a pardon consult Isa. 1. from vers 10. to 17. and see the horrid aggravations of that peoples sins and yet at vers 17 18. you may read the gracious invitations of God with conditional promises of a plenary remission so in Ier. 3. from 1. to 13. what a sad Catalogue of sins with their horrid aggravations do you find there and yet it said vers 12. Go and proclaim these words towards the North and say Return thou backsliding Israel and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you for I am merciful 6. If thy sins had not been capable of remission God would never have given thee conviction and compunction for sin nor have drawn forth the desires of thy Heart in this manner after Christ. He hath tact remission to repentance Acts 5. 31. a blessing to gracious desires and hungerings Matth. 5. 6. There is therefore hope that when God hath given the one he will not long withhold the other This very wounding of thy Heart by compunction and drawing forth thy Will by inclination shew that remission is not only possible but even at the door 7. And lastly Let this be thine encouragement whatever Satan or thine own Heart suggests to discourage thee that great Sinners are moving in the way of repentance and faith to a great Saviour who hath merit enough in his Blood and mercy enough in his Bowels to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him Heb. 7. 25. The Lord open to the Eyes of your Faith that rich Exchequer of Free Grace Exod. 34. 6 7. and give you a sight of that plenteous Redemption and forgiveness that is with God Psal. 130. 4 7. that you may not at once cast reproach upon the most glorious Attribute of God impeach the precious Blood of Christ and stab your own Soul with a death-wound of desperation which is that the Devil designs and the whole strain of the Gospel designs to prevent III. Inference If the vilest of sinners stand as fair for pardon and mercy upon their closing with Christ by faith as the least of sinners do then certainly the pardon and salvation of sinners is not built upon any righteousness in themselves but purely and only upon the Free Grace of God in Iesus Christ. Dont think God hath set the Blood of Christ to sale and that those only are capable of the benefits of it who have lived the strictest and soberest lives No no though sobriety morality and strictness in Religious Duties be things commanded and commended in the Gospel yet no Man by these things can purchase a pardon for the least sin Rom. 11. 6. And if by grace then it is no more of Works otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of works then is it no more grace otherwise work is no more work See how these exclude one another thus Titus 3. 5. Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us No Man can satisfie God by any thing himself can do or suffer not by doing for all we do is mixt with sin Iob 14. 4. and that which is sinful can be no attonement for sin all we do or can do is due debt to God Luke 17. 10. and one debt cannot satisfie for another Nor yet by suffering for the sufferings awarded by the Law are everlasting and to be ever satisfying is never to satisfie So then by the works of the Law shall no flesh living be justified in his sight The Saints in all generations have fled to mercy for remission Psal. 130. ult the two debtors Luke 7. 43 44 45. though there were a vast difference in the debts yet of the lesser as well as of the greater it s said they had nothing to pay nothing but the satisfaction of Christ can quit your scores with God. IV. Inference If the grace of Christ be thus free to the greatest of sinners then it is both our sin and folly to stand off from Christ and draw back from believing for want of such and such qualifications which we yet find not to be wroâ—ght in our Hearts Poor convinced Souls think O if they had more humility tenderness love to God spirituality of mind this would â—e some encouragment to believe but because they have no such ornaments to dress up their Souls withal they are not fit to go to Christ. Now to remove this great mistake let two things be considered 1. That such a conceit as this crosses the very stream of the Covenant of Grace where nothing is sold but all freely given this is the very Spirit of the Covenant of Works fain we would find something in our selves to bring to God to Procure his favour and acceptance but the Gospel tells us we must come naked and empty handed to be justified freely by his grace Rom. 2. 24. We must be justified as Abraham was who believed in him that justifieth the ungodly Rom. 4. 5. But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted
word And thus much of the general nature of Christs Spiritual Internal voice but all this gives us but a remote imperfect knowledge of it Therefore Thirdly I shall endeavour to open the innate characters and special properties of this Internal Spiritual voice of Christ which must be heard or there can be no opening the door of the Heart to receive him I. Character And the first Character is this It is a secret and a still voice whereby somewhat is as it were whispered into the Ear of the Soul making a particular application of what is spoken Externally to the Ear much like that of Nathan to David Thou art the Man. This still voice sounds throughout the whole Soul yet none hear it but the Soul concerned in it it is said 1 Sam. 9. 15. The Lord told Samuel in his Ear the night before c. That is he whispered the secret into the Prophets mind so the Spirit of Christ whispers a word into the Ear of a sinner which makes his Heart to tremble after this manner This is thy very state and condition this is thy sin which is now opened by the Gospel in thine Ears This is a voice without sound or noise to any others but very intelligible to the Soul unto whom it is â—poken You read in 1 Kings 19. 11 12. when Elijah stood upon the Mount before the Lord there came a great and strong wind which rent the Mountains and brake in pieces the Rocks before the Lord but the Lord was not in the wind and after the wind an earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake and after the earthquake a fire but the Lord was not in the fire and after the fire a still small voice And it was so when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle c. So it is here Dreadful things are thundred against men by the voice of the Law the Terrours of the Lord are made known Hell and Damnation are set before the eyes of Sinners but until the Lord come in the still voice of his Spirit and apply those things to the Conscience the Sinner never covers his face with shame and confusion nor goes aside to mourn and lament his misery This voice of God sounds to the very Centre of the Soul. As for the outward voice of the Gospel alone it signifies little in hearing men hear not Matth. 13. 13. They have the voice of Man but not the voice of God They hear the sound but feel not the power of the Word What is spoken externally dyes in the ear that hears it But this still voice of the Spirit by secret passages makes its way to the heart and none knows what God speaks but the Soul to whom he speaks That is the first Character II. Character The internal spiritnal voice of Christ is a personal and particular voice speaking distinctly and particularly to the case and state of the Soul as if it were by name Ministers do and must speak in general they draw the Bow of the Gospel at an adventure not knowing to whom God will direct the Arrow but the Spirit guides it to the Mark. He applies general Truths unto particular persons so as the Soul to whom he directs it is fully convinced and satisfied the Lord intends and means it in such a convictive and threatning Expression O saith the Soul hath the Lord singled me out in special this is my very state and case You read Iohn 10. 5. that Christ calleth his sheep by name How doth he call them by name but by speaking directly and particularly to their Condition and Case as if he called them by their particular Names He doth not now in an extraordinary way as of old call Samuel Samuel or Saul Saul but he sends a Beam of convincing light into the Conscience plainly discovering this or that to be our sin danger or duty and so as to the effect it is all one as if God named him And truly till it comes to this the Word hath no saving operation upon the Soul. A man may hear ten thousand general Truths assent to them and never be the better for them How still and quiet was David's Conscience till Nathan struck the nail upon the head by an home personal application and then his Conscience startled Thus God singles out one man or woman from among a thousand in the Congregation speaks to the heart rips up the secure Conscience the rest hear the same words but feel not the same efficacy And truly 't is a choice mercy when God shall please thus to single out one person from among many after this manner to speak to his heart As Christ said in Luke 4. 25 26. Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias c. but to none of them was Elias sent save unto Sarepta a City of Sydon unto a woman that was a widow so here Multitudes sate with you under the same Prayer or Sermon but unto none of them at that time was the Spirit sent to make a particular convictive application thereof but unto thee In this the peculiar goodness of God shines out and should for ever be admired in the eyes of that Soul. III. Character Thirdly This spiritual internal voice of Christ is distinguishable by the Soul that hears it from all other voices Iohn 10. 4. The Sheep know his voice As in the style of the Scriptures there is a weight and majesty which distinguishes it from all human composures so in this voice of Christ there is a Majesty a peculiar Efficacy a divine and awful Authority by which the Soul distinguishes it from all human voices It was said of Christ in the days of his flesh Iohn 7. 46. Never man spake like this man. The same may we say of his spiritual voice the Soul never heard such a voice before it seals the truth upon the heart so firmly that no Objections are left against it It was not so when we heard the voice of man. And there are two things in this inward voice of Christ which apparently difference it from all human voices 1. A marvellous light comes into the Soul with it which discovers all the secrets of the heart God shines into the heart the same time he speaks unto it 2 Cor. 4. 6. and now the secrets of the heart are manifest and God is acknowledged to be in that Word of Truth 1 Cor. 14. 25. 2ly A marvellous Power accompanieth this voice to make a deep and firm impression of what is spoken upon the Soul and this Power is an innate Character of the voice of God whereby the Soul receives it as his with much assurance as the Apostle speaks 1 Thess. 1. 5. Our Gospel came not to you in Word only but also in Power and in the Holy Ghost and in much Assurance They could not be more certain of any thing in the world than they were of this That it was the Lord that spake to them in that Word
special season or hour as Christ calls it Iohn 5. 25. The hour cometh when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God. And elsewhere by the Apostle it is called the accepted Time the day of Salvation 2 Cor. 6. 2. And the conjunction of the Spirit of Christ with the Word Ordinances or Providences of God but especially the Word makes this blessed hour The Word alone though never so excellently preacht conduces no more to the Conviction and Salvation of a sinner than the Waters of Bethesda did when the Angel came not down to trouble them Iohn 5. 4. But when the Lord pours out his Spirit with the Word according to that promise Prov. 1. 23. I will pour out my Spirit upon you and make known my Words unto you then Christ speaks to the Heart this great conjunction of the Word and Spirit makes that blessed nick and season of Salvation The time of love the time of life Now the voice of Christ is heard with effect the Ordinances impregnated with convincing and converting efficacy There was an abundant effusion of the Spirit in the first Age of Christianity and then the voice of Christ was heard by multitudes of Souls at once There hath since been a restraint of the Spirit comparatively speaking whereas three thousand Souls were then converted at one Sermon possibly three thousand Sermons have since been preached and not one Soul effectually called This hath made the Church like a Wilderness a Land of drouth and so 't is like to remain until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high and the wilderness be a fruitful field according to that promise Isa. 32. 15. And such a time we expect Lord hasten it when the waters of the Ordinances shall be healed and every thing that liveth which moveth whithersoever the River shall come shall live And fishers shall stand upon it from Engedi even unto Eneglaim they shall be a place to spread forth nets their fish shall be according to their kinds as the fish of the great Sea exceeding many Ezek. 47. 9 10. Then Ministers shall no longer fish with Angles catching now one then another but shall spread forth their nets and inclose whole shoals multitudes of Converts in the mean time there are some signal periods and happy seasons wherein Christ uttereth his Almighty voice in the World but that season is utterly unforeknown to Man we cannot say when it will come but are to wait for it as the Man did at the pool of Bethesda Ministers must preach in hope wait in hope if at any time God will give the people repentance 2 Tim. 2. 25. We are often mistaken in our conjectures when we have made the best preparations and find a more than ordinary enlargedness of Spirit we are apt to conclude certainly this is the blessed hour wherein Christ will speak to the Heart as we do to the Ear but we oft-times find our selves mistaken yet we must wait in hope and so must our people Such a happy time may come and when it doth it will be a day for ever to be remembred because then the first actual application of Christ will be made to your Souls without which all that the Father had done in Election and the Son in his meritorious Redemption had been of no benefit or advantage to your Souls And therefore you shall find that this work of the Spirit stands betwixt both those works and makes them both effectual to our Salvation 1 Pet. 1. 2. This is that blessed hour upon which your eternal blessedness depends eternity will be taken up in blessing God for this hour it will be celebrated for ever in your praises in the World to come O what an influence hath this hour into all eternity The hearing of this voice of Christ effectually opens the Cabinet counsels of Heaven and brings to light the eternal counsels of God concerning you 1 Thes. 1. 4 5. Knowing brethren beloved your election of God for our Gospel came not to you in word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost This gives greater assurance of the eternal love of God to a Mans Soul than the sweetest smile of providence or any oraculous voice from Heaven can do This is the time of life the day of your Spiritual Resurrection Iohn 5. 25. A greater and more glorious Resurrection by far than that of your bodies at the last day â—o much greater as the value of your Souls is above your Bodies As also because the blessedness of your Corporeal Resurrection depends upon this your Spiritual Resurrection by the voice of Christ. Dreadful will the voice of Christ be at the Resurrection of your Bodies except you first hear this vital voice of Christ quickning your Souls on Earth with spiritual life To conclude this is the great Aera or head of account from which you are to reckon and date all your spiritual sanctified mercies for as the Lord said unto the Jews Hag. 2. 19. From henceforth will I bless you So saith the Lord to you from this hour wherein you have heard and obeyed the voice of Christ will I bless you for ever with all Spiritual blessings in heavenly places in him I. Vse for Lamentation This Point presents us with abundant matter of Lamentation and mourning over the greatest part of those that sit under the sound of the Gospel but yet as Christ speaks of the Jews Iohn â— 37. who have not heard the voice of God at any time the Ministerial voice of Christ they hear dayly but this Efficacious Internal voice which makes the Ministerial voice the Word of Life and Power they have not heard The Gospel to the most of our hearers is but an empty sound this is a sad symptom 2 Cor. 4. 3. If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost in whom the God of this World hath blinded the minds of them that believe not c. This hiding of the Gospel is not opposed to the external administration of it nor yet to the understanding of the true sense and meaning of the truths delivered by it but only to that internal efficacy which is here called the hearing of Christs voice Our people are generally well satisfied when they have heard a Sermon much more if they can remember something of it though the Lord hath not spoken one truth they have heard home to their Hearts Now this is a sad case and God grant it be not that very judgment threatned Isa. 6. 9. Hear ye indeed but understand not and see ye indeed but perceive not So that hearing the meer voice of Man without feeling the power of God is all one as if we heard not Reflect sadly upon this you that sit as unconcerned under the Word as the Seats you sit upon God speaketh once yea twice but man perceiveth it not Well the eternal Decrees and Counsels of God are now executing upon the Souls of Men under the Gospel As many as
Satan to God. So Luke 11. 21 22. When a strong man armed keepeth his pallace his goods are in peace But when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted and divideth his spoil Fourthly Thy present vileness and unworthiness can be no bar to Christs entrance into thy Soul because Christ never yet objected to any man his unworthiness but his unwillingness to come unto him Iohn 5. 40. You will not come unto me that you might have life And again Matth. 23. 37. How oft would I have gathered thy Children and ye would not Indeed you find something like a repulse from Christ to that poor Canaanitess Mat. 15. 24 26. Lord help me said that poor distressed Soul but he answered and said It is not meet to take the childrens bread and cast it to dogs However harshly and discouragingly these words sound yet certainly it was none of Christs intent to damp and discourage her faith but to draw it forth to a more excellent and intense degree which effect it obtained vers 27. Fifthly Neither would Christ have made the tenders of mercy so large and indefinite had he intended to have shut out any Soul upon the single account of personal unworthiness provided it be but willing to come unto him Cast thine Eye poor discouraged Soul upon Christs invitations and proclamations of grace and mercy in the Gospel and see if thou canst find any thing beside unwillingness as a bar betwixt thee and mercy harken to that voice of mercy Isa. 55. 1. Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no money come ye buy and eat come buy wine and milk without money and without price i. e. without personal desert or worthiness So again Rev. 22. 17. The Spirit and the bride say come and let him that is athirst come and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely Here you see personal vileness and unworthiness is no obstacle in the way of Christ. Once more see Iohn 7. 37. In the last day that great day of the feast Iesus stood and cried saying If any man thirst let him come to me and drink Thus you see what Christs coming into the Soul is and what evidences there are that when once the Soul is made truly willing Christ will certainly come into it and no former vileness or present unworthiness shall be a bar to obstruct his entrance Thirdly In the next place I shall shew you That when Christ comes into the Soul he will not come empty handed 'T is Christs marriage day and he will make it a good day a festival day bringing such comforts along with him as the Soul never tasted before he spreads as it were a Table furnishes it with the delicates of Heaven I will sup with him saith the Text What those Spiritual mercies are which Christ brings a long with him to the opening willing Soul comes next in order to be spoken to And 1. When Christ comes into the Soul of a sinner he brings a Pardon with him a full a free and a final pardon of all the sins that ever that Soul committed This is a feast of it self good cheer indeed Christ thought it to be so when he told the poor Palsey-man Matth. 9. 2. Son be of good cheer thy sins are forgiven thee He doth not say Be of good cheer thy Palsey is cured thy body recovered from the grave but be of good cheer thy sins are pardoned O how sweetly may the pardoned Soul feed upon this And this is not any peculiar mercy designed for some special favorites but what is common to all believers Acts 13. 43. By him all that believe are justified from all things Christ and pardon come together and without a pardon no other mercy would relish no feast no musick no money or honour have any favour or comfort with them to a condemned man but the comfort of a pardon reaches to the very Heart Isa. 40. 1 2. Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith the Lord Speak comfortably to Jerusalem or as in the Hebrew Speak to the heart of Jerusalem But what are the ingredients of that cordial that will comfort Ierusalems Heart Why Say unto her that her iniquities are pardoned that carries along with it the Spirit of all consolation And there are four things in the pardon of sin that make it the sweetest mercy that ever the Soul tasted comfort which is impossible to be communicated to another with the same sense that the pardoned Soul hath of it Rev. 2. 17. First That which makes the pardon of sin ravishingly sweet is the trouble that went before it The labourings and restless tossings of the troubled Soul which were antecedent to this pardon make the ease and peace that follows by it incomparably sweet As the bitterness of Hell was tasted in the sorrows of sin so the sweetness of Heaven is tasted in the pardon of it Secondly The nature of the mercy it self is incomparably sweet for it is a mercy of the first rank Pardon is â—uch a mercy as admits no comfort to come before it nor any just cause of discouragement can follow after it If God have not spoken pardon to the Soul it can have no fetled ground for joy Ezek. 33. 10. And if he have there can be no just ground for dejection whatever the troubles be that lye upon it Isa. 33. 24. The inhabitants shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquities Thirdly The third thing that makes this mercy delicious and ravishingly sweet to the Soul are the properties of it which are four 1. God writes upon thy pardon frank 't is a free mercy which cost thee nothing Rom. 3. 24. Being justified freely by his grace Thou hast bought me no sweet Cane with money yet I even I am be that blotteth out thy transgression for my own names sake 2. God writes upon thy pardon full as well as free the pardon extends to all the sins that ever thou committedst Acts 13. 43. By him all that believe are justified from all things The sins of thy nature and practice the sins of thy youth and age great sins and lesser sins are all comprehended within thy pardon Thou art acquitted not from one but from all Certainly the joy of Heaven must come down in the mercy of remission O what a feast of fat things with marrow is this single mercy a pardon free without price full without exception And then 3. its final without revocation the pardoned Soul never more comes into condemnation Thine iniquities are removed from thee as far as the East is from the West as those two opposite points of Heaven can never meet so the pardoned Soul and its pardoned Sins can never more meet unto condemnation Psal. 103. 12. 4. God writes upon the pardon another word as sweet as any of the rest and that is sure 'T
is a standing mercy never to be recall'd vacated or annulled Rom. 8. 33 34 35. The challenge is sent to Hell and Earth Men and Devils Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect 'T is God that justifies who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died c. Who can arrest when the Creditor dischargeth Who can sue the bond when the debt is paid 'T is Christ that died The Table is spread and the first mercy served in is the pardon of sin Eat O friends drink yea drink abundantly O beloved Now the labouring Conscience that rowled and tossed upon the waves of a thousand fears may drop Anchor and ride quiet in the pacifique Sea of a pardoned State. What joy must stream through the Conscience when the sweetness of that Scripture Rom. 8. 1. shall be pressed into thy cup of Consolation The pardoned Soul may speak and think of Death and Judgment without consternation yea may look upon it as a time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord Acts 3. 19. This is heavenly Manna the sweetness of it swallows up all expression all conceptions no words no thoughts can comprehend the riches of this mercy II. And yet this is not all behold another mercy in consequence unto this brought in to refresh and cheer the consenting Soul and that is peace with God. Pardon and peace go together Rom. 5. 1. Being justified by faith we have peace with God. Peace is a word of a vast comprehension peace in the language of the Old Testament comprehends all Temporal good things 1 Sam. 25. 6. And peace in the New Testament comprehends all Spiritual mercies 2 Thes. 3. 16. the blessings of Heaven and Earth are wrapt up in this word The Soul that opens to Christ hath peace of reconciliation in Heaven the enmity that was betwixt God and that Soul is taken away through the blood of Christ Isa. 12. 1 2. O Lord I will praise thee though thou wast angry with me thine anger is turned away and thou comfortest me This must be an invaluable mercy for the purchase of it cost the blood of Christ Isa. 53. 5. The chastisement of our peace was upon him He made peace by the blood of his Cross Col. 1. 20. and this peace of reconciliation is setled by Christ upon a firm foundation His blood gives it a more firm and steady basis and foundation than that of the Hills and Mountains Isa. 54. 10. And that which makes it so firm and sure is the Advocateship of Jesus Christ in Heaven 1 Iohn 2. 1. 2. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father There is also peace in the believers Conscience peace as it were by Proclamation from Heaven and this is built upon the peace of Reconciliation We cannot have the the sense of peace till we are brought into a state of peace the latter is the result of the former And this is a special part of that supper Christ provides to entertain the Soul that receives it How sweet this is is better felt than spoken A dreadful sound was lately in the Ears of the Law-condemned sinner but now his Heart is the seat of peace And this peace is 1. the Souls gard against all inward and outward terrors Phil. 4. 7. The peace of God shall keep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as the word is guard your hearts and minds The persons of Princes are secured by guards of armed and valiant Men who watch while they sleep Thus Solomon had his royal guard because of fear in the night Cant. 3. 7 8. This peace of God Christian is thy life-guard and secures thee better than Solomons threescore valiant men that were about him Time was when thou wast affraid to sleep for fear thou shouldst awake in Hell Now thou maist say with David I will both lay me down and sleep for thou Lord makest me to dwell in safety Now come life come death the Soul is safe the peace of God is its royal guard 2. This peace is ease as well as safety to the Soul 'T is heart-ease no sooner doth God speak peace to the Conscience but the Soul finds it self at ease and rest Heb. 4. 3. We which have believed do enter into rest It is with such a Soul as it was with the Dove Noah sent out of the Ark that poor creature wandred in the Air as long as her wings could carry her had her strength fail'd there was nothing but the waters to receive her O how sweet was rest in the Ark 3. This peace is news from Heaven and the sweetest tydings that ever blest the sinners Ear next unto Christ Heb. 12. 24. The blood of Christ speaketh better things than that of Abel And you are come to this blood of sprinkling the same day and hour that Christ is come into your Souls This is the voice of that blood Thou hast sinned I have satisfied Thou hast kindled the wrath of God And I have quencht it The Angels of Heaven cannot feed higher their joys are not more delicious than those prepared for believers are whereof this is a foretast whatever circumstances of trouble a man be in this effectually relieves him Paul and Silas were in sad circumstances shut up in the inner-prison their feet made fast in the stocks their cruel keeper at the door their execution designed in a few days God did but set this dish upon the Table before the prisoners and they could not forbear to sing at the feast Acts 16. 25. At midnight they sang c. III. After these two royal dishes Pardon and Peace a third will come in viz. Ioy in the Holy Ghost this is somewhat beyond peace 't is the very quintessence and Spirit of all Consolation The Kingdom of God is said to consist in it Rom. 14. 17. 't is somewhat near to the joy of the glorified 1 Pet. 1. 8. 't is Heaven upon Earth All believers do not immediately attain it but one time or other God usually gives them a taste of it and when he doth it is as it were a short Salvation O who can tell what that is which the Apostle calls The shedding abroad of the love of God into the Heart by the Holy Ghost which is given to us Rom. 5. 5. It is a joy which wants an Epithet to express the sweetness of it 1 Pet. 1. 8. Ioy unspeakable and full of glory It hath the very scent and taste of Heaven in it and there is but a gradual difference betwixt it and the joy of Heaven This joy of the Holy Ghost is a spiritual cheeriness streaming through the Soul of a believer upon the Spirits testimony which clears his interest in Christ and glory No sooner doth the Spirit shed forth the love of God into the believers Heart but it streams and overflows with joy Joy is no more under that Souls command and this will evidently appear if you consider the matter of it it arises from the light of
will clear up the mistakes of both VII Motive Obedience to Convictions will not only produce peace at Death but it will give you present ease present relief and refreshment in hand No sooner did David resolve to obey the voice of his Conscience in confessing his sin but he had sensible ease in his own Spirit Psal. 32. 5. So Isa. 32. 17. the fruit of Righteousness is peace quietness and assurance for ever On the contrary you find in Iob 20. 20. Wicked Men have no quietness in their Bellies that is in their Consciences For Guilt lies boking there as a Thorn doth in the Flesh And what is Life worth without ease To live ever in pain to live upon the Rack is not worth while to live If then you love ease and quietness obey your Consciences Pull out that Thorn I mean that Sin that sticks fast in thy Soul and akes in thy Conscience Who would endure so much anguish for all the flattering pleasures of sin VIII Motive Convictions followed home and obeyed are the inlets to Christ and Eternal Salvation by him they are the first leading work of the Spirit in order to union with Christ Iohn 16. 8. till you obey and yield up your selves to them Christ is shut out of your Souls he knocks but finds no entrance at your peril therefore be obedient to their calls All the while you parly with your Convictions and demur to their demands Christ stands without offering himself graciously to you but not admitted so that no less than your Eternal Happiness or Misery depend on your Obedience or disobedience to the Voices and Calls of your Convictions IX Motive Obey your Convictions Honour their Voices and restrain them not then shall your Consciences give a fair testimony for you at the Judgment seat of Christ You read 1 Pet. 3. 2I Of the answer of a good Conscience towards God than which nothing can be more comfortable This gives a Man boldness in the day of Judgment 1 Iohn 4. 17. Believe it firs 't is not your Baptism your Church-priviledges the Opinion Men have of you but the testimony of your Consciences that must be your comfort I know Men are not justified at Gods Bar by you own Obedience nor any exactness of Life 't is only Christ's Righteousness that is the Sinners plea but yet your Obedience to the Calls and Voices of God and Conscience are your evidence that you are in Christ. X. Motive Lastly Consider what a choice Mercy it is to be under such Calls and Convictions of Conscience as are yet capable of being obeyed 'T is not so with Mens Convictions after this Life Conscience convinceth in Hell as well as here but all its Convictions there are for torment not recovery Oh 't is a choice Mercy your Convictions are yet Medicinal not purely Poenal that you are not malo obfirmati so fixed in the state of Sin and Misery as the damned are but may yet enjoy the saving benefit of your Convictions but this you will not enjoy long therefore I beseech you by all that is dear and valuable in your Eyes Reverence your Consciences and let go the Lords Prisoners that lye bound within you III. USE I next come to expotulate the matter with your Consciences and propound a few Convictive Queries to your Souls this day I cannot but look upon this Assembly with Fear Jealousie and Compassion I am afraid there be many of you in this wretched case Men and Women that hold the Truths of God in Unrighteousness though the Wrath of God be revealed from Heaven against all them that do so Let me Demand I. Demand Do not some of you stand convinced by your own Consciences this day that your Hearts and Lives your Principles and Practises are vastly different from the People of God among whom you live and whose Characters you read in Scripture Do not your own Consciences tell you that you never took that pains for your Salvation you see them dayly to take that there be some it may be in your Families nay possibly in your Bosoms that are serious and heavenly whilst you are vain and earthly that are in their Chambers upon their knees wrestling with God whilst you are in your Beds or about the things of the World And doth not Conscience sometimes whisper thus into thine Ear Soul thou art not right something is wanting to make thee a Christian Thou wantest that which others have and except something further be done upon thee thou wilt be undone for ever If it be so let me advise thee to hearken diligently to this voice of Conscience Don't dare to adventure to the Judgment-seat of God in such a case Ponder that Text Matth. 21. 32. and let the disparity your Conscience shews you betwixt your own course and others awaken you to more diligence and seriousness about your own Salvation How canâ—t thou come from the Alehouse or thy vain Recreations and find a Wife or Child in Prayer and thy Conscience not smite thee It may be they have been mourning for thy ' in s whilst thou haft been committing them It may be there lives not far from thee a Godly poor Man who out of his hard and pressing Labours redeems more time for his Soul in a week than ever thou didst in thy Life O hearken to the voice of thy Conscience Else thou art he that holdest Truth in Unrighteousness II. Demand Did thy Conscience never meet thee in the way of Sin as the Angel of the Lord met Balaam with a drawn Sword brandishing the threatnings of God against thee Did it not say to thee as a Captain once said to his Soldiers about to retreate he cast himself down in their way saying if you go this way you shall go over your Captain You shall trample him first under your feet Stop Soul stop said thy Conscience this and that Word of God is against thee If thou proceed thou must trample upon the Soveraign Authority of God in this or that Command yet thy impetuous Lusts have hurried thee forward Thou wouldst not fairly debate the case with thy Conscience and then did not thy Conscience say to thee as Ruben spake to his Brethren Gen. 42. 22. Spake I not unto you saying do not sin against the child but you would not hear therefore also his blood is required of you If this have been your course of sinning verily you are the persons that have held the Truths of God in Unrighteousness and against you the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven III. Demand Have you not seen the Wrath of God revealed from Heaven against other Sinners that have gone before you in the very same tract and course of sin in which you now go and yet you persist in it notwithstanding such dreadful Warnings Thus did Belteshazzar though he saw all that the God of Heaven had done to his Father Dan. 5. 20 21 22. You have seen great Estates scattered and their Owners that got
for righteousness The meaning is to him that worketh not in a law sense to procure pardon and acceptance by and for working Go then poor sinner unto God through Christ and tell him thou hast nothing to bring him thou comest not to bring but to receive Lord I am a vile sinner I have nothing to plead but thy mercy and Christs merit This is the Spirit of the Gospel 2ly By standing off from Faith for want of these qualifications you invert the setled order of the Gospel by puting consequents in the place of antecedents and antecedents in the places of consequents it is as if a Man should say If I were cured of such and such Diseases then I would go to the Phisitian alas could you otherwise procure the healing of your corruptions or the gracious qualifications you speak of you would have no need to go to Christ at all nothing is required of us in our coming to Christ but such a sense of and sorrow for â—in as makes us heartily willing to accept Christ and subscribe the terms on which he is offered in the Gospel V. Inference Behold the admirable condescension of Christ that he will come into the Heart of the vilest sinner and not disdain to take his abode in that Soul which hath been the seat of Satan where he hath ruled and every unclean lust hath been harbour'd There are two things wherein the admirable condescension of Christ appears 1. In taking union with our Nature after sin had blasted the beauty of it this was a marvelous stoop indeed and justly admired by the Apostle Phil. 2. 7. He made himself of no reputation and was made in the likeness of Men. Yea God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh Rom. 8. 3. But 2ly 't is justly admirable in our Eyes that Christ should also take union with our persons and take his habitation and abode in our Hearts after Satan and sin had so long inhabited and defiled them that he should accept those Members as instruments of his service that very Tongue to praise him that had blasphemed him c. yet so he is willing to do and commands us to deliver them up to him Rom 6. 19. As ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness One would have thought Jesus Christ should have said Vile wretch Satan hath had the use and service of thy Soul and Body from thy beginning to this day thy Memory hath been his Storehouse thy Mouth his Shop thy Will his Throne and all thy Members his Tools and Instruments to sin against me thou hast been a Creature dedicated to Satan and to him thou shalt go No but the merciful Lord declares his willingness if thou wilt open thy Soul to receive him to cleanse it by his Spirit and make it his Temple to dwell in O admirable grace VI. Inference Lastly How just and inevitable will their damnation be who consent not to the necessary and reasonable terms of the Gospel which is the only point on which Christ and their Souls part for ever The terms required by the Gospel are every way equal and reasonable if a gracious Prince will bestow a Pardon upon a Traitor upon this condition that he lay down his Arms acknowledge his Ofâ—ence and list himself in his Princes Service and he shall refuse so to do how just and unpitied will his destruction be and what else doth God require of thee but only this Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous Man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Isa. 55. 7. And as the damnation of such is just so it will be inevitable for if there be no way to glory but by Christ as you know there is not Acts 4. 12. Neither is there salvation in any other And if there be no way to Christ but by our accepting him upon these very terms as it plainly appears from Luke 14. 26. there is not what then remains but inevitable damnation to all that come not up to the terms of the Gospel If you think not Christ a good bargain with all the sufferings losses and reproaches that attend him your Mouths will be stopt no plea will be left you in the great Day You refused a fair offer when it was seasonably and graciously made you by the Gospel and now you must expect no more such offers to Eternity thy Blood sinner be upon thine own Head the freeness and Importunity of the tenders of Grace will then only seem to illustrate and clear the righteousness of God in thy condemnation II. Vse for Exhortation In the next place The point naturally leads me to a vehement perswasive unto all sinners of what rank or size soever they be to hearken to the voice of Christ who takes them all within the compass of his gracious invitation in the Text saying If any Man open I will come in Let all sorts of sinners bless God for the extensiveness of this invitation and that they find themselves by it as yet within the reach and compass of the Arms of a merciful Redeemer And that there is nothing wanting to secure their Salvation but the hearty consent of their Wills to the reasonable and necessary terms of the Gospel Look over the whole Book of God and you shall there find but one case absolutely excepted from the possibility of forgiveness but one wound absolutely incurable of which Christ speaks Matth. 12. 31 32. And what may be the reason that this only iâ— an incurable wound certainly it cannot be because the malignity of this sin exceeds the meritorious and pardoning vertue of the Blood of Christ but rather because there is no sacrifice appointed by the Lord for it God never designed that the Blood of Christ should be an expiatory Sacrifice for that sin as the Apostle plainly speaks Heb. 6. 4 5 6 7. All other sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven unto Men saith Christ that is they are capable of forgiveness upon sincere and actual repentance and faith yea they have been actually pardoned unto many now the greater any Mans sins hath been the greater need he hath to hasten to Christ for pardon There are some of you greater sinners than others for though no sin be venial light and trivial in it self yet compared one with another there is a vast difference found betwixt them in the weight and aggravations of them Now I will labour to shew you by what rules Men are to estimate the greatness and aggravation of sin and then to convince you that the greatest of sinners stand yet fair for mercy as well as the lesser and sometimes much fairer Publicans and Harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you saith Christ Matth. 21. 31. Now the rules to estimate the aggravations and greatness