and the Question then is Is this or that or the other Action pleasing or displeasing to God And this is to be determined by the light of Conscience acting according to God's Holy Law For God is the only Lord of Conscience and his Will the only Rale and Law of Conscience Conscience therefore may be three ways defiled 1. By the unpardoned Guilt of a natural State as it is in all Unbelievers Nothing can purge the Conscience but the Blood of Christ Heb. 9.14 An Unbeliever doth not apply to it nor apply it to himself and God applys it to none but by Faith Therefore all such Unbelievers have all the loathsome filth of their natural State lying on their Consciences defiling it The answer of a good Conscience towards God is by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 3.21 All Unbelievers Consciences can speak nothing towards God by any thing Christ hath done or suffered for they know him not and are not in him They would give an Answer or make their Plea from their good Works and honest Meanings but all such answers and pleas are rejected by God in his judging of a Man's State For all God's Judgment of Mens State proceeds on these two in Christ or out of Christ And as it is with them with respect to one or other of these two so do Men stand or fall before God's Judgment whatever the Judgment of their Consciences be 2. Conscience is defiled by Sinful Actions known to be such Now if these be loved and delighted in they do justly marr Confidence neither can any Man in this Case draw near to God but with the Mouth and hypocritically Isa 2.9,13 This is a Frame not to be found in a Believer He may be guilty of known Sin but it is not delighted in To this David's Words refer Psal 66.18 If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me It is not If there be iniquity in my heart for who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my Sin Prov. 20.9 It is not If I see iniquity in my heart For where there is least sin it is best seen Paul saw enough Rom. 7.23,24,25 and groaned under it and yet blesseth God through Jesus Christ for the hope of Victory But it is only If I regard iniquity in my heart if I look kindly on it God will not hear me and indeed the Man in this Case cannot pray It is as impossible that a person approving and loving Sin can make a real approach to God as it is for a Man to depart from and approach to one at the same time and with the same motion 3. The Conscience is defiled by doubtful practice Of this the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 8.7 And their conscience being weak is defiled To this belongs also the Words in Rom. 14.5 Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind and ver 22 23. Whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin In deliberate Actions especially of Worship to God to act without a clear Warrant from the Word of God defileth the Conscience 2. Sin disturbs the Conscience And Conscience is disturbed by Sin two ways 1. When the evil and filth of Sin is seen a man loaths himself therefore No defilement on the Conscience disturbs it till it be seen Men like Swine wallow in the puddle and see no filth therein till God open the Eyes of their Consciences 2. When the danger of sin is seen and the Wrath it deserves is perceaved then perplexing Fears and sensible Sorrow works in the Soul Now what is the course such a poor Creature should take The Sin is committed the Guilt is contracted the Conscience is defiled the Defilement is seen Disturbance and Trouble is felt in the Conscience What should such a sick Soul do Will any say to him wash thy self where thou canst and cast away the burthen of thy sin the best way thou canst and then come to the throne of Grace This would be strange Gospel indeed We know no other course a Man should take in this Case but coming to the Throne of Grace to have the Conscience sprinkled with the Blood of Christ the only Cordial for a disturbed Conscience and the only Purger of a defiled Conscience Therefore Peter was quite out in his Prayer he prayed backward when he said Depart from me for I am a sinful man O Lord Luke 5.8 Were ever worse Words uttered at the Knees of Jesus Christ He had said better if he had prayed Lord come near to me and abide with me and let me ever abide with thee for I am a sinful Man Where can a sinful Man be better than with the Saviour of Sinners But Peter's Prayer is the natural Prayer of every Man that seeth his Sinfulness and is ignorant of Jesus Christ The Publican understood Prayer and plyed it better Luke 18.13 when he said God be merciful to me a Sinner I feel my sinfulness I see thy Mercy Lord let them meet and thy Mercy shall be glorified and I saved Whoever therefore are distressed with the guilt of Sin in their Consciences or with the power of it in their Hearts and Lives must seek all their relief at this Throne of Grace It is only the power of that Grace revealed and dispensed at this Throne of Grace that is too hard for Sin and all its powers And for any Man to think to subdue Sin except by the power of this Grace or to think that he shall have this powerful Grace without coming for it to the Throne of Grace is to dream to his own destruction Object 2. I am in the dark about my Interest in God and Christ and therefore I cannot come boldly to this Throne If I did know that God was at peace with me and I reconciled to him and justified then I might come boldly Answ 1. Whose fault is it that thy Interest in Christ is not put out of question Were Christians more in self-examination more close in walking with God and if they had more near Communion with God and were more in acting of Faith this shameful darkness and doubting would quickly vanish It is a thing to be heavily bewailed that many Christians have lived twenty or forty years since Christ called them by his Grace yet doubting is their life they doubted when they began they go on doubting and many die doubting when the blame is justly to be laid on themselves There is an assurance of Faith that is a Duty as well as a Blessing Heb. 10.22 And were it more minded as a Duty it would be more often attained as a Mercy That assurance of Faith I press you to have stands in firm and strong Believing The faithful Promise of Christ in the Gospel is the Foundation of it And the Ground will bear all the weight we can lay on it This Assurance is not only a Blessing that comes down from Heaven but it may by his blessing of Means spring up out of the
for mercy are great Provocations Some beg only outward mercies Such people would like this Text well if it had been Let us come that we may obtain Gold and Silver and Health and long Life If Prayer was ordained by God for such mercies the Throne of Grace would be crouded with Supplicants But you will never ply Prayer rightly till you understand that there is something to be got at the Throne of Grace that is better in it self more needful for you and that will do you more good than all that the World hath to give Some beg mercy only when they are under God's afflicting hand Psal 73.34 When he slew them then they sought him Some beg God's mercy limitedly they only beg one mercy and desire no more His mercy is of a large extent and we should beg it all We may beg a particular mercy according to our present felt necessities yet we must not make an exception against any act of mercy We must not beg the mercy of Pardon with a Heart-quarrel against the mercy of Sanctification The Lord be merciful to thy servant in this thing 2 Kings 5.18 was a faulty Prayer if there was any sincerity in Naaman Though we may ask any particular mercy yet we must lay open our Hearts to the whole flood of mercy Psal 119.132 Look thou upon me and be merciful to me as thou usest to do unto those that love thy Name So Psal 106.4,5 Lastly Some beg mercy for themselves and for their Idols in the same Address One part of their Prayer is for mercy to themselves and another part of it is for mercy to their Idols Is not that a woful ill-made Prayer and yet how frequently is it done Idols are such things as have a greater nearer room in the Heart than God hath Whatever is more loved feared trusted and delighted in more than God that is an Idol be it the best or basest thing we can name or think on These Idols are of two sorts Lawful and Vnlawful Not that it is lawful to have any Idol but many make Idols of lawful things Such things I mean that in their proper place may be sought and lawfully used but are wofully abused when put in God's room These are the most dangerous because least perceaved Idols Christian it is lawful to love thy Relations to pray for Wife and Children to beg God's Blessing on thy lawful diligence in thy Calling but watch well that none of these lawful things come in betwixt thy Heart and God if they do thou will fall into this Snare of begging God's mercy to thy self and Idols in the same Prayer Vnlawful Idols or Idols in unlawful things are Sins Lusts and Heart-plagues Wo to him that begs God's mercy to them We should daily beg God's mercy against them The more mercy that is forbearance God sheweth to such Idols the more Wrath and the less mercy he showeth to the man himself God's mercy cannot be shown both to a man and his Idols The purest mercy is then shewn â—o a Man when the Lord dealeth severely with his Idols Kill my sinful Idols and save me is a fit Prayer at the Throne of Grace and he is a happy man that gets it answered 5. Sinful Addresses for God's mercy are great Provocations of his Wrath. His mercy is so Sacred a Name of God that he will hold no man guiltless that taketh it in vain In this matter the best contract much Guilt All have many sins in their holy things and in their Approaches to the Holiest of all the Throne of Grace and do stand in need of Attonement And we should all come to the Throne of Grace for mercy to pardon the Sins that are in our seeking of mercy But where then shall the Ungodly and Sinner appear He perisheth for want of mercy he should come for it and he cannot come for mercy while he is what he is but he provokes the Lord to more Wrath against him This is one of the inextricable Straits that every Unbeliever is in that nothing but Sovereign Grace and mercy can bring one out of Look to him for this deliverance and he will shew you mercy SERMON VII HEB. IV. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need THE last thing in this verse is What is to be had at the Throne of Grace and what we should come for And that is Mercy and Grace and we need no more and we should come that we may obtain and find them and we should in our coming design no less Of the first I began to speak last day and did open these three things 1. What is this mercy we should come for It 's God's saving mercy in Christ sutable unto and for relieving of that misery that every natural man is perishing under Mercy in God and misery in man are Relatives and happy is that person that hath them well married and matched together 2. What is in this Phrase Obtaining of mercy I told you that it implied three things 1. That mercy is God's free Gift We only come by it because he gives it 2. That there is a personal particular Application of this mercy to the Obtainer of it 3. That it is given as a Possession not as a Gift that may be recalled and retaken but is given for an everlasting Possession Whoever is made Partaker of God's special saving mercy it shall never be taken from him it shall never waste nor spend nor wear out but shall stay with him follow him and grow up with him to eternity The Burden of that heaven-like Song Psal 136. is 26 times repeated for his mercy endureth for ever How sweetly will it be sung from all the Mansions in Heaven and by all the blessed Dwellers in them O Give thanks to our God for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever Can you learn this Song as the Word is Rev. 14.3 Only the Redeemed of the Lord can say so but all they should say so Psal 107.1,2 His mercy is most sweet a Crumb of it will save a starving Soul as Matth. 15.27 A large measure of it on Earth is a Heaven But the eternity of this mercy is the mercy of this mercy time-Time-mercies in regard of this are no mercies 3. I spoke of the Design and End we should have before us in coming to the Throne of Grace Come that we may obtain mercy That which I would do at this Exercise is to apply this Truth And the Lord apply both Doctrine and Application And 1. I would put this Question to your Consciences and let them speak as in God's sight Whether have ye obtained mercy or not Can you say with Paul but I obtained mercy You must have it as well as he and may know it as really as he did though ye receave not so much nor know it so clearly as so great a Believer as Paul did See to get
9.1.5 What prays he for them Roin 10.1 My hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved All right Prayer should be the Hearts desire Salvation is the best thing we can pray for to our selves or to them we love And no Man can heartily pray for Salvation to others who hath not got it himself 2. I would now direct some Words to them that have obtained mercy and know it Blessed be the Lord that there are not a few in the World not a few in this City and I hope not a few in this Meeting that have obtained mercy of the Lord and know it also Who can remember when their misery was great and when the mercy of the Lord made a visit to them and what great things it brought to them and wrought in them 1. Let such be very thankful for special saving mercy Praise is a great Debt as well as a great Blessing Let none take this as an ordinary Duty but let all Christians know that the main point of the Life and Practice of Christianity lies in the performance of it 1 Pet. 2.9 Praise should rise according to the worth of what we praise for Greatest Favours call for highest Praises and special mercy from the Lord is the highest favour It is a good Custom and a Duty also that people when they receave their daily bread from God do give him thanks for it as well as beg his Blessing on it Pray then how do you think the Lord will take unthankfulness for his special mercy How many hath the Lord to give in this Charge against I never gave thee a nights rest but thou gave me thanks for it in the morning but I have by my mercy raised thee up to newness of Life and I was never thanked for it I never fed thy Body but thou blessed me for my Bounty but I have given thee my Son for the bread of thy Soul but no praise for this Gift When thou wast near death I did in mercy restore thee and was praised for it but special mercy hath delivered thy Soul from eternal destruction but when didst thou praise for that Have a care this Charge be not given against you Live to his Praise and let Praise be the main Work of your Life 2. Walk tenderly under God's special mercy The more special the mercy be the more carefully it should be improved God's saving mercy is a Load a Burthen not indeed hard to be born but it is hard to bear it aright A Burden that will not break the Back but will weigh heavy on the Shoulders of the Bearers and such as are under it are in no small danger of stumbling Isa 38.15 What shall I say he hath both spoken unto me and himself hath done it I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my Soul And that there was special mercy in his Eye see ver 17. Thou hast in love to my Soul delivered it from the pit of corruption for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back Here is a right sense of mercy and a good Resolution about the guiding of it I will walk softly all the Years fifteen of them that God hath added to my Life But what performance was there 2 Chron. 32.25 But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done to him for his heart was lifted up 3. Obtainers of mercy should ask grace to guide mercy and ask it the more earnestly and confidently because they have obtained mercy Be not discouraged in asking more mercy because you have made so poor improvements of what you have received Every mercy lays us under an Obligation for more service and Grace to enable for that Service must be given and therefore should be asked We need mercy God gives it when we get it we should guide it well and in order to that we must beg more New mercy to enable us to guide the old No mercy from the Lord but it may be ill guided but the last eternal Life Jude 21. A Christian is not out of all danger of abusing any mercy of the Lord till he receave perfecting mercy in Heaven To them that have not obtained mercy or at least do not know that they have only four things I would say to such Ask mercy Receave mercy Plead mercy Hope in his mercy 1. Ask mercy The Lord hath two designs in offering and dispensing his mercy to Men To be honoured by the Prayers of them that want it and to be glorified by the Praises of them that get it This Duty of asking mercy is frequently commanded by the Lord commonly practis'd by his people and never in vain 1. Ask mercy like it self Ask some way according to your Need and its Worth If our begging bore any tolerable proportion to the great Blessing of God's saving mercy what mighty praying would there be Let not mercy be sought as a small thing it 's the one thing needful and it 's the one thing we should seek of the Lord. God's mercy Saving mercy Free mercy Mercy great vastly above all our misery O how would it be asked if asked like it self 2. Ask mercy at the right Door There is not a Crumb of saving mercy that comes to any perishing Sinner but by Jesus Christ. There is no Corn in Egypt but what comes through this Joseph's Hand He is a mad Beggar of mercy that forgets Christ 3. Ask mercy in God's time He that commands us to ask and tells us at what Door to beg and promiseth to give tells us also when we should ask Men have their times as in great distress when dying and at Judgment Beware of putting off asking till God's time of giving be past It is an awful Word of Christ Luke 13.25 When once the master of the house is risen up and hath shut to the door and ye begin to stand without and to knock at the door saying c. There are two sad beginnings here Beginning to stand without when the door is shut such will eternally stand without Beginning to knock at the door Such as begin to knock at God's shut Door will never get in There is no good answer to be given by God to such for eternity Is not that a very unhappy beginning So our Lord tells us in the Parable of the Ten Virgins Matth. 25.10 The foolish came when the Door was shut They were foolish that they came no sooner and miserable that they came too late I believe the Damned will see more of the Blessedness of the Saved than the Saved will see of the Misery of the Damned Christ expresly aggravates the misery of the Damned by what they shall see of the Bliss of the Saved Luke 13.28 But all we see in the Word that the Saved shall see or hear of the misery of the Damned is their Resurrection to Damnation John 5.29 which is a most miserable one better were it for them to have their Bodies lye eternally in
the Grave than to be raised for Damnation their Sentence of Condemnation and their vain Pleas and Pleadings for mercy But O that Men would come in at God's time and cry for mercy as they will do out of time How much better would it be for them God's time is now to day the present time 2 Cor. 6.2 Now is the accepted time now is the day of Salvation If Men refuse God's mercy in his time he will deny his mercy when sought in their time and out of his Isa 30.18 He waits to be gracious and willing to be exalted in having mercy Notwithstanding all the mercy with the Lord all the mercy that is offered in the Promise the Lord never promised a Sinner his mercy to morrow If you will beg his mercy to day you may have it and it shall endure for ever But God never gave an Allowance and Liberty to any Man to spend one Day or Hour in consulting whether he should beg God's mercy or not David had indeed a sad choice of Judgments laid before him 2 Sam. 24.13 and is bid by the Prophet Advise now and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me But for a perishing Sinner that hath an Offer of God's mercy in Jesus Christ there is no delay allowed but only he is bid ask it presently 2. Receave God's mercy Receaving is easier than asking Asking requires some pains Receaving is but a consent of the Heart to take what is offered Asking supposeth a great and needful Blessing that he that wants it would fain have and therefore he begs it Receaving implies that this great Blessing is in his Offer fully and freely and therefore he must accept it Here is the State of things betwixt God and Men in the Gospel The Lord brings his mercy near to them offers it to them bids them take and receave it but many will not God offers Quarter to Rebels in Arms against him but they stand upon their Sword and will not take Quarter Ministers Work is to entreat and beseech in Christ's stead 2 Cor. 5.20 God only can perswade and prevail with Men. Mercy comes prepared and ready for Men. It is prepared in the Purchase of Christ it is prepared in the well-ordered Covenant and as prepared and ready it is tendered freely to Sinners All things are ready Come to the Marriage Matth. 22.4 All things are ready God himself is ready to give mercy Christ is ready he is slain for us let us come and keep the Feast 1 Cor. 5.7,8 The Holy Spirit is ready to seal you to the Day of Redemption if you will accept of God's mercy in the Redeemer Heaven is ready the Way is plain and all hinderances of Law and Justice removed Heb. 10.19,20 The City of Refuge is ready and its Gates are open continually to receave and give entrance to all that flee for safety Heb. 6.18 Alas all things are ready but Men are not willing there is not a moments time needed to ripen God's mercy for Men. No perishing Sinner that seeth his need of God's Mercy and is willing to receave it needs stay a moment till mercy be ready for him or he more ready for it Rom. 10.6 The Righteousness which is of Faith speaketh on this wise how very few have Ears to hear such a Speaker and such a Speech Say not in thine heart Who shall ascend into Heaven that is to bring Christ dowu from above Or who shall descend into the deep that is to bring up Christ again from the dead Christ is come down already from Heaven and is gone back again to Heaven ver 7. But what saith it The word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the word of Faith which we preach Mercy and Salvation for lost Sinners is prepared by Christ's coming down and going up again and he hath lodg'd the Power and Vertue of his Undertaking in the Gospel suck at that Well with Faith and thy Soul shall be saved There thou wilt find Christ and all his fulness There was never such a Treaty made in the World We can fetch no Similitude fully like this amongst Men. Thus the Lord pleads with Men in the Gospel You are already undone with sin and misery lying on you and you are every hour sinking into greater Let but my mercy in my Son enter in and it will cure all that is past and present and prevent all the misery that is coming on you And will not miserable Sinners receave God's mercy Are you afraid of saving mercy Will it hurt you Why do ye not give it entrance It is one of the greatest demonstrations what Monsters sin hath made Men that they are unwilling to be saved by free mercy in Jesus Christ Open a Door for God's mercy by a free receaving of it or else you will find the Door of his mercy shut against you when you need it most Your giving way to his mercy is your receaving of it Say with the Heart Let God's mercy enter in upon me and save me its own way A yielding and giving and putting of a lost Soul into the hand of Christ is the nature of saving Faith in him Will ye not trust in his mercy Is it not able to save you Your want of a sense of your need of his mercy is a giving the lie to all the Threatenings and Curse of the Law Your doubting of the Ability of his mercy to save you is to give the lie to all the Faithfulness and Truth of God declared and sworn in the Gospel 3. Plead mercy When you beg it use no other Plea for mercy but mercy When you beg mercy you must beg mercy only for Mercy 's sake That that moves God to shew mercy must be our Argument in pleading for mercy Wherefore doth God show mercy because he will show mercy and delights in it Micah 7.18 and therefore should we plead it Mercy in his Heart is the only spring of mercy from his Hand David who knew God's mercy well had tasted of it often and needed it greatly when fallen into a foul Pit Psal 51.1 thus pleads for mercy Have mercy upon me O God according to thy loving kindness according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions Have a care of making any other Plea for mercy from the Lord but that of mercy with him And stick to this Plea and it will prevail If the Lord for trying of your Faith or Satan for shaking it should say How dare such a vile sinner as thou art beg so great a Gift as saving mercy from so holy a God The poor Pleader hath a ready answer I want mercy as much as my Soul is worth in vain do I seek it of any Creature nothing but his mercy can save me I beg mercy only for mercy's sake I bring nothing but a starving Soul and an empty hand I beg his mercy as an Alms which will eternally enrich the Receaver
Grace and Mercy 3. There is a Throne of Gods Justice spoken of This is that Throne David deprecates his being brought before Psal 143.2 Enter not into judegment with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified If a man be wronged and oppressed by men stronger than he he may appeal to this Throne of Justice and expect redress But if a mans business be with God he should be afraid of this Throne of Justice Men are oft proud and vain in their thoughts and before others but if the Lord call them before this High Court of Justice they will surely be cast Job 9.2,3 How should a Man be just with God! If he will contend with him he cannot answer him one of a thousand When God sits on a Throne of Justice to judge men according to his Law and their Works nothing but Condemnation can justly be pronounced on sinners Whoever he be of sinful Adam's seed that expecteth saving favour from God's Throne of Justice will find himself wofully deceived 4. We find the Throne of the last judgment before this all must appear 2 Cor. 5.10 Rev. 20.12 This is not the Throne of Grace in the Text. No grace nor mercy is shown to any from this Throne but to them that have plyed and sped at the Throne of Grace before When our Lord comes and sits on the Throne of his Glory Mat. 25.31 no sinner that hath despised his Grace now will find any quarter then Luke 19.27 What then is this Throne of Grace It is God in Christ dealing with men according to the Grace of the Gospel It is God in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing to them their trespasses 2 Cor. 5.19 It is Christ set forth by God to be a propitiation Rom. 3.25 This is the true Mercy-seat or Throne of Grace or Propitiation 1 John 2.2 1 John 4.10 This is the New Court or Throne erected by God and declared in the Gospel to which sinful man is invited to come 2. Why is it called a Throne of Grace Passing what is said of the Apostles alluding to the Mercy-seat in the Tabernacle and Temple of Old 1. It is called a Throne because of the Glory and Majesty of God manifested here God's condescending to display and dispense his Grace and Mercy to sinners is no debasing of God but an advancing of his Glory When he gives Grace he acts Royally and as a King with Majesty Araunahs offering to David is said to be like a King 2 Sam. 24.23 he was no King but a Subject but he had a free noble Heart The Lord on this Throne of Grace dispenseth all acts of Grace with great Majesty and as a King But not as a King-Judge and Ruler but as a King-Benefactor and Giver This Royalty of Grace shines 1. In the greatness of the Gifts Grace and Mercy Vastly above all that the Creation can give 2. In the manner of giving Free Soveraignly free Grace and Mercy is his own and he doth with them as he will When Moses prays Exod. 33.18 I beseech thee shew me thy Glory We cannot conceive what was in his holy heavenly heart He was now just come down from the Mount the first time he is going up again to spend other 40 days there in such Communion with God as never meer man enjoyed before or since out of Heaven he had prevailed with God for Israel and hath a most gracious answer vers 17. And the Lord said unto Moses I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken for thou hast found grace in my sight and I know thee by name What means Moses then by this prayer Ver. 18. What ever he meant the Lords answer is much to be observed Vers 19. And he said I will make all my goodness or Beauty pass before thee and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee What is in this Name that hath so much of Glory and Goodness in it as should satisfie such a mighty hungerer for more of God as Moses was I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy God's Glory shines highly in his being the Soveraign disposer of his own Grace and Mercy and happy is the Believer that adores this glorious Soveraignty Paul in Rom. 9.15.25 makes a deep improvement of it Jer. 17.12 A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary See then that you in all your pleadings for Grace and Mercy remember that you are before a high stately Throne Approaches to God on the Throne of Grace should be managed with the deepest Reverence and Humility So did the Publican when he came to it Luke 18.13 God be merciful propitious to me a sinner or me the sinner the great singular sinner So the Greek runs as Luke 7.37,39 The deepest profoundest adoration of the Glorious Majesty of God is performed by a self-condemned sinner pleading at this Throne for the obtaining of the soveraign free grace of God Lastly it is called a Throne because Grace reigns and is enthroned here Rom. 5.21 Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Blessed Reign and blessed are all that are under the Reign and Dominion of the Grace of God Sin reigned through the unrighteousness of the first Adam unto eternal death if men be let alone and if Grace do not break this Reign of sin and Grace reigns through the righteousness of the Second Adam unto etrnal life and nothing can dethrone Grace it will prevail and reach its end eternal life in all it falls upon O that captives to Satan and slaves to Sin and the Law would long to be under the Reign of this stately power the Grace of God And that Believers themselves would give a more free and large subjection to it 2. It is called a Throne of Grace 1. Because Grace erected and reared it up Psal 89.2 Mercy shall be built up for ever Nothing but Grace and Mercy framed the Throne of Grace I may allude to the Lords stately words to Job 38.4,5,6 speaking of the first Creation but this Throne of Grace was fixed before as the King himself saith Prov. 8.23 I was set up from everlasting from the beginning or ever the earth was Where wast thou when I laid the foundation and who laid the corner stone thereof No creature was on the Counsel It is a Divine Contrivance but now it is revealed our faith on the ground of this Revelation may and should go back and take a refreshing view of this eternal Contrivance The Lord builds a House of Mercy that a company of sinners may dwell in with him for ever What laid the foundation of this house but Grace What laid the Corner Stone of this Throne but Grace What brings in the Inhabitants preserves them and perfects them but Grace For whom is it prepared and by whom shall this House of Mercy be possessed and with
therefore betakes himself to his heels It is mens great sin to endeavour to seek that elsewhere that only is to be found here Mercy and Grace But it 's the greatest Sin of all to count all lost as long as this Throne stands and the Lord calls men to come to it Be deeply humbled and covered with shame yet come noâ—withstanding Such is the corruption of oâ—… hearts and the Lord seeth it well that 〈◊〉 Sinners could find grace and mercy aâ—… where else they would never come to thâ—… throne of grace for it Christ is the last shiâ—… of a distressed sinner yet blessed be his namâ—… he welcomes the comer The woman Marâ—… 5.25,35 tryes many means ere she comes tâ— Christ Yet sped well when she came aâ— last 2. They are welcome to the throne of gracâ—… that come oâ—test and ask the greatest thingâ—… It s otherwise in addresses to friends or greaâ— men on earth You may be welcome tâ— them if you come now and then and iâ— you ask little things but if you come daily and ask great things and grow in your suit they will quickly be weary of you But whaâ— saith the King on this Throne of Grace Johâ— 16.24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in mâ— Name ask and ye shall recieve that your jâ—… may be full Had not they asked formerly great things that he would expound his worâ— to them Matth. 13.36 that he would teaâ—… them to pray Luke 11.1 That he would increase their faith Luke 17.5 But all thiâ— was as nothing to Christ nothing in regarâ— of the great things he had to give and theâ— stood in need of This is a great word oâ— Christ's Ask and I will give and ye shall recieve ask still more and ye shall recieve morâ—… even till your joy be full The reason whâ— our souls are so empty of joy is because oâ—… mouths are empty of prayer Christ's love quarrels with his people are 3.1 That they do not ask great things and often 2. That they do not receive what he is so ready to give Our narrow Vessels cannot take in large â—…oods from the fountain of living water 4. They thâ—… do not praise for what they recieve It is his due our duty and our great mercy Both prayer and praise widens the heart for recieving more of Christs fulness 3. They are specially welcome to the throne of grace that come to stay resolving never to leave it That not only come to it at a pinch and strait but come to abide there Our Lord teacheth several Parables to encourage and direct us in plying the throne of grace Luke 11.5,13 and Luke 18.1,8 Jacob was a blessed man and knew well the manner of this Court When he wrestled with the Angel Gen. 32.24.30 And that Angel was the King of the Throne of Grace Hos 12.3,4,5 After a long nights wrestling with weeping and supplications saith the Lord Gen. 32.26 Let me go for the day breaketh Jacob answers I will not let thee go except thou bless me I will or I will not looks like ill manners in speaking to God he saith not How can I hold thee if thou hast a mind to go is it possible that I can detain thee Can a man hold God when he hath a mind to be gone But Jacob knew his party and percieved that he tryed him if he would part without a blessing Nay saith Jacob if thou ask my leave and consent to part so I will never give it let the day break and the next night come the great Blesser and lame halting Jacob shall never part with Jacobs consent without a blessing And he prevailed He had got his Fathers blessing by the cunning of his Mother Gen. 27. had it again ratified by his Father Gen. 28.3,4 He had the Lords Blessing Gen. 28.12,16 He got it renewed again on the Lords calling him to return to Canaan Gen. 31.3 Yet he was in a new strait and wanted a new blessing and wrestled for it and obtained it Let all the Seed of Jacob imitate his practice and they shall share in his Blessing and be fed with the heritage of Jacob their Father as the word is Isa 58.14 In pressing the Exhortation in the Text I shall lay before you a few considerations 1. Consider the Greatness of this priviledge That there is a throne of grace erected for sinners and revealed to them This throne is only erected for sinners it had never been but for sinners A throne of grace supposeth that there are guilty sinners to stand before it and to get good by it The greatness of this priviledge is apparent in comparing the State of fallen Man with that of fallen Angels And in comparing their State that have the Gospel with theirs that are without it 1. Compare the state of fallen Man with that of falten Angels Whatsoever the proper meaning of that word is Psal 8.5 Thou host made him a little lower than the Angels these two may be well concieved that Man in his original make was lower in dignity than the Angels and that Man was made a little after the Angels were made And long after it could not be for the whole Old Creation was compleatly finished in six days The Angels that fell are so sinful and miserable that we cannot speak any good of them Yet in their first make they were a very glorious part of the Creation Notwithstanding when they sinned there was no throne of grace provided for them God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down to Hell 2 Pet. 2.4 Yet for his Elect he spared not his own Son Rom. 8.32 The Devils for such sin made them immediatly upon their sinning were as much condemned as ever they shall be I say not as much executed for it seems that their full torment is reserved to the last day Jude 6. 2 Pet. 2.4 Art thou come to torment us before the time Matth. 8.29 say they to Christ No wonder the Devil be such an Enemy to the Gospel of Man's Salvation and a hater of the Throne of Grace The wonder is that men should be deceived by Satan to despise and slight this great priviledge Let Christians take a view of this astonishing appearance of Gods Grace that fallen Angels are all past by and fallen Men taken up not indeed all of them but a great many as one day will declare Heb. 2.16 For verily he took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the Seed of Abraham 2. Consider the greatness of this priviledge in the Revelation of it You have it but the greatest part of the World have it not They that cannot receive the Truth of God revealed in the word about the Soveraignty of Grace in Election and the Efficacy of distinguishing Grace in Calling must see the same Soveraignty acted in dispensing or witholding the means of Grace as pleaseth him And to be utterly ignorant that there is a Throne of Grace renders people as miserable
reigned in them and over them and through them till it brought them to Heaven Wherefore seeing the having of a throne of grace is a priviledge of so great importance and of so uncertain continuance there should be the greater care to make diligent and present improvement of it Why should any man let this throne of Grace stand empty Will men provoke the Lord to say in vain have I set up a throne of grace for sinners that come not at it Again consider the Wrath that will follow on the neglect and not improving of this great priviledge The Sin is many ways committed and the judgments of many sorts that are inflicted But I leave this to the next occasion Except you in your personal exercise and experience do know what this throne of grace is and what is got there you may be Christians hereafter but as yet you are none unless you experience what this throne of grace is by frequent repairing to it and by frequent receiving good at it That Man or Woman whatever his or her name be in the world or the Church of Christ that never found any need for or use of or benefit by this throne of grace is surely a dead sinner People may safely and surely judge of both the State and Frame of their Souls by their business at the throne of grace Never got any Soul life but by an act of grace and power from this throne No Soul can be kept in life but by daily entercourse with it It s as impossible that these Bodies of ours should be maintained in life and strength without Meat and Drink and Air as it is for the Soul of a Believer to prosper without daily plying the throne of grace Let therefore the Exhortation in the Text be complyed with come to this throne Say therefore Lord I am invited to come to the throne of thy grace and none have more need of that grace than I and there is enough of grace there for me and therefore I will come and beg and get and abide and bless the Giver and become happy by Recieving SERMON III. HEB. IV. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need I Have spoke of the first thing that this Text contains That God in Jesus Christ in the Gospel is on a throne of grace inviting men to come to him What this throne of grace is why all should come who they be that will come and who will be specially welcome you have heard I was pressing this Exhortation of coming to this throne You see the Apostle in delivering this takes in himself with them he exhorts Let us come He had oft come before and had been bountifully dealt with at this Court 1 Tim. 1.14 And the Grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant towards him This made him commend this Throne so highly and entreat others and stir up himself to frequent addresses to it I did use three Arguments to back this Exhortation and shall add a fourth 1. Was the greatness of the priviledge of having a throne of grace to come unto A priviledge denyed to fallen Angels and the knowledge of it denyed to the far greater part of Mankinde 2. This throne of grace is a priviledge full of rich advantages All Believers know somewhat of them All their acceptance with God all their access to God all their communications from him and fellowship with him all their Blessings in time and their hopes for Eternity are all owing to this that God is on a Throne of Grace 3. This priviledge is of uncertain duration and short The Lord the King is for ever but the Throne of Grace is not for ever it is but a Time dispensation and limited unto certain seasons The Gospel day is uncertain our life time is uncertain the Worlds day is uncertain to us though all determined by God But above all the Spirits day is uncertain How long he will strive when he will forbear who can tell Some godly men have thought that there are few if any that live under a powerful Ministry but at some time of their life the Spirit of God comes close to them so that there is not only a witness given for the Lord in the offers of the Gospel but there is a further addition to that witness by some special approaches of Gods Spirit to their hearts But whatever there be in that observation this is undoubted that where the Holy Ghost makes the strongest assaults on men if he be resisted and withdraws the most prodigious hardness is left behind Therefore extraordinary bold hardned sinners cruel Persecutors Apostates and Mockers of godliness are usually such as sometimes were under special Conviction not to speak of the sin against the Holy Ghost which consists in some high Rebellion against special workings of the Spirit of God on mens Consciences under the Gospel This dreadful sin Satan perplexeth many Believers with fears of it But its certain that a disturbing fear of this guilt is a proof of a persons innocency as to it For whosoever have fallen into this Abyss of wickedness are so far from fearing the sin though they may have a hopeless fear of wrath Heb. 10.26 that they glory in it therefore they are said to do despite to the Spirit of Grace Let all that find the Spirit striving with them take good heed to themselves comply with his motions and secure their state speedily by believing on the Lord Jesus for the season of his striving is the most critical part of our life and as it issues of greatest consequence to Salvation or Damnation 4. A fourth Argument I would conclude this point with is the greatness of the sin of not coming to the Throne of Grace and the dreadful wrath it draws on This sin is many â—ays committed and many ways avenged A â—…ttle of both It is committed 1. By mens despising and â—ontemning the Throne of Grace making light 〈◊〉 it Matth. 22.5 Neglecting so great Salvaâ—…on Heb. 2.3 There are many things from whence this contempt springs Either no sense â—f their need of what is to be had at the Throne of Grace or else a Dream that they â—ay be supplyed elsewhere or Gross Unbeâ—…ef that men think in their hearts that all â—his account of the Throne of Grace is but a cunâ—ingly devised Fable Or the nature of the Blesâ—ings Spiritual and Eternal unsuitable to and â—ot taking with their carnal Hearts who â—…ind earthly things If the Exhortation had â—un thus Let us come that we may get Silver and obtain Gold to render us rich in this World what leaping and striving would there be to obey it Whilst Grace and Mercy that men have no sense nor experience of are despised and therefore the Throne of Grace where only they are to be had is despised also The Spirit of God in the Scripture is at much pains to commend the Worth and Value
Peace and Acceptance only in that blessed Beloved beloved of the Father both as his Son and our Saviour and beloved of all that ever saw but a little of his saving Face and Glory Let such go and prosper the Lord is with you the Lord is before you He will welcome the Mediator in his bringing you to him 1 Pet. 3.18 and welcome you with Salvation who come in his Name for it The Prodigals Welcome Luke 15. is but a Shadow of what ye shall meet with Christ welcomes dearly all that come to him And the Father welcomes the Believer that cometh in Christ's Name and is brought in Christ's Hand to this Throne SERMON VI. HEB. IV. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need FROM this Text I have already spoken to three of the things I did take up in it 1. Unto the Throne of Grace it self that is erected for and revealed to Sinners in the Gospel That new Court of Grace which the Lord invites the fallen Seed of Adam to come unto 2. I have spoke to that Boldness that is allowed and commanded in coming to it We are not only allowed to come but we must come or perish and bring the guilt of our own Souls Blood upon our Heads by refusing Acts 18.6 We not only may come and try but we may and must come boldly and confidently expecting to speed in coming 3. I have spoke to the great Ground of this Confidence couched in the Word therefore in the Text and relating to ver 14 15. Were it not for Christ's Place and Business and Heart in Heaven no Man on Earth could have boldness at the Throne of Grace The fourth and last thing in the Verse is the end we should come for and the great Blessings we may receave by coming expressed in two Words That we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need God's Mercy and Grace are the most comprizing comprehensive Blessings and these Expressions of them contain all that is needful for our Happiness Nothing can be added to them No Blessing but is in them no Blessing is without them It is the common Apostolick Prayer and such Prayers made by the Pen-men of the Holy Scripture under the immediate guidance of the Holy Ghost are equivalent to Divine Promises yea are such Grace be to you sometimes Grace Mercy and Peace be to you So that these Words as they stand in the Text do equally answer those two Inquiries 1. What good things shall we get at the throne of grace The Spirit of God answers You may and shall obtain Mercy and find Grace to help in time of need And are not these well worth coming for Are they any where else to be had And here they may surely be found How should this endear the Throne of Grace to us and engage to coming to it 2. Wherefore should we come with what design What end should be in our Eye Come saith the Spirit by the Apostle's Pen that ye may obtain the one and find the other Come that ye may get both Design this getting in your coming I would first speak of our coming that we may obtain Mercy and on it discourse of these three things 1. Of the Mercy that is to be got at the throne of grace 2. Of the import of the Phrase Obtaining of Mercy 3. Of the Duty required of coming with this Design that we may obtain this Mercy 1. Of the Mercy that is to be obtained at the Throne of Grace You see it is only Mercy that is named without any mention made whose Mercy it is or of what sort it is But when miserable Sinners are invited to come to God's Throne of Grace for Mercy it may be easily known whose it is and what it is It is God's Mercy in Jesus Christ who is the Mercy-seat or Throne of Grace it is uot Angel-mercy or Creature-mercy but God's Mercy And who can tell what a great and vast thing his Mercy is Mercy in the proper Notion of it is a kind relieving Compassion to the miserable The Object of Mercy is a miserable creature Divine Goodness shines in giving Being to Nothing and in creating all things Wisdom in ordering them and guiding them to his Glory Justice in disposing of them according to his Will the essential Rule of Righteousness But Mercy hath no fit Object till Misery appear for Mercy to act on The Shower of Mercy is a compassionate Person its Nature and End is to relieve the miserable Mercy with God is another sort of Mercy than what is required of and can be practised by Creatures We may and should have compassion on the miserable whom we are not able nor allowed to relieve The Judge that condemns the Criminal should do it with Mercy and Compassion but he breaks the Law if he suffer his Mercy to delay or divert a Righteous Sentence and Execution But the Lord's Mercy is not only Tenderness and Compassion in his own Heart so we borrow Words by the pattern of sound Words in the Scripture to speak of God after the manner of Men but it is always relieving to the Person on whom it is bestowed Let the misery be never so great and of what kind soever it be whoever they be that are the Objects of his Mercy they are certainly relieved thereby There is no Redemption out of the Pit though their Misery that are there is the greatest Why because there is no Mercy for them If it were possible that God's Mercy in Christ could enter into Hell it self as it falls on many very near to it that Mercy would bring them out But the Door of Mercy is quite shut upon them and the Lord hath resolved and declared that his Mercy shall never visit them That we may the better understand what this Mercy of God is the getting whereof we should make our great Errand to the Throne of Grace it will be needful to consider that misery in men that renders them needy of this mercy And this I would consider as it actually lies on them and is incumbent or as it is coming on them and imminent 1. The misery that all natural Men lye under It 's true they do not see it nor feel it but this makes not their misery the less but the greater For insensibleness of misery especially where it is removeable and when this insensibleness is a hinderance of using the right means of removing it is a great plague and an aggravation of the misery I shall give you a few Scripture-accounts of this misery 1. The misery of a natural Man and of all natural Men is that they are utterly destitute of all true good In me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing Rom. 7.18 Must it not be so much more with them that are Flesh and in the Flesh and have nothing in them but Flesh The first notion we
have of misery is this that it stands in a deprivation of good and the greater that deprivation be and the more good things a Man is deprived and destitute of the more miserable we count the person to be He is a miserable Man that is blind because the light of the World is so pleasant and useful and the Eye simply needful to behold and use it It is a great addition to this Man's misery if he be dumb also because the Tongue is a Man's Glory and the Organ of expressing our Thoughts and of Communion with our own kind The misery is yet further heightned if a Man be also deaf for the Ear is the Door of Knowledge both of things Natural and Divine If you go to the inward Senses or Powers if a Man be deprived of those his misery is yet greater As it is a greater misery to be void of Understanding and Memory to be an Ideot an Innocent as we call them than it is to be deprived of any of the bodily Senses Now if one wanted all the Senses of the Body and Powers of the Soul if such a Creature should be called a Man would we not account this a most miserable Creature But if there be yet somewhat better than all these surely then he that is altogether void of that must be more miserable still That there is somewhat better than all these good Gifts of Body and Mind and that every Man by nature is without it is most manifest in the Word To be without God without Christ without Hope Eph. 2.12 is more and worse than to be without any or all outward good things This destitute State is expressed by our Lord Rev. 3.17 Because thou sayest I am rich and encreased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked What a great difference is there betwixt Christ's and their opinion of their State And must not Christ's be right and true and theirs false if it contradict his Were they any thing the less miserable were they not rather much more so that they so mis-judged Our Lord aggravates both their sin and misery from their ignorance because thou knowest not Spiritual Blessings are of that nature that all are miserable indeed that are without them but no Man is sensibly miserable till he seeth that he is without them It is the knowledge of this Want that brings in the sense of misery As every unpardoned Sinner is a miserable man but he never counts himself miserable till he feel the weight of Sin and see the want of Pardon 2. Every natural Man is needy of God's Mercy because he is a condemned Man A condemned Man is a dead Man in Law As there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 so there is nothing but condemnation to all that are not in him John 3.18,36 He that believeth not is condemned already and the wrath of God abideth on him You may have seen and heard how Malefactors will cry for Mercy from the Judge when he cannot and ought not to pity them so as to spare them When they are bid hold up their hand at the Bar to receave their Doom how earnestly on their Knees with Tears they will cry Mercy my Lord mercy for God's sake Every natural man is condemned But how few of their Consciences can witness for them that they ever sought God's Mercy so as convict Criminals an earthly Judge's Mercy The Mercy they beg is small in regard of what Sinners stand in need of from God An earthly Judge may reprieve or pardon to day and the pardoned Man may die to morrow But if the great Judge condemn you and you are not pardoned you are sentenced to a never-dying misery Prisoners beg Mercy of a Man who may be is bound up by Law and Conscience of his Oath to shew none but to execute Justice Here the Case is just contrary the Lord bids Men beg his Mercy and condemns them only that despise it We have his Command and Promise and many acts of Pardon for our encouragement What pleading for Pardon would there be at earthly Bars if they had the Judge's Command to ask his Promise to grant it and his Hand and Seal to that Promise Such is our Case yet few beg it in good earnest Be ashamed and convinced of your sin when you see Men begging a frail short life of a Judge and say Alas I never begg'd the mercy of eternal Life so earnestly at the Throne of Grace as these Wretches do a frail short uncertain life 3. The natural Man hath all the Creation against him and therefore is needy of God's mercy The whole Creation groans under him he is a burden to God's Earth a plague to the Creations Rom. 8.20,21,22 What a noise do Men make and what pains do they take to heap up Dust If God prosper their endeavours they think he blesseth them and count themselves happy in their Enjoyment But what is all this for to a natural unrenewed Man All these Creature-comforts will but be as so many Witnesses against them in the day of the Lord. Jam. 5.1,4 Men seek the Creatures to satisfie their carnal desires and supply their outward Wants but they do not remember that unless the special saving Mercy of God come along with them the Creatures are abused and in their way witness and groan to God against them They groan to be put in God's room in Men's Hearts and to be made Fewel for Mens Lusts They all wait but for God's call to execute Vengeance on his Enemies Is not such a man needy of God's mercy that hath the whole Creation of God at War with him 4. But there is worse than all these The man himself and all he is hath and doth is under the Curse of God Gal. 3.10 What is the Curse It is the malediction of God on a man It is God's devoting him to ruin He is cursed in his Body cursed in his Soul cursed in his Family cursed in his Trade and Estate cursed in his Crosses cursed in his Mercies cursed in his Life and cursed in his Death cursed in Time and cursed to Eternity Ah how long and broad is this Curse Zech. 5.2,3,4 O what need is there of God's mercy for it is this mercy only that can take away the Curse There is no evil we are in danger of from an angry God but must be removed or prevented by the opposite Good from a reconciled God If God's Anger be our Plague nothing can remove it but his Love If his Curse be our Burden only his Blessing can take it away The whole Creation cannot make up the loss of God's Favour And this they know well that ever saw the Face of an angry God So much of the necessity of God's Mercy from the present misery of natural men 2. I might proceed to speak of that which is coming on them without the intervening
everlasting mercy or God's everlasting wrath will eternally lye upon every one of you And what an amazing difference is there betwixt these two and yet how many behave as if indifferent which of these two shall be upon them God's faving mercy is such a Jewel that though the Lord give it but to few yet he will never take it away from any he hath given it to Psal 89.28,33 Believers God may take any thing from you but his mercy and you may spare any thing but his mercy If God come to take away your Children give them if he come to take away your Estate let him have it If he come to take away your Health and Lives yield them strive not with him bless a giving and bless a taking God If he crave thy Right Eye or Right Hand and what is dearest to you give yield all to him But say Let me only keep thy mercy I cannot part with that it is the only thing I cannot spare The blessed Canaanite's striving with Christ was about his mercy Be silent disown reproach me I care not but thy mercy I must have It were a Cruelty that only Unbelief can charge God sinfully with to take away so precious a Gift as saving mercy is Let but this mercy follow me as Psal 23.6 and it s no great matter where I go If I be in the lowest Hell mercy will bring me out Psal 86.13 For great is thy mercy toward me and thou hast delivered my Soul from the lowest Hell There is no time-Hell that a Vessel of mercy can be in but mercy will bring him out again and this Mercy will secure him from the eternal Hell This mercy is God's mercy therefore soveraignly free therefore Almighty therefore eternal You sin Believers when you fear his taking away his mercy He gave it at first that you might be eternally possessed of it Mercy gave mercy and mercy will keep mercy and mercy will stay with you and keep you for ever The third thing to be spoke to is the end and design of coming to the Throne of Grace and that is that we may obtain mercy Not only that this mercy is to be got at the Throne of Grace and there only nor that this Throne of Grace is erected on purpose to dispense this mercy nor is it only that we should come to the Throne of Grace to ask and beg this mercy but that we should come to obtain it This is the Duty exhorted to in the Text. And in setting about this Duty two things are required 1. Come as sensible of your need of mercy No man can come truly without this sense He that hath no sense of misery complements God in asking mercy and takes this saving Name of God in vain It is dreadful to provoke God to Wrath in our way of asking his mercy And all such contract this Guilt and expose themselves to his Wrath that have no Heart-sense of their need of this mercy It is an amazing stupidity that the power of sin hath brought on men that in a world of sinners sinking into everlasting misery so few are really sensible of their need of saving mercy and no man is sensible till God by Grace make him so 2. Come in Faith of his mercy you cannot come at all without this Faith Faith is coming to God Heb. 11.6 Unbelief is departing from the living God Heb. 3.12 No man can come but he that is sensible of misery for coming is the act of a man drawn and moved by the Cords of a man No man can come but in Faith for there is no other coming for a Christian These three things should be in this Faith 1. A believing that there is abundance of mercy with the Lord which if shewed and put forth to you and on you would save you abundantly So argues the Prodigal Luke 15.17,18 And when he came to himself he said how many hired servants of my Father's have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger I will arise and go to my Father and say c. Psal 130.6 Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption The highest working of Unbelief is when men judge their misery greater than his mercy The great work of Faith is to get these two to meet fairly and mercy will surely prevail His tender mercy is over all his Works much more is his abundant mercy above a sinner's misery Cain's words should be left for himself and used by none else Gen. 4.13 And Cain said unto the Lord my punishment is greater than I can bear Or My iniquity is greater than that it may be forgiven Words sounding like the Language of Hell and not to be spoken by any that would escape it I know many secure people find no difficulty in that they count believing of this that there is mercy enough with the Lord. But yet the matter is far otherwise It is mighty difficult to believe the abundance of his mercy when men are in great pressures of misery The best of Saints have sometimes stumbled here When Moses is pleading with the Lord for mercy to Israel Numb 14.17 And now I beseech thee let the power of my Lord be great according as thou hast spoken and pardon I beseech thee the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy mercy As if Moses had said Lord thou hast proclaimed thy Name and I heard it and believed it but I did not think that their wickedness would have been so great as now I find it to be Was not Moses a great Believer yet he stumbled in this point of the power of God's Mercy Numb 11.18,23 Israel murmureth for flesh God promiseth a whole months diet of it What saith Moses ver 21 22 How doth the Lord answer him ver 23. And the Lord said unto Moses Is the Lord's hand waxed short thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass to thee or not This great man's Unbelief was greatly aggravated in that he saw the Lord bring that people out of Egypt with Signs and Wonders and with a mighty Hand he saw them daily fed cloathed and led and protected with Miracles of divine power and mercy yet one new difficulty shakes his Faith When Paul gives us his last account of his Faith for that Epistle was his last Writing he lodgeth his Faith on divine Power 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day If I be perswaded that he is able I shall not doubt of his being willing to keep that charge safe I have committed to him Let the eye of Faith take up clearly the power of mercy and the Faith of its application to thy benefit will be the more easie But he is a rare Believer whose view of the power of mercy is not darkened by a clear sight and deep
sense of his own great misery at least at sometimes 2 To come for mercy in Faith is to believe the Fitness and Sutableness of God's mercy to our misery Here many stumble wofully Their Question is Am I fit for mercy when it should rather be Is his mercy fit for me And this Question every sensible Soul can answer the other none in Heaven or Earth can answer If any man think himself fit for mercy of all men that man is most unfit for it and farthest from receaving of it But every sensible Soul will say Though I be unfit for and unworthy of mercy yet mercy is very fit for me Is there pardoning mercy with God who is it so fit for as a guilty vile sinner Is there saving mercy with him Who is it so fit for as for a lost man as I am Come to the Throne of Grace for mercy in Faith of this mercy is fit for me exactly though I be utterly unworthy of it They that think they are fit for mercy will never get it nor indeed can ask it But they that think they are needy of it and that it is fit for them will both ask it and get it 3. To come to the Throne of Grace in Faith for mercy is to believe that there is all good will in him that sits on this Throne to give and shew mercy It is implyed in the Text Let us come to obtain mercy But what if when we come he will not shew mercy That is an ungodly Supposition mischievous to our selves and reflecting upon God He hath mercy in abundance to give he delights in giving he never refused mercy to any that came for it he hath promised he never will and why should men harbour such a suspicion that we may come and not obtain Benhadad could adventure on a report that the Kings of Israel were merciful Kings and yet Ahab was one of the worst of them 1 Kings 20.31 And shall not sinners come upon a more sure Report of the mercifulness of the King on this Throne of Grace It is on this Truth of the Lord 's good will to shew mercy that our Faith so readily halts Many think they ought not to believe this good will to shew mercy I would have you consider some instances of Christ's dealing with Sinners John 4.10 Jesus answered and said unto her If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee Give me to drink thou wouldest have asked of him and he would have given thee living water Where we are to regard 1. To whom these Words were spoke by our Lord to a Samaritan a vile Creature as to the former course of her life a blind ignorant sottish Sinner that was guilty of refusing Christ a Cup of Water the greatest Sin she ever committed in her Life 2. What our Lord saith to her If thou knewest me thou wouldest have asked if thou hadst asked I would have given thee living Water And before he had done he made her know him made her ask and gave her of his living Water But that I mainly observe from the Word of Christ is a Truth which few will believe when they hear it even few Believers themselves will believe it as they ought That Christ is more ready to give begging Sinners eternal Life than they can be to give Christ himself a Cup of cold Water Our Lord saith it but men will not believe it Another of Christ's Words is in Luke 11.13 If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him Christ makes the comparison favourably ver 11 12. Of a Child's asking Necessaries will a Parent refuse that desire and give what is hurtful But consider our Lord's design in this saying It is plainly to encourage to seeking and the Argument he useth is from the greater Love and readiness in God to give the best things than earthly Parents have to give their Children the Necessaries of this life The preference is not here given to God's greater Riches and fulness than that of parents who may have their Children beg of them what they have not to give as in Lam. 4.4 But it is a preference given to God's greater willingness to give Now who believes this and makes the just Application to their own Case and say confidently The Lord is much more willing to give me saving mercy if I ask it than I am to give a bit of bread to maintain the life of the nearest and dearest Relation I have in the World Appl. I shall only add a few Words of Application 1. There is no principle of natural Religion engraven more deeply on the Hearts of men than that there is misery in men and mercy in God and that God's mercy only can relieve men under this misery This runs through the whole World in all Ages and will continue as long as sense of misery is in men and any Notions of God are preserved in the minds of men And these Sentiments are not to be defaced Attempts of Atheists are damnable to themselves but vain Efforts against the Rock of Ages 2. Notwithstanding of this God's true mercy in Jesus Christ is the greatest Riddle Offence and Stumbling-block to all natural men God's mercy they like well enough and would have applied to their own relief under misery But God's only and true mercy in Christ they cannot away with That there is no mercy with God for Sinners but what flows through the Blood of Jesus Christ That God's Love should appear in sending his own Son under the charge of mens Sin and under the smart and feeling of their miseries That as God shews mercy only this way so men that would have it must only seek it this way the World never did never can never will understand nor relish it nor betake themselves to it They would have mercy to come to them another way and so seek it and look for it in vain and perish by the miss of it 3. There is no Address made to God more honourable to God more acceptable to him and more becoming a miserable Sinner than an Address to God for his mercy It is his Glory to be the Sovereign Lord of mercy it is his Honour to be attended with the Addresses of miserable men it is his delight to dispense mercy to the Addressors What is more becoming God than to shew mercy and what can be more fit than that a miserable Sinner should beg his mercy 4. There is no Provocation more common than sinful ways of begging God's mercy I shall briefly instance in a few Many profane careless Creatures have this Word frequently in their mouths God be merciful to me who yet have no more sense either of God or of themselves of his mercy or of their misery than the Ground they go on This is a gross taking of God's Name in vain Undue Addresses to God
is saving it comes from the Heart and Love of God Eph. 2.4 and is treasured up for and laid out only upon his chosen It is the favour he bears to his people Psal 106.4 Common mercies are thrown about with a large and indifferent hand He maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust Matth. 5.45 Now these two sorts of mercies are as far different as Heaven and Earth The excellency of the one is far beyond that of the other though we be unworthy of either I am less than the least of all thy mercies said a great Saint Gen. 32.10 And so should all say But few do perceave this great difference and many give the preference to common outward mercy Who but a Christian doth count it a greater mercy to have the Conscience sprinkled with the Blood of Jesus than to have a large and prosperous Estate in the World That the light of God's Countenance and an hour spent in his Courts when the King's presence is in them is better than all the Enjoyments of this World Moses was a Man that obtained singular mercy from the Lord it appeared in this that he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt Heb. 11.26 He had excellent Balances and true Weights He put in the one Scale Egypt's Honours Treasures and Pleasures and how weighty are such things in the Worldlings Balances and in the other the reproach of Christ and affliction with the people of God His Judgment on this weighing is That this Reproach because of Christ's concern in it and this Affliction because it is of and with God's people is better than all the other things The true Test of Mens Spirit is justly taken from their setled inward Apprehension of the worth and value of spiritual saving mercy above all outward mercy Psal 4.6,7 There be many that say Who will shew us any good Most Men are for any good they know not well what and from any hand that can show it and give it But David knew what good he would have and who could show it Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us Why is he so earnest for this Blessing Thou hast put gladness in my heart Carnal Men seek Gladness and make it and take it to themselves as well as they can But Gladness of God's putting in their Heart they know not more than in the time that their corn and their wine encreased David doth not here compare though he doth discover the holiness of his Heart with the earthliness of that of others he compares not the tenderness of his Conversation with theirs But he compares the Joy God gave him by the Light of his Countenance not with the Joy he had but with that the Ungodly have in their sensual Satisfactions Try your selves by this Where is your Esteem lodged What sort of things are they that relish with your Spirits Common outward Mercies carry away the Hearts of the most part of Men and this shews that few Men have obtained special mercy 2. He that hath obtained special mercy hath a love to it and to the Giver of it and to the way God gives it and in which he receaves it He that is a lover of God's mercy in Christ is an Obtainer of it A natural Man may have a liking of God's mercy in general But mercy as from God through Jesus Christ mercy shown on the account of a full Satisfaction made to Justice in and by his Blood mercy given freely to glorious Ends and Purposes every natural Man seeth no Glory no Goodness no Beauty in it But every Obtainer of it doth admire every thing in it It is rich mercy saith he it flows from a blessed Fountain Free-love runs in a blessed Channel the Redemption of Jesus comes to me in a well-ordered Covenant and was shown me for his Praise in my Salvation from sin and misery 3. An Obtainer of mercy is a daily Beggar for more mercy Whenever God's special mercy is tasted hunger and thirst after more is raised No sooner did Paul obtain mercy but behold he prays Acts 9.11 There is more of mercy yet to be had mercy quickens the Soul's Desires and enlargeth them The greatest Receivers are the greatest Beggars 1 Pet. 2.2,3 Desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious This Mark is plain and will never fail They that drive not a Trade of Prayer for special mercy have not yet obtained it 4. An Obtainer of mercy from the Lord is a shower of mercy to others He is a merciful Man to others Matth. 5.7 Col. 3.12,13 Put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindness c. forbearing forgiving as Christ forgave you And Eph. 4.32 even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you How unbecoming it is that such should have Bowels of Brass on whom God's Bowels of mercy have been poured out This is a Mark that will never fail but in a high fit of Temptation All that have obtained God's mercy will be disposed to shew their mercy Forgiving one another is an easie thing it costs nothing but to think a kind thought Yet how hard is this to many through the power of Corruption There are some acts of mercy as Bounty and Charity that poor Christians have no ability for But the principal Act of mercy is in every Christians Power and that is mercy to Mens Souls We cannot give them that mercy we have obtained but we can and should wish the like to them Never did a Man obtain mercy from the Lord for himself but he wisheth that others should partake of it also The Woman of Samaria John 4. of whose Conversion we have the largest account of any Convert in the Bible as soon as she obtained mercy she forgot what she came to the Well for she had got somewhat better than the Water of Jacob's Well she met with Jacob's God and had got Jacob's Blessing she goes to the City and turns a sort of a Preacher to them Come see a man that told me all things that ever I did Is not this the Christ ver 29. She obtained mercy and would have all the City come and get mercy also And a great many came and obtained mercy Christ caught that Woman by his Grace and made her as a Bait to catch many more No Believer can deny his sense of such a Frame as this There are some Persons thou dost love and shouldst love thou prayest for them What dost thou mainly ask for Wife Children Brothers Sisters and all or any thou lovest heartily Is it not O that they might share in God's saving mercy If thou ask it for others as the greatest mercy thou thy self art an Obtainer of mercy Paul obtained mercy He loved his Countrymen the Jews dearly and on good grounds Rom.
and not impoverish the Giver What can such as I beg of such a God as he is but mercy His Name is Mercy my Name is Misery I would have my misery relieved by his mercy and his mercy glorified in my relief 4. Hope in his mercy Psal 147.11 The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him in those that hope in his mercy Psal 130.7 Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy It is from the Devil for whom there is no mercy that any of the most miserable out of Hell are tempted to think there is no mercy with God for them He envies Men God's mercy he doth not only tempt to sin but also to security in it till the day of mercy be past If God awaken a sinner to see his need of mercy in time Satan tempts them to think that it is out of time In such temptations he acts most like himself a reprobate damned Spirit and in managing of them he hath great advantages from his own Craft and Malice and Men's just deserving of Wrath. Look on all such Thoughts as from that Adversary and treat them accordingly When you beg mercy look for it Expect to obtain it when you would lay hold on it The Lord will never keep back his saving mercy from a sinner that would have it as his life When you plead for mercy for mercy's sake hope to prevail and that will help you to plead better So much for this Exhortation Will ye go home and do so Will you study more your misery and the greatness of his mercy and ask and plead for it more earnestly There is never better fruit of Preaching than when the Hearers are sent away hungering and thirsting after the Lord's mercy SERMON VIII HEB. IV. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need I Have spoke to the first of the Blessings to be got at the Throne of Grace which we should come for Obtaining of mercy The second is the finding of Grace to help in time of need This Expression finding of Grace is probably borrowed from the Old Testament wherein the bestowing of Favour is usually so expressed We find it in Mens Pleadings with one another So Jacob to Esau Gen. 32.5 and Gen. 33.8 These are to find grace in the sight my Lord. And he pleads upon it ver 10. If I have found grace in thy sight then receave my present at my hand for therefore I have seen thy face as though I had seen the face of God and thou wast pleased with me Jacob had seen God's Face that morning and had found grace in his sight and he remembers it when he finds grace in the sight of his angry Brother So we find the Phrase used in dealing with God by Moses Exod. 33.12,13 Yet thou hast said I know thee by name and thou hast sound grace in my sight Now therefore I pray thee If I have found grace in thy sight shew me now thy way that I may know thee that I may find grace in thy sight The first thing I would remark here is the Connexion betwixt these two Blessings and Errands Obtaining of Mercy and Finding of Grace Mercy and Grace are joined together by God and are not to be put asunder by Man Many would separate them they would be content to obtain mercy but they care not so much for his grace But such are only profane ignorant persons that know neither God nor themselves nor his Mercy nor his Grace The Lord will not give Mercy without Grace nor Grace without Mercy all that receave either receave both and all that would have either must ask both and none can ask either aright but he that asks both This Grace we are called to come to the Throne of Grace for the finding of is specified from its great advantage and usefulness It is Grace to help in time of need The Words in the Original are Grace for seasonable opportune help It is the nature of this Grace that it is helpful its helpfulness mainly appears in a time of need A time of need will come this Grace is to be asked before that time come it is to be waited upon till the time of need come and used when it comes The Truth to be spoke to is this plain one That all that hear of God's Offer of Grace should come to God to ask it to get it to find it Men should come to God's Throne of Grace for Grace for themselves They should come to God in Christ Jesus for the Grace of God in and by Christ Jesus This is a Truth so bright in its own evidence that there is no need to confirm it What hath been said of coming to obtain mercy is equally binding unto coming to find Grace Two things then I would speak unto at this time 1. What is this Grace we are called to come to the Throne of Grace for 2. What finding of Grace is what specialty is there in this expression It is certain never did a Man find Grace before Grace found him Grace is always the first finder But the sense of it and our knowledge of our having found it follows after 1. What is this Grace we are to come to the Throne of Grace for finding of We have need to know this distinctly The reason why many are so confused and dark and barren in their Prayers is because they know not what is to be got by Prayer If we had a a clear knowledge of the full extent of this Grace that is to be dispensed at this Throne of Grace we should quickly know what to ask and find matter for asking continually This Grace of God that we are invited to come to the throne of grace for finding of comes under three different Considerations 1. As it is in the Fountain from whence it flows 2. As it is in the Channel in which it runs 3. As it is in the Vessels that do receave it 1. Grace considered as in the Fountain from whence it flows is Grace in God The Scriptures take notice of the special Interest that each of the Three blessed Persons of the Godhead have in the dispensing of Grace We find the Father called the God of all Grace 1 Pet. 5.10 and there Christ is also named and the Holy Ghost implyed The Father the God of all Grace is the Caller he calleth us to his eternal Glory by Christ Jesus we are fitted for the possession of it by the Grace of the Holy Ghost Our Lord Jesus Christ is oft spoke of as the Fountain of Grace John 1.14 Full of Grace and Truth and that we might know that this Fountain-fulness in him is for Communication ver 16. And out of his Fulness have all we receaved and grace for grace The Holy Ghost is called the spirit of grace Heb. 10.29 of grace and supplication Zech. 12.10 Of Faith 2 Cor. 4.13 When
better School for Men to learn weigh and duly to understand the things of God in than a frequent and near view of death What an edge would this put upon our Praying Hearing Worship and Walking Every thing that is done by Men as dying Persons is usually well done I shall only add this that there are some sorts of dying that are very desirable in which the Grace of God is very useful and needful 1. Patient dying Dying is not properly a Duty but a Suffering It is not our Act but there is a manifold Exercise of Grace called for in dying Never did any Man act in dying but Jesus Christ he could lay down his life and take it again John 10.17,18 We cannot lay down our Lives they are not our own We are bid keep them as long as we lawfully can and when the great Command comes Return we are to yield obedience to it It is a great Blessing to have Patience for dying and Patience in dying Heb. 10.36 You have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God ye may receave the Promise And we often need Patience most when just upon the receaving of the Promise We should run with patience the Race set before us Heb. 12.1 And must of Patience is usually most needful in the last Stage of this Race Patience should have her perfect work Jam. 1.4 And the perfect and perfecting Work of Patience is the last act of it We all know that usually death comes on by such steps as are grievous to the Flesh There are Pains Sickness and Languishings that are no small Tryals of Patience but these are in a manner but Tryals of the Patience of the Flesh There are other things about dying that Patience is tryed by as time and place and many Circumstances that it is no small or easie thing to be quietly submitted to Javob the Heir of the Promise goes down to Egypt to Joseph for Bread after he is starv'd our of the Land of Promise and must die in Egypt and leave his Family there where they were to be long and heavily oppressed as the Lord told his Grandfather Abraham Gen. 15.13 Moses must die on the other side of Jordan David must not see a Stone laid in the Temple Josiah must die in Battel and that by not hearkening to the words of Necho from the mouth of God 2 Chron. 35.22 But what of such sad Circumstances of dying did not our Lord himself die under a dark Cloud on his dear Father's Face and on his own blessed Soul My God my God why hast thou forsaken me were sad Words from the sad Soul of our dying blessed Lord. His Disciples forsook him the Sun forsook him Earth and Hell bandyed against him yet all was nothing to his Father's forsaking him How bitter was this to our Lord and yet how sweet is it to the Faith of Believers If you be called to die under a Cloud remember the Lord the Heir the Purchaser of Heaven went to Heaven in the greatest Storm that ever blew from Earth and Hell and Heaven on any man's Face at death Men are ashamed to express any quarrel against dying but there are many things about it that make us needy of much Grace to help to quiet submitting unto it both in substance and all circumstances attending it 2. Safe dying This is very needful and it is Grace's doing Many die Patiently as Men think that die not safely There are no bands in the death of the wicked sometimes Psal 73.4 Some go out of this Life to Hell more calmly than some of the Heirs of Glory pass to their blessed home Safe dying is to die without any hurt to the Soul that when the Cage of the Body is broken by death the Soul the Bird may take Wing and fly straight and safe to Heaven Death is the Believers 1 Cor. 3.22 as well as Life But what have we to do with death or death with us It is a black Boat that we must sail out of time to Heaven in And Christ steers the Boat and lands all Believers safely on Heaven's Shore This is all we have to do with death And when all the Passengers are brought over Christ will burn this ugly Boat Rev. 20.14,15 And death and hell or the Grave were cast into the lake of fire this is the second death And whosoever was not found written in the book of Life was cast into the lake of fire And then in the New Jerusalem there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away Rev. 21.4 Who would not venture to pass out of this bad World to that blessed Land under Christ's Conduct though sailing through the Gulf of death be unpleasant in it self to us Men for Gain will sail from one end of the Earth to the other through heat and cold and stormy Seas and Winds and manifold Perils in the probable hope of advantage But Balievers may be assured that they shall arrive at their Port. Never did a Believer in Jesus Christ die or drown in his Voyage to Heaven They will be all found safe and sound with the Lamb on Mount Zion Christ loseth none of them nay nothing of them John 6.39 Not a Bone of a Believer is to be seen in the Field of Battel They are all more than conquerors through him that loved them Rom. 8.37 3. It is very desirable to have an honourable dying It is a part of the Vanity of this World that many dote upon an honourable Burial Some respect indeed should be paid to the dead Bodies of Believers but honourable dying is a great deal more considerable than that Men call an honourable Burial Our Lord told Peter of his dying John 21.19 This spake Jesus signifying by what death Peter should glorifie God That is honourable dying that brings Glory to God Paul is confident of this as to himself Phil. 1.20 According to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed but that with all boldness as always so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body whether it be by life or by death The most honourable dying is dying for the Lord this Honour is not given to all his Saints All Saints die in the Lord and blessed are they Rev. 14.13 Our desire should be to be enabled by his Grace to hear our dying Testimony to Christ and his Gospel There have been strong Convictions given to the Consciences of Sinners wonderful Supports to the Hearts of surviving Saints by the honourable dying of some Believers Their example their words their very looks and Behaviour in the Shadow of death have been of great use to them that have seen and heard them 4. It is also desirable to have the Mercy of comfortable dying To have an entrance ministred to us abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1.11 The Lord's
THE THRONE OF GRACE Discoursed of from HEB. IV. 16. By Robert Trail M. A. Minister of the Gospel LONDON Printed by J. Orme for Nathanael Hiller at the Prince's Arms in Leaden-hall-Street over against St. Mary Ax Church 1696. PREFACE WHat is in this Book offered to your Reading was some years since preached in the ordinary Couse of my Ministry on a Week day with no more thought that is none at all of Printing it than I had of Publishing this way anything I have preached these Seven and twenty years wherein I have been exercised in the Ministry of the Word save one single Sermon extorted from me about fourteen years ago The Publishing of such plain Discourses is singly owing to the Importunity of some of the Hearers and to the Assistance they gave me by getting what I spake transcribed from two Short-hand Writers without which I could not have Published it My own Notes being only little Scraps of Heads of Doctrine and Scriptures confirming them In the same way I had brought to me what I spoke from Heb. 10.23,24 and have it lying by me which may also see the Light if the Lord will that I live and if this be accepted of such whose Testimony I only value I mean such as are sound in the Faith and exercised in the life of Faith I know no true Religion but Christianity No true Christianity but the Doctrine of Christ of his Divine Person the Image of the invisible God Col. 1.15 of his Divine Office the Mediator betwixt God and Men 1 Tim. 2.5 of his Divine Righteousness He is the Lord our Righteousness Jer. 23.6 Which Name is also called upon his Church Jer. 33.16 and of his Divine Spirit which all that are his receave Rom. 8 9. I know no true Ministers of Christ but such as make it their Business in their Calling to commend Jesus Christ in his Saving fulness of Grace and Glory to the faith and love of Men. No true Christian but one united to Christ by Faith and abiding in him by Faith and Love unto the glorifying of the Name of Jesus Christ in the Beauties of Gospel-Holiness Ministers and Christians of this Spirit have for many years been my Brethren and Companions and I hope shall ever be whithersoever the Hand of God shall lead me Through the Lord's Mercy to me as to many in London I have often heard what is far more worthy of the Press than any thing I can publish I have not been negligent in desiring such able Ministers of the New Testament to let their Light shine this way but have little prevailed It may be this mean Essay may provoke them more to that good Work Whatever you may think of my way of managing this Subject and indeed there is nothing in that either as designed or expected by me or that in it self deserveth any great Regard Yet the Theme it self all must judge who have spiritual Senses is of great Importance and always seasonable It is concerning the Throne of God's Saving Grace reared up in Jesus Christ and revealed unto Men in the Gospel with the Application all should make to that Throne The great Blessings to be reaped by that Application and Men's great need of those Blessings This greatest of Subjects is meanly but honestly handled in the same Order in which it was Preached and mostly in the same Words Some few Passages out of History are inserted which were not spoken May the Lord of the Harvest who ministred this Seed to the Sower make it Bread to the Eater and accompany it with his Blessing on some that are called to inherit a Blessing and I have my End and Desire the Reader shall have the Benefit and the Lord the Glory For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be Glory for ever Amen London March 25. 1696. Ro. Trail ERRATA PAge 2. line 3. read Acts 9.22 and 17.2,3 and l. 18. for held r. hold p. 3. l. 3. for exhortation r. expression p. 20. l. 24. r. receaving p. 26. l. ult r. Righteousness p. 47. l. 5. for 4. r. 3. p. 78. l. 10. for considering r. consider and l. 16. r. I will p. 97. l. 23. r. God p. 127. l. 4. a. f. for better r. bitter p. 128. l. 5. for a r. as p. 135. l. 3. for Lord r. God p. 138. l. 25. for never r. ever p. 141. l. 9. a f. dele is p. 162 for Creations r. Creation p. 177. l. 6. for 73. r. 78. p. 189. l. 7. for it is r. is it p. 213. l. 15. r. able to take and l. 20. r. Rom. 8. p. 222. l. 11. r. for sa r. as p. 239. l. 9. r. inverting p. 249. l. 13. for Man r. Men or Many p. 250. l. 4. for in r. as p. 253. for on r. one ADVERTISEMENTS THE Righteousness of God through Faith upon all without difference who believe in two Sermons on Rom. 3.22 By Nathanael Mather Preacher of the Gospel 1694. The Conquests and Triumphs of Grace Being a Brief Narrative of the Success which the Gospel hath had among the Indians in New England By Matthew Mayheu 1695. Batteries upon the Kingdom of the Devil By Mr. Cotton Mather Author of the late memorable Providences relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions and of early Piety exemplified 1695. A Learned and accurate Discourse concerning the Guilt of Sin Pardon of that Guilt and Prayer for that Pardon Written many Years ago By the Reverend Mr. Thomas Gilbert Minister of the Gospel lately deceased at Oxford 1695. A Letter to Dr. Bates concerning a Vindication of the Doctor and my self necessitated by Mr. W's his Answer to Mr. Humfrey By S. L. 1695. All Printed for Nath. Hiller at the Prince's-Arms in Leaden-hall-street over-against St. Mary-axe 1695. HEB. IV. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need THE main drift of the blessed Apostle the Holy Ghosts Penman in this Excellent Epistle is to set forth the preheminence of our Lord Jesus Christ first in his Divine Person far above all Angels who are bid Worship him even when dwelling in Man's Nature If the God-head of our Lord Jesus Christ be hid from the readers of this Epistle it must be by a special Power of the God of this world on their unbelieving minds 2 Cor. 4.3,4 Will blinded men forbear to call the Son God when the Father speaks so Chap. 1.8 Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever Then the Apostle speaks of his Incarnation chap. 2.11 c. and therewith speaks of his Priesthood chap. 3 The Apostle compares Christ with and prefers him above Moses chap. 3. then above Aaron as a Priest chap. 7. and compares him with Melchisedech an eminent Type of Christ By this Epistle we may know what Paul's reasonings with the Jews were Acts 9.23 and what is the right way of dealling with the Jews at this day till Christs Divine
Person and Righteousness and Priesthood have more room in the Religion of the Gentiles Christianity is not like to leaven the Jews This Doctrine of Christ's Priesthood and of the Sacrifice of himself he offered in that Office the Apostle doth often intermix with suitable Exhortations from it as in the context ver 14. Seeing then we have a great highpriest all the Old Testament Highpriests were but types and shadows of Him and were but little highpriests that is passed into the heavens no highpriest but Christ went further than the Holy of Holies for the peoples advantage Jesus the Son of God let us hold fast our profession The dignity of Christ in his advanced State as well as his Grace in his humbled State lays Christians under a strong engagement to cleave to him with steadfast confidence Yet for as great as this person is and for all that he is in Heaven and in unspeakable Dignity and Glory there you must not think that he in Heaven and we on Earth can have no communion ver 15. for we have not an highpriest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities though now he hath none of his own yet can he feel these of his people and his feeling engageth speedy relief The reason the Apostle gives for this sympathy of Christ with his people is from Christ's experience when on earth But was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin The Apostle delivers the mind of the Holy Ghost about Christ's sympathy negatively we have not an high-priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities in which manner of exhortation he reflects on the meanness of the Levitical Priests to whom it was impossible to know and feel all the infirmities of the people for whom yet they appeard before God and he implys the affirmative strongly we have an high priest which can be and is touched with the feeling of our infirmities How a sinless man as Christ ever was can be touched with the feeling of the infirmities of sinners and many of these infirmities sinful ones How a glorified man as Christ now is exalted to and possessed of the highest Glory and Bliss can be and is touched with the feeling of all the infirmities of all his people is what the word plainly reveals to be believed but it s not to be fully known till we come to Heaven But he is the Head and all his people are his Body his members of his flesh and of his bones Eph. 5.30 a marvellous word Can the flesh be torn and the bones be broken and the head not feel it Though he be glorified above what we can conceave he is a living sensible and compassionate Head and as nearly and closely united to all his Members now as when they saw with their eyes and heard with their ears and with their hands handled the word of life 1 John 1.1 There is nothing ails a poor Believer in Christ there is no groan riseth from his distressed Heart but it is immediately felt at the tender Heart of the Lord Jesus at the Fathers right hand We would groan and sing with the same breath if we believed this firmly In my Text there is a most blessed exhortation from this same ground of Christ's sympathy in Heaven unto a bold approaching to the Throne of Grace The nativeness and strength of the Inference is obvious to the most ordinary attention The exhortation is unto the improving of the greatest priviledge an erected and revealed Throne of Grace and that in the practice of the greatest Duty believing approaching unto this Throne or unto God sitting on this Throne of Grace What I would take up in and handle in speaking to these words shall be the resolution of four weighty Questions which should be in the hearts of all worshippers of God 1. The first great Question is Where may I find God This was Job's question and wish Job 23.3 O that I knew where I might find him that I might come even to his seat and that this seat was a Throne of Grace to Job is evident from ver 6. This Text tells you God is on a Throne of Grace A fit place for God to be sought in and where only he can be found graciously by a sinner 2. Question is How should we come to God on this Throne Let us come boldly saith the Apostle The original word signifieth coming freely with free open bold speaking pouring out all our hearts and minds to him Let us come without making use of Saint or Angel to introduce us to this Throne Any poor sinner may come himself alone to this Court and that boldy without fear of being repulsed The 3 Question is the hardest what ground hath a sinner for this boldness The ground the Apostle gives for it is hinted in the word therefore which relates to ver 14 15. Because of Jesus the Son of God our great high-priest in heaven If we had not such a high-priest ministring in glory at the high Altar above no sinner could come boldly to the Throne of Grace on earth So he argues chap. 10.19,20,21,22 4. The last question is What shall we get and for what may we come to this Throne of Grace The Apostle speaks fully to this in the Text let us come that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need These precious things Mercy and Grace are scattered round this Throne any poor needy creature should come for a saving Alms from this Throne and may have it for the coming The first of these I would begin with Where is God to be found The Apostle tells us on a Throne of Grace This word is only here no where else in the Scriptures is the word to be found but what is signified by it is frequently in the Old and New Testament as we shall hear But though the phrase the Throne of Grace be only once named in this Heb. 4.16 yet the thing signified is so precious and the expression of it is so savory significant and suitable that this form of speaking the Throne of Grace is become famous known and used amongst Christians and will doubtless be till the end of Time As long as God hath a mind to give Mercy and Grace as long as any of the Children of men are sensibly needy of Grace and Mercy and askers and receivers thereof from the Lord and that will be till the Heavens be no more this Throne of Grace will be plyed and praised I would first consider the proper meaning of this word a Throne of Grace It 's obvious that the Apostle in this Epistle doth every where if I may use a much abused word Christen the Old Testament Types and gives them New Testament names and applys them to the Doctrine of Christ he is teaching the Christian Jews he writes to The Old Testament Church knew what a high-priest was what his Institution Office and performance were in the Tabernacle in
whom shall it be filled but with vessels of mercy whom he had afore prepared unto glory Rom. 9.23 2. It is called a Throne of Grace because Grace hath here and here only a glorious display and discovery Till men get a sight of God in Christ they cannot tell what the grace of God is search Heaven and Earth you can never get a view of God's Grace till ye come to this Throne You may see Gods Infinite Power and Wisdom and Goodness written in great Characters in the great volume of Creation and Providence But till ye come to know God in Christ on this Throne you can never see that Divine Dainty and Saving Blessing the free Grace of God Grace as an everlasting fountain in the Heart of God pouring down streaming forth eternal Salvation on ruined unworthy sinners Men should make a visit to the Throne of Grace if they had no other errand but to get a sight of this precious Thing the Grace of God A right sight of it is saving Believers should long to be in Heaven if they had no other errand then to see the Spring-Head of that Flood of Grace that came down from Heaven to drag them out of Hell and to draw them up to Heaven 3. It is called a Throne of Grace because all the Acts and Sentences past at this new Court are all acts of Grace all the Blessings given from this Throne are all of meer Grace Nothing is here but Grace John 1.17 The law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ. Was there no Grace nor Truth under the Law Yes a great deal but it all belonged to Jesus Christ. There was Grace under the Law but none but what related to Jesus Christ There was Truth under the Law but only as Christ was pointed at otherwise all were but vain and beggerly Rudiments and empty dark Shadows The Jews see nothing of Christ in the Old Testament and therefore find neither the saving Mercy nor saving Truth of God in it And it is much worse with men Christians I cannot call them that see as little of Christ in the New Testament Take the Chain of Salvation and all the Links of it as the Apostle names them Rom. 8.29,30 and all of them are of Grace We are chosen by Grace we are given to Christ by Grace Redeemed by him by Grace By Grace we are justified through that Redemption by the same Grace we are adopted by the same Grace we are saved by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost and by Grace we shall be glorified And they that will not claim these blessings and hold them by this Tenure of free Grace I dare not say that they shall never have them for this Grace can overcome its greatest enemies but I may say that they have at present no part or portion in this matter and when they come to partake of Grace and to know the Grace of God in Truth as Col. 1.6 they will be of another mind and count it the best Tenure to hold all by even by free Grace Yea after all the Riches of Grace poured forth on Believers in this life when they come to receive the Crown of Glory they receive it as humbly yea more than they did any former Act of Grace from this Throne The overcomer by the Blood of the Lamb will receive the Crown from his Glorious Redeemer as humbly and with owning it as a gift of Grace as much as ever he did receive a pardon in that Blood when his head was on the Block and the Ax of Law and Justice lifted up to cut him off for his Iniquity There may be proud Pleaders for or rather presumers and expecters of the Crown of Glory but no proud receivers of it We must look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Jude 21. Merit and Worth are only for Hell and they have no room in Heaven nor in the way to it Justice reigns in Hell and Grace in Heaven So all will find that come to Heaven and so must they all know and believe that would be there Sinners that are for Merit will find it sadly in Hell Mens Merit makes Hell and Christ's Merit makes Heaven Rom. 6.23 4. It is called a Throne of Grace because the Glory of Grace is the last and highest end of the building of this Throne and of all the acts of Grace dispensed at it and from it That proud Monarch spoke vainly and wickedly Dan. 4.30 and was quickly by God punished severely for his sin If we may be allowed to allude to such words we may say of the Throne of Grace Is it not that high Throne that God hath built for the house of his Kingdom by the might of his power and for the honour of the Majesty of his Grace Are any chosen in Christ and predestinated to the adoption of Children by him It is to the praise of the glory of his grace Eph. 1.4,5,6 Do they believe by Grace it is to the praise of his glory vers 12. are they sealed and at last possessed of Heaven that is to the praise of his glory vers 14. Are they quickned when dead in sin and advanced in and by Christ Jesus this is to the praise of his Grace Eph. 2.4.7 All the blessings in Time and Eternity that the Heirs of Grace enjoy are all to the praise and glory of that Grace they spring from We read in the word of none of the Counsels of God before the Creation of all things but of his purpose of saving of a company of poor sinful men by Jesus Christ and of no other design in this purpose but to magnifie his Grace in saving of them this way So much of the signification of this word a Throne of Grace 3. What is it to come unto this Throne of Grace Though the prosecuting of the Exhortation in this Text will open up the nature of this coming more fully yet I would speak somewhat of it in this place 1. This coming implys a state of distance from this Throne in them that are called to come This is called being far off Eph. 2.13 and this state all men by nature are in Men are in God's Eye and Hand he is not far from every one of us for in him we live and move and have our being Acts 17.27,28 As the Psalmist speaks excellently in Psal 139. of the nearness of men to God and of his Omnipresence and Omniscience But his gracious presence as on a Throne of Grace is far from all then by nature and they far from it This presence is far from man's knowledge no knowing of it but by Revelation Far from mens attainment for no man can come unless he be drawn of God John 6.44 Far from their Experience and far from their Love for they are alienated from the life of God Eph. 4.18 And in his favour is life Psal 30.5 and in nothing else 2. It is also
On a Throne of Grace Seek him no where else for no where else is he to be graciously found 2. How should we come to this Throne Boldly with confidence 3. What is the ground of this boldness It had need be a great and solid ground on which a sinner may build Boldness in his approaching to God This ground is hinted by the Apostle in the word therefore wherefore Because of our great High-priest the Son of God in Heaven ver 14 15. Though there be nothing more commonly said and owned then that all men are sinners and that all the acceptance of a sinner with God is through Jesus Christ yet I can assure you that when a person seeth and knows what it is to be a sinner and knows what God is it is a wonderful difficulty to believe that it is possible that such a sinner and such a God should ever meet in Peace Peoples dry Notions and Opinions of Jesus Christ if there be no more will soon be blown away with a deen sight of the sinfulness of sin and of the Majesty of God provoked thereby 4. The last Question is What shall we get by coming and what should we come for The greatest blessings Mercy and Grace These blessings are comprehensive of all things needful to make a sinner happy To the first of these I began to speak last day That God hath erected a Throne of Grace in the Gospel to which men are invited to come What this Throne of Grace is is spoke to and that this Throne of Grace is to be distinguished from all other Thrones of God spoke of in the word The Throne of his essential glory is unapproachable by all Creatures The Throne of his Justiâ—… dreadful to all sinners we should pray against our coming before this Throne Psal 143.2 He must be a proud ignorant fool that would offer to come and plead at its Bar for here all Acts and Sentences pass according to strict Law and Justice and the Law is an everlasting condemner of all sinners There is also the Throne of the Judge at the last day But this Throne is not yet set though it will surely be and we know not how soon and should prepare for our appearing before it 2 Cor. 5.9,10 But this Throne of Grace is the Gracious manifestation of God in Christ reconciling the World to himself This is the light of the Glory of Gods Grace shining in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 ch 5.18,19 And to coming to this Throne of Grace and to God in Christ dispensing his grace from it we are here exhorted and encouraged In pursuing of this exhortation I would 1. Prove that all should come 2. Show whâ— will come 3. and who shall be specially welcomâ— 1. That all ought to come to the Thronâ— of Grace All sinners that hear of it shoulâ— improve this great priviledge and seek thâ— enjoyment of Gods Grace and Mercy in Jâ—sus Christ 1. Because God is not otherwise approachâ—… by men in accepted worship No man comâ—… to the Father but by me saith Christ Joâ—… 14.6 The light of Nature teacheth all 〈◊〉 in some measure that there is a God 〈◊〉 somewhat of his eternal power and God 〈◊〉 Rom. 1.20 And that this God should be wâ—…shiped Therefore 〈◊〉 some sort of worshâ—… is performed by all sorts of Heathens 〈◊〉 are yet without God and that because withâ—… Christ and therefore without hope in the world Eph. 2.12 Never was there nor will there be nor can there be any gracious approach unto God nor any address recieved favourably by God but at this Throne of Grace Therefore whatever may be said of the zealous devotion and of the Moral Principles and Practices of the Heathens yet never any of them did nor could offer up an acceptable prayer unto God nor obtain a gracious answer from him not only because they worshiped an unknown God Acts 17.23 Gal. 4.8 but mainly because they worshiped not at this Throne of Grace for there can be no Communion with God there can be nothing graciously given by God to Men nothing done by Men that can be accepted of God but at this Throne of Grace 2. All should come to this Throne because all men have need of the blessings dispensed at this Throne of Grace Where there is an universal urgent necessity and only one place of supply discovered Men are called to betake themselves thither The blessings dispenced at the Throne of Grace are equally needed by all Every Man every Woman young or old rich or poor are equally needy because all are unpeakably needy of the Mercy and Grace of God Some indeed have a greater sight and sense of their wants than others and that is Mercy but the real necessity is common to all every unpardoned man needs a pardon at this Throne of Grace but few if any value a pardon till they get it or value the Grace of God till they feel it Do you feel your need of what is given and got at this Throne Come then The Law thunders and roars against you that you may see your need of coming hither for what the Law cannot give nor hinder you from receiving nor rob you of when recieved Do you think in your heart that you are the most needy person in all the World that you need all the Grace and Mercy or more than ever any sinner recieved Then come the rather come the sooner The neediest soul the hungriest sinner the person most greedy of the Grace of God should come first to Christ's door and beg lowdest Is there any not needy Alas many think so but none is so Will you come for hunger and want A sensible hunger a sense and sight of need an appetite after Grace and Mercy is an Alms that Christ can give and many Professors want it sadly 3. The Command is Vniversal to all that hear it As the Apostle saith Rom. 3.19 These things saith the Law to them that are under the Law So I may say This saith the Gospel to all under the sound of it come to the Throne of Grace It is no indifferent thing God commands all men to come Believing that is coming is commanded 1 John 3.23 Are you afraid to come have not I commanded you Joshua 1.9 as God spake to the Captain of Israel Will Men own Gods authority in the Law and deny it in the Gospel Is he not the same God in both He that commands you to have no other Gods besides him doth command you to believe on his Son Jesus who is the true God and eternal Life 1 John 5.20 If coming to the Throne of Grace were not commanded not coming to it were no sin and who dare say so Not believing on Jesus Christ is the great Gopel sin because believing on him is the great Gospel-Duty and work John 6.29 Object But I am afraid he commands not me others he may command but not such a vile dead Creature as I am Answ
as if there was no Throne of Grace at all They that never hear of Christ must perish It is an idle dream that the efficacy of Christ's Death may be apply'd and profitable to the saving of adult persons that never heard of him There is no Salvation for Men but by Jesus Christ there is no knowing of it or partaking of it but by the word of Truth the Gospel of our Salvation Eph. 1.13 Christ and his name go together Acts 4.12 Neither is there Salvation in any other No Saviour but he For there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved No other way of getting good by him but by hearing of his Name and believing on his Name How shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard Rom. 10.14 It is a wonderful Mercy to hear of Him But Wo to them that hear and do not believe None can believe without hearing Rom. 10.17 But alas many hear and believe not Isa 53.1 2. Consider the great advantages of this priviledge of having a Throne of Grace erected for us and revealed to us All blessings may be had here by coming for them If there was such a Throne in this world for Silver and Gold and Health and outward Mercies what strange crowding would there be to it The Blessings to be had here are innumerable for multitude All spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ Jesus Eph. 1.3 Blessings invaluable for their worth Eternal in their duration most free in their Tenure and all given in Love Every act of favour from the throne of grace is more worth than all God's common Mercies Lord lift up upon us the light of thy countenance Psal 4.6,7 that will put joy into the soul Every thing given at the throne of grace is a blessing of Grace It s very name should teach people how to come and how to call what they get at it If it be a throne of Grace we should come to it as empty needy Beggars and when we recieve any thing there we should call and count it Grace Ask all Saints on Earth and they will witness that great and good things are to be had at the throne of grace Try it your selves and you will find it is not invain to beg here Nay the damned in Hell do bear sad witness that great are the blessings that are to be had at the throne of grace which they feel and know by their woful and eternal loss of them The glorified in Heaven know what a rich throne of grace this is Only sinners on earth will not believe this nor use this throne as they should 3. Consider that this Court and Throne is of short continuance It will not be kept up always There is a limitation of the time of its lasting As Heb. 4.7 He limiteth a certain day The day of the continuance of the throne of grace is bounded and limited with four days The day of a mans life the Gospel day the Worlds day and the Spirits day 1. The day of every mans life This hath bounds set to it by God Job 14.5 The throne of Grace continues unto men no longer than they live When men die they go not to the throne of grace but of Glory and Judgment If we have sped well at the throne of grace we shall be welcome to the throne of glory The uncertainty and shortness of life with the certainty of the expiring of all Treaties betwixt God and us about Salvation at the end of Life should make people careful to secure the main matter in Gods time 2. There is the Gospel day this is also set and limited by the Lord. He hath determined how many offers you shall have of Christ and when they come to an end there will not be one more And then the throne of grace is taken down as to you Luke 19.42 If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes saith our Lord to Jerusalem This was the ending determining day to Jerusalem as a City and to its Inhabitants as a Body though many particular persons had another day of grace Yet the slipping of that day hangs on that poor people and their Posterity to this very day 3. There is the Worlds day and then the day of grace will end as to all when the Bridegroom cometh they that are ready enter with him to the marriage and the door was shut Matth. 25.10 There was no more grace to be dispensed to men and we know not when that day will come Miserable is their case who shall see Christ coming in the Clouds of Heaven before they have seen him by Faith in the Gospel who heart the voice of the Archangel and the Trump of God before they have heard the quickning voyce of the Son of God from the throne of grace who have neglected calling on him in time and begin out of time Luke 13.25 When the Master of the house is risen up and hath shut to the door and ye begin to stand without and to knock at the door saying Lord Lord open to us Is it not just that they should be kept at the shut door that would not enter at an open door in Christ's time and when he called When Christ comes and hath shut the door no man will be let in knock as he will Now while the throne of grace is patent no man will be kept out be what he will that hath a mind to enter and knocks for entrance 4. There is the Spirits day Here is a great depth of Gods Soveraignty and Wisdom a great depth of his Severity an unaccountable and awful Judgment how the Spirit of God strives with men in the Gospel how near he comes to them sometimes how close he besiegeth them that they seem to be on the point of yielding and are not far from the kingdom of God and yet he draws back his hand and leaves them I believe that many ungodly men many reprobates have been sometimes in their life nearer to Heaven if such may be said to be near to Heaven that never come there then many an Elect person was half an hour before his Conversion Gen. 6.3 My Spirit shall not always strive with man What kind of striving this was and what became of them striven with we have 1 Pet. 3.19,20 Nothing will more bitterly aggravate the eternal misery of the Damned than the remembrance of this that they had a day and in that day grace offered to them and that they did reject the offer Mens carnal hearts are now full of cavils against the unsearchable methods and ways of God towards the Sons of Men but the last days Judgment will determine and declare That in the perdition of the Ungodly there was and is most pure and unspotted Justice and Righteousness and in the salvation of all the Elect pure perfect and predominant grace that
Grace Usually beginners in Christianity have greater light and sense as to their necessity of saving Grace and Mercy then about the Lords willingness to give them And this is the season wherein Satan doth usually come in if permitted and often he is with his Temptations and fiery darts that they felt nothing of while they were in his Kingdom and power of darkness To such I would propose 3 things 1. What is the ground of thy discouragement Hereto I know they will say a great deal and it may be more than is true I grant all can be said to be true But the sum of all is I am a great sinner and exceeding miserable Be humbled as low as Hell in the sense thereof yet be not discouraged What is in thy case but what is common only thou sees and feels for thy self and so did others 2. What is the tendency of it doth it tend to keep thee aloof from the Throne of Grace it is then of Satan 3. What can be the cure of it You would not be always in this heartless frame how think you to get it removed By keeping still from the Throne of Grace Will or can any spiritual plagues be cured but by Christ the Physician Or any spiritual Blessing be got but at his door Can you expect it without coming and begging David took the right course with his fainting heart Psal 42.5 He challengeth his Soul for its disquietment He chargeth it to trust in God and because he had not prevailed with his Soul he brings it to God by Faith ver 6. O my God my Soul is cast down within me Do ye so and call upon him by that name God that comforteth those that are cast down 2 Cor. 7.6 I shall name no more of the ways this sin is acted then these three despising delaying and refusing Several other Expressions there are of this sin in the Word but if you be kept from these three you are innocent from the great Transgression 2. What is the Wrath revealed from Heaven for this Great sin of not coming to the Throne of Grace 1. God testifies his Displeasure against this sin by taking away of his Gospel nothing is more just with God then that when his Grace is slighted the means of Grace should be removed If the Lord argue so as to correction Isa 1.5 Why should ye be stricken any more Ye will revolt more and more much more may he argue thus Why should I keep up a Throne of Grace any longer You will but despise it more and more Christ teacheth a sad parable Matth. 21.33 c. and makes a just but dreadful application of it to the hearers ver 43. Therefore I say unto you the Kingdom of God another name of the Throne of Grace shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof They were cut off for their unbelief Rom. 11.20 With what face can an unbeliever beg of God the continuance of the means of Grace who hath no mind to enjoy the end and blessinâ—… of those means A general contempt of the Grace of God enfeebleth the Spirit of Ministers and Christians in standing before the Lord for the continuance of the Gospel with a people that use it not This dreadful Judgment hath been often threatned in the Word and inflicted in the severe Providence of God on many once famous Churches and Nations As the Lord saith But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh where I set my name at the first and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel Jer. 7.12 So may I say go to Jerusalem and the Seven Churches in Asia go to Greece and Africa where many a famous Church was planted and learn to fear for your selves Not to speak of later desolations in ours and our Fathers days The Lords removing of his Gospel is a judgment that is very deep As the Apostle speaks of the same subject Rom. 11.33 We may take notice of this judgment as brought on by prevailing errors in and about the foundation Jesus Christ or by gradual Apostasie and Impurity of Conversation in Professors or by the rage of persecution wearing out the Saints of the most High Dan. 7.25 But yet we have good grounds from the word of God to believe and hope that the Gospel may be secured to a Generation ordinarily if they be careful to get the blessing thereof and to walk worthy of it If the grace of God its self be prized the means of grace will be continued 2. The Lord witnesseth his displeasure against slighters of his grace by fearful outward Judgments So far'd it with Jerusalem according to our Lords prediction Luke 19.42,43,44 It hath been a Remark of wise Observers of the Providence of God towards Nations since the Reformation from Popery that in those places where the greatest light of the Gospel hath shined there the greatest judgments have been inflicted As in Germany France and amongst our selves in Brittain 3. The Lord visits for this sin with spiritual judgments the most wrathful dispensations of God on this side Hell As hardness of heart blindness of mind searedness of Conscience vileness of affections Judgments which they that are under never feel nor complain of nor will be convinced of though they are sometimes visible to others If the Lord inflict them on the Heathen for their abuse of the dim light of Nature Rom. 1.21,24,26,28 How much greater are such that are sent for the abuse of the light of the Gospel That dreadful Commission given to the most eminent Prophet Isaiah ch 6.9,10 is often applyed and fulfilled in the New Testament Matth. 13.14 and John 12.39,40 Therefore they could not believe their sin was v. 37. they believed not on him here is their plague they could not believe because that Esaias said again he hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts that they should not see with their eyes nor understand with their hearts and be converted and I should heal them Paul applies it to some of his unbelieving Hearers with a strange Preface Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias to our Fathers saying Acts 28.25 The Interest and Influence of God in such spiritual Judgments is a great depth They are always just and always deep and dreadful are their effects They on whom they fall feel nothing see nothing fear nothing So that truly we may say as Psal 68 35. O God thou art terrible out of thy holy places But such as have a Heart to the Grace of God and would fain be blessed thereby need not fear those Judgments and shall never feel them 4. Lastly The Wrath of God against such as come not to the throne of grace is engraven in the singular vengeance of eternal Ruine There is something singular in their Hell The Law sends all unpardoned Sinners to a Law-Hell The Lord send Despisers of saving grace to a special Hell Heb. 2.3 and 10.29 A much
breeds Contempt Condescensions from Superiours oft make Inferiours forget their place The Lord deals so graciously with his People hears their Prayers readily stoops low to them in his Love and Pity that unless they watch and keep a Guard on their Spirits they may soon fall into the Sin of being too saucy and peremptory with God The first Prayer in the Bible made by the greatest Believer in the World Abraham is upon a most condescending appearance of God to him The Son of God in humane shape becomes Abraham's Guest at Meat Gen. 18. Some think that Christ respects this appearance in John 8.56 Your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my day and he saw it and was glad He gives him the last Promise of a Son with a determination of the precise time of its accomplishment ver 10. He deals with him as a Friend and so Abraham is called 2 Chron. 20.7 Isa 41.8 and Jam. 2.23 But all Believers are called Friends by Christ John 15.14,15 and after a great Commendation of Abraham the Lord tells him his purpose of wrath against Sodom ver 17. to ver 22. The Angels are sent to execute the Vengeance and Abraham stands before the Lord to plead for Mercy With what Boldness and Reverence doth he plead The more the Lord stoops in condescending to his Petitions the more low doth Abraham lye before him He neither forgot the Lord's Majesty nor his own Meanness and expresseth again and again a holy Fear of offending by his renewed Suits ver 27 30 31 32. I would have you considering this Instance of Prayer because it is the first recorded in the Word and because it was excellently managed by the Father of the Faithful So Gideon prays in Judg. 6.39 And Gideon said unto God Let not thine anger be hot against me and will speak but this once I am afraid that many sincere Christians are guilty of this Peremptoriness The Lord hath been so condescending to them that they become too peremptory about some Particulars Beware of it and see how the Lord hath dealt with his People and the best of them Psal 99.6,7,8 See Moses's Lot in this Matter He had often sought of God and prevailed Psal 106.23 Therefore the Lord said that he would destroy them had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the Breach to turn away his Wrath lest he should destroy them A Man to whom God spake Face to Face a Man to whom God spake so amazing Words Let me alone that my Wrath may wax hot against them Exod. 32.10 and Numb 14.20 I have pardoned according to thy word Yet even this Moses in a small matter for Life to cross Jordan and to see the promised Land hath this Answer Deut. 3.26 Let it suffice thee speak no more unto me of this matter Samuel is check'd also in a small matter that had prevailed for far greater 1 Sam. 16.1 How long wilt thou mourn for Saul seeing I have rejected him A Case may be such that though Moses and Samuel stood before the Lord they should not prevail Jer. 15.1 It is the only Priviledge of Jesus Christ to be always heard John 11.42 Yet he in his Agony pray'd so as to teach us to beware of this sinful Boldness Matth. 26.39 If it be possible let this Cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt Believers must remember that in all Cases they must deal humbly and in some Cases they must take Denyals Patiently 3. There is the boldness of presumption Presumption is like Faith in appearance but in reality it is very unlike it Presumption works this way the Presumer may have the mercy in his eye but he hath no promise in his eye Take heed to this If there be strong desires after a mercy and that mercy not pleaded for as in the promise there is a spice of presumption in that pleading The reason why Believers ask so great things of God is because God hath promised so great things to them 2 Sam. 7.27 Hence it is that presumption acts ordinarily in pleading with God not for the main spiritual blessings but for some outward mercy that their hearts may be too much set upon It is about such that Believers should watch against this presumptuous boldness But if the pleading at the Throne of Grace be about Salvation and spiritual Blessings the difference betwixt Faith and Presumption appears in this Presumption can never plead with God neither in deep distress nor in the view of sin But it is the excellent property of Faith that it can plead with God in both cases Psal 65.3 Iniquities prevail against me but as for our transgressions thou shalt purge them away Spoken like a Believer and Psal 130.3,4 If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquities O Lord who shall stand But can David stand Yes and he stands on this ground But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared There is just cause to suspect that there is presumption in that Mans heart when his Boldness is only kept up when sin is out of sight and disappears A Believer believes most humbly and often most strongly when his Sinfulness and Unworthiness is best seen For true Boldness of Faith is not supported by any good and worth in us but by what is in Christ The boldness of Faith cannot be entertained with regarding of iniquity in the heart Psal 66.18 1 John 3.20 Yet it can with the being and seeing of Iniquity in both heart and life Rom. 7.24,25 1 Tim. 1.15 But of this furder from the next head of the Boldness of Faith I now touch it only as it differs from the presumptuous Boldness that is allowed to none Again Faith can stand under that distress that breaks the back of Presumption Job 13.15,16 Though he slay me yet will I trust in him but I will maintain mine own ways before him He also shall be my Salvation for an Hypocrite shall not come before him He hath taken away my Children all at once my Estate in one day hath taken away my health and made me miserable to a Proverb in all Ages although he should proceed and slay me with his own hand my slayer is my Saviour my death shall be my Salvation Great words and hard to be spoken in the day of heavy tryal God slaying Job is Job's Salvation God slays Job trusts and maintains his confidence under the stroke No Hypocrite can do this and many Believers do but bungle at the doing of it There is an extremity a coming on every man that will try and discover what mettle there is in his Faith Prepare for it What then is the Boldness allowed in coming to the throne of grace It must not be an ignorant peremptory or presumptuous boldness What must it then be Answ It is only the Boldness of Faith Eph. 3.12 Heb. 10.19 The Boldness of Faith hath this in general in it that it is grounded and bottomed on somewhat without a man and on nothing
in him It is grounded on Jesus Christ as we shall hear further It is a great mistake in Christians to think that they cannot come to the throne of grace with Boldness because of the many Infirmities in their Hearts and in their Addresses Your complaint may be just and true but the Inference is not good Do you never in your counting your Infirmities put in this great one amongst them in your Confessions the want of Boldness of Faith For this Boldness stands not in any thing in us and done by us We must not come boldly because we can pray well and plead hard we must not think to be heard in Heaven neither because of our much speaking nor well speaking Matth. 6.7 as the Pharisees did The boldness of Faith hath a higher and more noble and firm Foundation even Jesus Christ I shall conclude this Discourse with these three Acts of this allowed and commanded Boldness of Faith 1. Believe firmly that the Throne of Grace is erected for poor empty sinful Creatures just such as you be As Paul saith of the Law 1 Tim. 1.9 It is not made for a righteous man but for the lawless and disobedient so may we say of the throne of grace it is not made framed and revealed for the holy and happy but for miserable Creatures that want Mercy and sinful helpless Creatures that want Grace By what is dispensed here we may know for whom and for what sort of Folks it was design'd and erected 2. Believe firmly that coming to the Throne of Grace by you is allowed and commanded by the Lord. Say confidently while I am coming to the throne of grace for Mercy and Grace I am in the Work that the Lord would have me to be in Take in all Discoveries you have made unto you or that you can find out by searching of the Weakness and Infirmities that are in your way of addressing to it own them humbly but maintain this stedfastly that though you cannot do as you would as others do nor as you are bid that yet you are doing what ye are bid They are called Luke 14.21 Who are the poor and the maimed and the halt and the blind See a Promise looking that way Jer. 31.8.9 Now may not the halt and maimed be confident that they are coming when called although they cannot go so fast and straight as others do Every Believer walks in the steps of the Faith of Abraham Rom. 4.12 though not his Pace When you draw near to the throne of grace assure your Hearts you are in your Duty though many do it better than you do 3. Believe firmly that upon coming you shall speed This is coming with the boldness of Faith We should not come with a may be the Lord will be gracious It 's true that in some particulars not absolutely promised nor simply needful to Salvation this may be is all we can have or should seek But in addressing for Saving Mercy and Grace people should come expecting Success It had been a cold Word if it had been said Let us come to the Throne of Grace it may be we shall obtain Mercy and find Grace No the Apostle speaks in another Dialect Let us come that we may obtain Never doubt of obtaining if you come I say not that the confidence of good Entertainment at this Throne is common to all comers to it But only that it is the Duty of all that come for God's Mercy and Grace in Jesus Christ to perswade their Hearts that they shall obtain and find it and good grounds there are for it as we shall hear How is it with you Christians you often come to this Throne What are the Thoughts of your Hearts as to the issue of your Addresses It may be you think it is well if you can reach so far as this It may be the Lord will receave and welcome me and therefore I will try Though there is often Faith lurking under such doubtings and though a may be should stir up Men to come yet this is far from the boldness of Faith which glorifies this Throne and him that sitteth on it and which is so becoming and profitable to all that approach it See how an Old Testament-Saint speaks Job 23.3,6 O that I knew where I might find him that I might come even to his Seat that is this Throne I would order my cause before him and fill my mouth with Arguments But cannot God easily stop this Man's Mouth and bring Arguments against Job that he could not answer Yes surely he can but he will not Will he plead against me with his great power No but he will put strength in me He that I plead with will help me to plead and prevail Few Christians know how much Glory is given to God by an enlarged Heart filled with believing expectations of good from him and how a Heart thus enlarged by Faith is fitted and disposed for receaving a large Blessing We easily conceave how sharp Hunger and Thirst strong Desires deep sense of Need and mighty Pleadings and Importunity do prepare the way for great Receavings but we little think how much force is in the bare-like Argument of Faith Psal 16.1 Preserve me O God for in thee do I put my trust Psal 33.22 Let thy merey O Lord be upon us according as we hope in thee Psal 57.1 Be merciful unto me O God be merciful unto me for my Soul trusteth in thee There is a mighty force in such Pleadings of Faith I know no help but in and with thee I expect it from thee and therefore beg it of thee Faith in a Believer never rose so high but the Lord 's gracious Answer went higher Eph. 3.20 Look well to your Faith Believers raise it high use it well and plead by it and plead upon it Blessed Jesus will never cast that Soul into Hell that cannot forbear to entertain in his Heart an expectation of eternal Life from him in the Virtue of his precious Blood and on the Warrant of his gracious Promise He that believeth on him shall never be confounded Never was any neither shall you if you believe It was a great Word of Faith spoke by a dying Man who had been converted in a singular way betwixt his Condemnation and Execution of whom Mr. Fleming speaks in the Fulfilling of the Scriptures his last Words were these spoke with a mighty shout Never Man perished with his Face towards sweet Christ Jesus SERMON IV. HEB. IV. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need IT is one of the Names given to the Godly in the Word that they are the Generation of them that seek the Lord that seek his Face Psal 24.6 And they must be bold and arrogant Pretendâ—…ers to this Name that are guilty of the utter neglect of this Duty Since it is a Duty of so great importance it is needful to know how
of grace nor of thy need and want of it but wast well content with thy lost State and that in this State grace came from this throne and did beset thy Heart and overcome it May you not argue If the Lord sought me out and found me in my departing from him and stopp'd me and turned my Heart towards himself may not I come now confidently and ask mercy and grace It is a matter of great use to Believers to keep up a savoury remembrance of the gracious change that preventing grace wrought upon them Paul could never forget Christs first visit to him but speaks of it before Kings and Rulers and People Acts 22. and 26. He remembers time and place and every Circumstance I say not that Christs first visit is so sensible to all or it may be to any as it was to Paul But Christs work of grace may be known by it self even when some circumstances of time and place and outward means are not known 2. The Experience of the Spirit of Prayer and of Answers of Prayer is a great ground of boldness of Faith I joyn these two together for the Lord usually doth so Psal 116.1,2 I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my Supplications Because he hath inclined his Ear unto me I will call upon him as long as long as I live Have ye not known that sometimes yon have been so troubled that you could not speak as Psal 77.4 that your Hearts have been so bound up and straitned that you could say nothing and do nothing before the Lord but fit as dumb and oppressed all dark above all dead within and all doors shut upon you you durst not neglect Prayer and you could not perform it And have you not quickly found the two-leaved Gates cast open to you your Hearts enlarged and your Mouth wide open in asking The remembrance of such Experiences should strengthen the confidence of your Faith Have you not known what the answer of Prayer is That he hath prepared your heart and hath caused his ear to hear as Psal 10.17 Come the more boldly at all other times They are Triflers in Prayer that know nothing of God by the Name of Hearer of Prayer Psal 65.2 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy Whoever hath gone forth weeping bearing and sowing his precious seed hath doubtless come again rejoycing bringing his sheaves with him Psal 126.5,6 and should therefore sow in hope 3. The Experience of Communion and Fellowship with God is a great ground of Boldness in coming to the throne of grace for more Such as have most of this Blessing desire most earnestly more of it and may desire it the more confidently 1 John 1.1,2,3,4 Surely we have this Fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ and we would fain have you share with us therein that your joy may be full This Communion with God is a Mystery undoubted to him that tasteth it and surpassing all the delights of Sense or Reason incredible and unintelligible to all that have it not A Stranger intermeddles not with this joy Prov. 14.10 It lies more deep than that any Eye of Flesh can see it It is of that nature that only tasting can declare its transcendent sweetness Psal 34.8 O taste and see that the Lord is good Saints feel much of it they talk much of it the Word is full of suitable and savoury Expressions of it Yet all are Riddles and dark Parables to them that experience it not You that know what it is though you cannot express it yet you can relish and understand some sound Words about it You know what it is to be brought near to him and to have the Clouds and Vails that are either on your Hearts or on his Face scattered and the light of his Countenance lifted up upon you Psal 4.6,7 You have been sometimes so in the Mount as to think O how good it is to be here You have known what the warm and healing Beams of the Sun of Righteousness upon you are Mal. 4.2 You have tasted that in his Company that hath made the puddle of the Worlds Wells of comfort loathsome and unsavoury yea as hath made you groan in this Tabernacle and long to be in at that compleat and uninterrupted Communion above whereof all you taste on earth is but a small earnest and first-fruits And may not should not such come boldly to the throne of grace Appl. Is there an allowed boldness in coming to the throne of grace Then let us use this boldness Alas many come doubtingly and discouragedly Their Unbelief is so strong and their Faith so weak that they not only come without this boldness but think that they ought not to come with it but with a frame contrary to it They think that it is true Humility to come with a Fear that is inconsistent with this boldness It is indeed required that Men should come before the Lord with awful Fear and Reverence and that they should judge themselves unworthy and undeserving both of the Priviledge of coming and of the least of the Blessings they come for Yet the boldness of Faith is not prejudiced thereby I shall therefore answer some of the common Pleas of Unbelief as to this Priviledge and its improvement Obj. 1. Is from conscience of Sin and Guilt grounded specially on these two Scriptures Psal 66.18 and 1 John 3.20 This Plea seems to be strong and to justifie or excuse doubtings in Christians and doth usually marr the due sense of this Duty of coming boldly to the Throne of Grace To remove it therefore consider that Sin affects the Heart and Conscience two ways 1. It defiles the Conscience 2. It disturbs it 1. Sin defiles the Conscience Tit. 1.15 Vnto the pure all things are pure but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure but even their mind and conscience is defiled But we must see when and how the Conscience is defiled by Sin Conscience is God's Tribunal in every Man It is an active and awful power in Men judging of themselves as to their State and Actions as they think God judgeth of them So that there are two main causes tried and to be decided at this Court of Conscience 1. Am I at peace with God and he with me And this is only truly resolved when Conscience pronounceth as God declares in his Word And that Declaration is that every Man by Nature and as in the first Adam is an Enemy to God and God to him and that every one that is in Jesus Christ by Faith is a Child and Friend of God and God is at Peace with him The answer then is different if according to Truth Some may but will not conclude their State of Enmity by their not believing on Jesus Christ Some may but dare not conclude that they are at Peace with God though they cannot deny their Faith in Jesus Christ A second Cause is about particular Actions
of this Mercy of God We do not reckon a man miserable only on the account of what he feels but also on that of his just Fears And generally the smart of misery is raised from fear rather and more than from feeling If any thing renders a man's present State miserable the apprehension of the duration or increase of what he feels adds greatly to his misery Many things would be little complained of as great Evils were a man sure that in a moment they shall be removed But in a Sinner's Case for as bad as it is at present it will surely be worse with him shortly if mercy prevent not There is certainty of its coming and an eternal duration of it when it comes It is called the Wrath to come 1 Thes 1.10 Nothing like it ever came on them Present Wrath though dreadful is but a trifle to that that is to come It is Wrath to come for it will surely come As surely as God lives as surely as God is true in his word of Threatning this Wrath will come on the World of the Ungodly No putting of this evil Day far away but in vain Thoughts no diverting or keeping it back a moment All the united Force of the rebellious part of the Creation will not be able to stem or stop this fearful Tide of Wrath. It is Wrath to come for it is still coming and approaching As many Days and Years as an ungodly sinner counts in his life as many Days and Years Journeys hath God's Wrath made towards him Think on this Old Sinners God's Wrath and you are near to meet except mercy interpose You think you run from it but it runs after you it will come upon you and pursue you and overtake you as Deut. 28.45 It 's Wrath to come because it is always a coming and never past The Tide of God's Wrath on the Damned is an eternal Flood there will never be an ebbing Look down to Hell and see how they fare there Alas Men will not believe and fear and fly and therefore must feel How many daily hear of this Wrath to come and yet never have any fear of it till they be irrecoverably plunged into it Who never awaken out of the sleep of security till awakened by the Flashes of Hell fire Who will never believe God's Wrath till they feel it No true Believer goes to Hell all Unbelievers are sent thither but as soon they come there they become woful Believers because eternal feelers of this Wrath to come Mens danger of this dreadful State should make them cry mightily for God's Mercy as it renders them unspeakably needy of it But your own serious Thoughts about it would do you more good than many Words can The second thing proposed is What is the obtaining of mercy A frequent manner of Speech in Scripture 1 Tim. 1.13 Who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious But I obtained mercy 1 Pet. 2.10 Which in time past were not a people but are now the people of God which had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy This Phrase of obtaining mercy speaks forth 1. That the mercy is God's Gift Our obtaining is the fruit of his giving I obtained mercy saith Paul and may every Believer say How so he gave it he showed he demonstrated it as 1 Tim. 1.16 It is the Lord 's shewing it tendering and giving of it that is the only spring of our obtaining it We do not buy it we do not work it out we are no way meet for it but by misery God's mercy springs not out of the Earth but comes down from Heaven It is the Gift of God And as such must all seek it that would obtain it and as such will all eternally own it that do obtain it 2. This Phrase speaks forth a particular application of mercy to the Receaver by the Giver of it I obtained mercy saith Paul general mercy would not do my business another man's mercy would not save me I must have it of my own for my self and so I got it Mercy came to me made me a Visit and applyed it self to me in particular So must it be with you You will never be saved you shall never see God's Face in Glory unless his mercy deal with you and apply it self as particularly to you as if there were no other Person in the World to be saved by Mercy besides thy self There is indeed a blessed multitude of the Vessels of Mercy and the Captain of our Salvation brings many Sons to Glory Heb. 2.10 But yet there is a personal particular Application of saving mercy to every saved sinner And for this Application of mercy we should come to the Throne of Grace Though there be infinite mercy at this Throne and though many receave of this Mercy yet you must have of this Mercy for your selves or you cannot be saved Your Soul is your own and no man's else your danger sin and misery is your own and no man's else and the mercy that saves you must be as much your own and not another body's mercy That deep Discourse of of the Apostle looks this way Rom. 11.30,31,32 For as ye in times past have not believed God yet now have obtained mercy through their unbelief Even so have these also now not believed that through your mercy they may also obtain mercy For God hath concluded them all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all It is a great mystery of Judgment and Mercy the Apostle is speaking of the rejecting of the Jews and calling in of the Gentiles Mercy took occasion from the just casting off of the Jews to visit the Gentiles and will in due time bestow it self again upon the Jews But both of them must have mercy of their own Mercy to the Jews will not save the Gentiles mercy to the Gentiles will not save the Jews both must have their own mercy The Fountain is the same the Streams are the same but the Vessels are not the same and every Vessel of mercy must have its own measure of its own particular mercy So must it be with you if you be saved by mercy it must be your own and no man's else 3. Obtaining of mercy speaks forth the Receavers possessing of it Obtained mercy is not only bestowed and applyed mercy but it is possessed mercy Such things as cannot be possessed and kept are worth little pains in seeking But God's mercy is well worth the seeking because it may be both had by seeking and kept when obtained and is unspeakably beneficial when enjoyed Psal 103.17 The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him As if the Psalmist said Man is but a Flower his Life is a Wind and Vapour that quickly and surely passeth away but it is not so with God's mercy it eternally abides on all it falls upon O that Men would think on this As God lives and is true in his Word God's
your Consciences well resolved in this main Case that you may be able to give a peremptory answer The Importance of this Question is very obvious Can a Man retire within and look up to God and consider this I am a miserable Sinner in my self as all are nothing but God's special mercy can relieve me And not think it a matter of vast consequence to know whether he hath obtained this mercy or no Wo to them that never asked the Question and they are but in a sorry case that cannot answer it I would propose a few things to enforce the Duty of trying your selves in this matter 1. It is mercy you have been seeking If ever you made any fashion of Prayer surely it was mercy you sought most of you if not all pray at least sometimes Now whenever you pray unless you be wofully formal and stupid your Consciences must tell you it is mercy you seek Have you long and often begged God's mercy and will ye never enquire whether or not you have got it None ask in earnest but they will try how they speed There is no surer and plainer Argument of trifling in Prayer than when men are careless what they get by Prayer We would be called of the Generation of them that seek God's Face and shall we not enquire if we have found him Our Lord bids us ask that we may receave and shall we ask and not think of receaving nor try if we have receaved 2. A great many round you have obtained mercy therefore it becomes you to enquire whether you have obtained it If the mercy of God were so very rarely dispensed that none if any in an Age did partake of it this neglect would be a little more excusable But when mercy falls round about thee when one on thy Right Hand obtains Mercy and another on thy Left Hand obtains Mercy when this Mercy falls on some of the Family thou lives in on some of the Congregation thou hears in when this mercy falls on one that hath the same natural Parents that thou hast Will none of these things make you ask Have I also obtained mercy We find our Lord aggravating the misery of the damned by their seeing of the blessedness of the saved Luke 13.28 There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you your selves thrust out A most dreadful Passage Christ is telling Men that were to be excluded from Heaven what they would think say and do in that dismal Case Prevent this Misery in time by enquiring whether you have obtained mercy And do so the rather that ye may see others partaking of this Mercy When you see the saving mercy of God sought and obtained by others it should provoke you greatly not to envy them their share but to desire a share of your own for there is enough and to spare And the Lord doth shew mercy to some on purpose that he may encourage others to come and ask and obtain So Paul tells wherefore he got his Mercy 1 Tim. 1.16 Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy that in me first or the chief Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting There were other ends Christ had in shewing mercy to Paul The Lord shewed him mercy that he might be saved eternally he shewed him mercy that he might be an able Minister of the new Testament 2 Cor. 3.6 and a successful Apostle 1 Cor. 15.10 and the Church of Christ hath good Cause now for many Ages to bless our Lord Jesus for that rich mercy which that chosen Vessel obtained and was filled with But the Apostle in that place takes notice of another design of Christ's in his mercy to him and that was to set up Paul as a Pattern and Copy of the Freedom Riches and Power of saving mercy And Christ can when he will write another Copy like Paul and somewhat like it he doth in all that he calls savingly Eph. 2.4 Take in this Argument many obtain mercy and why not I none deserve it yet many have it None deserve it less and need it more than I Why then not I If you see the Lord shewing mercy to others and you care not for mercy to your selves how can you expect it or think you have got it 3. Inquire whether you have receaved God's saving mercy because this mercy is brought so near you that it must either be receaved or refused there is no midst No Man doth neither no man doth both All that have the offer of God's saving mercy in the Gospel do and must necessarily either receave or reject it This should make people inquire the more narrowly whether they have obtained mercy If ye have not obtained it ye have refused it Acts 13.46 It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you but seeing you put it from you and judge your selves unworthy of everlasting life lo we turn to the Gentiles This last is a strange Phrase I am perswaded in the Lord that no man shall ever get everlasting life that thinks himself worthy of it It is always to be sought by us always given by the Lord and always taken by the Receavers of it as an Alms of Grace for Christ's sake Nothing surely was further from Paul's mind than to have these foolish Jews to count themselves deserving of eternal life or that on the account either of their Priviledges or Works they did or could deserve Salvation at the hand of God But all the Apostle meant was this Everlasting Life is brought near to you in this Word of the Gospel you put the Word from you thereby you declare you are unwilling to receave everlasting life and God counts you unworthy of the Offer of it and we will carry it to others as he tells other Unbelieving Jews at Rome Acts 28.28 Be it known to you that the Salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles and that they will hear it Now for resolving of this Question whether you have obtained special saving mercy or not This seems easily determinable There is so great a difference betwixt that State of sin and misery that mercy finds Men in when it first visits them and that State that mercy brings them to That we are apt to think the change may be easily known See Eph. 2.1,18 Yet there are so many things that obstruct both them that have obtained mercy from owning it and them that have not obtained it from acknowledging their want of it of which I shall not now speak that searching is needful and for your help in that work I offer these few plain Marks 1. A high value of special saving mercy above common mercy is a good sign of one that hath obtained saving mercy There is a special mercy of God and there is a common mercy Special mercy
and before he came to you Woful is that Cure and worse than the Wound Many poor Creatures are wounded by the Law and to the Law they go for Healing But God never appointed the Law to heal a wounded Conscience and it never did nor can nor will to the end of the World nor to Eternity It is Christ's name and property and glory to be the only Physician of Souls and all must die of the Disease of Sin that are not his happy Patients 3. There is common restraining grace An Act of God's grace and wisdom which he often puts forth in his ruling of this wicked World How quickly would this Earth become a Hell were it not for this restraining grace If all unrenewed Men were permitted by God to commit all the Sin Satan tempts to and their Natures incline them to there would be no living in this World for the golly This restraining grace we find a Heathen â—ad Gen. 20.6 I with-held thee from sinning against me faith the Lord to Abimelech And which is more we find a great Saint praying for it Ps 19.13 Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins let them not have Dominion over me That is lay a powerful restraint on me by thy grace that when I am tempted my way may be hedged up and I may be kept from complying with the Temptation But yet bare restraining grace is not desired by a Christian in good case without sanctifying grace He desires not only the restraining of the outward Acts of Sin but the removing of inward Inclinations to Sin he begs the renewing and changing of the Heart So David when he had fallen foully by the strength of inward Corruption and God's leaving him to himself when recovered by Grace and renewed unto Repentance prays like a wise Believer Psal 51.10 Create in me a clean Heart O God and renew a right spirit within me 4. There is common assisting grace Many a bad Man hath had good Assistance from God in a good Work The Spirit of God hath cloathed many and enabled them to great and good Works which God gets Service by and the World good by though the Doers thereof be not accepted Matth. 7.22 Many shall say to me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name have done many wonderful works All great things and all done in Christ's Name and done by his Assistance In their casting out of Devils and in working of Miracles there was an exerting of Omnipotency with and by their Faith which is the greatest divine Assistance we can imagine And no doubt they were assisted by Christ's Spirit in their prophecying in his Name Now such things they thus did Christ in his Reply denies not their doing of them finds no fault with the Works in themselves but all his Quarrel is with the Workers I never knew you you are workers of iniquity 5. To common Grace belongs some Comfort and Joy reaching the Heart in hearing the Word Our Lord expresly explains the Stony ground this way Matth. 13.20 He that receaved the seed in stony places the same is he that heareth the word and anon with joy receaveth it Lastly There is reforming grace that belongs to common grace The power of the Word may come so on natural Mens Consciences that they may reform many things As Mark 6.20 Herod when he heard John Baptist did many things and heard him gladly So 2 Pet. 2.20 If any say What should we come to the Throne of Grace for common Grace I answer Not for it alone but for it and better It is a mercy to have common grace it is grace that is undeserved but it is a woful Snare to him that rests in it If the Lord restrain your Corruptions if he enlighten your Minds and awaken your Consciences if he assist you with Gifts for good Works if he help you to mend any thing that is amiss in your Conversation bless him for all but rest not on any of these things It is a higher and better Grace that is Saving and that you must seek after Saving grace as distinct from and beyond all that is common respects three things 1. It respects and works a change in a Man's State which common grace never performs Saving grace changeth a Person 's State by this grace an Enemy is reconciled to God a guilty sinner is justified freely through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus a Stranger receaves Sonship by Christ Common Grace never alters the State of a Man's Person but it leaves him where it found him it never doth nor can take him out of the old Stock of fallen Adam he still lyes in that Pit and is never by it translated into Christ and engraffed in him as a new Head But saving grace when it comes doth all Eph. 2.4,18 2. Saving grace respects Man's sinful nature and changeth it And this grace thus working is called Regenerating Sanctifying and renewing of Men. Christ calls it being born again John 3.3 If any man be in Christ through this grace he is a new Creature 2 Cor. 5.17 This the Apostle calls Tit. 3.5 According to his mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Natural Men are apter to look to their Conversation than to their Nature They may see many things amiss in their way who are loath to look into their Heart and if Light shine in to discover inward Heart-faults they are still backward to own that all is naught and that there is no good in their Hearts If the Light pursuâ— them yet closer and make them see that all is stark naught within they are still more backward to own the true Spring of their Disease and the true Remedy for it That all this Dominion of Sin over them flows from the natural State of their Persons as standing still in and under the first sinful Adam and can never be altered and mended but by Grace putting them into Christ as the Root of their New Life 3. Saving grace respects and works on the new Nature Special grace not only changeth a Man's State nor his old corrupt Nature only but it works on this new Nature wrought by Grace The special Operation of the grace of God in and from the Fountain is upon his own new Creation in the Hearts of his Children We cannot conceave it fully our Minds are not able take in these depths of God We hear from and read in the Word of the intimate Correspondence the Lord entertains with them in whom he dwells Christ dwells in the heart by faith Eph. 3.17 His Spirit dwells in his people Rom. 5 9,10,11 But what is it in their Hearts that he dwells in He dwells in his own Workmanship in their Hearts in his own new Creation in his own Garden he hath planted in them There his Presence is and there his Eye is on that his hand is this is
that he waters and carefully looks after When a Believer comes to the Throne of grace for this grace he comes to beg that the new Creation in him may be visited refreshed and strengthened and brought to Perfection They that have no planting of Christ in them want this Errand to the Throne of Grace that Believers daily come upon So much for the first thing What this grace is 2. What is the finding of this grace why the Apostle useth this Phrase different from the former about mercy That was obtaining of mercy this is finding of grace Mercy and Grace are near a-kin and so is obtaining and finding Besides the Hebrew Phrase remarked already these things I would note in it 1. I conceave that this Phrase of finding grace doth imply the Duty of seeking it According to our Lord 's own direction Matth. 7.7 Ask and it shall be given you Seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you Where and in ver 8. our Lord gives three Commands to one Duty of Prayer under three several Names and six Promises for Encouragement under three different Names also redoubled 2. This form of speaking points forth the giving and bestowing of Grace His Grace and Favour is what is given to bestowed on and enjoyed by them that come to the throne of grace When the old World was exceeding bad all stark naught and but one good Man in it you must needs think that it was a bad World then and that was Noah Gen. 6.8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. This Word we should regard the more that it is the first place where the grace of God is mentioned in Scripture Thee have ' I seen righteous before me in this generation saith the Lord to him Gen. 7.1 And how this Man came by his Righteousness see in Heb. 11.7 By Faith Noe being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an Ark for the saving of his house by the which he condemned the World and became Heir of the Righteousness which is by Faith Who but the Spirit of God by Paul who I think was the Pen-man of this Epistle would have found the Righteousness of Faith in Noah's building of the Ark Many nay most of Men called Christians cannot see this Righteousness that is by Faith in the Gospel it self There was a brave inheritance and Estate in this Righteousness of Faith secured and revealed in the first Gospel Gen. 3.15 Of this Estate Abel and Enoch were possessed and Noah became that is declared himself an Heir of it by his Faith and the Fruits of it The whole World had the Warning Noah from God the World by Noah all were equally concerned in the danger Noah preached it to them and God's Spirit was with him striving with them 120 Years But not one Man found grace but he alone A prodigious depth of Judgment and Mercy Such a Man aâ— Noah preached so long to a world of the ungodly as 2 Pet. 2.5 and not one single Man or Woman believed He only found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Jer. 31.2 Thus saith the Lord the people that were left of the Sword found grace in the wilderness even Israel when I went to cause him to rest It is a great blessing to find grace any where but to find grace in the Wilderness to find grace where and when the Sword of God's Anger and Justice is destroying multitudes is heightened grace Grace falls still on Remuants Justice and Wrath seizeth on the Bulk and whole Piece Rom. 11.5 A Remnant according to the election of grace ver 7. The election obtained it that is grace and the rest were blinded and hardened The more be left and the fewer be savingly taken the greater is the grace shewed to those sew and the more happy are they that find it 3. In this Phrase of finding grace there may this be conceaved if you will understand it rightly the Casualty of the getting of grace There is no such thing as Casualty to God He always knows when and where and on whom to bestow his grace But the bestowing of his grace is a meer Casualty to all Men both to them that receave it and to others that look on My meaning is grace comes unlooked for undeserved undestred unexpected in its first visit especially So that all Receavers of it may say as Hagar the only good Word we have of that Bond-woman Gen 16.13 And she called the name of the Lord that spake to her Thou God seest me happy are they that can name God from his grace and mercy to them David calls him the God of my mercy Psal 59.10,17 for she said Have I also here looked after him that seeth me The Lord hath had his Eye on me for good when I was not thinking on him Grace always comes at first by surprize How many are there that attend diligently on all the means of grace and never find grace When some that come but by accident as we think grace finds them and they find it This is the Treasure hid in the Field of the Gospel blessed is he that finds it Matth. 13.44 Many dig in this Field and never find the Treasure in it Men should use means Prov. 8.33,34 Ministers should design wisely to catch Souls and labour painfully in it but the Lord in his Application of his grace passeth by many that we would fainest have saved and lights on others we never thought on And let him do with his own grace as seemeth him good Little thought little Zacheus of Salvation when he climb'd the Tree to see Jesus pass by Luke 19. If Christ had not call'd him down the poor rich Publican was as like as any in the Company to have let Christ pass on in his Journey When Saul was going his wicked Journey Acts 9. who would have thought that grace would have fallen on him as it did All Partakers of grace that can remember its first Visit can witness that their finding of grace was a meer Casualty to them they thought not of it they sought it not yet it found them and was found by them Isa 65.1 I am sought of them that asked not for me I am found of them that sought me not Seeking is our Duty and finding is our Mercy but both right seeking and gracious finding are singly owing to his grace The Apostle after a deep Discourse of the Sovereignty of God in dispensing his grace saith Rom. 9.30,31 What shall we say then that the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness have attained to righteousness even the righteousness which is of Faith But Israel which followed after the law of righteousness hath not attained to the law of righteousness The cause of Israel's missing Righteousness he gives ver 32. Because they have sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the Law for they did not build and believe on Christ as a Foundation but
Bones a Consumption is coming on upon his Soul and the holy flesh is passed from him as Jer. 11.15 The Savour and Relish the Soul finds in approaching to the throne of grace is the surest Test of Soul-prospering In this I appeal to the Consciences of all that ever knew Communion with God Is it not best with you every way when you are most with him Do not your Burdens grow light when you cast them on the Lord Is not your Path plain when his Candle shineth upon you And doth it not shine when you are much in his Company Difficulties evanish and hard Work grows easie when the Lord is with you and you with him See how the Apostle joyns things together Jude 20,21 But ye beloved building up your selves upon your most holy Faith praying in the Holy Ghost keep your selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Your Faith your Love your Hope are all to be acted in Prayer and are cherished by Prayer and strengthened by the Answers of Prayer Would you have plenty of the Grace of God Here is a plain and sure way taught you by the Apostle and he joyns himself with them he exhorts Let us come to the Throne of Grace that we may find Grace SERMON IX HEB. IV. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help intime of need THE Gracious Call and Invitation contained in this Text hath been often spoke to An Invitation frequently deliver'd in the preaching of the Gospel and as frequently flighted by most of the hearers of the Gospel It is such an Invitation as if it were delivered in the last day to the miserable Company on Christ's left hand we may think what complying with it would there be if there were a Throne of Grace set up then for but one hour where mercy and grace might be had in that time of need Think ye not that there would be coming and crouding and crying and roaring for mercy and grace but that day will afford no such Priviledge Now you have it and the Lord knows and next to him your Consciences know how this is entertained What this Throne of Grace is what coming to it is what Boldness in coming is allowed what ground there is for this Boldness have been spoke to The last thing in this verse what Blessings may be had by coming hath been spoke to also Of the mercy to be obtained and of the grace to be found Of this last I have handled two things 1. What is the grace that is to be found 2. What the Phrase of finding grace imports There are two things more that remain in the Text. 1. The Helpfulness of this grace We are called to come to find grace to help 2. The Seasonableness of this help of grace It is grace to help in time of need So our Translation carries it and pretty well The Original runs in fewer Words grace unto seasonable help or Help in due season Of these two I would speak at this time 1. Of the helpfulness of Grace God's grace is a most helpful blessing 1. It is promised by him that gives it as help Isa 41.10 Fear thou not for I am with thee Be not dismayed for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will help thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness Alas who hath Faith enough to draw at this deep Well of Salvation Every Word hath rich Food for Faith Whenever God would engage the Heart of a poor Creature to a dependance on him he doth it by promising to be that to them and to do that for them that none besides himself can be or do No Man can truly act Faith on God for that he thinks a Creature can do for him You never believe soundly but when you look to and wait on God for that that is impossible utterly to the whole Creation to give to you or to do for you 2. Again we find the Saints beg God's help Whenever they come to God in earnest they come to this Lord help for all other help is vain There is no more common Prayer in the Old and New Testament and to this day than Prayer for the Lord's helping grace All our Prayers in their greatest variety center in this help us by thy grace The great Believer Matth. 15.25 Came and worshipped him saying Lord help me A short Prayer but mighty and full of Faith A weaker Man in Faith than this Woman Mark 9.22 Have compassion on us and help us praying for himself and his Son ver 24. He prays for himself alone Lord help my Vnbelief There is no Believer on Earth who may not daily pray this Prayer 3. All the People of God find the helpfulness of his grace All that seek it find it and all that find it find the helpfulness of his Grace I would in a few things shew the helpfulness of Grace 1. The Grace of God helps always to purpose and effectually This grace helped Paul to labour more abundantly than all the Apostles 1 Cor. 15.10 I say not that this is always sensible to the Receaver but only that grace given is always really effectual for the end for which it is given It is not given in vain 2. The grace of God helps universally there is no case wherein it is not helpful As without Christ we can do nothing John 15.5 So through him strengthening we may do all things or any thing Phil. 4.13 A Christian can imagine can foresee no Condition no Tryal no Difficulty wherein the Lord's grace cannot help him So the Text runs that we may find grace to help in time of need Let the time be what it will and the need what it will grace can help in it It were a sad weakness of Faith for any Christian to say I am in that condition that the grace of God cannot help me in His grace is Omnipotent 3. Grace helps sweetly I mean that it doth not help as an External help but as an Internal As for a familiar Similitude A weak and weary or lame Person may be helped by the strength of another or by being carried but this is but external help This weak or lame person is helped far better when his Infirmity is removed and new strength given to him so that he can pleasantly walk and run Psal 138.3 In the day when I cried thou answeredst me and strengthenedst me with strenth in my Soul It s true the grace of God wherein our strength consists is without us and in him but it is inwardly applyed to us when strength is found and felt Therefore is it that Believers not only find by the dispensings of of his helping grace an effectual strength for their Work and Duty but a great deal of sweetness and easiness in the exerting of that gracious help So Psal 119.32 I will run in the
way of thy Commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart When he draws we run Song 1.4 When such helping Influences of grace come on Believers holy Obedience becomes in a manner as sweet easie and natural to them as it is to a Man that hath bodily strength to use it in speaking walking or working Isa 40.31 They that wait upon the Lord shall renew or change their strength they shall mount up with wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint Psal 103.5 Thy youth is renewed like the Eagles is one of the Notes in the Psalmist's sweet Song No Saint is ignorant of this in his own Experience Who knows not that at some times their Work is heavy and is a Burden too heavy for them at other times it is as light as a Feather and as pleasant and easie to them as for a Bird that hath Wings to fly Lastly The grace of God helps very mysteriously Sometimes its help is very secret and at other times it is very plain to be discovered It s help is sometimes so secret that the Saints cannot know or discern it at present but they are made to know it afterwards Psal 73.2 But as for me my feet were almost gone my steps had well nigh slipt ver 22. So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a beast before thee This is the account he gives of the power of the Temptation he was under and of the bad frame it had brought upon him ver 23. Nevertheless I am continually with thee thou-hast holden me by my right hand He did not know this till he was brought out of the darkness of the Temptation but then he did discern that there had been a secret support given him otherwise he had fallen utterly 2. What Encouragement have we to come to the Throne of Grace for this helping Grace 1. The Proposal and Revelation made to us of this grace as helpful is an Encouragement to come for it Hath the Lord revealed his grace as only helpful to his people and should they not come for that help Your Faith is not very strong and active unless you can catch at the grace of God without a plain particular Promise I say not but there are Promises many and great of this helping grace and that Faith must build upon them and doth But I only mean that the bare Revelation of the Treasures of grace that are with the Lord should when an Interest in the Promises is dark encourage a poor Soul to come for a share of this grace of God Psal 130.4 But there is forgiveness with thee He saith not there is forgiveness for me but there is forgiveness with thee So ver 7. Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption Wherefore is this forgiveness this mercy this redemption with the Lord and why is it revealed but that the guilty should come for this forgiveness the miserable for this mercy the many-wise Captives for this plenteous redemption The Lord's fulness of grace is an Argument for our Faith as well as his Goodness and Faithfulness in making and performing Promises of grace 2. But we have Promises also for our Encouragement Promises imply God's fulness of grace but do express his Good will to dispense it and do bind and engage his Truth to fulfil them to all that take God at his Word and trust him on his Word It is a pity that ever the exceeding great and precious Promises 2 Pet. 1.1,4 and precious Faith should be parted Mark 10.49 And Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called and they call the blind man saying unto him be of good comfort rise he calleth thee They had no Promise but they understood Christ's calling of the blind Man was an Act of mercy and on a design of shewing more mercy But we have many Promises of grace 3. We have all the experience of the Communication of his grace according to his Promises for our encouragement in coming for grace Every Supplicant for grace should encourage his Heart by all the Lord's dispensings of his grace How many of these are reyealed in the Word and many like them daily are to be seen in the Church of Christ. If you have such Experiences of your own build upon them praise for them and beg more If you have none of your own behold the Showers of Grace that have fallen upon many as bad as your selves and which have changed them into that same blessed State that you desire to be in Appl. 1. Is the grace of God thus helpful and should we come to the throne of grace for the help of grace Then we see that weak Christians should pray most Such as can do least for themselves have most need of grace to help them and should seek it most Is any Man under a clear Conviction by the light of the Word and his own sensible Experience that he is extreamly weak and utterly unable for any good Word or Work This Man of all Men should pray most Manage your sense of weakness as a Call to ask much of this helping grace of God 2. Surely then Coming to the throne of grate for grace to help must be hopeful work If at any time Satan or an ungodly World should tempt you or your own Heart fail you in fears of the unprofitableness of seeking God have this as a ready answer I am fit for nothing his grace can help me in every thing whither should I go but to a throne by grace what can I beg there but his grace Say with David Psal 57.2,3 I will cry unto God most high unto God that performeth all things for me He shall send from Heaven and save me God shall send forth his mercy and his Trath And will not these save any Man Exhort I would give you a few directions in the practice of this Duty of coming to the throne of grace for helping grace 1. Come to seek this helping grace 2. When you seek it expect it 3. When you expect it receave it 4. When you receave it guide it 1. Come to the throne of grace to seek helping grace Seeking as is already remarked is not expressed in the Text yet it is plainly implyed both in the Duty of Coming and in the Blessings of obtaining and finding You must seek grace to help you Grace will not help to Sin but helps against it yet blessed be God grace can and will help sinners otherwise we were in a forlorn state indeed Grace will not help to laziness that were an hinderance and no help but grace will help lazy people and help them out of it To engage your diligence in seeking helping grace I would shew you what help grace gives 1. Grace helps to save you If people come to the throne of grace if Men pray and have not Salvation in their Eye they come not aright they pray not We are
come again Obs 2. Christians should pray before the time of need come for that grace that may help them when it comes The Prophet speaks of bearing for the time to come Isa 42.23 The Apostle 1 Tim. 6.19 of laying up in store a good foundation for the time to come So here Men must pray for the time to come Is any man afflicted let him pray Jam. 5.13 And because any Man may be afflicted he should pray before-hand 1. Because we know not but we may be surprized by a time of need Our Lord's Argument Mark 13.33 Take ye heed watch and pray for ye know not when the time is The Lord rarely gives particular warning of the time when special need is coming It ordinarily comes by surprize to us Death may but Sickness Losses and Affliction usually come on suddenly And surprizing Tryals are sore and searching ones 2. We should pray before a time of need come for often when that time comes we are thereby disabled for Prayer The distress may be such that even a Believer can do nothing The night may come when no man can work John 9.4 Pray much before it come 3. Because many Prayers have their answers delayed till a time of need comes Christians think that every day and hour of their Life is a time of need and so it is in some sense but there are some special Seasons of great need of which the Lord is the only Disposer and he fits such times with dispensings of that Grace that his People have many a day begged before There may be worse reasoning than this It may be there are some Blessings of Grace that I have oft sought and have not yet got that are reserved for me by the Lord against a time when I shall need them more than now I do Thus you see in the Scope of the Apostle in these Words that there is strong arguing for constant seeking of God's Grace You are either at present in a time of special need or if it be not present it may come Whatever case a Believer is in his Obligation is in a manner equal to this great Duty of coming to the Throne of Grace for Grace to help him as his Matters do require SERMON X. HEB. IV. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need YOU have heard that the gracious Exhortation in the Text to coming to the Throne of Grace is directed with respect to the getting of two great Blessings or of one under two Names God's Mercy and Grace Concerning this Grace I have spoken to 3 things 1. What this Grace is 2. What the finding of this Grace is 3. What is the Helpfulness of this Grace so found I also entered upon the fourth and last thing the Seasonableness of this helping Grace The Truth I am to speak to is this The Grace of God is specially helpful in times of special need My Work then is to shew What are those times of need 2. What the helpfulness of grace in them is Only I would usher in this Discourse with a general Consideration of the constant need that all stand in of God's Mercy and Grace And that I would branch into four We need God's Mercy and Grace as Creatures as Men as Sinners and as Christians and that always 1. As Creatures The native Notion of a Creature is that it is a contingent necessitous Being For his pleasure they are and were created Rev. 4.11 The Lord did not make all or any Creature because he needed them but he made them that they might need him He did not build this glorious Fabrick of Heaven and Earth as a House to dwell in or to contain him 1 Kings 8.27 But he made this World as a Stage on which to display his glorious Wisdom and Power and he made some of its Inhabitants Angels in the upper Rooms and Men in the lower to be Spectators and Praisers of his Glory It is not proper to say that Creatures needed their Being before the Creator gave it For when there was nothing but God there could be no need Need and Want is essential to a Creature and springs up with their Being As soon as the Creation receaved its Being by the word of his power it needs upholding by the same power Heb. 1.3 Our Lord Jesus upholds all things by the word of his power The whole Creation would fall back immediately into its Mother Nothing if the same power that gave it a Being did not every moment preserve it Would you have a joyful view of Heaven and Earth Look on all as in our Lord's Hand Why do the Heavens keep their Course Why doth the Sun shine so gloriously move so regularly and influence the Earth so virtuously with his light and heat It is because Christ upholds all things by the Word of his Power He is before all things and by him all things consist All things were created by him and for him Col. 1.16,17 Many are without Christ in the World Eph. 2.12 Man see daily the Works of Creation and Providence and never think on Christ as the Head of all But it is no wonder that Men that have no Eyes to see Christ in the new Creation of Grace cannot see him in the old Creation of Nature We as Creatures are needy of God's helping Grace and Favour for in him we live and move and have our Being Acts 17.28 In his hand our breath is and his all our ways are Dan. 5.23 2. Our need of God's Grace appears yet more as we are such Creatures Men. We are through the Bounty of God the most considerable part of this lower Creation Of Man some understand that elegant Phrase Prov. 8.26 the highest part of the Dust of the world But there is no earthly Creature needy of God's Grace but Man even in his natural Frame abstract from his sinful State The great Former of all things hath given to all a Being and to many of his Creatures no more To some of his Creatures he hath given Life a nobler sort of Being But to all living Creatures but Man he gives no more and they need no more they have not they need not eternal life When the Breath of the other living Creatures goes downward in the Word is Eccl. 3.21 there is an end of them But Man is created in that state that he must be for ever and therefore be eternally happy or miserable This State he is made in makes him vastly needy of God's Grace and Mercy 3. We grow yet more needy as Sinners Sinners are Creatures with this great blemish of Guilt Sin and Corruption A Sinner is needy of a Mediator to deal for him with God for he cannot deal with God for himself A Sinner is needy of the Righteousness of another to recommend him to God's Acceptance for he hath none of his own The Righteousness of a Sinner is a plain Contradiction And
By his Fall he hath lost Happiness and Purity but retains his Knowledge which his Corruption hath turned into Craft Malice and Wiles 3. His long Experience in cheating of Men. 4. That in Men that his Wiles are proposed to it is to the Heart deceitful above all things and desperately wicked Jer. 17.9 It is to the Old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts Eph. 4.22 Such a Devil dealing with such a deceitful Heart must have many dangerous Wiles Christ's Grace only can enable a Man to discern them and it should be much prayed for Many have been skilful in the Theory and Knowledge of the Doctrine of Satan's Wiles that have been notwithstanding prevailed upon by them A Man must know his own Heart well and observe its motions narrowly and be much at the Throne of Grace that would know Satan's particular Wiles on himself 2. Grace helps the Tempted in helping to hate the sin they are tempted to Many Believers though they cannot tell well whence the Wind comes that drives them whether from their own Heart or the Devil yet they know whither it drives them to Sin that they are averse from Tempted Joseph spake like a Man that had present assistance of Grace when he said Gen. 39.9 How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God As far and as long as the sin tempted to stands black and ugly in the eye of the tempted Person so far and so long is the Temptation ineffectual Temptation prevails when the sin tempted to takes with the Heart and Will Jam. 1.14 A man is tempted i. e. successfully when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed Sin was without him but near to him by the Temptation now it is within him and it is his sin The Temptation to numbering of the people took with David but his Command about it was abominable to Joab a Man far short of David's Grace if he had any 1 Chron 21.6 3. Grace can help the Tempted to resist and stand Eph. 6.13 No Man is overcome of Satan till he flee and yield Resisting is overcoming of him Jam. 4.7 Resist the Devil and he will flee from you 1 Pet. 5.9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith Eph. 6.16 Above all taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the Devil They are Darts they are the Devils Darts they are fiery Darts there is an all of them yet by Faith you may be able to quench them all Why is so much said of Faith Because as Christ's strength is the Believers strength so Faith is that only in a Believer that acts on this Strength draws it in and acts in it Separate Faith from its Object Christ either in Justification or in Sanctification and it becomes an Imagination a Vanity a Nothing Now consider how cunningly Satan deals with Believers and how simply they are gulled by him in Temptation He perswades and often prevails with them to lay aside the Shield of Faith when they should mainly use it How foolish were that Man that would yield his Arms to an implacable Enemy Christ knew Peter's danger and provides graciously for it I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not Luke 22.32 4. The helping Grace of God assists tempted Believers in preventing an utter Foyl by Satan and in recovering them from a begun Foyl So did Christ for Peter and Paul 2. Cor. 12.8,9 The Devil never gets all his Will on a Believer nor are any Wounds he gives to a Saint mortal in the issue whatever they be in their own nature in Believers Fears or in the Devil's Design All the Glory is due to the Grace that is in Christ Jesus Lastly Grace can rebuke the Tempter and call him off This Joshua the High-Priest needed and got Zech. 3.2 And the Lord said unto Satan who was standing at Joshua's right hand to refist him when he is standing before the Angel of the Lord ver 1. The Lord rebuke thee O Satan even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire This Mercy was the first thing in Paul's Prayer 2 Cor. 12.8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me This Messenger of Satan was of Christ's sending and giving There was given to me a thorn in the flesh a Messenger of Satan to buffet me ver 7. Lord save us from such gifts will Christians be apt to say there is no reason to pray for them if the Lord see them needful he will send them But it is comfortable that all the Devil's Assaults are of Christ's ordering He must have Christ's leave to tempt Luke 22.31 And our Lord when he pleaseth can and will call him off When Christ was tempted Matth 4. he resists all his Temptations by the Word as his people should at last he put forth his Divine Power ver 10. Get thee hence Satan c. Then the Devil leaveth him This we cannot do but Christ can do it for us It is a blessed Promise Rom. 16.20 The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you Amen Poor tempted Christians think that they are not only in Satan's Sieve and in his Hands but that they are often under his Feet But lift up your Heads by Faith on this Promise Compleat Victory is coming and the Faith of it should not only encourage you to resist but this Faith is a present Victory Faith is our Victory 1 John 5.4 The Believer not only shall be but is an Overcomer SERMON XI HEB. IV. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need THE Lord hath been pleased so to order and determine the State and Condition of his Children while they are in this Life that they shall be constantly needy This Dispensation we should submit unto with all quietness of mind not quarrelling with the Wisdom and Mercy of our God therein Yea more than Submission is called for There is a further Duty required though it be hard to perform it to take pleasure and to rejoice in this needy State that the power of Christ may rest upon us For as the Lord hath laid us or left us under manifold Necessities So hath he laid up and is ready to lay out of his Grace for helping us under them And surely such Wants as lay us open for those Supplies of his Grace will be found to have a great deal of Mercy in them in the issue The Exhortation in the Text implies that Grace can help in every time of need There are some times of need contrived by the Lord on purpose that the helpfulness of his Grace might the more shine and appear I was speaking last day from this Truth That there are some special necessitous Times in which Believers are specially needy of
choose If Men refuse the Blessing the Curse belongs to them If they receave the Blessing they are delivered from the Curse But the chusing I mean is that the Lord puts Men often to in the several Turns of his Providence towards them Psal 25.12 What man is he that feareth the Lord him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose Many gracious Promises are in the Word of God's guiding of his people many Prayers put up by Saints in the Word for this gracious guiding and many Praises rendered to the Lord for their blessed experience of his guiding Who can walk safely through this Wilderness without the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night How many of Mens Sorrows may be laid on their being left of God in choosing for themselves and how many of our Mercies are owing to the Lord 's gracious guiding of us in doubtful Cases But it is a very hard thing to ask Direction from God Three faults are common in this practice 1. Pre-engagement of Heart As it is a great sin after Vows to make inquiry Prov. 20.25 So is it to ask Direction from God when Men are resolved on the way they will take An eminent instance of this sinful Frame we have in Jer. 42. and 43. They sought Counsel of God by the Prophet in a great straight they promised to follow it whatever it was God gives his Mind they reject it because it suited not their Inclinations It is no easie thing to ask Direction of God with an undetermined Frame 2. Pride of Vnderstanding Men think they are wise enough to choose their own way Therefore that Command should be much minded Prov. 3.5,6,7 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own Vnderstanding In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths Be not wise in thine own eyes And that other Word Prov. 20.24 Man's goings are of the Lord how can a man then understand his own way Prov. 16.9 A man's heart deviseth his way but the Lord directeth his steps 3 Hastey Men wait not for God's Counsel Psal 106.13 and therefore go without it and stumble in dark Paths He that believeth maketh not haste Isa 28.16 A little more patient waiting on the Lord as Psal 40.1 hath often brought in determining Light in doubtful Cases So much for the fifth Season of need of Grace 6. The last time of need of Grace is the time of dying It is indeed the last for he that is helped by Grace in that Time will need no more help of Grace to eternity This time of dying is what we should all think on and if you think aright on it it will not be unwelcome to hear of it On this I would show 1. The need of Grace 2. And the help of Grace in this last and greatest time of need 1. Of the need of Grace to help in this Season Though all Men have some Conviction of it yet to strengthen that Conviction I would speak to a few things about it 1. This time of need is unavoidable it is a time that must come Other times of need may come and may not come We may be tempted we may be afflicted we may be tryed we may be cast down and we may be lifted up again but die we must It is appointed for men once to die Heb. 9.27 As sure as we live we must die We live our appointed time and we die at our appointed time Job 14.5,14 and all our times are in his hand Psal 31.15 Eccles 3.2 There is a time to be born and a time to die ver 11. He hath made every thing beautiful in his time That Man must have better Eyes than those of Flesh that can see any Beauty in Death If there had been but two or three of Mankind that had lived from Noah to this day and had been priviledged with an Exemption from this general Appointment every Fool on Earth would have dreamt that it may be he shall partake of the same Priviledge also But when all that ever breathed from Adam to this day are dead save the present Generation whom a few more years will sweep away as it hath done their Predecessors what Folly is there in Mens thoughtlesness of this unavoidable Fate But if you say all shall not die but be changed as 1 Cor. 15.51 1 Thes 4.17 Consider that this change is to them as death is to us and it may be will be as terrible to the Saints alive then as Death now is As Believers now dread not death and to be dead so much as they fear to die the State of the dead in Christ is not terrible but the Passage to it is So they that are changed at Christ's coming may have the same Sentiments till the change be wrought on them It is though none knows the particular manner of it a putting off of Mortality and Corruption and a putting on the Robes of Immortality and Incorruption The same is done as to every Saint at Death and the Resurrection Both are done to every Believer in an instant who are found alive at Christ's second coming Elijab's Translation 2 Kings 2. and Enoch's Heb. 11.5 were Emblems of the change on Believers at Christ's second appearance as the raising of Lazarus and others both in the Old Testament and New were of the general Resurrection And in special manner they spoke of Matth. 27.52,53 And the graves were opened and many bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of the graves after his Resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared unto many But whatever the change on Saints at Christ's coming be to them and if it may be thought a more easie Tryal than natural death is It is certain that the change that shall then pass on the Ungodly will be far more dreadful than bare dying is now This is then the only Exception from the general Appointment on all Men once to die How amazing then is the Stupidity of Men that so few seriously think on it and prepare for it That so many Men and Women that are under the Sentence of Death that have the Seeds of Death in them that live in a World wherein all things that have life are dying before their Eyes that live on Creatures that lose their Lives to support theirs that have so many Warnings of Death's sure and speedy Approach are yet after all surprized by it when it comes as if they had never heard of it This stupidity is a sad both Sign and Effect of the Plague of Unbelief Judgment and Eternity that follow at Death's Heels are matters of pure Faith But Death is obvious to Sense Reason and Universal Experience Yet Men only think they may die and do not entertain the Perswasion with Assurance into their Hearts and serious daily Thoughts that they must die 2. Dying is not only unavoidable but it is a new Tryal None can tell what dying is Many
and the Law comes by Jesus Christ When this Victor and Victory in Christ is seen by a Believer Death is defied and despised as a sting-less overcome thing Much and strong Faith is needful to enable a Man to play on the hole of this Asp Christ reveals himself to John almost dead with fear Rev. 1.17,18 Fear not I have the keys of Hell and of Death Behold them in my Hand and behold me as the Lord of them Should a Believer in Jesus fear any thing that Christ hath the power of The bitterness of death is past to all Believers by Christ's death and Victory over it And if their Faith was strong their Fears would be small 2. To have Faith enabled to look through death and beyond death If a Man's Eyes be fixed on Death only and see no further it is Death to look on Death But when the Believers Eye of Faith is so quickened that he can look through the Trance of Death and see within the Vail where Christ is that is a blessed help fo Grace Christians Faith and Hope enters within the Vail Heb. 6.19 And a view within the Vail is specially desirable and useful when the Christian is walking in the Valley of the shadow of death Psal 23.4 3. Faith is helped when the dying Believer is enabled to cast his Anchor on God in Christ confidently in this last Storm This last act of Faith is a great one The more sensible a Man is that he is on the point of eternal Ruin the nearer he is to drop into Hell without divine help the more sensibly he acts Faith Then the clingings and graspings of Faith on Christ are sensible and strong When a Believer looks on himself and on his way and seeth nothing in them pleasing or staying to his Soul he looks into the dark Passage before him and its frightful to Heart and Flesh he looks on Judgment and Eternity as just at hand and his Thoughts are swallowed up with their Greatness In this case to stay his Soul and say with dying David 2 Sam. 23.5 Although my house be not so with God tho' my Heart my ways be not so with God as they ought to have been yet he hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure and this all my salvation and all my desire requires singular help of the Grace of God To shut the Eyes and give the hand to Christ and to quiet the Mind by trusting our Guide in this last Step is a mighty Blessing I would conclude this Discourse with these four 1. It is a great Mystery of Faith and a great Tryal of Faith that the way to eternal Life should lye through the midst of this dark Valley of Death Our Lord Jesus Christ bought eternal Life for us by the price of his Blood he went through death to take possession of his Kingdom and Glory and yet his People must go through death to take Possession of the Gift of eternal Life If there were any allowed Room or Place for Prayer in this Affair how many and how earnest Prayers would we make to be delivered from going in this way to Glory But after a Life of Tryals Temptation and manifold Tribulations this last is still before us and we must pass through and set our Feet in the cold Waters of this Jordan ere we enter the heavenly Canaan After all the lively hopes of Heaven and sweet fore-tastes of it we have had after our Faith hath risen to a full assurance yet through death must all the Heirs of Glory pass 2. There is no Wisdom like that of preparing for this awful Hour Job 14.14 If a man die shall he live again all the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come I will think on it I will look for it I will prepare for it Men are wise or foolish according to their faithful diligence or unbelieving negligence in this preparing for death Many have bewailed their neglect never did any repent their diligence in this Work 3. There is no right and sure way of preparing for Death but by seeking saving acquaintance with Jesus If you set about the study of Holiness without Christ you mistake your way and will never reach your end But labour to be intimately acquainted with Jesus Christ and the Communications of his Grace will make you holy Death deals with Men and billets them into their eternal Quarters in Heaven or Hell as Men are in Christ or out of Christ Their Works according to which they are judged are but the Fruits and Effects of their different States These two different States of Men in this Life in Christ or not in Christ are the Foundation of the two different States in the next Life in Heaven or in Hell Tho' all in Christ are holy and all out of Christ are unholy 4. There is no Life truly comfortable but that which hath a comfortable prospect of Death and Judgment Never envy the condition of them who seem to be the only chearful Men in the World whom one quarter of an hours serious thought of Death and Judgment is enough to make them like Belshazzar at his great Feast Dan. 5.6 Whose countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joynts of his loins were loosed and his knees smote one against another Amazement seized on Soul and Body How can a Man be said to live comfortably that dare not think of Death for fear of marring his comfort Miserable is that Consolation that cannot bear a serious thought of an approaching unavoidable thing This is the Wisdom and Mercy of the Lord to his People that their true Consolation doth not only stand and abide in the view of Death and Judgment but it ariseth from that view that is so terrible to all natural Men. This is the blessedness of Believers that his Grace allows them a right to and can give them a possession of And therefore we should come to the Throne of Grace for it Then you are happy Christians when serious thoughts of Death breed serious Joy SERMON XIII HEB. IV. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need YOU have heard of the helpfulness of the Grace of God in time of need both in geneneral and with particular instances of some special times of need The last whereof is the time of dying This I left at last day and would speak a little more unto it and then conclude all in a few Words Death is a Theme of great importance and of very obvious Influence If people would let it enter into their serious thoughts and would take a serious and steddy view of it they would quickly find more in it and about it than ever they did or could hear by all that is told them Next to the saving Illumination of the Holy Ghost with and by the Word there is no
and set in a clear Light before the Eyes of your Mind all the particular Providences Tryals and Afflictions and Temptations you are to meet with in seven Years time to come what a dread would it be to you You would soon beg that it might be forgot again It is a great deal better for us that future things that belong to God are secret and kept from us and that we are led on believing and come to the Waters in our way to Heaven one after another and get through them by the gracious Conduct of our blessed Guide Christ He will give no Christian a particular and exact Map of all his Way and Stages and Entertainment in this Wilderness-Journey to Heaven though our Lord hath fixed them all in his Decree Should it not be enough for us that he will lead us well and safely that no Water shall drown us that he will never leave us but be with us wherever he leads us and will bring us safe home at last to his Fathers House 4. Be satisfied with this part of his wise Order That this Supply of his Grace to help in time of need must be come for Not only that we may come for it which is a great Priviledge but that we must come for it if we would have it Is there any so unreasonable as to find fault with this Order is it not fair and easie ask and have Would any have Grace to help them unsought If you would have it you are asking it Is it not fit then to come for it and tell Christ you would have it If you would not have it you are praying against it And wicked are those Prayers that are in aversion from the Grace of Christ Every Believer will find his Heart reconciled to this Order They know that there is a Blessing in coming as well as a Blessing to be got by coming And most Christians I am apt to think continue their Approaches to the Throne of Grace as much if not more from the Delight they find in coming as from the Profit they find by coming though these two are not inconsistent He that delights not himself in the Lord will not always call upon God Job 27.10 So much for this general Exhortation 2. Exhort In the next place I would speak somewhat to them that are not acquainted with the Grace of God nor with the Throne of Grace Graceless people is so bad a name that few will own it tho' many deserve it Such fill up much room in most Assemblies and sometimes may step up into the Pulpit in the name of Ministers of that Grace of God they never knew but in a Book But God calls all by their right names and only can make Men answer to those names Let these four things enter into such Folks Thoughts 1. Vnavoidably a time of need will come that the Grace of God can only help in None but a great Atheist can make any doubt of this Dost thou believe there is a God that thou art a Mortal Man whom a few more days will turn out of this World Dost thou believe that thou hast an immortal Soul that must be for ever and how much a Beast is that Man and worse than a Beast that doubts of any of these If thou believe these plain Principles canst thou doubt but a time of need will come wherein nothing can stand thee in any stead but only this God's Mercy and Grace 2. This present time you have is the only time given you for preparing for the time of need that must come How little is that precious golden Talent Time laid out for that the Lord gives it for Can Men think that God gives them time to spend it in the ways they spend it That must be ill-spent time that is spent so as Men know they must either repent of or perish by We are bid redeem the time Eph. 5.16 But most Men throw it away or fell it to Sin and Satan as if they had no the for it The best use of time is to spend it in preparing for Eternity All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come Job 14.14 These are well-spent Days But how few of the Hours of your Days are thus spent 3. There can be no greater folly than to neglect this present only season of preparing for an unavoidable time of extremity Our Lord in the Parable calls the five negligent Virgins foolish Matth. 25.2 If a Man throw away his Estate in Folly and Vanity the World will brand him with the name of a Fool and justly If a Man throws away his Health and Life there is Folly in that too But for a Man to throw away his Soul and all his hopes of well-being for Eternity is the rankest of all Folly yet is the World so full of such Fools that very few give it its true Name He must be greatly plagued with blindness and stupidity that is not convinced that that is the greatest Folly that shuts a Man eternally out of Heaven and locks him up in Hell 4. There can be no reflexion and remorse more sad and bitter than that that riseth on the Review and Sense of this Folly when it is remediless We read of the worm that dieth not Mark 9.44,46,48 This is commonly understood of Conscience Conscience stings two ways and one way more dreadfully than the other Conscience stings for Sin as it is an offence against God a breach of his Holy Law and as it exposeth the Sinner to God's dreadful Anger But Conscience stings more dreadfully for neglecting the Remedy for Sin provided in Christ and revealed to Men in the Gospel Therefore our Lord lays the Condemnation of the World that perisheth under the Gospel on this John 3.19 It is not laid on the evil of their deeds but on this that their love to their deeds made them hate the Light that discovered them and the Grace that only can pardon and heal them Men perish not under the Gospel because they are Sinners against God's Law though the least Sin deserves Hell and they that have not the Light of the Gospel are justly judged by the Law but because they believe not in Jesus Christ John 3.18 And Believers in Christ are not saved because they are Holy though all that believe are Holy but because they are in Christ by Faith That the Glory of Salvation may be Christ's entirely and the blame of Mens Perdition under the Gospel may be their own intirely Let Men therefore prevent this dreadful Ruin by giving an ear to him that calleth them Christ offers you Salvation from a Throne of Grace Come and take it Come and put forth your Hand and take and eat of the Tree of Life and live for ever You must all shortly stand before Christ's Throne when it will be no more a Throne of Grace 2 Cor. 5.10 We must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ That will be a time of great
need and none can stand with Peace before that Throne but they that have been acquainted with this Throne of Grace in my Text. Christ on the Throne of Grace and Christ on the Judgment-seat is the same Christ Christ in the Gospel and Christ on the Clouds is the same Christ Yet we must distinguish Christ on the Throne of Grace is no Judge and Christ on the Judgment-Seat hath no Grace to dispense Now is his time of dispensing Grace then will be the day of his punishing the Despisers of Grace and of giving the Crown of Glory to the Receavers of his Grace In the last place I would give a few Directions unto real Christians in order to your providing of Grace to help in time of need 1. Lay the Foundation sure a time of need will try it 1 Cor. 3.11 Other Foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ The Father hath laid Christ for a Foundation Isa 28.16 Therefore thus saith the Lord God behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone a tried stone a precious corner-stone a sure foundation He that believeth shall not make haste Applyed to Christ 1 Pet. 2.6 The faithful Ministers of the Gospel lay Christ for a Foundation 1 Cor. 3.10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise Master-builder I have laid the foundation But how can a poor Sinner lay Christ for a Foundation to himself Turn but the Words and the Question is answered Thy laying of Christ for a Foundation is thy laying thy self upon Christ as a Foundation and it is neither more nor less nor any thing else Cast your selves and all your Concerns about Salvation on Christ alone Let him bear all He only can and calls for this from you One of the first Questions that riseth in the mind of a Christian in a time of need is this Is the Foundation right laid Am I founded on Christ The Storm will try the Foundation It were great wisdom to secure that before the Storm come 2. Clear up your Evidences against a time of need The Evidences of a Christian are not his Charters for Heaven the Covenant of Grace contains them but they are as Light by which a Christian reads his Charters Evidences are of great use in a time of need They stand in Gods Work in us Our Faith stands on God's word of Promise to us and on Christ's Work for us the Evidences of Believers stand in God's gracious working in and on and by them These four Words I would give about your Evidence 1. When you cannot perceave them search for them 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your selves whether you be in the Faith prove your own selves know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except you be reprobates or disapproved The Exhortation is so delivered as to perswade us that very narrow and exact searching is called for in this Work May not that Christian's Heart condemn him who is daily complaining of his Ignorance of his State when he knows that serious self-examination is neglected by him 2. If upon searching you cannot yet find beg the help of the Spirit of God to discover his own work in you 1 Cor. 2.12 Now we have receaved not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God The Illumination of the Holy Ghost is not only simply needful to give us a saving knowledge of the Mystery of the Gospel but is so also to give us a right knowledge of the my story of his Grace in us Eph. 1.17,18,19 where the Apostle prays for the Spirit for both these ends David prays for the Lord's help in his examining of himself Psal 139,23,24 A Heart laid open to God's search a Heart willing to have all in it viewed and discovered by the Lord is an upright sincere Heart Whoever is willing to know his worst is not stark naught Yet he that seeth but the least half of his badness will judge himself to be very bad 3. If you cannot yet find your Evidences make them presently Many Christians need this advice They formerly had Evidences of their Interest in Christ they had a clear fight of the Truth and Fruits of their Faith and Love and Repentance this refreshing Sight is gone and they mourn as without the Sun as Job speaks chap 30.28 Let such take this course Act afresh that Grace when you are doubtful whether you ever acted it before See you at present no clear Evidences of your former believing Act Faith presently There are few things more evident than strong believing is in the very acting of it And if the acting of Faith on Jesus Christ as speaking in righteousness and mighty to saue Isa 63.1 be evident to thee thou hast the best Evidence for eternal Life that is in all the Bible Most of the Promises run this way Whoever believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life John 3.15,16,17 It is the gracious and wise Constitution of the Lord that no Grace can be ordinarily evident to a Man in whom it is so as in and by the exercise and acting of it 4. When you find Evidences of God's Work in you Bless the Worker and Discoverer of them and believe more and more Say with David Psal 71.14 I will hope continually and will yet praise thee more and more It is just with God and merciful too that darkness should come upon that Man's Evidences who sits down upon them and blesseth himself in them more than he doth God for them and pleaseth himself in a life of Sense with neglecting the life of Faith 3. Make good use of your former Experiences of the Mercy and Grace of God helping you in former times of need The Lord's kindness is not shown to us for the present time only but for the time to come It is not given to us to play or please our selves with at present but for good and needful uses for strengthening of our Faith exciting of Praise and directing and encouraging us to come to the same Door we were formerly relieved at It is a part of the work of Faith to look back on formerly-bestowed Mercy and Grace as well as to look forward to the greater and better things to come It is a great Sin but very common that a Believer who hath many Years Experience of the Mercy of God if there be a stop put to the Stream of Mercy he is often as much shaken in his Faith as if he had never tasted that the Lord is gracious 4. In preparing for a time of need be careful to keep your Conscience's clean There is no worse Company in an evil day than an evil Conscience It is worse Company than the Devil 's His Company is that of a Tempter and Accuser but an evil Conscience is a Judge condemning and an Executioner tormenting a Man Therefore herein exercise your selves