applied to the Bleeding Wounds of Afflicted Saints 12 o. A Sermon Preached at the Publick Thanksgiving Feb. 14. 1689. for Englands Deliverance from Popery Books Printed for Matthew Wotton Smith's David's Repentance Great Assize David's Blessed Man. Dent's Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven Farnaby's Rhetorick Inet's Devout Christian in Three Parts first Prayers for a single Person secondly Prayers for a Family thirdly A Discourse on and Prayers at the Sacrament Winchester's Phrases Markham's Master piece 4 o. English Gardner 4 o. Salmon's Dispensatory Doron Medicum or Supplement to the Dispensatory Baker's Arithmetick York's Arithmetick Lucian's Dialogues Greek and Latin. ERRATA Si accentus Comma Colon Periodus omittantur vel id genus lelevior a occurr ant festinantis preli 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tuam rogatam velim indulgentiam graviora quod attinet exhibeo tibi indicem ut videre est In the Latin Epistle PAge 5. line 9. after ita add neque ib. read Regimen p. 7. l. 6 for r. ut and l. 18. r. aperuit p. 10. l. 12. r. iniquiratum p. 13. l. 6. for quam quâ—â— p. 15. l. 4. r. judicium l. 23. for aliis r. alies p. 25. l. 7. for atques r. aqtue l. 19. r. Cognitionem Dilectionemque In the Book it self Correct thus Page 17. l. 23. r. how To. p. 26. l. 3. r. Co extended p 39. l. ult for but r. and. p. 40. l. 15. r. Angel of God p. 41. l. 14 for World r. Word p. 53. l. 4. r. a point p. 57. l. 24. r. the Doctrine of Free Grace p. 65. l. 23. for though r. because p. 95. l. 4. r. fell p. 142. l. ult r. home p. 159. l6 r. Four. p. 177. l. 19 for too r. some p. 192. l. 21. r. the Curse p. 216. l. 28. r. your p. 227. l. 21. r. hold p. 246. l. 1. r. once p. 251. l. 26. for by r. for p. 256. l. 20. r. Thousands p. 264. l. 9. for seem r. serve p. 268. l. 17. r. which p. 269. l. 17. dele the. p. 270. l. 29. r. scared p. 275. l. 23. for that r. the. p. 278. l. 1â— song p. 281. Marg. for est r. p. 284. l. 22. for have r. hear p. 291. l. 23. dele and. p. 305. l. 19. r. Word p. 311. l. ult r. strikes p. 312. l. 19. r. you p. 318. l. 7. for means r. signs p. 322. l. 5. r. Christ's p. 326. l. 17. r. gaining p. 329. l. 25. add not p. 342. l. 20. for in r. with p. 394. l. 7. r. to sit p. 414. l. 17. r. believers p. 417. l. 14. r. hides and l. 28. r. poured out P. 445. l. 3. r. first is this the. l. 19. dele a. In the Appendix Page 17. line 11. add to p. 41. l. 13. r. when it p. 54. 1. 27. r. by their p. 62. l. 18. r. abeneus SERMON I. Revel 3. 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me THis day hath our compassionate Redeemer opened unto us a door of liberty liberty to us to preach and liberty for you to hear the glad tydings of the Gospel This is a day few looked for how often have I said in the years that are past God hath no more work for me to do and I shall have no more strength and opportunities to work for God And how often have you said in your hearts we have sinned our Ministers out of their Pulpits and our eyes shall no more behold those our Teachers But lo beyond the thoughts of most hearts a wide and I hope an effectâ—al door is now opened in the midst of us Oh! that it might be to us as the Valley of Achor was to Israel for a door of hope Hosea 2. 15. i. e. not only making the troubles they met with in that Valley an Inlet to their mercies as ours have been to us but giving them that Valley pignoris nomine as a pledge of greater mercies intended for them Upon the first appearance of this mercy my next thoughts were how to make the most fruitful improvement of it amongst you lest we should twice stumble at the same stone and sin our selves back again into our old bondage In the contemplation of this matter the Lord directed me to this Scripture wherein the same hand that opened to you the door of liberty knocks importunately at the doors of your hearts for entrance into them for union and communion with them It will be sad indeed if he that hath let you in to all these mercies should himself be shut out of your hearts But if the Lord should help you to open your hearts now to Christ I doubt not but this door of liberty will be kept open to you how many soever the Adversaries be that envy it and will do their uttermost to shut it up Ezech. 39. 29. The mercies you enjoy this day are the fruits of Christs intercession with the Father for one tryal more if we bring forth fruit well if not the Ax lyeth at the Root of the Tree Under this consideration I desire to Preach and even so the Lord help you to hear what shall be spoken from this precious Scripture Behold I stand at the door and knock c. These words are a branch of that excellent Epistle dictated by Christ and sent by his servant John to the Church of Laodicea the most formal hypocritical and degenerate of all the seven Churches yet the great Phisitian will try his skill upon them both by the rebukes of the rod ver 19. and by the perswasive power of the word ver 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock c. This Text is Christs wooing voice full of Heavenly Rhetorick to win and gain the hearts of Sinners to himself wherein we have these two general parts 1. Christs suit for a Sinners heart 2. The powerful Arguments enforcing his suit First Christs suit for a Sinners heart wherein we have 1st the solemn Preface ushering it in behold 2dly the suit it self The Preface is exceeding solemn for beside the common use of this word behold in other places to excite attention or exaggerate and put weight into an affirmation it stands here as a Judicious Expositor notes as a term of notification or publick record wherein Christ takes witness of the most gracious offer he was now about to make to their souls and will have it stand in perpetuam rei memoriam as a testimony for or against their souls to all Eternity to cut off all excuses and pretences for time to come 2. The suit it self wherein we have 1. The Suitor Jesus Christ. 2. His posture and action I stand at the door and knock 3. The suit it self which is for opening If any man open 1. The Suitor Christ himself I stand I that have a right of Sovereignty over you I that have shed my invaluable blood to
The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force Matth. 11. 12. Why should other Mens Souls be dearer to them than yours unto you What discouragements have you which other Men have not Or what encouragements have they which you have not Say not we have no assurance our pains shall prosper or our strivings be made effectual to Conversion if there were any promise in the Gospel that such endeavours should be seconded from Heaven and made available to Salvation then we would strive as long as breath and life should last but all this may be to no purpose we may be Christ-less and hope-less when all is done But yet remember it is possible God may bless these weak endeavours and come in by his Almighty Spirit with them Nay it is highly probable that he will do so and is a strong probability nothing with you Do you use to do no actions about your civil callings without an assurance of success When the Merchant adventures his Life or Estate at Sea is he sure of a good return Or doth he not adventure upon the meer hopes and probabilities of a gainful voyage When the Husbandman plows his Lands empties both his bags and purse upon it is he sure of a good harvest May not a blast come that shall defeat all his hopes Yet he ploweâ—h and soweth in hope and ordinarily God maketh him partaker of his hope but without such industry his expectations would be vain Away then with vain excuses up and be doing in the use of all appointed means and the Lord be with you Third Vse for Tryal Before I dismiss this Point let us try our selves by it whether God have opened our Hearts to Christ broken these Bars of Ignorance Unbelief Custom Prejudice c. and the Will stand wide open to receive Christ Jesus the Lord. This is a solemn Use the consequence of it great Oh that our faithfulness and seriousness in the trial might be answerable Try your selves by these following marks I. Mark. If your Eyes be not opened to see sin in its vileness and Christ in his glory suitableness and necessity then sure your Hearts were never yet effectually opened by the Gospel I confess Mens Eyes may be opened to see sin and yet their Hearts at the same time shut up by unbelief against Christ but no Mans Heart can be opened to Christ whilst his Eyes are shut Iohn 6. 40. This is the will of him that sent me that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life The work of Faith is always wrought in the light of Conviction the cure of the Heart begins at the Eye of the Mind Acts 26. 18. To open their Eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. God opens Mens Hearts by shining into them 2 Cor. 4. 6. If therefore any Mans Eyes be still blinded with Ignorance Prejudice c. so that he apprehends not his own guilt and misery nor sees the worth and necessity of a Saviour that Mans Heart is still under Satans Lock and Bar sin is shut in and Christ is shut out of that Mans Soul. II. Mark. No Heart opens to Christ by Faith till it be first prickt and wounded by Compunction and Humiliation this Heart-wounding work is always antecedent to the work of Faith. I doubt not but your thoughts fore-run my Discourse to that famous Scripture Acts 2. 37. where Peter preaching to those that had crucified Christ and bringing up his Discourse close to their Consciences in the application of that Sermon convincing them not only what an horrid and atrocious crime the crucifying the Son of God was in it self but also charging it home upon them Whom you have taken and with wicked Hands have crucified and slain When they heard this they were pricked at the Heart and cried out Men and Brethren what shall we do Upon this outcry three thousand Souls opened in one hour to Christ Now consider whether your Hearts have been thus prickt and wounded Hath sorrow for sin pierced thy Soul Vain sinner that frothy Heart of thine must be made to bleed under Compunctions for sin or there will be no room for Christ in it Come Souls t is in vain to flatter your selves in your own Eyes reflect upon the frames of your Hearts call back the days that are past and say When was the Time and where was the Place when thou layest at the Foot of God sobbing and mourning upon the account of thy Sins Did ever God hear such a cry as this from thy Soul Ah Lord my Soul is distressed I rowle hither and thither for ease and comfort but find none O the insupportable weight of guilt Oh the bitterness of sin My Soul fails under it Lord undertake for me I do not say The degrees of Compunction and Humiliation are equal in all Converts neither their sins nor abilities to bear sorrows for them are equal but this I say Thy Heart must ake for sin or it will never open to Christ he binds up none but broken Hearts Isa. 61. 1. III. Mark. If Christ be come into thy Heart then the love and delight of every sin is gone out of thy Heart Christ and the love of sin cannot dwell together what Christ said to the Soldiers that apprehended him in the Garden the like he saith to every Soul that comes to apprehend him by Faith If you seek me let these go their way away with the sin thou most delightest in Christ cannot come in till these be gone Isa. 55. 6 7 8. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous Man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Here be the terms of your Acceptation and Salvation plainly laid down forsake thy ways and thoughts the way notes the external acts of sin and the thoughts the internal acts both of contrivance and delight in sin both these must be forsaken and that 's not all for this makes up but a negative holyness Let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy It is in vain for Men to make the door of Salvation wider than God hath made it we cannot bring down Christs terms lower than he hath set them if we will not come up to them Christ and we must part And this makes the great struggle the sharp debate in the Souls of Converts Oh t is hard to give up pleasant and profitable lusts but away they must go a Bill of Divorce must be signed for them or you cannot be espoused to the Lord Jesus This will be found to be a harder tug than to part with all externals for Christ sake IV. Mark. No Heart can open truly to Christ that is not made willing upon due deliberation to receive
the Earth bringing Pardon and Salvation with him to stand so long unanswered let who will cry up the goodness of Nature I am sure we have reason to look upon the vileness of it with amazement and horror You could not have found in your Hearts to have made the poorest beggar wait so long at your door as you have made Christ to wait upon you VII Exhortation Seventhly and Lastly Let us all bless and admire the Lord Jesus for the continuation of his Patience not to our selves only but to that whole sinful Nation in which we live We thought the Treaty of Peace had been ended with us many good Men looking upon the iniquities and abominations of these times considering the vanities and backsliding of Professors the Heaven-daring provocations of this Atheistical age concluded in their own Hearts that God would make England another Shiloh Many faithful Ministers of Christ said within themselves God hath no more Work for us to do and we shall have no more opportunities to work for God. When lo beyond the thoughts of all Hearts the merciful and long-suffering Redeemer makes one return more to these Nations renews the Treaty and with compassions rolled together speaks to us this day as to Ephraim of old How shall I deliver thee Look upon this day this unexpected day of Mercy as the fruit and acquisition of the intercession of your great Advocate in Heaven answerable to that Luke 13. 7 8 9. Well God hath put us upon one Tryal more if now we bring forth fruit well if not the ax lyes at the root of the Tree Once more Christ knocks at our doors the voice of the Bridegroom is heard those sweet voices Come unto me Open to me your opening to Christ now will be unto you as the Valley of Achor for a door of hope But what if all this should be turned into wantonness and formality what if your obstinacy and infidelity should wear out the remains of that little strength and time left you and that former Labours and Sorrows have left your Ministers Then actum est de nobis we are gone for ever then farewel Gospel Ministers Reformation and all because we knew not the time of our Visitation What was the dismal doom of God upon the fruitless Vineyard Isa. 5. 5. I will take away the hedge thereof and it shall be eaten up and break down the wall thereof and it shall be troden down I will also command the Clouds that they rain not upon it The hedge and the wall are the Spiritual and Providential presence of God these are the defence and safety of his People the Clouds and the Rain are the sweet influences of Gospel Ordinances If the hedge be broken down God's pleasant Plants will soon be eaten up and if the Clouds rain not upon them their Root will be rottenness and their Blossom will go up as dust Our Churches will soon become as the Mountains of Gilboa therefore see that you know and improve the time of your Visitation III. Vse of Consolation I shall wind up this Fourth Doctrin in two or three words of Consolation to those that have answered and are now preparing to answer the design and end of Jesus Christ in all his Patience towards them by the compliance of their Hearts with his great design and end therein O blessed be God and let his high-praises be for ever in our Mouths that at last Christ is like to obtain his end upon some of us and that all do not receive the Grace of God in vain And there be three Considerations able to wind up your Hearts to the height of Praise if the Lord have now made them indeed willing to open to the Lord Jesus I. Consideration The Faith and Obedience of your Hearts makes it evident that the Lords waiting upon you hitherto hath been in pursuance of his design of Electing Love. What was the reason God would not take you away by death though you passed so often upon the very brink of it in the days of your unregeneracy And what think you was the very reason of the revocation of your Gospel-liberties when they were quite out of sight and almost out of hope why surely this was the reason that you and such as you are might be brought to Christ at last Therefore though the Lord let you run on so long in sin yet still he continued your Life and the means of your Salvation because he had a design of Mercy and Grace upon you And now the time of Mercy even the set time is come Praise ye the Lord. II. Consideration You now also see the Sovereignty and freeness of Divine Grace in your vocation your Hearts resisted all along the most powerful means and importunate calls of Christ and would have resisted still had not Free and Sovereign Grace over-poured them when the time of Love was come Ah it was not the tractableness of thine own Will the easie temper of thy Heart to be wrought upon the Lord let thee stand long enough in the state of Nature to discover that there was nothing in Nature but obstinacy and enmity Thou didst hear as many powerful Sermons melting Prayers and didst see as many awakning Providences before thy Heart was opened to Christ as thou hast since yet thy Heart never opened till now and why did it open now Because now the Spirit of God joyned himself to the Word victorious Grace went forth in the Word to break the hardness and conquer the rebellions of thy Heart The Gospel was now preached as the Apostle speaks 1 Pet. 1. 12. With the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven which things saith he the Angels desire to look into Ah Friends it is a glorious sight worthy of Angelical observation and admiration to behold the effects of the Gospel preacht with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven to see when the Spirit comes along with the Word the blind Eyes of sinners opened and they brought into a new World of ravishing objects to behold Fountains of Tears flowing for sin out of Hearts lately as hard as the Rocks to see all the Bars of Ignorance Prejudice Custom and Unbelief fly open at the voice of the Gospel to see Rebels against Christ laying down their Arms at his Feet come upon the Knee of submission crying Lord I will rebel no more to see the proud Heart centered and wrapt up in its own righteousness now striping it self naked loading it self with all shame and reproach and made willing that its own shame should go to the Redeemer's glory These I say are sights which Angels desire to look into Certainly your Hearts were more tender and your Wills more apt to yield and bend in the days of your youth than they were now when sin had so hardned them and long continued custom riveted and fixed them yet then they did not and now they do yield to the calls and invitations of the Gospel Ascribe all to Sovereign Grace and
injuries thou hast done against him that 's a very considerable Scripture to this purpose in Isa. 55. 7 8 9. Let the wicked for sake his way and the unrighteous Man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts Man lies under a double misery one by reason of Affliction another by reason of Transgression concerning both these Gods thoughts are not as ours but far above what we can think either 1. with simple cogitation i. e. we cannot think such thoughts to others under misery in themselves or under transgression against us as God doth towards as Or 2. by way of reflexive comprehension i. e. we cannot conceive what those thoughts of God are towards us when we are under misery or sin just as he thinks them still his thoughts will be above ours as the Heavens are above the Earth such is the altitude of Heaven above the Earth that the vast body of the whole Earth is but a small inconsiderable point to it the highest Cedars Mountains Clouds cannot reach it Gods thoughts are infinite ours finite his thoughts are continued ours interrupted and at a stand his are immutable ours changable his are intuitive ours discursive therefore never measure his by your own the thoughts of pardoning Grace in him are rich plenteous and glorious but when our unbelieving Hearts have practised upon them they are quite another thing Thou saist how can such a Wretch as I obtain mercy Thou knowest not but the Lord knoweth O if we could take in such a proper Idea and apprehension of the mercy and goodness of God as he hath given of them himself in Exod. 34. 6 7. this would bring you to Christ with much incouragement VIII Direction Eighthly Be not discouraged in the work of Faith though no peace or comfort should come in by the first act of it Nay though there should be an increase of trouble for the present the first saving act of Faith certainly puts you into a state of peace but it may not presently produce the sense of peace you may after you have believed and really closed with Christ meet with some discouragements which may make you question whether Christ have received you or no Whether he have any love for your Souls or no Yet held on whether comfort come or come not though Christ and comfort are inseparable yet Christ and the sense of comfort are not so think not that all your troubles shall be over as soon as ever you believe because it is said Heb. 4. 3. We which have believed do enter into rest That Scripture speaks of a state of rest and not of the present or continued sense of rest the Woman of Canaan in Matth. 15. 26 27. did really believe in Christ yet met with sore tryals under the first act of her Faith yet this took her not off from the work of Faith but rather quickned and inflamed her the more she was glad of a word from Christ and she expected deeds O but the words were discourageing It is not meet to take the Childrens bread and give it to Dogs yet this beats not off her Faith the Dog belongs to the Family and crumbs to the Dog. O Woman saith Christ great is thy Faith. If you resolve for Christ you must not be discouraged a resolute Faith overcomes all difficulties You pray you believe and yet no comfort well the vision of Peace is for an appointed time at the end it will speak and not lye IX Direction Ninthly In your treating with Christ have a care of all secret reserves that will spoil the bargain betwixt Christ and you If I regard iniquity in my Heart God will not hear my prayer saith David If there be but a reserve of one lust that reserve will break off the Treaty be honest with Christ and say not of any sin the Lord be merciful to me in this and be sure there be no secret purpose or reserve in thy Heart for a retreat in time of danger but imbark thy self with Christ for Storms and Tempests Troubles and Afflictions as well as Peace and Prosperâ—ty Christ bestows himself wholly upon you and he expects the same from you give up all or you will get nothing from him X. Direction Tenthly Close up your Treaty with Christ by a solemn Covenant with him ingage your selves to be the Lords One shall say I am the Lords and another shall subscribe with his Hand to the Holy One of Israel Here you have two things to do 1. To give your selves up to Christ according to that expression 2 Cor. 8. 5. You gave your selves to the Lord Make over Soul and Body Time and Talents henceforth to be dedicated things to his Service 2. Take Christ in both his Natures and in all his Offices to be yours and to this Covenant you are to stand to the last breath whatever times or troubles shall come this consent of thy Heart to be Christs this choice of thy Will in taking him for thine is but the eccho of Christs choice of thee and I would rather have such an evidence of my interest in him than a voice from Heaven to assure me that Christ is mine SERMON VII Revel 3. 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock if any Man hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me If any Man. THIS expression extends the gracious offer of Christ and brings it home to every hearer 'T is a Proclamation with a Si quis If any Man as if Christ should say I will have this offer of my Grace to go round to every particular person if thou or thou or thou the greatest the vilest of sinners of what quality or condition soever old or young prophane or hypocritical wilt hear my voice and open to me I will come in to their Souls And hereby all objections are obviated as for Example I am the greatest of sinners saith one I have been a self couzening hypocrite saith another I have resisted Grace too long and doubt the time of Mercy is past saith a third the ground of all these and a thousand more objections is taken away by the gracious extent of Christs offer in the Text For who is he that can limit where Christ doth not This gives us a Seventh profitable and comfortable Observation which is this VII DOCT. That Iesus Christ will not refuse to come in to the Soul of the vilest sinner when once it is made heartily willing to open to him If any Man open I will come in to him It is not unworthiness but unwillingness that Bars any Man from Christ thousands have mist of
most satisfying of all Come on poor trembling Soul dont be discouraged stretch out the small weak Arms of thy Faith to that great and gracious Redeemer open thy Heart wide to receive him he will not refuse to come in he hath sealed thousands of pardons to as vile Wretches as thy self he never yet shut the door of Mercy upon a willing hungering Soul. It is a great matter to have the Way beaten and the Ice broken before thee in thy way to Christ. If thou wert the first sinner that had cast his Soul upon Christ I confess I should want this encouragement I am now giving thee but when so many have gone before thee and all found a welcom beyond their expectation What incouragement doth this breath into thy trembling discouraged Heart to go on and venture thy self upon Christ as they did what an Example have we in Manasseh 2 Chron. 33. from vers 3. to 12. An Idolater one that used Enchantments and Divinations familiar Spirits shed innocent Blood in the Streets of Ierusalem a Man might rake the World and hardly bring â—o sight a viler Wretch a greater Monster in sin and wickedness yet his Heart being broken and his Will bowed this Man found Mercy How great a sinner was Mary that came to Christ in the House of Simon the Pharisee Luke 7. 39. So notorious a sinner that Simon took offence at Christ for suffering so vile Wretch to come into his presence If this Man were a Prophet saith he he would have known who and what manner of Woman this is that toucheth him for she is a sinner Yet Maries Heart being broken for sin and made willing to accept of a Saviour what a gracious demonstration of welcom did Christ give her and to all other sinners a singular encouragement in her Example Once more you have an eminent Example of the abundant welcom of another sinner to Christ who owned himself for the greatest of Sinners a Persecuter a Blasphemer Injurious but saith he I obtained Mercy 1 Tim. 1. 16. And the Example of his gracious Entertainment with Christ is recorded on purpose for an encouragement unto all that should hereafter believe How many thousands are there now in Hell that never stood guilty of greater enormeties than the Corinthians did Fornicators Idolaters Adulterers Thieves Covetous Drunkards Revilers Extortioners such were some of them yet Sanctified Washed Justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. If ever Christ would have shut the door of Mercy upon any if ever he would have been coy and shy of coming into any Souls certainly these were the Souls he would have disdained to come near O what a demonstration is here of that comfortable Point before us That Christ will not refuse to come into the Soul of the vilest Sinner when ones it is made Heartily willing to open to him IV. Evidence A further Evidence of this comfortable Truth shall be taken from the Scripture resemblances of the abundant Grace of God and riches of Mercy in Christ towards all broken Hearted and willing Sinners There are some chosen resemblances and excellent Emblems which bring down the Grace of God before the very Eyes of Men amongst which I will single out three glorious Resemblances of Free Grace chosen by his Wisdom on purpose for the incouragement of poor drooping Sinners A Resemblance from the Heavens a Resemblance from the Sun and a Resemblance from the Sea all such as the Wisdom of Men and Angels could never have chosen for such a purpose as this is I. A Resemblance from the Heavens those vast extended Heavens that cover and compass this Earth what an inconsiderable spot is the whole Terrestrial Globe to those high and all-surrounding Heavens and yet these Heavens are not at so vast a distance above the Earth as the pardoning Grace of God is above the guilt yea and the very thoughts of poor Sinners For of the pardoning Grace of God to penitent and willing Souls that precious Scripture speaks Isa. 55. 8 9. Let the wicked for sake his way and the unrighteous Man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon O saith the Soul I cannot think God will ever have Mercy on such a Wretch as I why saith he vers 8. My thoughts are not your thoughts and 't is well they are not but as the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are my thoughts higher than your thoughts You cannot take the height nor sound the depth of my pardoning Grace That 's one Emblem from the unconceivable height of the Heavens above the Earth II. Another is taken from the Sun in the Heavens a Creature of admirable Power and Vertue you know that anon this part of the World will be the Throne of Darkness the Sable curtains of the Night will be spread over all the beauties of this part of the Earth and it may be in the Morning a thick Fog or Mist will cover it thick and dark Clouds may darken the Heavens but behold this glorious Creature the Sun chasing before him the darkness of the Night breaking up the Mists and Fogs of the Morning scattering the dark and thick Clouds of Heaven they are all gone and there is no appearance of them Just so saith God shall it be with thy sins and thy Cloudy fears arising out of sin Isa. 44. 22. I have blotted out as a thick Cloud thy transgressions and as a Cloud thy sins Thy Soul is beclouded thy fears have bemisted thee so that thou canst not see the grounds of thine encouragement but my Grace shall arise upon thee like the Sun in the Heavens and scatter all these dismal Clouds both of guilt and fear and make a clear Heaven over thee and a clear Soul within thee Vnto you that fear my Name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing under his wings Mal. 4. 2. III. Another Resemblance you have from the Sea the great Abyss that vast Congregation of Waters whose depth no line can fadom Veer out as much Line as you will you cannot touch the bottom To this unfathomable Ocean the pardoning Grace of God is also resembled Mich. 7. 18 19. Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage he retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy He will turn again he will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the Sea. If the loftiest Pyramid or highest Mountain were cast into the depth of the Sea it would never be seen more by the Eyes of Men. God hath on purpose chosen this Emblem of his Grace to obviate that common discouragement of Satan taken from the greatness and aggravation of sin and in that case thou art to make use of them and bless the Lord for them he
never designed them for encouragements to sin but for encouragements to repentance and Faith. That 's the Fourth Evidence of the Truth before us V. Evidence The Truth of this Conclusion will also evidently appear from the innate characters and properties of the Grace and pardoning Mercy of God towards penitent and hungring Sinners Now there are three glorious Characters of Divine Grace which do all assure such sinners welcom to Christ whatever they have been or done the Grace of God shines forth in Scripture in three illustrious Characters 1. As superabounding Grace 2. As Free Grace 3. As Grace exercised with delight First It is superabounding Grace Waters do not so abound in the Ocean nor Light in the Sun as Grace and compassion do in the bowels of God towards broken Hearted and hungry sinners Isa. 55. 6. Let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon The compassions of our God inserted that word on purpose to relieve poor Souls fainting under the sense of their abounding iniquities Here 's abundant Pardon for abounding Guilt and yet left a desponding sinner should not find enough here to quiet his fears the Lord goes yet farther in the expression of his Grace Rom. 5. 20. Where sin abounded Grace did much more abound It overflowed all the bounds it rose quite above the high-water Mark of sin and guilt but these overflowings of Grace run only through that channel of all Grace Jesus Christ to broken Hearted and obedient Sinners Secondly The Grace of God to such Souls is free every way free it is the very design of the Gospel to exhibit it in this its glory It costs you nothing but acceptance its free without merit yea free against merit you can deserve nothing of God therefore his Grace is free without merit yea you have deserved Hell as often as you have sinned against him and so it is free against merit If a pardon were to be purchased by us we want a stock for such a purchase neither can we borrow from Men or Angels a sufficient sum for such a purchase Blessed be God therefore that it flows freely to us without money and without price Isa. 55. 2. Thirdly Grace glories in another property also which is very encouraging to the Soul of a drooping sinner viz. that it is the darling attribute which God greatly delights to exercise The tender Mother draws not out her aking Breast with such delight to her hungry crying Child as the Lord doth his Mercy and Compassion to broken Hearted and hungry Sinners in this attribute and in this property of it his people therefore admire him Mich. 7. 18. Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage He retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy You cannot put Jesus Christ upon a more delightful imployment than to bind up the Wounds and set the broken Bones of poor convinced humbled Sinners Let every such Soul come to Christ and welcom for he greatly delights in such imployments VI. Evidence Such sinners need not doubt a welcom reception with Christ for should he reject and turn back such as these then none can have the benefit of his Blood and consequently it must be shed in vain as Water spilt upon the ground The Blood of Christ is invaluably precious and it cannot be lost it were a desperate impeachment of the Wisdom and Goodness of God to think so yet so it must be if broken Hearted and willing Souls be rejected and turned back from him There are but two sorts of Sinners in all the World viz. hardned and broken Hearted Sinners willing and unwilling Sinners The whole World falls into these two ranks as for impenitent hardned and obstinate sinners 't is certain they can have no benefit by the Blood of Christ they shall dye in their sins the Gospel cuts them off so continuing from all expectation of pardon and mercy Now there is but one sort of Sinners more left in the World and they are convinced and humbled Sinners who are made heartily willing to receive Christ upon his own terms who stretch forth the Hands of their desires to him and pant after an interest in him Should Christ reject these also who then shall receive the benefit of his Blood Did Christ dye in vain Or can the Counsels of Heaven prove abortive No no fear not therefore to go to Christ thou broken Hearted Sinner thou poor panting longing Soul fear not he will not cast thee out VII Evidence Moreover for the encouragement of all such Souls mercy and pardon are designed by bestowed upon the greatest and vilest of sinners to enhance and raise the glory of Free Grace to the highest pitch God picks out such Sinners as you are on purpose to illustrate the glory of his Grace in and upon you he knows you to whom so much is forgiven you will love much Luke 7. 47. You that have done so much against his Name and Glory will excel others in zeal and obedience 1 Cor. 15. 9 10. You will go beyond others in service for God as you have done in sinning against him All these things laid together make up a full demonstration of the Point That Iesus Christ will not refuse to come into the Soul of the vilest Sinner when once it is made heartily willing to open unto him Which was the thing to be proved and now our way is open to the Application of the Point which will be exceeding useful for Information Exhortation and Consolation I. Vse for Information Learn hence what an invaluable Mercy it is to enjoy the Gospel in its light and liberty which is so great a relief to the distressed Consciences of sinners Here only that Balm is to be found that heals your spiritual Wounds The Gospel hath been a low prized commodity in England the Lord pardon the guilt thereof to us Ah Brethren if you were in the Heathen World with your sick and wounded Consciences what would you do There are no Bibles Ministers or Promises not a breath of Christ or the Blood of sprinkling which are the true and proper remedies of sick Souls that 's a pitiful cry Mich. 6. 6. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and how my self before the high God Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings with Calves of a year old Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or ten thousand Rivers of Oyl Shall I give my first-born for my transgression the fruit of my Body for the sin of my Soul Behold here the anguish of a destressed sin-burdened Conscience it would give up any thing in the World for peace and ease they would cast their Children their dearest Children their first-born into the burning flames if that might be an atonement for their â—ins O the efficacy of Conscience And the misery of an unrelieved Conscience But the
for righteousness The meaning is to him that worketh not in a law sense to procure pardon and acceptance by and for working Go then poor sinner unto God through Christ and tell him thou hast nothing to bring him thou comest not to bring but to receive Lord I am a vile sinner I have nothing to plead but thy mercy and Christs merit This is the Spirit of the Gospel 2ly By standing off from Faith for want of these qualifications you invert the setled order of the Gospel by puting consequents in the place of antecedents and antecedents in the places of consequents it is as if a Man should say If I were cured of such and such Diseases then I would go to the Phisitian alas could you otherwise procure the healing of your corruptions or the gracious qualifications you speak of you would have no need to go to Christ at all nothing is required of us in our coming to Christ but such a sense of and sorrow for â—in as makes us heartily willing to accept Christ and subscribe the terms on which he is offered in the Gospel V. Inference Behold the admirable condescension of Christ that he will come into the Heart of the vilest sinner and not disdain to take his abode in that Soul which hath been the seat of Satan where he hath ruled and every unclean lust hath been harbour'd There are two things wherein the admirable condescension of Christ appears 1. In taking union with our Nature after sin had blasted the beauty of it this was a marvelous stoop indeed and justly admired by the Apostle Phil. 2. 7. He made himself of no reputation and was made in the likeness of Men. Yea God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh Rom. 8. 3. But 2ly 't is justly admirable in our Eyes that Christ should also take union with our persons and take his habitation and abode in our Hearts after Satan and sin had so long inhabited and defiled them that he should accept those Members as instruments of his service that very Tongue to praise him that had blasphemed him c. yet so he is willing to do and commands us to deliver them up to him Rom 6. 19. As ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness One would have thought Jesus Christ should have said Vile wretch Satan hath had the use and service of thy Soul and Body from thy beginning to this day thy Memory hath been his Storehouse thy Mouth his Shop thy Will his Throne and all thy Members his Tools and Instruments to sin against me thou hast been a Creature dedicated to Satan and to him thou shalt go No but the merciful Lord declares his willingness if thou wilt open thy Soul to receive him to cleanse it by his Spirit and make it his Temple to dwell in O admirable grace VI. Inference Lastly How just and inevitable will their damnation be who consent not to the necessary and reasonable terms of the Gospel which is the only point on which Christ and their Souls part for ever The terms required by the Gospel are every way equal and reasonable if a gracious Prince will bestow a Pardon upon a Traitor upon this condition that he lay down his Arms acknowledge his Ofâ—ence and list himself in his Princes Service and he shall refuse so to do how just and unpitied will his destruction be and what else doth God require of thee but only this Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous Man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Isa. 55. 7. And as the damnation of such is just so it will be inevitable for if there be no way to glory but by Christ as you know there is not Acts 4. 12. Neither is there salvation in any other And if there be no way to Christ but by our accepting him upon these very terms as it plainly appears from Luke 14. 26. there is not what then remains but inevitable damnation to all that come not up to the terms of the Gospel If you think not Christ a good bargain with all the sufferings losses and reproaches that attend him your Mouths will be stopt no plea will be left you in the great Day You refused a fair offer when it was seasonably and graciously made you by the Gospel and now you must expect no more such offers to Eternity thy Blood sinner be upon thine own Head the freeness and Importunity of the tenders of Grace will then only seem to illustrate and clear the righteousness of God in thy condemnation II. Vse for Exhortation In the next place The point naturally leads me to a vehement perswasive unto all sinners of what rank or size soever they be to hearken to the voice of Christ who takes them all within the compass of his gracious invitation in the Text saying If any Man open I will come in Let all sorts of sinners bless God for the extensiveness of this invitation and that they find themselves by it as yet within the reach and compass of the Arms of a merciful Redeemer And that there is nothing wanting to secure their Salvation but the hearty consent of their Wills to the reasonable and necessary terms of the Gospel Look over the whole Book of God and you shall there find but one case absolutely excepted from the possibility of forgiveness but one wound absolutely incurable of which Christ speaks Matth. 12. 31 32. And what may be the reason that this only iâ— an incurable wound certainly it cannot be because the malignity of this sin exceeds the meritorious and pardoning vertue of the Blood of Christ but rather because there is no sacrifice appointed by the Lord for it God never designed that the Blood of Christ should be an expiatory Sacrifice for that sin as the Apostle plainly speaks Heb. 6. 4 5 6 7. All other sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven unto Men saith Christ that is they are capable of forgiveness upon sincere and actual repentance and faith yea they have been actually pardoned unto many now the greater any Mans sins hath been the greater need he hath to hasten to Christ for pardon There are some of you greater sinners than others for though no sin be venial light and trivial in it self yet compared one with another there is a vast difference found betwixt them in the weight and aggravations of them Now I will labour to shew you by what rules Men are to estimate the greatness and aggravation of sin and then to convince you that the greatest of sinners stand yet fair for mercy as well as the lesser and sometimes much fairer Publicans and Harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you saith Christ Matth. 21. 31. Now the rules to estimate the aggravations and greatness
frowns the Kings of the Earth tremble the Captains and the Mighty Men shrink like worms into their holes if the lesser Executions of it by Providence in this world be so dreadful that men yea good men have desired an hiding place in the Grave till it be past Iob 14. 13. then what is the full execution thereof upon the ungodly in the place of Torments If the threats and denunciations of it against others have made an Habakkuk though assured of personal safety to quiver with his Lips and tremble in his Bowels as you see it did Hab. 3. 16. How much more should those tremble and quiver who are to be the Subjects of it and not the meer Heralds of it as he was And which is more than all if Iesus Christ who was to feel it but a few Hours and had the power of the Godhead to support him under it did notwithstanding sweat as it had been great drops of blood and was sore amazed think with wthy self poor wretch how shall thy heart endure or thy hands be strong when thou hast to do with an incensed Deity II. Motive Till you let your Convictions go Satan will not let you go He binds you whilst you bind them Here is the Command of God and the Command of Satan in competition Let go my Truths saith God which thou holdest in unrighteousness bind and suppress them saith Satan or they 'll deprive thee of the liberty and pleasure of thy Life Now whilst thou slightest the voice of God and Conscience for the voice of Conscience is the voice of God dost thou not avowedly declare thy self the bond-slave of Satan His Servants ye are to whom you obey Rom. 6. 16. Dare not to make one step further in the way of known sin saith Conscience continue not at thy Peril in such a dangerous state after I have so clearly convinced and warned thee of it fear not saith Satan if it be bad with thee 't will be as bad with Millions God will wound the heads of such as go in their Trespasses saith Scripture Psal. 68. 21. Tush others do so and escape as well as the most nice and tender saith Satan Now I say thy Obedience to Satans commands plainly declares thee all this while to be a poor enslaved Captive to him acted and carried according to the Prince of the power of the air the Spirit that now worketh in the Children of disobedience III. Motive Nay further until you obey your Convictions you are Confederates with the Devil in a desperate Plot against your own Souls You joyn with Christs great and avowed Enemy to dishonour him and damn your selves Two things make you Confederates with the Devil against your own Souls First Your Consent to this his Project for your Damnation for so your own Consciences out of the Scriptures inform you it is Consent makes you a Party Secondly Your Concealment of this Plot brings you in as a Party with him Confess thy sin and bewail it saith Conscience not so saith Pride and Shame how shall I look men in the face if I do so Don't you in all this believe Satan and make God a Liar Don't you act as men that hate your own Souls and love death Prov. 8. 36. O 't is a dreadful thing for men to be accessary to their own Eternal Ruin and that after fair warning and notice given them by their own Consciences Satan be his power what it will cannot destroy you without your own Consent IV. Motive Whilst you go on stifling your own Convictions and turning away your ears from its calls to Repentance and Reformation you cannot be pardoned You are in your sins and the guilt of them all lies at your door You may see what the Terms of Remission are Isa. 55. 7. Let the wicked for sake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him turn unto the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God and he will abundantly pardon So again Prov. 28. 13. He that hardneth his neck shall not prosper but he that confesseth and for saketh shall find mercy You see by these and may see by many more plain Scripture Testimonies there can be no hope of Remission whilst you go on in this path of Rebellion concealing yea and persisting in your known wickedness There is a necessary and inseparable Connection betwixt Repentance and Remission Acts 5. 31. and Luke 24. 47. And can you endure guilt to be your Bedfellow during Life and your Grave fellow after Death V. Motive You can never have peace with your own Consciences whilst you keep Convictions Prisoners Now a mans Conscience is his best Friend or his worst Enemy Thence are the sweetest Comforts and thence are the bitterest Sorrows 'T is a dreadful thing for a man to lie with a cold sweating Horror upon his panting Bosom Tum pallida mens est Criminibus tacit a sudant praecordia culpâ And this or which is worse Obduration and Stupidity must be the case of them that hold the Truth in Unrighteousness There can be no sounding a retreat to these terrors till Sheba's Head be thrown over the Walls I mean till that Sin your Conscience convinceth you of be delivered up As Israel could have no peace till Achan was destroy'd so thou shalt have no peace whilst thy sin is covered and hid Men may cry peace peace to themselves whilst they continue in sin Deut. 29. 18 19. but the sharpest troubles of Conscience are better than such peace Deliver up thy self Man if thou love peace into the hands of thy own Convictions and thou art in the true way to peace Thy rejoycing must be in the Testimony of thine own Conscience as the Apostle speakes 2 Cor. 1. 12. or thou rejoycest in a dream in a delusion in a thing of nought VI. Motive What dreadful Charges are you like to meet with upon your death-beds on the account of those sins you have lived in against Knowledge and Conviction Conscience is never more active and vigorous than in the last hours and moments of Life Now it will be stifled and over-ruled no longer It whispered before but now it thunders If a Man have a clear and quiet Conscience his Evening is clear and his Sun sets without Clouds See Psal. 37 37. The end of that man is peace In Contemplation of this Felicity it was that Balaam uttered that wish let my last end be like his This peace is the result of a Mans integrity and Obedience to the voice of Conscience this being the Evidence we can most safely rely upon of our Uprightness and Interest in Christ but the result of such violences and abuses to thy Conscience cannot be peace to thy Soul 'T is true some wicked Men dye in seeming peace and some good Men in trouble but both the one and other are mistaken the first as to the good Estate he fancies himself in and the other as to his bad Estate and a few Moments
Adam which are as the Sand upon the Sea shore that not only so many persons but all that they have done must come into Judgment even the very thoughts of their Hearts which never came to the knowledge of Men their Consciences to be interrogated all other Witnesses fully heard and examined how great a day must this day of the Lord then be The Second Vse But the main Use of this Point will be for Exhortation that seeing all the offers of Christ are recorded and witnessed with respect to a day of account every one of you would therefore immediately embrace the present gracious tender of Christ in the Gospel as ever you expect to be acquitted and cleared in that great day take heed of denials nay of delays and demurs For if the word spoken by Angels were stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation Heb. 2. 2 3. The question is put but no answer made How shall we escape The wisdom of Men and Angels cannot tell how to enforce this Exhortation I shall present you with Ten weighty Considerations upon the matter which the Lord follow home by the blessing of his Spirit upon all your Hearts I. CONSIDERATION Consider how invaluable a mercy it is that you are yet within the reach of offered Grace The mercies that stand in offer before you this day were never set before the Angels that fell no Mediator was ever appointed for them Oh astonishing mercy that those Vessels of Gold should be cast into everlasting Fire and such Clay Vessels as we are thus put into a capacity of greater happiness than ever they fell from Nay the mercy that stands before you is not only denied to the Angels that fell but to the greatest part of your fellow Creatures of the same rank and dignity with you Psal. 147. 19 20. He sheweth his Word to Jacob his Statutes and his Iudgments unto Israel he hath not dealt so with any Nation and as for his Iudgments they have not known them praise ye the Lord. A mercy deservedly celebrated with a Joyful Allelujah What vast Tracts are there in the habitable World where the name of Christ is unknown T is your special mercy to be born in a Land of Bibles and Ministers where it is as difficult for you to avoid and shun the Light as it is for others to behold and enjoy it II. CONSIDERATION Consider the nature weight and worth of the mercies which are this day freely offered you Certainly they are mercies of the first Rank the most ponderous precious and necessary among all the mercies of God. Christ the first born of mercies and in him pardon peace and eternal Salvation are set before you it were astonishing to see a starving Man refusing offered bread or a condemned Man a gracious pardon Lord what compositions of sloath and stupidity are we that we should need so many intreaties to be happy III. CONSIDERATION Consider who it is that makes these gracious tenders of pardon peace and Salvation to you even that God whom you have so deeply wronged whose Laws you have violated whose mercies you have spurned and whose wrath you have justly incensed His patience groans under the burden of your daily provocations he loses nothing if you be damned and receives no benefit if you be saved yet the first motions of Mercy and Salvation to you freely arise out of his Grace and good pleasure God intreats you to be reconciled 2 Cor. 5. 20. The blessed Lord Jesus whose blood thy sins have shed now freely offers that blood for thy Reconciliation Justification and Salvation if thou wilt but sincerely accept him ere it be too late IV. CONSIDERATION Reflect seriously upon your own vileness to whom such gracious offers of Peace and Mercy are made Thy sins have set thee at as great a distance from the hopes and expectations of pardon as any sinner in the World. Consider Man what thou hast been what thou hast done and what vast heaps of guilt thou hast contracted by a life of sin and yet that unto thee Pardon and Peace should be offered in Christ after such a life of Rebellion how astonishing is the mercy The Lord is contented to pass by all thy former Rebellions thy deep died Transgressions and to sign an Act of Oblivion for all that is past if now at last thy Heart relent for Sin and thy Will bow in obedience to the grâ—at commands and call of the Gospel Isa. 55. 2. 1. 18. V. CONSIDERATION Consider how many offers of mercy you have already refused and that every refusal is recorded against you How long you have tried and even tired the patience of God already and that this may be the last overture of Grace that ever God will make to your Souls Certainly there is an offer that will be the last offer a striving of the Spirit which will be his last striving and after that no more offers without you no more motions or strivings within you for evermore The Treaty is then ended and your last neglect or rejection of Christ recorded against the day of your account and what if this should prove to be that last tender of Grace which must conclude the Treaty betwixt Christ and you what undone wretches must you then be with whom so gracious a Treaty breaks off upon such dreadful terms VI. CONSIDERATION Consider well the reasonable mild and gracious nature of the Gospel terms on which Life and Pardon are offered to you The Gospel requires nothing of you but Repentance and Faith Acts 20. 21. Can you think it hard when a Prince pardons a Rebel to require him to fall upon his Knees and stretch forth a willing and thankful Hand to receive his Pardon Your Repentance and Faith are much of the same nature Here is no legal satisfaction required at your Hands no reparation of the injured Law by your doings or sufferings but an hearty sorrow for sins committed sincere purposes and endeavours after new obedience and a hearty thankful acceptation of Christ your Saviour and for your encouragement herein his Spirit stands ready to furnish you with Powers and Abilities Prov. 1. 23. Turn ye at my reproof behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you I will make known my Words unto you and Isa. 26. 20. Lord thou hast wrought all our Works in us VII CONSIDERATION Again consider how your way to Christ by Repentance and Faith is beaten before you by thousands of sinners for your encouragement You are not the first that ever adventured your Souls in this path multitudes are gone before you and that under as much guilt fear and discouragement as you that come after can pretend unto and not a man among them repulsed or discouraged here they have found rest and peace to their weary Souls Heb. 4. 3. Acts 13. 39. Here the greatest of sinners have been set forth for an ensample to you
he hath spared and pashover you This comparative consideration calls upon you in the Apostles language Rom. 11. 22. Behold the goodness and severity of God on them which felt severity but towards thee goodness if thou continue in his goodness otherwise thou also shalt be cut off Some sinners have been cut off in the beginning of their days many in the very acts of sin and those not greater than thy sins they are gone to their own place and thou still left for a Monument of the Patience and Forbearance of God. The sin of Achan was not a greater sin than thy Coveteousness and the Earthliness of thy Heart is The sin of Nadab and Abihu in offering up strange fire than thy superstition and offering up uncommanded Services to God yet the Hand of God fell upon them and smote them dead in the place in the day and place wherein they sinned they perisht they were taken away in their iniquities but thou reserved Oh that it might be for an instance and example of the riches of Divine Patience which may at last lead thee to repentance Thus I have given you seven Evidences of the wonderful Patience of Christ who hath stood and still doth stand at the door and knock Next we will enquire into the grounds and reasons of this marvelous Patience of Christ this astonishing long-suffering of God towards sinners and there are divers obvious reasons of the long-suffering of God towards Men. First The exercise of his Patience is a standing testimony of his reconcilable and merciful nature towards sinful Man. This he shewed forth in his Patience toward Paul a great example of his merciful Nature for a pattern to them that should hereafter believe on him 1 Tim. 1. 16. The long-suffering of God is a special part of his manifestative glory and therefore when Moses desired a sight of his glory Exod. 34. 6. he proclaims his Name The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth He would have poor sinners look towards him as an atoneable Deity a God willing to be reconciled a God that retaineth not his anger for ever but if poor sinners will take hold of his strength and make peace with him they may have peace This long-suffering is an attribute very expressive of the Divine Nature he is willing sinners should know whatever their provocations have been there is room for pardon and peace if they will yet come in to accept the terms This patience is a Diadem belonging to the Imperial Crown of Heaven the Lord glories in it as what is peculiar to himself Hos. 11. 9. I will not execute the fierceness of my anger for I am God and not Man. q. d. Had I been as Man the holyest meekest and mortifiedst man upon Earth I had consumed them long ago but I am god and not Man my Patience is above all created Patience no Husband can bear with his Wife no Parent with his Child as God hath born with you that 's one reason of Christs waiting upon trifling sinners to give proof of his gracious merciful and reconcilable nature towards the wrost of sinners Secondly The Lord exercises this admirable Patience towards sinners with design thereby to lead them to repentance that 's the direct aim and intention of it The Lord desires and delights to see ingenuous relentings and brokenness of Heart for sin and there is nothing like his Forbearance and Patience promotes such an Evangelical Repentance All the terrors of the Law will not break the Heart of a sinner as the Patience and Long-suffering of God will do therefore it is said Rom. 2. 4. That the Goodness Forbearance and Long-suffering of God leads Men to Repentance these are fitted to work upon all these principles of humanity which incline Men to Repentance Reason Conscience Gratitude feel the influences of the goodness of God herein and melt under it Sauls Heart relented in this case 1 Sam. 24. 17. Is this thy voice my Son David and Saul lift up his voice and wept And he said to David Thou art more righteous than I for thou hast rewarded me good where as I have rewarded thee evil Thus the Goodness and Forbearance of God doth as it were take sinner by the Hand leads him into a corner and saith Come let thou and I talk together thus and thus Vile hast thou been and thus and thus Long-suffering and Merciful have I been to thee thy Heart hath been full of sin the Heart of thy God hath been gull of pity and mercy This puts the sinner into Tears breaks his Heart in pieces if any thing in the World will melt a hard Heart this will do it Oh how good hath God been to me How have I tryed his Patience to the uttermost and still he waiteth to be gracious and is exalted that he may have compassion the Sobs and Tears the ingenuous Thaws and Relentings of a sinners Heart under the apprehensions of the sparing Mercy and Goodness of God is the Musick of Heaven Thirdly The Lord excercises this long-suffering towards sinners to clear his Justice in the damnation of all the obstinate refusers of Chirst and Marcy Christ waits at our doors now that he may be clear in his sentence against us hereafter This Patience of Christ takes away all Apologies and Pleas out of the Mouths of impenitent sinners the more Christ's Patience hath been the less defence or plea they will have for themselves Think with thy self sinner what wilt thou answer in the great day when Christ shall say Did not I stand at thy door from day to day from Sabbath to Sabbath from year to year calling woing perswading thee to be reconciled and accept Pardon and Mercy in the proper season of them and thou wouldst not Rev. 2. 21. I gave her space to repent and she repented not Well the Lord gives you time now a space of repentance such a space as millions of Souls gone out of Time into a miserable Eternity never had With whomsoever Christ hath been quick and severe to be sure he hath not been so with you This time of Christ's Patience will be evidence enough to clear Christ and condemn you Men and Angels shall applaud the sentence as dreadful as it is and say Righteous art thou O Lord in Judging thus Fourthly The Lord draws forth and exercises his admirable Patience towards sinners for the continuation and propagation of the Church The Church must be continued and propagated from Age to Age and if God should be quick in cutting off sinners as soon as ever they provoke him whence shoul the elect of God rise in this World There are thousands of God's Elect in the Loins of God's Enemies Many that will heartily embrace Christ must rise from such as reject him Now if God should cut off these in the beginning of their provocations how should the Church be continued Where had good Abijah and Hezekiah
of me for I am meek and lowly You are going to Meekness and Mercy it self he is the Lamb of God that is his name go on then poor trembling sinner dont stand any longer at shall I Shall I with Christ but make a bold but necessary adventure of Faith try him once and then report what you find im to be Certainly if he exercises such Patience towards the Vessels of wrath whilst they are sitting to destruction as he doth Rom. 9. 22 he will not want Patience for a Yessel of Mercy preparing by Humiliation and Faith for Christ and Glory Doth he forbear those that stand out in defiance and will he fall upon those that are mourning to him upon the Knee of submission Shall a damnede wretch that is preparing for Hell find so much forbearance and a poor broken hearted sinner none It cannot be If Jesus Christ forbare thee when thy Heart was as hard as a Rock and could not yield one Tear one Sigh for sin will he execute his Wrath upon thee will he shew thee no Mercy when thy Heart is broken all to pieces with sorrow and filled with loathing and detestation against sin and thy self for sin Did he forbear thee when sin was thy delight And will he destroy thee now it is thy burden It cannot be Moreover if the Lord Jesus had not a mind to shew Mercy to thy poor Soul Now now that thine Eyes are opened and thy heart touched to the quick why hath he forborn the execution of his wrath so long He might have taken his own time to cut you off when he would he might have made any day the execution day But sure among all the days of thy life the day of thy Humiliation the day of thy Faith is not like to prove that day Again as great and vile sinners as thy self have adventured upon the Grace of Christ and sound it infinitly beyond their expectation These the Lord Jesus hath set forth as incouraging examples to all the broken hearted sinners that are coming after that they seeing how it hath fared with their forerunners to Christ might be incouraged to come on with the more confidence 1 Tim 1. 16. But I obtained mercy that in me first Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern for them that should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting Well then shut your Ears against all the whispers of Satan entertain no evil reports of Christ the Devil loves to draw a false picture of Christ and represent him in the most discouraging form to poor trembling sinners but you will not find him so What can Christ say more to convince and satisfie Souls than he hath done He hath left the bosom of the Father he hath taken union with thy Nature he hath poured out his Soul unto Death he hath told us Those that come unto him he will in no wise cast out Thousands are gone before us in the paths of Repentance and Faith and found it according to his Word you have been spared all your Life to this day of Mercy O do not stand off now upon such weak objections III. Inference The long-suffering of Christ toward Sinners instructeth and teacheth his Ministers to imitate their Lord in a Christ-like Patience and Long-suffering Christ is our pattern of Patience if he wait much more may we we think it much to stand from Sabbath to Sabbath Woing Pleading and Inviting and are apt to be discouraged when we see no fruit follw The want of success is apt to cast us under Ieremiahs temptation To speak no more in his Name and to lament with Isaiah That we have laboured in vain 't is a hard case to Study Pray and Preach and see all our labours return in vain 'T is not so much the expending as the returning of our labours upon us in vain that discourageth our Hearts Ministers would not dye so fast saith one of them nor be gray-headed so soon did they see the fruit of their labours upon their people But let us look to our pattern in the Text Behold I stand at the door and knock If the Master wait let not the Servants be weary The Servant of the Lord must not strive but be patient towards all wasting if at any time God will give them repentance 2 Tim. 4. 24. Though the beginnings be small our latter-end may greatly increase though we now fish with Angles and take but now one and then another the time may come and we hope is at the door when we shall spread our Nets and inclose multitudes Aretius a pious Divine comforted himself thus under the insuccessfulness of his Labours Dabit posterior aetas tractabiliores fortasse animas mitiora pectora quam nostra habent tempora Future days will afford more tractable Spirits and easier tempers of Mind than our present times afford Beside the fruit of our labours may spring up to a blessed harvest when we are gone Iohn 4. 37. One Man soweth and another reapeth but if not our reward will not be measured by the success but the sincerity of our designs and labours Our zeal for conversion of Souls to Christ will be accepted but our discouragement in his service will certainly displease him If Israel be not gathered yet shall we be glorious in the Eyes of the Lord. However let this be a caution to you that hear us that you cast not our Souls under such discouragements If I may speak the sense of others from my own experience then I can assure you that the fixedness of your Hearts in the ways of sin and your untractableness to the calls of God are a greater burden and discouragement to us than all the sufferings we have met withal from the World yet are we contented to Pray in hope and Preach in hope incouraging our selves the Lord grant it be not without ground that a crop shall yet spring up which shall make the Harvest-men laugh IV. Inference From the Patience and Long-suffering of Christ we may learn the invaluable preciousness of Souls and the high esteem Christ hath for them Though your Souls be cheap in your own Eyes and you are contented to sell them for a trifle for a little sensual pleasure and ease some of you will hazard them for a Shilling yet certainly Jesus Christ hath an high asteem of them else he would never stand knocking with such importunity and waiting with such wonderful patience for the Salvation of them Christ knows their worth though you do not he accounts and so should you one of your Souls more worth than the whole World Matth. 16. 26. The Soul of the poorest Child or meanest Servant that hears me this day is of greater value in Christ's Eye than the whole World and he hath given three great evidences of it 1. That he thought it worth his Heart Blood to redeem and save it 1 Pet. 1. 19. You were not redeemed with Silver and Gold but with the precious Blood of
to plead it to the same end the Devil doth to lay a confederacy and joyn with your mortal enemy in a plot against the honour of Christ and Salvation of your own Souls take heed what you do seal not Satans conclusions do you think it is a small matter to be confederate with the Devil Certainly this is his design he magnifies your sins on purpose to discourage you from faith while you were secure and carnal the Devil never aggravated but diminished your sins to you but now the Lord hath opened your Eyes and you are come near to the door of hope mercy and pardon now he magnifies them hoping thereby to ham-string and lame thy faith that it shall not be able to carry thee to Christ. 5. If thy sin be really unpardonable then God hath somewhere excepted it in the Gospel grant He hath somewhere said The Man that hath committed this sin or continued so many years in sin shall never be forgiven but now in the whole Gospel there is but one sin that is absolutely excepted from the possibility of pardon and that such a sin as thy sorrows and desires after Christ do fully acquit and clear thee from the guilt of this sin indeed is excepted Matth. 12. 31. But the sin against the Holy Ghost shall never be forgiven This is that which the Scripture calls a sin unto death Let Apostate Professors transformed into Persecutors Scoffers and Haters of godliness and the Professors of it look to themselves the dreadful symptoms of this sin seem to appear upon such But the humbled thirsty Soul after Christ stands clear of the guilt of that sin 5. If there were no forgiveness with God for great sinners then great sinners had never been invited to come to Christ. The invitations of the Gospel are no mockeries but things of most awful solemnity Now such sinners are called and invited under the encouragement of a pardon consult Isa. 1. from vers 10. to 17. and see the horrid aggravations of that peoples sins and yet at vers 17 18. you may read the gracious invitations of God with conditional promises of a plenary remission so in Ier. 3. from 1. to 13. what a sad Catalogue of sins with their horrid aggravations do you find there and yet it said vers 12. Go and proclaim these words towards the North and say Return thou backsliding Israel and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you for I am merciful 6. If thy sins had not been capable of remission God would never have given thee conviction and compunction for sin nor have drawn forth the desires of thy Heart in this manner after Christ. He hath tact remission to repentance Acts 5. 31. a blessing to gracious desires and hungerings Matth. 5. 6. There is therefore hope that when God hath given the one he will not long withhold the other This very wounding of thy Heart by compunction and drawing forth thy Will by inclination shew that remission is not only possible but even at the door 7. And lastly Let this be thine encouragement whatever Satan or thine own Heart suggests to discourage thee that great Sinners are moving in the way of repentance and faith to a great Saviour who hath merit enough in his Blood and mercy enough in his Bowels to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him Heb. 7. 25. The Lord open to the Eyes of your Faith that rich Exchequer of Free Grace Exod. 34. 6 7. and give you a sight of that plenteous Redemption and forgiveness that is with God Psal. 130. 4 7. that you may not at once cast reproach upon the most glorious Attribute of God impeach the precious Blood of Christ and stab your own Soul with a death-wound of desperation which is that the Devil designs and the whole strain of the Gospel designs to prevent III. Inference If the vilest of sinners stand as fair for pardon and mercy upon their closing with Christ by faith as the least of sinners do then certainly the pardon and salvation of sinners is not built upon any righteousness in themselves but purely and only upon the Free Grace of God in Iesus Christ. Dont think God hath set the Blood of Christ to sale and that those only are capable of the benefits of it who have lived the strictest and soberest lives No no though sobriety morality and strictness in Religious Duties be things commanded and commended in the Gospel yet no Man by these things can purchase a pardon for the least sin Rom. 11. 6. And if by grace then it is no more of Works otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of works then is it no more grace otherwise work is no more work See how these exclude one another thus Titus 3. 5. Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us No Man can satisfie God by any thing himself can do or suffer not by doing for all we do is mixt with sin Iob 14. 4. and that which is sinful can be no attonement for sin all we do or can do is due debt to God Luke 17. 10. and one debt cannot satisfie for another Nor yet by suffering for the sufferings awarded by the Law are everlasting and to be ever satisfying is never to satisfie So then by the works of the Law shall no flesh living be justified in his sight The Saints in all generations have fled to mercy for remission Psal. 130. ult the two debtors Luke 7. 43 44 45. though there were a vast difference in the debts yet of the lesser as well as of the greater it s said they had nothing to pay nothing but the satisfaction of Christ can quit your scores with God. IV. Inference If the grace of Christ be thus free to the greatest of sinners then it is both our sin and folly to stand off from Christ and draw back from believing for want of such and such qualifications which we yet find not to be wroâ—ght in our Hearts Poor convinced Souls think O if they had more humility tenderness love to God spirituality of mind this would â—e some encouragment to believe but because they have no such ornaments to dress up their Souls withal they are not fit to go to Christ. Now to remove this great mistake let two things be considered 1. That such a conceit as this crosses the very stream of the Covenant of Grace where nothing is sold but all freely given this is the very Spirit of the Covenant of Works fain we would find something in our selves to bring to God to Procure his favour and acceptance but the Gospel tells us we must come naked and empty handed to be justified freely by his grace Rom. 2. 24. We must be justified as Abraham was who believed in him that justifieth the ungodly Rom. 4. 5. But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted
thee also that hast broken asunder the bonds of mercies vows and warnings provided thou wilt now hear the voice of Christ and thy Will open to him with an hearty firm consent Isa. 55. 4. You are great and heinous sinners but I shew this day a Great and Almighty Saviour One that is able to save to the utmost all that come unto God by him Hebr. 7. 25. There is a Sacrifice laid out and appointed for these sins O bless God for that They are no where excepted from the possibility of forgiveness Nothing but the impenitency of thy heart and obstinacy of thy Will can bar thee from a full and final pardon Jesus Christ can save thee to the uttermost Say not within thy self Can the virtue of his Blood extend it self to the remission of this or that sin He can save to the uttermost Look round about thee to the uttermost Horizon of all thy guilt and Christ can save thee to the uttermost that the Eye of thy Conscience can discern yea and beyond it too but then thou must come unto him You speak of the greatness of sin and you have cause to have sad thoughts about it but in the mean time you consider not that your Unbelief by which you stand off from Christ your only Remedy is certainly the greatest of all the sins that ever you stood guilty of against the Lord. This is the sin that binds the guilt of all your other sins upon you Let me therefore address my self 1 To you who cry out of the greatness of sin and that discourages you from going to Christ 2 To lesser sinners who because they are clear of great Enormities see not their need of Christ. 1. This Exhortation speaketh to you whose Consciences are â—eared with the horrid and hideous aggravations of your sins by reason whereof your own misgiving hearts assisted by the policy of Satan discourage you from all Attempts to gain Christ and Pardon in the way of Repentance and Faith. Let me at this time hint three or four Considerations to you by way of Encouragement 1 The sparing goodness of God till now gives some encouragement that God may have a reserve of mercy for so great and vile a sinner as thou art O what a mercy is it that thy life hath been spared hitherto Many of thy Companions in sin are beyond hope and mercy whilst thou art left I confess this is no sure sign of Gods gracious intention to thee unless the goodness and forbearance of God did lead thee to Repentance then the gracious intention of God in prolonging thy life would evidently appear But however it is in it self a very great mercy because without it no spiritual mercy could be expected 2ly 'T is matter of encouragement and hope That though your Disease be dreadful yet it is not desperate and incurable The Text takes it within the compass of mercy O bless God for that If any man c. 3ly As great sinners as you have been have found mercy 1 Tim. 1. 16. and God would have it to be recorded for your encouragement If now the Lord shall make thy heart to break and thy Will to bowe whatever thy sins have been they shall not bar thee from mercy and forgiveness But if thou resolve to go on in sin or sit down desponding or discouraged and wilt not come in at the Invitation and Call of Christ then thy wound is incurable indeed and there is but one way with thee thy Mittimus is already made for Hell and that Scripture in 1 Cor. 6. 9. will tell thee whither thou art going But God forbid that this should be the Issue of Christs gracious invitations to thee and forbearance of thee Seeing mercy is tendred to any man that will accept it upon Christ's terms exclude not thy self when he hath not excluded thee 2. I will close up this Use of Exhortation to another sort of persons who are not of the notorious infamous rank of profane Sinners but their lives have been drawn more smoothly through a course of Civility These have as great need to be prest to Repentance and Faith as the most notorious Sinners in the world These are a Generation that bless themselves in their own eyes and thank God with the Pharisee Luke 18. 11. That they are not as other men They acknowledge Conversion to be the duty of the profane that such Sinners as I last dealt with stand in apparent need of it But as for themselves they scarce know where to find matter for Repentance nor do they feel any need of Christ. Now I would lay three Considerations before such persons to convince them that their Case is as sad and hazardous yea and in some respect more hazardous than the state of the most notorious Sinners in the world and that a Change must also pass upon them or else it had been good for them they had never been born I. Consideration Let the civilized part of the world lay this thought close to their hearts That though their sins be not so gross and horrid to appearance as other mens are yet continued in they will prove as mortal and destructive as those greater Abominations of other men No sin absolutely considered is small Every sin is mortal and damning without Christ Rom. 6. ult The wages of sin is death 'T is no great odds if a man be killed whether it were by a broad Sword or by a small Penknife The least sin violates the whole Law Iames 2. 10. He that offendeth in one point is guilty of all The least transgression of the Law pulls down the guilt and curse of the whole Law upon the Sinners head And this is your misery that are out of Christ and stand under the rigorous terms of the first Covenant Moreover the Law of God is violated grosly and externally or spiritually and more internally Thus every unchast thought is Adultery And the very inward burnings of Malice and Anger in the heart is Murther Now if the Lord shall bring the spiritual sense of the Law home to your Consciences as he did to Paul's Rom. 7. 9. You will certainly give up that plea that you have not so much need of conversion as other Sinners have There are sins of greater infamy and sins of deeper guilt There may be more guilt in those sins that are stifled in thy heart and never defamed thee than there may be in some sins that make a louder noise in the world II. Consideration You are guilty of one sin how civil and blameless soever your lives are which is certainly more great and heinous than any outward act of sin can ordinarily be and that is your trusting to your own Righteousness as the Pharisees did Luke 18. 9. He spake this Parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others Here 's an Idol of Jealousie set up in the room of Christ 'T is true this sin makes not so loud a noise
Satan to God. So Luke 11. 21 22. When a strong man armed keepeth his pallace his goods are in peace But when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted and divideth his spoil Fourthly Thy present vileness and unworthiness can be no bar to Christs entrance into thy Soul because Christ never yet objected to any man his unworthiness but his unwillingness to come unto him Iohn 5. 40. You will not come unto me that you might have life And again Matth. 23. 37. How oft would I have gathered thy Children and ye would not Indeed you find something like a repulse from Christ to that poor Canaanitess Mat. 15. 24 26. Lord help me said that poor distressed Soul but he answered and said It is not meet to take the childrens bread and cast it to dogs However harshly and discouragingly these words sound yet certainly it was none of Christs intent to damp and discourage her faith but to draw it forth to a more excellent and intense degree which effect it obtained vers 27. Fifthly Neither would Christ have made the tenders of mercy so large and indefinite had he intended to have shut out any Soul upon the single account of personal unworthiness provided it be but willing to come unto him Cast thine Eye poor discouraged Soul upon Christs invitations and proclamations of grace and mercy in the Gospel and see if thou canst find any thing beside unwillingness as a bar betwixt thee and mercy harken to that voice of mercy Isa. 55. 1. Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no money come ye buy and eat come buy wine and milk without money and without price i. e. without personal desert or worthiness So again Rev. 22. 17. The Spirit and the bride say come and let him that is athirst come and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely Here you see personal vileness and unworthiness is no obstacle in the way of Christ. Once more see Iohn 7. 37. In the last day that great day of the feast Iesus stood and cried saying If any man thirst let him come to me and drink Thus you see what Christs coming into the Soul is and what evidences there are that when once the Soul is made truly willing Christ will certainly come into it and no former vileness or present unworthiness shall be a bar to obstruct his entrance Thirdly In the next place I shall shew you That when Christ comes into the Soul he will not come empty handed 'T is Christs marriage day and he will make it a good day a festival day bringing such comforts along with him as the Soul never tasted before he spreads as it were a Table furnishes it with the delicates of Heaven I will sup with him saith the Text What those Spiritual mercies are which Christ brings a long with him to the opening willing Soul comes next in order to be spoken to And 1. When Christ comes into the Soul of a sinner he brings a Pardon with him a full a free and a final pardon of all the sins that ever that Soul committed This is a feast of it self good cheer indeed Christ thought it to be so when he told the poor Palsey-man Matth. 9. 2. Son be of good cheer thy sins are forgiven thee He doth not say Be of good cheer thy Palsey is cured thy body recovered from the grave but be of good cheer thy sins are pardoned O how sweetly may the pardoned Soul feed upon this And this is not any peculiar mercy designed for some special favorites but what is common to all believers Acts 13. 43. By him all that believe are justified from all things Christ and pardon come together and without a pardon no other mercy would relish no feast no musick no money or honour have any favour or comfort with them to a condemned man but the comfort of a pardon reaches to the very Heart Isa. 40. 1 2. Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith the Lord Speak comfortably to Jerusalem or as in the Hebrew Speak to the heart of Jerusalem But what are the ingredients of that cordial that will comfort Ierusalems Heart Why Say unto her that her iniquities are pardoned that carries along with it the Spirit of all consolation And there are four things in the pardon of sin that make it the sweetest mercy that ever the Soul tasted comfort which is impossible to be communicated to another with the same sense that the pardoned Soul hath of it Rev. 2. 17. First That which makes the pardon of sin ravishingly sweet is the trouble that went before it The labourings and restless tossings of the troubled Soul which were antecedent to this pardon make the ease and peace that follows by it incomparably sweet As the bitterness of Hell was tasted in the sorrows of sin so the sweetness of Heaven is tasted in the pardon of it Secondly The nature of the mercy it self is incomparably sweet for it is a mercy of the first rank Pardon is â—uch a mercy as admits no comfort to come before it nor any just cause of discouragement can follow after it If God have not spoken pardon to the Soul it can have no fetled ground for joy Ezek. 33. 10. And if he have there can be no just ground for dejection whatever the troubles be that lye upon it Isa. 33. 24. The inhabitants shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquities Thirdly The third thing that makes this mercy delicious and ravishingly sweet to the Soul are the properties of it which are four 1. God writes upon thy pardon frank 't is a free mercy which cost thee nothing Rom. 3. 24. Being justified freely by his grace Thou hast bought me no sweet Cane with money yet I even I am be that blotteth out thy transgression for my own names sake 2. God writes upon thy pardon full as well as free the pardon extends to all the sins that ever thou committedst Acts 13. 43. By him all that believe are justified from all things The sins of thy nature and practice the sins of thy youth and age great sins and lesser sins are all comprehended within thy pardon Thou art acquitted not from one but from all Certainly the joy of Heaven must come down in the mercy of remission O what a feast of fat things with marrow is this single mercy a pardon free without price full without exception And then 3. its final without revocation the pardoned Soul never more comes into condemnation Thine iniquities are removed from thee as far as the East is from the West as those two opposite points of Heaven can never meet so the pardoned Soul and its pardoned Sins can never more meet unto condemnation Psal. 103. 12. 4. God writes upon the pardon another word as sweet as any of the rest and that is sure 'T
and from enslaving fears The Spirit of Life which is in Christ Iesus hath made me free from the law of Sin and Death Rom. 8. 2. And here is freedom indeed If the Son make you free then are you free indeed John 8. 36. And here is freedom from fears Luke 1. 74 75. Those that will not endure any restraint from their lusts they will have their freedom to sin a freedom they shall have such as it is Rom. 6. 20. When ye were the servants of sin ye were free from righteousness Let none therefore be prejudiced at the ways of Duty and strict Godliness The law of Christ is the perfect law of liberty James 1. 25. Not liberty to sin but liberty from sin XVII Excellency 'T is a Mercy purchased by the blood of Christ for Believers and one of the principal Mercies setled upon them by the new Covenant grant A peculiar mercy which none but the Redeemed of the Lord partake of a mercy which cost the blood of Christ to purchase it I do not deny but there are thousands of other mercies bestowed upon the unregenerate they have Health Wealth Children Honours Pleasures and all the delights of this Life but for communion with God and the pleasures that result therefrom they are uncapable of these No supping with Christ upon such excellent privileges and mercies as these till the heart be opened to him by faith you cannot come nigh to God until you be first made nigh by reconciliation Eph. 2. 13. Heb. 10. 19 20 21 22. What would your lives Christians be worth to you if this mercy were cut off from you There would be little sweetness or savour in all your outward mercies were it not for this mercy that sweetens them all And there is this difference among many others betwixt this mercy and all outward mercies You may be cut off from the enjoyment of those you cannot from this no prison can keep out the Comforter O bless God for this invaluable Mercy XVIII Excellency 'T is Natural to the new Creature the inclination and instinct of the new Creature leadeth to Communion with God. 'T is as natural to the new Creature to desire it and work after it as it is to the new-born babe to make to the breast 1 Pet 2. 2 As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby There is a law upon the regenerate part which inwardly and powerfully obliges it to acts of Duty and converse with God in them Communion with God is a thing that riseth out of the principles of grace You know all Creatures in this lower World act according to the Laws of Nature the Sun will rise and the Sea will flow at its appointed time and the gracious Soul will make towards its God in the times and seasons of Communion with him They are not forced on to those Duties by the frights of Conscience and the fears of Hell so much as by the natural inclination of the new Creature Two things demonstrate Communion with God to be co-natural to the regenerate part called the inner-man and the hidden-man of the heart viz. 1. The Restlesness of a gracious Soul without it Cant. 3. 2. The Church in the first verse had sought her beloved but found him not doth she sit down satisfied in his absence No no I will rise now and go about the City in the streets and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my Soul loveth 2. The Satisfaction and Pleasure the rest and delight which the Soul finds and feels in the enjoyment of Communion with God plainly shews it to be agreeable to the new Nature Psal. 63. 5. My Soul shall be satisfied whilst I think on thee And when it is thus then Duties become easie and pleasant to the Soul 1 Iohn 5. 3. His commandments are not grievous Yea and such a Soul will be constant and assiduous in those Duties That which is natural is constant as well as pleasant what 's the reason Hypocrites throw up the Duties of Religion in times of difficulty but because they have not an inward principle agreeable to them The motives to Duty lie without them not within them XIX Excellency 'T is the Occupation and trade of all sanctified persons and the richest Trade that was ever driven by men This way they grow rich in Spiritual Treasures the Revenues of it are better than Silver and Gold There be many of you have Traded long for this World and it comes to little and had you gained your designs you had gained but trifles This is the rich and profitable occupation Phil. 3. 20. Our conversation is in Heaven Our Commerce and Trade lies that way so that word signifies There be few Christians that have driven this Soul-enriching Trade any considerable time but can shew some Spiritual Treasures which they have gotten by it Psal. 119. 50. This I had because I kept thy precepts As Merchants can shew the Gold and Silver the Lands and Houses the rich Goods and Furniture which they have gotten by their succesful Adventures abroad and tell their Friends so much I got by such a Voyage and so much by another So Christians have invaluable treasures though their humility conceals them which they have gotten by this heavenly Trade of Communion with God. Their Souls were weak and by Communion with God they have gotten strength Psal. 13 8. 3. I cryed and thou strengthnedst me with strength in my Soul. They have gotten peace by it a treasure inestimable Psal. 119. 165. Great peace have they that love thy Law and nothing shall offend them They have gotten purity by it Psal. 119. 3. They do no iniquity that walk in thy ways O what rich returns are here Nay they get sometimes full assurance by it The riches of both the Indies will not purchase from a Christian the least of these mercies These are the rich rewards of our pains in the Duties of Religion In keeping thy Commandments there is great reward XX. Excellency 'T is Oyl to the Wheels of Obedience which makes the Soul go on chearfully in the ways of the Lord Psal. 119. 32. Then will I run the ways of thy Commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart Non tardat uncta rota Oyled Wheels run trig and nimble How prompt and ready for any Duty of Obedience is a Soul under the influences of Communion with God! Then as Isaiah having gotten a sight of God Here am I Lord send me Isa. 6. 8. Now the Soul can turn its hand to Duties Of 1. Active And 2. Passive Obedience I. Hereby the Soul is prepared and fitted for the Duties of Active Obedience to which it applies it self with pleasure and delight Psal. 43. 3 4. Then will I go unto the Altar of God unto God my exceeding joy or as it is in the Hebrew the gladness of my joy It goes to prayer as an hungry man to a feast or as a covetuous man to his