Adam which are as the Sand upon the Sea shore that not only so many persons but all that they have done must come into Judgment even the very thoughts of their Hearts which never came to the knowledge of Men their Consciences to be interrogated all other Witnesses fully heard and examined how great a day must this day of the Lord then be The Second Vse But the main Use of this Point will be for Exhortation that seeing all the offers of Christ are recorded and witnessed with respect to a day of account every one of you would therefore immediately embrace the present gracious tender of Christ in the Gospel as ever you expect to be acquitted and cleared in that great day take heed of denials nay of delays and demurs For if the word spoken by Angels were stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation Heb. 2. 2 3. The question is put but no answer made How shall we escape The wisdom of Men and Angels cannot tell how to enforce this Exhortation I shall present you with Ten weighty Considerations upon the matter which the Lord follow home by the blessing of his Spirit upon all your Hearts I. CONSIDERATION Consider how invaluable a mercy it is that you are yet within the reach of offered Grace The mercies that stand in offer before you this day were never set before the Angels that fell no Mediator was ever appointed for them Oh astonishing mercy that those Vessels of Gold should be cast into everlasting Fire and such Clay Vessels as we are thus put into a capacity of greater happiness than ever they fell from Nay the mercy that stands before you is not only denied to the Angels that fell but to the greatest part of your fellow Creatures of the same rank and dignity with you Psal. 147. 19 20. He sheweth his Word to Jacob his Statutes and his Iudgments unto Israel he hath not dealt so with any Nation and as for his Iudgments they have not known them praise ye the Lord. A mercy deservedly celebrated with a Joyful Allelujah What vast Tracts are there in the habitable World where the name of Christ is unknown T is your special mercy to be born in a Land of Bibles and Ministers where it is as difficult for you to avoid and shun the Light as it is for others to behold and enjoy it II. CONSIDERATION Consider the nature weight and worth of the mercies which are this day freely offered you Certainly they are mercies of the first Rank the most ponderous precious and necessary among all the mercies of God. Christ the first born of mercies and in him pardon peace and eternal Salvation are set before you it were astonishing to see a starving Man refusing offered bread or a condemned Man a gracious pardon Lord what compositions of sloath and stupidity are we that we should need so many intreaties to be happy III. CONSIDERATION Consider who it is that makes these gracious tenders of pardon peace and Salvation to you even that God whom you have so deeply wronged whose Laws you have violated whose mercies you have spurned and whose wrath you have justly incensed His patience groans under the burden of your daily provocations he loses nothing if you be damned and receives no benefit if you be saved yet the first motions of Mercy and Salvation to you freely arise out of his Grace and good pleasure God intreats you to be reconciled 2 Cor. 5. 20. The blessed Lord Jesus whose blood thy sins have shed now freely offers that blood for thy Reconciliation Justification and Salvation if thou wilt but sincerely accept him ere it be too late IV. CONSIDERATION Reflect seriously upon your own vileness to whom such gracious offers of Peace and Mercy are made Thy sins have set thee at as great a distance from the hopes and expectations of pardon as any sinner in the World. Consider Man what thou hast been what thou hast done and what vast heaps of guilt thou hast contracted by a life of sin and yet that unto thee Pardon and Peace should be offered in Christ after such a life of Rebellion how astonishing is the mercy The Lord is contented to pass by all thy former Rebellions thy deep died Transgressions and to sign an Act of Oblivion for all that is past if now at last thy Heart relent for Sin and thy Will bow in obedience to the grâ—at commands and call of the Gospel Isa. 55. 2. 1. 18. V. CONSIDERATION Consider how many offers of mercy you have already refused and that every refusal is recorded against you How long you have tried and even tired the patience of God already and that this may be the last overture of Grace that ever God will make to your Souls Certainly there is an offer that will be the last offer a striving of the Spirit which will be his last striving and after that no more offers without you no more motions or strivings within you for evermore The Treaty is then ended and your last neglect or rejection of Christ recorded against the day of your account and what if this should prove to be that last tender of Grace which must conclude the Treaty betwixt Christ and you what undone wretches must you then be with whom so gracious a Treaty breaks off upon such dreadful terms VI. CONSIDERATION Consider well the reasonable mild and gracious nature of the Gospel terms on which Life and Pardon are offered to you The Gospel requires nothing of you but Repentance and Faith Acts 20. 21. Can you think it hard when a Prince pardons a Rebel to require him to fall upon his Knees and stretch forth a willing and thankful Hand to receive his Pardon Your Repentance and Faith are much of the same nature Here is no legal satisfaction required at your Hands no reparation of the injured Law by your doings or sufferings but an hearty sorrow for sins committed sincere purposes and endeavours after new obedience and a hearty thankful acceptation of Christ your Saviour and for your encouragement herein his Spirit stands ready to furnish you with Powers and Abilities Prov. 1. 23. Turn ye at my reproof behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you I will make known my Words unto you and Isa. 26. 20. Lord thou hast wrought all our Works in us VII CONSIDERATION Again consider how your way to Christ by Repentance and Faith is beaten before you by thousands of sinners for your encouragement You are not the first that ever adventured your Souls in this path multitudes are gone before you and that under as much guilt fear and discouragement as you that come after can pretend unto and not a man among them repulsed or discouraged here they have found rest and peace to their weary Souls Heb. 4. 3. Acts 13. 39. Here the greatest of sinners have been set forth for an ensample to you
of me for I am meek and lowly You are going to Meekness and Mercy it self he is the Lamb of God that is his name go on then poor trembling sinner dont stand any longer at shall I Shall I with Christ but make a bold but necessary adventure of Faith try him once and then report what you find im to be Certainly if he exercises such Patience towards the Vessels of wrath whilst they are sitting to destruction as he doth Rom. 9. 22 he will not want Patience for a Yessel of Mercy preparing by Humiliation and Faith for Christ and Glory Doth he forbear those that stand out in defiance and will he fall upon those that are mourning to him upon the Knee of submission Shall a damnede wretch that is preparing for Hell find so much forbearance and a poor broken hearted sinner none It cannot be If Jesus Christ forbare thee when thy Heart was as hard as a Rock and could not yield one Tear one Sigh for sin will he execute his Wrath upon thee will he shew thee no Mercy when thy Heart is broken all to pieces with sorrow and filled with loathing and detestation against sin and thy self for sin Did he forbear thee when sin was thy delight And will he destroy thee now it is thy burden It cannot be Moreover if the Lord Jesus had not a mind to shew Mercy to thy poor Soul Now now that thine Eyes are opened and thy heart touched to the quick why hath he forborn the execution of his wrath so long He might have taken his own time to cut you off when he would he might have made any day the execution day But sure among all the days of thy life the day of thy Humiliation the day of thy Faith is not like to prove that day Again as great and vile sinners as thy self have adventured upon the Grace of Christ and sound it infinitly beyond their expectation These the Lord Jesus hath set forth as incouraging examples to all the broken hearted sinners that are coming after that they seeing how it hath fared with their forerunners to Christ might be incouraged to come on with the more confidence 1 Tim 1. 16. But I obtained mercy that in me first Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern for them that should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting Well then shut your Ears against all the whispers of Satan entertain no evil reports of Christ the Devil loves to draw a false picture of Christ and represent him in the most discouraging form to poor trembling sinners but you will not find him so What can Christ say more to convince and satisfie Souls than he hath done He hath left the bosom of the Father he hath taken union with thy Nature he hath poured out his Soul unto Death he hath told us Those that come unto him he will in no wise cast out Thousands are gone before us in the paths of Repentance and Faith and found it according to his Word you have been spared all your Life to this day of Mercy O do not stand off now upon such weak objections III. Inference The long-suffering of Christ toward Sinners instructeth and teacheth his Ministers to imitate their Lord in a Christ-like Patience and Long-suffering Christ is our pattern of Patience if he wait much more may we we think it much to stand from Sabbath to Sabbath Woing Pleading and Inviting and are apt to be discouraged when we see no fruit follw The want of success is apt to cast us under Ieremiahs temptation To speak no more in his Name and to lament with Isaiah That we have laboured in vain 't is a hard case to Study Pray and Preach and see all our labours return in vain 'T is not so much the expending as the returning of our labours upon us in vain that discourageth our Hearts Ministers would not dye so fast saith one of them nor be gray-headed so soon did they see the fruit of their labours upon their people But let us look to our pattern in the Text Behold I stand at the door and knock If the Master wait let not the Servants be weary The Servant of the Lord must not strive but be patient towards all wasting if at any time God will give them repentance 2 Tim. 4. 24. Though the beginnings be small our latter-end may greatly increase though we now fish with Angles and take but now one and then another the time may come and we hope is at the door when we shall spread our Nets and inclose multitudes Aretius a pious Divine comforted himself thus under the insuccessfulness of his Labours Dabit posterior aetas tractabiliores fortasse animas mitiora pectora quam nostra habent tempora Future days will afford more tractable Spirits and easier tempers of Mind than our present times afford Beside the fruit of our labours may spring up to a blessed harvest when we are gone Iohn 4. 37. One Man soweth and another reapeth but if not our reward will not be measured by the success but the sincerity of our designs and labours Our zeal for conversion of Souls to Christ will be accepted but our discouragement in his service will certainly displease him If Israel be not gathered yet shall we be glorious in the Eyes of the Lord. However let this be a caution to you that hear us that you cast not our Souls under such discouragements If I may speak the sense of others from my own experience then I can assure you that the fixedness of your Hearts in the ways of sin and your untractableness to the calls of God are a greater burden and discouragement to us than all the sufferings we have met withal from the World yet are we contented to Pray in hope and Preach in hope incouraging our selves the Lord grant it be not without ground that a crop shall yet spring up which shall make the Harvest-men laugh IV. Inference From the Patience and Long-suffering of Christ we may learn the invaluable preciousness of Souls and the high esteem Christ hath for them Though your Souls be cheap in your own Eyes and you are contented to sell them for a trifle for a little sensual pleasure and ease some of you will hazard them for a Shilling yet certainly Jesus Christ hath an high asteem of them else he would never stand knocking with such importunity and waiting with such wonderful patience for the Salvation of them Christ knows their worth though you do not he accounts and so should you one of your Souls more worth than the whole World Matth. 16. 26. The Soul of the poorest Child or meanest Servant that hears me this day is of greater value in Christ's Eye than the whole World and he hath given three great evidences of it 1. That he thought it worth his Heart Blood to redeem and save it 1 Pet. 1. 19. You were not redeemed with Silver and Gold but with the precious Blood of
the cries of such Souls will be heard above the cries of all the other miserable wretches that are cast away 'T will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for Capernaum Matth. 11. 23. Oh Friends you little know the smart reflections of Conscience in Hell upon such hours as you now enjoy such wooing charming voices and allurements to Christ as you now hear There are many thousands of Souls in Hell that came thither out of the dark heathenish parts of the World where they never heard of Christ but your misery will be far beyond theirs your reflections more sharp and bitter Therefore delay no longer lest you perish with peculiar aggravations of misery 3ly Try the Patience of Christ no further I beseech you for as much as you see every day the Patience of Christ ending towards others Patience coming down and Justice ascending the Stage to triumph over the abusers of Mercy You dont only read in Scripture of the finishing and ending of God's Patience with Men but you may see it every day with your own Eyes If you look into Scripture You may find the Patience of God ended towards multitudes of Sinners who possibly had the same presumptions and vain hopes for the continuance of it that you now have If you look into 1 Pet. 3. 19 20. you shall there find that Christ went and preached to the Spirits in prison which sometimes were disobedient when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah The meaning of it is this that in the days before the Flood Christ by his Spirit strove with disobedient and rebellious sinners in the Ministry of Noah who then were living Men and Women as now we are but now are Spirits in prison i. e. damned Souls in Hell for their disobedience And truly Brethren you may frequently behold the glass of Patience run down the very last sand in it spent upon others Whenever you see a wicked Christless Man or Woman dye you see the end of God's Patience with that Man or Woman and all this for a warning to you that you adventure not to trifle and dally with it as they did 4ly Lastly Do not try God's Patience any longer if you love your Souls for this Reason because when Men grow bold and incourage themselves in sin upon the account of God's forbearance and long-suffering towards them there cannot be a more certain sign that his Patience is very near its end towards that Soul. 'T is time for God to put an end to his Patience when it is made an encouragement to sin God cannot suffer so vile an abuse of his glorious Patience nor endure to see it turned into wantonness This quickly brings up sin to its finishing act and perfection and then Patience is just upon finishing also That Patience is thus abused appears from Eccles. 8. 11. and when it is so abused look for a suddain change O therefore beware of provoking God for now the day of Patience is certainly near its end with such sinners Prov. 1. 24 25 26. Because I have calledâ— and ye refused I have streâ—ched out my Hand and no Man regarded But ye have set at nought all my counsel and would none of my reproof I also will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh When your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind Ah when sinners scolt and mock at the threatnings of God and bear themselves up upon his Patience as that which will never crack under them then look out for a whirlwind a suddain Tempest of wrath which shall hurry such Souls into Hell. Then misery comes like a storm blowing furiously from all quarters Well the Heavens are yet clear over you but a storm is nigh and may be certainly presaged from such vite abuses of the glorious Patience of Christ towards you That 's the first Exhortation try not the Patience of Christ by any further delays II. Exhortation Secondly Admire Christ's Patience and forbearance of you until now that he hath not cut you off in your sin but lengthned out his Patience unto this day and brought about your Salvation by his long-suffering towards you Here now I must change my voice and turn it unto those whose Hearts the Lord hath opened Stand amazed at the riches of his Grace towards you and see that you account this long-suffering of God to be your Salvation for in plain Truth it is so your Salvation was bound up in Christ's forbearance if Christ had not born as he did you had not been where you are I could heartily wish that all the time you can redeem from the necessary employments you have in the World may now be spent in an humble thankful admiration of this admirable Grace and Patience of Christ and answerable duties to the intentions and ends thereof To this end I shall subjoyn divers weighty Considerations which methinks should melt every Heart wherein the lest drachm of saving Grace is found Bethink your selves of the great and manifold provocations you have given the Lord to put an end to all further Patience towards you not only in the days of your vanity and unregeneracy but enen since your reconciliation to him Do you not believe thousands of sinners are now in the depths of Hell who never provoked the Lord at an higher rate than you have done Were you not herded once among the vilest of sinners 1 Cor. 6. 11. And such were some of you as vile as the vilest among them yet you are washed in the Blood of Christ and your companions roaring in the lowest Hell or if your lives were more clean sure your Hearts and Natures were as filthy as theirs And certainly your sins since the time of Reconciliation have had special aggravations in them enough to put an end to all further mercies towards you Light and Love have aggravated these sins and yet the Lord will not cast you off How often have you been upon the very brink of Hell in the days of your unregeneracy Every sickness and every danger of life which you escaped in those days was a marvelous escape from the everlasting wrath of God. Had thy Disease prevailed one degree further thou hadst been past hope and out of the reach of Mercies Arm now Doubtless some of you can remember when in such and such a Disease you were like a Ship riding in a furious storm by one Cable and two or three of the strands of that Cable were snapt asunder So it hath been with you the thread of life how weak soever hath held till the bonds of union betwixt Christ and your Souls are fastned and the eternal hazard over This is admirable Grace How often hath Death come up into your Windows entred into your Houses fetcht off your nearest Relations but had no commission to carry you out with them because the Lord had a design of Mercy upon your Souls This cannot but affect a
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
will clear up the mistakes of both VII Motive Obedience to Convictions will not only produce peace at Death but it will give you present ease present relief and refreshment in hand No sooner did David resolve to obey the voice of his Conscience in confessing his sin but he had sensible ease in his own Spirit Psal. 32. 5. So Isa. 32. 17. the fruit of Righteousness is peace quietness and assurance for ever On the contrary you find in Iob 20. 20. Wicked Men have no quietness in their Bellies that is in their Consciences For Guilt lies boking there as a Thorn doth in the Flesh And what is Life worth without ease To live ever in pain to live upon the Rack is not worth while to live If then you love ease and quietness obey your Consciences Pull out that Thorn I mean that Sin that sticks fast in thy Soul and akes in thy Conscience Who would endure so much anguish for all the flattering pleasures of sin VIII Motive Convictions followed home and obeyed are the inlets to Christ and Eternal Salvation by him they are the first leading work of the Spirit in order to union with Christ Iohn 16. 8. till you obey and yield up your selves to them Christ is shut out of your Souls he knocks but finds no entrance at your peril therefore be obedient to their calls All the while you parly with your Convictions and demur to their demands Christ stands without offering himself graciously to you but not admitted so that no less than your Eternal Happiness or Misery depend on your Obedience or disobedience to the Voices and Calls of your Convictions IX Motive Obey your Convictions Honour their Voices and restrain them not then shall your Consciences give a fair testimony for you at the Judgment seat of Christ You read 1 Pet. 3. 2I Of the answer of a good Conscience towards God than which nothing can be more comfortable This gives a Man boldness in the day of Judgment 1 Iohn 4. 17. Believe it firs 't is not your Baptism your Church-priviledges the Opinion Men have of you but the testimony of your Consciences that must be your comfort I know Men are not justified at Gods Bar by you own Obedience nor any exactness of Life 't is only Christ's Righteousness that is the Sinners plea but yet your Obedience to the Calls and Voices of God and Conscience are your evidence that you are in Christ. X. Motive Lastly Consider what a choice Mercy it is to be under such Calls and Convictions of Conscience as are yet capable of being obeyed 'T is not so with Mens Convictions after this Life Conscience convinceth in Hell as well as here but all its Convictions there are for torment not recovery Oh 't is a choice Mercy your Convictions are yet Medicinal not purely Poenal that you are not malo obfirmati so fixed in the state of Sin and Misery as the damned are but may yet enjoy the saving benefit of your Convictions but this you will not enjoy long therefore I beseech you by all that is dear and valuable in your Eyes Reverence your Consciences and let go the Lords Prisoners that lye bound within you III. USE I next come to expotulate the matter with your Consciences and propound a few Convictive Queries to your Souls this day I cannot but look upon this Assembly with Fear Jealousie and Compassion I am afraid there be many of you in this wretched case Men and Women that hold the Truths of God in Unrighteousness though the Wrath of God be revealed from Heaven against all them that do so Let me Demand I. Demand Do not some of you stand convinced by your own Consciences this day that your Hearts and Lives your Principles and Practises are vastly different from the People of God among whom you live and whose Characters you read in Scripture Do not your own Consciences tell you that you never took that pains for your Salvation you see them dayly to take that there be some it may be in your Families nay possibly in your Bosoms that are serious and heavenly whilst you are vain and earthly that are in their Chambers upon their knees wrestling with God whilst you are in your Beds or about the things of the World And doth not Conscience sometimes whisper thus into thine Ear Soul thou art not right something is wanting to make thee a Christian Thou wantest that which others have and except something further be done upon thee thou wilt be undone for ever If it be so let me advise thee to hearken diligently to this voice of Conscience Don't dare to adventure to the Judgment-seat of God in such a case Ponder that Text Matth. 21. 32. and let the disparity your Conscience shews you betwixt your own course and others awaken you to more diligence and seriousness about your own Salvation How canâ—t thou come from the Alehouse or thy vain Recreations and find a Wife or Child in Prayer and thy Conscience not smite thee It may be they have been mourning for thy ' in s whilst thou haft been committing them It may be there lives not far from thee a Godly poor Man who out of his hard and pressing Labours redeems more time for his Soul in a week than ever thou didst in thy Life O hearken to the voice of thy Conscience Else thou art he that holdest Truth in Unrighteousness II. Demand Did thy Conscience never meet thee in the way of Sin as the Angel of the Lord met Balaam with a drawn Sword brandishing the threatnings of God against thee Did it not say to thee as a Captain once said to his Soldiers about to retreate he cast himself down in their way saying if you go this way you shall go over your Captain You shall trample him first under your feet Stop Soul stop said thy Conscience this and that Word of God is against thee If thou proceed thou must trample upon the Soveraign Authority of God in this or that Command yet thy impetuous Lusts have hurried thee forward Thou wouldst not fairly debate the case with thy Conscience and then did not thy Conscience say to thee as Ruben spake to his Brethren Gen. 42. 22. Spake I not unto you saying do not sin against the child but you would not hear therefore also his blood is required of you If this have been your course of sinning verily you are the persons that have held the Truths of God in Unrighteousness and against you the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven III. Demand Have you not seen the Wrath of God revealed from Heaven against other Sinners that have gone before you in the very same tract and course of sin in which you now go and yet you persist in it notwithstanding such dreadful Warnings Thus did Belteshazzar though he saw all that the God of Heaven had done to his Father Dan. 5. 20 21 22. You have seen great Estates scattered and their Owners that got
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
been if wicked Ieroboam and Ahaz had been cut off in their first transgressions The Lord suffers many a wicked Parent to stand for a time under his Patience because Children are to spring from them who will obey and embrace brace that Christ whom their wicked Parents rejected Yea the Wicked do not only propagate the Church but are useful to preserve and defend it as the useless chass is a defence to the Wheat Rev. 12. 16. The Earth shall help the Woman Fifthly To Conclude the Lord excerciseth this long-suffering towards sinners in a gracious condescension to the Prayers of his People Were it not that the Lord had left a small remnant we had been as Sodom we had been like unto Gomorah Isa. 1. 9. The Prayers and Intercessions of the Saints are a skreen betwixt wicked Men and the wrath of God for a time Iob 22. 30. The innocent preserve the Island The World stands by the Prayers of the Saints what multitudes of rebellious Christ-despising sinners swarm this day in every part of this Nation Such as declare by their open practice they will not have Christ to reign over them Who contemn his offers despise his Messengers but blessed be God yea and let them bless him too that there are others mourning to the Lord for them beseeching his forbearance towards them Little do the wicked know how much they are beholding to the Prayers of the Saints These and such like Reasons prevail with the Lord Jesus to stand in waiting patient posture at the doors of sinners Ah. how loath is he to give them up We now proceed to the Uses of this Point by way of 1. Information 2. Exhortation 3. Consolation I. Vse And first this Point will be very fruitful for Information of our Understandings in divers great and useful Points both Doctrinal and Practical wherein every Soul among you is deeply concerned and therefore I beseech you let them be heard and pondred with an answerable attention and seriousness of Spirit and the first Inference shall be this I. Inference If the Lord Jesus do exercise such admirable Patience towards sinners Then hou much better is it for poor sinners to be in the Hands of Christ than in the Hand of the best and holiest Man in the World O sinner t is better for thee to fall into the Hands of the Meek and Merciful Jesus than into the Hand of the dearest Friend thou hast upon Earth no Creature can bear what Christ hears no Patience like the Patience of Christ t is said of Moses Numb 11. 12 Now the Man Moses was meek above all the Men upon the face of the Earth There was never such a Man born into the World for Patience Meekness and Long-suffering as Moses was and yet for all that this mirror of Meekness could not bear the Provocations of Israel You Rebels saith he must I draw Water for you out of the Rock Thus was his Spirit russled with the provocations of Israel and this lost him the Land of Canaan Ionah was a good Man a Prophet of the Lord yet because the Lord would not be so quick and severe with Niniveh as Ionah would have had him In what uncomly Language doth his angry Soul return upon his God Ionah 4. 2. O Lord saith he was not this my saying when I was yet in my Country Therefore I sled before unto Tarshish for I knew thou wert a gracious God and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repentest thee of the evil therefore now O Lord take I beseech thee my life from me for it is better for me to dye than to live q. d. Ah Lord I knew it would come to this I knew thy gracious nature how inclinable thou art to mercy and that upon the first appearance of their repentance thou wouldst repent of the evil and so free-grace would make me as a lyer among them Nay give me leave to speak a higher word than all this and let it not seem strange that the Patience of the glorified Saints in Heaven is nothing to the Patience of Christ towards provoking sinners upon Earth Those glorified Souls that be above though they have Patience among other Graces perfected in its kind yet still it is but Created finite Patience and it cannot bear what Christ's Patience bears take an instance of it out of Rev. 6. 9 10 11. I saw under the Altar the Souls of those that were slain for the Word of God and for the testimony which the held and they cried with a loud voice saying How long O Lord holy and true Dost thou not judge and avenge our Blood on them that dwell on the Earth And it was said unto them That they Should rest for a little season Here you see glorified Souls less able to bear the slow pace of Justice towards their Enemies than Christ was 'T is true here was no sinful impatience but yet a patience short of Christs infinite Patience Ah if you were to depend upon the Patience of any creature in Heaven or Earth you had worn it out long ago I will not execute the fierceness of my anger for I am God and not Man. Ah 't is well we have to do with a God if a Man find his enemy will he let him go well away 1 Sam. 24. 19. No no he will reckon before he part with him Sinner the Lord finds thee dayly in thy sins and yet lets thee go yet beware thou try not his Patience too far lest vengeance overtake thee at last and pay the justice of God with all the arrearages due to his Patience II. Inference Hence it follows that convinced and broken hearted sinners need not be discouraged in going to Iesus Christ for mircy seeing he exercises such wonderful Patince towards obstinate and refusing sinners This inference breaths pure Gospel it is a Cordial to chear the Heart that is moving towards Christ with fear and trembling 'T is a great artifice of the Devil to daunt and discourage courage poor convinced sinners by telling them there is no hope of mercy for them that they shall find the Arms of Mercy closed the Bowels of Compassion shut up that the Time of Mercy is now past they come too late O how busie is Satan with such suggestions as these in many of your Souls But I am come to tell you this day that these are but the artifices of the Enemy you are going to the Fountain of Mercy Patience Goodness and Long-suffering go on and you shall find abundantly more than you expect He will not cast off a Soul that comes Mourning and Panting towards him and is willing to subscribe the Gospel articles of Reconciliation No he will not shut out such a Soul whatever its rebellions and provocations have been Sinner thou art going to the meek and merciful Jesus Matth. 11. 28. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy-laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn
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
to spend our blood for the Saints So it was in the primitive times Behold â—said the Christians Enemies how they love one another and are willing to dye one for another But that Spirit is almost extinguished in these degenerate dayes VI. Instance How many stand convinced by their own Consciences what a sin it is to spend their precious time so idly and vainly as they do When a day is lost in vanity duties neglected no good done or received at night Conscience reckons with them for it and askes them what account they can give of that day to God. How they are able to satisfie themselves to lye down and sleep under so much guilt and yet when the morrow comes the vanity of their hearts carries them on in the same Course again the next day and whilst they keep themselves in vain Company they are quiet till Conscience finds them at leisure to debate it again with them Now the things which master Conviction are 1. In some men their Ignorance and Insensibility of the Preciousness of time They know 't is their sin to spend their time so vainly but little consider that Eternity it self hangs upon this little Moment of Time and that the great work of their Salvation will require all the time they have and if it be not finished in this small allottment of time it can never be finished Ioh. 9. 4. 2. The Examples of other vain persons that are as Prodigal of their precious time as themselves and entice them to spend it as they do 3. The charming power of sensual Lusts and Pleasures Oh how pleasantly doth time slide away in Playes Alehouses in relating or hearing taking Stories News c. 4. Inconsiderateness of the sharp and terrible rebukes of Conscience for this on a Death-bed or the terrors of the Lord in the day of Judgment In all these Instances you see how common this dreadful evil of holding the truth in unrighteousness is yet these are but a few selected from among many 5. In the next place I am obliged to shew how and why the imprisoning of Convictions or holding the Truths of God in Unrighteousness so dreadfully incenseth his Wrath. And this it doth upon several accounts 1. Knowledge and Conviction of sin is an excellent means or choice help to preserve Men from falling into sin There be Thousands of sins committed in the World which had never been committed if Men had known them to be sins before they committed them Every Sinner durst not make so bold with his Conscience as you have done The Apostle tells us the reason why the Princes of this World crucified the Lord of Glory was because they knew him not 1 Cor. 2. 8. Had they known him they would not have dared to do as they did And so it is in multitudes of lower and lesser sins than that Satan mops their Eyes with Ignorance then uses their Hands and Tongues in Wickedness he is the Ruler of the darkness of the World Eph. 6. 12. But when Men do know this or that to be sin and yet venture on it here an excellent Antidote against sin is turned into a dreadful aggravation of sin which highly incenses the Wrath of God. 2. Knowledge and Conviction going before adds presumption to the Sin that follows after it and presumptuous Sin is the most provoking and daring Sin from this way of sinning David earnestly beseeches God to keep him Keep back thy servant saith he from presumptuous sins When a man sees sin and yet adventures on it in such sinning there is a despising of the Law of God A Man may break the Law whilst he approves reverences and honours it in his heart Rom. 7. 12 13. but here the Commandment is despised as God told David 2 Sam. 12. 9. 'T is as if a Man should say I see the Command of God armed with threatnings in my way but yet I will go on for all that 3. Knowledge and Conviction leave the Conscience of a Sinner naked and wholly without excuse or apologie for his sin In this case there is no plea left to extenuate the offence Iohn 15. 22. Now they have no cloak for their sin if a man sins ignorantly his ignorance is some excuse for his sin it excuses it at least a tanto as Paul tells us thus and thus I did but I did it ignorantly Here is cloak or covering an excuse or extenuation of the sin but knowledge takes away this cloak and makes the sin appear naked in all the odious deformity of it nothing left to hide it 4. Light or Knowledge of the Law and Will of God is a very choice and excellent Mercy 't is a choice and singular favour for God to make the light of Knowledge to shine into a Mans mind or understanding 'T is a Mercy withheld from multitudes Psal. 147. 19. and those that injoy it are under special engagements to bless God for it and to improve it diligently and thankfully to his Service and Glory but for a Man to arm such a Mercy as this against God to fight against him with one of his choicest Mercies this must be highly provoking to the Lord 'T is therefore mention'd as an high aggravation of Solomons sin in the 1 Kings 11. 9. that he sinned against the Lord after the Lord had appeared unto him twice 5. This way of sinning argues an extraordinary degree of hardness of heart 'T is a sign of little tenderness or sense of the evil of sin Some Men when God shews them the evil of sin in the glass of the Law they tremble at the sight of it So did Paul Rom. 7. 13. When the Commandment came sin revived and he died he sunk down at the sight of it But God shews thee the evil of sin in the glass of his Law and thou makest nothing of it O obdurate heart When the Rod was turned into a Serpent Moses fled from it was afraid to touch it but though God turns the Rod into a Serpent and discovers the venomous Nature of Sin in his Word thou canst handle and play with that Serpent and put it into thy bosome this shews thy heart to be of a strange complexion 6. To go against the convincing warning voice of Conscience violates and wounds a Mans Conscience more than any other way of sinning doth and when Conscience is so wounded who or what shall then comfort thee 'T is a true Rule Maxima violatio Conscientiae est maximum peccatum The more any sin violates a mans Conscience the greater that sin is The sin of Devils is the most dreadful sin and what makes it so but the horrid violation of their Consciences and malicious Rebellion against their own Light and clear Knowledge Iames 2. 19. They know and sin they believe and tremble 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they roar under the Tortures of Conscience like the Rote of the Sea or noise of the Rocks before a Storm O then if there be any degree of sense
â—ffigies of Iohn Flavell Aetatis suoe 59 AnÌ„o Dom 1689. Englands Duty Under the Present GOSPEL LIBERTY FROM Revel III. vers 20. Wherein is Opened The Admirable Condescension and Patience of Christ in waiting upon trifling and obstinate Sinners The wretched State of the Vnconverted The nature of Evangelical Faith with the Difficulties Tryals and Means thereof The Riches of Free-grace in the offers of Christ Pardon and Peace to the worst of Sinners The invaluable Priviledges of Vnion and Communion granted to all that receive him and the great Duty of opening to him at the present Knocks and Calls of the Gospel with the danger of neglecting these Loud and it may be last Knocks and Calls of Christ discovered By Iohn Flavell Preacher of the Gospel at Dartmouth in Devon. Rom. II. 4. Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance London Printed for Matthew Wotton at the Three Daggers near the Inner-Temple Gate in Fleetstreet 1689. Licensed Septemb. 29 th 1688. AN EPISTLE TO THE READER Candid Reader THE following Discourse comes to thy hand in that Native plainness wherein it was Preached I was conscienciously unwilling to alter it because I found by experience the Lord had blessed and prosper'd it in that dress far beyond any other composures on which I had bestowed more pains Let it not be censured as vanity or ostentation that I here acknowledge the goodness of God in leading me to and blessing my poor Labours upon this Subject Who and what am I that I should be continued and again employed in the Lords Harvest and that with success and encouragment when so many of my Brethren with their much richer Furnitures of Gifts and Graces have in my time been called out of the Vineyard and are now silent in the Grave 'T is true they enjoy what I do not and 't is as true I am capable of doing some Services for God which they are not In Preaching these Sermons I had many occasions to reflect upon the mystical sense of that Scripture Amos 9. 13. The Plow-man shall overtake the Reaper and the Treader of Grapes him that soweth Seed Sowing and Reaping time trod so close upon one another that in all humility I speak it to the praise of God it was the busiest and blessedst time I ever saw since I first Preached the Gospel England hath now a day of special Mercy There is a wide door of opportunity opened to it O that it might prove an effectual door 'T is transporting and astonishing that after all the high and horrid provocations the Atheism Prophaness and bitter enmity against Light and Reâ—ormation this sweet Voice is still heard in England Behold I stand at the door and knock The Mercies and Liberties of this day are a new Tryal obtained for us by our potent Advocate in the Heavens If we bring forth fruit well if not the Ax lieth at the root of the Tree Let us not be secure Jerusalem was the City of the great King The seat of his Worship and Symbols of his presence were fixed there It was the joy of the whole Earth the House of Prayer for all Nations thither the Tribes went up to Worship the Tribes of the Lord unto the Testimony of Israel For there were set Thrones of Iudgment the Thrones of the House of David Psal. 122. 4 5. These priviledges she enjoyed through the succession of many Ages and had ramained the glory of all Nations to this day had she known and improved in that day the things that belonged to her peace but they neglected their season rejected their mercies and miserably perished in their sins for there ever was and will be found an inseparable connection betwixt the final rejection of Christ and the destruction of the Rejecters Matth. 22. 5 6 7. The contemplation whereof drew those compassionate Tears from the Redeemers eyes when he beheld it in his descent from the Mount of Olives Luke 19. 41 42. Let all that are wise in Heart henceforth depose their animosities sadly reflect on their past follies encourage and assist the Labours of their Brethren in the Lords Harvest and rejoyce that God hath set them at liberty by Law whose assistance in so great an opportunity is so necessary and desirable It is against the Laws of Wisdom and Charity to envy the Liberty and much more the Success of our Brethren 1 Cor. 13. 4. If the Workmen contend and scuffle in a catching Harvest who but the owner suffers damage by it If after so miraculous recent and common a Salvation as this we still retain our old prejudices and bitter envyings if we smite with the Pen and Tongue when we cannot with the Hand and study to blast the Reputations and Labours of our Brethren and still hate those we cannot hurt In a word if we still bite and devour one another we shall be devoured one of another let us not lay the fault upon others we our selves have been the Authors and Instruments of our own ruin and this must be the inscription upon our Toomb-stone O England thou hast Destroyed thy Self I am more afraid of the rooted enmity and fixed prejudices that are to be found in many against holiness and the serious Professors of it and inflexible obstinacy and dead formality in many others the tokens of a tremendous infatuation than I am of all the whispered fears from other Hands or common Enemies upon our borders To prevent these mischiefs and promote zeal and unanimity among the Ministers of the Gospel I have presumed to address to them in the following Epistle I judged it necessary on several reasons to write it in Latin as what allowed me a greater freedom of expression than might seem convenient in the common Language I am conscious of my own unworthiness to be their Monitor and of the defects their Iudicious Eyes will easily discern in the style wherein it is written and yet can promise my self a becoming reception of what is so faithfully seasonably and honestly designed for their good I am satisfied that no candid and ingenuous Person will put Words upon the Rack quarrel a Similitude or expose a Trifle when he finds the design Honest and the matter Good and Necessary As to the Treatise it self thou wilt find it a Persuasive to open thy Heart to Christ. Thy Soul Reader is a magnificent Structure built by Christ such stately Rooms as thy Vnderstanding Will Conscience and Affections are too good for any other to Inhabit If thou be in thy Vnregenerate state then he solemnly demands in this Text admission into the Soul he made by the consent of the Will which if thou refuse to give him then Witness is taken that Christ once more demanded entrance into thy Soul which he made and was denied it If thou hast opened thy Heart to him thou wilt I hope meet somewhat in this Treatise that will clear thy
skin which are not accidental but connate as the reasonings of Men can prevail to remove the mighty power of customary sin Physitians find it a hard thing to Cure a Cakexia or ill habit of Body 'T is a grave and serious note of Seneca A teneris assuescere multum est 'T is a great matter to be accustomed this way or that from our childhood every repeated act of sin confirms and strenghtens the habit and hence it is that we see so few Conversions in old Age. It was a wonder in the Primitive times that Marcus Caius Victorius imbraced Christianity in the sixtieth year of his age take an habituated Drunkard a self-righteous Moralist lay before them the necessity of a change and you shall find it as easie to stop the course of a River with the breath of your Mouth as to stop them in an accustomed course of sinning That 's the fourth Bar to Christ. Fifth Bar. The Fifth Bar opposing and resisting Christs entrance into the Soul is the sin of Presumption this is the sin that parts Christ and thousands of Souls in the World presuming they hope and hoping they perish when Men presume their condition is safe already their Souls never make out after a Saviour This was the ruine of Laodicea Rev. 3. 17. Because thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked This damning presumption is discovered in three things 1 Many think they have that grace which they have not mistaking the Similar for the saving Works of the Spirit a fatal mistake never rectified with many thousands till it be too late 2 They presume to find that mercy in God which they will never find for all the saving mercies of God are dispensed to Men through Christ in the way of Regeneration and Faith Iude vers 21. 3 They presume upon that time for Repentance and Faith hereafter which their Eyes shall never see And thus presumption locks up the Heart against Christ and leaves sinners perishing in the presence of a Saviour They make a bridge of their own shadow and so perish in the Waters Sixth Bar. The Sixth and last sin barring up the Heart against Christ is a strong prejudice against holyness and the strict duties of Religion Thus in the very infancy of Christianity the World was scared and driven off from Religion by the common prejudices that lay upon the Professors of it Acts 28. 22. As concerning this Sect we know that every where it is spoken against Thus Iustin Martyr complains that Christians were every where condemned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by common same and upon this account Christ pronounces a wo upon the World because of offences Matth. 18. 7. Alas it will be the ruine of Thousands some have suckt in such prejudicate Opinions and vile Notions of Religio◠and its Professors as makes them irreconcilable enemies to it Satan hath drest it up in their fancies in such an odious form and representation that makes them loath both name and thing These prejudices are drawn from various things sometimes from the necessary duties of Christianity which are laid as crimes upon the people of God Psal. 69. 10. When I wept and chastned my Soul with fasting that was to my reproach Sometimes the groundless and malicious slanders and inventions of the enemies of Christianity are the occasions of real prejudices to the World Ier. 18. 18. Come let us devise devices against Jeremiah and let us smite him with the Tongue Sometimes the innocent and serious Professors of godliness are censured and condemned for hypocritical professors sakes who never heartily espoused Religion And lastly the ways of holiness suffer for the slips and infirmities of weak Christians who commonly give too many occasions to disgust the World against the ways of God. By these things multitudes are kept off from attendance upon the means of Grace and multitudes more have their Hearts shut up from receiving any saving benefit under them These are the common Bars and Locks by which the strong Man armed secures his possession in the Souls of sinners and these Bars are too strong for any power beneath the Almighty power and Arm of God to remove or break t is said Acts 14. 27. That the Lord opened a door of Faith to the Gentiles The Arm of the Lord must be revealed or none will open to Christ by Faith Isa. 53. 1. 1. The iron Bar of the Law that thundering terrible Law cannot force open the Heart of an unbeliever all the dreadful curses flying out of its fiery mouth make no more impression than a Tennis ball against a wall of Marble Deut. 29. 19. You read of them that hear the words of this Curse yet bless themselves in their Heart saying they shall have peace though they walk in the imagination of their Hearts to add Drunkenness to Thirst. They play with Hell and Eternal Torments rush into iniquity as the Horse rusheth into the Battle act as men in love with their own Death as those that are at an agreement with Hell. Oh the besotting hardning infatuating power of sin 2. The Golden Key of free Grace cannot in it self remove these Bars and open mens Hearts to Christ Matth. 11. 17. We have piped unto you but ye have not danced The melodious and delicious Airs of Grace Mercy Peace and Pardon affect not the dead Hearts of unbelievers Like deaf Adders they stop their Ears at the voice of the Charmer charm he never so wisely These Gospel melodies only dispose them to a more quiet sleep in sin 3. No works of Providence are in themselves sufficient to open the Hearts of Men to Christ. 1. The Judgments of God cannot do it thousands have been made sick with smiteing that yet cannot be made sick for sin I have consumed them but they refused to receive correction they have made their Faces harder then a Rock they have refused to return Jer. 5. 3. Messengers of Judgment are abroad smiting some in their Estates scattering in one day the labour of many years and therein giving a warning blow at the Conscience to make sure of Christ and the World to come since their comfort and happiness is scattered in this World. Some are smitten in their dearest relations Death knocks at their doors and carries out the delight of their Eyes and with the same admonisheth their Souls to place their happiness in more durable comforts Some are smitten in their Bodies with Diseases giving warning of the near approach of their latter end and bidding them prepare for another habitation but all in vain 2ly No mercies of God are in themselves sufficient to open the obstinate Hearts of sinners to Christ. God hath heapt up mercies by multitudes upon many of you all these mercies of God lead you to repentance Rom. 2. 4 5. They take you in a friendly way by the Hand and thus talk with you
The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force Matth. 11. 12. Why should other Mens Souls be dearer to them than yours unto you What discouragements have you which other Men have not Or what encouragements have they which you have not Say not we have no assurance our pains shall prosper or our strivings be made effectual to Conversion if there were any promise in the Gospel that such endeavours should be seconded from Heaven and made available to Salvation then we would strive as long as breath and life should last but all this may be to no purpose we may be Christ-less and hope-less when all is done But yet remember it is possible God may bless these weak endeavours and come in by his Almighty Spirit with them Nay it is highly probable that he will do so and is a strong probability nothing with you Do you use to do no actions about your civil callings without an assurance of success When the Merchant adventures his Life or Estate at Sea is he sure of a good return Or doth he not adventure upon the meer hopes and probabilities of a gainful voyage When the Husbandman plows his Lands empties both his bags and purse upon it is he sure of a good harvest May not a blast come that shall defeat all his hopes Yet he ploweâ—h and soweth in hope and ordinarily God maketh him partaker of his hope but without such industry his expectations would be vain Away then with vain excuses up and be doing in the use of all appointed means and the Lord be with you Third Vse for Tryal Before I dismiss this Point let us try our selves by it whether God have opened our Hearts to Christ broken these Bars of Ignorance Unbelief Custom Prejudice c. and the Will stand wide open to receive Christ Jesus the Lord. This is a solemn Use the consequence of it great Oh that our faithfulness and seriousness in the trial might be answerable Try your selves by these following marks I. Mark. If your Eyes be not opened to see sin in its vileness and Christ in his glory suitableness and necessity then sure your Hearts were never yet effectually opened by the Gospel I confess Mens Eyes may be opened to see sin and yet their Hearts at the same time shut up by unbelief against Christ but no Mans Heart can be opened to Christ whilst his Eyes are shut Iohn 6. 40. This is the will of him that sent me that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life The work of Faith is always wrought in the light of Conviction the cure of the Heart begins at the Eye of the Mind Acts 26. 18. To open their Eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. God opens Mens Hearts by shining into them 2 Cor. 4. 6. If therefore any Mans Eyes be still blinded with Ignorance Prejudice c. so that he apprehends not his own guilt and misery nor sees the worth and necessity of a Saviour that Mans Heart is still under Satans Lock and Bar sin is shut in and Christ is shut out of that Mans Soul. II. Mark. No Heart opens to Christ by Faith till it be first prickt and wounded by Compunction and Humiliation this Heart-wounding work is always antecedent to the work of Faith. I doubt not but your thoughts fore-run my Discourse to that famous Scripture Acts 2. 37. where Peter preaching to those that had crucified Christ and bringing up his Discourse close to their Consciences in the application of that Sermon convincing them not only what an horrid and atrocious crime the crucifying the Son of God was in it self but also charging it home upon them Whom you have taken and with wicked Hands have crucified and slain When they heard this they were pricked at the Heart and cried out Men and Brethren what shall we do Upon this outcry three thousand Souls opened in one hour to Christ Now consider whether your Hearts have been thus prickt and wounded Hath sorrow for sin pierced thy Soul Vain sinner that frothy Heart of thine must be made to bleed under Compunctions for sin or there will be no room for Christ in it Come Souls t is in vain to flatter your selves in your own Eyes reflect upon the frames of your Hearts call back the days that are past and say When was the Time and where was the Place when thou layest at the Foot of God sobbing and mourning upon the account of thy Sins Did ever God hear such a cry as this from thy Soul Ah Lord my Soul is distressed I rowle hither and thither for ease and comfort but find none O the insupportable weight of guilt Oh the bitterness of sin My Soul fails under it Lord undertake for me I do not say The degrees of Compunction and Humiliation are equal in all Converts neither their sins nor abilities to bear sorrows for them are equal but this I say Thy Heart must ake for sin or it will never open to Christ he binds up none but broken Hearts Isa. 61. 1. III. Mark. If Christ be come into thy Heart then the love and delight of every sin is gone out of thy Heart Christ and the love of sin cannot dwell together what Christ said to the Soldiers that apprehended him in the Garden the like he saith to every Soul that comes to apprehend him by Faith If you seek me let these go their way away with the sin thou most delightest in Christ cannot come in till these be gone Isa. 55. 6 7 8. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous Man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Here be the terms of your Acceptation and Salvation plainly laid down forsake thy ways and thoughts the way notes the external acts of sin and the thoughts the internal acts both of contrivance and delight in sin both these must be forsaken and that 's not all for this makes up but a negative holyness Let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy It is in vain for Men to make the door of Salvation wider than God hath made it we cannot bring down Christs terms lower than he hath set them if we will not come up to them Christ and we must part And this makes the great struggle the sharp debate in the Souls of Converts Oh t is hard to give up pleasant and profitable lusts but away they must go a Bill of Divorce must be signed for them or you cannot be espoused to the Lord Jesus This will be found to be a harder tug than to part with all externals for Christ sake IV. Mark. No Heart can open truly to Christ that is not made willing upon due deliberation to receive
the returns of your Prayers in bearing the cross and sufferings of Christ or in waiting for the day of your compleat Redemption and enjoyment of Christ This single consideration that Christ stood and waited so long upon you is enough to fortisie your Patience against all the difficulties it shall encounter VII Inference Lastly If Christ thus patiently wait upon trifling and obstinate sinners then let no godly person be discouraged because their unregenerate Relations have not yet made their first step towards Christ in the way of Repentance and saving Faith. It may be you have layed up a great stock of Prayers for them the believing Husband hath prayed for his unbelieving Wife and the believing Wife for her unbelieving Husband godly Parents for their ungodly Children and the gracious Child for his ungodly Parents and yet no returns of Prayer appear Many cries are gone up to Heaven like that of Abraham Gen. 17. 18. O that Ishmael might live before thee Well be not discouraged Christ is contented to wait and therefore well may you Those cries of Parents Lord my poor Child is in the state of Nature look in mercy upon him open his Eyes break his Heart for sin draw his Will to Christ these cries may not be lost though the fruit of them yet appear not consider how long Christ waited upon you There be three things that encourage hope 1. That your Hearts and theirs were of the same natural complection and temper and the same power which opened your Hearts can open theirs thy understanding was once as dark thy Heart as hard and thy Will as inflexible as thy carnal Relations now are The same Hand tha opened thy Heart can open theirs Dont think Christ had an easier task to win thy Heart than he will have to win theirs Almighty Power wrought upon you and the same Power can work effectually upon them the Lord's Hand is not shortned 2ly You have reason to wait for as much as it is probable you your selves have put stumbling-blocks into the way of their Souls to Christ and hindred the returns of your own Prayers for the conversion of your carnal Relatives Oh Christians there is more due to them than your Prayers Prayers must be backt with examples had they not only heard your cries to God for them but seen your suitable encouraging pattern set before them also you and yours might have rejoyced together long ago But 3ly consider that God many times makes the fruit of such Prayers to spring up after those that sowed them are dead and gone The Lord may give life to your Prayers when you are dead Certainly your Prayers dye not with you 'T is the opinion of some that Paul's conversion was the return of Stephen's Prayer Lord lay not this sin to their charge Stephen died but his Prayers lived and were answered upon one that stood by and consented to his death But however it be wait on if your Prayers come not into their bosoms they will certainly return into your own Here 's duty discharged love to Christ and their Souls manifested which will be your comfort howsoever God disposes the event II. Vse Secondly The Doctrine of Christ's Patience puts a great and serious Exhortation into my Mouth this day to press one of the greatest Duties upon you that ever I pressed in the whole course of my Ministry among you And could I deliver this Exhortation to you upon my Knees with Tears of Blood mingled with my words might that prevail I would surely do it My Exhortation is to all that are in an unregenerate state that they presume not to try the Patience of Christ any longer If you have any regard to your eternal Happiness exercise not his Patience beyond this hour Oh that this hour might put an end to Christ's waiting and your danger Hitherto you have wearied Men but will you weary God also Christ hath called but you have resused he hath stretched out his Hands but you have not regarded Your thoughts have been wandering after vanity whilst the voice of the Gospel hath been sounding in your Ears some of you have been sottish and uncapable to apprehend spiritual Truths others of you sensual given up to the pleasures of the World and abandoning all serious thoughts about the World to come Some of you have been buried alive in the cares of the World and others setled upon a dead formality in Religion and to this day Christ hath called upon you in vain Now that which I exhort you to is that you venture not to try the Patience of Christ one day longer if you have any regard to the everlasting happiness of your Souls come not under the guilt and danger of one denial or delay more if you ask me why Why may we not venture a little longer Christ hath born all this while and will he not bear a little longer May we not take a little more pleasure in sin May we not hazard one Sermon or Sabbath more and yet not perish I answer No. If your Souls be precious in your Eyes let there be no more denials nor delays to Christ's suit For 1. how patient and long-suffering soever Christ hath been yet there will be an end of the day of his Patience a time when he will wait no longer when his Spirit shall strive no more with you There is a knock of Christ at the Heart which will be the last knock that ever he will give and after that no more knocks A time when the Master of the house will rise up and the door be shut You have had to do with a meek and patient Christ hitherto but believe it sinners there is a day called the day of the wrath of the Lamb and that day is dreadful Rev. 6. 16. where you find sinners crying to the Rocks and Mountains to fall upon them and hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. O if his wrath be once kindled though but a little blessed are they that trust in him that have finished their agreement with him The day of Christ's Patience towards Ierusalem was a long day but it had an end Matth. 23. 37. and it ended in their desolation therefore try the Patience of Christ no further you know not the limits of it it may end with your next refusal and then where are you 2ly The longer Christ hath exercised his Patience already towards you the more terribly will he avenge the abuse of it in Hell upon you 'T is past doubt with me that there are different degrees of Torment in Hell the Scriptures are plainly and clearly for it Now among all the aggravations of the Torments of Hell none can be greater than the reflections of damned Souls upon the abused Patience and Grace of Christ. Those that had the best means the loudest calls and the longest day under the Gospel will certainly have the hottest place in Hell if the goodness and long-suffering of Christ do not now lead them to Repentance
will try what that will do go Poverty and blast his Estate and see what that will do go Sickness and smite his Body and shake him over the Graves mouth I will see what that will do Thus God sends to sinners as Absolom sent to Ioab who refused to come near him till he set fire to his field of Corn and then away comes Ioab 2 Sam. 14. 29 30 31. And thus the Lord opened the Heart of the Iaylor by putting him into a fright a panick fear of Death Acts 16. 27. And thus doth the Lord devise means to bring back his banished II. As God makes use of the Hammer of Judgments so he makes use also of Mercies to make way for Christ into the Hearts of Men. Every Mercy is a call a knock of God and truly if there be any ingenuity left unextinguished in the Heart one would think Mercy should prevail more than all the Judgments in the World Rom. 2. 4. Knowest thou not that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance q. d. Dost thou not see the Hand of Mercy stretched out to lead thee into a corner there to mourn over thy sins committed against so gracious and merciful a God By every Mercy you receive Christ doth as it were â—ee you to open your Hearts to him they are so many gifts sent from Heaven to make way for Christ into your Hearts It would be an endless task to enumerate all the Mercies bestowed to this end upon the unregenerate but surely this is the errand of them all and the Lord takes it very ill when his end is not answered in them hence is that complaint Ier. 5. 24. Neither say they in their Heart Let us now fear the Lord our God that giveth us rain both the former and the latter in his season Some of you have been marvelously preserved in times of common Contagion and Death when thousands have fallen at your right-hand and left then have you been preserved or recovered according to that Exod. 15. 26. I will put none of those Diseases upon thee for I am the Lord that healeth thee I am Iehovah Rophe the Lord the Phisitian many of you have been at the Graves mouth in many Diseases others upon the Deeps yet the Hand of Mercy pulled you back and suffered you not to drop into the Grave and Hell in the same moment O what a knock was here given by the Hand of Mercy at thy hard Heart Certainly if Men would but observe they might see a strange marvellous working and moulding of things by the Hand of providence for the production of thousands of Mercies for them and if Mercy would do the work and win you over to Christ many rods had been spared which your obstinacy hath made necessary O ungrateful sinners Doth your Redeemer thus woo and fee you by so many gifts of Mercy and yet will you shut him out Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise For which of all his benefits do your ungrateful Souls shut the door upon him III. You see what Christ's knocking at the Soul of a sinner implies and by what instruments it is performed In the last place we will consider the manner how this action is performed in the Ten following Particulars wherein much of the mistery of Conversion will be opened the Lord grant your experience may answer them VVe cannot indeed exactly describe and mark all the footsteps of the Spirit in this VVork upon the Souls of Men yet these things seem eminently observable 1. The knocks of Christ at the sinners Heart are silent and secret to all persons in the VVorld except the Soul it self at whose door he knocks here be many hundreds of you this day under the VVord if the Lord shall this day knock by Conviction at any Man's Heart none will hear that knock but that Man only for it is a knock without sound or noise to any but the particular Soul concerned in it It was fore-prophesied of our Redeemer and of this very act of his Isa. 4. 2. 2. He shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the Street The Kingdom of God cometh not into the Souls of Men with publick observation you read in 1 Cor. 2. 11. No Man knoweth the things of a Man saving the Spirit of a Man that is in him None knows what Convictions another Man's Conscience feels until he himself shall discover them you hear the same sound of the Gospel but you hear not the inward stroaks it gives to another Man's Conscience Christ's approaches to the Soul make no noise little do we know what the Spirit of Christ whispers in the Ear of him that sits next us 'T is said of the inward comforts of the Spirit I will give him the hidden Manna which no Man knows but he that eateth of it This is true also of inward terrors and troubles Christ's knocks by Conviction are but a secret whisper of his Spirit in the Ear of a sinner saying Thou art the Man this is thy case That is the first thing in the manner of Christ's knocking 't is a silent knock without publick sound 2ly These silent inward knocks of the Spirit of Christ though they are heard by none but the Soul it self yet do they greatly differ as to the terror or mildness of them in different subjects Some hear them with more terror and astonishment others in a mild and gentle manner when the Lord knockt at the Iaylors Conscience Acts 16. 29 30. it was a terrible stroak he called for a light and sprang in like a Man distracted and trembling and astonied fell down at the Apostles feet crying Sirs what must I do to be saved Here was a terrible knock indeed which almost affrighted his Soul out of his Body it is as if he had said Tell me for the Lord's sake and tell me quickly whether there be any way of Salvation and where it lies for I am a lost Man an undone Soul. But when the Lord opened the Heart of Lydia there were no such terrors the Lord spake to her in a more mild and gentle voice as you see verse 14. the Spirit of God varies his method according to the temper of the Soul he worketh on Knotty pieces need greater wedges and harder blows to rive them asunder and as he directs his Ministers Iude 22. to make a difference to deal tenderly and compassionately with some but others to save with fear so he himself observeth like different methods 3ly Some knocks of Christ are succesful and obtain the desired effect He knocks and the Soul opens but others are insuccessful he knocks once and again by Convictions which may cause the Conscience for the present to startle a little but there is no opening to Christ by Faith. O friends this is of dreadful consideration Prov. 1. 24. I called and you refused I stretched out my Hand and no Man regarded There 's a call without an answer a
Grace but Christ within you by the Work of Grace which must be unto you the hope of Glory Colos. 1. 27. He is not only among you in respect of external Means but he is come into your Understandings and Consciences Yea some motions of his you may feel upon your affections there wants but a little more to make you eternally Happy O what would one effectual touch upon your Wills be worth now The Head-Work is done but O that the Heart-Work were done too You are almost saved but to be almost saved is to be wholly and eternally Lost if it go no further 'T is a sad thing for a Man that hath one Foot in Heaven to slide from thence into Hell. 'T is sad to be Shipwreckt at the Harbours mouth Thirdly Jesus Christ hath an unquestionable right to enter into and possess every one of your Souls Satan is but an Usurper Christ is your lawful Owner and Proprietor thy Soul sinner hath not so full a Title to thy Body as Christ hath to thy Soul. Satan keeps Christ out of his right Christ knocks at the door of his own House he built it and therefore may well claim admission into it it is his own Creature Col. 1. 16. By him were all things made whether they be visible or invisible Bodies or Souls The invisible part thy Soul is his Workmanship a stately Structure of his own raising He hath also a right by Redemption Christ hath bought thy Soul and that at the invaluable price of his own Blood. Who then can dispute the right of Christ to enter in to his own House But alas he cometh to his own but his own receive him not Fourthly Open the door to Christ for a train of blessings and mercies comes in with him a troop of privileges follow him In the same day and hour that Christ comes into thine Heart by a full consent and deliberate choice a pardon comes with him of all the sins that ever thou committedst in Thought Word or Action Will such a pardon be welcome to thy Soul Then let Christ be welcome for where Christ comes pardon comes if you open to Christ you open to peace and who would shut the door of his Soul against Peace If peace be welcome let Christ be welcome for peace follows faith in Christ Rom. 5. 1 Where Christ comes liberty comes Iohn 8. 36. If the Son therefore shall make you free then are you free indeed Are you in love with Bonds and Fetters Satans Laws are written in Blood Christs yoak is easie and his commands not grievous If you love liberty love Christ. In a word where Christ comes Salvation comes for he is the Author of eternal Salvation to all them that obey him If therefore you love Pardon Peace Liberty and Salvation shut not the door against Christ for all these follow him where-ever he goes Fifthly Christ this day solemnly demands entrance into thy Soul he begs thee to open to him 2 Cor. 5. 20. He commands thee to open to him 1 Iohn 3. 23. He denounceth eternal Damnation to those that refuse him entrance Now consider well here is entrance demanded under pain of the eternal Wrath of God this demand is filed and recorded in Heaven at your own peril be it if you shut the door against him only this I will say in my Redeemers behalf if you refuse bear witness Heaven and Earth this day that Christ solemnly demanded entrance into thy Soul and was refused bear witness that the door was shut against the only Redeemer who intreated commanded and threatned eternal Damnation to the rejecters of him O methinks that Scripture Prov. 1. 24. 25. is able to strike terror into the very center of that Soul that refuses the offers of Christ. Sixthly And so I have done my Masters errand if you now refuse the knock of Christ at your Hearts he may never knock more and where are you then There is a knock which will be the last knock a call which will be his last call and after that no more knocks or calls but an eternal Silence as to any overture of Mercy or Grace But if I do open to Christ he will never come into such a filthy polluted sinful Soul as mine is Who saith so Who dare affirm so impudent a falshood in the very face of the Text If any Man open unto me I will come in to him If I open to Christ I must bid farewel to ease and rest in this World reproaches sufferings losses follow him If Christ Pardon and Salvation be not worth the enduring and suffering these small things sure thou valuest Christ and thy Soul at a low rate Oh who can sufficiently bewail the ignorance and folly of Unbelievers that will fell their Souls and hopes of Heaven for such trifles And if Christ and thy Soul must part upon these terms then hear me sinner and let it sink into thy Heart thy Damnation will be both 1. Just and Righteous 2. Unavoydable and sure 1. Thy Damnation will be Just for thou hadst thy own choice and deliberately preferredst the insignificant trifles of this World before Christ and Salvation It was plainly told thee what the issue of thy rejecting Christ would be and yet after sufficient warning thou adventuredst upon it whatever other sinners will plead I know not but as for thee thou must be speechless Matth. 22. 12. If thou dye Christless thou must appear at his Bar speechless and the day of Judgment will be the day of the revelation of the righteous Judgment of God Rom. 2. 5. 2ly It will also be Unavoidable for there is no other way to Salvation but this Acts 4. 12. No Christ no Heaven no Faith no Christ How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation Heb. 2. 3. Mercy it self cannot save thee out of Christ for all the saving Mercy of God is dispensed to Men through him Iude vers 21. 'T is to no purpose to cry Mercy Lord Mercy when Christ in whom all the Mercies of God are dispensed to Men is rejected by thee III. Vse for Consolation This Point winds up in Consolation to all such as hearing the knocks of Christ have opened or are now resolved to open their Hearts unto him and that nothing henceforth shall keep Christ and their Souls asunder To such I shall address the following grounds of Comfort I. Consolation An opening Heart to Christ is a work wholly and altogether Supernatural A special work of the Spirit of God never found upon any but an elect Soul. There are common gifts of the Spirit such as Knowledge vanishing Convictions c. but the opening of the Heart by Faith is the special saving and peculiar work of the Spirit Iohn 6. 29. This is the work of God that ye believe Yea it is the effect of the Almighty Power of God the exceeding greatness of his Power is exerted in the work of Faith Eph. 1. 19. it
10. There is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that repenteth If the consent of any of your Souls shall be this day gained to Christ if the Word you have heard this day shall send any poor Soul hence to his Closet or into a Corner there to make his Covenant with Christ for that 's the way of making up the match with Christ in that hour the news of it will be in Heaven and excite joy among the Angels of God lay these and many other Privileges together which I want time to mention but the Scriptures will abundantly furnish you with them and then consider what a rich bargain what an advantageous match Jesus Christ is for your Souls II. Upon the other-side cast up the account what you may lose by your consent to be Christs and whether those losses be sufficient to ballance or preponderate the gain that comes by such a consent that so your choice of Christ may be a deliberate and full choice and you may never repent afterwards of the choice you have made It is a rule in the Civil Law Non consentit qui non sentit he cannot consent that doth not think understand and deliberate and this is the reason of so much flinching from Christ and shameful apostacy in times of Persecution Men did not think of such sufferings and losses they are meer surprisals to them to forelay all such occasions of offence our Lord deals candidly and openly with us and tells us before Hand what are the worst things that may besal us for his sake Iohn 16. 1 2. These things have I spoken unto you that you should not be offended they shall put you out of the Synagogues Yea the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think he doth God service But vers 4. he adds These things I have told you that when the time shall come ye may remember that I told you of them q. d. Remember your selves in times of Persecution that all these things were propounded considered and consented to they were the very terms you subscribed to me had you not liked them you might at the everlasting damage and ruin of your immortal Souls have refused and rejected them Now the things you are to ballance with the gain of Christ must by you be'sorted into two Ranks 1. Things that must be parted with 2. Things that may be parted with for Christ. I. The things that you must part with viz. your Lusts and all the vicions pleasures you have had in them how much profit or pleasure soever they have brought you in away they must go they must be devoted to destruction and mortification or you can have no interest in Christ You must shake Hands for ever with all your sinful courses and companions Rom. 6. 16. His Servants you are to whom you obey Be they as pleasant and profitable as your right Hand or Eye they must be pluckt out and cut off Matth. 5. 29 30. Doth this sound harsh and unpleasant to your Ears Doth this cause the demur O consider what it is to part with sin it is but to part with the Disease of your Souls and the instruments of your everlasting ruin which of you would not be glad to part with a Fever the Stone or Dropsie What is Passion but the Fever of the Soul What is a hard Heart but a Stone What is Covetousness and Earthly-mindedness but the insatiable Dropsie of the Soul Now if Men would be glad to be rid of such dreadful Diseases in their Bodies and be restored to Soundness Ease and Health how much more should you be glad to be rid of your Corruptions and have the rectitude ease and pleasure of your Soul restored again Yea instead of those impure vicious bruitish pleasures you have taken in sin you shall enjoy the pure divine suitable and everlasting pleasures of holiness Consider now and accordingly make your choice whether you will take the pleasures of sin which are but for a season in exchange for the everlasting joys which are at Gods right Hand for ever II. There are other things which you may be called to part with and give up for Christ it is uncertain whether God may actually call you to part with your Liberties Estates Relations and Lives for Christ. Many are never actually called forth to such sufferings but because many are and every one of you may be so called you must reallize them ponder them and subscribe those very terms making full account of these things as if they were now before you Luke 9. 23. For so Christ hath propounded them but then with all weigh these troubles with the gain and advantages you shall have by them and not singly and alone by themselves for so Christ hath presented them to you Matth. 19. 28. And every one that hath forsaken Houses or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Children or Lands for my Name sake shall receive an hundred fold and shall inherit everlasting Life Now if you think such gainful troubles such Soul-enriching losses be worth accepting for Christs sake then close the match with Christ and bring the matter to a conclusion Do not befool your selves with a fond and groundless presumption that these things will never befal you I fear many flatter themselves with such vain hopes the Lord knows how soon these suppositions at a distance may be turned into realities before your Eyes You have much reason to expect them and much more to embrace them when ever Christ shall call you to them This is the great Work you have now to do and really you cannot safely demur any longer this matter must come to a conclusion and the sooner the better For you know 1. that your Lives are immediately uncertain and it is an unaccountable madness to let the great concern of your Salvation lye one day or night at hazard your breath is continually coming and going and that which is going must at last be gone Iames 4. 14. You Souls hang over everlasting dangers by the single thread of that feeble breath which plays in your Nostrils and every Disease like the flame of a Candle held under that thread and can it either be safe or comfortable to delay so great a Work as this upon which all your expectations and eternal Blessedness depends 2. Not only your Lives are hazardous and uncertain but the enjoyment of the Gospel and all the opportunities and means of your Conversion are as uncertain as they 'T is true and to the glory of God be it acknowledged we now enjoy the freedom and fulness of Gospel mercies but where hath God made any such settlement of these blessings upon you as puts the enjoyment of them out of hazard The rain is over but yet the clouds may return after the rain we are upon our good behaviour if it bring forth the fruits of your Conversion well if not the Ax lieth at the root of the trees Matth.
most satisfying of all Come on poor trembling Soul dont be discouraged stretch out the small weak Arms of thy Faith to that great and gracious Redeemer open thy Heart wide to receive him he will not refuse to come in he hath sealed thousands of pardons to as vile Wretches as thy self he never yet shut the door of Mercy upon a willing hungering Soul. It is a great matter to have the Way beaten and the Ice broken before thee in thy way to Christ. If thou wert the first sinner that had cast his Soul upon Christ I confess I should want this encouragement I am now giving thee but when so many have gone before thee and all found a welcom beyond their expectation What incouragement doth this breath into thy trembling discouraged Heart to go on and venture thy self upon Christ as they did what an Example have we in Manasseh 2 Chron. 33. from vers 3. to 12. An Idolater one that used Enchantments and Divinations familiar Spirits shed innocent Blood in the Streets of Ierusalem a Man might rake the World and hardly bring â—o sight a viler Wretch a greater Monster in sin and wickedness yet his Heart being broken and his Will bowed this Man found Mercy How great a sinner was Mary that came to Christ in the House of Simon the Pharisee Luke 7. 39. So notorious a sinner that Simon took offence at Christ for suffering so vile Wretch to come into his presence If this Man were a Prophet saith he he would have known who and what manner of Woman this is that toucheth him for she is a sinner Yet Maries Heart being broken for sin and made willing to accept of a Saviour what a gracious demonstration of welcom did Christ give her and to all other sinners a singular encouragement in her Example Once more you have an eminent Example of the abundant welcom of another sinner to Christ who owned himself for the greatest of Sinners a Persecuter a Blasphemer Injurious but saith he I obtained Mercy 1 Tim. 1. 16. And the Example of his gracious Entertainment with Christ is recorded on purpose for an encouragement unto all that should hereafter believe How many thousands are there now in Hell that never stood guilty of greater enormeties than the Corinthians did Fornicators Idolaters Adulterers Thieves Covetous Drunkards Revilers Extortioners such were some of them yet Sanctified Washed Justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. If ever Christ would have shut the door of Mercy upon any if ever he would have been coy and shy of coming into any Souls certainly these were the Souls he would have disdained to come near O what a demonstration is here of that comfortable Point before us That Christ will not refuse to come into the Soul of the vilest Sinner when ones it is made Heartily willing to open to him IV. Evidence A further Evidence of this comfortable Truth shall be taken from the Scripture resemblances of the abundant Grace of God and riches of Mercy in Christ towards all broken Hearted and willing Sinners There are some chosen resemblances and excellent Emblems which bring down the Grace of God before the very Eyes of Men amongst which I will single out three glorious Resemblances of Free Grace chosen by his Wisdom on purpose for the incouragement of poor drooping Sinners A Resemblance from the Heavens a Resemblance from the Sun and a Resemblance from the Sea all such as the Wisdom of Men and Angels could never have chosen for such a purpose as this is I. A Resemblance from the Heavens those vast extended Heavens that cover and compass this Earth what an inconsiderable spot is the whole Terrestrial Globe to those high and all-surrounding Heavens and yet these Heavens are not at so vast a distance above the Earth as the pardoning Grace of God is above the guilt yea and the very thoughts of poor Sinners For of the pardoning Grace of God to penitent and willing Souls that precious Scripture speaks Isa. 55. 8 9. Let the wicked for sake his way and the unrighteous Man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon O saith the Soul I cannot think God will ever have Mercy on such a Wretch as I why saith he vers 8. My thoughts are not your thoughts and 't is well they are not but as the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are my thoughts higher than your thoughts You cannot take the height nor sound the depth of my pardoning Grace That 's one Emblem from the unconceivable height of the Heavens above the Earth II. Another is taken from the Sun in the Heavens a Creature of admirable Power and Vertue you know that anon this part of the World will be the Throne of Darkness the Sable curtains of the Night will be spread over all the beauties of this part of the Earth and it may be in the Morning a thick Fog or Mist will cover it thick and dark Clouds may darken the Heavens but behold this glorious Creature the Sun chasing before him the darkness of the Night breaking up the Mists and Fogs of the Morning scattering the dark and thick Clouds of Heaven they are all gone and there is no appearance of them Just so saith God shall it be with thy sins and thy Cloudy fears arising out of sin Isa. 44. 22. I have blotted out as a thick Cloud thy transgressions and as a Cloud thy sins Thy Soul is beclouded thy fears have bemisted thee so that thou canst not see the grounds of thine encouragement but my Grace shall arise upon thee like the Sun in the Heavens and scatter all these dismal Clouds both of guilt and fear and make a clear Heaven over thee and a clear Soul within thee Vnto you that fear my Name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing under his wings Mal. 4. 2. III. Another Resemblance you have from the Sea the great Abyss that vast Congregation of Waters whose depth no line can fadom Veer out as much Line as you will you cannot touch the bottom To this unfathomable Ocean the pardoning Grace of God is also resembled Mich. 7. 18 19. Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage he retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy He will turn again he will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the Sea. If the loftiest Pyramid or highest Mountain were cast into the depth of the Sea it would never be seen more by the Eyes of Men. God hath on purpose chosen this Emblem of his Grace to obviate that common discouragement of Satan taken from the greatness and aggravation of sin and in that case thou art to make use of them and bless the Lord for them he
Gospel which you enjoy leads you to the Fountain of pardon and peace Iâ—a 53. 5. By his stripes we are healed The voice of the Gospel is peace peace to every one that believeth a rational peace founded upon the full satisfaction of Christ Ephes. 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his Grace Here you see Justice and Mercy kissing each other God satisfied and the Sinner justified for Conscience demands as much to satisfie it as God demands to satisfie him if God be satisfied Conscience is satisfied O blessed are the people that hear this joyful sound Psal. 89. 15. And doubtless it is a joyful sound to every convinced humbled Soul Beautiful upon the Mountains are the Feet of them that bring good tydings that publish peace It is a Gospel worthy of all acceptation 1 Tim. 1. 15. it brings with it a fulness of blessings among the People O England O Dartmouth Provoke not thy God to extinguish this blessed light Great is our wantonness and ominous is our barrenness and ingratitude Yet a little while the light is with you walk whilst ye have the light lest darkness come upon you for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth John 12. 35. Should God blow out this light whither will you go Who shall pour in Balm to your distressed bleeding Consciences ' II. Inference Hence in like manner it follows that the greatness heinousness of past sins is no bar to believing and accepting Christ upon Gospel terms Let no sinner be dismaid by the atrocity and heynousness of sins past from coming unto Jesus Christ for remission and peace I am awar what mischievous use Satan makes of former sins to discourage Souls from the work of Faith by heaping them together he raiseth up a Mountain betwixt Christ and the distressed Soul but behold this day Christ leaping over these Mountains and skiping over these Hills Could this objection be rouled out of the way sinners would go on in hope but certainly if God have given thee a broken Heart and a willing Mind the greatness of thy sin need not discourage thee from believing For 1. thou hast sufficient encouragement from the sufficiency of the causes of pardon whatever thy particular enormities have been there is a sufficiency in the impulsive cause the Free Grace and Mercy of God Exod. 34. 6 7. Micah 7. 18 19. Isa. 55. 7 8 9. It is well there is Mercy enough in God to heal and cover all and there is no less sufficiency in the meritorious cause of pardon the Blood of Jesus Christ which taketh away all sin 1 Iohn 1. 7. 1 Iohn 29. And it must needs be so because it is Divine Blood Acts 20. 28. Neither is there any defect in the applying cause the Spirit of God who hath already begun to work upon thy Heart and is able to break it and bow it and bring it home fully to Christ and to compleat the work of Faith upon thee with power thou complainest thou canst not mourn nor believe as thou wouldst but he wants no ability to supply all the defects of thy repentance and faith Well then if the mercy of God be sufficient to pardon the sin of a Creature if the Blood of Christ the Treasures and Revenues of a King be able to pay the debts of a Beggar if the Spirit of God who works by an Almighty Power be able to convince thee of righteousness as well as sin Iohn 16. 9. I say if all the three causes of forgiveness be sufficient every one in its kind the first to move the second to purchase and the third to apply what hinders but thy trembling Conscience should go to Christ and thy discouraged Soul move onward with hope in the way of believing whatever thy former enormities have been 2. If God raises glory to his Name out of the greatness of the sins he pardoneth then the greatness of sin can be no discouragement to believing but so God doth he raiseth the glory of his Name from the multitude and magnitude of the sins he pardoneth Ier. 33. 8 9. I will cleanse them from all their iniquity whereby they have sinned against me and I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned and whereby they have transgressed against me And it shall be to me a name of joy a praise and an honour before all the Nations of the Earth which shall hear all the good I do unto them And they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it As a cure performed upon a Man labouring under a desperate Disease it magnifies the Physitian and spreads his Name far and near The Devil envies God this glory and thy Soul this comfort and therefore scares thee off from Christ by the aggravations of thy sins David was willing to give God the glory of pardoning his great iniquities and with that very argument moves him for a pardon Psal. 25. 11. Pardon mine iniquitie for it is great You see there are strange ways of arguing in Scripture which are not in use among Men this is one Lord pardon my sin for it is great he doth not say Lord pardon it for it is but a small offence no but pardon it because it is great and the greater it is the greater Glory wilt thou have in pardoning it And then there is another way of arguing for pardon in Scripture which is peculiar and that is to argue from former pardons unto new pardons when Men beg their pardon one of another they use to say I never wronged you before and therefore forgive me now but here it is quite otherwise Lord thou hast signed thousand of pardons heretofore therefore pardon me again such is that plea Numb 14. 19. Pardon I beseech thee the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy mercy and as thou hast forgiven them from Egypt even until now 3. As great sins as those that now stare in the Face of thy Conscience have been actually forgiven to Men upon their humiliation and closing with Christ. Poor sinners under trouble of Conscience are apt to think there is no sin like theirs God forbid I should diminish and extenuate sin but certain I am that Free Grace hath pardoned as great Sinners as thou art upon their repentance and faith What think you had you had a Hand in putting Christ to Death would not that sin have been as dreadful as any that now discourages you Yea certainly you would have thought that an unpardonable sin and yet behold that very sin was no bar to their pardon when once they were pricked at the Heart and made willing to come to Christ Acts 2. 36 37 38. 4. If it be the design and policy of Satan to object the greatness of your sins to prevent the pardoning of them then certainly 't is neither your duty nor interest
to plead it to the same end the Devil doth to lay a confederacy and joyn with your mortal enemy in a plot against the honour of Christ and Salvation of your own Souls take heed what you do seal not Satans conclusions do you think it is a small matter to be confederate with the Devil Certainly this is his design he magnifies your sins on purpose to discourage you from faith while you were secure and carnal the Devil never aggravated but diminished your sins to you but now the Lord hath opened your Eyes and you are come near to the door of hope mercy and pardon now he magnifies them hoping thereby to ham-string and lame thy faith that it shall not be able to carry thee to Christ. 5. If thy sin be really unpardonable then God hath somewhere excepted it in the Gospel grant He hath somewhere said The Man that hath committed this sin or continued so many years in sin shall never be forgiven but now in the whole Gospel there is but one sin that is absolutely excepted from the possibility of pardon and that such a sin as thy sorrows and desires after Christ do fully acquit and clear thee from the guilt of this sin indeed is excepted Matth. 12. 31. But the sin against the Holy Ghost shall never be forgiven This is that which the Scripture calls a sin unto death Let Apostate Professors transformed into Persecutors Scoffers and Haters of godliness and the Professors of it look to themselves the dreadful symptoms of this sin seem to appear upon such But the humbled thirsty Soul after Christ stands clear of the guilt of that sin 5. If there were no forgiveness with God for great sinners then great sinners had never been invited to come to Christ. The invitations of the Gospel are no mockeries but things of most awful solemnity Now such sinners are called and invited under the encouragement of a pardon consult Isa. 1. from vers 10. to 17. and see the horrid aggravations of that peoples sins and yet at vers 17 18. you may read the gracious invitations of God with conditional promises of a plenary remission so in Ier. 3. from 1. to 13. what a sad Catalogue of sins with their horrid aggravations do you find there and yet it said vers 12. Go and proclaim these words towards the North and say Return thou backsliding Israel and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you for I am merciful 6. If thy sins had not been capable of remission God would never have given thee conviction and compunction for sin nor have drawn forth the desires of thy Heart in this manner after Christ. He hath tact remission to repentance Acts 5. 31. a blessing to gracious desires and hungerings Matth. 5. 6. There is therefore hope that when God hath given the one he will not long withhold the other This very wounding of thy Heart by compunction and drawing forth thy Will by inclination shew that remission is not only possible but even at the door 7. And lastly Let this be thine encouragement whatever Satan or thine own Heart suggests to discourage thee that great Sinners are moving in the way of repentance and faith to a great Saviour who hath merit enough in his Blood and mercy enough in his Bowels to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him Heb. 7. 25. The Lord open to the Eyes of your Faith that rich Exchequer of Free Grace Exod. 34. 6 7. and give you a sight of that plenteous Redemption and forgiveness that is with God Psal. 130. 4 7. that you may not at once cast reproach upon the most glorious Attribute of God impeach the precious Blood of Christ and stab your own Soul with a death-wound of desperation which is that the Devil designs and the whole strain of the Gospel designs to prevent III. Inference If the vilest of sinners stand as fair for pardon and mercy upon their closing with Christ by faith as the least of sinners do then certainly the pardon and salvation of sinners is not built upon any righteousness in themselves but purely and only upon the Free Grace of God in Iesus Christ. Dont think God hath set the Blood of Christ to sale and that those only are capable of the benefits of it who have lived the strictest and soberest lives No no though sobriety morality and strictness in Religious Duties be things commanded and commended in the Gospel yet no Man by these things can purchase a pardon for the least sin Rom. 11. 6. And if by grace then it is no more of Works otherwise grace is no more grace but if it be of works then is it no more grace otherwise work is no more work See how these exclude one another thus Titus 3. 5. Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us No Man can satisfie God by any thing himself can do or suffer not by doing for all we do is mixt with sin Iob 14. 4. and that which is sinful can be no attonement for sin all we do or can do is due debt to God Luke 17. 10. and one debt cannot satisfie for another Nor yet by suffering for the sufferings awarded by the Law are everlasting and to be ever satisfying is never to satisfie So then by the works of the Law shall no flesh living be justified in his sight The Saints in all generations have fled to mercy for remission Psal. 130. ult the two debtors Luke 7. 43 44 45. though there were a vast difference in the debts yet of the lesser as well as of the greater it s said they had nothing to pay nothing but the satisfaction of Christ can quit your scores with God. IV. Inference If the grace of Christ be thus free to the greatest of sinners then it is both our sin and folly to stand off from Christ and draw back from believing for want of such and such qualifications which we yet find not to be wroâ—ght in our Hearts Poor convinced Souls think O if they had more humility tenderness love to God spirituality of mind this would â—e some encouragment to believe but because they have no such ornaments to dress up their Souls withal they are not fit to go to Christ. Now to remove this great mistake let two things be considered 1. That such a conceit as this crosses the very stream of the Covenant of Grace where nothing is sold but all freely given this is the very Spirit of the Covenant of Works fain we would find something in our selves to bring to God to Procure his favour and acceptance but the Gospel tells us we must come naked and empty handed to be justified freely by his grace Rom. 2. 24. We must be justified as Abraham was who believed in him that justifieth the ungodly Rom. 4. 5. But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted
of sin by are these 1. There be sins of infirmity committed out of weakness and there are crying sins in the Ears of the Lord of the former sort sins of infirmity you read Gal. 6. 1. where it is called an overtaking in a fault here 's no premeditation nor deliberate consent but a surprize these go not to the account of gross and heynous enormities called in Scripture crying sins such as are the sin of oppression Hab. 2. 10 11. The stones shall cry out of the wall aud the beam out of the timber shall answer it The meaning is that the injustice and oppression which Men have used in raising their own Houses shall cry in the Ears of the Lord for vengance The Stone in the Wall shall say I was digged out of the Quarry hewen and layed here by the unrewarded labours of the poor Mason and the Timber out of the Beam shall say I was hewn squared and placed here by the unrewarded Hands of the poor Carpenter This is a crying sin so also is the sin of Murder when our Hands have been defiled with innocent Blood this makes a dismal cry in Heaven Gen. 4. 10. The voice of thy Brothers blood cryeth unto me from the ground A sin that makes an horrid outcry in both Worlds at once in Heaven and in the sinners Conscience Such also is the sin of unnatural lusts the sin of Sodom made a cry which came up to Heaven Gen. 18. 20. Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grievous Compare these sins with the sins of common infirmity which come by way of involuntary surprize and what vast odds will be found in the weight and aggravations of them 2ly You find in Scripture a great difference put betwixt sins committed against the clear shining light of Knowledge in the sinners Conscience and sins of Ignorance which are committed for want of Knowledge Christ himself puts a great difference betwixt them Luke 12. 47 48. and so doth the Apostle Iames 4. 17. To him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is sin Sin with a witness 3ly There are single acts of sin and continued or repeated acts of sin Sins committed after Conviction Promises and Resolutions Now there is not so much of guilt in a single act of sin as there is in a repeated and continued course of sin called Deut. 29. 19. Adding of drunkenness to thirst and Isa. 30. 1. Adding sin to sin For as it is in numbring so it is in sinning if the first figure be one the second is ten the third an hundred the fourth a thousand and every addition makes a greater multiplication O what a dreadful reckoning will here be for the Consciences of poor sinners 4ly Contrivers and studiers of sin are always in Scripture placed in the first rank of sinners The best servant God hath in the World may be surprized by the deceitfulness of sin against the gracious bent and resolution of his Soul but the contrivance and plotting of sin is quite another thing therefore it is said of the wicked Iob 15. 35. They conceive mischief and bring forth vanity and their belly prepareth deceit That is sin like the Foetus in the Womb hath its time of conception growth and birth and all this by the deliberate consent of the naughty Heart and Will which fosters and cherishes it 5ly There are ring-leaders in sin and single personal sins which spread no farther than our selves a ring-leader in sin is in Scripture reckoned amongst the greatest of sinners so Revel 2. 14. Thou hast them that held the Doctrin of Balaam who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the Children of Israel thus Ieroboam the son of Nebat made Israel to sin There is the same difference betwixt these and single personal sins as there is betwixt a chain shot and a single bullet Mind this you that have induced others to sin by your counsel or example 6ly There are sins in which men glory and take pleasure and sins for which men groan and mourn Now the more pleasure any man takes in sin the greater doth the sin arise in its aggravation We read of some Iob 20. 12. in whose mouths wickedness is sweet and they hide it under their tongue that is they draw a great deal of contemplative delight before and after the commission of sin as well as in the commission of it 'T is bad enough to sin and sigh to sin and weep but to sin and boast to sin and make a mock of sin what a prodigious way of sinning is this O Sinner what an heart hast thou that canst play and sport with that which grieves God crucified Christ and with without deep and sound Repentance will damn thine own Soul 7ly The more Bonds of Restraint any man breaks asunder to commit sin the greater and more aggravated always that sin is in the sight of God. There be some persons upon whom God hath laid more bonds of restraint to keep back their souls from iniquity than he hath upon others The more mercies he hath bestowed upon you the more restraints from sin So many mercies so many tyes Ier. 2. 5 6. especially spiritual mercies as light in your minds pardons sealed to your consciences love manifested to your souls Such also are your own Vows Promises and Resolutions Ier. 2. 20. Thou saidst I will no more transgress Didst not thou promise me saith God more care and circumspection for time to come And such are all the Examples and Warnings God hath given us by his Judgments upon others 1 Cor. 10. 11. These things put an Accent upon sin and make it out of measure sinful And now my Friends what have have I been driving at all this while in opening the greatness and aggravations of sin The design of all this is to shew you the indispensible need of Repentance and Faith to carry you to Christ. But I am the person upon whom these crying aggravated sins are found you tell me of going to Christ alas there is no hope of mercy for such a wretch as I am There it sticks Poor sinners think 't is to no purpose they had as good go on in sin for they conclude there 's no hope for them Come sinners give me leave to tell you you have a Text before you that the clears the way of your duty and salvation at once If any man be he what he will be his sins never so great yet if he hear my voice and open the door I will come into him saith Christ. There is mercy in Jesus Christ for thee who art guilty of crying sins For thee that hast added sinned against light and knowledge For thee that hast drunkenness to thirst For thee that hast contrived sin with deliberation For thee that hast induced others to sin by counsel or example For thee that hast taken pleasure in iniquity and made a sport of sin Yea and for
special season or hour as Christ calls it Iohn 5. 25. The hour cometh when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God. And elsewhere by the Apostle it is called the accepted Time the day of Salvation 2 Cor. 6. 2. And the conjunction of the Spirit of Christ with the Word Ordinances or Providences of God but especially the Word makes this blessed hour The Word alone though never so excellently preacht conduces no more to the Conviction and Salvation of a sinner than the Waters of Bethesda did when the Angel came not down to trouble them Iohn 5. 4. But when the Lord pours out his Spirit with the Word according to that promise Prov. 1. 23. I will pour out my Spirit upon you and make known my Words unto you then Christ speaks to the Heart this great conjunction of the Word and Spirit makes that blessed nick and season of Salvation The time of love the time of life Now the voice of Christ is heard with effect the Ordinances impregnated with convincing and converting efficacy There was an abundant effusion of the Spirit in the first Age of Christianity and then the voice of Christ was heard by multitudes of Souls at once There hath since been a restraint of the Spirit comparatively speaking whereas three thousand Souls were then converted at one Sermon possibly three thousand Sermons have since been preached and not one Soul effectually called This hath made the Church like a Wilderness a Land of drouth and so 't is like to remain until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high and the wilderness be a fruitful field according to that promise Isa. 32. 15. And such a time we expect Lord hasten it when the waters of the Ordinances shall be healed and every thing that liveth which moveth whithersoever the River shall come shall live And fishers shall stand upon it from Engedi even unto Eneglaim they shall be a place to spread forth nets their fish shall be according to their kinds as the fish of the great Sea exceeding many Ezek. 47. 9 10. Then Ministers shall no longer fish with Angles catching now one then another but shall spread forth their nets and inclose whole shoals multitudes of Converts in the mean time there are some signal periods and happy seasons wherein Christ uttereth his Almighty voice in the World but that season is utterly unforeknown to Man we cannot say when it will come but are to wait for it as the Man did at the pool of Bethesda Ministers must preach in hope wait in hope if at any time God will give the people repentance 2 Tim. 2. 25. We are often mistaken in our conjectures when we have made the best preparations and find a more than ordinary enlargedness of Spirit we are apt to conclude certainly this is the blessed hour wherein Christ will speak to the Heart as we do to the Ear but we oft-times find our selves mistaken yet we must wait in hope and so must our people Such a happy time may come and when it doth it will be a day for ever to be remembred because then the first actual application of Christ will be made to your Souls without which all that the Father had done in Election and the Son in his meritorious Redemption had been of no benefit or advantage to your Souls And therefore you shall find that this work of the Spirit stands betwixt both those works and makes them both effectual to our Salvation 1 Pet. 1. 2. This is that blessed hour upon which your eternal blessedness depends eternity will be taken up in blessing God for this hour it will be celebrated for ever in your praises in the World to come O what an influence hath this hour into all eternity The hearing of this voice of Christ effectually opens the Cabinet counsels of Heaven and brings to light the eternal counsels of God concerning you 1 Thes. 1. 4 5. Knowing brethren beloved your election of God for our Gospel came not to you in word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost This gives greater assurance of the eternal love of God to a Mans Soul than the sweetest smile of providence or any oraculous voice from Heaven can do This is the time of life the day of your Spiritual Resurrection Iohn 5. 25. A greater and more glorious Resurrection by far than that of your bodies at the last day â—o much greater as the value of your Souls is above your Bodies As also because the blessedness of your Corporeal Resurrection depends upon this your Spiritual Resurrection by the voice of Christ. Dreadful will the voice of Christ be at the Resurrection of your Bodies except you first hear this vital voice of Christ quickning your Souls on Earth with spiritual life To conclude this is the great Aera or head of account from which you are to reckon and date all your spiritual sanctified mercies for as the Lord said unto the Jews Hag. 2. 19. From henceforth will I bless you So saith the Lord to you from this hour wherein you have heard and obeyed the voice of Christ will I bless you for ever with all Spiritual blessings in heavenly places in him I. Vse for Lamentation This Point presents us with abundant matter of Lamentation and mourning over the greatest part of those that sit under the sound of the Gospel but yet as Christ speaks of the Jews Iohn â— 37. who have not heard the voice of God at any time the Ministerial voice of Christ they hear dayly but this Efficacious Internal voice which makes the Ministerial voice the Word of Life and Power they have not heard The Gospel to the most of our hearers is but an empty sound this is a sad symptom 2 Cor. 4. 3. If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost in whom the God of this World hath blinded the minds of them that believe not c. This hiding of the Gospel is not opposed to the external administration of it nor yet to the understanding of the true sense and meaning of the truths delivered by it but only to that internal efficacy which is here called the hearing of Christs voice Our people are generally well satisfied when they have heard a Sermon much more if they can remember something of it though the Lord hath not spoken one truth they have heard home to their Hearts Now this is a sad case and God grant it be not that very judgment threatned Isa. 6. 9. Hear ye indeed but understand not and see ye indeed but perceive not So that hearing the meer voice of Man without feeling the power of God is all one as if we heard not Reflect sadly upon this you that sit as unconcerned under the Word as the Seats you sit upon God speaketh once yea twice but man perceiveth it not Well the eternal Decrees and Counsels of God are now executing upon the Souls of Men under the Gospel As many as
Satan to God. So Luke 11. 21 22. When a strong man armed keepeth his pallace his goods are in peace But when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted and divideth his spoil Fourthly Thy present vileness and unworthiness can be no bar to Christs entrance into thy Soul because Christ never yet objected to any man his unworthiness but his unwillingness to come unto him Iohn 5. 40. You will not come unto me that you might have life And again Matth. 23. 37. How oft would I have gathered thy Children and ye would not Indeed you find something like a repulse from Christ to that poor Canaanitess Mat. 15. 24 26. Lord help me said that poor distressed Soul but he answered and said It is not meet to take the childrens bread and cast it to dogs However harshly and discouragingly these words sound yet certainly it was none of Christs intent to damp and discourage her faith but to draw it forth to a more excellent and intense degree which effect it obtained vers 27. Fifthly Neither would Christ have made the tenders of mercy so large and indefinite had he intended to have shut out any Soul upon the single account of personal unworthiness provided it be but willing to come unto him Cast thine Eye poor discouraged Soul upon Christs invitations and proclamations of grace and mercy in the Gospel and see if thou canst find any thing beside unwillingness as a bar betwixt thee and mercy harken to that voice of mercy Isa. 55. 1. Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no money come ye buy and eat come buy wine and milk without money and without price i. e. without personal desert or worthiness So again Rev. 22. 17. The Spirit and the bride say come and let him that is athirst come and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely Here you see personal vileness and unworthiness is no obstacle in the way of Christ. Once more see Iohn 7. 37. In the last day that great day of the feast Iesus stood and cried saying If any man thirst let him come to me and drink Thus you see what Christs coming into the Soul is and what evidences there are that when once the Soul is made truly willing Christ will certainly come into it and no former vileness or present unworthiness shall be a bar to obstruct his entrance Thirdly In the next place I shall shew you That when Christ comes into the Soul he will not come empty handed 'T is Christs marriage day and he will make it a good day a festival day bringing such comforts along with him as the Soul never tasted before he spreads as it were a Table furnishes it with the delicates of Heaven I will sup with him saith the Text What those Spiritual mercies are which Christ brings a long with him to the opening willing Soul comes next in order to be spoken to And 1. When Christ comes into the Soul of a sinner he brings a Pardon with him a full a free and a final pardon of all the sins that ever that Soul committed This is a feast of it self good cheer indeed Christ thought it to be so when he told the poor Palsey-man Matth. 9. 2. Son be of good cheer thy sins are forgiven thee He doth not say Be of good cheer thy Palsey is cured thy body recovered from the grave but be of good cheer thy sins are pardoned O how sweetly may the pardoned Soul feed upon this And this is not any peculiar mercy designed for some special favorites but what is common to all believers Acts 13. 43. By him all that believe are justified from all things Christ and pardon come together and without a pardon no other mercy would relish no feast no musick no money or honour have any favour or comfort with them to a condemned man but the comfort of a pardon reaches to the very Heart Isa. 40. 1 2. Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith the Lord Speak comfortably to Jerusalem or as in the Hebrew Speak to the heart of Jerusalem But what are the ingredients of that cordial that will comfort Ierusalems Heart Why Say unto her that her iniquities are pardoned that carries along with it the Spirit of all consolation And there are four things in the pardon of sin that make it the sweetest mercy that ever the Soul tasted comfort which is impossible to be communicated to another with the same sense that the pardoned Soul hath of it Rev. 2. 17. First That which makes the pardon of sin ravishingly sweet is the trouble that went before it The labourings and restless tossings of the troubled Soul which were antecedent to this pardon make the ease and peace that follows by it incomparably sweet As the bitterness of Hell was tasted in the sorrows of sin so the sweetness of Heaven is tasted in the pardon of it Secondly The nature of the mercy it self is incomparably sweet for it is a mercy of the first rank Pardon is â—uch a mercy as admits no comfort to come before it nor any just cause of discouragement can follow after it If God have not spoken pardon to the Soul it can have no fetled ground for joy Ezek. 33. 10. And if he have there can be no just ground for dejection whatever the troubles be that lye upon it Isa. 33. 24. The inhabitants shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquities Thirdly The third thing that makes this mercy delicious and ravishingly sweet to the Soul are the properties of it which are four 1. God writes upon thy pardon frank 't is a free mercy which cost thee nothing Rom. 3. 24. Being justified freely by his grace Thou hast bought me no sweet Cane with money yet I even I am be that blotteth out thy transgression for my own names sake 2. God writes upon thy pardon full as well as free the pardon extends to all the sins that ever thou committedst Acts 13. 43. By him all that believe are justified from all things The sins of thy nature and practice the sins of thy youth and age great sins and lesser sins are all comprehended within thy pardon Thou art acquitted not from one but from all Certainly the joy of Heaven must come down in the mercy of remission O what a feast of fat things with marrow is this single mercy a pardon free without price full without exception And then 3. its final without revocation the pardoned Soul never more comes into condemnation Thine iniquities are removed from thee as far as the East is from the West as those two opposite points of Heaven can never meet so the pardoned Soul and its pardoned Sins can never more meet unto condemnation Psal. 103. 12. 4. God writes upon the pardon another word as sweet as any of the rest and that is sure 'T
is a standing mercy never to be recall'd vacated or annulled Rom. 8. 33 34 35. The challenge is sent to Hell and Earth Men and Devils Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect 'T is God that justifies who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died c. Who can arrest when the Creditor dischargeth Who can sue the bond when the debt is paid 'T is Christ that died The Table is spread and the first mercy served in is the pardon of sin Eat O friends drink yea drink abundantly O beloved Now the labouring Conscience that rowled and tossed upon the waves of a thousand fears may drop Anchor and ride quiet in the pacifique Sea of a pardoned State. What joy must stream through the Conscience when the sweetness of that Scripture Rom. 8. 1. shall be pressed into thy cup of Consolation The pardoned Soul may speak and think of Death and Judgment without consternation yea may look upon it as a time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord Acts 3. 19. This is heavenly Manna the sweetness of it swallows up all expression all conceptions no words no thoughts can comprehend the riches of this mercy II. And yet this is not all behold another mercy in consequence unto this brought in to refresh and cheer the consenting Soul and that is peace with God. Pardon and peace go together Rom. 5. 1. Being justified by faith we have peace with God. Peace is a word of a vast comprehension peace in the language of the Old Testament comprehends all Temporal good things 1 Sam. 25. 6. And peace in the New Testament comprehends all Spiritual mercies 2 Thes. 3. 16. the blessings of Heaven and Earth are wrapt up in this word The Soul that opens to Christ hath peace of reconciliation in Heaven the enmity that was betwixt God and that Soul is taken away through the blood of Christ Isa. 12. 1 2. O Lord I will praise thee though thou wast angry with me thine anger is turned away and thou comfortest me This must be an invaluable mercy for the purchase of it cost the blood of Christ Isa. 53. 5. The chastisement of our peace was upon him He made peace by the blood of his Cross Col. 1. 20. and this peace of reconciliation is setled by Christ upon a firm foundation His blood gives it a more firm and steady basis and foundation than that of the Hills and Mountains Isa. 54. 10. And that which makes it so firm and sure is the Advocateship of Jesus Christ in Heaven 1 Iohn 2. 1. 2. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father There is also peace in the believers Conscience peace as it were by Proclamation from Heaven and this is built upon the peace of Reconciliation We cannot have the the sense of peace till we are brought into a state of peace the latter is the result of the former And this is a special part of that supper Christ provides to entertain the Soul that receives it How sweet this is is better felt than spoken A dreadful sound was lately in the Ears of the Law-condemned sinner but now his Heart is the seat of peace And this peace is 1. the Souls gard against all inward and outward terrors Phil. 4. 7. The peace of God shall keep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as the word is guard your hearts and minds The persons of Princes are secured by guards of armed and valiant Men who watch while they sleep Thus Solomon had his royal guard because of fear in the night Cant. 3. 7 8. This peace of God Christian is thy life-guard and secures thee better than Solomons threescore valiant men that were about him Time was when thou wast affraid to sleep for fear thou shouldst awake in Hell Now thou maist say with David I will both lay me down and sleep for thou Lord makest me to dwell in safety Now come life come death the Soul is safe the peace of God is its royal guard 2. This peace is ease as well as safety to the Soul 'T is heart-ease no sooner doth God speak peace to the Conscience but the Soul finds it self at ease and rest Heb. 4. 3. We which have believed do enter into rest It is with such a Soul as it was with the Dove Noah sent out of the Ark that poor creature wandred in the Air as long as her wings could carry her had her strength fail'd there was nothing but the waters to receive her O how sweet was rest in the Ark 3. This peace is news from Heaven and the sweetest tydings that ever blest the sinners Ear next unto Christ Heb. 12. 24. The blood of Christ speaketh better things than that of Abel And you are come to this blood of sprinkling the same day and hour that Christ is come into your Souls This is the voice of that blood Thou hast sinned I have satisfied Thou hast kindled the wrath of God And I have quencht it The Angels of Heaven cannot feed higher their joys are not more delicious than those prepared for believers are whereof this is a foretast whatever circumstances of trouble a man be in this effectually relieves him Paul and Silas were in sad circumstances shut up in the inner-prison their feet made fast in the stocks their cruel keeper at the door their execution designed in a few days God did but set this dish upon the Table before the prisoners and they could not forbear to sing at the feast Acts 16. 25. At midnight they sang c. III. After these two royal dishes Pardon and Peace a third will come in viz. Ioy in the Holy Ghost this is somewhat beyond peace 't is the very quintessence and Spirit of all Consolation The Kingdom of God is said to consist in it Rom. 14. 17. 't is somewhat near to the joy of the glorified 1 Pet. 1. 8. 't is Heaven upon Earth All believers do not immediately attain it but one time or other God usually gives them a taste of it and when he doth it is as it were a short Salvation O who can tell what that is which the Apostle calls The shedding abroad of the love of God into the Heart by the Holy Ghost which is given to us Rom. 5. 5. It is a joy which wants an Epithet to express the sweetness of it 1 Pet. 1. 8. Ioy unspeakable and full of glory It hath the very scent and taste of Heaven in it and there is but a gradual difference betwixt it and the joy of Heaven This joy of the Holy Ghost is a spiritual cheeriness streaming through the Soul of a believer upon the Spirits testimony which clears his interest in Christ and glory No sooner doth the Spirit shed forth the love of God into the believers Heart but it streams and overflows with joy Joy is no more under that Souls command and this will evidently appear if you consider the matter of it it arises from the light of
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
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