a draught When they Shall flee as a Cloud and as the Doves to their Windows God now opens a door of opportunity beyond expectation Oh that the Hearts of Ministers and People were suitably enlarged and the People made willing in the day of his Power Fourth Inference Hence we also infer the great dignity of the ministerial Office and the suitable respect and honour due to all Christs faithful Ministers The Lord Jesus himself is represented by them they stand in his stead 2 Cor. 5. 20. his authority is clothed upon them the honours and dishonours given them redounds to the person of Christ Luke 10. 16. The Galathians received Paul as an Angel of Gold even as Christ Jesus Gal. 4. 14. Yet how have their Persons and Office been vilified and despised in this degenerate age How many Learned Pious Laborious Peaceful Ministers of Christ have in this age been hunted up and down the World as wild Beasts been made the filth and off-scouring of all things unto this day I Cor. 4. 13. The Word signifies that dirt and filth which Scavengers rake together in the Streets to be carried to the Dunghil No doubt but Satan drives a great design in this to invalidate their Ministry discourage their Labours and break their Hearts but Jesus Christ will support us under all these abuses wipe off the dirt thrown at us for his Name sake and reserve some of us for better days Fifth Inference Is Christ Present in his Ordinances what a strong engagement then lyes upon you all to attend and wait assiduously upon the Ministry of the Word and to bring all yours that are capable there to wait upon Christ with you We read in the days of Christs flesh when he performed his miraculous Cures upon the Sick what thronging there was after him how Parents brought their Children Masters their Servants pressing in multitudes untyling the House to let down their Sick to him Luke 12. 1. Ah shall Men be so earnest for a Cure for their Bodies and so indifferent for their Souls 'T is true the Spirit of Christ is not tied by any necessity to act always with the World he acts as an arbitrary Agent Iohn 13. 8. The Wind bloweth where it listeth but it is engagement enough to wait continually upon his Ordinances that he sometimes graciously and effectually concurreth with them 'T is good to lye in the way of the Spirit and there is a blessing pronounced upon them that wait continually at his Gates Prov. 8. 34. Oh therefore neglect no season within your reach who knows but that may be the season of Life to thy Soul Sixth Inference What an unspeakable loss is the loss of the Gospel seeing the Presence of Christ comes and goes with it When the Gospel departs the Spirit of Christ departs with it from among Men no more conversions in Gods ordinary way are then to be expected well therefore might the Lord say in Hosea 9. 12. Wo to them when I depart from them The Spirit may in some sense depart whilst the Ordinances are left standing for a time among the People but then expect no such blessings or benefits from them But when God takes away Ordinances and Spirit too wo indeed to that People and are there not Sins amongst us presaging such a Judgment Oh England reflect upon thy barrenness under it where be the fruits answerable to such precious means The Gospel is a golden Lamp the graces of the Spirit communicated by it are golden Oyl as in that stately vision Zach. 4. will God maintain such a lamp fed with such precious Oyl for men to trifle and play by And no less ominous and portentous is that bitter enmity to the Gospel and the serious professors of it which I cannot speak without horror is every where found among us this great hatred brings on the days of visitation and the days of recompence with a swift and dreadful motion upon any people Hosea 9. 7. Seventh Inference If Christ be present by way of Spirit and energy in his Ordinances then there is no reason to despair of the Conversion and Salvation of the greatest of sinners that yet lye dead under the Gospel What though their Hearts be hard their Understandings dark and their Wills never so perverse and obstinate all must give way and open in the day of Christs power when his Spirit joyns himself with the Word This makes it an irresistable Word 't is glorious to observe the hearts of Publicans and Harlots opening and yielding to the voice of Christ Matth. 21. 31. What were those three thousand persons prickt at the Heart by Peters Sermon Acts 2. 36. but the very Men that with wicked Hands had crucified the Lord Jesus And what were the converted Corinthians but Idolaters turned from dumb Idols 1 Cor. 12. 2. Whoremongers Adulterers Effeminate c. 1 Cor. 6. 11. God hath his elect among the vilest of Men The Gospel will find them out and draw them home to Christ when the Spirit of Christ animates and blesseth it Well might the Apostle therefore say that the Gospel preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven is an object worthy for Angels to behold with admiration 1 Pet. 1. 12. What though Satan have strongly fortified their Souls against Christ with ignorance prejudice and enmity yet the weapons of our warfare are mighty through God to pull down these strong holds Despair not therefore of your carnal and dead hearted relations bring them to the Gospel upon the encouragement of these words of Christ Ioh. 5. 25. The hour cometh yea and now is that the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear it shall live Eighth Inference Is Christ Spiritually present in his Ordinances oh then what an indeared affection should every gracious Soul bear to the Ordinances of God! They are the walks of Christ and his Spirit the appointed times and places for your meeting and Communion with him there your Souls first met with Christ there you began your acquaintance with him there you have had many sweet converses with him since that day they were the seed of your regeneration 1 Pet. 1. 23. The bread of life by which your Souls have been sustained ever since and therefore to be more esteemed by you than your necessary food Iob 23. 12. Here you have found the richest Cordials to revive and recover your drooping Spirits when ready to sink away in a faint fit under sin within you and afflictions upon you Psal. 119. 50. No wonder Davids Soul even fainted for the Courts of God and that Hezekiah desired a sign on his sick bed that he should go up to the House of the Lord. Here are the choicest comforts of the Saints upon Earth all our fresh springs are in Zion Psal. 87. 7. What a dungeon what a barren Wilderness were this World without them Prize the Ordinances love the Ordinances wait assiduously upon the Ordinances and pray for the
that should afterwards believe on his Name 1 Tim. 1. 16. You see if you will not others will joyfully accept the offers of Christ what discouragements have you that they had not Or what greater incouragements had they which God hath not given you this day Therefore they shall be your Judges VIII CONSIDERATION Consider the great hazard of these precious seasons you now enjoy Opportunity is the golden spot of time but it is tempus â—abiâ—e a very slippery and uncertain thing great and manifold are the hazards and contingencies attending it Your life is immediately uncertain your breath continually going in your nostrils and that which is every moment going will be gone at last The Gospel is as uncertain as your life God hath made no such settlement of it but that he may aâ— pleasure remove it and will certainly do so if we thus trifle under it 't is but a Candlestick though a golden one Rev. 2. 5. and that you all know is a moveable thing and not only your life and the means of your eternal life I mean the Gospel are uncertain things but even the motions and strivings of the Spirit with your Souls are as uncertain as either Phil. 12. 13. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure That God now works with you is matter of great incouragement to your work but that he works at his own pleasure as a free arbitrary agent who can cease when he pleases and never give one knock at your hearts more should make you work with fear and trembling IX CONSIDERATION Think what a fearful aggravation it will be both of your sin and misery to perish in the fight and presence of an offered remedy to sink into Hell betwixt the outstretched Arms of a compassionate Redeemer that would have gathered you but you would not Heathens yea Devils will upbraid you in Hell for such unaccountable folly and desperate madness Heathens will say alas we had but the dim Moon-light of Nature which did indeed discover sin but not Christ the Remedy Ah had your Preachers and your Bibles been sent among us how glady would we have embraced them Surely saith God to Ezechiel had I sent thee to them they would have harkned unto thee Ezek. 3. 5 6. Matth. 11. 21. The very Devils will upbraid you Oh if God had sent a Mediator in our Nature we had never rejected him as you have done but he took not on him the nature of Angels X. CONSIDERATION Lastly How clear as well as sure will your condemnation be in the great day against whom such a cloud of Witnesses will appear Oh how manifest will the righteousness of God be Men and Angels shall applaud the Sentence and your own Consciences shall acknowledge the equity of it You that are Christless now will be speechless then Matth. 22. 12. Knowing therefore the terrors of the Lord I perswade men 2 Cor. 5. 11. as one that trembles to think of being Summoned as a Witness against any of your Souls Oh that I might be your rejoycing and you mine in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ SERMON II. Revel 3. 20. Behold I stand at the door c. Having in the former Sermon pondered Christs solemn Preface to his earnest Suit the next thing that comes under our consideration is the Person soliciting and pleading for admission into the Heart of sinners which is Christ himself Behold I stand The only difficulty here is rightly to apprehend the manner of Christs presence in Gospel administrations for it is manifest the person of Christ was at this time in Heaven his Bodily presence was removed from this lower World above Sixty years before this Epistle was Written to the Laodiceans Iohn's banishment into Patmos is by Eusebius out of Irenaeus and Clemens Alexandrinus placed in the Fourteenth Year of the Emperor Domitian and under his Second Persecution which was about the Ninety seventh Year from the Birth of Christ. Yet here he saith behold I stand not my Messengers and Ministers only but I by my Spiritual presence among you I your Sovereign Lord and Owner who have all Right and Authority by Creation and Redemption to possess and dispose of your Souls 't is I that stand at the Door and knock I by my Spirit solliciting and moving by the Ministry of Men. You see none but Men but believe it I am really and truly though Spiritually and Invisibly present in all those administrations all those knocks motions and solicitations are truly mine they are my acts and I own them and so I would have you conceive and apprehend them Hence the Second Note is this DOCT. That Iesus Christ is truly present with men in his Ordinances and hath to do with them and they with him though he be not visible to their carnal Eyes Thus runs the promise Matth. 18. 20. Where two or three are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst of them The midle place was the Seat of the President in the Jewish assemblies where he might equally hear and be heard of all So will I be in the midst of the Assemblies of the Faithful met together in my Name and Authority to bless guide and protect them Hence the Church is called the place of his Feet Isa. 16. 13. a manifest allusion to the Ark called Gods Footstool Psal. 99. 5. and agreeably hereunto Christ is said to walk among the Seven golden Candlesticks Revel 2. 1. There are the Spiritual walks of Christ there his converses and communion with Men And this presence of Christ was not the peculiar privileges of the first Churches but is common to all the Churches of the Saints to the end of the World as appears by that glorious promise comfortably so extended with the Church from first to last Matth. 28. ult Lo I am with you always to the end of the World. This promise is the ground and reason of all our Faith and expectations of benefit from Ordinances and the Subjects of it are not here considered Personally but Officially to you and all that succeed you in the same Work and Office not to you only as Extraordinary but to all the succeeding Ordinary standing Officers in my Church As for the Apostles neither their Persons nor extraordinary Office was to continue long but this Promise was to continue to the end of the World. Nor is this Promise made absolutely but conditionally the connection of the Promise with the Command enforces this qualified sense as 2 Chron. 15. 2. The Lord is with you whilst you are with him Ignorant idle unqualified persons cannot claim the benefit of this gracious grant Once more this Promise is made ot every hour and minute of time I am with you all the days as it is in the Greek Text in dark and dangerous as well as peaceable and incouraging days and it is closed up with a
solemn Amen So be it or So it shall be To open this Point distinctly we are to consider that there is a threefold presence of Christ 1. Corporeal 2. Represented 3. Spiritual First There is a Corporeal Presence of Christ which the Church once enjoyed on Earth when he went in and out amongst his People Acts 1. 21. When their Eyes saw him and their Hands handled him 1 Iohn 1. 1. This presence was a singular consolation to the Disciples and therefore they were greatly dejected when it was to be removed from them But after Redemption-Work was finished on Earth this Bodily Presence was no longer necessary to be continued in this World but more expedient to be removed to Heaven Iohn 16. 7. as indeed it was and must there abide until the time of the restitution of all things Acts 3. 21. And in this respect he tells the Disciples Iohn 16. 28. leave the World and go to my Father Secondly There is a Represented Presence of Christ in Ordinances As the Person of a King is represented in another Country by his Ambassadors so is Christ in this World by his Ministers 2 cor 5. 26. We then are Ambassadors for God as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God. Christ is about other work for us in Heaven but we stand in his stead on Earth And this speaks the great Dignity of the Ministerial Office whatever abuses or contempts are cast on them they reflect upon Christ Luke 10. 16. He that despiseth you despiseth me It also teacheth us whence the validity of Gospel administrations is Christ ratifies and confirms them with his own Authority It also instructs us how Wise Spiritual and Holy Ministers should be who represent Christ to the Word A Drunkard a Persecutor a sensual Worldling is but an ill representative of the blessed and holy Jesus Thirdly Beside and above the two former there is a Spiritual Presence of Christ in the Churches and Ordinances and this Presence of Christ by his Spirit who is his Vicegerent is to be considered as that from which all Gospel Ordinances derive 1. Their Beauty and Glory 2. Their Power and Efficacy 3. Their awful Solemnity 4. Their Continuance and Stability First From the presence of Christ by his Spirit the Ordinances and Churches derive their beauty and glory Psal. 27. 4. To see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary Look as the beauty of the Body is a result from the Soul that animates it and when the Soul is gone the beauty of the Body is gone also so the beauty and glory of all Ordinances comes and goes with the Spirit of Christ which is the very Soul of them The Churches are indeed golden Candlesticks but the Candlestick hath no light but what the Candle gives it hence that magnificent description of the new Temple is closed up in this expression Ezek. 48. ult The name of that City shall be The Lord is there Secondly From this Spiritual Presence of Christ all Gospel Ordinances derive all that Power and Efficacy which is by them exerted upon the Souls of Men either in their Conversion or Edification This power is not inherent in them nor do they act as natural necessary agents but as instituted means which are successful or unsuccessful according as Christ by his Spirit co-operates with them 1 Cor. 3. 7. He that plants is nothing neither he that watereth but God that giveth the increase that is they are nothing to the purpose nothing to the accomplishment of Mens Salvation without the concurrence of the Spirit of Christ. For when the Apostle makes himself and Apollos with all other Ministers nothing we must understand him speaking not absolutely but comparatively and relatively they are necessary in their places and sufficient in their kind for what they are appointed to else it would be a reflection upon the Wisdom of God that instituted them but singly in themselves and disjunctively considered they are nothing as a Trumpet or wind Instrument is nothing as to its end and use except breath be inspired into it and that breath modulated by the art and skill of the inspirer like Ezekiets Wheels that move not but as the Spirit that was in them moved and directed their motions If Ordinances wrought upon Souls naturally and necessarily as the fire burneth then they could not fail of success upon all that come under them But it is with them as with the Waters of the Pool of Bethesda whose healing vertue was only found at that season when the Angel descended and troubled them Thirdly This Spiritual Presence of Christ gives the Ordinances of the Gospel that awful solemnity which is due upon that account to them The Presence of Christ in them commands reverence from all that are about him God is greatly to be feared in the Assemblies of his Saints and to be had in reverence of all that are round about him Hence is that solemn caution or threatning Levit. 26. 23 24. If you walk contrary unto me then will I also walk contrary unto you the Hebrew word in that Text signifies to walk rashly or at an adventure with God sine personae discrimine without considering with whom we have to do and what an awful Majesty we stand before And the punishment is suitable to the sin I also will walk at an adventure with you making no discrimination in my Judgments betwixt your persons and the persons of the worst of Men. Oh that this were duly considered by all that have to do with God in Gospel institutions Fourthly 'T is the Spiritual Presence of Christ in his Churches and Ordinances that gives them their Continuance and Stability when ever the Spirit of Christ departs from them it will not be long before they depart from us or if they should not their continuance will be little to our advantage When the Glory of the Lord once dismounted from betwixt the Cherubims when that sad voice was heard in the Temple migremus hinc let us go hence how soon was both City and Temple made a desolation And truly Christ's Presence is not so fixed to any Place or any Ordinances but the sins of the people may banish it away Rev. 2. 5. Who will tarry in any place longer than he is welcom if he have any where else to go But more particularly let us here discuss these two points I. How it appears Christ is thus Spiritually Present with his Churches and Ordinances II. Why it is necessary he should be so First By what evidences doth it manifestly appear that there is such a presence of Christ with his Churches and Ordinances And this will appear by two undeniable evidences thereof 1. By their wonderful Preservations 2. From their supernatural Effects First From their wonderful Preservations for it is wholly unaccountable and unconceiveable how the Churches Ministers and Ordinances should be supported and preserved without it
Verily verily I say unto you you must be born again Iohn 3. 5. O sinner that hard Heart of thine must be humbled thy stubborn and refractory Will must be bowed all the powers of thy Soul must be unlockt and opened unto Christ he must come into thy Soul or thou canst never see the face of God in peace It is Christ in you that is the hope of glory Col. 1. 27. Till thy Heart be opened Christ with all the hopes of glory stand without thee And if hopes from the death of Christ without us without the application of his person be enough to save Men then why are any damned Consult 1 Cor. 1. 30. Adams sin damns none but only such as are in him and Christs righteousness saves none but those only that are by faith in him the eternal purposes of the Father the meritorious death of the Son puts no Man into the state of Salvation and happiness till both be brought home by the Spirits powerful application in the work of saving conversion T is good news good indeed that Christ died for sinners t is good news that Christ is brought to our very doors in the tenders of the Gospel and that the Spirit knocks at the door of our Hearts by many convictions and perswasions to open to him and enjoy the unspeakable benefits of his death these things bring us nigh to Christ the next door to Salvation and yet all this may be eventually but a dreadful aggravation of our damnation and will certainly be so to them whose Hearts are but almost opened to Christ. V. Inference See hence the necessity of fervent prayer to accompany the preaching of the Gospel Without the Spirit and power of God accompanying the Word no Heart can ever be opened to Christ Alas such Bars as these are too strong for the breath of Man to break Let Ministers pray and the People pray that the Gospel may be preached with the holy Ghost sent down from Heaven 1 Pet. 1. 12. It greatly concerns us that preach the Gospel to wrestle with God upon our knees to accompany us in the dispensation of it unto the People to steep that seed we sow among you in tears and prayers before you hear it and I beseech you Brethren let us not strive alone joyn your cries to Heaven with ours for the blessing of the Spirit upon the Word How doth Paul beg of the People as a beggar would beg for an alms at the door for their assistance in Prayer Rom. 15. 30. I beseech you brethren for the Lord Iesus Christ sake and for the love of the Spirit that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me For want of such wrestlings with God in prayer there is so little efficacy in Ordinances Martha told her Saviour Iohn 11. 21. Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died and I may tell you that if the Spirit had been here your Souls had not remained dead under the Word as they do this day Oh when the Sabbath draws near let fervent cries ascend from every Family to Heaven Lord pour out thy Spirit with thy Word make it mighty through thy Power to open these Gates of Iron and break asunder these Bars of Brass Second Vse of Exhortation Seeing the Case stands thus that all Hearts by nature are barr'd and shut up against Christ let every Soul do what it can and strive to its uttermost to get the Heart and Will opened to Christ Strive to enter in at the straight gate Christ is at the Door Oh strive with your selves as well as with God now to get it opened now that Salvation is come so near to your Souls Object But have you not told us that no sinner can open his own Heart nor bow his own Will to Christ Answ. True he cannot convert himself but yet he may do many things in order to it and which have a remote tendency towards it which he doth not do and so he perisheth not though he cannot but because he will not Divers things may be done by poor sinners with their own Hearts which are not done and though in themselves they are insufficient yet being the way and method in and by which the Spirit of God usually works we are bound to do them As for Example 1. Though it be not in your power to open your Hearts to Christ yet it is in your power to forbear the external acts of sin which fasten your Hearts the more against Christ Who forceth thine Hands to steal thy Tongue to swear or lye who forces the cup of excess down thy Throat 2ly Though you cannot open your Hearts under the Word yet it is in your power to wait and attend upon the external Duties and Ordinances of the Gospel Why cannot those Feet carry thee to the Assemblies of the Saints as well as to an Ale-house 3ly And though you cannot let the Word effectually into your Hearts yet certainly you can apply your minds with more attention and consideration to it than you do Who forces thine Eyes to wander or closes them with sleep when the awful matters of eternal Life and Death are founding in thine Ears 4ly Though you cannot open your Hearts to embrace Christ yet certainly you can reflect upon your selves when the obvious characters of a Christless state are plainly held forth before your Eyes God hath given you a self-reflecting power The spirit of a Man knoweth the things of a Man 1 Cor. 2. 11. When you hear of Convictions of sin compunctions of Heart for sin deep concernments of the Soul about its eternal state hungerings and thirstings after Christ restless and anxious Days and Nights about Salvation others have felt you can certainly turn in upon your selves and examine whether ever it were so with you and if not methinks it were not hard to aggravate your own misery to take your poor Souls aside and bemoan them saying Ah my poor Soul canst thou endure everlasting burnings What will become of thee if Christ pass thee by and his Spirit strive no more with thee Why can't you throw your selves at the Feet of God and cry for mercy Prayer is a part of natural Worship distress usually puts Men upon it that yet have no Grace Ionah 1. 5. Do but this towards the opening and saving of your own Souls which though it be not in it self sufficient nor puts God under any meritorious obligation or necessity to add the rest yet it puts you into the way of the Spirit And is not thy Soul sinner worth as much as this comes too Have you not taken a great deal more pains than this for the trifles of this World And will it not be a dreadful aggravation of sin and misery to all eternity that you perished so easily Dont you see many striving round about you for Christ and Salvation whilst you sit still with folded Arms as if you had nothing to do for another World
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
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
now for no less than the prize of eternal Life 't is now for all or none for life or death for Heaven or Hell the powers of Hell are now all in Arms to destroy Convictions and secure the possession of the Soul against Christ as when a Granado falls into a Garison the first care of the Defendants is to stifle and choak it before it break Whilst Christ is speaking by his Spirit in one Ear the Devil is whispering in the other and the things he whispers to quench Convictions are usually such as these It is time enough yet what need such hast Enjoy thy pleasures a little longer thou maist come to Christ and be saved at last if that will not do then he changeth his voice to what purpose wilt thou go to Christ 'T is now too late the time of Grace is over hadst thou come to him in thy youth and obeyed his first call it had been somewhat but now it is â—o no purpose If this will not quiet the Soul then he saith Thy sins are too great to be pardoned there 's no hope for such a prodigious sinner as thou art If the Lord help the Soul to overcome this by discovering to it the riches of mercy pardoning the greatest of sinners then he represents the multitudes which are in the same case with the convinced sinner come fear not if it go ill with thee it will be as bad for millions of Men and Women if thou go to Hell thousands will go with thee but if the Soul be loath to be damned for company then he bids it look upon the train of troubles and afflictions that come along with Christ and will certainly follow him if the door be opened to let him in if Christ come in reproaches losses and sufferings will certainly come in with him troops of miseries and calamities follow him himself hath told thee so and art thou mad to ruine all thy comforts in the World and plunge thy self into a Sea of trouble for what thine Eyes never saw But if the Soul reply These are more tollerable than damnation better my flesh suffer for a time than my Soul be cast away for ever then he represents the insuperable difficulties of Religion what a hard thing it is to be saved how many painful duties and acts of mortification the Soul must pass through Thus you see what an allarm Conviction gives to the powers of Hell. 9ly Every effectual knock of Christ is followed on and new Convictions revive old and former ones and the Lord never leaves knocking till the door be opened if one Sermon will not do another shall if one wound be plaistered and healed by the art of Satan a fresh wound shall be made if a former Conviction vanish the next shall be sealed upon the Soul and when the Spirit of the Lord sealeth a Conviction upon the Conscience raze it out who can And here 's the difference betwixt special and common Convictions common Convictions come and go they put the Soul in a fright for a day or a month and then trouble it no more for ever but special Convictions will be continued one thing backs another for Christ is in pursuit of the Soul and will give it chase till at last he overtake and come up with it 10ly In the last place All the knocks of Christ cease and end when the sinners day of grace is ended This is of dreadful consideration when the time of Mercy is over no more strivings of the Spirit with a Man after that Christ saith to the drousie sinner as he spake to the drousie Disciples in the Garden Sleep on now and take your rest So here I called thee in such a Sermon but thou heardest not by such a providence but thou obeyedst not sleep on now and take thy rest My people would not hearken to my voice and Israel would none of me So I gave them up to their own Hearts lust to walk in their own counsels Psal. 81. 11 12. q. d. I have done with them the treaty is ended I will make no more essays towards their Conversion and Salvation So I gave them up Methinks it sounds as much as this Take him Sin Take him Devil I will have no more to do with him So Hosea 4. 17. Ephraim is joyned to idols let him alone His Heart is glued fast to sin he is enamoured upon other Lovers let him a lone O beloved 't is a dreadful thing for God to say let this Man alone in his formality and that Man in his carnal security Let not this be misapplied by poor trembling Souls under Conviction I know the fear of this Judgment is upon their Hearts nothing makes them tremble more than lest the day of Grace be ended with them But there is no ground for this fear whilst the Spirit continues Convincing and the Soul trembling lest his Convictions should prove ineffectual Thus much of the nature instruments and manner of Christ's knocking at the door of a sinners Heart Our way is now opened to a fruitful Application of this Point which will wind up in divers necessary Uses I. Vse for Information And first The Point before us will be useful for Information in the following Inferences and Deductions I. Inference Into how deep a sleep hath sin cast the Souls of sinners that Christ must stand so long and give such loud repeated knocks before it will awake and open to him There is the Spirit of a deep sleep fallen upon Men like that into which God cast Adam God speaketh once yea twice but Man regards it not 't is the hardest thing in the World to rouze and awaken a Man out of his carnal security Look over Satans Kingdom and you shall find a general stilness and quietness among his Subjects There 's no trouble for Sin no strivings after Salvation no cryings out What shall we do to be saved Go into the crouds of carnal Men and Women and you shall find them all intent and busie about other matters How long shall you be in their company before you hear one groan for sin Or see one tear slide from their Eyes on that account Oh what a marvelous thing is here Do not their Consciences know the guilt that lyes upon them Are they not aware of a day of reckoning which approacheth Yes yes these things are not hid from their Consciences What art then is used to keep them so still and quiet Why there are divers Rattles to still the Consciences of sinners and they do it effectually There are five causes and occasions of this wonderful stilness in the Souls of sinners 1. Ignorance of the nature of regenerating Grace taking that for regeneration which is none of it thus did the Iews Ioh. 8. 55. confidently affirm God to be their God and yet they did not know him How many proor ignorant creatures think there is no need of any other Work of regeneration but what passed upon them in Baptism They were
word And thus much of the general nature of Christs Spiritual Internal voice but all this gives us but a remote imperfect knowledge of it Therefore Thirdly I shall endeavour to open the innate characters and special properties of this Internal Spiritual voice of Christ which must be heard or there can be no opening the door of the Heart to receive him I. Character And the first Character is this It is a secret and a still voice whereby somewhat is as it were whispered into the Ear of the Soul making a particular application of what is spoken Externally to the Ear much like that of Nathan to David Thou art the Man. This still voice sounds throughout the whole Soul yet none hear it but the Soul concerned in it it is said 1 Sam. 9. 15. The Lord told Samuel in his Ear the night before c. That is he whispered the secret into the Prophets mind so the Spirit of Christ whispers a word into the Ear of a sinner which makes his Heart to tremble after this manner This is thy very state and condition this is thy sin which is now opened by the Gospel in thine Ears This is a voice without sound or noise to any others but very intelligible to the Soul unto whom it is â—poken You read in 1 Kings 19. 11 12. when Elijah stood upon the Mount before the Lord there came a great and strong wind which rent the Mountains and brake in pieces the Rocks before the Lord but the Lord was not in the wind and after the wind an earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake and after the earthquake a fire but the Lord was not in the fire and after the fire a still small voice And it was so when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle c. So it is here Dreadful things are thundred against men by the voice of the Law the Terrours of the Lord are made known Hell and Damnation are set before the eyes of Sinners but until the Lord come in the still voice of his Spirit and apply those things to the Conscience the Sinner never covers his face with shame and confusion nor goes aside to mourn and lament his misery This voice of God sounds to the very Centre of the Soul. As for the outward voice of the Gospel alone it signifies little in hearing men hear not Matth. 13. 13. They have the voice of Man but not the voice of God They hear the sound but feel not the power of the Word What is spoken externally dyes in the ear that hears it But this still voice of the Spirit by secret passages makes its way to the heart and none knows what God speaks but the Soul to whom he speaks That is the first Character II. Character The internal spiritnal voice of Christ is a personal and particular voice speaking distinctly and particularly to the case and state of the Soul as if it were by name Ministers do and must speak in general they draw the Bow of the Gospel at an adventure not knowing to whom God will direct the Arrow but the Spirit guides it to the Mark. He applies general Truths unto particular persons so as the Soul to whom he directs it is fully convinced and satisfied the Lord intends and means it in such a convictive and threatning Expression O saith the Soul hath the Lord singled me out in special this is my very state and case You read Iohn 10. 5. that Christ calleth his sheep by name How doth he call them by name but by speaking directly and particularly to their Condition and Case as if he called them by their particular Names He doth not now in an extraordinary way as of old call Samuel Samuel or Saul Saul but he sends a Beam of convincing light into the Conscience plainly discovering this or that to be our sin danger or duty and so as to the effect it is all one as if God named him And truly till it comes to this the Word hath no saving operation upon the Soul. A man may hear ten thousand general Truths assent to them and never be the better for them How still and quiet was David's Conscience till Nathan struck the nail upon the head by an home personal application and then his Conscience startled Thus God singles out one man or woman from among a thousand in the Congregation speaks to the heart rips up the secure Conscience the rest hear the same words but feel not the same efficacy And truly 't is a choice mercy when God shall please thus to single out one person from among many after this manner to speak to his heart As Christ said in Luke 4. 25 26. Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias c. but to none of them was Elias sent save unto Sarepta a City of Sydon unto a woman that was a widow so here Multitudes sate with you under the same Prayer or Sermon but unto none of them at that time was the Spirit sent to make a particular convictive application thereof but unto thee In this the peculiar goodness of God shines out and should for ever be admired in the eyes of that Soul. III. Character Thirdly This spiritual internal voice of Christ is distinguishable by the Soul that hears it from all other voices Iohn 10. 4. The Sheep know his voice As in the style of the Scriptures there is a weight and majesty which distinguishes it from all human composures so in this voice of Christ there is a Majesty a peculiar Efficacy a divine and awful Authority by which the Soul distinguishes it from all human voices It was said of Christ in the days of his flesh Iohn 7. 46. Never man spake like this man. The same may we say of his spiritual voice the Soul never heard such a voice before it seals the truth upon the heart so firmly that no Objections are left against it It was not so when we heard the voice of man. And there are two things in this inward voice of Christ which apparently difference it from all human voices 1. A marvellous light comes into the Soul with it which discovers all the secrets of the heart God shines into the heart the same time he speaks unto it 2 Cor. 4. 6. and now the secrets of the heart are manifest and God is acknowledged to be in that Word of Truth 1 Cor. 14. 25. 2ly A marvellous Power accompanieth this voice to make a deep and firm impression of what is spoken upon the Soul and this Power is an innate Character of the voice of God whereby the Soul receives it as his with much assurance as the Apostle speaks 1 Thess. 1. 5. Our Gospel came not to you in Word only but also in Power and in the Holy Ghost and in much Assurance They could not be more certain of any thing in the world than they were of this That it was the Lord that spake to them in that Word
special season or hour as Christ calls it Iohn 5. 25. The hour cometh when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God. And elsewhere by the Apostle it is called the accepted Time the day of Salvation 2 Cor. 6. 2. And the conjunction of the Spirit of Christ with the Word Ordinances or Providences of God but especially the Word makes this blessed hour The Word alone though never so excellently preacht conduces no more to the Conviction and Salvation of a sinner than the Waters of Bethesda did when the Angel came not down to trouble them Iohn 5. 4. But when the Lord pours out his Spirit with the Word according to that promise Prov. 1. 23. I will pour out my Spirit upon you and make known my Words unto you then Christ speaks to the Heart this great conjunction of the Word and Spirit makes that blessed nick and season of Salvation The time of love the time of life Now the voice of Christ is heard with effect the Ordinances impregnated with convincing and converting efficacy There was an abundant effusion of the Spirit in the first Age of Christianity and then the voice of Christ was heard by multitudes of Souls at once There hath since been a restraint of the Spirit comparatively speaking whereas three thousand Souls were then converted at one Sermon possibly three thousand Sermons have since been preached and not one Soul effectually called This hath made the Church like a Wilderness a Land of drouth and so 't is like to remain until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high and the wilderness be a fruitful field according to that promise Isa. 32. 15. And such a time we expect Lord hasten it when the waters of the Ordinances shall be healed and every thing that liveth which moveth whithersoever the River shall come shall live And fishers shall stand upon it from Engedi even unto Eneglaim they shall be a place to spread forth nets their fish shall be according to their kinds as the fish of the great Sea exceeding many Ezek. 47. 9 10. Then Ministers shall no longer fish with Angles catching now one then another but shall spread forth their nets and inclose whole shoals multitudes of Converts in the mean time there are some signal periods and happy seasons wherein Christ uttereth his Almighty voice in the World but that season is utterly unforeknown to Man we cannot say when it will come but are to wait for it as the Man did at the pool of Bethesda Ministers must preach in hope wait in hope if at any time God will give the people repentance 2 Tim. 2. 25. We are often mistaken in our conjectures when we have made the best preparations and find a more than ordinary enlargedness of Spirit we are apt to conclude certainly this is the blessed hour wherein Christ will speak to the Heart as we do to the Ear but we oft-times find our selves mistaken yet we must wait in hope and so must our people Such a happy time may come and when it doth it will be a day for ever to be remembred because then the first actual application of Christ will be made to your Souls without which all that the Father had done in Election and the Son in his meritorious Redemption had been of no benefit or advantage to your Souls And therefore you shall find that this work of the Spirit stands betwixt both those works and makes them both effectual to our Salvation 1 Pet. 1. 2. This is that blessed hour upon which your eternal blessedness depends eternity will be taken up in blessing God for this hour it will be celebrated for ever in your praises in the World to come O what an influence hath this hour into all eternity The hearing of this voice of Christ effectually opens the Cabinet counsels of Heaven and brings to light the eternal counsels of God concerning you 1 Thes. 1. 4 5. Knowing brethren beloved your election of God for our Gospel came not to you in word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost This gives greater assurance of the eternal love of God to a Mans Soul than the sweetest smile of providence or any oraculous voice from Heaven can do This is the time of life the day of your Spiritual Resurrection Iohn 5. 25. A greater and more glorious Resurrection by far than that of your bodies at the last day â—o much greater as the value of your Souls is above your Bodies As also because the blessedness of your Corporeal Resurrection depends upon this your Spiritual Resurrection by the voice of Christ. Dreadful will the voice of Christ be at the Resurrection of your Bodies except you first hear this vital voice of Christ quickning your Souls on Earth with spiritual life To conclude this is the great Aera or head of account from which you are to reckon and date all your spiritual sanctified mercies for as the Lord said unto the Jews Hag. 2. 19. From henceforth will I bless you So saith the Lord to you from this hour wherein you have heard and obeyed the voice of Christ will I bless you for ever with all Spiritual blessings in heavenly places in him I. Vse for Lamentation This Point presents us with abundant matter of Lamentation and mourning over the greatest part of those that sit under the sound of the Gospel but yet as Christ speaks of the Jews Iohn â— 37. who have not heard the voice of God at any time the Ministerial voice of Christ they hear dayly but this Efficacious Internal voice which makes the Ministerial voice the Word of Life and Power they have not heard The Gospel to the most of our hearers is but an empty sound this is a sad symptom 2 Cor. 4. 3. If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost in whom the God of this World hath blinded the minds of them that believe not c. This hiding of the Gospel is not opposed to the external administration of it nor yet to the understanding of the true sense and meaning of the truths delivered by it but only to that internal efficacy which is here called the hearing of Christs voice Our people are generally well satisfied when they have heard a Sermon much more if they can remember something of it though the Lord hath not spoken one truth they have heard home to their Hearts Now this is a sad case and God grant it be not that very judgment threatned Isa. 6. 9. Hear ye indeed but understand not and see ye indeed but perceive not So that hearing the meer voice of Man without feeling the power of God is all one as if we heard not Reflect sadly upon this you that sit as unconcerned under the Word as the Seats you sit upon God speaketh once yea twice but man perceiveth it not Well the eternal Decrees and Counsels of God are now executing upon the Souls of Men under the Gospel As many as
are ordained to eternal Life shall believe and feel the power of Gods truths upon their Hearts Acts 13. 48. And methinks it should be of a startling consideration when you shall see others struck to the Heart cast into fears and tremblings by the same Word that doth not in the least touch your Hearts It may be you think this is but fancy and melancholy that very thought is an artifice of Satan to blind your Eyes I am sure Christ makes another use of it when he told the secure and self-righteous Jews Matth. 21. 32. John came unto you in the way of righteousness and ye believed him not but the Publicans and Harlots believed him and ye when ye had seen it repented not afterward that ye might believe him q. d. What shift did you make to quiet your Consciences when you saw other poor sinners so humbled and bronght to Faith under Iohn's Ministry 'T is strange there should be no reflections in your Consciences upon your own state and condition but thus it must be one shall be taken and another left to some it shall be the savour of life unto life and to others the savour of death unto death O who can look over so great a part of a Congregation without melting bowels of compassion Considering that unto this day the Lord hath not given them Eyes to see nor Ears to hear They have heard multitudes of Sermons they have heard also what effects they have had upon other Mens Hearts but none upon theirs O that such poor Souls would cry to the Lord Jesus in such Language as that Cant. 8. 13. The companions hearken to thy voice cause me to hear it Lord let me not sit under the Word any longer deaf to the voice of thy Spirit in it Open and unstop the Ears of my Soul that I may hear thy voice and feel thy power otherwise the external ministerial voice will be ineffectual to my Salvation 'T will be but a Rattle to still and quiet my Conscience for a little while and a dreadful aggravation of my misery in the issue II. Vse of Information Secondly The Point before us presents five other Truths with equal clearness to ous Eyes I. Inference In the first Place hence it follows That we have this day before our Eyes a great Seal and confirmation of the truth of the Scriptures No miracles can seal it firmer than the events of it do which are visible to all that will observe them What you read in the Word you may see every day fulfill'd before your Eyes you read 2 Cor. 2. 15 16. We are unto God a sweet savour of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish To the one we are the savour of death unto death and to the other the savour of life unto life And again Acts 28. 24. it is observed that when Paul in his lodgings had expounded and testified the Kingdom of God to the people and perâ—wading them to believe from morning till-evening it is observed I say that some believed 〈◊〉 things that were spoken and some believed not Here you see the different yea contrary events of the preaching of the Gospel according to the Scripture account of it it quickens some and kills others it brings some to Faith and leaves others still fixed in unbelief Compare this account with what is daily before your Eyes do you not see Souls differently influenced to contrary effects under the same word One melting and tender another hardned and wholly unconcerned Tell me you that are apt to ascribe all to nature how comes it to pass that men exercising reason alike men that have the same inbred fears and hopes of things eternal who have the same passions and affections and are in the self same condition and state with others yet one Mans Heart shall be wounded and go away trembling from under the self same word which affects the other no more than if it had been preached among the Tombs to the dead that lye there Say not some have more courage than others or clearer understandings for it is most certain the Word hath convinced as rational and courageous persons as those upon whom it hath had no such effect I doubt not but the Jaylor that was cast into such tremblings and astonishment Acts 16. 30. was as stout and rugged a person as any to whom Paul usually preached his very office bespake him such a Man wonder not what it is that makes Men fright at such a sound which you hear as well as they but it affects you not The Lord speaks in that voice to their Hearts but not to yours and so it must be according to the account the Scripture gives us of the contrary events of the Gospel upon them that hear it which is I say a fair and firm Seal of the truth of the Scriptures and highly worth the due observation of all Men. II. Inference What dignity hath God stampt on Gospel Ordinances in making them the organs and mediums through and by which Christ speaks life to dead Souls This greatly exalts the dignity of the Gospel and deservedly endears it to all our Souls I deny not but God can convey Spiritual life immediately without them but though he hath not tyed up himself yet he hath tyed us up to a diligent and constant attendance upon them and that with the deepest respect and reverence to them Luke 10. 16. He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me Behold how the sin is graduated and aggravated to the hight of sinfulness The contempt of the Gospel runs much higher than Men are aware of We think it no great matter to neglect or contemn a messenger of Jesus Christ but that contempt flies in the very face and authority of Christ who gave them their Commissions yea in the very face of God the Father who gave Christ his Commission Christ speaks in and by his Ministers they are as his mouth Ier. 15. 19. Moreover the sin sticks at our own Souls and we injure them as well as Christ For the Word preached is his appointed Instrument to convey spiritual life the best of Blessings to our Souls Upon which account it is called the Word of life Phil. 2. 16. and the power of God to salvation Rom. 1. 16. We then militate against our life and salvation when we despise and neglect the Ordinances of God. 'T is good for men to lye under them and continually wait on them who knows when the Spirit of God will breathe life to your Souls through them What if yet you have found no such benefit from them the very next opportunity may be the time of life the appointed season of your salvation Bring your carnal Relations to them as they did their sick and diseased Friends in the days when Christ was on Earth laying them in the way he was to pass Christ will honour his Ordinances
see that dou don't despise them I think no Age was ever deeper drencht in the guilt of this sin than the present Age is III. Inference What a fearful Judgment is the removing the Gospel from a Nation seeing it is in and by the Gospel Christ speaketh life to the Souls of men The Spirit of God and the Word of God usually come and go together when therefore these are gone no more Conversions are to be expected Dreadful is the case of that people Prov. 29. 18. Where no Vision is the people perish Those are direful Menaces Isa. 8. 16. Bind up the Law seal up the Testimony among my Disciples And Rev. 2. 5. I will remove thy Candlestick out of its place Better the Sun were taken out of the Heavens than the Gospel out of the Church O England provoke not thy God to execute upon thee the Judgment here threatned Think not God hath made such a Settlement of the Gospel that it shall never be removed however you use it Your advocate in Heaven hath obtained it for you for a time upon trial if you bring forth fruit well you and the Generations to come shall be happy in it if not this blessed Tree which hath brought forth so many Mercies to you and yours must and will be cut down Luke 13. 8. yea and even now is the ax laid at the root of the Tree Matth. 3. 10. 'T is an allusion to a Carpenter that throws down the Ax and Saws at the root of the Tree he intends to cut down The only ground of hope which remains with us this day is that there are some Buds appearing some Fruits putting forth and if there be a blessing in the Bud the Lord will spare it according to Isa. 65. 8. But these hopes are balanced with many sad symptoms which may make us tremble to think what God is about to do with such a sinful Nation IV. Inference Those that have heard Christ's voice and call in the Gospel have no reason to be discouraged from going to Christ in the way of Faith. Christ's Call is a sufficient warrant to believe Many poor Souls are stagger'd in their work of Faith by the fear of Presumption an ugly Objection which they know not how to clear themselves of But certainly this above all Considerations in the world enervates this Objection of Presumption Then men presume when they act without a Call or Warrant but if Christ have spoken to your hearts by the voice of his Spirit you have the best warrant in the world to go to him What though you know not the Issue yet your Obedience is due to his Call. By faith Abraham when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an Inheritance obeyed and he went out not knowing whither he went Hebâ— 11. 8. So must you It is not necessary to your going to Christ that you must be ascertained before hand what the Event and Issue thereof shall be Your believing is an act of Obedience to the voice of Christ that calls you When therefore Satan shall object What such a wretched Soul as thou go to Christ canst thou imagine to find entertainment with him whom thou hast so abused and deeply wronged Thy answer should be ready 'T is true I have been a vile wretch and have deeply wronged the Lord Jesus but Christ hath spoken to my heart he hath called me and therefore it can be no presumption in me to go at his Call but contrariwise it would be flat Rebellion against his Soveraign Command to refuse to believe and come unto him yea it would be a greater sin than any of my former sins have been Beside had the Lord Jesus no intention of mercy as thou maliciously insinuatest towards my Soul he would never have spoken to my heart by conviction and perswasion as he hath done V. Inference If no Soul can open to Christ until it hear his powerful spiritual voice then the change made upon men by conversion is wholly supernatural The rise of Faith is from this power of Christ not from the nature of Man Iohn 1. 13. Proud Nature arrogates this power and honour to it self but without any ground for though some things may be done by men in their natural state which have a remote tendency to conversion and spiritual life yet it can never open to Christ savingly without a power communicated from himself There is a total impotence in Nature to produce such an effect as this The Scripture speaks it roundly telling us The Natural man cannot of himself know the things that are of God 1 Cor. 2. 14. Cannot believe for Faith is not of our selves it is the gift of God Iohn 6. 44. Cannot obey Rom. 8. 7. The carnal Mind is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Cannot speak a good word Matth. 12. 34. Cannot think a good thought 2 Cor. 3. 5. What a poor impotent thing then is the Natural man who can neither believe nor obey speak a good word or think a good thought by any natural power of his own Say not 't is against Reason for God to require men to do what they cannot and then damn them for not doing it For 1. though man hath lost his ability to obey yet God hath not lost his right to command for at that rate any man might shake off the yoke of God's Soveraignty by disabling himself through his own sin for the duties of Obedience 2. Though man hath not a sufficient power yet there is in him an intolerable pride which puffs him up with a conceit that he hath what he hath not and can do what he cannot The Command is therefore of great use to check this pride and convince man of his impotency Rev. 3. 17. 3. Every man can do more than he doth towards his own Conversion And therefore it is good for men to be urged by the Commands to all those Duties in the use and observance whereof Christ ordinarily comes into the Soul by a supernatural power II. Vse for Exhortation This Point gives a loud Call to all that are within the sound of the Gospel especially to such as begin to feel some power accompanying the Word to their hearts diligently to hearken to the voice of Christ and obey his first Call without further delay Rev. 2. 7. He that hath an ear to hear let him hear 'T is a dreadful and dangerous thing to turn away the Ear from him that speaks from Heaven Hebr. 12. 25. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh for if they escaped not that refused him that spake on earth much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaks from Heaven See that ye refuse not the Caution implies the Matter to be very weighty and a neglect or refusal in this matter to be highly dangerous Turn not away your Ear be not guilty of the least aversation sleight or neglect in so great and
Gods countenance Psal. 4. 6 7. the heavenly 1 Pet. 1. 8. Whom having not seen we love c. The Soul is transported with joy ravished with the glory and excellency of Christ. Didst thou ever see this Christ whom thy Soul is so ravished with No I have not seen him yet my Soul is transported with so much love to him Whom having not seen we love But if thou never sawest him how comes thy Soul to be so delighted and ravished with him why though I never saw him by the Eye of sense yet I do see him by the Eye of faith and by that sight my Soul is flooded with spiritual joy Believing we rejoyce But what manner of joy is that which you taste why no Tongue can express that for it is joy unspeakable But how are Christ and Heaven turned into such ravishing joys to the Soul why the Spirit of the Lord gives the believing Soul not only a light to discern the transcendent excellency of these spiritual objects but a sight of his interest in them also This is my Christ and this the glory prepared for me without interest Heaven it self cannot be turned into joy My Soul rejoyceth in God my Saviour Luke 1. 47. We read Luke 13. 28. of some that shall have a sight of Abraham Isaac and Iacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God and yet a sight without joy a dreadful sight to them for want of a joint interest with them in that glory They shall see and yet wail and weep and gnash their teeth But an interest sealed gives joy unspeakable Now as to the excellency of this joy it will be found to be the pleasant light of the Soul light and joy are Synonimous terms in Scripture Psal. 97. 11. 'T is as the cheerful light of the Morning after a sad and dismal Night You that have sat in darkness and the shadow of death you that have sat mourning in the dark without one glimpse of a promise you that have convers'd with nothing but dismal thoughts of Hell and Wrath O I shall be cast away for ever What will you say when after all this darkness the Day-star shall arise in your hearts the joy of Heaven shall beam upon your Souls Will not this be a glorious reward for all your self-denyal for Christ and fully recompense for the frowns of carnal relations for giving entertainment to Christ This joy of the Lord if there were no other Heaven is an abundant recompense This joy of the Lord shall be your strength Neh. 8. 10. Let God but give a man or woman a little of this Joy into his heart and he shall presently feel himself strengthened by it either to do or to suffer the will of God. Now he can pray with enlargement hear with comfort meditate with delight and if God call him to suffer this Joy shall strengthen him to bear it This was it that made the Martyrs go singing to the stake This therefore transcends all the joys of this lower world There are sinful pleasures men find in the fulfilling their lusts There are sensitive joys that men find in the good creatures of God filling their hearts with food and gladness There are also delusive joys false comforts that Hypocrites find in their ungrounded hopes of Heaven The joys of the Sensualist are bruitish the joys of the Hypocrite are ensnaring and vanishing but the joys of the Holy Ghost are solid sweet and leading to the fulness of everlasting joy This is the third heavenly dainty you may expect to feed on if you open your hearts to receive Christ by Faith else you have all the consolation that ever you must expect IV. We read in Scripture of the Sealings of the Spirit a choice and blessed Priviledg of Believers consequent upon believing Eph. 1. 13. In whom after that ye believed ye were sealed c. This then may be expected by every Soul that opens to Christ how rich soever the comforts of it be The Spirit indeed seals not before Faith for then he should set his Seal to a Blank but he usually seals after believing and that as the Spirit of promise Note here the Agent or Person sealing the Spirit he knows the counsels thoughts and purposes of God 1 Cor. 2. 10 11. He also is authorized to this work and being the Spirit of truth he cannot deceive us There is a twofold Seal spoken of in Scripture one referring to God's eternal foreknowledge and choice of men 2 Tim. 2. 19. Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure having this seal the Lord knoweth who are his i. e. the Lord perfectly knows every Soul that belongs to him through the world But now what comfort is this to a poor Believer that God knows who are his Therefore there is another sealing referring to the Spirit as his act upon Believers to make them know that they are his The first is general The Lord knoweth who are is But this is particular The Lord knoweth thee to be his This is joyful news indeed the former makes it sure in it self the latter makes it sure to us Now this is a most glorious priviledge a work of the Spirit which hath a most ravishing delicious sweetness in it and that which makes it so is 1 The weightiness of the matter sealed to which is no less than Christ and the eternal Inheritance purchased by his Blood. This Seal secures our Title to Christ and to the eternal glory We are sealed to the day of redemption The sealed Believer can say Christ how great how glorious soever he be is my Christ the Covenant of Grace and all the invaluable promises contained in it are mine 2. The rest and quietness which follows it makes it an invaluable mercy this brings the anxious solicitous Mind and Conscience to rest and peace O what a mercy is it to have all those knots untied those objections answer'd those fears banished under which the doubting Soul so long laboured and which kept it so many nights waking and restless God only knows at what rate some poor Creatures live under the scarings of their own Consciences and frequent fears of Hell And what an inconceivable mercy it would be to them to be delivered at once from their dangers and fears which hold them under a Spirit of Bondage Open to Christ and thou art in the way to such a deliverance Come unto me and I will give you rest saith Christ Matth. 11. 28 29. 3. This sealing of the Spirit which follows upon believing will establish the Soul in Christ confirm it and settle it in the ways of God which is an unspeakable priviledge 2 Cor. 1. 22. Now he which establisheth us with you in Christ is God who also hath sealed us Mark how establishment follows sealing New temptations may come great persecutions and sore afflictions may come but how well is that Soul provided for them all that hath the sealings of the Spirit unto the day of redemption Yea
noble immortal spirit of a Man. 2. Hypocrites have their delights and comforts in a false imaginary happiness which they fancy to themselves but this is a vanishing shadow they take comfort from their groundless hopes of Heaven whither they shall never come 't is a feast in a dream Isa. 44. 20. Thus they make a bridge of their own shadow and are drowned in the waters Such sensitive and false comforts and pleasures Men may have but no true solid scriptural joy takes place in any mans Heart before Christ come into it IV. Inference Guess from hence what Heaven is if there be such a feast to the Soul in the very foretasts of it If a relish a taste of Heaven in the earnest thereof be so transporting and ravishing what then is the full fruition of God! If these be unutterable what must that be Give me leave to say Whatever the comforts and joys of any believer in this World may be yet Heaven will be a surprize to him when he comes thither The joys of Gods presence are other manner of things than our present comforts are though these be of the same kind with them yet in a far inferiour degree There is a fix-fold difference betwixt the Spiritual comforts of believers on Earth and the joys that are above They differ 1. In Quantity 2. In Constancy 3. In Purity 4. In Efficacy 5. In the Society 6. In the Durability of them First They differ in quantity Here we know but in part but when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away 1 Cor. 13. 9 10. When the Scripture speaks of the comforts communicated to Saints on Earth it usually expresses them in some diminutive terms or other calling them first-fruits earnests and the like and indeed it is necessary we should receive them here with such alloys and in remiss degrees because the imperfection and weakness of our present state will not bear them in their plenitude and perfection Here the joy of the Lord enters into us but there we are said to enter into that joy Matth. 25. 21. 'T is too great to enter into us therefore we enter into and are swallowed up in it Secondly They differ in Constancy the best comforts upon Earth are found to be intermitting comforts a Sun-blast and a Cloud a good day and a bad you know houskeepers feed upon two sorts of meat dayly-bread and dainties rarities come not every day to the Table The dayly-bread upon which believers live is the recumbence and affiance of faith as for assurance and joy those come but now and then Thirdly They differ in Purity as well as Constancy here we have the comforts of the Spirit but we mingle sin with them and usually the sin of Spiritual pride which spoils all Yea many times the Lord suffers Satan to mingle his temptations and injections with them lest we should be exalted 2 Cor. 12. 7. But above the comforts of the Saints are as the pure water of life clear as Cristal Rev. 22. 1. Fourthly They differ in Efficacy as well as in Purity The highest comforts of the Spirit here are not perfectly transformative of our Souls into the image of God as they are in Heaven 1 Iohn 3. 3. We shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Here after we are comforted by him we grieve the comforter himself by sin neither do the comforts of the Spirit in this state produce the fruits of obedience in their perfect maturity as they do above there is the same difference in in point of efficacy as there is betwixt the influence of the Sun beams in the winter-months and those in May and Iune Fifthly There is a great difference in respect of Society Here the believer for the most part eats his pleasant morsels alone one Christian eats and another hungers but in Heaven they all feast and feed together at one Table Matth. 8. 11. They shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God. O what is it to rejoyce in the fellowship of Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles where the joy of one is the joy of all Sixthly They differ also in Durability sin here puts a stop to our comforts but in Heaven as there is no comma so there shall never be a full point or period Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads There 's an eternal feast no taking away the cloth no rising from that feast 2 Thes. 2. 16. 'T is everlasting consolation We shall be ever with the Lord. II. Vse This point puts serious matter of Exhortation into my mouth The Lord direct it to the Hearts of all whether they be in Christ or out of Christ. First To those that are out of Christ and will not yet be perswaded to open their Hearts and consent to his terms O what a spiritual infatuation is here What shut the door of thy Heart against Christ and all the delights and comforts of this and the coming World What madness is this Hear me thou poor deluded sinner that wilt not be perswaded to part with thy sinful sensual delights in exchange for Christ and the peace comfort and joy that follow him I have a few things to speak on Christs behalf at this time O that they might prevail O that by them the Spirit of the Lord might perswade thy Spirit thou poor unregenerate creature Let me offer four or five Considerations or Pleas on Christs behalf if haply they may prevail and make way for his entertainment in thy Soul. And I. Let me plead thine own necessity with thee a mighty argument which in other cases useth to make its way through all oppositions and make all difficulties fly before it thou art a poor necessitous pining famishing Soul however thy body be accommodated thou hast not one bit of spiritual bread for thy famishing Soul to live upon Christ is the bread that cometh down from Heaven the starving Prodigal Luke 15. v. 16 17. is the lively Emblem of thy Soul he fed upon husks and thou feedest upon that which is not bread Isa. 55. 2. Thou art wretched and miserable poor blind and naked Rev. 3. 17. Thy body hath often been fill'd and refresht with the good creatures of God but thy Soul never tasted one bit of spiritual bread since it came into thy body it never smackt the sweetness of a pardon the deliciousness of a promise the joy and comfort of Christ the choicest food that ever thou tastedsts was such as thy Soul cannot live upon II. Christ is at the door of thy Soul with plenty and variety of heavenly comforts costly dainties purchased by his blood if thou wilt but open to him Thou shalt be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of his house and drink the rivers of pleasure Psal. 36. 7 8. He that believeth as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water John 7. 38. meaning the graces and
comforts of the Spirit III. If Christ be put off and refused now you may never taste of those invaluable mercies for ever Luke 14. 24. For I say unto you That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper They were bidden invited to this feast and so are you they refused to come God grant you may not for methinks this sentence of Christ Those men which were bidden shall not taste of my supper is like the sentence upon a malefactor that is to be hanged in chains and whom the Law permits none to relieve O'twill bed readful to see the Saints sitting at the Royal feast in Heaven and your selves shut out as a company of starving beggars standing in the Streets and about the doors where the marriage supper is kept they see the lights they behold the rich dishes carried up they hear the mirth and musick of the guests but not a bit comes to their share IV. The refusal of Christs invitation as it is the greatest of all sins so it will be avenged with the forest wrath and greatest punishment 't is said of those guests that were bidden Matth. 22. 5. that they made light of it but it fell heavy upon them vers 7. He was wroth and sent forth his armies and destroyed those murderers and burnt up their City Have a care of making light of Christ. V. What light and vain things are all those pleasures of sin for the sake whereof you deprive your Souls of the everlasting comforts of Jesus Christ Deluded Soul 't is not the intent of Christ to rob thee of thy comfort but to exchange thy sinful for spiritual delights to thy unspeakable advantage 'T is true you shall have no more pleasure in sin but in stead of that you shall have peace with God joy in the Holy Ghost and solid comfort for evermore what are the sensitive or sinful pleasures of this World You have the total sum of them in 1 Iohn 2. 16 17. All that is in the World the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world And the world passeth away and the lust thereof but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever But how may a poor unregenerate Soul be prevailed with to make such a blessed exchange to part with the pleasures of sin in exchange for the comforts of Iesus Christ Beside all that hath been offered before let me briefly add these three following Directions and Counsels to such a Soul. First Labour to see and feel thy need of Christ and then thou wilt quickly be willing to give up all the pleasures of sin for the enjoyment of him What makes men so tenacious of their lusts so hard to be persuaded to give up their sinful pleasures but this that they never felt the need of a Saviour Oh sinner didst thou but feel thy need of Christ wert thou but an hungry and thirsty for him thou wouldst never stand upon such trifles for the enjoyment of him We read in the famine of Jerusalem how they parted with their pleasant things for bread to relieve their Souls Jewels Rings Bracelets things which cost dear and were highly valued at another time now were willingly parted with for bread Christ is more necessary to thee than thy necessary bread Secondly Consider the spiritual and immortal nature of thine own Soul which cannot live upon material things and must over-live all temporary things Now if thy Soul cannot live upon them and must certainly over-live them what a miserable condition will it unavoidably fall into when all these sensual and sinful enjoyments are vanished and gone as thou knowest they shortly will be 1 Iohn 2. 17. These things pass away and then hath thy Soul nothing to live upon to all eternity Thirdly Hearken to the reports and experiences of the Saints who have tried both sorts of pleasures which you never did They have tried the pleasures of sin and they have tasted the pleasures of Christ and so are best able to make a true judgment upon both and they have accordingly determined That one glimps of the light of Gods countenance puts more gladness into their hearts than in the time that their corn and their wine increased Psal. 4. 7. Nay the wisest Christians upon tryal of both have rightly determined That the worst things in Religion are infinitly to be preferr'd to the best things belonging to sin the very sufferings and afflictions of the people of God have been pronounced better than the pleasures of sin for a season Heb. 11. 25. Could you but see with their Eyes and were you but capable of making a right judgment as they did there needed not a word more to be said to perswade you to let go your most pleasant and profitable lusts in exchange for Christ and his beneficial comfortable sufferings Secondly The point affords variety of Counsels and Exhortations to the Regenerate who have opened their Wills to Christ and are thereupon admitted into this comfortable state It is found in experience a difficult thing for Souls after conversion to bear and duly manage their own comforts as it was to bear and rightly manage their troubles at conversion My buisiness here is to advise Souls under their first comforts and sealings of the Spirit how to manage and improve their spiritual comforts that they may abide with them and be growing things continually in their Souls I. Advice And first See that you humbly admire and adore the condescending goodness of God to you in all the comforts of the Spirit which refresh you Oh that ever God should comfort such a Soul as thine that hath so often grieved him That Christ should be a joy to thee who hast been a sorrow unto him If you look into Eph. 1. 3. you will find the Spirit of the Apostle there fill'd with the sense and admiration of this mercy which breaks forth into this rapturous expression Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places or things in Christ. Some there are that never enjoy an ordinary degree of earthly comforts Iob 30. 3 4 5. others enjoy abundance of earthly comforts but no spiritual comforts Psal. 17. 14. Some there are for whom God intends everlasting consolations in the World to come but are kept low as to spiritual comforts in this Wold Psal. 88. 15. O what cause have you to admire the bounty of God to you for whom there is not only fulness of joys prepared in Heaven but such precious foretasts and earnest of it communicated in the way thither II. Advice Secondly Cleave fast to Christ and those sweet and comfortable duties of Religion wherein you have found and tasted the best comforts that ever your Souls were acquainted with This is one thing God aims at in the communication of these spiritual refreshments to glue
them by fraud and oppression reduced to beggery and yet when a temptation is before you you cannot forbear to take the advantage as you call it to get the gain of oppression You have seen Drunkards cloathed with rags and brought to miserable ends Adulterers severely punished their Names and Estates Souls and Bodies blasted and wasted by a secret but just stroke of God Have you taken warning by these strokes of God and hearkned to the monitions and cautions your Consciences have thereupon given you If not thou art the Man that holdest the truth of God in Unrighteousness IV. Demand Do not you inwardly hate and do not your hearts rise against necessary and due reproofs given you by those that love your Souls better than your selves If you hate a faithful Reprover though you know you justly deserve the reproof and are guilty of the sin he reproves if you recriminate or deny in such cases you are certainly so far Confederates with Satan against your own Souls and imprison your own Convictions V. Demand Are not some of you Apostatized from the first Profession and are not those hopeful blossoms that once appeared upon your Souls blasted and gone You had quick Convictions and melting Affections tenderness in your Consciences and zeal for Duties But all is now vanished Your Affections are grown cold your Duties omitted though Conscience often bids you remember from whence you are fallen and do your first Works You are the persons guilty of this sin VI. Demand Do none of you presume upon future Repentance and so make bold with your Consciences for present thinking to compound that way with it This argues thee to be a self-condemned Man and one that holdest truth in Unrighteousness Thy Sin is present and certain thy Repentance but a peradventure 2 Tim. 2. 25. This is an high and a daring way of presumptuous sinning VII Demand Lastly Have none of you taken the Vows of God upon you to reform your course and break off your iniquities by Repentance when you have been under dangerous sickness on shore or dreadful tempests at Sea Have you not said Lord if thou wilt but spare and save me this once I will never live at the rate I have lived any more Try me O Lord this once And yet when that Affliction hath vanished your purposes and promises to God have vanished with it You are the Persons that hold the known Truths of God Prisoners in your Souls and to all these seven sorts of Sinners this Text may justly be as the hand-writing upon the Wall once was even a Mene tekel that may make thy very loynes to shake IV. USE This Doctrine winds up and finishes in Directions for the prevention of such presumptuous sins in Men for time to come that truth may have its free course through your Souls I. Direction And to this end my first Counsel and Direction is that you fail not to put every Conviction in speedy Execution Don't delay 't is a very critical hour and delayes are exceeding hazardous Convictions are fixed and secured in Mens Souls four wayes 1. By deep and serious consideration Psal. 119. 59. I thought upon my wayes and turned my feet unto thy testimonies 2. By earnest Prayer thus Saul under his first Convictions fell presently on his knees Acts 9. 11. Behold be prayeth The warm breath of Prayer foments and nourishes the sparks of Conviction that it be not extinct 3. By diligent attendance upon the Word the Word begets it and the Word can through God's blessing preserve it 1 Iam. 23. 24. 4. Present Execution falling without delay on the Duty thou art convinced of Iam. 1. 24. Be not forgetful hearers but doers of the work otherwise a Man is as one that looks into a glass and straightway forgets what manner of man he was Take the sense thus a man looks into the Glass in the Morning and there perhaps he sees a spot on his Face a disorder in his Hair or Cloaths and thinks with himself well I will rectifie it anon but being gone from the place one thing or other diverts his mind he forgets what he saw and goes all the day with the spot on his Face never minding it any more O brethren delayes are dangerous sin is deceitful Heb. 3. 13. Satan is subtil 2 Cor. 11. 3. and this way gains his Point This Motto may be written on the Tomb-stones of most that perish Here lies one that was destroyed by delayes Your Life is immediately uncertain so are the strivings of the Spirit also Besides there is a mighty advantage in the primus impetus the first heat of the Soul when thy heart is once up in warm Affections and Resolutions the work may be easily done as a Bell if once up goes easily but hard to raise when down See 2 Chron. 29. 36. What advantage there is in a present warm frame Beside the nature of these things is too serious and weighty to be post-pon'd and delay'd You cannot get out of the danger of Hell or into Christ too soon Moreover every repetition of sin after Conviction greatly aggravates it For it is in sinning as it is in numbering if the first be one the second is ten the third an hundred the fourth a thousand And to conclude think what you will you can never have a fitter season than the present the same difficulties you have to day you will have to morrow and it may be greater Fall presently therefore to execute your Convictions II. Direction If you would be clear from this great wickedness of holding the Truth in Unrighteousness then see that you reverence the Voice and stand in awe of the Authority of your own Consciences and resolve with Iob My heart shall not reproach me as long as I live Iob 27. 6. There be two considerations apt to beget reverence in men to the Voice of their own Consciences 1. 'T is our best Friend when pure and inviolated 2. 'T is our worst Enemy when wounded and affronted 1. Conscience obeyed and kept pure and inviolate is thy best Friend on Earth 2 Cor. 1. 12. This is our rejoycing the testimony of our Consciences The very Heathen could say Nil conscire tibi nulla pallescere culpa His murus ahenus esto What comforted Hezekiah on his supposed Death-bed but the fair Testimonial his Conscience gave in of his Integrity 2 King 2. 3. A good man saith Soloman shall be satisfied from himself but the backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways Mark the opposition Conscience gives the Backslider his Belly-full of Sorrow and the upright man his Heart-full of peace He is satisfied from himself that is from his own Conscience which though it be not the Original Spring yet it is the Conduit at which he drinks peace joy and encouragement 2. Conscience wounded and abused will be our worst Enemy No Poniards to Mortal as the wounds of Conscience A wounded Spirit who can bear Prov. 18. 14. Could Iudas
optimus Theologus evasurus est Nudati donis non possumus veritatem propugnare aut veritatis inimicos oppugnare Non bona indoles nec elocutionis gratia non gestus decor aut conversationis urbanitas pro egestate donorum compensare queat Utcunque Fratres prae omnibus cavete ne germinante indies Arbore scientiae sola sterilescat Arbor vitae ut eximius Theologus satis apposite lâ—quitur ne sint apud vos ultima prima prima vicissim ultima tam pestifera inversio toto conversionis operi exitialis erit caput regulatum est valde desiderandum sed cor sanctum absolute necessarium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. XII 31. Vigeant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed emineat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 altius radices figant cordibus vestris 〈◊〉 magni Apostoli 1 Cor. IX 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quid enim prodest peritum esse periturum Aliud est erudiri de veritatibus Christi aliud edoceri de eo sicut veritas est in Jesu Noctes atques dies mentibus vestris insideat grav is ista cautela literatissimi Reynoldi nostri Ne nobis nimium adblandiamur si forsan exquisitissimis naturae dotibus ingenii acumine sermonis elegantia varia lectione longo rerum usu Artium linguarum scientiarum omnium peritia judicii gravitate rationis pene angelica perspicacia nos Deus ornaverit nisi simul accedat Spiritualis gratiae adjutorium quo Coelestis mysterii cognitionemque adaptemur Quamvis enim splendidissima haec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 merito nobis in animis affectibus hominum famam gratiamque conciliant quamvis magnum inde Reipub literariae Ecclesiae Christi emolumentum accedat nullum tamen ex sese aut ad Dei favorem aut ad Coelestis beatitudinis mercedem consequendam momentum conferunt Det Deus dona ministrantia sanctificantia ut Christi Propugnatores inimicorum ejus Expugnatores vosmet comprobetis Sed manum de tabula Epistolam hanc levidensem pingui ut aiunt Minerva contextam benevole tamen excipite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 debitae observantiae A Conservo vestro in Evangelio Christi Johanne Flavello By reason of the Authors distance from the Press some mistakes have escaped which the Candid Reader is desired to Correct ERRATA in this Epistle PAge 3. l. 4. read omnimode p. 5. l. 9. after ita add neque ib. r. regimen p. 7. l. 6. for r. ut p. 10. l. 12. for iniquitatem r. iniquitatum TO THE READER THE worthy Author of the Discourse emitted herewith is one whose praise is in the Gospel throughout all the Churches His other Books have made his Name precious and famous in both Englands Nor can my Testimony add any thing to one every way greater than my self Nevertheless a singular Providence having cast my Lot to be at present in this great City I could not withstand the importunity of them who desiâ—ed a few Prefatory Lines to manifest the Respect I owe to this Renowned and Learned Man. It was a wife Reproof which a grave Divine administred to a young Preacher who entertained his Auditory with an elaborate Discourse After he had commended his parts and pains there was said he one thing wanting in the Sermon I could not perceive that the Spirit of God was in it And though Morality is good and necessary to be taught and practised yet it is much to be lamented that many Preachers in these days have hardly any other Discourses in their Pulpits than what we may find in Seneca Epictetus Plutarch or some such Heathen Moralist Christ the Holy Spirit and in a word the Gospel is not in their Sermons But blessed be God that there are some and great is their Company in this Land of Light who preach the Truth as it is in Jesus And he who has taken the Book out of the Right Hand of him that sits on the Throne and is worthy to open the Seals thereof has been pleased in wonderful ways to set open and keep open a door of Liberty to the Gospel that they unto whom he has given an Heart to Preach Christ may do it This is the Lords doings This is a Spirit of Life from God. When Cyrus proclaimed Liberty for the free Exercise of Religion the Lords Servants who for some years had lain dead were brought out of their Graves Ezek. 37. 12 13. This Treatise is a word in season God has made the Author to be a wise Master-builder in his House and acccording to the Wisdom given him of God he has inlarged on a Gospel subject very proper to be insisted on at such a day as this I am inform'd by unquestionable hands that there was a remarkable pouring out of the Spirit when these Sermons were viva voce delivered a great number of Souls having been brought home to Christ thereby The Lord grant that the second preaching of them to far greater Multitudes by this way of the Press may by the same Spirit be made abundantly successful for the Conversion and Salvation of Gods Elect. The Fruit brought forth by the Holy Apostles in respect of the Writings of some as well as the Doctrin preach'd by all of them does still remain The fruitful Labors of this faithful Servant of Christ will promote the Glory of God and the good of Souls when he himself shall cease from his Labors and his Works shall follow him Let the Lords people be thankful to him for that he has sent such a Labourer into the Harvest and pray that he may be continued long therein and that many such for there are but â—ew such may be raised up and be made eminently successful in their holy endeavours to the inlargement of the Kingdom of Christ and of God and let him reign in this Land for ever and ever which is the Hearts Desire and Prayer of one who is Less then the least of all Saints INCREASE MATHER London 18. 1689. Books written by the Author and sold by Matthew Wotton at the Three Daggers in Fleetstreet FLavell's Fountain of Life opened or a Display of Christ in his Essential and Mediâ—torial Glory 4 o. The Method of Grace in bringing hoâ—â— the Eternal Redemption 4 o. Discourse of the Immortality of the Soul. 4 o. Husbandry Spiritualized or the Heavenly use of Earthly things 4 o. Two Treatises of Fear and Evil days 8 o. Divine Conduct or the Mystery of Providence 8 o. The Saint Indeed the great Work of a Christian opened and pressed from Provâ—râ— 4. 23. 12 o. The Touch-stone of sincerity or signs of Grace and Symptoms of Hypocrisie Being the second Part of the Saint Indeed The Seaman's Compass 8 o. The Seaman's Companion containing Six Sermons suited to the various conditions of Seamen 12 o. Token for Mourners or Boundaries for Sorrow on Death of Friends 12 o. Preparation for Sufferings 12 o. Sacramental Meditations 12 o. Balm of the Covenant
purchase you and might justly condemn you upon the first denial or demur behold I stand this is the Suitor 2. His posture and action I stand at the door and knock the word is in the Preter Tense I have stood but being here joyned with another Verb of the Present Tense it is fitly translated I stand yet so as that it notes a continued action I have stood and do still stand with unwearied patience I once stood personally and bodily among you in the days of my flesh and I still stand spiritually and representatively in my Ambassadors at the door i. e. the mind and conscience the faculties and powers which are introductive into the whole soul. The word Door is here improperly put to signify those introductive faculties of the soul which are of a like use to it as the Door is to the House This is the Redeemer's posture his action is knocking i. e. his powerful essays and gracious attempts to open the heart to give him admission The word Knock signifies a strong and powerful knock he stands patiently and knocks powerfully by the Word outwardly by the convictions motions impulses strivings and instigations of his Spirit inwardly 3. The design and end of the Suit it is for opening i. e. consenting receiving embracing and hearty accepting of him by faith Acts 16. 14. The Lord opened the heart of Lydia i. e. perswaded her soul to believe implying that the heart by nature is strongly barr'd and lock'd up against Christ and that nothing but a power from him can open it Secondly The powerful Arguments and Motives used by Christ to obtain his Suit and get a grant from the Sinners heart and they are drawn from two inestimable benefits accrewing to the opening or believing soul. viz. 1. Union 2. Communion with Christ. 1. Vnion I will come in to him that is I will unite my self with the opening believing soul he shall be mystically one with me and I with him 2. Communion I will sup with him and he with me that is I will feast the believing soul with the delicates of Heaven Such comforts such joys such pleasures as none in the World but Believers are capable of And to set home all these special benefits are proposed by Christ to all sorts of Sinners great and small old and young if any man hear my voice and open the door that so no soul might be discouraged from believing by the greatness or multitude of his sins but the vilest of Sinners may see free grace triumphing over all their unworthiness upon their consent to take Christ according to the gracious offers of the Gospel The words thus opened afford many great and useful points of Doctrine comprehending in them the very sum and substance of the Gospel The first which ariseth from the solemn and remarkable Preface Behold will be this I. DOCTRINE That every offer of Christ to the Souls of Sinners is recorded and witnessed with respect to the day of account and râ—ckoning Here we shall enquire into three things 1. Who are Gods Witnesses to all Gospel tenders 2. What are the object matters they witness to 3. Why God records every offer of Christ and takes witness thereof First Who are Gods Witnesses to all the tenders and offers made of Christ by the Gospel and they will be found to be more than a strict legal number for 1. His Ministers by whom he makes them are all Witnesses as well as Officers of Christ to the People Acts 26. 16. I have appeared unto thee for this purpose to make thee a Minister and a Witness Here you see Ministers have a double office to propose and offer Christ and then to bear witness for or against those to whom he is thus offered They are expresly called Gods Witnesses Rev. 11. 6 7. Their labours witness their sufferings witness their solemn appeals to God witness yea the very dust of their feet shaken off against the refusers of Christ turns to a testimony against them Mark 6. 11. Every groan and sigh every drop of sweat much more of blood are placed in Gods Book as Marginal Notes by all their Sermons and Prayers and will be produced and read in the great day against all the refusers and despisers of Christ. 2. The Gospel it self which is preached to you is a Testimony or Witness for God for or against every one that hears it Iohn 12. 48. He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words hath one that judgeth him the word that I have spoken the same shall judge him in the last day And this is the sense of Christs words Matth. 24. 14. And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the World for a Witness to all Nations and then shall the end come Ah Lord what a solemn record is here Every Sermon you hear yea every reproof perswasion and conviction is a Witness for God to cast and condemn every Soul in Judgement that complies not obediently with the calls of the Gospel So many Sermons so many Witnesses 3. Every mans own conscience is a Witness for God that he hath a fair offer once made him the very consciences of the Heathens that never saw a Bible that had no other Preachers but the Sun Moon and Stars and other works of Nature yet of them the Apostle saith Rom. 2. 15. That they shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or excusing one another Certainly if such vigour and activity was put into the consciences of Heathens who could only read the will of God by the dim Moon-light of natural reason how much more vigorous and active will conscience be in its accusing office against all that live under the bright beams of Gospel light Their consciences will be swift Witnesses and will ring sad Peals in their ears another day You shall know that there hath been a Prophet among you Ezek. 2. 5. This single Witness is instead of a thousand Witnesses for God. 4. The examples of all those that do believe and obey the Gospel are so many Witnesses for God against the despisers and neglecters of the great Salvation Every mourning trembling Soul among you is a Witness against all the dead hearted unbelieving disobedient ones that sit with them under the same ordinances Hence it is said 1 Cor. 6. 7. Know ye not that the Saints shall judge the World They shall be Assessors with Christ in the great day and condemn the world by their examples as Noah did the old world and thus Matth. 21. 32. John came unto you in the way of righteousness and ye believed him not but the Publicans and Harlots believed him and ye when ye had seen it repented not afterward that ye might believe him q. d. What shift did you make to quiet your consciences and stifle your convictions when you saw Publicans the worst of men and Harlots the worst of women repenting
believing and hungering after Christ Their examples shall be your Judges These are Gods Witnesses Secondly Next let us consider what are the object matters unto which they give their testimony and that will be found two-fold according to the two-fold event the Gospel hath upon them that hear it of both which the Apostle gives us this account 2 Cor. 2. 16. Vnto some we are the savour of life unto life and unto others the savour of death unto death Accordingly a double Record is made 1. Of the obedience and faith of some which Record will be produced to their joy and comfort in the day of the Lord when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe because our testimony among you was believed in that day Ministers are Instruments of espousing Souls to Christ and Witnesses to those espousals and contracts made betwixt him and them 2 Cor. 11. 2. Both these offices are exceeding grateful and pleasant to every faithful Minister 2. A Record is made and Witness taken of all the refusals disobedience and slightings of Christ by others Thus Moses will be the accuser of the Jews John 5. 45. Do not think I will accuse you to the Father there is one that accuseth you even Moses in whom you trust This is the saddest part of a Ministers-work the fore-thoughts of it are more afflictive than all our Labours and Sufferings There is a three-fold Record made in this case 1st Of the time men have enjoyed under the means of Salvation how many years they have sat barren and dead hearted under the labours of Gods faithful Ministers Luke 13. 7. Behold these three years I come seeking fruit on this Fig-tree and find none Behold the same term of Notification with that in the Text applyed to the time of Gods patience towards them And again Ier. 25. 3. From the thirteenth year of Josiah even unto this day that is the three and twentieth year the word of the Lord hath come unto me and I have spoken unto you rising early and speaking but ye have not hearkened Oh consider all the years and days you have spent under the Gospel are upon your Dooms-day-book 2dly Records are also made of all the instruments that ever God employed for the Conversion and Salvation of your Souls So many Ministers whether fixed or transient as have spent their labours upon you are upon the Book of your account Ier. 25. 4. The Lord hath sent unto you all his servants the Prophets rising early and sending them but ye have not hearkened nor enclined your ear to hear They have wasted their Lungs dropt their compassionate tears and burnt down one after another as Candles to direct you to Christ and Salvation but all in vain 3dly Every call perswasion and argument used by them to espouse you to Christ is likewise upon the Book of account Prov. 1. 24. 25. Because I have called and you refused I have stretched my hand and no man regarded but you have set at nought all my counsels and would none of my reproofs These calls and counsels are of too great value with God though of none with you to be lost and left out of your account Thirdly we shall in the last place inquire into the grounds and reasons of these Judicial procedures of God why he will have every mans obedience and disobedience Registred and Witnessed for or against him under Gospel administrations and there are two weighty reasons thereof First that wherever the end of the Gospel is attained in the Conversion of any soul that soul and all that were instrumentally employ'd about the salvation of it may have their proper reward and comfort in the great day 2 Cor. 1. 14. As also you have acknowledged us in part that we are your rejoycing even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Iesus This will be matter of joy unspeakable both to you that shall receive and to them that shall give such a comfortable testimony for you Oh the joyful congratulations that will be in that day between Laborious Faithful Ministers and their Believing Obedient Hearers Lord this was the blessed instrument of my happy Illumination and Conversion though I might have ten thousand Instructers in Christ yet not many Fathers for by the blessing of thy Spirit upon this mans Ministry my Soul was begotten to Christ. And on the other side Lord these are the Souls for whom I travelled as in birth until Christ was formed in them 'T is a glorious thing to say as the Prophet Here am I and the children God hath given me Nay those that were but collaterally useful to help on the work of God begun by others must not lose their reward in that day Iohn 4. 36. And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life eternal that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoyce together Secondly Records are now made and Witnesses taken that thereby the Judicial Sentence of Jesus Christ in the last day may be made clear and perspicuous to all the world that every mouth may be stopt and no Plea or Apology left in the mouth of any condemned Sinner For Christ in that day cometh to convince all that are ungodly Iude ver 15. to convince by demonstration that all that are Christless now may be found speechless then Matth. 22. 12. Here it is said Psal. 1. 5. That the wicked shall not stand or rise up in the Iudgment And no wonder when so many full testimonies and unexceptionable Witnesses shall come point blank against them the Minister that preach'd the word they preached their own consciences and the examples of all Believers will be produced against them 1. INFERENCE First The undoubted certainty of a day of Iudgment is hence evinced To what purpose else are Records made and Witnesses taken but with respect to an Audit day this is a truth sealed upon the consciences of the very Heathens Rom. 2. 15. their consciences bear witness But in vain are all these Records made unless there be a day to produce and plead them and of that day the Prophet Daniel speaks Dan. 7. 10. The Iudgment was set and the Books were opened And again Rev. 20. 12. And I saw the Dead small and great stand before God and the Books were opened and another Book was opened which is the Book of Life and the Dead were judged out of those things which were written in the Books according to their works Believe it Friends these are no devised Fables but most awful and infallible truths according to the saving effects the Gospel now hath it will be a time of refreshing to our Souls Acts 3. 19. to all others a day of terrour wrath and amazement 2 Thes. 1. 7 8. The day in which the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming Fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not
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
Ah sinner how canst thou grieve and dishonour that God that thus feedeth clotheth and comforteth thee on every side Do you thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise Yet all will not do neither Judgments nor Mercies can affright or allure the carnal Heart to Jesus Christ. T is his Spirit his Almighty power alone that opens these everlasting Gates and makes these strong Bars give way and fly at his voice I. Inference Behold here the dismal state of nature the woful condition of all unregenerate Souls Christ the Redeemer shut out Sin and Satan shut in This is the horrid state of nature shut up in unbelief Rom. 4. 32. Ah Lord what a condition is this We should certainly account it an unspeakable misery to be shut into a House haunted by the Devil where we should be continually scared and frighted with dreadful noises and apparitions but alas what is an apparition of the Devil without us to the inhabitation of the Devil within us Nay what is the possession of a Body to Satans possession of the Soul Yet this is the very case of the unregenerate Luke 11. 21. The strong Man armed keepeth the Palace till Christ dispossess him by Sovereign victorious Grace Poor wretch canst thou start at a supposed vision of a Spirit and not tremble to think that thy Soul is the habitation of Devils There is a twofold misery lying upon all Christless unregenerated persons Satan is 1. Their Ruler in this World. 2. Their Tormenter in that to come 1. He is their Ruler in this World the Spirit that now worketh in the Children of disobedience Ephes. 2. 3. Look as the holy Spirit of God dwells and rules in sanctified Souls walks in them as in hallowed Temples guiding and comforting the Souls of the Saints so Satan dwells in unregenerate Hearts actuating their lusts inflaming them with his temptations using their faculties and members as instruments of unrighteousness And then 2ly He will be their Tormenter in the World to come He that Tempts now will Torment then Matth. 25. 41. Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Flee therefore and escape for your lives sleep not quietly another Night in so dismal and dreadful estate If the Son make you free then are you free indeed II. Inference What a glorious and admirable effect of Sovereign omnipotent grace is the effectual conversion of a sinner unto God! If every Heart by nature be secured for Satan under so many Locks and Bars then the opening of any Heart to Christ is deservedly marvellous in our Eyes You all acknowledge that the opening of the Graves at the Resurrection will be a glorious display of Almighty power and so it will it will be a wonderful thing to behold the Graves opened and the dead raised at the voice of the Arch-angel and the trump of God but yet give me leave to say That the opening of thy Heart poor sinner to receive Christ is a more glorious work than that of raising the dead It is therefore deservedly put into the first rank of the great mysteries of godliness that Christ is believed on in the World 1 Tim. 3. 16. He that well views and considers Christ may justly wonder that all the Hearts in the enlightned World do not stand wide open to embrace him and he that shall consider the frame and temper of the natural Heart and how strongly Satan hath intrenched and fortified himself in it may justly wonder to hear of a work of Conversion in an age Oh Brethren consider the marvels of Conversion the wonderful works of God upon the Soul that opens unto Christ by Faith. 1. There 's a new Eye created in the mind The Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true 1 John 5. 20. Oh that Eye That precious Eye of Faith which shews the Soul as it were a new World a World of new and ravishing objects Eph. 5. 8. All the Angels in Heaven Ministers and Libraries upon Earth cannot create such an Eye give such an Illumination t is only he that commanded the light to shine out of the darkness that thus shineth into our Hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ 2 Cor. 4. 6. 2ly And what a glorious supernatural Work is the conviction of the Conscience by the powerful stroak of the saving beams of light upon it Now the Conscience that lay in a dead sleep begins to startle and look about it with fear and horror Life and sense is got into it and now it cries ah sick sick sick at the Heart for sin sick for a Saviour 3ly And no less marvelous an effect of the Almighty power is the bowing of the stuborn Will so efficaciously so congruously and so determinately and fixedly to the Lord Jesus The Will is efficaciously determined so as no power of Hell or Nature can resist or frustrate that Mighty power which worketh effectually in all them that believe 1 Thes. 2. 13. Yet it works not by way of compulsion but in a way congruous and agreeable to the nature of the Will Hosea 11. 4. I drew them with the cords of a Man with the bands of love Satan bids for the Soul Christ infinitely outbids all his offers Eternal Spiritual and unsearchable Riches instead of sensitive perishing enjoyments which determin the choice of the Will in its own natural method by the sight of the excelling glory of Spiritual things And thus the mighty supernatural power of God opens that Heart which Satan had secured so many ways against Christ. III. Inference Hence it also follows that Man hath no free will of his own to supernatural good The Will cannot by its own power open it self to receive Christ by faith When it doth open to him it is not virtute innata sed illata not by its natural power but by the power of God upon it The admirers of Nature talk much of the Sovereignty Virginity and Liberty of the Will as if it alone had escaped the fall and that no more but a moral swasion is needed to open it to Christ that is that God need do no more to save Men than the Devil doth to damn them But if ever God make you sensible what the work of â—aving Conversion is you will quickly find that your Will is lame its freedom to Spiritual things gone you will cry out of a wounded Will as well as of a dark Head and a hard Heart You will quickly find That it is God alone that worketh in you both to will and to do of his own good pleasure Phil. 2. 13. That the birth of the new Creature is not of the Will of Man but of God Iohn 1. 13. IV. Inference Learn hence the necessity of Conversion in order to Salvation Christ and Heaven are shut up against you till your hearts be savingly opened unto him
and satisfied that God hath chosen him to Salvation but whether he apprehend it or no the thing in it self is certain and real consult 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 c. Their election of God was the thing to be proved but alas might they say who can know that but God alone It is among the Divine secrets yes saith the Apostle we know it and by this we know it for our Gospel came not unto you in an empty sound but in mighty efficacy effectually opening your Hearts to believe A more clear and certain evidence of your Election cannot be given in this World look again into Rom. 8. 30. Moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified There are two great and ravishing Truths cleared in this Scripture the one is this That the whole number of the called upon Earth is taken out of such as were predestinated to Life before the World was The other is this That as the whole number of the glorified Saints in Heaven is made up of Souls called and justified upon Earth so the called Soul that is the Soul that savingly opens to Christ by Faith may from that work of the Spirit upon him solidly reason backward to Gods electing love before all time and forward to his glorification with God when time shall be no more Oh how strong is the Consolation flowing out of this glorious work of the Spirit upon our Hearts That 's one thing II. Consolation The opening of the Heart to receive Christ is the peculiar effect of the Divine and Almighty Power of God the Arm of an Angel is too weak to break those strong bars before mentioned Therefore the exceeding greatness of his Power is applied unto this work of believing Ephes. 1. 19. And what is the exceeding greatness of his Power toward us who believe according to the working of his mighty Power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead Here is Power the Power of God the greatness of his Power the exceeding greatness of his Power the very same Power which wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and all this no more than needs to make the Heart of Man open by Faith to receive Christ the only Key that fits the cross Wards of Mans Will and effectually opens his Heart is in the Hand of Christ Revel 3. 7. He hath the key of David he opeâ—â—th and no Man shutteth How long have some of you â—at under able Ministers searching Sermons and roâ—â—ing Providences yet all to no purpose till this Almighty Power came with the Word and then the work was done The people shall be willing in the day of thy power Psal. 110. 3. What a glorious Power was that which opened Christ grave when he lay in the Heart of the Earth with a mighty Stone rouled upon his Sepulcher And how mighty a Power is that which breaks asunder all those Bars which kept thy Soul in the State of sin and death None feel this Power but those only whom God intendeth for Salvation and having once wrought this it is engaged to go through with all the rest which yet remaineth to be done to perfect thy Salvation III. Consolation The opening of thy Heart to Christ is not only an effect of Almighty Power but such an effect of it without which all that Christ had done and suffered had been of no avail to thy Salvation neither the eternal Decrees of God nor the meritorious sufferings of Christ are effectual to any Mans Salvation until this work of the Spirit be wronght upon his Heart The offering up of Christ is in its kind and place â—ufficient to purchase our Redemption but it is the receiving of Christ by Faith that brings home Salvation to our Souls where there be many con-causes to produce one effect that effect is not produced until the last cause have wrought Thus 't is here the moving cause viz. the free-grace of God hath wrought and the meritorious cause the death of Christ hath also wrought but still the Heart even of an elect Man remaineth under guilt and condemnation until the Spirit who is the applying cause have also wrought this blessed effect we now speak of It is Christ in us i. e. in union with our Souls which is to us the hope of glory 1 Col. 27. 1 Cor. 1. 30. Behold then the last stroak given in this opening of the Heart by Faith herein electing Love hath brought home Christ with all the purchases and benefits of his death into the actual possession of thy Soul. Oh how transporting and ravishing a consideration is this IV. Consolation In this work the opening of the Heart by Faith the great design and main intention of the Gospel is also answered and accomplished You behold in the Church a glorious frame of Ordinances set up by Divine Institution Ministers appointed to preach Sermons Sacraments Prayers Singing variety of Ordinances set up excellent gifts given to Men as the fruit of Christs ascension into Heaven Now what was the design of God in the institution of all these things but that by them as instruments in his Hand our ignorant dead unbelieving Hearts might be opened unto Christ in acts of Repentance and Faith and built up to a perfect Man Ministers are sent to open your Eyes turn you from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God Acts 26. 18. They are not sent by Christ into this World to get a living to drive so poor a Trade as that for themselves but to bring you to Faith 1 Cor. 3. 5. When Gods elect are thus brought in and built up in Christ you shall see this glorious frame of Ordinances taken down there will be no more Preaching nor Hearing the end of all these things being accomplished 1 Cor. 15. 24. Then cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God even the Father c. Now the consideration of the accomplishment of the great and principal design of the Gospel thus far upon thy Heart is matter of transporting joy Ministers may and must dye Ordinances may be removed but this blessed effect of them upon thy Soul shall never dye God will perfect what he hath begun that 's the Fourth Consolation V. Consolation And then Fifthly That day wherein thy Heart is savingly opened to receive Christ that very day is Salvation come to thy Soul. When Zacheus his Heart was opened to Christ he tells him Luke 19. 9. This day is Salvation come to thy House Salvation was come into the World before thou wast born yea Salvation was come to thy doors in the tenders of the Gospel before but it never came into thy Soul till the day wherein thy Heart opened to Christ by Faith
and is not this matter of singular consolation If Salvation be not what is No wonder that the Eunuch went home rejoycing when he had received Christ by Faith Acts 8. 39. That the Iaylor rejoyced with all his House Acts 16. 34. Neither blame nor wonder at Men for rejoycing for 't is the day of their Salvation 'T is true their Salvation is not finished that day there be many things yet to be done and suffered by them before the compleating of it but it is begun that day the foundation is layed in the Soul that day and the Top-stone shall be set up with shouting in due time crying Grace Grace unto it VI. Consolation The opening of a sinners Heart to Christ makes joy in Heaven a triumph in the City of our God above Luke 15. 7. I say unto you likewise that joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance As when a young Prince is born all the Kingdom rejoyceth the Conduits run with Wine all demonstrations of joy and thankfulness in every City and Town 't is much more so in Heaven when a Soul is born to Christ under the Gospel 't is a satisfaction to the Heart of the Lord Jesus who now beholds more of the travel of his Soul and to all the Angels and Saints that another Soul is espoused to him Beloved when the Gospel is effectually brought home by the Spirit to the Heart of a sinner and wounds him for sin sends him home crying oh sick sick sick for sin and sick for Christ the news thereof is presently in Heaven and sets the whole City of God a rejoycing Christ never rejoyced over thee before thou hast wounded him and grieved him a thosand times but he never rejoyced in thee till now and that which gives joy to Christ may well be matter of Joy to thee that 's the Sixth Consolation VII Consolation And then Seventhly That day thy Heart is unlockt unbarr'd and savingly opened by Faith that very day an intimate spiritual and ever lasting union is made betwixt Christ and thy Soul from that day Christ is thine and thou art his Christ is a great and glorious person but how great and glorious soever he be the small and feeble Arms of thy Faith may surround and embrace him and thou maist say with the Church My beloved is mine and I am his for mark what he faith in the Text If any Man open to me I will come in to him That Soul shall be my habitation there will I dwell for ever that Christ may dwell in your Hearts by Faith what Soul feels not it self advanced by this union with the Son of God Hereby the Believer becomes a Member of his Body Flesh and Bones this is an honour bestowed upon thy Soul above and beyond all that honour that ever God bestowed upon any Angel in Heaven to them Christ is an Head by way of Dominion but to thee by way of vital influence Angels are as the Barons and Nobles of his Kingdom but the Believer his Spouse and all the Angels of Heaven ministring Spirits unto such That 's the seventh Consolation VIII Consolation And then in the Eighth place The opening of thy Heart to Christ brings thee not only into union with his Person but into a state of sweet Soul enriching communion with him So he speaketh in the Text If any Man open the door I will sup with him and he with me Poor Soul thou hast lived many years in the World and never hadst any communion with God till this day Christ and thy Soul have been strangers till now 'T is true thou hast had communion with Ordinances and communion with Saints but for communion with Christ thou couldst know nothing of it till thou receivedst him into thy Soul by Faith. Now thou maist say Truly my fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Iesus Christ 1 John 1. 3. And thenceforth thy communion with Men is pleasant and desirable IX Consolation The opening of a Mans Soul to Christ by Faith is a special and Peculiar mercy which falls to the share but of a very few God hath done that for thee which he hath denied to Millions Who hath believed our report and to whom is the Arm of the Lord revealed i. e. to how small a remnant in the World Isa. 53. 1. And the Apostle puts the work of Faith among the great mysteries of Godliness among the wonders of Religion 1 Tim. 3. 16. Preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World. The found of the Gospel is gone forth into the World Many are called but few are chosen There were many Widows in Israel in the days of Elias but to none of them was Elias sent save unto Sarepta a City of Sidon unto a Woman that was a Widow Luke 4. 25 26. To allude to this there were many hundreds that sat under the same Sermon which opened thy Heart to Christ but it may be unto none of them was the Spirit of God sent that day to open their Hearts by Faith but unto thee thou wilt freely acknowledge thy self as unlikely and unworthy as the vilest sinner there Oh astonishing mercy X. Consolation And then lastly In the same day thy Heart opens by Faith to Christ all the treasures of Christ are unlockt and opened to thee In the same hour God turns the key of Regeneration to open thy Soul the key of Free-grace is also turned to open unto thee the unsearchable riches of Christ then the righteousness of Christ becomes thine to Justifie thee the wisdom of Christ to guide thee the holiness of Christ to sanctifie thee in a word he is that day made of God unto thee wisdom and righteousness Sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1. 30. All is yours for you are Christs and Christ is Gods 1 Cor. 3. ult And thus I have shewn you some of those great things God doth for those Souls that will but do this one thing for him Viz. open their Hearts to receive Christ upon the tenders and terms of the Gospel SERMON IV. Revel 3. 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock c THE verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here rendred I stand is of the praeter tense and would strictly be rendred I have stood but being joyned with a verb of the present tense is here rendred I do stand a frequent Hebraism in Scripture and it notes the continued patience and long suffering of Christ. I have stood and still do stand exercising wonderful patience towards obstinate sinners Which gives us this fourth Observation IV. DOCT. That great and admirable is the patience of Christ in waiting upon trifling and obstinate sinners Thus Wisdom i. e. Christ expresses himself Prov. 1. 24. I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my Hand and no Man regarded Here you have not only Christs â—arnest calls but suitable gestures also to gain attention The stretching out
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
gracious Heart that God should smite so near and yet spare you Lastly This is affecting yea very transporting that God hath not only given you time beyond others but in that time the precious opportunities and means of your Salvation both external and internal there 's the very marrow and kernel of the Mercy had God lengthned out his Patience for a while but given you no means of Salvation or afforded you the means but denied you the blessing and efficacy of them at the most it could have been but a reprieve from Hell but for the Lord to give you the Gospel and with the Gospel to send down his Spirit to perswade and open thy Heart to Christ here is the riches of his goodness as well as forbearance III. Exhortation This Doctrine of the Patience of Christ exhorts all that have felt it to exercise a Christ-like Patience towards others as you have found the benefit of Divine Patience your selves see that you exercise the meekness and long-suffering of Christians towards those that have wronged and injured you Who should shew Patience more than those that have found it Dont be severe short and quick with others who have lived your selves so many years upon the long-suffering of God. We are poor short-spirited Creatures quick to revenge injuries but oh had God been so to us miserable had our condition been Christ hath made this duty the very scope of that excellent parable Matth. 18. from the 25 verse onward where the King takes an account of his Servants reckoning with them one by one and amongst them finds one which owed him Ten thousand Talents and having not to pay commands him his Wife and Children and all he had to be sold and payment to be made but the Servant falling down and begging Patience his Lord was moved with compassion and loosed him and not only forbore but forgave the debt one would think the Heart of this Man should have been a fountain of compassion towards others but see the deep corruption of Nature the same Servant finding one of his fellow-servants which owed him but an Hundred pence laid Hands on him and took him by the Throat Alas the wrongs done to us are but trifâ—les compared with our injuries done to God where others have wronged you once you have wronged God a thousand times Methinks the Patience of Christ towards you should melt your Hearts into an ingenuous easiness to forgive others especially considering that an unforgiving Spirit is a dreadful sign of an unforgiven person IV. Exhortation Burden not the Patience of Christ after your admission of him and reconciliation to him let it suffice that you tried his Patience long enough before give him no new exercises now he is come to dwell in and with you for ever There be two ways wherein God 's own People do greatly provoke him after their Reconciliation 1. By slugishness to Duty 2. By sinning against Light. 1. By slugishness and deadness of Spirit in the ways of Duty and Obedience turning a deaf ear to the calls and motions of Christ's Spirit exciting them to the sweet and pleasant Duties of Religion We have a sad instance of this in the Spouse Cant. 5. 2 3. It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh saying Open to me my Sister my Love my Dove my Vndefiled for my Head is filled with dew and my Locks with the drops of the night One would think that Christ might have opened the Heart of his own Spouse with less solicitation and importunate Arguments than he here useth what Wife could shut the door upon her own dear Husband and bar him out of his own house And yet see the lazy excuse she makes vers 3. I have put off my coat how shall I put it on I have washed my Feet how shall I defile them Oh the slugishness of Flesh even in Regenerate persons Those that have opened the door to Christ by Regeneration even they do often shut the door against Christ in the hours and seasons of Communion with him Strange that such a suiter as Christ should be put by moving and calling to such heavenly pleasant exercises as Communion with him is but flesh will be flesh even in the most Spiritual Christians little do we know what a grief this is to Christ and loss to us 2ly Many grieve Christ's Spirit and sorely try his Patience even after Reconciliation by sinning against Light and Love that caution Ephes. 4. 30. is not without weighty cause and grieve not the holy Spirit of God by which you are sealed to the day of Redemption Do we thus requite the Lord is this the return we will make him for all his admirable kindness and unparallel'd Love towards us Certainly Christ can put up a thousand injuries from his Enemies easier than such affronts from his own People did you not promise him better obedience Did you not engage to more holiness and watchfulness in the day that you sued out your pardon and made up your peace with him Are all those Vows and Covenants forgotten If you have forgotten them God hath not V. Exhortation Improve the time that remains in this World with double diligence because you made Christ wait so long and cast a way so great a part of your life before you opened your Hearts to re-receive him The morning of your life which was certainly the freshest and freest part of it was no better than time lost with many of us all the days of your unregeneracy Christ was shut out and vanity shut into your Hearts You never began to live till Christ gave you life and that was late in the day with many of you How should this provoke to extraordinary diligence in those few remains of time we have yet to enjoy It was Austin's lamentation O Lord it repents me saith he that I loved thee so late This consideration excited Paul to extraordinary diligence for Christ. It made him fly up and down the World as a Seraphim in a flame of holy zeal for Christ. Those that have much to write and are almost come to the end of their paper had need write close Friends you have something to do for God upon Earth which you cannot do for him in Heaven Isa. 38. 18 19. You that have carnal Relations have something to do for them here which you cannot do in Heaven You can now Counsel Exhort and Pray in order to their Conversion and Salvation but when you are gone down to the Grave these opportunities of service are cut off VI. Exhortation Let us all be ashamed and humbled for the baseness of our Hearts and Natures which made Christ wait at the door so long before we opened to him O what wretched Hearts have we That were no more affected with the groans of Christ's Heart than with the groans of a Beast no nor so much neither if that Beast were our own Oh the vileness of Nature to make the Prince of the King 's of
say Not unto us not unto us but to thy Name give the glory The observation and experience of our own Hearts will furnish us with arguments enough to resist all â—emptations of self-glorying and conceit Certainly you were born not of Flesh nor of Blood nor of the will of Man but of God. III. Consideration Lastly This is a comfortable Consideration that he that waited upon you so long and won your Hearts at last will not forsake you now that hath gained you at the expence of so much pains and patience Poor Souls I question not but there are many fears and jealousies within you that all this will come to nothing and you shall perish at last Divers things foment these Jealousies within your Hearts the weakness of your own Graces which alas are but in their infancy the sense you have of your own corruptions and the great strength they still retain The subtilty of Satan who imploys all his policies to reduce you sometimes roaring after his escaped prey with hideous injections which make your Souls to tremble sometimes the discourageing apprehensions of the difficulties of Religion how far the spirituality of active obedience and the difficulty of passive obedience is above your strength sometimes feeling within your selves sad alterations by the hidings of God's face and with-drawment of sweet and sensible Communion with him These and such like things as these cause many a qualm to come over your Hearts but chear up Christ will not lose at last what he pursued so long he that waited so many years for thy Soul will never cast it away now he hath seated himself in the possession of it SERMON V. Revel 3. 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock c. IN the former Point we have seen the Redeemers posture a posture of condescending humility rather the posture of a Servant than the Lord of all Behold I stand at the door we now come to consider his action or motion for entrance I stand and knock this metaphorical action of knocking signifies nothing else but the motions made by Christ for entrance into the Souls of sinners and affords us this fifth Observation V. DOCT. That every conviction of Conscience and motion upon the Affections of sinners is a knock of Christ from Heaven for entrance into their Souls This action of knocking is ascribed sometimes to the Soul and is expressive of its desires to come into the gracious Presence and Communion of God so Matth. 7. 7. To him that knocks it shall be opened i. e. to him that seeks by importunate Prayer Fellowship and Communion with the Lord but here it is applied to Christ and is expressive of his importunate desire to come into union and communion with the Souls of sinners Here I shall open to you the following particulars 1. What are the doors of the Soul at which Christ knocks 2. What his knocking at these doors implies 3. By what instruments he knocks at them 4. In what manner he performs this action First What are the doors of the Soul at which Christ knocks You all know that the term Christ here useth cannot be proper but metaphorical 't is a Figurative speech the door is that part which is introductive into the House and whatsoever is introductive into the Soul that is the door of the Soul. Now in the Soul of Man there are many powers and faculties that have this use and are of an introductive nature to let things into the Soul of Man. Some are more outward as we may speak comparatively and some more inward as the doors of our houses are Christ knocks orderly at them all one after another for the operations of the Spirit disturb not the order of Nature 1. The first door that opens and lets into the Soul is the Vnderstanding nothing passes into the Soul but it must first come through this door of the Understanding nothing can touch the Heart or move the affections but what hath first toucht the Understanding Hence we read so often in Scripture of the opening of the Understanding that being as it were the fore-door of the Soul. 2ly Within this is the Royal-gate of the Soul viz. The will of Man that noble and imperial Power many things may pass into the Mind or Understanding of a Man and yet be able to get no further the door of the Will may be shut against them There were many precious Truths of God let into the Understandings of the Heathens by the light of Nature but could never get further their Hearts and Wills were lockt and shut up against them as you may see Rom. 1. 18. They held the Truths of God in Vnrighteousness that is they bound and imprisoned those common notices the Law of Nature imprest upon their Minds concerning the Being and Nature of God and the duties of both Tables These Truths could get no further into their Souls and which is of sad and dreadful consideration Christ himself stands betwixt these two doors in the Souls of many persons he is got into their Understandings and Consciences they are convinced of the possibility and necessity of obtaining Jesus Christ but still the door of their Will is barr'd against him which drew from him that sad complaint Iohn 5. 40. You will not come unto me that you might have life When this door of the Will is once effectually opened then all the inner doors of the affections are quickly set open to receive and welcom him Desires joy delight and all the rest stand open to him These are the doors at which the Redeemer knocks Secondly Next we must consider what is ment by Christ's knocking at these doors and what that action implies In the general knocking is nothing else but an action significative of the desires of one that is without to come in 't is a sign appointed to that end And what is Christs knocking but a signification to the Soul of his earnest desires to come into it a notice given to the Soul of Christ's willingness to possess it for his own habitation And it is as much as if Christ should say Soul thou art the House that was built by my Hand purchased and redeemed by my Blood I have an unquestionable right to it and now demand entrance More particularly there are divers great things implied in this gracious act of Christ's knocking at the door of the Soul. 1. It implies the special favour and distinguishing grace and goodness of Jesus Christ that he will stand and knock at our doors when he passes by so great a part of the World never giving one such knock or call at other Mens doors it is certainly a most glorious and admirable condescension and favour of Heaven and whereever it is successful it speaks a Man highly favoured of God. Oh that when Christ passes by the Souls of Thousands and Millions that would certainly afford him as comfortable an habitation as our Souls can do and will not give one effectual knock or
call at their doors all the days of their life that he will please to turn aside to thy Soul and wait and knock there for entrance I say here is one of the greatest acts of favour that can be shewn to the Soul of a sinner How many Souls be there in the World equal in natural Dignity to yours and of sweeter natural Tempers whom yet the Lord Jesus lets alone in the quiet possession of Satan Luke 11. 21. There is a deep silence and stilness in their Consciences no stirrings nor disturbances by Convictions but through a dreadful Judgment of God are left in a deep sleep and if their Consciences at any time begin to grumble how soon are they husht and quieted again by Satan What the condition of the World was in former Ages we may see in Acts 14. 16. Who in times past suffered all Nations to walk in their own ways O 't is the greatest Mercy in the World for the sleepy Conscience of a sinner to be roused by Convictions because it is introductive to all other Spiritual Mercies I confess this act of Grace is little apprehended by the Sons and Daughters of Men much rather would poor sinners be let alone than be thus disturbed by troublesom convictions and when Christ disturbs their rest how do they startle at the knocks of his Word and Spirit How angry be they that they cannot be let alone to enjoy their quiet sleep in sin till the flames of Hell awaken them Mr. Fenner that great and eminent Instrument of God in this Work tells us in one of his Sermons how it fared with a certain Man that came to hear him Preach It seems the Word had got entrance into his Conscience and gave it a terrible Allarum and as he was going home some that followed him heard him thus blaming and bemoaning himself O what a fool what a beast was I to come under this Sermon to day I shall never have peace and quietness any more And what is the reason that smooth and general Preaching is so much applauded and affected in the World And close convincing Doctrin so much shunned and hated but this that sinners are very loath to be disquieted and have their Consciences throughly awakned Well whatever your apprehensions be certainly it is an unspeakable Mercy for Christ to knock and disquiet the Souls of sinners by his calls That 's the first thing 2ly The next thing implied in this action of Christ is this That the first motions towards the recovery and Salvation of sinners begin not in themselves but in Christ. We never knock at Heavens door by Prayer till Christ hath first knockt at our doors by his Spirit Did not Christ move first there would be no motions after him in our Hearts we move towards him because he hath first moved upon our Souls Christ might sit long enough unsought and undesired did he not make the first motion All our motions are secondary and consequential motions Isa. 65. 1. I am found of them that sought me not As we love him because he first loved us so we seek after him because he first sought us Alas poor sinners are as well satisfied as any people in the World can be to lye fast asleep in the Devil 's Arms. When the Spirit of God goes forth with the Word of Conviction he finds the Souls of Men in the very same posture which the Angels that had surveyed the World reported the whole Earth to be in Zach. 1. 11. Behold all the Earth sitteth still and is at rest Every Man setled and satisfied in his own way what a strange stilness and midnight silence is there amongst sinners Not a sigh not a cry to be heard for sin So the Psalmist Psal. 14. 2. represents the case of sinners The Lord looked down from Heaven upon the Children of Men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside c. There is one thing that is admirably strange in this case that even those Men and Women whose Rattles of earthly pleasures and delights which brought them into this sleep and security are taken away from them by the Hand of Providence I mean their Estates Health Children c. yet they awake not there are no stirrings after God. O what a dead sleep hath sin cast the Souls of sinners into You have a notable Scripture to this purpose in Iob 35. 9. 10. they are the words of Elihu concerning Men and Women under grievous oppression persons squeezed and ground by the cruel Hands of wicked Men by reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry they cry out by reason of the Arm of the Mighty but none saith where is God my Maker who giveth songs in the night i. e. Succour Comfort and Refreshment to the afflicted Here are Men turned out of their Estates thrown into Prisons cast upon all extremities and miseries and what do these poor creatures do Why saith he they cry by reason of their oppression O my Father or my Mother my Wife my Child my Estate my Liberty but none saith where is my God O my sin or my misery by reason of sin where is he that giveth Songs in the night The People of God when they lye musing upon their beds under affliction they have their Songs in the Night in the midst of the multitude of their troubled thoughts within them the Comforts of God delight their Souls Those are their Songs in the Night but no such word or thought in carnal Men how plain is it that all the first motions of Salvation have their first spring and rise in God and not in us That 's the Second thing implied in Christ's knocking Thirdly Christ knocking at the door of the Heart implies the method of the Spirit in Conversion to be congruous and agreeable to the nature of Man's Soul mark Christ's expression in the Text he doth not say Behold I come to the door and break it open by violence no Christ makes no forcible Entries whether sinners will or no he will come in by consent of the Will or not at all I stand and knock if any Man open the door I will come in to him There is a great difference between a friendly admission by consent and a forcible entrance in a forcible entrance bars of Iron are brought to break open the door but in a friendly admission one knocks and the other opens Forcible actions are unsuitable to the nature of the Will whose motions are free and spontaneous therefore it is said Psal. 110. 3. The people shall be willing in the day of thy power 'T is true the Power of God is upon the Will of Man in the day of his Conversion or else it would never open to Christ but yet that Power of God doth not act against the freedom of Man's Will by co-action and force no but of unwilling he makes it willing taking away the obstinacy and
reluctancy of the Will by the efficacy of his Grace which some Divines call victrix delectatio a sweet and pleasant victory and so the door of the Will still opens freely Hosea 11. 4. I drew them with the cords of a Man with the bands of Love. I drew them there 's Almighty Power but how did this Power draw them With the cords of a Man i. e. with rational arguments convincing the Judgment Beasts are driven and forced but Men are drawn by reason and will not move without it if they act like themselves it must be confessed that when the day of God's Power is come for the bringing home of a poor sinner to Christ he cannot resist the Power of God's Spirit that draws him effectually Every one that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me yet still the Soul comes freely by the consent of his Will for this is the method of Christ in drawing Souls to him There is in the day of a sinners Conversion a kid an offer made for the Will both by Satan and Christ. Satan bids Riches Honours and Pleasures with ease and quietness to the flesh in the enjoyment of them abide where thou art saith Satan remain with me and thou shalt escape all the Persecutions losses and troubles of the World which Conscience entangles other Men in thou shalt draw thy life through peace and pleasure to thy dying day O saith the flesh this is a good motion what can be better for me But then saith Christ dost thou not consider that all these enjoyments will quickly be at an end and what shall become of thee then Behold I offer thee the free full and final pardon of thy sins Peace and reconciliation with God treasures in Heaven all these shall be thine with Troubles Reproaches and Persecutions in this World. The Understanding and Conscience of a sinner being convinced of the vanity of earthly things and the indispensable necessity of pardon and peace with God I say when a convinced Judgment hath duly ballanced these things and laid them before the Will and the Spirit of God put forth his Power in the renovation of it it moves towards Christ freely and yet cannot according to its natural order act otherwise than it doth And doubtless this is the true meaning of that expression so often mistaken and abused in Luke 14. 23. Compel them to come in What! by forcing Men against the light of their Consciences No no to the shame of many Protestants let us hear the Gloss of Stella a Popish Commentator upon the place Christ saith he compels Men to come in by shewing to their Will such an excelling good as it cannot but embrace for volunt as natur aliter fertur in bonum The Will is naturally carried to the choice of the best good And thus the Spirit works upon the Soul harmoniously and agreeably to its own Nature That 's the Third thing implied in Christ's knocking Fouthly Christ's knocking at the door of the Soul manifestly implies the immediate access of the Spirit of God unto the Soul of Man that he can come to the very innermost door of the Soul at his pleasure and make what impressions upon it he pleaseth As for other instruments used in this Work they have no such privilege or Power Ministers can but knock at the external door of the senses Thine Eyes shall see thy Teachers we can see their persons and hear their voices we can reason with sinners and plead with their Souls but awaken them we cannot open their Hearts we cannot We can only lodge our message in their Ears and leave it to the Spirit of God to make it effectual This is a Royalty belonging unto the Spirit of God incommunicable to Angels or Men. If an Angel from Heaven were the Preacher he could not give one immediate stroak to the Conscience much less can Man we have no dominion over your Consciences The keys of the doors of your Souls hang not at our girdles but are in the Hands of Christ Revel 3. 7. He hath the key of David he openeth and no Man shutteth and he shutteth and no Man openeth The Consciences and all the faculties lye naked and open to the stroak of God's Spirit he can wound them and heal them and make what impressions he pleaseth upon them Learn hence what need there is both for Ministers and People before they enter upon the solemn Ordinances of God to lift up their Hearts by Prayer for the blessing and Power of the Spirit upon them Lord send forth thy Spirit pour it forth upon and with thy Word Ah how many Sermons have we Preach'd and you heard and yet there is no opening These are the four things implied in Christ's knocking at the door viz. Condescending Grace All first motions begin in God The motions of his Spirit are congruous and agreeable to the nature of the Soul And that his Spirit can have immedate access to the innermost faculties and Powers of the Soul at his pleasure Now in the next place let us consider Thirdly By what Instruments Christ knocks at the Doors that is the Judgment Conscience and Will of a sinner And these are two viz. By 1. His Word 2. His Providence Here my Work will be to shew you how the Spirit of God makes use both of the Word and Works of God to rouse and open the Consciences and Hearts of Sinners These are the two Hammers or instruments of the Spirit by which he knocks at the door of the Heart 1. The Word written or preached but especially preached to this Christ gives the preference to all other instruments imployed about this Work and answerably the Word is called God's Hammer Ier. 23. 29. Is not my Word like fire and as the Hammer which breaketh the rocks in pieces By this Hammer Christ raps at the door of a sinners Soul to give warning that he is there The Spirit of God can open the Heart immediately if he pleaseth but he will honour his Word in this Work. And therefore when Lydias Heart was to be opened Paul the great Gospel Preacher must be invited even by an Angel to come over to Macedonia and assist in that blessed Work Acts 16. 9. Lydia was to be converted her Heart must be opened to Christ the Angel could not do it but calls for the help of the Apostle Gods appointed Instrument to carry on that Work. I have made thee saith God to Paul a Minister and a witness to open their Eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God Acts 26. 18. Now there be three ways in which the Spirit uses the Word as his Hammer in knocking at the door of the Soul. 1. He knocks by the particular convictions of of the Word upon the Conscience this knock by conviction rings and sounds through all the rooms and chambers of the Soul particular and effectual conviction wounds to the very centre of the Soul. Ah when
the Word shall come whom by the Spirits particular application like that of Nathans to David Thou art the Man then all the powers of the Soul are rouzed and allarmed now it pierces as a two-edged Sword Heb. 4. 12. divides the Soul and Spirit the superiour and inferiour Faculties of it Cuts down by the back-bone lays open the secret guilt and innermost thoughts of a Man's Heart before which the sinner cannot stand The secrets of his Heart are made manifest and falling down on his Face he must acknowledg that God is in the Word of a Truth 1 Cor. 14. 24. O these convictions of the Word are such a rap such a knock at the door of the Conscience as will never be forgotten no not in Heaven to all Eternity 2ly Christ knocks in the Word by its terrible comminations and awful threatnings menacing the Soul that opens not with eternal ruine these are dreadful knocks O sinner saith Christ wilt thou not open Shall all the tenders of my Grace made to thee be in vain Know then that this thy obstinacy shall be thy damnation Thus the Word denounces ruine in the name of the great and terrible God to all wilful impenitents and obstinate unbelievers Iohn 3. 36. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath ef God abideth on him O dreadful sound like unto which is that Iohn 8. 24. If ye believe not that I am he ye shall dye in your sins q. d. Thy Mittimuâ— for Hell shall be made and signed will you not come to me that you might have life then I will foretel what death you shall dye you shall even dye in your sins Oh it were better for thee to dye like a Dog in a ditch than to dye in thy sins These are loud knocks of the Word terrible sounds yet no more than needs to startle the drousie Consciences of sinners And then 3ly The Spirit knocks by the gracious invitations of the Word the sweet allurements and gracious insinuations of it and without this no Heart would ever open to Christ. It is not frost and snow storms and thunder but the gentle distilling dews and cherishing Sun-beams that make the flowers open in the Spring The terrors of the Law may be preparative but the grace of the Gospel is that which effectually opens the sinners Heart The obdurate flint will sooner fly when smitten upon the soft pillow than upon the anvil Now the Gospel abounds with alluring invitations to draw the Will and open the Heart of a sinner such is that Matth. 11. 28. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest O what a charming voice is here He that considers it may well wonder what Heart in the World can resist it like unto this is that in Isa. 55. 1. Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no money let him come yea let him come and buy Wine and Milk without money and without price q. d. Come sinner come though thou have no qualifications no worthiness nor righteousness of thy own though thou be but a heap of sin and vileness yet come my grace is a gift not a sale and such is that in Iohn 7. 37. In the last day the great day of the feast Iesus stood up and cried If any Man thirst let him come to me and drink q. d. My grace is no sealed Fountain 't is free and open to the greatest of sinners if they thirst they are invited to come and drink This is that Oyl of Gospel grace which makes the Key turn so pleasantly and effectually amongst all the cross wards of Man's Will. And thus you see how the Word preached becomes an instrument in the Spirit 's Hand to open the door of a sinners Heart at which it knocks by its mighty Convictions dreadful Threats and gracious Invitations Secondly We next come to the Second Hammer by which the Spirit knocks at the sinners Heart and that is the providential Works of God. These in subserviency to the Word are of excellent use to awaken sinners and make them open their Hearts to Christ. God hath magnified his Word above all his Name yet there are some of the providential Works of God greatly serviceable in this case the Word sanctifies Providences and Providences assist the Word and make it work Now there are two sorts of Providential Dispensations which the Lord Jesus makes use of to gain entrance for him into the Hearts of Men. Viz. 1. Judgments 2. Mercies 1. Judgments and Afflictions the Word of God many times works not till some stroak of God come to quicken and assist it thus did the Lord open the Heart of that Monster of wickedness Manasseh the Word would not work alone but a smart rod quickned its operation 2 Chron. 33. 10 11 12. And the Lord spake to Manasseh and to his people but they would not hearken Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the Captains of the host of the King of Assyria which took Manasseh among the thorns and bound him with fetters and carried him to Babylon And when he was in affliction he besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his Fathers Thus the Heart of this Man relented under the Word assisted by the Rod. Ah 't is good that God take such a course with some sinners else the Word would do them no good and to this purpose is that in Iob 36. 8 9 10. And if they be bound in fetters and holden in cords of affliction then he sheweth them their work and their transgression that they have exceeded and openeth their Ears to discipline This is that rough course the obstinacy of Men's Hearts makes necessary for their recovery and therefore it is very observable that some words of God have lain dead in some sinners Hearts for years together and at last have begun to work under some smart and close Rod. Alas while all things are pleasant and prosperous about us the Word hath but little operation and effect Ier. 22. 21 22. I spake unto thee in thy prosperity but thou saidst I will not hear this hath been thy manner from thy youth that thou obeyedst not my voice The wind shall eat up all thy pastures and thy lovers shall go into captivity surely then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness q. d. Your Eyes are so dazled with the beautiful Flowers and your Ears so charmed with the Syren Songs and Lullabies of earthly delights that my Word can take no place upon you Let an East-wind blow and wither up these Flowers then the Word shall work and Conscience rescent the concernments of Eternity this course God is feign to take with many of you here you sit from Sabbath to Sabbath under the Word and nothing takes place upon your Hearts Will you not hear the voice of my VVord go Death saith God and smite that Man's Child dead I
knock and no opening and these things are very common especially among the unconverted that live under a lively Gospel rouzing Ministry of this Christ complains Matth. 11. 16 17. Whereunto shall I liken this generation They are like unto Children sitting in the market-place and calling to their fellows saying We have piped unto you and you have not daunced We have mourned unto you but you have not lamented q. d. Neither the delicious airs and melody of Gospel grace nor the mournful and dreadful threats of damnation to unbelievers avail any thing to open your Hearts to embrace me no voices from mount Gerezim or mount Ebal will prevail with you Ah how many sad witnesses unto this truth have I now before mine Eyes But God forbid it should be thus all round No no there be some Souls who hear and open even every one that hath heard and learned of the Father Iohn 6. 45. When the Spirit of God puts forth his Power with the Word then and not till then it becomes successful 4ly Sometimes Christ knocks with a thick succession of Convictions a quick repetition of his calls Some men have had thousands of Convictions in a few years for in this case the Lord saith as it is Exod. 4. 8. If they will not harken to the voice of the first sign yet they may believe the voice of the latter sign And yet sometimes neither the former nor the latter avail any thing How oft would I have gathered thy Children and ye woul not Matth. 23. 37. How often Intimating the many calls Christ gave Ierusalem to come unto him yet all in vain Obstinate sinners Christ hath been knocking and calling at some of your Consciences from your very Child-hood thousands of Convictions have been tryed upon some of you and yet to this day your Souls are shut fast against him The Lord hath waited from year to year for your answer by this signifying how loath he is to part with you such a time thou wast upon a sick-bed nigh unto Death at such a time under such a Sermon and then Christ knockt at thy Soul if all this be in vain so many Convictions as you have stifled so many fagots you carry with you to Hell to increase your flames and torments yet commonly those quick repetitions and redoublings of the stroaks of Convictions end well and it is a good sign when one Conviction revives another and the Lord keeps the Soul still waking But O take heed and try not his Patience too long lest the next stroak be more dreadful than all the former not to open your Hearts but smite dead your hopes for Heaven 5ly Sometimes Christ knocks intermittingly knocking and stopping a call and silence and that at a considerable time and distance a conviction this day and it may be not another in many Months There be some aged sinners that have not had more than one or two remarkable rouzings of Conscience in fifty or sixty years time and then no more Dont think that the Lord will make his Spirit always strive with Men Gen 6. 3. no there is a time when God saith to the Word convict the Conscience of that Man or Woman no more not a stroak more by way of Conviction but henceforth be thou for Obduration not to open but to shut him up Isa. 6. 10. Reader bethink thy self how long was it since thy Conscience was rouzed and awakened O saith one seven or ten years ago I heard such a Sermon which tore my Conscience to pieces I fell under such a sad providence which rouzed and awakened all my fears but since that time all hath been still and quiet the Lord give a second awakning lest you awake with the flames of God's wrath about you I observe it is usual when God works upon any very early he knocks thus intermittingly now the Conscience is active and full of trouble then the vanities of Youth extinguish these Convictions again but the Lord follows his design and at last the Conviction settles and ends in Conversion 6ly Christ sometimes knocks with both Hands at once with the Word and with the Rod together the latter in subserviency to the former and if ever the Soul be like to open it will open then when Ordinances and Afflictions work together The Word smites the Conscience with Conviction and at or about the same time providence smites the outward-man with some affliction to make the Word work effectually or under some smart affliction a suitable word is seasonably directed to the Conscience and thus Iuncta Iuvant the one assisteth the other and both together produce the desired effect Thus the Lord wrought upon the Thessalonians 1 Thes. 1. 6. And ye became followers of us and of the Lord having received the Word in much affliction A Child dies an Estate is lost or a Sickness seizeth at the time when Conscience is prepared by a Conviction from the Word or Afflictions have prepared it for the Word The Rod upon the Back helps the Word to work upon the Heart and if both these working in fellowship will not do the work there is little hope that any thing will do it 7ly Every knock of Christ disturbs the sinful rest of the Soul it rouzeth guilt in the Conscience and puts the inner-man into great distress and trouble before Christ comes and knocks at the door of the Heart all is still and quiet within the Soul is in a quiet sleep of sinful security no fears or troubles molest its rest Luke 11. 21. When a strongman armed keepeth his Palace 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 The armour which Satan puts into the Hands of sinners to defend themselves against the Convictive stroaks of the Word are the general Mercy of God the outward Duties of Religion partial Reformations c. But when Christ comes by effectual Conviction he disarms the sinner of all these pleas and then the Soul sees what broken Reeds it leaned upon When the Commandment came saith Paul sin revived and I dyed Rom. 7. 9. i. e. all my vain hopes expired no artifice of Satan can any longer quiet the sinners Conscience he apprehends himself in a miserable condition meditates an escape farewel now to sound and quiet sleep no peace till out of danger 8ly Every effectual knock of Christ gives an allarm to Hell and puts Satan to all his shifts and arts to secure the possession of the convinced sinner The Devil is a jealous Spirit and when his interest is in danger he bestirs himself to purpose the time of Conviction is an hour of temptation We wrestle not with flesh and blood saith the Apostle but against Principalities against Powers against the Rulers of the darkness of this World against Spiritual wickedness or wicked Spirits in high-places or about heavenlies Eph. 6. 12. The strife betwixt Satan and the Soul is
rises not out of Nature as common gifts do but of this it is expresly said Eph. 2. 8. It is not of your selves it is the gift of God. Where this work is effectually wrought we may reason as solidly as comfortably from it both backward to the electing love of God and forward to our eternal glorification with him Rom. 8. 30. II. Consolation The opening of thy Heart to Christ by saving Faith gives thee interest in Christ the very same hour the relation is then constituted the conjugal tye or bond is fastned betwixt him and thy Soul Iohn 1. 12. To as many as received him to them gave he power viz. right or privilege to become the Sons of God even to as many as believed on his Name You neither need nor may expect an extraordinary messenger or voice from Heaven to tell you that Christ is yours and you are his you have a better foundation in this Word and Work of Faith for my part if God will give me the clear and satisfying experience of this Work upon my Heart I would never desire more satisfaction on this side Heaven I know not but the Devil may counterfeit an extraordinary voice and cheat the Soul by a lying Oracle but if I really feel my Heart and Will sincerely opening to Christ upon Gospel terms I am sure there is no deceit in that III. Consolation The opening of thy Heart to Christ by Faith is a good assurance that Heaven shall be opened to thy Soul hereafter Heaven is shut against none but those that shut their Hearts against Christ by Unbelief Will you bar Christ out of your Souls by Ignorance and Unbelief and then cry Lord open to us No God will open to none but them that open to Christ. Etâ—rnity it self shall but suffice to bless God for this opening act of Faith He that believeth shall be saved Mark 16. 16. IV. Consolation The opening of thy Soul to Christ by Faith makes it Christs habitation for ever in that hour outgoes sin and Satan and incomes Christ and Grace If any Man open unto me I will come in to him saith the Text of such a Soul Christ saith as it was said of the Temple Psalm 132. 13 14. The Lord hath desired it for his Habitation This is my rest for ever here will I dwell for I have desired it Thy Soul now becomes an hallowed Temple to the Lord as he hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and will be their God and they shall be my people 2 Cor. 6. 16. O what an Heaven upon Earth is here Christ dwelling in the Soul is the glory of the Soul as Gods dwelling in the Temple was the glory of the Temple V. Consolation In a word the opâ—â—ing of the Heart to Christ is that work which answers the great design of the Gospel Wherefore hath God set up Ordinances and Ministers yea wherefore is the Spirit sent forth but to open the Hearts of sinners to Christ by Faith When this is done the main end and intention of the Gospel is attained and answered the union is effected betwixt Christ and the Soul it is now put out of hazard The whole Work of the Gospel after that is but to build up confirm and comfort the Soul ripen it s implanted Graces and make it meet for glory And thus through the assistance of the Spirit I have finished the fifth Observation That every Conviction of Conscience and motion upon the Affections is a knock or call of Christ for entrance into the sinners Heart SERMON VI. Revel 3. 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock c. I stand and knock HEre 's pains and patience all means used by Christ to gain entrance into the Souls of sinners It speaks the earnestness of his suit and vehemency of his desire to be in union with the Souls of Men. The sixth Observation therefore will be this VI. DOCT. That Iesus Christ is an earnest suitor for union and communion with the Souls of sinners This Point lyes directly and fully in the very Eye and intention of the Text. In the opening of it two things must be spoken to in the Doctrinal part viz. 1. The demonstration of this Truth that he is so 2. The marvelous and admirable grace and condescension of Christ that he should be so First For Demonstration of this Truth That Christ is an earnest suiter for union and communion with the Souls of sinners I shall draw down the Demonstration of this Truth from a view and consideration of the dispositions carriages and actions of the Lord Jesus towards poor sinners from first to last And when you have compared them all together and by them seen the temper of his Heart how great and clear a light will shine upon this Point That his Heart hath still enclined towards union and communion with sinful Man will evidently appear by considering him in a fourfold state and time 1. Before his Incarnation 2. In the days of his Flesh. 3. At his Death And 4. At and since his Ascension into Heaven First Consider him before his Incarnation and you will find too things in that state which plainly speak his desires after union with us 1. In the Covenant of Redemption he made with God concerning us before this World had a being for such Covenants and Promises did really pass betwixt him and the Father before all time or else I know not how to understand that Scripture Tit. 1. 2. In hope of eternal Life which God that cannot lye promised before the World began To whom could that Promise be made but unto Christ which bears date before the Creation what else can this mean but the Covenant of Redemption made betwixt the Father and the Son the terms whereof are set down in Isa. 53. 10 11. where you find what Christ was to do Viz. To put his Soul an offering for sin And what should be his reward for pouring out his Soul unto Death viz. To see his Seed to see the travail of his Soul even a Church purchased with his own Blood Whether this be not a great demonstration of the propension and inclination of Christs Heart and Desire towards union and communion with poor sinners let all Men judge O what a value did Christ set upon our Souls that upon such costly terms he would consent to redeem them Unto this agreement God the Father held him Rom. 8. 32. God spared not his own Son. And this very covenant Christ pleaded with the Father Iohn 17. 6. I have manifested thy Name to the Men which thou gavest me out of the World thine they were and thou gavest them me This plainly shews the vehement desire of Christs Heart to be in union with Men according to that Prov. 8. 31. Rejoycing in the habitable parts of his Earth and my delights were with the Sons of Men. Blessed Jesus nothing but the strength of thine own desire and love could ever have drawn thee
out of that Bosom of delights to suffer so many things for the sake of poor sinners Secondly Let us consider Christs temper and disposition towards union and communion with sinners within time and every thing done by Christ carries and confirms this Conclusion 1. His Assumption of our Nature plainly speaks it 2. His whole Life upon Earth evidently discovers it 3. His Doctrin is a clear proof of it 4. His Joy at the Conversion of Souls proves it 5. His Sorrows for Mens unbelief evidence it 6. His indefatigable Labours plainly shew it 7. His admirable Encouragements to coming sinners 8. His dreadful Menaces to obstinate sinners 9. His sending and encouraging Ministers to draw and gather the World to himself All these things which were transacted in the Life of Christ plainly demonstrate how greatly and earnestly his Heart did propend and incline towards this desirable union with the Sons of Men. 1. Christs Assumption of our Nature manifesteth his desire after union with us Herein he gave two incomparable proofs of his transcendent love to us and desire after us 1. In passing by a more excellent Nature 2. In marying our Nature to himself 1. He passed by a superiour and more excellent Nature Heb. 2. 16. Verily he took not on him the Nature of Angels Angels were excellent Creatures but behold vessels of Gold cast into the fire and Earthen potsherds fitted for glory 'T is true the Angels that kept their integrity are Members of Christs Kingdom he is an Head to them by way of Dominion but unto us by way of Vital union Christ takes the believer into a nearer union with himself than any Angel in Heaven but for the multitudes of apostate Angels he never designed their recovery but left them as they were before bound in chains of darkness unto the Judgment of the great Day Iude vers 6. This preterition of Christ heightens his love to poor Man. 2ly In marying our Nature to himself and that after sin had blasted its beauty and let in so many direful calamities upon it Rom. 8. 3. He was found in the likeness of sinful flesh i. e. Flesh subject to weariness pains and death which though there be no sin in them yet are the effects and consequences of sin Such a Nature he assumed into a Personal union with himself not to experience any new pleasure in it but to capacitate himself to suffer and satisfie for us and therein to give a convincing proof of the strength of his love and vehemency of his desire to us His personal union with our Nature shews his desire after a mystical union with our Persons He would never have been the Son of Man but to make us the Sons and Daughters of the living God He came in our likeness that we by Sanctification might be made in his likeness Behold how near Christ comes to us by his Incarnation O what a stoop did he make therein to recover us Rather than lose us he was contented to lose his manifestative glory for a time for his Incarnation made him of no reputation Phil. 2. 7. Behold the desires of a Saviour after union with sinners II. The whole Life of Christ upon Earth was an evident proof and demonstration of the desiers of his Heart to be in union and communion with us Iohn 17. 19. For their sakes I sanctifie my self The Life of Christ was wholly set apart for us therefore it is said Isa. 9. 6. Vnto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given What was the errand and buisness upon which Christ came into this World but to seek and to save that which was lost All the Miracles he wrought on Earth were so many works of Mercy he could have wrought his Miracles to have destroyed and ruined such as received him not but his Almighty Power was imployed to heal and save the Bodies of Men that thereby he might win their Souls unto him Acts 10. 38. God anointed Iesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with Power who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil for God was with him When the Apostles desired a Commission from him to fetch fire from Heaven to destroy the Samaritans he rebuked them saying Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of for the Son of Man came not to destroy Mens lives but to save them Luke 9. 54 55 56. The whole Life of Christ in this World was nothing else but a woing drawing motive to the Hearts of sinners he rejected not the vilest of sinners Luke 7. 39. He rejected none that came unto him he would not have little Children forbid to be brought unto him Mark 10. 13. What his winning carriage should be was long before predicted by the Prophet Isa. 42. 3. A bruised Reed shall he not break and smoaking Flax shall he not quench Lentulus the Proconsul in his Epistle ad S. P. Q. R. having Graphically described the Person of Christ gives this account of his carriage and deportment In his reproofs he was terrible in his admonitions fair and amiable chearful without levity he was never seen to laugh but often to weep his words grave few and modest c. Christ was in the World as a load-stone drawing all Men to him his deportment was every way suitable to his Commission which was to preach good tydings to the Meek to bind up the broken Hearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound Isa. 61. 1. III. As his Life so his Doctrin was a woing and inviting Doctrin a most pathetical invitation unto sinners Never Man spake as he spake whenever he opened his Lips Heaven opened the very Heart of God was opened in it to sinners the whole stream and current of his Doctrin was one continued powerful perswasive to draw sinners to him This was his Language Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Matth. 11. 28. In the last day the great day of the feast Iesus stood up and cryed If any Man thirst let him come to me and drink John 7. 37. Himself resembles it to the clucking of a Hen to gather her Chickins under her wings Luke 13. 34. O Jerusalem Jerusalem how often would I have gathered thy Children together as a Hen doth gather her brood under her wings Certainly tâ—e whole stream of the Gospel is nothing else but the charming voice of the Heavenly Bridegroom IV. The Joy he always exprest for the success of the Gospel speaks him to be an earnest suiter for the Hearts of Sinners 'T is very remarkable that all the Evangelists who have recorded the life of Christ never mention one laugh or smile that ever came from him For he was a Man of sorrows yet once you read that he rejoiced in Spirit and you shall see the occasion of it in Luke 10. 21. In that hour Iesus rejoiced in Spirit And what was it
Fathers Face from Eternity before this time but now the smiling Face of God was hid and a strong impression of his Wrath made upon him And now Brethren you see what Christ hath endured both in his Body and in his Soul and all for the sake of Sinners What think you now is not Christ an earnest Suiter Doth not all this fully and plainly speak the ardours of his Love the fervencies of his desires after union and communion with us If this do not then nothing can demonstrate Love and Desire That 's the first thing the greatness of the Sufferings which he endured Secondly Let us next consider the Use and Intention of these Sufferings of Christ and how this also demonstrates the earnestness of his desires after Conjugal union with us Now there was a double Use and End of the Sufferings of Christ. 1. To make us free that we might be capable of Espousals 2. To win our Affections by the argument of his Sufferings I. One End of Christs death was to purchase our Freedom that we might be capable of being Espoused to him for you must know that we were not in a capacity whilst under the curse of the Law to be married unto Christ the Apostle Rom. 7. 2 3 4. compares the Law to a Husband to whom the Wife is bound as long as he liveth and not capable of a second marriage until her Husband be dead The Death of Christ was the Death of the Law as a Covenant of Works holding us under the bond of a Curse of it and so it gave us a manumission or freedom from that bond and a capacity of espousals to Christ as vers 4. Wherefore my brethren ye also are become dead to the Law by the Body of Christ that ye should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead A Slave to another is not capable of being disposed in marriage until made Free you were in bondage to the Law the slaves of of Sin and Satan Christ bought out your liberty for his Blood is call'd a ransom Matth. 20. 28. and so put you into a capacity of being espoused unto himself here you see Christ loved you not for any advantage he could have by you for you had nothing to bring him nay he must purchase you and that with his own Blood before he can be united to you O incomparable love O fervent desires II. Another design and end of the Death of Christ was to win and gain our Hearts and Affections to himself by the argument of his Death this himself hath declared to be the very end and intention of it Ioh. 12. 32. And I if I be lifted up from the Earth will draw all Men unto me this he said signifying what Death he should dye Christ endured all that you have heard and infinitely more than the Tongue or Pen of Man can express and all to draw thy Soul and win thy consent to come unto him the Lord Jesus by his sufferings casts a threefold cord over the Souls of Sinners to draw them to himself 1. The Death of Christ obtains compleat righteousness for guilty sinners and if any thing in the World will draw the Heart of a sinner this will the anxious search and enquiry of a convinced sinner is after a perfect righteousness to justifie him before God. O that 's it the sinner wants Conscience saith thou hast broken all the Laws of God and art therefore a Law condemned wretch the sentence of the Law casts thee for Hell Now what would a poor sinner give for a release from this sentence of the Law O ten thousand Worlds for a Pardon Why here it is saith Christ Come unto me and thou shalt receive a free full and final pardon my Blood cleanseth from all sin my righteousness answers all the demands of the Law. I have taken away the Hand-writing that was against thee and nayled it to my Cross Col. 2. 14. Come unto me and take up thy Bonds thy cancelled Bonds come unto me and that dreadful attribute of Divine Justice shall never scare or fright thy Conscience any more nay thou shalt build thy hope upon it you read Rom. 3. 25. That God hath set forth Christ to be a propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Iesus Here you see the justification and pardon of a sinner built upon that very Attribute which was so frightful and dreadful to him before Well then poor sinner is there guilt upon thy Conscience And doth thy Soul shake and quiver to think how it shall stand before the Just and Terrible God in the great Day Hearken to the voice of Christ crucified who calls thee to him to receive thy discharge which if thou refuse the Law still stands in its full force and vertue against thy Soul. This is one cord Christ casts from the Cross over the Souls of guilty sinners to draw them to him 2ly The Death of Christ purchases and procures perfect cleansing from the filth and pollution of sin to wash the defiled Souls of sinners from all their uncleanness For this is he that came by water and by blood not by blood only but by water also 1 Joh. 5. 6. He comes by way of Sanctification as well as by way of Justification Lord saith a convinced sinner what an unclean Nature Heart and Life have I O I am nothing but a heap of uncleanness an abhorence to God and my self how shall such an Heart as mine such an Augean Stable be cleansed Come unto me saith Christ I came by Water as well as Blood in me thou shalt find a Fountain for Sanctification as well as Justification come unto me and my Spirit shall undertake the cleansing of thy Heart he shall take away the pollutions of sin perfectly so that it shall be presented to God without spot 3ly And lastly The transcendent love of Christ shines out in its full strength upon the Souls of sinners from the Cross and there 's nothing like love to draw love when Christ was lifted up upon the Cross he gave such a glorious demonstration of the strength of his love to sinners as one would think should draw love from the hardest Heart that ever lodged in a sinners Breast Herein is love saith the Apostle not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 Joh. 4. 10. q. d. Here 's the triumph the riches and glory of Divine Love never was such love manifested in the World. There 's much of Gods love in Temporal Providences but all 's nothing to this this is love in its highest Elevation Love in its Meridian Glory before it was none like it and after it shall none appear like unto it And thus you
see Christ from the Cross casting forth a threefold cord which is not easily broken to draw the Hearts of sinners to him Fourthly to Conclude What mighty Demonstrations of the desires of his Heart towards us did our Redeemer give at and since his Ascension into Heaven As the whole Life of Christ upon Earth was a perswasive Argument to draw sinners to him so his Ascension to Heaven hath many things in it which are mighty attractives to the Hearts of Men. I will only mention two 1. The gifts he bestowed at his Ascension 2. The ends and designs of his Ascension 1. The gifts he bestowed on Men at his Ascension for this very end and purpose whereof the Psalmist gives this account Psal. 68. 18. Thou hast ascended on high thou hast received gifts for Men yea for the rebellious also that the Lord God might dwell among them He alludes to the Roman Conquerors who in the day of their triumph did Spargere missilia scatter their largesses among the people Thus Christ at his Ascension shed forth the gifts of the Spirit in various kinds qualifying Men for the Work of the Ministry to enable them to plead with your Souls and carry on his suit when he should be in Heaven These gifts were extraordinary in the first Age as the gift of Tongues and Miracles c. and ordinary to continue to the end of the World Eph. 4. 8 9. To some he gives depth of Learning and Judgment to others a mighty Pathos a melting influence upon the Affections but all designed to win over your Hearts to Christ. This shews what care he took and what provision he answerably made for the success of his great design to draw the Hearts of sinners to him 2ly The ends of his Ascension as they are declared in Scripture plainly speak the vehemency of Christs desire to draw Souls to him Now the declared ends of his Ascension were 1 to make way for the Spirits coming to Convince Convert and Comfort the Souls of all that come unto him Iohn 16. 7. Nevertheless I tell yon the truth It is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come to you but if I depart I will send him unto you And when he is come he will reprove the World of sin and of righteousness and of judgment Without the Conviction of these things no Man can come to Christ and no such Convictions can be wrought upon the Conscience of any Man without the Spirit and the Spirit could not come to effect these things upon Mens Hearts if Christ had not ascended Iohn 7. 39. But this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive for the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Iesus was not yet glorified Thus Christ provided for the carrying on of his great design upon your Hearts when he was entring into his own Glory The thoughts of that Glory made him not to forget his great design upon Earth 2 Another end of Christs Ascension was to make Intercession with the Father for all and every Soul that should come unto him that their future sins might make no breach of the bond of the Covenant betwixt God and them A Privilege able to draw the Hearts of all sinners to him 1 Iohn 2. 1 2. My little Children these things write I unto you that ye sin not Mark it the intercession of Christ must incourage and embolden no Man to sin that would be a vile abuse of the Grace of God. But if any Man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins i. e. If sin surprize and deceive any gracious Soul the bent of whose Heart is against it let him not be discouraged he hath a potent Advocate ascended into the Heavens to continue the peace betwixt God and that Soul. O what an encouragement is here to gain the consent of a sinners Heart to embrace Jesus Christ 3 Another declared end of Christs Ascension was to lead captivity captive as in the forecited place Psal. 68. 17. that is to captivate and triumph over Satan as a conquered Enemy who led us captive in the days of our vanity He conquered Satan upon the Cross Col. 2. 15. but he triumphed over him at his Ascension And without such a conquest and triumph no Soul could come to Christ. 4 In a word Christ ascended into Heaven to prepare Mansions of rest and glory for every Soul that should embrace him in the way of repentance and faith in this World Iohn 14. 2 In my Fathers house are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you q. d. It satisfies me not to enjoy my glory in Heaven alone all that come unto me by Faith shall be with me where I am let them know for their encouragement that the glory which God hath given me I have given them Iohn 17. 22. All these things loudly speak the fervent desires of Christs Soul after union and communion with poor Sinners which was the thing to be demonstrated 2ly Having proved the Point that Christ is an earnest Suiter for union and communion with the Souls of sinners we next come to shew the marvellous and admirable Grace and Condecension of Christ that it should be so And this will appear five ways to the astonishment of every considering Soul. 1. Though Christ be thus intent and earnest in his suit for your consent yet he gaineth nothing by you when you do consent the gain is to your selves but not to him He is over all God blessed for ever Rom. 9. 5. above all accessions from the Creature What doth the Sun gain by enlightning and animating the lower World Or what doth a Fountain gain when Men drink and are refreshed by its Waters If any Soul that heareth me this day should presently resolve henceforth to break asunder all the tyes and engagements betwixt him and sin to subscribe the Articles of the Gospel to give away himself Soul and Body to Christ to live henceforth as an hallowed dedicated Creature to the Lord Jesus this indeed would turn to the infinite and everlasting advantage of such a Soul but yet Christ cannot be profited thereby 2ly And that which still encreaseth the wonder is this that though Christ makes no gain or profit by our Conversion yet hath he impoverished himself to gain such unprofitable Creatures as we are to him He hath made himself poor to make us rich so speaks the Apostle in 2 Cor. 8. 9. For ye know the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich He expends his riches makes no advantage unto himself his incarnation impoverished his reputation Phil. 2. 7. How poor was Christ when he said Psal. 22. 6. But I am a worm and no man a
no conclusion or agreement made Christ and you may yet part The Lord help you therefore to ponder and deliberate with all speed and seriousness the terms propounded by Christ in the Gospel to count the cost and yet not always to be deliberating neither but to bring matters to an Issue and that with all the convenient speed you can in order whereunto lay two things before you weigh and seriously ponder them 1. What are the advantages you will gain by Christ 2. What is the most you can lose by your consent to his terms and then bring your thoughts to an Issue I. Ponder well the advantages you will gain by Christ these are so great and manifold that it is impossible for me to enumerate or value them it shall suffice in this place to shew you one of those bunches of the Grapes of Eshcol that by it you may estimate the riches and fertility of that good Land setled upon you by Christ as a Dowry or Joynture and these are four 1. The payment of all your debts to the Law 2. An Honour above Angels 3. An eternal inheritance in Heaven 4. A glorious and joyful presentation of you to the Father in the great day by Christ as his Spouse and Wife 1. The same day and hour you give your cordial consent to take Christ upon Gospel terms that is to say Christ with his yoak of obedience and Christ with his Cross of Sufferings all your debts to the Law are discharged and paid what have you been doing ever since you came into the World but runing upon score to God deeper and deeper every day O what a vast sum owest thou to his Justice And not able to pay one farthing If thou consent not to Christs offer the Bailiff and Executioner Death and the Devil will shortly be upon thy back and hurry thee away to that prison from whence thou shalt not come out until thou have paid the last farthing Matth. 5. 25 26. If thou consent to Christs terms thy debts are paid upon thy marriage day thy bonds cancelled and thy discharge in Heaven sealed Rom. 8. 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ and the reason is given vers 4. in this That the righteousness of the Law is fulfill'd in us that believe But how in us Certainly the meaning is not that the To credere the act of Faith doth as it is a work of ours satisfie the demand of the Law and fulfil its righteousness no but it apprehends the righteousness of Christ applies it and makes it ours and so the righteousuess of the Law is fulfilled in us that believe Is it an ease is it a comfort to be out of debt Then embrace the offer of Christ for after thy espousals to him the Law cannot touch thee by any act of condemnation it goes to the Husband Christ thou art discharged Well then resolve what to do shall the debt run on and increase till Justice come to levy it upon you in Hell Torments Or will you accept of Christ and the riches of righteousness that are in him and so be fully and finally acquited from all your debts at once and so be able to lye down in peace and enjoy your lives without slavish fear He that ows nothing fears no Bayliffs but may as we use to say whet his Knife upon the Counter threshold 2ly Your consent to Christs terms will advance you to an Honour above and beyond the Honour of Angels 'T is said That the Children of the Resurrection shall be equal unto Angels and it is most sure that in some respect their union with Christ advances them far above Angels for the Apostle tells us Heb. 1. 14. They are ministring Spirits sent forth for the good of them that shall be heâ—rs of Salvation As the great Peers and Nobles in a Kingdom count it no dishonour to perform their service to the Heir apparent The Ministry of Angels is a mystery which we little understand but by it we receive great and manifold advantages and it certainly puts a great deal of Honour upon all the Members of Christ. 3ly Christ will not only pay all your debts and exalt you to a dignity above Angels but in that day wherein you cordially consent to his terms he will intitle you to the most glorious inheritance purchased by his Blood You shall be heirs of God and joynt heirs with Christ Rom. 8 17. O what an inducement is here to close the match betwixt Christ and our Souls If I consent to take Christ upon Gospel terms I shall thereby be intitled to all the glory that is in Heaven it shall be mine as truly as it is Christs 'T is true the glory of Christ will in some respects far surpass the glory of the Saints he will shine among them as the Sun compared with the Stars but yet the glory which God gave him that is the communicable glory shall be truly theirs as it is his Iohn 17. 22. The glory which thou gavest me I have given them Tell my Brethren saith he Iohn 20. 17. I ascend unto my Father and your Father to my God and your God. This you shall gain also by closing this Treaty with an hearty consent to Christs terms and proposals 4ly If you will consider and consent you shall be presented by him to the Father pure and spotless with exceeding joy and gladness in the great day This will be such a presentation of your persons to God as will make your Hearts leap for joy to read what the Scriptures speak about it This methinks should induce every Soul without further delay to present himself Soul and Body chearfully and willingly to Jesus Christ. For 1. Christ will bring you in the great day to his Father in the shining beauty of perfect holyness not a spot or wrinkle upon your Souls Ephes. 5. 27. The Blood of Christ perfectly washes off every spot of guilt for then the Spirit of Christ hath perfectly cleansed the Soul from all the desilement and filth of sin so that it shall come to God a pure and beautiful Creature out of Christs Hand 2. This presentation will be made with greatest honour and solemnity we little think in what state and triumph Christ intends to bring the poorest believer to his Father Psal. 45. 14 15. With joy and gladness shall they be brought c. So Iude vers 24. They shall be presented faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy Joy running over Joy upon all Hands God himself will rejoyce that ever he created such a Soul as hath sincerely bestowed it self upon Christ. Jesus Christ will rejoyce that ever he shed his Blood for that Soul that now places his sole righteousness therein the Holy Spirit will rejoyce that ever he came with a commission from the Father and the Son to draw such a Soul to Christ who hath obeyed his voice the Angels will rejoyce with joy unspeakable Luke 15.
the sincerity of Christ in those gracious offers he makes unto coming Souls Be satisfied he speaks his very Heart in them to thee the Devil labours to sow jealousies and beget suspicions in the Hearts of poor convinced sinners that they will not find such a welcom entertainment with Christ as he seems to promise them in those encouraging Scriptures Matth. 11. 28 29. Iohn 6. 37. But that something else lies hid in those Scriptures as a mystery which they understand not and so by shaking the assenting act labours to hinder the accepting act of Faith this is a case as common as it is sad the Lord help poor Souls to avoid this snare lest in stead of honoring Christ by a resolved adherence to him they make him a lyer and impute insincerity to the God of truth For he that believeth not hath made him a lyer IV. Direction Fourthly Look up to God for power to enable you to come to Christ in this supernatural and difficult work of Faith. Dont think Faith is of the growth of thine own Heart No Man can come unto me saith Christ except my Father which hath sent me draw him There is a legal Spirit working under Evangelical pretences in many Souls they look within them to find that which is quite above them the Apostle points you to the fountain of Faith in Eph. 2. 8. It is not of your selves it is the gift of God. 'T is one of the greatest difficulties in the World to believe For if the power of God must be owned as the cause of every new degree of Faith in the greatest believers in the World as is plain Luke 17. 5. The Apostles said unto the Lord Increase our Faith. How much more is the production of Faith it self and the first vital act thereof to be ascribed to the Almighty Power of God V. Direction Fifthly Keeping thine Eye of Expectation upon that Almighty Power pray and plead with the Lord assiduously and importunately for the exerting of that Power upon thy Soul and give not over thy Suit till thou feel that Power coming upon thee The time of believing is a time of earnest pleading thine own danger and necessity and the Spirit of the Lord improving them will abundantly furnish thee with Pleas and Arguments to enforce this Suit. Such as these 1. Lord I have thy call and invitation yea I have thy command to encourage me to believe it is not presumption therefore in thy poor Creature to come after thou hast invited and commanded me hadst thou not encouraged me I durst not have moved towards thee Lord whose Word is it 1 Ioh. 3. 23. is it not thine own This makes my Faith an act of obedience 2. Yea Lord I have thy promise as well as thy command made upon no other condition but my coming to thee blessed Jesus hast not thou said Iohn 6. 37. Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out An invitation is much but thy promise is more 3. O my God I have not only thy command making it my duty to believe and thy promise to encourage me to that duty but I have the examples of other sinners that came unto thee long ago and thou didst not reject them nor do I abuse those examples in drawing incouragement from them for it was thy very design in recording them that they might be so many patterns to all that should hereafter believe on thee 1 Tim. 1. 16. 4. O my God I am shut up under a plain necessity I have no other way to take thus stands the case with me I am beaten off from all other refuges there is no help for me in Angels nor Men in duties or self-righteousness in thee only my Soul can find rest I am shut up to thee as to the only door of hope Gal. 3. 23. here I must speed or perish my Soul is burthened and wearied I know not how to dispose of it but into thy Hands nor where to lay the burden of my guilt but upon thee if I miss here I am gone for ever 5. Lord I am willing to renounce and abandon all other hopes refuges and righteousness and to stick to and rely upon thee only Duties cannot justifie me tears cannot wash me reformation cannot save me nothing but thy righteousness can answer my end I come to thee a poor naked Creature saying as the Church Hos. 14. 3. Asshur shall not save us c. for in thee do the fatherless find mercy Thus plead it with God and still remember you are pleading for Life yea for your eternal Life VI. Direction Sixthly Labour to make a resolved adventure upon Christ amidst all those encouragements let the issue be what it will resolve to venture though you have not the least degree of assurance that you shall be accepted and pardoned This is that brave and noble act of Faith which carries the Soul to Christ much as Hester came to the King Yet will I go in to the King and if I perish I. perish Hest. 4. 16. It pities me to think how the saving act of Faith is grosely mistaken in the World the generality think it is enough for them to believe that Christ died for sinners and therefore for them as well as any other but you see Faith is another matter O there are great difficulties and mighty wrestlings in the Work of Believing 't is a great matter for a poor convinced sinner in the face of so much guilt and viâ—eâ—ess and amidst such manifold damps and discouragements from Satan to cast and adventure himself upon Christ and that upon such self-denying terms but the pinch of necessity will bring the Soul to this for now it reasons with it self as the Lepers did 2 Kings 7. 4 5. If we go to the Camp of the Assyrians we can but dye and if we abide here we must certainly dye thus here if I sit still in the state of Nature and still continue demurring and delaying my damnation is unavoidable to Hell I must go and if I cast my self upon Christ I can but be rejected but he hath said He will not cast out those that come unto him in this way of Faith there is a possibility of Salvation yea there dawns from it a strong probability this therefore is my only way To him I will go and if I perish I perish VII Direction Seventhly Never measure the grace of God nor the mercy of Christ by the rule of your own narrow conceptions and apprehensions of him but believe them to be far greater than your contracted and narrow understanding represents them to you Our casting of the pardoning power and mercy of God into the mould of our own thoughts disfigures and alters them so that they look not like themselves but with a very discouraging aspect upon our Souls by this Satan keeps off many a Soul from coming to Christ the Lord knows how to forgive thee though thou scarce knowest how to forgive thy self for the
so others have found who have had the very same fears you have I say the question is not whether you be able but whether you be heartily willing Christ asks but your Will he will provide Ability the greatest Believer in the World cannot say I am able to suffer this or that for Christ but the least Believer in the World must say I am willing the Lord assisting me to endure and suffer all things for his sake and this is the Second thing included in opening to Christ. 3ly The Third thing which perfects and consummates the whole act is an entire choice of of Jesus Christ upon all those terms prescribed by him the entireness of the choice without halfing or dividing excepting or reserving makes the consent full and effectual There is a twofold consent of the Will to Christ. 1. One partial and with exception 2. The other entire and without any reservation I. There is a partial consent which is always hypocritical defective lame and ineffectual thus the hypocrite consents to the offer of Christ he is really willing to have the pardons of Christ and the glory purchased by Christ but to part with his beloved lusts and to give up his earthly enjoyments that his Will cannot consent to II. There is a full and entire consent of the Will called a believing with all the Heart Acts 8. 37. Now this integrity and fulness of the Wills choice is that which closes the match betwixt Christ and the Soul and frees a Man from the danger of hypocrisie And there are three things which make the consent to and choice of Christ compleat and full 1. When we give up all we are and have to him 2. When we derive and draw all we want from him 3. When we are ready to deny any thing for his sake 1. We do then heartily consent to be Christs when we give up all we are and have to him so that after this choice of Christ we look upon our selves thenceforth as none of our own but bought with a price to glorifie God in our Body and Soul which are his 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. Soul and Body is all that we are and both these parts of our selves do now pass by an act of our own consent into the Redeemers right we are not to have the dispose of them that belongs to him that purchased them You know in all purchases property is altered you did live as your own followed your own Wills Lusts Passions were under the dominion and at the beck of every Lust but now the case is altered Titus 3. 3. We our selves were sometimes foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures So many Lusts so many Lords but now the case is altered we have given our selves to Christ no more to be swayed this way or that against his Word and the voice of our own Conscience Thus our Souls and Bodies are his hallowed dedicated things to Christ Temples for God to dwell in and then all other things follow of course if I am the Lords then my time my talents and all that I have is his 2ly As we must give up all to Christ so we must derive and draw all we want from him else your choice of Christ is not entire and full God hath stored up in Christ all that you want a suitable and full supply for every need and made it all communicable to you 1 Cor. 1. 30. Who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness sanctification and redemption All the believers fresh springs are in Christ Have I any difficult buisness to do that requires counsel Then I must repair to Christ the Fountain of Wisdom Am I under any guilt Then I must repair to Christ for righteousness Is my Soul defiled by corruption Then must I go to Christ for Sanctification Do I groan under troubles of Soul or Body temptations afflictions c. then must I relieve my self by the Faith and Hope of that compleat Redemption and final deliverance procured by Christ from all these if you consent to be Christs you must not look for Justification partly upon his Righteousness and partly upon your own Graces and Duties but must make mention of his Righteousness even of his only If there be but one Conduit in a Town and not a drop of Water to be had elsewhere then all the Inhabitants of that Town repair thither for Water In the whole City of God there is but one Conduit one Fountain and that is Christ there 's not a drop of Righteousness Holiness Strength or Comfort to be had else where Then do we fetch all from Christ when we live upon him as the new born Infant doth upon the Mothers Breast 3ly Then is our consent to and choice of Christ intire and full when we are ready to deny give up and part with any thing we have for his sake reckoning nothing to be lost to us which goes to the glory of Christ how dear soever our Liberties Estates or Lives are to us if the Lord have need of them we must let them go thus you read Rev. 12. 11. They loved not their lives unto the death These three things shew saving Faith to be another manner of thing than the World generally understands it to be and it is impossible for any Mans Will to open to and receive Christ upon terms of such deep self-denial as these until there be 1. A Conviction of our sin and misery 2. A Discovery of Christ in his glory and necessity 3. The drawing Power of the Spirit upon the Soul. 1. Conviction of our sin and misery makes these terms of Religion acceptable poor sinners stand huckling with Christ excepting and objecting against his terms until the Lord have shaken them by Conviction over Hell made them to see the dreadful danger they are in and then the next cry is Men and Brethren what shall we do Acts 2. 37. q. d. Prescribe any means impose upon us the greatest difficulties we are willing to comply with them 2ly Nor will Souls ever comply with these terms of the Gospel until a discovery have been made to them of Jesus Christ in his glory and necessity when a Man feels his wants and sees a compleat remedy his Will then complies and bows readily and freely the convinced sinner sees a full and suitable supply in Christ for all his wants a compleat Saviour in whom there is nothing defective but in all respects according to the wish of a sinners heart 1 Cor. 1. 24. 3ly To all this must be superadded the powerful drawings of the Spirit in the vertue whereof the Will comes home to Christ Iohn 6. 44. No Man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him When these things are past upon the Soul then it hears Christs voice his powerful call which breaks asunder all the ties and bonds betwixt a Man and his Lusts a Man and his Earthly enjoyments and without these things the Will is
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
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
in the world raises not such a dust as the sins of prophane ones do But certainly it is as abominable in the eyes of God as the sins that stink so much in the nostrils of Nature Civilized persons thus trusting to their own civility and neglecting Jesus Christ will be one day put into the Van of that wretched Crue that are going to Hell a portion with unbelievers as the Scripture speaks III. Consideration Lastly It hath been always found a more rare and difficult thing to convince and bring home to Christ the civilized part of the world than it is to convince and work upon the prophane part of it Matth. 21. 31. Publicans and Harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you Publicans were reckoned the vilest sort of men and Harlots the worst sort of women yet either of these were easier to be brought to Christ than self-righteous Pharisees Well then away with your vain and idle pretensions that your Case is safer and better than others By what hath been said it evidently appears that you stand in as much need of Christ as the most infamous Sinners in the world do III. Vse This point winds up in encouragement to every willing and obedient soul whom the Lord shall perswade to comply with the Call of the Gospel whatever his former Rebellions have been There are some whose hearts the Lord hath touched with a deep sense of their sin and misery and of the all-sufficient remedy that is in Christ but the sense of former rebellions appals and daunts them they cannot hope for acceptance with him Here 's good news for such souls Christ is at the door and former Rebellions are no barr to him provided there be now a hearty compliance with his voice I will come in to him A glorious promise comprising five inestimable benefits or mercies in it 1. This is the most glorious work of God that ever was wrought or can be wrought in this world upon the heart of a poor sinner to open it by Repentance and Faith and put Christ into the full possession of it The power of all the Angels in Heaven Ministers on Earth Duties and Ordinances cannot effect this this is the peculiar work of God 1. Cor. 1. 30. But of him are ye in Christ Iesus Look as it was the marvellous work of God to unite our Nature unto Christ by an Hypostatical Union so it is no less a marvellous work of God to unite our persons to Christ by a Mystical Union to prepare the soul as an habitation for Christ and give him the possession of it 2. This Coming of Christ into the Soul is the very foundation of all our Hopes for Glory till this be done we are without hope But in the same hour Christ comes in to the Soul a solid Foundation of the hopes of Glory is laid in that Soul Col. 1. 27. Which is Christ in you the hope of Glory I know the unregenerate World is full of hope but their hopes are built upon that Sand. Union with Christ is the steady foundation on which the hopes of Heaven are laid 3. I will come in to him that is to dwell in his soul for ever never to leave him more Therefore Eph. 3. 17. he is said to dwell in our hearts by faith not sojourn for a night but abide there for ever Nothing can seperate Christ and that Soul Rom. 8. 35. Thy Soul shall never be an habitation for Satan any more When Christ comes in he saith as of the Temple Here will I dwell for ever 4. This Coming in of Christ intitles the Soul to all Spiritual Priviledges 1 Iohn 5. 12. He that hath the Son hath life and 1 Cor. 3. ult All is yours for ye are Christs 5. This is the highest honour that ever God put upon a Creature I will come in to him O how should the Soul feel it self advanced by such an honour as this What to be the living Temple of Jesus Christ for Christ to dwell and walk in thy Soul as it is 2 Cor. 6. 16. I tell you this is an honour beyond and above the honour done to Angels And how near art thou to all these blessed Priviledges in the day that thy heart is wounded for sin thy thoughts become solicitous about union with Christ and thy Will begins to bowe and yield after a serious debate of the terms of the Gospel in thy most solemn thoughts Now is the door half-open and Christ ready to make his first entrance into thy Soul. God forbid any thing should now hinder the compleating of so great a Work. SERMON VIII Revel 3. 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock if any Man hear my voice and open the door I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me IN the former Sermon Christs free and general invitation to sinners hath been considered in the next place we are to take into consideration the principal means or instrument by which the Heart of a sinner is opened to receive Christ and that is not by the native power of his own Will nor by the alone efficacy of the Gospel preached but by the voice of Iesus Christ which opens the Will and makes the perswasions of the Gospel effectual If any Man hear my voice Hearing is either External or Internal for the Soul hath its Ears as well as the Body He that hath an Ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches Rev. 2. 17. i. e. He that hath a Spiritual Ear to perceive and judge the voice of the Spirit by and it is a sore Judgment when God denies such an Ear to the Soul Isa. 6. 9. Go tell this people hear ye indeed but understand not Spiritual hearing is the Work of the inner Man. And though we have many Auditors yet in this sense no more hearers than believers words of sense do in Scripture connote affections This hearing of Christs voice implies not only the receiving of the sound of the Gospel into the external organ but it notes the work of the understanding which by the Ear trieth words as the Mouth tasteth meat Iob 12. 11. And the work of the affections which receive the truth in love 2 Thes. 2. 10. It also implies the obedience of the Soul to what we hear We cannot be said in this sense to hear what we obey not Our minds may be delighted with the pleasant air and melody of the Gospel and yet it is all one as if we heard it not when obedience doth not follow hearing Ezek. 33. 32. Thou art unto them a very lovely son c. for they hear thy words but they do them not but in this place it especially signifies the vital sound of Christs efficacious internal voice which is the principle of Spiritual Life to the Souls of dead sinners according to that expression of Christ Iohn 5. 25. Verily verily I say unto you the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear
the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live From hence the Eighth Observation will be this VIII DOCT. That no Mans Will savingly and effectually opens to receive Christ till the Spiritual quickning Voice of Christ be first heard by the Soul. Now touching this Almighty Spiritual voice of Christ by which the Hearts of sinners are effectually opened Six things must be opened in order 1. The divers sorts and kinds of Christs voice 2. The general Nature of this internal voice 3. The innate characters and special properties of it 4. The objects to whom it is directed 5. The motives inducing Christ to speak to one and not to another 6. The special effects wrought and sealed by it upon every Soul that hears it First We will speak of the divers sorts and kinds of Christs voices I am here only concerned about two viz. 1. His External 2. His Internal voice 1. There is an External voice of Christ which we may call his Ministerial voice in the Preaching of the Gospel the Scriptures are his Word and Ministers his Mouth Ier. 15. 19. He that heareth them heareth Christ. 2ly There is also an Internal energetical voice of Christ consisting not in sound but power And betwixt these two there are two remarkable differences 1. The External or Ministerial voice of Christ is but the Organ or Instrument of conveying his Internal and Efficacious voice to the Soul in the former he speaks to the Ear and in or by that â—ound conveys his Spiritual voice to the Heart 2ly The External voice is evermore ineffectual and successless when it is not animated by this Internal Spiritual voice it was marvellous to see the walls of Iericho falling to the ground at the sound of Rams-horns there was certainly more than the force of an external blast to produce such an effect but more marvellous it is to see at the sound of the Gospel not only the weapons of iniquity falling out of sinners Hands but the very enmity it self out of their Hearts Here you see is a voice in a voice an Internal efficacy in the External sound without which the Gospel makes no saving impression Secondly This Spiritual voice of Christ must be considered in its general Nature which implies two things in it 1. Almighty Efficacy 2. Great Facilty I. Almighty Efficacy to quicken and open the Heart with a word O what manner of voice is this which carries such a vital power along with it In all the mighty works of Christ his power was still put forth in some voice as at the Resurrection of Lazarus John 11. 43. He cryed with a loud voice Lazarus come forth and he that was dead came forth So in the curing of the deaf Man Mark 7. 34. He saith unto him Ephphathai and straight way his Ears were opened Thus in the exerting of his Almighty glorious power in quickning a Soul Spiritually dead and opening the Heart that was lockt up by ignorance and unbelief an Internal Almighty Efficacy passeth from Christ along with the voice of the Gospel to effect this glorious work upon the Soul an Emblem where of we have in Ezek. 37. 9 10. Then said he unto me Prophesie unto the wind prophesie Son of Man to the wind saith the Lord God Come from the four winds O breath and breath upon these slain that they may live So I prophesied as he commanded me and the breath came into them and they lived and stood up upon their Feet an exceeding great Army The animating vital breath which quickned the dead came in or with the four winds of Heaven as this Almighty power of Christ doth with the sound of the Gospel and before it the Heart opens the Will bows Psal. 110. 3. Man can no longer oppose the power of God Man and Man stand upon equal ground the power of Man can repel the power of a fellow creature but when the power of Christ comes along with the voice of Man there is no more power to resist This voice of Christ then of which the Text speaks is an Almighty impression made upon the Soul of a sinner from Heaven which is to that Soul in stead of a voice and as fully expressive of Gods mind concerning it as any Articulate voice in the World can be It is a beam of light shining immediately from the Spirit into the Soul of a sinner as plainly and evidently discovering both its danger and duty as if a voice from Heaven had declared them thus it is said Isa. 8. 11. The Lord spake to Isaiah with a strong Hand that is by a mighty impression upon the Prophets Spirit which was as a voice to him thus here the Lord not only directs a suitable word to a sinners condition but also impresses it with such a strong Hand upon his Heart as leaves no doubt behind it but that it was the Lord himself that spake to his Soul this is Christs way of speaking by his Spirit to the inner Spiritual Ear of the Soul not by Oraculous voices which I take to be but the suppositions of an overtroubled fancy but by an efficacious impression upon the Heart As to Oraculous voices we may sooner meet Satanical delusions than Divine illuminations in that way The Learned Gerson speaks of a good Man who being in Prayer seemed to hear such a voice as this I am come in person to visit thee for thou art worthy but he justly suspecting a delusion of Satan shut his Eyes and said Nolo hic videre Christum c. I will not see Christ here it shall suffice me to see him in glory I am sure Christs voice in the written Word is more sure than a voice from Heaven 2 Pet. l. 1. 9. This inward Spiritual impression is Christs effectual call from Heaven and it is a voice sine strepitu Syllabarum without sound or syllable II. As this voice of Christ implies Almighty efficacy so it implies in like manner the facility of conversion unto Christ he can do it easily with a word of his Mouth as in the bodily cures performed by him in the days of his flesh how suddainly and easily did Christ effect them Speak the word only said the Centurion and my servant shall be healed Thus let the Spirit but speak internally to the deadest Soul and it lives Elijah did but cast his mantle upon Elisha as he was plowing in the Field and he presently entreats the Prophet to give him leave to go home and bid his friends farewel and he would follow him thus it is here let a beam of saving light shine from the Spirit into a Mans Heart let an effectual impression be made upon his Soul and he is presently made willing to quit and give up his dearest lusts and interests and to imbrace Christ upon the severest terms of the Gospel Conversion is too difficult a work for Angels or Men to effect in their own strength but Christ can do it with a
'T is true at the first instant the Soul may be amazed and at a loss as Peter when he was delivered out of Prison Acts 12 11. thought at first he had seen a Vision but when he was come to himself Now said he I know of a surety that the Lord hath sent his Angel c. Thus it is with the Soul it is amazed and doubts what manner of Call or Power this is sure it is it never heard such a voice nor ever felt any thing like this before But the matter is quickly cleared up when the Soul hath reflected duly upon it and finds as it quickly doth such a wonderful change of the frame and temper of the heart following upon it I now speak not of those into whom Grace is distilled in the way of godly Education in their tender years but of adult persons and especially such as have been grosser Sinners IV. Character This spiritual internal voice of Christ is a surprizing voice altogether unexpected by the Soul that hears it I am found of them that sought me not Isai. 65. 1. Little do we foresee the designs God hath upon us in bringing us to such a place and under such a Sermon at such or such a time even as little as Saul thought of a Kingdom when he was seeking his Fathers Asses 'T is much with us as it was with the Apostles when Christ called them little did Matthew think when he sate at the Receipt of Customs or Saul think when posting unto Damascus upon the Devils errand that Christ and Salvation had then been so near them Some have come to scoff and deride the Messengers and Truths of God others to gratifie their curiosity and many in a customary course not knowing where else with peace to themselves or reputation with others to spend that hour But God's thoughts were not theirs the time of mercy was now come and whatever sinful or low ends brought them thither the Lord's design was then and there to manifest himself to them It is with such Souls in some respect as it was with the Spouse Cant. 6. 12. to whose expression I may here allude Or ever I was aware my Soul made me as the Chariots of Aminadab I went to the Congregation for Company I was fitting under the Word with a careless wandring heart as at other times when lo above all the thoughts of my heart an Arrow of Conviction was suddenly shot into my Conscience which so startled wounded and disquieted it as it is now beyond the power of any but Christ himself to settle and satisfie it V. Character Fifthly This spiritual internal voice of Christ is energetical great and mighty in power piercing the heart cleaving as it were the very reins full of efficacy to the Soul that hears it The power of God comes along with this voice of God. You read Hebr. 4. 12. The Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of the Soul and Spirit of the Ioynts and Marrow Now this efficacy is not inherent in the Word it self it works not thus as a natural Agent then all would feel this power that come within the sound of it No this comes from the Spirit of Christ speaking in it to the Sinners Conscience when it is the administration of the Spirit then it becomes thus efficacious You read in Psalm 29. from v. 3. to 10. of the wonderful efficacy of God's providential voice the voice of the Lord is powerful The voice of the Lord is full of majesty it breaks the Cedars divides the flames of fire shakes the wilderness maketh the Hynds to calve This the providential voice of God in the winds thunders and lightnings can do but alas what 's this to the efficacy of his spiritual voice What is the breaking of the Cedars of Lebanon to the breaking of the heart of a Sinner what is the shaking of the Trees in the wilderness to the fears of wrath to come which shake the Souls of convinced Sinners and make their very hearts to tremble Acts 16. 30. What is the dividing of the flames of fire to the dividing of a Soul from its beloved Lusts The weapons of our warfare saith the Apostle are mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10. 4 5. Here be the glorious effects of this voice which plainly discover from whom it comes The voice of God is no less to be admired in its magniâ—icent effects in the new Creation than in the first Creation with which the Apostles compares it 2 Cor. 4. 6. God that commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined into our hearts It was marvellous to see at the word of Christ Lazarus that was dead in his Grave to come forth bound in his Grave-cloths and no less to see a Soul dead in sin bound in the bonds of corruption at a word of Christ to arise and come forth with spiritual life Iohn 5. 25. The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear it shall live VI. Character This spiritual voice of Christ is so convictive to the Conscience of a Sinner that it puts a final end to all shifts and evasions Whilst Man only spake the Soul had a thousand shifts to evade and put off what was spoken but now all Disputes and Debates are at an end No more Subterfuges and cunning Evasions now The Spirit when he cometh he shall convince the World of sin John 16. 8. The word signifies to convince by demonstration and that is to shew a thing to be impossible to be otherwise than we represent it to be Formerly when the Terrours of God were threatned against sin the shuffling heart was wont to say This concerns me no more than others if it go ill with me it will go ill with thousands as well as me 'T is true this is my Evil and who is without them I have some evils in me but yet I have some good too But no sooner doth the Spirit speak conviction to the Conscience but all these pleas are out of doors It may be the state of the Sinner's Soul was doubtful to him before but it is not so now It had some fears of Hell but ballanced with some vain hopes of Heaven But now the Debate is ended the great Question determined Whatever I am or have whatever Duties I have done and whatsoever sins I have avoided I see I am not regenerated I am in my natural Christless state and except I be changed I must be damned This was the effect of Christs convictive voice unto Paul Rom. 7. 9. I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandment came sin revived and I died He had read the Law many a time and had the litteral
knowledge of it but under these things his vain hopes lived and flourish'd until the spiritual sense of the Law came home to his heart by the teaching and voice of the Spirit and then his vain hopes gave up the ghost and his sin and guilt stared in the face of his Conscience VII Character The voice of Christ whereof we now speak is generally and ordinarily conveyed to the Souls of men through the Word preached which is the chosen Organ or Instrument of its Conveyance We cannot absolutely and universally affirm that Christ always speaks to men this way but certainly this is his standing and ordinary course 1 Thess. 1. 5. Our Gospel came not to you in word only but in power and in the Holy Ghost Our Gospel because preached and ministred by us but had that been all it had come to you in word only as it doth to many thousand others in the world who hear and feel nothing in it more than what is human but unto you it came in power and in the Holy Ghost that is our words were the Vehicle or Organ through which the vital power of the Spirit was conveyed into your Souls Providences have their voices as well as the Word and sometimes the voice of Christ hath accompanied the voice of Providence to the conversion of mens Souls but this is more rare and unusual The established and ordinary way of Christ's speaking to the hearts of Sinners is by the Word and especially the Word preached which upon that very account and consideration as it is the Organ of conveying the voice and power of Christ to the Soul is therefore called the power of God to salvation Rom. 1. 16. This Instrument the Lord generally 〈◊〉 and honours for the conveyance of spiâ—itual life into the Souls of men though it be despised and contemned in the world The preaching of the Cross is to them that perish foolishness but unto us which are saved it is the power of God 1 Cor. 1. 18. i. e. the chosen Instrument by which the saving power of God communicates it self to the Souls of men And although God may exert his saving power through Providences yet we seldom or never find he doth so where the Word may be had but is despised and neglected And truly herein God consults our peace and satisfaction for suppose he should make use of another medium as a voice from Heaven c. and after Calling which is an usual case the called Soul should question all and say How do I know bâ—t all this may be a Delusion may not Satan impose upon poor Mortals and this voice from Heaven be a counterfeit voice my Eternal estate depends upon it and I had need to be sure it was the very voice of God himself In such a case as this it would be hard to give such clear distinguishing Characters as might be to the satisfaction of the Soul and clearly difference the one from the other But now when God makes the Word his Instrument in this matter it yield abundantly more satisfaction we have a more sure Word of Prophesie surer than a voice from Heaven 2 Pâ—t 1. 19. And though Paul was converted by a voice from Heaven yet the Lord sends him to Aâ—anias to preach the Gospel to him Acts 9. 17. The Lord will honour his Word Providences may make way and prepare the heart but the Word is the Instrument by which the Lord puts forth his power ordinarily to salvation VIII Character The voice of Christ leaves abiding effects and lasting impressions upon the Soul that hears it The words of men are scattered into the wind but the effects of Christ's voice are durable and lasting things Psal. 119. 93. I will never forget thy Word for by it thou hast quickned me How many hundred Sermons have we heard and all those excellent Truths vanished away as a Dream Oh but if ever thou heardest Christ speaking to thy heart in any Sermon or Prayer to be sure that will stick by thee for ever His words are sealed upon the Soul for ever they are written in the heart Ier. 31. 33. What Iob wished concerning his words that is really perform'd in the words of Christ they are written as in the Rock for ever We have slippery Memories but the weakest Memory will and must retain the words of Christ spoken to the heart by his Spirit for they are sealed upon it Iob 33. 16. He sealeth their instructions and this secures them Thus you have the innate Characters of Christ's voice Fourthly I shall next speak unto the personal Objects unto whom Christ ordinarily directs this his internal efficacious and saving Voice or Call. And although it be true that the Spirit of Christ is a free Agent acting with the greatest liberty and calleth whom he will according to that Iohn 3. 8. The wind bloweth where it listeth And it is true de facto That Christ hath made some of all sorts and ranks of men to hear his voice yet if we consider the way he commonly takes we shall find that it is very rare and seldom that Christ directs this saving voice or call of his to the great and wise of this world 1 Cor. 1. 26. You see your Calling Brethren how that not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called He saith not any but not many Some Christ doth call Lest as one notes the world should think that Christians were deceived through their simplicity and weakness One rich Ioseph of Arimathea one honourable Niâ—odemus but not many Men of the greatest fame and renown in the world have been the greatest and fiercest Enemies against Christ. Gallen the chief Physician Porphyry the chief Aristotelian Plotinus the chief Platonist Lybanus and Lucian the chief Orators were all the professed Enemies of Christ. Two things make a man great in the eye of the world The external endowments of Providence heaping up Riches and Honours upon the outward man and internal gifts and endowments of the mind adorning the inward man as strong Reason sharpness of Wit c. when both these meet as many times they do in one and the same person they make him great in the eye of the world and usually in his own eyes too yea too great to stoop to the simplicity of the Gospel and the humbling self-denying terms thereof These the Lord usually passes by and directs his voice to the poor the poor receive the Gospel God hath chosen the poor of this world rich in faith and Heirs of the Kingdom James 2. 5. And this choice of God Christ blesseth him for Matth. 11. 25. I thank thee O father Lord of Heaven and Earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes even so Father for so it seemeth good in thy sight And indeed the wisdom of God deserves our admiration in this dispensation For 1. hereby the freeness of his Grace is vindicated None can
now pretend that any earthly excellency commends any man to God or that the favour of Heaven is engaged by the same motives that the respects of this world are For now you see the truth of that Scripture Iob 34. 19. before your eyes He accepteth not the persons of Princes nor regardeth the rich more than the poor for they are all the work of his hands Earthly Riches and Honours as empty things as they are yet are too much idoliz'd by men What would they be could they procure our favour and acceptance with the Lord 2ly By such a choice as this the Lord plainly shews us That Religion needs not worldly props to support it As at first it was spread by the power of God in the world by poor contemptible men so it is still upheld without human policy or riches The church is called the Congregation of the poor Psal. 74. 20. The Lord will have us know that he is able to maintain and carry on his counsels in the world without the wealth of rich men the authority of great men or the policies of wise men he needs them not 3ly By this choice he pours contempt upon those things which are most admired among men So he tells us 1 Cor. 1. 27. God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty And certainly shame and confusion of face will cover the great ones of this world in the world to come when they shall see those poor Christians whom they contemned and scorned upon earth as not worthy to come into their presence to be so infinitely preferred before them in the favour of God. In a word this efficacious spiritual voice of Christ is directed but to a few even of the many that sit within the sound and call of the Gospel Matth. 22. 14. Many are called but few are chosen Christ's flock is a little flock There be many Birds of prey to one Bird of Paradice Many common Pebles to one Saphir or Diamond 'T is not for us to dispute the Reason but to adore the Soveraignty of God in this matter And of those few whom he calleth the greatest part are of the lower rank and order of men The glitter and dazel of this world blinds the eyes of the greatest Extremity of pinching wants diverts the mind of the very lowest but betwixt these two extreams there is a third sort of persons whom the Lord most usually calls Fifthly If it be queried why the voice and call of Christ should be directed to this person rather than to that Certainly it is not from any dignity or excellency outward or inward that Christ sees in one above another for all are shut up under the same common sin and misery of the fall and therefore the Apostle told the Ephesians who had heard and answered the voice of Christ That they were by nature children of wrath even as others Eph. 2. 3. If it were not so Man would have something to glory in before God but Christ resolves this whole dispensation into its proper cause the good pleasure of the Divine Will Matth. 11. 26. Even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight This good pleasure of the Will of God sometimes orders those to hear the voice of his Son that seem to stand at a far greater distance and improbability to hear it than others do 'T is said of the Ephesians that they were a far off Eph. 2. 13. yet they heard the voice of Christ when that discreet Scribe Mark 12. 34. who was not far from the Kingdom of God and Agrippa Acts 26. 28. who almost or within a very little was perswaded to be a Christian never heard it therefore it is said Matth. 8. 11 12. Many shall come from the East and West and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven but the children of the Kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness O marvelous dispensation Many a poor Soul under the greatest disadvantages a poor Servant that hath but little time and multitudes of encumbrances yet such a one is often called effectually by this voice of Christ when those that enjoy multitudes of opportunities and have abundance of time lying upon their Hands which they know not what to do with who have the choicest Books at command yet hear nothing feel nothing amidst all these advantages to any purpose all this is wholly to be resolved into the good pleasure of the Will of God. Sixthly In the next place let us view the effects of this voice of Christ upon the Souls of Men and we shall find divers remarkable effects wrought upon the Heart by it I. Effect And the first Effect of the voice of Christ is Conviction upon the Conscience Conviction both of sin and misery Iohn 16. 9. The Spirit when he cometh shall convince the World of sin This is a voice of terror it strikes dead the vain hopes of a sinner Rom. 7. 9. Now the Soul that was before secure and quiet becomes the seat of trouble and anxiety 'T is true there was a general Conviction of sin before they knew that all are sinners that they denied not but alas this general Conviction is quite another thing to what the Soul feels now now it can shift and wave the matter no longer This voice of Christ shews them their iniquities and how they have exceeded as the expression is Iob 36. 8 9. exceeded in number and exceeded in heinousness of aggravation A general Conviction of sin affects a Man no more than the sight of a painted Lion upon a Sign-post but when a particular Conviction is set on upon the Conscience by this special inward voice of Christ sm is now like a living Lion meeting a Man in the way and roaring dreadfully upon him This is the first Effect of Christs voice and is introductive unto the II. Effect Which is humiliation and contrition of Heart for sin those threats of Scripture against sin and sinners which were wont to be sleighted are now trembled at those Iews Acts 2. 37. to whose Hearts Christ spake in Peters Sermon as soon as ever they heard his voice sounding Conviction in their Consciences they were presently pricked at the Heart no Sword or Poyniard can make such a wound and put a poor creature into such pain as a sight of sin will do therefore Zach. 12. 10. they are said to mourn for Christ as for an only Son. Now this is the glorious prerogative of Jesus Christ to be able to reach and wound the Heart with a word The voice of Man cannot do it but the Spirit of a Man lies naked and open both to be wounded and healed by a word from the Mouth of Christ. No sooner hath a poor sinner heard the awful voice of Conviction spoken to his Conscience by the Lord Jesus but he feels himself sick at Heart home he goes
from that Sermon by which Christ spake effectual Conviction to him crying O sick sick my Soul is distressed because of sin There is indeed a great difference in the depth and degrees of this contrition and humiliation it soaks deeper into some Hearts than others and holds them longer under it but certain it is whoever hath heard the convincing voice of Christ he feels so much sorrow for sin as for ever separates him from the love of it III. Effect Thirdly This voice of Christ rouzes and awakens the careless and sluggish mind to the greatest solicitude and thoughtfulness after deliverance and escape from the danger that hangs over it Acts 16. 30. Trembling and astonished he cried out Sirs what must I do to be saved All the powers of the Soul run into solicitude and care about deliverance You shall generally observe in convinced and humbled sinners three evident signs of extraordinary solicitude about Salvation 1. There is a strong intention of their minds and thoughts they stand night and day like a Bow at the full bent their thoughts are still poring upon this matter their sleep departs for their sin and danger is ever before them 2ly It appears by their searching inquisitiveness about the way of escape the question they still carry with them from company to company where they meet with any whom they judge able to resolve or direct them is this What course shall I take What shall I do Is there any hope for such a one as I Did you ever know a Soul in my condition 3ly It appears by the little notice they take at this time of their outward troubles and afflictions which it may be are strong and sharp enough to overwhelm them at another time but now they take little notice of them Sin lies so heavy that it makes heavy afflictions lye light IV. Effect A fourth Effect of the voice of Christ is encouragement and hope puting the Soul upon the use of means in order to the attainment of Christ and Salvation for it is an inviting as well as a convicting voice and this is a remarkable difference betwixt the voice of Christ and the voice of Satan with respect to sin Satan labours to cut off all hope and strike the Soul dead under despair of mercy as well knowing that if he can cut off hope all emotions and endeavours of the Soul after Christ are effectually stopt and at a dead stand but how much convincing terrors soever there are in the voice of Christ there is always something left behind it upon the Heart to breed and support hope And truly the Soul amidst these sad circumstances hath great need of some encouragement accordingly the Lord usually after sharp convictions sets on upon the Soul such a word as that Iohn 6. 37. Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out for I came down from Heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me Wherein Christ offers the most rational satisfaction and greatest encouragement imaginable that a poor convinced sinner if he be made willing shall certainly find an hearty welcom and acceptation with Christ. For mark how he argues it on purpose for the satisfaction of such Souls I came not down from Heaven to do mine own Will but the Will of him that sent me The force of the encouragement lyes here I and my Father are one one in Will and one in Design our Wills never did nor possibly can jar and clash one with another that would be utterly repugnant to the perfect unity that is betwixt us Now saith he I came down from Heaven not only to do my own Will which must necessarily be supposed to be intently set and strongly enclined to receive and save all convinced and willing sinners this being the very end of my Incarnation and Death but also to do the Will of my Father who hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted and anointed me to preach good tydings to the meek Isa. 61. 1. and therefore no such Soul can rationally doubt of a welcom reception with me And because the fears and jealousies of a convinced Conscience are great and many and the Devil sets in with them to aggravate them beyond the hopes of mercy therefore it is usual with the Lord at such a time as this to direct the convinced and trembling sinner to such a Scripture as that Heb. 7. 25. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him c. Making the fulness of Christs saving power to shine with a chearful beam into the dark and distressed Soul of a sinnner from such a word as that V. Effect A fifth Effect or consequent of Christs powerful voice is an attractive efficacy or sweet allicion of the Soul to Christ by that power and efficacy which it communicates to the Soul Iohn 6. 44 45. No Man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him Every Man therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me Mark it this voice speedily puts the Soul into motion after Christ coming follows hearing When once the Soul hath heard the voice of God away it comes from all the engagements in the World all bonds and ties betwixt the Soul and sin break asunder and give way nothing can hold it from Christ. There is a strange restlesness in the Spirit of Man nothing but Christ can centre and quiet it VI. Effect And then lastly The last Effect of Christs voice or call is sweet rest and consolation to the inner Man. When once the Soul is come home to Christ by the efficacy of this heavenly call or voice it enters into peace Heb. 4. 3. We which have believed do enter into rest not only shall but do enter into rest As the first Effect of Christs voice was terror and great trouble to the Soul so the last Effect is peace it puts the Soul into the most excellent position in the World for comfort and joy it never stood upon such ground before for this vocation stands betwixt predestination and glorification Rom. 8. 30. Moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified See here into what a blessed Mount of vision the voice of Christ calleth the Souls of sinners where let the Soul look backward or forward from eternity to eternity there is nothing but a vision of peace before its Eyes This call of God points it backward to Gods eternal choice which by this very call it is now manifest he made of that Soul before the World was and it also points forward to that eternal glory unto which God is leading it These are the Effects of this Almighty voice of Christ and these the special instructions sealed by it upon the Hearts of Men. But now this voice of Christ is not heard at all times but in some
important a Concern And truly this Caution is no more than needs for Satan is never more busie with the Souls of men than when Christ gives them their first Call to himself O what a thick succession of Discouragements do impetuously assault the Soul at this time Art thou young then he insinuates that it is too soon for thee to mind the serious things of Religion This will extinguish all thy pleasure in a dull melancholy thou maist have time enough hereafter to mind these matters This Temptation Augustine confesseth kept him off many years from Christ. But certainly if thou art old enough to be damned thou art not too young to mind Christ and Salvation There are Graves just of thy length and abundance of young Sprigs as well as old Loggs burning in Hell flames Besides all those godly young ones which turned to the Lord betime as Iosiah Abijah Timothy and many more will be your Judges and condemn you in the great day Never any repented that they opened to Christ too soon Thousands have repented that they kept him out so long Art thou old then he scares thee with the manifold sins of thy youth and rouls them as blocks in thy way to Christ. And whether young or old he will be sure to present the Sufferings Reproaches and Persecutions of Godliness to discourage thee from hearkning to the voice of Christ. But what are the Sufferings of Christ here to those Sufferings from Christ hereafter what are the pains of Mortification to the pains of Damnation Besides all the Promises of Christ promises of strength comfort success c. go along with the Command of Christ to believe and shall surely be performed to the obedient Soul. See therefore that thou refuse not his voice III. Vse for Trial. But you will say All that hear this spiritual voice of Christ are said to live Iohn 5. 25. Now I am much in the dark whether ever this vital voice of Christ hath founded unto my Soul. Alas I feel little if any thing of the spiritual life in my Soul. I am dead and dark By what means doth the Life of Christ discover it self in the Souls of Men I Answer There are divers Signs of spiritual life and blessed is the Soul that finds them First There is a spiritual sense and feeling flowing from and accompanying the spiritual life I speak not only of the sense and feeling of comfort for many a Soul that is in Christ feels little of that but certainly there is a sense and feeling of the burthensomness of sin Rom. 7. 24. And 't is well that we can feel that for there are Multitudes in the world that are past feeling Isâ— 6. 9. 10. 'T is a sign Christ hath spoken to thy heart if sorrows for sin begin to load it Secondly Spiritual Motions towards Christ are a sign of spiritual life at least that God is about that quickening work of Faith upon thy Soul Iohn 6. 45. Every man that bath beard and learned of the Father cometh unto me The effectual voice of God sets the Soul in motion towards Christ the Will is moving after him the Desires are panting for him The voice of God makes the Soul that hears it restless As for others their Wills are fix'd there is no moving of them Iohn 5. 40. Now consider how it is with thee Reader Art thou one that art weighing and pondering the terms of the Gospel strugling through discouragements and temptations to come to Christ upon his own terms lifting up thy heart to him for power to believe crying with the Sponse Draw me I will run after thee This is a comfortable sign Christ hath spoken to thy heart Thirdly A Spirit of Prayer is an Evidence of spiritual life as the effect of Christ's voice to thy Soul. Assoon as ever Christ had spoken effectually unto Paul's heart the first effect that appeared in him as a sign of spiritual life was Prayerbreath Acts 9. 11. Behold he prayeth God hath no still-â—orn Children Measure thy self by this Rule Time was when thou couldst say a Prayer and wast very well satisfied with it whether thou hadst any Communion with God in it or no but is it so still Is there not an holy restlesness of spirit after God since the time that his Word came home to thy heart Surely thou eanst remember when it was not with thee as it is now Fourthly There is a spiritual relish a divine gust resulting from the spiritual life which is also evidential of it Omnis vita gustu ducitur If God have spoken life to thy Soul there will be in it an agreeable pleasure and delight in spiritual things Psal. 63. 5. My Soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness c. Now thy thoughts can feed with pleasure upon spiritual things which they nauseated before Fifthly Spiritual aversations as well as spiritual inclinations speak spiritual life Every Creature hath an aversation to that which is noxious and destructive to it Now there is nothing so destructive and dangerous to the spiritual life as sin that 's the deadly poison which the renewed Soul dreads Psal. 19. 13. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins It cries out as a man that finds himself upon the brink of a Pit or edge of a Precipice Keep back thy Servant Such aversations to sin and tremblings under temptations tending thereunto are comfortable Sign Christ hath spoken life to thy Soul. Lastly Heavenly tendencies and propensions after God are an excellent Sign thy Soul hath heard his voice and been quickned with spiritual life by it Sanctification is a Well of water springing up into everlasting life Iohn 4. 24. If thou hast seen the beauty felt the power and heard the voice of Christ thy soul like an uncentred Body will be still propending gravitating and inclining Christ-ward When thou hast once heard his effectual Call Matth. 11. 28. Come unto me thy Soul will be continually echoing with the Spouse Rev. 22. 17. Come Lord Iesus The Spirit and the Bride say come and let him that heareth say Come A sweeter Sign of thy hearing Christ's voice can hardly be found in the Soul of man than restless longing to be with Christ in a state of perfect freedom from sin and full fruition of the beloved and blessed Jesus SERMON IX Revel 3. 20. If any Man hear my voice and open the door THE powerful voice of Christ is the Key that opens the door of the Soul to receive him The opening of the heart to receive Christ is the main design aimed at in all the external and internal administrations of the Gospel and Spirit The Gospel hath two great Designs and Intentions One is To open the heart of God to men and to shew them the everlasting counsels of Grace and Peace which were hid in God from Ages and Generations past that all men may now see what God had been designing and contriving for their happiness
in Christ before the world was Ephes. 3. 9. To make all men see what is the fellowship of the Mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God who created all things by Iesus Christ to the intent that now unto the Principalities and Powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God. The next Intention and Aim of the Gospel is to set open the heart of man to receive Jesus Christ without which all the glorious discoveries of the eternal Counsels and gracious Contrivances of God for and about us would signifie nothing to our real advantage Christ standing knocking and speaking by his Spirit of which we have before treated receive their Success and attain their End when the heart opens it self by Faith to receive him and not till then Hence note IX DOCT. That the opening of the heart to receive Christ by Faith is the great design and aim of the Gospel This is the Mark to which all the Arrows in the Gospel Quiver are levelled the Centre unto which those blessed Lines are drawn Iohn 20. 31. These things are written that you might believe and believing might have life through his Name All those precious Truths that are written in the Scriptures are to bring you to Faith. The great aim of the Spirit in his Illuminations Convictions Humiliations c. are the very same thing Iohn 6. 29. This is the work of God that you believe 'T is not only Opus Deo dignum a work worthy of such an Author but it is that on which God's eye is fixed in his workings upon us the end and aim of his work Great persons have great designs This is the glorious project of the great God and every Person in the Godhead is engaged and concerned in it 1. The Father hath his hand in this work and such a hand as without it no heart could ever open or move in the least towards Christ Iohn 6. 44. No man can come unto me saith Christ except my Father which hath sent me draw him None but he that raised up Christ from the dead can raise up a dead heart unto saving Faith in him 2. The sons hand is in this work he is not only the Object but the Author of our Faith 1 Iohn 5. 20. We know that the son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his Son Iesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life 3 And then for the Spirit he comes from Heaven designedly and expresly to convince Sinners of their need of Christ and beget Faith in them Iohn 16. 9. So that this appears to be the great design of Heaven the drist and level both of the Word and Works of God. Touching this design of the Gospel I shall here speak indeavouring to open this great and glorious project of Heaven in the ensuing Properties of it which are 1. The Greatness of it 2. The Difficulty of it 3. The Instruments imployed in it 4. The Scope and aim of it And First Of the Greatness of this design of God we little understand what a marvellous thing is done in the Earth when the heart of a Sinner is brought to close with Christ by Faith. It would transport us with admiration did we throughly consider it Well may the Apostle place it in the first rank of all the glorious and wonderful works of God as he doth 1 Tim. 3. 16. Great is the mystery of godliness God was manifest in the flâ—sh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the World. Observe with what works of wonder Faith is here ranked and associated It is an astonishing work of God that ever God should be manifested in flesh that he that thunders in the Clouds should be heard crying in a Cradle that he who is over all God blessed for ever should become a man. It is astonishing that when he was taken down dead from the Cross laid in the Sepulchre and the Stone sealed upon it he should rise on the third day from the dead by his own power That ever the Gospel should be preached to such a miserable and sorlorn people as the Gentiles were the scorn and contempt of the Jews And no less marvellous is it to see the hearts of such poor Creatures glued so fast to Idolatry so perfectly dead in sin to open to Christ upon such self-denying terms as to let go all they had in the world for a blessed Inheritance which they never saw And were not this a marvellous work of God indeed there would never be such joy and triumph in Heaven among the holy Angels as there is upon the opening of every Sinners heart to Christ Luke 15. 7. the whole City of God is moved with it Heaven rings again with the joyful tydings as soon as ever the Will begins to bowe and open to Christ the news is quickly in Heaven and all the Angels of God rejoyce at the tydings As when a young Prince is born the Conduits run with Wine there is Joy in every City throughout the Kingdom So also there is in Heaven when Christ hath gotten a new habitation in the Soul of any Sinner upon Earth Moreover the greatness of this design appears from the great Rewards promised by the Lord to every Servant of his who hath but the least hand to help it on God would never reward the Instruments so richly if the success of the work were not of great value in his eyes The Ministers of Christ may be ill rewarded by men perfecuted and reproached for their labour but God will bountifully repay their pains and faithfulness Dan. 12. 3. They that turn many unto righteousness shall shine as the Stars and as the brightness of the firmament for ever and ever All these things be speak it a very great and important design upon which the heart of God is much set Secondly And then in the next place as it is an exceeding great and important design and work of God so it is a very hard and difficult work in it self a work whose difficulties surmounts the abilities of Angels It is certainly a work carried on by the mighty power of God through the greatest oppositions imaginable And therefore it is noted Rev. 3. 7. that it is the peculiar Prerogative of Jesus Christ who only hath the Key of the house of David to open the heart of a Sinner by Faith. Men think it is an easie thing to believe but if you consult the Scriptures you will quickly be informed how grosly you mistake the nature of this work In Col. 2. 12. the believing Soul is said to rise with Christ through the faith of the operation of God who raised him from the dead In the Resurrection of Christ there was a glorious operation of the power of God indeed you know it astonished the
world to hear of it The very same power that wrought that must also be put sorth to work this or else it would never be wrought So again Eph. 2. 8. By Grace are ye saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God not of your selves You are no more able to believe in Christ than you were to raise him from the dead No more able to come one step towards him by Faith in your own power than Lazarus was able to unbind himself in the Grave and come forth Yea in Eph. 1. 18 19 20. the work of believing is ascribed unto the exceeding greatness of the power of God Nothing but power can do it no other power but the Almighty power of God can do it It exceeds the power of Ministers yea of Angels Three things will evince the difficulty of this work Viz. 1. The Nature of it 2. The Subject of it 3. The Enemies of it First The Nature of the work of Faith which is wholly supernatural it is no less than the gaining over the hearty and full consent of the Will to take Jesus Christ with his yoke of Obedience Matth. 11. 29. and with his Cross of Sufferings Matth. 16. 24. And how far these will carry a man into outward dangers losses torments and sufferings who can tell and all this upon the account of an unseen happiness and glory dearest Lusts and Corruptions must be mortified sweetest Pleasures and Profits in the World abandoned and forsaken all Reproaches Losses Pains and Penalties the Devil and the World can lay upon us for Christs sake must be embraced and wellcomed and can it be supposed that any power beneath the Almighty Power of the Lord any voice except the efficacious voice of Christ can prevail with the Will to give its firm explicite consent to such difficult and self-denying terms as these Secondly Consider the Subject wrought upon viz. the dead hard obstinate heart of a blind perverse sinner an heart harder by Nature than the nether Millstone It is as easie to melt the most obdurate Rock into a sweet Syrup as it is to melt the heart of a Sinner into penitential forrows for sin What! to bring a dead heart to life To make that man bitterly bewail the sins that were his pleasure and delight more than ever he bewailed the death of the nearest and dearest Relation in the world To make a proud heart renounce its own self-righteousness which it so dotes upon and take all shame and reproach to it self upon the account of sin This is wonderful You would think it a strange thing to see the course of the Tyde stopt with the breath of a man but O what a marvellous thing is here that at the preaching of the Gospel by a poor worm the Lord should turn the Tyde of the Will and thus work about the Soul to a ready compliance with his most self-denying terms and proposals Thirdly And that which farther encreaseth the difficulty of believing is the fierce and obstinate opposition made by the Enemies of Faith All the powers of Hell and Earth Devils and Men without us are confederate and in league with the Corruptions within us to resâ—â—t and hinder this work of believing Never is the Devil more busie than when Christ and the Soul are treating about Union Oh the Discouragements Objections and Difficulties that are rowled into the way of Faith One while it is the highest Presumption another while it is impossible and utterly too late Sometimes blasphemous injections like fiery Darts are shot reeking hot out of Hell into the Soul Otherwhile the invincible difficulties of Religion are objected all Losses Torments c. opposed unto this work The Tempter casts himself into a thousand shapes to hinder the Souls passage out of Nature unto Christ. Sometimes objecting the greatness of sin and sometimes the lapse and loss of the proper season and opportunity of mercy together with the want of due qualifications to come to Christ. Thus and many other ways he endeavours to rap off the fingers of Faith from taking hold of Christ. And as every Devil in Hell opposes this work so every Carnal interest we have in the world is an Enemy to Faith. We have Enemies enough within us as well as without us both conspiring together to obstruct this work All things increase the difficulty of believing Thirdly We are next to speak of the instruments imployed in this great design and these are 1. Principal or 2. Subordinate 1. The Principal instrument in whose efficacy the Heart is opened is the Spirit of God without whom it is impossible the design should ever prosper neither Ordinances Providences or Ministers can successfully manage it without him If the Lord will make use of any Man for the Conversion and Salvation of anothers Soul he may rejoyce in it but withal must say as Peter to the Jews Acts 3. 12. Why look ye so earnestly on us as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk So may the ablest Minister in the World say when God blesses his labours to the conversion of any Soul look not upon me as though by the strength of my reason or power of my gifts I had opened thy Soul to Christ this is the work of Gods Spirit in whose hand I am an instrument 1 Cor. 3. 7. He that plants is nothing and he that waters is nothing Nothing in himself the very first stroak of conviction which is introductive to the whole work of conversion is justly ascribed to the Spirit Iob. 16. 9. The Spirit when be cometh shall convince the world of sin He is the Lord of all sanctifying and gracious influences Ordinances are but as the sayls of a Ship Ministers as the Seamen that manage those sayls the Anchor may be weighed the sayls spread but when all is done there is no sayling till a gale come We preach and pray and you hear but there is no motion Christward until the Spirit of God comparded to the wind Iohn 3. 8. blow upon them till he illuminate the understanding with divine light and bow the Will by an Almighty power there can be no Spiritual motion Heaven-ward Now the Spirit of the Lord is a free agent tyed to means time or instruments but as at a certain time an Angel came down upon the waters of Bethesda and put a healing virtue into them so it is here Therefore never come to any Gospel Ordinance without an Eye to the Spirit on whom all their blessing and efficacy depends Oh lift up your Hearts for his blessing upon the means as ever you expect saving benefits from them 2ly The Subordinate instrumental means by which this blessed design is effectually managed in the World is the Gospel-ministry 1 Cor. 3. 5. Who then is Paul and who is Apollo but Ministers by whom ye believed This is the ordinary stated method of begetting Faith and though God hath not tyed himself to this
made and yet no breach not one stone moved out of its place you will say that 's a strong Wall indeed Beloved God hath as I may say raised a Mount in the Gospel planted the great Ordinance of Heaven upon it discharged many dreadful vollies of threatnings nay he hath as it were come under the walls of the unbelieving Soul with terms of grace and mercy and yet no opening O prodigious obstinacy We have piped unto you but ye have not danced we have mourned unto you but ye have not lamented Matth. 11. 17. Neither the sweet Airs of Gospel Grace nor the dreadful thunders of the Law make any impression upon you O what an obdurate Rock is the Heart by nature Certainly every Christian may see enough in others and find enough in himself without the help of other Books to confute the Arminian Doctrian which so extolls and flatters the nature of man. It is as possible to make an impression with your finger upon a wall of brass as for the best Sermon in the world in its own strength to make an effectual saving impression upon a sinners Will. III. Inference Is it the great design of the Gospel to open the hearts of men to Christ then wonder not that it meets with such strong and fierce opposition from Satan wherever it is sincerely and powerfully preached As for general and formal preaching which comes not to the quick the Devil is not so much concerned about it he knows it will do him no great damage nay it fastens and secures his interest in the Souls of men But wherever the Gospel comes with spirit and power laying the Ax to the Root shewing men the vanity of their ungrounded hopes pressing the necessity of Regeneration and Faith this preaching quickly gives an alarm to Hell and raises all manner of opposition against it What is it to preach the Gospel said Luther but to derive the rage and fury of the whole world upon us Satan is the God of this world all men by Nature are his born Subjects No Prince on earth is more jealous of the revolt of his Subjects than he and its time for him to bestir himself when the Gospel comes to dethrone him as it doth in the faithful preaching of it Iohn 12. 31. Now is the Judgment of this world now shall the Prince of this world be cast out Now he falls as Lightning from Heaven Luke 10. 18. Now Sinners are made sensible of the cruel tyranny and bondage of Satan's Government and of the glorious liberty offered to them by Jesus Christ. Satan suspecting the Issue of these things bestirs himself to purpose O what showers of Calumnies and storms of Persecution doth he pour upon the Names and Persons of Christ's faithful Ambassadours certainly he owes Christ's Ministers a spight and they shall know and feel it if ever he get them within the compass of his Chain But let this discourage none imployed in this glorious design the Lord is with them to protect their persons and reward their diligence IV. Inference If the opening of the heart be the main design of the Gospel then Christ and Faith ought to be the principal Subjects that Ministers should insist on among their people There are many other useful Doctrins which may and ought to be opened and prest in their time and place Moral duties c. have their excellencies but Christ and Faith are the great things we are to preach Let men be once brought to Christ and the rest will follow but to begin and end with Morality will never make men Gospel Christians Grace teaches Morality Titus 2. 11. but Morality without Grace saves no man. I doubt not but it hath been a grand Artifice of the Devil to confound Grace with Morality and make men believe that nothing more is requir'd unto mens salvation but a civil sober conversation in the world and so lay by the principal part of the Gospel which opens and presses the necessity of Regeneration Repentance and Faith in the Blood of Christ Such preaching as this answers not the end and design of Christ in the conversion of Souls such toothless preaching disturbs not the Consciences of men the Lord help all his Ambassadours to mind the Example and Charge of their Redeemer and laying aside all carnal interest to apply themselves faithfully unto the Souls and Consciences of their hearers not as men-pleasers but as the servants of Christ. II. Vse of Conviction In the next place This Doctrin is of excellent Use to convince men of the dreadful damning nature of the sin of Unbelief A sin which defeats and frustrates the main design of the blessed Gospel of Christ on the Unbelievers Soul. This is the sin that keeps the heart fast shut against him As Faith is the radical Grace so Unbelief is the radical Sin. What shall I say of it it is the Traytors Gate through which those Souls pass that are to perish for ever The Gospel can do you no good the Blood of Christ can yield you no saving benefit whilst your Souls remain under the dominion and power of this sin When we consider the mighty Arguments of the Gospel we may wonder that all that hear them are not immediately perswaded to Christ by them And on the other side when we consider the mighty power of Unbelief how strongly it holds the Soul in bondage to sin we may admire that any Soul is brought over to Christ by the Gospel It was not without cause that the Apostle puts faith in Christ among the great Mysteries and Wonders of the Gospel 1 Tim. 3. 16. Now the intrinsick evil and fearful consequences of this sin of Unbelief will appear in these following particulars 1. Unbelief fixes the guilt of all other sins on the person of the Unbeliever it binds them all fast upon his Soul Iohn 8. 24. For if ye believe not that I am he ye shall dye in your sins Dye in thy sins man it were better for thee to dye in a Ditch What more terrible can God threaten or man feel This is the sin that makes the death of Christ of none effect to us Gal. 5. 4. There is indeed a soveraign virtue in the Blood of Christ to pardon sin but thy Soul cannot have the benefit of it while it remains under the dominion of this sin As it was said of the miraculous works of Christ He could do no mighty works there because of their unbelief Matth. 13. 58. so none of his spiritual works no ordinances can do thy Soul good till the Lord break the power of this sin Hebr. 4. 2. The word preached did not profit them not being mixed in faith in them that heard it If a man were dangerously sick or wounded the richest Cordial or most soveraign Plaister in the world can never recover him unless received and applyed Unbelief spills the most soveraign Cordials of the Gospel as Water upon the ground The greatest sins that ever thou committedst
might be pardoned did not this sin lye in the way were this gone all the rest were gone too but whilst Unbelief remains they also remain upon thee 2ly Of all the sins that are upon the Souls of men this is the most difficult sin to be removed and cured Other sins lye more open to conviction but this hath the most specious pretences to countenance and defend it Men commit this sin out of a fear of sin They will not believe lest they should presume They dare not believe because they are not qualified The strength of other sins meets in this sin of Unbelief it is the strongest Fort wherein Satan trusteth Take an Adulterer or a profane Swearer and you have a fair open way to convince him of his sin shew him the Command he hath violated and he hath nothing to say in his own defence but the Unbeliever hath a thousand plausible defences 3ly This is the great damning sin of the world I do not say but all other sins deserve damnation for the wages of sin is death but this is the sin in the virtue whereof other sins damn and ruin the Soul. This is the Condemnation John 3. 19. And as it is a damning sin so it is a sin which damns with aggravated damnation 2 Thess. 1. 8. O then let us mourn over and tremble at this dreadful sin which opposes and so often frustrates the great design and main end of the whole Gospel IV. Vse for Exhortation Is it the main scope of the Gospel to bring men to Christ by Faith then be perswaded heartily to comply with this great design of the Father Son and Spirit Ministers Ordinances and Providences in opening your hearts to receive Christ this day by Faith unfeigned And oh that I could suitably press this great Point which falls in so directly with the main stream and scope of the whole Gospel And oh that whilst I am pressing it you would list up an hearty cry to Heaven Lord give me faith whatever else thou deny me open my heart to Christ under the Gospel Calls I do not only press you to a general and common assent to the Truths of the Gospel that Christ is come in the flesh and laid down his life for sinners but unto an hearty Evangelical consent to receive him upon Gospel terms to close with him in all his Offices subjecting heart and life unto his Authority living entirely upon him for righteousness and to him by holiness The value of such a Faith as this is above all estimation For 1. this is the Grace which God hath dignified and crowned with Glory and Honour above all its fellow Graces It s singular Praises and Encomiums are in all the Scriptures This is called precious faith 2 Pet. 1. 1. Soul enriching faith Iames 2. 5. That 's a miserable poor Soul indeed that is destitute of it whatever the Largesses of Providence have been to him And he is truly rich to whom God hath given Faith whatever he hath denied him of the comforts of this life This Christ calls the work of God Iohn 6. 29. This is the work of God that you believe Why so are all other things that your eyes behold they are the works of God the Earth the Sea the Sun Moon and Stars they are his handy-work True they are so but this is the work the most eminent glorious and admirable work of God sine pari excelling all his other works which your eyes behold And 2. that which exalts and dignifies it not only above all the works of God's hands but even above its fellow Graces the works of his Spirit is that high Office unto which it is appointed in the justification of a Sinner God hath singled out this Grace from among all the other Graces to be the instrument of receiving and applying the righteousness of Christ for the justification of a guilty Soul Rom. 5. 1. You are never said to be justified by love hope or desire but by faith 'T is true all other Graces are supposed in the person justified but none apprehends and applies the righteousness of Christ for justification but this only And the justifying act of faith being a receiving act the Glory of God is therein secured therefore it is of Faith that it might be by Grace 3. The Grace of Faith which I am recommending to you this day is not only the instrument of your Justification but it is also the bond of your union with Christ Eph. 3. 17. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith. 'T is the uniting Grace the Marriage Knot 't is that which gives interest in and title to the person and benefits of Christ. The great thing upon which the eyes of all the awakened world are intently and solicitously fixed Whatever apprehensions you have of an interest in Christ and whatever his benefits be worth in your eyes neither himself or them can ever be obtained without Faith. O Brethren there is a day coming when they that now sleight and neglect this interest and concern of their Souls would gladly part with ten thousand worlds for a good title to Christ could it be purchased therewith But it is Faith and nothing without Faith that intitles you to Christ and to his benefits 4. That which should yet more endear this Grace of Faith to you is this that it is the hand which receives your pardon from the hand of Christ the Messenger that brings a sealed Pardon to a trembling Sinner Acts 10. 43. And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Cleared of all those sins from which the Law could never clear them nor any Repentance Restitution or Obedience of their own without Faith O what a welcom Messenger is Faith and what joyful tydings doth it bring you would say so if ever you had felt the efficacy of the Law upon your Consciences if ever you had lain as some sinners have with a cold sweating horrour upon your panting bosoms under the apprehensions of the wrath God. This fruit of Faith is rather to be admired than exprest Psal. 32. 1. 5. Faith is not only the Messenger that brings you a Pardon from Heaven but it is as I may say that heavenly Herauld that publishes Peace in the Soul of a Sinner O Peace how sweet a word art thou how welcom to a poor condemned Sinner Beautiful upon the Mountains are the feet of them that publish peace Now 't is faith that brings this blessed News and publishes it in the Soul without which all the publishers of peace without us can administer but little support Rom. 5. 1. Faith brings the Soul out of the Storms and Tempests with which it was tossed into a sweet Rest and Calm Hebr. 4. 3. We which have believed do enter into Rest. Is the quiet Harbour welcom to poor weather-beaten Seamen after they have past furious storms and many fears upon the raging
any Heart in the World to Christ and yet considering how fast the Hearts of Men are glued to their lusts fixed and riveted in their sins until the Spirit come upon them with powerful convictions and when under conviction what mighty discouragements they labour under from their former sinfulness and present unworthiness all this is little enough to bring them to faith nay in it self utterly insufficient without the Almighty power second and set them home with effect on the Heart for it is not meer moral suasion will do the work 'T is true Christ will not make a forcible entrance into the Soul he will come in by the consent of the Will but the Will consents not till it feel the power of God upon it Psal. 110. 3. Almighty power opens the Heart and determins the Will but still in a way congruous to the nature of the Will Hos. 11. 4. I drew them with the cords of a man with the bands of love When under the influence of this power the Soul opens unto Christ he will come in take that Soul for his everlasting habitation refresh and feast it with the sweetest consolations and privileges purchased by his Blood whence the Tenth Observation is DOCT. X. That Christ will certainly come into the Soul that opens to him and will not come empty handed but will bring rich entertainment with him I will come in to him and sup with him When the prodigal the Emblem of a convert returned to his Father Luke 15. 22. his Father not only received but adorned and feasted him In opening this Point I shall shew First What Christs coming in to the Soul intends Secondly How it appears Christ will come in to the opening Soul. Thirdly What that rich entertainment is he brings with him Fourthly Why he thus entertainsthe Soul that receives him and opens to him First What Christs coming in to the Soul intends and in general I must say this is a great mystery which will not be fully understood till we come to Heaven Iohn 14. 20. At that day you shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you Then the essential union of Christ and his Father and the mystical union between believers and Christ will be more clearly understood than we are capable to understand them in this imperfect state yet for present so much is discovered as may justly astonish poor sinners at the marvelous condescension of the Lord Jesus to them More particularly this expression I will come in to him imports no less than his uniting such a Soul to himself for he comes in with a design to dwell in that Soul by faith Eph. 3. 17. to make such a man a mystical member of his body flesh and bones Eph. 5. 30. which is the highest honour the Soul of man is capable of indeed this coming of Christ into the Soul of a sinner doth not make him one person with Christ that is the singular honour to which our nature is advanced by the Hypostatical Vnion but this makes a person mystically one with Christ and though it be beneath the Hypostatical Vnion yet it is more than a meer Foederal Vnion Christs coming into the Soul signifies more than his coming into Covenant with it for it is the taking of such a person into a mystical Union with himself by the imparting of his Spirit unto him as the vital sap of the stock coming into the grass makes it one with the stock Iohn 15. 5. So the coming of Christs Spirit into the Soul makes it a member of his mystical body and this is a glorious supernatural work of God 1 Cor. 1. 30. most honorable most comfortable and for ever sure and indissoluble as I have elsewhere more fully shewed Secondly In the next place I shall evidence the truth and certainty of this most comfortable point that Christ will come in and that with singular refreshments and comforts to every Soul that hears his voice and opens to him No present unworthyness or former rebellions shall bar out Christ or obstruct his entrance into such a Soul. Whatever thou hast been or done all that notwithstanding Christ will come into thee and dwell with thee and make thy Soul an habitation for himself through the Spirit Eph. 2. 22. I say let thy Heart but open to him and he will both fill and feast thee with a non obstante as to all thy former miscarriages I know it is the common discouragement that multitudes of convinced humbled sinners lye under who seeing so much vileness in their natures and practices cannot be perswaded that ever the Lord Jesus will cast an Eye of favour on them much less take up his abode in them What dwell in such a Heart as mine which hath been an habitation of Devils a sink a puddle of sin from my beginning This is hard to be believed but sinner thou hast the word of a King from Heaven for it a word whose credit was never crackt or stained from the first moment it was spoken that whatever thy former or present vileness or unworthiness hath been or is he will not be shy of such a Soul as thou art if thou be but willing to open to him thy great unworthiness shall be no bar to his union with thee If any man open I will come in to him c. For First If personal unworthiness were sufficient to bar Christ out of thy Soul it would equally bar him out of all the Souls in the World for all are unworthy as well as thy self Where-ever Christ finds sinfulness he finds unworthiness and to be sure he finds this where-ever he comes Christ never expected to find worthiness in thee but it highly pleases him to find thee under a becoming sense of thy personal unworthiness Ier. 3. 13. Only acknowledge thine iniquity that thou hast transgrest against the Lord thy God c. The returning prodigal acknowledged to his Father I am not worthy to be called thy Son Luke 15. 18 19. But this did not bar his access to or hinder his acceptance by his Father All that come to God to be justified must see and confess their own vileness and come to him as one that justifieth the ungodly Rom. 4. 5. Secondly Thy former vileness and present unworthiness can be no bar to Christs entrance because it can be no surprize to him He knew thou wast an unworthy Soul when he made the first overture of grace and reconciliation to thee and if thy unworthiness hindred not the beginning of his treaty with thee it shall not hinder the closing and finishing act thereof in his union with thee I knew that thou wast a transgressor from the womb Isa. 48. 8. Thirdly Christ never yet came into any Soul where Satan had not the possession before him Every Soul in which Christ now dwels was once in Satans power and possession Acts 26. 18. To turn them from darkness to light and from the power of
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 above all the comforts of this world 6 In a word the joys of Heaven are unspeakable Joys no words can make known to others what they are When Paul was caught up into Paradice he heard unspeakable words 2 Cor. 12. 4. And are there not times even in this life wherein the Saints do feel that which no words can express 1 Pet. 1. 8. Rev. 2. 17. Now if such earnests of the Spirit do follow after believing if opening the Soul to Christ do bring it into these Suburbs of Heaven who then would not receive Christ into his Soul and such an heaven upon earth with him And thus I have shewed you what some of those heavenly rarities are with which Christ entertains Believers upon earth the fulness and perfection whereof is reserved for Heaven and hereby secured to the opening or believing Soul which was the first thing to be discovered Secondly Next we shall enquire into the reasons why Christ thus entertains feasts and refreshes the Soul that receives him And First This he doth to express the great joy and satisfaction his Soul hath in the faith and obedience of poor Sinners We read Isa. 53. 11. of the hard travel of Christs Soul and the great satisfaction he hath in the fruit and issue thereof He shall see of the travel of his Soul and shall be satisfied O what pleasure and satisfaction doth it give him to behold the eternal counsels of God and sore travels of his Soul brought to such a birth there is no pleasure like it to the Soul of Christ in this world As it is abundant satisfaction to a man to behold the accomplishment of a design upon which he hath laid out many thoughts and much cost at last happily finished Or as it is to a Woman that hath had a hard labour a sore travel for a Child to behold the fruit of her Womb to embrace and smile upon that Child she travail'd for So and much more than so it is to Christ and therefore as the Father of the Prodigal manifested the Joy of his heart for the return of his Son who was to him as dead and lost by a feast and musick So doth Christ here answerably manifest the content and satisfaction of his Soul by entertaining the Believer with these royal dainties of Heaven 't is the Souls welcom home to Christ. Secondly This Christ doth to relieve and refresh poor distressed Souls who have endured so many fears and sorrows from the time of their first conviction until this day of their union with Christ by Faith. The way of faith is a very humbling way there 's much cutting work in antecedent convictions and humiliations sad nights and sick days with many poor Souls and these things bring them very low They see the Law broken by sin wrath hanging over them in the threatnings the bitter tast thereof they have in their consciences they have dwelt with fears and horrors a long time and they need succour and support which the Lord Jesus is now resolved to give them lest the spirit fail before him Isa. 57. 16. He delights to comfort them that are cast down 2 Cor. 7. 6. Christ is of a compassionate nature he is as ready as able to succour them that are tempted Heb. 2. 18. That word which we render Succour signifies to run in by way of help at the cry of one that is in distress Many emphatical cries have gone up to Heaven from the distressed sin-sick Soul these the compassionate Jesus hears and now comes in seasonably to succour and refresh it He hath rich Cordials for fainting hours the Soul hath had a bitter break-fast and therefore Christ will give it a comfortable Supper I will come in to him and sup with him Thirdly Those that open their hearts to Christ must expect to meet great troubles sufferings and temptations in that new course whereinto they are entred Their way to Heaven lies through much tribulation all our troubles are not over when we are got into Christ nay then commonly our greatest outward troubles begin Heb. 10. 32. After ye believed ye endured a great fight of affliction Carnal relations now scoff frown and cast off the world hates them and marks them out for persecution Now that poor Christians may not utterly be discouraged when they meet with those troubles in the way of their duty Christ will chear and hearten them by these spiritual refreshments This is a stock laid in for a rainy day Christ himself had a voice from Heaven Matth. 17. 5. This is my beloved Son a little before his great combat much more do his poor people need such consolations to support and encourage them The wise God foresees and by this provision forelays the troubles they are to meet with An hour of Sealing fortifies the Soul for an hour of Suffering It hath been the observation of some Christians when they have felt more than ordinary comforts of the Spirit that some great tryal hath been near them and the event hath confirmed it Whatever comforts Christ gives his people at their first entrance into his Service they will have need enough of them all before they finish their course To these first sealings they will need often to run back and have frequent recourse to them and all little enough to support them in after-tryals Fourthly Christ comes in to the opening Soul with such divine Cordials and refreshments to defeat and countermine the plot of Satan who hath so often and so lately been discouraging them by representing the ways of Christ as sad melancholy ways telling them they shall never laugh more never be merry more after they have embraced and espoused the ways of holiness Spiritus Calvinianus est spiritus melancholicus Well their own experiences shall now confute it for they now taste that pleasure in Christ in faith and obedience which they never tasted in the ways of sin thus that scandalous libel of the Devil is experimentally confuted They find they were never truly merry till now Luke 15. 24. All true mirth commences from our closing with Christ and they began to be merry Now these spiritual refreshments are by Christ here called a Supper because the Supper among the Jews was their best meal Luke 14. 17. and because it is the last meal This is not only the best meal that ever a believer made but upon these spiritual comforts though much more refined and perfect they are to feed for ever in Heaven O Christian well maist thou be contented with thine outward lot of providence however it shall fall in this World with respect to thy outward-man Will a King from Heaven come and sup with thee Doth he feed thy Soul with pardon peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Seals an earnest of future glory then thou livest at an higher and nobler rate than any of thy carnal neighbours do Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath blessed us
of Satan to think so but this is what I say that Communion with God consisteth not in the mere performances of Duties Communion and duties of Religion are two things separable one from the other Men may multiply duties and yet be strangers to Communion with God in them even humiliation and fasting days may be kept by Souls that are estranged from Communion with the Lord Zach. 7. 5. Speak unto all the people of the Land and unto the Priests saying When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month even these seventy years did ye at all fast unto me even unto me q. d. Had your Souls pure intentions and respects in those duties to my glory Had you special Communion with me or I with you in those duties Did you ever feel your Souls in these days wounded for sin Or did you not fast out of custom and mourn for company God may be near in Mens mouths and at the same time far from their reins Ier. 12. 2. Religious words may flow out of Mens lips when not one drop of Religion touches their reins and hearts that is the secret inward powers of their Souls you cannot therefore safely depend upon this Christ rejects this plea Matth. 7. 22. Get a better evidence of Communion with God than this or you will certainly come short of your expectation I know you not saith Christ there was never any Spiritual acquaintance betwixt your Souls and me I know you not in a way of approbation 2ly Neither do all stirrings and workings of the affections in duties infallibly evidence and prove Communion betwixt God and that Soul for it is possible yea common to have the affections raised in a natural way and by external motives in the duties of Religion this you see in that Example Ezck. 33. 32. And lo thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument for they hear thy words but they do them not The sweet modulation of the Prophets voice was like the skilful touch of a rare musical Instrument which in a natural way moved and excited their affections thus Iohns hearers rejoyced in his Ministry for a season I confess this is very apt to cast Souls into a mistake of their condition They distinguish not betwixt the influences that come upon their affections from without from extrinsick things and those that are purely inward Divine and Spiritual But then II. To shew you positively what Communion with God is Here we must consider two things 1. What things it presupposes in us 2. Wherein the nature of it consists First There are divers things pre-required and presupposed unto all actual Communion with God in Duties and where these things are wanting men can have no communion with God. You may have Communion with his People and Communion with his Ordinances but not Communion with God and Christ in them And these pre-requisites are three I. Vnion with Christ is fundamentally necessary to all Communion with him All Communion is founded in Union and where there is no Union there can be no Communion You know saith an excellent Person the member receives nothing from the head unless it be united to it nor the branch from the root All is yours and ye are Christs 1 Cor. 3. 23. Here 's a vast possession but all founded upon Vnion as all Communion is founded upon Vnion so all Vnion terminates in Communion and the closer the Vnion the fuller is the Communion Before our Union with Christ we are strangers unto God Eph. 2. I3 We live without God in the World 't is in Christ that we are made nigh 't is in the beloved we are made accepted Whilst we are in the state of alienation from Christ we have no more to do with the communications of joy and peace with the seals and earnests of the Spirit than a Native Indian hath with the privileges of London If any man open to me saith Christ I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me II. Communion with God presupposes the habits of grace implanted in the Soul by sanctification a found and sincere change of Heart No sanctification no communion 1 Iohn 1. 6. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lye and do not the truth The Apostle gives the lye to such bold pretenders The Lord is nigh to all that call upon him unto all that call upon him in truth That latter clause restrains all spiritual communion unto upright Souls For an Hypocrite shall not come before him Job 13. 16. III. Communion with God doth not only suppose grace implanted but also implanted grace excited grace in act For a man may have the habits of faith love and delight in him and yet be without actual communion with God for by this grace is awakned and put into act A believer when he is asleep and acts no grace is in a state of communion with God but if he will have actual communion his faith love and delight must be awakned they must not lye asleep in the habit Thou saidst seek my face my heart said unto thee thy face Lord will I seek Psal. 27. 8. It was in order to actual communion with Christ that the Church so earnestly begs fresh influences of the Spirit to excite her graces into act Cant. 4. I6 Awake O North-wind and come thou South blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out Let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits And though believers are not so to wait for influences of the Spirit as mean time to neglect all proper outward means of exciting their own graces engaging their Hearts to approach unto God Ier. 30. 21. Yet certainly it is the work of Gods Spirit and without him we can do nothing to any purpose The Seaman may trim the Sayls wey the Anchor put all into a sayling posture but till a gale come from Heaven there is little or no motion The same Spirit that plants the habits is he also that excites the acts of grace These three things therefore are pre-requisites unto all communion with God. Secondly Next let us consider wherein this Heavenly privilege of communion with God doth consist and more generally it will be found to lye in a spiritual correspondency betwixt Christ and the Soul. God lets forth influences upon our Souls and we by the assistance of his Spirit make returns again unto God. Communion is a mutual action so in the Text I will sup with him and he with me We cry to God and God answers that cry by the incomes of Spiritual grace upon the Soul Psal. I38 3. In the day that I cryed thou answeredst me and strengthnedst me with strength in my Soul. More particularly there are many ways or methods wherein Men have this Spiritual correspondence or communion with God viz. 1. In the contemplation of his Attributes 2. In
the exercises of our grace in Religious duties 3. In his various Providences In all these the Saints have communion with them First There is a sweet and sensible communion betwixt God and his people in the contemplation of the divine Attributes and the impressions God makes by them upon our Souls whilst we mediâ—ate on them As for instance 1. Sometimes the Lord discovers and manifests to the Souls of his people his immense greatness the manifestation of which Attribute makes an awful humbling impression upon the Soul makes them seem as nothing to themselves Thus when Abraham that great believer considered the greatness of that God with whom he had to do that sight of God seemed to reduce him to his first principles to crumble him as it were into dust and ashes again Gen. 18. 27. I that am but dust and ashes have taken upon me to speak unto God. He now looks upon himself as an heap of vileness and unworthiness so David Psal. 8. 12. When I consider thy Heavens the work of thy hands the Moon and the Stars which thou hast made from whence he inferr'd the greatness of the Creator Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him q. d. When I consider what a great God the Creator of the World is I am justly astonished that ever he should set his Heart upon so vile a thing as Man. When men compare themselves among themselves and measure themselves by themselves their Spirits are apt to swell with pride but would they look up to God as these holy men did they would admire his condescension And this is communion with God in the meditation of his immense greatness Secondly The representations and meditations of the purity and holyness of God working shame and deep abasement in the Soul for the pollutions and sinful filthiness that is in it This is communion with God and an excellent way of fellowship with him Thus when a representation of God in his holyness was made unto the Prophet Isa. 6. 3 4 5. There were the Seraphims covering their faces with their wings and crying one to another saying Holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty the Earth is full of his glory The effect this produced or the return made by the Prophet to this manifestation of God in his holiness was deep abasement of soul for his unsuitableness to so holy a God vers 5. Then said I wo is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips c. And this is real communion with God in his holiness Thus Iob who had stifly defended his own integrity against men yet when God enters the lists with him and he saw what a great and holy God he had to do with cryed out Iob 40. 4 5. Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my hand upon my mouth Once have I spoken but I will not answer yea twice but I will proceed no further q. d. I have done Lord I have done I could answer men but I cannot answer thee thou art holy but I am vile Thirdly There are sometimes representations of the goodness and mercy of God made unto the Souls of his people When these produce an ingenuous thaw and melting of the Heart into an humble thankful admiration of it and an answerable care of pleasing him in the ways of obedience then have men communion with God in his goodness The goodness of God runs down to men in a double channel his goodness to their bodies in external providences his goodness to their Souls in spiritual mercies When the goodness of God either way draws forth the love and gratitude of the Soul to the God of our mercies then have we real communion with him Thus Iacob Gen. 32. 9 10. And Jacob said O God of my Father Abraham and God of my Father Isaac which saidst unto me Return unto thy Country and to thy kindred and I will deal well with thee I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant for with my staff I passed over this Jordan and now I am become two â—ands Ah Lord I see a multitude of mercies round about me and the least of them is greater than I So David 1 Chron. I7 I6 I7 And David the King came and sat before the Lord and said Who am I O Lord God and what is mine house that thou hast brought me hitherto And yet this was a small thing in thine eyes O God c. what can David speak more to thee You see in these instances what effects the goodness of God even in inferiour outward mercies useth to produce in sanctified hearts But then if you come to spiritual mercies and ponder the goodness of God to your Souls in pardoning accepting and saving such vile sinful creatures as you have been this much more affects the heart and overwhelms it with an holy astonishment as you see in Paul 1 Tim. 1. 16. The grace of our Lord was abundant I was a persecutor a blasphemer yet I obtained mercy So Mary that notorious sinner when pardoning grace appeared to her into what a flood of tears into what transports of love did the sight of mercy cast her Soul She wept and washt her Saviours feet with tears of joy and thankfulness Luke 7. 44. No terrors of the Law no frights of Hell thaw the heart like the apprehensions of pardoning mercy Fourthly Sometimes there are special representations of the veracity and faithfulness of God made unto his people begetting trust and holy confidence in their Souls and when they do so then have men communion with God in his faithfulness Thus Heb. 13. 5 6. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee There is a discovery of the faithfulness of God and what follows upon this See vers 6. So that we may boldly say The Lord is our God we will not fear what man can do unto us Here 's faithfulness in God producing trust and confidence in the believer This is that reciprocation that sweet fellowship and communion betwixt God and a believer with respect to his fidelity Behold God is my salvation I will trust and not be afraid Isa. I2 2. And truly friend this is what the Lord justly expects from thee even thy trust and confidence in him thy steady dependance on him in return to all the discoveries of his faithfulness to thee both in his Word and Providences Fifthly There are manifestations of the anger and displeasure of God by the hiding of his face from them and the frowns of his providence when these produce repentance and deep humiliation for sin an unquietness a restlesness of Spirit till he restore his favour and manifest his reconciliation to the Soul even here also is real communion betwixt God and the Soul Psal. 30. 7. Thou hidest thy face and I was troubled Nor will a gracious Soul rest there but will take pains to sue out a fresh pardon
Psal. 51. 8. Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce restore unto me the joys of thy salvation vers 12. I cannot here omit to detect a great mistake here even amongst Gods own people many of them understand not what communion there should be with God under the manifestations of his displeasure for sin they know that the affectionate meltings of their Souls into love praise c. to be communion with God but that the shame grief and sorrow produced in them by the manifestations of Gods displeasure I say that even in these things there may be communion with God they understand not But let me tell thee that even such things as these are the choice fruits of the Spirit of Adoption and that in them thy Soul hath as real and beneficial communion with God as in the greatest transports of Spiritual joy and comfort O'tis a blessed frame to be before the Lord as Ezra was after conviction of thy loosness carelesness and Spiritual defilements the consequents of those sins saying with him O my God I am ashamed and even blush to lift up my face unto thee Ezra 9. 6. Shame and blushing are as excellent signs of communion with God as the sweetest smiles Lastly There are representations and special contemplations of the omniscience of God producing sincerity comfort in appeals and recourse to it in doubts of our own uprightness And this also is a choice and excellent method of communion with God. 1. When the omniscience of God strongly obliges the Soul to sincerity and uprightness as it did David Psal. 139. 11 12. compared with Psal. 18. 23. I was also upright before him The consideration that he was always before the Eye of God was his preservative from iniquity yea from his own iniquity 2. When it produceth comforts in appeals to it as it did in Hezekiah 2 Kings 20. 3. Remember now O Lord that I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart So Iob 10. 7. he also appeals to this attribute Thou knowest that I am not wicked So did Ieremiah Chap. 12. 3. But thou O Lord knowest me thou hast seen me and tryed my heart towards thee 3. When we have recourse to it under doubts and fears of our own uprightness Thus did David Psal. 139. 23. Search me O God and try my heart prove me and see my reins see if there be any way of wickedness in me In all these attributes of God Christians have real and sweet communion with him which was the first thing to be opened Communion with God in the meditation of his attributes Secondly The next method of communion with God is in the exercise of our graces in the various duties of Religion In Prayer Hearing Sacraments c. in all which the Spirit of the Lord influences the graces of his people and they return the fruits thereof in some measure to him As God hath planted various graces in regenerate Souls so he hath appointed various duties to exercise and draw forth those graces and when they do so then have his people sweet actual communion with him And 1. To begin with the first grace that shews it self in the Soul of a Christian to wit repentance and sorrow for sin In the exercise of this grace of repentance the Soul pours out it self before the Lord with much bitterness and brokenness of Heart casts forth its sorrows which sorrows are as so much seed sown and in return thereto the Lord usually sends an answer of peace Psal. 32. 4 5. I said I will confess my transgression and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin Here 's a voice of sorrow sent up and a voice of peace coming down which is real communion betwixt God and Man in the exercises of repentace 2ly As there are seasons in duty wherein the Saints exercise their repentance and the Lord returns peace so likewise the Lord helps them in their duties to act their faith in return whereunto they find from the Lord inward support rest and refreshment Psal. 27. 13. I had fainted unless I had believed And oft-times an assurance of the mercies they have acted their faith about 1 Iohn 5. I4 3ly The Lord many times draws forth eminent degrees of our love to him in the course of our duties the heart is filled with love to Christ. The strength of the Soul is drawn forth to Christ in love and this the Lord repays in kind love for love Iohn 14. 21. He that loveth me my Father will love him and we will come and make our abode with him Here is sweet communion with God in the exercises of love O what a rich trade do Christians drive this way in their duties and exercises of graces 4ly To mention no more in the duties of Passive Obedience Christians are enabled to exercise their patience meekness and long suffering for Christ in return to which the Lord gives them the singular consolations of his Spirit Double returns of joy The Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon them 1 Pet. 4. 13 14. The Lord strengthens them with passive fortitude with all might in the inner-man unto all long-suffering but the reward of that long-suffering is joyfulness Col. 1. 11. This is the trade they drive with Heaven Thirdly Beside communion with God in the contemplation of his attributes and graces exercised in the course of duties there is another method of communion with God in the way of his Providences for therein also his people walk with him To give a taste of this let us consider Providence in a fourfold aspect upon the people of God. 1. There are afflictive providences rods and rebukes wherewith the Lord chastens his children this is the discipline of his house in answer whereunto gracious Souls return meek and childlike submission a fruit of the Spirit of Adoption they are brought to accept the punishment of their iniquities And herein lies communion with God under the rod this return to the rod may not be presently made for there is much stubborness unmortified in the best hearts Heb. I2 7. but this is the fruit it shall yield and when it doth there is real communion between God and the afflicted Soul. Let not Christians mistake themselves if when God is smiting they are humbling searching and blessing God for the discoveries of sin made by their afflictions admiring his wisdom in timing moderating and chusing the rod kissing it with a childlike submission and saying it is good for me that I have been afflicted that Soul hath real communion with God though it may be for a time without joy 2ly There are times wherein providence straightens the people of God when the waters of comfort ebb and run very low wants pinch if then the Soul returns filial dependance upon fatherly care saying with David Psal. 23. 1. The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want It belongs to him to provide and to me to depend I
of a man as communion with God doth Those are most like unto God that converse most frequently with him The beauty of the Lord is upon those Souls it figures the Spirit of a Man after the Divine pattern That 's the first Excellency of communion with God it assimilates them to God. II. Excellency It is the beauty of the Soul in the Eyes of God and all good men it makes the face to shine No outward splendor attracts like this it makes a man the most desirable companion in the whole World 1 Iohn 1. 3. These things have I written unto you that you might have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son Iesus Christ. This was the great and only inducement the Apostle makes use of to draw the World into fellowship with the Saints that their fellowship is with God. And if there were ten thousand other inducements yet none like this You read of a blessed time Zach. 12. When the Earth shall be full of holiness when the Iews that are now as a lost generation to the Eye of sense shall be called and an eminent degree of sanctification shall be visible in them and then see the effect of this vers 23. In those days ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the Nations even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Iew saying We will go with you for we have heard that God is with you This is the powerful attractive the Lord is with you 't is the effect of communion with God which makes the righteous more excellent than his neighbour Prov. 12. 26. what a vast and visible difference doth this make between one man and another How heavenly sweet and desirable are the converses and company of some men How frothy burdensoin and unprofitable is the company of others And what makes the difference but only this the one walks in communion with God the other is alienated from the life of God III. Excellency It is the Centre which rests the motions of a weary Soul 't is the Rest and Refreshment of a man's Spirit Psal. 116. 7. Return unto thy rest O my Soul. When we attain perfect Communion with God in Heaven we attain to perfect Rest and all the Rest the Spirit of man finds on Earth is found in Communion with God. Take a sanctified person who hath intermitted for some time his communion with the Lord and ask him is your Soul at rest and ease He will tell you no. The motions of his Soul are like those of a member out of Joynt neither comly nor easie Let that man recover his spiritual frame again and with it he recovers his Rest and Comfort Christians you meet with variety of troubles in this World many a sweet Comfort cut off many a hopeful project dasht by the hand of Providence and what think you is the meaning of those blasting disappointing Providences Surely this is their design and errand to disturb your false rest in the bosom of the Creature to pluck away those pillows you were laying your Heads upon that thereby you might be reduced unto God and recover your lost communion with him and say with David Return unto thy rest O my Soul. Sometimes we are setling our selves to rest in an Estate in a Child or the like at this time it is usual with God to say Go Losses smite and blast such a mans Estate go Death and take away the desire of his Eyes with a stroke that my Child may find rest nowhere but in me God is the Ark the Soul like the Dove Noah sent forth let it fly where it will it shall find no rest till it comes back to God. IV. Excellency It is the Desire of all gracious souls throughout the World. Wherever there is a gracious Soul the desires of that Soul are working after communion with God as Christ was called The desire of all Nations so communion with him is The desire of all Saints and this speaks the excellency of it Psal. 27. 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I might dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to see the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple i. e. To enjoy communion with him in the publick duties of his worship One thing have I desired that is one thing above all other things such an one as if God shall give me I can comfortably bear the want of all other things Let him deny me what he will if so be he will not deny me this one thing this one thing shall richly recompence the want of all other things Hence the desires of the Saints are so intense and fervent after this one thing Psal. 42. 1. My Soul panteth after thee O God and Psal. 119. 81. My Soul fainteth for thy Salvation Psal. 101. 2. When wilt thou come unto me No duties can satisfie without it the Soul cannot bear the delays much less the denials of it They reckon their lives worth nothing without it Ministers may come Ordinances and Sabbaths may come but there 's no satisfaction to the desires of a gracious Heart till God come too O when wilt thou come unto me V. Excellency As it is the Desire so it is the Delight of all the Children of God both in Heaven and Earth as communion with the Saints is the delight of Christ Cant. 2. 14. Let me hear thy voice And again Cant. 8. 13. The companions harken to thy voice cause me to hear it So communion with Christ is the delight of his people Cant. 2. 3. I sat under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet unto my taste 'T is the pleasure of Christ to see the yearning Countenances the blushing Cheeks the droping Eyes of his people upon their Knees And it is the delight of the Saints to see a smile upon his Face to hear a voice of pardon and peace from his Lips. I must tell you Christians you must look for no such delights as these in any earthly enjoyment none better than these till you come home to glory Communion with God then appears most excellent in as much as it is found to be the desire and delight of all gracious Souls VI. Excellency 'T is the Envy of Satan that which cuts and grates that wicked Spirit O how it grates and galls that proud and envious Spirit to see Men and Women enjoying the felicity and pleasure of that communion with God from which he himself is fallen and cut off for ever To see the Saints embosomed in delightful communion with Christ whilst himself feels the pangs of horror and despair This is what he cannot endure to behold And therefore you shall find in your experience that times of communion with God are usually buisie times of temptations from the Devil Zach. 3. 1. And he shewed me Joshua the high Priest standing before the Lord and
last farewel of thee when they bid this World and all its Inhabitants farewel at Death And what had become of all the Sufferers and Martyrs when shut up from Friends in Dungeons had it not been for thy chearing Cordials and Comforts thou there administredst to support them 'T is certainly the best of Friends or the worst of Enemies in the whole Creation This is Conscience these are its Powers and Offices which was the first thing Secondly Our next enquiry must be into the Light of Conscience and the various kinds of that Light. The Lord did not frame such an excellent Structure as the Soul of Man without Windows to let in light nor doth he deny the benefit of light to any Soul But there is a twofold Light which Men have to inform and guide their Consciences 1. The Light of Natural Reason which is common 2. The Light of Scripture Revelation which is special 1 There is the common light of Natural Reason which is connate called by Solomon Prov. 20. 27 The Candle of the Lord. The Spirit of Man is the Candle of the Lord. This is affirmed by him that had an extraordinary portion of intellectuals a brighter lamp of Reason and Wisdom than other Men And this is not only true of the Soul in general but of that special Power of it which is called Conscience which is Gods Spie and Mans Overseer The Heathens had this Light shining in their Minds and Consciences Some of them by the alone help of this Natural Light made wonderful discoveries of the Mysteries of Nature yea they found its Efficacy and Power great in their Consciences to raise their hopes or fears according to the good or evil they had done Conscia mens ut cuique sua est ita concipit intra Pectora pro facto spemque metumque suo Ovid. And to the shame of many that are called Christians some among them pay'd great Reverence to their own Consciences Imprimis reverere teipsum Turpe quid ausurus te sine teste time But however the generality of them did not so and are taxed for it in the Text And besides this Light can make no discoveries of Christ and of the way of Salvation by him The most Eagle-ey'd Philosophers among them were in the dark here And therefore 2. God hath afforded Men a more clear and excellent Light to shine into their Minds and Consciences even the Light of the Gospel which compared with the Light of Natural Reason is as the Light of the Sun to the dim Moonlight Psal. 147. 20. He sheweth his word to Iacob his Statutes and his Iudgments to Israel he hath not dealt so with any Nation and for his Iudgments they have not known them Praise ye the Lord. Every Creature hath the Name of God engraven on it but he hath magnified his Word above all his Name Psal. 138. 2. God who best knows the rate and value of his own Mercies accounts this a singular favour and priviledge to any Nation Without Revelation we could never have known the cause of our Misery the fall of Adam or the only way and means of our recovery by Christ By this a People are lifted up to Heaven Matth. 11. 21. in respect of means and advantages of Salvation and consequently the contempt or neglect of such Light and Love will certainly plunge the guilty into proportionable misery Iohn 3. 19. This is the condemnation that Light is come into the World and Men love Darkness rather than Light. Moreover God doth not only afford the Light of Natural Reason and External Gospel Revelation to some Men in an eminent degree but to both these he superadds the internal illumination of his Spirit which is the clearest and most glorious Light in the whole World. He shineth into their hearts to give the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ 2 Cor. 4. 6. These are the three sorts of Light that God makes to shine into the Soules and Consciences of Men to direct and guide them the first a common and general Light the two last the most clear and transcendent in Excellency especially that of the Spirit with the Gospel For though the Sun be risen yet men may draw the Curtains about them and lie in darkness but the Spirit opens them and makes it shine in 3. How this Light shining into the Consciences of Men obligeth them to Obedience and how Mens Lusts struggle against the Obligations of an enlightned Conscience is the next thing to be spoken to 'T is manifest and beyond all Controversie that an enlightned Conscience lays strong and indispensable Obligations and Engagements on the Soul to Obedience For the Will of God is the Supream Law 1 Tim. 6. 15 't is the Will of the only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords And the promulgation and manifestation of it so binds the Conscience of the Creature to Obedience as no Authority or Power on Earth can loose those bands no Man can grant a supersedeas in this case or relieve the Soul so bound by a noli prosequi for Conscience as Gods Vicegerent in his Name requireth Obedience and the Man that heareth the Voice of God from the Mouth of his own Conscience presently thereupon becomes a Debtor Rom. 1. 14. put under a necessity 1 Cor. 9 16. Now Conscience by reason of the Light that shineth into it feeling it self under such strong bands and necessities stimulates and urgeth the Soul to Obedience warnes commands and presses the Soul to its duty against the contrary Interests and inclinations of the Flesh And hence arise those Combats and conflicts in the bosoms of Men as the struggles of the Child in the Womb at the fullness of time causes the throws and pangs of Travail Sometimes Conscience prevails and sometimes Lusts and Corruptions prevail and that with great difficulty for 't is not alike easie to all Men to shake off or burst the bands of their own Consciences though others can do it easily What an hard tugg had Saul to conquer his own Conscience I forced my self saith he 1 Sam. 13. 12. He knew it belonged not to him to offer Sacrifice his Conscience plainly told him it would be his Sin but yet the fear of the Philistins being stronger than the fear of God he adventured upon it renitente conscientiâ against the plain dictates of his own Conscience Thus Herod gives Sentence to put Iohn to death Matth. 14. 9. The King was sorry nevertheless for his Oaths sake and them which sate with him at meat he commanded it to be given her His Honour weighed up all his fears of sin his own Word weighed more with him than Gods Word Nemo ita perplexus tenetur inter duo vitia quin exitus pateat absque tertio No man is held so perplexed between two Vices but he may find an issue without falling into a third Pilates Conscience was convinced of Christ's Innocency Matth. 27.
Heart or bow the Will The hardest part of the Ministerial work is to preach Truths into the Hearts and Lives of Men. This makes the frequent inculcations of the same Truths necessary and safe to the peoples Souls Phil. 3. 1. To write the same things unto you to me indeed is not grievous but for you it is safe V. Inference How astonishing and wonderful is the Power and Strength of Sin which can hold Men fast after their Eyes are open'd to see the Misery and Danger it hath involved them in One would think if a mans eyes were but once opened to see the Moral Evil that is in sin and the Everlasting train of Paenal Evils that follow sin together with a way of escape from both it should be impossible to hold that sinner a day longer in such a state of Bondage the work were then as good as done but alass we are mistaken sin can hold those Men and Women fast that see all this They know it is an horrid violation of Gods just and holy Laws they know it brings them under his Wrath and Curse and will damn them to all Eternity if they continue in it They know Christ is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him and that he is as willing as he is able and yet no Arguments can prevail with them to part with sin Shew but a beast a flame of fire and you cannot drive him into it if he see any way to escape it Tell a man this is rank poyson and will kill you and you cannot make him swallow it though wrapt up in Sugar or put into the most pleasant Vehicle But let a sinner see death and destruction before him and sin can make him rush on as a horse into the battle Ier. 8. 6. He goes as an Oxe to the slaughter His heart is fully set in him to do evil Eccl. 8. 11. As one said when his Physitian told him If he followed such a course of sin he would in a little time lose his Eyes Then said he vale lumen amicum farewel sweet light I cannot part with this practise So t is with others rather than forego their pleasures and break their Customs in sin farewel Heaven Christ and all O the enchanting efficacy of Sin Ier. I8 11 12 And they said there is no hope but we will walk after our own devises When a man considers what Visions of Misery and Wrath Conviction gives Men he may wonder that all convinced men are not converted and on the otherside when he considers the strong hold sin hath gotten upon the hearts of sinners it may justly seem as great a wonder that any are converted VI. Inference How dreadful is the State and Case of Apostates who have had their eyes opened their Consciences awakened their Resolutions for Christ seemingly fixed and yet after all this return again to their former course of Sin. You see Brethren sin hath not only power to hold men in Bondage to its Lusts after their eyes have been open'd but it hath power to recover and fetch back those that seemed to have clean escaped out of its hands 2 Pet. 2. 18 19. The unclean Spirit may depart for a time and make his re-entry into the same soul with seven Spirits worse than himself Matth. 12. 43. Restraints by conviction and formality do not wholly dispossess Satan he still keeps his propriety in the Soul for he calls it my house and that propriety he keeps under all those Convictions and partial Reformations opens to him and all his Hellish retinue a door for his return But oh how doleful will the end of such Men be and how just is that Martial Law of Heaven that dooms the Apostate to Eternal Wrath Heb. 10. 38. Such are ' twice dead and will be pluckt up by the Root Iude 12. VII Inference To conclude this Use How sure and dreadful will be the condemnation of all those in the day of the Lord who obstinately persist and continue in sin under the Convictions and Condemnations of their own consciences Poor wretches you are condemned already Ioh. 3. 18. Condemned by the Law of God and by the sentence of your own Consciences What thy own Conscience saith according to Gods Law God will confirm and make it good 1 Ioh. 3. 20. If our hearts condemn w God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things His sentence will be as clear as it will be terrible for in the last Day the Books will be opened the book of Gods Omniscience and the book of thine own Conscience Now the book of Conscience is as it were a Transcript or Counterpart of Gods book for thee to keep in thine own bosom Now when Gods book and thy own book shall be compared and found exactly to agree there can be no farther dispute of the Equity of the account O when God shall charge thee saying thou knewest this and that to be sin and yet thy lusts hurried thee on to commit it Is it not so Look sinner into thine own book and see if thy Conscience have not so charged it to thy Account Thou knewest Prayer was thy duty when thou neglectedst it and over-reaching the lgnorant Credulous and Unwary was thy sin when the love of gain tempted thee to it You knew I had plainly told you Thest Uncleanness Drunkenness and Extortion would bar you out of the Kingdom of Christ and of God 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. and yet putting that to the venture you have lived in those sins is it not so Examine the book in your own bosom and see The Lord make men sensible of coming Wrath for those sins they live in under light for the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against them II. VSE Is the Wrath of God revealed from Heaven a gainst all that hold the Truth in Unrighteousness Then let me exhort and perswade you by all the regard and love you have for your Souls by all the fears you have of the Incensed Wrath of the great and terrible God that you forthwith set your Convictions at Liberty and loose all the Lords Prisoners that lye bound within you because there is Wrath beware Iob 36. 18. O stifle the Voices of your own Consciences no more slight not the softest whisper or least intimation of Conscience reverence and obey its Voice Motives pressing and perswading this are many yet estimate them by weight rather than by number I. Motive The Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against them that hold the Truth in Unrighteousness and because there is Wrath beware Are you truly informed what the Wrath of God is Who knoweth the power of thine anger according to thy fear so is thy wrath Psal. 90. v. 11. O if the Wrath of a King who in all his Glory is but a mortal Worm be as the roaring of a Lyon and as the Messengers of Death Prov. 20. 2. Prov. 16. 14. What then is the power of his Wrath at whose
frowns the Kings of the Earth tremble the Captains and the Mighty Men shrink like worms into their holes if the lesser Executions of it by Providence in this world be so dreadful that men yea good men have desired an hiding place in the Grave till it be past Iob 14. 13. then what is the full execution thereof upon the ungodly in the place of Torments If the threats and denunciations of it against others have made an Habakkuk though assured of personal safety to quiver with his Lips and tremble in his Bowels as you see it did Hab. 3. 16. How much more should those tremble and quiver who are to be the Subjects of it and not the meer Heralds of it as he was And which is more than all if Iesus Christ who was to feel it but a few Hours and had the power of the Godhead to support him under it did notwithstanding sweat as it had been great drops of blood and was sore amazed think with wthy self poor wretch how shall thy heart endure or thy hands be strong when thou hast to do with an incensed Deity II. Motive Till you let your Convictions go Satan will not let you go He binds you whilst you bind them Here is the Command of God and the Command of Satan in competition Let go my Truths saith God which thou holdest in unrighteousness bind and suppress them saith Satan or they 'll deprive thee of the liberty and pleasure of thy Life Now whilst thou slightest the voice of God and Conscience for the voice of Conscience is the voice of God dost thou not avowedly declare thy self the bond-slave of Satan His Servants ye are to whom you obey Rom. 6. 16. Dare not to make one step further in the way of known sin saith Conscience continue not at thy Peril in such a dangerous state after I have so clearly convinced and warned thee of it fear not saith Satan if it be bad with thee 't will be as bad with Millions God will wound the heads of such as go in their Trespasses saith Scripture Psal. 68. 21. Tush others do so and escape as well as the most nice and tender saith Satan Now I say thy Obedience to Satans commands plainly declares thee all this while to be a poor enslaved Captive to him acted and carried according to the Prince of the power of the air the Spirit that now worketh in the Children of disobedience III. Motive Nay further until you obey your Convictions you are Confederates with the Devil in a desperate Plot against your own Souls You joyn with Christs great and avowed Enemy to dishonour him and damn your selves Two things make you Confederates with the Devil against your own Souls First Your Consent to this his Project for your Damnation for so your own Consciences out of the Scriptures inform you it is Consent makes you a Party Secondly Your Concealment of this Plot brings you in as a Party with him Confess thy sin and bewail it saith Conscience not so saith Pride and Shame how shall I look men in the face if I do so Don't you in all this believe Satan and make God a Liar Don't you act as men that hate your own Souls and love death Prov. 8. 36. O 't is a dreadful thing for men to be accessary to their own Eternal Ruin and that after fair warning and notice given them by their own Consciences Satan be his power what it will cannot destroy you without your own Consent IV. Motive Whilst you go on stifling your own Convictions and turning away your ears from its calls to Repentance and Reformation you cannot be pardoned You are in your sins and the guilt of them all lies at your door You may see what the Terms of Remission are Isa. 55. 7. Let the wicked for sake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him turn unto the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God and he will abundantly pardon So again Prov. 28. 13. He that hardneth his neck shall not prosper but he that confesseth and for saketh shall find mercy You see by these and may see by many more plain Scripture Testimonies there can be no hope of Remission whilst you go on in this path of Rebellion concealing yea and persisting in your known wickedness There is a necessary and inseparable Connection betwixt Repentance and Remission Acts 5. 31. and Luke 24. 47. And can you endure guilt to be your Bedfellow during Life and your Grave fellow after Death V. Motive You can never have peace with your own Consciences whilst you keep Convictions Prisoners Now a mans Conscience is his best Friend or his worst Enemy Thence are the sweetest Comforts and thence are the bitterest Sorrows 'T is a dreadful thing for a man to lie with a cold sweating Horror upon his panting Bosom Tum pallida mens est Criminibus tacit a sudant praecordia culpâ And this or which is worse Obduration and Stupidity must be the case of them that hold the Truth in Unrighteousness There can be no sounding a retreat to these terrors till Sheba's Head be thrown over the Walls I mean till that Sin your Conscience convinceth you of be delivered up As Israel could have no peace till Achan was destroy'd so thou shalt have no peace whilst thy sin is covered and hid Men may cry peace peace to themselves whilst they continue in sin Deut. 29. 18 19. but the sharpest troubles of Conscience are better than such peace Deliver up thy self Man if thou love peace into the hands of thy own Convictions and thou art in the true way to peace Thy rejoycing must be in the Testimony of thine own Conscience as the Apostle speakes 2 Cor. 1. 12. or thou rejoycest in a dream in a delusion in a thing of nought VI. Motive What dreadful Charges are you like to meet with upon your death-beds on the account of those sins you have lived in against Knowledge and Conviction Conscience is never more active and vigorous than in the last hours and moments of Life Now it will be stifled and over-ruled no longer It whispered before but now it thunders If a Man have a clear and quiet Conscience his Evening is clear and his Sun sets without Clouds See Psal. 37 37. The end of that man is peace In Contemplation of this Felicity it was that Balaam uttered that wish let my last end be like his This peace is the result of a Mans integrity and Obedience to the voice of Conscience this being the Evidence we can most safely rely upon of our Uprightness and Interest in Christ but the result of such violences and abuses to thy Conscience cannot be peace to thy Soul 'T is true some wicked Men dye in seeming peace and some good Men in trouble but both the one and other are mistaken the first as to the good Estate he fancies himself in and the other as to his bad Estate and a few Moments
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
though the Soul that was sealed should for the present be under new darkness new temptations and fears yet former sealing will give establishment and relief when the thoughts run back to the sealing day and a man remembers how clear God once made his title to Christ Well then open to Christ if ever you expect to be sealed to salvation If you continue to despise and reject the tenders of Christ in the Gospel whilst others that embrace him are sealed to redemption Your unbelief and final rejection of Christ will seal you up to the day of damnation V. And lastly we read likewise in the Scriptures of the Earnest of the Spirit This is three times mentioned in the Scriptures Eph. 1. 14. Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchasad possession 2 Cor. 1. 22. where it is joyned with the former priviledge of sealing Who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our Hearts And again 2 Cor. 5. 5. He that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 originally a Syriak word The Greeks are supposed to get it from the Phonician Merchants with whom they traded and it notes a part paid in hand to confirm a bargain for the whole There are two things in an earnest 1 It is part of the sum or inheritance If it were a contract for a sum of mony then it was a small part of a greater parcel If for an Inheritance then the earnest is a taking a part of the Inheritance as a twig or turf part of the whole Now the Spirit of God chooses this word on purpose to signifie two great things to his People by it 1. That those comforts communicated by the Spirit to Believers are of the same kind with the Joys of Heaven though in a far inferiour degree 1 Pet. 1. 8. called there Ioy unspeakable and full of glory and Rom. 8. 23. called there The first-fruits of the Spirit The First-Fruits and the Crop or Harvest are one in kind Surely there is something of Heaven as well as Hell tasted by men in this world Hell is begun here in the terrors of some mens Consciences and Heaven also is begun here in the absolution peace and comfort of other mens Consciences 2. As an earnest is part of the sum or inheritance so the use and end of it is confirmation and security as much as to say Take this in part till the whole be paid yea take it for thy security that the whole shall be paid Believers have a double pledge or earnest for Heaven one in the person of Christ who is entred into that glory for them Iohn 14. 2 3. The other in the joys and comforts of the Spirit which they feel and taste in themselves These are two great securities and the design of God in giving us these earnests and foretasts of Heaven are not only to settle our minds but to whet our industry that we may long the more earnestly and labour the more diligently for the full possession The Lord sees how apt we are to flag in the pursuit of Heavenly Glory and therefore gives his People a taste an earnest of it to excite their diligence in the pursuits of it God deals with his People in this case as with Israel they had been forty years in the Wilderness many sore temptations they had there encountred at last they were come upon the very borders of Canaan but then their hearts began to faint there were Anakims Gyants in the Land poor Israel feared they should not stand before them but Ioshua sends Spies into the Land who returning bring the first-fruits of Canaan to them whereby they saw what a goodly Country it was and then the fear of the Anakims began to vanish and a spirit of Courage to revive in the People Thus it is even with the Borderers upon Heaven tho' we be near that blessed Land of promise yet our hearts are apt to faint upon a prospect of those great sufferings without us and those conflicts with corruptions we feel within us But one taste of the first fruits of Heaven like those grapes of Eshcol revive our Spirits rouze our Zeal and quicken our pursuits of blessedness For these reasons God will not have all of Heaven reserved till we come thither And now tell me you that have tasted these first-fruits of the Spirit 1 Is there not something in faith of that glorified Eye by which the pure in heart do see God in Heaven Matth. 5. 8. O that eye of Faith that precious eye which comes as near to the glorified eye as any thing in this imperfect state can come 1 Pet. 1. 8. Whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory 2 Is there not something of that glorified love to be felt in an inferiour degree by the Saints in this world What else can we make of that transport of the Spouse Cant. 2. 5. Stay me with flagons comfort me with apples for I am sick of love 'T is true our love to God in Heaven is much more servent pure and constant yet these high-raised acts of spiritual love have a tast and relish of it 3 Is there not something here of that heavenly delight wherewith the glorified delight in God As the visions of God are begun on earth so the heavenly delights are begun here also Some drops of that delight are let fall here Psal. 94. 19. In the multitude of the thoughts I had within me thy comforts delight my Soul. David's heart 't is like had been full of sorrow and trouble a sea of gall and wormwood had overflowed his Soul God le ts fall but a drop or two of heavenly delight and all is turned into sweetness and comfort 4 Is there not something here of that transformation of the Soul into the image of God which is compleat in Heaven and a special part of the glory thereof 'T is said in 1 Iohn 3. 2. We shall be like him for me shall see him as he is This is Heaven this is glory to have the Soul moulded into full conformity with God something thereof is experienced in this world O that we had more 2 Cor. 3. 18. But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord. 5 Is there not something felt here of the ravishing sweetness of God's presence in Ordinances and Duties which is a faint shadow at least of the joys of his glorious presence in Heaven there is certainly a felt presence of God a sensible nearness unto God at some times and in some duties of Religion wherein his name is as an oyntment poured forth Cant. 1. 3. something that is felt beyond
mutual desires after communion betwixt Christ and his people in this World then certainly there is such a thing as real communion between them or else both must live a very restless and dissatisfied life Sixthly The mutual complaints that are found on both sides of the interruption of communion plainly proves there is such a thing If God complain of his people for their estrangements from him and the Saints complain to God about his silence to them and the hidings of his face from them Surely then there must be a communion between them or else there could be no ground of complaints for the interruptions of it But it is manifest God doth complain of his people for their estrangments from him Ier. 2. 5. Thus saith the Lord I remember thee the kindness of thy youth and the love of thy espousals What iniquity have your Fathers found in me that they are gone far from me As if he should say You and I have been better acquainted in days past what cause have I given for your estrangments from me And thus Christ in like manner complains of the Church of Ephesus after he had commended many things in her yet one thing grieves and troubles him Rev. 2. 4. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love And then on the other side when the Lord hids his face and seems to estrange himself from his people what sad laments and moans do they make about it As an affliction they know not how to bear Thus Heman Psal. 88. 14. Lord why castests thou off my Soul Why hidest thou thy face from me So Psal. 27. 9. Hide not thy face from me put not thy servant away in anger This is what they cannot bear Seventhly The reality of communion with God is made visible to others in the sensible effects of it upon the Saints that enjoy it There are visible signs and tokens of it appearing to the conviction of others Thus that marvelous change that appeared upon the very countenance of Hannah after she had poured her heart in prayer and the Lord had answered her it is noted 1 Sam. 1. 18. She went away and her countenance was no more sad You might have read in her face that God had spoken peace and satisfaction to her heart Thus when the Disciples had been with Christ the mark of communion with him was visible to others Acts 4. 13. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John they marvelled and took knowledg of them that they had been with Iesus 'T is sweet Christian when the heavenly cheariness and spirituality of thy converses with men shall convince others that thou hast been with Jesus Eighthly We may prove the reality of communion with God from the impossibility of sustaining those troubles the Saints do without it If prayers did not go up and answers come down there were no living for a Christian in this World. Prayer is the out-let of the Saints sorrows and the in-let of their supports and comforts Rom. 8. 26. Say not other men have their troubles as well as the Saints and yet they make a shift to bear them without the help of communion with God. 'T is true carnal men have their troubles and those troubles are often too heavy for them The sorrows of the world work death but carnal men have no such troubles as the Saints have for they have their inward Spiritual troubles as well as their outward troubles And inward troubles are the sinking troubles but this way the strength of God comes in to succor them and except they had a God to go to and fetch comfort from they could never bear them Psal. 27. 13. I had fainted unless â— had believed Paul had sunk under the buffetings of Satan unless he had gone once and again to his God and received this answer My grace is sufficient for thee 2 Cor. 12. 9. Ninthly We conclude the reality of communion with God from the end of the Saints vocation We read frequently in Scripture of effectual calling now what is that to which God calls his people out of the state of nature but unto fellowship and communion with Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 1. 9. God is faithful by whom ye are called unto the fellowship of his son Iesus Christ our Lord. They are called you see in to a life of communion with Christ therefore certainly there is such a communion else the Saints are called to the enjoyment of a fancy instead of a privilege which is the greatest reproach that can be cast upon the faithful God that called them Lastly In a word the characters and descriptions given to the Saints in Scripture evidently prove their life of communion with God. The Men of this World are manifestly distinguished from the people of God in Scripture they are called The Children of this World the Saints The Children of light Luke 16. 8. They are said to be after the flesh Saints to be after the Spirit Rom. 8. 5. they mind earthly things but the Saints conversation is in Heaven Phil. 3. 19 20. By all which it undeniably appears that there is a reality in the Doctrin of communion betwixt Christ and his people We are not imposed upon 't is no cunningly devised fable but a thing whose foundation is as sure as its nature is sweet Thirdly In the last place I shall shew you the transcendent excellency of this life of communion with God it is the life of our Life the joy of our Hearts a Heaven upon Earth as will appear by the Twenty Excellencies thereof following I. Excellency It is the Assimilating instrument whereby the Soul is moulded and fashioned after the image of God. This is the Excellency of communion with God to make the Soul like him There is a twofold assimilation or conformity of the Soul to God the one perfect and compleat the other inchoate and in part Perfect assimilation is the privilege of the perfect state resulting from the immediate vision and perfect communion the Soul hath with God in glory 1 Iohn 3 2 When he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Perfect vision produceth perfect assimilation but the Souls assimilation or imperfect conformity to God in this World is wrought and gradually carried on by dayly communion with him And as our communion with God here grows up more and more into spirituality and power so in an answerable degree doth our conformity to him advance 2 Cor. 3. 18. But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the spirit of the Lord. All sorts of communion among men have an assimilating efficacy he that walks in vain company is made vainer than he was before and he that walks in spiritual heavenly company will be ordinarily more serious than he was before but nothing so transforms the Spirit