tion, and terms of mercy, unto thee, and yet thou perishest: That there is balm in Gilead', and yet thou art not healed. And if thou hast not comfort from Jesus crucified, I know not whence thou canst have any that will hold out. Look about thee, tell me what thou seest, either in thy possession, or in thy hopes, that thou esteemest most, and layest thy confidence on; or, to deal more liberally with thee, see what estate thou wouldst choose, hadst thou thy wish. Stretch thy fancy to devise an earthly happiness. These times are full of unquietness; but give thee a time of the calmest peace, not an air of trouble stirring; put thee where thou wilt, far off from fear of sword and pestilence, and encompass thee with children, friends, and possessions, and honours, and comfort, and health to enjoy all these; yet one thing thou must admit in the midst of them all, within a while thou must die; and, having no real portion in Christ, but a deluding dream of it, thou sinkest through that death into another death far more terrible. Of all thou enjoyest, nothing goes along with thee but unpardoned sin, and that delivers thee up to endless sorrow. Oh! that you were wise and would consider your latter end. Do not still gaze about you upon trifles, but yet be entreated to take notice of your Saviour, and receive him, that he may be yours. Fasten your belief and your love on him; give all your heart to him, who stuck not to give himself an offering for your sins".

2. To you that have fled in to him for refuge, if sensible of the Church's distress, be upheld with this thought, that he that suffered for it will not suffer it to be undone. All the rage of enemies, yea, the gates of hell, shall not prevail against it°; he may, for a time, suffer the Church to be brought low for the sins of his people, and other wise reasons, but he will not utterly forsake it. Though there is much chaff, yet he hath a precious number in these Jer. iii. 18. m Deut. xxxii. 29. Eph. v. 2. • Matt. xvi. 18.

n

kingdoms, that he shed his blood for. Many God hath called, and yet is to call: He will not lose any of his flock that he bought so dear; and for their sake he will, at one time or another, repair our breaches, and establish his throne in these kingdoms. And for yourselves, what can affright you while this is in your eye? Let others tremble at the apprehension of sword or pestilence; but sure you have for them, and all other hazards, a most satisfying answer in this, My Christ hath sufferred for sin; I am not to fear that; and that set aside, I know the worst is but death. But I am wrong; truly death, that is the best, to be dissolved; and to be with Christ is [μ

much more better".

This were a happy estate indeed; but what shall they think that have no assurance? Those that doubt that Christ is theirs, and that he suffered for their sins: I know no way but to believe on him, and then you shall know that he is yours: From this is the grand mistake of many; they would first know that Christ is theirs, and they would believe, which cannot be, before he comes theirs by believing. It is that which gives title and propriety to him; he is set before sinners as a Saviour that hath suffered for sin, that they may look to him and be saved; that they may lay over their souls on him, and then they may be assured he suffered for them.

Say then, what is it that scares thee from Christ? this thou seest is a poor groundless exception, for he is set before thee as a Saviour to believe on, that so he may be thy Saviour. Why wilt thou not come unto him? why refusest thou to believe? Art thou a sinner? art thou unjust? Then he is fit for thy case: He suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust. Oh! but so many and so great sins! yea, Is that it? It is true indeed, and good reason thou think so. But, 1st, Consider if they be excepted in the proclamation of Christ, the pardon that comes in his name: If not, if he make no exception, why

P Acts xx. 28.

4 Rom. v. 1, 2, 3.

I Phil. i. 23.

wilt thou? 2dly, Consider if thou wilt call them greater than this sacrifice, he suffered. Take due notice of the greatness and worth, first of his person, and thence of his sufferings, and thou wilt not dare to say thy sin goes above the value of his suffering, or that thou art too unjust for him to justify thee: Be as, unrighteous as thou canst be, art thou convinced of it? then know that Jesus the just, is more righteous than thy unrighteousness: And after all is said, that any sinner hath to say, they are yet, without exception, blessed that trust in him.

2. We have the final cause of his sufferings, That he might bring us to God.] It is the chief point of wisdom, to proportion means to their end: Therefore, the all-wise God, in putting his only Son to so hard a task, had a high end in this, and this was it, That he might bring us unto God. In this we have three things, 1st, The nature of this good, nearness unto God. 2dly, Our deprivemnt of it, by our own sin. 3dly, Our restorement to it, by Christ's sufferings.

1. The nature of this good, nearness to God. God hath suited every creature he hath made with a convenient good to which it tends; and in the obtainment of which it rests and is satisfied. Natural bodies have each their own natural place, whither, if not hindered, they move incessantly till they be in it; and they declare, by resting there, that they are (as I may say) where they would be. Sensitive creatures are carried to seek a sensitive good, as agreeable to their rank and being, and, attaining that, aim no further. Now, in this is the excellency of man; he is made capable of a communion with his Maker, and, because capable of it, is unsatisfied without it; the soul, being cut out (so to speak) to that largeness, cannot be filled with less, though he is fallen from his right to that good, and from all right desire of it, yet not from a capacity

Psal. ii. ult.

of it, no, nor from a necessity of it, for the answering and filling of his capacity.

Though the heart once gone from God, turns continually farther away from him, and moves not towards him till it be renewed; yet, even in that wandering, it retains that natural relation to God, as its centre, that it hath no true rest elsewhere, nor cannot by any means find it. It is made for him, and is therefore still restless till it meet with him.

It is true, the natural man takes much pains to quiet his heart by other things, and digests many vexations with hopes of contentment in the end, and accomplishment of some design he hath; but still the heart misgives. Many times he attains not the thing he seeks; but if he do, yet he never attains the satisfaction he seeks and expects in it; but only learns from that to desire something further, and still hunts on after a fancy, drives his own shadow before him, and never overtakes it; and if he did, yet it is but a shadow. And so in running. from God, besides the sad end, he carries an interwoven punishment with his sin, the natural disquiet and vexation of his spirit, fluttering to and fro, and finding no rest for the sole of his foot: The waters of inconstancy and vanity covering the whole face of the earth.

We study to abase our souls, and to make them content with less than they are made for; yea, we strive to make them carnal, that they may be pleased with sensible things. And in this men attain a brutish content for a time, forgetting their higher good. But, certainly, we cannot think it sufficient, and that no more were to be desired beyond ease and plenty, and pleasures of sense; for then, a beast in good case, and a good pasture, might contest with us in point of happiness, and carry it away; for that sensitive good he enjoys without sin, and without the vexation that is mixt with us in all.

These things are too gross and heavy; the soul,

the immortal soul, descended from heaven, must either be more happy or remain miserable. The highest increated Spirit is the proper good; the Father of spirits, that pure and full good, raises the soul above itself; whereas all other things draw it down below itself. So, then, it is never well with the soul, but when it is near unto God, yea, in its union with him; married to him, and mismatching itself elsewhere, it hath never any thing but shame and sorrow. All that forsake thee shall be ashamed, says the Prophet'; and the Psalmist", They that are far off from thee shall perish. And this is indeed our natural miserable condition, and it is often exprest this way, by estrangedness and distance from God. The Gentiles were far off by their profession and nation, but both Jews and Gentiles far off by their natural foundation; and both are brought near by the blood of the New Covenant; and that is the other thing here implied, that we are far off by reason of sin; otherwise there were no need of Christ, especially in this way of suffering for sin, to baing us unto God. This we proposed to consider secondly,

2. Our deprivement of this great good of nearness to God, by our sin. Now sin, as the breach of God's command, broke off man and separated him from God, and ever since the soul remains naturally remote from God, 1. Under a sentence of exile, pronounced by the justice of God; condemned to banishment from God, who is the life and light of the soul, as the soul itself is of the body. 2. It is under a flat impossibility of returning by itself; and that in two respects, 1. Because of the guiltiness of sin standing betwixt, as an unpassable mountain or wall of separation. 2. Because of the dominion of sin keeping the soul captive, yea, still drawing it farther off from God, and increasing the distance and the enmity every day. Nor is there in heaven, nor under heaven, any way to remove this enmity, and make up this distance, " Psal. lxxiii. 27. * Eph. ii.

* Jer. xvii. 13.