you or no, whether he has any love for your fouls or no? Yet hold on, whether comfort come or not; though Chrift and comfort are infeparable, yet Chrift and the sense of comfort are not fo: think not that all your troubles fhall be over as foon as ever you believe, because it is faid, Heb. iv. 3. We which have believed do enter into reft: That fcripture speaks of a state of rest, and not of the prefent or continued fenfe of reft. The woman of Canaan, in Matth. xv. 26, 27. did really believe in Christ, yet met with fore trials under the first act of her faith? yet this took her not off from the work of faith; but rather quickened and enflamed her the more; fhe was glad of a word from Chrift, and the expected deeds. O but the words were difcouraging; it is not meet to take the children's bread, and give it to dogs; yet this beats not off her faith; the dog belongs to the family, and crums to the dog. O woman, faith Chrift, great is thy faith. If you refolve for Chrift, you must not be discouraged; a refolute faith overcomes all difficulties. You pray, you believe, and yet no comfort; well, the vifion of peace is for an appointed time, at the end it will speak and not lie. · Direct. 9. In your treating with Christ, have a care of all fecret referves that will fpoil the treaty betwixt Chrift and you; If I regard iniquity in my heart, God will not hear my prayer, faith David: If there be but a referve of one luft, that referve will break off the treaty be honeft with Chrift, and fay not of any fin, the Lord be merciful to me in this; and be fure there be no fecret purpose or referve in thy heart for a retreat in time of danger; but embark thyfelf with Chrift for ftorms and tempefts, troubles and afflictions, as well as peace and profperity. Chrift beftows himself wholly upon you, and he expects the fame from you; give up all, or you will get nothing from him. Direct. 10. Clofe up your treaty with Chrift by a folemn covenant with him; engage yourfelves to be the Lord's: "One shall "fay, I am the Lord's: And another shall subscribe with his hand "to the holy One of Ifrael." Here you have two things to do: (1.) To give yourselves up to Chrift, according to that expreffion, 2 Cor. viii. 5. They gave themselves to the Lord. Make your foul and body, time and talents, henceforth to be dedicated things to his fervice. (2) Take Christ in both his natures, and in all his offices to be yours; and to this covenant you are to stand to the laft breath, whatever times or troubles fhall come. This confent of thy heart to be Chrift's, this choice of thy will in taking him for thine, is but the echo of Chrift's choice of thee; and I would rather have fuch an evidence of my intereft in him, than a voice from heaven to affure me that Christ is mine. SERMON VII. REVEL. iii. 20. Behold I fand at the door and knock; [if any man] hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will fup with him, and be with me. If any man*. HIS expreffion extends the gracious offer of Christ, and with a Si quis, if any man; as if Chrift fhould fay, I will have this offer of my grace to go round to every particular perfon; if thou, or thou, or thou, the greatest, the vileft of finners, of what quality or condition foever, old or young, profane or hypocritical, will hear my voice, and open to me, I will come into their fouls. And hereby all objections are obviated; as for example, I am the greatest of finners, faith one; I have been a felf-cozening hypocrite, faith another; I have refifted grace too long, and doubt the time of mercy is paft, faith a third. The ground of all thefe, and a thousand more objections, is taken away by the gracious extent of Chrift's offer in the text: for who is he that can limit where Christ doth not? This gives us a feventh profitable and comfortable Obfervation, which is this, · Doct. 7. That Jefus Chrift will not refufe to come in to the foul of the vileft finner, when once it is made highly willing to open to bim. If any man open, I will come in to him. It is not unworthiness, but unwillingness, that bars any man from Chrift: thousands have miffed of Chrift by their unwillingness, but Chrift never put off one foul upon account of its unworthiness; Chrift is not the fale but the gift of God; you come not to make a bargain, but to receive a free gift: faith is a marriage with Chrift, wherein nothing but our hearty confent is expected; fo runs the ftrain of the whole Scriptures, Ifa. lv. 1. «Ho, every one that thirfteth, come ye to the "waters; and he that hath no money, (i. e. no merit, no wor"thinefs of his own) let him come." Behold the free grace of Christ to the vileft and unworthiest of finners. So Rev. xxii. 17. Eav Tis. Qualifcunque fuerit peccator, Hypocrita, qui diu obftitit Evangelio.If any man. Whoever the finner be, let him be an hypocrite, or who hath long refifted the gospel, &c. "Let him that is a thirst come; and whofoever will, let him "come, and take the water of life freely." And, in the very phrase of my text, he speaks again, John vii. 37. "If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink." It is very obfervable, throughout the whole gofpel, that Chrift never made any objection against any foul that came to him upon the account of its finfulness and unworthiness; but all the complaints of Chrift are still upon the account of their unwillingness. So in his complaint over Jerufalem, Luke xiii 34. "I would, but you would not ;" so again, John v. 40. "You will not come unto me, that you might have life." The complaint is ftill upon their unwillingness. In ftating this point, I fhall doctrinally discourse these two things: First, What it is to be truly willing to receive Jefus Chrift. Secondly, How it appears that they who are fo, fhall certainly be received, and graciously accepted of him. First, What it is to be truly willing to receive Jefus Chrift; for this is meant by opening to him. Now this implies, and involves in it, many great and weighty things. 1. It implies, and neceffarily includes, the right understanding and true apprehenfion of gospel terms and articles: thefe muft be known, pondered, and duly confidered, before the will can favingly open, in an act of confent, to Chrift's offer. I defire this may be efpecially obferved, because multitudes are mistaken and deceived about this thing: he that doth not confider, doth not confent; you must exercise your understandings upon the terms and articles of Christianity, or elfe your confent is rafh, blindfold, and unftable. This in Luke xiv. 31. is called confulting; the confent of faith is the refult of many previous confultations and debates in the mind; the foul that comes to Christ must take up religion in his most sedate and serious thoughts; turn both fides of it, the dark as well as the bright fide of religion, to the eye of his mind; balance all the conveniencies and inconveniencies, lofies as well as gains. If I open to Chrift, this I fhall gain, but that I muft lofe; I cannot feparate Chrift from fufferings, Chrift will separate me from my fins; if I feek him, I must let them go; if I profess Chrift, providence will one time or other bring me to this dilemma, either Chrift or earthly comforts must go. It is neceffary therefore that I now propound to myfelf what providence may, one time or other, propound to me; he hath fet down his terms, Mat. xvi. 24. “If "any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up "his cross and follow me." This self-denial deserves ferious confideration; for Chrift extends it to natural felf, righteous felf, and civil felf; and requires that I give up my life, my liberty, my eftate, my relations, and my own righteoufnefs, as hard to be parted with as any of the former. I muft take up my crofs, that is, the fufferings and troubles God fhall appoint for me, and which I cannot avoid or escape without fin; and I must follow Chrift, follow him whitherfoever he goes. I know not what religion may, coft me before I die; all this it hath coft others; and there is no bringing down Chrift's terms lower than he hath laid them. I must come up to them, they will not come down to me; if I like them not as Chrift hath left them, the treaty between him and me is ended; Mat. x. 37, 38. "He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not "worthy of me; and he that loveth fon or daughter more than "me, is not worthy of me. and he that taketh not his crofs, and "followeth after me, is not worthy of me." Where, by worthiness, we are not to understand the meritoriousness of these acts, but the neceffary qualification of the will, and due qualification of a comer unto Chrift; thefe previous confultations and debates in the mind prepare and enable the will to make a serious and well-advised choice of Chrift; and for want of this, there are fuch fwarms of hypocrites and apoftates in the world. 2. It implies such a sense of misery in us, and of the neceffity and excellency of Chrift, as determines the will to the choice of him, notwithstanding all thofe difficulties and troubles which have fallen, or can fall under confideration and debate in the mind. When the foul fees that in Chrift which preponderates all fufferings, all loffes, all reproaches, &c. and then determines, I will have Christ, though I facrifice all that is dear to me in the world for him, this is to be truly willing to open to Chrift. It is true, the enjoyments of this world are understood by Chriftians as much as other men ; they have a feeling fenfe of the sweetness and comfort of earthly/ enjoyments; their fouls have as much affection to the body as other men; they understand the charming language of the world, and their dear relations in it, as well as others; only they fee a greater neceffity of Chrift, and a greater worth in Chrift than they do in thefe things. You read, Lam i. 11. that in the famine of Jerufalem they gave their pleasant things for meat to relieve their foul; jewels, bracelets, gold, filver, any thing for bread: they understood the worth of thofe things, knew the price and coft of them; but away they go to preferve life. So it is here, no earthly enjoyment, of what value foever it be, hath fuch an excellency in it, fuch an abfolute neceffity of enjoying it as Christ hath. Object. But oh! faith the poor foul, who can do this? I am willing to have Chrift, and to come up to every term he hath laid down in the gospel; I am willing to part with every fin, and to endure any fuffering for Chrift: But oh! I tremble to think, if it fhould come to a prison, to a stake, to an actual separation from all the comforts and relations in the world, what fhall I do for ftrength to go through fuch hard and difficult work as this! Here is the great rub in the way of many fouls; they find a willingness, but fear the want of ftrength. Anfw. How or where you shall find ftrength to endure and fuffer these things for Chrift, is not the queftion now before you: God will take care for that, and it fhall be given you in that hour, and fo others have found who have had the very fame fears you have. I fay, the question is not whether you be able, but whether you be heartily willing? Chrift afks but your will, he will provide ability: The greatest believer in the world cannot fay, I am able to fuffer this or that for Chrift; but the leaft believer in the world must say, I am willing, the Lord affitting me, to endure and fuffer all things for his fake. And this is the fecond thing included in opening to Christ. 3. The third thing which perfects and confummates the whole act, is an entire choice of Jefus Chrift upon all thofe terms prefcribed by him; the entirenefs of the choice, without halving or dividing, excepting or referving, making the confent full and effectual. There is a twofold confent of the will to Christ. (1.) One partial, and with exception. (2.) The other entire, and without any refervation. (1.) There is a partial confent, which is always hypocritical, defective, lame, and ineffectual; thus the hypocrite confents to the offer of Chrift: He is really willing to have the pardons of Chrift, and the glory purchased by Chrift; but to part with his beloved lufts, and to give up his earthly enjoyments, that his will cannot confent to. (2.) There is a full and entire confent of the will, called, A beliving with all the heart, Acts viii. 34. Now this integrity and fulness of the will's choice, is that which clofes the match betwixt Chrift and the foul, and frees a man from the danger of hypocrify. And there are three things which make the confent to, and choice of Chrift complete 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. 1. We do then heartily confent to be Chrift's, when we give up all we are and have to him; fo that after this choice of Chrift, we look upon ourfelves thenceforth as none of our own, but bought with a price, to glorify God in our body and foul, which are his, 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20. Soul and body are all that we are, and both these parts of ourselves do now pafs, by an act of our own confent, into the Redeemer's 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, luits, paffions, were under the dominion, |