he was forced to cry out, My God, my God, why hast thou forfaken me? O can't thou look on Golgotha or Gethsemane with dry eyes, or an unconcerned heart? can't thou fee Chrift's eyes weep, and his heart melted like, wax within him, and yet thy heart continue hard, and thine eyes dry? Come hearken to his dying groans, and look to his bleeding wounds: think you hear him faying to you, Behold what your fins have done is there any forrow like my forrow? O wilt thou not fay to thy hard heart, What is this that thou haft done? Is not this the Son of God, and the King of Glory, that thou haft murdered by thy fins; and, wilt thou not be grieved for them? Shall the hard rocks rent, the dead earth shake, the temples veil rend, the fun veil its bright 'face, the heavens put on a mourning habit, and 'the whole creation look fad, when Chrift is fuffering for thy fins, and thou the guilty criminal, that shouldst have eternally howled in hell's flames, ftand only unconcerned?' Be aftonished, O heavens, at this and let thy hard heart blush and be ashamed for it. Ah! fhall the history of Jofeph in the pit move your heart more than that of Christ upon the crofs? Shall the news of the tragical death or fufferings of one of your friends or countrymen among the Turks, move your heart fooner than the death and Jufferings of the innocent fon of God? O then! go to God, and complain of thy hard heart; take it and lay it before God's promife, Ezek. xxxvi. 26. and plead that he would take it away, according to his word. Lord, thou cured'it all manner of plagues and difeafes which were brought to thee while thou waft on earth; and, haft thou not the fame bowels of mercy now in heaven? furely thy goodness is ftill the fame, thy bands are not shortned that they cannot fave: nay, there are holes now in thy hands, to let bleffings drop through them the more freely to us. Thou art my only phyfician, and

་

' to

to thee I will look for the cure: Lord, nothing ⚫ will do it but the plaister of thy blood.

Mourning is abfolutely neceffary for thee, O communicant, if thou wouldst have the wine of confolation in the facrament. When did Jacob find God in Bethel, but when he wept and made Jupplication to God? Hof. xii. 4. When did Mary meet with Christ, but when he fought him weeping and forrowing? John xx. II. If you caft out a flood of tears in Chrift's way, he will not be able for his compaffionate heart to pals over it, but will turn in and lodge with you.

Object. Alas! I cannot win to tears for fin. Are tears abfolutely neceffary?

Anf. They are very defirable where they are; the penitents tears are the joy of angels, and the delight of God, he keeps a bottle for them: but yet all conftitutions are not alike moift; a tender heart may be matched with a dry brain that cannot easily com. mand tears; and fome perhaps may lay more stress on tears than on the frame of the heart that produces them, not minding that God looks more to the inward frame than to the outward expreffions. But the truth is, if thou be one that canft get tears for other things, for worldly loffes and croffes, and yet can find none for fin, it is a fign thy heart is not right. How many, alas, can weep abundantly for the lofs of a child, yea, for a horfe or cow, and yet have not one tear for the lofs of their foul, or of Christ's favour or prefence!

Flee to Jefus Chrift by Faith, and embrace him as he is offered to you in the Gofpel, before you come to his Table.

N

One have right to Chrift's table, but these who come first to him in the way of faith; for it is a feaft defigned only for believers.

What

What hath been faid above, concerning the multitude and beinoufnefs of your fins, for which you ought to be humbled and mourn, may serve to shew your great need of Chrift to deliver you from them. Think not that your repentance, confeflions or tears for fin, can any ways fatisfy the juftice of God for it, or merit acceptance or pardon for you: This were to put these things in Chrift's room, that are only means to lead you to him; and to take up with a righteousness of your own, instead of his, that allenarly can atone the juftice of God for finners. O then fee that you look beyond all to Christ alone for attonement, righteousness, pardon and falvation, and count all things but dung and loss in respect of him.

Now, fince the gospel offers Chrift to all that hear it, and the call and command to receive and embrace Chrift as a Saviour is given to all and every one, even to the vileft of finners; you have a full warrant to lay hold on him for pardon, and flee to, him for mercy; and you heinously fin againft God and your own foul, if you neglect to do it. How shall we efcape if we neglect so great a falvation, and flight fo great a Saviour?

I shall therefore make use of some motives to press poor perishing finners to flee from fin and wrath to Jefus Chrift the only Saviour, and to receive and rest upon him for life and falvation; and then come to the facrament, to get their right and title to Chrift * and all his purchase fealed and confirmed.

I. Take a view of the mifery of a natural and Chriftless condition; and O that God would open your eyes to let you fee it, and convince you, that, while thou art in this state, thou art a rebel to thy God, a prodigal to thy father, a flave to thy lufts, and an alien to the commonwealth of Israel! if thou comest hot to Chrift with thy burdens, the whole burden of unpardoned fin lies upon thy own back; and this is a burden that will fink thee lower than the grave; nay, it will prefs thee to the lowest hell, and keep

thee

;

thee eternally finking there. Confider alfo, how vile and lothsome thou and all thy actions, whether natural, civil or religious, are in the fight of a holy, God, while thou art out of Chrift: thy foul is naked, and fwarms with the vermine of filthy lusts; and thou haft neither a garment to cover thee, nor a fountain to wash thee: the leprofy of fin fpreads over all, fo that, from the crown of the head to the fole of the foot, there is nothing but bruifes and putrifying fores fo that there is no mire fo unclean, no vomit fo lothiome, no carion to offenfive, no pestilence fo noilome, as thou art in thy Chriftlefs ftate, in the eyes of a holy God, who cannot look upon iniquity but with abhorrence. Again, confider thou art a flave to Satan the worst of tyrants, he rules and works in your hearts, as a workman doth in his fhop, Eph. ii. 2. He uses your powers, faculties, fenfes and members, according to his pleasure he fays, go, and you go: do this, and you do it. Your bondage is worse than the Ifraelites under Pharaoh ; for they groaned under theirs, but you, alas! are not fenfible of yours, neither will you believe it. The Devil knows, that, if you perceived your flavery, you would seek to make your escape from him ; therefore to make fure work, he deals with you as the Philistines did with Samfon, puts out your eyes, that you may not fee your chains, nor look to Chrift for liberty O that God would open them, and caufe you groan under your fetters, and look to Chrift for relief.

Moreover, while thou art in thy Chriftles ftate, God's wrath is ftill burning against thee, the flaming fword of justice is always. over thy neck, Pfal. vii. 11. God is angry with the wicked every day, every day of the week, and every hour of the day: when thou goeft out and comcft in, rifeft up or lieft down. God is ftill angry with thee; yea, he hath bent his bow, and made ready his arrows, which are fteeled with wrath, and headed with vengeance :

nay,

ney, his bow is drawn, and his arrows are at the fight; and, O Chriftless foul, thou art the only butt thereof; and, if he let them fly, they will pierce thee to the very foul, and who will heal that wound? What a dangerous ftate is this?

And further, all the curfes of the law are levelled against thee, and a juft God is engaged by his oath to ruin thee, if thou abideft in this ftate, Heb. iii. 18. To whom fware he, that they should not enter into his reft, but to them that believed not? Should not the thoughts of this make thee tremble? Were it but the oath of a man, or company of men, to pro cure thy death, as of these forty men that bound themselves with an oath, they would neither eat nor drink till they killed Paul, it would bereave thee of thy night's rest and quiet till they were made friends with thee and, will the oath of the great God have no effect upon thee, nor move thee to flee to Chrift for protection and reconciliation? Who can help thee, or deal for thee, if Chrift be neglected? With what face canft thou look to him, or cry for mercy from him, when he comes to judge thee at the last day? If thou remain Chriftless now, thou wilt be fpeechless, helpless and hopeless then. O think, what pale faces, quivering lips, fainting hearts, and trembling confciences will be among Chriftless finners then! How will their heads hang down, and knees knock together, and cry, alas for the day! They can look nowhere for comfort : for the judge frowns on them, the faints deride them, their own friends upbraid them, the angels mock them, the devils fcoff at them, the heavens thunder against them, the earth ames about them, and hell groans for them, and down they will go roaring and howling for ever.

O Chriftless foul, how`canft thou think to ly in that dark dungeon for ever, where there is nothing but weeping and guafhing of teeth to be heard, and utter darkness to be feen, but never a blink of the