2. There is a judicial fhutting up of the heart against Christ. This is a fore and tremendous ftroke of God, punishing former rebellions: Pfal. lxxxi. 11, 12. "Ifrael would have none of me, "fo I gave them up to their own hearts lufts." This looks like a prelude. of damnation, a very near preparation to tuin. Ifrael would have none of me; there is the natural shutting up of the heart; fo I gave them up; there is the judicial shutting up of the heart; they would not hear, they shall not hear. O fearful judgment! Thus the Lord gave up the heathens, Rom, i. 26. they had abused their natural light, and now their minds are judicially darkened; given up to a fottifh and injudicious mind, not able to diftinguish duty from fin, fafety from danger; a mind that should elect the worst things, and reprobate the beft. This was the reprobate mind unto which God gave them up; what fadder word can the Lord speak than this, unlefs it be, Take him devil! 'Tis true, those that God shuts up he can open, and those whom juftice fhuts up, mercy can fet free; but it is beyond all the power of angels and men to do it: Job xii. 14. "He fhutteth up a man, and there can be no open"ing." These two closures of the heart are not always found together in the fame subject; and bleffed be God they are not. Christ meets with many a repulfe, and endures with much patience the gainfaying of finners, before he pronounces that dreadful fentence upon them, Ifa, vi. 9, 10, "Go and tell this people, "Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and fee ye indeed, but "perceive not: make the heart of this people fat," &c. But when it comes to this once, dreadful is the cafe of fuch fouls; and none are in greater danger of this fpiritual judicial ftroke of God, than thofe that have fat long under the light, rebelling against it. That is the first thing, the hearts of men by nature are lockt and shut up against Christ. Secondly, In the next place, let us examine what those locks and bars are which oppofe and forbid Chrift's entrance into the hearts of poor finners. And they will be found to be, I. Ignorance. 4. Cuftom in fin. 2. Unbelief. 5. Prefumption. 6. Prejudices against the ways of holiness. Bars enough to fecure the foul in Satan's poffeffion, and fruftrate all the defigns of mercy, except an Almighty power from heaven break them afunder. 1. The first bar making faft the foul of man against Christ, is ignorance, that obex infernalis, that hellifh bolt, which effectually keeps, Chrift out of the foul. If knowledge be the key that opens the heart to Chrift, as it is plain it is from Luke xi. 52. where Chrift denounceth a woe to them that took away the key of knowledge; then ignorance must needs be the fhutter that makes faft the door of the heart against Christ. Upon this ground Chrift told the woman of Samaria, that her infidelity grew upon the root of her ignorance; John iv. 10. "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is "that faith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked "of him, and he would have given thee living water." Ah finners, did you but know what a Chrift he is that is offered to your fouls in the gospel; did you fee his beauty, fulness, fuitableness, and feel your own neceffities of him, all the world. could not keep you from him: you would break through all réproaches, all fufferings, all felf-denials, to come into the enjoyment of him. But alas, it is with you as it was with those, Cant. v. 9." What is thy beloved (fay they to the spouse) more "than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us?" Un: known excellencies attract not: ignorance is Satan's fceptre, which he sways over all his kingdom of darkness, and holds the vaffals in miferable bondage to him: hence the devils are called, Eph. vi. 12. " The rulers of the darkness of this world." Alas, were the eyes of finners but opened to fee their woeful ftate, and their remedy in Chrift, he could never hold them in fubjection one day longer; they would break away from under his cruel government, and run over by thousands to Chrift: for fo they do as foon as ever God opens their eyes; in the fame hour they are turned from darkness to light, they are also turned from the power of Satan to God, Acts xxviii. 16. O that you did but know the worth of your fouls, the dreadful danger they are in, and the fearful wrath that hangs over them, the willingness and ability of Christ to fave them, you could not fleep one night longer in the ftate you are: the next cry would be, What shall I do to be faved? Who will fhew me the way to Chrift? Help minifters, help Chriftians, yea, help Lord; these would be the laments and cries of them that are now fecure and quiet. But the God of this world hath blinded the eyes of them that believe not: no cries for a phyfician, because no fenfe how their fouls are Aabbed by fins of commiffion, and ftarved by fins of omiffion. O that the great phyfician would once apply his excellent eye-falve to your understandings, which are yet darkened with grofs ignorance both of your mifery and remedy. 2. The fecond bar, or lock, that fhuts Chrift out of mens fouls, is the fin of unbelief; this is one of the ftrongest holds of Satan wherein he trufteth; this is a fin that not only locks up the heart of a finner, but also binds up the hand of a Sáviour; Matth. xiii. 58. "He could do no mighty works there, "because of their unbelief." It obstructed his miraculous works when he was on earth, and it obftructs his gracious work now he is in heaven. viour is come into the world, but poor unbeliever, thy foul can neither have union nor communion with him till this bar of thy unbelief be removed. The golpel is come among us with mighty arguments to convince, and powerful motives to perfuade, but little faving effect follows; its main defign is to many fruftrated, and all this through unbelief, shutting up and hardening mens hearts under it. The word preached did not profit them because of their unbelief. Ah curfed bar! which huts up thy heart, fhuts out thy Saviour, and will effectually shut thee out of heaven, except the Almighty power of God break it afunder.. "They could not enter in because "of unbelief," Heb. iv. 2. The ruin of fouls is laid at the door of unbelief; it is the damning fin, Mark xvi. 16. and truly called fo, because no other fin could damn but in virtue of this fin. That is the second bar to Christ. 3. The third bar denying entrance to Chrift into the hearts of finners, is pride, and ftoutness of spirit. The natural heart is a proud heart; it lives upon its own stock, it cannot stoop to a fincere and univerfal renunciation of its own righteoufnefs: "Being ignorant of the righteoufnefs of God, and going about "to establish their own righteousness oux xrayray, they have "not fubmitted to the righteoufnefs of God," Rom. x. 3. Pride stiffens the will that it cannot floop or condefcend to declare their own emptinefs, discover their own fhame, and live wholly upon the righteousness of another. Proud nature had as live be damned as deny itself in fuch a point as this is: This makes faith fo exceeding difficult, because it involves fuch deep points of felf-denial in it: To give up all to Christ, to draw all from Chrift, and to be willing to part with all for Christ. What will can be brought to a deliberate consent to fuch things as these, unless an omnipotent power bow it? It is natural to men rather to eat a brown crust, or wear a coarse ragged garment which they can call their own, than to feed upon the richest dainties, or wear the costliest garments which they must receive as an alms or gift from another. O how hard is it to fubdue this pride of the heart, even after light and convictions are come into the foul; to convince men of their undone condition, and the abfolute neceffity of another and higher righteoufnefs than their own? When fouls are in a treaty with Christ, and the match is almoft made; this is the fin that makes the last oppofition. Fain would they come to Chrift, ten thou fand worlds for a Chrift; but yet they think they must not approach him without fome qualifications which are yet wanting. But foul, if ever Chrift and thou conclude the match, thon must deny self even in this, the moft refined form and interest of it, and come as Abraham did, naked and empty-handed to him that juftifieth the ungodly. Down with this houfe-idol, thy felf, thy righteous felf, trimmed up, like another Agag, with fuch precious pretences of humility. 4. The fourth bar, forbidding Chrift's entrance into the foul, is cuftom in fin. Sin hath fo fixed itself by long continuance in the foul, the foul is fo fettled and confirmed in its course, that all arguments and perfuafions to change our way are fwept away by the power of cuftom, as ftraws and feathers are by the rapid course of a mighty torrent: Jer. xiii. 23. "Can the Ethiopian change his fkin, or the leopard his spots ? "then may ye alfo do good that are accustomed to do evil.” Soap and nitre may as foon make a Blackamoor white, or fetch the fpots out of the Leopard's skin (which are not accidental, but connate) as the reasonings of men can prevail to remove the mighty power of cuftomary fin. Physicians find it a hard thing to cure a cachexia or ill habit of body. It is a grave and serious note of Seneca, a teneris affuefcere, multum eft. It is a great matter to be accustomed this way or that from our childhood; every repeated act of fin confirms and ftrengthens the habit; and hence it is that we fee fo few converfions in old age. It was a wonder, in the primitive times, that Marcus Caius Victorius embraced Chriftianity in the fixtieth year of his age. Take an habituated drunkard, a felf-righteous moralift, lay before them the neceffity of a change, and you fhall find it as easy to stop the course of a river with the breath of your mouth, as to stop them in a customed courfe of finning. That is the fourth bar to Chrift. 5. The fifth bar, oppofing and refifting Chrift's entrance in❤ to the foul, is the fin of prefumption; this is the fin that parts Chrift and thoufands of fouls in the world; prefuming, they hope; and hoping, they perish. When men presume their condition is fafe already, their fouls never make out after a Saviour. This was the ruin of Laodicea, Rev. iii. 17. "Be"cause thou fayeft, I am rich, and increafed with goods, and "have need of nothing, and knoweft not that thou art wretched, "and miferable, and poor, and blind, and naked." This dampYOL, IV. Kkk 1 1 ing prefumption is discovered in three things, (1.) Many think they have that grace which they have not, miftaking the fimilar for the faving works of the fpirit; a fatal mistake never rectified with many thousands till it be too late. (2.) They prefume to find that mercy in God, which they will never find; for all the faving mercies of God are difpenfed to men, through Christ, in the way of regeneration and faith, Jude ver. 21. (3.) They prefume upon that time for repentance and faith hereafter, which their eyes fhall never fee. And thus prefumption doth lock up the heart against Christ, and leaves finners perishing even in the prefence of a Saviour. They make a bridge of their own fhadow, and fo perish in the waters. 6. The fixth and laft fin, barring up the heart against Christ, is a strong prejudice againft holinefs, and the ftrict duties of religion. Thus, in the very infancy of Chriftianity, the world was fcared and driven off from religion by the common prejudices that lay upon the profeffors of it: As concerning this seƐt, we know that every where it is fpoken against, Acts xxvii. 22. Thus Juftin Martyr complains, that Chriftians were every where condemned die ry on, by common fame; and upon this account Chrift pronounces a woe upon the world because of offences, Matth. xviii. 7. Alas! it will be the ruin of thoufands; some have fucked in fuch prejudicate opinions and vile notions of religion, and its profeffors, as makes them irreconcilable enemies to it. Satan hath dreffed it up in their fancies in fuch an odious form and representation, that makes them loath both name and thing. Thefe prejudices are drawn from various things; fometimes from the neceffary duties of Chriftianity, which are laid as crimes upon the people of God: "When 1 wept, and chaftened my foul with fafting, that was to my "reproach," Pfal. Ixix. 10. Sometimes the groundless and malicious flanders and inventions of the enemies of Christianity, are the occafions of real prejudices to the world; “ 'Come, let “us devise devices against Jeremiah, and let us fmite him with "the tongue," Jer. xviii. 18. Sometimes the innocent and fericus profeffors of godlinefs are cenfured and condemned for hypocritical profeffors fakes, who never heartily efpoufed religion. And lastly, The ways of holinefs fuffer for the flips and infirmities of weak Chriftians, who commonly give too many occafions to difguft 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 fhut up from receiving any faving benefit under them. Thele are the common bars and locks by which the strong |