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man armed fecures his poffeffion in the fouls of finners; and thefe bars are too ftrong for any power beneath the almighty power and arm of God to remove or break. It is faid, that the Lord opened a door of faith to the Gentiles, Acts xiv. 27. The arm of the Lord must be revealed, or none will open to Chrift by faith, Ifa. liii. 1.

1. The iron bar of the law, that thundering terrible law, cannot force open the heart of an unbeliever; all the dreadful curfes flying out of its fiery mouth, make no more impreffion than a tennis-ball against a wall of marble. You read of them that hear the words of this curfe, yet bless themselves in their heart, faying, they fhall have peace though they walk in the imagination of their hearts, to add drunkenness to thirst, Deut. xxix. 19.

They play with hell and eternal torments, rush into iniqui ty as the horse rufheth into the battle, act as men in love with their own death, as those that are at an agreement with hell. O the befotting, hardening, infatuating power of fia!

2. The golden key of free grace cannot, in itself, remove thefe bars, and open mens hearts to Chrift; "We have piped 66 unto you, but you have not danced," Matth. xi. 17. The melodious and delicious airs of grace, mercy, peace and pardon, affect not the dead hearts of unbelievers: like deaf adders they flop their ears at the voice of the charmer, charm he never fo wifely. Thefe gofpel-melodies only dispose them to a more quiet fleep in fin.

3. No works of providence are, in themfelves, fufficient to open the hearts of men to Chrift. (1.) The judgments of God cannot do it; thousands have been fick with smiting, that yet cannot be made fick for fin. "I have confumed them, but "they refused to receive correction; they have made their "faces harder than a rock, they have refused to return," Jer. v. 3. Meffengers of judgment are abroad, fmiting fome in their eftates, fcattering in one day the labour of many years; and therein giving a warning-blow at the confcience to make fure of Christ, and the world to come, fince their comfort and happinefs is fcattered in this world. Some are fmitten in their deareft relations; death knocks at their doors, and carries out the delight of their eyes, and with the fame admonifheth their fouls to place their happiness in more durable comforts: fome are fmitten in their bodies with difeafes, giving warning of the near approach of their latter end, and bidding them prepare for another habitation; but all in vain. (2.) No mercies of God are

in themselves fufficient to open the obftinate hearts of finners to Chrift. God hath heaped up mercies by multitudes upon many of you; all these mercies of God lead you to repentance, Rom. ii. 4, 5. They take you in a friendly way by the hand, and thus walk with you: ah finner! how canft thou grieve and dishonour that God that thus feedeth, clotheth, and comforteth thee on every fide? Do you thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwife? Yet all will not do, neither judgments nor mercies can fright or allure the carnal heart to Jefus Chrift. It is his Spirit, his Almighty power alone, that opens thefe everlasting gates, and makes thefe ftrong bars give way and fly at his voice.

Infer. 1. Behold here the difmal ftate of nature, the woful condition of all unregenerate fouls; Chrift the Redeemer shut out, fin and Satan fout in. This is the horrid state of nature shut up in unbelief, Rom. iv. 32. Ah Lord, what a condition is this! we should certainly account it an unfpeakable mifery 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 poffeffion of a body, to Satan's poffeffion of the foul? Yet this is the very cafe of the unregenerate, Luke xi. 21. The strong man armed keepeth the palace, till Christ dispoffeffes him by fovereign victorious grace. Poor wretch, canft thou start at a fuppofed vifion of a fpirit, and not tremble to think that thy foul is the habitation of devils? There is a twofold mifery lying upon all christlefs, unregenerated perfons; Satan is,

1. Their ruler in this world.

2. Their tormentor in that to come.

1. He is their ruler in this world, the spirit that now worketh in the children of difobedience, Ephef. ii. 3. Look as the holy Spirit of God dwells and rules in fanctified fouls, walks in them as in hallowed temples, guiding and comforting the fouls of the faints; fo Satan dwells in unregenerate hearts, actuating their lufts, inflaming them with his temptations, ufing their faculties and members as inftruments of unrighteoufnefs. And then,

2. He will be their tormentor in the world to come: He that

tempts now, will torment then, Matth. xxv. 41. Depart from "me, ye curfed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil "and his angels." Flee therefore, and efcape for your lives, fleep not quietly another night in fo difmal and dreadful an estate. "If the Son make you free, then are ye free indeed." What a glorious and admirable effect of fovereign, mnipotent grace is the effectual conversion of a finner unto God!

Infer. 2.

If every heart by nature be fecured for Satan under fo many locks and bars, then the opening of any heart to Chrift is defervedly marvellous in our eyes. You all acknowledge that the opening of the graves at the refurrection will be a glorious difplay of Almighty power, and fo 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 fay, that the opening of thy heart, poor finner, to receive Chrift, is a more glorious work than that of raising the dead; it is therefore defervedly put into the first rank of the great myfteries of godlinefs, that Chrift is believed on in the world, 1 Tim. ii. 16. He that well views and confiders Christ, may justly wonder that all the hearts in the enlightened world do not stand wide open to embrace him; and he that shall confider the frame and temper of the natural heart, and how strongly Satan hath intrenched and fortified himself in it, may juftly wonder to hear of a work of converfion in an age. O brethren, confider the marvels of converfion, the wonderful works of God upon the foul that opens unto Chrift by faith.

1. There is 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 v. 20. O that eye, that precious eye of faith, which fhews the foul, as it were, a new world, a world of new and ravishing objects, Eph. v. 8. All the angels in heaven, minifters, and Libraries upon earth, cannot create fuch an eye, give fuch an illumination; 'tis only he that "commanded the light to fhine out of darkness, that thus "shineth into our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge "of the glory of God in the face of Jefus Chrift," 2 Cor. iv. 6.

2. And what a glorious fupernatural work is the conviction of the confcience by the powerful ftroke of the faving beams of light upon it? Now the confcience, that lay in a dead fleep, begins to startle and look about it with fear and horror. Life and fenfe is got into it, and now it cries, Ah, fick, fick, fick at the heart for fin, fick for a Saviour.

3. And no lefs marvellous an effect of the Almighty power is the bowing of the ftubborn will fo efficaciously, fo congruouflly, and fo determinately and fixedly to the Lord Jefus.

The will is efficaciously determined, fo as no power of hell, or nature, can refift or fruftrate that mighty power which worketh effectually in all them that believe, i Thef. ii. 13. Yet it works not by way of compulfion, but in a way congruons and agreeable to the nature of the will, Hofea xi. 4. “ I drew "them with the cords of a man, with the bands of love." Sa

tan bids for the foul, Chrift infinitely outbids all his offers; eternal, fpiritual, and unfearchable riches, inftead of fenfitive perithing enjoyments, which determine the choice of the will in its own natural method, by the fight of the excelling glory of fpiritual things. And thus the mighty, fupernatural power of God opens that heart which Satan had fecured fo many ways against Christ.

Infer. 3. Hence it also follows, that man hath no free will of bis own to fupernatural good. The will cannot, by its own power, open itfelf to receive Chrift by faith. When it doth open to him, it is not virtute innata, fed illata, not by its natu ral power, but by the power of God upon it. The admirers of nature talk much of the fovereignty, virginity, and liberty of the will, as if it alone had escaped the fall, and that no more but a moral fuafion is needed to open it to Chrift; that is, that God doth need no more to fave men than the devil doth to damn them. But if ever God make you fenfible what the work of faving converfion is, you will quickly find that your will is lame, its freedom to fpiritual 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. ii. 13. That the birth of the new creature is not of the will of man, but of God, John i. 13.

Infer. 4. Learn hence the neceffity of converfion in order to sal vation. Chrift and heaven are fhut up againft jou, till your hearts be favingly opened unto him. "Verily, verily, I fay

unto you, you must be born again," John iii. 5. O finner, that hard heart of thine must be humbled; thy ftubborn and refractory will must be bowed; all the powers of thy foul must be unlocked and opened unto Chrift; he must come into thy foul, or thou canft never fee the face of God in peace. "It is "Chrift in you that is the hope of glory," Col. i. 27. Till thy heart be opened, Chrift, with all the hopes of glory, stand without thee. And if hopes from the death of Chrift without us, without the application of his perfon, be enough to fave men, then why are any damned? Confult 1 Cor. i. 30. Adam's fin damas none but only fuch as are in him; and Chrift's righteousness faves none but those only that are by faith in him; the eternal purpose of the Father, the meritorious death of the Son, puts no man into the state of falvation and happiness, till both be brought home by the Spirit's powerful application in the work of faving converfion. It is good news, good indeed, that Chrift died for finners; it is good news that Chrift is

brought to our very doors in the tenders of the gofpel, and that the fpirit knocks at the door of our hearts, by many convictions and perfuafions, to open to him, and enjoy the unspeakable benefits of his death: thefe things bring us nigh to Chrift, the next door to falvation; and yet all this may be, eventually but a dreadful aggravation of our damnation, and will certainly be fo to them whofe hearts are but almost opened to Christ.

Infer. 5. See hence the neceffity of fervent prayer to accompa ny the preaching of the gospel. Without the Spirit and power of God accompanying the word, no heart can ever be opened to Chrift: alas, fuch bars as thefe are too ftrong for the breath of man to break! let minifters pray, and the people pray that the gofpel may be preached" with the holy Ghoft fent down from

heaven," Pet. i. 12. It greatly concerns us that preach the gofpel to wrestle with God upon our knees, to accompany us in the difpenfation of it unto the people; to fteep that feed we fow among you in tears and prayers before you hear it; and I beseech you, brethren, let us not ftrive alone, join your cries to heaven with ours, for the bleffing 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 affiftance in prayer, Rom. XV. 30. "I befeech you, brethren, for the Lord Jefus Chrift's "fake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye ftrive together "with me in your prayers to God for me.'

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For want of fuch wreftlings with God in prayer, there is fo little efficacy in ordinances. Martha told her Saviour, John xi. 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 fouls had not remained dead under the word as they do this day. O when the fabbath draws near, let fervent cries afcend from every family to heaven. Lord pour out thy Spirit with thy word; make it mighty, through thy power to open thefe gates of iron," and break afunder these bars of brass.

Second Ufe of Exhortation.

Seeing the cafe ftands thus, that all hearts by nature are barred and fhut up againft Chrift; let every foul do what it can, and strive to its uttermoft, to get the heart and will opened to Chri: Strive to enter in at the ftrait gate. Chrift is at the door, O ftrive with yourfelves, as well as with God, now to get it opened, now that falvation is come fo near your fouls.

Object. But have you not told us, that no finner can open own heart, nor bow his own will to Christ?

his

Anf. True, he cannot convert himself, but yet he may do

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