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loath is he to give

them up! We now proceed to the uses of

this point by way of, 1. Information. 2. Exhortation. 3. Confolation. Ufe 1. And First, This point will be very fruitful for information of our understandings in divers great and useful points, both doctrinal and practical, wherein every foul among you is deeply concerned; and, therefore, I beseech you, let them be heard and pondered with an answerable attention and seriousness of ipirit: And the first inference (hall be this.

Infer. 1. If the Lord Jefus do exercife fuch admirable patience towards finners, Then how much better is it for poor finners to be in the hands of Chrift, than in the hands of the best and bolieft man in the world? O finner, it is better for thee to fall into the hands of the meek and merciful Jefus, than into the hands of the dearest friend thou haft upon earth; no creature can bear what Chrift bears; no patience like the patience of Chrift: It is faid of Mofes, Numb xi. 12. "Now the man Mofes was "meek above all men upon the face of the earth." There was never fuch a man born into the world, for patience, meeknefs, and long-fuffering, as Mofes was; and yet, for all that, this mirror of meeknels could not bear the provocations of Ifrael: You rebels, faith he, must I'draw water for you out of the rock? Thus was his (pirit ruffled with the provocations of Ifrael, and this loft him the land of Canaan. Jonah was a good man, a piophet of the Lord; yet becaufe the Lord would not be fo quick and fevere with Nineveh, as Jonah would have had him, in what uncomely language doth his angry foul return upon his God? Jonah iv. 2. "O Lord, (faith be) was not this my fay"ing when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fied before

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unto Tarshish, for I knew thou wert a gracious God and "merciful, flow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest "thee of the evil; therefore now, O Lord, take, I befeech "thee, my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to "live:" q. d. Ah, Lord, I knew it would come to this, I knew thy gracious nature, how inclinable thou art to mercy, and that upon the firft appearance of their repentance, thou wouldst repent of the evil, and fo free-grace would make me as liar among them.

Nay, give me leave to speak a higher word than all this, and let it not feem ftrange, that the patience of the glorified faints in heaven is nothing to the patience of Chrift towards provoking finners upon earth. Thofe glorified fouls that be above, thoug they have patience, among other graces, perfected in its kind, yet till it is but created, finite patience, and it cannot bear.

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what Chrift's patience bears: Take an inftance of it out of Rev. vi. 9, 10, 11. "I faw under the altar the fouls of those "that were flain for the word of God, and for the testimony "which they held; and they cried with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, doft not thou judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth: And it was faid unto them, That they should reft for a little feason." Here you fee glorified fouls lefs able to bear the flow pace of juftice towards their enemies, than Christ was. It is true, here was no finful impatience, but yet a patience short of Christ's infinite patience. Ah, if you were to depend upon the patience of any creature in heaven or earth, you had worn it out long ago. I will not execute the fierceness of my anger, for [ am God and not man. Ah, it is well we have to do with God; if a man find his enemy, will he let him go away? 1 Sam. xxiv. 19. No, no, he will reckon before he part with him. Sinner, the Lord finds thee daily in thy fins, and yet lets thee go; yet beware thou try not his patience too far, left vengeance overtake thee at laft, and pay the justice of God with all the arrears due to his patience.

Infer. 2. Hence it follows, that convinced and broken-hearted finners need not be difcouraged in going to Jefus Chrift for mercy, feeing he exercises fuch wonderful patience towards obflinate and refufing finners.

This inference breathes pure gofpel; it is a cordial to chear the heart that is moving towards Christ with fear and trembling. It is a great artifice of the devil to daunt, and difcourage poor convinced finners, by telling them there is no hope of mercy for them; that they fhall find the arms of mercy clofed, the bowels of compaffion fhut up; that the time of mercy is now past, they come too late. O how bufy is fatan with fuch fuggeftions as thefe in many of your fouls? But I am come to tell you this day, that thefe are but the artifices of the enemy, you are going to the fountain of mercy, patience, goodness, and long-fuffering; go on, and you shall find abundantly more than you expect. He will not caft off a foul that comes mourning and panting towards him, and is willing to fubfcribe the gospel-articles of reconciliation: No, he will not fhut out tuch a foul, whatever its rebellions and provocations have been. Sinner, thou art going to the meek and merciful Jefus, Matth. xi. 28. "Come, unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you reft; take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly." You are going to meekness and mercy itself; he is the Lamb of God,

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that is his name: Go on then, poor trembling finner, don't fland any longer at, fhall I, fhall I? with Chrift; but make a bold but neceffary adventure of faith; try him once, and then report what you find him to be: Certainly if he exercife fuch patience towards the veffels of wrath, whilft they are fitting to deftruction, as he doth, Rom. ix. 22. he will not want patience for a veffel of mercy, preparing by humiliation and faith for Chrift and glory. Doth he forbear those that stand in defiance, and will he fall upon those that are mourning to him upon the knee of fubmiffion? Shall a damned wretch, that is preparing for hell, find fo much forbearance, and a poor brokenhearted finner none? It cannot be. If Jefus Chrift forbear thee when thy heart was hard as a rock, and could not yield one tear, one figh for fia, will he execute his wrath upon thee, will be shew thee no mercy, when thy heart is broken all to pieces with forrow, and filled with loathing and detestation against fin, and thyfelf for fin? Did he forbear thee when fin was thy delight? And will he destroy thee now it is thy burden? It cannot be.

Moreover, if the Lord Jefus had not a mind to fhew mercy to thy poor foul, now, now, that thine eyes are opened, and thine heart touched to the quick, why hath he forborne the execution of his wrath fo long? He might have taken his own time to cut you off when he would, he might have made any day the execution-day: But fure, among all the days of thy life, the day of thy humiliation, the day of thy faith, is not like to prove that day.

Again, as great and vile finners as thyfelf have adventured upon the grace of Chrift, and found it infinitely beyond their expectation. Thefe the Lord Jefus hath fet forth as encouraging examples to all the broken-hearted finners that are coming after; that they feeing how it hath fared with their forerunners to Chrift, might be encouraged to come on with the more confidence, 1 Tim. i. 16. " But I obtained mercy, that "in me first Chrift might fhew forth all long-fuffering, for a "pattern to them that should hereafter believe on him to life

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everlasting." Well then, fhut your ears against all the whif pers of fatan, entertain no evil reports of Chrift; the devil loves to draw a falfe picture of Chrift, and reprefent him in the most difcouraging form to poor trembling finners; but you will not find him fo. What can Chrift fay more to convince and fatisfy fouls than he hath done? He hath left the bosom of the Father, he hath taken union with thy nature, he hath poured out his foul unto death; he hath told us, "Those that

come unto him, he will in no wife caft out." Thonfands are gone before us in the paths of repentance and faith, and found it according to his word; you have been spared all your life to this day of mercy. O do not stand off now upon fuch weak objections.

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Infer. 3. The long-fuffering of Chrift towards finners, inftruct. eth and teacheth his minifters to imitate their Lord in a Christlike patience and long-fuffering. Chrift is our pattern of patience; if he wait, much more may we: We think it much to ftand from fabbath to fabbath, wooing, pleading, and inviting, and are apt to be difcouraged when we fee no fruit follow. The want of fuccefs is apt to caft us under Jeremiah's temptation, "To speak no more in his name; and to lament with Ifaiah, "That we have laboured in vain." It is a hard cafe to Atudy, pray and preach, and fee all our labours recura in vain. It is not fo much the expending as the returning of our labours upon us in vain, that difcourageth our hearts. Minifters would not die fo faft, faith Mr. Lockier on Colof fians, nor be grayheaded fo foon, did they fee the fruits of their labours upon their people. their people. But let us look to our pattern in the text, 66 Behold, I ftand at the door and knock." If the mafter wait, let not the fervant be weary: "The fervant of the "Lord must not ftrive, but be patient toward all; waiting, "if at any time God will give them repentance," 2 Tim. iv.

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Though the beginnings be small, our latter end may greatly increase: Though we now fish with angles, and take but now one, and then another, the time may come, and we hope it is at the door, when we fhall fpread our nets, and inclose multitudes. Aretius, a pious divine, comforteth himself thus, under the unfuccefsfulness of his labours, Dabit pofterior atas tractabiliores fortaffe animos, mitiora pectora quam noftra habent tempora. 'Future days will afford more tractable spirits, ⚫ and easier tempers of mind, than our prefent times afford." Befide, the fruit of our labours may spring up to a blessed harveft when we are gone, John iv. 37. One man foweth, and another reapeth; but if not, our reward will not be measured by the fuccefs, but the fincerity of our defigns and labours. Our zeal for converfion of fouls to Chrift will be accepted, but our discouragement in his fervice will certainly difplease him. If Ifracl be not gathered, yet fhall we be glorious in the eyes of the Lord. However, let this be a caution to you that hear us, that you caft not our fouls under fuch difcouragements. If I may speak the sense of others from my own experience, then I

can affure you, that the fixednefs of your hearts in the ways of fin, and your untractableness to the calls of God, are a greater burden and difcouragement to us than all the sufferings we have met withal from the world; yet are we contented to pray in hope, and preach in hope, encouraging ourselves (the Lord grant it be not without ground) that a crop fhall yet fpring up, which fhall make the harveft-men laugh.

Infer. 4. From the patience and long-fuffering of Chrift, we may learn the invaluable preciousness of fouls, and the bigh esteem Chrift hath for them.

Though your fouls be cheap in your own eyes, and you are contented to fell them for a trifle, for a little fensual pleasure and ease, some of you will hazard them for a fhilling; yet certainly Jefus Chrift hath an high esteem of them, else he would never ftand knocking with fuch importunity, and waiting with fuch wonderful patience for the falvation of them. Chrift knows their worth, though you do not; he accounts, and fo fhould you, one of your fouls more worth than the whole world, Matth. xvi. 26. The foul of the poorest child, or meanest fervant, that hears me this day, is of greater value in Chrift's eye than the whole world; and he hath given three great evidences of it, (1.) That he thought it worth his heartblood to redeem and fave it: Pet. i. 19. "You were not re"deemed with filver and gold, but with the precious blood of "the Son of God." Had they not been precious in his eyes, he would never have fhed his most precious blood to ransom them. (2.) Were they not highly valuable in his eyes, he would never wait with fuch unwearied patience to fave them as he doth. He hath borne thousands of repulfes, and unreasonable denials from you: Sinner, Christ hath knocked at thy door in many a fermon, in many a prayer, in many a sickness, in all which thou haft put him off, denied him, or delayed him; yet ftill he continues knocking and waiting. Thou couldst not have made the pooreft beggar in the world wait at thy door fo long as thy Redeemer hath been made to wait, and yet he is not gone; at this day his voice founds in thine ears, “Behold, "Iftand at the door and knock." Here's clear demonstration of the preciousness of thy foul in the Redeemer's eyes. And then, laftly, when Chrift ends the treaty, and gives up the fouls of men for loft, and unperfuadable, with what regret and forrow doth he part with them! Never did one friend part from aasther with fuch demonftrations of forrow as Chrift parteth with the fouls of finners. The bowels of his compaffion roll together; for he knows what is coming upon them, and what

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