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wait fo long at your door, as you have made Chrift wait upon

you.

Exhort. 7. Laftly, Let us all blefs and admire the Lord Jefus for the continuation of his patience, not to ourfelves only, but to that whole finful nation in which we live. We thought the treaty of peace had been ended with us; many good men look. ing upon the iniquities and abominations of thefe times, confidering the vanities and backfliding of profeffors, the heaven-daring provocations of this atheistical age, concluded in their own hearts, that God would make England another Shiloh. Many faithful minifters of Chrift faid within themfelves, God hath no more work for us to do, and we shall have no more opportunities to work for God: when lo, beyond the thoughts of all hearts, the merciful and long-fuffering Redeemer makes one return more to thefe nations, renews the treaty, and with compaffion rolled together, fpeaks to us this day, as to Ephraim of old, how fhall I deliver thee? look upon this day, this unexpected day of mercy, as the fruit and acquifition of the interceffion of your great advocate in heaven, anfwerable to that, Luke xiii. 7, 8, 9. Well, God hath put us upon one trial more: if now we bring forth fruit, well; if not, the ax lies at the root of the tree, Ouce more Chrift knocks at our doors, the voice of the bridegroom is heard; thofe fweet voices, Come unto me, open to me: your opening to Chrift now, will be unto you as the valley of Achor, for a door of hope. But what if all this fhould be turned into wantonnefs and formality? What if your obftinacy and infidelity fhould wear out the remains of that little ftrength and time left you, and that former labours and forrows have left your minifters? Then actum eft de nobis, we are gone for ever; then farewel gospel, ministers, reformation, and all, because we knew not the time of our visitation. What was the difmal doom of God, upon the fruitless vineyard? Ifa. v. 5. "I will take away the hedge thereof, and "it fhall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and "it fhall be troddeu down: I will alfo command the clouds, "that they rain not upon it." The hedge and the wall are the fpiritual and providential prefence of God; thefe are the defence and lafety of his people; the clouds and the rain are the sweet influences of gofpel-ordinances. If the hedge be broken down, God's pleafant plants will foon be eaten up; and if the clouds rain not upon them, their root will be rottennefs, and their bloffom go up as duft; our churches will foon become as the mountains of Gilboa: therefore fee that you know and improve the time of your visitation.

III. Use of confolation.

I fhall wind up this fourth doctrine, in two or three words of confolation, to thofe that have answered, and are now preparing to answer the defign and end of Jefus Christ in all his patience towards them, by their compliance with his great dedefign and end therein. O bleffed be God, and let his high praites be for ever in our mouths, that at last Christ is like ta obtain his end upon tome of us, and that all do not receive the grace of God in vain. And there be three confiderations able to wind up your hearts to the height of praise, if the Lord hath now made them indeed willing to open to the Lord Jefus.

Confideration 1. The faith and obedience of your hearts makes it evident, that the Lord's waiting upon you hitherto hath been in purfuance of his defign of electing love. What was the reafon God would not take you away by death, though you passed fo often upon the very brink of it, in the days of your unregeneracy? And what, think you, was the very reafon of the revocation of your golpel-liberties when they were quite out of fight, and almost out of hape? why furely this was the reason, that you, and fuch as you are, might be brought to Christ at laft. Therefore though the Lord let you run on fo long in fin, yet ftill he continued your life, and the means of your falvation, because he had a defign of mercy and grace upon you. And now the time of mercy, even the fet time is come, Praise ye the Lord.

Confid. 2. You may also see the fovereignty and freeness of divine grace in your vocation: your hearts refifted all along the most powerful means, and importunate calls of Christ; and would have refifted still, had not free and fovereign grace overpowered them when the time of love was come. Ah, it was not the tractablenefs of thine own will, the eafy temper of thy heart to be wrought upon; the Lord let thee ftand long enough in the state of nature to discover that; there was nothing in nature but obftinacy and enmity. Thou didst hear as many powerful fermons, melting prayers, and didft fee as many awakening providences before thy heart was opened to Chrift, as thou haft fince: : yet thy heart never opened till now; and why did it open now? Because now the spirit of God joined himself to the word; victorious grace went forth in the word to break the hardness, and conquer the rebellions of thy heart. The gospel was now preached (as the apostle fpeaks, 1 Pet. i. 12.)" with the Holy Ghoft fent down from heaven, which things, (faith "he) the angels defire to look into." Ah friends, it is a glo ious fight, worthy of angelical obfervation and admiration, to

behold the effects of the gospel preached, with the Holy Ghost fent down from heaven; to fee, when the Spirit comes along with the word, the blind eyes of finners opened, and they brought into a new world of ravishing objects; to behold fountains of tears flowing for fin, out of hearts lately as hard as the rocks; to fee all the bars of ignorance, prejudice, custom, and unbelief, fly open at the voice of the gofpel; to fee rebels against Chrift laying down their arms at his feet, come upon the knee of fubmiffion, crying, "Lord, I will rebel no more; to fee the proud heart centered and wrapt up in its own righteousness, now ftripping itself naked, loading itself with all fhame and reproach, and made willing that its own fhame should go to the Redeemer's glory. Thefe, I fay, are fights which angels defire to look into.

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Certainly your hearts were more tender, and wills more your apt to yield and bend in the days of your youth, than they were now, when fin had fo hardened them, and long-continued cuftom riveted and fixed them, yet then they did not, and now they do yield to the calls and invitations of the gofpel. Afcribe all to fovereign grace, and fay, "Not unto us, not unto us, but to thy name give the glory." The obfervation and experience of our own hearts will furnish us with arguments enough to resist all temptations of self-glorifying and conceit.

Certainly you were born not of flesh, nor of blood, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Confid. 3. Laftly, This is a comfortable confideration, that he that waited upon you so long, and won your hearts at last ; that hath gained you at the expence of fo much pains and pa tience, will not now forfake you. Poor fouls, I question not but there are many fears and jealoufies within you, that all this will come to nothing, and you shall perish at last. Divers things foment these jealoufies within your hearts: The weaknefs of your own graces, which alas, are but in their infancy; the fenfe you have of your own corruptions, and the great ftrength they still retain: The fubtilty of Satan, who employs all his policies to reduce you; fometimes roaring after his efcaped prey with hideous injections, which make your fouls to tremble; fometimes the difcouraging apprehenfions of the difficulties of religion, how far the fpirituality of active obedience, and the difficulty of paffive obedience is above your strength; fometimes feeling within yourfelves fad alterations, by the hiding of God's face, and withdrawment of fweet and fenfible communion with him. These, and fuch like things as thefe, Laufe many a qualm to come over your hearts; but chear up,

Chrift will not lofe at laft what he purfued fo long; he that waited fo many years for thy foul, will never caft it away now he hath feated himself in the poffeffion of it.

**

SERMON

V.

REV. iii. 20. Behold I ftand at the door, [and knock] &c.

IN N the former point we have feen the Redeemer's posture, a posture of condescending humility, rather the potture of a fervant than the Lord of all; Behold I ftand at the door. We now come to confider his action, or motion for entrance, I stand and knock: This metaphorical action of knocking, fignifies nothing else but the motions made by Chrift for entrance into the fouls of finners; and affords us this fifth obfervation.

Doctrine 5. That every conviction of confcience, and motion upon the affections of finners, is a knock of Chrift from heaven for entrance into their fouls.

This action of knocking is afcribed fometimes to the foul, and is expreffive of its defires to come into the gracious prefence and communion of God; fo Mat. vii. 7. "To him that knocks "it thall be opened," i. e. to him that feeks by importunate prayer, fellowship and communion with the Lord: But here it is applied to Chrift, and is expreffive of his importunate defire to come into union and communion with the fouls of finners. Here I fhall open to you the following particulars:

1. What are the doors of the foul at which Christ knocks.
2. What his knocking at these doors implies.
3. By what inftruments he knocks at them.
4. In what manner he performs this action.

First, What are the doors of the foul at which Chrift knocks. You all know that term, Chrift here ufeth, cannot be proper but meraphorical; it is a figurative fpeech, the door is that part which is introductive into the house, and whatever is introductive into the foul, that is the door of the foul. Now in the foul of man there are many powers and faculties that have this ufe, and are of an introductive nature, to let things into the foul of man. Some are more outward, as we may fpeak comparatively; and fome more inward, as the doors of our houfes

are.

Chrift knocks orderly at them all, one after another, for the operations of the Spirit difturb not the order of nature.

1. The firft door that opens and lets into the foul is the understanding: nothing paffes into the foul, but it must first come through this door of the understanding; nothing can touch the heart, or move the affections, but what hath first touched the understanding. Hence we read fo often in fcripture of the opening of the understanding, that being, as it were, the fore-door of the foul.

2. Within this is the royal gate of the foul, viz. The will of man, that noble and imperial power. Many things may pafs into the mind, or underftanding of a man, and yet be able to get no further; the door of the will may be fhut against them. There were many precious truths of God let into the underftandings of the Heathens, by the light of nature, but could never get further, their hearts and wil's were locked, and shut up against them; as you may fee, Rom. i. 18. "They held "the truths of God in unrighteoufnefs;" that is, they bound and imprisoned thofe common notices the law of nature impreffed upon their minds, concerning the being and nature of God, and the duties of both tables. These truths could get no further into their fouls, and, which is of fad and dreadful confideration, Chrift himself ftands betwixt these two doors, in the fouls of many perfons; he is got into their understandings, and confciences, they are convinced of the poffibility, and neceffity of obtaining Jefus Chrift, but still the door of their will is barred against him, which drew from him that fad complaint, John "You will not come unto me that you might have life.” When this door of the will is once effectually opened, then all the inner doors of the affections are quickly fet open to receive, and welcome him; defire, joy, delight, and all the rest, stand open to him: These are the doors at which the Redeemer knocks.

V. 40.

Secondly, Next we must confider what is meant by Chrift's knocking at these doors, and what that action implies. In the general, knocking is nothing else but an action fignificative of the defires of one that is without, to come in; it is a fign ap pointed to that end: And what is Chrift's knocking, but a fignification to the foul of his earnest defires to come into it; a notice given to the foul of Chrift's willingness to poffels it for his own habitation? And it is as much as if Christ should say, foul, thou art the houfe that was built by my hand, purchased, and redeemed by my blood; I have an unquestionable right to it, and now demand entrance. More particularly, there are divers great things implied in this gracious act of Christ's knocking at the door of the foul.

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