opened, Paul, the great gofpel-preacher, must be invited, even by an angel, to come over to Macedonia, and affift in that bleffed work, Acts xvi. 9. Lydia was to be converted, her heart must be opened to Chrift; the angel could not do it, but calls for the help of the Apostle, God's appointed inftrument to carry on that work. "I have made thee (faith God to Paul) a mi"nister and a witness to open their eyes, and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God," Acts xxvi. 13. Now there be three ways in which the Spirit ufes the word, as his hammer, in knocking at the door of the foul.

(1.) He knocks by the particular convictions of the word upon the confcience; this knock, by conviction, rings and founds through all the rooms and chambers of the foul; particular and effectual conviction wounds to the very centre of the foul. Ah, when the word fhall come home by the Spirit's particular application, like that of Nathan's to David, Thou art the man; then all the powers of the foul are roufed and alarmed; now it pierces as a two-edged fword, Heb. iv. 12. divides the foul and spirit, the fuperior and inferior faculties of it; cuts down by the back-bone, lays open the fecret guilt and innermost thoughts of a man's heart, before which the finner cannot ftand. The fecrets of his heart are made manifeft; and falling down on his face he must acknowledge that God is in the word of a truth, 1 Cor. xiv. 24. O thefe convictions of the word are fuch a rap, fuch a knock at the door of the conscience, as will never be forgotten, no not in heaven, to all eternity.

(2.) Christ knocks in the word by its terrible comminations and awful threatenings, menacing the foul that opens not with eternal ruin; thefe are dreadful knocks: O finner, faith Chrift, wilt thou not open? Shall all the tenders of my grace made to thee be in vain? Know then that this thy obftinacy (hall be thy damuation. Thus the word denounces ruin, in the name of the great and terrible God, to all wilful impenitents and obftinate unbelievers, John iii. 36." He that believeth not the Son, "fhall not fee life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." O dreadful found! like unto which is that, John viii. 24. "If ye "believe not that I am he, ye fhall die in your fins :" q. d. Thy mittimus for hell fhall be made and figned. Will you not come to me that you might have life? Then will I foretel what death you fhall die, you fhall even die in your fins. O it were better for thee to die any kind of death, than to die in thy fins. Thefe are loud knocks of the word, terrible founds, yet ro

more than needs to ftartle the droufy confciences of finners. And then,

(3.) The fpirit knocks by the gracious invitations of the word, the fweet allurements and gracious infinuations of it; and without this no heart would ever open to Chrift. It is not froft and fnow, ftorms and thunder, but the gentle diftilling dews, and cherishing fun-beams, that make the flowers open in the fpring. The terrors of the law may be preparative, but the grace of the gofpel is that which effectually opens the finner's heart. The obdurate flint will fooner fly when fmitten upon the foft pillow, than upon the anvil. Now the gospel abounds with alluring invitations to draw the will, and open the heart of a finner; fuch is that, Mat. xi, 28. "Come unto me "all ye that labour, and are heavy laden; and I will give you "reft." O what a charming voice is here! he that confiders it, may well wonder what heart in the world can refift it: like unto this is that in Ifa. Iv. 1. "Ho, every one that thirfteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money let him 66 come; yea, let him come and buy wine and milk without mo 66 ney and without price." 4. d. Come, finner, come; though thou have no qualifications, nor worthiness, nor righteoufnels of thy own; though thou be but a heap of fin and vileness, yet come: my grace is a gift, not a fale: and fuch is that in John vii. 37. "In the last day, the great day of the feaft, Jefus food

up and cried, If any man thirft let him come to me and "drink." q. d. My grace is not a fealed fountain, it is free and open to the greatest of finners; if they thirst, they are invit ed to come and drink. This is that oil of the gofpel grace which makes the key turn fo pleasantly, and effectually, among all the cross wards of man's will. And thus you fee how the word preached becomes an inftrument, in the Spirit's hand, to open the door of a finner's heart, at which it knocks by its mighty convictions, dreadful threats, and gracious invita.ions.

2. We next come to the fecond hammer, by which the Spirit knocks at the finner's heart, and that is the providential works of God. Thefe, in fubferviency to the word, are of excellent use to awaken finners, and make them open their hearts to Christ. God hath magnified his word above all his name; yet there are fome of the providential works of God greatly ferviceable in this cafe; the word fanctifies providences, and providences affift the word, and make it work. Now there are two forts of providential difpenfations which the Lord Jefus makes ufe of to gain entrance for him into the hearts of men, viz. (2.) Mercies.

(1.) Judgments.

(1.) Judgments and afflictions: the word of God many times works not till fome ftroke of God come to quicken and affist it ; thus did the Lord open the heart of that monfter of wickedness, Manaffeh, the word would not work alone, bat a smart rod quickened its operation: 2 Chron. xxxiii. 10, 11, 12. “ And

the Lord fpake to Manaffeh, and to his people; but they "would not hearken. Wherefore the Lord brought upon "them the captains of the hoft of the king of Affyria, which "took Manalleh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. And when he was in affliction, he befought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers."

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Thus the heart of this man relented under the word affifted by the rod. Ah, it is good that God takes fuch a course with fome finners, elfe the word would do them no good: and to this purpose is that in Job xxxvi. 8, 9, 10. "And if they be "bound in fetters, and holden in cords of affliction; then he

fheweth them their work and their trafgreffion, that they "have exceeded; and openeth their ears to discipline." This is that rough courfe the obftinacy of mens hearts makes neceffary for their recovery, and therefore it is very obfervable, that fome words of God have lain dead in fome finners hearts for years together, and at last have begun to work under fome finart and clofe rod. Alas, while all things are pleasant and profpeTous about us, the word hath but little operation and effect: Jer. xxii. 21, 22. "I spake unto thee in thy profperity, but

thou faidft I will not hear: this hath been thy manner from "thy youth, that thou obeyedft not my voice. The wind fhall eat up all thy paftures, and thy lovers thall go into captivity; furely then shalt thou be afhamed and confounded for all thy wickedness." q. d. Your eyes are so dazzled with the beautiful flowers, and your ears fo charmed with the Syren fongs or earthly delights, that my wind can take no place upon you. Let an eaft-wind blow, and wither up thefe flowers; then the word fhall work, and confcience refent the concernments of eternity. This courfe God is fain to take with many of you; here you fit from fabbath to 'fabbath under the word, and nothing takes place upon your hearts. Will you not hear the voice of my word? Go, death, faith God, smite that man's child dead, I will try what that will do; go poverty, and blaft his eftate, and fee what that will do; go fickness, and fmite his body, and fhake him over the graves mouth, I will fee what that will do. Thus God fends to finners, that Abfalom fent to Joab, who refused to come near him, till he fet

fire to his field of corn, and then away comes Joab, 2 Sam. xiv, 29, 30, 31. And thus the Lord opened the heart of the Jaylor, by putting him into a fright, a panic fear of death, Acts xvi. 27. And thus doth the Lord devise means to bring back his banished.

(2.) As God makes ufe of the hammer of judgments, fo he makes ufe of mercies to make way for Christ into the hearts of men. Every mercy is a call, a knock of God: and truly if there be any ingenuity left unextinguished in the heart, one would think mercy would prevail more than all the judgments in the world, Rom. ii. 4. "Knowest thou not that the good"nefs of God leadeth thee to repentance?" q. d. Doft thou not fee the hand of mercy ftretched out to lead thee into a corner, there to mourn over thy fins committed against so gracious and merciful a God? By every mercy you receive, Chrift doth, as it were, fue you to open your hearts to him; they are so many gifts fent from heaven to make way for Chrift into your hearts. It would be an endless task to enumerate all the mercies bestowed to this end upon the unregenerate: but furely this is the errand of them all; and the Lord takes it very ill when his end is not answered in them: hence is that complaint, Jer. v. 24. "Neither fay they in their heart, let us now fear the Lord our "God, that giveth us rain, both the former and the latter, in "his feason." Some of you have been marvellously preferved in times of common contagion and death, when thousands have fallen at your right hand and left: then have you been preserved or recovered, according to that, Exod. xv. 26. " I will put none of those difeafes upon thee, for I am the Lord that "healeth thee." I am Jehovah Rophe, the Lord the phyfician; many of you have been at the graves mouth, in many dif eafes, others upon the deeps; yet the hand of mercy pulled you back, and suffered you not to drop into the grave and hell in the fame moment. O what a knock was here given by the hand of mercy at thy hard heart! Certainly if men would but obferve, they might fee a ftrange, marvellous working, and 'moulding of things by the hand of providence, for the production of thousands of mercies for them: and if mercy would do the work, and win you over to Chrift, many rods had been fpared, which your obstinacy hath made neceffary. O ungrateful finners! doth your Redeemer thus woo and fee you by fo many gifts of mercy, and yet will you shut him out? Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolifb people and unwife? For which of all his benefits do your ungrateful fouls shut the door upon him?

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(3.) You fee what Chrift's knocking at the foul of a finner implies, and by what inftruments it is performed. In the last place, we will confider the manner how this action is performed in the ten following particulars, wherein much of the myftery of conversion will be opened; the Lord grant your experience may answer them. We cannot indeed exactly defcribe and mark all the footsteps of the Spirit, in this work, upon the fouls of men; yet thefe things feem eminently obfervable.

1. The knocks of Chrift at the finner's heart are filent and fecret to all perfons in the world, except the foul itself at whofe door he knocks; here be many hundreds of you this day under the word; if the Lord fhall this day knock by conviction at any man's heart, none will hear that knock, but that man only; for it is a knock without found or noife to any but the particular foul concerned in it. It was fore-prophefied of our Redeemer, and of this very act of his, Ifa. xlii. 2. " He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor caufe his voice to be heard in the street." The kingdom of God cometh not into the fouls of men with public obfervation; you read in 1 Cor. ii. 11. "No man know

eth the things of a man, fave the spirit of a man that is in "him." None knows what convictions another man's confcience feels, until he himself shall discover them; you hear the fame found of the gospel, but you hear not the inward strokes it gives to another man's confcience. Chrift's approaches to the foul make no noife; little do we know what the spirit of Chrift whispers in the ear of him that fits next us. It is faid of the inward comforts of the fpirit, I will give him the hidden manna which no man knows but he that eateth of it. This is true alfo of inward terrors and troubles. Chrift's knocks by conviction are but a fecret whifper of his fpirit in the ear of a finner, faying, thou art the man, this is thy cafe. That is the first thing in the manner of Christ's knocking, it is a filent knock without public found.

2. These filent inward knocks of the spirit of Chrift, though they are heard by none but the foul itfelf, yet do they greatly differ as to the terror, or mildness of them in different fubjects. Some hear them with more terror and astonishment, others in a mild and gentle manner. When the Lord knocked at the Jaylor's confcience, Acts xvi. 29, 30. it was a terrible stroke; he called for a light, and fprang in like a man distracted; and trembling and astonished fell down at the apofties feet, crying, "Sirs, what must I do to be faved?" Here was a terrible knock indeed, which almost affrighted his foul out of his body; it is VOL. IV.