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§. 10. From the confideration of the cause, the cure may be more eafily known, viz. not faithfully taking up the daily crofs; then faithfully taking it daily up, must be the remedy.

§. I.

BY

Y all which has been faid, O Chriftendom! and by that better help, if thou wouldst use it, the lamp the Lord has lighted in thee, not utterly extinct, it may evidently appear, first, how great and foul thy backfliding has been, who, from the temple of the Lord, art become a cage of unclean birds; and of an house of prayer, a den of thieves, a fynagogue of Satan, and the receptacle of every defiled spirit. Next that, under all this manifeft defection, thou haft nevertheless valued thy corrupt felf upon thy profeffion of christianity, and fearfully deluded thyfelf with the hopes of falvation. The firft makes thy difeafe dangerous, but the last almoft incurable.

§. II. Yet because there is mercy with the God of bowels, that he may be feared, and that he takes no delight in the eternal death of poor finners, no, though backfliders themselves, but is willing all fhould come to the knowledge and obedience of the truth, and be faved. He has fent forth his Son a propitiation, and given him a Saviour to take away the fins of the whole world, that those that believe and follow him may feel the righteoufnefs of God in the remiffion of their fins, and blotting out their tranfgreffions for ever. Now, behold the remedy! an infallible cure, one of God's appointing; a precious elixir indeed, that never failed; and that univerfal medicine which no malady could ever escape.

§. III. But thou wilt fay, what is Chrift, and where is he to be found? And how received and applied in order to this mighty cure? I tell thee then: first, he is the great spiritual light of the world, that enlightens every one that comes into the world; by which he

■ Ezek. xviii. 20, 23, 24. 25. Heb. ix. 24 to 28.

Mat. i. 21.
Luke i. 77.
1 John ii. 1, 2.

Rom. iii.

manifefts

manifefts to them their deeds of darkness and wickedness, and reproves them for committing them. Secondly, he is not far away from thee, as the apostle Paul faid of God to the Athenians: behold (fays Christ himself) I ftand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and fup with him, and he with me'.' What door can this be, but that of the heart of man?

§. IV. Thou, like the inn of old, haft been full of other guests: thy affections have entertained other lovers there has been no room for thy Saviour in thy foul. Wherefore falvation is not yet come into thy houfe, though it is come to thy door, and thou haft been often proffered it, and haft profeft it long. But if he calls, if he knocks ftill, that is, if his light yet fhines, if it reproves thee ftill, there is hopes thy day is not over; and that repentance is not hid from thine eyes; but his love is after thee ftill, and his holy

invitation continues to fave thee.

Wherefore, O Christendom! believe, receive, and apply him rightly; this is of abfolute neceffity, that thy foul may live for ever with him. He told the Jews, If you believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your fins; and whither I go ye cannot come '.' And because they believed him not, they did not receive him, nor any benefit by him: but they that believed him, received him; and as many as received

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him,' his own beloved difciple tells us, to them gave he power to become the fons of God, which are born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.' That is, who are not children of God after the fashions, prefcriptions, and traditions of men, that call themselves his church and people (which is not after the will of flesh and blood, and the invention of carnal man, unacquainted with the regeneration and power of the Holy Ghoft) but of God; that is, according to his will, and the working and

b Acts xvii. 27. Rev. iii. 20. John i. 12, 13.

B 2

1 John viii. 22, 24.

fanctifi

fanctification of his spirit and word of life in them. And fuch were ever well verfed in the right application of Chrift, for he was made to them indeed propitiation, reconciliation, falvation, righteoufnefs, redemption and juftification.

So I fay to thee, unless thou believeft, that he that stands at the door of thy heart and knocks, and fets thy fins in order before thee, and calls thee to repentance, be the Saviour of the world, thou wilt die in thy fins, and where he is gone, thou wilt never come. For if thou believest not in him, it is impoffible that he should do thee good, or effect thy falvation : Christ works not against faith, but by it. It is faid of old, he did not many mighty works in fome places, because the people believed not in him. So that if thou truly believest in him, thine ear will be attentive to his voice in thee, and the door of thine heart open to his knocks. Thou wilt yield to the difcoveries of his light, and the teachings of his grace will be very dear to thee.

§. V. It is the nature of true faith to beget an holy fear of offending God, a deep reverence to his precepts, and a most tender regard to the inward teftimony of his fpirit, as that, by which his children, in all ages, have been fafely led to glory. For as they that truly believe, receive Chrift in all his tenders to the foul, fo, as true it is, that those who receive him thus, with him, receive power to become the fons of God: that is, an inward force and ability to do whatever he requires: ftrength to mortify their lufts, controul their affections, resist evil motions, deny themselves, and overcome the world in its moft inticing appearances. This is the life of the bleffed Crofs of Chrift, which is the fubject of the following difcourfe, and what thou, O man, must take up, if thou intendeft to be the difciple of Jesus. Nor canft thou be faid to receive Chrift, or believe in him, whilst thou rejecteft his cross. rejecteft his crofs. For as receiving of Chrift is the means appointed of God to falvation, fo bearing thy daily crofs after him is the only

• Mark vi. 5.

true

true teftimony of receiving him; and therefore it is enjoined by him, as the great token of difciplefhip, Whofoever will be my difciple, let him take up his daily cross, and follow me'.

This, Chriftendom, is that thou haft fo much wanted, and the want of which has proved the only caufe of thy miferable declenfion from pure chriftianity. To confider which well (as it is thy duty) fo it is of great ufe to thy restoration.

For as the knowledge of the caufe of any distemper guides the phyfician to make a right and fafe judgment in the application of his medicine, fo it will much enlighten thee in the way of thy recovery, to know and weigh the firft caufe of thy fpiritual lapfe and malady that has befallen thee. To do which, a general view of thy primitive eftate, and confequently of their work that firft laboured in the chriftian vineyard, will be needful; and if therein fomething be repeated, the weight and dignity of the fubject will bear it without the need of an apology.

§. VI. The work of apostleship, we are told by a prime labourer in it, was, to turn people from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. That is, inftead of yielding to the temptations and motions of Satan, who is the prince of darkness, (or wickedness, the one being a metaphor to the other) by whose power their understandings were obfcured, and their fouls held in the service of fin, they should turn their minds to the appearance of Chrift, the light and Saviour of the world; who by his light fhines in their fouls, and thereby gives them a fight of their fins, and difcovers every temptation and motion in them unto evil, and reproves them when they give way thereunto; that fo they might become the children of light, and walk in the path of righteousness. And for this bleffed work of reformation, did Chrift endue his apoftles with his fpirit and power, that fo men might not longer fleep in a fecurity of fin and ignorance of God, but awake

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to righteoufnefs, that the Lord Jefus might give them life: that is, that they might leave off finning, deny themselves the pleasure of wickednefs, and by true repentance turn their hearts to God, in well-doing, in which is peace. And truly, God fo bleffed the faithful labours of these poor mechanicks, yet his great ambaffadors to mankind, that in a few years many thoufands (that had lived without God in the world, with out a sense or fear of him, lawlefly, very ftrangers to the work of his spirit in their hearts, being captivated by fleshly lufts) were inwardly ftruck and quickened by the word of life, and made fenfible of the coming and power of the Lord Jefus Chrift, as a judge and lawgiver in their fouls, by whofe holy light and spirit, the hidden things of darkness were brought to light and condemned, and pure repentance from thofe dead works begotten in them, that they might serve the living God in newnefs of fpirit. So that thenceforward they lived not to themselves, neither were they carried away of those former divers lufts, by which they had been feduced from the true fear of God; but the law of the spirit of life, by which they overcame the law of fin and death, was their delight; and therein did they meditate day and night. Their regard towards God, was not taught by the precepts of men any longer, but from the knowledge they had received by his own work and impreffions in their fouls'. They had aot quitted their old mafters, the world, the flesh, and the devil, and delivered up themselves to the holy guidance of the grace of Chrift, that taught them to deny ungodliness, and the world's lufts, and to live foberly, righteously, and godly in this prefent life; this is the Cross of Chrift indeed; and here is the victory it gives to them that take it up: by this cross they died daily to the old life they had lived; and by holy watchfulness against the fecret motions of evil in their hearts, they crushed fin in its conceptions, yea, in its temptations. So that i Ifa. xxix. 13. * Tit. ii. 11, 12.

h Rom. viii. 2.

they

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