Obj. Oh why, what should I do faith a foul that hath stood

out?

Sol. I answer, thou shouldeft look back on thy withstandings with hearty grievings, and fhouldft preffe on towards thy duty with fervent requestings; now lay down thy weapons, and ftrive to give up thy felf to Chrift, not to harden thy heart any longer, but beg of God day and night to forgive thy refufals, and to give thee now a heart to beleeve and to yield.

5. Chrift will accept of any man who is willing to lay down bis weapons.

Object. 'Tis true that Chrift faith, Thefe mine enemies who will not have me to reigne over them, bring them forth and flay them before me; If a man will be still an enemy, if he will not accept of Chrift to be his Lord, to govern bim, then Chrift wll be a Judge and enemy to that man, be fhall pe

rish.

Sol. But it is as true, that if we accept of reconciliation, if we would lay afide former enmity, if we come unto Chrift and caft our felves down at his feet, and give up the fword which fought against him; if we confeffe our rebellions, and befeech him to accept of us into his fervice, and into mercy; If we beartily defire now to be the fervants of righteoufneffe, ro take Chrift to be our Lord, and to ferve him alone, affuredly be will not refufe us. Therefore, if any here this day have their fpirits entangled with this fcruple, that they now have refused Chrift, and are paft their day, but withal they finde'their hearts bleeding for this, and they do now judge of Christ as the chiefeft of ten thousands, and it is the defire of their fouls to be reconciled, and to put themselves under the government of the Lord Jefus, I fay unto fuch, fear not, come and accept of Chrift, he will be reconciliation to thee; Though thou hast been an enemy,yet if now thou wilt accept of the termes of peace, the Son of peace will certainly accept of thee.

7. Obj. Yet the fenfible finner is not fatisfied for all this, I am afraid, Why? because I finde not only former guilt ina. manifold number, but prefent corruptions in exceeding strength no man living bath an abominable heart as 1, furely the Lord. Jefus will loath me and depart from me, a finful wretch, I

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cannot

cannot think otherwife, how then fhould I beleeve? Sol. For fome refolution of this fcruple,obferve a few par ticulars.

Frit, the fene of the ftrength of finne is no unhopeful fymptom nor prejudice to faith. Of all tempers, the hardned is most dangerous, and finne hath the greatest strength, where there is the leaft fenfe: A man feems to be nothing else but a lump of finne, when he is fo wholly leavened and fowred, that not a part in him can reflect upon it felf, and feel its filthineffe; where the guilt of finne is no burden, and the nature of fin is no trouble, that foul is in an ill cafe.

But the fenfe of the strength of finne imports fomething ele in the foul befides fin: When the patient is deadly fick, he faith he is well and fee's no paine, but when a patient is re covering, he is full of fenfe,and complains his head is weak, his ftomack fick, his bones lame, all is amiffe. There is more hope of one fenfible finner, then of a thousand prefumptuous and hardned wretches; And God feldom or never gives a man a sense of Chrift, who hath not had first a sense of his finful neffe.

There is a double fenfe of finne.

1. One is meerly judicial, which is the feeling of the guile of finne when God awakens the confcience to apprehend its former finnings, and imprints fome degrees of wrath upon it 35 the fruits of guilt; and now the finner is broken and crushed, for he feeles a kinde of hell in himself for his former fin nings.

2.

Another is more then judicial; It is fomething more grie. vous, and that is, when a man doth not only feele the guilt of finne as preffing, bat the nature of finne as an oppreffing burden; He fees and feels the inclinations and motions of his heart as most repungnant to the will and glory of God, and therefore is exceedingly afficted and difquieted: This now is an admirably hopeful Symptome.

Secondly, Unbelief is no aure to the strength of finne: whether thou conjecture the ftrength of finne to confift in hardneffe of heart, Why, unbelief will never foften thee; or whether thou conjecture the ftrength of it, to confift in the approbation of finne; Why, unbelief will never condemn and difapprove it;

or whether thou conjecture (though not rightly) its strength to confift in meere inclinations; why? why unbelief will never alter them; or whether thou thinkeft its strength confifts in frequency of actions or motions; why, unbelief will never remove or leffen them; or whether thou thinkelt its ftrength consists in commands and power, why, unbelief will never conquer

them.

Unbelief is a fin it felf, and therefore can be no care of finne, (for no hing cures the finner, but that which is contrary unto fin:) Nay, unbelief keeps off the foul from its cures, from its helps; the help of a finful foul is in heaven, but unbeliefe knows not the way upward, the beart of unbelief will depart· from the living God.

Thirdly, Chrift is a Physician for a fick finner, and he hath faid, that the whole need not the Physician, but the fick. Why? The fick perfon is no unfutable object or prefent for a Phyli cian, his calling is to heale diftempers and fick neffes; and thou mayeft confidently go to Chrift to have thy fick foul healed. We cannot brethren, we cannot, and Crift knows it well enough, we cannot come to Chrift, but we must be beholding to him for two things, One, his merit to get our fins pardoned; Another is his Spirit, to get our finful natures chan-ged. And therefore Chrift is appointed of God, not only to be Redemption, but also to be Sanctification; as he is the Author of falvation to m, fo he is the Author of Sanctification in us; We cannot come to him and bring good natures; O no, the grace which we want, is in Chrift, in our Head, as water in the Spring, and from bis fulnesje must we receive grace for grace. None can change that vile heart of thine but Chrift; His wings are bealing, and to him art thou ap、pointed to come as the fick perfon to the Prieft in the Levi tical Law.

.

The Covenant of grace (you know )is an undertaking, not on ly for pardon,but for changing, and all the Covenant is made good in Chrift: As if God should say unto a finner, I know thou art a guilty perfon ful-well, and befides that, thou hast a filthy and abominable nature, but go to my Son, accept of him, there is thy pardon in him, and there is thy change in him, he fhall justifie thee from thy guilt, and he shall fanctifiethy nature from its vile corruption... Fourthly,,

Fourthly, Jefus will not loath thee because of thy finful na ture, but will help thee because thou art a fick perfon. Remember it for ever, the more vile thou art in thine own eyes, the more precious thou art in Chrifts opinion; I never read of any perfon who came to Chrift, thou Lord heale me, but he was fent away cured..

Fifthly, what doeft thou think of beleeving? what is thy opinion of faith? what? as if faith were an enemy or hinderance to bolineffe? That it will either increase, or fuffer lewdneffe in the heart? far be it from thee fo to think; O no, Faith is the fingular way of encreasing and getting all grace to thy foul, it deals altogether with holy principles, God, Chrift,the Spirit, and with holy wayes, the Word, the Sacraments; Faith engageth all the goodneffe and strength of heaven for thy change, and for the renuing and fubduing of thy finful heart. Rom.6.14. Sinne shall not have dominion over you, faith the Apoftle, and why? for ye are under grace: Mark it, under grace (that is) under a gracious Covenant, wherein God and Chrift have engaged themselves to their ayd and ftrength; yea, but what makes us to be under this grace? Verily it is faith in Christ, in whom all grace is enfured to the foul.

Nay, if thou couldeft, by faith accept of Chrift to be thy Lord and Saviour, now mighteft thou confidently go unto him to expreffe the vertues of his Sovereignty and goodneffe to thee; Now mighteft thou plead with him for the excellencies of his Spirit; Lord Jefus, I have beftowed my felf on thee, and thou didst invite and affure me, that thou wouldeft be, not only righteoufneffe, but fanctification alfo unto me, I befeech thee, fend forth the rod of thy Scepter, the vertues of thy grace, and change by thy boly Spirit this unholy heart of mine, fubdue mine iniquities, caft down every imagination exalting it felf against theo, bring into captivity (O my foul defires to be. captivated to thee, yea, by the) every thought, &c.

There is a pregnant difference 'twixt prejumption and faith, prefumption is but the birth of an idle fancy, like a dreame of great matters, which yet hath no real bottome, but only flies out of a multiplying imagination which is full of deluding acts.

But faith conjoynes the foul with a lively principle, with a

true

true fountaine of grace with a root of holineffe, even with Jefus Chrift himfelfe, without whom we can never be made holy,and by whom (being ingraffed into him by faith) we shall be fantified throughout.

Look as the defiling qualities of our mature are first in Adam, and then in us his poflerity, fo changing and fanctifying quali tes are first in Chrift ̧the second Adam, and from him derived to us his members.

And then know that there is not fuch a Ligament to tie us in Union with (hrift, as Faith, nor is there any fuch inftrument to draw out the vertues of Chrift into the foul as faith.

You read of those in the Gospel who brought diseased bodies to Chrift, and yet when they believed, they went away with cured and healed rempers; what doth this intimate unto us, but that the fenfible finner weary of his finful nature, should make his addreffe unto the Lord Jefus for cure, and health, and that he should by faith accept of him, and truft upon him for the bealing of his foul, and the subduing of his fins, and then verily you fhall finde vertue to come from Christ, raising a greater hatred of fin, war with it in the very founaine, watching and praying against it, and the power of the ordinance fucceffively weakening and crucifying the power of fin.

Lastly, know this that the time of contrariety is the time for faith to work. When a man fees death, then is it the time for faith to believe life? When he fees the grave, then is it the time for faith to believe a refurrection, when he fees guilt, then is it the time for faith to believe pardoning mercy; when he fees himself a finner then is it the time for faith to believe a Sa iour; when he fees ftrong corruptions, then is it the time for faith to believe great grace; when he fees great difcomforts, then is it the time for faith to believe strong consolations; the exigences of fenfe, and the reliefes of the promises are quite contrary;what I feel is one thing, what God doth promife is another thing. That which the patient obferves in himself, is fickneffe; and that which be hopes for in the medicine is health. Hath God made thee fenfible of thy fins, dot chou finde thus much,that al that thou canst do wil not become a rebuke of corruption, thou art able now to fee the ftrength of thy finfull nature, but to remove it thou art utterly

E e

unable?