manifefts to them their deeds of darkness and wickednefs, and reproves them for committing them. Secondly, he is not far away from thee, as the apoftle 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 house, 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 fhall 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 ' 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, prescriptions, 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 fpirit 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, righteousness, redemption and juftification. So I fay to thee, unless thou believeft, that he that ftands at the door of thy heart and knocks, and sets 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 discoveries 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, refift evil motions, deny themselves, and overcome the world in its moft inticing appearances. This is the life of the bleffed Cross 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 crofs. For as receiving of Christ 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 difcipleship, Whofoever will be my difciple, let him take up his daily crofs, and follow me.' This, Christendom, is that thou haft fo much wanted, and the want of which has proved the only cause 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 physician 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 first cause 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 apoftleship, 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, instead of yielding to the temptations and motions of Satan, who is the prince of darknefs, (or wickednefs, the one being a metaphor to the other) by whofe power their understandings were obfcured, and their fouls held in the fervice 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 righteoufnefs. And for this bleffed work of reformation, did Chrift endue his apostles with his fpirit and power, that fo men might not longer fleep in a fecurity of fin and ignorance of God, but awake to righteousness, 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 blessed 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, without a sense or fear of him, lawlefly, very ftrangers to the work of his fpirit 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 ferve the living God in newness of spirit. 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 Crofs 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 Rom. viii. 2. i Ifa. xxix. 13. k Tit. ii. 11, 12. they they (as the apostle John advised them) kept themselves, that the evil one touched them not '. For the light, which Satan cannot endure, and with which Chrift had enlightened them, discovered him in all his approaches and affaults upon the mind, and the power they received through their inward obedience to the manifeftations of that bleffed light, enabled them to refift and vanquish him in all his ftratagems. And thus it was, that where once nothing was examined, nothing went unexamined. Every thought must come to judgment, and the rife and tendency of it be alfo well approved, before they allow it any room in their minds. There was no fear of entertaining enemies for friends, whilst this ftrict guard was kept upon the very wicket of the foul. Now the old heavens and earth, that is, the old earthly conversation, and old carnal, that is Jewish or fhadowy worship paffed away apace, and every day all things became new. 'He was no more a Jew, that ' was one outwardly, nor that circumcifion that was in the flesh; but he was the Jew, that was one inwardly; ' and that circumcifion, which was of the heart, in the fpirit, and not in the letter, whofe praise is not of man, but of God".' §. VII. Indeed the glory of the Crofs fhined fo confpicuously through the felf-denial of their lives who daily bore it, that it ftruck the heathen with astonishment, and in a small time fo fhook their altars, difcredited their oracles, ftruck the multitude, invaded the court, and overcame their armies, that it led priests, magiftrates, and generals, in triumph after it, as the trophies of its power and victory, And while this integrity dwelt with chriftians, mighty was the presence and invincible that power that attended them: it quenched fire, daunted lions, turned the edge of the fword, out-faced inftruments of cruelty, convicted judges, and converted executioners. In fine, the ways their enemies took to deftroy, increased them; and by the deep wifdom of God, they were ! 1 John v. 18. B 4 Rom. ii. 28, 29, made |