he hath promised to carry them Isaiah 40.11 he carries the Lambs in his Bosom and can any pull them out of his Bosom If none can pull them out of his hand much less can any pull them out of his heart 2. Perseverance is Christ's Purchase did he die for you and will he lose you Will he pay the Price and let another carry away the Purchase Did not he die for Glory as well as Grace and Happiness as well as Holiness No no not a soul that his blood is gone for can be a miscarrying soul 3. Your Perseverance is Christ's charge he hath undertaken for it to his Father John 6.37 none that thou hast given me shall be lost but I will raise it up at the last day 2. They have Discouragement from without as well as from within and both meeting together is a great damp to the young Seeker The discouragements from without are from these Causes 1. From Satan As soon as he sees they look Christ-ward and Heaven-ward he begins then to torment them though while they were his Bondslaves they were all the time quiet As when the Children of Israel were to go out of the Egyptian Captivity then Pharoah with all his Host pursues them so when a soul is going out of his spiritual house of Bondage Satan with all his might and main labours to reduce them It is the observation of one upon the Church the Woman in the Revelations that all the while she was breeding the Dragon did not meddle with her but when she comes to be delivered then he casts a flood after the woman to destroy both her and her man-child So all the while a poor soul is under some Breathings and desires only after Christ Satan doth not much tempt or disturb it but when it comes to bring forth Christ and answer his Convictions with a change of Conversation O then he casts a whole flood of Temptations and discouragements after it And alas this proceeds from his envy to the good of your souls He is the envious one and his envy puts him upon laying discouragements before you O who can stand before Envy O poor soul the Lord will look after thee while thou art looking after him Poor soul be of good cheer thy Temptations argue his Rage and his Rage being great argues his time of rule in thy soul is like to be short 2. Discouragement without proceeds from the Persecution that attends the Profession of the Gospel While the Sun did shine upon the Gospel it had many friends but when it is brought under the Clouds of Persecution many go away from Christ as he said unto them Will you also go away There was I remember a Law that the first year of marriage none should go to War O but may young ones say what a discouragement it is to us as soon as ever we desire to be married to Christ in a profession of the Gospel we must be Sufferers and must go to War with Persecutions Well poor Souls be not discouraged you shall not go to war on your own cost The Lord the great Captain of your Salvation will renew your strength and you shall run and not be weary walk and not faint though Persecutions meet you in the way Jesus Christ hath his strict Charge and he will look after them in a suffering day 3. Discouragement from without is the Opposition they meet with from carnal Relations such as are Encmies to the Cross of Christ Many times such do mightily oppose these ways they are ignorant of which is a great discouragement And Satan many times helps on the rage of such and stirs up their wrath but yet for all this poor soul be not discouraged when thy way pleases the Lord he can make thine Enemies at Peace with thee much more thy Relations God many times has turned the heart of Relations about as he did Esau's heart to his Brother Jacob when pursuing of him but if not there is a Friend nearer than a Brother viz. the Lord Jesus Christ he will be a friend in the day of Adversity Nay often it is observed that as cold water makes fire burn so much the hotter so Grace gains by opposition by the cold water of discouragement burns so much the brighter Thy opposition will drive thee more to look up to him where thy strength lies and so may be a great preservation to thee 4. Discouragement from without is from the miscarriages of such as do profess the Lord Jesus Christ Many that call upon the name of Christ do not depart from iniquity but walk loosely deal unrighteously betwixt man and man dishonour their Profession by an unsuitable Conversation Others they have more grosly backsliden from God and whereas formerly they have been praying men in their Families hearing men frequenting the means of Grace somewhat strict in their lives now they have thrown off all these and become like other men as vain as other men nay as prophane as other men and this is a great discouragement O poor Soul notwithstanding this Discouragement yet go on for the ways of the Lord are the same and if thou follow on to know the Lord thou wilt find sweetness in his Ordinances and Truth notwithstanding this Application Is it so that young Seekers early Seekers meet with Discouragement Word of Use is Caution O let young ones take heed in their first looking out after Christ 1. Of consulting with flesh blood this will occasion you to yield to Discouragements It is said of Paul Gal. 1.16 he consulted not with flesh and blood The worst counsel in the World will flesh and blood give in the case of a mans soul Alas poor young man will flesh and blood say what art thou going to do Art thou able to deny thy self of the delights and pleasures of Youth Art thou able to cut off a right hand to put out a right eye to cut the throat of a beloved Isaac to let out the hearts blood of a constitutional Lust Can thy tender years indure such hard things as Religion is like to be attended with Canst thou bear the scoffs and jeers of the World the oppositions and displeasure of thy dearest Relations And thus will flesh and blood follow thee But alas what is this to a poor soul that sees its precious soul lie at stake and is in danger Cannot will not this soul reply to all these reasonings of flesh and blood Get you behind me Satan What are the greatest severities in the World to a man that sees and feels he is a lost soul for ever if he have not a Christ 2. Take heed in your first seekings out and meeting with discouragements that you pore not unbelievingly upon your discouragements It is true there ought to be sitting down and counting the cost for the want of which many poor souls after Profession have backsliden but the poor young ones may pore too much upon their discouragements may look
to in the Text. The Text then runs thus There is both in time and out of time for your poor Souls there is an especial season of Grace you have and upon this depends the Eternal happiness and felicity of your poor Souls Let that slip and your Souls are undone for ever Lay hold of this especial time and you are happy for ever This is the meaning of the Text I will not always strive with you will not always call on you will not always wait with offers of pardoning grace therefore before I call in my Scepter O do you seek me Observations are these 1. The Lord Jesus is willing to be found of poor Gentile Sinners 2. There are especial times of finding the Lord Jesus while he is to be found 3. It is the duty of every poor Soul to observe his especial times to seek Christ in 4. There is a day and time in which Christ will not be found 1. The Lord Jesus is willing to be found of poor Gentile Sinners I must keep close to my Text and it speaks of such as have been before hinted 1. Let us make inquiry what a Gentile Sinner is In the general take this Answer A Gentile Sinner is the worst of Sinners the vilest of Sinners thus the Apostle describes them Gal. 2.15 We who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles They were reckoned the greatest sinners Mark 16.15 Preach the Gospel to every Creature viz. Gentiles as though they were not worthy the name of men and women That we may set off the Free Grace of God in Christ to poor Sinners let us see a Scripture-map of Gentilism or Gentile Sinners that Christ is thus willing to be found of 1. They are said to be Idolaters Howbeit then when ye knew not God Gal. 4.8 9. ye did service unto them who were no Gods While they were in Heathenisme that is Gentilism God is willing to be found of such What though you have been Idolaters yet such may have mercy from God Jer. 14.22 In that black Catalogue of Sinners Idolaters are reckoned among the Corinthians such were some of you Idols are called the vanities of the Gentiles 2. Gentiles were poor slaves Tit. 3.3 For we our selves were sometimes foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures c. They were servants to their lusts their lusts did Lord it over them Know you not you are Servants to him whom you obey Yet of these poor Souls Christ is willing to be found O do not say then I am a poor Gentile too great a Sinner ever to find favour from the hands of God Luk. 15.15 The prodigal Gentile was a slave joyned to a Citizen to keep Swine and yet God took him to be a Son out of the field into the house 3. Gentiles are poor hood-winkt blind Souls Call in the blind and the halt viz. the poor Gentiles now become the Lord Jesus Christs guests and the Jewes are rejected The God of this world hath blinded their eyes they go muffled in ignorance of God and Christ from day to day yet God is willing to be found of them They are such muffled Creatures Acts 17. that they are said to feel after God 4. A Gentile is a poor perishing Soul The poor man that was wounded and lay perishing of his wounds is the poor Gentile Luk. 10.30 that Jesus Christ is the good Samaritan to and binds up his wounds and pours oyl into them We may say we are all poor Assyrians ready to perish and yet Christ is willing to be found of such Joh. 3.10 Whosoever believes on him Jew or Gentile might not perish but have everlasting life Doth thy poor Soul say as the poor prodigal did and I perish for hunger O Jesus Christ is willing to be found of such 5. A Gentile is a poor Soul that lies far from God They are the inhabitants of the far Countrey Eph. 2.13 14. You who were a far off are brought nigh by the blood of Jesus He is there speaking of Gentiles They are said by the Prophet to be far from Rightcousness Isa 46. ult Well poor Souls Christ is willing to be found of such Alas Sir sayes a poor Soul I am a great way from Christ O so were Gentiles there was a wall of partition betwixt Christ and them yet Christs blood took it away melted down the stones in this partition wall 6. A Gentile is a poor Soul without hope Without Christ Eph. 2.12 Without hope of being saved without Christ without hope can thou be worse Yet Christ is willing to be found of such Alas sayes a poor Soul I have no hope Thou art a Gentile a poor hopeless Soul Because they are without Promise they are without hope The Heathens feigned when all was gone yet Hope was in the bottom of Pandora's box implying that Hope is a good refuge in calamity 7. A Gentile is one that is a blasphemer of the name of God Rom 2.24 Christiani sanctè vixissent si Christus sancta docuisset For the name of God is blasphemed through you They did take all occasions to speak evil of God for the infirmities of his followers If Christ had taught them better they would have lived better was the brand of Gentiles cast upon Christ in Tertullians time Paul tells us he was a Blasphemer and yet obtained mercy It is the spirit of a Gentile to speak evil of his Name because of the miscarriages of his followers 8. A Gentile is one that seeks only after earthly things An earthly spirit is the spirit of the Gentiles After these things Mat. 6.32 saith Christ do the Gentiles seek It may be many poor Souls have made the comfort of the Creature their Summum Bonum never sought after any thing for their Souls in all their lives Yet Christ calls such to seek him yea is willing to be found of such What though thou hast been a poor earth-worm all thy dayes yet if now thou seek the Lord there is hope for thee if thy heart be in good earnest for Heaven Take these Scriptural descriptions of Gentiles to set off the Free grace of God to the worst of Sinners 1. Reason why Jesus Christ is willing to be found of poor Gentile Sinners 1. Because this was the end of the Fathers donations Christ is the great gift of his Father Now surely the Lord would never have parted with such a gift as his own Son but he had some great end in such a gift Well what was the Fathers design He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him might not perish but have eternal life That Gentile sinners might not perish to all eternity Eph. 2.18 Therefore we read of such Souls being made nigh by the blood of Jesus and through him we have both Access viz. both Jews and Gentiles to the Father c. Many poor Souls are under Objections concerning the
free and ingenuous as I may say Divine Love is it tells us the worst that we might be awakened to look about us If you neglect but a while follow your sins for a while set out your day of Grace for a while then it will be over and the bowels of the Lord will be shut up in displeasure against you and then you will say as he upon his death-bed I have told you now all is too late all is now too late Is there not great love in warning Souls of danger before it comes 4. Is there not love in this that the Rejection of the Jews the Cutting off them should be the grafting in of the Gentiles O that such wild Olives should be partakers of the sweetness of the fat Olive that ever such brambles should be inoculated into Christ Rom. 11.33 This raised up the spirit of Paul into a frame of admiration The casting away of the Jews was the reconciling of the world 5. There is love in this that Christ was so willing to come as his Fathers Gift as a Commander and Leader to his People as the words before speak See how Christs heart ecchoes to the heart of the Father in the work of the Salvation of poor Sinners In the volume of thy Book it is written I come to do thy will O God 2. Vse O then let us a little admire the condescention of Christ in this thing that he is so willing to be found of poor Gentiles It is no wonder if upon the head of this Divine Mistery be written a verily Verily he took upon him not the nature of Angels Heb. 2.16 but the Seed of Abraham That he should overlook them Glorious Creatures that Mercy should come to poor Gentiles over the head of Angels how few take notice of this 1 Pet. 1.12 Angels desire to look into these deeps and yet we do not look into them with an eye of holy inspection and heavenly admiration 3. Another word is this If Christ be willing to be found of poor Gentile Sinners it is then a Call to such to seek him Seek him while he may be found May not I say to poor Sinners as God argues the case with those Jews by the Prophet Ezekiel Why will ye dye O ye house of Israel So why do poor Gentile Sinners neglect seeking the Lord Jesus Is not this to go carelesly the ready way to your Eternal destruction Is not this the rode to your Everlasting ruine And will not the Lord say to you one day as the Prophet to them Your destruction is of your selves 1. Motive to seek the Lord. He first is suitor to you and seeks you And is not this a mighty motive This is that great loadstone that should draw the hearts of poor Sinners much in love with Christ He loves them first Who loved us first Christ is first in the motion He came to seek and to save that which is lost Take that Parable of the Prodigal his Father sent after him into the far Country sought him out This my Son was lost and is found Nay Christ is the Shepherd of the Gentiles and he seeks out his sheep in a dark and gloomy day Alas what is the Gospel but Christ sending after poor Sinners to wooe them to accept of terms of Grace and Mercy 2. Motive to seek the Lord Jesus His seeking you cost him dear He laid down his life for his sheep He sought you and where did he find you He found you slaves and he must pay your ransome for you I have found a ransome for him His death is our ransome We were prisoners and captives and could not be redeemed at a lower rate than Christs blood 3. Motive He comes from the Father to seek you The verses going before are a Prophecy of Christ proceeding from the Father I have given him for a witness And frequently when he is spoken of to poor Gentile Sinners then he is said to come by way of donation I have given him a light to the Gentiles He comes and brings commendations of his Fathers love to poor Sinners He is called the faithful and true witness of God 4. Motive He came from Heaven to seek you O what Glory he left to come and mind your Eternal concerns upon earth I cannot nay what Man or Angel can tell you what he forsook to seek you He stript himself of all his Glory of all his Royal Robes to wash your feet to wash you all over He left his Throne I remember it is storied of a King that found a sheep in a ditch and sate down on hands and knees and pulled it out with his own hands The Sheep is thy own Soul this King is the Lord Jesus the Ditch is thy Natural Condition in which thou hadst perished to all Eternity if he had not come from Heaven to have pull'd thee out 5. Motive He seeks as impatient of denyal He is an importunate Seeker he will not be said nay seeks like a beggar that will not be gone from your doors Christ will not be gone from the door of thy heart he stands and knocks he doth not knock as he passes by but stands waiting for thy coming out to accept of him and close with him Therefore he beseeches wooes waits to be Gracious He comes in Ordinance after Ordinance Providence after Providence Motion after Motion and Day after Day What sayest thou poor Soul wilt thou now close with me And as he did Wilt thou be made whole to the Leper And O how loth to go away when will it once be 6. Motive He is a Seeker that is grieved when he is denyed He was grieved because of their unbelief and the hardness of their hearts You cannot grieve Christ worse than deny him when he comes to make out love to your Souls and you slight him 7. Motive He seeks poor Sinners in their proper months Jer. 2.24 In their months one shall find them Christ knows the months to find Sinners in All these Motives are taken from Christ as the great seeker of Souls 3. Vse is of Reproof 1. to such as neglect to seek the Lord that seek him not at all Yet they are Seekers but not Seekers of the Lord. Gentiles are Seekers after these things the Gentiles seek They seek good trading good livelihoods c. But alas this is all they seek after Nay Lev. 10.31.20.6 we read of some that seek after Wizards they are so far from seeking after God But the Lord sayes he will set his face against such Do you think poor Seamen and you their wives that this is the way to have good voyages to go to ask the Devil his Counsel Some seek their lusts Prov. 23.30 like Solomons drunkard they say they will seek it yet again But all this while they seek not the Lord. O how few seek to the Lord What are these poor Souls seeking but the living among the dead 1. See the danger
his heart so that he breaks out thus the Godly shall pray unto thee in such a time in an especial time Luk. 19.41 42. O Jerusalem hadst thou known in this thy day It was an especial time in which they might have found the Lord he so sweetly offering himself to them in the Gospel Solomon tells us Eccl. 8.5 6. A wise mans heart discerneth time and judgment because to every purpose there is a time and judgment therefore the misery of man is great upon him So in this case there is a time an especial time to put your Spiritual purposes into execution to seek the Lord Jesus in Therefore that was good Counsel Job 22.20 21. Now acquaint thy self with God and be at peace and thereby good shall come upon thee Now seek the Lord. There are some especial Nows that we should all improve and lay hold on 2 Cor. 6.2 Now is the acceptable time now is the day of salvation c. I passed by thee and saw thee in thy blood and then it was a time of love c. The great question will be what are these especial times in which Christ is willing to be found 1. When he offers himself in the tenders of the Gospel O Jerusalem hadst thou known in this thy day It was a peculiar time in which the Lord Jesus was preached to them Now Christ is willing to be found of you What is the Gospel but Christ seeking out his Sheep his voice calling in his Sheep Christ following poor sinners with invitations and entreaties that they would return unto him and live We read of the Shepherd seeking out his sheep Would Christ offer himself but that it is an especial time of love O poor Souls take heed as you reject these offers 1. These offers of Christ are a fruit of his blood if he had not died he never had been tendred to you and for you to refuse these offers is for you to reject his purchase nay for you to tread his blood under-foot and account the blood of the Covenant an unclean thing And O how must this needs provoke the Lord as is said in the parable of the Supper when they all had refused the Lord was angry and resolved that none of them should taste of his Supper 2. These offers are offers of life and salvation O then take heed of rejecting them You will not come to me that you may have life Now is an especial time you may have life If a poor condemned Malefactor should but have his life offered him O how would he be transported with joy And this is the case of every poor sinner out of Christ he is under a sentence of condemnation and Christ comes and offers them their lives O then as we value the lives of our precious Souls let us not reject the offers of Christ 3. The offers of Christ are unasked unsought for by us therefore it is now an especial finding time Thou poor sinner dost not come forth and ask a Christ and cry for Christ and lament after Christ O no but Christ came out to offer himself to thy poor Soul when thou lay dying and perishing in thy blood then he said unto thee unasked Live 4. The offers of Christ are not only of his Grace but of himself He offers not only what he hath but what he is to thy Soul But my people would have none of me He that hath the Son hath life There must be an union with the Son a closing with the person of Christ as well as with the promise of Christ Now this is more than to offer Grace yea than to offer Heaven to poor sinners Therefore it is we read of the marriage of the Kings Son and shall we despise such a match as this God forbid 5. Surely this is a finding time in an especial manner he offers with entreaties and invitations to accept He doth not make an offer and away as careless whether poor sinners accept or no but he follows his offers with arguments if by any means he might prevail with poor Souls before it be too late 6. He offers all he hath O will neither his person nor his benefits take with the Souls of poor sinners All he hath may be yours If he have pardoning mercy it is yours if he have sanctifying mercy it is yours if he have comforting mercy it is yours He interests you in all his fulness upon your closure with him He bestows upon you a large joynture upon your marriage with him All is yours Then certainly this is an especial finding time 2. The second especial finding time is when the Spirit breaths upon sinners in their attendances upon God We read of a certain season in which the Angel came down and moved the waters There are some certain seasons that the Spirit of God doth breath more freely upon poor sinners than at other times and these times we are to make an especial improvement of The Spirit of God it is said came upon Sampson by times Certain briezes if you will give me leave to call them so that come from Heaven at certain times The wind blows where it listeth O but poor Souls be sure you lose not these winds when they stand fair for Heaven do not let them slip lose not a gale for Eternity for they are especial finding times 1. These gales once gone and they are irrecoverable There is no buying a wind for Heaven if you would give all the world for it one fair gale lost and thy poor Soul may lye wind-bound unto thy very dying day 2. These gales once gone and your hearts harden Sinners hearts harden as the gales of the spirit of God are abused and so suspended And O what a sad case will it be for a poor Sinner to lye upon a death-bed crying out this heart of mine as very a stone as it is as hard as it is now once was breathed upon by the Spirit to close with Christ but I sinned all those precious breathings from my Soul and so by degrees hardned for Hell apace 3. These winds will not alwayes blow upon you the wind will not alwayes stands here Say so when under the Spirits breathings The wind will not alwayes hold thus fair for Heaven it will not alwayes blow in this quarter My Spirit shall not alwayes strive with man You must not think of having a trade-wind for Heaven 4. These gales must you give an account for Why did not you move with such a fair wind when you had it This question one day will be asked your precious Souls O what answer will you give in that day Did not my Spirit strive with you but you resisted it and vexed it and quenched it Every motion you ever had and slighted will come in as an evidence against you another day 5. These gales once gone will fill your Souls with horrour that you have lost them that you were in so fair a way for closing with
Souls You cannot slight the seasons of Grace but you slight your own Souls O that that word were daily before you What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul It is one of the first considerations usually that sets a poor sinner upon looking out after Christ What will become of my Soul if I dye in this condition Am I not eternally undone and then what am I better for all the trash I have gathered together What gaineth it the Hypocrite when the Lord shall take away his Soul 1. Consider your Souls are Heaven-born Souls from above breathed in by God and will you slight them 2. A spiritual being 3. An immortal being 4. A being that cannot be satisfied with any sublunary objects 5. A Soul capable of Communion with God here 6. Capable of the fruition of God hereafter 3. Vse is a word of examination or inquiry Are there some especial times and seasons in which Christ is willing to be found Then have ever your poor Souls found Christ in these times Is not this an inquiry worth following By being found of Christ I mean as the word explains it closed with Christ When Christ and a poor Soul meets a poor Soul takes Christ and accepts of him upon the terms of the Gospel and Christ takes a poor Soul for as there is a taking and receiving of Christ so there is a receiving on Christs side 1. If your Souls have found Christ then you have seen your Souls in a lost and bewildred condition this my Son was lost and is found He was bewildred in his far Country but now his return was his finding time Christ usually meets with the Soul in the wilderness I will allure her into the wilderness and speak comfortably to her Hof 2.14 O how is a poor Soul at its first finding Christ bewildred and lost cannot tell what to make of his condition sees nothing but misery before it sees nothing but Hell gaping upon him cryes out it is undone and without hope 2. If you have found Christ then you will sell all part with all for him Mat. 13.44 You read of the Merchant man that when he had found the Pearl of price he sold all to purchase it Some take it he sold all his sins he so dearly loved before parted with them Some take it he parted with all his own Righteousness which we are naturally as loth to part with as our Sins O thus did Paul when he accounted all things dung and dross in comparison of the excellency of Christ Jesus my Lord. They that have found the Lord Jesus they do not stand with him We read this was that which caused the young man in the Gospel to leave Christ he could not part with all he had great possessions Now you are like to be tryed whether you have found Christ or no. If you have found the Lord Jesus Christ you have not only been convinced of sin and so seen your lost condition but you have been convinced of Righteousness There are many poor Souls that stick at their convictions of sin and get no further and prove like foolish children that stay long in the place of breaking forth but all this while throws and pangs are put upon the Soul to prepare for the birth yet the Soul hath not closed with Christ The poor sinner is but now like a man convinced of his disease and sees his misery but is at an utter loss for a remedy O but now the convictions of the Righteousness of Christ to pardon and freely justifie the sinner this is the remedy A sight of sin without a sight of Christ is no converting work You may be convinced of your sins and dye in them and go to Hell in them When the poor Prodigal was found O then the best Robe viz. Christs Righteousness was to be fetcht forth and put upon him Now poor Soul did thou ever take thy flight to Christs Righteousness to be found in him When the poor Infant we read of was found out in its blood what did God sayes the Text he cast his skirt over it viz. the skirt of the robe of his righteousness 4. If you have found Christ you will now know how you part with him I found my Beloved sayes the Spouse O but it was after long seeking And now doth she hold him with as slack a hand of faith as she did O no I will hold him and will not let him go O now the Soul resolves nothing shall separate him from the love of God in Christ Jesus 5. If you have found Christ you will commend him unto others and set him off to others that they may seek him also Thus did the Spouse This is my Beloved and she commends him in every part from Top to Toe And what is the fruit of this setting forth the excellency of Christ We will seek him with thee Lovers will be commending one another O how dost thou speak of Christ doth thy Soul tell others what a Beloved thy Beloved is what a blessed Christ thy Christ is and say this is my Beloved and this is my Friend We are now come to the third Observation It is the especial duty of poor sinners to observe those times in which Christ will be found seek him while he may be found c. There is but in time we say and out of time Mariners will observe their winds and be sure not to neglect them be it night or day if they be present Merchants will observe their Marts and not neglect them that they may buy the Commodities at the best hand Nay we read of other Creatures observing their times to stir up poor careless stupid man The Ant observes her time and in Summer layes up for Winter and the Prophet says The Swallow and the Stork know their appointed times Jer. 8.7 and observe the time of their coming O how doth God complain of man that his misery is great upon him because he knows not his time Eccl. 8.6 By observing of them we are to understand laying hold of them taking these times by the fore-lock and improving them to the utmost advantage for the spiritual good of your immortal Souls We read therefore that excellent Counsel of the Apostles Redeeming the time An allusion to Merchants that observe their Mart-times who will be sure not to neglect them Every poor believer and every poor sinner ought to be observers of the times in this sence They should observe when the Lord strives and breaths with their poor Souls in his Ordinances They should observe how the Lord allures and draws their hearts after himself Therefore it is we have such especial times pointed at by the finger of God that poor sinners might not miss of them God points at them in the word that they may be observed Now acquaint thy self with God There is but a Now for it a present time for it this lost Job 21.22 and thy