and the Question then is Is this or that or the other Action pleasing or displeasing to God And this is to be determined by the light of Conscience acting according to God's Holy Law For God is the only Lord of Conscience and his Will the only Rale and Law of Conscience Conscience therefore may be three ways defiled 1. By the unpardoned Guilt of a natural State as it is in all Unbelievers Nothing can purge the Conscience but the Blood of Christ Heb. 9.14 An Unbeliever doth not apply to it nor apply it to himself and God applys it to none but by Faith Therefore all such Unbelievers have all the loathsome filth of their natural State lying on their Consciences defiling it The answer of a good Conscience towards God is by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 3.21 All Unbelievers Consciences can speak nothing towards God by any thing Christ hath done or suffered for they know him not and are not in him They would give an Answer or make their Plea from their good Works and honest Meanings but all such answers and pleas are rejected by God in his judging of a Man's State For all God's Judgment of Mens State proceeds on these two in Christ or out of Christ And as it is with them with respect to one or other of these two so do Men stand or fall before God's Judgment whatever the Judgment of their Consciences be 2. Conscience is defiled by Sinful Actions known to be such Now if these be loved and delighted in they do justly marr Confidence neither can any Man in this Case draw near to God but with the Mouth and hypocritically Isa 2.9,13 This is a Frame not to be found in a Believer He may be guilty of known Sin but it is not delighted in To this David's Words refer Psal 66.18 If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me It is not If there be iniquity in my heart for who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my Sin Prov. 20.9 It is not If I see iniquity in my heart For where there is least sin it is best seen Paul saw enough Rom. 7.23,24,25 and groaned under it and yet blesseth God through Jesus Christ for the hope of Victory But it is only If I regard iniquity in my heart if I look kindly on it God will not hear me and indeed the Man in this Case cannot pray It is as impossible that a person approving and loving Sin can make a real approach to God as it is for a Man to depart from and approach to one at the same time and with the same motion 3. The Conscience is defiled by doubtful practice Of this the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 8.7 And their conscience being weak is defiled To this belongs also the Words in Rom. 14.5 Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind and ver 22 23. Whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin In deliberate Actions especially of Worship to God to act without a clear Warrant from the Word of God defileth the Conscience 2. Sin disturbs the Conscience And Conscience is disturbed by Sin two ways 1. When the evil and filth of Sin is seen a man loaths himself therefore No defilement on the Conscience disturbs it till it be seen Men like Swine wallow in the puddle and see no filth therein till God open the Eyes of their Consciences 2. When the danger of sin is seen and the Wrath it deserves is perceaved then perplexing Fears and sensible Sorrow works in the Soul Now what is the course such a poor Creature should take The Sin is committed the Guilt is contracted the Conscience is defiled the Defilement is seen Disturbance and Trouble is felt in the Conscience What should such a sick Soul do Will any say to him wash thy self where thou canst and cast away the burthen of thy sin the best way thou canst and then come to the throne of Grace This would be strange Gospel indeed We know no other course a Man should take in this Case but coming to the Throne of Grace to have the Conscience sprinkled with the Blood of Christ the only Cordial for a disturbed Conscience and the only Purger of a defiled Conscience Therefore Peter was quite out in his Prayer he prayed backward when he said Depart from me for I am a sinful man O Lord Luke 5.8 Were ever worse Words uttered at the Knees of Jesus Christ He had said better if he had prayed Lord come near to me and abide with me and let me ever abide with thee for I am a sinful Man Where can a sinful Man be better than with the Saviour of Sinners But Peter's Prayer is the natural Prayer of every Man that seeth his Sinfulness and is ignorant of Jesus Christ The Publican understood Prayer and plyed it better Luke 18.13 when he said God be merciful to me a Sinner I feel my sinfulness I see thy Mercy Lord let them meet and thy Mercy shall be glorified and I saved Whoever therefore are distressed with the guilt of Sin in their Consciences or with the power of it in their Hearts and Lives must seek all their relief at this Throne of Grace It is only the power of that Grace revealed and dispensed at this Throne of Grace that is too hard for Sin and all its powers And for any Man to think to subdue Sin except by the power of this Grace or to think that he shall have this powerful Grace without coming for it to the Throne of Grace is to dream to his own destruction Object 2. I am in the dark about my Interest in God and Christ and therefore I cannot come boldly to this Throne If I did know that God was at peace with me and I reconciled to him and justified then I might come boldly Answ 1. Whose fault is it that thy Interest in Christ is not put out of question Were Christians more in self-examination more close in walking with God and if they had more near Communion with God and were more in acting of Faith this shameful darkness and doubting would quickly vanish It is a thing to be heavily bewailed that many Christians have lived twenty or forty years since Christ called them by his Grace yet doubting is their life they doubted when they began they go on doubting and many die doubting when the blame is justly to be laid on themselves There is an assurance of Faith that is a Duty as well as a Blessing Heb. 10.22 And were it more minded as a Duty it would be more often attained as a Mercy That assurance of Faith I press you to have stands in firm and strong Believing The faithful Promise of Christ in the Gospel is the Foundation of it And the Ground will bear all the weight we can lay on it This Assurance is not only a Blessing that comes down from Heaven but it may by his blessing of Means spring up out of the
is saving it comes from the Heart and Love of God Eph. 2.4 and is treasured up for and laid out only upon his chosen It is the favour he bears to his people Psal 106.4 Common mercies are thrown about with a large and indifferent hand He maketh his Sun to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust Matth. 5.45 Now these two sorts of mercies are as far different as Heaven and Earth The excellency of the one is far beyond that of the other though we be unworthy of either I am less than the least of all thy mercies said a great Saint Gen. 32.10 And so should all say But few do perceave this great difference and many give the preference to common outward mercy Who but a Christian doth count it a greater mercy to have the Conscience sprinkled with the Blood of Jesus than to have a large and prosperous Estate in the World That the light of God's Countenance and an hour spent in his Courts when the King's presence is in them is better than all the Enjoyments of this World Moses was a Man that obtained singular mercy from the Lord it appeared in this that he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt Heb. 11.26 He had excellent Balances and true Weights He put in the one Scale Egypt's Honours Treasures and Pleasures and how weighty are such things in the Worldlings Balances and in the other the reproach of Christ and affliction with the people of God His Judgment on this weighing is That this Reproach because of Christ's concern in it and this Affliction because it is of and with God's people is better than all the other things The true Test of Mens Spirit is justly taken from their setled inward Apprehension of the worth and value of spiritual saving mercy above all outward mercy Psal 4.6,7 There be many that say Who will shew us any good Most Men are for any good they know not well what and from any hand that can show it and give it But David knew what good he would have and who could show it Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us Why is he so earnest for this Blessing Thou hast put gladness in my heart Carnal Men seek Gladness and make it and take it to themselves as well as they can But Gladness of God's putting in their Heart they know not more than in the time that their corn and their wine encreased David doth not here compare though he doth discover the holiness of his Heart with the earthliness of that of others he compares not the tenderness of his Conversation with theirs But he compares the Joy God gave him by the Light of his Countenance not with the Joy he had but with that the Ungodly have in their sensual Satisfactions Try your selves by this Where is your Esteem lodged What sort of things are they that relish with your Spirits Common outward Mercies carry away the Hearts of the most part of Men and this shews that few Men have obtained special mercy 2. He that hath obtained special mercy hath a love to it and to the Giver of it and to the way God gives it and in which he receaves it He that is a lover of God's mercy in Christ is an Obtainer of it A natural Man may have a liking of God's mercy in general But mercy as from God through Jesus Christ mercy shown on the account of a full Satisfaction made to Justice in and by his Blood mercy given freely to glorious Ends and Purposes every natural Man seeth no Glory no Goodness no Beauty in it But every Obtainer of it doth admire every thing in it It is rich mercy saith he it flows from a blessed Fountain Free-love runs in a blessed Channel the Redemption of Jesus comes to me in a well-ordered Covenant and was shown me for his Praise in my Salvation from sin and misery 3. An Obtainer of mercy is a daily Beggar for more mercy Whenever God's special mercy is tasted hunger and thirst after more is raised No sooner did Paul obtain mercy but behold he prays Acts 9.11 There is more of mercy yet to be had mercy quickens the Soul's Desires and enlargeth them The greatest Receivers are the greatest Beggars 1 Pet. 2.2,3 Desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious This Mark is plain and will never fail They that drive not a Trade of Prayer for special mercy have not yet obtained it 4. An Obtainer of mercy from the Lord is a shower of mercy to others He is a merciful Man to others Matth. 5.7 Col. 3.12,13 Put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindness c. forbearing forgiving as Christ forgave you And Eph. 4.32 even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you How unbecoming it is that such should have Bowels of Brass on whom God's Bowels of mercy have been poured out This is a Mark that will never fail but in a high fit of Temptation All that have obtained God's mercy will be disposed to shew their mercy Forgiving one another is an easie thing it costs nothing but to think a kind thought Yet how hard is this to many through the power of Corruption There are some acts of mercy as Bounty and Charity that poor Christians have no ability for But the principal Act of mercy is in every Christians Power and that is mercy to Mens Souls We cannot give them that mercy we have obtained but we can and should wish the like to them Never did a Man obtain mercy from the Lord for himself but he wisheth that others should partake of it also The Woman of Samaria John 4. of whose Conversion we have the largest account of any Convert in the Bible as soon as she obtained mercy she forgot what she came to the Well for she had got somewhat better than the Water of Jacob's Well she met with Jacob's God and had got Jacob's Blessing she goes to the City and turns a sort of a Preacher to them Come see a man that told me all things that ever I did Is not this the Christ ver 29. She obtained mercy and would have all the City come and get mercy also And a great many came and obtained mercy Christ caught that Woman by his Grace and made her as a Bait to catch many more No Believer can deny his sense of such a Frame as this There are some Persons thou dost love and shouldst love thou prayest for them What dost thou mainly ask for Wife Children Brothers Sisters and all or any thou lovest heartily Is it not O that they might share in God's saving mercy If thou ask it for others as the greatest mercy thou thy self art an Obtainer of mercy Paul obtained mercy He loved his Countrymen the Jews dearly and on good grounds Rom.
need and none can stand with Peace before that Throne but they that have been acquainted with this Throne of Grace in my Text. Christ on the Throne of Grace and Christ on the Judgment-seat is the same Christ Christ in the Gospel and Christ on the Clouds is the same Christ Yet we must distinguish Christ on the Throne of Grace is no Judge and Christ on the Judgment-Seat hath no Grace to dispense Now is his time of dispensing Grace then will be the day of his punishing the Despisers of Grace and of giving the Crown of Glory to the Receavers of his Grace In the last place I would give a few Directions unto real Christians in order to your providing of Grace to help in time of need 1. Lay the Foundation sure a time of need will try it 1 Cor. 3.11 Other Foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ The Father hath laid Christ for a Foundation Isa 28.16 Therefore thus saith the Lord God behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone a tried stone a precious corner-stone a sure foundation He that believeth shall not make haste Applyed to Christ 1 Pet. 2.6 The faithful Ministers of the Gospel lay Christ for a Foundation 1 Cor. 3.10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise Master-builder I have laid the foundation But how can a poor Sinner lay Christ for a Foundation to himself Turn but the Words and the Question is answered Thy laying of Christ for a Foundation is thy laying thy self upon Christ as a Foundation and it is neither more nor less nor any thing else Cast your selves and all your Concerns about Salvation on Christ alone Let him bear all He only can and calls for this from you One of the first Questions that riseth in the mind of a Christian in a time of need is this Is the Foundation right laid Am I founded on Christ The Storm will try the Foundation It were great wisdom to secure that before the Storm come 2. Clear up your Evidences against a time of need The Evidences of a Christian are not his Charters for Heaven the Covenant of Grace contains them but they are as Light by which a Christian reads his Charters Evidences are of great use in a time of need They stand in Gods Work in us Our Faith stands on God's word of Promise to us and on Christ's Work for us the Evidences of Believers stand in God's gracious working in and on and by them These four Words I would give about your Evidence 1. When you cannot perceave them search for them 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your selves whether you be in the Faith prove your own selves know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except you be reprobates or disapproved The Exhortation is so delivered as to perswade us that very narrow and exact searching is called for in this Work May not that Christian's Heart condemn him who is daily complaining of his Ignorance of his State when he knows that serious self-examination is neglected by him 2. If upon searching you cannot yet find beg the help of the Spirit of God to discover his own work in you 1 Cor. 2.12 Now we have receaved not the Spirit of the World but the Spirit which is of God that we may know the things that are freely given to us of God The Illumination of the Holy Ghost is not only simply needful to give us a saving knowledge of the Mystery of the Gospel but is so also to give us a right knowledge of the my story of his Grace in us Eph. 1.17,18,19 where the Apostle prays for the Spirit for both these ends David prays for the Lord's help in his examining of himself Psal 139,23,24 A Heart laid open to God's search a Heart willing to have all in it viewed and discovered by the Lord is an upright sincere Heart Whoever is willing to know his worst is not stark naught Yet he that seeth but the least half of his badness will judge himself to be very bad 3. If you cannot yet find your Evidences make them presently Many Christians need this advice They formerly had Evidences of their Interest in Christ they had a clear fight of the Truth and Fruits of their Faith and Love and Repentance this refreshing Sight is gone and they mourn as without the Sun as Job speaks chap 30.28 Let such take this course Act afresh that Grace when you are doubtful whether you ever acted it before See you at present no clear Evidences of your former believing Act Faith presently There are few things more evident than strong believing is in the very acting of it And if the acting of Faith on Jesus Christ as speaking in righteousness and mighty to saue Isa 63.1 be evident to thee thou hast the best Evidence for eternal Life that is in all the Bible Most of the Promises run this way Whoever believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life John 3.15,16,17 It is the gracious and wise Constitution of the Lord that no Grace can be ordinarily evident to a Man in whom it is so as in and by the exercise and acting of it 4. When you find Evidences of God's Work in you Bless the Worker and Discoverer of them and believe more and more Say with David Psal 71.14 I will hope continually and will yet praise thee more and more It is just with God and merciful too that darkness should come upon that Man's Evidences who sits down upon them and blesseth himself in them more than he doth God for them and pleaseth himself in a life of Sense with neglecting the life of Faith 3. Make good use of your former Experiences of the Mercy and Grace of God helping you in former times of need The Lord's kindness is not shown to us for the present time only but for the time to come It is not given to us to play or please our selves with at present but for good and needful uses for strengthening of our Faith exciting of Praise and directing and encouraging us to come to the same Door we were formerly relieved at It is a part of the work of Faith to look back on formerly-bestowed Mercy and Grace as well as to look forward to the greater and better things to come It is a great Sin but very common that a Believer who hath many Years Experience of the Mercy of God if there be a stop put to the Stream of Mercy he is often as much shaken in his Faith as if he had never tasted that the Lord is gracious 4. In preparing for a time of need be careful to keep your Conscience's clean There is no worse Company in an evil day than an evil Conscience It is worse Company than the Devil 's His Company is that of a Tempter and Accuser but an evil Conscience is a Judge condemning and an Executioner tormenting a Man Therefore herein exercise your selves
to have a Conscience void of offence toward God and toward Men. Acts 24.16 It is usually seen that times of great Tryals do dart in some Light into Mens Consciences and do make Men look into their Hearts and Ways more narrowly and spy small Faults that they could not see at other times For they are days of darkness in one sense and days of light in another Study therefore to keep thy Conscience clean and pure by holy and tender walking and by daily believing For it is the Blood of Christ that only can purge the Conscience from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9.14 And let me assure you of this and if you will not believe it I dare say you will feel it and feel it the more then if you believe it not now that such as make all their care about their Consciences to stand in watchfulness about their Hearts and Ways and are utterly estranged from believing Applications to the Blood of Jesus when an evil Day and an evil Conscience meet together and meet they will that they will be in a sad and dreadful Confusion And no better will their Condition be who upon a false Pretence and in this case it is always false of trusting in Christ have no care either of their Conscience or Conversation The Mystery of the Faith is to be held and kept in a pure Conscience 1 Tim. 3.9 We should hold Faith and a good Conscience 1 Tim. 1.19 they cannot be got nor kept but together Whoever suffers Shipwrack of the one loseth the other Christ is the Saviour of Sinners but he is no Minister of Sin Gal. 2.17 He came into the world to save sinners 1 Tim. 1.15 Not to save Saints for there are none in it but of his making and his making Sinners to be Saints is a notable part of his saving 2 Tim. 1.9 The Inheritance is for them that obtain forgiveness of Sins and who are sanctified by Faith in him Acts 26.28 None are saved but the Sanctified and none are sanctified but by Faith in Christ Jesus There may be in an Unbeliever a Picture and shadow of Holiness but it is an Abomination in the sight of God whatever the Man that hath it or they that see it may think of it A holy Vnbeliever or an unholy Believer never was since the World began nor will be while it lasts 5. Multiply your Addresses to the Throne of Grace before the time of need come Happy were that Christian that could cry as earnestly for that Grace that can help him before the time of need come as he will see it needful to have it when that time doth come But it is the weakness of our Minds as Men and of our Grace as Christians that we cannot take up so clear a Prospect of things to come and that they are not so big in our Eyes at a distance as when present Yet by Faith we may foresee times of need and should pray much for Grace to help us when that time comes Suppose you should for twenty years together beg that Grace and Mercy that you should not have occasion for till those years were expired would there be any hurt in it 6. In any special Prospect of an approaching time of need make special Addresses to the Throne of Grace for Grace to help in that time There are two things in these Addresses I recommend to you 1. Let them be Personal Partticular and Secret Our Lord's Direction Matth. 6.6 Many Christians find it an easier thing to keep a day of Prayer with others than to spend an hour in Prayer in secret by themselves It were far easier to know a Man's Frame and State by his secret dealings with God if we were acquainted with them than by all his Professions and Duties besides 2. Let these Addresses be sometimes solemn and long There are some Mercies not to be got as some sort of Devils not to be cast out but by fasting and prayer Matth. 17.21 Secret personal Fasts I am afraid are very rare amongst Christians in our Days Christ commands and directs us about them Matth. 6.16.17,18 as well as about secret Prayer Matth. 6.6,7 Ministers should not load Christians with work above the Strength of their Bodies or Minds or Grace But surely it is but reasonable Service required of you that you should make Addresses to the Throne of Grace in some suitableness to your need of that Grace that is dispensed from it There are four things which if they were the Fruit of my speaking and of your hearing so often from this Text we should both have cause to bless the Lord who teacheth his people to profit Isa 48.17 1. If you learn to pray better and to ply Prayer more David gave himself to Prayer Psal 109.4 The Apostles those extraordinary Officers of the Primitive Church gave themselves continually to Prayer and to the Ministery of the Word Acts 6.4 There are times in which private Christians should give themselves to fasting and prayer 1. Cor. 7.5 If you belong to God he will make you pray and reach you with Briars and Thorns if you will not yield to more gentle Methods How sad is the Reflection that riseth in the Heart under some heavy Tryal This is brought on me for my indulged distance and estrangement from God 2. If you learn to mind Christ more and make more use of him in your Praying He is the King on this Throne of Grace As much as Christ is out of your Minds in Praying so much are you out in Praying and your Praying out of that it ought to be That which we beg is out of Christ's Store In whose Name do we beg it but in his for whose sake but for his Out of whose hand do we receave what we ask and get but out of his It is marvellous that People should pretend to Prayer and think they pray who yet forget Jesus Christ who is all in all in all right Prayer 3. If you learn to mind and plead more God's Free-Grace in Jesus Christ in your praying Free-Grace is the sensible humble Min's Plea he is a proud ignorant Person that seeks or useth any other Plea at God's Throne of Grace Free-Grace is the only thing that Faith can first lay hold on it 's a Plea that any Man may use it is the constant and powerful Plea of a wise Besiever It answers every case and suits every Prayer and the lowest Case and the highest Prayer best 4. If you learn never to leave off improving of christ and pleading for Grace at this Throne of Grace till ye have no more need of Grace And that will never be as long as you live If any Man fall into such a Dream that he is got beyond the need of Grace and so of Praying he is one that never rightly knew himself nor Grace nor Christ nor Praying The Believer knows he stands in need of Christ and Grace and therefore prays as long as he liveth