fervent should our Applications be to Throne of Grace for that needful helpful Grace SERMON XII HEB. IV. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need HAving spoke of the need of God's Grace and of its helpfulness in general I came to condescend on some Seasons wherein the Grace of God is specially needful and helpful Of them I named six three of which I have spoke to and the other three remain to be handled 1. The first Season named was the time of Temptation There was never a Believer so little beloved of Christ as to be given up as a Prey to Satan And never lay a Believer so near Christ's Heart but the Devil may get him into his Sieve Therefore let us never flatter our selves in a state of security from disturbance by the Devil blessed be God we are brought into a state of safety from ruin by him 2. A Season of spiritual decay Soul-sickness a weakness in the New Creature There are some People that never knew by Experience what bodily sickness means but have enjoyed perfect Health all their Life But I am apt to think that few if any Christians find it so as to the new Creation in them 3. A Season of special Enjoyments Though these two seem to be very far from and contrary to one another yet they agree in this that in both Grace is needful and helpful The unaccountable Wisdom and Sovereignty of the Lord our God shines in his conduct of his People Some of them have extraordinary Receavings others know little what they mean There are some Christians whose way to Heaven lyes all along in the Depths and in the Vales when others ride on their High places Now these singular manifestations from God though desirable and profitable yet are not without special dangers to prevent which the Lord provides and ministers special Physick to them and it is strong and unpleasant but the Physician can bless it As Paul's Experience witnesseth 2 Cor. 12. He had been in Heaven he knew not how he had heard he could not tell what when he came back But he well knew what he met with on his return and how needful and useful it was for him Lest he should be exalted above measure with what he had seen and heard in Paradise Hell is sent to humble him May we not infer this How unfit are Believers while in the body and a body of death is in them to be in Heaven when any special Enjoyment of Heaven must have so dreadful a Remedy administred to prevent hurt 4. A fourth Season of special need of Grace is the time of Affliction Afflictions are of many sorts and kinds I am apt to believe that though there be some likeness in the Afflictions of many yet every afflicted Man hath a particular Affliction of his own As it is with peoples Faces so is it with their Crosses For as many thousand Faces as are amongst Mankind though all are somewhat like yet every one hath some distinction The World is full of Crosses yet every afflicted Person hath his own Cross Our Lord hints at it Matth. 16.24 Let a man take up his Cross The Lord appoints a proper Cross for every one Though people are ready to think and say that their Cross is unfit for them and that they would bear another Cross better In Crosses we must neither choose nor refuse David's Case was singular 2 Sam. 24. The Lord chooseth for us and we must not cannot refuse Job 34.35 Should it be according to thy mind he will recompense it whether thou refuse or whether thou chuse and not I therefore speak what thou knowest There is a general distinction of Afflictions Some are from God's hand for Sin or Tryal or prevention And some are from Man's hand for Christ's sake and the Gospel's In all of them Grace is helpful and needful But I would speak only something in general that every one may apply to themselves according to their experience and Exercise And that on these two Heads 1. The needfulness of Grace to the afflicted 2. The helpfulness of Grace to the afflicted whatever their Affliction be 1. Of the need of the grace of God to the afflicted Some sense of this is engraven on the Hearts of Men by the Light of Nature The Heathen Mariners in the Storm express this Jonah 1.5.6 What meanest thou O sleeper arise call upon thy God if so be God will think upon us that we perish not A sad case A Heathen Ship-master challenging a Godly Prophet for his neglect of seeking God He calls him by a shameful but well deserved name O Sleeper The Storm came on for Jonah's sake as he told them ver 12. yet he is the securest person in the Ship He only knew God yet he is last in calling on him An honest Pagan may out-do a distempered Prophet in some things at some times This Sense was expressed greatly by the King Nobles and Inhabitants of Nineveh Jonah 3.5,10 And they again go far beyond Jonah They believed God on Jonah's Preaching repented prayed and fasted and the Lord repented of the evil But Jonah was grieved at all chap. 4.1,2 If were not for his excellent Prayer chap. 2. and that he was a Prophet of the Lord and the Pen-man of the Holy Ghost to record his own Sin and Shame for the benefit of the Church we should be tempted to question this Man's grace of whose fearful Sins we have so large an Account He rebel 's against the Lord's Call to preach to Nineveh When he flees the Lord overtakes him by a Storm takes him by the Lot he is cast into the Sea scoold in the Whale's Belly three days and three nights a miraculous Chastisement and a miraculous Preservation He now obeys the repeated call but when his labour had a gracious Effect he is displeased exceedingly and prays most sinfully Jonah's Instance should teach Ministers and Christians to pray more Lord lead us not into Temptation As Nature's Light teacheth afflicted people their need of the Lord's Grace and Mercy the Word declares it more plainly Jam. 5.13 Psal 50.15 Hos 5.15 This need of the helping grace of God in Affliction I would instruct in these 1. Affliction-sins are readily fallen into without the help of the Grace of God Such Sins I mean that Affliction doth easily and naturally tempt unto as Fretting Impatience Murmuring and quarrelling with the hand of God It is sadly and frequently seen that Affliction hath not only brought along with it discovery of Sin but also the Actings and Workings of more Corruption than either the Person himself or any else thought was in the Man It was a sad Character of a very bad Man 2 Chron. 28.22 And in the time of this distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord this is that King Ahaz This is a Man noted for a never-do-well A Brother 〈◊〉 the same
complained of Some Professors spend all the little Religion they have upon their Afflictions Take heed to your Hearts under Afflictions It is to be bewailed that many Christians their Afflictions come on them they know not whence they lye on them they know not not wherefore and they go off they know not how that if I may allude to such sacred Words and apply the Phrase to such a sinful Frame Afflictions come on many and they feel the smart of them but know not whence they come nor whither they go They come on them when they are sent and go off when they are called but they neither knew what God meant by them nor did by them No Christian can ever make a spiritual and hearty Song of Praise for Afflictions unless there be some Sense or Hope of Profit thereby If the Profit be seen the Wisdom and Love of God in afflicting will be heartily acknowledged 5. Time of special need of the grace of God is a time of special Duty and Service to God called for All the course of our Life is to be constant Service we ought to live to his Praise we are made as Creatures and as new Creatures for this end Isa 43.21 1 Pet. 2.9 But there are some Seasons in which special Work is called for and then there is great need of grace to help in that Hour It is a mighty Word of the Preacher Eccl. 8.6 Because to every purpose there is time and judgment therefore the misery of man is great upon him And it is only the wise man's heart that discerneth time and Judgment ver 5. I would name four of those times 1. The time that Men are called to believe on Jesus Christ and to secure their eternal Salvation by a full closing with him This is a now a day an accepted time a day of Salvation 2 Cor. 6.2 All that hear the Gospel are bound by the Call of God in it and warranted by the Promise of it to receave by Faith Jesus Christ and eternal Life every time they hear the Gospel But sometimes this Duty is specially called for which if neglected may be of fatal consequence to Men. Hence that Exhortation Isa 55.6 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near When Christ is knocking at the Door of the Heart then it is special Duty to open to him Rev. 3.20 This was the day Jerusalem had and neglected and that that Christ mourned over them for Luke 19.41,42 Unspeakable is Mens need of the prevailing help of grace when their Hearts and Consciences are warmed with the Calls of grace in the Gospel In such Seasons the everlasting Bargain is either fixed by the power of grace working Faith in the Heart or people are left to themselves and are further from Heaven than ever 2. Some special Call to Men to give their Testimony to Christ and his Gospel by suffering The Lord comes and craves Mens Testimony to his Truth and chargeth them thus If thou hast any love to me and my Honour I demand thy Witness venture thy all take up thy Cross Many Christians have neglected such trying Seasons which in vain and sorrowfully they have wished for again There is much of God's Grace needful to discern these Seasons and wisely to improve them 3. There is another remarkable Season of Mens need of God's Grace to help them in and that is The Season of the Lord 's calling them to a Duty-Tryal A Duty called to by way of Tryal The Lord gives the Call to try Men and very great are the Consequences of obeying or disobeying of such a Call Many instances are of this in the Word One is in Numb 14. The Passage is plain and awful When Israel had been above a Year in the Wilderness twelve Spies are sent to view the Land they all bring back an evil Report save Joshua and Caleb the People murmur God threatens them with Judgments They seem to be sensible of their Sin it 's like by the Plague that slew the ten false Spies ver 37. and by what Moses spake to them They acknowledge their Sin and resolve to go up next Morning ver 40. Moses tells them they now sinned again and that the Lord was not among them ver 41 42. What severe dealing is this The Lord was among them vesterday not this morning They were bid go up yesterday they are forbid next morning Because they did not what the Lord bid them do in his time he will not protect them when they do the same thing in their time Thus Saul was tryed twice 1 Sam. 3. Samuel bid him tarry for him seven days at Gilgal Saul tarried six days and part of the seventh and then offered Sacrifice not as I think that he did invade the Priest's Office himself but commanded some Priest to do it Profane Princes never want profane Chaplains What a severe Sentence doth Samuel pronounce against him ver 13.14 Again the same Man is tryed with another Duty 1. Sam. 15. and fails therein and is punished therefore This sort of trying Men by Duty is like that in 2 Kings 13.14.20 which Elisha did put Joash unto How may of the people of God through the want of the present help of Grace in some Duty-Trials have stepped into such Paths and have fallen into such Pits and Snares as they have never got well and clearly out of as long as they lived 4. It is a Season of great need of Grace to help us in when the Lord by his Providence puts several things in a persons choice and leaves them to choose The fullest of this kind was that offer made to David about Judgments 2 Sam. 24.12,13 A hard choice but David did choose wisely His Son Solomon had another Offer but it was of Blessings and not of Judgments 2 Chron. 1.7 Ask what I shall give thee And he chose wisely and by his choice proved that he had already receaved a good measure of Wisdom Moses had a great Offer and things of vast difference were in his Choice and he chose like a Man taught of God Heb. 11.24,25,26 Moses in his last Sermon to Israel Deut. 30.15,19 puts them on choosing I call Heaven and Earth to record this day against you that I have set before you life and death blessing and cursing therefore choose life that both thou and thy seed may live that thou mayest love the Lord thy God and that thou mayest obey his voice and that thou mayest cleave unto him for he is thy life and the length of thy days So did his Successor Joshua when he had setled Israel in the promised Land a little before his death Josh 24.15 Chuse ye this day whom ye will serve Elijah did so with Apostate Israel 1 Kings 18.21 Somewhat like this is laid before Men in the daily Ministry of the Word The Curse of the Law or the Blessing of the Gospel is in Mens Offer And Men get as they
THE THRONE OF GRACE Discoursed of from HEB. IV. 16. By Robert Trail M. A. Minister of the Gospel LONDON Printed by J. Orme for Nathanael Hiller at the Prince's Arms in Leaden-hall-Street over against St. Mary Ax Church 1696. PREFACE WHat is in this Book offered to your Reading was some years since preached in the ordinary Couse of my Ministry on a Week day with no more thought that is none at all of Printing it than I had of Publishing this way anything I have preached these Seven and twenty years wherein I have been exercised in the Ministry of the Word save one single Sermon extorted from me about fourteen years ago The Publishing of such plain Discourses is singly owing to the Importunity of some of the Hearers and to the Assistance they gave me by getting what I spake transcribed from two Short-hand Writers without which I could not have Published it My own Notes being only little Scraps of Heads of Doctrine and Scriptures confirming them In the same way I had brought to me what I spoke from Heb. 10.23,24 and have it lying by me which may also see the Light if the Lord will that I live and if this be accepted of such whose Testimony I only value I mean such as are sound in the Faith and exercised in the life of Faith I know no true Religion but Christianity No true Christianity but the Doctrine of Christ of his Divine Person the Image of the invisible God Col. 1.15 of his Divine Office the Mediator betwixt God and Men 1 Tim. 2.5 of his Divine Righteousness He is the Lord our Righteousness Jer. 23.6 Which Name is also called upon his Church Jer. 33.16 and of his Divine Spirit which all that are his receave Rom. 8 9. I know no true Ministers of Christ but such as make it their Business in their Calling to commend Jesus Christ in his Saving fulness of Grace and Glory to the faith and love of Men. No true Christian but one united to Christ by Faith and abiding in him by Faith and Love unto the glorifying of the Name of Jesus Christ in the Beauties of Gospel-Holiness Ministers and Christians of this Spirit have for many years been my Brethren and Companions and I hope shall ever be whithersoever the Hand of God shall lead me Through the Lord's Mercy to me as to many in London I have often heard what is far more worthy of the Press than any thing I can publish I have not been negligent in desiring such able Ministers of the New Testament to let their Light shine this way but have little prevailed It may be this mean Essay may provoke them more to that good Work Whatever you may think of my way of managing this Subject and indeed there is nothing in that either as designed or expected by me or that in it self deserveth any great Regard Yet the Theme it self all must judge who have spiritual Senses is of great Importance and always seasonable It is concerning the Throne of God's Saving Grace reared up in Jesus Christ and revealed unto Men in the Gospel with the Application all should make to that Throne The great Blessings to be reaped by that Application and Men's great need of those Blessings This greatest of Subjects is meanly but honestly handled in the same Order in which it was Preached and mostly in the same Words Some few Passages out of History are inserted which were not spoken May the Lord of the Harvest who ministred this Seed to the Sower make it Bread to the Eater and accompany it with his Blessing on some that are called to inherit a Blessing and I have my End and Desire the Reader shall have the Benefit and the Lord the Glory For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be Glory for ever Amen London March 25. 1696. Ro. Trail ERRATA PAge 2. line 3. read Acts 9.22 and 17.2,3 and l. 18. for held r. hold p. 3. l. 3. for exhortation r. expression p. 20. l. 24. r. receaving p. 26. l. ult r. Righteousness p. 47. l. 5. for 4. r. 3. p. 78. l. 10. for considering r. consider and l. 16. r. I will p. 97. l. 23. r. God p. 127. l. 4. a. f. for better r. bitter p. 128. l. 5. for a r. as p. 135. l. 3. for Lord r. God p. 138. l. 25. for never r. ever p. 141. l. 9. a f. dele is p. 162 for Creations r. Creation p. 177. l. 6. for 73. r. 78. p. 189. l. 7. for it is r. is it p. 213. l. 15. r. able to take and l. 20. r. Rom. 8. p. 222. l. 11. r. for sa r. as p. 239. l. 9. r. inverting p. 249. l. 13. for Man r. Men or Many p. 250. l. 4. for in r. as p. 253. for on r. one ADVERTISEMENTS THE Righteousness of God through Faith upon all without difference who believe in two Sermons on Rom. 3.22 By Nathanael Mather Preacher of the Gospel 1694. The Conquests and Triumphs of Grace Being a Brief Narrative of the Success which the Gospel hath had among the Indians in New England By Matthew Mayheu 1695. Batteries upon the Kingdom of the Devil By Mr. Cotton Mather Author of the late memorable Providences relating to Witchcrafts and Possessions and of early Piety exemplified 1695. A Learned and accurate Discourse concerning the Guilt of Sin Pardon of that Guilt and Prayer for that Pardon Written many Years ago By the Reverend Mr. Thomas Gilbert Minister of the Gospel lately deceased at Oxford 1695. A Letter to Dr. Bates concerning a Vindication of the Doctor and my self necessitated by Mr. W's his Answer to Mr. Humfrey By S. L. 1695. All Printed for Nath. Hiller at the Prince's-Arms in Leaden-hall-street over-against St. Mary-axe 1695. HEB. IV. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need THE main drift of the blessed Apostle the Holy Ghosts Penman in this Excellent Epistle is to set forth the preheminence of our Lord Jesus Christ first in his Divine Person far above all Angels who are bid Worship him even when dwelling in Man's Nature If the God-head of our Lord Jesus Christ be hid from the readers of this Epistle it must be by a special Power of the God of this world on their unbelieving minds 2 Cor. 4.3,4 Will blinded men forbear to call the Son God when the Father speaks so Chap. 1.8 Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever Then the Apostle speaks of his Incarnation chap. 2.11 c. and therewith speaks of his Priesthood chap. 3 The Apostle compares Christ with and prefers him above Moses chap. 3. then above Aaron as a Priest chap. 7. and compares him with Melchisedech an eminent Type of Christ By this Epistle we may know what Paul's reasonings with the Jews were Acts 9.23 and what is the right way of dealling with the Jews at this day till Christs Divine
the Wilderness and in the Temple of Solomon in Canaan But both Aron and his Successors and the Tabernacle and Temple were but Types and Shadows of Jesus Christ in his Person and Office There was the Holiest of all into which the High-Priest went alone and only once a year in this was the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat and Cherubims covering it whence these common expressions in the Old Testament of Gods dwelling between the Cherubims and of believers trusting in the shadow of his wings Now the holiest of all was their Type of Heaven and the Ark Cherubims Mercy-Seat were but all shadows as the Apostle calls them heb 10.1 of our Lord Jesus Christ and of that peace with God and access to God that he hath wrought out for men More particularly that most sacred of all things in the Jewish Old Testament-worship that was called the Mercy-Seat the Apostle calls a Throne of Grace thereby teaching us that whatever of Divine Grace was revealed and tendred to or perceived and received by the faith of the Old Testament Believers in their right use of these sacred old Institutions of God to his Church the same with great advantage Believers under the New Testament have in Jesus Christ the Body Antitype and substance of them We find 3 most solemn Things in the Old Testament in which the Mercy-Seat the Type of the Throne of Grace in the New Testament was applyed unto 1. The most solemn approach was made unto God in the High-priests going in once a year to the holiest of all where the Mercy-Seat was This was made not by the people in their own persons nor by any ordinary Levite who were priviledged with a greater nearness to God then the people Numb 16.9 Nor by any of the inferior Priests of the House of Aaron to which family the Office of Priesthood was by divine appointment confined nor by the High-priest himself but only once a year at a determinate time and with many appointed Ceremonies of preparation and performance Some tell us of a custom in their Worship that Musick by Singing and Instruments was used by the people to express their Joy and Praise when the High-priest returned safe out from that Sacred and Awful place the Holy of Holies 2. The most solemn attonment for the sins of Israel was made at the Mercy-Seat This was done in that yearly entrance of the High-priests into the Holiest of all Lev. 16.12,13 especially ver 14. And he Aaron the first of that Order of Priests shall take of the blood of the Bullock and sprinkle it with his finger on the Mercy-seat castward and before the Mercy-seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times ver 30. On that day shall the Priest make an attonement for you to cleanse you that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. 3. The most solemn answers were given by God to their High-priest Exod. 25.17,22 where we have the Institution of the Mercy-seat and the form of it And there saith the Lord will I meet with thee and will I commune with thee And again Exod. 30.6 What the Old Testament Vrim and Thummim was and what their Shechinah was neither Jew now nor Christian know though they guess Only that they were special manifestations of the grace and favour and mind of God which expired with and some of them its thought before the end of that ministration But all these three Glories and Dignities and advantages of their Mercy-seat are all to be found in Christ Jesus who represents his people before God and presents them to him who hath made the perfect attonment for all his Israel and who declares to his Church all the saving will of God which he heard and received of his Father The Apostle here in this Epistle and in this Text would have all Belivers in Christ to know that the New Testament Throne of Grace is the same in substance with and with great advantage above the Old Testament Mercy-seat See Heb. 9.4 8. The Truth I would speak to is this That God in the Gospel sits on a Throne of Grace and from it calls and invites sinners to come unto him Let us come to the Throne of Grace certainly means Let us now come to God sitting on a Throne of Grace Let us take both direction and encouragement to come to God because he is on a Throne of Grace In handling of this point of Doctrine I would shew Three things 1. What this Throne of Grace is and how distinguished from other Thrones of God spoke of in the word 2. Why it is so called a Throne and a Throne of Grace 3. What coming to this Throne is 1. What is this Throne of Grace and how distinguished from other Thrones of God spoke of in the Word These other I would first name to prevent mistakes 1. We find a Throne of Glory much spoke of a Throne of the Essential Incomprehesible Glory of God This no man can approach to Of this the Apostle speaks 1 Tim. 6.16 He dwelleth in light that no man can approach to whom no man hath seen nor can see Marvellous is this Light We find the more light there be in or about a person or thing the more easily and clearly it is perceived As the Sun is such a glorious Body that though it be at a vast distance from the earth we dwell on we yet can take it up with our eyes immediately assoon as it shines we can see it because of its light It is its own light and nothing else that doth or can discover it If the Sun did withdraw its own light all the eyes of men and all the artificial Fire and Light men can make would never help us to find it out But such is the Majesty of God that he is clothed with it Psal 93.1 Men are dazled and confounded by a little Ray of his Glory With God is terrible Majesty Job 37.22 This is not the Throne we are called to come unto They are but triflers in Religion that know not in their Experience how overwhelming the Views and Thoughts of Gods Majesty and Glory are when he is not seen as on a Throne of Grace I remembred God and was troubled saith one Saint Psal 77.3 I am troubled at his presence when I consider I am afraid of him saith another Job 23.15 No wonder Manoah said unto his Wife we shall surely die because we have seen God Judg. 13.22 When a view of the Heavenly Glory of Jesus Christ makes John who was wont to lean on his bosom in his humbled State to fall down at his feet as dead Rev. 1.17 2. There is a Throne of Gods Government of the World oft spoke of Psal 9.4,7 On this Throne God fits and rules all things at his pleasure and in Infinite Wisdom This Throne is to be believingly regarded by us but it is not the Throne of Grace that sinners are called to come unto for
Grace and Mercy 3. There is a Throne of Gods Justice spoken of This is that Throne David deprecates his being brought before Psal 143.2 Enter not into judegment with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified If a man be wronged and oppressed by men stronger than he he may appeal to this Throne of Justice and expect redress But if a mans business be with God he should be afraid of this Throne of Justice Men are oft proud and vain in their thoughts and before others but if the Lord call them before this High Court of Justice they will surely be cast Job 9.2,3 How should a Man be just with God! If he will contend with him he cannot answer him one of a thousand When God sits on a Throne of Justice to judge men according to his Law and their Works nothing but Condemnation can justly be pronounced on sinners Whoever he be of sinful Adam's seed that expecteth saving favour from God's Throne of Justice will find himself wofully deceived 4. We find the Throne of the last judgment before this all must appear 2 Cor. 5.10 Rev. 20.12 This is not the Throne of Grace in the Text. No grace nor mercy is shown to any from this Throne but to them that have plyed and sped at the Throne of Grace before When our Lord comes and sits on the Throne of his Glory Mat. 25.31 no sinner that hath despised his Grace now will find any quarter then Luke 19.27 What then is this Throne of Grace It is God in Christ dealing with men according to the Grace of the Gospel It is God in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing to them their trespasses 2 Cor. 5.19 It is Christ set forth by God to be a propitiation Rom. 3.25 This is the true Mercy-seat or Throne of Grace or Propitiation 1 John 2.2 1 John 4.10 This is the New Court or Throne erected by God and declared in the Gospel to which sinful man is invited to come 2. Why is it called a Throne of Grace Passing what is said of the Apostles alluding to the Mercy-seat in the Tabernacle and Temple of Old 1. It is called a Throne because of the Glory and Majesty of God manifested here God's condescending to display and dispense his Grace and Mercy to sinners is no debasing of God but an advancing of his Glory When he gives Grace he acts Royally and as a King with Majesty Araunahs offering to David is said to be like a King 2 Sam. 24.23 he was no King but a Subject but he had a free noble Heart The Lord on this Throne of Grace dispenseth all acts of Grace with great Majesty and as a King But not as a King-Judge and Ruler but as a King-Benefactor and Giver This Royalty of Grace shines 1. In the greatness of the Gifts Grace and Mercy Vastly above all that the Creation can give 2. In the manner of giving Free Soveraignly free Grace and Mercy is his own and he doth with them as he will When Moses prays Exod. 33.18 I beseech thee shew me thy Glory We cannot conceive what was in his holy heavenly heart He was now just come down from the Mount the first time he is going up again to spend other 40 days there in such Communion with God as never meer man enjoyed before or since out of Heaven he had prevailed with God for Israel and hath a most gracious answer vers 17. And the Lord said unto Moses I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken for thou hast found grace in my sight and I know thee by name What means Moses then by this prayer Ver. 18. What ever he meant the Lords answer is much to be observed Vers 19. And he said I will make all my goodness or Beauty pass before thee and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee What is in this Name that hath so much of Glory and Goodness in it as should satisfie such a mighty hungerer for more of God as Moses was I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy God's Glory shines highly in his being the Soveraign disposer of his own Grace and Mercy and happy is the Believer that adores this glorious Soveraignty Paul in Rom. 9.15.25 makes a deep improvement of it Jer. 17.12 A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary See then that you in all your pleadings for Grace and Mercy remember that you are before a high stately Throne Approaches to God on the Throne of Grace should be managed with the deepest Reverence and Humility So did the Publican when he came to it Luke 18.13 God be merciful propitious to me a sinner or me the sinner the great singular sinner So the Greek runs as Luke 7.37,39 The deepest profoundest adoration of the Glorious Majesty of God is performed by a self-condemned sinner pleading at this Throne for the obtaining of the soveraign free grace of God Lastly it is called a Throne because Grace reigns and is enthroned here Rom. 5.21 Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Blessed Reign and blessed are all that are under the Reign and Dominion of the Grace of God Sin reigned through the unrighteousness of the first Adam unto eternal death if men be let alone and if Grace do not break this Reign of sin and Grace reigns through the righteousness of the Second Adam unto etrnal life and nothing can dethrone Grace it will prevail and reach its end eternal life in all it falls upon O that captives to Satan and slaves to Sin and the Law would long to be under the Reign of this stately power the Grace of God And that Believers themselves would give a more free and large subjection to it 2. It is called a Throne of Grace 1. Because Grace erected and reared it up Psal 89.2 Mercy shall be built up for ever Nothing but Grace and Mercy framed the Throne of Grace I may allude to the Lords stately words to Job 38.4,5,6 speaking of the first Creation but this Throne of Grace was fixed before as the King himself saith Prov. 8.23 I was set up from everlasting from the beginning or ever the earth was Where wast thou when I laid the foundation and who laid the corner stone thereof No creature was on the Counsel It is a Divine Contrivance but now it is revealed our faith on the ground of this Revelation may and should go back and take a refreshing view of this eternal Contrivance The Lord builds a House of Mercy that a company of sinners may dwell in with him for ever What laid the foundation of this house but Grace What laid the Corner Stone of this Throne but Grace What brings in the Inhabitants preserves them and perfects them but Grace For whom is it prepared and by whom shall this House of Mercy be possessed and with
implyed in this Call to come That there is a gracious provision made and revealed by God for the removal and making up of this Distance and getting of a gracious nearness to God This is in the Constitution and Revelation of this Throne of Grace 3. That the improving of this Provision is Mens Duty and should be their exercise in order to possess and enjoy the Priviledge and Advantage of this Provision What then is this Coming to the Throne of Grace 1. It is in Believing on Jesus Christ This is the first approach to the Throne of Grace He is the propitiation and Mercy-Seat and Throne of Grace 1 John 4.10 Believing on him is coming to him John 6.35 It is coming to the Father by him John 14.6 It is believing on God by him 1 Pet. 1.21 It is believing on him and on him that sent him John 12.44 Believing on Jesus Christ is an imploying of Christ in way of Trust as to all his fulness of Grace and our utter indigence thereof Whatever a man do whatever Exercises of Religion he be taken up in he never comes to the Throne of Grace till his heart and Soul go forth towards Jesus Christ for Righteousness and Life The first right step heaven-ward is saving faith in Christ. Nothing savingly good can preceed it and all saving good follows it for faith unites the man to Christ and all the fruits of Holiness and Righteousness spring from the virtue of the Vine Christ with whom the Believer hath first union by Grace and then communion of Christs grace by which he lives and works and grows 2. Coming to this Throne is acted in all acts of Gospel-worship and in the use of all Gospel-ordinances They all belong to the Throne of Grace are the Institutions of this Throne and appointed as means wherein we should approach to it and which when blessed by the appointer of them do convey to us the Blessings of this Throne Of them there are several 1. Prayer This is coming to to the Throne of Grace if rightly managed Though asking is not expressed in this ver yet it is strongly implyed both in the commanded Coming and in the expressed obtaining of Mercy and finding of grace to help in time of need All that make a fashion of Prayer do not come to the Throne of Grace yet all that pray rightly do come to it And because this approaching to the Throne of Grace by and in Prayer is plainly hinted in the Text and is so commonly understood by Christians I would have my eye principally upon it in handling this Scripture 2. There is the word Read Preached and Meditated on that is another principal means in which men should approach to the Throne of Grace In Prayer we pour out our heart before this Throne and express our Desires to him that siteth on it In the Word the King on this Throne delivers his Will and Mind to us And we should come to hear it and receive the Law from his Mouth Cornelius expressed an excellent frame for this Ordinance Acts 10.33 We are all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God This word is the word of his Grace Acts 20.32 It is the Proclamation of his Grace to Men. 3. Praising of God is a coming to the Throne of Grace This is the Sacrifice we should offer by our high Priest Heb. 13.15 Who minds this as they ought If we want we ask and so we should But where is the Christian that can say though I had nothing to ask I would yet go to the Throne of Grace that I might praise him that sits on it 4. Receabing of the Lord's Supper is a coming to the Throne of of Grace to feast on the King of Grace to feed on that Body broken for us and that Blood shed for us that is given to us in the Word for food to our Souls and is given to us by his Command in Bread and Wine at his Table that in eating and drinking of them we may remember him and show forth his Death till he come glorying and avowing and boasting that we have our salvation and all our hopes of it built and fixed on that man Jesus Christ that was rejected by the Builders in his Time and hath had little better entertaiment since because they knew him not Application Is there a Throne of Grace and doth God sitting on it invite and call men to come to it or to him on it We are called to admire adore and praise the Grace that shines in this Constitution of God and call to men That person is sadly out in his praises and such are never right in their Prayers that doth not deeply admire and heartily praise for this Mercy of a Throne of Grace We count a man ill imployed in prayer that asks many things of God but forgets to ask the One thing needful Is he any better imployed in praise who gives thanks for many Mercies but neglects or forgets to praise for the Greatest of all Mercies the Throne of Grace Before which all Prayer and Praise must come if accepted and for which highest praises should be given In order to the raising of more Sense of this Highest Favour that God now deals with us on a Throne of Grace Consider 1. The Deep condescendence of Grace that appears in this Dispensation There is a Glorious and Stately stooping in it The Lord had resolved in his own Heart from Eternity to have the company of many of Adam's Off-spring for ever with him in Heaven He seeth them fallen into a deep Pit out of which they can never get out by themselves God and Man by sin are at a vast distance Sinners cannot remove it nor make so much as one step towards God Saved they cannot be unless the Distance be removed Saved they must be because of his unalterable purpose In this case saith the Lord of Meer Grace if men cannot ascend up to me I will descend down to them and draw them up again to me This condescendence of Grace we should admire and praise When David had got a gracious Message and promise from God and Christ and the Throne of Grace was in it 2 Sam. 7. he sits down as a man amazed before the Lord and most significantly expresseth his Admiration and Praise Who am I O Lord God and what is my house and is this the manner of men and what can David say more and what can David say better to be swallowed up of Wonder is the best and highest praising who can forbear wondering at Grace that considers duly whose Grace it is where it finds us and whither it brings us When Paul speaks of it and it was his usual Theme how sweetly doth he discourse of it Eph. 2. Where did this Grace find him and the Ephesians what was their case and qualification for Grace They were dead in sin walking after the course of this world according to the prince of
therefore betakes himself to his heels It is mens great sin to endeavour to seek that elsewhere that only is to be found here Mercy and Grace But it 's the greatest Sin of all to count all lost as long as this Throne stands and the Lord calls men to come to it Be deeply humbled and covered with shame yet come noâ—withstanding Such is the corruption of oâ—… hearts and the Lord seeth it well that 〈◊〉 Sinners could find grace and mercy aâ—… where else they would never come to thâ—… throne of grace for it Christ is the last shiâ—… of a distressed sinner yet blessed be his namâ—… he welcomes the comer The woman Marâ—… 5.25,35 tryes many means ere she comes tâ— Christ Yet sped well when she came aâ— last 2. They are welcome to the throne of gracâ—… that come oâ—test and ask the greatest thingâ—… It s otherwise in addresses to friends or greaâ— men on earth You may be welcome tâ— them if you come now and then and iâ— you ask little things but if you come daily and ask great things and grow in your suit they will quickly be weary of you But whaâ— saith the King on this Throne of Grace Johâ— 16.24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in mâ— Name ask and ye shall recieve that your jâ—… may be full Had not they asked formerly great things that he would expound his worâ— to them Matth. 13.36 that he would teaâ—… them to pray Luke 11.1 That he would increase their faith Luke 17.5 But all thiâ— was as nothing to Christ nothing in regarâ— of the great things he had to give and theâ— stood in need of This is a great word oâ— Christ's Ask and I will give and ye shall recieve ask still more and ye shall recieve morâ—… even till your joy be full The reason whâ— our souls are so empty of joy is because oâ—… mouths are empty of prayer Christ's love quarrels with his people are 3.1 That they do not ask great things and often 2. That they do not receive what he is so ready to give Our narrow Vessels cannot take in large â—…oods from the fountain of living water 4. They thâ—… do not praise for what they recieve It is his due our duty and our great mercy Both prayer and praise widens the heart for recieving more of Christs fulness 3. They are specially welcome to the throne of grace that come to stay resolving never to leave it That not only come to it at a pinch and strait but come to abide there Our Lord teacheth several Parables to encourage and direct us in plying the throne of grace Luke 11.5,13 and Luke 18.1,8 Jacob was a blessed man and knew well the manner of this Court When he wrestled with the Angel Gen. 32.24.30 And that Angel was the King of the Throne of Grace Hos 12.3,4,5 After a long nights wrestling with weeping and supplications saith the Lord Gen. 32.26 Let me go for the day breaketh Jacob answers I will not let thee go except thou bless me I will or I will not looks like ill manners in speaking to God he saith not How can I hold thee if thou hast a mind to go is it possible that I can detain thee Can a man hold God when he hath a mind to be gone But Jacob knew his party and percieved that he tryed him if he would part without a blessing Nay saith Jacob if thou ask my leave and consent to part so I will never give it let the day break and the next night come the great Blesser and lame halting Jacob shall never part with Jacobs consent without a blessing And he prevailed He had got his Fathers blessing by the cunning of his Mother Gen. 27. had it again ratified by his Father Gen. 28.3,4 He had the Lords Blessing Gen. 28.12,16 He got it renewed again on the Lords calling him to return to Canaan Gen. 31.3 Yet he was in a new strait and wanted a new blessing and wrestled for it and obtained it Let all the Seed of Jacob imitate his practice and they shall share in his Blessing and be fed with the heritage of Jacob their Father as the word is Isa 58.14 In pressing the Exhortation in the Text I shall lay before you a few considerations 1. Consider the Greatness of this priviledge That there is a throne of grace erected for sinners and revealed to them This throne is only erected for sinners it had never been but for sinners A throne of grace supposeth that there are guilty sinners to stand before it and to get good by it The greatness of this priviledge is apparent in comparing the State of fallen Man with that of fallen Angels And in comparing their State that have the Gospel with theirs that are without it 1. Compare the state of fallen Man with that of falten Angels Whatsoever the proper meaning of that word is Psal 8.5 Thou host made him a little lower than the Angels these two may be well concieved that Man in his original make was lower in dignity than the Angels and that Man was made a little after the Angels were made And long after it could not be for the whole Old Creation was compleatly finished in six days The Angels that fell are so sinful and miserable that we cannot speak any good of them Yet in their first make they were a very glorious part of the Creation Notwithstanding when they sinned there was no throne of grace provided for them God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down to Hell 2 Pet. 2.4 Yet for his Elect he spared not his own Son Rom. 8.32 The Devils for such sin made them immediatly upon their sinning were as much condemned as ever they shall be I say not as much executed for it seems that their full torment is reserved to the last day Jude 6. 2 Pet. 2.4 Art thou come to torment us before the time Matth. 8.29 say they to Christ No wonder the Devil be such an Enemy to the Gospel of Man's Salvation and a hater of the Throne of Grace The wonder is that men should be deceived by Satan to despise and slight this great priviledge Let Christians take a view of this astonishing appearance of Gods Grace that fallen Angels are all past by and fallen Men taken up not indeed all of them but a great many as one day will declare Heb. 2.16 For verily he took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the Seed of Abraham 2. Consider the greatness of this priviledge in the Revelation of it You have it but the greatest part of the World have it not They that cannot receive the Truth of God revealed in the word about the Soveraignty of Grace in Election and the Efficacy of distinguishing Grace in Calling must see the same Soveraignty acted in dispensing or witholding the means of Grace as pleaseth him And to be utterly ignorant that there is a Throne of Grace renders people as miserable
as if there was no Throne of Grace at all They that never hear of Christ must perish It is an idle dream that the efficacy of Christ's Death may be apply'd and profitable to the saving of adult persons that never heard of him There is no Salvation for Men but by Jesus Christ there is no knowing of it or partaking of it but by the word of Truth the Gospel of our Salvation Eph. 1.13 Christ and his name go together Acts 4.12 Neither is there Salvation in any other No Saviour but he For there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved No other way of getting good by him but by hearing of his Name and believing on his Name How shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard Rom. 10.14 It is a wonderful Mercy to hear of Him But Wo to them that hear and do not believe None can believe without hearing Rom. 10.17 But alas many hear and believe not Isa 53.1 2. Consider the great advantages of this priviledge of having a Throne of Grace erected for us and revealed to us All blessings may be had here by coming for them If there was such a Throne in this world for Silver and Gold and Health and outward Mercies what strange crowding would there be to it The Blessings to be had here are innumerable for multitude All spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ Jesus Eph. 1.3 Blessings invaluable for their worth Eternal in their duration most free in their Tenure and all given in Love Every act of favour from the throne of grace is more worth than all God's common Mercies Lord lift up upon us the light of thy countenance Psal 4.6,7 that will put joy into the soul Every thing given at the throne of grace is a blessing of Grace It s very name should teach people how to come and how to call what they get at it If it be a throne of Grace we should come to it as empty needy Beggars and when we recieve any thing there we should call and count it Grace Ask all Saints on Earth and they will witness that great and good things are to be had at the throne of grace Try it your selves and you will find it is not invain to beg here Nay the damned in Hell do bear sad witness that great are the blessings that are to be had at the throne of grace which they feel and know by their woful and eternal loss of them The glorified in Heaven know what a rich throne of grace this is Only sinners on earth will not believe this nor use this throne as they should 3. Consider that this Court and Throne is of short continuance It will not be kept up always There is a limitation of the time of its lasting As Heb. 4.7 He limiteth a certain day The day of the continuance of the throne of grace is bounded and limited with four days The day of a mans life the Gospel day the Worlds day and the Spirits day 1. The day of every mans life This hath bounds set to it by God Job 14.5 The throne of Grace continues unto men no longer than they live When men die they go not to the throne of grace but of Glory and Judgment If we have sped well at the throne of grace we shall be welcome to the throne of glory The uncertainty and shortness of life with the certainty of the expiring of all Treaties betwixt God and us about Salvation at the end of Life should make people careful to secure the main matter in Gods time 2. There is the Gospel day this is also set and limited by the Lord. He hath determined how many offers you shall have of Christ and when they come to an end there will not be one more And then the throne of grace is taken down as to you Luke 19.42 If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes saith our Lord to Jerusalem This was the ending determining day to Jerusalem as a City and to its Inhabitants as a Body though many particular persons had another day of grace Yet the slipping of that day hangs on that poor people and their Posterity to this very day 3. There is the Worlds day and then the day of grace will end as to all when the Bridegroom cometh they that are ready enter with him to the marriage and the door was shut Matth. 25.10 There was no more grace to be dispensed to men and we know not when that day will come Miserable is their case who shall see Christ coming in the Clouds of Heaven before they have seen him by Faith in the Gospel who heart the voice of the Archangel and the Trump of God before they have heard the quickning voyce of the Son of God from the throne of grace who have neglected calling on him in time and begin out of time Luke 13.25 When the Master of the house is risen up and hath shut to the door and ye begin to stand without and to knock at the door saying Lord Lord open to us Is it not just that they should be kept at the shut door that would not enter at an open door in Christ's time and when he called When Christ comes and hath shut the door no man will be let in knock as he will Now while the throne of grace is patent no man will be kept out be what he will that hath a mind to enter and knocks for entrance 4. There is the Spirits day Here is a great depth of Gods Soveraignty and Wisdom a great depth of his Severity an unaccountable and awful Judgment how the Spirit of God strives with men in the Gospel how near he comes to them sometimes how close he besiegeth them that they seem to be on the point of yielding and are not far from the kingdom of God and yet he draws back his hand and leaves them I believe that many ungodly men many reprobates have been sometimes in their life nearer to Heaven if such may be said to be near to Heaven that never come there then many an Elect person was half an hour before his Conversion Gen. 6.3 My Spirit shall not always strive with man What kind of striving this was and what became of them striven with we have 1 Pet. 3.19,20 Nothing will more bitterly aggravate the eternal misery of the Damned than the remembrance of this that they had a day and in that day grace offered to them and that they did reject the offer Mens carnal hearts are now full of cavils against the unsearchable methods and ways of God towards the Sons of Men but the last days Judgment will determine and declare That in the perdition of the Ungodly there was and is most pure and unspotted Justice and Righteousness and in the salvation of all the Elect pure perfect and predominant grace that
him No Man is converted and made a believer but by a Revelation of Jesus Christ A Man may be awakened with a view of God's Glory he may be alarmed by a sight of Sin and Hell and may be roused out of his sleep of security by the thunders of Sinai but he is never converted and made a Christian but by a Revelation of Jesus Christ as glorious in his Robes of Salvation Whence then is it that all Believers on him do not own his manifesting himself to them and their seeing of him It is in part from the weakness of their sight the greatness of the glory of him they see and their strong desire to see him better But for such as have spent their days about the throne of grace and yet never saw Jesus Christ and the Glory of God in his Face as a Saviour so as to disgrace all things in comparison with him so as to raise desires after more of him and so as to fill their Hearts with Love Wonder and Praise such have been at the Court but have not seen the King on his Throne 2. Are you come to the throne of grace What made you come what Errand did you come upon No Man comes without an Errand We need not make and seek one we have enow at hand if we would but use them What Wants felt you at home And what of his Fulness was taking with you Can you say I have a naked filthy Soul and I am ashamed to look on it but how well would the Robe of his Righteousness fit and adorn it I am empty of all Good and he is full of all Grace on purpose to fill perishing Souls and I come for a share thereof The Blessing of many ready to perish hath come upon him and I come for his rich Salvation and would leave my poor but eternal Blessing on him They that have no particular pressing business about their Soul's Salvation may talk of the Throne of Grace but do not indeed come to it 3. What got ye If you come indeed you receave If you receave not you come not Say not you have receaved nothing because you have not got all you would have It is necessary that such as come get somewhat but it is not fit that they should receave all that they want A life of Faith must be lived and dependance and begging still kept on foot But somewhat is still given and got though the Gift be not always seen and owned But tell me Christians indeed have you not sometimes got that at the throne of grace that ye would not take a World for Did you ever apply to this throne in earnest and found it in vain Have you not sometimes got a Glance of Christ through the Lattess Song 2.9 that hath made you forget your Poverty and remember your Misery no more Know ye not what it is to have a smile of his Countenance and a token that you have found favour in his Eyes Have you not got at this throne a word of Promise that hath fed and feasted thy Faith Jer. 15.16 Thy Words were found and I did eat them and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoycing of mine heart for I am called by thy Name O Lord God of Hosts Have you not sometimes got the Door of Faith opened and the Eye of Faith sharpened that ye could see within the Vail and behold the good Land and the blessed Lord of it and thy happy Interest in both Let not this Throne be disparaged both by the true emptiness of Hypocrites that are about it rather than at it and by the peevishness of real Believers There are no poor Courtiers at this Court they are all rich Rev. 2.9 They are only poor in Spirit but not so poor as they think for a Kingdom is theirs that is better than all Kingdoms under Heaven Matth. 5.3 The World count Believers poor because they see they often have not outward Riches and they are blind and cannot see their spiritual Riches in Possession and Reversion The Believer thinks himself poor because he seeth not all he hath in Possession 1 Cor. 3.21,23 and because he would so fain have all he hath a right to Phil. 3.12.14 and the hope of Or because his Charters are hid or his Eyes are dim that he cannot read them 2. Q. Will ye come All is ready Come to this Throne Matth. 22.4 If ye have never come begin just now If ye have come often come more often and come better come nearer and closer still Is there any thing wanting in you Come for all supply is here Are you guilty Come for Pardon Many drawn Pardons are at this Court drawn up sweetly by free Grace sealed with the Blood of Jesus Come to this Throne and add your Seal of Faith to one for your self and it shall be a Charter for Glory to you lying warm at your Heart as long as you live and will be your Pass-port at death But because the following Words of the Apostle in this verse contain Arguments for coming I say the less now So much for the first Head of Doctrine in the Text. The second Head is How we should come to this throne of grace Come boldly saith the Holy Ghost by Paul's Pen. The Point I would speak to from it is this That there is a Boldness in Mens approaching to the Throne of Grace that is allowed and commanded For the Apostle doth not only mention it as a Priviledge allowed but as a Duty or Frame injoined and commanded So that he that comes not with this Boldness not only sits down short of his Allowance but sins in disobeying a plain Command The Priviledge is spoke of in Eph. 3.12 In whom ouâ— Lord Jesus Christ as ver 11. we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him In Heb. 10.19.22 both the Priviledge is asserted and the Improvement of it commanded in drawing near with full assurance of Faith and that to the holiest of all On this Point I would shew 1. What this Boldness is that is allowed in approaching to the throne of grace 2. What are the Grounds of this Boldness 1. What is the Boldness allowed in coming to the throne of grace There is a Boldness that is not allowed and that I would warn you of 1. There is a Boldness of Ignorance and Irreverence When Men come into God's Presence and neither know him nor themselves nor the Matters they think they come about such are Fools that consider not that they do evil nor remember that he is in Heaven and they upon Earth Eccles 5.1,2 God is greatly to be feared in the Assembly of the Saints and to be had in reverence of all that are about him Psal 89.7 This Boldness is forbidden Psal 2.11 2. There is a Boldness of Peremptoriness that is not allowed to any Man not to a Believer himself People may and do often forget themselves as we use to say too much Familiarity
breeds Contempt Condescensions from Superiours oft make Inferiours forget their place The Lord deals so graciously with his People hears their Prayers readily stoops low to them in his Love and Pity that unless they watch and keep a Guard on their Spirits they may soon fall into the Sin of being too saucy and peremptory with God The first Prayer in the Bible made by the greatest Believer in the World Abraham is upon a most condescending appearance of God to him The Son of God in humane shape becomes Abraham's Guest at Meat Gen. 18. Some think that Christ respects this appearance in John 8.56 Your Father Abraham rejoyced to see my day and he saw it and was glad He gives him the last Promise of a Son with a determination of the precise time of its accomplishment ver 10. He deals with him as a Friend and so Abraham is called 2 Chron. 20.7 Isa 41.8 and Jam. 2.23 But all Believers are called Friends by Christ John 15.14,15 and after a great Commendation of Abraham the Lord tells him his purpose of wrath against Sodom ver 17. to ver 22. The Angels are sent to execute the Vengeance and Abraham stands before the Lord to plead for Mercy With what Boldness and Reverence doth he plead The more the Lord stoops in condescending to his Petitions the more low doth Abraham lye before him He neither forgot the Lord's Majesty nor his own Meanness and expresseth again and again a holy Fear of offending by his renewed Suits ver 27 30 31 32. I would have you considering this Instance of Prayer because it is the first recorded in the Word and because it was excellently managed by the Father of the Faithful So Gideon prays in Judg. 6.39 And Gideon said unto God Let not thine anger be hot against me and will speak but this once I am afraid that many sincere Christians are guilty of this Peremptoriness The Lord hath been so condescending to them that they become too peremptory about some Particulars Beware of it and see how the Lord hath dealt with his People and the best of them Psal 99.6,7,8 See Moses's Lot in this Matter He had often sought of God and prevailed Psal 106.23 Therefore the Lord said that he would destroy them had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the Breach to turn away his Wrath lest he should destroy them A Man to whom God spake Face to Face a Man to whom God spake so amazing Words Let me alone that my Wrath may wax hot against them Exod. 32.10 and Numb 14.20 I have pardoned according to thy word Yet even this Moses in a small matter for Life to cross Jordan and to see the promised Land hath this Answer Deut. 3.26 Let it suffice thee speak no more unto me of this matter Samuel is check'd also in a small matter that had prevailed for far greater 1 Sam. 16.1 How long wilt thou mourn for Saul seeing I have rejected him A Case may be such that though Moses and Samuel stood before the Lord they should not prevail Jer. 15.1 It is the only Priviledge of Jesus Christ to be always heard John 11.42 Yet he in his Agony pray'd so as to teach us to beware of this sinful Boldness Matth. 26.39 If it be possible let this Cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt Believers must remember that in all Cases they must deal humbly and in some Cases they must take Denyals Patiently 3. There is the boldness of presumption Presumption is like Faith in appearance but in reality it is very unlike it Presumption works this way the Presumer may have the mercy in his eye but he hath no promise in his eye Take heed to this If there be strong desires after a mercy and that mercy not pleaded for as in the promise there is a spice of presumption in that pleading The reason why Believers ask so great things of God is because God hath promised so great things to them 2 Sam. 7.27 Hence it is that presumption acts ordinarily in pleading with God not for the main spiritual blessings but for some outward mercy that their hearts may be too much set upon It is about such that Believers should watch against this presumptuous boldness But if the pleading at the Throne of Grace be about Salvation and spiritual Blessings the difference betwixt Faith and Presumption appears in this Presumption can never plead with God neither in deep distress nor in the view of sin But it is the excellent property of Faith that it can plead with God in both cases Psal 65.3 Iniquities prevail against me but as for our transgressions thou shalt purge them away Spoken like a Believer and Psal 130.3,4 If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquities O Lord who shall stand But can David stand Yes and he stands on this ground But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared There is just cause to suspect that there is presumption in that Mans heart when his Boldness is only kept up when sin is out of sight and disappears A Believer believes most humbly and often most strongly when his Sinfulness and Unworthiness is best seen For true Boldness of Faith is not supported by any good and worth in us but by what is in Christ The boldness of Faith cannot be entertained with regarding of iniquity in the heart Psal 66.18 1 John 3.20 Yet it can with the being and seeing of Iniquity in both heart and life Rom. 7.24,25 1 Tim. 1.15 But of this furder from the next head of the Boldness of Faith I now touch it only as it differs from the presumptuous Boldness that is allowed to none Again Faith can stand under that distress that breaks the back of Presumption Job 13.15,16 Though he slay me yet will I trust in him but I will maintain mine own ways before him He also shall be my Salvation for an Hypocrite shall not come before him He hath taken away my Children all at once my Estate in one day hath taken away my health and made me miserable to a Proverb in all Ages although he should proceed and slay me with his own hand my slayer is my Saviour my death shall be my Salvation Great words and hard to be spoken in the day of heavy tryal God slaying Job is Job's Salvation God slays Job trusts and maintains his confidence under the stroke No Hypocrite can do this and many Believers do but bungle at the doing of it There is an extremity a coming on every man that will try and discover what mettle there is in his Faith Prepare for it What then is the Boldness allowed in coming to the throne of grace It must not be an ignorant peremptory or presumptuous boldness What must it then be Answ It is only the Boldness of Faith Eph. 3.12 Heb. 10.19 The Boldness of Faith hath this in general in it that it is grounded and bottomed on somewhat without a man and on nothing
of grace nor of thy need and want of it but wast well content with thy lost State and that in this State grace came from this throne and did beset thy Heart and overcome it May you not argue If the Lord sought me out and found me in my departing from him and stopp'd me and turned my Heart towards himself may not I come now confidently and ask mercy and grace It is a matter of great use to Believers to keep up a savoury remembrance of the gracious change that preventing grace wrought upon them Paul could never forget Christs first visit to him but speaks of it before Kings and Rulers and People Acts 22. and 26. He remembers time and place and every Circumstance I say not that Christs first visit is so sensible to all or it may be to any as it was to Paul But Christs work of grace may be known by it self even when some circumstances of time and place and outward means are not known 2. The Experience of the Spirit of Prayer and of Answers of Prayer is a great ground of boldness of Faith I joyn these two together for the Lord usually doth so Psal 116.1,2 I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and my Supplications Because he hath inclined his Ear unto me I will call upon him as long as long as I live Have ye not known that sometimes yon have been so troubled that you could not speak as Psal 77.4 that your Hearts have been so bound up and straitned that you could say nothing and do nothing before the Lord but fit as dumb and oppressed all dark above all dead within and all doors shut upon you you durst not neglect Prayer and you could not perform it And have you not quickly found the two-leaved Gates cast open to you your Hearts enlarged and your Mouth wide open in asking The remembrance of such Experiences should strengthen the confidence of your Faith Have you not known what the answer of Prayer is That he hath prepared your heart and hath caused his ear to hear as Psal 10.17 Come the more boldly at all other times They are Triflers in Prayer that know nothing of God by the Name of Hearer of Prayer Psal 65.2 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy Whoever hath gone forth weeping bearing and sowing his precious seed hath doubtless come again rejoycing bringing his sheaves with him Psal 126.5,6 and should therefore sow in hope 3. The Experience of Communion and Fellowship with God is a great ground of Boldness in coming to the throne of grace for more Such as have most of this Blessing desire most earnestly more of it and may desire it the more confidently 1 John 1.1,2,3,4 Surely we have this Fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ and we would fain have you share with us therein that your joy may be full This Communion with God is a Mystery undoubted to him that tasteth it and surpassing all the delights of Sense or Reason incredible and unintelligible to all that have it not A Stranger intermeddles not with this joy Prov. 14.10 It lies more deep than that any Eye of Flesh can see it It is of that nature that only tasting can declare its transcendent sweetness Psal 34.8 O taste and see that the Lord is good Saints feel much of it they talk much of it the Word is full of suitable and savoury Expressions of it Yet all are Riddles and dark Parables to them that experience it not You that know what it is though you cannot express it yet you can relish and understand some sound Words about it You know what it is to be brought near to him and to have the Clouds and Vails that are either on your Hearts or on his Face scattered and the light of his Countenance lifted up upon you Psal 4.6,7 You have been sometimes so in the Mount as to think O how good it is to be here You have known what the warm and healing Beams of the Sun of Righteousness upon you are Mal. 4.2 You have tasted that in his Company that hath made the puddle of the Worlds Wells of comfort loathsome and unsavoury yea as hath made you groan in this Tabernacle and long to be in at that compleat and uninterrupted Communion above whereof all you taste on earth is but a small earnest and first-fruits And may not should not such come boldly to the throne of grace Appl. Is there an allowed boldness in coming to the throne of grace Then let us use this boldness Alas many come doubtingly and discouragedly Their Unbelief is so strong and their Faith so weak that they not only come without this boldness but think that they ought not to come with it but with a frame contrary to it They think that it is true Humility to come with a Fear that is inconsistent with this boldness It is indeed required that Men should come before the Lord with awful Fear and Reverence and that they should judge themselves unworthy and undeserving both of the Priviledge of coming and of the least of the Blessings they come for Yet the boldness of Faith is not prejudiced thereby I shall therefore answer some of the common Pleas of Unbelief as to this Priviledge and its improvement Obj. 1. Is from conscience of Sin and Guilt grounded specially on these two Scriptures Psal 66.18 and 1 John 3.20 This Plea seems to be strong and to justifie or excuse doubtings in Christians and doth usually marr the due sense of this Duty of coming boldly to the Throne of Grace To remove it therefore consider that Sin affects the Heart and Conscience two ways 1. It defiles the Conscience 2. It disturbs it 1. Sin defiles the Conscience Tit. 1.15 Vnto the pure all things are pure but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure but even their mind and conscience is defiled But we must see when and how the Conscience is defiled by Sin Conscience is God's Tribunal in every Man It is an active and awful power in Men judging of themselves as to their State and Actions as they think God judgeth of them So that there are two main causes tried and to be decided at this Court of Conscience 1. Am I at peace with God and he with me And this is only truly resolved when Conscience pronounceth as God declares in his Word And that Declaration is that every Man by Nature and as in the first Adam is an Enemy to God and God to him and that every one that is in Jesus Christ by Faith is a Child and Friend of God and God is at Peace with him The answer then is different if according to Truth Some may but will not conclude their State of Enmity by their not believing on Jesus Christ Some may but dare not conclude that they are at Peace with God though they cannot deny their Faith in Jesus Christ A second Cause is about particular Actions
a Divine eternal Person I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen They that saw him dead could hardly believe he should ever live again and they that saw him alive had need of Faith to believe he had ever been dead He asserts both and we should believe both Since death entered into the World by Sin never was there a Man more truly really and fully dead than the Man Christ was who died for our Sins And there is no Man on Earth more truly alive than the Man Christ is now a living Man in Heaven He in his rising gave proof of his Divine Power He was crucified through weakness yet he liveth by the power of God 2 Cor. 13.4 There was never such an appearance of Weakness in the Man Jesus as when he expired and lay cold dead in his Grave Never did sin reign so unto death nor the Law 's Power more appear than in slaying the second Adam As great and greater was the appearance of his Divine Power in his rising again John 10.17 Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life that I may take it again Christ died that he might rise again He went amongst the dead that he might rise from the dead ver 18. No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again This commandment have I received of my Father Christ was bid both die and rise again Blessed be the Commander and blessed be the Obeyer for our everlasting life is in this Commandment John 12.50 Never any but Christ had this power of his own Life We must yield our Life when God calls for it and till then we must keep it and when that Call comes we must obey We die because we can live no longer and because our times are in God's hand And when it shall please the Lord to raise up our bodies at the Resurrection we receave our life again but have no power to take it up again till the powerful Word of Christ come Arise from your Graves And that Word gives us our life again None but Christ had power of his own life both to lay it down and to take it again We dare we can we should do neither but only obey and submit to the Sovereign Will of our High Landlord at whose Pleasure we are Tennants in these clay cottages 2. Christ's Resurrection was a Demonstration of the Acceptance of the Sacrifice of himself That the Blood he shed and Sacrifice he offered was savoury and acceptable with God that the Debt was fully paid and the Payment accepted when the Surety was discharged of his Prison Therefore we find it so often written that God raised him from the dead Acts 2.24 and 32. even when it 's said that it was not possible he should be holden of death Death and the Grave are strong and cruel Song 8.6 They have taken or will take all Mankind Prisoners and are able to keep them Only they took one Prisoner Jesus Christ who was too hard too strong for them Death had dominion over him but for a little while and by his own consent Rom. 6.9 but it hath no more dominion over him But he hath dominion over it I have the Keys of hell and of death Rev. 1.18 Courage Believers in and Heart-Lovers of Jesus Christ Death and Hell are indeed dreadful Jayls but as long as Christ keeps the Keys and that will be till he cast them both into the Lake of fire Rev. 20.14 no Believer shall ever be locked up in them If Hell were searched never so narrowly amongst all the condemned Prisoners there no Man or Woman could be found in it in whose Heart there was never one spark of true Faith in or Love to the Lord Jesus Heb. 13.20 God brought again from the dead the great Shepherd of the Sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant Christ also is often said to rise by his own power Christ put forth his Divine Power in his Resurrection the Father declared his full satisfaction with his Undertaking of the Work and Payment of the Price of Redemption by discharging of him in and by his Resurrection The Angels Work was only to roll away the Stone but by his own divine Power his blessed Soul did take possession of his dead Body and he did rise up immediately a truly living Man And this he did by his Father's Leave and Will and the Angels served only as Sergeants and Officers to unlock the Prison-doors of the Grave For Christ could easily have removed that Stone by his own power as he did greater things in his Resurrection No wonder the Apostle Paul made it one of his great aims in Christianity to know the power of Christ's Resurrection Phil. 3.10 It is not to know the History of his Resurrection nor is it to know the Mystery of his Resurrection but it is to know the Power of it the same Power that Christ raised himself from the dead by is put forth and no less is needful for the raising of a dead Sinner The same Power that raised the Saviour dead for Sin is needful for raising a Sinner dead in Sin Rom. 4.5 Therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into Death that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we should also walk in newness of life Eph. 1.19 There is an exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead c. How loath are Men to admit this that the saving quickening of a Sinner requires the same divine Power that quickened the dead Saviour All saving Conversions are the Fruits of Christ's Resurrection and of Almighty Power 3. Christ's Resurrection is the Pledge and Earnest of our Resurrection and of eternal Life How great things doth Paul build upon it 1 Cor. 15. He proves our Resurrection from Christ's Resurrection He argues for Christ's Resurrection by enumerating of Absurdities that must follow on the contrary As ver 14. If Christ be not risen then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain ver 15. We the Apostles are found false Witnesses of God ver 17. Then you are yet in your sins ver 18. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished ver 19. Then we are of all men most miserable But now Christ is risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that slept ver 20. For since by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead The first Adam was made a living soul ver 45. but when he became a sinner he became a killing Head to all his Posterity Rom. 5.12 The second Adam is a quickening spirit and gives eternal Life to all his Seed And he took possession of this eternal Life in
your Consciences well resolved in this main Case that you may be able to give a peremptory answer The Importance of this Question is very obvious Can a Man retire within and look up to God and consider this I am a miserable Sinner in my self as all are nothing but God's special mercy can relieve me And not think it a matter of vast consequence to know whether he hath obtained this mercy or no Wo to them that never asked the Question and they are but in a sorry case that cannot answer it I would propose a few things to enforce the Duty of trying your selves in this matter 1. It is mercy you have been seeking If ever you made any fashion of Prayer surely it was mercy you sought most of you if not all pray at least sometimes Now whenever you pray unless you be wofully formal and stupid your Consciences must tell you it is mercy you seek Have you long and often begged God's mercy and will ye never enquire whether or not you have got it None ask in earnest but they will try how they speed There is no surer and plainer Argument of trifling in Prayer than when men are careless what they get by Prayer We would be called of the Generation of them that seek God's Face and shall we not enquire if we have found him Our Lord bids us ask that we may receave and shall we ask and not think of receaving nor try if we have receaved 2. A great many round you have obtained mercy therefore it becomes you to enquire whether you have obtained it If the mercy of God were so very rarely dispensed that none if any in an Age did partake of it this neglect would be a little more excusable But when mercy falls round about thee when one on thy Right Hand obtains Mercy and another on thy Left Hand obtains Mercy when this Mercy falls on some of the Family thou lives in on some of the Congregation thou hears in when this mercy falls on one that hath the same natural Parents that thou hast Will none of these things make you ask Have I also obtained mercy We find our Lord aggravating the misery of the damned by their seeing of the blessedness of the saved Luke 13.28 There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you your selves thrust out A most dreadful Passage Christ is telling Men that were to be excluded from Heaven what they would think say and do in that dismal Case Prevent this Misery in time by enquiring whether you have obtained mercy And do so the rather that ye may see others partaking of this Mercy When you see the saving mercy of God sought and obtained by others it should provoke you greatly not to envy them their share but to desire a share of your own for there is enough and to spare And the Lord doth shew mercy to some on purpose that he may encourage others to come and ask and obtain So Paul tells wherefore he got his Mercy 1 Tim. 1.16 Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy that in me first or the chief Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting There were other ends Christ had in shewing mercy to Paul The Lord shewed him mercy that he might be saved eternally he shewed him mercy that he might be an able Minister of the new Testament 2 Cor. 3.6 and a successful Apostle 1 Cor. 15.10 and the Church of Christ hath good Cause now for many Ages to bless our Lord Jesus for that rich mercy which that chosen Vessel obtained and was filled with But the Apostle in that place takes notice of another design of Christ's in his mercy to him and that was to set up Paul as a Pattern and Copy of the Freedom Riches and Power of saving mercy And Christ can when he will write another Copy like Paul and somewhat like it he doth in all that he calls savingly Eph. 2.4 Take in this Argument many obtain mercy and why not I none deserve it yet many have it None deserve it less and need it more than I Why then not I If you see the Lord shewing mercy to others and you care not for mercy to your selves how can you expect it or think you have got it 3. Inquire whether you have receaved God's saving mercy because this mercy is brought so near you that it must either be receaved or refused there is no midst No Man doth neither no man doth both All that have the offer of God's saving mercy in the Gospel do and must necessarily either receave or reject it This should make people inquire the more narrowly whether they have obtained mercy If ye have not obtained it ye have refused it Acts 13.46 It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you but seeing you put it from you and judge your selves unworthy of everlasting life lo we turn to the Gentiles This last is a strange Phrase I am perswaded in the Lord that no man shall ever get everlasting life that thinks himself worthy of it It is always to be sought by us always given by the Lord and always taken by the Receavers of it as an Alms of Grace for Christ's sake Nothing surely was further from Paul's mind than to have these foolish Jews to count themselves deserving of eternal life or that on the account either of their Priviledges or Works they did or could deserve Salvation at the hand of God But all the Apostle meant was this Everlasting Life is brought near to you in this Word of the Gospel you put the Word from you thereby you declare you are unwilling to receave everlasting life and God counts you unworthy of the Offer of it and we will carry it to others as he tells other Unbelieving Jews at Rome Acts 28.28 Be it known to you that the Salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles and that they will hear it Now for resolving of this Question whether you have obtained special saving mercy or not This seems easily determinable There is so great a difference betwixt that State of sin and misery that mercy finds Men in when it first visits them and that State that mercy brings them to That we are apt to think the change may be easily known See Eph. 2.1,18 Yet there are so many things that obstruct both them that have obtained mercy from owning it and them that have not obtained it from acknowledging their want of it of which I shall not now speak that searching is needful and for your help in that work I offer these few plain Marks 1. A high value of special saving mercy above common mercy is a good sign of one that hath obtained saving mercy There is a special mercy of God and there is a common mercy Special mercy
9.1.5 What prays he for them Roin 10.1 My hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved All right Prayer should be the Hearts desire Salvation is the best thing we can pray for to our selves or to them we love And no Man can heartily pray for Salvation to others who hath not got it himself 2. I would now direct some Words to them that have obtained mercy and know it Blessed be the Lord that there are not a few in the World not a few in this City and I hope not a few in this Meeting that have obtained mercy of the Lord and know it also Who can remember when their misery was great and when the mercy of the Lord made a visit to them and what great things it brought to them and wrought in them 1. Let such be very thankful for special saving mercy Praise is a great Debt as well as a great Blessing Let none take this as an ordinary Duty but let all Christians know that the main point of the Life and Practice of Christianity lies in the performance of it 1 Pet. 2.9 Praise should rise according to the worth of what we praise for Greatest Favours call for highest Praises and special mercy from the Lord is the highest favour It is a good Custom and a Duty also that people when they receave their daily bread from God do give him thanks for it as well as beg his Blessing on it Pray then how do you think the Lord will take unthankfulness for his special mercy How many hath the Lord to give in this Charge against I never gave thee a nights rest but thou gave me thanks for it in the morning but I have by my mercy raised thee up to newness of Life and I was never thanked for it I never fed thy Body but thou blessed me for my Bounty but I have given thee my Son for the bread of thy Soul but no praise for this Gift When thou wast near death I did in mercy restore thee and was praised for it but special mercy hath delivered thy Soul from eternal destruction but when didst thou praise for that Have a care this Charge be not given against you Live to his Praise and let Praise be the main Work of your Life 2. Walk tenderly under God's special mercy The more special the mercy be the more carefully it should be improved God's saving mercy is a Load a Burthen not indeed hard to be born but it is hard to bear it aright A Burden that will not break the Back but will weigh heavy on the Shoulders of the Bearers and such as are under it are in no small danger of stumbling Isa 38.15 What shall I say he hath both spoken unto me and himself hath done it I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my Soul And that there was special mercy in his Eye see ver 17. Thou hast in love to my Soul delivered it from the pit of corruption for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back Here is a right sense of mercy and a good Resolution about the guiding of it I will walk softly all the Years fifteen of them that God hath added to my Life But what performance was there 2 Chron. 32.25 But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done to him for his heart was lifted up 3. Obtainers of mercy should ask grace to guide mercy and ask it the more earnestly and confidently because they have obtained mercy Be not discouraged in asking more mercy because you have made so poor improvements of what you have received Every mercy lays us under an Obligation for more service and Grace to enable for that Service must be given and therefore should be asked We need mercy God gives it when we get it we should guide it well and in order to that we must beg more New mercy to enable us to guide the old No mercy from the Lord but it may be ill guided but the last eternal Life Jude 21. A Christian is not out of all danger of abusing any mercy of the Lord till he receave perfecting mercy in Heaven To them that have not obtained mercy or at least do not know that they have only four things I would say to such Ask mercy Receave mercy Plead mercy Hope in his mercy 1. Ask mercy The Lord hath two designs in offering and dispensing his mercy to Men To be honoured by the Prayers of them that want it and to be glorified by the Praises of them that get it This Duty of asking mercy is frequently commanded by the Lord commonly practis'd by his people and never in vain 1. Ask mercy like it self Ask some way according to your Need and its Worth If our begging bore any tolerable proportion to the great Blessing of God's saving mercy what mighty praying would there be Let not mercy be sought as a small thing it 's the one thing needful and it 's the one thing we should seek of the Lord. God's mercy Saving mercy Free mercy Mercy great vastly above all our misery O how would it be asked if asked like it self 2. Ask mercy at the right Door There is not a Crumb of saving mercy that comes to any perishing Sinner but by Jesus Christ. There is no Corn in Egypt but what comes through this Joseph's Hand He is a mad Beggar of mercy that forgets Christ 3. Ask mercy in God's time He that commands us to ask and tells us at what Door to beg and promiseth to give tells us also when we should ask Men have their times as in great distress when dying and at Judgment Beware of putting off asking till God's time of giving be past It is an awful Word of Christ Luke 13.25 When once the master of the house is risen up and hath shut to the door and ye begin to stand without and to knock at the door saying c. There are two sad beginnings here Beginning to stand without when the door is shut such will eternally stand without Beginning to knock at the door Such as begin to knock at God's shut Door will never get in There is no good answer to be given by God to such for eternity Is not that a very unhappy beginning So our Lord tells us in the Parable of the Ten Virgins Matth. 25.10 The foolish came when the Door was shut They were foolish that they came no sooner and miserable that they came too late I believe the Damned will see more of the Blessedness of the Saved than the Saved will see of the Misery of the Damned Christ expresly aggravates the misery of the Damned by what they shall see of the Bliss of the Saved Luke 13.28 But all we see in the Word that the Saved shall see or hear of the misery of the Damned is their Resurrection to Damnation John 5.29 which is a most miserable one better were it for them to have their Bodies lye eternally in
and not impoverish the Giver What can such as I beg of such a God as he is but mercy His Name is Mercy my Name is Misery I would have my misery relieved by his mercy and his mercy glorified in my relief 4. Hope in his mercy Psal 147.11 The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him in those that hope in his mercy Psal 130.7 Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy It is from the Devil for whom there is no mercy that any of the most miserable out of Hell are tempted to think there is no mercy with God for them He envies Men God's mercy he doth not only tempt to sin but also to security in it till the day of mercy be past If God awaken a sinner to see his need of mercy in time Satan tempts them to think that it is out of time In such temptations he acts most like himself a reprobate damned Spirit and in managing of them he hath great advantages from his own Craft and Malice and Men's just deserving of Wrath. Look on all such Thoughts as from that Adversary and treat them accordingly When you beg mercy look for it Expect to obtain it when you would lay hold on it The Lord will never keep back his saving mercy from a sinner that would have it as his life When you plead for mercy for mercy's sake hope to prevail and that will help you to plead better So much for this Exhortation Will ye go home and do so Will you study more your misery and the greatness of his mercy and ask and plead for it more earnestly There is never better fruit of Preaching than when the Hearers are sent away hungering and thirsting after the Lord's mercy SERMON VIII HEB. IV. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need I Have spoke to the first of the Blessings to be got at the Throne of Grace which we should come for Obtaining of mercy The second is the finding of Grace to help in time of need This Expression finding of Grace is probably borrowed from the Old Testament wherein the bestowing of Favour is usually so expressed We find it in Mens Pleadings with one another So Jacob to Esau Gen. 32.5 and Gen. 33.8 These are to find grace in the sight my Lord. And he pleads upon it ver 10. If I have found grace in thy sight then receave my present at my hand for therefore I have seen thy face as though I had seen the face of God and thou wast pleased with me Jacob had seen God's Face that morning and had found grace in his sight and he remembers it when he finds grace in the sight of his angry Brother So we find the Phrase used in dealing with God by Moses Exod. 33.12,13 Yet thou hast said I know thee by name and thou hast sound grace in my sight Now therefore I pray thee If I have found grace in thy sight shew me now thy way that I may know thee that I may find grace in thy sight The first thing I would remark here is the Connexion betwixt these two Blessings and Errands Obtaining of Mercy and Finding of Grace Mercy and Grace are joined together by God and are not to be put asunder by Man Many would separate them they would be content to obtain mercy but they care not so much for his grace But such are only profane ignorant persons that know neither God nor themselves nor his Mercy nor his Grace The Lord will not give Mercy without Grace nor Grace without Mercy all that receave either receave both and all that would have either must ask both and none can ask either aright but he that asks both This Grace we are called to come to the Throne of Grace for the finding of is specified from its great advantage and usefulness It is Grace to help in time of need The Words in the Original are Grace for seasonable opportune help It is the nature of this Grace that it is helpful its helpfulness mainly appears in a time of need A time of need will come this Grace is to be asked before that time come it is to be waited upon till the time of need come and used when it comes The Truth to be spoke to is this plain one That all that hear of God's Offer of Grace should come to God to ask it to get it to find it Men should come to God's Throne of Grace for Grace for themselves They should come to God in Christ Jesus for the Grace of God in and by Christ Jesus This is a Truth so bright in its own evidence that there is no need to confirm it What hath been said of coming to obtain mercy is equally binding unto coming to find Grace Two things then I would speak unto at this time 1. What is this Grace we are called to come to the Throne of Grace for 2. What finding of Grace is what specialty is there in this expression It is certain never did a Man find Grace before Grace found him Grace is always the first finder But the sense of it and our knowledge of our having found it follows after 1. What is this Grace we are to come to the Throne of Grace for finding of We have need to know this distinctly The reason why many are so confused and dark and barren in their Prayers is because they know not what is to be got by Prayer If we had a a clear knowledge of the full extent of this Grace that is to be dispensed at this Throne of Grace we should quickly know what to ask and find matter for asking continually This Grace of God that we are invited to come to the throne of grace for finding of comes under three different Considerations 1. As it is in the Fountain from whence it flows 2. As it is in the Channel in which it runs 3. As it is in the Vessels that do receave it 1. Grace considered as in the Fountain from whence it flows is Grace in God The Scriptures take notice of the special Interest that each of the Three blessed Persons of the Godhead have in the dispensing of Grace We find the Father called the God of all Grace 1 Pet. 5.10 and there Christ is also named and the Holy Ghost implyed The Father the God of all Grace is the Caller he calleth us to his eternal Glory by Christ Jesus we are fitted for the possession of it by the Grace of the Holy Ghost Our Lord Jesus Christ is oft spoke of as the Fountain of Grace John 1.14 Full of Grace and Truth and that we might know that this Fountain-fulness in him is for Communication ver 16. And out of his Fulness have all we receaved and grace for grace The Holy Ghost is called the spirit of grace Heb. 10.29 of grace and supplication Zech. 12.10 Of Faith 2 Cor. 4.13 When
we come to the throne of grace for grace in this Consideration we come for the manifestation and communication of grace from the Fountain according to his Will and our Need for the carrying on of our Salvation to the Praise of his grace It is to be observed in that Apostolick Wish which by a good Custom is made the concluding Blessing in Christian Assemblies 2 Cor. 13.14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the holy Ghost be with you all Amen That there is grace in the Fathers love and grace in the Communion of the Holy Ghost as well as there is Love and Communion in the Grace of our Lord Jesus For grace is in all divine Favour and in all its Fruits freely bestowed on the undeserving Sons of Men. 2. Grace may be considered as it is in the Channel in which it runs in the Way and Means of its conveyance usually called the means of grace and this is the Gospel It 's true that this form of speech means of grace is not a Scriptural Phrase though it be usual with us But by it we mean nothing but such means as are hallowed by Divine Institution and backed with a gracious Promise of bestowing grace on the right Users thereof the main of which means is the Gospel it self called by Paul in Acts 20.24 the Gospel of the grace of God and ver 32. the word of his grace And in Tit. 2.11 the Gospel is called simply the grace of God If you take away the Doctrine of Free grace you take away the Gospel It is but an empty Shadow a false Name to call that Doctrine Gospel that is not the Word of his grace The grace of God in the means is universally offered to all that heaâ— the Gospel but the Blessing it self is sovereignly dispensed like grace There is ground sufficient in the Promise for Faith in waiting on the Lord in the use of his Appointments But yet the Lord never used any outward mean that was always effectual to all them that had it The greatest of any outward means that ever Men were under was the personal ministry of Christ yet all his Hearers did not believe yea but a few did John 6.26 c. What a heavenly Discourse doth Christ deliver but what was the effect of it ver 66. From that time many of his Disciples went back and walked no more with him The Lord hath wisely ordered it thus that the means the Channel his grace runs in are at some times and to some Persons filled with his grace and at other times are but empty Pipes that the means themselves may not be doated on and that the Fountain may still be depended on When then we come to the throne of grace for Grace as in the means we come begging that the Lord who hath appointed the means and keeps the Blessing of them in his own Hand would fill the means with his Grace and fill our Souls with the communication of that grace in our use of these means 3. Grace is considered as it is in the Vessels that receave it in Men that partake of it And here it will be needful to distinguish The grace of God as receaved comes under a very notable distinction of common grace and saving grace or special Somewhat hath been hinted of the same distinction betwixt common and special saving mercy But of this distinction as to grace receaved I would speak more fully Common Grace is so called not because it is ordinary and usual for in bad times it is rare enough but because it is not saving It 's most likely that in such happy times which we cannot now boast of but only hope for when saving grace is bestowed on many common grace is dispensed more frequently also That there is such a thing as common Grace is as certain as it is that there is such a Creature if I may so call him as a Hypocrite in the Church or in the World For an Hypocrite is nothing else but an unrenewed sinner painted over with more or less common Grace And to Men that see the out-side of others only he may appear like a true Christian I would give some particular Instances of this common grace 1. There is a common enlightening grace a common Illumination Heb. 6.4 and 10.26 the Apostle supposeth that there is an enlightening and a receaving a knowledge of the truth that may be where a fatal Apostacy may follow The Lord may give the Light of his Word and in and by that Light may dart in some clear Beams of Gospel-Truth on such that are led no further It is far from being true that all knowing Heads have sound Hearts There may be and often is much clear Light in the mind about points of saving Truth when there is no Sense no Savor no Faith in the Heart Acts 26. We find Paul speaking in the most noble Assembly that it 's like he ever spoke in A King and Queen and a Roman Governour greater than both In this August Assembly Paul though a Prisoner in Bonds remembers his being an Apostle and preacheth Christ and takes Christ's grace in converting him for his Text. ver 24. When he is thus speaking Festus said with a loud voice Paul thou art beside thy self much learning hath made thee mad At the same time ver 28. Agrippa said unto Paul Almost thou perswadest me to be a Christian This was a great deal better then Festus's Word yet a poor Word in it self It spoke some glancing of ineffectual Light on his mind An Almost Christian and no more is but a Sinner almost saved and no more or one that is no Christian and never saved at all 2. There is common awakening grace The Lord sometimes alarms the Consciences of the Ungodly and may raise a great Sense of Sin in such as are never forgiven and fears of Hell yea a fore-tast of Hell in some that never escape it I have sinned saith Pharaoh I have sinned saith Saul I have sinned saith Judas in betraying innocent blood Alas poor wretch it had been better to have confess'd his Sin against his Master to his Master than to his Murderers Felix trembled when Paul preached It was grace in God to come so near to him and great Power was put forth What else could make such a great Prince as Felix was to tremble at the Words of a poor Prisoner standing before him in his Chains Awakening grace is but common grace The Law wounds many a Conscience that the Gospel doth not heal because not applyed to No Wound can the Law make which the Gospel cannot heal Boast not of your Wounds by the Law unless you can tell how you were healed There is no cure for a Conscience wounded by Sin and the Law but the Blood of Jesus shed for Sin Did ye come to it Heb. 12.24 Did he apply it to you Were you cured of your Wounds before ye went to him
that he waters and carefully looks after When a Believer comes to the Throne of grace for this grace he comes to beg that the new Creation in him may be visited refreshed and strengthened and brought to Perfection They that have no planting of Christ in them want this Errand to the Throne of Grace that Believers daily come upon So much for the first thing What this grace is 2. What is the finding of this grace why the Apostle useth this Phrase different from the former about mercy That was obtaining of mercy this is finding of grace Mercy and Grace are near a-kin and so is obtaining and finding Besides the Hebrew Phrase remarked already these things I would note in it 1. I conceave that this Phrase of finding grace doth imply the Duty of seeking it According to our Lord 's own direction Matth. 7.7 Ask and it shall be given you Seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you Where and in ver 8. our Lord gives three Commands to one Duty of Prayer under three several Names and six Promises for Encouragement under three different Names also redoubled 2. This form of speaking points forth the giving and bestowing of Grace His Grace and Favour is what is given to bestowed on and enjoyed by them that come to the throne of grace When the old World was exceeding bad all stark naught and but one good Man in it you must needs think that it was a bad World then and that was Noah Gen. 6.8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. This Word we should regard the more that it is the first place where the grace of God is mentioned in Scripture Thee have ' I seen righteous before me in this generation saith the Lord to him Gen. 7.1 And how this Man came by his Righteousness see in Heb. 11.7 By Faith Noe being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an Ark for the saving of his house by the which he condemned the World and became Heir of the Righteousness which is by Faith Who but the Spirit of God by Paul who I think was the Pen-man of this Epistle would have found the Righteousness of Faith in Noah's building of the Ark Many nay most of Men called Christians cannot see this Righteousness that is by Faith in the Gospel it self There was a brave inheritance and Estate in this Righteousness of Faith secured and revealed in the first Gospel Gen. 3.15 Of this Estate Abel and Enoch were possessed and Noah became that is declared himself an Heir of it by his Faith and the Fruits of it The whole World had the Warning Noah from God the World by Noah all were equally concerned in the danger Noah preached it to them and God's Spirit was with him striving with them 120 Years But not one Man found grace but he alone A prodigious depth of Judgment and Mercy Such a Man aâ— Noah preached so long to a world of the ungodly as 2 Pet. 2.5 and not one single Man or Woman believed He only found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Jer. 31.2 Thus saith the Lord the people that were left of the Sword found grace in the wilderness even Israel when I went to cause him to rest It is a great blessing to find grace any where but to find grace in the Wilderness to find grace where and when the Sword of God's Anger and Justice is destroying multitudes is heightened grace Grace falls still on Remuants Justice and Wrath seizeth on the Bulk and whole Piece Rom. 11.5 A Remnant according to the election of grace ver 7. The election obtained it that is grace and the rest were blinded and hardened The more be left and the fewer be savingly taken the greater is the grace shewed to those sew and the more happy are they that find it 3. In this Phrase of finding grace there may this be conceaved if you will understand it rightly the Casualty of the getting of grace There is no such thing as Casualty to God He always knows when and where and on whom to bestow his grace But the bestowing of his grace is a meer Casualty to all Men both to them that receave it and to others that look on My meaning is grace comes unlooked for undeserved undestred unexpected in its first visit especially So that all Receavers of it may say as Hagar the only good Word we have of that Bond-woman Gen 16.13 And she called the name of the Lord that spake to her Thou God seest me happy are they that can name God from his grace and mercy to them David calls him the God of my mercy Psal 59.10,17 for she said Have I also here looked after him that seeth me The Lord hath had his Eye on me for good when I was not thinking on him Grace always comes at first by surprize How many are there that attend diligently on all the means of grace and never find grace When some that come but by accident as we think grace finds them and they find it This is the Treasure hid in the Field of the Gospel blessed is he that finds it Matth. 13.44 Many dig in this Field and never find the Treasure in it Men should use means Prov. 8.33,34 Ministers should design wisely to catch Souls and labour painfully in it but the Lord in his Application of his grace passeth by many that we would fainest have saved and lights on others we never thought on And let him do with his own grace as seemeth him good Little thought little Zacheus of Salvation when he climb'd the Tree to see Jesus pass by Luke 19. If Christ had not call'd him down the poor rich Publican was as like as any in the Company to have let Christ pass on in his Journey When Saul was going his wicked Journey Acts 9. who would have thought that grace would have fallen on him as it did All Partakers of grace that can remember its first Visit can witness that their finding of grace was a meer Casualty to them they thought not of it they sought it not yet it found them and was found by them Isa 65.1 I am sought of them that asked not for me I am found of them that sought me not Seeking is our Duty and finding is our Mercy but both right seeking and gracious finding are singly owing to his grace The Apostle after a deep Discourse of the Sovereignty of God in dispensing his grace saith Rom. 9.30,31 What shall we say then that the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness have attained to righteousness even the righteousness which is of Faith But Israel which followed after the law of righteousness hath not attained to the law of righteousness The cause of Israel's missing Righteousness he gives ver 32. Because they have sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the Law for they did not build and believe on Christ as a Foundation but
God of peace make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ We need Grace's help in every good Work no Work is truly good but what grace helps us to Grace and Works agree sweetly in this Order Grace begins and Works follow Grace works on the Man and makes him a Worker Grace passeth on the Person and his Works and makes them accepted and the accepted Worker gives grace all the glory both of his Works and of his own and their Acceptance Whence his help comes thither his Praises go Lastly Grace helps in Extremities But of this in the last thing in the Text. This then is the first Exhortation Come to the throne of grace seeking helping grace Enlarge and heighten the sense of your Need and Weakness as much as you will the Supply to be had at the Throne of grace is sufficient Phil. 4.19 My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus And in Paul's Stile Glory and Grace change Names frequently Eph. 1.6,12,14 and 3.16 2 Cor. 3.18 Exhort 2. You must not only seek grace to help but when you seek it you must expect it The Text runs plainly this way The Apostle implies asking but expresseth finding and coming that we may find therefore we should come with expectation of finding The Spirit and Life of Prayer in Faith lyeth more in Expectation then in asking Unwise Christians let out the Life-Blood and vital Spirits of Prayer when they let their Expectations languish Here is a common but unregarded Error in Christians exercise When they set their Face to pray they make some Conscience of searching out their Wants they labour to improve that sight to the raising of fervent desires of a supply of them if they yet go higher to take in a sense of the fulness and freeness of that grace where their help is yet how rarely are they careful to raise up Expectations of that helping grace few can say as Psal 55.16 As for me I will call upon God and the Lord shall save me ver 17. Evening and morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud and he shall hear my voice Few can charge their Souls as he did Psal 62.5 My Soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from him See how the Prophet's Faith rose Micah 7.7 I will look unto the Lord I will wait for the God of my Salvation my God will hear me Looking is a needy Act of Faith waiting is an expecting Act and assurance is the highest If you look to the Lord you may quickly know he is the God of your Salvation if you know him as the God of your Salvation and your God you will ask earnestly wait patiently and by the same Faith Prophecy a gracious answer What do you take Praying in Faith to be Jam. 1.6 It is not only to pray believing that we call upon the true God in the Name of Christ and for things agreeable to his Will it is not only that we believe that he is able to give what we ask but that he will give what is good But because his grace to help is not only good and always good but nothing is good without it Christians should beg grace with confident Expectations What means Christ's frequent answer to Men Matth. 8.13 As thou hast believed so be it done unto thee and Matth. 9.29 According to your Faith be it unto you Is it not to tell us that he measures out his Bounty to Men according to their believing Expectations from him John 11.40 Jesus saith unto Martha Said I not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe thou shouldest see the glory of God Our way is if we could see the glory of God then we would believe Christ's way is just contrary we must first believe and then we shall see the glory of God We say if the Lord would glorifie himself in performing his Promises and in hearing our Prayers then we would believe strongly But this is interverting of Christ's Order Martha was a Believer in Christ and expresseth Faith several ways in this Chapter It appears in the joynt Message they sent to Christ ver 3. Lord behold he whom thou lovest is sick ver 5. Now Jesus loved Martha and her Sister and Lazarus A blessed Family and few like it all loved of Christ and doubtless lovers of Christ but they built more on his love to them than on their love to him like humble and wise Believers ver 21 22. Martha said unto Jesus Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died Her Sister Mary said the same ver 32. It is likely that none ever died in Christ's Presence when he was on earth he cured all that imployed him But I know that even now whatsoever thou wilt ask of God God will give it thee Here was some Faith When Christ promiseth ver 23. that her brother should rise again she acts Faith as to the Doctrine of the Resurrection ver 24. I know that he shall rise again in the Resurrection at the last day When Christ goes on in preaching himself ver 25.26 and asks her of her Faith she answered bravely Yea Lord I believe that thou art the Christ the Son of God which should come into to the world ver 27. A Confession like Peter's Matth. 16.16 What then was wanting in this good Woman why doth our Lord put such an if thou wouldest believe to one that did believe so much and so well Because notwithstanding her Faith in Christ's Person as the Christ the Son of God the Saviour of the world notwithstanding her Faith of his power yet in this instance of raising Lazarus she expected nothing When Christ ver 39. bids take away the stone she said Lord by this time he stinketh for he hath been dead four days She that believed Lazarus should rise at the last day could not believe that he should rise after death had held him but four days Such is the very nature of Unbelief or of weak Faith in true Believers they can or rather think they do believe greater and harder things when not much tryed about them better and more easily than smaller and easier things that their Faith is called to a present exercise about Let all Christians in all their approaches to the throne of grace behold this as written on the open Gates to this Throne and hear it proclaimed by him that sitteth on it Said I not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe thou shouldest see the glory of God Some Believers are apt to think that a trembling fearing frame is fitter for them and that raising of expectation of good from God will prevent or hinder Humility and lying low before the Lord. But they are quite mistaken that think Faith and Humility are inconsistent They not only agree well together but they cannot be parted Hab. 2.4 Behold his Soul which is
By his Fall he hath lost Happiness and Purity but retains his Knowledge which his Corruption hath turned into Craft Malice and Wiles 3. His long Experience in cheating of Men. 4. That in Men that his Wiles are proposed to it is to the Heart deceitful above all things and desperately wicked Jer. 17.9 It is to the Old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts Eph. 4.22 Such a Devil dealing with such a deceitful Heart must have many dangerous Wiles Christ's Grace only can enable a Man to discern them and it should be much prayed for Many have been skilful in the Theory and Knowledge of the Doctrine of Satan's Wiles that have been notwithstanding prevailed upon by them A Man must know his own Heart well and observe its motions narrowly and be much at the Throne of Grace that would know Satan's particular Wiles on himself 2. Grace helps the Tempted in helping to hate the sin they are tempted to Many Believers though they cannot tell well whence the Wind comes that drives them whether from their own Heart or the Devil yet they know whither it drives them to Sin that they are averse from Tempted Joseph spake like a Man that had present assistance of Grace when he said Gen. 39.9 How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God As far and as long as the sin tempted to stands black and ugly in the eye of the tempted Person so far and so long is the Temptation ineffectual Temptation prevails when the sin tempted to takes with the Heart and Will Jam. 1.14 A man is tempted i. e. successfully when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed Sin was without him but near to him by the Temptation now it is within him and it is his sin The Temptation to numbering of the people took with David but his Command about it was abominable to Joab a Man far short of David's Grace if he had any 1 Chron 21.6 3. Grace can help the Tempted to resist and stand Eph. 6.13 No Man is overcome of Satan till he flee and yield Resisting is overcoming of him Jam. 4.7 Resist the Devil and he will flee from you 1 Pet. 5.9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith Eph. 6.16 Above all taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the Devil They are Darts they are the Devils Darts they are fiery Darts there is an all of them yet by Faith you may be able to quench them all Why is so much said of Faith Because as Christ's strength is the Believers strength so Faith is that only in a Believer that acts on this Strength draws it in and acts in it Separate Faith from its Object Christ either in Justification or in Sanctification and it becomes an Imagination a Vanity a Nothing Now consider how cunningly Satan deals with Believers and how simply they are gulled by him in Temptation He perswades and often prevails with them to lay aside the Shield of Faith when they should mainly use it How foolish were that Man that would yield his Arms to an implacable Enemy Christ knew Peter's danger and provides graciously for it I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not Luke 22.32 4. The helping Grace of God assists tempted Believers in preventing an utter Foyl by Satan and in recovering them from a begun Foyl So did Christ for Peter and Paul 2. Cor. 12.8,9 The Devil never gets all his Will on a Believer nor are any Wounds he gives to a Saint mortal in the issue whatever they be in their own nature in Believers Fears or in the Devil's Design All the Glory is due to the Grace that is in Christ Jesus Lastly Grace can rebuke the Tempter and call him off This Joshua the High-Priest needed and got Zech. 3.2 And the Lord said unto Satan who was standing at Joshua's right hand to refist him when he is standing before the Angel of the Lord ver 1. The Lord rebuke thee O Satan even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire This Mercy was the first thing in Paul's Prayer 2 Cor. 12.8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me This Messenger of Satan was of Christ's sending and giving There was given to me a thorn in the flesh a Messenger of Satan to buffet me ver 7. Lord save us from such gifts will Christians be apt to say there is no reason to pray for them if the Lord see them needful he will send them But it is comfortable that all the Devil's Assaults are of Christ's ordering He must have Christ's leave to tempt Luke 22.31 And our Lord when he pleaseth can and will call him off When Christ was tempted Matth 4. he resists all his Temptations by the Word as his people should at last he put forth his Divine Power ver 10. Get thee hence Satan c. Then the Devil leaveth him This we cannot do but Christ can do it for us It is a blessed Promise Rom. 16.20 The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you Amen Poor tempted Christians think that they are not only in Satan's Sieve and in his Hands but that they are often under his Feet But lift up your Heads by Faith on this Promise Compleat Victory is coming and the Faith of it should not only encourage you to resist but this Faith is a present Victory Faith is our Victory 1 John 5.4 The Believer not only shall be but is an Overcomer SERMON XI HEB. IV. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need THE Lord hath been pleased so to order and determine the State and Condition of his Children while they are in this Life that they shall be constantly needy This Dispensation we should submit unto with all quietness of mind not quarrelling with the Wisdom and Mercy of our God therein Yea more than Submission is called for There is a further Duty required though it be hard to perform it to take pleasure and to rejoice in this needy State that the power of Christ may rest upon us For as the Lord hath laid us or left us under manifold Necessities So hath he laid up and is ready to lay out of his Grace for helping us under them And surely such Wants as lay us open for those Supplies of his Grace will be found to have a great deal of Mercy in them in the issue The Exhortation in the Text implies that Grace can help in every time of need There are some times of need contrived by the Lord on purpose that the helpfulness of his Grace might the more shine and appear I was speaking last day from this Truth That there are some special necessitous Times in which Believers are specially needy of
Christ's Grace and in which his Grace is specially helpful I have spoke to the first of these times of need A time of Temptation Though all Believers be not always tempted yet there is no Saint on Earth who is out the Devils Gun-shot No Saint on Earth hath reason to expect that if I may so speak God should serve the Devil with a Noli prosequi God gives 〈◊〉 in this life an utter discharge to the Devil from medling with or molesting of any Saint Till we come to Heaven this Adversary must be expected and prepared for This World is his Dominion he is the wicked God of it 2 Cor. 4.4 And all the wicked in it are his people Subjects and Children And all the remaining Corruption in the Saints is of the Devil 2. The second time of special need of God's Grace is the time of a spiritual decay a decay in the New Creature a decay in the Work of God in the Heart This passeth under many Names in the Word and well known in the Sense and Experience of Believers Sometimes it 's called darkness Isa 50.10 It is the misery of a natural State that they that are in it are darkness it is the blessedness of a renewed State that the partakers of it are light in the Lord their Duty is to walk as Children of light Eph. 5.8 Though they that are made light in the Lord are never suffered to become darkness again yet they may walk in darkness and have no light and the days of that darkness may be many as the wise Man saith Eccl. 11.8 We all know what natural darkness is All the natural light of the World is from the Sun and therefore natural Light and Darkness Day and Night have their Vicissitudes and Revolutions according to the shining or not shining of the Sun All the spiritual light Believers have is from the Light of God's Countenance as the Sun of Righteousness ariseth on them Mal. 4.2 or withdraws from them so is their spiritual Day or Night so do they walk in darkness or in the Light of the Lord. Sometimes this Decay is called Death and Deadness A State of Inability and Unactivity for working and doing what they are called to Hence so many Prayers for quickening especially in Psal 119. Natural Death we know not but Sickness Weakness and Fainting we do know Spiritual Death is known and felt by none that are under its total power but a Weakness in spiritual Life Saints do know Of this Decay I would speak in handling three things 1. Whence it comes 2. How needy such are of God's Grace 3. How Grace doth help in it 1. Whence comes this Decay on Christians It is a State too common to be questioned and too plain to need to be proved that true Christians are and may be in it I would name some of its Springs and Causes 1. It flows from the Infant infirm State of the new Creature in its first forming It is a new-born babe 1 Pet. 2.2 When the first Man was made he was as perfect and strong a Man the first hour he was made as ever he was in all his Life He came out of his Maker's hands a perfect Man But the new Creature is born a weak thing and is to grow up to the stature of a perfect man in Christ Eph. 4.13 and will never come to its full growth till it come to Heaven None on Earth knows what a perfect Christian is There are degrees of Perfection on Earth in respect whereof some are less some more perfect but the most perfect labour greatly under Imperfection Phil. 3.12,13,14 and press most after Perfection I will not speak of the wise design of God in framing the new Creature thus Only the glory of its preservation and of its Perfection is not due to the new Nature in Believers but to the Original of it God the Father to the blessed Root thereof Jesus Christ his Son to the Inhabitation of the Spirit and to the great Security of the new Covenant 2. The new Creature is not only in an Infant weak state but it is planted in bad and unfit Soil for it It is planted out of its Element Heaven is the proper Element and Country whence the new Creature came whence it is maintained and whether it natively tends But it is planted here in the Heart of a sinner Now the Heart of a Man though mended by Grace in part is a very unfit and unsuitable Soil for such a Foreign Heavenly Plant as the new Creation is And hence it is that the Grace of God in us is endangered by the place of its Residence 3. There is also much Corruption remaining in the Heart of a Believer as noisome Weeds growing near this precious planting of the Lord. The Lord never designed to root all Corruption out of the Hearts of his people in this life by the first planting of his Grace in them but only to give that Grace that shall break the dominion of sin and that shall maintain a War with in-dwelling sin and at last shall prevail compleatly So that it 's plain that on the account of those three if there were no more Christians are very lyable to spiritual decays And it 's sadly confirmed from frequent Experience It may be in some the work of Grace was in best case when it was first begun and that from the day of their Conversion to the day of their being Glorified they never had much of any remarkable growth But this is their Sin and their Shame 2. Hence you may see how needy such persons are of the help of the grace of God An inward decay in the work of his Grace in us makes us very needy of help from the Fountain of Grace in him For this decay gives great advantages to our spiritual Enemies to attack us and lays us under great disadvantages in resisting them I am apt to think I cannot now give the reasons of it that the Devil knows the frame of our Hearts though he do not know the Heart immediately that is God's Property Acts 1.24 and the Condition of the Work of God in us a great deal better than we our selves ordinarily do Great is the Intimacy he hath with our Spirits especially with the remaining Corruption in them Great is his Craft acquired by Observation Practice and Experience as well as by his malicious Sagacity And when he seeth a Believer in a bad Case if he have permission he will improve that desired opportunity to make their bad Case worse Psal 71.11,12 David prays for hasty help from God on this Argument his Enemies saying God hath forsaken him persecute and take him for there is none to deliver him Caleb and Joshua encourage Israel to go in and possess the Land Numb 14.9 by this Their defence is departed from them and the Lord is with us fear them not It is from this bad case that Believers are in that Satan hath so easie and speedy Victory
glorified Saints from Heaven in his Company then it s good to be here say they not minding that which was more needful for them and all the Church and if they heard as is most likely the Discourse of Moses and Elias concerning the Decease of our Lord which he should accomplish at Jerusalem Luke 9 30,31 they were the more faulty It is very hard to be truly desirous of Heaven when we have much of Heaven on Earth yet it may be attained and Grace can help to it Of which in the last place 5. The Grace of God as it is needed so is it useful and helpful to Believers under special Enjoyments 1. Grace can humble the Soul under them and by them Though Satan make them Temptations to Pride the Lord can sanctifie them to be means of humbling Great Comforts do not natively tend to humble us but all discoveries of the Glory of God are humbling Isaiah found it so Isa 6.5 Wo is me for I am undone for mine Eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts The Vision was great and glorious it was a sight of God in Christ as John 12.41 These things said Esaias when he saw his glory and spake of him We would be apt to think the Prophet should rather have said Happy am I that I have seen now what I never saw before what few if any besides me have seen But such was the Impression the Spirit of God made on the Heart of this Man that this extraordinary Manifestation of God affects him with more deep self-abasement than ever he had before Happy is the Man that lies still the more low in himself and before God the more highly the Lord exalts him Job found this fruit of a clearer discovery of God chap. 42.5,6 Jacob in Gen. 32.30 Called the name of the place Penuel for I have seen God face to face and my life is preserved This place where he wrestled all night with the Lord where the Lord blessed him in the morning this place he calls Penuet to be the name of it to him and his Seed that whenever they saw the place or heard of it they might remember that there the great God and a poor Man met in great familiarity and the Man was not consumed Jacob wonders that his Life was preserved in such a meeting Near Approaches of God to his Children are sometimes too hard for them to bear This made one eminent Saint cry out under such a high Enjoyment O Lord destroy me not with thy Glory and another Hold thy hand O Lord thy servant is a clay Vessel and can bear no more And both these were Persons not oppressed by his Wrath but overcharged with his Love and Glory 2. Grace can help to record and remember special Enjoyment There are some spiritual Enjoyments of God that are like Lightening that dart from the one end of Heaven to the other that make a dark night to become like the Morning they come quickly and they are quickly gone they are of speedy Access and of as sudden a Recess But though they be but short in their continuance their fruit may remain And one way for making their fruit continue is to remember and record them I will remember the Years the Works the Wonders of the Lord. Psal 77.10,11,12 I will meditate I will talk of them saith the Saint Thus David prays for Israel 1 Chron. 29.18 Keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the Heart of thy people What was this he prayed for Israel's remembring of and for the Lord 's keeping in their minds It was that they might remember with what joy they made their willing Offerings for the Service of God We have a gracious Promise of Christ John 14.26 The Holy Ghost shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you And this Promise we should plead for bringing to our remembrance the things Christ hath done for us as well as for what he hath said to us And no Man can imagine but they that feel it how one of these Remembrances will fortifie the Soul in a day of distress Spiritual things are so unlike to carnal things that all comparisons betwixt them must needs halt greatly That a poor hungry starving Man should in a Dungeon or desolate Wilderness be refreshed and made strong by the bare remembrance of a Feast he had seven years ago this is impossible in nature But in spiritual things it is otherwise The savoury remembrance of a spiritual Enjoyment long since past can bring back the taste and power and virtue of it to the Soul that wants it Believers are usually upon their recovery from a sad disconsolate State when they are exercised in remembring with Savour their former Enjoyments Thus saith Returning Israel Hos 2.7 I will go and return to my first Husband for then it was better with me than now 3. Grace can help to improve Enjoyments to desires of and endeavours after Perfection We must not say when it is well with us it is good to be here but rather it is good to be there where it will be a great deal better Phil. 3.13 This one thing I do it must be a great thing doubtless that is Paul's one thing Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark c. There is a forgetting that is our Duty and a remembring that is our Duty also To remember so as to support our Faith and feed our praising of the Lord that is Duty but to forget Attainments so as to press after the mark that is another Duty Alas we are bad both at right remembring and right forgetting You and I think that if we had but a little of what Paul had in one day if we had but a little of what he had that night he lay in the Stocks when he prayed and sang praises unto God Acts 16.25 we could never have forgotten it as long as we had a day to live But Paul could forget all in his ardent desires of Perfection And so must you and this Grace can teach you These special Enjoyments of God are but rarely felt Dote not on them neither despise them mock not such as know them in their Experience though ye do not If you be sound Believers ye may live in your Souls and live to his Praise without enjoying any thing very extraordinary But if the Lord grant singular Communications of himself know that it is a season of special need of Grace to guide them well They would return more frequently and would rise and spring higher and last longer if they were better improved The greater the Blessing be the more provoking is the abuse of it The greater the Blessing be the greater is the difficulty of guiding it well And the more difficulty be in our Work the more is our need of the Grace of God and the more frequent and
Office and in the same Iniquity said Behold this evil is of the Lord what should I wait for the Lord any longer 2 Kings 6.33 2. Affliction-Duties are only practicable by the help of the Grace of God Every Cross hath its Work as well as its Tryal There is that required and called for in Affliction that craves a special Assistance of the grace of God for the doing of it It is remarkable that the great Duty of the afflicted is expressed by two Negatives Heb. 12.5 from Prov. 3.11 My Son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him What then is the positive Duty It is that which is neither of these two if the Affliction be light we are apt to despise it and if it heavy we are as apt to faint under it But saith the Holy Ghost see that ye do neither if it be never so light do not despise it if it be never so heavy faint not under it And there is no small need of Grace to preserve us from those Extreams and to keep us in the right midst 3. The Consolations of an afflicted State are very needful and Grace only can furnish us with them Be ye assured of it that never did a Christian bear up patiently under God's heavy hand but by the strong secret Working of some Consolation It is true we value and seek most that Consolation that comes in as a great Flood of Sense and that doth swallow up the bitterness of Affliction This the Lord can and sometimes doth give to his People But there is a secret silent spring of Consolation that is as profitable and more common in the Lord's way with his Children Of this the Apostle speaks in 2 Cor. 1.3,4,5 Everlasting consolation and good hope through grace are his Blessings 2 Thess 2.16,17 2. Wherein the helpfulness of grace doth consist in an afflicted state 1. God's grace helps with Light to know God's mind in affliction It is dreadful to be struck in the dark when a Man neither seeth the Path he walks in nor the Hand that smiteth him nor the Weapon he is smote with The great Blessing that grace can help us to is to know what the Rod means what its voice is who hath appointed it and what of God's Name is written on the Rod. Micah 6.9 Job was very earnest for this Light Job 10.2 I will say unto God do not condemn me shew me wherefore thou contendest with me Elihu adviseth him well Job 34.31,32 Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisement I will not offend any more That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more Many a poor Believer have been put to this that if they had all the World they would have parted with it to have known God's Mind in their Afflictions Sometimes by the Light of the Furnace we come to know our Hearts and Corruptions and thereby what God smites for and calls to The Lord can by the teachings of his Word and Spirit and by the Wisdom of his providential Dispensations engrave that particular Meaning that is in his Heart on the Rod that is in his Hand that Men may know it And happy is that person that is so dealt with But it is indeed harder to be sincerely willing to know and admit of God's Mind in Affliction than it is to find it out But his grace can help to both and the Throne of Grace should be much plyed for both 2. Grace can give in strength and support under Affliction 2 Cor. 4.16 For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day It is a wonderful thing to see how much Pain Sickness and Torment a poor frail body is able to bear we think how close and sticking a thing is Life that is not squeezed out by such a stress Yet the frailty of the Flesh in bearing the distress of the Flesh is a small thing in regard of the frailty of the Heart in bearing of God's Rebukes Prov. 18.14 The spirit of a man will bear his Infirmity but a wounded spirit who can bear Yet many have born it but surely by divine Support It is the common Sense of distressed Christians that they have been put to bear such burdens that they thought at first they would surely have crushed them The reason of their Wonder is because the weight of the burden upon them was sensible but the everlasting arms underneath them and their burden were not seen Deut. 33.27 3. Grace helps in Affliction by enabling the afflicted to believe that there is Love in the Afflicter He saith it Rev. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten And he can make us believe it Nothing but his mighty Grace can do it Nothing is liker Anger than Affliction especially when severe nothing is more difficult to believe than that which to all our Sense and Reason is ruining to us should be in love in him that doth it Who can believe this without the help of Grace and how great must that help be that enableth a Man to believe so unlikely a thing 4. Grace helps in Affliction by teaching to profit thereby Heb. 12.11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous Nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby The fruit of sanctified Affliction is a great Mystery as all spiritual Fruit is You cannot tell how you profit by the Word I am afraid that there is but little profiting at all but they that do profit cannot tell how they profit They may see the Seed sown they may find it sown in their Hearts they may perceave its Fruits in their Worship and Walk but how the grace of God works with the Word in making them profit is too deep for the most discerning Christians It is some way more mysterious how the Lord works out profit by Afflictions It is indeed often found blessed be his Name Many can say with David Psal 119.67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy word ver 71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy Statutes But none can tell how the grace of God makes the bitter feed of Affliction bring forth the peaceable fruit of Righteousness And where is that Saint who when the Lord is writing bitter things against him and multiplying his wounds can say in Faith Now at this time and in this manner the Lord is sowing that Seed in me that shall spring up in Fruits of Righteousness to his Praise and my certain Profit and that the day will come wherein I shall bless his Name from my Heart for all the Sorrows I now feel and mourn under I shall say no more of this Head of Affliction but only would give you this warning Afflictions are very common and much
better School for Men to learn weigh and duly to understand the things of God in than a frequent and near view of death What an edge would this put upon our Praying Hearing Worship and Walking Every thing that is done by Men as dying Persons is usually well done I shall only add this that there are some sorts of dying that are very desirable in which the Grace of God is very useful and needful 1. Patient dying Dying is not properly a Duty but a Suffering It is not our Act but there is a manifold Exercise of Grace called for in dying Never did any Man act in dying but Jesus Christ he could lay down his life and take it again John 10.17,18 We cannot lay down our Lives they are not our own We are bid keep them as long as we lawfully can and when the great Command comes Return we are to yield obedience to it It is a great Blessing to have Patience for dying and Patience in dying Heb. 10.36 You have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God ye may receave the Promise And we often need Patience most when just upon the receaving of the Promise We should run with patience the Race set before us Heb. 12.1 And must of Patience is usually most needful in the last Stage of this Race Patience should have her perfect work Jam. 1.4 And the perfect and perfecting Work of Patience is the last act of it We all know that usually death comes on by such steps as are grievous to the Flesh There are Pains Sickness and Languishings that are no small Tryals of Patience but these are in a manner but Tryals of the Patience of the Flesh There are other things about dying that Patience is tryed by as time and place and many Circumstances that it is no small or easie thing to be quietly submitted to Javob the Heir of the Promise goes down to Egypt to Joseph for Bread after he is starv'd our of the Land of Promise and must die in Egypt and leave his Family there where they were to be long and heavily oppressed as the Lord told his Grandfather Abraham Gen. 15.13 Moses must die on the other side of Jordan David must not see a Stone laid in the Temple Josiah must die in Battel and that by not hearkening to the words of Necho from the mouth of God 2 Chron. 35.22 But what of such sad Circumstances of dying did not our Lord himself die under a dark Cloud on his dear Father's Face and on his own blessed Soul My God my God why hast thou forsaken me were sad Words from the sad Soul of our dying blessed Lord. His Disciples forsook him the Sun forsook him Earth and Hell bandyed against him yet all was nothing to his Father's forsaking him How bitter was this to our Lord and yet how sweet is it to the Faith of Believers If you be called to die under a Cloud remember the Lord the Heir the Purchaser of Heaven went to Heaven in the greatest Storm that ever blew from Earth and Hell and Heaven on any man's Face at death Men are ashamed to express any quarrel against dying but there are many things about it that make us needy of much Grace to help to quiet submitting unto it both in substance and all circumstances attending it 2. Safe dying This is very needful and it is Grace's doing Many die Patiently as Men think that die not safely There are no bands in the death of the wicked sometimes Psal 73.4 Some go out of this Life to Hell more calmly than some of the Heirs of Glory pass to their blessed home Safe dying is to die without any hurt to the Soul that when the Cage of the Body is broken by death the Soul the Bird may take Wing and fly straight and safe to Heaven Death is the Believers 1 Cor. 3.22 as well as Life But what have we to do with death or death with us It is a black Boat that we must sail out of time to Heaven in And Christ steers the Boat and lands all Believers safely on Heaven's Shore This is all we have to do with death And when all the Passengers are brought over Christ will burn this ugly Boat Rev. 20.14,15 And death and hell or the Grave were cast into the lake of fire this is the second death And whosoever was not found written in the book of Life was cast into the lake of fire And then in the New Jerusalem there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away Rev. 21.4 Who would not venture to pass out of this bad World to that blessed Land under Christ's Conduct though sailing through the Gulf of death be unpleasant in it self to us Men for Gain will sail from one end of the Earth to the other through heat and cold and stormy Seas and Winds and manifold Perils in the probable hope of advantage But Balievers may be assured that they shall arrive at their Port. Never did a Believer in Jesus Christ die or drown in his Voyage to Heaven They will be all found safe and sound with the Lamb on Mount Zion Christ loseth none of them nay nothing of them John 6.39 Not a Bone of a Believer is to be seen in the Field of Battel They are all more than conquerors through him that loved them Rom. 8.37 3. It is very desirable to have an honourable dying It is a part of the Vanity of this World that many dote upon an honourable Burial Some respect indeed should be paid to the dead Bodies of Believers but honourable dying is a great deal more considerable than that Men call an honourable Burial Our Lord told Peter of his dying John 21.19 This spake Jesus signifying by what death Peter should glorifie God That is honourable dying that brings Glory to God Paul is confident of this as to himself Phil. 1.20 According to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed but that with all boldness as always so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body whether it be by life or by death The most honourable dying is dying for the Lord this Honour is not given to all his Saints All Saints die in the Lord and blessed are they Rev. 14.13 Our desire should be to be enabled by his Grace to hear our dying Testimony to Christ and his Gospel There have been strong Convictions given to the Consciences of Sinners wonderful Supports to the Hearts of surviving Saints by the honourable dying of some Believers Their example their words their very looks and Behaviour in the Shadow of death have been of great use to them that have seen and heard them 4. It is also desirable to have the Mercy of comfortable dying To have an entrance ministred to us abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1.11 The Lord's