everlasting mercy or God's everlasting wrath will eternally lye upon every one of you And what an amazing difference is there betwixt these two and yet how many behave as if indifferent which of these two shall be upon them God's faving mercy is such a Jewel that though the Lord give it but to few yet he will never take it away from any he hath given it to Psal 89.28,33 Believers God may take any thing from you but his mercy and you may spare any thing but his mercy If God come to take away your Children give them if he come to take away your Estate let him have it If he come to take away your Health and Lives yield them strive not with him bless a giving and bless a taking God If he crave thy Right Eye or Right Hand and what is dearest to you give yield all to him But say Let me only keep thy mercy I cannot part with that it is the only thing I cannot spare The blessed Canaanite's striving with Christ was about his mercy Be silent disown reproach me I care not but thy mercy I must have It were a Cruelty that only Unbelief can charge God sinfully with to take away so precious a Gift as saving mercy is Let but this mercy follow me as Psal 23.6 and it s no great matter where I go If I be in the lowest Hell mercy will bring me out Psal 86.13 For great is thy mercy toward me and thou hast delivered my Soul from the lowest Hell There is no time-Hell that a Vessel of mercy can be in but mercy will bring him out again and this Mercy will secure him from the eternal Hell This mercy is God's mercy therefore soveraignly free therefore Almighty therefore eternal You sin Believers when you fear his taking away his mercy He gave it at first that you might be eternally possessed of it Mercy gave mercy and mercy will keep mercy and mercy will stay with you and keep you for ever The third thing to be spoke to is the end and design of coming to the Throne of Grace and that is that we may obtain mercy Not only that this mercy is to be got at the Throne of Grace and there only nor that this Throne of Grace is erected on purpose to dispense this mercy nor is it only that we should come to the Throne of Grace to ask and beg this mercy but that we should come to obtain it This is the Duty exhorted to in the Text. And in setting about this Duty two things are required 1. Come as sensible of your need of mercy No man can come truly without this sense He that hath no sense of misery complements God in asking mercy and takes this saving Name of God in vain It is dreadful to provoke God to Wrath in our way of asking his mercy And all such contract this Guilt and expose themselves to his Wrath that have no Heart-sense of their need of this mercy It is an amazing stupidity that the power of sin hath brought on men that in a world of sinners sinking into everlasting misery so few are really sensible of their need of saving mercy and no man is sensible till God by Grace make him so 2. Come in Faith of his mercy you cannot come at all without this Faith Faith is coming to God Heb. 11.6 Unbelief is departing from the living God Heb. 3.12 No man can come but he that is sensible of misery for coming is the act of a man drawn and moved by the Cords of a man No man can come but in Faith for there is no other coming for a Christian These three things should be in this Faith 1. A believing that there is abundance of mercy with the Lord which if shewed and put forth to you and on you would save you abundantly So argues the Prodigal Luke 15.17,18 And when he came to himself he said how many hired servants of my Father's have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger I will arise and go to my Father and say c. Psal 130.6 Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption The highest working of Unbelief is when men judge their misery greater than his mercy The great work of Faith is to get these two to meet fairly and mercy will surely prevail His tender mercy is over all his Works much more is his abundant mercy above a sinner's misery Cain's words should be left for himself and used by none else Gen. 4.13 And Cain said unto the Lord my punishment is greater than I can bear Or My iniquity is greater than that it may be forgiven Words sounding like the Language of Hell and not to be spoken by any that would escape it I know many secure people find no difficulty in that they count believing of this that there is mercy enough with the Lord. But yet the matter is far otherwise It is mighty difficult to believe the abundance of his mercy when men are in great pressures of misery The best of Saints have sometimes stumbled here When Moses is pleading with the Lord for mercy to Israel Numb 14.17 And now I beseech thee let the power of my Lord be great according as thou hast spoken and pardon I beseech thee the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy mercy As if Moses had said Lord thou hast proclaimed thy Name and I heard it and believed it but I did not think that their wickedness would have been so great as now I find it to be Was not Moses a great Believer yet he stumbled in this point of the power of God's Mercy Numb 11.18,23 Israel murmureth for flesh God promiseth a whole months diet of it What saith Moses ver 21 22 How doth the Lord answer him ver 23. And the Lord said unto Moses Is the Lord's hand waxed short thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass to thee or not This great man's Unbelief was greatly aggravated in that he saw the Lord bring that people out of Egypt with Signs and Wonders and with a mighty Hand he saw them daily fed cloathed and led and protected with Miracles of divine power and mercy yet one new difficulty shakes his Faith When Paul gives us his last account of his Faith for that Epistle was his last Writing he lodgeth his Faith on divine Power 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day If I be perswaded that he is able I shall not doubt of his being willing to keep that charge safe I have committed to him Let the eye of Faith take up clearly the power of mercy and the Faith of its application to thy benefit will be the more easie But he is a rare Believer whose view of the power of mercy is not darkened by a clear sight and deep
can fully apprehend Christ prayed with great servency and with great confidence We rarely have them join'd in our Prayers If we have confidence of a good issue we are apt to grow cold in asking Christ knew the blessed issue of all his distress and believed it confidently Isa 50.7,8,9 Yet prayed earnestly He was heard and knew it John 11.41,42 Father I thank thee that thou hast heard me And I know that thou hearest me always Christians take encouragement and direction to pray and how to pray by Christ's Practice when he was on Earth 4. Let us consider Christ's Death for encouraging us to confidence in coming to the throne of grace This is the main ground of boldness in coming Heb. 10.10 Having boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus There is precious Blood must be shed or we cannot enter we must see it by Faith or we dare not venture We must come to the Blood of sprinkling Heb. 12.24 We dare not step one step into God's awful Presence unless we see the way marked consecrated and sprinkled with the Mediator's Blood How shall the Unholiest of Sinners venture to come into the Holiest of all God's Presence Yes faith the Holy Ghost such may by the Blood of Jesus Let us therefore consider what this Blood of Christ doth and speaks in order to our boldness in approaching to the throne of grace 1. This Blood satisfies Justice and answers all the Claims and Charges of the Law against us What marrs boldness like fears of a standing Controversie betwixt Heaven and us God is Holy we are vile Sinners God's Law is strict we have sinfully broke it and deserve Hell most justly No answer can be given but by this Blood What would the Law have but Christ gave Would the Law have a sinless Man to answer it as it was first given to sinless Adam Lo I come saith our Lord Jesus without all Sin a Man against whom for himself the Law hath no Charge or Challenge Would the Law have perfect sinless Obedience Christ did perform it Must the Law have Life and Blood for every breach of it Christ never broke the Law but the Burden of Millions of Breakers and Breaches of it lay on him and his Blood was shed for them And thereby he fulfilled the Law put away-sin by the sacrifice of himself Heb. 9.26 finished the transgression made an end of sin made reconciliation for iniquity brought in everlasting Righteousness sealed up the vision and prophecy and anointed the most Holy Dan. 9.24 You can never have boldness at the throne on grace unless by Faith you apply this Blood Christ is set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 The Propitiation is in his Blood Faith in it makes it our Propitiation 2. This Blood as it is satisfying Blood so it is purchasing Blood It is both an Attonement and Satisfaction and it is a Price It is Redeeming Blood for Persons and Purchasing Blood for Blessings All the Blessings we come to the throne of grace for are all bought by this Blood So that we may say that though we have nothing and deserve nothing yet when we ask all things we ask nothing but what is well and truly paid for by our Lord Jesus 3. All the Blessings purchased and bought by Christ's Blood are bequeathed to us and left by him that shed it Christ's Blood is a Test amentary bequeathing Blood And Believers in their coming to the Throne of Grace may come as Suers for the Execution and fulfilment of the last Will and Testament of our Lord Jesus For Christ by his death turned the Gospel and new Covenant into a Testament Heb. 9.15,16,17 His Death confirms his Testament His last Will is that all the Blessings his Blood purchased might be secured and laid up for and in due time given forth to them they were purchased for and bequeathed to The whole Legacy of Grace and Glory and all the Legatees are and were well known to the Testator and Executor though not to us particularly and the Testament will be punctually fulfilled So much for the assistance to Faith that Christ's death affords Learn to feed on it He that cannot make a Soul-meal and take a Soul-fill of a slain Saviour is a sorry Christian A true Christian is a poor starving Sinner digging in Christ's Grave for eternal Life There it only is and there he surely finds it 5 We find further in our Lord Jesus and indeed every thing in and of him helps forward our confidence in coming to God that this great Person the Son of God in our Nature this great Officer that lived so holily and died so virtuously That he also rose again from the dead The Resurrection of our Lord is also a mighty ground of boldness 1 Pet. 1.3 Blessed be the Lord and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead If Christ had lain still in his Grave our Hope had lain there too but because he rose our Hope also riseth with him So 1 Pet. 3.21 where the Apostle hath an elegant Similitude He compares Christ to the Ark of Noah All that were in this Ark were saved and they only the Deluge drowned all the World besides They that were saved in the Ark were saved from drowning in the Water and were saved by water The like Figure whereunto Baptism now saveth us Will bare Water-Baptism save No not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ As if the Apostle said He that by Faith hath sucked in the Virtue of Christ's Resurrection and can by that Faith plead it before God is a saved Man If all the World perish in the Deluge of God's Wrath this Man is in the Ark and nothing shall hurt him But alas Christ's Resurrection is looked upon by many Professors as a part of Gospel-History and Truth that it is a shame for any to be ignorant or doubt of and therefore they profess the Faith of it but they consider not that a great part of the Food of our Souls and of our Faith doth lye in this point of Truth This I would shew in three things 1. Christ's Resurrection was a Demonstration of the Divine Dignity of his Person Rom. 1.4 He was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of Holiness by the Resurrection from the dead The glorious Rays of his God-head did appear in his Word and Works and some had eyes to behold his Glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth even when he dwelt amongst Men. John 1.14 But his Glory was under an Eclipse till his Resurrection How stately and how sweetly doth he himself express it Rev. 1.17,18 I am the first and the last high Names of
have of misery is this that it stands in a deprivation of good and the greater that deprivation be and the more good things a Man is deprived and destitute of the more miserable we count the person to be He is a miserable Man that is blind because the light of the World is so pleasant and useful and the Eye simply needful to behold and use it It is a great addition to this Man's misery if he be dumb also because the Tongue is a Man's Glory and the Organ of expressing our Thoughts and of Communion with our own kind The misery is yet further heightned if a Man be also deaf for the Ear is the Door of Knowledge both of things Natural and Divine If you go to the inward Senses or Powers if a Man be deprived of those his misery is yet greater As it is a greater misery to be void of Understanding and Memory to be an Ideot an Innocent as we call them than it is to be deprived of any of the bodily Senses Now if one wanted all the Senses of the Body and Powers of the Soul if such a Creature should be called a Man would we not account this a most miserable Creature But if there be yet somewhat better than all these surely then he that is altogether void of that must be more miserable still That there is somewhat better than all these good Gifts of Body and Mind and that every Man by nature is without it is most manifest in the Word To be without God without Christ without Hope Eph. 2.12 is more and worse than to be without any or all outward good things This destitute State is expressed by our Lord Rev. 3.17 Because thou sayest I am rich and encreased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked What a great difference is there betwixt Christ's and their opinion of their State And must not Christ's be right and true and theirs false if it contradict his Were they any thing the less miserable were they not rather much more so that they so mis-judged Our Lord aggravates both their sin and misery from their ignorance because thou knowest not Spiritual Blessings are of that nature that all are miserable indeed that are without them but no Man is sensibly miserable till he seeth that he is without them It is the knowledge of this Want that brings in the sense of misery As every unpardoned Sinner is a miserable man but he never counts himself miserable till he feel the weight of Sin and see the want of Pardon 2. Every natural Man is needy of God's Mercy because he is a condemned Man A condemned Man is a dead Man in Law As there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 so there is nothing but condemnation to all that are not in him John 3.18,36 He that believeth not is condemned already and the wrath of God abideth on him You may have seen and heard how Malefactors will cry for Mercy from the Judge when he cannot and ought not to pity them so as to spare them When they are bid hold up their hand at the Bar to receave their Doom how earnestly on their Knees with Tears they will cry Mercy my Lord mercy for God's sake Every natural man is condemned But how few of their Consciences can witness for them that they ever sought God's Mercy so as convict Criminals an earthly Judge's Mercy The Mercy they beg is small in regard of what Sinners stand in need of from God An earthly Judge may reprieve or pardon to day and the pardoned Man may die to morrow But if the great Judge condemn you and you are not pardoned you are sentenced to a never-dying misery Prisoners beg Mercy of a Man who may be is bound up by Law and Conscience of his Oath to shew none but to execute Justice Here the Case is just contrary the Lord bids Men beg his Mercy and condemns them only that despise it We have his Command and Promise and many acts of Pardon for our encouragement What pleading for Pardon would there be at earthly Bars if they had the Judge's Command to ask his Promise to grant it and his Hand and Seal to that Promise Such is our Case yet few beg it in good earnest Be ashamed and convinced of your sin when you see Men begging a frail short life of a Judge and say Alas I never begg'd the mercy of eternal Life so earnestly at the Throne of Grace as these Wretches do a frail short uncertain life 3. The natural Man hath all the Creation against him and therefore is needy of God's mercy The whole Creation groans under him he is a burden to God's Earth a plague to the Creations Rom. 8.20,21,22 What a noise do Men make and what pains do they take to heap up Dust If God prosper their endeavours they think he blesseth them and count themselves happy in their Enjoyment But what is all this for to a natural unrenewed Man All these Creature-comforts will but be as so many Witnesses against them in the day of the Lord. Jam. 5.1,4 Men seek the Creatures to satisfie their carnal desires and supply their outward Wants but they do not remember that unless the special saving Mercy of God come along with them the Creatures are abused and in their way witness and groan to God against them They groan to be put in God's room in Men's Hearts and to be made Fewel for Mens Lusts They all wait but for God's call to execute Vengeance on his Enemies Is not such a man needy of God's mercy that hath the whole Creation of God at War with him 4. But there is worse than all these The man himself and all he is hath and doth is under the Curse of God Gal. 3.10 What is the Curse It is the malediction of God on a man It is God's devoting him to ruin He is cursed in his Body cursed in his Soul cursed in his Family cursed in his Trade and Estate cursed in his Crosses cursed in his Mercies cursed in his Life and cursed in his Death cursed in Time and cursed to Eternity Ah how long and broad is this Curse Zech. 5.2,3,4 O what need is there of God's mercy for it is this mercy only that can take away the Curse There is no evil we are in danger of from an angry God but must be removed or prevented by the opposite Good from a reconciled God If God's Anger be our Plague nothing can remove it but his Love If his Curse be our Burden only his Blessing can take it away The whole Creation cannot make up the loss of God's Favour And this they know well that ever saw the Face of an angry God So much of the necessity of God's Mercy from the present misery of natural men 2. I might proceed to speak of that which is coming on them without the intervening
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
Peace and Acceptance only in that blessed Beloved beloved of the Father both as his Son and our Saviour and beloved of all that ever saw but a little of his saving Face and Glory Let such go and prosper the Lord is with you the Lord is before you He will welcome the Mediator in his bringing you to him 1 Pet. 3.18 and welcome you with Salvation who come in his Name for it The Prodigals Welcome Luke 15. is but a Shadow of what ye shall meet with Christ welcomes dearly all that come to him And the Father welcomes the Believer that cometh in Christ's Name and is brought in Christ's Hand to this Throne SERMON VI. 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 FROM this Text I have already spoken to three of the things I did take up in it 1. Unto the Throne of Grace it self that is erected for and revealed to Sinners in the Gospel That new Court of Grace which the Lord invites the fallen Seed of Adam to come unto 2. I have spoke to that Boldness that is allowed and commanded in coming to it We are not only allowed to come but we must come or perish and bring the guilt of our own Souls Blood upon our Heads by refusing Acts 18.6 We not only may come and try but we may and must come boldly and confidently expecting to speed in coming 3. I have spoke to the great Ground of this Confidence couched in the Word therefore in the Text and relating to ver 14 15. Were it not for Christ's Place and Business and Heart in Heaven no Man on Earth could have boldness at the Throne of Grace The fourth and last thing in the Verse is the end we should come for and the great Blessings we may receave by coming expressed in two Words That we may obtain mercy and find Grace to help in time of need God's Mercy and Grace are the most comprizing comprehensive Blessings and these Expressions of them contain all that is needful for our Happiness Nothing can be added to them No Blessing but is in them no Blessing is without them It is the common Apostolick Prayer and such Prayers made by the Pen-men of the Holy Scripture under the immediate guidance of the Holy Ghost are equivalent to Divine Promises yea are such Grace be to you sometimes Grace Mercy and Peace be to you So that these Words as they stand in the Text do equally answer those two Inquiries 1. What good things shall we get at the throne of grace The Spirit of God answers You may and shall obtain Mercy and find Grace to help in time of need And are not these well worth coming for Are they any where else to be had And here they may surely be found How should this endear the Throne of Grace to us and engage to coming to it 2. Wherefore should we come with what design What end should be in our Eye Come saith the Spirit by the Apostle's Pen that ye may obtain the one and find the other Come that ye may get both Design this getting in your coming I would first speak of our coming that we may obtain Mercy and on it discourse of these three things 1. Of the Mercy that is to be got at the throne of grace 2. Of the import of the Phrase Obtaining of Mercy 3. Of the Duty required of coming with this Design that we may obtain this Mercy 1. Of the Mercy that is to be obtained at the Throne of Grace You see it is only Mercy that is named without any mention made whose Mercy it is or of what sort it is But when miserable Sinners are invited to come to God's Throne of Grace for Mercy it may be easily known whose it is and what it is It is God's Mercy in Jesus Christ who is the Mercy-seat or Throne of Grace it is uot Angel-mercy or Creature-mercy but God's Mercy And who can tell what a great and vast thing his Mercy is Mercy in the proper Notion of it is a kind relieving Compassion to the miserable The Object of Mercy is a miserable creature Divine Goodness shines in giving Being to Nothing and in creating all things Wisdom in ordering them and guiding them to his Glory Justice in disposing of them according to his Will the essential Rule of Righteousness But Mercy hath no fit Object till Misery appear for Mercy to act on The Shower of Mercy is a compassionate Person its Nature and End is to relieve the miserable Mercy with God is another sort of Mercy than what is required of and can be practised by Creatures We may and should have compassion on the miserable whom we are not able nor allowed to relieve The Judge that condemns the Criminal should do it with Mercy and Compassion but he breaks the Law if he suffer his Mercy to delay or divert a Righteous Sentence and Execution But the Lord's Mercy is not only Tenderness and Compassion in his own Heart so we borrow Words by the pattern of sound Words in the Scripture to speak of God after the manner of Men but it is always relieving to the Person on whom it is bestowed Let the misery be never so great and of what kind soever it be whoever they be that are the Objects of his Mercy they are certainly relieved thereby There is no Redemption out of the Pit though their Misery that are there is the greatest Why because there is no Mercy for them If it were possible that God's Mercy in Christ could enter into Hell it self as it falls on many very near to it that Mercy would bring them out But the Door of Mercy is quite shut upon them and the Lord hath resolved and declared that his Mercy shall never visit them That we may the better understand what this Mercy of God is the getting whereof we should make our great Errand to the Throne of Grace it will be needful to consider that misery in men that renders them needy of this mercy And this I would consider as it actually lies on them and is incumbent or as it is coming on them and imminent 1. The misery that all natural Men lye under It 's true they do not see it nor feel it but this makes not their misery the less but the greater For insensibleness of misery especially where it is removeable and when this insensibleness is a hinderance of using the right means of removing it is a great plague and an aggravation of the misery I shall give you a few Scripture-accounts of this misery 1. The misery of a natural Man and of all natural Men is that they are utterly destitute of all true good In me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing Rom. 7.18 Must it not be so much more with them that are Flesh and in the Flesh and have nothing in them but Flesh The first notion we