offend I will not eat a bit of flesh as long as the world lasts Beloved we use to say when we are averse to a thing Before I will doe such a thing I will never eat bit of bread such a kinde of zeale and such a kinde of expression may you imagin St Pauls to have been in his resolution of not sinning against Christ and yet how many are there that make no bones of this but let them take heed that God make not their bones and their hearts into the bargain ake for it Sure I am the new converts in the second of the Acts were pricked to the very heart at this very consideration see the place Acts 2.37 You may observe St Peter ver 14. beginning to preach his first Sermon after the ascension his first work is to take off a mistake a misapprehension from the people touching themselves These men are not drunken as ye suppose At ver 22. his Sermon begins to pinch close for he speakes plainely Ye men of Israel heare these words Jesus of Nazareth a man approved of God among you by miracles wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you as ye your selves know Ver. 23. Him being delivered by the determinate counsell and foreknowledge of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slaine He followes this argument close all along heightning the sinne by the consideration of Gods exalting of Christ and in ver 36. he puts Gods goodnesse to Christ and their wickednesse against Christ both together and with this as with a great and irresistible hammer God pricks their hearts in Peters Ministry yea he breaks them all to pieces for see ver 37. Now when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said unto Peter and to the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we doe When they heard this that the same Jesus whom they had crucified was exalted by God to be Lord and Christ when they heard this and that they had thus sinned against their Lord their Christ their King this oh this pricked them to the quick this shivered them all to pieces this divided betwixt the joynts and marrow it broke downe all opposition Men and brethren what shall we doe such wretches such vile creatures as we are never were in the world What! is that Jesus that we have crucified is he our Christ our Lord have we thus wronged him thus dealt with him Woe umo us that we have sinned Thus you see how farre this consideration strikes terror here it did strike terror into their hearts may it not strike terrour into yours for know assuredly that that same Jesus the motions of whose spirit or of Gods Spirit you have stood out against I suppose you look upon it as all one for he and the Father are one is that very Jesus whom God hath exalted-heretofore yea and will exalt him again and he will make him actually both Lord and King in all the souls of his people and over all the world and this is he whom ye sinne against whom in a spirituall sense ye crucifie againe as it were even the Lord of glory nay let me go further with you and drive you up closer I must tell you that whilest ye rebell against the workings of the Spirit of God ye do at once sinne against Father Sonne and holy Ghost all at one stroake as I may say A time bath been and that in my dayes when a mans naming the sinne against the holy Ghost in the Pulpit would have made many a heart to tremble I am sure it made mine tremble when I was a boy and minded nothing but pastime and pleasure but though I tell you and I shall make it appear that in resisting the motions of Gods Spirit ye have sinned against Father Sonne and holy Ghost and that your actions especially in some have entrenched and bordered much upon the chanell of such actions as do leade directly to the grand sinne the unpardonable sinne even the sinne against the holy Ghost which you know Christ saith shall never be pardoned in this world nor in the world to come yet who trembles whose heart quakes nay do we not mock at fear and have not some sucked in such principles that doe utterly overturne all shaking all trembling either at the apprehension of their sinnes or of Gods judgements due to them for their sinne My friends for as yet I am no mans declared enemy in the world do not I tell you the truth Do not your hearts and consciences bear me witnesse and witnesse for me If so though you are so hardened that ye cannot cry out What shall we do Yet God hath so softned my heart towards you that I cannot but ask What ye will do Will ye go on I trust in God your hearts will not let you say We will go on and we will do what seemeth good in our own eyes and as for these words which thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord we will not hear thee No will ye not Are ye resolved thus if you are I will break your resolutions if I can and rather then suffer you to runne on thus headlong into your destruction I will kindle a fire in your very bones I will vex your very souls and bring you with David to cry out as he Psa 6. My bones are vexed O Lord yea my soul is vexed but thou O Lord how long Consider then in the fear of God what I assert what I insist upon viz. That he that sinnes against the strivings of Gods good Spirit sinnes against Father Sonne and holy Ghost That he sins against the Father is evident 1. From those words which Christ useth Joh. 15.23 24. He that hateth me hateth my Father also If I had not done among them the works which none other man did they had not had sinne but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father also Would you have a clearer Text He that hates the Son hates the Father by the same argument He that sins against the Sonne sins against the Father and indeed he and the Father are one or else Union with Christ would not be enough to make Christs poor ones one with the Father but that this is sufficient you may most remarkably see from that heavenly piece of Scripture Joh. 14. from v. 7. to the middle of the 11. verse If saith Christ ye had known me ye should have known my Father also and from henceforth ye know him and have seen him The Disciples stumbled at this but Philip particularly saith to him Lord shew us the Father and it sufficeth us Christ seems to stumble at them as much as they at him for he speaks to Philip as in their stead Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known me Philip He that hath seen me hath seen the Father and how saist thou then Shew us the Father Would ye
have things clearer yet viz. that Union with Christ is sufficient to make up Union with the Father and consequently he that sinnes against Christ must needs sinne against the Father Would you I say have it clearer then go on to the 10th verse Beleevest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me The words that I speak unto you I speak not of my self as if he should say The Father speaks them as well as I nay The Father that dwelleth in me he doth the works too and then he proceeds Beleeve me Philip that I am in the Father and the Father in me Plainet words then these surely cannot be used to assert the Point in hand That sins against Christ are sins against the Father My next work must be to prove that they are sins against the holy Ghost likewise and then I have done in point of proof To evidence this clearly and plainly I suppose we take it for granted that the holy Ghost and the holy Spirit are all one that being granted me as a Suppositum not so much as disputed by your selves Let me put you in minde of some Texts of Scripture wherein the same actions being spoken of you shall finde are in one place implied or expressed plainly to be sins against God by which I understand to be meant the Father in another place they are termed sins against Christ by which name we understand the Sonne and in a third place sins against Gods holy Spirit by which 't is already supposed we mean and understand the holy Ghost These Scriptures being produced and asserting the thing in hand I suppose I have gained the Cause Compare then these three Scriptures together Numb 21.5 1 Cor. 10.9 Isa 63.10 Let us look first upon Num. 21.5 The people of Israel it should seem were in great affliction they wanted bread and water and their soul lothed the Manna they call it this light bread Being in this distresse and affliction it is said expresly They spake against God and against Moses saying Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Aegypt to die in the Wildernesse for there is no bread neither is there any water and our soul loatheth this light bread here you see plainly the Israclites sinne of murmuring under this affliction is said expresly to be against God They murmured against God and against Moses by which word God I hope you will give me leave to understand the Father and never trouble your selves with much scruple or dissatisfaction in the businesse Let us now go to the next Scripture which ye shall finde 1 Cor. 10.9 Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroied of Serpents The Question will be how it appears that the same sin is spoken of in both places To make this sure I must turn you back to Numb 21.6 again which tels us that God for their sin of murmuring immediatly before sent fiery Serpents among the people and they died Now reade the verse I have quoted out of the Corinthians Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroied of Serpents Do you desire I should argue now Is it not plain that that which was called murmuring against God in the Book of Numbers is called tempting of Christ in the Epistle to the Corinthians For what did the Lord send fiery Serpents among the people for murmuring against God For what were they destroied of Serpents for tempting of Christ These then were both one unlesse you understand any other destruction of Serpents to be intended by St Paul then this which was by the biting of the fiery Serpents mentioned in the Book of Numbers My proofs touching Father and Sonne I have done with My next labour must be touching the holy Spirit or holy Ghost as we call him For this view my third Text Isa 63.10 where the Prophet having in the verse before mentioned the gracious and generall loving kindenesse of the Lord toward his people in the daies of old sets down in the next words in the beginning of the 10th verse the general demeanour and carriage of the Israelites his people toward God And what was their carriage 'T was sad I confesse I fear ours is so too They rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit Their general posture of actions against God is termed here you see a rebelling and vexing his holy Spirit certainly if all their wicked actions come under this expression then this action likewise of murmuring against God or tempting of Christ being one of their actions must needs do so too And now I think I have gained my cause Having done with my proof let me now treat with you a little you that have sin'd so often against the motions of Gods Spirit and therein in some sense troden under foot the Son of God for Gods sake What do ye think of your selves have ye done well think ye thus at one blow as it were to strike Father Son and holy Ghost in the face Is this recompence for his mercies in sending Jesus Christ to shed his bloud for your sins a fair recompence to the Father Is it equal that such a Lex Talionis should be returned to the Son that we should thus grieve and vex the holy Spirit Certainly if there be any fear of God before out eyes the doing of these things cannot rightly please our hearts But because ye are so hardened in your wickednesse and rebellions against him who will either glorifie you if ye willingly submit to him or torment you for ever if still ye persist be ye under what Form or Administrations ye will For I love not to flatter you in your imaginary shadowâ— taken up of your own heads nor do I place godlinesse or wickednesse in externall Forms but rather in submitting or walking contrary to Christ Let me presse you a little eagerly to consider what ye are doing when ye are sinning against the motions workings and pleadings of Gods good Spirit striving within you as doubtlesse sometimes he doth or else things go very sadly with you Be as merry as ye will Shall I minde you in one word what ye do ye sinne against Father Sonne and holy Ghost all at once ye do in a sense as I told you tread under foot the bloud of Jesus Christ the Son of God for this treading things under foot what is it 't is an expression whereby we signifie our scorning and lothing of a thing as when we say If I could I would tread thee under my foot My Brethren my brethren what do ye lesse when ye do so resist the motions of Gods good Spirit that ye cannot endure to hear him speak to you Nay how many are there who when the Spirit of God would pleade with them and reason them into godlinesse or into the omission of this or that or the other particular sin as of whoredom jeering at good things drunkennesse covetousness or the like presently they take the first
be a strange thing for us to patterne such a patience yet 't is not a strange thing for Christ to set us such a copy this is the Lords doing and 't is marvellous in our eyes that he is so good so gracious so patient so that we must needs looke a little upon this word Behold in this sense of wonder and truely wonderfull it is if either you consider 1. Who it is that declares himselfe 't is I saith Christ 2. What he declares himselfe to doe he stands Non dicit venio sed sto saith an honest Expositor He doth not say I come and I sit but I stand 3. But where stands he looke and wonder I beseech you he stands at the doore Cur non aperit saith Mr. Brightman Why doth he not open the doores nay Cur non effringat fores Why doth he not breake open doores say I he can if he will but he doth not but there he stands But is the doore open no the more wicked they we all 't is shut yet he will not be gone for my Text saith he seeks for entrance fairely he knocks He knocks saith my â—ext but if you looke into the following words in this very same verse you shall finde he calls too for 't is said If any man heare my voice and open the doore c. Surely a voice a call could not be heard nor supposed to be heard unlesse there were a call unlesse there were a voice both then must be yeelded he knockt he calld he did so to them it may be he doth so to us Let me onely put you in minde before I come to closer examination that it may be we shall finde this true that pulsando vocat vocando pulsat imo demum effringit fores that by knocking he calls and by calling he knocks nay at length breakes open the doores You know what Christ saith to this purpose if we rightly understand it The houre is come and now is when the dead shall heare the voice of the Sonne of man and those that heare shall live The first point of Admiration lyes in the Consideration of the party who declares himselfe 't is I Behold I stand at the doore and knock I Who is that ver 14. tells us Ver. 14. These things saith the Amen the saithfull and true witnesse the beginning of the creation of God He is called the Amen in the Greeke 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ille Amen that Amen and who is that Amen the next words tell us 't is the faithfull and true witnesse And who is this fairhfull and true witnesse let the Scripture tell you plainly Rev. 1.6 Grace be unto you and peace from him who is and was and is to come and from the seven spirits whih are before his throne and from Jesus Christ who is the faithfull witnesse described after to be him that loved us and hath washed us from our sinnes by his owne bloud Anselme hath a very usefull note upon this very word quia dicturus erat scilicet Christus rem mirabilem quod tepidi excommunicandi de ore suo projiciendi essent qui ab hominibus boni credebantur subaudi nec tamen essent ideo promittit se veracem esse ut in his fibi credendum esse videatur ideo dicitur ille Amen or to this purpose and very neere these words Because saith he Jesus Christ was to speake of a wonderfull thing viz. that lukewarme persons were to be excommunicated by Christ and that these were to spued out of his mouth who were of men beleeved to be good and yet were not so he premiseth therefore that he is a teller of truth and that in these things it might appear that he ought to be beleeved therefore he cals himself the Amen or that Amen as much as to say My words shall be found to be true I warrant you Heaven and Earth shall passe away but one jot of my words shall not passe away When therefore you hear Jesus Christ by his Spirit in his Servants and Ministers threatning to spue you out of his mouth for your lukewarmnesse for do not your consciences tell you to your faces that you are neither hot nor cold nay are many of you of any Religion at all do not think that when your consciences are told of these things Christ dallies with you or that he will suffer himself to be dallied with for ever or that it is nothing to be spued out of Christs mouth or to take his Candlestick from you in case you think you have it Beleeve it eleeve it Gentlemen If Christ finde you in such a condition and course of sinfulnesse as to do this to you Evemere ex ere to spue you out of his mouth I must be bold to tell you that it were better for you that you had never been born or that so soon as you had been born you had every one of you a milstone tied about his neck and that you had been cast into the midst of the Sea You will finde these things true at the length for he that testifies these things which I have spoken of is the Amenille Amen that Amen not only in whom omnes promissiones as one observeth upon the place All the Promises are yea and Amen but from whom you will finde likewise Omnes comminationes all the threatnings of Christ will be yea and Amen to those that are out of him to those that have no part nor portion in him or whom he shall spue out of his mouth You see then who it is that stood at the doors in my Text 't is Christ and truly this consideration might be improved a little the better to fix upon our affections if we remember 1. The greatnesse and Majesty of Christ 2. That he is the party offended 3. The great concernment of souls that Jesus Christ is pleased to stand at the doore of any of us 1. If we consider the greatnesse and majesty of Christ In that place of the Psalmes which I quoted to you before he is termed the King of glory In the Vision which was presented to St John Rev 1. you finde amongst many other majesticall expressions that he is described having eyes as a flaming fite his feet were said to be like fine brasse as if they burned in a furnace in his right hand he is said to have the seven Stars the Churches implying he could protect them or do with them what he would he could throw them away if he pleased Out of his mouth it is said there went a sharp two edged Sword that could cut as fast as it spoke nay Heb. 4.12 Christ who is there called the Word of God is said to be quick and powerfull and sharper then any two-edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughter and intents of the hearts My Masters do you think to deceive him you
will deceive your own souls if you think so but to come to St Johns Vision again His Countenance is said to be as the Sun shineth in his strength In a word his Majesty was so great so amazing and so full of astonishment that when St John saw him he fell at his feet as dead His friend his servant fell down dead at the sight of his Majesty what shall his enemies do If the green tree be thus shaken how shall the dry tree stand when Jesus Christ shall appear in his glorious and terrible Majesty to judge the world in righteousnesse If the righteous if a Saint be thus terrified What shall lukewarm Hypocrites and ungodly sinners do when he cometh with clouds as v. 7. tels you he will If we go on with that verse we shall fee what they will do Behold he cometh with clouds and what then Then every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him as you do spiritually when you desperately stand out against his workings of loving kindenesse unto your souls even ye which shut him out of doors shall see him or feel him some way or other to your shame to your sorrow for it is said in the next words and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him All ye then that are the kindreds of the earth whose hearts are set upon earth and earthly things for as for the godly they are more properly the kindreds of heaven for a like reason in the contrary See what will come on you if you go on in your rebellions against the Lord Christ and his Kingdom that is now coming towards you you will not sea him you will not take notice of him now but when he cometh with clouds shall ye not see him then how can ye avoid him Ye shall not then only see him or feel him or both but ye shall waile because of him nay and your wailing shall be for ever To conclude this If ye refuse his mercies now if whilest he stands at your doors and knocks ye will bid him be gone and shall say to him as those desperate wicked ones in Job Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy waies What is the Almighty that we should serve him and what profit should we have if we pray unto him If we serve him thus or not serve him at all or bid him be gone as I said Christ will pay us with a Lex talionis he will have a Be gone for us as broad and as long as ours to him Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his Angels nay your own personal miseries and Judgements will not be all God will lay up your iniquities for your Children be will reward you and ye shall know it Job 21.19 he will reward you nay he will reward your children your sweet babes do not your bowels earn at this for your wickednesse What else can the meaning of that threarning be He will visit the iniquities of the Fathers upon the Children I have done with the first Consideration which makes it wonderful that Christ should thus stand and knock The second thing in him which improves the wonder is this that he is the party offended My Brethren my Brethren we have wounded him by our transgressions we have broken him by our sins and yet he is so willing to be friends he longs so much to be reconciled to be at one with us that he stands at our doors and knocks cals cries and he seeks entrance and reconciliation though he be the party offended What a Christ is this what sinners are we and yet it may be we think we do not sin against Christ at all but doubtlesse we do when we sinne against the motions of Gods Spirit pressing the riches of Gods goodnesse upon us and striving by it to leade us to repentance do we not sin against Christ indeed some of us know we doe but should we do so still Shall we sin against him offend him for ever What so good a Christ so ill entreated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God forbid my Brethren saith St James in another case These things ought not so to be 3. There is yet one Consideration more which raiseth the wonder and that is the concernment of this rich mercy if Jesus Christ will be pleased to stand at the doores of our souls and knock My Friends do ye rightly consider what Christ is doing when he is knocking at your doors I doubt ye do not But I will tell you he is striving to make us Kings and Priests and Prophets to our God that with him we may reign for evermore he is striving to come in that he may shew us that the Father hath forgiven us our sins he is striving to come in that he may reign over our corruptions and subdue our sins to us that he may tread Satan under our feet shortly and are these concernments of no value with us Beleeve it beleeve it the Lord Jesus Christ it may be will never knock at your doores if you make no estimation of these things but if you prize these things he will knock he will call yea he will wait to be gracious dut I beseech you put him not to wait too long especially when he comes to you in the night I mean in the night of your soul afflictions Alas when he comes then remember his head is full of dew and his locks are filled with the drops of the night What shall we keep him out in the cold far be it you see how it concerns you to open and make him welcome Open Open ye poor souls let him come in he will do you no harm yea he will do you all good and he will ease you of that burthen that troubles you most that is your sins why else doth he call you so eagerly so affectionately Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you Will Christ say it and will he not do it What will not the Amen say Amen to his own promises ye wrong him yea ye do him one of the worst of injuries to think it to beleeve it I have done with these 3 Considerations that render it wonderful that Christ should stand at any mans doors and knock but I have not yet wholly done with his transaction of knocking I have a little application behinde and if I on the behalf of Jesus Christ can make any knocking work upon your souls I shall blesse my God that ever I was born that have long been afraid that Christ had knockt me off for ever because being a Minister I have been so long silent and held my peace but God hath heard my praiers and he hath had mercy on me even because he had a favour unto me And now I hope I shall speak God willing and God I hope will help me to speak to his glory and the good of your souls From the Person then declaring