to-morrow will be as to-day, and fo Satan gets part by part, what he had not confidence to demand in the whole lump. Most that perish underthegofpel had convictions upon their confciences, and vain purposes in their hearts; but not bringing them to a speedy execution, that was their undoing; James i. 24. "He beholdeth himself, and "goeth his way, and straightway forgets what manner of perfon he "was." It is an allufion to a man that looks in the morning into a glafs, where he difcerns a fpot upon his face, and refolves with himself anon to wash it off; but fome diverfion or other falls in, other matters take up his thoughts, and fo the spot remains all day, and he carries it to bed at night. O thefe delays are the undoing of millions! (5.) Delay not to close this treaty with Christ, because all delay increafes the difficulty; and the longer you neglect, the more will your hearts be hardened by the deceitfulness of fin, Heb. ii. 13. Continuance in fin, and quenching of convictions, do infenfibly harden the heart, and stiffen the will. Under the first convictions the heart is tender, the affections flowing: O if this advantage were apprehended and purfued, how foon might the work come to a comfortable conclufion! but after a while, thofe foul-affecting words, fin, Christ, heaven, hell, death, and eternity, will become words of a common found. (6.) And lastly, beware. of delays in this matter, because you can never expect a fitter and fairer opportunity and feafon for the dispatch of this great concernment, than, by the fpecial indulgence of heaven, you enjoy this day, 2 Cor. vi. 1, 2." Now is the accepted time, now is the day of fal❝vation." You have now the wind and tide with you; if you will not weigh anchor now, you may lie wind-bound to your dying day. What advantages can you reasonably expect, which God. hath not furnished you with at this day? You have the means of grace among you; you have liberty and freedom to attend on those means without fear. Say not, I have fuch or fuch troubles and encumbrances in the world; for you must never expect to be without them, except you, only, fhall find the world another thing than all others find it. Have you health? O what a precious feafon and advantage is that? art thou fick! O what a fpur is that! What is to be done must be done quickly.

III. Ufe, for Direction.

But it may be fome fouls will plead ignorance, that they know not how to manage and transact so great a concernment with Christ, and therefore set not about it; and it is very likely there may be much truth in that plea. For the help and affiftance of fuch fouls, I will gather up the fum of what hath been, and ought to be further spoken about this matter, in the following directions; fo that

nothing but your unwillingness and flothfulnefs fhall remain to hin

der you.

Direct. 1. If ever you bring the treaty betwixt Christ and your fouls to a happy iffue and conclufion, you must, as before was noted, fit down and count the cost, Luke xiv. 28. it will be vain elfe to engage yourselves in the profeffion of religion: it is not Chrift's defign to draw you under a rafh inconfiderate engagement, and fo to reap more difhonour by your apoftafy and hypocrify than ever he fhall have glory by your profeffion. No, he would have you foresee and ferioufly bethink yourselves of all the outward troubles and inconveniences you may afterwards meet with for his fake. You are to embark yourfeives with Chrift, and abide with him in ftorms as well as in halcyon days; you must follow the Lamb whitherfoever he goeth, Rev. xiv. 4. There is no retreating after engagement to Chrift: "If any man draw back, my foul fhall have no "pleasure in him," Heb. x. 38. It is eternal death by that martial law of heaven, to run from Chrift's colours in the day of battle. Well then, retire thyfelf into the innermoft closet of thy foul; fit quiet and patiently there, until thou haft debated this matter fully with thy own thoughts, and haft balanced the good and the evil, the profits and loffes of religion; for want of this the church is filled with hypocrites, and hell with inconfiderate and rash profeffors: the more we deliberate the better we fhall conclude.

Direct. 2. Having debated the matter over and over in thy most fedate and ferious thoughts, let not Satan difcourage thee from cafting thy foul at Chrift's feet with a hearty confent to all his terms, for want of fuch and fuch qualifications as thou canst not find in thine own foul. It is ufual for Satan to fuggeft at this time, the want of greater forrow and humiliation for fin; that the foul hath not lain long enough under the humbling work of the law; that the aggravations of its fins have been fuch, that there is no hope of acceptance. Free thy foul from thefe fnares of Satan, by the confideration of this unquestionable truth; that Chrift expects from thee no more humiliation than what produceth fuch a hearty deliberate confent as thy will is now to give; and fuch a confent once gained, no aggravation of fin is pleadable against the duty of believing.

Direct. 3. Diftruft not the fincerity of Chrift in thofe gracious offers he makes unto coming fouls. Be fatisfied, he speaks his very heart in them to thee; the devil labours to fow jealoufy and beget fufpicions in the hearts of poor convinced finners, that they will not find fuch a welcome entertainment with Chrift as he feems to promise them in thofe encouraging fcriptures, Mat. xi. 28, 29. John vi. 37. but that fomething elfe lies hid in thofe fcriptures, as a myfery which they understand not, and fo by flaking the af

fenting act, labours to hinder the accepting act of faith. This is a cafe as common as it is fad. The Lord help poor fouls to avoid this fnare, left inftead of honouring Chrift, by a refolved adherence to him, they make him a liar, and impute infincerity to the God of truth: For be that believeth not hath made him a liar.

Direct. 4. Look up to God for power to enable you to come to Chrift in this fupernatural and difficult work of faith. Don't think faith is of the growth of thine own heart;" "No man can come " unto me, (faith Chrift) except my Father which hath fent me, "draw him." There is a legal fpirit working under evangelical pretences in many fouls; they look within them to find that which is quite above them. The apoftle points you to the fountain of faith, in Eph. ii. 8. " It is not of yourfelves; it is the gift of "God." It is one of the greatest difficulties in the world to believe. For if the power of God muft be owned as the cause of every new degree of faith in the greatest believers in the world, as is plain, Luke xvii. 5. "The apoltles faid unto the Lord, increase "our faith;" how much more is the production of faith itself, and the first vital act thereof to be afcribed to the Almighty Power of God?

Direct. 5. Keeping thine eye of expectation upon that Almighty Power, pray and plead with the Lord affiduoufly and importunately for the exerting that power upon thy foul; and give not over thy fuit, until thou feel that power coming upon thee. The time of believing is a time of earnest pleading thine own danger and neceffity; and the Spirit of the Lord, improving them, will abundantly furnish thee with pleas and arguments to enforce this fuit. Such as thefe; (1.). Lord, I have thy call and invitation; yea, I have thy command to encourage me to believe; it is not prefumption, therefore, in thy poor creature, to come after thou haft invited and commanded me; hadft thou not encouraged me, I durft not have moved towards thee: Lord, whose word is it? 1 John iii. 23. is it not thine own? This makes my faith an act of obedience. (2.) Yea, Lord, I have thy promife, as well as thy command, made upon no other condition but my coming to thee. Bleffed Jefus, haft thou not faid, John vi. 37. " Him that cometh " unto me, I will in no wife caft out?" An invitation is much, but thy promife is more. (3.) O my God, I have not only thy command, making it my duty to believe, and thy promife to encourage me to that duty, but I have the examples of other finners that came unto thee long ago, and thou didst not reject them: nor do I abuse these examples in drawing encouragement from them; for it was thy very detign in recording them, that they might be fo many patterns to all that fhould hereafter believe on thee, 1 Tim. i. 16. (4.) O my God, I am fhut up under a plain necef

fity; I have no other way to take: thus ftands the cafe with me, I am beaten off from all other refuges; there is no help for me in angels nor in men, in duties or felf-righteoufnefs; in thee only my foul can find reft. I am fhut up to thee as to the only door of hope, Gal. iii. 23. here I must speed or perith; my foul is bur dened and wearied; I know not how to difpose of it, but into thy hands; nor where to lay the burden of my guilt, but upon thee: If I miss here, I am gone for ever. (5.) Lord, I am willing to renounce and abandon all other hopes, refuges, and righteousness, and to stick to and rely upon thee only. Duties cannot justify me, tears cannot wash me, reformation cannot fave me; nothing but thy righteoufnefs can answer my end; I come to thee a poor naked creature, faying as the church, Hof. xiv. 3. " Afhur shall "not fave us, &c. for in thee do the fatherlefs find mercy." Thus plead it with God, and ftill remember you are pleading for life, yea, for your eternal life.

Direct. 6. Labour to make a refolved adventure upon Chrift, amidst all those encouragements, let the iffùe be what it will; refolve to venture, tho' you have not the leaft degree of affurance that you fhall be accepted and pardoned. This is that brave and noble act of faith, which carries the foul to Christ: much as Efther came to the King, "Yet will I go into the king; and if I perish, « I perish," Efth. iv. 16. It pities me to think how the faith of the fervent love of Chrift alone fhould be enough to fave a finner, and make him juftified without any act of belief; but you fee faith is another matter. O there are great difficulties and mighty wrestlings in the work of believing; it is a great matter for a poor convinced finner, in the face of fo much guilt and vilenefs, and amidst fuch manifold damps and difcouragements from Satan, to caft and adventure himself upon Chrift, and that upon fuch selfdenying terms: but the pinch of neceffity will bring the foul to this, for now it reafons with itself as the Lepers did, 2 Kings vii. 4, 5. If we go to the camp of the Affyrians, we can but die; and if we abide here, we must certainly die: thus here, if I fit still in the ftate of nature, and ftill continue demurring and delaying, my damnation is unavoidable; to hell I must go; and if I caft myself upon Chrift, I can but be rejected. But he hath faid, He will not caft out thofe that come unto him: in this way of faith there is a poffibility of falvation, yea, there dawns from it a ftrong probability: this therefore is my only way; To him I will go, and if I perifb, I perish.

Direct, 7. Never measure the grace of God, nor the mercy of Christ, by the rule of your own narrow conception and apprehenfions of him; but believe them to be far greater than your contracted and narrow understanding reprefents them to you. Our cafting

of the pardoning power and mercy of God in the mould of our own thoughts, disfigures and alters them, fo that they look not like themselves, but with a very difcouraging afpect upon our fouls; by this, Satan keeps off many a foul from coming to Chrift: the Lord knows how to forgive thee, tho' thou scarce knoweft how to forgive thyself for the injuries thou haft done against him. That is a very confiderable Scripture to this purpose, in Ifa. lv. 7, 8, 9. "Let the wicked forfake his way, and the unrighteous man his "thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly "pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are 66 your ways my ways, faith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, fo are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Man lies under a double mifery, one by reason of affliction, another by reason of tranfgreffion; concerning both these, God's thoughts are not as ours, but far above what we can think: Either (1.) with fimple cogitation; i. e. we cannot think fuch thoughts to others, under mifery in themselves, or under tranfgreffion against us, as God doth towards us. Or (2.) by way of reflective comprehenfion; i. e. we cannot conceive what those thoughts of God are towards us, when we are under mifery or fin, just as he thinks them; ftill his thoughts will be above ours, as the heavens are above the earth. Such is the altitude of heaven above the earth, that the vaft body of the whole earth is but a fmall, inconfiderable point to it; the highest cedars, mountains, clouds, cannot reach it: God's thoughts are infinite, ours finite; his thoughts are continued, ours interrupted and at a stand; his are immutable, ours changeable; his are intuitive, ours difcurfive: therefore never measure his by your own; the thoughts of pardoning grace in him, are rich, plenteous and glorious; but when our unbelieving hearts have practised upon them, they are quite another thing. Thou fayeft, how can fuch a wretch as I obtain mercy? Thou knoweft not, but the Lord knoweth. O if we could take in fuch a proper idea and apprehenfion of the mercy and goodness of God, as he hath given of them himself, in Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7. this would bring you to Chrift with much encouragement.

Direct. 8. Be not difcouraged in the work of faith, though no peace or comfort should come in by the first act of it; nay, though there fhould be an increase of trouble for the present: the first saving act of faith certainly puts you into a state of peace, but it may not prefently produce the fenfe of peace; you may, after you have believed and really clofed with Chrift, meet with fome difcouragements which may make you question whether Chrift has received VOL. IV. No. 31.

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