1. God the Father hath put him into this office, for the cure of such as you be, Isa. xlix. 6. (i I will give thee for a light to the 6i Gentiles, that thou may est be my salvation to the end of the " earth." This may furnish you with an argument to plead for a cure. Why do you not go to God, and say, Lord, didst thou give Jesus Christ a commission to open the blind eyes ? Behold me, Lord, such a one am I, a poor, dark, ignorant soul. Didst thou give him to be thy salvation to the ends of the earth ? No place nor people excluded from the benefit of that right ; and shall I still remain in the shadow of death ? O that unto me he might be a saving light also ? The best and most excellent work that ever thou wroughtest, brings thee no glory till it comes into the light ! O let me see and admire it !
2. It is encouraging to think, that Jesus Christ hath actually opened the eyes of them that were as dark and ignorant as you are. He hath revealed those things to babes, that have been hid from the wise and prudent, Mat. xi. 25. f* The law of the Lord is perfect, " making wise the simple," Psal. xix. 7. And if you look among those whom Christ hath enlightened, you will not find <; many " wise after the flesh, many mighty or noble ; but the foolish, *c weak, base, and despised ; these are they on whom he hath u glorified the riches of his grace," 1 Cor. i. 26, 27.
3. And is it not yet farther encouraging to you that hitherto he hath mercifully continued you under the means of light f Why is not the light of the gospel put out ? Why are times and seasons of grace continued to you, if God have no farther design of good to your souls ? Be not therefore discouraged, but wait on the Lord in the use of means, that you may yet be healed.
Quest. If you ask, What can we do to put ourselves into the way of the Spirit, in order to such a cure ?
Sol. I say, though you cannot do any thing, that can make the gospel effectual, yet the Spirit of God can make those means you are capable of using effectual, if he please to concur with them. And it is a certain truth, that your inability to do what is above your power, doth no ways excuse you from doing what is within the compass of your power to do. I know no act that is saving, can be done without the concurrence of spiritual grace ; yea, and no act that hath a remote order and tendency thereto, without a
so he enlightens the medium ; and to open the eyes of the bind, so he heajs the organ ; he is the only oculist ; firming Heal Christian, p. 30.
£ERM. X. THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. 14-1
more general concourse of God's assistance : but herein he is not behind-hand with you. Let me therefore advise,
1. That you diligently attend upon an able, faithful, and search- ing ministry. Neglect no opportunity God affords you ; for how know you but that may be the time of mercy to your soul ? If he that lay so many years at the pool of Bethesda, had been wanting but that hour when the angel came down and troubled the waters, he had not been healed.
2. Satisfy not yourselves with hearing, but consider what you hear. Allow time to reflect upon what God hath spoken to you. What power is there in man more excellent, or more appropriate to the reasonable nature, than its reflective and self-considering power ? There is little hope of any good to be done upon your souls, till you begin to go alone, and become thinking men and women : Here all conversion begins. I know, a severer task can hardly be imposed upon a carnal heart. It is a hard thing to bring a man and lumself together upon this account : but this must be, if ever the Lord do your souls good. Psal. iv. 4. " Commune with your own hearts.1'
3. Labour to see, and ingenuously confess the insufficiency of all your other knowledge to do you good. What if you had never so much skill and knowledge in other mysteries ? What if you be never so well accquainted with the letter of the scripture ? What if you had an angelical illumination ? This can never save thy soul. No, all thy knowledge signifies nothing till the Lord shew thee by special light the deplorable sight of thy own heart, and a saving sight of Jesus Christ, thy only remedy.
hvf. 4. Since then there is a common light, and special saving light, which none but Christ can give, it is therefore the concern- vient, of every one of you to try what your light is. " We know, " (saitli the apostle, 1 Cor. viii. 1.) that we all have knowledge.'" O but what, and whence is it ? Is it the light of life springing from Jesus Christ, that bright and morning star, or only such as the de- vils and damned have ? These lights differ,
1. In their very hind and natures. The one is heavenly, super- natural, and spiritual ; the other earthly, and natural, the effect of a better constitution or education, James iii. 15, 17.
2. They differ most apparently in their effects and operations. The light that comes in a special way from Christ, is humbling, abasing, and soul-emptying light : by it a man sees the vileness of his own nature and practice, which begets self-loathing in him ; but natural light, on the contrary, puffs up, exalts, and makes the heart swell with self-conceitedness, 1 Cor. viii. 1.
The light of Christ is practical and operative, still urging the soul, yet lovingly constraining it to obedience, No sooner did it shine
142 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. SEEM. X*
into Paul's heart, but presently he asks, " Lord, what wilt thou " have me to do ?" Acts ix. 6. It brought forth fruit on the Co- lossians, from the first day it came to them, Col. i. 6 ; but the other spends itself in impractical notions, and is detained in un- righteousness, Rom. i. 18. The light of Christ is powerfully transformative of its subjects, changing the man, in whom it is, into the same image, from glory to glory, 2 Cor. iii. 18. But com- mon light leaves the heart as dead, as carnal and sensual, as if no light at all were in it.
In a word, All saving light endears Jesus Christ to the soul ; and as it could not value him before it saw him, so when once he appears to the soul in his own light, he is appreciated and endeared unspeakably : then none but Christ ; all is but dung, that he may win Christ : none in heaven but him, nor in earth desirable in comparison of him. But no such effect flows from natural com- mon knowledge.
3. They differ in their issues. Natural common knowledge vanisheth, as the apostle speaks, 1 Cor. xiii. 8. It is but a May- flower, and dies in its month. " Doth not their excellency that " is in them go away?* Job iv. 21. But this that springs from Christ is perfected, not destroyed by death : it springs up into everlasting life. The soul in which it is subjected, carries it away with it into glory. John xvii. 2. this light is life eternal. Now turn in, and compare yourselves with these rules : l'et not false light deceive you.