Thus Justin Martyr complains, that Christians were every where condemned bia rr^M (pruirtv, by common fame ; and upon this account Christ pronounces a woe upon the world because of offences. Mat. xviii. 7. Alas ! it will be the ruin of thousands ; some have sucked in such prejudicate opinions and vile notions of religion, and its professors, as make them irreconcileable enemies to it. Satan hath dressed it up in their fancies in such an odious form and represen- tation, that make them lothe both name and thing. These pre- judices are drawn from various things ; sometimes from the neces- sary duties of Christianity, which are laid as crimes upon the people of God ; when I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that " was to my reproach," Psal. Ixix. 10. Sometimes the groundless and malicious slanders and inventions of the enemies of Christianity are the occasions of real prejudices to the world ; " Come, let us " devise devices against Jeremiah, and let us smite him with the ** tongue," Jer. xviii. 18. Sometimes the innocent and seriou?
professDrs of godliness are censured and condemned for hypocritical professors sakes, wlio never heartily espoused religion. And lastly^ The ways of holiness suffer for the slips and infirmities of weak Christians, who commonly give too many occasions to disgust the world against the ways of God.
By these things multitudes are kept off from attendance upon the means of grace, and multitudes more have their hearts shut up from receiving any saving benefit under them.
These are the common bars and locks by which the strong mart armed secures his possession in the souls of sinners ; and these bar^ are too strong for any power beneath the Almighty Power and anii of God to remove or break. It is said, that the Lord opened a door of faith to the Gentiles^ Acts xiv. 27. The arm of the Lord must be revealed, or none will open to Christ by faith, Isa. liii. 1.
1. The iron bar of the law, that thundering terrible law, cannot force open the heart of an unbeliever ; all the dreadful curses fly- ing out of its fiery mouth, make no more impression than a tennis- ball against a wall of marble. You read of them that hear the words of this curse, yet bless themselves in their heart, saying. They shall have peace, though they walk in the imaginations of their hearts, to add drunkenness to thirst, Deut. xxix. 18.
They play with hell and eternal torments, rush into iniquity as the horse rusheth into the battle, act as men in love with their own death, as those that are at an agreement with hell. 0 the besotting^ hardening, infatuating power of sin !
2. The golden key of free grace cannot, in itself, remove these bars, and open men's hearts to Christ ; " We have piped unto you, " but you have not danced,'' Matth. xi. 17. The m.elodious and dehcious airs of giace, mercy, peace, and pardon, affect not the dead hearts of unbelievers : like deaf adders they stop their ears at the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely. These gospel- melodies only dispose them to a more quiet sleep in sin.
3. No works of providence are, in themselves, sufficient to open the hearts of men to Christ. (1.) The judgments of God cannot do it ; thousands have been sick with smiting, that j^et cannot be made sick for sin. " I have consumed them, but they refused to '• receive correction ; they have made tlieir faces harder than a " rock, they have refused to return," Jer. v. 3. Messengers of judgment are abroad, smiting some in their estates, scattering in one day the labour of many years ; and therein giving a warning- blow at the conscience to make sure of Christ, and the world to Gome, since their comfort and happiness is scattered in this world. Some are smitten in their dearest relations ; death knocks at their doors, and carries out the delight of their eyes, and with the same
admonisheth their souls to place their happiness in more dural)]e comforts i some are smitten in their bodies with diseases, giving warning of the near approach of their latter end, and bidding them prepare for another habitation ; but all in vain. (^.) No mercies o^ Goa are in themselves sufficient to open the obstinate hearts of sinners to Christ. God hath heaped up mercies by multitudes ujx)ii many of you ; all these mercies of God lead you to repentance, Rom. ii. 4, 5. They take you in a friendly way by the hand, and thus walk with you : Ah sinner ! how canst thou grieve and dishonour that God tiiat thus feedeth, clotheth, and comforteth thee on every side ? Do you thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise ? Yet all will not do, neither judgments nor mercies can fright or al- lure the carnal heart to Jesus Christ It is his Spirit, his Almighty Power alone, that opens these everlasting gates, and makes thes» strong bars give way and fly at his voice.
Infer. 1. Behold here the dismal state of nature^ the woful com^ dition of' all unregenerate souls ; Christ the Redeemer shut out, sin and Satan shut im This is the horrid state of nature shut up in unbelief, Rom. iv. 32. Ah Lord, what a condition is this ! we should certainly account it an unspeakable misery to be shut into a house haunted by the devil, where we should be continually scared and frighted with dreadful noises and apparitions ; but alas, what is an apparition of the devii without us, to the inhabitation of the devil within us ? Nay, what is the possession of a body, to Satan's pos^ session of the soul t Yet this is the very case of the unregenerate, Luke xi. 21. The strong man armed keepeth the palace, till Christ dispossesses him by sovereign victorious grace. Poor wretch, canst thou start at a supposed vision of a spirit, and not tremble to think that thy soul is the habitation of devils ? There is a twofold misery lying upon all christless, unregenerated persons; Satan is,
1. Their rider in this world.
2. Their tormentor in that to come.
1. He is their ruler in this world, the spirit that now worketh in the childi'en of disobedience, Eph. ii. 3. Look as the holy Spirit of God dwells and rules in sanctified souls, walks in them as in lial- lowed temples, guiding and comforting the souls of the saints ; so Satan dwells in unregenerate hearts, actuating their lusts, inflaming them with his temptations, using their faculties and members as in- struments of unrighteousness. And then,
2. He will be their tormentor in the world to come : He that icynpts now, will torment then, Matth. xxv. 41. " Doj)art from me " ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his " angels.'' Flee therefore, and escape for your lives, sleep not quietly another night in so dismal and dreadful an estate. " If the *;* Son make you free, tlien are you free indeed.''
Infer. 2. JVJmt a glorious and admirable effect of sovereign, om-^ nipotent grace is the effectual conversion of a sinner unto God !