This inference breathes pure gospel ; it is a cordial to cheer the heart that is moving towards Christ with fear and trembhng. It is a great artifice of the devil to daunt and discourage poor convin- ced sinners, by telling them there is no hope of mercy for them ; that they shall find the arms of mercy closed, the bowels of com- passion shut up; that the time of mercy is now past, they come too late. O how busy is Satan with such suggestions as these in many of your souls ! Biit I am come to tell you this day, that these are but the artifices of the enemy, you are going to the fountain of mercy, patience, goodness, and long-suffering; go on, and jou shall find abundantly more than you expect. He will not cast off a soul that comes mourning and panting towards him, and is willing to subscribe the gospeLarticles of reconciliation : No, he will not shut out such a soul, whatever its rebellions and provocations have been. Sinner, thou art going to the meek and merciful Jesus, Matth. xi. 28. " Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy " laden, and I will give you rest ; take my yoke upon you, and " learn of me, » for I am meek and lowly."" You are going to meekness and. mercy itself; he is the Lamb of God, that is his name : Go on then, poor trembling sinner, do not stand any longer at, shall I, shall I ? with Christ ; but make a bold but necessary adventure of faith ; try him once, and then report what you find him to be : Certainly if he exercise such patience towards the vessels of wrath, whilst they are fitting to destruction, as he doth, Rom. ix. S2. he will not want patience for a vessel of mercy, preparing by humiliation and faith for Christ and glory. Doth he forbear those that stand in defiance, and will he fall upon those that are mourning to him upon the knee of submission ? Shall a damned wretch, that is preparing for hell, find so much forbearance, and a poor broken-hearted sinner none ? It cannot be. If Jesus Christ forbore thee when thy heart was hard as a rock, and could not yield one tear, one sigh for sin, will he execute his wrath upon thee, will he shew thee no mercy, when thy heart is broken all to pieces with sorrow, and filled with loathing and detestation against sin, and thyself for sin ? Did he forbear thee when sin was thy deliglit ? And will he destroy thee now it is thy burden .^ It cannot be.
Moreover, if the Lord Jesus had not a mind to shew mercy to thy poor soul, now that thine eyes are opened, and thine heart touched to the quick, why hath he forborne the execution of his wrath so long ? He might have taken his own time to cut you off when he would,^ he might have made any day the execution-day : But sure, among all the davs of thy life, the day of thy humilia- tion, the day of thy faith, is not like to prove that day.
Again, as great and vile sinners as thyself have adventured upon the grace of Christ, and found it infinitely beyond therr expecta-
tion. These the Lord Jesus hath set forth as encouraging exam- ples to all the broken-hearted sinners that are coming after ; that they, seeing ho\y it hath fared with their fore-runners to Christ, might be encouraged to come on with the more confidence, 1 Tim. i. 16. '^ But I obtained mercy, that in me first Christ might shew *' forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them that should here- *' after believe on him to life everlasting.'' Well then, shut your ears against all the whispers of Satan, entertain no evil reports of Christ ; the devil loves to draw a false picture of Christ, and repre-. sent him in the most discouraging form to poor trembling sinners ; but you mil not find him so. What can Christ say more to con- vince and satisfy souls than he hath done .'* He hath left the bosom of the Father, he hath taken union with thy nature, he hath pour* ed out his soul unto death ; he hath told us, " Those that come *' unto him, he will in no wise cast out," Thousands are gone be- fore us in the paths of repentance and faith, and found it according to his word : you have been spared all your hfe to this day of mer- cy. O do not stand off now upon such weak objections.
Infer, S. The long-suffering of Christ towards sinners instructeth and teacheth his ministers to imitate their Lord in a christlike pati^ ence and long-suffering. Christ is our pattern of patience ; if he wait, much more may we : We think it much to stand from sabbath to sabbath, wooing, pleading, and inviting, and are apt to be dis- couraged when we see no fruit follow. The want of success is apt to cast us under Jeremiah's temptation, " To speak no more in his " name ;" and to lament with Isaiah, " That we have laboured in <^ vain." It is a hard case to study, pray, and preach, and see all our labours return in vain. It is not so much the expending as the returning of our labours upon us in vain, that discourageth our hearts. Ministers would not die so fast, saith Mr. Lockier on Colos- sians, nor be grey-headed so soon, did they see the fruits of their la^ bours upon their people. But let us look to our pattern in the text, ^* Behold, I stand at the door and knock." If the master wait, let pot the servant be weary : ^* The servant of the Lord must not *' strive, but be patient toward all ; waiting, if at any time God ^' will give them repentance," 2 Tim, iv. 24.
Though the beginnings be small, our latter end may greatly in- crease : Though we now fish with angles, and take but now one, and then another, the time may come, and we hope it is at the door, wheji we shall spread our nets, and inclose multitudes. Aretius, a
})ious Divine, comforteth himself thus, under the unsuccessfulness of lis labours, Dabit posterior cetas tractabiliores fortasse animos, mi- tiora pectora quam nostra habent tempora. ' Perhaps, future days ' will afford more tractable spirits, and easier tempers of mind, than * our present times afford.' Reside, the fruit of our labours may spring
up to a blessed harvest when we are gone, Jolin iv. 37. One man sowetli, and another reapeth ; but if not, our reward will not be measured by the success, but the sincerity of our designs and la- bours. Our zeal for conversion of souls to Christ will be accepted, but our discouragement in his service will certainly displease him. If Israel be not gathered, yet shall we be glorious in the eyes of the Lord. However, let this be a caution to you that hear us, that you cast not our souls under such discouragements. If I may speak the sense of others from my own experience, then I can assure you that the fixedness of your hearts in the ways of sin, and your un- tractableness to the calls of God, are a greater burden and discou- ragement to us than all the sufferings we have met withal from the world ; yet are we contented to pray in hope, and preach in hope, encouraging ourselves (the Lord grant it be not without ground) that a crop shall yet spring up, which shall make the har- vest-men laugh.