when the time of love was come. Ah, it was not the tractab]eness of thine own will, the easy temper of thy heart to be wrought upon ; the Lord let thee stand long enough in the state of nature to discover that ; there was nothing in nature but obstinacy and enmity. Thou didst hear as many powerful sermons, melting prayers, and didst see as many awakening providences before thy heart was opened to Christ, as thou hast since : yet thy heart never opened till now ; and why did it open now ? Because now the Spirit of God joined himself to the word ; victorious grace went forth in the word to break the hardness, and conquer the rebellions of thy heart. The gospel was now preached (as the apostle speaks, 1 Pet. i. 12.) " with the holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which " things, (saith he) the angels desire to look into."" Ah friends, it is a glorious sight, worthy of angelical observation and admiratioi;, to behold the effects of the gospel preached, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven ; to see when the Spirit comes along with the word, the blind eyes of sinners opened, and they brought into a new world of ravishing objects ; to behold fountains of tears flow- ing for sin, out of hearts lately as hard as the rocks ; to see all the bars of ignorance, prejudice, custom, and unbelief, fly open at the voice of the gospel ; to see rebels against Christ laying down their arms at his feet, come upon the knee of submission, crying, " Lord, " I will rebel no more ;" to see the proud heart centered and wrapt up in its own righteousness, now stripping itself naked, loading itself with all shame and reproach, and made willing that its own shame should go to the Redeemer's glory. These, I say, are sights which angels desire to look into.
Certainly your hearts were more tender, and your wills more apt to yield and bend in the days of your youth, than they were now, when sin had so hardened them, and long continued-custom riveted and fixed them, yet then they did not, and now they do yield to the calls and invitations of the gospel. Ascribe all to so^ vereign grace, and say, " Not unto us, not unto us, but to thy " name give the glory."" The observation and experience of our own hearts will furnish us with arguments enough to resist all temptations to self-glorifying and conceit. t
Certainly you were born not of flesh, nor of blood, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Consid. 3. Lastly, This is a comfortable consideration, that he that waited upon you so long, and won your hearts at last ; that hath gained you at the expence of so much pains and patience, will not now forsake you. Poor souls, I question not but there are many fears and jealousies within you, that all this will come to no- thing, and you shall perish at last. Divers things foment these jealousies within your hearts : The weakness of your own graces,
which alas, are but in their infancy ; the sense you have of your own corruptions, and the great strength they still retain : The subtilty of Satan, who employs all his policies to reduce you ; some- times roaring after his escaped prey with hideous injections, which make your souls to tremble ; sometimes the discouraging appre- hensions of the difficulties of religion, how far the spirituality of active obedience, and the difficulty of passive obedience is above your strength ; sometimes feeling within yourselves sad alterations, by the hiding of God's face, and withdrawment of sweet and sen- sible communion with him. These, and such like things as these, cause many a qualm to come over your hearts ; but cheer up, Christ will not lose at last what he pursued so long ; he that waited so many years for thy soul, will never cast it away now that he hath seated himself in the possession of it.
Rev. iii. 20. Behold I stand at the door [ arid knock,] &c.
AN the former point we have seen the Redeemer's posture, a posture of condescending humility, rather the posture of a ser- vant than the Lord of all ; Behold I stand at the door. We now come to consider his action or motion for entrance, I stand and knock : This metaphorical action of knocking, signifies nothing else but the motions made by Christ for entrance into the souls of sin- ners ; and affiards us this fifth observation,
Doct. 5. That every conviction of conscience, and motion upon the affections of sinners, is a knock of Christ from heaven for entrance into their souls.
This action of knocking is ascribed sometimes to the soul, and is expressive of its desires to come into the gracious presence and com- munion of God; so Mat. vii. 7. " To him that knocks, it shall '? be opened,'' i. e. to him that seeks by importunate prayer, fel- lowship and communion with the Lord. But here it is appHed to (vhrist, and "is expressive of his importunate desire to come into union and communion with the souls of sinners. Here I shall open to you the following particulars.
1. What are the doors of the soul at which Christ knocks.
3. What his knocking at these doors implies.
3. By what instruments he knocks at them.
4. Jn what manner he performs this action.
First, What arc the doors of tlie soul at wliicli Christ knocks. You all know that term Christ here used, cannot be proper but metaphorical ; it is a figurative speech, the door is that part which is introductive into the house, and whatever is introductive into the soul, that is the door of the soul. Now in the soul of man there are many powers and faculties that have this use, and are of an introductive nature to let things into the soul of man. Some are more outward, as we may speak comparatively; and some more inward, as the doors of our houses are.
Christ knocks orderly at them all, one after another, for the operations of the Spirit disturb not the order of nature.
1. The first door that opens and lets into the soul is the imd€r' standing; nothing passes into the soul, but it must first come through this door of the understanding; nothing can touch the heart or move the affections, but what hath first touched the un- derstanding. Hence we read so often in scripture of the opening of the understanding, that being, as it were, the fore-door of the soul.