S. The next thing implied in this action of Christ is this. That the first motions towards the recovery and salvation of sinners begin not in themselves, but in Christ : We never knock at heaven's door by prayer till Christ hath first knocked at our doors by his Spirit : Did not Christ move first, there would be no motions after him in our hearts ; we move towards him, because he hath first moved upon our souls. Christ might sit long enough unsought and un- desired, did he not make the first motion. All our motions are secondary and consequential motions, Isa. Ixv. 1. " I am found of *' them that sought me not.'' As we love him because he first loved us, so we seek after him because he first sought us. Alas ! poor sinners are as well satisfied as any people in the world can be to lie fast asleep in the devil's arms. When the Spirit of God goes forth with the word of conviction, he finds the souls of men in the very same posture which the angels that had surveyed the world reported the whole earth to be in, Zech. i. 11. " Behold all the *' earth sitteth still and is at rest." Every man settled and satis- fied in his own way. What a strange stillness and midnight silence is there amongst sinners.? Not a sigh, not a cry to be heard for sin: So the Psalmist, Psal. xiv. 2. represents the case of sinners, " The ^< Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see ** if there were any that did understand and seek God. They are " all gone aside," '&c. There is one thing that is admirably strange in this case, that even those men and women, whose rattles of earth- ly pleasures and delights, which brought them into this sleep and security, are taken away from them by the hand of Providence, I mean their estates, health, children, &c. yet they awake not ; there are no stirrings after God. O what a dead sleep hath sin cast the souls of sinners into ! You have a notable scripture to this purpose, in Job XXXV. 9, 10. they are the words of Elihu, concerning men and women under grievous oppression, persons squeezed and ground by the cruel hands of wicked men : " By reason of the multitude " of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry ; they cry out by " reason of the arm of the mighty : But none saith, where is God " my Maker, who giveth songs in the night .?" i. e. Succour, com- fort,"^ and refreshment to the afflicted. Here are men turned out of their estates, thrown into prison.'-v cast upon all extremities
and miseries ; and wheat do these poor creatures do ? Why, saith he> they cry by reason of tlieir oppression : O my father, or my mother, my wife, my child, my estate, my hberty ;'biit none saith, where is my God ? O my sin, or my misery by reason of sin f " Where is he that giveth *^songs in the night ?" The people of God when they he musing upon their beds under affliction, they hsixe their " songs in the night ;'' in the midst of the multitude of their troubled thoughts within them, the comforts of God dehght their souls. These are their songs in the night, but no such word or thought in carnal men. How plain is it, that all the first motions of salvation have their first spring and rise in God, and not in us ? That is the second thing implied in Christ's knocking.
S. Christ's knocking at the door of the heart implies the method of the Spirit in conversion to be congruous and agreeable to the nature of man's soul. Mark Christ's expression in the text ; he doth not say, " Behold I come to the door," and break it open by vio- lence ; no, Christ makes no forcible entries, whether sinners will or not ; he will come in by consent of the will, or not at all. I stand and knock ; if any man open the door I will come in to him. There is a great difference between a friendly admission by consent, and a forcible entrance : In a forcible entrance bars of iron are brought to break open the door ; but in a friendly admission one knocks, and the other opens. Forcible actions are unsuitable to the nature of the will, whose motions are free and spontaneous ; therefore it is said. Psalm ex. 3. " Thy people shall be willing in the '' day of thy power." It is true, the power of God is upon the will of man in the day of his conversion, or else it would never open to Christ ; but yet that pov/er of God doth not act against the free- dom of man's will, by co-action and force ; no, but of unwilling he makes it willing ; taking away the obstinacy and reluctancy of the will by the efficacy of his grace, w^hich some Divines call victrix dc- Icctatio, SL sweet and pleasant victory ; and so the door of the will still opens freely, Hos. xi. 4. " I drew them with the cords of " a man, with the bands of love." / drezo them, there is Almighty Power ; but how did this power draw them ? with the cords of a man, i. e. with rational arguments convincing the judgment. Beasts are driven and forced, but men are drawn by reason, and will not move without it, if they act like themselves. It must be con- fessed, that when the day of God's power is come for the bringing home of a poor sinner to Christ, he cannot resist the power of God's Spirit, that draws him effectually : " Every one that hath heard ". and learned of the Father cometh unto me ;" yet still the soul comes freely by the consent of his will ; for this is the method of Christ in drawing souls to him. There is in the day of a sinner's conversion a Vid, an offer made for the will, both by Satan and Christ ;
Satan bids riches, honours, and pleasures, with case and quietness to the flesh in the enjoyment of them : Abide where thou art, saith Satan, remain with me, and thou shalt escape all the persecutions, losses, and troubles of the world, which conscience entancrles other men in ; thou shalt draw thy life through peace and pleasure to thy dying day. O, saith the flesh, this is a good motion, what can be better for me? But then, saith Christ, dost tliou not con- sider that all these enjoyments will quickly be at an end, and what shall become of thee then ? Behold, I offer thee the free, full, and final pardon of thy sins ; peace and reconciliation with God ; trea- sures in heaven ; all these shall be thine with troubles, reproaches, and persecutions in this world. The understanding and conscience (»f a sinner being convinced of the vanity of earthly things, and the indispensible necessity of pardon and peace with God ; I say, when a convinced judgment hath duly balanced these things, and laid them before the will, and the Spirit of God puts forth his power in the renovation of it ; it moves towards Christ freely, and yet cannot, according to its natural order, act other^vise than it doth. And, doubtless, this is the true meaning of that expression so often mistaken and abused, in Luke xiv. 23. " Cpmpel them to come in."** What ! by forcing men against the light of their consciences .^ No ; to the shame of many Protestants let us hear the gloss of Stella, a Popish commentator upon the place. ' Christ (saith he) com-