* pels men to come in, by shewing to their will such an excelling
* good as it cannot but embrace :' For voluntas naturaliter fertur in boinnn^ the will is naturally carried to the best good. And thus the Spirit works upon the soul harmoniously, and agreeably to its own nature. That is the third thing implied in Christ's knock-
4. Christ's knocking at the door of the soul, manifestly implies the immediate access of the Spirit of God unto the soul of man, that he can come to the very innermost door of the soul at his pleasure, and make what impression vipon it he pleaseth. As for other instruments used in this work, they have no such privilege or power ; Ministers can but knock at the external door of the senses. Thine eyes shall see thy teachers, we can see their persons and hear their voices; we can reason with sinners, and plead with their souls; but awaken them we cannot, open their hearts we cannot ; we can only lodge our messages in their ears, and leave it to the Spirit of God to make it effectual. This is a royalty be- longing unto the Spirit of God, incommunicable to angels or men; if an angel from heaven were the preacher, he could not give one iflimediatc stroke to the conscience, much less can man ; we have no dominion over your consciences. The key of the doors of your
souls hang not at our girdles, but are in the hands of Christ, Rev, ill. 7. " He hath the key of David, he openeth, and no man shut- << teth ; and he shutteth and no man openeth.'^ The conscience and all the faculties lie naked and open to the stroke of God's Spi- rit ; he can wound them and heal them, and make what impres- sions he pleaseth upon them. Learn hence what need there is both for ministers and people before they enter upon the solemn ordinances of God, to lift up their hearts by prayer for the blessing and power of the Spirit upon them. Lord, send forth thy Spirit, pour it forth upon, and with thy word. Ah ! how many sermons have we preached, and you heard, and yet there is no opening f These are the four things imphed in Christ's knocking at the door, viz. condescending grace : All first motions being in God, the mo- tions of his Spirit are congruous and agreeable to the nature of the soul ; and that his Spirit can have immediate access to the inner- most faculties and powers of the soul at his pleasure. Now in the next place let us consider,
Thirdli/, By what instruments Christ knocks at the doors, that is, the judgment, conscience, and will of a sinner. And these are two, viz.
Here my work will be to shew you how the Spirit of God makes use both of the word and works of God, to rouse and open the consciences and hearts of sinners. These are the two hammers or instruments of the Spirit, by which he knocks at the door of the heart.
1. The word written or preached, but especially preached; to 4his Christ gives the preference above all other instruments em- ployed about this work ; and, answerably, the word is called God's hammer, Jer. xxii. 29. " Is not my word like fire, and as the *' hammer which breaketh the rocks in pieces r"^ By this ham- mer Christ raps at the door of a sinner's soul, to give warning that he is there. The Spirit of God can open the heart immediately if he pleaseth ; but he will honour his word in this work. And therefore, when Lydia's heart was to be opened, Paul, the great gospel-preacher, must be invited, even by an angel, to come over to Macedonia, and assist in that blessed work. Acts xvi. 9. Lydia was to be converted, her heart must be opened to Christ ; the angel could not do it, but calls for the help of the apostle, God's appoint- ed instrument to carry on that work. " I have made thee (saith " God to Paul) a minister and a witness to open their eyes, and " turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan '• to God," Acts xxvi. 13. Now there be three ways in which
the Spirit uses the word as his hammer in knocking at tile door of tlie souii
(1.) He knocks by the particular convictions of the word upon the conscience ; this knock by conviction, rings and sounds through all the rooms and chambers of the soul ; particular and ef- fectual conviction wounds to the very centre of the soul. Ah, when the word shall come home by the Spirit's particular applica- tion, like that of Nathan's to David, Thou art the man ; then ali the powers of the soul are roused and alarmed ; now it pierces as a two-edged sword, Heb* iv. 12. divides the soul and spirit, the su- perior and inferior faculties of it ; cuts down by the back-bone, lays open the secret guilt and innermost thoughts of a man's heart, be- fore which the sinner cannot stand. The secrets of his heart are made manifest ; and falling down on his face he must acknowledge that God is in the word of a truth, 1 Cor xiv. 24. O these con- victions of the word are such a rap, such a knock at the door of the conscience as will never be forgotten, no not in heaven, to all eternity.
(2.) Christ knocks in the word by its terrible comminations and a\vful threatenings, menacing the soul that opens not with eternal ruin ; these are dreadful knocks : O sinner, saith Christy wilt thou not open ? Shall all the tenders of my grace made to thee be in vain ? Know then that this thy obstinacy shall be thy damnation. Thus the world denounces ruin, in the name of the great and ter- rible God, to all wilful impenitents and obstinate unbelievers, John iii. 36. " He that believeth not the Son, shall not see life ; but the *' wrath of God abideth on him." O dreadful sound ! like unto which is that, John viii. 24. " If ye believe not that I am he, *' shall die in your sins i" q. d. Thy mittimus for hell shall made and signed. Will you not come to me that you might have life ? Then will I foretel what death you shall die, you shall even die in your sins. O it were better for thee to die any kind of death than to die in thy sins. These are loud knocks of the word, ter- rible sounds, yet no more than needs to startle the drousy con- sciences of sinners. And then,
(3.) The Spirit knocks by the gracious invitations of the word^ the sweet allurements and gracious insinuations of it ; and with- out this, no heart would ever open to Christ. It is not frosts and snow, storms and thunder, but the gentle distilling dews and che- rishing sun-beams that make the flowers open in the spring. The terrors of the law may be preparative, but the grace of the gospel is that which effectually opens the sinner's heai't. The ob- durate flint will sooner fly when smitten upon the soft pillow, than upon the anvil. Now the gospel abounds with alluring invitations to draw the will, and open the heart of a sinner : such is that, Mat*