make way tor Christ into your hearts. It would be an endless task to enumerate all the mercies bestowed to this end upon the unre- generate : but surely this is the errand of them all ; and the Lord takes it very ill when his end is not answered in them : hence is that complaint, Jer. v. 24. *• Neither say they in their heart, let *' us now fear the Lord our God, that giveth us rain, both the *' former and the latter, in his season^"" Some of you have been marvellously preserved in times of common contagion and death, when thousands have fallen at your right hand and left : then have you been preserv^ed or recovered, according to that, Exod. xv. 26. '* I will put none of those diseases upon thee, for I am the Lord ** that healeth thee.'' I am Jehovah Rophe, the Lord the physi- cian ; many of you have been at the grave's mouth, in many dis- eases, others upon the deeps ; yet the hand of mercy pulled you back, and suffered you not to drop into the grave and hell in the i3ame moment. O what a knock was here given by the hand of mercy at thy hard heart ! Certainly if men would but observe, they might see a strange, marvellous working and moulding of things by the hand of providence, for the productions of thousands of mercies for them : and if mercy would do the work, and win you over to Christ, many rods had been spared, which your obstinacy hath made necessary. O ungrateful sinners ! doth your Redeemer thus woo and fee you by so many gifts of mercy, and yet will you shut him out.'' Do ye ifms requite the Lord, OJoolish people and unwise ? For which of all his benefits do your ungrateful souls shut the doors upon him ?
(3.) You see what Christ's knocking at the soul of a sinner im- phes, and bv what instruments it is performed. In the last place, we A\'ill consider the manner how this action is performed in the ten following particulars, wherein much of the mysterv^ of Conver- sion will be opened ; the Lord grant your experience may answer them. We cannot indeed exactly describe and mark all the foot- steps of the Spirit, in this work, upon the souls of men ; yet these things seem eminently obsenable.
1. The knocks of Christ at the sinner's heart are silent and secret to all persons in the world, except the soul itself at whose door he knocks ; here be many hundreds of you this day under the word ; if the Lord shall this day knock by con^action at any man's heart, none will hear that knock, but that man only ; for it is a knock without sound or noise to any but the particulai* soul concerned in it. It was fore-prophesied of our Redeemer, and of this very act erf* his, Isa. xlii. 2. " He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his " voice to be heard in the street." The kingdom of God cometh not into the souls of men with pubhc observation : you read in 1 Cor. ii. 11, " No man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit
" of a man that is in him." None knows what convictions another' man's conscience feels, until he himself shall discoier them ; you hear the same sound of the gospel, but you hear not the inward strokes it gives to another man's conscience. Christ^s approaches to the soul make no noise ; little do we know what the Spirit of Christ whispers in the ear of him that sits next us. It is said of the inward comforts of the Spirit, / will give him the hidden manna which na man knows hut he that eatcth of it. This is true also of inward terrors and troubles. Chrisf s knocks by conviction are but a secret whisper of his Spirit in the ear of a sinner, saying. Thou art the man, this is thy case. That is the first thing in the manner of Christ's knocking, it is a silent knock without public sound.
2. These silent inward knocks of the Spirit of Christ, though they are heard by none but the soul itself, yet do they greatly differ as to the terror, or mildness of them in different subjects. Some hear them with more terror and astonishment, others in a mild and gentle manner. When the Lord knocked at the Jailor's conscience. Acts xvi. 29, 30. it was a terrible stroke ; he called for a hght, and sprang in like a man distracted ; and trembling and astonished fell down at the apostles feet, crying, " Sirs, what " must I do to be saved .'*"' Here was a terrible knock indeed, which, almost affrighted his soul out of his body ; it is as if he had said. Tell me, for the Lord's sake, and tell me quickly, whether there be any way of salvation, and where it hes, for I am a lost man, an undone soul. But when the Lord opened the heart of Lydia, there were no such terrors, the Lord spake to her in a more mild and gentle voice ; as you see ver. 14. The Spirit of God varies his method according to the temper of the soul he worketh on. Knotty pieces need greater wedges and harder blows to rive them asunder, and as he directs his ministers, Jude 9,9,. to make a dif- ference, to deal tenderly and compassionately with some; but others, to save with fear ; and so he himself observeth like different methods.
3. Some knocks of Christ are successful^ and obtain the desired effect. He knocks, and the soul opens; but others are unsuccessful ; he knocks once, and again, by convictions, which may cause the conscience, for the present, to startle a little, but there is no open- ing to Christ by faith. O friends ! this is of dreadful consideration ; Prov. i, 24. " I called, and ye refused ; I stretched out my handy ^' and no man regarded." There is a call without an answer,^ a knock, and no opening; and these things are very common,, especially among the unconverted, that hve under a lively, rou- ting gospel-ministry. Of this Christ complains, Mat. x\a. 17. " Whereunto shall I liken this generation ? They are Hke unto «' children sitting in the market-place, and calling to th«ir
" fellows, saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not *' danced ; we have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented :"" q. d. Neither the delicious airs and melody of gospel-grace, nor the mournful and dreadful threats of damnation to unbelievers, avail any thing to open your hearts to embrace me ; no voices from mount Gerizzim, or mount Ebal, will prevail with you. Ah ! how many sad witnesses unto this truth have I now before mine eyes ! but Grod forbid it should be thus all round : no, no, there be some souls who hear, and open, even every one that hath he^'d, and learned of the Father, John vi. 45. when the Spirit of God puts forth his power with the word, then, and not till then, it becomes successful.