Direct. 10. Close up your treaty with Christ by a solemn cove- nant vA\h him ; engage yourselves to be the Lord's : " One shall " say, I am the Lord's : And another shall 'subscribe with his hand '^ to the holy One of Israel." Here you have two things to do : (1.) To give yourselves up to Christ, according to that expression, 2 Cor. viii. 5. They gave themselves to the Lord. Make your soul and body, time and talents, henceforth to be dedicated things to his service. (2.) Take Christ in both his natures, and in all his offices to be yours ; and to this covenant you are to stand to the last breath, whatever times or troubles shall come. This consent of thy heart to be Christ's, this choice of thy will in taking him for thine, is but the echo of Christ's choice of thee ; and I would rather have such an evidence of my interest in him, than a voice from heaven to as- sure me that Christ is mine.
SERMON VII. Revel, iii. 20.
Behold I stand at the door and knock ; [if any maji] hear my voice^ and open the door^ I will come in to him, and wiU sup with him, and he with me.
HIS expression extends the gracious offer of Christ, and brings in hope to every hearer. It is a proclamation with a Si quis, if any man ; as if Christ should say, I will have this offer of my grace to go round to every particular person ; if thou, or thou, or thou, the greatest, the vilest of sinners, of what quality or condition soever, old or young, profane or hypocritical, will hear my voice, and open to me, I will come into tlieir souls. And hereby all objections are obviated ; as for example, I am the greatest of sinners, saith one ; I have been a self-cozening hypocrite, saith another ; I have resisted grace too long, and doubt the time of mercy is past, saith a third. The ground of all these, and a thousand more objections, is taken away by the gracious extent of Christ's offer in the text : for who is he that can limit where Christ doth not ? This gives us a seventh profitable and comfortable Observation, which is this,
Doct, 7. That Jesus Christ will not refuse to come in to the soul of the vilest sinner, when once it is made highly willing to open to him.
If any man open, I will come in to him. It is not unworthiness, but unwillingness, that bars any man from Christ : thousands have missed of Christ by their unwillingness, but Christ never put off one soul upon account of its unworthiness ; Christ is not the sale but the gift of God ; you come not to make a bargain, but to receive a free gift : faith is a marriage with Christ, wherein nothing but our hearty consent is expected ; so runs the strain of the whole Scrip^ lures, Isa. Iv. 1. " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the " waters ; and he that hath no money, (i. e. no merit, no wor- " thiness of his own) let him come.*" Behold the free grace of Christ to the vilest and unworthiest of sinners. So Rev. xxii. 17.
Eav rig. Qualiscunque faerit peccator, Hypocrita^ qui diu obititit Evangelio. — If any man. Whoever the sinner be. let him be an hypocrite, or vho hath long resisted the gospel, &c.
'' L^t him that is athirst come ; and whosoever will, let him come, " and take the water of life freely."" And, in the very phrase of my text^ he speaks again, John vii. 37. " If any man thirst, let him " come to me and drink.'"' It is very observable, throughout the whole gospel, that Christ never made any objection against any soul that came to him upon the account of its sinfulness and un worthiness; but all the complaints of Christ are still upon the account of their unwillingness. So in his complaint over Jerusalem, Luke xiii. 34. " I would, but you would not ;" so again, John v. 40. " You will " tiot come unto me, that you might have life."" The complaint is still upon their unwillingness. In stating this point, I shall doc- trinally discourse these two things :
Firsts What it is to be truly Avilling to receive Jesus Christ. Secondly^ How it appears that they who are so, shall certainly be received, and graciously accepted of him.
First, What it is to be truly willing to receive Jesus Christ ; for this is meant by opening to him. Now this implies, and involves in it, many great and weighty things.
1. It implies, and necessarily includes, the right understanding and true apprehension of gospel terms and articles : these must be known, pondered, and duly considered, before the will can sa- vingly open, in an act of consent, to Chrisfs offer. I desire this inay be especially observed, because multitudes are mistaken and deceived about this thing : he that doth not consider, doth not con- sent ; you must exercise your understandings upon the terms and articles of Christianity, or else your consent is rash, blindfold, and unstable. This in Luke xiv. 3*1. is called consulting; the consent of faith is the result of many previous consultations and debates in the mind ; the soul that comes to Christ must take up religion in his most sedate and serious thoughts ; turn both sides of it, the dark as well as the bright side of religion, to the eye of his mind ; balance all the conveniences and inconveniences, losses as well as gains. If I open to Christ, this I shall gain, but that I must lose; I cannot separate Christ from sufferings, Christ will separate me from my sins ; if I seek him, I must let them go ; if I profess Christ, providence will one time or other bring me to this dUeinma, either Christ or eai'thly comforts must go. It is necessary therefore that I now propound to myself what providence may, one time or other, propound to me ; he hath set down his terms. Mat. xvi. 24. " If " any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up " his cross and follow me."" This self-denial deserves serious con- sideration ; for Christ extends it to natural self, righteous self, and civil self; and requires that I give up my life, my liberty, my estate, my relations, and my own righteousness, as hard to be parted with as any of the former. I must take up my cross, that is, the sufferings