. 5. Neither would Christ have made the tenders of mercy so large and indefinite, had he intended to have shut out any soul upon the single account of personal unworthiness, provided it be but willing to come unto him. Cast thine eye, poor discouraged soul, upon Christ's invitations and proclamations of grace and mercy in the gospel, and see if thou canst find any thing beside unwilling- ness as a bar betwixt thee and mercy ; hearken to that voice of mercy, Isa. Iv. 1. " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the " waters ; and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat ; come " buy wine and milk without money, and without price," i. e. without personal desert or worthiness. So again, Rev. xxii. 17. " The Spirit and the bride say come, and let him that is athirst " come ; and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Here you see personal vileness and unworthiness is no obstacle in the way of Christ. Once more, see John vii. 37. " In the last day, " that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying. If any " man thirst, let him come to me and drink." Thus you see what Christ's coming into the soul is, and what evidences there are, that when once the soul is made truly willing, Christ will certainly come into it ; and no former vileness or present unworthiness shall be a bar to obstruct his entrance.
Thirdly^ In the next place I shall shew you. That when Christ comes into the soul he will not come empty-handed. It is Christ's marriage-day, and he will make it a good day, a festival-day ; bring- ing such comforts along with him, as the soul never tasted before. He spreads as it were a table, furnishes it with the delicates of hea- ven : / will sup with him, saith the text. What those spiritual mercies are which Christ brings along with him to the opening, willing soul, comes next in order to be spoken to. And,
1. When Christ comes into the soul of a sinner, he brings 3i par- don with him, a full, a free, and a final pardon of all the sins that ever that soul committed. This is a feast of itself, good cheer in- deed : Christ thought it to be so when he told the poor palsy-man, Matth. ix. 2. " Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee."
He doth not say, Be of good cheer, thy palsy is cured, thy body re- covered from the grave ; but, " be of good cheer, thy sins are par- ^' doned."" O how sweetly may the pardoned soul feed upon this ! And this is not any peculiar mercy designed for some special fa- vourites, but what is common to all believers. Acts xiii. 43. " By " him all that believe are justified from all things.*" Christ and pardon come together ; and without a pardon no mercy would relish : no feast, no music, no money, no honour, have any favour or comfort with them to a condemned man ; but the comfort of a pardon reaches to the very heart, Isa. xl. 1,2. " Comfort ye, com- *' fort ye my people, saith the Lord: speak comfortably to Jeru- *' salem f' or, as in the Hebrew, speak to the heart of JeruHalem. But what are the ingredients of that cordial that will comfort Je- rusalem's heart "^ Why, " Say unto her, that her iniquities are " pardoned C that carries along with it the spirit of all consola- tion.
And there are three things in the pardon of sin that makes it the sweetest mercy that ever the soul tasted ; comfort which is impossi- ble to be communicated to another with the same sense that the pardoned soul hath of it. Rev. ii. 17.
(1.) That which makes the pardon of sin ravishingly sweet, is the trouble that went before it. The labourings and restless tossings of the troubled soul, which were antecedent to his pardon, make the ease and peace that follow it incomparably sweet. As the bitterness of hell was tasted in the sorrows of sin, so the sweetness of heaven is tasted in the pardon of it.
(2.) The nature of the mercy itself is incomparably sweet ; for it is a mercy of the first rank. Pardon is such a mercy as admits no comfort to come before it, nor any just cause of discouragement can follow after it. If God hath not spoken pardon to the soul, it can have no settled ground for joy, Ezek. xxxiii. 10. And if he have, there can be no just ground for dejection, whatever the troubles be that lie upon it. Isa. xxxiii. 24. " The inhabitants " shall not say, I am sick : the people that dwell therein shall be " forgiven their iniquities.""
(3.) The third thing that makes this mercy delicious and ravisli- ingly sweet to the soul, are the properties of it, which are foin*. (1.) God writes upon thy pardon, Frank : it is a free mercy whicli costs thee nothing, Rom. iii. 24. " Being justified freely by his *' grace. Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, yet I, " even I am he that blotteth out thy transgression for my own " name s sake.'' (2.) God writes upon thy pardon fidl, as well as free ; the pardon extends to all the sins that ever thou committedst. Acts xiii. 39. " By him all that believe are justified from all things. * The sins of tliy nature and practice ; the sins of thy youth and
riper age ; great sins and lesser sins are all comprehended within thy pardon. Thou art acquitted not from one, but from all ! Cer- tainly, the joy of heaven must come down in the mercy of remis^ sion. O what a feast of fat things with marrow is this single mercy, a pardon free without price, full without exception ! And then, (3.) it is Jinal, without revocation ; the pardoned soul never more comes into condemnation : " Thine iniquities are removed from '^ thee as far as the east is from the west." As those two oppo- site points of heaven can never meet, so the pardoned soul and its pardoned sins can never more meet unto condemnation, Psal. ciii. 12. (4.) God v'rites upon the pardon another word, as sweet as any of the rest, and that is sure. It is a standing mercy never to be recalled, vacated or annulled, Rom. viii. 33, 34, 35. The challenge is sent to hell and earth, men and devils : " Who shall " lay any thing to the charge of God's elect ? It is God that justi- " fies, wlio is he that condemneth ? It is Christ tliat died,"' &c. Who can arrest when the creditor dischargeth ? Who can sue the bond when the debt is paid ? It is Christ that died. The table is spread, and the first mercy served in is the pardon of sin. " Eat, " O friends, diink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.'"* Now the labouring conscience that rolled and tossed upon the waves of a thousand fears, may drop anchor, and ride quiet in the pacific sea of a pardoned state. What joy must stream through the conscience when the sweetness of that scripture, Rom. viii. 1 . shall be pressed into thy cup of consolation ! The pardoned soul may speak and think of death and judgment without consternation ; yea, may look upon it " as a time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord,"" Acts iii. 19. This is heavenly manna, the sweetness of it swallows up all expressions, all conceptions ; no words, no thoughts can compre- hend the riches of this mercy.