1. There is something implicit in this confidence and reliance upon Christ, and that is a lively sense of our own misery, and the wrath of God due for sin. All God's acts take date from the nothingness and necessity of the creature, and from thence also do begin our own addresses to God. God's acts begin thence, that he may be all in all ; from the creation tq. the resurrection God keepeth this course, and then the dispensation ceaseth, for then there is no more want, but fulness. Creation is out of nothing ; providence interposeth when we are as good as nothing ; at the resurrection we are nothing but dust ; God worketh on the few relics of death and time. So in all moral matters, as well as natural, it is one of his names, ' He comforteth those that are cast down.' When he came to convert Adam, he first terrified him : ' They heard the voice of God in the garden, and Avere afraid,' Gen. iii. 10. He delivered Israel out of Egypt when their souls were full of anguish. We are first exercised with the ' ministry of the condemna- tion,' before ' light and immortality are brought to life in the gospel.' And still God keeps his old course ; men are first burdened and sensible of their load before he giveth them ease and refreshment in Christ. At the first gospel sermon preached after the pouring forth of the S])irit, Acts ii. 37, * They were pricked in their hearts.' Christ's com- mission was to preach the gospel to the poor and broken-hearted and bruised : Luke iv. 18, ' The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor ; he hath sent me to lieal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the cap- tives, the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.' This is the roadway to Christ. And all our addresses to God begin too thence. Man is careless : Mat. xxii. 5, dfieXijaavre^, ' They made light of it ; ' and proud : Rom. x. 3, ov^ v7reTdyr]aav, ' They have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.' The Israelites were not weary of Egypt till they were filled with anguish. Adonijah, when he found himself guilty of death, ' he laid hold on the horns of the altar.' Tlie prodigal never thought of return- ing till he began to be in want, and to be soundly pinched. There- fore, till there be a due sense and conviction of conscience, it is not faith, but carnal security. In short, we can never be truly desirous of grace, we cannot prize it, * we do not run for refuge,' Heb. vi. 18. We are not earnest for a deliverance till there be some such work.
There are two things keep the conscience quiet without Christ — peace and self, carnal security and self-sufficiency.
[L] It is hard to wean men from the pleasures of sense, and to make them serious in the matters of their peace ; before Christ and they be brought together, they and themselves must be brought together. This God seeketh to do by outward afflictions, that he may ' take them in their month,' as the ram was caught in the briars. In afflictions men bethink themselves : 1 Kings viii. 47, ' If they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they are carried captives,' &c. It makes them to return upon themselves, how it is between God and them. If afflic- tion worketh not, he joineth the word ; it is ' a glass wherein we see our natural face/ James i. 21. God showeth Ihein what loathsome
20 SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. [SeR. XXXIV.
creatures they are, how liable to wrath. Or if not, by the power of his Spirit upon their consciences ; their reins may chasten them ; they cannot wake in the night, or be solitary in the day, but their hearts are upon them ; so great a matter is it to bring men to be serious.
[2.] Self. When the prodigal began to be in want, ' he joined him- self to a man of that country,' Luke xv. 15. We have slight promises and resolutions, and all to elude the present conviction ; long it is ere the proud heart of man is gained to take Christ upon God's terms. Convinced men are brought in, saying, ' What shall I do ? ' Acts ix. 6. Then let God write down what articles he pleaseth, they are will- ing to subscribe and yield to any terms ; as softened pewter, let it be never so bowed and battered, is receptive of any shape and form. This is the implicit act, or that which is required in believing, that a man should be a lost undone creature in himself, ready to do what God will have him.
2. The explicit acts, when a soul thus humbled casts itself upon Christ for grace, mercy, and salvation. This may be explained with respect to the two great ordinances, i.e., the word and prayer, which are, as it were, a spiritual dialogue between God and the soul. In the word, God speaketh to us ; in prayer, w6 speak to God. God offereth Christ to us in the word, and we present him to God in prayer. So that the acts of faith are to accept of Christ as offered, and then to make use of him in our communion with God ; and by this shall you know whether you do believe in him.