in. Why?
1. To make us serious. A true sense of sin and misery maketh a soul active and inquisitive about a remedy ; as a man sensible of his wounds will not rest till he hath found a plaster. The prodigal when bitten with hunger came to himself, and then thought of returning to his father. We never make it our chief care to save our souls till we come to this. A wounded conscience will inquire after balm in Gilead. As men's trouble is, so do they lay out for help and relief. If sickness be the trouble, they seek for health ; if poverty, for riches ; if disgrace and conten)pt, for favour and reputation ; if outward affliction, for outward deliverance ; if terrors of conscience, for the re- moval of the guilt of sin ; all their thoughts are about that. Here in the text, ' What shall we do ? ' They now find they have souls to lose,
246 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SeR. I.
and souls to save. Till you find yourselves lost in tlie midst of your greatest earthly happiness and abundance, you will go on in a secure course of voluptuousness, worldiiness, and profaneness ; but when you are once in straits of conscience, your greatest care will be to save your souls. Mauy live without all care or fear, doubt or distrust, of their spiritual estate ; they pass their time merrily, and hope well, but have no certainty, live at all adventures with God. But when God toucheth the heart of a sinner, then he beginneth to question himself about his estate and course of life. What is it, and what hath he been a-doing all his life hitherto ? What provision hath he made for eternity ? Whether he hath pleased the flesh, or pleased the Lord ? and what will be the end of this when he cometh to die ? None but the holy humble soul will seriously ask this question, ' What shall I do to be saved ? ' Men are not humbled. The wheel of the law never went over them, to the breaking of their hearts ; and this is the cause of all idleness and slothfulness in religion. These are the questions an humbled heart is conversant about.
2. To wean us from sin. Corruption is the soul's darling, born and bred with us ; and the league between us and it is not easily dissolved. Till we feel the vileness of sin we shall never be brought to hate it. While we taste the sweet of it only, we spare it, and hide it under our tongue : Job xx. 12, ' Though wickedness be sweet in the mouth, and he hide it under his tongue.' But when once we feel, we are cautions of thrusting our hands into the fire of sin again : Josh. xxii. 17, ' Is the iniquity of Peer too little for us ? ' Children will no more play with snappish dogs when bitten by them. The old compunctious- are never forgotten : Prov. i. 31, 'Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.' We are too bold, and too apt to play about the cockatrice's hole ; but when these sins have been as swords in your hearts, and you have felt the torment of an accusing conscience, this maketli you more cautious.
3. That Christ may be more heartily welcome to us, and that we may the better entertain his comforts and grace. Christ is sweet to hungry consciences. Our passover must be eaten with sour herbs ; so it is the sense of our sin and misery that givetli these comforts a bitter ^ relish : Isa. Ivii. 15, 'To revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of contrite ones ; ' ver. 18, ' And restore comfort unto him and to his mourners.' Unutterable groans make way for unspeakable joys. It was not meet that Christ should be received with contempt or coldness, and made light of, and therefore exercised with piercing and heart-breaking sorrows. The bondage of Egypt maketh us long for Canaan.
4. That we may more readily yield to God's terms : Acts ix. 6, ' Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? ' Terrified Paul giveth God a blank to write his pleasure concerning him. A soul truly sensible of sin is ready to submit to any terms which God will impose upon him, and not stand bucking with God, as Pharaoh did. In our ease we would never hearken to the crucifying of the flesh, or deny ourselves, taking up our cross. Heaven must fall into our laps, or we will have none of it. Like Naaman the Syrian, we would pass away a trouble- some condition ; but when our souls are perplexed, we will be glad to
' Qu. ' better '?— Ed.
VeR. 37.] SERMONS UPON ACTS n. 37, 38, 247
accept of mercy upon any terms, take things at God's price : Anything, Lord ; a perfect resignation to the will of God. In pangs of conscience any course will please that shall be prescribed for our comfort and relief.
5. That we may be more chary of grace afterwards. Things that cost dear are the better kept. There need all means to fix the heart. Now this is a good means, to consider how hardly we came by it. It cost us many a bitter groan, and shall we part with it easily ? How soon would we forfeit our pardon, and embezzle our stock of grace, and sin away our comforts, did we not remember how hardly we came by them ! As a riotous heir, that never knew what it was to get an estate, spends it freely.