(1.) By mercies. All the creatures and blessings of God carry in them, as it were, a voice of God to the soul, that it would entertain his love. There goes a voice of love with every blessing. And the love, the mercy, and the goodness of God in the creature, is better than the creature itself. As we say of gifts, the love of the giver is better than the gift itself. So the love of God in all his sweet benefits is better than the thing itself. And so in that we have. There is a voice, as it were, entreating us to entertain God and Christ in aU his mercies, yea, every creature, as one saith, and benefit, speaks, as it were, thus to us : We serve thee, that thou mayest serve him that made thee and us. There is a speech, as it were, in every favour. Which mercies, if they cannot prevail, then,
(2.) Come corrections, which are the voice of God also. ' Hear the rod, and him that smiteth,' Micah vi. 9.
2. But hath the rod a voice ? Yes, for what do corrections speak, but amendment of the fault we are corrected for? So we must hear the rod. All coiTections tend to this purpose. They are as knockings, that we should open to God and Christ. And because corrections of themselves wUl not amend us, God to this kind of knocking adds a voice. He teacheth and corrects to- gether, * Happy is that man that thou coiTectest, and teachest out of thy law,' saith the psalmist, Ps. xciv. 12. Correction without teaching is to little pur- pose. Therefore God adds instruction to correction. He opens the conscience,
Cant. V. 2.] * it is the voice op my beloved.' 61
so that it tells us it is for this that you are corrected ; and together with conscience, gives his Spirit to tell us it is for this or that you are corrected ; you are to blame in this, this you have done that you should not have done. So that corrections are knockings, but then especially when they have instruction thus with them. They are messengers from God, both blessings and corrections, Lev. xxvi. 24, seq. They wiU not away, espe- cially corrections, till they have an answer, for they are sent of God, who wUl add seven times more ; and if the first be not answered, then he sends after them. He will be sure to have an answer, either in our conversion or confusion, when he begins once.
3. Many other ways he useth to knock at our hearts. The examines of tliose ire lice among that are good, they call upon ns, Luke xiii. 2, 3 ; 1 Cor. x. 33. The patterns of their holy life, the examples of God's justice upon others, are speeches to us. God knocks at our door then. He intends our cor- rection when he visits another, when, if we amend by that, he needs not take us in hand.
4. But besides all this, there is a more near knocking that Christ useth to the chui'ch, his ministerial knocking. When he was here in the days of his flesh, he was a preacher and prophet himself, and now he is ascended into heaven, he hath given gifts to men, and men to the church, Eph. iv. 11, seq., whom he speaks by, to the end of the world. They are Christ's mouth, as we said of the penmen of holy Scripture. They were but the hand to write ; Christ was the head to indite. So in preaching and unfolding the word they are but Chiist's mouth and his voice, as it is said of John, Mat. iii. 3. Now he is in heaven, he speaks by them, ' He that heai'eth you heareth me, he that despiseth you despiseth me,' Luke X. 16. Christ is either received or rejected in his ministers, as it is said of Noah's time, ' The Spirit of Christ preached in the days of Noah to the souls now in prison,' &c., 1 Pet. iii. 19. Christ as God did preach, before he was incarnate, by Noah to the old world, which is now in prison, in hell, because they refused to hear Christ speak to them by Noah. Much more now, after the days of his flesh, that he is in heaven, he speaks and preach- eth to us, which, if we regard not, we are hke to be in prison, as those souls are now in prison for neglecting the preaching of Noah, 1 Pet iii. 19. So the ministers are Christ's mouth. When they speak, he speaks by them, and they are as ambassadors of Christ, whom they should imitate in mildness. ' We therefore, as ambassadors, beseech and entreat you, as if Christ by us should speak to you ; so we entreat you to be reconciled unto God,' 2 Cor. v. 20. And you know what heart-breaking words the apostle useth in all his epistles, especially when he writes to Christians in a good state, as to the Philippians, ' If there be any bowels of mercy, if there be any consolation in Christ,' then regard what I say, ' be of one mind.' Phil. ii. 1. And among the Thessalonians he was as a nurse to them, 1 Thess. ii. 7. So Christ speaks by them, and puts his own affections into them, that as he is tender and fhll of bowels himself, so he hath put the same bowels into those that are his true ministers.