So our Saviour Christ, ' Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden,' Mat. xi. 28. They think, of all people they ought to run from God, they are so laden with sin, they have nothing to do with God. ' Oh, come unto me,' saith Christ. Therefore, when thy conscience is awakened with the sense of sin, remember what is said in the gospel, ' Be of good comfort, he calleth thee,' Mark x. 49 ; be thou of good comfort, thou art one that Christ calls, ' Come unto me, ye that are weaiy and hea\'y laden ;' and ' Blessed are those that mourn,' Mat. v. 4.
That which thou and the devil with thy conscience would move thee to use as an argument to run away, our Saviour Christ in the gospel useth as an argument to draw thee forward. He comes for such, * to seek, and to save the lost sinners.' This is a faithful saying, saith St Paul, that ' Christ came to save sinners.' Therefore, believe not Satan. He presents God to the soul that is humbled, and terrified in the sight of sin, as cruel, as a ter- rible judge, &c. He hides the mercy of God from such. To men that are in a sinful course he shews nothing but mercy. Aye, but now there is nothing but comfort to thee that art cast down and afflicted in the sense of thy sins ; for all the comforts in the gospel of forgiveness of sins, and all the comforts from Christ's incarnation, the end of his coming in the flesh, the end of his death, and of all, is to save sinners.
Look thou, therefore, to the throne of mercy and grace, when thy con- science shall be awakened with the sense of sin, and Satan shall use that as an argument to draw thee from God. Consider the Scripture useth this as an argument to drive me to God, to allure me to him. ' Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden.' And ' Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost.' Luther, a man much exercised in spiritual con- flicts, he confessed this was the balm that did most refresh his soul, ' God hath shut up all under sin, that he might have mercy upon all,' Rom. iii. 19. He shut up all under sin as prisoners, to see themselves under sin, and under the ciu'se, that he might 'have mercy upon all;' upon all those that are convinced with the sense and sight of their sins. He hath shut up all under sin, that he might have mercy upon all those that belong to him.
This raised up that blessed man. Therefore, let us not be much dis- comforted, but ' be of good comfort, Christ calls us.'
For such as are sinners, that are given to the sins of the tongue, and of the life, to rotten discourse, to swearing and such like, to such as mean to be so, and think their case good. Oh ! God is ' the God of comfort !' To such, as I said before, I can speak no comfort, nor the word of God speaks none. They must have another word and another Scripture ; for this word speaks no comfort to such that are sinful and wretched, and will be so, and justify themselves to be so.
2 COKINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 4. 67
All the judgments in the Scripture are theirs. Hell and damnation and wrath, that is their portion to drink.
We can speak no comfort to such, nor the word of God that v,'o unfold. It hath not a drop of comfort for them. God will not be merciful to such as go on in wicked, rotten, scandalous courses, that because hell hath not yet taken them, they may live long, and so make a ' covenant with hell and death,' Isa. xx\'iii. 18, and bless themselves.
Oh ! but thou hast made no covenant with God, nor he hath made none with thee ; and hell and death have made no covenant with thee, though thou hast made one with them. But there are two words go to a covenant. Death and hell shall seize upon thee, notwithstanding thy covenant.
Those that will live in sin in despite of the ministry, in spite of afflic- tions, there is no comfort to such. I speak only to the broken heart, which are fit vessels for comfort. God is ' the God of comfort ' to such. What shall we say, then, to such as, after they have had some evidence of their good estate, that they are Christians, are fallen into sin ? Is there any comfort for such ?
Yes. Doth not St Paul, in 2 Cor. v. 20, desire such to be * reconciled to God ? ' ' We are, as ambassadors of Christ, desiring you to be recon- ciled,' if you have sinned. So God hath comfort for those that have sinned. Christ knew that we should every day run into sins unawares. Therefore, ho teaches us in the Lord's prayer to say every day, ' Forgive us our debts, our trespasses,' Mat. vi. 12. There is ' balm in Gilead,* there is mercy in Israel, for such daily trespasses as we run into.