a closure with tlie way of coming unto God under proposal. There is nothing wanting that is needful to give infallible security to any soul that shall venture himself into it and upon it. There are terms of peace proposed, as you have heard. These terms are excellent, and holy, ancl chosen of God, tending to the interest of his glory ; — free, safe, and secure unto sinners. What hath any soul in the world to object against them? or wherein do men repose their trust and confidence in the neglect of this so great salvation? Is it m their lusts and sins, that they will yield them as much satisfaction and contentment as they shall need to desire? Alas! they will ruin them, and bring forth nothing but death. Is it in the world? It will deceive them ; the figure of it passeth away. Is it in their duties and righteousness? They will not relieve them; for, did they follow the law of righteousness, they could not obtain the righteousness of the law. Is it in the continuance of their lives? Alas! it is but a shadow, " a vapour that appeareth for a little while." Is it in a future amendment and repentance? Hell is full of souls perishing under such resolutions. Only this way of pardon remains; and yet of all others is most despised! But yet I have one consideration more to add before I farther enforce the exhortation.
6. Consider that this is the only way and means to enable you unto obedience, and to render what you do therein acceptable unto God. It may be that some of you are under the power of convic- tions, and have made engagements unto God to live unto him, to keep yourselves from sin, and to follow after holiness. It may be you have done so in afflictions, dangers, sicknesses, or upon receipt of mercies. But yet you find that you cannot come unto stability or constancy in your course, — you break with God and your own souls; which fills you with new disquietments, or else hardens you and makes you secure and negligent, so that you return unto your pur- poses no oftener than your convictions or afflictions befall you anew. This condition is ruinous and pernicious, which nothing can deliver you from but this closing with forgiveness; for, —
(1.) All that you do without this, however it va?ij please youi' minds or ease your consciences, is not at all accepted tuith God. Unless this foundation be laid, all that you do is lost; — all your prayers, all your duties, all your amendments, are an abomination unto the Lord. Until peace is made with him, they are but the acts of enemies, which he despiseth and abhorreth. You run, it may be earnestly, but you run out of the way; you strive, but not law- fully, and shall never receive the crown. True gospel obedience is the fruit of the faith of forgiveness. Whatever you do without it is but a building without a foundation, a castle in the air. You may see the order of gospel obedience, Eph. ii. 7-10. The foundation
531' AN EXrOSITIOX UPON PSALM cxxx. [Ver.4.
must be laid in grace, riches of gi'ace by Christ, — in the free pardon and forgiveness of sin. From hence must the works of obedience proceed, if you would have them to be of God's appointment, or find acceptance witli him. Without this God will say of all your services, worship, obedience, as he did to the Israelites of old, Amos V. 21-23, " I despise all, reject it all." It is not to him nor to his glory. Now, if you are under convictions of any sort, there is no- thing you more value, nothing you more place your confidence in, than your duties, your repentance, your amendment, what you do, and what in good time you will be. Is it nothing unto you to lose all your hopes and all your expectations which you have from hence; to have no other reception with God than if all this while you had been wallowing in your sins and lusts? Yet thus it is with you. If you have not begun with God on his own terms, if you have not received the atonement in the blood of his Son, if you are not made partakers of forgiveness, if your persons are not pardoned, all your duties are accursed.
(2.) This alone will give you such motives and encouragements unto obedience as will give you life, alacrity, and delight in it. You perfonn duties, abstain from sins, but with heaviness, fear, and in bondage. Could you do as well without them as with them, would conscience be quiet, and hope of eternity hold out, you would omit them for ever. This makes all your obedience burdensome, and you cry out in your thoughts with him in the prophet, " Behold, what a Aveariness is it!" The sei-vice of God is the only drudgery of your lives, which you dare not omit, and delight not to perform. From this wretched and cursed frame there is nothing can deliver you but this closing with forgiveness. This will give you such motives, such en- couragements, as will greatly influence your hearts and souls. It will give you freedom, liberty, delight, and cheerfulness, in all duties of gospel obedience. You will find a constraining power in the love of Christ therein, — a freedom from bondage, when the Son truly hath made you free. Faith and love will work genuinely and naturally in your spirits; and that which was your greatest burden will be- come your chiefest joy, 2 Cor. vii. 1. Thoughts of the love of God, of the blood of Christ, or of the covenant of grace, and sense of par- don in them, will enlarge your hearts and sweeten all your duties. You will find a new life, a new pleasure, a new satisfaction, in all tliat you do. Have you yet ever understood that of the wise man, Prov. iii. 1 7, "Wisdom's ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace?" Have the ways of holiness, of obedience, of duties, been so unto you? Whatever you 2">ictend, they are not, they cannot be so, whilst you are strangers unto that Avhich alone can render them so unto you. I speak unto them that are under the law. Would you