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troubled, to put me into the pool; but while I am coming, another Steppeth down before me. So fay you, Lord, I have lain many years with this dead plagued heart, befide the open fountain of thy blood; I am unable to move to it of myself; I have none to put me in: ordinances cannot do it; ministers cannot do it; thou must put to thy helping hand, or elfe the work will remain unperformed.

3. Plead his power, in a fenfe of your own impotency. Do you feel the power and multitude of your corruptions within you? Say with Jehofaphat, "Lord, I have no might against this great company; neither do I know what to do but mine eyes are upon thee." With thee all things are poffible. Tho' I may defpair of help in myself and others; yet, thou haft forbid me to defpair of help in thee. "Thou faidft, Let there be light, and there was light;" O fay, let there be faith, and it will immediately take place; for faith is thy work and thy gift: it is the WORK of God that we believe: By grace we are faved, through faith, and that not of ourfelves, it is the GIFT of God. He is the author and finisher of faith.

4. Plead your neceffity, your extreme need of Chrift, and of faith in him. O man, there is not a ftarving man that needs meat fo much, as you need Chrift: there is not an wounded man, that needs a phyfician; a fhipwrecked man, that needs a plank; a dying man with the dead rattle in his throat, that needs breath fo much, as thou doft need Chrift. O then, cry, Give me Chrift, or elfe I die. I may live without friends, without wealth, and honour, and pleasure; but I cannot live without Christ, and without faith.-Plead his power; how easy it is for him to help, faying, as in Pfal.lxxx. 1. "O thou that dwelleft between the cherubims, fhine forth!" It will coft thee no more pain to work faith in me, than it doth the fun to fhine forth. Yea, he can more eafily put forth his power and grace, than the fun can dart out its beams. It is no trouble nor lofs to the fun to fhine forth; fo neither will it be to him, to fhew forth his power and mercy a look, or a touch, will do it; fince he can fo eafily do it. You may cry with hope; he will never mifs an alms beftowed on a beggar, out of the ocean of his bounty. Nay, as the fun, the more it fhines, dif

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plays its glory the more; fo will he gain glory by put ting forth his power to help you.

5. Plead his mercy, and the freenefs and communicativeness of it.-Plead the freenefs of his mercy, that needs no motive, and expects no worth it runs freely, fo that the mountains cannot stop the current thereof, no more than the rocks can ftop the ebbing and flowing of the fea.-Plead the communicativeness of his mercy to others: he had compaffion on men's bodies, that came to him for healing, and will he not have compaflion upon fouls, that come to him for life? Is not mercy the work that he delights in? that perfection of, his nature that he takes pleasure to difplay?

6. Plead Chrift's commiflion, Ifa. Ixi. 1. that he came to proclaim liberty to the captive, and the opening of prison-doors to them that are bound. Cry, Lord, here is a poor prifoner, a locked and bound up heart; here is employment for thee: O loofe and knock off my fetters, and bring my foul out of prifon.-O here is a naked finner for thee to cover, à wounded foul for thee to cure, a loft fheep for thee to feek and fave; and, was not this thy errand? Thou didst come to feek and fave that which was loft. And, wilt thou not be found of a loft finner, that defires to feek thee, through thy grace?-Plead his commiffion under the broad feal of heaven; for, Him bath God the Father fealed. And plead the value of his blood, and merit of his righteoufnefs; and upon that ground whereby all grace is purchased: plead for faith, and grace to receive Chrift Jefus the Lord.

Thus I have laid before you some directions, in order to the receiving of Chrift. O cry for grace to follow them, and put them in practice, fo as you may indeed clofe the bargain with him. -I fhould now answer fome objections, but am prevented with your time.-O fhall all thefe directions be loft, and Christ be ftill flighted and rejected! O Sirs, you cannot please God better, than by coming to Chrift, and embracing the offer of him and you cannot please the devil better, than by refusing the offer of Chrift; and putting him off with delays, till you inevitably perifh in your unbelief.

And now, after all that hath been faid, what are you refolved

refolved upon? Will you receive Chrift, or not? Our glorious Lord and Master hath sent us to pofe you, man, woman; and demand whether you will receive him or not? O! What anfwer fhall we return? Muft we go and fay, that all this people, upon no terms, will receive him; none of them are for precious Chrift? Oh! God forbid ! fhall he not fee the travail of his foul, who travelled thro' all the armies of God's wrath for you, and gave his foul an offering for your fin? . O give your foul to him, faying, Lord, in fpite of the devil and of unbelief, through grace I will open my heart and arms to receive Chrift! -The Lord himself help you to receive him, and walk in him.

SERMON

COLOS. ii. 6.

XLIV.

As ye bave received Chrift Jefus the Lord, fo walk ye in him.

THERE

[The Eleventh Sermon on this text.]

"HERE are two things, that the fum of Chriftianity, and the whole of a gofpel-life doth consist in; and they both have a respect to Christ; and are these, in short, 1. To take him. 2. To ufe him. Now, behold Christ's name founds in the ears of multitudes, that never yet could be perfuaded to take him and use him: to take him as he is offered, and to ufe and improve him as he is taken; yet this is the great call of God in the words of our text; As ye have received Chrift fefus the Lord, fo walk ye in bim: where the way to heaven is defcribed. by taking Chrift, fo as to receive him as Chrift Jefus the Lord; and then by ufing and improving him, so as to walk in him fuitably to that reception. The receiving of Chrift being the leading thing here, without which there can be no walking in him; therefore, I have infifted a confiderable time on this exhortation to receive Chrift.

VOL. III,

But

after

after all that hath been faid for conviction, excitation, and direction, perhaps the hearts of hearers are filled with a thoufand objections, against this great and neceflary duty of receiving Chrift Jefus the Lord. And this leads us,

4thly, To the fourth thing, upon this ufe of exhortation to receive Chrift, which was to anfwer fome objections. We cannot anfwer the half of them; yea, no man or angel can aufwer one of them without Chrift. All objections whatfoever would vanifh before the grace of the gofpel, rightly underflood, and powerfully dif played. Chrift ftands in the gofpel, ready to hear and anfwer all your objections; and he can do it with a word.

If the foul fay, I have no right to receive Chrift, for I am a great finner: his anfwer is ready; "I came not to call the righteous, but finners to repentance."-O,fays the foul, my fins are red as crimfon; Well, fays Christ, "I can make thee white as wool."-Oh! but I have no reason to hope, for I am a loft creature: nay, fays Christ, "I came to feek and fave that which was loft;" and many a loft sheep I have fought and found.- O but, says one, I am paft cure, for I am dead and rotten in the grave of fin: nay, but fays Chrift, "I am the refurrection and the life."-O but, fays the foul, I am a flave to fin and Satan, and a prifoner to juftice: Well, fays Chrift in his word, "I am come to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound."-O but I have many burdens of fin, and guilt, and confufion; and innumerable burdens, that I cannot mention: well, fays Christ, "Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you reft."-O but, my hand is withered, I cannot receive Chrift: well, in this cafe, Chrift bids you ftretch forth the withered hand, believing in him for grace to believe; and coming to him for grace to come.-O but, fays the foul, I am lame, and cannot walk in Chrift, or in his way: well, fays Chrift, "I will put my Spirit within you, and caufe you to walk in my ftatutes."-Ah! but he may withdraw his Spirit, and depart from me: no, fays Chrift, "I will make an everlasting covenant with thee; I will not turn away from them to do them good."

O!

O! but I may depart from him, and make apoftacy: no, fays Chrift, Jer. xxxii. 4. "I will put my fear in your heart, that ye fhall not depart from me." And Jer. iii. 19. Thou fhalt call me, My Father, and fhalt not turn away from me."-O! but I may be overcome with ftrong temptations: well, fays Chrift, "Fear not, for I am with thee; my grace is fufficient for thee."-- Alas! but I have been a great backflider already: well, fays Chrift, there is a word for you to rely on, in anfwer to that, I will heal your backfidings, and love you freely.-And thus Chrift, in the word of grace, and gofpel of falvation, ftands ready to anfwer every objection.

But more particularly, we might open the grounds of manifold objections, that finners make against believing in, or receiving of Chrift.

1. Objections are drawn from the greatnefs and multitude of fins. It is true, there are fome who have no fuch objection as this at all; they are as fecure, fenfelefs, and ftupid, as a stone of the wall; there is no hope of faying any thing, to move and affect fuch, unless the Lord himself awaken them. But if any here were ob-jecting to this purpofe, though it was but one in all this company; Oh! my guilt is fo grievous, my fins are fo great, and my tranfgreffions are fo multiplied, that you would tremble to think of the fins I have been guilty of, and what light I have finned againft; and this makes my heart fink: none knows, but God and my own confcience, what a finner I have been; ⚫ and will Chrift ever accept of me?" Anfw. The greatness of your fins fhould be a great argument to engage you to come to Chrift, and receive him. Your fins are not greater than God's mercies; your guilt is not greater than Chrift's merits. It is hardly to be fuppofed, that you are worfe than fome who yet have obtained mercy; fuch as Paul, a perfecutor and blafphemer; Manaffeh, a murderer and wizard, in compact with the devil; Mary Magdalene, in whom were seven devils; and many of the Jews that crucified the Lord of glory, who yet were washed in that blood of the Lamb, which they fhed. The merit of Chrift's blood is infinite; though your fins were greater than all fins, yet there

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