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Mourning for our own sins, and the sins of the land. "Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law." Alas! for the hardness of heart, and the private spirit with which we are plagued. O what wonder that there is such small measure of comforts at our communions, when mourning for our sins beforehand is so little in use. "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." These thirty years and more there was not so great cause for mourning for the sins of the land, yet I doubt if in all that time, there was so little mourning for them.

Lastly, Commending Christ and religion to others, who are strangers to him, and labouring to propagate religion. "I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations, therefore shall the people praise thee for ever and ever." Many are at pains to corrupt others this day, and so are agents for Satan; but alas! few are agents for Christ. Amen.

Ettrick, May 28, 1721.

[The Sabbath before the Communion.]

PRESENT ROOM FOR SINNERS IN CHRIST'S HOUSE.

SERMON XX.

LUKE XIV. 22.

And yet there is room.

In the first part of this verse, the servant reports that he had obeyed his master's second order, and that many had complied with the invitation. But though these had come in, he adds, and yet there is In Christ's house, there is much empty room for more guests. This is a comfortable word for those who have not yet complied with the invitations of the gospel; the doors are not yet shut, and such sinners may yet have access to Christ.

room.

Our Lord hath often covered a table for us in the gospel, and no doubt some have answered the gospel call, and by faith sit down at the gospel feast. But while some have risen up at God's call, have not many sat still? While some have gone to the marriage, have not many staid in the tents of sin; when some have been pursuing the interest of their souls, others have been minding nothing, but the world and their lusts. We come yet to you, O slighters of

Christ, with the glad news that yet there is room. We are allowed doctrinally to open the doors of Christ's house to you, and invite you all to come in; being not without apprehensions that the peaceable and ordinary dispensation of the gospel among us, may be drawing near an end. Sinners out of Christ are out of God's favour, covenant, and family. Slighters of Christ have refused the privilege, but yet there is room or place for them.

Doctrine. For those who have not yet embraced and closed with Christ in the offer of the gospel, yet there is room.

There are three very different voices sounding this day, in the ears of rational creatures out of heaven.

1. The fallen angels hear a dreadful voice, that there never was, is, nor shall be, room for them. They sinned, but no Mediator was ever provided for them. They were the first who ventured to break over the hedge of the law, and God made them dreadful instances of his justice and severity. "The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day." Their chains you see are everlasting, their prison darkness; and nothing awaits them but judgment. They left their habitation, and there is no room for them any more. They see a feast is provided, but they know they shall never taste of it, but stand gnashing their teeth at distinguishing grace.

2. Damned sinners hear another voice, namely, That there was once room for them, but there shall be room no more for ever. "The master of the house hath risen up, and hath shut to the door." They had their day, but in their day, they knew not the things which belonged to their peace, and now they are hid from their eyes. Those with whom they sat in the same church, and heard the same gospel, are now in heaven: but now all they can hear is, There was room. And while there was room for them, they only sought after the world, and their lusts: but now the door is shut upon them, and that there was room, gnaws, and will gnaw, their conscience for

ever.

3. You hear this day a blessed joyful voice, Yet there is room. Sinners! you are standing without, you have hitherto slighted Christ. But the door is not yet shut on you. What is wrong may be rectified. Yet there is room.

In discoursing upon this subject. I shall,

I. Enquire for what there is yet room.

II. Where there is yet room.

III. Confirm the doctrine. We are then,

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I. To enquire for what there is yet room. Sinners, yet there is

room.

1. For your retracting your refusal of Christ, and his salvation, for your taking your word again. Christ has been offered to you, but many of you have said in effect, We will not have this man to reign over us. You would have none of him. Now if he should take you at your word, you are ruined without remedy. Should he pass that sentence "I say unto you, that none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper." Then there is no more hope for ever. He might have dealt thus with you, yea, he might have dealt with you as with Ananias and Sapphira. But yet there is room. Take your word again; and if yet you will consent to take Christ, you shall have him.

2. There is yet room for your subscribing the covenant. God in Christ has sent down an open copy of the covenant of grace among us, and sent his ministers to gather subscriptions to it, by which souls may be entered into the covenant. Many have set their names to it. "O my soul, says David, thou hast said unto the Lord, thou art my Lord. And gather, says God, my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice." But after all, yet there is room. “One shall say, I am the Lord's; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob, and another shall subscribe with his hand, unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel." God is yet saying to you, "I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David." Believe this word with application to yourselves. Embrace the covenant, for yet there is room.

3. There is room for repentance. You have been fools and madmen, working out your own ruin without fear or trembling. You have done what will destroy yourselves, if it be not undone again. Yet there is room for repentance. There was room for it in the first covenant, it was a piece of work, which once marred would never put right again. There is no room for it in hell. But here there is room. Esau despised the birth-right, and there was room for repentance to him. But yet the voice of the Lord to you is, after all that you have done, "Repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin." Though it be the eleventh hour with some of you, yet there is room.

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Lastly, There is room for you, the worst of you, may yet come in, "Whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely." And again, Behold, saith Jesus, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come into him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Despisers and rejectors of

Christ, he yet calls you. He has no need of you nor me, but his house is not yet filled, and it must be filled, and yet there is room. "All that the Father giveth me, says he, shall come to me; and him that cometh to me, I will in nowise cast out." Many has he taken in, who were amongst the worst, and he has room for more even of that kind. "Go, says he to his servants, into the highways, and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled." We proceed,

II. To show where there is room.

There is room,

1. In the door for you, that you may enter in by it. Jesus Christ himself is the door. "I am, says he, the door, by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." He is willing to receive you. The door is opened in the offer of the gospel. It is wide opened, so as the worst of sinners are declared capable of access to the Father, coming by him. "And such, says Paul to the Corinthians, were some of you," even the worst of sinners, "But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." But without Jesus Christ there is no access. "I am, says

he, the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me." It is true in these days in which the doctrine of the gospel is sinking, the door is opened by some, only so far as to let in those that are so and so qualified, as if men behoved to be half cured before they may come to the physician. But God's word sets it wide open. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life. And the Spirit and the bride say come. And let him that heareth say, come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely." Thus you see the word of God sets the door wide open to let in all who will enter, be their case what it will. Enter then, O sinner, no angel with a flaming sword stands here to guard the tree of life. The partition wall is broken down, strangers are welcome to come within the holy ground. Christ is the door. Let not the brightness of his face so terrify thee, nor the divine glory so affright thee, as to make you stand back from him, for the divinity is vailed with humanity, that sinners may see God and not die. Having therefore boldness, brethren, to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the vail, that is to say, his flesh."

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2. There is room in the house for you. Christ's house is not yet filled. If it were so, the door would be shut. Sinners you are without, wandering up and down on the mountains of vanity, a

ready prey to the devouring lion. Why will you not come in, where you may be safe? There is room enough for you in our Father's house, and all who are in it, have bread enough and to spare, why then will you perish?

There is room for you in the lower house. There are two great families on earth. Christ's family, and the devil's family. We are born members of the devil's family, but Christ is willing to take you into his, yea, he invites you into it. "Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. And I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house." You that are standing at the foot of mount Sinai, within the dominion of the law, as a covenant of works, you are welcome to mount Zion, the city of the living God, to an innumerable company of angels, the general assembly of the church of the first-born; where, though you be under the discipline of the family, you shall be beyond the reach of the curse. There is room for you here in the quality of servants. He is saying unto you, "Why stand you here all the day idle? Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive." Our Lord is saying to you once more, "Choose you this day whom you will serve ?" has no need of you, nor your service. to minister unto him, yet he has left amongst the number of his servants. glorious, yea, such a gracious Master? lievers with the cords of love, first gives them a title to the eternal reward, and then bids them work, and even the rods laid on them, remove not his free love, Psal. lxxxix. 23. and downwards.

Christ or your lusts? He He has thousands of angels room for you to be taken in And can you choose such a He binds his service on be

There is room for you as friends, which is yet more. "Henceforth, says he, I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you." It is no small matter to be a friend of the house. But yet there is room for you to be Christ's bosom friends, though before enemies. Friends to whom he will communicate his secrets. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant." He is a friend that can do you good, when all other friends are helpless to you, even at a dying hour; your friends in the world may then close your eyes, prepare the cold winding sheet, get the grave ready, but he can carry your soul to God the Judge, and present you blameless before him in the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.

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