law; God upon the man; Chrift upon felf; and free grace upon works; for it is no better than fo: and thus the foul will not come to free grace; he will be obftructing himself; and in this mire he lies till free grace teach him how to come to the market of free grace, without money, and without price; till then all is but nothing: the ground of the offer is free and fovereign grace. What a great deal of latent obftructions are there that hinder our receiving this offer of Chrift made by free grace! Why, when a loft finner comes ever to find himself a loft finner, then he ftands aback, because he thinks either he is too much loft, or too little loft. Either, (1.) He thinks he is too much loft, his fins are fo very great; and fo the man fecretly fays, that he would buy his pardon with his own goodness, if he had it, and will not be obliged to free grace for it; or by this means he magnifies the demerit of his fins, above the merit of the blood of Chrift, which is a great affront poured upon the infinitely glorious bargain that is in his offer. Or, (2.) He thinks he is too little loft, his fense of fin and humiliation is fo very little; and this is another obftruction. He would be more broken and more humbled, before he thinks the offer belongs to him; and this fhews the fulness of his heart, that though he thinks he cannot buy Christ at the gospel market, with his good works, yet he would buy and purchase Chrift with his humiliation, deep down-casting, and the like. Now, this cannot be, it is but a rotten excufe; for, what though you fhould fink as far into the deeps of legal conviction, as defpair itfelf; yet, will that defpair merit any thing at the hand of God, or yet make God better pleafed with him? No: to defpair is to difplease him, as well as to prefume. And as you cannot prefume, if you come to take him in the tenor of our text, namely, as a Christ, as a Jefus, as a Lord, (of which afterwards ;) fo you cannot defpair, if you know that the ground of the offer is free grace. Would you be humbled to defpair in yourself, and of all your excellencies, and of recommending yourself to God by any good, any humility of yours, it were a good defpair; but if you B 2 would would be humbled for fin, fo far as to expect thereupon the favour of God, and forgivenefs of fin, this can never be. But here a queftion may be propofed, What measure of humiliation fhould I have? We anfwer, So much humiliation as makes you fee your want of humiliation, your want of all good, all grace, all conditions, and qualifications; fo much as fhall oblige you to relinquish your own fancied goodnefs, and make you come to Chrift for all, and accept of him upon gospel terms, and the term of the gofpel is free grace. I will tell you, by a comparifon, the true level of humiliation: When is the metal fufficiently melted in the fire? It may be burnt in the fire, and it may be melted too little; but when is it enough? Why, it appears to be melted enough when it runs cafily into the mould: but now, it is not the melting that gives it the fhape, the form, or fashion; but the melting makes it run into the mould, and the mould gives it the form or fhape: so I say here, When is the foul melted enough? It is when it runs into the gofpel mould. There are fome that have, as it were, too much of the fire; there are thefe that apprehend themselves fuch great finners that they dare not come to Chrift. There are others that have too little of the fire; thefe are they that only think they are not fo good as they ought to be, and therefore they fhould not come. There are others that have nothing of the fire at all; and thefe are they that think they are good enough already, and they need not come to receive Christ. But then only is the foul melted enough in the fire, when it runs into the mould. What is the gofpel mould? It is even Chrift. And when the melted foul, like melted lead, or other metal, runs into this mould, then, and not till then, does it get a good fhape: it is not the melting that gives it the fhape or fashion, or form, but it is the mould that gives the form. And fo never expect to have any good form, any good fhape, any good qualification, till your foul run into this mould, by receiving Chrift Jefus the Lord, thus offered to you upon the ground of free grace. And thus you fee the ground of the offer. 3. For what end is the offer made? Why, Chrift is offered offered to the loft finner, upon the ground of free grace, to be both a Jefus and a Lord. As he is to be received as fuch, (of which we may afterwards fpeak,) fo he is offered as fuch, even as a Saviour and a Lord; that is, he hath coupled the falvation of Chrift, and the dominion of Chrift together; and it fhows that all whom he faves he will fanctify; that whom he faves by the price of his blood, he will conquer by the power of his Spirit; he being the Chrift of God, Anointed of God, Sealed of God, to be both a Saviour and a Lord; and he is offered for this end to be both. This fhews what a fuitable offer it is to the poor finner that is both under the wrath of God, the curfe of the law, condemned to hellfire, which makes him stand in need of Christ as a Saviour; and alfo, he is under the power of fin, the flavery of lufts, the bondage of Satan, which makes him stand in need of Chrift as a Lord; and here is encouragement to the poor foul, that would be fanctified as well as juftified, Chrift is offered for wifdom, righteoufnefs, fanctification, and redemption: he is not offered as a Saviour only, to fave from hell; but as a Lord alfo, to deliver from fin. Now, what is the great obftruction here, that hinders the receiving of the offer? Why, it is even the false heart that would divide falvation from dominion; would be content to have his foul faved, but not to have the fin conquered; would have Christ as a Jefus, but not as a Lord: the man would be under his garment, and yet not under his government. In this cafe, the man is not fo much out of love with fin, as out of love with hell; not fo much in love with Chrift, as with his benefits: while his guilt craves Christ's falvation, his lufts oppose Chrift's Lordfhip. If Chrift were offered as a cloak to your lufts, then the falfe and bloody calumny of fome would be true, that we call men to believe, and then live as they lift. Why, if Chrift were offered as a Jefus, a Saviour, and not as a Lord, then fuch a thing might be fuppofed; but let the mouth of calumny be ftopt: we offer Chrift to finners, upon the ground of free grace, both as he is a Jefus and a Lord; and I defy any man in the world to receive this offer, and yet defire to live as he lifts. It is not poffible in nature: For if the language of man's. heart be, Lord let my foul be faved, but let my lufts reign; in this cafe the offer is not received; for then the man fays, Let me have Christ as a Saviour, but not as a Lord: and fo, the offer not being received, it is not faith, but a fancy, a delufion; for, at the fame time that he de fires fuch a latitude, he refufes the offer of Chrift as a Lord; yea, and betrays the rottennefs, of his faith in him as a Saviour, while he would divide falvation from dominion, and Chrift's priefthood from his lordship. When God brings a man therefore to receive his offer in the gospel, he makes him to pass under three con.. victions, which three you read of, John xvi. 8. “When the Spirit is come, he will convince the world of fin, of righteoufnefs, and of judgment." 1. He paffes under the conviction of fin; both of his general fin, in rebelling againft and contemning the authority of a commanding Cod in the law; and of his particular fin of unbelief, in defpifing the grace of a promifing God in the gofpel. 2. He paffes under the conviction of righteoufnefs; that is, of the righteoufnefs of Chrift as a Saviour, a Prieft, a Sacrifice, and as the Lord our righteousness, for justification he is convinced that he is loft for ever without an intereft in this righteousness. 3. He paffes under the conviction of judgment; that is, of the government of Chrift; making the man willing to be fubject to him, as well as juftified by him; to be under the dominion of his grace, as well as under the covert of his blood. Now, till a man have paffed these three convictions, he is still blocked up, and concluded under unbelief. There are two things, which when they do appear, tend mightily to draw out the heart toward the gospeloffer; the one is in us, the other is in Chrift. The first is, the neceffity of the finner; and the fecond is, the excellency of the Saviour. The neceffity of having Chrift upon pain of death, and the excellency of the knowledge of Chrift. The one makes the man willing to be faved by him, the other makes the man willing to be fubdued by him. Such is my neceffity, Oh I must have him for Jefus to me! Such is his excellency, Oh I must have him for a Lord to me! And thus he is brought to go in to to the proper ends of the gofpel-offer, namely, to receive Chrift as Jefus the Lord. Thus I have fhewed you fomewhat relative to the offer which this receiving of Chrift relates to. And from this manner of offering Chrift, it appears, that though the offer be to finners, and grounded upon free grace, yet what a hard thing, yea, how impoffible it is, without the almighty power of God, to receive the offer, or to believe in the Lord Jefus Chrift. What a mighty hard work it is, when there are fuch obftructions in the way!, Many think it is an eafy thing to be believers; and fo it may be faid indeed of a multitude of ordinary, fuperficial, dogmatical believers in the world. But faving faith, though it be the eafieft and fweetest thing in the world, under the conduct of divine grace, and the drawings of the divine Spirit, yet, without that, it is the hardeft thing in the world. Why? 1. For a loft finner, under the curfe of the law, to believe that God fhould be as good to him, as the promife of the gospel tells him, is hard; nay, he is afraid the promise be too good to be true, and this argues his want of faith; for whatever unbelief does, faith never queftions the truth of God's promife, 2. For a proud man to be beholden to free grace, when he hath been building his hope all his days upon fome good work or deed of his own; for fuch a finner to strip himself of his own righteoufnefs, and look upon it as a filthy rag; how hard is this! nay, publicans and harlots go to heaven fooner. 3. For a finner filled with felf-love, felf-eafe, felf-will, felf-wisdom, felf-fufficiency, felf-eftimation, felf-juftification, to deny himfelf, his finful felf, bis natural felf, moral felf, worldly felf, religious felf, and go wholly out of himfelf, and wholly in to Chrift for all; all this is very hard: and yet for this end Chrift is offered, that he may be thus received, even for wifdom, righteoufnefs, fanctification, redemption, and all; for wifdom, that is, as a Prophet to teach you; for righteoufnefs, that is, as a Prieft to juftify you; for fanctification, that is, as a King to fanctify you; and for compleat redemption, tirat is, for your all in all; even the whole of your falvation, |