tear with him, while he is grieved at the hardnefs of your heart, and with the tear in his eye weeping over the city, and faying, O if thou hadft known in this thy day, the things that belong to thy peace! but the time approaches when they fhall be hid from thine eyes; the time of defolation is coming, because thou knoweft not the time of thy vifitation. Do ye expect that these days will always last with you, and that you will never be deprived of fermons, and minifters, and facraments? Nay, they fhall be hid from your eyes. Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets do they live for ever! Nay, fince the laft communion here, one of our dear helpers in this prefbytery, from whose lips you used to hear the joyful found, is gone away to the communion-table above; and glory to God, that he got a full gale of heavenly wind, to drive him in with holy joy and triumph to the harbour of glory. But now, O finners, have ye no regard to Chrift weeping over you, and faying, O if ye knew the day of your vifitation, before the fhadows of the everlasting evening be drawn upon you! and O that you knew the things that belong to your peace, before they be hid from your eyes!

But again, I muft tell you what is his wrathful and threatning word. If you believe not that I am he, ye fhall die in your fins; and how shall ye escape, if ye neglect fo great a falvation! If they efcaped not who refufed him that spake on earth, much more fhall we not efcape, if we turn away from him that fpeaketh from heaven.

And O, what if it come to his farewel word! I go my way, and ye fhall fee me no more till he come in the clouds of heaven, and every eye fhall

fee

fee him; and then you will come to that word with it, who live and die with a heart never engaged to him: you will come, I fay, to that word with it, O mountains and bills fall upon us, and hide us from the face of the Lamb.

And how dreadful will his laft word be to you, depart from me ye curfed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels! Ye did eat and drink in my house, and at my table, but I know you not, depart from me: Ye adventured to approach to my table, but your hearts were not engaged to approach to me; nay, your hearts departed from me; therefore depart with a vengeance, Depart from me ye curfed.

But because it is not come to that with you as yet; nay, it is yet a day of falvation: I would tell you next, his expoftulating word, or his intreating word; he would fain take his word of wrath again, that ye whofe hearts are faying, Away with him, may yet take your word again: He is faying, Why will ye die, O boufe of Ifrael? As I live, I have no pleafure in your death; O turn ye, turn ye: Come, come, the door is yet open, the door of falvation is caft up wide to the walls, that ye may all run in; the draw-bridge of mercy is not yet taken up, the day of mercy is prefent, the day of judgment is but coming, and now I am looking to you, and ye are looking to me; and if ye be not looking on me, ye that are behind the pillars and galleries there, I hope ye are hearing me: And therefore, in the view of that awful day, when we fhall fee and hear at another rate, before the flaming tribunal, I take witneffes here, in prefence of the great God, and all this numerous company, that I am giving you a new offer of Chrift, as an engager

to

to do all for you; and that if you will but confent to take him and give him employment, yea, that if you do not reject him, you fhall have him. None here fhall have it to fay, they got nothing at this communion: For lo, you have got an offer of Chrift; and if you go away without him, and live and die without him, we fhall be witneffes againft one another at the great day of his appearance. now is the acceptable time, &c. O, are ye pleased? Are your hearts pleafed with one to be a cautioner for you, to fave you both from fin and hell, and that will engage for debt, and duty, and fafety, and pave your way for approaching to God's glorious prefence for ever? Will ye have him for your head and captain? I allude to the words of Jephthab, Jud. xi. 9. If I fight for you, and prevail, fhall I be your head? O yes, yes, fay they; well, fo fays Chrift to you, if I engage to fatisfy justice for you, and answer all law-demands for you, and take away all your fins, and fight all your battles, and do all your work in you and for you; fhall I be your head? O is your heart engaged to fay, yes? O my friends, old and young, that are here, do your hearts fay, Amen, Amen; content to have him as a prophet, to take away the darkness of my mind; content to have him as a priest, to take away the guilt of all my fins; and content to have him as a king, to take away the power of all my lufts and idols, and to make me holy and happy in himself, that his name may be glorified in me, and his magnified for ever? O then, I hope, the day of falvation is begun, that shall be celebrated with joy to eternity. Therefore, let me clofe with a word, in the next place,

grace

2dly, To

2dly, To you whofe hearts are engaged to the Lord Jefus, whether you have been communicants or not; and because fome fuch may be in doubts whether ever they have believed in Christ truly and favingly. Why, if your hearts be truly engaged to Chrift, never make a question about your believing for a heart engaged to him is the best believing in the world, Rom. x. 10. With the beart man believeth unto righteousness; and if your doubt remain, the best way of getting it refolved, is, to let your heart go out upon him anew, as the glorious engager and approacher to God in your room. Are ye afraid you come fhort of heaven? So ye may indeed, unless Chrift had engaged to bring you there; but if you lay ftrefs upon his engagement, there is no fear. Are you afraid you come fhort of duty? So you may if you be the only engager; but will you truft Chrift for nothing? Where is your faith in his engagement, to do all for you and in you? What may fome fay, would you have us all to turn Antinomians, to do nothing, and engage to do nothing, but truft all to Chrift? The Lord pity a poor deluded world that is wedded to a covenant of works. Will you tell me, Man, Is that Antinomianifm, to come out of yourself to Chrift for righteousness, to answer all the demands of the law as a covenant of works; and to come out of yourSelf to Chrift for strength, to answer all the commands of the law as a rule of life and holiness, and fo to engage for nothing in your own perfon alone, because God cannot trust your perfonal bond, but to take Chrift for your cautioner, and to lay firefs on his engagement? And feeing you cannot approach to a holy and just God in yourself, to look to Chrift as the first approacher for you, and then to approach to God in

: him. If you thus engage upon Chrift's head, according to his promife, then engage to what you will; and if you approach to God in his own name, then you may approach with boldness.

If you think of engaging in your own name and perfon, and of approaching in your own name and perfon, that is the old covenant-way of engaging and approaching; and therefore no wonder then, if that be your way, that you be overwhelmed with fears and doubts, and difcouragements.

· But let gallant faith come in and fay, Chrift hath engaged, and therefore I have nothing to do but to truft to him for all, and in the ufe of means depend upon him; Chrift hath approached before me, and therefore upon the red carpet of his jufticefatisfying blood, I'll go into the holy of holies, even into the presence of a juft and holy God. O have you thus approached to God at this occafion? I know not, fay ye? I would be glad to know. Why, if ye would judge of your approach to God in Chrift, judge of your approach, not by the measure of it; for believers are permitted only fometimes, as it were, to wafh his feet with their tears, like Mary, though at other times they may be allowed to lie in his bofom, like the beloved difciple. Judge not of your approach, by the matter of that which he gives you; for fometimes you may be seeking one thing, and he may give another: It may be ye were feeking a feaft of joy ; but if he hath given you a feast of godly forrow, that is as good for you. Judge not of your approach by your former experiences: It may be, formerly you have been like a lamb in his bofom, faying, under a fenfe of his love, This is my loved; and now, perhaps, you must lie like a dog VOL. II.

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