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in a willing fubjection to every bafe luft; and who is the King to conquer the heart, to fubdue iniquities, to lead captivity cap tive, to spoile principalities and powers, to bid the captive go free, to erect a thorne of righteousnesse and peace in the foul but Chrifte So that the wife love of God hath prepared and fitted Chrift in all refpe&ts futable to the exigencies, and ftraits of a finful foul, and hath appointed faith to be that which fhall put on this Chrift upon the needy foul; why then will we not labour for faich.

Fifthly, God hath not only fitted a Saviour for thee, but he s. Motive. comes neer unto thee with him,he deales mightily with thy foul to beleeve on him.

Thou haft the word of revelation (to this very day) wherein the mystery of thy falvation is made known and cleare unto thee. Thou needeft not to lay in thine heart, Who fall afcend into beaven to bring Chrift down from above, or who shall defcend into. the deeps to bring up Christ againe from the dead? But the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that is the word of faith which we preach. That if thou shalt confeffe with thy mouth the Lord Jefus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raifed him him from the dead, thou shalt be faved, Rom. 6. 7,89.

Thou haft the word of gracious propofition; God hath offer ed Chrift with all his plentiful redemption, with his strong falvation unto thee: yea, he hath affured thee by his Word of John 3.. truth (which cannot lie nor deceive) that if thou believest on bim, thou shalt be Javed by him..

Thou haft the word of injunction which layes a bond of duty upon thee, This is his Commandment,that we beleeve on the Name John 3, 23.1 of his Son Jefus Chrift.

Nay, thou haft the word of penalty and correction. God hath faid that he will judge thee for not believing, and that in the fharpeft method of expreffion, He that believes not shall be dam

ned.

Nay thou haft the word of obfecration and gentle intreaty, God floops infinitely below himself he doth ftreine curtefie with thee, God doth beseech you by us, and we pray you in Christs stead. to be reconciled to God.

Nay thou hast the word of expostulation; why will you not

Y 3.

bee

6. Motive..

beleeve? why will ye die in your fins? why will ye not come to me that you may be faved? How often would I have gathered thee? All the day long have 1 fretched forth my bands.

Nay, thy unbelief grieves the very heart of Christ, (he grisved at their unbelief) he complaines of that flowneffe in thy beart to believe( flow of heart to believe, c.)nay,and he sheds tears, becaule thou doft not believe, and receive him, when he came near the City, he wept over it, O Hierufalem! thon that, &c. How often woulà 1, &c?

Sixthly, confider how unreasonable, and unequal, and sorrish a thing it is not to receive Chrift, being thus revealed and of fered.

1. There is none who have right to thy foul but God and Chrift; our fouls are Gods workmanship, and Chrifts purchase, Why then should we not give to God that which belongs to God, and to Chrift that which is his own; Te are not your own, faith the Apostle, 1 Cor.6.19.20. for je are bought with a price. God put forth his own power to make thy foul, and Chrift fhed his heart blood to redeem thy fool, and yet wile thou through infidelity with-hold it from him, and paffe it over into the poffeffion of a ftranger, an enemy?

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2. Chrift out bids all Merchants for thy foul, he out bids fin, and he out-bids all the world, and he out bids Satan. Can the Sonne of fefe give you vineyards, faid Saul? can finne give thee that which Chrift can? can the world? let them now appear and declare their ftrength and treafury; Is there any one of them that prefents redemption unto thee? Is there any one of them that can procure remiffion and pardoning mercy for thee? Is there any one of them which can fatisfie the wrath of God for thee? which can make thy peace, which can prefent thee righteous before the judgement feat? which can fettle eternal life upon thee? All this can Chrift, do, none of this can they do.

3. Thou canst not possibly be a loser by receiving or believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Suppofe it coft thee many tears, and many prayers, and many Searchings, and many waitings, yet Chrift will recompence all

thefe

these in a moment, one word, I am thy falvation; It is 1,be not afraid; I am thine,as thou art mine, thy fins are forgiven thee, will be a day for all former nights.

Suppole that the world doth caft thee off, as they caft him out of the Synagogue who beleeved and profeffed Chrift, yet Chrift will come unto thee as unto him. And as Elkanah faid to Hanna, 1Sam.1.8. Am not better then ten fons? or as the Prophet answered the King for the bundred talents, God will be better unto thee, 2 Sam. 20. 9. So will Chrift, he will fupply all thy loffes, he will be better unto thee then boufes and lands,then father and mother, an hundred fold better in this life, and a thousand fold better in the life to come.

4. What just extremity of shame and blackneffe of confufion will befal thee, if thou be fo wickedly unreafonable to keep off thy foul from Chrift. When thou art cited before God and Chrift, and the holy Angels and just men, And God fhall demand of thee, why? whom haft thou ferved? upon. whom haft thou bestowed thy foul? who was it that made thy foul? Thou Lord, who was it that purchafed and redeemed. thy foul? Thou Chrift, and who befeeched thee to bring back thy foul; Thou by thy fervants in thy Word? And what did they fay unto thee, which fhould have prevailed upon thee? They did affure me in thy Name, that if I would come in,and accept of Chrift, fhould have favour, and pardon,and eternal life; and what did keep back thy foul from accepting of this? O it was fuch a luft that I loved, and it was the world which I preferr❜d. And wouldeft thou prefer earth before heaven, thy profit before thy foul? nay wouldeft thou prefer a base: finne before a merciful God, and a bleffed Redeemer? Thy own mouth doth teftifie against thee; was not my mercy bet ter then a finne was not my Sonne better then a finne ? take. him all ye children of darkneffe, feafe on him my wrath to the utmoft, clofe him up in the lowest pit of hell, confcience gnaw on him, and fting him for ever, fire and brimstone confame and torment him eternally, he fhall never have part in my mercy; he fhall never have portion in my Sonne; He: fhall never fee my face nor heaven, who preferred his finne, his delights, his profits, before my love, my mercy, my Chrift, and his own foul.

Laftly

Lastly, faith would do great things for thes, and Chrift would do wonders for thy foul, if once thy beart could be per/waded to confent unto him, and to accept of him as Lord and Savi.

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Obj.

SECT. II.

Secondly, the impediments and hindrances.

Ut now, as the Eunuch faid, There is water, what binBur ders me that 1 may not be baptized: fo you may say, why her is Chrift fet out to the life, here are arguments faire enough to draw on my foul, what hinders that we do not believe and receive Ct?

Sol. After all thefe difcoveries, yet the heart ftands off, and why? because there are yet many cords with which the foul is held, there are yet feveral impediments which do intangle and feduce the heart, which keeps it down from mounting and ri fing up to the Lord of life, against which we must earnestly labour if ever we would beleeve in the Lord Jefus Chrift,

I will touch fome of the choifeft of them..

1. One impediment to faith is that natural Atheisme in the fons of men. You know that as in the concoction or digeftion of meats, that which is a prejudice to the first concoction or digeftion of meats, is a hindrance to the two other, and as in points of demonftration, that fcruple which weakens the apprehenfion of the truth of the principle,it ever disable the strength of affent to the deduced conclufion.. So is it in divinity, whatfoever vile quality in the foul prejudiceth the reverent respects of the most common and first truths, it doth hinder 15 much in the embracing of the depending truths, which receive much authority and ftrength from the grants of the for

*mer.

Now Atheisme, it is a flighting quarrel with the first truths : An Atheistical fpirit, it hath moft fordid and loose concepti

ons

ons of God and of his Word;it doth not fer up God in the greatneffe of his nature, and Majesty of his Attributes, and Authority of his Word; God looks not like a God unto him; nor doth the Word of God work upon him like the Word of God. God is not in all his thoughts, he doth got really conceive of him, as one who indeed is omnipotent, and fo holy, and so just, and fo merciful as he reveales himself; Those sweet truths of favour, and kindn: ffe, and mercy, and the blood of Chrift they are either nothing to him, or as empty notions. Thofe fharp threatnings against an unbelieving perfon, with condem-. nation,and wrath,and hell, they are as terrible fables and fcarcrowes to him, He doth not believe any fuch difpleasures, nor torments, that thus it fhall be indeed. Now how can the foul be inclined to believe in Chrift, to part with its deare lufts, with its worldly advantages and pleasures, and to fubmit it felfe to the Lawes and Scepter of Chrift, when as it doth expreffely or vertually deny the mure of God, and the power of his truths?

Didst thou indeed beleeve that there was a God, didst thou indeed believe that his revelations of mans finful mifery, and of his fingular mercy in Chrift were true and real? Didft thou believe that God hath wrath, and blackneffe of darkness, and vials of vengeance for ever to be poured on the unbeliever, and that the lake which burnes with fire and brimstone muft be thy affured portion, (as God hath spoken?) how couldst thou fit ftill, content thy heart, neglect thy falvation by Chrift, ftand off from the wayes and endeavours for faith?

Therefore to remove this impediment, beg of God to forgive, and cure the Atheisme of thy Spirit. Strive to fet up the true God in thy understanding, and to believe that he is the Lord Who will not lye. Whattoever he hath revealed himself to be and to do. Why, that he is, and that he will performe; that it is thy duty to return from finne to him in Chrift, and if thou doft returne, he will in mercy (pare and deliver thy foul from the pit, because he hath found a ransome; but if thou wilt not return, he wil bathe the fword of his flaming justice for ever in the blood of thy foul.

2. A fecond impediment to the getting of faith is groffe ig

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