facraments cannot do it, the loudest knocks or call will not do it: Thou, Lord, muft put to thy helping hand, or it cannot be done, for it is a work peculiar to thy almighty arm. I have been looking to all airths for help, but, Lord, there is none in heaven or earth but thee alone: Every one of the creatures, means, and ordinances fay, it is not in me: Every one of the faints and angels fay, as the king of Ifrael did to that poor ftarving woman, 2 King vi. 27. "If the Lord do not help thee, whence fhall I help thee?" So if thou, Lord, help me not, I must perish.

(3.) In a deep fense of your own impotency, flee to God's power, and plead it. Do you feel the Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir of your own corruptions fwelling within you? Say with Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. xx. 12. "We have no might againft this great company, neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon thee." If you could win this length, then were there good ground of hope; for, when we fee that we are wholly helplefs and fhiftlefs in ourselves, then God's help is neareft: "When I am weak (faith the apoftle, 2 Cor. xii. 10.) then am I ftrong." Renounce, then, all help in the creature, and look to the Creator: Say, Lord, though it be impoflible with man, yet thou haft told me, Mark x. 17. "That with thee all things are poffible:" Though I may defpair of all help in myfeif and others, yet thou haft forbid me to defpair of help in thee, therefore I flee to thee alone. "Lord, give what thou commandeft, and then command what thou wilt."

(4.) Plead thy extreme need of Chrift, and of faith to give thee an interest in him. The world cannot tell thee, O finner, how great thy need is: There is not a ftarving man that needs meat, a wounded man that needs a phyfician, a fhipwrecked man that needs a plank, a dying man with the hive-rattling in his throat, that needs breath fo much as thou needeft Chrift. What wilt thou do on a death-bed, or at a tribunal, without an interest in him? And, what will become of thee to all eternity? Go to him, then, and feek faith in Christ, as a malefactor going to die would do his life: Fall

down

down at his feet and cry, Give me faith and strength to carry me to Chrift's blood, or elfe I die. I may live without friends, wealth, honours, and pleasures; but I cannot live without faith. I am loft, undone, a dead man, and I perifh for ever without it. Lord, deny me what thou wilt, but deny me not faith. It had been better for me never to have been born, than to live without Chrift, and an interest in him: If I win not to the fountain of Chrift's blood, I will fink eternally in that fcalding lake of fire and brimstone: If I go to Christ's table without faith, I will shed his blood, and eat and drink my own damnation.

(5.) Plead with God, how eafy it is for him to help thee; cry with the Pfalmift, Pfal. lxxx. 1. "O thou that dwelleft between the cherubims, fhine forth:" It will coft thee no more pains to work faith in me, and do all that I defire, than doth the Sun to fine forth: Yea, thou canft more eafily put forth thy power and grace, than the fun can dart out its beams. It is no trouble or lofs to the fun to shine forth; fo neither will it be to thee to fhew thy power and mercy: A look or touch from thee would do it; a little thing will fave a drowning man: Lord, fuffer me not to perish, when it is fo eafy for thee to prevent it. Were it any lofs or trouble for God to help us, we might well doubt of it; but, fince it is none, we may cry with hope, Lord, grant fuch an hungry beggar an alms out of the ocean of thy bounty; for thou wilt never miss it. As the fun, the more it fhines, difplays its glory the more; fo thou wilt gain glory by putting forth thy power to help fuch a helpless creature as I am.

Object. "But I have often looked and cried to him for help, but alas, I am fuch a grievous finner, he doth not answer me, unless it be with a frown.”

Anf. 1. It may be there is fome idol or fin still harboured, that thou art not willing to part with. This may be the Achan in the camp, that caufed the Lord to hide his face : Search for it, and caft out the accurfed thing: "Let not thine eye pity it, neither do thou fpare it." If thou canst not find it, go humbly to God and

, cry,

cry, me."

"Shew me, Lord, wherefore thou contendest with

2. It may be thou art not fervent enough; God keeps the door bolted, that you may be provoked to knock the harder, Mat. vii. 7. " Afk, and it fhall be given you feek, and you fhall find: knock, and it fhall be opened to you." In which one verfe, Chrift gives you three calls to fervency and importunity in prayer, each ftronger than another; afk, feek, knock. The woman of Canaan readily took up the meaning of Chrift's refufing to answer her; the turns the more fervent and importunate, and fo gets all her will."

3. Refolve, whatever difcouragement you meet with, you will never quit the throne of grace, but you will always lay yourfelf in Chrift's way, and never look to another for help; yea, that you will die waiting on him. Remember the Pfalmift's experience, Pfal. xl. 1. "I waited patiently for the Lord, and at length he inclined his ear, and heard my cry." There was never any yet that waited on him, had cause to be ashamed. You may meet with many difcouragements and temptations, and be put to very fad thoughts; but you must be refolute in looking to Chrift for help, come what will: And, in imitation of the four lepers at the fiege of Samaria, reason with yourself, if I live at a distance from Christ, I'll infallibly perish, there is no hope for me: If Chrift pity me not when I am waiting on him, I fhall but perith; but yet there is hope, he will have pity at length: Therefore, if I perish, I'll perish at Chrift's footftool, looking up to him, where never one yet perished, and I hope he will not let me be the first.

4. Make ufe of arguments in pleading with him. (1.) Plead the freenefs of his mercy. It needs no motive, and expects no worth; but, "whofoever will, let him come and take the water of life freely." It runs freely, fo that mountains cannot flop the current of it, more than rocks can ftop the ebbing and flowing of the fea. Indeed, Lord, if fin and unworthiness could ftop mercy, I might defpair, for I am as unworthy creature as ever the fun fhined upon; but, bleffed be God, grace is free.

(2.) Plead Chrift's commiffion, Ifa. lxi. 1. He was fent" to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prifon-doors to them that are bound." Lord, here is a poor prifoner, a frozen, locked, boundup heart: Here is employment for thee: Loofe me, knock off my fetters, and " bring my foul out of prifon. Thou haft all fulness dwelling in thee, and thou thou haft it given thee to bestow on fuch miferable objects as I am; Lord, here is a naked back for thee to cover, and an empty ftomach for thee to fill, a wounded foul for thee to cure. "Lord, thou cameft to feek and to fave that which was loft ;" and, wilt thou not be found of a loft finner that is feeking thee?

(3.) Plead the communicativeness of his mercy to others. He had compaffion upon mens bodies while he was on earth, even the bodies of wicked men, such as the unthankful lepers; he let none of them go without healing, that came to him. Say, Lord, didit thou fhew fo much compaflion to difeafed bodies, and wilt thou not have some pity on my dying soul, that is far more precious than carcafes of clay? Plead his compaffion that he hath fhewed to the worst of finners, fuch as Manaffeh, Mary Magdalene, Paul, and those who murdered him.-Plead his compaffion towards the finally obftinate and impenitent, fuch as Jerufalem, over which he wept, Luke xix. Lord, did thy heart melt with pity to fuch, and wilt thou not pity a humbled finner, that confeffeth his fin, and would fain be reconciled to God? Is not mercy the work thou delightest in? Mic. vii. 18.

Laftly, Labour for a fenfe of the mifery of a Chriftlefs ftate, of your great need of Chrift, and of the happinefs of being found in him: And, in a fenfe thereof, look to Chrift, and make a mint to take hold of him. Stir up yourself to it, and reft your foul on him as you can, and God will help you, and communicate ftrength. He will not fail to notice and encourage an honeft mint, Jer. xxx. 21. "Who is this that engageth his heart to approach to me?" He will pity and help fuch. Try, O poor foul, if you can get a grip of Chrift, especially upon a facrament occafion, when you are nearer him VOL. I.

3 N

than

than at other times; If you cannot apply Chrift to yourself, and fay, he is mine; yet apply yourself to Chrift, and fay, I would fain be thine, yea, I am refolved to be thine. Go forth to Chrift with all the faith you can win at; fay, with the poor man, "Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief." You must not fit ftill and do nothing, but ufe all means in your power; for it is in the use of those that God works faith: Hoise up the fails, and wait for the gales.

DIRECT. XI. Come and join yourselves unto the Lord, in a perpetual and perfonal Covenant, before you go to his Table.

UNLESS you be within the covenant of grace, you have no right to the feal of the covenant; now, if ye would be found within the covenant, you must, by faith, take hold of the covenant, and heartily go in with the gracious terms and contrivance of it. And this is what we commonly call perfonal covenanting with God. And the more exprefs and distinct we are in this matter, we will have the more comfort.

As for the nature, neceffity, and manner of perfonal covenanting, I refer the reader to my Sacramental Catechifm, from p. 118. to 136. (firft Edit.) where this fubject is largely handled.

Personal covenanting is the communicant's beft token, and without it you cannot warrantably come to the Lord's table. You will mock God, and deceive your own fouls, if you take the great feal of heaven, and append it to a blank, or a fheet of clean paper: And this you do, when you communicate without previous covenanting with God. O beware of appending hea ven's feal to a blank, left the King of heaven be wroth, and fill up the blank with a curse.

O communicant, come then, take hold of the covenant of grace, and give a hearty and fiducial consent to its gracious offers and terms. You are miferable while under a covenant of works; be convinced of it, and speedily betake yourselves to the new covenant, and the gracious