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at such a time, the want of greater sorrow and humiliation for sin-that the soul has not lain long enough under the humbling work of the law-that the aggravations of sin have been such that there is no hope of acceptance. Free thy soul from these snares of Satan by the consideration of the truth, that Christ expects from thee no more humiliation than what produces such a hearty, deliberate consent as thy will is now to give; and such a consent once gained, no aggravation of sin can be pleaded against the duty of believing.

DIRECTION 3. Distrust not the sincerity of Christ in the gracious offers he makes to coming souls. Be sure that he speaks his very heart in them to thee; the devil labors to sow jealousy and suspicions in the hearts of convinced sinners, that they will not find such a welcome with Christ as he seems to promise them in those encouraging scriptures, Matt. 11:28, 29; John 6:37; but that something else lies hid in such scriptures, as a mystery which they understand not, and so labors to hinder the accepting act of faith. This is a case as common as it is sad. The Lord help you to avoid this snare, lest instead of honoring Christ by resolved adherence to him, you make him a liar, and impute insincerity to the God of truth: "He that believeth not God, hath made him a liar." 1 John, 5:10.

DIRECTION 4. Look up to God to enable you to come to Christ in this difficult work of faith. Do not think faith is of the growth of thine own heart: "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him." John 6:44. There is a legal spirit working under evangelical pretences in many souls; teaching them to look within themselves to find that which is quite above them. The apostle points you to the fountain of faith, in Eph. 2:8: it is "not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." If the power of God must be owned as the cause of every new degree of faith in the greatest believers, as is plain from Luke 17:5,

"The apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith;" how much more is the production of faith itself, and the first vital act thereof to be ascribed to the almighty power of God?

DIRECTION 5. Keeping thine eye of expectation upon that almighty power, plead with the Lord importunately to exert that power upon thy soul; and give not over thy suit till thou feel that power upon thee. The time of believing is a time of earnestly pleading thine own danger and necessity; and the Spirit of the Lord will abundantly furnish thee with pleas and arguments to enforce this suit. Such as these:

(1.) Lord, I have thy call and invitation, yea, I have thy command to encourage me to believe; it is no presumption therefore, in thy poor creature, to come after thou hast invited and commanded me: hadst thou not encouraged me, I dared not have moved towards thee. Lord, whose word is it, "that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ?" 1 John, 3:23. Is it not thine own? This makes my faith an act of obedience.

(2.) Yea, Lord, I have thy promise, as well as thy command, made upon no other condition but my coming to thee. Blessed Jesus, hast thou not said, "Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out?" John 6:37. An invitation is much, but thy promise is more.

(3.) O my God, I have not only thy command, making it my duty to believe, and thy promise to encourage me to that duty, but I have the examples of other sinners who came unto thee long ago, and thou didst not reject them: nor do I abuse these examples in drawing encouragement from them; for it was thy very design, in recording them, that they might be so many patterns to all that should hereafter believe on thee. 1 Tim. 1:16.

(4.) O my God, I am shut up under a plain necessity; I have no other way to take; I am beaten off from all other

refuges; there is no help for me in angels or in men, in duties or self-righteousness; in thee only my soul can find rest. I am shut up to thee as to the only door of hope, Gal. 3:23; here I must succeed or perish: my soul is burdened and wearied; I know not how to dispose of it, but into thy hands; nor where to lay the burden of 1 y guilt, but upon thee. If I fail here, I am lost for ever.

(5.) Lord, I am willing to renounce all other hopes, refuges, and righteousness, and to rely upon thee only. Duties cannot justify me, tears cannot wash me, reformation cannot save me; nothing but thy righteousness can answer for me. I come to thee a poor naked creature, saying as they of old, “Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods; for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy." Hos. 14: 3. Thus plead with God, and still remember you are pleading for life, yea, for your

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eternal life. DIRECTION 6. Labor to make a resolved adventure upon Christ, amidst all these encouragements, let the issue be what it will; resolve to venture, though you have not the least degree of assurance that you shall be accepted and pardoned. This is that brave and noble act of faith which carries the soul to Christ: much as Esther came to the king, So will I go in unto the king; and if I perish, I perish." Esther 4 16. It grieves me to think how some imagine that the fervent love of Christ will save and justify them, without any act of belief on their part; but you see that scriptural faith is very different from all this. O there are great difficulties and mighty wrestlings in the work of believing it is a great matter for a convinced sinner, in the face of so much guilt and vileness and amidst such manifold discouragements from Satan, to cast and adventure himself upon Christ, and that upon such self-denying terms; but the pinch of necessity will bring the soul to this, for now it reasons with itself as the lepers did, If we go to the camp

of the Syrians, we can but die; and if we abide here, we must certainly die. 2 Kings, 7:4. So here, if I sit still in the state of nature and continue to delay, my destruction is unavoidable-to hell I must go and if I cast myself upon Christ, I can but be rejected. But he has said, He will not cast out those that come unto him: in this way of faith there is a possibility, yea, assurance of salvation; this therefore is my only way; to him I will go, and if I perish, I perish.

DIRECTION 7. Never measure the grace of God, nor the mercy of Christ, by your own narrow apprehensions of him; but believe them to be far greater than your contracted understanding represents them to you. Our idea of the pardoning power and mercy of God, cast in the mould of our own thoughts, disfigures and alters them, so that they look not like themselves, but with a very discouraging aspect upon our souls. By this, Satan keeps off many souls from coming to Christ. The Lord knows how to forgive thee, though thou scarcely knowest how to forgive thyself, for the injuries thou hast done against him. That is a striking scripture to this purpose, in Isa. 55: 7-9: "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Man lies under a double misery, one by reason of affliction, another by reason of transgression; concerning both these, God's thoughts are not as ours, but far above what we can think. We cannot think such thoughts in respect to others, under misery in themselves or under transgression against us, as God does towards us; nor can we conceive what those thoughts of God are towards us, when we are under misery or sin, as

he thinks them. His thoughts will still be above ours, as the heavens are above the earth. So high is heaven that the vast body of the whole earth is but a small, inconsiderable point to it; the highest cedars, mountains, clouds cannot reach it. God's thoughts are infinite, ours finite; his thoughts are continued, ours interrupted and at a stand; his are immutable, ours changeable; his are intuitive, ours discursive therefore never measure his by your own. The thoughts of pardoning grace in him, are rich, plenteous, and glorious; but when our unbelieving hearts practise upon them, they seem quite another thing. can such a wretch as I obtain mercy? but the Lord knoweth. O if you could take in such a proper idea and apprehension of the mercy and goodness of God, as he has given of them himself, when he passed by Moses and proclaimed himself, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin," Exod. 34:6, 7, this would bring you to Christ with much encouragement.

Thou sayest, How
Thou knowest not,

DIRECTION 8. Be not discouraged in the work of faith, though no comfort should come in by the first act of it; nay, though there should be an increase of trouble for the present. The first saving act of faith certainly puts you into a state of peace, but it may not presently produce the sense of peace; after you have believed and really closed with Christ, you may meet with some discouragements which may make you question whether Christ has received you or no-whether he has any love for your souls or no? Yet persevere, whether comfort come or not; though Christ and safety are inseparable, yet Christ and the sense of comfort are not so think not that all your troubles shall be over as soon as you believe, because it is said, "We which have believed do enter into rest.' Heb. 43. That scripture speaks of a state of rest, and not of a present or continued sense of rest.

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