empty it is, so he must know the law, how severe it is; else he will
not come to God by Jesus Christ our Lord.
A man that is under awakenings, is under a double danger of falling
short of coming to God by Christ. If he knows not the severity of the
law, he is either in danger of slighting its penalty, or of seeking to
make amends to it by doing of good works; and nothing can keep him from
splitting his soul upon one of these two rocks, but a sound knowledge
of the severity of the law.
(1.) He is in danger of slighting the penalty. This is seen by the
practice of all the profane in the world. Do they not know the law?
Verily, many of them can say the Ten Commandments without book. But
they do not know the severity of the law; and therefore when at any
time awakenings come upon their consciences, they strive to drive away
the guilt of one sin, by wallowing in the filth of another.
But would they do thus if they knew the severity of the law? they would
as soon eat fire. The severity of the law would be an intolerable,
insupportable burden to their consciences; it would drive them, and
make them fly for refuge, to lay hold on the hope set before them.
(2.) Or if he slights not the penalty, he will seek to make amends to
it by doing of good works for the sins he has committed. This is
manifest by the practice of the Jews and Turks, and all that swerve on
that hand—to wit, to seek life and happiness by the law. Paul also was
here before he meet with Jesus in the way. This is natural to
consciences that are awakened, unless also they have given to them to
see the true severity of the law; the which that thou mayest do, if my
mite will help, I will cast in for thy conviction these four things—
(a.) The law charges thee with its curse, as well for the pollution of
thy nature, as for the defilements of thy life; yea, and if thou hadst
never committed sinful act, thy pollution of nature must stand in thy
way to life, if thou comest not to God for mercy by Christ.
(b.) The law takes notice of, and chargeth thee with its curse, as well
for sinful thoughts as for vile and sinful actions. ‘The [very] thought
of foolishness is sin,’ (Prov 24:9), though it never breaks out into
act, and will as surely merit the damnation of the soul as will the
greatest transgression in the world.
(c.) If now thou couldst keep all the commandments, that will do thee
no good at all, because thou hast sinned first: ‘The soul that sinneth
shall die.’ Unless, then, thou canst endure the curse, and so in a
legal way overcome it for the sins that thou hast committed, thou art
gone, if thou comest not to God by Christ for mercy and pardon.
(d.) And never think of repentance, thereby to stop the mouth of the
law; for the law calleth not for repentance, but life; nor will it
accept of any, shouldst thou mourn and weep for thy sins till thou hast
made a sea of blood with tears. This, I say, thou must know, or thou
wilt not come to God by Christ for life. For the knowledge of this will
cause that thou shalt neither slight the severity of the law, nor trust
to the works thereof for life. Now, when thou doest neither of these,
thou canst not but speed thee to God by Christ for life; for now thou
hast no stay; pleasures are gone, all hope in thyself is gone. Thou now
diest, and that is the way to love; for this inward death is, or feels
like, a hunger-bitten stomach, that cannot but crave and gape for meat
and drink. Now it will be as possible for thee to sleep with thy finger
in the fire, as to forbear craving of mercy so long as this knowledge
remains.
4. As a man must know himself, the emptiness of this world, and the
law, so it is necessary for him to know that there is a hell, and how
insupportable the torments of it are; for all threatenings, curses, and
determinations to punish in the next world will prove but fictions and
scarecrows, if there be no woeful place, no woeful state, for the
sinner to receive his wages in for sin, when his days are ended in this
world. Wherefore, this word ‘saved’ supposeth such a place and state.
He is able to save from hell, from the woeful place, from the woeful
state of hell, them that come unto God by him.
Christ, therefore, often insinuated the truth of a hell in his
invitations to the sinners of this world to come to him; as where he
tells them they shall be saved if they do, they shall be damned if they
do not. As if he had said, there is a hell, a terrible hell, and they
that come to me I will save them from it; but they that come not, the
law will damn them in it. Therefore, that thou mayest indeed come to
God by Christ for mercy, believe there is a hell, a woeful, terrible
place. Hell is God’s creature, ‘he hath made it deep and large’! The
punishments are by the lashes of his wrath, which will issue from his
mouth like a stream of burning brimstone, ever kindling itself upon the
soul. (Isa 30:33) Thou must know this by the Word, and fly from it, or
thou shalt know it by thy sins, and lie and cry in it.
I might enlarge, but if I did, I should be swallowed up; for we are
while here no more able to set forth the torments of hell, than we are
while here to set forth the joys of heaven; only this may, and ought to
be said, that God is able, as to save, so to cast into hell. (Luke
12:5) And as he is able to make heaven sweet, good, pleasurable, and
glorious beyond thought; so he is able to make the torments of hell so
exquisite, so hot, so sharp, so intolerable, that no tongue can utter
it, no, not the damned in hell themselves. (Isa 64:4) If thou lovest
thy soul, slight not the knowledge of hell, for that, with the law, are
the spurs which Christ useth to prick souls forward to himself withal.
What is the cause that sinners can play so delightfully with sin? It is
for that they forget there is a hell for them to descend into for their
so doing, when they go out of this world. For here usually he gives our
stop to a sinful course; we perceive that hell hath opened her mouth
before us. Lest thou shouldst forget, I beseech thee, another time, to
retain the knowledge of hell in thine understanding, and apply the
burning-hot thoughts thereof to thy conscience; this is one way to make
thee gather up thy heels, and mend thy pace in thy coming to Jesus
Christ, and to God the Father by him.13
5. It is also necessary that he that cometh to God by the Lord Jesus,
should know what death is, and the uncertainty of its approaches upon
us. Death is, as I may call it, the feller, the cutter down. Death is
that that puts a stop to a further living here, and that which lays man
where judgment finds him. If he is in the faith in Jesus, it lays him
down there to sleep till the Lord comes; if he be not in the faith, it
lays him down in his sins till the Lord comes. (Heb 11:13, 1 Thess
4:14, Job 20:11) Again; if thou hast some beginnings that look like
good, and death should overtake thee before those beginnings are ripe,
thy fruit will wither, and thou wilt fall short of being gathered into
God’s barn. Some men are ‘cut off as the tops of the ears of corn,’ and
some are even nipped by death in the very bud of their spring; but the
safety is when a man is ripe, and shall be gathered to his grave, as a
shock of corn to the barn in its season. (Job 24:20-24, 5:26)
Now if death should surprise and seize thee before thou art fit to die,
all is lost; for there is no repentance in the grave, or rather, as the
wise man has it, ‘Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy
might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in
the grave, whither thou goest.’ (Eccl 9:10)
Death is God’s sergeant, God’s bailiff, and he arrests in God’s name
when he comes, but seldom gives warning before he clappeth us on the
shoulder; and when he arrests us, though he may stay a little while,
and give us leave to pant, and tumble, and toss ourselves for a while
upon a bed of languishing, yet at last he will prick our bladder, and
let out our life, and then our soul will be poured upon the ground,
yea, into hell, if we are not ready and prepared for the life
everlasting. He that doth not watch for, and is not afraid lest death
should prevent him, will not make haste to God by Christ. What Job said
of temporal afflictions, such an one will death be if thou art not
aware—‘When I looked for good, then evil came—The days of affliction
prevented me.’ (Job 30:26,27) If thou lookest, or beginnest to look for
good, and the day of death shall cut thee off before thou hast found
that good thou lookest for, all is lost, soul, and life, and heaven,
and all. Wherefore it is convenient that thou conclude the grave is thy
house, and that thou make thy bed once a day in the grave; also that
thou say unto corruption, ‘Thou art my father; to the worm, thou art my
mother and my sister.’ (Job 17:13,14) I say, be acquainted with the
grave and death. The fool puts the evil day far away, but the wise man
brings it nigh. Better be ready to die seven years before death comes,
than want one day, one hour, one moment, one tear, one sorrowful sigh
at the remembrance of the ill-spent life that I have lived. This, then,
is that which I admonish thee of; namely, that thou know death, what it
is, what it doth when it comes. Also, that thou consider well of the
danger that death leaves that man in, to whom he comes before he is
ready and prepared to be laid by it in the grave.
6. Thou must also be made by thy awakenings to see what Christ is. This
is of absolute necessity; for how can or shall a man be willing to come
to Christ that knows not what he is, what God has appointed him to do?
He is the Saviour, every man will say so; but to sense, smell, and
taste, what saving is, and so to understand the nature of the office
and work of a Saviour, is a rare thing, kept close from most, known but
by some. Jesus of Nazareth is the Saviour or the reconciler of men to
God in the body of his flesh through death. (Col 1:19-21) This is he
whose business in coming from heaven to earth was to save his people
from their sins. Now, as was said, to know how he doth this, is that
which is needful to be inquired into; for some say he doth it one way,
some, he doth it another; and it must be remembered that we are now
speaking of the salvation of that man that from new or first
awakenings, is coming to God by Christ for life. (1.) Some say he doth
it, by giving of us precepts and laws to keep, that we might be
justified thereby. (2.) Some say that he doth it, by setting himself a
pattern for us to follow him.(3.) Some again hold, that he doth it by
our following the light within.
But thou must take heed of all these, for he justifies us by none of
these means, and thou dost need to be justified. I say, he justifieth
us, not either by giving laws unto us, or by becoming our example, or
by our following of him in any sense, but by his blood shed for us. His
blood is not laws, nor ordinances, nor commandments, but a price, a
redeeming price. (Rom 5:7-9, Rev 1:5) He justifies us by bestowing upon
us, not by expecting from us; he justifies us by his grace, not by our
works. (Eph 1:7) In a word, thou must be well grounded in the knowledge
of what Christ is, and how men are justified by him, or thou wilt not
come unto God by him.
As thou must know him, and how men are justified by him, so thou must
know the readiness that is in him to receive and to do for those what
they need that come unto God by him. Suppose his merits were never so
efficacious, yet if it could be proved that there is a loathness in him
that these merits should be bestowed upon the coming ones, there would
but few adventure to wait upon him. But now, as he is full, he is free.
Nothing pleases him better than to give what he has away; than to
bestow it upon the poor and needy. And it will be convenient that thou
who art a coming soul shouldst know this for thy comfort to encourage
thee to come to God by him. Take two or three sayings of his, for the
confirming of what is now said. ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ (Matt 11:28) ‘All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in
no wise cast out.’ (John 6:37) ‘I came not to call the righteous, but
sinners to repentance.’ (Mark 2:17) ‘This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners; of whom I am chief.’ (1 Tim 1:15)
7. As a man that would come to God by Christ must, antecedent to his so
coming, know himself, what he is; the world, how empty it is; the law,
how severe it is; death, and what it is; and Christ, and what he is; so
also he must know God. ‘He that cometh to God must believe that he is,
and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.’ (Heb 11:6)
God must be known, else how can the sinner propound him as his end, his
ultimate end? For so doth every one that indeed doth come to Christ
aright; he comes to Christ because he is the way; he comes to God
because he is the end. But, I say, if he knows him not, how can he
propound him as the end? The end is that for the sake of which I
propound to myself anything, and for the sake of which I use any means.
Now, then, I would be saved; but why? Even because I would enjoy God. I
use the means to be saved; and why? Because I would enjoy God. I am
sensible that sin has made me come short of the glory of God, and that
Christ Jesus is he, the only he, that can put me into a condition of
obtaining the glory of God; and, therefore, I come to God by him. (Rom
3:23, 5:1,2)
But, I say again, who will propound God for his end that knows him not,
that knows him not aright? yea, that knows him not, to be worth being
propounded as my end in coming to Jesus Christ; and he that thus knows
him must know him to be above all, best of all, and him in whom the
soul shall find that content, that bliss, that glory and happiness that
can by no means be found elsewhere. And, I say, if this be not found in
God, the soul will never propound him to itself as the only, highest,
and ultimate end in its coming to Jesus Christ. But it will propound
something else, even what it shall imagine to be the best good; perhaps
heaven, perhaps ease from guilt, perhaps to be kept out of hell, or the
like. I do not say but a man may propound all these to himself, in his
coming to Jesus Christ; but if he propound these as his ultimate end,
as the chiefest good that he seeks; if the presence and enjoyment of
God, of God’s glorious majesty, be not his chief design, he is not
concerned in the salvation that is propounded in our text—‘He is able,’
and so will ‘save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him.’
What is heaven without God? what is ease without the peace and
enjoyment of God? what is deliverance from hell without the enjoyment
of God? The propounding, therefore, these, and only these, to thyself
for thy happiness in thy coming to Jesus Christ is a proposal not a
hair’s breadth higher than what a man without grace can propound. What
or who is he that would not go to heaven? What or who is he that would
not also have ease from the guilt of sin? And where is the man that
chooseth to go to hell? But many there be that cannot abide God; no,
they like not to go to heaven, because God is there. If the devil had a
heaven to bestow upon men, a vicious and a beastly heaven, if it be
lawful thus to speak, I durst pawn my soul upon it, were it a thousand
times better than it is, that, upon a bare invitation, the foul fiend
would have twenty to God’s one. They, I say, cannot abide God; nay, for
all, the devil has nothing but a hell for them; yet how thick men go to
him, but how thinly to God Almighty. The nature of God lieth cross to
the lusts of men. A holy God, a glorious holy God, an infinitely holy
God, this spoils all. But to the soul that is awakened, and that is
made to see things as they are; to him God is what he is in himself,
the blessed, the highest, the only eternal good, and he without the
enjoyment of whom all things would sound but emptily in the ears of
that soul.
Now, then, I advise thee that hast a mind to come to God by Christ,
that thou seek the knowledge of God—‘If thou seekest wisdom as silver,
and searchest for her as for hid treasures, then shalt thou understand
the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.’ (Prov 2:4,5) And
to encourage thee yet further, he is so desirous of communion with men,
that he pardoneth sins for that. Hence he is called not only loving,
but love. ‘God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God,
and God in him.’ (1 John 4:16)
Methinks, when I consider what glory there is at times upon the
creatures, and that all their glory is the workmanship of God; O Lord,
say I, what is God himself? He may well be called the God of glory, as
well as the glorious Lord; for as all glory is from him, so in him is
an inconceivable well-spring of glory, of glory to be communicated to
them that come by Christ to him. Wherefore, let the glory, and love,
and bliss, and eternal happiness that is in God allure thee to come to
him by Christ.
8. As thou shouldst, nay, must, have a good knowledge of all these, so
thou must have it of judgment to come. They that come to God by Christ
are said to ‘flee from the wrath to come’; to ‘flee for refuge, to lay
hold on the hope set before them.’ (Matt 3:7, Heb 6:18)
This judgment to come is a warm thing to be thought of, an awakening
thing to be thought of; it is called the eternal judgment, because it
is and will be God’s final conclusion with men. This day is called the
‘great and notable day of the Lord,’ (Acts 2:20); the day ‘that shall
burn like an oven,’ (Mal 4:1); the day in which the angels shall gather
the wicked together, as tares, into bundles, to burn them; but the
rest, into his kingdom and glory. This day will be it in which all the
bowels of love and compassion shall be shut up to the wicked, and that
in which the floodgates of wrath shall be opened, by which shall a
plentiful reward be given to evil-doers, but glory to the righteous.
(Psa 31:23) This is the day in which men, if they could, would creep
into the ground for fear; but because they cannot, therefore, they will
call and cry to the mountains to fall upon them, but they shall not;
therefore, they stand bound to bear their judgment.
This day will be the day of breaking up of closet-councils,
cabinet-councils, secret purposes, hidden thoughts; yea, ‘God shall
bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing.’ (Eccl 12:14)
I say he shall do it then; for he will both ‘bring to light the hidden
things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart.’
(1 Cor 4:5) This is the day that is appointed to put them to shame and
contempt in that have, in this world, been bold and audacious in their
vile and beastly ways. At this day, God will cover all such bold and
brazen faces with shame. Now they will blush till the blood is ready to
burst through their cheeks. (Dan 12:2) Oh! the confusion and shame that
will cover their faces while God is discovering to them what a nasty,
what a beastly, what an uncomely, and what an unreasonable life they
lived in the world. They shall now see they contemned God, that fed
them, that clothed them, that gave them life and limb, and that
maintained their breath in their nostrils. But, oh, when they see the
gulf before them, and all things ready to receive them in thither;
then, then they will know what sinning against God means!
And, I say, thou that art for coming to God by Christ must know this,
and be well assured of this, or thou wilt never come to God by him.
What of the glory of God shall be put upon them that do indeed come to
him will also help in this spiritual journey, if it be well considered
by thee. But, perhaps, terror and unbelief will suffer thee to consider
but little of that. However, the things afore-mentioned will be goads,
and will serve to prick thee forward; and if they do so, they will be
God’s great blessing unto thee, and that for which thou wilt give him
thy thanks for ever. (Eccl 12:10,11)
Thus I have, in few words, spoken something as to the first sort of
comers to God by Christ, namely, of the coming of the newly-awakened
man. And I say again, if any of the things afore-named be wanting, and
are not with his heart, it is a question whether, notwithstanding all
the noise that he may make about religion, he will ever come to God by
Christ. 1. If he knows not himself and the badness of his condition,
wherefore should he come? 2. If he knows not the world, and the
emptiness and vanity thereof, wherefore should he come? 3. If he knows
not the law, and the severity thereof, wherefore should he come? 4. If
he knows not hell, and the torments thereof, wherefore should he come?
5. If he knows not what death is, wherefore should he come? 6. And if
he knows not the Father and the Son, how can he come? 7. And to know
that there is a judgment to come is as necessary to his coming as most
of the rest of the things propounded. Coming to God by Christ is for
shelter, for safety, for advantage, and everlasting happiness. But he
that knows not, that understands not the things afore-mentioned, sees
not his need of taking shelter, of flying for safety, of coming for
advantage to God by Christ. I know there are degrees of this knowledge,
and he that has it most warm upon him, in all likelihood, will make
most haste; or, as David saith, will hasten his escape ‘from the windy
storm and tempest’; and he that sees least is in most danger of being
the loiterer, and so of losing the prize; for all that run do not
obtain it; all that fight do not win it; and ALL that strive for it
have it not. (Psa 55:8, 1 Cor 9:24-26, 2 Tim 2:4,5)
[Of the backslider’s return to Christ.]
Second, I shall now come to the second man mentioned; to wit, the man
that is turning back from his backsliding, and speak something also
about his coming again to God by Christ.
There are two things remarkable in the returning of a backslider to God
by Christ. 1. The first is, he gives a second testimony to the truth of
all things spoken of before. 2. He also gives a second testimony of the
necessity of coming to God by Christ. Of the manner of his coming to
God by Christ perhaps I may also speak a word or two. But,
1. The returning again of the backslider gives a second testimony to
the truth of man’s state being by nature miserable, of the vanity of
this world, of the severity of the law, certainty of death, and
terribleness of judgment to come. His first coming told them so, but
his second coming tells them so with a double confirmation of the
truth. It is so, saith his first coming. Oh! it is so, saith his
second. The backsliding of a Christian comes through the overmuch
persuading of Satan and lust, that the man was mistaken, and that there
was no such horror in the things from which he fled, nor so much good
in the things to which he hasted. Turn again, fool, says the devil,
turn again to thy former course; I wonder what frenzy it was that drove
thee to thy heels, and that made thee leave so much good behind thee,
as other men find in the lusts of the flesh and the good of the world.
As for the law, and death, and an imagination of the day of judgment,
they are but mere scarecrows, set up by politic heads, to keep the
ignorant in subjection. Well, says the backslider, I will go back again
and see; so, fool as he is, he goes back, and has all things ready to
entertain him; his conscience sleeps, the world smiles, flesh is sweet,
carnal company compliments him, and all that can be got is presented to
this backslider to accommodate him. But, behold, he doth again begin to
see his own nakedness, and he perceives that the law is whetting his
axe. As for the world, he perceives it is a bubble; he also smells the
smell of brimstone, for God hath scattered it upon his tabernacle, and
it begins to burn within him. (Job 18:15) Oh! saith he, I am deluded;
oh! I am ensnared. My first sight of things was true. I see it is so
again. Now he begins to be for flying again to his first refuge; O God,
saith he, I am undone, I have turned from thy truth to lies! I believed
them such at first, and find them such at last. Have mercy upon me, O
God!
This, I say, is a testimony, a second testimony, by the same man, as to
the miserable state of man, the severity of the law, the emptiness of
the world, the certainty of death, and the terribleness of judgment.
This man hath seen it, and seen it again.