to two sorts of men—1. To the elect uncalled. 2. To the elect that are
called, and that at present stand their ground. The uncalled are made
to hear him, and consider; the called are made to hear him, and are
afraid of falling. Behold, therefore, the mystery of God’s wisdom, and
how willing he is that spectators should be warned and made take heed.
Yea, he will permit that some of his own shall fall into the fire, to
convince the world that hell is hot, and to warn their brethren to take
heed that they slip not with their feet. I have often said in my heart
that this was the cause why God suffered so many of the believing Jews
to fall; to wit, that the Gentiles might take heed. (Rom 11:21) O,
brethren! saith the backslider that is returned, did you see how I left
my God? did you see how I turned again to those vanities from which
some time before I fell? O! I was deluded, I was bewitched, I was
deceived; for I found all things from which I fled at first still worse
by far when I went to them the second time. Do not backslide. Oh! do
not backslide. the first ground of your departing from them was good;
never tempt God a second time.
2. And as he gives us a second testimony, that the world and himself
are so as at first he believed they were, so by this his returning he
testifies that God and Christ are the same, and much more than ever he
believed at first they were. This man has made a proof before and a
proof after conviction of the evil of the one and good of the other.
This man has made a proof by feeling and seeing, and that before and
after grace received. This man God has set up to be a witness; this man
is two men, has the testimony of two men, must serve in the place of
two men. He knows what it is to be fetched from a state of nature by
grace; but this all Christians know as well as he. Ay, but he knows
what it is to be fetched from the world, from the devil, and hell, the
second time; and that but few professors know, for few that fall away
return to do again. (Heb 6:4-8) Ay, but this man is come again,
wherefore there is news in his mouth, sad news, dreadful news, and news
that is to make the standing saint to take heed lest he fall. The
returning backslider, therefore, is a rare man, a man of worth and
intelligence, a man to whom the men of the world should flock, and of
whom they should learn to fear the Lord God. He also is a man of whom
the saints should receive both caution, counsel, and strength in their
present standing; and they should, by his harms, learn to serve the
Lord with fear, and to rejoice with trembling. (1 Cor 10:6-13, Isa
51:11-13, Luke 22:32)
This man has the second time also had a proof of God’s goodness in his
Christ unto him, a proof which the standing Christian has not—I would
not tempt him that stands to fall; but the good that a returning
backslider has received at God’s hands, and at the hand of Christ, is a
double good, he has been converted twice, fetched from the world, and
from the devil, and from himself twice; oh, grace! and has been made to
know the stability of God’s covenant, the unchangeableness of God’s
mind, the sure and lasting truth of his promise in Christ, and of the
sufficiency of the merits of Christ, over and over.
[The manner of a backslider’s return.]—Of the manner of this man’s
coming to God by Christ I shall also speak a word or two. He comes as
the newly-awakened sinner comes, and that from the same motives and the
knowledge of things as he hath over and above (which he had as good
have been without), that which the newly-awakened sinner has not; to
wit, the guilt of his backsliding, which is a guilt of a worse
complexion, of a deeper dye, and of a heavier nature than is any guilt
else in the world. He is also attended with fears and doubts that arise
from other reasons and considerations than do the doubts and fears of
the newly-awakened man; doubts builded upon the vileness of his
backsliding. He has also more dreadful scriptures to consider of, and
they will look more wishfully in his face, yea, and will also make him
take notice of their grim physiognomy, than has the newly-awakened man.
Besides, as a punishment of his backsliding, God seems to withdraw the
sweet influences of his Spirit, and as if he would not suffer him to
pray, nor to repent any more, (Psa 51:11), as if he would now take all
away from him, and leave him to those lusts and idols that he left his
God to follow. Swarms of his new rogueries shall haunt him in every
place, and that not only in the guilt, but in the filth and pollution
of them. (Prov 14:14) None know the things that haunt a backslider’s
mind, his new sins are all turned talking devils, threatening devils,
roaring devils, within him. Besides, he doubts of the truth of his
first conversion, consequently he has it lying upon him as a strong
suspicion that there was nothing of truth in all his first experience;
and this also adds lead to his heels, and makes him come, as to sense
and feeling, more heavy and with the greater difficulty to God by
Christ. As faithfulness of other men kills him, he cannot see an
honest, humble, holy, faithful servant of God, but he is pierced and
wounded at the heart. Ay, says he within himself, that man fears God,
that man hath faithfully followed God, that man, like the elect angels,
has kept his place; but I am fallen from my station like a devil. That
man honoureth God, edifieth the saints, convinceth the world, and
condemneth them, and is become heir of the righteousness which is by
faith. But I have dishonoured God, stumbled and grieved saints, made
the world blaspheme, and, for aught I know, been the cause of the
damnation of many! These are the things, I say, together with many more
of the same kind, that come with him; yea, they will come with him,
yea, and will stare him in the face, will tell him of his baseness, and
laugh him to scorn, all the way that he is coming to God by Christ—I
know what I say!—and this makes his coming to God by Christ hard and
difficult to him. Besides, he thinks saints will be aware of him, will
be shy of him, will be afraid to trust him, yea, will tell his Father
of him, and make intercession against him, as Elias did against Israel,
(Rom 11:2), or as the men did that were fellow-servants with him that
took his brother by the throat. (Matt 18:31) Shame covereth his face
all the way he comes; he doth not know what to do; the God he is
returning to, is the God that he has slighted, the God before whom he
has preferred the vilest lust; and he knows God knows it, and has
before him all his ways. The man that has been a backslider, and is
returning to God, can tell strange stories, and yet such as are very
true. No man was in the whale’s belly, and came out again alive, but
backsliding and returning Jonah; consequently, no man could tell how he
was there, what he felt there, what he saw there, and what workings of
heart he had when he was there, so well as he.
[The sincere Christian’s coming to God by Christ.]
Third, I come now to the third man—to wit, to the sincere and upright
man that cometh to God by Christ. And although this may, in some sense,
be applicable to the two former, for his coming is not worthy to be
counted coming to God, that is, not in sincerity and uprightness, yet
by such an one I now mean, one that has been called to the faith, and
that has in some good measure of sincerity and uprightness therein
abode with God.
This man also comes to God by Christ; but his coming is to be
distinguished, I mean in the main of it, from the coming of the other
two. The other come for the knowledge of forgiveness, a thing that the
upright and faithful Christian for the most part has a comfortable
faith of, and that for which he is often helped to give thanks to God.
I do not say he doubteth not, or that he has not his evidences
sometimes clouded; nor do I say that the knowledge of his
reconciliation to God by Christ Jesus is so high, so firm, so fixed,
and steadfast, that it cannot be shaken, or that he needs no more. I
will then explain myself. He comes not to God as an unconverted sinner
comes; he comes not as a backslider comes when he is returning to God
from his backslidings; but he comes as a son, as one of the household
of God, and he comes as one that has not, since correction, wickedly
departed from his God.
1. He then comes to God with that access and godly boldness that is
only proper to such as himself, that is, to them that walk with God.
(Rom 5:2) Thus every one that shall be saved doth not do; thus every
one that shall be saved cannot do—to instance the two spoken of before.
2. He comes to God by Christ constantly by prayer, by meditation, by
every ordinance. For therefore he maketh use of ordinances, because by
them through Christ he getteth into the presence of God. (Psa 27:4)
3. He comes to God through Christ, because he judgeth that God only is
that good, that blessedness, that happiness, that is worth looking
after; that good and that blessedness that alone can fill the soul to
the brim; that good and that happiness that is worthy of our hearts and
souls and spirits. Hence David expresseth his coming to God by panting,
by thirsting, by tears, saying, ‘My soul panteth after thee, O God.’
And again, ‘My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God, when shall I
come and appear before God?’ (Psa 42:1,2) And again, ‘I will go to the
altar of God, unto God, my exceeding joy.’ (Psa 43:4) And hence it was
that he so envied the swallow and sparrow, even because they could come
to the altar of God, where he had promised to give his presence, when
he, as I think, by the rage of Saul, was forced to abide remote. ‘My
soul longeth,’ saith he, ‘yea, even fainteth for the courts of the
Lord; my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. Yea, the
sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where
she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and
my God: Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, they will be still
praising thee.’ Then after a few more words he saith, ‘For a day in thy
courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper,’ I
would choose rather to sit at the threshold of thy house, ‘than to
dwell in the tents of wickedness’; and then renders the reason—‘For the
Lord is a sun and shield: the Lord gives grace and glory,’ &c. (Psa 84)
The presence of God, and the glory and soul-ravishing goodness of that
presence, is a thing that the world understands not, nor can they as
such desire to know what it is.
4. These good men come to God upon other accounts also; for so it is
that they have many concerns with God.
[Concern for themselves.]—(1.) They come to him for a more clear
discovery of themselves to themselves, for they desire to know how
frail they are, because the more they know that, the more they are
engaged in their souls to take heed to their ways, and to fear lest
they should tempt their God to leave them. (Psa 39:1-8)
(2.) They come to God by Christ for the weakening of their lusts and
corruptions; for they are a sore, yea, a plague to a truly sanctified
soul. Those, to be rid of which, if it might be, a godly man chooseth
rather to die than to live. This David did mean when he cried. ‘Create
in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me,’ (Psa
51:10); and Paul, when he cried out, ‘O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death?’ (Rom 7:24)
(3.) They come to God by Christ for the renewing and strengthening of
their graces. The graces that the godly have received are, and they
feel they are, subject to decay; yea, they cannot live without a
continual supply of grace. This is the meaning of that, ‘Let us have
grace,’ and, ‘Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace,
that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.’ (Heb
4:16)
(4.) They come to God by Christ to be helped against those temptations
that they may meet withal. (Matt 6:13) They know that every new
temptation has a new snare and a new evil in it; but what snare and
what evil, that at present they know not; but they know their God
knows, and can deliver out of temptation when we are in, and keep us
out while we are out.
(5.) They come to God by Christ for a blessing upon that means of grace
which God has afforded for the succour of the soul, and the building of
it up in the faith; knowing that as the means, so a blessing upon it,
is from God. (2 Thess 3:1) And for this they have encouragement,
because God has said, ‘I will abundantly bless her provision: I will
satisfy her poor with bread.’ (Psa 132:15)
(6.) They come to God by Christ for the forgiveness of daily
infirmities, (Psa 19:12), and for the continuing them in the light of
his countenance notwithstanding. Thus he also would always accept them
and their services, and grant that an answer of peace may be returned
from their Father into their bosoms; for this is the life of their
souls. There are a great many such things that the sincere and upright
man comes to God for, too many here to mention. But again,
[Concern for the church and others.]—(1.) This man also comes to God to
beseech him for the flourishing of Christ’s kingdom, which he knows
will never be until Antichrist is dead, and till the Spirit be more
plentifully poured upon us from on high. Therefore he also cries to God
for the downfall of the first, and for the pouring out of the other.
(2.) He comes to God for the hastening the gathering in of his elect;
for it is an affliction to him to think that so many of those for whom
Christ died should be still in a posture of hostility against him. (Psa
122:6)
(3.) He comes to God for a spirit of unity to be poured out among
believers, for, for the divisions of Reuben he has great thoughts of
heart.
(4.) He comes to God to pray for magistrates, and that God would make
speed to set them all to that work that is so desirable to his
church—that is, to ‘hate the whore,’ ‘to eat her flesh,’ to ‘make her
desolate,’ ‘and burn her with fire.’ (1 Tim 2:1, Rev 17:16)
(5.) He comes to God to beg that he would hasten that great and notable
day, the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus, for he knows that Christ
will never be exalted as he must be till then; yea, he also knows that
God’s church will never be as she would, and shall, till then. (Rev
22:20)
(6.) But the main meaning, if I may so call it, of this high text is
this, that they that come to God by him—that is, by Christ, are those
that come by Christ to God to enjoy him by faith and spirit here, and
by open vision and unspeakable possession of him in the next world.
This is the great design of the soul in its coming to God by Jesus
Christ, and it comes to him by Jesus Christ because it dares not come
by itself, and because God himself has made him the way, the new and
living way. Here, as I said, the Father meets with that which pleaseth
him, and the soul with that which saveth her. Here is righteousness and
merits to spare, even righteousness that can justify the ungodly. Here
is always, how empty soever we be, a fullness of merit always presented
to God by Christ for my obtaining of that which at any time I want,
whether wisdom, grace, Spirit, or any good thing soever; only, since I
was upon this subject, I thought a little to touch upon things in this
order, for the enlarging of thy thoughts, for the conviction of thy
spirit, for the stirring of thee up to God, and for the showing of thee
the good signs of grace where it is, where is abused, and where any are
seeking after it.
[Inferences from thus coming to God by Christ.]
And now I come to draw some inferences from this point also, as I have
already done from those going before it. You see that I have now been
speaking to you of the man that cometh to God, both with respect to the
way he comes, as also with respect to the manner of spirit in which he
comes; and hence I may well infer,
First, That he is no fool, no fool according to the best judgment, that
cometh to God by Christ. The world indeed will count him one; for the
things that be of the Spirit of God are foolishness to them; but
indeed, and in the verdict of true judgment, he is not so.
1. For that he now seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom. He has
chosen to be concerned with the very head and fountain of wisdom; for
Christ is the wisdom of God, and the way to the Father by Christ, is
the greatest of mysteries; and to choose to walk in that way, the
fruits of the most sage advice; wherefore he is not a fool that thus
concerns himself. (Prov 18:1, 1 Cor 1)
2. It is not a sign of foolishness timely to prevent ruin, is it? They
are the prudent men that foresee an evil, and hide themselves; and the
fools, that go on, and are punished. (Prov 18:8, 27:12) Why, this man
foresees an evil, the greatest evil, sin, and the punishment of the
soul for sin in hell; and flies to Christ, who is the refuge that God
has provided for penitent sinners; and is this a sign of a fool? God
make me such a fool, and thee that readest these lines such a fool, and
then we shall be wiser than all men that are counted wise by the wisdom
of this world. Is it a sign of a fool to agree with one’s adversary
while we are in the way with him, even before he delivereth us to the
judge? Yea, it is a piece of the highest wisdom.
Is he a fool that chooseth for himself long lasters, or he whose best
things will rot in a day? Sinners, ‘before your pots can feel the
thorns [before you can see where you are], God shall take you away as
with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.’ (Psa 58:9) But this
man has provided for things; like the tortoise, he has got a shell on
his back, so strong and sound that he fears not to suffer a loaden cart
to go over him. The Lord is his rock, his defence, his refuge, his high
tower, unto which he doth continually resort.
Was the unjust steward a fool in providing for himself for hereafter?
for providing friends to receive him to harbour when others should turn
him out of their doors? (Luke 16:8,9) No more is he that gets another
house for his harbour before death shall turn him out of doors here.
3. As he that cometh to God by Christ is no fool, so he is no
little-spirited fellow. There are a generation of men in this world
that count themselves men of the largest capacities, when yet the
greatness of their desires lift themselves no higher than to things
below. If they can, with their net of craft and policy, encompass a
bulky lump of earth, oh what a treasure have they engrossed to
themselves! Meanwhile, the man in the text has laid siege to heaven,
has found out the way to get into the city, and is resolved, in and by
God’s help, to make that his own. Earth is a drossy thing in this man’s
account; earthly greatness and splendours are but like vanishing
bubbles in this man’s esteem. None but God, as the end of his desires,
none but Christ, as the means to accomplish this his end, are things
counted great by this man. No company now is acceptable to this man but
the Spirit of God, Christ and angels, and saints, as fellow-heirs with
himself. All other men and things he deals with as strangers and
pilgrims were wont to do. This man’s mind soars higher than the eagle
or stork of the heavens. He is for musing about things that are above,
and their glory, and for thinking what shall come to pass hereafter.
4. But as I have showed you what he is not, so now let me, by a few
words, tell you what he is.
(1.) Then he is a man concerned for his soul, for his immortal soul.
The soul is a thing, though of most worth, least minded by most. The
souls of most lie waste while all other things are enclosed. But this
man has got it by the end, that his soul is of more value than the
world, wherefore he is concerned for his soul. Soul concerns are
concerns of the highest nature, and concerns that arise from thoughts
most deep and ponderous. He never yet knew what belonged to great and
deep thoughts that is a stranger to soul concerns. Now the man that
comes to God by Christ, is a man that is engaged in soul concerns.
(2.) He is a man whose spirit is subjected to a suitableness to
spiritual things, for a carnal mind cannot suit with and be delighted
in these things: ‘The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is
not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.’ (Rom 8:7) This
is the man that God has tamed, and keeps tame by himself, while all
other run wild, as the asses upon the mountains. If birds could speak,
surely they would tell that those that are kept in the cage have with
them another temper than they that range the air, and fly in the fields
and woods. Yea, and could those kept tame express themselves to the
rest, they would tell that they have white bread and milk, and sugar;
while those without make a life out of maggots and worms. They are also
in place where there are better things, and their companions are the
children of men; besides, they learn such notes, and can whistle such
tunes, as other birds are strangers to. Oh! the man whose spirit is
subjected to God, betwixt whom and God there is a reconciliation, not
only as to a difference made up, but also as to a oneness of heart;
none knows what lumps of sugar God gives that man, nor what notes and
tunes God learns that man: ‘He hath put a new song in my mouth,’ saith
David, ‘even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and
shall trust in the Lord.’ (Psa 40:3)
Second. Is there a man that comes to God by Christ? Thence I infer that
there is that believes there is a world to come. No man looks after
that which yet he believes is not; faith must be before coming to
Christ will be; coming is the fruit of faith. He that comes must
believe antecedent to his coming; wherefore it is said, ‘we walk by
faith’—that is, we come to God through Christ by faith. (Heb 11:7, 2
Cor 5:7) And hence I learn two things:—1. That faith is of a strong and
forcible quality. 2. That they who come not to God by Christ have no
faith.
1. Faith is of a strong and forcible quality, and that whether it be
true or false.
(1.) A false faith has done great things; it has made men believe lies,
plead for them, and stand to them, to the damnation of their souls.
‘God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie,’
to their damnation. (2 Thess 2:11,12) Hence it is said, men make lies
‘their refuge.’ Why? Because they ‘trust in a lie.’ (Jer 28:15) A lie,
if believed, if a man has faith in it, it will do great things, because
faith is of a forcible quality. Suppose thyself to be twenty miles from
home, and there some man comes and possesses thee that thy house, thy
wife and children, are all burned with the fire. If thou believest it,
though indeed there should be nothing of truth in what thou hast heard,
yet will this lie ‘drink up thy spirit,’ even as if the tidings were
true. How many are there in the world whose heart Satan hath filled
with a belief that their state and condition for another world is good?
and these are made to live by lying hope that all shall be well with
them, and so are kept from seeking for that which will make them happy
indeed. Man is naturally apt and willing to be deceived, and therefore
a groundless faith is the more taking and forcible. Fancy will help to
confirm a false faith, and so will conceit and idleness of spirit.
There is also in man a willingness to take things upon trust, without
searching into the ground and reason of them. Nor will Satan be behind
hand to prompt and encourage to thy believing of a lie, for that he
knows will be a means to bring thee to that end to which he greatly
desireth thou shouldst come. Wherefore let men beware, and, oh, that
they would, of a false and lying faith!
(2.) But if a false faith is so forcible, what is a true? What force, I
say, is there in a faith that is begotten by truth, managed by truth,
fed by truth, and preserved by the truth of God? This faith will make
invisible things visible; not fantastically so, but substantially
so—‘Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen.’ (Heb 11:1) True faith carrieth along with it an
evidence of the certainty of what it believeth, and that evidence is
the infallible Word of God. There is a God, a Christ, a heaven, saith
the faith that is good, for the Word of God doth say so. The way to
this God and this heaven is by Christ, for the Word of God doth say so.
If I run not to this God by this Christ, this heaven shall never be my
portion, for the Word of God doth say so. So, then, thus believing
makes the man come to God by him. His thus believing, then, it is that
carries him away from this world, that makes him trample upon this
world, and that gives him the victory over this world. ‘For whatsoever
is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the
world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he
that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but
by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because
the Spirit is truth.’ (1 John 5:4-6)