the gospel importunity necessary; did you know your own misery, and see Christ as to his necessity, suitableness, and excellency, all these persuasions might be spared; nay, you yourselves would become importunate suitors for Christ. He would not need to be twice offered: there is a conscience in every man, set there on purpose by the Lord to give each an alarm; but the alarm is not heard for want of the knowledge of your sin and misery. Ah, soul, didst thou but know who it is that sues for thy love, and what the benefits of union with Christ are, thou wouldst answer his first call in such language as this: Lord Jesus, write down thine own terms; be they what they will, I am ready to subscribe them with the full consent of my heart and will. And then, how soon would the union be made between Christ and you. Yea, you would watch for and hang on half a word of encouragement from Christ's mouth, as Benhadad's servant did on that word of Ahab, "my brother" Benhadad. 1 Kings, 20:32, 33. There is no need of rhetoric to persuade a condemned malefactor to accept his pardon, or a hungry man to sit down at a full table; but, alas, sin is not felt, Christ is not known; and therefore the one is not bewailed, nor the other desired.

This doctrine also naturally leads us to PERSUADE sinners to embrace Christ's offer, subscribe to his terms, and debate no more with him, but end the treaty in a cordial present consent; and so close the union between him and their souls. How long, sinner, wilt thou halt, and thy will hang undetermined between Christ and sin, and unresolved in so

great and deep a concern? O that Christ's overture may bring the matter to an issue. Why will you trifle and dally with him at this rate? There is, indeed, a treaty on foot between Christ and you; but you may perish for all that; there is no conclusion or agreement made; Christ and you may yet part. The Lord help you, therefore, to consider

with all seriousness the terms propounded by Christ in the gospel; to count the cost—not to be always deliberating, but to bring matters to an issue, and that with all convenient speed: in order whereunto I will lay two things before you. Ponder well what are the advantages you will gain by Christ, and what is the most you can lose by your consent to his terms; and then bring your thoughts to an issue.

6. Ponder well the advantages you will gain by Christ: these are so great and manifold, that it is impossible for me to enumerate or estimate them. It shall suffice in this place to show you one of those bunches of the grapes of Eshcol, that by it you may estimate the riches and fertility of the good land settled upon you by Christ as a dowry; and these are four.

(1.) The same day and hour you give your cordial consent to take Christ upon gospel-terms, that is to say, Christ with his yoke of obedience, and Christ with his cross of sufferings, all your debts to the law are discharged and paid. What have you been doing ever since you came into the world, but running into debt to God, deeper and deeper every day? What a vast sum owest thou to his justice! and thou art not able to pay one farthing. If thou consent not to Christ's offer, the bailiff and executioner, death and Satan, will shortly be upon thee, and hurry thee away to that prison from whence thou shalt not come until thou hast paid the last farthing. Matt. 5: 25, 26. If thou consent to Christ's terms, thy debts are paid upon thy marriage-day, thy bonds are cancelled, and thy discharge in heaven is sealed: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ," Rom. 8:1; and the reason is given, The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us that believe. Ver. 4. But how in us? Certainly the meaning is not that the act of faith doth, as a work of ours, satisfy the demands of the law and fulfil its righteousness; but it apprehends the righteousness of Christ, applies it and makes it ours, and so "the righteous

ness of the law is fulfilled in us that believe." Is it an ease and a comfort to be out of debt? Then embrace the offer of Christ; for after thy espousals to him, the law cannot touch thee by an act of condemnation: it goes to the husband, Christ; thou art discharged. Then resolve what to do: shall the debt run on and increase till justice come to exact upon you in hell-torments? Or will you accept of Christ and the riches of righteousness in him, and so be fully and finally acquitted from all your debts at once, and able to lie down in peace and enjoy your life without fear?

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(2.) Your consent to Christ's terms, will advance you to an honor above and beyond that of angels. It is said that the children of the resurrection shall be equal to angels. Matt. 22:30. And it is most sure, that in some respects their union with Christ advances them far above angels; for the apostle tells us, they are ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to them that shall be heirs of salvation, Heb. 1:14; as the nobles in a kingdom count it no dishonor to perform their service to the heir apparent. The ministry of angels is a mystery which we little understand; but by it we receive great and manifold advantages, and it certainly puts great honor on all the members of Christ.

(3.) Christ will not only pay all your debts and exalt you to a dignity above angels, but in the day wherein you cordially consent to his terms, he will entitle you to the most glorious inheritance purchased by his blood.

"heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ."

You shall be

Rom. 8:17.

O what an inducement is here to close the union between Christ and our souls. If I consent to take Christ upon gospel-terms, I shall be entitled to all the glory in heaven; it shall be mine as truly as it is Christ's. It is true the glory of Christ will far surpass the glory of the saints; he will shine among them as the sun compared with the stars; but the glory which God gave him, that is, the communicable glory, shall be as truly theirs, as it is his. "The glory

which thou gavest me, I have given them." John 17:22. Tell my brethren, saith he, John 20: 17, "I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God." This you shall gain by closing this treaty with a hearty consent to Christ's terms and proposals.

(4.) If you will consider and consent, you shall be presented by Christ to the Father, pure and spotless, with exceeding joy and gladness in the great day. This will be! a presentation of your persons to God that should make your hearts leap for joy as you read what the Scriptures speak about it. This, methinks, should induce every soul without further delay to present himself, soul and body, willingly and cheerfully to Jesus Christ. For, first, Christ will bring you in the great day to his Father, in the beauty of perfect holiness, not a spot or wrinkle upon your souls. Eph. 5:27. The blood of Christ perfectly washes away every spot of guilt. Then the Spirit of Christ shall have perfectly cleansed the soul from all the defilement of sin; so that it shall come to God pure and beautiful out of Christ's hand. Second, This presentation will be made with the greatest honor and solemnity. We little think in what triumph Christ intends to bring the poorest believer to his Father. "With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought they shall enter into the king's palace." Psalm 45:15. They shall be presented "faultless before the presence of his glory, with exceeding joy." Jude 24. Joy running over joy, upon all hands: God himself will rejoice that he created a soul that has sincerely bestowed itself upon Christ; Jesus Christ will rejoice that he shed his blood for the soul that places his sole righteousness therein; the Holy Spirit will rejoice that he came with a commission from the Father and the Son to draw such a soul to Christ, who has obeyed his voice. The angels will rejoice with joy unspeakable. "There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." Luke 15:10. If the consent of any of your souls

shall be this day gained to Christ-if the word you have heard shall send any poor soul hence to his closet there to make his covenant with Christ, for that is the way of making the union with Christ-in that hour the news of it will be in heaven and excite joy among the angels of God. Lay these and many other privileges together, which the Scriptures will abundantly furnish you, and then consider what a rich bargain Jesus Christ confers on your souls.

7. Again, on the other hand, consider what you may lose by your consent to be Christ's, and whether these losses are sufficient to balance the gain of such a consent, that so your choice of Christ may be deliberate and full, and you may never repent of the choice you have made. It is a rule in the civil law, Non consentit qui non sentit—he cannot consent that does not think, understand, and deliberate; and this is the reason of so much flinching from Christ and shameful apostasy in times of persecution: men did not think of such sufferings and losses, they are matters of surprise to them. To prevent all such occasions of offence, our Lord deals candidly and openly with us, and tells us beforehand what are the worst things that may befall us for his sake. "These things have I spoken unto you, that you should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues; yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think he doeth God service." John 16:1, 2. But he adds, "These things have I told you that, when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them.” Ver. 4. Remember, in times of persecution, that all these things were propounded and consented to; they were the very terms you subscribed to me; had you not liked them, you might, at the everlasting ruin of your immortal souls, have refused and rejected them. The things you are to balance with the gain of Christ may be divided into two classes.

(1.) The things that you must part with, namely, your lusts and all the vicious pleasures you have had in them.