way, as may serve to prevent your imagining you come to Christ, if you do not. And this will be sufficiently done, if you consider more attentively, what it is you come to him for. You know that he is able to save and help you; and you hear him say, if you come to him, he will in nowise cast you out, or reject your suit. So that if you do really come to him for the "things which pertain unto life and godliness," it cannot be that you should be without them. See then,

Christ, that he may re

But you will not think

First, You are come to concile the Father to you. that you do this in sincerity, unless the choicest affections of your heart are engaged to him. "To you who believe, he is precious." And is he become so to you? Doth the dignity of his person command, and his gracious condescension constrain your love? Is it a pleasure for you to think of him in his life, his death, his glory; and is his name delightful to you? Doth it grieve you to see him daily despised of men? and are you rejoiced in the prospects of that illustrious day, when he "shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance" on his Father's enemies and his own, "when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe?" Do you reproach yourself with your sins, and mourn, when you consider how they have pierced him? Do you regard yourself, and all you have, as his property, the purchase of his blood? And are you ready to part with any thing for him? If you have not been called to it already, are you willing to "suffer for

his name's sake?" Can you be content to part with your worldly friendships, respect, character, interests for him? Do you "count all these things dung, in comparison of Christ?" In sincerity, can you make a faithful answer to all these things? Then consider, farther,

Secondly, You are come to Christ, that he may deliver you from the power which sin hath had over you, leading you into a new and heavenly course of And what? Hath he done this for you?

life.

Are you "made free from sin, and become the servant of righteousness?" Hath no outward sin dominion over you? And are you actually at war with all that sin which you find in your heart "not obeying it in the lusts thereof?" If you commit sin, if but one sin (as far as you can see) reigns over you in heart or life, you are "not born of God." And

are you
tily about your Father's business?

become a servant of God?

66

Are you hearDo you exvoid of offence Have you your

ercise yourself to have a conscience towards God and towards man?" fruit unto holiness, intent upon everlasting life, as the end and scope of all your pursuits? All your pretensions of coming to Christ, unless this be the issue, are vain; for how reasonably doth he insist, "Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" You overset the very design of his coming, which was to turn men from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God." You do him the greatest dishonour, "making him the minister of sin." Nor can you have the least title to faith, which entereth into that within the vail,

whither the Forerunner is for us entered," seeing you mind earthly things, and take up with present gratifications. But if, in this point also, you have a comfortable answer from your own conscience, I have only to suggest this farther inquiry.

Thirdly, You are come to Christ for the direction of his word and Spirit. And from the one, by the operation of the other of these, do you this day know assuredly, and rest satisfied therein, that "there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved," but only the name of our Lord Jesus Christ? Consequently, do you make Christ's words (the holy Scriptures) the guide of your feet? Do you not dispute, either to believe, or to do any thing which you find in them? Do you bring your principles and your conduct "to the law and to the testimony," to be sifted and proved? And is this done with a certain singleness of eye, meekly desiring to know what the will of the Lord is, without regarding your own reasonings, interests, or inclinations? Also, do you use a becoming diligence in hearing and searching the Scriptures; and in prayer, that Christ would open your understanding, that you may understand them? And is your diligence herein such as may reasonably convince you, that you believe the Scriptures only can make you wise unto salvation, and that you desire to learn from them all the counsel of God concerning you? If otherwise, you cannot be a disciple of Christ; and whatever knowledge you may have picked up, your religion is of your own making; nor, however exactly you may think of Jesus Christ,

have you ever found in yourself a real want of the saving merit of his death and righteousness, and of the sanctifying influences of his grace and Spirit.

You may see now, that faith in Jesus Christ is no notional thing, that it doth not consist in your merely giving your assent to any, or all of the truths concerning him. If you are a real believer in him, there is a daily communication and intercourse between the Saviour and you. Continually sensible of your wants, your sinfulness, your weakness, your ignorance, you come to him; not as to one, concerning whom you believe that he lived and died, and went away into heaven, so many years ago, and with whom you have no immediate business to transact: but as to a living Mediator and Intercessor; "under whose feet God hath put all things, and given him to be head over all things to the church." And he on his part as continually, with a provident care, and ready hand, ministers to you the supply of your needs; so that you may truly say, you live by him. Thus you come to him; thus you receive out of his fulness. This your coming to him, is the faith in him he expects; this your receiving, is the proof that it is so. O labour to enlarge the blessed fellowship!—And to this end, let the foundation upon which this intercourse stands, be laid yet deeper in you. Be sensible of the blessings which attend you

in it.

First, See that the foundation upon which this intercourse stands, be laid yet deeper in you. In this view,

1. Labour to discover more evidently, how lost

and undone you are in yourself. Remember and search out more effectually your old iniquities, and see how a perverted heart turned you aside. Consider more attentively, how imperfect you now are, and far from that righteousness of heart and life, which the unspotted law of God requires at your hands; how little you could say for yourself, were God to try you upon your own deservings. Though no sin hath dominion, yet see how much of it remains within you: how "the flesh lusteth against the spirit, so that you cannot do the things that you would." Consider also the worthlessness of your holy things, your best performances. In a word, be casting up daily the sum of your unworthiness and vileness; and see what reasonable cause you have to add to the account, as you reflect upon your past, and even present state, and conduct. It is a growing discovery of the sickness of your soul, that must keep you in a more lively state and desire after the relief which Christ hath to give you.

2. Be more sensible of your insufficiency. Guard against self-dependence, a leaning to your own righteousness or strength. Labour to discover, with stronger evidence, the unavailableness of your present and future good conduct, to have justified you with God; and how, if left to yourself, you shall not be able to will or do contrary to the will of the flesh, but must quickly "make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience." The adversary will be assailing you upon this side, and endeavouring to puff you up with high-minded conceits, "as though you had already attained." Your business must be to coun