gray-headed, and dim-eyed sinners too, in London, that have had Christ knocking at the door of their hearts all their days, and they have never thought of opening to him; they have never thought of dealing with him for eternal life: And should not these perish? One would almost say, it is pity such persons should not go to hell, who have had Christ beseeching and praying them, all their life long, to take salvation from him, and they have no heart to receive it. I have spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people; I said, Behold me, behold me, to a nation that was not called by my name, Isa. lxv. 1, 2. "I craved no great matter of them, no more "but this, to open their eyes and see the Saviour, and to live "by the sight of him."

4thly, Christ deals with us about salvation; and this consideration should make them ashamed that have no dealing with him. Be you persuaded of this, that whosoever lives under the rightly-preached gospel, at one time or another of their lives, they are brought under some conviction of this: "Surely Jesus Christ is dealing with me about salvation "Why else doth he call, and wait, and knock, and entreat,

and command, and threaten, and promise, and use all the "means that can be used, but that he is dealing with me

about salvation ?" And if Christ be thus dealing with us, should not we deal with him? When Christ is trying so many cords of love, should not our hearts once yield a good return, and say, Behold I come, Lord, draw me nearer ?

5thly, Consider this, that when Christ in this gospel is pleading in the virtue of his blood, he takes a most exact and careful notice of people's behaviour. When people attend public worship, sometimes they hear, and sometimes they do not; sometimes they wake, and sometimes they sleep, as the mood takes them; and indeed were it only creatures like yourselves that spoke to you, the matter would not be very great; but here is the weighty business, "It is Jesus Christ "that in this gospel is dealing with me about eternal salva"tion; and he takes exact notice how the frame of my heart stands towards him; if I slight and despise him, and neglect him and his great salvation, Heb. ii. 3.; if his pre«cious blood be undervalued by me, these things, Christ re

"marks, and I shall hear of it another time." Sirs, I am persuaded of this, there are many poor creatures who sit quietly under the preaching of the word, by a man like themselves, that yet in the carelessness of their hearts, and in the estrangedness of their thoughts from Jesus Christ, do commit a greater sin, and that they will make a more dreadful charge in their indictment, than any sin that ever they committed all their days. I send the Spirit, saith our Lord, John xvi. 9. to convince the world of sin, because they believe not on me. And that is only a sin of not doing something good; it is not, "I will send the Spirit to convince them of sin, because they "have broken the law of Moses," but, I will send the Spirit to convince them of sin, because they believe not on me; because they have not their hearts kindly affected with desires after Jesus Christ. It is a sin of omission, and a most dreadful one. Lastly, As Christ regards what entertainment he meets with from men now, so at the last day he will declare the same in judgment. I came not to judge the world, the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day, John xii. 48. This same word whereby you have been offered eternal life, will be a dreadful aggravation of your condemnation at last. Sirs, Christ and his despised blood will make a more dreadful cry of vengeance against the damned, than all the roarings of the devil and their fellow-damned in hell. Hear the voice of Christ's despised blood crying against men, when at the last day the judge shall say, "This man was a despiser "of my blood, which was tendered and offered to him all the "days of his life, and yet never made an errand to it, and "never desired to be sprinkled with it, and therefore shall be "made a sacrifice to justice." Therefore prevent all this, by making an application to the blood of sprinkling; which is nothing less, and nothing more, than for a poor sinner to come as a sinner, to a Saviour dying for sin, and saving him by his dying. Christ saves us by his dying, and the lost sinner must come to him for salvation. Therefore, Sirs, let there be a heart-dealing between Christ and you: you have often been told, that a profession is not worth taking up, and it is not worth the keeping, if the all of it stands in the view of the

world; that the family knows, the congregation knows all that belongs to the man's godliness: that godliness is not worth the having. The beginning, the substance, the root of all true Christianity lies in these two things: What Christ by his Spirit deals with thy heart, and what thy heart by the same Spirit deals with Jesus Christ; and all the world can never know either the one or the other of these. The operation of the Spirit of Jesus Christ on the heart of a sinner, and the operation of the sinner's heart towards Jesus Christ; these two are the source and the spring of all true Christianity and godliness and whatsoever a man hath without these, is worth nothing at all; but whosoever hath these things, truly there will be much besides them, flowing from them, that is worth something. Therefore now I would exhort you to make use of this sprinkling of the blood of Jesus, that is, that you may have a communication of the virtue and all the saving benefits of it, which secures our eternal state, and commends us to God. I shall offer three or four ways wherein you should do

do this.

1st, Deal with this blood of sprinkling by obedience to his commands, this is one thing. That person is in a hopeful way to salvation who is brought to this resolution, "I now હું see by the gospel that I must intrust Jesus Christ with my "soul, or I must provoke him; one of these two must be; "and because his command is peremptory, every lost sinner, "that sees himself to be so, should intrust his eternal salvation "with him by faith."

2dly, Employ Jesus Christ as Saviour, with the virtue of his blood, from mere necessity. I know there are better springs than this, but it is well if any thing will make a man come to Jesus Christ. Fell necessity, desperate necessity, should enforce us. When a poor sinner sees his case so bad that there is no hope for him; but only one heavenly remedy, the blood of Jesus Christ, that alone can put a stop to the quarrel between heaven and him and therefore, saith the poor soul, I will try it from mere necessity.

3dly, Try to do this out of love; Oh! that all the world would believe on Jesus Christ merely from love to him. Je

sus Christ, if I may so say, is a great vessel which will carry all that are in it safe to heaven: therefore let us embark in him, not only because we would not be drowned by the way, but because we love to be in him, There is a love to Jesus Christ that flows from faith, or that makes the following acts of faith more sensible to believers. Therefore,

Lastly, This employing of Christ must be by an adventuring trust an adventure is that which a man hath some uncertainty about; I do not say, it should be so, but many times. it is so. This is our trusting, it is a committing our greatest concern to this only safe hand to keep it. See now, how narrowly this matter is brought: Whensoever any of you have, at any time, any heart-concern about your salvation, remember now, hereafter, and at death, the matter can be only secured by a bold adventuring on the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus. "I am such a sinner, saith the man, so undone, so "distressed, so destroyed, so endangered by the law of God "because of sin, that if the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus "Christ be not able to bear me out, I must sink to eternity "under the burden of it." Every one that adventures upon this should do it confidently, though but few can till they have tried the trade of believing for a time. It is a great work to save a sinner; and it is well that it is put into so great a hand; never had a sinner been saved unless Christ had been the Saviour. We have been speaking of employing Christ by faith, and this very faith Christ must be the author of. Oh that Christ might grow in our hearts, that holy one of God! Oh what reason have we to be ashamed of the bad entertainment that we have given to the Son of God! The Lord forgive and help us, and grant that the life that we live in the flesh may be by the faith of the Son of God!

SERMON VI.

1 PETER i. 2.

Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied. You have heard that this description of the parties which

་

the apostle here writes to, is not only a discrimination of the persons, but it hath in it an account of all the great work of God about the salvation of his people. The election of the Father; the sanctification of the Spirit; and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus. This sprinkling of the blood of Jesus is by the apostle put in the last place; yet because in the order of nature it hath indeed the second place in the dispensation of grace about our salvation, therefore I spoke unto it in the second place and two things I proposed to handle upon it; 1st, The sprinkling of the blood of Jesus itself; 2dly, The respect that electing love and grace hath to it. To the former of these I have spoken at some length; I shall pass by the other at present, until I have spoken to the third thing, viz. the sanctification of the Spirit, and then I shall jointly handle the respect that electing grace hath to both. I come now to this third thing in the order of nature, though it be the second thing in the order of words; the sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience; so it is expressed. And here we have three things to discourse of. 1st, The sanctification itself. 2dly, The sanctification of the Spirit; what is to be understood when sanctification is thus expressed to us, The sanctification of the Spirit. 3dly, The end of this sanctification of the Spirit, it is sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience. It is not sanctification of the Spirit that is got by obedience, but it is sanctification of the Spirit that works obedience. Of these in order.

I. Of sanctification itself. There is a sanctification that is the same with justification, mentioned expressly by the apos