The Heart Barred Against Christ

“Behold, I STAND AT THE DOOR AND KNOCK.” Rev. 3: 20.

Having finished Christ’s solemn preface, and shown the manner of his presence in his churches and ordinances, I now come to a third doctrine which is necessarily implied in these words, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock;” and the sad truth therein implied is this:

The hearts ofmeii are naturally locked, and fast barred against Jesus Christ their only Saviour.

If it were not so, what need were there of all the pains and patience exercised by Christ in waiting and knocking importunately for entrance into the hearts of men? To keep a clear method in this point, three things must be stated in the doctrinal part: How it appears that the hearts of men are thus shut up; what are those locks and bars that shut them up; and that no power of man can remove these bars. Let us consider,

I. How IT APPEARS that the hearts of men are thus shut up. That all hearts are naturally shut and made fast against Christ, is a sad but certain truth; we read, John 1:11, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” He came unto his own people, from whose stock he sprung — a people to whom he had been prefigured in all the sacrifices and types of the law, and who might in him clearly discern the accomplishment of them all. His doctrines and his miracles plainly told them who he was, and whence he came; yet few discerned and received him as the Son of God. Christ found the doors of men’s hearts generally shut against him, save only a few whose hearts were opened by the almighty power of God, in the way of faith. John 1: 12. These indeed received him, but all the rest excluded and denied entrance to the Son of God. So again, John 5: 33-40, Christ reasons with them, and gives undeniable demonstrations that he was the Messiah come to save them. He proves it from the testimony of John, verse 33, “Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth;” he tells them the design of his coming among them was their salvation, verse 34; shows them the great seal of heaven, his uncontrollable miracles, verse 36, “The works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.” And if that were not enough, he reminds them of the immediate testimony given of him from heaven, “The Father himself which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me.” He did so at his baptism: “And lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Matt. 3: 17. And so again at his transfiguration on the holy mount, “While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold, a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is iny beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” Matt. 17: 5. He bids them search the Scriptures, and critically examine his perfect correspondence with them. John 5: 39. This was enough, one would think, to open the door of every man’s understanding and heart to receive him with full satisfaction; and yet, after all, behold the unreasonable obstinacy and resistance of their hearts against him: “Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” Ver. 40.

Not a soul will open, with all the reasons and demonstrations in the world, till the almighty power of God be put forth to that end. “If another come in his own name,” saith he, verse 43, ‘’ hwi will ye receive;’’ any one rather than the Son of God. Every impostor can easily deceive you; it is to me only your hearts have such a strong aversion. Now there is a twofold shutting up of the heart against Jesus Christ.

1. Natural. Every soul comes into this world shut up and fast closed against the Lord Jesus. The will of man, which is the freest faculty, comes into the world barred and bolted against Christ. “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Rom. 8:7. “It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” Phil. 2: 13. This is a dismal efiect of the fall. Who does not feel strong aversions and obstinate resistances in his own heart, when moving towards Christ in the first weak and trembling acts of faith?

2. There is a judicial shutting up of the heart against Christ. This is a sore and tremendous stroke of God, punishing former rebellions: “Israel would none of me, so I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lusts.” Psalm 81: 11, 12. This looks like a prelude of damnation, a very near preparation to ruin. “Israel would none of me;” there is the natural shutting up of the heart: “so I gave them up;” there is the judicial shutting up of the heart: they would not hear, they shall not hear. 0 fearful judgment I Thus the Lord gave up the heathen, Rom. 1: 26; they had abused their natural light, and now their minds are judicially darkened; given up to a sottish and injudicious mind, not able to distinguish duty from sin, safety from danger — a mind that should choose the worst things, and reject the best. This was the reprobate mind unto which God gave them up; what sadder word can the Lord speak than this, unless it be, “Take him, Satan I” It is true, those whom God shuts up he can open, and those whom justice shuts up, mercy can set free; but it is beyond all the power of angels and men to do it. “He shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening.” Job 12: 14. These two closings of the heart are not always found together in the same person; and blessed be God that they are not. Christ meets with many a repulse, and endures with much patience the gainsaying of sinners, before he pronounces the dreadful sentence upon them, “Go, and tell this people, hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.” Isa. 6: 9, 10.

But when it comes to this, dreadful is the case of such souls; and none are in greater danger of this judicial stroke of God, than those who have sat long under the light, rebelling against it. That is the first thing, the hearts of men by nature are locked and shut up against Christ.

11. Let us examine what those locks and bars are, which oppose and forbid Christ’s entrance into the hearts of sinners. And they will be found to be, ignorance, unbelief, pride, custom in sin, presumption, and prejudices against the ways of holiness. Bars enough to secure the soul in Satan’s possession, and frustrate all the designs of mercy, except an almighty Power from heaven break them asunder.

1. The first bar making fast the soul of man against Christ, is ignorance. If knowledge is a key that opens the heart to Christ, as is plain from Luke 11: 52, where Christ denounceth a woe on them that took away “the key of knowledge,” then ignorance must needs be the lock that makes fast the door of the heart against Christ. On this ground Christ told the woman of Samaria, that her unbelief grew upon the root of her ignorance. “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him and he would have given thee living water.” John 4:10. Ah, sinners, did you but know what a Christ he is that is offered to your souls in the gospel; did you see his beauty, fulness, and suitableness, and feel your own need of him, all the world could not keep you from him: you would break through all reproaches, all sufferings, all self-denials, to come to the enjoyment of him. But alas, it is with you as it was with those who said to the church, “What is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us?” Sol. Songs, 5:9. Unknown excellences attract not: ignorance is Satan’s sceptre which he sways over all his kingdom of darkness, and by which he holds his vassals in miserable bondage to him; hence the devils are called, “The rulers of the darkness of this world.” Eph. 6:12. Alas, were the eyes of sinners opened to see their woful state and their remedy in Christ, he could never hold them in subjection one day longer; they would break away from under, his cruel government and run by thousands to Christ; for so they do as soon as God opens their eyes: in the same houx that they are “turned from darkness to light,” they are also turned “from the power of Satan unto God.” Acts 26: 16. 0 that you did but know the worth of your souls, the dreadful danger they are in, and the fearful wrath that hangs over them, with the wilhngness and ability of Christ to save them; you could not sleep one night longer in the state you are: your next cry would be, “What shall I do to be saved?” Who vsdll show me the way to Christ? Help, ministers I help. Christians I yea, help. Lord! These would be the lamentations and cries of those who are now secure and quiet. But “the god of this world hath blinded the eyes of them which believe not,” 2 Cor. 4:4: no cries for a physician, because they have no consciousness how their souls are wounded by sins of commission and by sins of omission. 0 that the great Physician would apply his excellent eye-salve to your understandings, which are yet darkened with gross ignorance both of your misery and remedy.

2. The second bar or lock which shuts Christ out of men’s souls, is the sin of unbelief. This is one of the strongest holds of Satan wherein he trusteth; this is a sin that not only locks up the heart of a sinner, but also binds up the hand of a Saviour. “He did not many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.” Matt. 13: 5^.

Unbelief obstructed his miraculous works when he was on earth, and it obstructs his gracious work now he is in heaven, A Saviour is come into the world, but, poor unbehever, thy soul can neither have union nor communion with him till this bar of thy unbelief be removed. The gospel is come among us with mighty arguments to convince and powerful motives to persuade, but little saving effect follows: its main design is to many frustrated, and all this through unbelief, shutting up and hardening men’s hearts under it. “The word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” Heb. 4: 2. Ah, cursed bar I vdiich shuts up thy heart, shuts out thy Saviour, and will effectually shut thee out of heaven, except the almighty power of God break it asunder. They could not enter in because of unbelief. Heb. 4:6. The ruin of souls is laid at the door of unbelief; it is the damning sin, Mark 16: 16, and truly called so, because no other sin could condemn but in virtue of this sin.

3. The third bar denying entrance to Christ into the hearts of sinners, is lyride and stoutness of spirit. The natural heart is a proud heart; it lives upon its owti stock, it cannot stoop to a sincere and univei-sal renunciation of its own righteousness: “Being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.” Rom. 10:3. Pride stiffens the will that it cannot stoop or condescend to declare their own emptiness, discover their own shame, and live* wholly upon the righteousness of another. Proud nature chooses the way of destruction, rather than to deny itself in such a point as this. This makes faith so exceedingly difficult, because it involves such deep points of self-denial in it. To give up all to Christ, to draw all from Christ, and to be willing to part with all for Christ — what will can be brought to a deliberate consent to such things as these, unless an omnipotent power bow it? It is natural to men rather to eat a brown crust, or wear a coarse, ragged garment which they can call their own, than to feed on the richest dainties, or wear the costliest garments which they must receive as alms or a gift from another. 0 how hard is it to subdue this pride of the heart, even after- light and convictions are come into the soul — to convince men of their undone condition, and the absolute necessity of another and higher righteousness than their own. When souls are in treaty with Christ, this sin makes the last opposition. Fain would they come to Christ, ten thousand worlds for Christ; but they think they must not approach him without some qualifications which are yet wanting. But, soul, if ever Christ and thou conclude a union, thou must deny self even in this the most refined form of it, and come as Abraham did, naked and empty-handed, to Him who justifieth the ungodly. Down with this house-idol, thy self, thy righteous self, dressed up, like another Agag, with such specious pretences of humility.

4. The fourth bar forbidding Clu’ist’s entrance into the soul, is custcnn in sin. Sin has so fixed itself by long continuance in the soul, and the soul is so settled and confirmed in its course, that all arguments and persuasions to change our path are swept away by the power of custom, as straws and feathers are by the rapid course of a mighty torrent. “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.” Jer. 13: 23. Soap and nitre may as soon make an Ethiopian white, or take the spots out of the leopard’s skin, as the reasonings of men remove the mighty power of customary sin. Physicians find it a hard thing to cure an ill habit of body. It is a great matter to be accustomed this way or that from our childhood; every repeated act of sin confirms and strengthens the habit; and hence it is that we see so few conversions in old age. It was a wonder in the primitive times, that Marcus Caius Victorius embraced Christianity in the sixtieth year of his age. Take an habitual drunkard, a self-righteous moralist, and lay before them the necessity of a change, and you will find it as easy to stop the course of a river with the breath of your mouth, as to stop them in an accustomed course of simiing.

5. The fifth bar resisting Christ’s entrance into the soul, is the sin of iiresumption: this sin parts Christ and thousands of souls in the world; presuming, they hope; and hoping, they perish. When men presume that their condition is safe already, their souls never go out after a Saviour. This was the ruin of Laodicea: “Because thou say est, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothincf; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” E.ev. 3:17. This damning presumption is discovered in three things: 1. Many think they have that grace which they have not, mistaking the similar for the saving works of the Spirit; a fatal mistake, never rectified with many thousands till it be too late. 2. They presume to find that mercy in God, which they will never find; for all the saving mercies of God are dispensed to men through Christ, in the way of regeneration and faith. Jude, ver. 21. 3. They presume upon the time for repentance and faith hereafter, which their eyes shall never see. And thus presumption locks up the heart against Christ, and leaves sinners perishing even in the presence of a Saviour. They make a bridge of their own shadow, and so perish in the waters.

6. The sixth and last sin barring the heart against Christ, is a strong irrejudice against holiness, and the strict duties of religion. Thus, in the very infancy of Christianity, the world was driven ofi’ from religion by the common prejudices which lay upon the professors of it: “As concerning this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against.” Acts 28: 22.

Thus Justin Martyr complains that Christians were everywhere condemned by common fame; and on this account Christ pronounces a woe upon the world, because of ofiences. Matt. 18: 7. Alas, it will be the ruin of thousands; some have imbibed such prejudiced opinions and unjust notions of religion and its professors, as to make them iiTcconcilable enemies to it. Satan has dressed it up in their fancies in such an odious form, as to make them loathe both the name and the thing. These prejudices are drawn from various things; sometimes from the necessary duties of Christianity, which are laid as crimes on the people of God: “When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach.” Psalm 69: 10. Sometimes the groundless and malicious slanders and inventions of the enemies of Christianity are the occasion of real prejudices to the world: “Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah, and let us smite him with the tongue.” Jer. 18: 18. Sometimes innocent and serious professors of godliness are censured and condemned on account of hypocritical professors, who never heartily espoused religion. And lastly, the ways of holiness suffer from the infirmities of weak Christians, who give too many occasions to prejudice the world against the ways of God.

By these things multitudes are kept from attendance on the means of grace, and multitudes more have their hearts shut up from receiving any saving benefit under them.

These are the common bars and locks by which the strong man armed secures his possession in the souls of sinners; and,

III. These bars are too strong for any but the almighty POWER OF GOD to remove or break. It is said that the Lord opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. Acts 14: 27. The arm of the Lord must be revealed, or none will open to Christ by faith. Isa. 53: 1.

1. The iron bar oi the divine law, that thundering, terrible law, cannot force open the heart of an unbeliever; all the dreadful curses flying out of its fiery mouth, make no more impression than a tennis-ball against a wall of marble. You read of them who hear the words of this curse, yet bless themselves in their heart, saying, they shall have peace, though they walk in the imaginations of their hearts, to add drunkenness to thhst. Deut. 29: 19.

They play with hell and eternal torments, rush into iniquity as the horse rusheth into the battle, act as men in love with their own death, and as those who are at an agreement with hell. 0 the besotting, hardening, infatuating power of sin I

2. The golden key oi free-grace cannot, in itself, remove these bars and open men’s hearts to Christ: ““We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced.” Matt. 11: 17. The melodious sounds of grace, mercy, peace, and pardon, affect not the dead hearts of unbelievers: like deaf adders, they stop their ears at the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely. These gospel melodies only dispose them to a more quiet sleep in sin.

3. No u’orks of iirovidejice are in themselves sufficient to open the hearts of men to Christ.

The judgments, of God cannot do it; thousands have been sick with smiting, that yet cannot be made sick for sin. “Thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return.” Jer. 5: 3. Messengers of judgment are abroad, smiting some in their estates, scattering in one day the labor of many years; and therein giving a warning to the conscience to make sure of Christ and the world to come, since their comfort and happiness are scattered in this world. Some are smitten in their dearest relatives; death knocks at their door, and carries out the delight of their eyes, and admonishes their souls to place their happiness in more durable comforts: some are smitten with disease, giving warning of the near approach of their latter end, and bidding them prepare for another habitation; but all in vain.

No mercies of God are in themselves sufficient to open the obdurate hearts of sinners to Christ. God has heaped up mercies by multitudes upon many of you; all these mercies of God should lead you to repentance. Rom. 2:4. They take you in a friendly way by the hand, and thus talk wdth you: “Ah, sinner, how canst thou grieve and dishonor the God who thus feedeth, clotheth, and comforteth thee on every side? Do you thus requite the Lord, 0 foolish people and unwise?” Yet all will not do, neither judgments nor mercies can fright or allure the carnal heart to Jesus Christ. It is his Spirit, his almighty power alone, that opens these everlasting gates, and makes these strong bars give way and fly at his voice.

Inference 1. Behold here the dismal state of nature, and the ivofid condition of all unregenerate soids; Christ the Redeemer shut out, sin and Satan shut in. This is the horrid state of nature shut up in unbelief. Rom. 11: 32. Ah, Lord, what a condition is this; we should certainly account it an unspeakable misery to be shut up in a house haunted by the devil, where we should be continually frightened with dreadful noises and apparitions; but alas, what is an apparition of the devil without us, to the inhabitation of the devil within us? Nay, what is the possession of a body, to Satan’s possession of the soul? Yet this is the very case of the unregenerate. Luke 11: 21. The strong man armed keepeth the palace, till Christ dispossesses him by sovereign victorious grace. Poor wretch, canst thou start at a supposed vision of a spirit, and not tremble to think that thy soul is the habitation of devils? There is a twofold misery lying upon all Christless, unregenerated persons.

Satan is their rider in this world, “the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” Eph. 2: 2.

As the Holy Spirit of God dwells and rules in sanctified souls, walks ill them as in hallowed temples, guiding and comforting them; so Satan dwells in unregenerate hearts, inflaming them with his temptations, and using their faculties and members as instruments of unrighteousness. And then,

He will be their tormentor in the world to come: he that tempts now, will torment then. “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” Matt. 25: 41. Flee, therefore, and escape for your lives, sleep not quietly another night in so dismal and dreadful a state. “If the Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” John 8: 36.

2. What a glorious tuork of sovereign, omnipotent grace is the effectual conversion of a sinner unto God. If every heart by nature be secured for Satan under so many locks and bars, the opening of any heart to Christ is deservedly marvellous in our eyes. You all acknowledge that the opening of the graves at the resurrection will be a glorious display of Almighty power, and so it will: it will be a wonderful thing to see the graves opened and the dead raised at the voice of the archangel and the trump of God; but give me leave to say that the opening of thy heart, poor sinner, to receive Christ, is a more glorious work than that of raising the dead; it is therefore deservedly put in the first rank of the great mysteries of godliness, that Christ is “believed on in the world.” 1 Tim. 3:16. He that well considers Christ, may justly wonder that all the hearts in the enlightened world do not stand wide open to embrace him; yet he that shall consider the frame and temper of the natural heart, and how strongly Satan has intrenched and fortified himself in it, may justly wonder to hear of a work of conversion in an age. 0 brethren, consider the marvels of conversion, the wonderful works of God upon the soul that opens unto Christ by faith.

There is a tieio eye created in the mind: “The Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true.” 1 John, 5: 20. 0 that precious eye of faith, which shows the soul as it were a new world, a world of new and ravishing objects. Eph. 5: 8. All the angels in heaven, all the ministers and libraries upon earth, cannot create such an eye and give such an illumination; it is only He who “commanded the light to shine out of darkness, that” thus “shineth in our “hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Cor. 4: 6.

And what a glorious supernatural work is the conviction of the conscience by the saving beams of light upon it. Now the conscience, which lay in a dead sleep, begins to startle and look about it with fear and horror. Life and feeling have got into it, and now it cries, “Ah, sick, sick at the heart for sin, sick for a Saviour.”

And no less marvellous an effect of the Almighty power is the bowing of the stubborn will so efficaciously, so congruously, and so determinately and fixedly to the Lord Jesus. The will is efficaciously determined, so as no power of hell or nature can resist or frustrate that mighty power which worketh effectually in all them that believe. 1 Thess. 2: 13. Yet it works not by way of compulsion, but in harmony with and agreeably to the nature of the will: “I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love.” Hosea 11:4. Satan bids for the soul, but Christ infinitely outbids all his offers; eternal, spiritual, and unsearchable riches, instead of sensual, perishing enjoyments, which determine the choice of the will in its own natural method, by the sight of the excelhng glory of spiritual things. And thus the mighty, supernatural power of God opens the heart which Satan had secured so many ways against Christ.

3. Hence it also follows, that man has no luill of his oion to supernatural good. The will cannot, by its own power, open itself to receive Christ by faith. When it does open to him, it is not by its natural power, but by the power of God upon it. The admirers of nature talk much of the sovereignty of the will, as if it alone had escaped the fall, and that no more than moral suasion is needed to open it to Christ; that is, that God needs do no more to save men than the devil does to damn them. But if ever God makes you sensible what the work of saving conversion is, you will quickly find that your will is lame to spiritual things; you will cry out of a wounded will, as well as of a dark head and a hard heart. You will quickly find that “it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his own good pleasure.” Phil. 2:13. The birth of the new creature is not of the will of man, but of God. John 1:13.

4. Learn, hence, the necessity of conversion in order to salvation. Christ and heaven are shut up against you till your hearts are savingly opened unto him. “Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again.” John 3: 7. 0 sinner, that hard heart of thine must be humbled; thy stubborn and refractory will must be bowed; all the powers of thy soul must be unlocked and opened to Christ; he must come into thy soul, or thou canst never see the face of God in peace. It is Christ in you that is “the hope of glory.” Col. 1: 27. Till thy heart is opened, Christ, with all the hopes of glory, stands without thee. If hope from the death of Christ, without the application of his Spirit, be enough to save men, then why are any damned? See 1 Cor. 1: 30. Adam’s sin damns none but only such as are in him; and Christ’s righteousness saves none but those that are by faith in him: the eternal purpose of the Father, the meritorious death of the Son, put no man into the state of salvation and happiness till both are brought home by the Spirit’s powerful application in the work of saving conversion. It is good news indeed, that Christ died for sinners; it is good news that Christ is brought to our veiy doors in the tenders of the gospel, and that the Spirit knocks at the door of our hearts, by many convictions and persuasions to open to him and enjoy the unspeakable benefits of his death: these things bring us nigh to Christ and salvation; and yet all this may be, eventually, but a dreadful aggravation of our damnation, and will certainly be so to them whose hearts are but ahiiost opened to Christ.

5. See, hence, the necessity of fervent prayer to accompany the preaching of the gospel. Without the Spirit and power of God accompanying the word, no heart can ever be opened to Christ: alas, such bars as these are too strong for the breath of man to break; let ministers pray, and the people pray, that the gospel may be preached “with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.” 1 Pet. 1: 12. It greatly concerns us who preach the gospel, to wrestle with God upon our knees for help in the dispensation of it unto the people — to steep that seed we sow among you in tears and prayers before you hear it. And I beseech you, brethren, let us not strive alone; join your cries to heaven with ours, for the blessing of the Spirit upon the v7ord. How does Paul beg of the people, as a beggar would for alms, for their assistance in prayer: “I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.” Rom. 15: 30.

For want of such wrestlings with God in prayer, there is so little efficacy in ordmances. Martha told her Saviour, “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died,” John 11: 21; and I may tell you, that if the Spirit had been here, your souls had not remained dead under the word as they do this day. 0 when the Sabbath draws near, let fervent cries ascend from every family to heaven. Lord, pour out thy Spirit with thy word; make it mighty through thy power to open these gates of iron and break asunder these bars of brass.

68 CHRIST KNOClilNa AT THE DOOR.

The subject supplies us with matter for exhortation to duty. Seeing the case stands thus, that all hearts by nature are barred and shut up against Christ, let every soul strive to its uttermost to get the heart and will opened to Christ: “Strive to enter in at the strait gate.” Luke 13: 24. Christ is at the door; 0 strive with yourselves as well as with God now to get it opened, now that salvation is come so near your souls.

Objection. But have you not told us that no sinner can open his own heart, nor bow his own will to Christ?

Answer. True, he cannot convert himself, but he may do many things in order to it, and which have a tendency to it, which he does not do; and so he perishes, not because he cannot, but because he will not open his heart to Christ.

Many things may be done by sinners which are not done; and though in themselves they are insufficient, yet being the way in which the Spirit of God usually works, we are bound to do them. As for example, 1. If it be not in your power to open your heart to Christ, it is in your power to forbear the external acts of sin, which set your heart the more against Christ. AVho forces thine hands to steal, or thy tongue to swear or lie? “Who forces the cup of excess down your throat? 2. If you cannot open your heart under the word, it is in your power to attend upon the external duties and ordinances of the gospel. Why cannot those feet carry thee to the assemblies of the saints, as well as to a tavern?

3. And if you cannot admit the word effectually into your heart, certainly you can apply your mind with more attention and consideration to it than you do. Who forces thine eyes to wander, or closes them with sleep, when the awful matters of eternal life and death are sounding in thine ears?

4. If you cannot open your heart to embrace Christ, certainly you can reflect when the obvious characters of a Christless state are plainly held forth before your eyes. God has given you a self-reflecting power: the spirit of man knoweth the things of a man. 1 Cor. 2:11. When you hear of convictions of sin, compunction of heart for sin, deep concern of the soul about its eternal state, hungering and thirsting after Christ, anxious days and nights about salvation, which others have felt, you can certainly examine whether it were ever so with you; and if not, methinks it might conduce to the prevention of your misery, to bemoan yourself, saying, “Ah, my poor soul, canst thou endure everlasting burnings? “What will become of thee if Christ pass thee by, and his Spirit strive no more with thee?” Why cannot you throw yourself at the feet of God, and cry for mercy? Prayer is a part of natural worship; distress usually puts men upon it who have no grace. Jonah 1: 5. Do this towards the opening and saving of your soul, which though it be not in itself sufficient, nor puts God under any obligation or necessity to show you mercy, yet it puts you in the way of the Spirit. And is not thy soul, sinner, worth as much as this? Have you not taken a great deal more pains for the trifles of this world? And will it not be a dreadful aggravation of sin and misery to all eternity, that you perished so easily? Do not you see many round about you striving for Christ and salvation, while you sit still with folded arms as if you had nothing to do for another world? “The kingdom of heaven sufFereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” Matt. 11: 12.

Why should other men’s souls be dearer to them than yours to you? What discouragements have you which other men have not; or what encouragements have they which you have not?

Objection. Say not, We have no assurance that our pains shall prosper, or our strivings be made effectual to conversion: if there were any promise in the gospel that such endeavors should be seconded from heaven and made available to salvation, then we would strive as long as breath and life should last; but all this may be to no purpose, we may be Christless and hopeless when all is done.

Answer. But yet remember, God may bless these weak endeavors, and give you his Almighty Spirit with them: nay, it is highly probable that he will do so; and is a strong probability nothing with you? Do you perform no actions about your civil callings without an assurance of success? When the merchant ventures his life or property at sea, is he sure of a good return; or does he not venture upon the mere probabilities of a gainful voyage? When the husbandman plows his land, and empties his bags and purse upon it, is he sure of a good harvest? May not a blight defeat all his hopes? Yet he ploweth and soweth in hope, and ordinarily God makes him partake of his hope; but without such industry his expectations would be in vain, Away then with vain excuses; up and be doing in the use of all appointed means, and the Lord be with you.

Before I dismiss this point, let us try ourselves by it, whether God has opened our hearts to Christ, broken these bars of ignorance, unbelief, custom, and prejudice — whether we are ready to receive Christ Jesus the Lord.

This is a solemn application of the subject, and the consequences of it may be great: 0 that our faithfulness and seriousness in the trial may be answerable. Try yourselves by these following ila.rks:

Mark 1. If your eyes be not opened to see sin in its vileness, and Christ in his glory, suitableness, and 7iecessity, then your hearts were never yet eflectually opened by the gospel. Men’s eyes may be opened to see sin, and their hearts at the same time be shut up by unbelief against Christ; but no man’s heart can be opened to Christ while his eyes are shut: “This is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him, may have everlasting life.” John 6:40. The work of faith is always wrought in the light of conviction; the cure of the heart begins at the eye of the mind, Acts 26: 18, “to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.” God opens men’s hearts by shining into them. 2 Cor. 4:6. If, therefore, any man’s eyes be still blinded with ignorance and prejudice, so that he sees not his own guilt and misery, nor the worth and necessity of a Saviour, that man’s heart is still under Satan’s lock and bar, sin is shut in and Christ is shut out of his soul.

Mark 2. No heart opens to Christ by faith till it be first tvounded by comipunctioji mid humiliation; this heartwounding work is always antecedent to the work of faith.

1 doubt not but your thoughts forerun my discourse, and are directed to that scripture where Peter, preaching to those who had crucified Christ, and bringing his discourse close to their consciences in the application of that sermon, convinces them not only what an atrocious crime the crucifying of the Son of God was in itself, but also charges it home upon them: “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. “When they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Acts

2: 23, 37. Upon this outcry three thousand souls opened in one hour to Christ. Now consider whether your hearts have been thus wounded; has sorrow for sin pierced thy soul? Vain sinner, that frothy heart of thine must bleed under. compunctions for sin, or there will be no room for Christ in it. Come, soul, it is in vain to flatter yourself in your own eyes: reflect upon the frame of your heart, call back the days that are past, and say, when was the time, and where was the place when thou layedst at the foot of God, mourning on account of thy sins. Did ever God hear such a cry as this from thy soul? “Ah, Lord, my soul is distressed; I roll hither and thither for ease and comfort, but find none. 0 the insupportable weight of guilt; 0 the bitterness of sin. My soul fails under it; Lord, undertake for me.” I do not say the degrees of compunction and humiliation are equal in all converts, neither are their sins or their ability to bear sorrows for them equal; but this I say, thy heart must ache for sin, or it will never open to Christ: he bmds up none but broken hearts. Isa. 61: 1.

Mark 3. If Christ is come into thy heart, the love a7id delight of every sin is g07ie out of it. Christ and the love of sin cannot dwell together: what he said to the soldiers that apprehended him in the garden, he says to every soul that comes to apprehend him by faith, “If ye seek me, let these go their way,” John 18:8; away with the sin thou most delightest in. Christ cannot come in till this be gone. “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” Isa. 55: 6, 7. Here are the terms of your acceptance and salvation plainly laid down, forsake thy ways and thoughts: the way means the external acts of sin, and the thoughts the internal acts of contrivance and delight in sin; both these must be forsaken; and that is not all, for this makes but a negative holiness, “Let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy.” It is in vain for men to make the door of salvation wider than God has made it; we cannot bring down Christ’s terms lower than he has set them: if we will not come up to them, Christ and we must part. And this makes the great struggle in the souls of converts. 0 it is hard to give up pleasant and profitable lusts; but away they must go, a bill of divorce must be signed for them, or you cannot be espoused to the Lord Jesus. This will be found to be much harder than to part with all external things for Christ’s sake.

Mark 4. No heart can opeiitruly to Christ, that is not made tvilling upon due deliberation to receive him, iviih his cross of sufferings and his yoke of obedience. Matt. 16: 24; 11: 29. Any exception against either of these is an effectual bar to union with Christ; he looks upon that soul as not worthy of him, that puts in such an exception. Matt. 10: 38. If thou judgest not Christ to be worth all sufferings, all losses, all reproaches, he judges thee unworthy to bear the name of his disciple. So for the duties of obedience, called his yoke; he that will not receive Christ’s yoke can never receive his person, nor any benefit by his blood,

Mark 5. Every heart that opens sincerely and evangelically to Christ, opens to him in deep humility and sense of its emptiness and unworthiness; all self-righteousness is given up as dung and dross. Phil. 3:8. Thus Abraham came to him as to one that justifieth the ungodly. “To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” E-om. 4: 5. Yea, here is the true way of justification indeed; where the imputed righteousness of Christ comes, all self-righteousness vanishes before it. By “him that worketh not,” understand not an idle, lazy believer, who takes no care of the duties of obedience; an idle faith can never be a saving faith. But the meaning is, he worketh not to meet the demands of the first covenant — to make up a righteousness for himself by his own working, to cover himself with a robe of righteousness of his own weaving. Thou must receive Christ into a naked, unworthy soul, or not receive him at all. Paul heartily rejected all his own righteousness, cast down that house-idol to the ground, that he might be found ui the righteousness of Christ. Phil. 3: 9. Cast that idol out of doors, it stands in the way of a better righteousness. There are divers ways wherein sinners maintain their own righteousness to their ruin. There is a gross and a more refined self-righteousness; the one more palpable and easily liable to conviction, the other much harder to be discovered and cured. Ask some men on what their hopes of salvation are grounded, and they viill tell you they are just in their dealings with men and constant in their prayers to God; that is all, and therefore they doubt not of their salvation. Thus they substitute a righteousness of their own in the place of Christ’s blood, and are their own destroyers by seeking in this way to be their own saviours. But there is a more refined way of self-righteousness, dressed up in such pretences of humility that men are hard to be convinced of it. I pity many souls on this account who stand off from Christ, and dare not believe because they want such and such qualifications to fit them for Christ. 0, saith one, could I find so much brokenness of heart for sin, so much reformation and power over corruptions, then I could come to Christ; the meaning of which is, if I could bring a price in my hand to purchase him, then I should be encouraged to go to him. Here now is horrible pride covered over with a veil of humility. Poor sinner, either come naked and empty-handed, according to Isa. 55: 1, and E,om. 4: 5, or expect a repulse; for Christ is not the. sale, but the gift of God.

Mark 6. Whatever soul opens to Christ, o/;e/^s finally and everlastingly to him; the heart once opened to Christ, must stand open for ever to him, never to shut him out any more. And here is a very observable difference between a man who comes to Christ in a sudden fright of conscience, and parts from him again when that fright is over, and a man who receives Christ to dwell in his heart by faith. Eph. 3: 17. When Christ comes into the heart, he saith, “Here will I dwell for ever;” and, “Lord,” saith the soul, “so I receive thee; this is the day of union, 0 let me never know a day of separation; let it never be in the power of life or death, angels, principalities or powers, things present or to come, to make a separation between thee and me.” “Soul,” saith Christ, “thou shalt be mine while I am in heaven;” and, “Lord,” saith the soul, “I will be thme while I am on earth.” “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee,” saith Christ; “0, my Lord,” saith the soul, “hold me fast in thy hand, that I may never leave nor forsake thee; my estate, liberty, and life may and must go, but it is the fixed purpose of my heart never, never to let thee go.” The espousals between Christ and the soul are for ever: “I will betroth thee unto me for ever,” yea,ybr ever. Hos. 2:19. And here lies another great difference between the hypocrite who takes Christ with a politic reserve, that will venture with Christ at sea no further than he can see the shore, and the upright heart that embarks itself with Christ without reserve, come what wall; that saith to him, as Ittai to David, when entreated to go back in a time of danger, “Nay, where my Lord Jesus Christ is, whether it be in liberty or in prison, in life or in death, there also will I be.” Flesh may persuade to a retreat; but, saith the soul, I cannot retreat: wherever the truths, the interest and glory of Christ are, there also must I be; for upon these terms I first received him, and opened the door of my heart to him. These things are no matters of surprise to me, Christ and I have debated them long ago; he dealt fairly with me, and I must deal faithfully with him.

Now, brethren, view over these six trials; have your eyes been opened to see sin in its vileness, and Christ in his beauty and necessity? Have your hearts been wounded with compunction and sorrow for sin? Are the love and delight of sin gone out of your souls? Have you no exceptions either to the cross or yoke of Christ? Have you given up all your own righteousness, whether gross or refined, for dung and dross, and received Christ for ever? Then thy heart is savingly opened to him.

The last improvement of this doctrine will be, to draw from it CONSOLATION to all whose hearts the Lord has thus

C6 CHEIST KNOCKINa AT THE DOOR.

opened to receive Christ at his knocks and calls of the gospel.

Has God indeed opened your heart, and made you sincerely willing to receive Christ? then there are ten sweet consolations, like so many boxes of’ precious ointment, to be poured forth in the close of this discourse, upon every such soul.

Consolation 1. The opening of any man’s heart to receive Christ, is a clear, scriptitral evidence of the Lord’s love to and setting apart that man for himself from eternity. I do not say that every man whose heart is opened by faith, is thereupon immediately assured and satisfied that God has chosen him to salvation. But whether he apprehend it or not, the thing in itself is certain. ‘* Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance.” 1 Thess. 1: 4, 5. Their election of God was the thing to be proved; but alas, might they say, Who can know that but God alone? it is among the divine secrets. Yes, saith the apostle, we know it, and by this we know it; for our gospel came not unto you in an empty sound, but in mighty efficacy, effectually opening your hearts to believe. A more clear and certain evidence of your election cannot be given in this world.

Again, look into Rom. 8: 30: “Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” There are two great and ravishing truths cleared in this scripture: the one is, that the whole number of the called upon earth were predestinated to life before the world was; the other is, that as the whole number of the glorified saints in heaven is made up of souls called and justified on earth, so the called soul, that is, the soul that savingly ojsens to Christ by faith, may, from that work of the Spirit upon him, solidly reason backward to God’s electing love before all time, and forward to his glorification with God when time shall be no more. 0 how strong is the consolation flowing out of this glorious work of the Spirit on our hearts.

Consolation 2. The opening of the heart to receive Christ, is the peculiar effect of the almighty power of God. The arm of an angel is too weak to break those strong bars before-mentioned; therefore the exceeding greatness of his power is applied unto this work of believing: “The exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead.” Eph. 1: 19, 20. Here is power, the power of God, the greatness of his power, the exceeding greatness of his power, the very same power which wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead; and all this is needed to make the heart of man open by faith to receive Christ. The only key that fits the cross wards of man’s will and effectually opens his heart, is in the hand of Christ: “He hath the key of David; he openeth, and no man shutteth.” Rev, 3: 7.

How long some of you sat under able ministers, searching sermons, and alarming providences; yet to no purpose, till this almighty power came with the word, and then the work was done. “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.” Psalm 110:3. What a glorious power was that which opened Christ’s grave, when he lay in the heart of the earth, vvdth a weighty stone rolled upon his sepulchre. And how mighty a power was that which broke asunder all those bars which kept thy soul in the state of sin and death, None feel this power but those whom God intends for salvation; and having once wrought this, it is engaged to go through with all the rest which yet remains to be done to perfect thy salvation.

Consolation 3. The opening of thy heart to Christ is not only an effect of almighty power, but an effect without whicJi all that Christ has done and suffered had been of no avail to thy salvation; neither the eternal decrees of God, nor the meritorious sufferings of Christ, are effectual to any man’s salvation, until this work of the Spirit be wrought upon his heart. The offering of Christ is sufficient to purchase our redemption, but the receiving of Christ by faith brings home salvation to our souls. Where there are many causes to produce one effect, that effect is not produced until the last cause has wrought. Thus it is here: the moving cause, namely, the free-grace of God, has wrought; and the meritorious cause, the death of Christ, has also wrought; but still the heart, even of an elect man, remains under guilt and condemnation, till the Spirit, who is the applying agent, has also wrought the blessed effect we now speak of. It is Christ in us, that is, in union with our souls, which is to us the hope of glory. Col. 1: 27; 1 Cor. 1: 30. Behold, then, the last stroke given in this openmg of the heart by faith; herein electing love has brought home Christ, with all the purchases and benefits of his death, into the actual possession of thy soul. 0 how transporting a consideration is this.

Consolation 4. In this work, the opening of the heart by faith, the great design of the gospel is also accomjMshed. You behold in the church a glorious frame of ordinances set up by divine institution, ministers appointed to preach, sacraments, prayers, singing — a variety of ordinances set up and excellent gifts bestowed on men, as the fruit of Christ’s ascension into heaven. Now, what was the design of God in the institution of all these things, but that by them, as instruments in his hand, our ignorant, dead, unbelieving hearts might be opened to Christ in acts of repentance and faith, and built up to a perfect man? Ministers are sent to open your eyes, to turn you from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God. Acts 26: 18. They are not sent by Christ into this world to get a living, to pursue a trade for themselves, but to bring you to faith. 1 Cor. 3: 5.

When God’s elect are thus brought in and built up in Christ, you shall see this glorious frame of ordinances taken down; there will be no more preaching nor hearing, the end of all these things being accomplished: “Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father.” 1 Cor. 15: 24. The consideration of the accomplishment of the great and principal design of the gospel thus far upon thy heart, is matter of transporting joy. Ministers may and must die, ordinances may be removed, but this blessed effect of them upon thy soul shall never die: God will perfect what he hath begun.

Consolation 5. That day wherein thy heart is savingly opened to receive Christ, that very day is salvation come to thy soul. When the heart of Zaccheus was opened to Christ, he tells him, “This day is salvation come to thy house.” Luke 19:9. Salvation was come into the world before thou wast born; yea, salvation was come to thy door in the tenders of the gospel before; but it never came into thy soul till the day wherein thy heart opened to Christ by faith. And is not this matter of singular consolation? If salvation be not, what is? No wonder that the eunuch went home rejoicing, when he had received Christ by faith. Acts 8: 39; that the jailer rejoiced with all his house. Acts 16: 34. Neither blame nor wonder at such men for rejoicing, for it is the day of their salvation. It is true their salvation was not finished that day, there were many things yet to be done and suffered by them before the completion of it; but it was begun that day, the foundation was laid in the soul that day, and the top-stone shall be set up with shouting in due time, crying, Grace, grace unto it.

Consolation 6. The opening of a sinner’s heart to Christ makes joy in heave?!, a triumph iii the city of our God above. “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nme just persons which need no repentance.”

Luke 15:7. As when a young prince is born, all the kingdom rejoices, and there is a demonstration of joy and thankfulness in every city and town; it is much more so in heaven, when a soul is horn to Christ under the gospel. It is a satisfaction to the heart of the Lord Jesus, who now beholds more of the travail of his soul; and to all the angels and saints, that another soul is espoused to him.

When the gospel is effectually brought home by the Spirit to the heart of a sinner, and wounds him for sin, and sends him home, crying, 0 sick, sick of sin, and sick for

‘JO” ’

Christ I the news thereof is presently in heaven, and sets the whole city of God rejoicing. Christ never rejoiced over thee before; thou hast wounded him and grieved him a thousand times, but he never rejoiced in thee till now; and that which gives joy to Christ may well be matter of joy to thee. Consolation 7. The day thy heart is unlocked, unbarred, and savingly opened by faith, that very day an inti7nate, spiritual, and everlasting union is made between Christ atid thy soul; from that day Christ is thi7ie, and thou art his. Christ is a great and glorious person; but how great and glorious soever he be, the feeble arms of thy faith may surround and embrace him, and thou mayest say with the church, “My beloved is mine, and I am his.” Sol. Song, 2: 16. For mark what he says in the text, “If any man open to me, I will come in to him.” That soul shall be my habitation, there will I dwell for ever. Thus will Christ dwell in your heart by faith. What soul feels not itself advanced by this union with the Son of God? Hereby the believer becomes a member of his body, of his flesh and of his bones: this is an honor bestowed upon thy soul, above all that ever God bestowed upon any angel in heaven; to them Christ is a head by way of dominion, but to thee by way of vital influence. Angels are as the nobles of his kingdom, but the believer his bride, and all the angels of heaven are ministering spirits unto such.

Consolation 8, The opening of thy heart to Christ brings thee not onlij into itnion tvith his person, but into the state of sweet, soul-enriching communion with him. So he speaks in the text, “If any man open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” Thou hast lived many years in the world, and never hadst any communion with God till this day Christ and thy soul have been strangers till now. Thou mayest have had communion with ordinances, and even external communion with saints, but for communion with Christ thou couldst know nothing of it, till thou receivedst him into thy soul by faith. Now thou mayest say, “Truly my fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” 1 John, 1:3. And thenceforth thy communion with men is pleasant and desirable.

Consolation 9. The opening of a man’s soul to Christ by faith, is a special and peculiar onercy. God has done that for thee which he has not done to millions: “Who hath believed our report; and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” that is, to how small a remnant in the world. Isa, 53: 1. And the apostle puts the work of faith among the great mysteries of godliness, the wonders of religion:’ “Preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world.”, 1 Tim. 3: 16. The sound of the gospel is gone forth into the world: “Many are called, but few are chosen.” Matt. 22: 14. There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elias, but to none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. Luke 4: 25, 26. There may have been hundreds who sat under the same sermon which opened thy heart to Christ, but it may be to none of them was the Spirit of God sent that day, to open their hearts by faith, but to thee; thou wilt freely acknowledge thyself as unlikely and unworthy as the vilest sinner there. 0 astonishing mercy I

Consolation 10. And lastly, in the same day thy heart opens by faith to Christ, all the treasures of Christ are unlocked and opened to thee. In the same hour in which God turns the key of regeneration to open thy soul, the key of free-grace is also turned to open to thee the unsearchable riches of Christ; then the righteousness of Christ becomes thine to justify thee, the wisdom of Christ to guide thee, the holiness of Christ to sanctify thee; in a word, he is that day made of God to thee, “wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” 1 Cor. 1: 30. “All are yours; and ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” 1 Cor, 3: 22, 23. Thus I have showed you some of the great things God does for those souls who open their hearts to receive Christ on the terms of the gospel.