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GOD IS THE CHIEF GOOD.

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3. They surely did never come to God by Christ, however they may boast of the grace of Christ, that will from the freeness of gospel-grace plead an indulgence for sin.

And now to speak a few words of coming to God, of coming such as the text intends. And in speaking of this, I must touch upon two things. 1. Concerning God. 2. Concerning the frame of the heart of him that comes to him.

1. Of God. God is the chief good: good so as nothing is but himself. He is in himself most happy; yea, all good, and all true happiness is only to be found in God, as that which is essential to his nature; nor is there any good, or any happiness in or with any creature or thing, but what is eommunicated to it by God. God is the only desirable good; nothing without him is worthy of our hearts. Right thoughts of God are able to ravish the heart; how much more happy is the man that has interest in God! God alone is able by himself to put the soul into a more blessed, comfortable, and happy condition, than can the whole world; yea, and more than if all the created happiness of all the angels of heaven did dwell in one man's bosom. God is the upholder of all creatures, and whatever they have that is a suitable good to their kind, it is from God. By God all things have their subsistence, and all the good that they enjoy. I cannot tell what to say. I am drowned. The life, the glory, the blessedness, the soul-satisfying goodness that is in God, is beyond all expression.

2. Now there must be in us something of suitableness of spirit to this God, before we can be willing to come to him.

Before, therefore, God has been with a man, and has left some impression of his glory upon him, that man cannot be willing to come to him aright. Hence it is said concerning Abraham, that, in order to his coming to God (and following him) aright, the Lord himself did show himself unto him. "Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father, Abraham, when he was in

Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee."

It was this God of glory, the sight and vision of this God of glory, that provoked Abraham to leave his country and kindred to come after God. The reason why men are so careless and so indifferent about their coming to God, is because they have their eyes blinded, because they do not perceive his glory. God is so blessed a one, that did he not hide himself, and his glory, the whole world would be ravished with him: but he has, I will not say reasons of state, but reasons of glory; glorious reasons, why he hideth himself from the world, and appeareth but to particular ones. Now, by his thus appearing to Abraham, down fell Abraham's vanity, and his idolatrous fancies and affections; and his heart began to turn unto God, for that there was in this appearance an alluring and soul-instructing voice. Hence that which Moses calls here an appearing, Christ calls a hearing, and a teaching, and a learning. "It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and learned of the Father, cometh unto me:" that is, to God by me. But, I say, what must they hear and learn of the Father, but that Christ is the way to glory, the way to the God of glory? This is a drawing doctrine: wherefore that which in this verse is called, teaching and learning, is called in the verse before, the drawing of the Father, "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me, draw him;" that is, with powerful proposals, and alluring conclusions, and heart-subduing influences.

Having thus touched upon this, we will now proceed to show you what kind of people they are that come to God by Christ; and then shall draw some inferences from this also.

There are therefore three sorts of people that come to

WHO COME TO GOD BY CHRIST.

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God by Christ. 1. Men newly awakened. 2. Men turned back from backsliding. 3. The sincere and upright believer.

I. Men newly awakened. By awakened, I mean awakened thoroughly. So awakened as to be made to see themselves, what they are; the world, what it is; the law, what it is; hell, what it is; death, what it is; Christ, what he is; and and also what judgment is.

God, what he is;

A man that will come to God by Christ aright, must needs, precedent to his so coming, have a competent knowledge of things of this kind.

First, He must know himself, what a wretched and miserable sinner he is, before he will take one step forward in order to his coming to God by Christ. This is plain from a

great many scriptures: as that of the parable of the prodigal, that account of the three thousand, that of the jailer, and those of many more besides. "The whole have no need of the physician." They were not the sound, and whole, but the lame and diseased, that came to him to be cured of their infirmities; and it is not the righteous, but the sinners, that do well know themselves to be such, that come to God by Christ.

It is not in the power of all the men on earth to make one man come to God by Christ, because it is not in their power to make men see their state by nature. And what should a man come to God for, that can live in the world without him? Reason says so, experience says so, the scripture beareth witness that so it is of a truth. It is a sight of what I am that must unroost me; that must shake my soul, and make me leave my present rest. No man comes to God by Christ, but he that knows himself, and what sin hath done to him. That is the first.

Secondly, As he must know himself, and what a wretch he is; so he must know the world, and what an empty thing it is. Cain did see himself, but saw not the emptiness of

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this world; and therefore, instead of going to God by Christ, he went to the world, and there did take up to his dying-day. The world is a great snare to the soul, even to the souls of awakened sinners, by reason of its big looks, and the fair promises that it makes to those that will please to entertain it. It will also make as though it could do as much to the quieting of the spirit, as either sermon, Bible or preacher. Yea, and it has its followers ready at its heels continually to blow its applause abroad, saying, "Who will show us any (other) good?" And though this their way is their folly, yet their posterity approveth their sayings. So that unless a man, under some awakenings, sees the emptiness of the world, he will take up in the good things thereof, and not come to God by Christ. Many there be now in hell that can seal to this truth. It was the world that took awakened Cain, awakened Judas, awakened Demas. Yea, Balaam, though he had some kind of visions of God, yet was kept by the world from coming to him aright. See with what earnestness the young man in the gospel came to Jesus Christ, and that for eternal life. He ran to him, he kneeled down to him, and asked (and that before a multitude) "Good master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" And yet when he was told that, he could not come; for the world soon steps betwixt that life and him, and persuades him to take up in itself; and so, for aught we know, he never looked after life more.

There are four things in the world that have a tendency to lull an awakened man asleep, if God also makes him not afraid of the world.

1. There is the bustle and cumber of the world, that will call a man off from looking after the salvation of his soul. This is intimated by the parable of the thorny ground. Worldly cumber is a devilish thing. It will hurry a man from his bed without prayer; to a sermon, and from it again, without prayer. It will choke prayer, it will choke the word, it will

DANGERS OF THE WORLD.

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choke convictions, it will choke the soul, and cause that awakening shall be to no saving purpose.

2. There is the friendship of this world, to which if a man is not mortified, there is no coming for him to God by Christ. And a man can never be mortified to it, unless he shall see the emptiness and vanity of it. Whosoever makes himself a friend of this world, is the enemy of God: and how then can he come to him by Christ?

3. There are the terrors of the world; if a man stands in fear of them, he also will not come to God by Christ. "The fear of man brings a snare." How many have, in all ages, been kept from coming to God aright, by the terrors of the world? yea, how many are there, who to one's thinking, have almost got to the gates of heaven, and have been scared, and driven quite back again, by nothing but the terrors of this world? This is that which Christ so cautioned his disciples about; for he knew it was a deadly thing. Peter also bids the saints beware of this, as of a thing very destructive.

4. There is also the glory of the world, namely, honors, and greatness, and preferments: an absolute hindrance to convictions and awakenings. "How can ye believe," saith Christ, "that receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God?" If therefore a man is not in his affections crucified to these, it will keep him from coming to God aright.

Thirdly, As a man must know himself, how vile he is, and know the world, how empty it is; so he must know the law, how severe it is; else he will not come to God by Jesus Christ our Lord.

A man that is under awakenings, is under a double danger of falling short of coming to God by Christ, if he knows not the severity of the law. 1. He is either in danger of slighting its penalty; or, 2. Of seeking to make amends to it by doing good works; and nothing can keep him from

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