come over them; that your fins are fuch as nothing but infinite and omnipotent power and grace can fubdue; your guilt fuch as nothing but fovereign grace and mercy, reigning through the righteoufnefs of Chrift, can pardon, it is fo great. It is true, mountains of fin and guilt cannot be grounds of hope, nor arguments for faith, when in themfelves they are rather grounds of defpair; but all the encouragement is to be drawn from-Chrift's ability and agility to leap and fkip over them all; an that it will inhance the glory of the heavenly Roe, that he is able and willing to overleap fuch high mountains. You may, and ought, indeed, to aggravate your fins as much as you can, and not diminish them; magnify them, by acknowledging that they are very great and heinous, very high and impaffible to you; and argue from your own weaknefs, impotency, and infufficiency: but never think them fo great and high, as if he were not able to overleap and overcome them; nor magnify them above the mercy of God; for, "As the heavens are higher than the earth, fo are his thoughts high above your thoughts,” and his mercy above all the mountains of your fins. The acts of faith that this doctrine, therefore, calls for, are soul humbling, felf-emptying, and God-exalting a&s: that is, a putting work in Chrift's hand, which Omnipotency only can effect, viz. to level mountains that are infuperable by men and angels, to invite him to come over them, and to welcome him, when he fays, Lo, I come! &c.

(2.) To faints that may be at the greateft fenfible distance. May I not fay, What do you hear, poor foul; do you hear nothing to make you fay, The voice of my Beloved? What do you fee, poor foul, through the glass of this word? Do you fee nothing to make your' heart cry out, Behold, be cometh! leaping on the mountains, and fkipping on the bills? If no fuch thing is to be heard or feen, O where are you? And where are your ears and eyes? Where is your faith and hope? Be the diftance never fo great betwixt Chrift and you, and the mountains of Bether, and hills of feparation never fo great, and high, and many, is there not a door of

faith and hope opened wide to you? For, Behold, be cometh, leaping upon the mountains, and fkipping upon

the bills!

Some, it is like, are allowed his fenfible prefence; and may be in cafe to fay, Behold, he is come! he is come to my heart, he is come in to my arms. Let fuch be humble and thankful; and we wifh them much joy in their Beloved, fo as the joy of the Lord may be their ftrength, and fo as they may hold him, and not let him go. But his vifits of this fort are ufually feldom and fhort; he no fooner comes than he is away: "I opened to my Beloved; but my Beloved had withdrawn himfelf, and was gone."

But most part of believers at this day, and perhaps, moft of them in this houfe, are complaining of fenfible ablence, and of great mountains of diftance between. him and them: let fuch, from this doctrine fee, that though they cannot fay, Behold, he is come to feed their fenfe; yet their faith and hope, may have good feeding upon this, Bebold, be cometh, leaping on the mountains, and skipping on the bills. Let it fatisfy you for the prefent, that when he hath a mind to come, mountains and hills fhall not be able to hinder him; nay, his active motion upon the mountains, fhould excite you to the active exercife of faith: let his activity encourage your motion to be fetting out to meet him. It is true, the mountains and hills are infuperable to you; but when, through grace, you fiir up yourself, and crawl to be at him, who knows how foon he will Make your feet like hinds feet, and make you walk upon your high places? Hab. iii. 19.-Behold, the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him," in his ordinances, and to meet him at his table. Behold, he cometh towards you, leaping on the mountains, go ye out leaping to meet him. Who knows but activity fet about, not only from a fenfe of duty, at his call and command, faying, "Rife my love, my fair one, and come away;" but fet about from a fight of his condefcenfion, and a view of his hafting towards you, on the top of all the high mountains, may quickly elevate you ab ›ve yourself, and your ordinary frame, and fet your heart a-leaping

to

to meet him; for, he can foon make the lame man leap as an hart; or, if you want feet, he can give you wings, and make you mount up on wings as eagles, and meet him on the top of the mountains; for, Bebold, he cometh, leaping on the mountains, and skipping on the bills!

PART OF THE

A

DISCOURSE

BEFORE

SERVING THE FIRST TABLE.

WE E are now to celebrate the memorials of Chrift's marvellous love, in coming over the great mountains of the fiery law, and flaming juftice of God, by his doing and dying, his obedience and fatisfaction, in our room. Chrift hath come a far way, over many mountains, to pay you a vifit, and give you a feaft, if you be now friends with him, and have welcomed him in to your heart. But enemies are to be excluded, who were never charmed with his voice, as the voice of their Beloved; and who never faw their fins, like mountains, between him and them, nor his feet beautiful upon them, as a Saviour, to fave them from their fin, and remove thefe mountains; and who remain contentedly at a distance from him: fuch, therefore, we muft, in the name of the Lord, debar doctrinally; and we tell you, that the word of God debars all the impenitent breakers of the moral law; fuch as, &c. See that black catalogue, Rom. i. 29,-32. 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. Gal. v. 19, 20, 21. *

But, on the othr hand, I invite to this table of the Lord, all the friends of Chrift, that are acquaint with

* If the Reader inclines to fee a specimen of the manner in which the tables are ufually fenced, he may confult Vel. I. p. 77,83.

his voice, as the voice of their Beloved; and acquaint with his vifit, fo as they have joyfully welcomed him, with a Bebold, he cometh, leaping on the mountains, and kipping on the bills and who, with a glad heart, have met him, faying, "Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God." O believer, even come again and again; come and lay your weary head in his bofom; and his left hand fhall be under your head, and his right-hand fhall embrace you. He injoins you to "Do this in remembrance of me." Therefore, in coming to the elements of bread and wine, come to him by faith, to eat the flefh, and drink the blood of Chrift, believing his incarnation and fatisfaction, with application to yourself.

Come and put your heart in his hand; though it be a hard ftony heart, he can take away the heart of stone, and give you an heart of flesh. Come with all your doubts and difficulties to him; he is our true Daniel, that can answer all our doubts and difficult questions; yea, a greater than Daniel is here. What perplexities are you under? Be what they will, lay them all in one balance, and Chrift in another, and then fee if you dare flay away. The devil and his inftruments, of one fort and another, have been bufy to raise mountains of perplexities in the minds of the Lord's people, that, perhaps, have hindered you, before this, from coming to him in these ordinances, wherein you have formerly been fealted; and the defign of his temptations is to damp the hearts of God's children, and difcourage from their duty. But, as Chrift faid, even to a Peter, "Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offence unto me:" even fo fay you; and never fuffer the devil to get his will of you, though he appear in Samuel's mantle; yea, as an angel of light. His falfe light, is a damping and difcouraging light; yea, a darkening, confufing. difordering and perplexing light, leading to new and by-ways, and out of the good old way. But these mountains the enemy hath been raifing, are not able to hinder Chrift's coming to us, leaping and fkipping over them. Therefore, come leaping to him.

come

O come to him, though you want good qualifications, that you may get them from him. It is all the better you fee your want of them; for your qualifications will not buy mercy. His counfel is, Art thou poor? Buy of me gold: Art thou naked? Buy of me white raiment. He invites you to come to him, becaufe you want. If you were not a wanter, you needed not come to Chrift. But if you are fo poor, that you want all good things, then behold he is faying, "To this man will I look, even to him that is poor," Ifa. lxvi. 2.→→ Whatever be your cafe, and whatever be your objection, let juft neceffity put you on it, to come to him; for, "To whom will you go?"

O poor drooping believer, if you cannot fee him for the mountains of fin and guilt, that you fee yet standing betwixt him and you, are you saying, I dare not draw near to him at his table; for, I feldom went to a communion-table, but I fear I betrayed him, and I fear I do fo again; my distance from him hath been great, and of a long continuance; he will never beftow a look on the like of me? But, O poor foul, though, with Jonah, you were in the belly of hell, yet look again to his holy temple; look to him who fays, "Look unto me, all the ends of the earth, and be ye faved; for I aní God, and there is none elfe." When the ark and Jerufalem were far from Daniel, he opened his window and looked towards them fo do you; open your heart, and fend fighs and groans to him. In Lamentations iii. 55. the church is in a low dungeon, and prays, "Hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry." Your neighbour, that fits nearest you, doth not hear your breathing, but God hears it.

Come, O poor believer, whatever great mountains you fee in your way, that are infurmountable by you, yet if you believe, that he is able to furmount them, come to him, and you will fee him leaping over them. If you fee any mountain between him and you, to be higher than he can overleap, then I must tell you, that you are looking at it through the devil's fpectacles: but, O Sirs, caft away thefe glaffes, that magnify too much and look to Chrift, through the glafs of his own VOL. IX. word

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