titude; all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ Jesus, Eph. i. 3.; blessings invaluable for their worth, eternal in their duration, most free in their tenure, and all given in love. Every act of favour from the throne of grace, is more worth than all God's common mercies. Lord, lift up upon us the light of thy countenance, Psal. iv. 6, 7. that will put joy into the soul, Every thing given at the throne of grace, is a blessing of grace. Its very name should teach people how to come, and how to call what they get at it. If it be a throne of grace, we should come to it as empty, needy beggars; and when we receive any thing there, we should call and count it grace. Ask all saints on earth, and they will witness, that great and good things are to be had at the throne of grace. Try it yourselves, and you will find it is not in vain to beg here. Nay, the damned in hell do bear sad witness, that great are the blessings that are to be had at the throne of grace, which they feel and know by their woeful and eternal loss of them. The glorified in heaven know what a rich throne of grace this is. Only sinners on earth will not believe this, nor use this throne as they should.

3. Consider that this court and throne is of short continuance. It will not be kept up always. There is a limitation of the time of its lasting; as Heb. iv. 7. He limiteth a certain day. The day of the, continuance of the throne of grace, is bounded and limited with four days; the day of a man's life, the gospel-day, the world's day, and the Spirit's day.

1st, The day of every man's life. This hath bounds set to it by God, Job xiv. 5. The throne of grace continues unto men no longer than they live. When men die, they go not to the throne of grace, but of glory and judgment. If we have sped well at the throne of grace, we shall be welcome to the throne of glory. The uncertainty and shortness of life, with the certainty of the expiring of all treaties betwixt God and us about salvation at the end of life, should make people careful to secure the main matter in God's time.

2dly, There is the gospel-day. This is also set and limited by the Lord. He hath determined how many offers you shall have of Christ; and when they come to an end, there will not be one more. And then the throne of grace is taken down as

to you. Luke xix. 42. If you hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things that belong to thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes! saith our Lord to Jerusalem. This was the ending determining day to Jerusalem as a city, and to its inhabitants as a body. Though many particular persons had another day of grace; yet the slipping of that day hangs on that poor people and their posterity to this very day.

3dly, There is the world's day. And then the day of grace will end as to all: When the bridegroom came, they that were ready, entered with him to the marriage, and the door was shut, Matt. xxv. 10. There was no more grace to be dispensed to men; and we know not when that day will come.. Miserable is their case, who shall see Christ coming in the clouds of heaven, before they have seen him by faith in the gospel; who hear the voice of the arch-angel, and the trump of God, before they have heard the quickening voice of the Son of God from the throne of grace; who have neglected calling on him in time, and begin out of time, Luke xiii. 25. When the mas ter of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open Is it not just that they should be kept at the shut door, that would not enter at an open door in Christ's time, and when he called? When Christ comes, and hath shut the door, no man will be let in, knock as he will. Nor, while the throne of grace is patent, no man will be kept out, be what he will, that hath a mind to enter, and knocks for entrance.

to us.

4thly, There is the Spirit's day. Here is a great depth of God's sovereignty and wisdom, a great depth of his severity, an unaccountable and awful judgment; how the Spirit of God strives with men in the gospel, how near he comes to them sometimes, how close he besiegeth them, that they seem to be on the point of yielding, and are not far from the kingdom of God; and yet he draws back his hand, and leaves them. I believe, that many ungodly men, many reprobates, have been sometimes in their life nearer to heaven, (if such may be said to be near to heaven that never come there) than many an elect person was half an hour before his conversion: Gen. vi. 3. My Spirit shall not always strive with man. What kind of striving this was, and what became of them striven with,

we have, 1 Peter iii. 19, 20. Nothing will more bitterly aggravate the eternal misery of the damned, than the remembrance of this, that they had a day, and in that day grace of fered to them, and that they did reject the offer. Men's carnal hearts are now full of cavils against the unsearchable methods and ways of God towards the sons of men; but the last day's judgment will determine and declare, that in the perdition of the ungodly, there was, and is, most pure and unspotted justice and righteousness; and, in the salvation of all the elect, pure, perfect, and predominant grace, that reigned in them, and over them, and through them, till it brought them to heaven.

Wherefore, seeing the having of a throne of grace is a privilege of so great importance, and of so uncertain continuance, there should be the greater care to make diligent and present improvement of it. Why should any man let this throne of grace stand empty? Will men provoke the Lord to say, In vain have I set up a throne of grace for sinners that come not at it?

Again, Consider the wrath that will follow on the neglect, and not improving of this great privilege. The sin is many ways committed, and the judgments of many sorts that are inAlicted. But I leave this to the next occasion.

Except you, in your personal exercise and experience, do know what this throne of grace is, and what is got there; you may be Christians hereafter, but as yet you are none; unless you experience what this throne of grace is, by frequent repairing to it, and by frequent receiving good at it. That man or woman, whatever his or her name be in the world, or the church of Christ, that never found any need for, or use of, or benefit by this throne of grace, is surely a dead sinner. People may safely and surely judge of both the state and frame of their souls, by their business at the throne of grace. Never got any soul life, but by an act of grace and power from this throne. No soul can be kept in life, but by daily intercourse with it. It is as impossible that these bodies of ours should be maintained in life and strength without meat, and drink, and air; as it is for the soul of a believer to prosper without daily plying the throne of grace.

Let therefore the exhortation in the text be complied with, Come to this throne. Say therefore, Lord, I am invited to come to the throne of thy grace, and none have more need of that grace than I, and there is enough of grace there for me; and therefore I will come, and beg, and get, and abide, and bless the giver, and become happy by receiving.

SERMON III.

HEB. iv. 16.

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

we may

I HAVE spoke of the first thing that this text contains, That God in Jesus Christ, in the gospel, is on a throne of grace, inviting men to come to him. What this throne of grace is; why all should come; who they be that will come; and who will be specially welcome, you have heard. I was pressing this exhortation of coming to this throne. You see the Apostle, in delivering this, takes in himself with them he exhorts, Let us come. He had oft come before, and had been bountifully dealt with at this court. 1 Tim. i. 14. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant towards him, This made him commend this throne so highly, and intreat others, and stir up himself, to frequent addresses to it. I did use three arguments to back this exhortation, and shall add a fourth.

1. The first was the greatness of the privilege, of having a throne of grace to come unto; a privilege denied to fallen angels, and the knowledge of it denied to the far greater part of

mankind.

2. This throne of grace is a privilege full of rich advantages. All believers know somewhat of them. All their acceptance with God, all their access to God, all their communications from him, and fellowship with him, all their blessings in time, and their hopes for eternity, are all owing to this, that God is on a throne of grace.

3. This privilege is of uncertain duration, and short. The Lord the King is for ever; but the throne of grace is not for ever. It is but a time-dispensation; and limited unto certain seasons. The gospel-day is uncertain, our lifetime is uncertain, the world's day is uncertain, to us, though all determined by God. But above all, the Spirit's day is uncertain, How long he will strive, when he will forbear, who can tell? Some godly men have thought, that there are few (if any) that live under a powerful ministry, but, at some time of their life, the Spirit of God comes close to them; so that there is not only a witness given for the Lord in the offers of the gospel, but there is a further addition to that witness, by some special approaches of God's Spirit to their hearts. But whatever there be in that observation, this is undoubted, that where the Holy Ghost makes the strongest assaults on men, if he be resisted, and withdraws, the most prodigious hardness. is left behind. Therefore, extraordinary, bold, hardened sinners, cruel persecutors, apostates, and mockers of godliness, are usually such as sometimes were under special conviction:. not to speak of the sin against the Holy Ghost; which consists in some high rebellion against special workings of the Spirit of God on men's consciences under the gospel. This dreadful sin Satan perplexeth many believers with fears of it. But it is certain, that a disturbing fear of this guilt is a proof of a person's innocency as to it. For whosoever have fallen into this abyss of wickedness, are so far from fearing the sin, (though they may have a hopeless fear of wrath, Heb. x. 27.) that they glory in it; therefore they are said to do despite to the Spirit of grace. Let all that find the Spirit striving with them, take good heed to themselves, comply with his motions, and secure their state speedily, by believing on the Lord Jesus; for the season of his striving is the most critical part of our life, and, as it issues, of greatest consequence to salvation or damnation.

4. A fourth argument I would conclude this point with, is, the greatness of the sin of not coming to the throne of grace, and the dreadful wrath it draws on. This sin is many ways committed, and many ways avenged. A little of both.

First, It is committed, 1. By men's despising and contemn