Meditations and discourses concerning the glory of Christ applied unto unconverted sinners, and saints…Meditations and discourses concerning the glory of Christ applyed unto unconverted sinners, and saints…

5. PERHAPS if you should on his Invitation begin to look to him, and resolve to come to him, you are greatly afraid that when it comes to the ⟨p. 8⟩Trial he will not receive you; for no Heart can conceive, no Tongue can express what wretched, vile, and provoking Sinners you have been. That the Lord Christ will receive unto him such as we are, we have no hopes, or that ever we shall find Acceptance with him: I say, it is not amiss when Persons come so far, as to be sensible of what Discouragements they have to conflict withal, what difficulties lye in their way, and what objections do arise against them, for the most do perish in a senseless stupidity; they will not consider how it is with them, what is required of them, nor how it will be in the latter end; they doubt not but that either they do believe already, or can do so when they please; but when any come so far as to charge the failure of their Acceptance with Christ on their own unworthiness, and so are discouraged from coming unto him, there are Arguments for their Conviction and Persuasion, which nothing but the Devil and Unbelief can defeat: Wherefore, that which is now proposed unto consideration in answer hereunto, is the Readiness of Christ to receive every Sinner, be he who or what he will, that shall come unto him: And hereof we have the highest Evidences that Divine Wisdom and Grace can give unto us. This is the Language of the Gospel, of all that the Lord Christ did or suffered, which is recorded therein. This is the Divine Testimony of the Three that bear Record in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and of the Three that bear witness in Earth, the Spirit, the Water, and the Blood, all give their joint Testimony, that the Lord Christ is ready to receive all Sinners that come to him; they who receive not this Testimony, ⟨p. 9⟩make God a Liar, both Father, Son, and Spirit. Whatever the Lord Christ is in the Constitution of his Person, in the Representation of the Father, in his Office, in what he did on the Earth, in what he doth in Heaven, proclaims the same Truth. Nothing but cursed Obstinacy in Sin and Unbelief can suggest a thought unto our minds, that he is not willing to receive us when we come unto him. Herein we are to bear Testimony against the Unbelief of all unto whom the Gospel is preached, that come not unto him.

5. PERHAPS if you should on his Invitation begin to look to him, and resolve to come to him, you are greatly afraid that when it comes to the