Eighteen sermons preached in Oxford 1640 of conversion, unto God. Of redemption, & justification,…

But now when I am come thither, what do I say there? What shall I come and say nothing? The prodigal soon resolved to go to his Father, and say, I ⟨p. 375⟩will up and go, there's the will; and say, there's his speech. The believer is not like to the son that said to his father, I will go, but went not; but when his father bids him come, he will come, he will not only say so, but will draw near, and then he hath a promise, He that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast off. But when we come thither, what must we do? why we must take unto our selves words, according to the Prophets expression, Hos. 14.2. Take unto you words, and go unto the Lord, and say, Take away all our iniquities, and receive us graciously, so will we render the calves of our lips. When he comes to the Throne of grace, the thing that he doth, is, he presents unto the Father Christ bleeding, gasping, dying, buried, and conquering death; and when he presents Christ to him, he opens his case, and confesses his sin to the full, and says, Lord, this is my case: As a beggar when he comes to ask an alms of you, he will make a preface, and tell you his extremity; Sir, I am in great want, I have not tasted a bit of bread in so many days, and unless you help me by your charity, I am utterly undone. Now when these two concur that there is true need in the beggar, and liberality in him of whom he begs, it encourages the beggar to be importunate, and he prevails; you may know when the beggar hath need by his tone, accent or language: The needy beggars tone and accent is different from the sturdy beggars that hath no need; but yet, though the beggar be in great misery, if he see a churlish Nabal go by him, he hath no heart to beg, and follows him not, nor begs so hard, because he hath but little hope to attain any thing from him. But I say let both these meet together; ⟨p. 376⟩first, that the beggar is in great need, then, that he of whom he begs, is very liberal, it makes him beg hard; but now cannot he pray without book? Think not that I speak against praying by the book; you are deceived if you think so; but there must be words taken to us besides, which perhaps a book will not yield us. A beggars need will make him speak, and he will not hide his sores; but if he hath any sore more ugly or worse than another, he will uncover it; good Sir, behold my woeful and distressed case, he lays all open to provoke pity.