Come and welcome to Jesus Christ. Or, A plain and profitable discourse on John…

Of the true coming to Christ, the three Lepers were a famous Semblance, of whom you read, Kings 7 3, &c. The Famine in those days was sore in the Land, there was no Bread for the People, and as for that Sustenance tha• was, which was Asses Fresh and Doves Dung, ⟨p. 25⟩that was only in Samaria; and of these the Lepers had no share, for they were thrust without the City. Well now they sat in the Gate of the City, and Hunger was, as I may say, making his last Meal of them; & being therefore half dead already, what do they think of doing? Why, first they display the dismal Colours of Death before each others Faces, and then resolve what to do, saying, If we say we will go into the City, then the Famine is in the City, and we shall dye there; if we sit still here, we dye also; now therefore come, let us fall into the Host of the Syrians; if they save us alive we shall live; if they kill us, we shall but dye Here now was Necessity at Work, and this Necessity drove them to go thither for Life, whither else they would never have gone for it. Thus it is with them that in truth come to Jesus Christ; Death is before them, they see it and feel it; he is feeding upon them, and will eat them quite up if they come not to Jesus Christ; and therefore they come even of Necessity, being forced thereto by that sense they have of their being utterly and everlastingly undone, if they find not safety in him.

These are they that will come; indeed these are they that are invited to come. Come unto me all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, Mat. 11.28

Take two or three things to make this more plain; to wit, that coming to Christ floweth from a deep Sense of the absolute need that a Man hath of him as afore.