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truth, is the great blessing of our lives, and will be our never-ending happiness in heaven.

But in Jesus Christ we are restored to the dignity and perfection of our natures, willingly to offer up ourselves, our prayers, our praises, our obedience, our hearts, continually to God; He in heaven, our great High Priest, standing at the right hand of God to present our spiritual sacrifices; we on earth, a holy priesthood, presenting them to him to be offered by him in the pure incense of his blood, to the throne of grace on our behalf.

See now what it is to come to him. It is coming to him for the benefits here mentioned, as well as others, with a sense of our want of them, and desire to receive them; and also with faith in him, as able and willing to be to us what he is here called, "a living stone," and to make us an holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices, and to make them acceptable to God. I say, we must not pretend to come to him in ignorance of our wants, or without the truth of desire to receive from him what he knows to be necessary for us, or without faith in his goodness, and all-sufficiency to help us. It is an easy thing to call him Lord, to repeat his name in our creeds, and say we believe in him, because we have been taught it from our infancy; it is comparatively easy to take up a form of religion, to be very exact in it, and to outstrip many others in an outward show; but he wants to do a great deal more for us than all this, and we must come to him for a great deal more. He wants to have us come to him, as what we are, poor beggars, undone and helpless in ourselves, and for what he is, our Saviour, our life. And this you must come to, if you turn yourselves into never so many shapes to avoid it; do what else you' will, you are not the persons of whom St. Peter here speaks. They, he says, came, meaning that all are so to come, to Christ "as unto a living stone," that in him

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they might, as " lively stones, be built up a spiritual house." Do hear this? and does it lead you sider, that in your natural state you are dead to God, and I can never be made alive unto him, but by being taken into Christ? Has the sense of your danger and misery been so lively within you, and brought home to your hearts with such clear conviction, that you could not help crying out many a time and oft, "Lord, save me, or I perish?" Have you been made to see, that you cannot raise yourselves out of your dead state, by any will, work, or power of your own, and in this sight of your condition, been willing that Christ should do it for you? Do you think he can? do you believe he will, dead as you are, build you as living stones into his spiritual house? all vile and polluted as you are in sin, make you priests unto God, holy and righteous in him, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable by him? Is this your design, your desire, your belief, in coming to him; and, what is more, have you done it? Consider what you say. If it was a worldly matter of any kind you wanted and had in view, a farm, a shop, a cottage, and much more a large estate, you would know what it was to desire and seek after it. If you had a broken limb, or were sick of a dangerous distemper, you would know what it was to look out for help. Now let conscience speak; when did you come to Christ, what request did you ever make to him with a true knowledge: of your case, with earnestness of desire, and from the bottom of your heart, for his blessed relief, his work, life, and power in you? It was a great word he said, pointing to the ground, "I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham;" Luke, iii. 8. This seems to us hard work, even for almighty power;" but, nevertheless, must be done in every one of us; and never is done, till we believe it, long to experience it in

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ourselves, and come to Christ for it. If we have no such thought or purpose in coming to him, what do we come to him, what do we believe in him for? And what better are we for him, if he leaves us just what he finds us, as unbelieving, as fearless of sin, and as much under the power of it, as careless of our souls, as little turned to God, as worldly and unholy as ever? St. Peter says, "unto whom coming as unto a living stone, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house;" directing us to come to Christ for this end. And the plain meaning is, that without him, and till we are taken into him, as stones are fitted into a building, we are dead to all true knowledge and love of God, all life in him, or hope from him. And would to God you knew how dead, how perishing in sin, how unable to deal with it, or answer for it to God, and how you are hastening to the grave under a sentence of eternal death, that you might turn to Christ, and fly to him for refuge in the peril of your souls!

You put no value upon what is here brought to your remembrance, and, set before you, as your hope, that in Christ only we have life; perhaps you may think it strange that St. Peter should talk of living stones. Why, my brethren, he knew very well what he said; the words were given him by the Holy Ghost; and he hereby in the strongest manner puts us in mind of our naturally dead state, and of Christ's power to raise us from it. You may slight the privilege of being a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, your praises and thanksgivings, together with the obedience of a free heart, and of drawing nigh to God, with a full persuasion that your persons and your prayers are acceptable to him by Jesus Christ; but it is his work and office in you, the life you receive from him, the fruit he bears in you; and if you do not look for this at his hands, he is ready to say to you, what John Baptist did to the Scribes and Pharisees

who came to his baptism full of themselves, and feeling no want, "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" Why do you pretend to come to me, without any warning from your own hearts, when you neither know what you are, nor what I am, and will receive nothing from me?

Know then, that "his name is Jesus, to save his people from their sins;" to give them repentance, to wash them in his blood, to clothe them with his righteousness, to be their life, to bring them to the throne of grace, as devout and holy worshippers; and that all "who come unto God by him," must come to him, as the blind, the lame, the lepers did when he was upon earth, for his spiritual benefits, as they did for the cure of their bodily distempers. When he asked the blind man, "What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?" he knew what he wanted, and answered at once, "Lord, that I may receive my sight;" Mark, x. 57. For this end chiefly he wrought his miracles of healing, that we might believe and trust in him for help in our own case. And he has not lost his power and compassionate heart, but is now present at this time and place, and still stands over us with these words in his mouth, "Be it unto thee even as thou wilt." If thou feelest the plague of an evil nature, and sin is thy disease, and wouldst fain have the burden of it removed from thy conscience, and the power of it from thy heart, he came into the world with this offer, and cannot deceive thee; "It shall be done unto thee even as thou wilt." And if sin is better to thee than mercy, or if thou settest an unreasonable value on thyself and thy own works, and in the main wilt be beholden for life to none but thyself, still he says, "Be it unto thee even as thou wilt;" take thy own way, keep thyself from me, and make thy peace with God as well as thou canst. To all such, whether bold sinners or self

righteous, he can be nothing. They will not come to him for life, and he has nothing else to give. He will bear our sins, and heal our infirmities, and fix us in a state of willing subjection to God; he will teach us to be thankful for mercy, and to pray for strength to keep mercy, and be our Mediator and Advocate with God for the acceptance of our sacrifices, and a supply of all spiritual blessings; this he will do for us, this he promises to those who come to him, and so he works in all that are saved by him. But if you desire and expect no such help from him, if you choose to lie dead in sin, or trust in yourselves more than you do in him; if forgiveness through him, and conversion by him, is not your business with him, what shall I say to you? must I speak it? yes; and I pray God speak it where I cannot; he is disallowed and rejected of you. In a word, he cannot be mocked with a bare profession and outward appearance. His coming is to the heart, that it may come to him, to be built up a lively stone in his spiritual house; to offer Him up first as a sacrifice for sin, and then itself, a spiritual sacrifice, well pleasing to God by him.

Let me now advise and exhort you to bring this matter of your coming to Christ under examination. Do you know, do you consider what we come unto him for, and what it is to be saved by him? Surely you would if you belonged to him. He would be the pearl of great price with you, and his salvation your treasure, and the joy of your lives. You would not content yourselves with a confused, barren knowledge of him, which lets you sleep on quietly in your sins, and never brings you to him in distress of conscience for his forgiveness, nor roots one vice out of your natures. You would not then talk of your good hearts and good meanings; you would not make your civil, quiet lives, if they were much better

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