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told, when Lydia believed, the Lord opened her heart while Paul preached, Acts xvi. 14. Rev. iii. 20, says the Lord there sto Laodicea, “ Behold I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear my voice, and

open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” So, here, believing in Christ is called a lifting up of the gates or doors of the heart to the King of glory. Now, there is a two or threefold door that is opened to Christ, when a sinner believes in him.

1st, The door of the mind or understanding must be opened to know him, and apprehend the way of salvation through him. Hence faith is not a blind, but a seeing grace.

• Look unto me, and be ye saved. Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty.” The eye of the mind is shut and blinded by Satan, the god of this world, but, in believing, it is opened to “ behold the beauty of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.”

2. The door of the will is opened, so as to fall in with him as a Prophet, Priest, and King, for “wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification.” Psal. cx. 3: " Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.” The will, in believing, embraces the revelation made of him, and by him, in the word ; as a Prophet, submits to his righteousness, as its only defence against the charge of the holy law, and receives the law from his mouth, as its only King and Lawgiver.

3. The door of the affections is cast open to him. The love, the joy, the delight, and desire of the soul must centre and terminate upon him as the supreme good, and upmaking all of the soul, saying, “ Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee :" so that, when we call you to lift up the everlasting gates to the King of glory, we call you to surrender your whole souls to him, understanding, will, and affections; and, in your doing so, he comes in, and sets up his kingdom within you.

Now, because we deal not with stocks and stones, but with intelligent and rational beings, therefore we must deal with you by rational arguments, to cast open the doors of your hearts to the Lord Jesus; for it is in this way that he per. suades and enables the soul to entertain him: and, o sirs, look up to the Lord, that the concurring power of his Spirit may come along with what is said.

i. Then, Will you consider who he is that calls for en trance. It is none other than the “ Lord of hosts, the Lord mighty in battle; he who does according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth.” But, lest this awful and terrible name should make you afraid, take a view of his name, as it is proclaimed, Exod. xxxiv. 61

"The Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin." O sirs, that which fortifies the enmity of the heart against God, is ignorance of that revelation that he has made of himself from a throne of grace, or as he is in Christ. We conceive of him as an implacable and inexorable Deity, and, by conceiving of him thus, natural enmity against God is fortified, and our minds quite alienated from him, through the ignorance of God; he is in Christ, reconciling the world to himself." Sirs, whenever God is seen, in the gospel glass, he is seen to be a God of grace, mercy, love, and every way amiable; and it is the view of this that makes the heart to open to him: hence it is that God is at so great pains, in the word, to take off the prejudices that sinners have taken up against him, by investing himself with our nature, in the person of the eternal Son, and by declaring, under the solemnity of an oath, that he bears no ill will to us: "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked."

2. Consider in what quality or capacity he comes, when the everlasting doors of the heart are opened to him. He comes in the capacity of a lawful proprietor. Sin, Satan, and the world, are but intruders; the heart is God's property; it was his abode before sin entered, why then should he not have his own? He comes in the quality of a Protector; and, as a King, he is obliged to protect his kingdom 'in the soul. He protects the soul against all challenges and accusations from the law, saying, there is no condemnation against this man. He protects against the roaring lion that seeks to devour you; "the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet." He protects against the malice of the world: "In the world ye shall have tribulation, but in me ye shall have peace. Be of good comfort, I have overcome the world." He comes in the quality of a rich Provisor: “ All things are yours; my God shall supply all your need, according to his riches in glory, by Christ Jesus." He comes in the quality of a wise Manager, bidding you cast all your cares on him: the King takes the burden of all the affairs of the kingdom upon himself.

3. Consider the advantages that shall accrue to you by casting open the everlasting doors to the King of glory. Why, he will set up his kingdom within you. I told you, in the doctrinal part, what sort of a kingdom it is that he rears up in the soul. In a word, the King of glory will dwell in you, and walk in you; he will be to you a Father, and all the privileges of children shall be yours: "The Lord

God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk up

rightly.”

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4. Consider the extreme danger of refusing to open to him, till you get the kingdom of glory within you.. (1.) You are under the power of darkness; there is just a hell of darkness in the soul till Christ be admitted. (2.) You are dead in sin ---under its absolute power and reign. (3.) You are under the dominion of Satan, the god of this world; he has a lawright to tempt you here, and torment you hereafter. (4.) You are under the curse of God, and the wrath of God abides in you; and how will you bear that burden?

5. Consider how fond he is to have his kingdom set up within you, and how reluctant he is to take a refusal.

(1.) He calls for access. “ Open unto me. My son, give me thine heart.” (2.) He knocks, and repeats his knocks and calls. See how often they are repeated, Is. lv. 1, 13. (3.) He waits for a good answer from the sinner, waits that he

may

be

gracious, and waits till his “ locks are wet." He, as it were, is content to reason the matter with sinners, and to answer all their objections.

Object. 1. Says the sinner, I am such a guilty sinner, and my sins so aggravated, that he will never come in, to set up his kingdom in my heart.” Answ. Why, says the Lord,

" Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. I, even I, am he that blotieth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.”

Object. 2. Says the sinner, I am wretched, miserable, blind, poor, and naked. Answ. Why, says the Lord, that shall be no impediment; “ I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou ma yest see.”

Object. 3. To what purpose is all this; I have no power to open my heart to him? Answ. “ It is he that works both to will and to do.” If thou wilt, thou shalt not want power. The blame, in scripture, is laid on the will:*- " I would, and ye would not,” Matth. xxiii. 37.

Object. 4. My will, indeed, is like an iron sinew, like a stone that will not yield. Answ. Well, in this case, plead the promise, Ezek. xxxvi. 26: "I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh;" and that promise, Psal. cx. 3: "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power."

Object. 5. What if I be not elected? Answ. That is none of your business; at first instance, yield your hearts to him, and ye shall know your election, and that he has indeed "loved you with an everlasting love."

I shall conclude this exhortation with a few advices. Would you have the kingdom of God within you? Then,

1. Be convinced that the devil has his kingdom within you by nature, and that every thought and imagination of your heart is evil. The flaw lies here: people imagine they have good hearts towards God, till they be convinced that they are desperately wicked, and until 1 despair that ever you will get any good by the gospel. That vain imagination must be brought down; and, for this end, be much in studying the law in its holiness and spirituality.

2. Receive and entertain the word of the King; for this is the King's chariot of state in which he makes his entrance; we receive the Spirit by the hearing of faith; this is the weapon by which he subdues rebels.

3. Be much in viewing the glory of Christ, for at the sight of him the heart opens: "We, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

4. Put up that petition he has put in thy mouth, “Thy kingdom come." O, he is ready to hear the petition which he himself dictates, and believe that he will hear it, because it is of his own compiling. O wrestle, and wrestle by faith fixed on his promise.

5. Put the key of the heart in his own band, and plead earnestly, that he may give it a turn, and press and urge him with his own word of promise, Psal. cx. 3: "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power." Sirs, do not stand out, under a pretence of inability, for he is so ready to enter into thy heart, and set up his kingdom within thee, that he is willing to take the whole work on himself; he makes the duty ours, but he makes the work his own: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his own good pleasure," Phil. ii. 12, 13,

Secondly, I come to offer a word to believers who have the kingdom of God within them. You, who by the power of the eternal word and Spirit of Christ, have been deter

mined to submit to the authority of bim, whom God has set as King in his holy hill of Zion, saying, “ The Lord is my King, the Lord is my Judge, the Lord is my Lawgiver." Have the strong-holds of thy understanding, will, and affection, been brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ? Is this the case? Then I offer you, (1.) A word of consolation; (2.) Of advice and exhortation.

1st, A 'word of consolation and encouragement to you who have the kingdom of God within you. Here is ground of consolation, that as his visible kingdom in the world shall be perpetual to the end of time; so his invisible kingdom, or work of grace in thy heart, is an everlasting kingdom, and “his dominion that which shall never be destroyed.” Hell and earth may invade it, and indwelling sin may make insurrection, but “the gates of hell shall never prevail against it,” to destroy it utterly. And I will tell you of some securities or strong bulwarks, by which this kingdom in the heart is preserved.

1. Then, it is secured by the unalterable love of God, " The mountains shall depart, and the hills he removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee.” The sense of his love may be so far withdrawn, that the soul may cry, “The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me;" but that shall not be, for " he rests in his love, and changes not.”

2. The purpose of God is a noble security for the preservation of this kingdom of God within you, Rom. viii. 28. They are said to be called according to his purpose, the erection of the kingdom of God in the heart, is just the execution of the decree, “ Whom he did predestinate, them he also called.” And we are "predestinated to be conformed to the image of God's dear Son." Now, is it possible that the purpose of God can be frustrated ? No, no, “ The counsel of the Lord shall stand:” The golden chain of salvation cannot be broken, or one of the links of it be loosed, Rom. viii. 30: “Whom he did predestinate, them he also called ; and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glori: fied.”

3. The indenture that the Son of God entered into with his Father from eternity, in the counsel of peace, secures this spiritual kingdom. When God the Father gave a company of the lost race of Adam to Christ, he engaged that he would set up his kingdom within them, repair his image, carry on the work of sanctification in them, till he had made them meet for glory; and that at the last day he would deliver up the

; kingdom to his father, and say, Here am I, and the children whom thou hast given me; here I present them “ without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." And God the Father,