Take two or three things to make this plainer; to wit, That coming to Christ flowed from a sound sense of the absolute need that a man hath of him, as afore.
1. “They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them; I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way wherein they shall not stumble” (Jer 31:9). Mind it; they come with weeping and supplication; they come with prayers and tears. Now prayers and tears are the effects of a righteous sense of the need for mercy. Thus, a senseless sinner cannot come, he cannot pray, he cannot cry, and he cannot become sensible of what he sees or feels. “In those days, and in that time—the children of Israel shall come; they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go and seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten” (Jer 1:4,5).
2. This coming to Christ, is called a running to him, as flying to him; a flying to him from wrath to come. By all which terms is set forth the sense of the man that comes; to wit, That he is affected with the sense of his sin, and the death due thereto; that he is sensible that the avenger of blood pursues him, and that, therefore, he is thus off, if he does not speed to the Son of God for life (Matt 3:7; Psa 143:9). Flying is the last work of a danger man; all that are in danger do not fly; no, not all that see themselves in danger; flying is the last work of a danger man; all that hear of danger will not fly. Men will consider if there is no other way of escaping before they fly. Therefore, as I said, flying is the last thing. When all refuge fails, and a man is made to see that there is nothing left but sin, death, and damnation, unless he flies to Christ for life; then he flies, and not till then.
3. That the true coming is from a sense of an absolute need of Jesus Christ to save, &c., is evident by the outcry that is made by them to come, even as they are coming to him, “Lord, save me,” or I perish; “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” and the like (Matt 14:30; Acts 2:37; 16:30). This language doth sufficiently discover that the truly-coming souls are souls sensible of their need of salvation by Jesus Christ; and, moreover, that there is nothing else that can help them but Christ.
4. It is yet further evident by the few things that follow: It is said that such are “pricked in their hearts,” that is, with the sentence of death by the law; and the least prick in the heart kills a man (Acts 2:37). Such is said, as I said before, to weep, to tremble, and to be astonished in themselves at the evident and unavoidable danger that attends them unless they fly to Jesus Christ (Acts 9:16).
5. Coming to Christ is attended with an honest and sincere forsaking of all for him. “If any man comes to me, and hates not his father and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26–27).
By these and the like expressions elsewhere, Christ described the true comer or the man that indeed is coming to him; he casts all behind his back; he leaves all, he forsakes all, and he hates all things that would stand in his way to hinder his coming to Jesus Christ. There are many pretended comers to Jesus Christ in the world, and they are much like the man you read of in Matthew 21:30, who said to his father’s bidding, “I go, sir, and went not.” There are many such comers to Jesus Christ; they say, when Christ calls by his gospel, I come, Sir; but still, they abide by their pleasures and carnal delights. They come not at all, only they give him a courtly compliment; but he takes notice of it, and will not let it pass for any more than a lie. He said, “I go, sir, and I went not,” and he dissembled and lied. Take heed of this, you that flatter yourselves with your own deceiving. Words will not do with Jesus Christ. Coming is coming, and nothing else will go for coming with him.
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