And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.
— Luke 12:36
Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.
— Luke 12:37
And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.
— Luke 17:8-10
And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.
— Acts 16:14
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
— Ezekiel 36:26-27
An Epistle to the Reader Concerning Revelation 3:20, by John Flavel. The following contains an excerpt from his work, “Christ Knocking at the Door of Sinner’s Hearts, England’s Duty, Under the Present Gospel-Liberty From Revelation 3:20.”
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.
— Revelation 3:20
Candid Reader,
The following discourse comes to thy hand in that native plainness wherein it was preached. I was conscientiously unwilling to alter it, because I found by experience, the Lord had blessed and prospered it in that dress, far beyond any other composures on which I had bestowed more pains. Let it not be censured as vanity or ostentation, that I here acknowledge the goodness of God in leading me to, and blessing my poor labours upon this subject. Who, and what am I that I should be continued, and again employed in the Lord’s harvest, and that with success and encouragement, when so many of my brethren, with their much richer furnitures of gifts and graces, have in my time been called out of the vineyard, and are now silent in the grave! It is true, they enjoy what I do not; and it is as true, I am capable of doing some service for God which they are not. In preaching these sermons, I had many occasions to reflect upon the mystical sense of that scripture, Amos 9:13. “The plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed.” Sowing and reaping times trode so close upon one another, that (in all humility I speak it to the praise of God) it was the busiest and blessedest time I ever saw since I first preached the gospel.
England hath now a day of special mercy: there is a wide door of opportunity opened to it; O that it might prove an effectual door! It is transporting and astonishing, that after all the high and horrid provocations, the atheism, profaneness, and bitter enmity against light and reformation: this sweet voice is still heard in England, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. The mercies and liberties of this day are a new trial obtained for us by our potentate Advocate in the heavens; if we bring forth fruit, well; if not, the ax lieth at the root of the tree. Let us not be secure. Jerusalem was the city of the great King; the seat of his worship, and the symbols of his presence were fixed there; it was the joy of the whole earth, the house of prayer for all nations; thither the tribes went up to worship, the tribes of the Lord unto the testimony of Israel. For there were set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David, Psal. 122:4, 5. These privileges she enjoyed through the successions of many ages, and she had remained the glory of all nations to this day, had she known and improved in that day, the things that belonged to her peace; but they neglected their season, rejected their mercies, and miserably perished in their sins: for there ever was, and will be found an inseparable connexion betwixt the final rejection of Christ, and the destruction of the rejecters, Matth. 22:5, 6, 7. The contemplation whereof drew those compassionate tears from the Redeemer’s eyes, when he beheld it in his descent from the mount of Olives, Luke 19:41, 42.
Let all that are wise in heart henceforth depose their animosities, sadly reflect on their follies, encourage and assist the labours of their brethren in the Lord’s harvest; and rejoice that God hath set them at liberty by law, whose assistance in so great an opportunity is necessary and desirable. It is against the laws of wisdom and charity to envy the liberty, and much more the success of our brethren, 1 Cor. 13:4. If the workmen contend and scuffle in a catching harvest, who but the owners suffers damage by it? If, after so miraculous, recent, and common salvation as this, we still retain our old prejudices and bitter envyings; if we smite with the tongue and pen, when we cannot with the hand; and study to blast the reputation and labours of our brethren; and still hate those we cannot hurt: In a word, if we still bite and devour one another, we shall be devoured one of another. Let us not lay the fault upon others, we ourselves have been the authors and instruments of our own ruin; and this must be the inscription upon our tombstone, O England, thou hast destroyed thyself. I am more afraid of the rooted enmity and fixed prejudices that are to be found in many against holiness and the serious professors of it, and the inflexible obstinacy and dead formality in many others, (the tokens of a tremendous infatuation) than I am of all the whispered fears from other hands, or common enemies upon our borders.
To prevent these mischiefs, and promote zeal and unanimity among the ministers of the gospel, I have presumed to address them in the following epistles. I am conscious of my own unworthiness to be their monitor, and of the defects their judicious eyes will easily discern in the stile it is written; and yet can promise myself a becoming reception of what is so faithfully, seasonably, and honestly designed for their good. I am satisfied that no candid and ingenuous person will put words upon the rack, quarrel at a similitude, or expose a trifle, when he finds the design honest, and the matter good and necessary.
As to the treatise itself, thou wilt find it a persuasive to open thy heart to Christ. Thy soul, reader, is a magnificent structure built by Christ; such stately rooms as thy understanding, will, conscience and affections, are too good for any other to inhabit. If thou be in thy unregenerate state, then he solemnly demands in this text admission into the soul he made, by the consent of the will; which, if thou refuse to give him, then witness is taken, that Christ once more demanded entrance into thy soul which he made, and was denied it. If thou hast opened thy heart to him, thou wilt, I hope, meet somewhat in this treatise that will clear thy evidences, and cheer thy heart: Pray read, ponder, and apply. I am
Thine and the Church’s Servant,
John Flavel
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