which is said to contain better promises then the former hath this as the first I le write my law in their heart and put it in their mind that is in their inwards Hebr. 8. 9. 10. But instead of lighting a candle to the sunne I shall endeavor shortly to make a brief Anatomic of this Jew or Christian that is one inwardly and how he is distinguished from him that is so outwardly 1. There is in every true Christian an inward and spiritual man this is called The new man Ephes 4. 24. The inward Rom 7. 24. 2 Cor. 4. 16. A dead man may have inward parts but he hath not an inward man because there is no soul so an outward Christian may have inward parts a dead knowledge a dead heart dead affections but no inward man because there is no work of grace in him and this is called an inward man because as corruption spreading over the whole man is called the old man so this inward renewing grace spreading into and over the whole man the mind will affections is called an inner man and this inner man is that which knows God believes in Christ loves fears thirsts after grace delights in Gods Commandments and hath a continual opposition to the old man counter-lusting counter-desiring and counter-standing it Christ dwells in your hearts saith the Apostle The holy Spirit is within you saith Christ but as the soul never is in a dead body because where it dwells life is so Christ never is in a man that is dead where he is life is there is an inward man he that hath not in him this inward man cannot be a Christian inwardly Secondly There is an inward work of God that goes to the forming and begetting of this inward man Outward Ordinances may make a Christian in the Letter but an inward work makes a Christian in Spirit I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts Jer 31. 33. A new heart will I give you and a new spirit 〈◊〉 put into you Ezek. 36. 26. I will put my Law into their minds and write it in their hearts Heb. 8. 10. These are Covenant-promises performed to all that are Covenant people In this inward work we have but the Ministry but the writing is by the Spirit as it 's said 2 Cor. 3. 3. Ministred by us but written by the Spirit of the living God Thirdly In this inward man wrought by an inward work consists the being of a true Christian for without this he that is called a Christian is no more a Christian than he that acts the part of a King is a King the name of a Christian is given or may follow from the outward profession but the nature is in this inward man He that begets communicates his Nature to the begotten he that paints a man imploys Art only but communicates no Nature God in a Christians new birth communicates holiness which is the Divine Nature but in an Hypocrite there is nothing but Art as I may say or some outward work for the outward forms may be painted yet inward forms cannot the lineaments of a Christian may be drawn to the life upon the white wall of an Hypocrite but the inward man which is that quod dat esse gives being to a Christian that cannot be but in a true Christian Fourthly He that is inwardly a Christian hath some marks of difference and distinction from the outward Christian forma dat distingui this inward work diffâ—renceth him from all sorts of them that are nominates and Christians outwardly First He is distinguished from the carnal Jew or Christian that professes Christ but lives in sin for though the outward Jew or Christian may hate some sins Thou abhorrest Idols thou hatest Popery and dost many good works yet that is out of some peculiar and particular indisposition to a particular sin and some particular approbation or liking of some good works but this hate of any sin or this inclination to a performance of any good works ariseth not from an inward nature or gracious principle as it doth in him that is a Christian inwardly and the reason is that contrariety to sin which is in a true Christian arising from this inward gracious Nature is to the whole species or kind of sin and is irreconcileable to any sin whatsoever as contrarieties of Nature are to the whole kind as light is contrary to all darkness and fire to all water so that this contrariety to sin arising from the inward man is universal to all sin though not an universal victory yet there is an universal contrariety victory argues strength contrariety argues nature hence it is that an outward Christian may hate one sin and love another becsuse there is not a gracious Nature in him which would be contrary to all And so also he may do good works but not out of a Nature that is in him for if it were from an inward Nature there would be an universal sympathy with and inclination towards God and all that is of God his Children his Commandments 1 Joh. 5. 12 3. Therefore saith the Apostle I delight in the Law of God according to the inner man Rom. 7. 22. not a particular good inclination but the Law in the whole of it It 's the victory of a Christian over corruption may not be full the performance of good may not be perfect but the inward Nature of a Christian is to be judged by the universal contrariety of his inward man to all sin and his universal inclination to God and holiness and that universal contrariety will beget a combate against all sin and that universall inclination to God an endeavour to all good but whether that combat be victorious or that performance be perfect though it may be much to shew the strength of a Christian yet it shewes not his inward nature but the other this universal contrariety to sin can be in no man but him that hath an universal sympathy with God and his whole law and image in his children they are both in him that is a Christian inwardly and they argue an inward nature of grace in him in which nature he differs from the carnal Christian who may oppose some sins and do some good works out of other principles and reasons Secondly This inward Christian is distinguished from a moral man that to his dogmatical faith and profession of Christ addeth moral vertue for there is as great difference between grace and virtue as between the sweet flowers spread upon a dead carkass and inward life a man be full of virtue 〈◊〉 and emptie of grace as a room exquisitely painted without light moral virtue is like flowers of needle work that are made by art but never grow from any living root natural temper disposition education produce moral virtues but now this inward man of a Christian is as I may say made up of Christ the knowledge faith love the tastes and rellish of Christ are
Grace put forth in the act of Conversion And for our clearer proceeding therein you must remember That Conversion doth either denote the work of God Converting man and this is Gods drawing or It denotes the action of man thereupon turning and coming in to Christ being thus moved and this is called mans coming in the text both of them make up compleat Conversion the one whereby God turns man and by the other man being wrought upon turns himself to Christ These two are inseparable in time but in order of causality Gods work is first the traction of God is before the coming of man the coming in of the light into a room we use to say expels darkness and plants in light though it be but one motion and one act so there must be the work of God enlightning the mind softning the heart drawing the will before there be a coming of man to God the act of drawing is Gods the act of Conversion or turning is mans God in his act of putting in and drawing forth faith doth not hinder but rather is the cause that the heart of man performs his own act and therefore the act of believing howsoever it be given by God yet being exercised and acted by us is our act for with the heart man believes Rom. 10. 10. as we use to say he that throws the bowl doth nor rowl or turn but the bowl by motion from the hand So when God puts forth this act to convert man the act is mans the act of Faith and Repentance and Conversion but the power and hand whereby the heart is turned that only is the act of God Well then First If we consider conversion as Gods drawing work converting the heart we may safely say The heart in that act doth not make actual resistance much less overcome and defeat the power of Grace which is put forth in believers with exceeding greatness of power according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead there you see the work described in Ephes 1. 19 20. It s true there may at that time and doth lurk a bitter root of proneness in the corrupt heart mark here is the knot and great point to resist the motions of the Spirit for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and this root of habitual perverseness is not wholly and presently eradicate and rooted out by Converting Grace But this we say that Grace doth so powerfully work in the work or act of Conversion it so sweetly plyes the affections the understanding and the will with such drawings and carries the work on with that actual strength that the actual resistance of the heart is tyed up bridled and suspended for that time that it doth not overcome the Grace of God but the Grace of God overcomes the heart by a victorious delight to yeild up it self to God though there be corruption in it it is so suspended as it doth not act I will give it you by this comparison The tyde doth not take from the river an aptness to run downwards to the Sea but so powerfully when it comes in bears the stream back that it cannot take his natural course I need not make application And this may teach all Converts with what measure of admiration and thankfulness to come to God for overcoming bridling and suspending these resistances of your froward hearts for having lived twenty or thirty years in resistance of Grace and keeping it at the staves end and after Conversion resisting Grace and quenching the Spirit so often as you do if God had left you in that act to these resistances you had been lost and undone and therefore that God at such a time should forbid still and quiet these rebellions and resistencies of your heart till he had turned the stream and taken away the stone this is an admirable demonstration of the mercy love and power of his grace to you Of all things wherein God is to be praised this is one that a rebellious man that had so often before time and since resisted grace that at that time when God Converted him he did not leave him to the resistencies of his heart And how would that child had he wit thank his Father for tying him hand and foot that he should not struggle and otherwise he could not do while he was cutting for the stone for the strugling might have prevented the cure When God comes to work upon the heart and man cannot but strive and resist and rebell against grace that God should take away at that time this resistance and bind a man hand and foot and so to overcome him with grace that he cannot resist it Oh the admirable wonderful mercy whereby the Lord makes a difference between his elect and others whom he leaves with the bridle on their necks to run away whether they will for it must be put among Gods promises and mercies when though with some sharpness he hinders us of the use of our liberty in hindring us from finding contentment in our walking contrary to our departure from him as you observe Hos 2. 6. I will hedge up thy way with thorns that thou shalt not find or enjoy thy paths this hedge of thorns is an admirable mercy for which the people of God have cause to bless God all their dayes that keeps them from finding that content in the way of their sins which otherwise they would have done this Converting grace doth so put forth it self in the act of Conversion of every sinner I know not your experiences of it that it subdues the actual resistance of mans heart at that time as the effect of it cannot be frustrated or defeated which teaches us with importunity of Prayer to beg this grace which comes with so much strength as that it bears down the wickedness of our hearts and irresistibly works a saving work Turn thou me and I shall be turned Jer. 31. 18. and draw me and we will run after thee Cant. 1. 3. And that you that have received such grace may magnifie the goodness and power of God towards you in that dispensations The Reasons why Converting Grace doth take away and overcome the resistance of mans heart at the act of Conversion which with great content and profit to the Reader may be given of the point are four Reas 1 First The Grace of Conversion doth not only move the heart to believe but it makes it to believe I speak of the act of Conversion it doth not only suadere but persuadere I cannot distinguish these words in English or this it doth not only stand at the door and knock and call as you would do to awaken them that are asleep within Rev. 3. 20. as exciting grace doth which is indeed a great favour which is resisted by man for to this Grace that knocks and is only pulsant calling and awakening the heart of man we may Ponere obicem put a bar bar the
affection and yet the proud and self-righteous people were gainsaying and contradicting thi◠was their resistance as long as Gods patience and do not you find this in your own hearts how often have you gainsaid and contradicted the God of heaven Fifthly The counsels invitations and reproofs of Wisdom i.e. of Christ are not regarded in Prov. 1. 24. a terrible place I have called and ye refused stretched out my hands and no man regarded ye have despised all my counsel and set at nought all my reproof or hated my reproof and the◠he proceeds to tell them how bitterly he will go out against them here is calling stretching out of hands counsel reproof and they all refused not regarded despised hated I think this amounts to the point of resistance Sixthly The Holy Ghost is resisted in Acts 7. 51. ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised ye do alwayes resist the Holy Ghost but how doth this stand with the former point that the Spirit of God in the point of Conversion cannot be resisted I answer The clear meaning of this phrase is the Holy Ghost speaking in the Prophets you have resisted the Holy Ghost speaking and testifying to you in the Prophets as if he had said the Holy Ghost speaking in the ministry and calling by the Word of the Gospel that 's it you have resisted for it s not meant of the renewing Spirit in the heart but of the Spirit testifying in the Prophets ye uncircumcised and stiff-necked like a Bullock of a hard neck that will take no yoke and uncircumcised that is hard and obstinate against God you do alway resist the Holy Ghost this was their resistance from whence you learn that there is a natural hardness of heart an obstinate neck that is the cause of mans resistance of the Holy Ghost both speaking in the Word and knocking at the door and exciting with motions the heart to believe all is in vain for it is but as knocking at a dead mans door or at a guilty persons door that will put more bars when one knocks so when God knocks and layes siege to mans heart there is made the greater opposition Seventhly Men that refuse to submit to the way of Salvation by God appointed are said to reject the counsel of God against themselves 〈◊〉 7. 30. speaking of some that came not in to the Baptism of John some read it Towards themselves the counsel of God towards them for their good or the counsel of God against themselves that is to their own hurt and prejudice in that they would not be baptized by Johns Ministry to the profession of the Lord Jesus people that will not come in to the Ordinances of God they reject the counsel of God against themselves to their own hurt this is through resistance Lastly Take a full measure of the height or this opposition there can be no higher expressions then those in Heb. 10. 29. to tread under foot the Son of God to account the blood of the Covenant an unholy or common thing and do despight to the Spirit of grace but who doth this are there such monsters in the world such miscreants as do this yes saith he that there is and who are they such as have been sanctified that is called into Christianity that 's the plain meaning and the word in the text reaches no farther separate from heathenish Idolatry and pollution to come to and profess the name of Christ and so have been sanctified and I take those in Heb. 6. 4. 5. to be the same men with these there it s said they were enlightned and tasted they were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and yet they fell here you find men sanctified to tread under foot the Son of God there is a double apostacy a simple apostacy called a stealing or a shrinking away from the profession of Religion And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a venome apostacy falling away with despight against Religion or Christ that in Heb. 6. speaks of the former this in Heb. 10. of the latter and what doth God construe their action to be a treading of the Son of God under foot and offering despight to the Spirit In all these particulars I have held my self to the New Testament and the words of Christ in it and now as I said that we have particularly pondred the words of Scripture in this point let us sum them up together here is hating opposing ones self slighting refusing resisting the holy Spirit rejecting the counsel of God and treding under foot the Son of God which fully amount to a resistance of the offers of grace Serm. 13 I Know it is a hard thing to convince any man of this therefore I have used Scripture words Gods language that we may not flatter our selves and that men may see there is more poyson in their hearts then they are aware of or will own I know what it is that usually blinds men that they will not own these expressions of Scripture to belong to them for who will call himself an opposer of grace offered a resister of the Holy Ghost and that is because you confess your selves to be glad of the tydings of the Gospel of remission of sin and deliverance from hell and you delight to hear of Salvation as it is generally conceived to be a state of happiness not as it is a state of holiness and communion with God and in any extremity agony and death into which you fall you pretend to have some desires of grace as a bridge unto Salvation or at least seem to magnifie it much in words these things seem to be an argument to you that you are not resisters and neglecters of this saving grace but you may well remember that the foolish Virgins knocked at the door and cryed Lord Lord open unto us and the stony ground heard and believed the Word of the Gospel with a kind of joy And there is not the veryest coward in the world but will take hold of a swords point to save his life and to pluck him out of the water the Gospel as it is interpreted and looked upon by the eye of self-love seems very attractive of the desire of man towards it so long as he may serve himself and his own advantage upon it namely to live in sin and to his sin and yet be saved at last when he can sin no more so long there is no carnal heart will resist and make opposition but all this may stand with hate of Christ and Grace for till a mans heart be thus moulded and tempered by God as to affect Grace for reconciliation and for conversion that so you may be Gods as well as have him yours so as to live to him as well as have Christ dye for you till then there is little but fallacy and falshood in you the man that thrust in at the marriage feast who came to fill his belly with good chear not for the honour of the bridegroom was cast out speechless
man that hath life and sense in him should tremble Heb. 3. 11. So I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest that as there is an oath of God made to the heirs of promise to shew the immutability of his counsel Heb. 6. 17. marke it so this Oath is made a Barr against the Salvation of the resisters of his Grace as it is applyed and doth also signifie the immutability of his wrath that its like the law of the Medes and Persians that alters not and therefore fear to outstand the day of grace For be you assured that as sun-set to one may be and is sun-rise to another so the day of grace may arise to another and yet set to thee Oh that you would know and tremble at it fearing lest you should be at or past the sun-set of this day of grace and so I have finisht the three premises First That God offers Gospel Grace to men seriously and in good earnest Secondly It is natural to corrupt man to entertain this Grace offered with neglect and resistance Thirdly That therefore he is plunged into a sad and miserable Condition The second of which that its natural to man to entertain this grace offered with resistance is that which I am to shew the reason of The First and the Third that God offers that Grace which being resisted plunges men into worse condition then ever affords matter of use to us But for the reasons of this resistance though all reason is for mans acceptance thereof yet such is the frame of the heart that it opposeth it self against it and therefore cannot come to Jesus Christ the Reasons though they are manifold I need not long insist of having said so much on the point already I shall therefore only name a sixfold reason Reas 1 First from the natural temper of the heart of every man which is hard and impenitent and therefore called a heart that cannot Repent Rom. 2. 7. a heart of stone Ezekiel 36. 27. that is untractable to God and resisting as an adamant that resists and dulls the tool that should cut it the very sun that softens wax hardens clay the means of Grace harden therefore pray Oh Lord take away this heart of stone according to thy Covenant for a Broken and a tender heart is the Gift of God Reas 2 Secondly The contrariety of the disposition and inclination of the heart of man to Grace shews it for Grace offered and the heart to which its offered are as Contrary as light and darkness flesh and spirit and we know in nature that contraries cannot be reconciled overcome they they may be and many times one is by the victorious opposite fire may be extinguished by water but to make fire and water agree cannot be so may Grace overcome But the filth of the heart is unreconcileable having a contrary center to move unto and rest in Reas 3 Thirdly Grace disturbs the peace of a Corrupt heart and therefore is resisted It takes away the contentment which it finds in lusts and fins as the stronger man coming in Breaks the peace of the strong man armed and spoils his goods Matth. 12. 29. when the strong man the Devil keeps the house lust is in peace But when Christ comes he disturbs the peace and spoils the goods and that must needs cause dislike in the heart of man For men would not be awakened and disturbed Let me alone let me enjoy my peace you shall seldom see any conversion wrought without a great breach of peace when a mans peace is broken in which he slept upon the Cushion of the devil all his days it s a great sign that there is power of grace gone forth to make offers to convince and bring that sinner in this is the cause that in defence of its own peace the heart makes such resistance A Reas 4 Fourth cause of this resistance is the servitude of the will in Bondage unto sin which is not like other Bondages A Bondman is not content in his condition he would quit himself if he could and would be glad to hear news of his redemption But this is a voluntary Bondage and pleases better then a gracious freedom it s the bondage of the will and nothing can be more free and willing then that Titus 3. 3. serving divers lusts and pleasures is the character that the Apostles gives of a natural state the man is in bondage under servitude to lusts and pleasures and though a bondman usually desires freedom yet this bondage hath no such desires because it is not a painful irksome bondage It s like that of a fish that struggles against being pulled out of the water because it is his Element A bondage whereby the will of man whatever the School-men say is like a Roman Prisoner tied by both arms to two of his fellow prisoners so is the will bound by a corrupt Understanding on one hand and corrupt affections on the other so that alas how should this man willingly come to Christ no more then a prisoner in bondage can possibly break from his keepers and come to you Reas 5 Fifthly The heart is filled with Ignorant prejudices against Religion and Grace which it looks upon as an enemy that comes to strip it of all contentment and to bring it into captivity he thinks of Religion and all the pâ—rts of it otherwise then indeed it is that it is a morose way and will take away his delight or one thing or other he casts in his mind through the foulness of his fancy all the imaginations of the heart being evil only evil and that continually Gen. 6. 5. Reas 6 Lastly A prepossession or a further possession For corruption is the first inhabitant Every mans head is first taken up with ignorance and hate of God and as the first man that is possessour of a Castle will keep it against every Invader so man being first engaged in a party by the king of this world and put into the command of the Castle of his heart when Grace comes and in the name of God demands a surrendry into the right owners hands it s lookt upon as an invader And therefore he sets himself to keep it out because he will hold to his party so that grace cannot get admittance till it bring an ejectionem firmam to throw out the enemy in possession For these and such like Reasons man strives with God and by the withdrawment of grace God seems to be out-striven with by man Oh Jerusalem wilt thou not be made clean when will it once be Jer. 13. ult A phrase of speech that testifies there is a long patience in it The uses of the serious offers of Grace and the misery of those that resist those offers are these two Use 1 First in General England London thou hast had a long day of Grace where the Lord hath visited thee by tendring the things that belong unto thy peace Christ Jesus to be
faith and repentance but God requires not the performance of the conditions by mans own power for therefore the Covenant is altered from Do this and live unto Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved they are both exprest Rom. 10. 5 9. because man fallen man could not abide such a condition of life as must rest upon his own power to performance which was before possible to him while he stood in integrity but now is impossible to him in sin this objection may be further pursued and then I confess you make a hard knot of it Obj. Still it seems the condition continues impossible for man by a natural power cannot perform personal and perfect obedience neither can he believe neither keep the law nor obey the Gospel neither perform the condition of works nor yet of Faith and what are we then the better Answ You must distinguish between a natural power and a power restored by grace as to the natural power there is no more in man to believe in Christ then to perform the law to a natural power both these conditions are impossible let me not offend you in words for to Do this and live you do not pretend to but to Believe and come to Christ that you say you can But the text saith no man can come to me Oh that you could but feel this impotency in your selves but then the power restored is a power to believe in Christ which is not restored to keep the law of works but unfeignedly to believe in and love Christ and this power is given by the drawing of God to all that do indeed come to Christ those that are not drawn do not come all that come are drawn and impowred to believe Gods drawing and mans coming are both of one latitude one measure one extent as many as the Lord works upon and draws they do come ver 45. And those that are not drawn do not come ver 44. and this I call the restored power not restored to man to keep the Law but to believe in and receive Christ Jesus And so the power to perform the condition of the Covenant is a restored power but to perform the condition of the Covenant of works there is no power restored therefore Austin saith God will not that it should pertain but only to his Grace that man should come to him that being come he should not recede from him And that God would not have the condition of this Covenant to be built on mans power of performance I prove by three Reasons Reas 1 First God is pleased that his promise or Covenant should be sure to all the seed Rom. 4. 16. Therefore it is of faith that it may be by grace to the end that the promise might be sure to all the seed not to all the world but to all the seed and how unsure it had been if it had stood and bottomed on man the experience of the first man Adam doth teach who though in his integrity made shipwrack of all by defection from it much more may be said of man under sin were he not supported by the power of a better prop the Mediatour God will have it sure to all the seed And therefore will not establish it on the works of man because he betrayed it and brought shipwrack on it at first and there shall come a shipwrack on it no more Reas 2 Secondly God doth not expect that the conditions should be performed by man only calls for it as a duty that I owe but not as standing in my power But God makes promises of the very conditions which he requires not of the benefits of the Covenant only but of the graces of it that they may keep it Mark the promises of the Covenant I will put my Law into their hearts and write it in their minds and they shall all know me Heb. 8. 10 11. I will put my fear into their hearts that they shall not depart from me Jer. 32. 40. I will will put my spirit within them and cause them to walk in my statutes Ezek. 36. 27. I will take away a heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh Ezek. 11. 19. And who will say that these promises are built on any conditions in man Reas 3 Thirdly Because of this Covenant Christ is surety which in the first Covenant was not If we deal with a poor or suspected man we lie hard at him for a surety happily we will take a rich mans word Though there was no surety of the first Covenant for Adam had none yet now there is a surety given that must stand at stake and therefor it is said God hath made him a Mediator of a better Covenant Heb. 7. 22. and this surety-ship of Christ shews that man is not to be trusted but upon surety And what undertaking Christ performs may be seen in his account he makes of his sheep John 17. 8. I have manifested thy word unto them and they have received it and have known that I came out from thee And believed that thou hast sent me this is an excellent undertaker and a good Accountant for his sheep not one of them is lost they have received thy word they have believed A rare comfort for all that are Christs they are undertaken for Christ is accountable for them to God 7. Lastly Since the glory of God is thus kept intire that all things are of him through him to him Rom. 11. ult and that rectum est index sui obliqui the right line is index of it self and the oblique or Crooked Let whatsoever doctrine that makes not all to be of him through him and unto him be hence confuted by this excellent test as First That which makes man a beginner of Conversion and God a helper of those beginnings that affirms assisting but not preventing Grace that which makes grace the nurse not the mother that brings forth a crutch for the lame but not life to quicken the dead that which makes God the finisher but not the author of Faith this is not Scripture doctrine this makes not all to be of him Secondly That which affirms that though there be no merit in Justification yet there is a power in man for Sanctification because it deals unequally with a long arm and a short one allows no merit and yet assumes a power that sounds not well neither yet this is a thought that is in many a mans heart Oh that God would pardon me and for walking with God let me alone Oh that God would forgive me my sins and I le cleanse my self I le live to God you will not assume the merit of Justification but you may not set your power in the place of the spirit of God in point of sanctification no more then merit in place of the Lord Jesus for Justification for in Psal 103. he forgives all thy sin and heals all thy disease ver 3. where in one verse you may see both
or both truly I think he should answer best that saith faith is actus totius hominis the act of the whole man the mind to know the will to Consent and Embrace the affections to rejoyce in and desire as the Scripture saith faith is seated in the heart all the heart Faith must be a work brought into the heart by the hand of God for if faith should come in by its own forcible entry by opposition man would fight against it at every door or room and therefore it remains that it must come into the heart voluntarily the heart must be made willing and when it is so it sets open every door that it will not fight against any entry It is God that makes the whole soul willing to the entrance of faith into it Reas 7 Seventhly Saving faith always flows or proceeds from a vital principle a dead man performs no act of life and if faith be an act of life then this faith cannot be performed by a man that is dead that is by a natural man dead in sin and therefore he that makes a man to believe in Christ must first out a life into him see the Reason how it hangs together a spiritual dead man can no more put life into himself then a natural dead man this argument proves that Gods drawing a man to Christ is as it were the raising of him from the dead that mans believing in Christ is as much as a resurrection from the dead and proves that Gods drawing must goe before mans coming or believing the passive work of Conversion preceds that which is called active Conversion the one is Gods the act of raising the other is mans the act of turning to God I know not what can be said against it Reas 8 Eightly The greatest opposition that is made to the plantation of grace yet in the heart of man is made to faith temptations are soarest oppositions are strongest against faith because the soul and salvation lies at stake upon it the hinge that salvation hangs on being in this point therefore it hath more opposition by sin and the devil then any other grace I have prayed saith Christ to Peter that thy faith fail not Why not that thy love or thy fear or thy patience fail not because the greatest batteries of the devil are against faith and the taking of that fort would take all and therefore all those considerations that give such weight to faith in order to Salvation do also give weight to the reason I am now upon that a supernatural hand is that which must work and create faith in us Reas 9 Lastly I should as easily and willingly ascribe the whole work of mans conversion and regeneration his new birth and justification all to the power of man dead in sin as I would ascribe thereto faith in or coming unto Christ and so let God sit by as a looker on and behold what a fine thred the will of man spins throughout the whole webb of conversion regeneration and believing and let sinful man be suae fortunae faber the workman of his own fortune as they use to say and where then shall be the commendation and praise of Glorious grace sure there will be the commendation of the will of man and not of the will of God and so all things will come at last result to this which the Serpent said to our first parents ye shall be as Gods if faith and coming to Christ be in the power of man you will be as God for not he that supplies the object of faith but he that supplies the power and act of faith the will and deed to believe sits highest in Glory the Reason is that notwithstanding the object of Faith revealed man might perish but he that gives me the act of believing and makes good that cannot perish but must be saved Let the evidence of these Reasons quiet and settle you upon this point And Serm. 21 Use 1 FIrst Make those men jealous and suspicious of their Faith that find an easie quiet and undisturbed faith that have believed time out of mind as they say ever since they could remember and never had â—â—sence and feeling of this drawing work of God without which faith cannot be wrought It is true I believe that regenerating grace steals into many a one even in their inâ—â—ncy before they can reflect upon themselves for this faith is not known without reflection and before they know who it is that calls Samuel Samuel and they have cause of praise afterward that God marked them for his sheep while they were but Lambs this may be and therefore I will not say that this point ties these men to know or to find out the time of the first working and plantation of faith in them But ordinarily those that are of age do hear the noise or voice of this wind when it blows though it be a secret work and thou knowest not whence it comes nor whither it goes yet they feel a work whereby they are drawn to believe in Christ and in every man ordinarily there are inward bickerings temptations troubles for sin fears all which do make faith hard and thereby as Israel coming out of Aegypt we have more sensible experiments of Gods goodness and power so in the first plantation and further growth of our faith there will be very much all along to teach us this lesson that iâ— is a very hard thing to believe either in God for matters of providence or in Christ for pardon of sin yea and many times after the shaken heart is come to a center the earth-quake may return again especially if we take hold of rotten refuges for it s we that make it hard to believe otherwise they that have a faith dogmatical some righteousness and works of their own to trust to it is to them in their thinking a very easie thing to believe in Christ but its guilt that abates confidence if we our selves did but know our secret guilt it must needs make it hard to us to believe in Christ and yet all that do believe have this guilt staring them in the face but the Goodness truth and freeness of the promise overcomes it Use 2 Secondly If God have drawn thee to Christ and made thee a believer then return and acknowledge to him the Glory Let it ravish thy heart with the love of God for his finger hath been in thy heart whether thou be sensible of it no and to whet and sharpen thy praise let the open sight of thy former unfitness to believe equal to the unfitness of other men and thy equal impotency and opposition to thy own happiness raise the tune of thy praise for a Christian must never lose the sence of his former sins I was a persecuter and injurious and then it follows in 1 Tim. 1. 13. and the grace of the Lord was exceeding abundant to me with faith and love and therefore thou hast reason to kiss that hand
must be buds before there be ripe fruit in the tree let there be day-break before there be Sun rise but when may it be said now the soul quickens now it lives 't is when God actually puts a principle of life into the Soul and changes it by habitual grace puts in the New creature the Divine nature and gives it power to believe And in this work there are two things that God doth to be considered first his taking away the heart of stone the vicious quality stocking up those roots of gall and wormwood sinne and delight in sinne and turning the heart into a softnesse and wearinesse of sinne and this he cals a taking away of the heart of stone Ezek. 36. 26. And then the second work that joines with and followes upon it is the planting of a new principle in its place as the heart of flesh is given to come in the place of the heart of stone whereby it shall be inclined to the work of faith and love and this shall be as Christ said a well of water springing up to everlasting life John the 7th and this is a work above the power of all means used in themselves till God use this Pen to write by but every tendent and previous act is not regeneration but that which gives a spiritual being and a vital principle for until there be a spiritual being begun there is no new Creature Thirdly There goes to this divine drawing a further work and truely that will not be acknowledged by many great men that out of the heart thus changed and prepared by habitual grace there is drawn out by the hand of God himself the very act of believing in Christ It is a hard thing to conceive how that should be but it is no otherwise then this that as when the wheel is made you put on your hand to turn it so when this habit of grace and new nature is put into the heart of man God puts forth this eximious act doth as it were lay his hand on the wheel turns the heart to draw out this act of Faith and this Christ speaks of heer coming is an act a motion a man cannot come till he move and so in Phil. 2. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Philip. 1. 19. to you is given to believe not to you is given the power to believe but God works the act the will not only the habitual change of the will when he hath habitually changed the heart then he drawes the act out the reason is if God had given the power and put a new principle into mans heart to turne and come to Christ and then leave him he had done no more for his Elect then he did for Adam when he was in his integrity God gave him a power to obey but he did not give him the act of obedience because there was a habit and a power given him and a sufficient power that he might have used if he would and have stood by it for if God had not only given him a power but this act then certainly he had stood but now the Conversion of man is certain not on a peradventure God puts a habit which he doth not leave to the will of man to act alone if he should I know not how it would succeed he doth not only habitually but graciously perform these great effects in his Elect and this is that which you may pray and look for and though you were possessors of the grace whereby you might be someway inclined yet look for this drawing of God whereby you may be dravvn to believing in Christ Serm. 27 The first part of this text vvhich concerns the impotency of man to come to Christ hath had much of the latter part intervvoven Gods dravving and therefore because I vvill not Tautologize I shall but as they say tie a knot upon the long thred that hath already run out in the handling of these vvords and shall make this point That they that come to Christ do come by the traction of God vvhich point I vvill open briefly in a few particulars First There is a sort of people in the world in whom God will magnifie his great power in drawing them into a state of salvation by bringing them in to Christ Jesus and they are described by a Character that is before hand unknown to us a great secret that they are a people known to him 2 Tim. 2. 19. The Lord knoweth them that are his and by this that they are given to Christ by the Father Joh. 6. 37. 39. they are called the chosen of God unto salvation 2 Thes 2. 13. they are the people of his inward and secret Covenant Secondly For these people that are thus set forth unto you God is the undertaker he undertakes for them to make them a new heart and a new spirit Ezek. 36. 27. to write his law in their minds and put it in their hearts Heb. 8. 10. Thirdly These all and every one shall be drawn to Christ they shall be all taught of God John 6. 44 45. Fourthly This undertaking work is succesful and effectual to these two things To the bringing of them in unto it To the keeping them in that state First To the bringing of them in for all that the Father hath given to me shall come to me vers 37. they shall all know me Jer. 31. 34. they shall all be taught of God v. 45 Secondly to the keeping of them in they shall not depart from me Jerem. 32. 40. they shall not withdraw of these the Apostle speaks Heb. 10. last vers we are not of them which withdraw to perdition And our Saviour Joh. 6. 37. them that come to me I will in no wise cast out And this is promised peremptorily of all that are Confederate or Covenanted persons they shall all come to Christ they shall all know me and I will give them a new heart and a new spirit every one of them shall be taught of God I will saith God and they shall And this Covenant of God thus made with his Chosen before the world began is irreversible not to be frustrated for 't is a purposed grace 2 Tim. 1. 9. There is not one of these in whom this undertaking grace shall not be operative working and succesful this is as the waters of Noah to me Isaiah 54. 9. God compares his Covenant with his people to the Covenant he made in Noahs floud and explains it thus as I have sworn that the flood shall return no more so that my Covenant concerning the waters cannot be reverst so neither shall the Covenant which I have made with thee be frustrate for it is a sealed Foundation the foundation of God stands sure and hath this Seal Tim. 2. 19. And concerning this know First That it is not built upon any contingent condition by us to be performed which man can defeat no more then there is required any such condition that the waters
can God in the law curses and condemns me that shewes that from an absolute God a man will run if he can get away and therefore as my text faith that no man comes to Christ but by Gods drawing so he that couples and brings me to God to an adherence and injoyment of this chief good must be Christ the gospel teaches him so to you he teaches himself to be the way the truth and the life that as the life is but one so the truth and the way is but one No man comes to the Father but by him John 14. 6. and therefore as one chiefest good consists in knowing God so the only mean to know God is by Christ to know Christ by faith savingly John 17. 3. This is life eternal to know 〈◊〉 there is the summum bonum and him whom thou hast sent Christ Jesus the Mediator the mean to it Let this be taught to man so as to control and bear down all carnal reasonings and there needs no other drawing for the will of man is necessarily carried towards its chiefest good it cannot but gratefully turn to it by this means which is the only means thereof and so farewel all remisness indifferency and lukewarmness when this conviction takes place then saith the soul I will come I will seek thy face O God for the understanding by its ultimate dictate a point in the Schools disputed fixing this conclusion to the will of man that it 's the best choice that can be made to come to God and it 's the only means to come by Christ this cannot be refused by the heart this is the drawing-teaching or the teaching-drawing Serm. 30 Obj. It may be objected Then should all men say some come to Christ for who is not convinced of these two things that God is mans chiefest good and Christ is the only means to have and injoy God and I believe you will say that this objection indeed is pertinent for what man is there living in the Church under the dropping of the ordinances of God that is not convinc'd of the one and the other I answer this Answ As the Hebrews in their phrase do put the name of God to any thing as an Epithite when they would set forth the comparative degree or any eminency as Cedars of God and mountains of God and wrestlings of God that is high Cedars huge Mountains great Wrestlings So I may say of this phrase the teaching of God is the most eminent teaching that is effectually drawing the heart and mind of man after it and it is a resolved and fixed teaching subduing all contrary reasonings that may arise militate or make war against it therefore to the answer of this case we say though in theft in the general every man can say God is the chieâ—est good Christ is the only mean tending thereunto yet mark when it comes to particulars that is as the Schoolmen say to Hic nunc in hypothesi to this time and place when beloved sins and pleasures and profits rise up in their strength against this conviction doth it then prevail to accept and receive God and Christ if it doth not as indeed it doth not in the most it is not this teaching it is not fixt and clear and resolved against all other reasonings as I will give a clear instance Eve was convinced that God had said ye shall not eat of the tree of knowledg of good and evil Here was a conviction in the general but when she saw that the tree was good for food the fruit pleasant to the eye and to be desired then the general conviction gives place to the particular lust that did arise then it did not prevail against the present and pleasant object this is the case of most men It s ordinary for men in the general to say right but when their present lust comes in particular to vie against the general conviction doth it not presently bear down all before it nothing more ordinary among us in all our wayes and therefore I account this to be the teaching of God that carries the mind against all particulars and the affections against all contrary motives and inducements that are in the whole world against that dictate of the heart thus taught otherwise it is but video melior a probâ—que deterior a sequor as one said I see and approve the best but in my choice I follow the worser part this teaching of God prevailes and preponderates over all particulars hic nunc I thought this necessary that you might better understand what conviction this is Lastly This drawing of God is peculiar to some men not common to all those that we call the elect of God they are thus drawn when they are called according to his purpose as it s said in Rom. 8. 28. these are they whom God hath ordained to salvation and therefore with an effectual and outstretched arme he causes them to come unto himself these are the men of whom God saith Ezek. 20. 37. I will cause you to pass under the rod and bring you into the bond of the Covenant the passing under the rod in this text may be explained by other Scriptures for Scripture is the best key of Scripture and by it is the best exposition made Levit. 27. 32. and Jer. 33. 13. you shall find this phrase to be a borrowed form of speech from the custome under the Law of Moses that the owner of the sheep told them as they went out of the fold with a rod or wand in his hand marking every tenth for Gods tithe which after that setting forth was accounted Gods proprietie this is the ancient custome that God alludes to you shall be marked for my propriety and therefore the next words are and I will separate you from the rest of men take you and make you my own possession that this drawing is proper only to Gods elect we may argue thus Either the elect of God must be by nature better then others that do not come to Christ And if they pretend to that then the miracle as I may call it the admirable work of conversion should not be ascribed to Gods work but their own goodnesse But that cannot be for its all of one lump that the vessel of honour and dishonour are made Rom. 9. and all the elect are by nature even as others Ephes 2. 3. Titus 3. 3. or else the difference is to be ascribed to God who makes them differ from those that are strangers from the world that do not receive the Spirit of God John 14 It must needs be the drawing of God whereby those that we call the elect do come to Christ these are the properties of this drawing of God it is victorious makes man a volunteer is a drawing teaching is peculiar to the called according to Gods purpose The Second thing followes How a man shall know that he is or hath been drawn to Christ by God the Father for as
Gentile grant in Chap 1. that they did or possibly might know God by the foot-steps that he had left of himself in the Creation and the government of the world but that knowledg amounted to no more than of his Being or Properties not of his Worship especially that which you call positive and so they neither glorified him as God nor shewed that wisedom which as Philosophers they professed for professing themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they became foolish ver 22. As for them that assert the Sun and Moon to be Preachers of Christ the Mediator to the Heathen I think I may joyn them together with that Philosopher who had a conceit that the heavens do make an harmony by their motion which Musick I dare say he never heard As concerning the Jew the Apostle brings him in cap. 2. ver 11. pleading his difference from the Gentile and it is granted cap. 3. ver 1. that much every way is the advantage of the Jew and the profit of Circumcision For Circumcision verily profits if thou keep the Law cap. 2. ver 25. but if as we say of some Planets their great light be joyned with ill Aspects and irregular motion so if you that have a form of knowledge and truth in the Law if thou be a breaker of the Law and live contrary to thy own Principles then thy circumcision is made uncircumcision for an honest heathen that is uncircumcised is better than thou and shall condemn a dishonest though circumcised Jew ver 26 27. and the reason is because God measures not men by their external accomplishments which they have by being Churches and the priviledges of them but by the inward power of godliness accompanying their outward profession For he is not a Jew that is one outwardly c. In which words there is First A distinction Secondly A description or definition Thirdly An estimate or valuation First The distinction is not between divers persons as of a Jew and no Jew Circumcision and no Circumcision for that sounds as a distinction of Christian and Heathen but it is of one that it a Jew and no Jew of Circumcision that is and yet is not Ciâ—cumcision as of Christians that are and yet are not Christians for so it is always when you speak of equivocals So the Pouâ—â—raiâ—re of Caesar pictured in the Table is not Caesar so he is not a Jew that is one outwardly Secondly The description of both is the Jew that is no Jew is one that is so by 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or visible profession or if you will oâ—tenâ—â—tion oâ— Religion but he is nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in secret or inwardly if he have not that which in our Covenant is exprest in these words the law written in his heart and put into his mind the circumcision that is not circumcision is the visible mark they carry in the flesh but no inward purity of heart and mortification of lust the one of these is in the letter the other in the spirit What is the meaning of this phrase How comes this word not in the letter to signifie outwardness in opposition to Spirit or inward grace so it signifies in the new testament or in Scripture and I think peculiarly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a line made by a pencil as well as a letter made by pen and so may signifie a meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a portraiture or mathematical body that consist of lines of no depth and substance an outward form and nothing else or a writing with Ink as the Epistle 2 Cor. 3. 3. the Epistle of Christ not written with Ink but by or with the Spirit and so the Scripture that knowes another writing viz. by the Spirit in the heart doth fitly oppose thereunto that other manner of delineation which is outward by pen or pencil and so circumcision by a mark in the flesh is said to be in the letter not that the Apostle decries the ordinances of the Jewes or their profession in sensu composite but only in sensu diviso when the form goes without the power for even Christianity which is not so outward in all respects as Judaisme was hath a form of doctrine a form of worship or else no sacraments and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a form of godly conversation so it s called whatsoever they that call themselves Antiformalists but are indeed Formalists do quibble to the contrary Thirdly The valuation that is made of both these the Jew or the circumcision outwardly that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may have the praise of men The Apostle before his knowledg of Christ valued himself at a great rate by those things that were but outwardly as a visible Church-member past all contradiction but the Jew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the circumcision of the heart the power and purity of Godliness within hath the commendation of and acceptance with God I shall need say no more for the general opening of these words only before you go any further change the scene and lay the measure to your silves he is not a Christian that is one outwardly in form whose baptisme is the sprinkling of his face with water but he that is a Christian indeed reputatively and as to Church-membership thou maist have praise of men for thy profession for man sees 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the outside but God measures the real members of his covenant by their faith for it s his peculiar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Father that sees in secret Math. 64. The observations to be made upon the words shall be short and plain and the Uses we will take altogether at the close Observ 1 First Here we have an excellent example for preaching of distinguishing doctrine especially to such professors whose pride and outwardness in the true Religion makes them seem to themselves to be some body when they are indeed nothing distinguish a Christian professor from the Heathen a Protestant from a Papist and you shall say too little to them that are Christians inwardly and too much sometimes to feed the pride of them that are so outwardly they that know no more of Christianity but that which is outward will be ready to object when you beâ— them down so flat that which the Apostle inferrs as the Jewes objection against his distinguishing doctrine Rom. 3. 1. what advantage then hath the Jew or what is the profit of circumcision I Answer as the Apostle doth much every way but when I have said all all saving grace is discriminant and differencing and so should all saving doctrine be sharp but wholsome cutting but convincing teaching others what they should be by shewing what manner of men they are that have the praise of God As to a visible station in Church order the Apostle distinguishes 1 Cor. 5. 12. between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that are without those that are within that is within the pale of the Church both the
it can be cleared This seems to me a great scandal whereat men stumble Secondly if God command and require good works in his holy Word of us and yet tells me that his election of me to salvation doth not stand upon them but that the election whereby God hath chosen me to salvation is firm by his calling Rom. 9. 11. then if so be these works required and commanded will not serve my turn will not confirm my Election or Justification I may follow them and yet not attain righteousness by them Rom. 9. 31. This is a great scandal and offence to mans reason Thirdly if God cast so many of the world off and chuse so few of them that are called but throws them out as the man that was thrown from the Feast not having the wedding garment This is a miserable offence Fourthly if God require faith of me and repentance call for a new heart and a new spirit and saith Make you a new heart and yet teaches me that none can come except a divine power draw him except it be given him then he requires impossible things And is not this say some like to Pharaoh that will have the full tale of brick but will not find the people straw These are the offences taken by mans reason these raise up the murmurings these make some men leave the care of their salvation at six and seven If I am elected I shall be saved if I am not elected I cannot This makes men throw the plow into the hedge-bottom and let the ship ride before the sea and wind Upon all this that I have said it appears that the doctrine of Christ and of the free grace of God in Christ requires an humble heart a captivated reason or else prejudices of pride and the reason of man will trouble the whole Scene And I may give an instance in a point so resented in the times wherein we live by our Masters of Reason as some call themselves as the Gnosticks of old those damnable Hereticks called themselves the knowing men who had their opposition of Science falsly so called 1 Tim. 6. 20. This is it That Christs blood is not a blood of Atonement or expiation of sin that there is no proper compensation nor any satisfaction made or needful to Divine Justice for sin How then God pardons us our sins by an absolute goodness by an absolute free pardon without such satisfaction As a man forgives a delinquent without any satisfaction or as a man forgives a debt another man owes him freely for nothing And this is the great Hinge on which the Socinian Doctrine hangs which hath leavened and pass'd through so many men in our times But this free pardon without satisfaction of Gods justice ruines and razes the foundations of our Christian Faith as if men would not have Christ to do too much for them were angry at him for his being their surety for his paying their debt and freeing them from prison and damnation which makes me cry out as the Apostle doth in 1 Cor. 1. 20. Where is the wise where is the Scribe where is the Disputer of this world Let them take notice of it the great learned men that preach Heathenism among us Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world how by the Doctrine of Christ and free grace And this I preach that we may listen and hold the truths that to others are offensive overlooking all the scandals that may be found in the person and doctrine of Christ Serm. 2 NOtwithstanding I am not unsensible that the free grace of God may be so preacht or if you will so apprehended by you as it may be not only offensive to carnal reason but justly offensive to Faith and Christianity it self And this is when the doctrine of free grace keeps not the Channel but runs out on this side or that side without or besides its bounds then indeed it is justly offensive and scandalous and that may be in three regards First when it is made universal in extent For the freedom of this grace hath no affinity with the universality And though many do conceive that they cannot preach it free except they do also preach it universal I shall after shew that there is no kindred between them In the election of any man to salvation it is free because it excludes mans worthiness or works and yet it s not universal so as all are elected and chosen One calling I mean that calling that is according to purpose it is free not standing upon works You are called by Gods grace and yet t is not universal so as all men are called according to Gods purpose It s free to such as are called though it be not common to all Was not the grace of God free to Jacob yet not common to him and Esau It was free to Peter and yet not common to him and Judas To you it is given to know the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven there is the freedom to others it is not given there is a denial of the universality Maith 13. 11. And therefore we must distinguish between the offer of free grace and the effects of it grace in the offer of it may be common and in a sort universal but in the effects you shall always observe grace to be of a differencing nature it discriminates and makesâ— difference between one and another in salvation and therein is the glory of it and reason will shew that so far as it differences one from another it is not universal for that which differences cannot be universal the election hath obtained and the rest were hardeued Rom. 11. Secondly It is indeed offensive when it opens or is made to open a window to looseness of opinion or profaneness of life That makes it rather to be called loose grace then free grace for free grace truly preacht neither takes off the bridle of restraint of sin nor the spur of excitation of holiness from Gods Law these two must stand together Sin is restained by the Law of God there 's the bridle and then its a spur and incentive to obedience Shall we sin saith the Apostle because we are not under the Law but under Grace God forbid Rom. 6. 15. Again Shall we sin that Grace may abound Rom. 6. 1. No we may not make the doctrine of Gods free grace a Pander or a Porter to let in or open us the gate more freely to sin against him And the reason is excellent good there is no greater and sweeter obligation obliging man to thankfulness and obedience then this Doctrine of free grace The sense of this free grace I say is the most obliging and indearing of the heart to God of any doctrine that can be preacht so contrary is it from being a loosener of those bands whereby we are tyed to God Thirdly it is not rightly preached when it is made to deny to man all agency in Conversion as well as all power whereby
in him They are both one but for order sake we speak distinctly It s true we are commanded to turn in Ezek. 18. ver ult Wherefore turn and live And in another place Make you a new heart and a new spirit Because that is our duty and the condition of the covenant of life required of us The great condition is Turn and live Believe in Christ Jesus and be sâ—ved This is clear and there is no question against it But yet we are turned before we turn Jer. 31. 18. Turn thou me and I shall be turned and I will make you a new heart and I the Lord will circumcise thy heart For God makes good to his people not only the benefits and promises of the Covenant but the graces and conditions that are required he undertakes for grace as well as for the promise which is one of the greatest points and main hinge of Divinity The design and plot of God in the Gospel being to illustrate the glory of his grace having past by the Angels that sinned and leaving them without excuse without redemption very well Now then say I there is no point that serves better to that end then the depression of mans pride and power by that impotency and disability that is in man to that which is saving God by this magnifies the freeness of his grace that takes this work to his own power So that the conclusion will be mans foolishness doth magnifie Gods wisdom our unworthiness illustrates his freedom our poverty his riches our captivity his redemption and the enmity of man to God his reconciliation So that as in travelling by sea or land the more you raise one of the poles the more you depress the other and the higher one rises to your eye the lower the other sinks to your Horison So the same degree you raise man in worthiness or ability you lay low the grace of God and take it down from its due elevation The more you illustrate the free grace of God the more you derogate from the power and ability of man And therefore you may conclude there is no point or way serves more to the illustration of Gods grace then the depression of the pride and power of man To go on I must a little make a distinction No man can deny God to be the working or productive cause of grace but must some way or other exalt himself But I know very few men nay not excepting Pelagius himself that doth or hath denied God to be the working or productive cause of grace in us But they sufficiently depress the grace of God that will allow man the share of a meritorious or procuring cause to obtain it or some way or other to procure it of God For that is as contrary to the freeness of it as any thing can be If we give to man the working or producing of grace in his own heart that takes off from the drawing power of God to which it is to be assigned it takes from grace the power of it If we give to man the worthiness that takes off from grace the freeness of it for t is not free if there be a worthiness in man And we cannot give grace her due except we leave to her her power and her freeness And therefore Pelagius our Countryman at least a Welshman that said grace was given secundum merita according to works And the Semi-Pelagians that followed him that thought he went too high and therefore would mend the matter with Facienti quod in se est c. God denies not grace to men that do what they can that to a man that doth what he can though no such man I think is found in the world that walks up to the utmost of his light to him that doth the utmost of his power God doth not deny grace in our times when men have learned to spin a finer thred but to be as absolute fastened to the same doctrines as they were of old they do assign the first reason of Gods giving grace to the honesty and probity of man as they call it these spin a finer thred one then another But this I will say of them all That which they give to man they take off from God and so much as they give to mans worthiness or power so much they derogate from the power and freeness of God and do so much pull down grace as they build man And I think it to be a good rule We must build man upon God and not God upon man I confess that our Saviour here in my Text properly speaks of the power of man not the worthiness and merit which you may clear to your selves by the opposition Except my Father draw him which signifies some kind of power But I have spoken this little of distinction in derogation to the worthiness and merit of man that I might not trouble you with it afterwards and that I might shew you that mans merit is opposite to Gods free gift and free grace and will no more stand together then mans power and Gods drawing That 's an excellent Text for this purpose Rom. 11. 35. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who hath first given to God and it shall be given to him again reciprocally Thus much unto the point of merit because that I quit and come to that which my Text properly leads me to viz. The power of man to self-conversion or faith in Christ And here there are three things that offer themselves for distinctness of method First the subject unto whom this power is denied is every man in the world as he is considered abstractly in his corrupt natural estate without the traction of God No man Secondly that which is denied is power and ability to bring himself to God Not meerly will or readiness of will or forwardness as if man were in fetters or sick and crazy but power he cannot which is the most offensive denial that can be made to mans reason as leaving to man no share in his own conversion nor to God as they deeâ— any justice of commanding man to turn and believe Thirdly that unto which this power of man is denied is the most absolutely necessary thing to his salvation conversion and the most clearly easiest thing as men think which is believing in Christ then which they suppose that nothing is more facile and easie you think it to be as easie for a man to believe as for a sick man to cry out for a Physician or a hungry man to call for meat whereas Christ saith without coming to me you cannot live For t is a work that requires the drawing of God and such a work as is in no mans hand First the subject No man If I open this point genuinely according to the Text I must look back ver 41. where Christ silences the murmurers and gives them a general reason that reaches all them and all men else No man can And then also it gives a comfortable
love to God And therefore the love of God to his elect in their state of nature cannot produce any love in them to God why because it must be a thing known there must be day-break or Sun-rising a work of effectual vocation and calling by which light you may see it you can no more love God till not only you have his divine grace but also know it then the pavement can be hot or reflect heat to make you hot till the Sun hath shined upon it no more is it in your hearts to love God above self until the love of God hath shined into your hearts to make them in love with him And this is the second thing the contrariety of corrupt nature to God Serm. 7 THirdly the contrariety of corrupt nature unto grace is manifested in their mutual fight one against another Remember that I go about to prove that there is such opposition of a natural man to God as that he cannot convert himself and come in to Christ to believe for neither will sin give grace entrance admission nor will allow it quiet possession or dominion but they are always in unreconciliable war while there are remains of either For as it was said of Esau and Jacob when they strangely strugled and wrestled in their Mothers womb and she went to the Oracle and asked Why is it thus with me it was answered in Gen. 25. 23. There are two Nations and two manner of people in thy womb This sets forth to us grace and nature flesh and spirit which in the same womb of mans heart do fight and struggle and if you will have the very words it is in Gal. 5 17. These are set one against another the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh And these are of contrary perswasions principles byasses and affections and every man is opposite to this grace by reason that his corruption hath first possession and having so fights against that grace that comes to take him captive to Christ Jesus and there can be no more compliance in a natural man to comply with the grace of God then between fire and water why because there is a contrariety every thing that is be it of never so vile and base a being would be what it is and hath no principle to aspire to a higher being A spider cannot aspire to a being above her a toad or serpent cannot wish as I may say to be any thing then what they are only man indeed may aspire to be worse and more contrary to God but never better and therefore I see no reason that can be given why corruption should desire to change its estate into the state of grace Corruption supplanted grace at first and is always prone to supplant grace again Corruption supplanted Gods Image at first and is ever attempting to do so again but that through Christ grace comes in and supplants sin in part fighting down the dominion of it though not the existence and being of it Sin dwells in me saith the Apostle that look as Joshua when he came to the Land of Canaan destroyed all the Canaanitish Kings but not all the Canaanites and petty people for they were left for good uses to teach them humility and to do Gods work upon them so if ever regenerating grace come into the heart of man it will certainly kill and subdue all kingship and dominion of sin Sin shall not have dominion over you because you are not under the Law but grace But yet all sin is not extinguished the Canaanites yet live Sin dwels in the people of God but it dwels in them for good ends for if it had not been for good ends left be confident it should not have been There are two Uses of it for Humiliation and for Consolation For though it be a lamentation to every Christian to draw the clog Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Rom. 7. 14. yet it is a comfort when a man finds this contrariety in him he hath cause to bless God that he is not all of a piece that he is not all flesh that there is Esau and Jacob in him For it is not the conquest that shews grace but the fight or contrariety of grace unto corruption And were it not that grace had a stronger Second viz. Christ and the Spirit as it s delivered 1 John 4. 4. Greater is he that is in you then he that is in the world it would be extinguished and beaten out of the field every day for t is as easily put out as the light of the Sun would be put out by any interposition and would no longer live then a spark of fire in the Ocean but only God doth as well keep it in as bring it in at first by his mighty arm for as to heat the water you know there is need of fire but not to cool it the nature of the water will out the heat And though the Sun gives light yet there needs no cause of darkness for if the Sun cease to shine darkness it self returns and comes into the Air where it was before So the very cessation of the influences of the spirit if they should but cease though there were no contrary causes as there are from the flesh the world that infuses corruption yet these corruptions would return as the first inhabitants in man to which he is first principled so that it is the wonderful power of God that keeps grace alive That 's the third particular to prove this Contrariety that maintains the fight and keeps out divine grace until the heart be made willing to receive it Fourthly the Contrariety of corrupt nature unto God is manifested by this that the holy Law of God which the Apostle calls holy just and good makes sin more sinful and exasperates it into a greater height and therefore those men that live where the Law of God comes closest to them in reproof and correction are the wickedst men alive that as you see by making of a Dam the stream is raised and the water fumes and furiously beats against it so when a restraint is put upon the nature of man by the very Law of God nature it self I mean corrupt becomes furious And this point is taught almost in a whole Chapter Rom. 7. whereof excellent use may be made for a man to see his corruptions in Pauls glass ver 13. Was that which is good made death to me God forbid but sin that it might appear sin wrought death in me by that which is good and by the commandement became exceeding sinful What a miserable creature is natural man if God give him a commandement he is the worse for it there is a renitency an opposition in the heart of man to the Law of God that most appears in that we the less do what God commands because he commands it and we the rather do that which God forbids because
can maintain self And therefore it s said Rom. 3. 17. that glorying is not excluded by the Law of works not so it maintains some string uncut that upholds a man on his own bottom This for these reasons being mans darling is the cause that he is unwilling and averse to take the Gospel-way which sets up another righteousness that pulls down this and that makes him cry up his own Diana Fourthly when Christ is holden forth to a natural man that opposeth himself you must know that the offer is made to a man in his strong holds Every natural man is fortified beforehand against the knowledge of Christ Jesus and you know if men come to a strong hold and offer fair conditions while it is tenable and they within be able to hold it they are unwilling to yield man is unwilling being fortified to take in the Conquerour Now every natural man is fortified and till he be brought to exigents or dismantled he will stand it out for he is not willing to admit the contrary party every man by nature is self-content and self-sufficient no so poor creature that is without his den or hold now before that the thoughts be every of them brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ as Conversion is called 2 Cor. 10. 5. he will never come in until the Lord Jesus by the Word of the Gospel and the power of the Spirit hath pulld down and dismantled these strong holds reasoning high things For always when you are converted and Christ enters into the soul he enters like a Conquerour at a breach in the wall until this breach be made he that conquers cannot enter neither shall he prevail until then men will not admit him There is a refuge of lyes that men make to themselves an they hide themselves under falshood Isa 28. 15. Therefore saith God I will lay a Cornorstone a sure foundation ver 16. But this is not accepted by them that have other holds Fifthly man is unwilling to come to Christ because the receiving of his righteousness and of his yoke layes low both pride and self and abaseth these which are the two chief corruptions in the heart of man and therefore proud man most of all opposes and hates Gospel-Religion which of all Religions that ever were hath this glory That it most tramples upon proud self and calls for poverty of spirit self-denial and forsaking all dearest things And for this reason men aâ—e so unwilling to accept of this way of salvation and had rather suffer and bleed and lay out themselves wherein they may be somebody then only take such a profession upon them which makes them no body and leaves them neither merit nor glory How far will merit credit and glory carry the heart of man in any doing or suffering But the proposal of this free grace of God which draws all the water to another mill and must let Christ be my Wisdom my Righteousness my Sanctification and Redemption that is hard to digest because that crushes the head of our pride and of being something in our own eyes What poor draughts of men did Christ make by his preaching until he was lift up and by his Spirit drew men by conviction For first his usual doctrine of self-denial of forsaking all for Christ hath no shew to a natural eye Secondly the very way of Gospel-salvation is so ordered that it proclames the man that is saved a beggar a meer nothing for the richer he is the more he owes to the free grace of God and the more he receives the more he is in debt and the more duties he doth perform the less the merit because he hath received it from God and Faith which is his chief grace is a beggarly grace for the nature of it lies in meer receiving and taking to as many as received him John 1. 12. It is depending upon another for every drop of sap and life and hath it not from its own root but from another Rom. 11. 18. Thou bearest not the root but the root thee Thirdly this Gospel-way of Salvation leaves no power of your own to make any difference between your selves and them that perish Who made thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou diddest not receive 1 Cor. 4. 7. Fourthly you are bound to acknowledge the acceptance and receiving of all unto another hand not your working but Christs giving hand And the reason is That he that glories may glory in the Lord leaving by this acknowledgement no manner of glorying to himself 1 Cor. 1. 30. And then Lastly that you may see the Lord will crush all pride he is obliged by his receits from Christ to live to Christ and not to live unto himself 2 Cor. 5. 14. He died for all that they that live should not henceforth live unto themselves but to him that died for them Enlarge these Meditations upon your own thoughts God hath crusht pride and self in this Gospel-way of Salvation and therefore it is so unacceptable to man until he be made willing to it by Grace And all this gives the first and general Reason of mans unwillingness to come in to Christ Serm. 9 Reas 2 SEcondly the heart is not willing to come unto and give it self up to Christ until the mind be fully convinced by such a conviction as brings every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ as the phrase is 2 Cor. 10. 5. which until it be done the man remains in his opposition and unwillingness And this I conceive to be the meaning of that in Job Job 21. 14. where having described a man at ease and peace and prosperity in himself that is not sick of self therefore they say unto God Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes What is the Almighty that we should serve him and what profit is it that we pray to him Doth any man say unto God Depart The Scripture brings in oftentimes what the heart saith within it self not that any man is so impudent and brazen-fac'd as to say to God Depart but this the proudest heart of all doth do And this Conviction is twofold First this Conviction is of our lost hopeless and helpless condition in our selves But let me tell you we are not presently fully and duly convinced when we see and own our sins the reason is because the sight of sin drives a man unto his shifts drives him to his harbour to his refuge of lyes his own works and righteousness and helps it doth but drive him from sin unto another thing that holds him as fast When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah saw his wound then went Ephraim to the Assyrian and sent to King Jarâ—b yet could he not heal you nor cure your wound Hosea 5. 13. Let that be an instance in the case When Ephraim and the ten Tâ—ibes saw that they were smitten and in miserâ— and like to be led into captivity the sight
Adam should stand for God was not in jest in that business but God had not an absolute will that he should stand so as to work and confirm him in that estate so as to cause Adam to stand in his integrity so the will of God may be serious in commanding of a man to repent and yet not absolute and peremptory to work it in that man if he refuse to obey the command when God commands a man to make him a new heart to circumcise his heart or to obey his holy Laws in all these God is serious and in good earnest notwithstanding he doth not absolutely work these in all In the Elect of God whom he hath chosen he doth indeed not only command but works it In all he doth not And the reason is because God is serious in his conditional promises or Covenant when he speaks to man to believe and thereupon promises pardon he is in good earnest for he would have men to believe and it is their sin not to do it and then if they do the connexion between faith and pardon is sure a man earnestly perswades his servant or friend to be cut of the stone they will not the man takes his child and binds him cuts and cures him he goes further with his child then he did with his friend or servant yet he did seriously perswade them though he did not go so far with them nor had he reason but leaves them to themselves not that a similitude should run on four feet but take it in the general meaning God doth perswade with men to break the stone and to plough up the fallow ground of their hearts but he takes them that belong to the Election of his grace and whereas they refuse this grace as well as others he takes away the heart of stone from them I will take away the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh and therefore when the Lord saith thus in Ezek. 18. 31 32. Cast away your transgressions make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will ye dye O house of Israel I have no pleasure in the death of him that dyes therefore tâ—rn your selves and live be assured God is in good earnest with you this is his serious will this God calls upon man for notwithstanding he doth not work this new heart in all but in some for he saith in Ezek. 36. 27. a new heart I will give you he bids them to circumcise and saith I the Lord will circumcise Deut. 30 6. mans duty is made Gods act that which God requires in man seriously is made Gods act to perform in man graciously in the mean time by his calling and offering of life he hereby shews you what is his will of approbation that is what is the acceptable and perfect will of God Rom. 12. 2. there is an acceptable will and an effective will of God the acceptable will of God is seen in this call and offer of grace the effective will of God is that of his purpose which is effective of the work works the work upon you now God is serious when he speaks according to his acceptable will though he doth not effect it absolutely and peremptorily Serm. 12 THE acceptable will of God is your Sanctification 2 Th. 4. 3. this is the will of God your sanctification this God approves and the effective will of God whereby he works is like that I will be thou clean Mat. 8. 3. or that Jam. 1. 18. of his own will begat he us The acceptable will of God is that which shews your duty and what you must have if you will not dye if you will be saved Ezek. 18. 31. Cast from you all your transgressions make you 〈◊〉 new heart and a new spirit for why will ye dye the effective will of God is that which works both to will and to do which saith I will take away the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh and I will give a new heart and a new spirit Ezek. 36. 26 27. The acceptable will is his signifying will what he will have done by us The effective will is the will of his purpose what he will do in us The oâ—â— shews it self in the word the other in the work This acceptable will of God manifested in Evangelical commands and promises whereby he commands faith and repentance and promises pardon of sin and life is that which we must look unto and prove as the Apostle saith Rom. 12. 3. and this is seriously proposed to men But the will of Gods purpose his effective will is secret and so cannot be the guide of our addresses to God nor the rule of our believing for Gods acceptable will is the rule of our faith And this will of Gods purpose though it be absolutely performed in and unto all that are under that purpose yet there is an outward calling of many that are not chosen and there are offers of grace to infinite unto whom it is not powerfully given for it is said to you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom but to others it is not given and yet to those to whom it is not absolutely given it is seriously offered according to the effective will is the one and according to the acceptable will is the other and here comes in a question Quest What is the reason that God effectually works that grace in one which he doth but offer to another that God works by his absolute will the grace of Conversion and Faith in some which he offers and requires according to his acceptable will of others and why doth he so pathetically work with counsells and perswasions that which he might command if God command light to shine out of darkness and do not create that light the light doth not shine one word fiat lux would effect the work which he commands to be wrought in us and by us is resisted this is the great objection To this I say three things Answ First That God might have converted his Elect as he made this world that is immediately without tools or instruments God in the Conversion of man will deal with man as man he will use a ministry a means by exhortation by conviction by counsel and by moral perswasions that as it s said Hos 11. 3. he will draw with the cords of man so he will deal with man as man by reasonable counsels and perswasions leading him not as a stock by a Cable rope of meer force but so as that he may by excitation quicken the affections by enlightning convince the understanding by awakening carry the will this must be that the affections may be allured and drawn up to the consideration of spiritual things so that this being the way of God of necessity it doth require that there be used means motions counsels perswasions and the like I have to say further on this head these four things First God by these offers and tenders of
sad and serious meditation he found no place for repentance I confess learned men with whom sometime I have gone in the exposition of this place say he found no place for the repentance of his Father he could not find means to make his Father repent for bestowing his blessing on his younger son yet truly it may well and conveniently be expounded He found no place for his own repentance though he sought it very carefully the Gift is gone from thee thou hast lost thy time And though thou Blubberest and Cryest to me with doleful tears I cannot help thee And therefore the Best counsel I can give any man in this point is this Work out your Salvation while God works make hay while Sun shines Somewhat like to that Phil. 2. 12. Work out your Salvation with fear and trembling for it is God that workes in you both to will and to do Giving the Reason from Gods working that we should work lest God that offers his Grace and stretches out his hand should pull it in again after his long suffering and waiting and offer no more And learn to know your day before it be lapsed for the lapse of this day is Fatal I may some say that 's worth the knowing Object But how shall I do that Answ First do ye find a prizing of and an Appetite to the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby that 's a sign that you are new-born babes the Child that cryes to suck is not dead look for this thirsting appetite Secondly If the spirit of God strive with you still Convincing and reproving are your hearts often Convict of secret sins if unfaithful in your calling you find no quiet it s a sign God hath not done with you for while the spirit strives its a day of Grace My spirit shall not alway strive with man Gen. 6. 3. Thirdly Do you find God making a thorny hedge about you ways and doth it stand and is not pulled up is there a restraint that a man cannot run out but his Conscience pricks him And when ever he sins in commissions or omissions the thorny hedge is still goreing and pricking him Hosea 2. 6. I will make a thorny hedge that thou shalt not find thy path not find Content in sin an Evident sign the door of grace is yet open Lastly Do you find pulsations beatings knocking 's doth any body rap at the door still as they have done behold saith God I stand at the door and knock Rev. 3. 20. if any man will open I will come in and sup this is an admirable sign the invitation of God holds out still motion upon motion beseeching upon beseeching the knocker at the door is seldome quiet by these you may know your day of Grace and therefore I say Call for the bellows while there is fire Blow the sparks which lie in the Embers and not all dead blow them up For if the sparks die if God call in his spirit from striving with you you shall blow among the dead ashes in vain Oh the miserie of man that doth not know his time especially the time of his visitation as Jerusalem For whereas the swallow and the stork do know their time yet in the 9. or 12. ver man knoweth not his time and therefore they are snared in an evil time and Chap. 8. 6. because to every purpose there is time and judgement if man hit the time well and Good but mark saith he because man doth not know his time take the nick therefore the misery of man is great upon him Second proposition which is a doleful one that In this day of grace when a man may take Heaven and Salvation by the Fore-lock as we use to say many times the things belonging to his eternal peace are hidden from his eyes which is by the Apostle made the marke of a lost man In 2 Cor. 4. 3. if our Gospel be hid that a man sees no beauty in it finds no power it s hid to them that are lost in whom the god of this world hath blinded their minds that the light should not shine into them And it was the observation of Christ that in Jerusalems day the things of her peace were now hid from her eyes Luk. 19. 42. never could blindness have fallen upon her or any man else in a worse time in the day of his visitation when the things of his peace are offered to him Now is the day in which as God opens the door widest so now the devil is most conversant about the eye least faith the Apostle the light of the glorious Gospel should shine into them the devils aim is to pick out the eyes of men this he most frequently aims in this day Thirdly Those that either refuse the grace that is offered to them or fall quite off from those initials and beginnings thereof which they had Received as I shewed when I handled the point of Apostacy they might do they bring themselves by both into a worse condition then such as remain in their natural estate blind and without all light then such as never had such offers made unto them And without all question you who either stand out against those offers to refuse them or desert relinquish those beginnings of grace that you have received no heathen man in the world is in a worse condition then you for this Christ also taught Matth. 10. 14 15. Whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorah in the day of judgement then for them Matth. 11. 21. we to thee Chorazin and Bethsaida Cities of Galilee where Christ walked It shall be easier for Tyre and Sidon Heathen Cities shall escape easier then such where the mighty works of Christ have been shewed forth Oh that men can hear these things with dull and drowsie ears doth nothing of this sit upon you It is a sign that your eyes are hidden in this your day if the mighty works had been shewn in them which have been shewn in you they would have repented And they have been shewn in you and you repent not And as this is said of the recusancy of Grace the greatest and most vulgar crime among us so it may be said of those under the Apostacie of it in 2 Pet. 2. 21. It had been better they had never known the way of righteousness then having known it to turn away from the holy Commandment given unto them Let this bound your wandring fancies and afright you from your Apostacy from God For as the Iron of the Stethee is the harder for the often knocking upon it so the heart of man that 's naturally hard by the often knocking and pressing the word of God upon it is made the harder And if the salt that seasons other things be in it self infatuate its good for nothing what shall season salt they that are in this case heavier judgement waits on them and
men not raised untill the time and that power that quickned him was put forth Israel in Aegypt was never more free notwithstanding Gods purpose of an afterwards deliverance which he did intend unto them till Moses the deliverer came Paul while he was an elect vessel not called was never the more holy for that untill the time of his conversion came For Election is unto the means as well as to the end which it could not be if holiness should precede For though there be a holiness before the End in regard of execution you have your fruit unto holiness and the end Eternal life Rom. 6. 22. yet there is no such thing before purpose and decree Elect through the sanctification of the spirit unto obedience 1 Pet. 1. 2. And therefore the Scripture constantly gives the natural character of the Elect of God the same as non-elect there is a double Character given of them a personal and a natural the personal Character is many times worse then that of others they confess that I was a Persecutor a Blaspheamer chief of sinners 1 Tim. 1 13 14. In their natural character they are described as of the same temper lump and mould with other men Among whom we also had our conversation in times past and were by nature Children of wrath as well as others Ephes 2. 3. And we our selves were also sometimes foolish disobedient serving divers lusts and pleasures Tit. 3. 3. For otherwise these three things would follow thereupon First The mystery of comparative Election why Jacob and not Esau would cease for the reason being open and known voideth the mysterie Secondly The distinction and difference of one man from another would be of man himself Thirdly The production of Grace would not be de novo by Creation You are his workmanship Created in Christ Jesus but would rather be as the Bellows that begers fire where there were sparks before then the putting in new sire where there was none before Prop. 2 Secondly The deserters of grace by them received and the resisters of Grace by God offered are Justly deserted by God and the offers in time taken from them The deserters of Grace received I mean that which they call common grace are such as either do put out the sparks or let them dye and go out Such as the Foolish Virgins whose lamps went out or as the two Grounds the stony and thornie whose green blade was blasted or choaked And such we have many amongst us that for a time and season do put forth blossoms they have Enlightnings Convictions and do pretend great affections some sence of sin at some time especially some desires of Deliverance and are like flowers in a waterpot that will keep fresh and maintain a greeness for a time but as the Scripture saith they have no root and so they wither and are extinguished Object But you will ask me What order or tendency have these workings unto regeneration Answ These are common to the Elect and non-Elect and they are Precedaneous and Previous works of grace towards regeneration being initial things that by the management of God do come to some effect in Gods elect but yet in themselves are such as may be suffocated and choaked for God doth not usually convert any of his people by way of sudden Ethusiasms as if one should think of life put into a stone or stock as if in an instant a stone should change into a man a heart of stone immediately change to a heart of flesh But God moulds prepares the heart by the ministry of the word and excitations of the spirit as it is said of Peters hearers in Acts 2. 37. they were pricked in their hearts and made to enquire what they should do to be saved For as it is in natural Generation there are many previous dispositions that go before the induction of the forme which gives it the specifical Being so are men brought to a spiritual nativity unto regeneration not by a sudden strait God doth work by these previous workings and in the way of his administrations he doth impart certain Initials or beginings of grace unto men Object 2. If this be that the men in whom these are wrought may desert extinguish and fall off why then will some say is this so culpable a thing to quench these that have no regenerating life in them Answ These are they against which the Scripture pours out so much wrath and declares so great danger in this case to such as shall desert forsake or extinguish these workings of initial beginnings as in that phrase Heb. 10. ult my soul shall have no pleasure in them that withdraw to perdition not because these have any root at the present for so our Saviour describes them in Matth. 13. 21. but because the things in themselves have a tendency to further ripening and perfection as the egg to the Chicken the Bud to the fruit and the embryo to the Child not yet actually perfect Gal 4. 19. I travel in pain till Christ be formed in you In which respect they are said to know the way of Righteousness 2 Pet 2. 20 21. And for this reason it is so culpable because they do destroy the fruit in the bud But then may some say Object 3. This renewing and converting grace comes immediately from God and doth not require any previous or precedaneous workings Answ The comparison of natural generation will give some light what to say of this for suppose the rational soul be infused not meerly traduced poured in from heaven by the hand of God yet notwithstanding there is use of marriage and many preparatory dispositions are required tending to the generation of a man so that you may rightly conceive here if grace be which yet I dispute not the begetting of a man to God there may notwithstanding be required many previous dispositions tending thereunto which that it is so may be evident to you by the means and instruments that God uses in Conversion the instruments are men the means are the ministry of the word I have begotten you by the Gospel saith the Apostle in 1 Cor. 4. 15. And if God was pleased immediately which I know not that any of you Expect and should be sorry you should be deluded so I say immediately to convert and suddenly to snatch a man out of his unregeneracy without conviction foregoing without knowledge and sorrow for sin desire of pardon and deliverance then neither would there be need of the ministry of men nor word preached neither need the Minister rightly divide the word as the Apostles phrase is that is plowing down the ridges of the law or laying up the furrows by the Gospel preaching this grace therefore is that which may be deserted and these offers of grace are many a time resisted and are by many finally resisted to the great danger of their souls and the loss of them And therefore it is just with God to desert these and
Erroneous may be tryed So in this point of Conversion of man and discriminating grace if any man blow the Bladder as well as the Trumpet to make him swell and sill him full of Pride and Self building God upon man and not man upon God Let this that I have said be the test at which you examine that Doctrine For as the letting fall of the string of a Vial or Lute too low or the straining it too high spoils the harmony And as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom 12. 6. the proportion is changed by adding a Unite unto or by substracting it from any number so in this point of converting grace if the denyal of mans power be drawn to deny mans duty or the Calling for Duty in Scripture be drawn so high as to exalt mans power the proportion and Harmony is spoiled in both After this animadversion and after such a test of Doctrine here found out and commended to you let me give you warning how to apply this sealed mete-wand to the Doctrine that you hear And I would that there were not so many instances as might be given that the Iniquity or Necessity of these times does require to be spoken unto First That Doctrine by this test sounds not clear but seems to have a crack in it That under pretence of duty doth conclude and advance mans power and the reason is plausible with those men that have learning enough that whereas it is said in Ezek. 18. 30. 31. Repent and make you a new heart and a new spirit and cast away your transgressions for why will you die and from Jer. 4. 4. Circumcise your selves to the Lord and be not stiff-necked take away the foreskin of your hearts from these commands doth conclude that man hath power to do it or else saith carnal Reason why is he commanded they that do make this conclusion let them be examined by this Establisht test of Doctrine and having hung the scales let us now weigh the point this is true What God in his law requires that the law supposes a power to be or to have been because the law of God doth not command things absolutely impossible to which there never was power given and therefore mans disability to perform any command arises accidentally when he hath disabled himself And this is called by the Apostle and the cause of it shewn in Rom. 8 8. the Impossibility of the law and that is through sin and corruption that hath Invaded man and disabled him unto obedience But now in case of this disability the law that requires the duty doth not argue a power in you but it doth drive disabled man to the remedie and that is the free grace of God and therefore he that calls on thee for repentance doth himself give it 2 Tim. 2. 25. he that bids Make you a new heart doth promise it I will give them a new heart Ezek. 36. 27. He that saith Circumcise your selves saith also I will circumcise your hearts Deut. 30. 6. The command shews what man owes to God and what must be in him if he will not dye and this drives him to the remedy the free and gracious promise of God to work this in him the measure of his duty is not the measure of his power as a man measures not his worth by what he ows no man will be so absurd and yet men will measure their power to repent to turn to God to believe in Christ by what indeed is their duty to do which is to say no more a false measure Secondly Nor are they to be heard that from qualifications of fitness do argue and conclude for qualifications of worthiness or merit observe for you will not understand the answer to these except you understand where the Errour lies the law uses this word worthy for a dueness of the reward of debt that that hath some proportion to the reward when the reward is of debt as the Apostle describes it but the Gospel dictionary useth the word worthiness for the fitness of a man to receive the reward of grace and promise and therefore in the Gospel they are usually pronounced worthy that are fitted and made meet for to receive Christ or the promise as the worthy receiver at the Lords table is not he that is meritoriously worthy but he that is meet that is qualified answerably to the Sacrament that hath in him such qualifications as are answerable to the body and blood of the Lord there exhibited and so you may read works meet for repentance and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to count worthy and make meet 2 Thes 1. 11. and Col. 1 12. are one and the same the Papists and Bellarmine himself that sought as far for that as any of them can search can hardly find in all Scripture Hebrew and Greek any thing that sounds toward merit of Salvation but worthiness of fitness that is an answerableness to the duty injoyned or mercy promised he hath made us meet to be inheritors this you may find everywhere without which no man can be saved and therefore to say this bottle is fit to hold such a proportion of wine and worth so much money are quite contrary sayings the one relating to the capacity the other to the metal of it so to say the thirsty the weary the laden are in a fit capacity for Christ and the promises by qualification of emptiness and therefore they have qualifications of merit and worthiness is altogether absurd and inconsequent and if any among us as there may be some that cannot digest these words qualifications towards Conversion c. a point that in the process of this discourse I shall touch upon will but clear their own mistakes there remains no quarrel upon the word at all for we mean not meritorious qualifications not any thing meritoriously conducing to mans conversion but meet and fit preparatives unto grace and glory such precedaneous workings as judgement sin and the law have discovered and preacht to men that they by being stâ—ng by the fiery Serpent may be fitted to look up to the serpent on the pole the Lord Jesus In a word they are qualifications of the subject recipient not merit of the thing to be received that they may receive the Grace as an empty bottle doth receive the liquor Thirdly That doctrine by this test will be found leavened that makes the ruinous condition of man less then it is for then consequently it will follow that the power of God in his restauration is less also as for instance if Lazarus be but sick his recovery is less then a resurrection If you make mans case better so as sickness is above death so far as mans power is made greater in themselves so far is the power of God made less then it is extreams on both hands are to be avoided in lessening the freeness or the power of man or in the greatning of it I will
under the rate of saving because it is by a faith of Conviction not of Acceptance As a woman that can say nothing against a man yet gives not consent of marriage so they are convinc'd of the excellency and necessity of Christ and yet do not receive and accept him for good and all with self-outing and self-renouncing And all this being so as it is well might Austin say of this grace which Pelagius was content withal that is the doctrine exhortation excitation by way of object propounded and counsel moving Nolumus istam gratiam we are not content to rest in that grace but will have such as takes away the stony and gives a heart of flesh as it was with Lazarus he did not rise out of the Grave because he was bid to rise but with the word there went a powerful work and so he came forth Notwithstanding all this that I have said as touching the object of faith proposed the motives and means of Faith used which I confess are enough to lay the blame of non-believing at mans door yet this admirable secret of not believing upon all this arises from a higher reason or secret of God as appears by our Saviours Doctrine And the Reasons are two First Though all these be used as they are for the preparing and inclining and exciting man to believe That God may deal with man as a rational creature by moral means for God doth not draw man as a beam of timber or a stone is drawn by force but in a way of Understanding Reason and Argument yet that high design of God in giving men to Christ or not giving them to him is assigned by our Saviour as a Reason of mens coming or not coming to him Joh. 6 44 65. No man can come to me except it were given him of my Father and vers 37. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me The giving of Faith to man and of man to Christ are both Gods work And in John 10. 26. But ye believe not because ye are not of my Sheep that is not given to me by the Father And surely 't is for this secret reason that many in the world and in our Congregations that have all the formerly named Means and Motives to Faith do yet stand it out obstinately and those that have appeared the most unlikely of all others to be believers in Christ have after their long withstanding come in at length Seconldy The reason why all these do not work Faith is because they work but morally and objectively and do not haply ingenerate life by which they may be prevalent We do not wonder why a Trumpet doth not waken and why Musick doth not delight a dead man because neither the one nor the other doth beget life but supposes life to be Faith if it be lively and saving comes from a root of Life from the Spirit of Regeneration and renewing Grace and therefore where such Grace is not by the Spirit implanted in the heart all Means and Motives of Faith are but like the frictions and rubbings of a dead man which are profitable to awaken the spirits if there be life but not to recall or produce it and this is that which Christ speaks in the Text No man can come to me because he is of himself dead and void of power by Nature until God put a Spirit of life into him and when he is alive these Meanâ— and Motives may be profitable or as is usually said by S. Austin speaking of the Doctrine of Pelagius Hold a green branch or bunch of grass before a Sheep and if he be alive he may follow your hand but it gives not life to him if dead All that can be said is That there must be first a Plantation of a vital Principle a seed of spiritual life before there can be any Faith put forth to these Promises and Motives of Faith and therefore this bespeaks you all to use the means for life for God by these means works it But yet the means are left destitute unless joyntly with the Word of Faith there go the Work of Faith as with Lazarus come forth there went a Power to raise him from the dead and then man believes And this is the fourth Consectary from this point Serm. 22 Use 5 Fifthly No man in the world left to the disposal of his own will or to the sufficiency of his own power will or can move himself out of his lost condition into an actual state of salvation In ordinary things it is a clear Maxim That it is more easie destruere than astruere to throw down or to destroy than to build up to fell a Tree down than to plant and make it grow But in spiritual things that observation begets a Problem and hard Question Whether it be more easie to pull man down to remove him from himself and his own righteousness for 't is the mighty work of God that must do it 2 Cor. 10. 4 5. The weapons of our warfare are mighty through God to pull down to level imaginations and high things than when he is down to plant him into Christ Jesus to make him to believe Whether of these is the hardest work He that shall answer this I think might say as the Philosopher The expelling of darkness out of the Air and the introduction of light be two termes yet but one motion the act is but one to these two so the bringing man down and raising of him up the turning man from darkness to light as it is expressed Acts 26. 18. Though there be but one motion one act of Grace yet there are two termes darkness and light and so the matter is equally difficult yet for Order sake we begin with that which was first in time with the cutting off the Graft from the wilde Tree before we set or plant it in And therefore I have spâ—nt some time First in shewing mans indisposition to receive Jesus Christ which appears from Joh. 5. 40. Ye will not and Secondly mans impotency and inability in the Text No mâ—â— can except my Father draw him that is If left to your own disposal you would not if to your own sufficiency you â—â—ould not come to me And this being a point serving to pull down man that we may not make man the worker the doer the mover of his own salvation that we may build mans will upon God and not go about to build Gods Will upon man as if God did wait to see how man would dispose of himself I shall therefore proceed in it as homogeneous and agreeable to the former Doctrine in the Text. And the Reason is clear that no man in the world can because there would be no active Conversion were there not first a passive Conversion no active Conversion whereby man turns to God except there were first a passive Conversion whereby God turns man to God no Conversion could be the act of man if not first Conversion be
the Scripture But yet we must come to some Original to some first mover that moves all the rest and is not it self moved by any whether we go forward or backward Whom he Elected them he called and whom he Called he Justified and whom he Justified them he Glorified and so from step to step but somewhere we must begin now go Retrogade in the same line Whom he Glorified he Justified and whom he Justified he Called whom he Called he Elected or Predestinated You must come at last to the first Original whereof there cannot be given any higher cause or reason so then the reason of the difference is not Orginally in Man himself somewhere we must begin from whence we cannot rise higher Now the free Grace of of God is the first round in the Ladder of our Salvation not any thing in Man or the will or work of Man Here are three things coucht under this head First There is a difference made between every Man that is saved and every man that is not for all that is saving is difference making whereby a man is taken out of the heap and common lump of mankind A vessel of honour is made indeed of the same lump but differs much from a vessel of dishonour there belongs a difference and a separation to every man that is saved a separation not such as they call local from the wicked of the world but moral whereby his spiritual Condition is separated from all the not saved Though all grace that is discriminant and differencing is not saying that I grant yet all that is saving is discriminant And therefore you that will prove your selves to be in state of salvation are bound to prove the difference that is between you and others that are not saved nor can be Secondly God is the maker of this saving difference between the saved and others In every step of your salvation there is some difference made in Election there are Elect and others Reus 11. 7. In calling there is an actual difference between the called and others c. That God is the maker is implied in the 1 Cor. 14. 7. Who makes thee to differ from another some body made thee to differ and therefore he that calls himself converts himself is like him that begets himself or raises himself from the dead It s a meâ—â—â— imaginary thing and if these two be true then Thirdly It will follow that the reason of this difference made by God is not originally in man himself the reason of comparative praeterition is not sin for then all might be rejected because all men are under sin The reason of Comparative election is not good works holiness or worthiness of man for by that reason he should alwayes take the best of men and leave the worst but we find the contrary that God hath taken the worst Publicans and harlots go into Heaven before you and therefore there is a famous place Rom. 9. 11. That the purpose of God might stand it is not made good by the works of man himself not of works but of him that calleth is the purpose of God according to election made good They consult the Glory of Grace but ill that pitch the reason of Gods electing or calling upon some Paritie or Probitie or fit temper of man himself so our men lisp now adayes towards a quarter-Pelagianisme for I will not say it is semi-Pelagianisme they say God calls man and indues him with saving Grace for that littleness or probitie in man But is this littleness or honesty they talk of of God or man is it a work of nature or Grace if it be a work of Grace it is of God and is no otherwise a reason of Conversion then as one step may be in order to another grace in order to grace All this while there is no offence But if it be a moral temper and of man himself then it is so much worse they make God to build on man and to take a moral humane Foundation to a supernatural gracious Act to build supernatural grace upon the ground of common probity and honesty this doth disparage the Grace of God for as God in Creating of the world did not work 〈◊〉 matter praeexistent so we say it is in the Act of Grace 't is the Creation of a new Creature which brings him out of nothing and not works him out of any praeexistent matter It is true I confess that the best disposition that can be in man to come to the Lord Jesus and believe in him is that which is called an Infant-like temper of meekness and softness and tenderness for our Saviour gives that rule Except a man be like a little Child he cannot enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Peradventure he doth not mean the Glory of everlasting Life but the Church state he cannot be a true Member of the Visible Church unless he be made tractable teachable meek and soft But this is not a meer Moral or Natural temper as if Nature should lead on Grace but 't is a subaction a moulding the heart by Word and Spirit to a willingness to be brought to nothing for Christ for there is something in the work of mans Conversion that 's like a preparatory to the main work Point 21 Secondly If we be true advocates of grace we will disclaim all worthiness of man to be the first mover and all power of man as to be the first worker of Conversion God is both the first mover and the first worker in the Conversion and bringing man unto Salvation A man would think that a man may rather merit Heaven and Eternal Life by the acting of grace then he can merit grace by the acting of nature yet we say neither The one of them the Papists hold That there may be merit of eternal life by a mans own acting of Grace But workes of Grace died in the blood of Christ for that 's the best of their opinion But that a man-should merit Grace the first Grace by the works of Nature or by any good works done by Nature that 's a thing beyond the understanding and imagination both of us and them for Heaven as the reward of gracious works we have a promise if we walk with God in holiness but for the first grace as the reward of works of Nature we have no promise that for performance of what lies in us by the power of Nature God should give us grace therefore we are and that justly more offended at the Doctrine of merit of Grace then at the Doctrine of merit of salvation the reason is because Grace is more unproportionable to works of Nature then Heaven is to works of Grace and the Kingdome of Heaven more proportionable to works proceeding from grace then Grace it self is to those works that proceed from Nature and therefore it s too high to conceive of merit of Grace which is a merit of beginnings and first things and that 's not usual but
channel It was the saying of Austin long agoe De ipsis hominum voluntatibus facit quod vult God works upon the will of man what he will doth not the Workman that makes the watch know all the springs and can set the watch going and doth not God that made the heart know how to move and determine it to himself did not God make the day without the Sun at first and cannot he move nature by his omnipotency without ordinary course It s true I know men acute men of the Schools do hold it hard if not impossible to reconcile Gods working with mans freedome and think it not feasible but rather that the one crosses and thwarts the other but I say there is a harmony and sweet agreement between Gods drawing and mans coming when he will convert and bring in the Soul to close with Jesus Christ as there is between a weight or plummet of a Clock that accelerates the motion and a natural propension towards the Center which both joyâ— and interâ—â—â—r noâ— so t is here the will of man moves freely and God by his drawing doth give to it a greater weight that accelerates the motion of the will and by how much the more the Lord drawes by so much the freer is the will made Oh! that men would consider this and if they do not understand this let them believe that God doth the I pray what may be the meaning of that place Phil. 2. 12. Work out your Salvation here is mans working for Gods works in you to Will and to Do a Text that plainly shewes that the work of God and the work of man may very well stand together and the truth is there are four things that I think according to the principles of learning of Scripture I am sure that may make Gods drawing man to Christ and mans free coming very reconcilable so as the more man is drawn the freer he shall be he shall come as the Text Nay he shall runne Cant. 1. 4. as the more weight the freelier moves the plummet downwards First I hold it to be a great truth that was espied by learned Naturalists Philosophers that that which is a mans chief good and so apprehended to be is pursued with infinite desire and the will is necessarily carried towards it there is no shiness no indifferency of a man to this for Appetit us summi boni 〈…〉 the desire of my Chief good is an infinite desire Why because the highest good must needs have the highest appetite there being nothing that may put measure or limitation to that desire and therefore in the desire thereof the heart is necessarily carried and not indifferently contingently remisly Secondly The chiefest good of man consists in this the having and enjoying of God foâ— this is the highest and most satisfactory good that fills the appetite whereby the heart of man can be taken up and that fully and there is but one medium to the attainment of this chiefest good there is but one line leads unto it and being so the chief good and the line are equally desired the meanes is knowing of Christ coming unto or coming in by Christ so that when the chief good is but one and the meanes but one to it there can be no dissent of mans heart to either of these when they are known and apprehended and that this is the chief good and the onely meanes to it you are taught in one text of Scripture as I conceive John 17. 3. This is life eternal that they know thee and him whom thou hast sent Jesuâ— Christ if the knowing of God life eternal be the 〈◊〉 bonum and knowing Christ the only means that leads to that end then without all question the will of man once apprehending this to be so is carried without indifferency necessarily in the pursuit of both Thirdly Now when enlightens convinces and convictively teaches the mind to know and see this chiefest good this God and to know the only mean to this happinesse the having of Christ Jesus then is the heart forcibly and freely drawn and cannot be other it cannot but pursue and follow after for the light of Gods teaching carries it and the bias of the will naturally followes the dictate of that light of God and so you have both in one Gods drawing and mans coming and the greater the drawing is the more light the mind hath the freer is the coming with greater propension and it is this teaching of God by which our Saviour explaines this word drawing in the next verse 45. It s written in the Prophets they shall be all taught of God every man that hath heard and learned of the Father comes to me So that hence I prove that the will naturally followes this voice of God and if this be Gods drawing Gods teaching what contradiction can there be between these two Gods drawing and Mans coming every one that is thus taught is a Comer a Believer in and a Closer with the Lord Jesus and doth as freely come as a man in the dark doth follow a Lanthorn or light set up Fourthly The great satisfaction which the heart of man finds in Christ Jesus thus taught and revealed to it in the light of the Spirit doth fully bind up and suspend the resistance or actual opposition of the heart at that time I confesse while corruption is in the heart of man there will be potentially some backwardness sluggishnesse and indisposition to walk with God as alwaies in the bottom of a vessel there will some dreggs remain but this the heart puts not out at the time of this satisfaction felt though at other times and in other matters it may like a bitter root vent out some gall that remaines yet when the Lord is working thus warmly and convictively upon the heart to turne it at that time this resistance is bound up and lies close and doth not break out but lies as if the hands were tied the resistance tamed and the opposition taken off as the exhalations drawn up by heavenly bodies do during the influence mount upwards on high and yet there is a power in the matter at some other time to move downwards again but that power is suspended for that time or as the fresh water-stream will runne amain being carried back with the tide And yet when 't is going back there is a propensness in it to run down the stream which to me seems lively to set out this point to you while the heart of man that is rebellious and reluctant hath this conviction on it and is taught to know God himself to be the chief good and Christ the only means leading thereunto For this time this resistance is bound up and opposition is not made though there be a power of resisting remaining that will sometimes put out it self though not now That 's the third Observation Observ 4 The fourth Observation is from these words Except my Father that hath sent me draw him
a man that is sweetly the drawing is not against the will because it makes the will willing it doth not move the wheel against the wheel or the natural motion of it but with it and then the heavier the plummet the faster the clock goes If the power of God go with the willâ— of man it moves more freely as the stream doth with the wind and tide then the more power God puts forth the more willing you come Thy people shall be willing shall be voluntiers in the day of thy Power Psal 110. 3. as if the power of God in that day wherein it s put forth should make a man a voluntier in coming to Christ Jesus It 's true God moves contrary to the natural stream as the tide carries up the River but when the Lord puts a new Principle a new bias into the bowl and that natural heart of sin is taken away then this coming though it be with drawing is so sweet that the soul prays Lord draw me and I will run Cant. 1. 3. Thirdly It is wondred at that God should command what he works or gives for if he mean to give it why doth he command and if he command how doth he give if it be a duty how is it Gods work and if it be Gods work how can it be my duty I Answer That God gives the grace he commands the duty bidden is also given and except it be given it is not the bidding will serve the turn 1 Joh. 3. 23. This is his command that we should believe in his Son So then our believing in Christ is a commandment of God And in Acts 17 30. God commands all men every where to repent Here you see that faith and repentance both of them are commanded of God and it s the command that makes them to be your duty Well yet for all this both these are given by God Phil. 1. 29. To you li's given to believe 2 Tim. 2. 25. If God peradventure shall give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth here you find that both are given Again Circumcisc your selves to the Lord and be no more stifnecked Jer. 44. Oh Lord may some say doth God put this impossible work upon me Ezek. 18. 31. Make you a new heart and a new spirit here these two are commanded Make you and Circumcise you and yet both these are promised and given Deut. 36. 6. I the Lord thy God will Circumcise thy heart and Ezek. 36. 26. I will make you a new heart and a new spirit Can any thing be plainer then this he commands and works that which he doth command he commands to convince us of our debt what is due and of our impotency that we cannot pay that we may fall down at the feet of this God and yet he gives too for the magnifying and honouring of his free grace to unworthy man and his power to impotent man that is unable and therefore we distinguish between Legal commands and Evangelical those of the law require the dutie but afford no strength but the Gospel which commands faith and repentance that are Gospel-graces carry the grace and power with them not unto all that shall oppose and shut the door but unto the Elect of God and the people of his inward Covenant So that for a man to say it 's a Gospel command is to say that 't is possible through grace that is there goes grace and power with it which the Lord will convey by the command for the commands of the Gospel are vehicula spiritus carriers and conveyers that carry along the Spirit with them John 6. 36. The words that I speak they are spirit and life being like the commands given to the dead Arise come forth It is a vain thing to speak commandingly to the dead true had they not ministred that which was commanded it had not prevailed and such are the Gospel-commands of repentance faith and making the new-new-heart or else how should the Gospel-word be called as it is the ministry of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3. 8. The ministery of the Spirit is Glorious So much for the removing of these â—ubs out of the way of Reason Serm. 28 Obj. We shall propound a question for the further handling of this point why should these Gospel-graces and especially faith that bring us to Christ require super-natural strength and drawing for their production And truly there lies some emphasis in this word Gospel-grace for may some say what do you mean by that I mean that grace which serves to the recovery of man to the Image of God which he had and hath lost for in this state of the Image of God which we had before we fell there was life but in this Gospel grace by that there is a resurrection unto that or a better life then we lost before for God intended to restore his Image unto man in Christ who is his Image and this Image is restored by the begetting of this Gospel grace that brings us to close with Christ so that this faith or coming to Christ is a grace of recovery or resurrection through and by which the Image we lost is again repaired now for these graces they do require a supernatural strength Answ It seems to me that a man that is able out of his own experience to make this objection is on the borders of believing for when as the difficulty of faith once appeares and man comes to be sensible and distrusts his own opposition then he begins to draw near or to be on the threshold of faith he that is at a losse is near his way the water being troubled there is no question but there is cure I but saith the cripple the Angel moves the water but I have no bodie to put me in so the promise invites the Word calls but I cannot close with Christ there held forth I am a cripple and no need but of a hand to help me and whereas in Isa 53. 1. there seems to be a double expression concerning this point of faith Lord who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed A man may say I heard the report and believe it to be true but the baring of the Lords arme must go to the making of man believe when we teach that men naturally cannot believe men wonder and say within themselves why should not I believe as well as another man I am as learned and knowing in the Scriptures and as pregnant as others and why should a man of a lesser measure and altitude of parts go before me in believing when we teach that men cannot keep the law of works there is never a one but will consent to it truly I cannot keep the Law I cannot love the Lord with all my heart and might and strength men yield they cannot but when we preach that faith is above your power you cannot believe and come to Christ though we report the report of Christ to you
the spice but draws forth that which is by beating and pounding it All excitations if they fall on a good and godly heart then indeed they breathe forth grace but if on a cranal and a corrupt will then these excitations are denied and gainsayed and contradicted that which plants the vital principle in the will that is it that doth it but whether the understanding that respects verum the truth of a thing or the will respecting Bonum the good ness of a thing for the will chuses that which is good be one faculty diversly related or no it doth not much matter to this purpose But this is the thing that I am upon that the will must be healed for it was corrupted and though some say the will of man did lose nothing by the fall nor gain nothing by Christ there was no sin nor grace seated in it but a meer indifferency and liberty that 's contrary to reason for the will of man being a principal faculty it is a lease of the new man as it was of the old and therefore must be not only put into motion by the understanding but restored to life by grace infused only this I say that as the seeing man goes foremost and leads the way to the blind man so the understanding goes before according to natural order and by and through it is the will changed and renewed as also the affections are It 's a point of great controversie though perhaps it is little seen to what it tends Rom. 12. 2. Be ye tranformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove or approve what is the good acceptable and well-pleasing will of God bâ—ye renewed in your mind that you may prove that is that you may accept the will of God that you may be pleased and make choice to obey it where it is plain that the action of the will followes the renewing and translation of the mind there must be a seeing of Christ and then a coming to him for in Joh. 6 40. this is the will of God that he that seeth the Sonne and believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life mark the order he doth not mean an ocular sensible seeing but he that by the understanding sees the beautie and necessity of Christ and then believes in him there is an act of the will that followes knowledg And this is the light of God that he sets up in dark minds that when the Lord finds you a foolish and ignorant people not able to discern the great things of God he lights a candle in your minds he teaches you by the teachings of God by such a powerful teaching as draws the heart after it that it delights and makes choice of the Lord Jesus above all things this is the light by which the will is led and converted that hath in it such convincing clearness and so full and powerful a dictate it gives forth hath some what in it that I confess I am not able to explain being a light shined into the heart by God that it carries all with it and the will cannot stay behind this convincing light this fixed dictate of the mind this light and teaching of God No more then I may instance in another thing whereof I can give no reason neither Elisha could stay behind when Eliah had cast his mantle on him 1 Kings 19. these workings of God in the hearts of men convincing by light that they cannot gainsay nor resist these are things that the world know not and man cannot explain till he have experience no more then a man that hath eyes can explain green red and yellow to a blind man the Apostle speaks peremptorily in this point 2 Co. 13 8. we can do nothing against the truth but for it so powerful and great a work is this of God when he will draw the heart unto him yea when the conversation is never so bad and contrary as sometimes you have seen a great aversation in the woman to have such an husband who is afterward pursued with as violent a desire that cannot be denied without hazard of her life so is it in closing with Christ though a man have as great a defiance against him as Paul had and there be an aversion to him and his rule yet after the Lord hath dealt with such a mans heart Oh! the violent affections the ravishments that are wrought in the heart of this man to Christ even such as if there had never been such aversernes before There are two things that render this teaching a drawing-teaching First That the mind be convictively taught that to be acquainted with God and in covenant with him to have God for ones portion and great reward is the chiefest good imaginable either in this or the next world that nothing in all the world is comparable unto it this which no wisdom of man could ever find out God himself teaches and Gods people acknowledg it many will say who will shew us any good when shall we be so happy as that we shall have no sorrow with it Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us Psal 4 6. And in Psal 73. 25. whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none an earth that I desire in comparison of thee A spark leaping from the bodie of the fire dies presently but lives in its element a twig cut off from the tree will be dead before tomorrow morning but sticking to the tree it flourishes Such is man separated from the favour and fruition of God as all men in the state of nature are dead and miserable but adhering to coming acquainted with God is happie for this is the property of the summum bonum that without the having of other goods it makes man happie that is the chief good that eminently contains all other goods in it other things that are good are not the chief good Why because the whole confluence of them if altogether would not make a man happy as a heavy body as high as the moon will not rest but move to its center and there it is quiet so let God be a mans portion though he hath no share in the world he is happy and at rest Now let God reach this convictively and he teaches drawingly Let this be the dictate of the understanding unvariable unshaken that this is your chief good and it drawes all the soul after it and not a hoof is behind Secondly that the mind also be convictively taught and inlightned what is the only means to attain this chief good that is God for a portion and exceeding great reward there is but one means one ladder of Jacob one way in the world to attain it and that is the knowledg of Christ for out of Christ God is as I may say an absolute God with whom I can have nothing to doe a consuming fire from whom man a sinner through guilt as Adam did at first will fly away if he
not possible that he should be holden of it Acts 2. 24. so shall the cords of thy spiritual death be loosed also if you belong to the election on of grace though you be as dead and inanimate as Christ himself was this will set you free knock off the fetters of bondage from you and all because there is a drawing of God whereby you shall be made able to come for all that the Father giveth me shall come to me Joh. 6. 37. and Christ professes that he hath the power given him that he should give eternal life to as many as God hath given him John 17. 2. And that this is no bolster for desperate security to flatter it self and hang all on that string If I shall be saved I shall appears by the certain means that are used whereby this end shall be effected whereby all that are within this chain shall come and believe Joh. 17. 6. I have manifested thy Name to them that thou gavest me so then say not You shall be saved you know not how for the Name of Christ shall be manifested to you and then he shews that the means used are effectual in and unto such ver 8. I have given them that thou gavest me thy word and they have received it and beleived in me that thou hast sent me them that thou hast given me shall live unto them I have manifested the means and to them they have been effectual these are the persons that are saved and called in time according to a purpose and grace given them in Christ before the world began 2 Tim. 1. 9. And therefore it is certainly effected Use 2 Secondly The people of God do receive grace from God even before they believe in Christ First in order to nature but I speak not of the minute of time What grace may some say before Faith what grace is that I Answer It is a grace to believe a grace drawing them and calling them unto Faith this is the first work this is the motion whereby Faith is begotten in the heart a motion which Faith doth not go before but follow Man doth not begin the work of his own grace for then he should be the first give but who hath given to him first saith the Text Rom. 11. 5. For as learned men observe Faith is given to unbelievers as 't is said God justifies the ungodly Rom 4. 5. true when he is justified he is ungodly therefore it 's said Ephes 2. 5. Even when we were dead in trespasses and sins he quickens us When we lay in our blood Ezek. 16. 6. he passed by and said Live When did he speak the word When we were unbelievers he drew us to come unto and believe in Christ as our Saviour saith When we were under the fig-tree as I may say he saw us So when you were far distant this eye and countenance of God was upon you for good and therefore as Austin saith The will of man doth forego many good works of man for God begins at the will but not all Why which is it that the will of man rectified doth not go before Not it self it doth not begin its own willing for that is first and that is made of God So I may say Faith goes not before all the workings of God because there is a drawing of God that works it as the putting of life into Lazarus was when he was dead in the grave so the first grace that 's given to man is while is in unbelief that grace is to be expected and lookt for with intention and bent of mind from this good and gracious God and therefore as it would have been a disparagement to the Miracle to have said that Lazarus stirred or breathed before Christ said Come forth so all they do extenuate and lessen the drawing and free grace of God that put something some seed of faith into man before God work first For man doth not first come to Christ and then God draw him that 's like the mothers jest with her child that 's down Come to me and I 'le help thee up for then it must up before so 't is as if we jested Rise stir move your selves then I 'le put life into you but God draws and then man comes as the Text saith But then there is a great question that hath not yet been handled for some may object Object There may be some reason given why God gives the second grace after the first as remission of sin to a believer but what is the ground or reason why God gives the first grace This is the great quaere the hard knot to answer to the satisfaction of men Answ I remember St. Austine saith Noli quaerere si non vis errare Do not search for the reason if you will not erre and be mistaken search not for the reason of this which hath no reason but the will and pleasure and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of God God made the Creatures of nothing he made the world so well you acknowledg it Doth God make temporal creatures the bodies of men of nothing And is not the new creature made of as little as the old is But to free you from all quarrels and self-reasoning in this point if you will have a reason I l'e give you an old one I 'le assure you that it is elder than your selves by some thousands of years It was saith the Text 2 Tim. 1. 9. his purpose and grace given you in Christ before the world began and therefore you are called and saved This shews that no man can begin the first grace he may pretend to come unto Christ Jesus himself but he must receive this drawing first that he may be saved there is no mark upon any man that lies in the state of spiritual death by which he can know himself to be one that shall receive the first grace but it 's reserved as a secret in the bosome of God but when the first grace is given and man is drawn to Christ then he may know that he shall be saved true there is means to be used but not a mark to be known by But shall I tell you the bottom of the point there may indeed be a ground for the first grace in that secret-covenant that is between God and Christ for doubtless such a one there is that all the members of Christ those whom God hath given him shall have this grace this new heart and spirit shall be all drawn and learn of God this in the general all that the father hath given to Christ shall come in if I be inclosed within that gracious covenant that God the Father made with the Son I shall certainly be drawn but for any marks of the first grace who these are and how to be known they have none until they be made the children of God for they are by nature children of wrath even as others the Lord only knowes who are his there are means
it himself and is pleased with that with which he was displeased before when the heart is thus overcome then it submits he stands faire in his own eyes no more his own face pleases him no longer he rebels no more but submits to the righteousness of God Ro. 10. 3. and so receives Christ as the greatest treasure in the world therefore free grace is a great obligation it binds strongly by the constraint of love Fourthly I close all with a motive to examination whether you be partakers of this drawing now before the Sacrament you are called the Lord invites you to his table he invites his friends his children these he calls by the word every ordinance breathes unto you little else but Christ Jesus for all sanctifying strengthning and corroborating grace from whence come they surely in Hosea 14 8. from me is thy fruit found all your strength arises from the greater and further reception of Christ Jesus therefore examine whether this work of God hath been on you to draw you to Christ Jesus faith is not a vulgar grace it is not an easie thing it comes from divine omnipotency and power as we say of the resurrection whereby a dead man rises from the grave it is a work of the power of God and therefore Christ confuting the Sadduces that denied it said you erre not knowing the Scriptures and the power of God I am saith Christ the resurrection and the life No man is alive till he take hold of and believe in the Lord Jesus now can a dead man be raised from the dead and not be sensible do you think faith is not a sensible work yes as 't is a powerful work so 't is sensible to man yet I confess men may be deceived as women are by false tumors and swellings so there are many delusions whereby a man may take himself to be in a state of grace when he is not because there is a false faith as well as a true it is the point of examination pressed by St Paul in 2 Cor. 13. 5. because of such moment examine your selves whether you be in the faith whether Christ be in you many think of a Christ without them you are all glad to know that Christ gave himself for you that he gave himself to be the blood of atonement but is he yours by the blood of sprinkling the Scripture puts this to the trial by words that intimate Christ within men Galath 4. 19. my little children of whom I travel in pain till Christ be formed in you and Ephes 3. 17. Christ dwels in our hearts by faith Gal. 2. 20 Christ liveth in me these phrases do difference the Jew outwardly from the Jew inwardly and teach in like proportion that he is not a Jew that hath the outward character and not the circumcision of the Spirit Ro 2 28. and let that obligation sit on you in the 2 Tim. 2. 19. Let every one that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity for else it s not the sacraments will serve turne in 1 Cor. 10. 4 5. they eat of the same spiritual meat with us But God was not well pleased with them they were wicked and therefore examine your selves what work of God you have found upon your hearts whether you are renewed by the Holy-Ghost in Tit. 3. 5. God is said to save man by the washing of regeneration v. 6. that being justified by his grace you might be made heirs of eternal life To move you consider Motive 2 First The graces that have connexion with or do accompany salvation are inward things there is an inward seal a white stone with a name in it known to them that have it Sacraments seal the outward part the conditional compact that whosoever believes shall not perish but it is the Spirit that witnesses to ours that we are sons of God Motive 2 Secondly That unto and by those inward graces God drawes his people thus he undertakes to create a new heart to put his law into their mind this is that which is called the teaching of God Gods drawing so that its the inward work that gives thee comfort of this business But Object Doth not the manducation of Christs body and blood in the Sacrament tend unto this inward and spiritual inhabitation of Christ in us Answer Yes And so did the outward ordinances of the Jewes they tended to spiritual things there circumcision signified an inward circumcision as our baptisme an inward washing and our eating and drinking sets forth our communion of his body and blood our union and communion which are spiritual are here exhibited unto us as meat and drink of life as John 6. 37. He that eats me shall live by me this in this chapter so much spoken of is not sacramental but it is spiritual eating for it was spoken before the institution of the supper but it speaks of the kernel of it the eating of Christ his body by faith And so much for this text THE DIFFERENCE Between a True Inward Christian And the Outward Formalist DISCOVERED In three Sermons on Rom. 2. 28 29. By M r RICHARD VINES Late Preacher of Gods Word at S t Laurence Jury LONDON LONDON Printed for Abel Roper 1662. THE DIFFERENCE Between a True Inward Christian And the Outward Formalist Rom. 2. 28 29. For he is not a Jew that is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision which is outward in the flesh But he is a Jew that is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter whose praise is not of men but of God THe Apostle before he makes entrance upon the Doctrine of Justification which is one of the Cardinal Points of the Christian Religion doth convince and conclude that both Jews and Gentiles and so consequently all mankind are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under sin Rom. 3. 9. draws up the conclusion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have shewn cause before or charged all men to be under sin teaching all Masters of conviction the necessity of that method to cut off the branch which is to be ingraffed from the tree where it had its first birth before it can be fit for coalition with a new stock and for participation of the root and fatness of the Olive Tree first make a man a sinner my meaning is make him miserable and when the strugling fish that is stricken with the hook is tired or choaked you may more easily draw him to the shore The great Rule to be observed in the conviction of gainsayers is to disarm them of their Armour those inward reasonings and strong holds wherein they trust then it is an eaâ—ier thing to bring them in when that wherein they trusted is 〈◊〉 down about their ears Think not saith S. John to say within your selves We have Abraham to our Father think it not speaking to the inward reasonings of the Jews at that 〈◊〉 The Apostle imitating this course â—oth as concerning the heathen
Christian outwardly and inwardly may be so but then we must come to a closer distinction of these that are all within the Gospel field or pale and that close distinction is given in this text between Christians that are so outwardly or also inwardly for want of distinguishing doctrine to take the precious from the vile and to shew you who are Israel and who only of Israel it comes to passe many times that the bone is given to the child and the bread to the dog the souls are slain that should not dy and saved alive that should not live Ezck. 13. 19. So necessary is it to distinguish and to use distinguishing doctrine and there is a great want of such hearers as are willing to be distinguished that had rather ask what marks do ye tell me of my self then what notions do ye shew me of your own that do not measure their membership with Christ and their standing in the Church equally with one measure if they do they may be deceived because one may be in the one and out of the other therefore I shall ever blame my self and others also in my place that shall be more sollicitous that the hearers should know us then that they should know themselves this there is a great necessity of shewing who you are or that you are not what you seem to be for he is not a Jew c. Observ 2 Secondly The Argument whereby the Apostle convinces a Jew a professed member of the Church to be nothing that is as to his own benefit or Gods acceptation is his outwardness and formality in Religion and the formality that abounds in our Churches and the outwardness in Religion goes farre to prove that we are Christians and no Christians For God in all times when Religion appeared most outwardly carried on did both aim at and expect an inwardness and cal holiness in his people The Jew layes his claim and pretends to be some-body vers 17. of this Chapter Behold saith the Apostle thou art called a Jew and restest in the Law and makest thy boast of God and knowest his willâ— c. But thou art nobody if there be no inward work upon and within thee nor is thy circumcision worth any thing It is acknowledged their very ordinances were shadowish and consisted of outwardness more than the Gospel called the simplicity of Christ 2 Cor. 11. 3. but yet so far as I conceivé there was a kernel in the shâ—ll and a spiritual glory under the vail of Moses but they having a double vail between their eye and the inwards of things represented in their ordinances 〈◊〉 a real obscuritie in the ordinances themselves that was the vail on Moses fact and the other vail on their hearts were content such was their childishness and servility of spirit 〈…〉 to lick the outside of the Glass into which they could not put in their head I will not enumerate many particulars some I shall instance in they drank of a rock that followed them and eat of 〈◊〉 that fell down upon them and were healed by a serpent on a pole of fiery â—â—ing but they saw not Christ where indeed he was For Christ was represented and held forth in all these and yet they did not see him their circumcision they magnified as an honourable 〈◊〉 of separation from other nations their passeover as to the institution was an excellent ordinance concerning which when their children demanded the meaning was but a memorial of Egypts slavery they lookt no further then the respect it had to that but concerning Christ the lamb of God not any thing their sacrifices and purifyings were built upon as very expiations and lustrations of sin or uncleanness a strange blindness and what either did the heathens less or more expect of theirs the law given them for a Schoolmaster unto Christ what did it teach them but works of their own righteousness as the Apostle calls them which unto this day they hold unto still as a School-master of works against Christ and though they found out a Messiah for their glory yet they looked not for such an one as should be God-man a mediator to expiate their sins and redeem their souls and therefore when he came which they deny he was as great a stranger to them they as great enemies to him as those that had had no Schoolmaster to commend him unto them and if any man will farther see their perverse interpretations adulterations and prevarications of their own scriptures wrying their necks about that they should not so much as look a squint towards Christ whom we acknowledg let him read one of their great and most esteemed Maimonides of whom they say that from Moses the great Lawgiver to this Moses there arose none like unto him c. so much of their outwardness And now let me speak to the Analogie I may say as the Apostle what then are we better then they we the outward Christians that profess the Christian Religion though that be meant of Gentiles and may we not make the same answer no in no wise Rom. 3. 9. I may not speak in disparagement of the Jewish ordinances though I know out of Christ the Apostle calls them weak and beggarly elements I know whose stamp they bear though that excellent Historian be no fit Judg in this matter that saith that Pompey when he went to view the Temple at Jerusalum to see what was the so magnified rites found nothing but vacuum sâ—dâ—m inania sacra an emptie chair and some kind of emptie rites nor will I enter the comparison between Gospel-ordinances and theirs the Apostle hath given judgment already in it in 2 Cor. 3. 10. that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect nor will I deny but that the Jewes were nationally a holy people I take it to be a holy nation not here and there one holy man In Deut. 7. 6. For thou art a holy people the Lord hath chosen thee to be a special people to himself above all that are on the face of the earth And this was a holiness of separation by Covenant and truely what is this Wood may be called holy stones holy and metal holy when they are separate to the use of Religion and the service of God But I may compare the Jew outwardly with the Christian outwardly and with great reason lay the charge at his door that is but outward under such spiritual ordinances as he had not the worst is we are content to be outward and careless of the inward work Where is that inward holiness of heart and the saying knowledg of Christ Jesus Is it not envied in them that have it yea are we not more envenomed since these unhappy times wherein we live against the power of inward godliness then before and yet there was a sufficient enmitie cutting out Religion so as may serve parties and interests for whereas there are strifes and envyings and divisions among
you are ye not carnal and walk as men 1 Cor. 3. 3 The preacher shreds colloquint into the pot the hearer like the wanton fish in summer catches at the silken fly that hath a hook in it Oh that the very reading of this Text would startle you to go home and lament over your selves and with earnest prayer to call upon God Lord make me to know wisdome in the hidden part give me the leavings of the outward Jew the circumcision of the heart in the spirit whose praise is not of man but God Observ 3 Thirdly a Jew or Christian be they what they will be meerly conversant in the outwards of Religion is not that indeed which he takes himself to be and desires to be called Thou art called a Jew vers 17. And thy Circumcision profits if thou keep the law vers 24. else thou art no Jew and thy circumcision is made uncircumcision there are disciples and disciples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indeed John 8. 31. there is the distinction as there was a severance of Jew from Gentil and also of the Jew inwardly from the outward so there is of Christians from heathens and also of Christians in power from Christians in the form of godliness for the Kingdome of God consisteth not in meats and drinks but in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy-Ghost Religion is an inward thing of the heart in the spirit the principles the motives that carry it on the manner of performance the graces the comforts the sâ—alings the experiences the communion are inward things there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the hidden man of the heart which makes a Christian inwardly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle calls it in 1 Pet. 3. 4. It is in the hidden man that grace begins It s spoken of women there that are most affected with the outward dress the life of your bodies doth not begin in the legs but in some of the vitals the heart the liver the brain and as it begins there so it rules and governs there that motion is but violent that comes from a forraign motive all duties of worship and obedience that are outward if they be not actuated by some inward grace are not profitable to you not pleasing to God It s true there is a confession that is made with the mouth unto salvation as well as faith in the heart unto righteousness that text I believe teaches this point that there is more goes to salvation then to justification but we are comparing the outward and inward Christian the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is seen what it is in that forementioned place that that is of great worth and much set by it lies under the bark it s the framing and moulding of the heart to softness and a planting the Lord Jesus in you This is that which makes you to be Christians Christians indeed From all this that hath been said what followes now if we will make use of it Use 1 First I say hence Can our outward Christian give any good account of any momentous difference between himself and the Jew outwardly I confess comparing the priviledges of the Jew with the Samaritan our Saviour asserts the preheminence of the Jew salvation faith he is of the Jewes and so I might speak and follow it profitably that such is our profession above the Papist But I am speaking now of the Jew outward and inward the Jew reckoned himself a Jew by his descent from Abraham and by his profession of that religion establisht by Moses whereof he had not the power and pray what do you Christians reckon yourselves by what is your faith that you pretend to have to Christ but a kind of traditional storie from our Ancestors or taken up from common report milkt into you when you suckt the breasts by custome and education without any work of the Gospel on your hearts Can you say that the Gospel-ministry hath wrought faith in me I will not tie things strictly though this be common and ordinary there being not one of a hundred sometimes that can say now I believe in Christ not because I have learnâ— it by custom and common report but because the Gospel hath been to me and in me the power of God unto salvation it 's a rare thing The Faith you have how ever you come by it look you to that is that kind of easie and dogmatical saith of assent to the truth of the Scriptures We know God spake by Moses but neither receives Christ as Saviour Lord and Sovereign nor brings forth any fruit to holiness nor works by love Did not the Jew honour the great Names of Abraham and Moses but were neither true Disciples of the one nor Children of the other And do not we denominate our selves by the Name of Christ without any membership with him or real union Did not the Jew observe the Laws of his Religion with mighty zeal and strictness as ever Nation did but neither sought nor felt any inward virtue therein resting in the work done and with great confidence promising to himself salvation And are you so zealous and strict in the outwards of your Religion as the Jew was oh no of a more loose and luke-warm temper in this point than â—e Yet do not you rest in the work done and promise your selves to be saved with as much confidence as the Jew I speak by way of comparison If we be never so sollicitous to bring our children to be baptized and we must have it so it s a badg of our Religion but are we any thing sollicitous to plant grace in their hearts when they are come to years of discretion to plant the work of Regeneration as well as give them the outward mark Examine your conscience thorowly and see whether or no you go beyond the Jew outwardly And to the Sacrament you will come and pretend zeal in it but do you any thing but observe a fair decorum for that day or time but where is the inward reason of that Ordinance where is the Lord Jesus received and sealed to your comfort No you rest in the work done and promise your selves salvation thereupon with such a confidence as will deceive you be sure of it Did he abhor Idols yet commit sacriledge And thou saith the Apostle that abhorrost Idols dost thou not commit sacriledge that is one of the main points that he insists upon with his outward Jew What are we better that cast off Popery and starve the Gospel Ministry eye to eye cannot be more like than you would find if you trace your selves Had he a form of knowledg and truth so as to be a teacher of others and a Preacher of the truth and yet took his own liberty of the sins he taught against and so caused the name of God to be blasphemed amongst the Gentiles as the Apostle saith to the Jew And is â—ot the Name of God blasphemed by prophane people through our outwardness are
not we lovers of our selves covetous proud boasters c. having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof 2 Tim. 3. 2. c. I might go on and rather make a parallel than a difference between these two and therefore as the Apostle concludes this Jew to be no Jew so we may of this Christian and if those that preach the Gospel will do any good among a formal people they must take their Christianity from them you have a ground for it the Apostle took away Judaism from the Jews you must tell them that 't is not Christianity will profit and bring them to heaven if they be saved they must be convinc'd of this and then that Rule will follow He that thinks himself somewhâ—t when he is nothing deceives himself Gal. 6. 3. and many thousands are so deceived amongst you Use 2 Secondly If this be true Doctrine then rest not till you find in your selves some proof of an inward work some brokenness and softness of heart the heart of stone taken away some newness of spirit something of Christ Jesus Had the Jew found out the entrails of his Religion he had found Christ there over and over but he dreamed of a National salvation as I may almost say by virtue of a Covenant that had Inwards in it but he saw little Let me say to you You have spiritual Ordinances look for Christ in them he is the kernel of all Ordinances Go to God and pray Lord it is thy Covenant-promise to put thy Law into the Inwards of thy people Jer. 31. 33. and that there called Inwards the Apostle calls the writing of the Law in the heart and mind Heb. 8. 10. There are some that are otherways great men that when they come to die whither do they fly Bear me witness I die in the Protestant Faith I die in the Faith and Confession of the Church of England which I have pitied them in for that shews the rightness of the Faith which they profess but not the savingness of their Faith and profession as to them except they look as the Jews did for a National salvation because they are all of the true profession Others there are that when they have incorporated themselves into such a Body whereof the Characteristical mark is a separate opinion from other men then they think they are come into a state of salvation that they have been in Egypt all this while now they are come to Canaan Alas poor souls you will find something else wanting as the Apostle saith Others there are that depend much upon a holiness of their own making Pharisaically Papistically I never like this frame let the holiness that God hath appointed stand and let us stand to that and when all is said that I can say unto you here must be the great work to find an inward work of holiness in your souls though the Ordinances or form be of God as the Jews were much more when the holiness is of your stamping and therefore look for this inward work that ye be not only the Epistle of Christ written with ink in Letter but in the Spirit of the living God 2 Cor. 3. 2. There are two places that I will give you to set home this Exhortation from the most glorious Church that we read of in all the New Testament of highest elevation for variety of spiritual giâ—ts and abilities and they had greatest blots too which was the Church of Corinth to them the Apostle gives this Item in 1 Cor. 10. 5. Brethren I would not have you ignorant that our Fathers speaking in an Ecclesiastical sence did all eat of the same spiritual meat honoured with Sacraments extraordinary the Rock the Manna and both were Christ Yet with many of them God was not wel pleased and he gives the reason of it for they were tempters of Christ they had such sins upon them which you may charge upon your selves mutatis mutandis and yet this Church though they were so high he humbles them with such an exhortation as might shame them that is to a strange thing Examine whether ye be in the Faith and had Christ within them 2 Cor. 13. 5. We are I know not how many forms above that question and yet be sure though profession be never so high that 's the main thing to be inquired for Iâ— Christ in you you can talk of Christ without you but as gallant as you are you must prove your selves if Christ be in you and know that he is in you except you be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reprobates you are saved by a Christ in you The third Use of this Point is for reproof and I will willingly though I do it sorrowfully put my self into the number of the reproved Let every man therefore reprove himself for the exceeding great outwardness in Religion that abounds amongst us there is fire wanting in us time was and it was indeed the worst of times when Christians the professors of Christian Religion in England were practical and exceedingly addicted to practical holiness keeping a sweet inward communion with God and among themselves their conferences were savoury and their inward experiences communicated were excellent edifying and building up and Christ was 〈◊〉 set out to sale in all markets he was the penniworth held out in all Christian meetings but in these daies I may not wish for persecution I may say that the stomach they say makes better digestion in cold than in hot weather so when times are troublesome and unsafe the heat goes inward to make good digestion now there is necessity to call men to inwardness this and that opinion this and that conceit such a controversie blowing of a feather up and down between man and man matters of no concernment as he said and he was a very observing man do so take us up that the tree of knowledg is in greater request then the tree of life exceptis paucissimis omnis câ—tus Christianorum sentina vitiorum We may see our outwardness easilie and for it tax our selves our sabbath discourses what are they but tales or news We preachers preach our parts and you pray your gifts Nay St James saith sometimes you pray your lusts we studie our religion that we may conform to rising times parties customes we set our dials by the countenances of mortal men and which way that looks we set our profession our worship is but a carcass because we are but carkasses in it not answerable to that God who is a spirit whom we should serve in spirit and truth we conferre our notions or some lighter ware when we meet together we are seldome or rare in the duties of self-examination run over the daily circuit of our devotion that we have chosen to perform in our families as a post-horse runs his stage our fastings are but disguised self-seeking and our Religion it self a kind of Policie What need I go on to instance in those things that you take to
be so odious by these few we may be convinced of our outwardness Observ 4 The fourth point that I observe is That in all times even those wherein religion appeared most outwardly carried on God did both aim at and expect an inwardness and real holiness in his people And comparatively did set the price and the praise upon the inward work the hidden man was alwaies in Gods accompt the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thing of great price 1 Pet. 3. 4. For as the Apostle distinguishes between such trivial questions that bred quarrels between Christians in his time and such things as the Kingdom of God consisted in Rom. 14. 17. For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy-Ghost For he that in these things serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men So the same Apostle speaking of the outward ordinances appointed unto and observed by the Jew as Circumcision which was their principal glory the seal of their Covenant standing the initial solemnity the bond of their obedience to the whole Law doth yet tell them that the inward circumcision the purity of the heart the inward work of the spirit upon their spirit was as to their salvation and as to acceptance and praise with God farre above that which had such esteem with men for though I know that Religion hath an outward part and an inward an outward part of positive worship as the Religion of the Jewes had and ours hath and an outward part of moral and practical holiness and righteousness James 1. 27. Pure Religion and undefiled is to visit the fatherless and widow in their affliction c. as both theirs and ours and though God require our bodies which are our outward part to be a living sacrifice presented to him Rom. 12. 1. yet are the Intrails and the Fat the inwards of Religion that without which all the rest is but a carkass of principal esteem with God the soul denominates and gives being to man yet his bodie is an essential part but the body without the soul is both lifeless and by reason of the retinue of death loathsome so it is the regenerating and renewing graces that give to us the life and beautie of a Christian yet so as outward duties of worship and of moral life are parts of Religion also but without an inwardness of spirit and a hidden man to accompany it they are all dead works and have no beauty in them This then is that I say that Religion is an inward thing Godliness heals our outward wayes by putting a bia◠within the bowl and the change is from within it give◠new principles new motives new manner of performance of duties the graces the comforts the sealings the experiences the communion with God and Christ are all inward things We judge of life by outward manifestations breathing moving but the seat of life is within This point is attested to by the testimony of three worlds the heathen world the Jewish and the Christian world The Heathens have seen and born witness that inward puritie is the cream and fat of all that they call the worship of God the rule of Scholars is that man is more corrupt in his morals than his intellectuals for to the lower part of the soul where the affections are the dregs do most settle they the heathens have a Theologie and a form of worship of their gods full of folly and vanitie but the wisest and soberest of them have confest that if God be a spirit he must be worshipped by a pure spirit si sit animus then puramente colendus so Persius who as the Apostle saies was one of the Heathen prophets Give me saith he Compositum jus jusque animi a due composure and honesty of mind and for my outward sacrifice farre litabe I le perform that with a few grains of Barly or meal and you may understand by Cicero 2. De natura deorum and by Seneca as Lactanctius cites him what uncontrollable conviction this hath even with natural men that honesty of mind and moral life is more pleasing to God then Hecatombs Then for the Jew it is very apparent how the Prophets call for holy life and for Circumcision of the heart Jer. 4. 4. and how they comparatively undervalue the outward forms in respect thereof Isaiah 66. 3. To him will I look that is of a contrite heart but otherwise the killing of an Oxe is as the slaying of a man and the offering of a lamb as he that cuts off a dogs neck Mic. 6. 7 8. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams c. He hath shewed thee O man what is good to love mercy to do justice and walk humbly with thy God And these outward ordinances of worship were never intended to continue for ever as you interpret the word ever for your ever hath sometimes an indefinite time therefore called ever as the Exod. 21. 6. and Deut. 15. thy servant for ever viz. till the Jubile but all your typical ordinances had their date and period God intended to shake them down that remaining things the everlasting Gospel might take place which cannot be shaken nor are to be removed Heb. 12. 27. It s said Heb. 9. 9. those outward and carnal ordinances were imposed till the time of reformation or correction and so long they had an excellent end and use but even then the circumcision of the flesh was but as Philo saith a symbol of circumcision of spirit and as the Apostle saith of your manna and rock it was but Christ and so of your outward worship the shell is valued for the kernel the bone for the marrow while the kernel and marrow is in them and now these typical symbols though they be mortua mortifera as to their use dead and deadly yet they are the word of God and may and do teach very much Gospel as the anatomie of a dead man teaches how the parts lie in a living man yet they continue not of further use to you and it may easily appear that God did intend to draw off this outwardness of worship by his taking off as you account fine things in the second temple which were found in the first and the Scripture promising a greater glory in the second temple than of the first cannot be understood otherwaies then that the outward glory was exchanged and recompenced by spiritual glory through Christ Hag 2. 9. consequently that the carnal outward should passe into spiritual glory which was both manifest when both the temple the seat of this outward service was demolished and the law the dignity of your nation led and shewn in triumph by the Roman Conqueror As for the attestation of the Gospel Christian that God aimes at inwardness and spiritualness especially I should but make expence of time and your patience to prove it for it is the whole scope and drift of the Gospel and that covenant
the ingredients that make up this inward man â— all his graces are but extracts out of Christ It is the knowledge of Jesus Christ that alters the properties of moral virtues and turns them into Evangelical graces fruits of the Spirit as the reasonable soul makes the sensitive operations which otherwayes are in bruits to be the act of a man I know a Christian may have more roughness of nature and more sturdiness of passions then is in many a moral man he that hath more Christianity may have less morality as there is more perfection of animal and sensitive faculties in some bruits then in some men I had rather fight against sin by a little of Christ in me then beat lusts and passions quite out of the field by the strength meerly of moral virtue because fighting against passions by the faith and love of Christ argues a Gospel inward life which is better then a freedom from vice by a company of dead virtues Thirdly This inward man is distinguished from all those common gifts and workings which may be in an outward Christian for there may be a large knowledge a kind of dogmatical faith a mercenary love of God a worldly sorrow for sin a desire of salvation and grace as a bridge to heaven but there is great difference between gifts and grace there is no grace but hath a counterfeit that goes under that same name and that is it which deceives men for likeness is the mother of error and it 's that makes examination so hard knowledge faith love repentance are to be distinguished for there are that bear the name of these but are not therefore this light oare is to be distinguished from true metal the Spirit works many things in those whom it unites not to the head and many have large gifts by dispensation from Christ that have no grace by virtue of their union with him as heat from the body into the clothes one weares but they do not argue union with the head Now there is a peculiar knowledg of God which is by his teaching which a man may rather feel than discribe there is a love of Christ himself not only of his benefits there is a repentance that rises out of love and not out of slavish fear and there are desires of grace for service and not only for a bridg to heaven this is the mark of true grace as distinguished from common it casts out self-love and as it comes from union so it drawes the soul into union and acquaintance with Christ himself the most intimate corruptions of men are pâ—ide and self which are not mortified by outward and common graces nor doth common grace draw into union with Christ but is wholly upon benefits and reward to seek God for God or love Christ for himself is above the power of all common shining glorious parts or 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 proper and peculiar to this inward man Fourthly A Christian inwardly is distinguished from the outwardly formed who in the form of Godliness is as well drest as the true Christian frequents ordinances complies in ritual and formal duties hath greater parts and abilities than this Christian inwardly we speak of but yet the inner Christian differs from the outward 1. In the principle that carries him which is regenerating grace a well of waâ—er that springs up in him to everlasting life 2. In the motive that impels and constrains him the love of Christ the sweet peculiar relishes of that love 3. In the manner which is with delight in God in his law and the commandments are not grievous 4. In the ends he aimes at which are not the base respects of self-love but the walking with God in communion and the enjoyment of God his God but as for the Christian outwardly he hath no principle no root in himself Matth. 13. 21. his motives are forrain springs and plummets as your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his manner of performance is but artificial and unsavoury his ends are like Jehu's that is his own and so his faith that he brags of is but want of temptation his assurance is but confidence in the flesh his quietness is but want of examination of his bottom his joy is the blaze of thorns his desiâ—es are but the eructations of self-love I have thus shewn you him that is a Christian inwardly and now for the use Use 1 First I would speak to the Jew but I can find neither Jew outwardly nor Jew inwardly as the text describes both for the Jew outwardly is not found because his outward ordinances which denominated him so are dead and gone the fall of the temple to which most of them was affixed broke most of them down and crusht them to death irrecoverably Those that now they hold as Circumcision sabbath difference of meats rules of marriage c. They are the ruines of the ruines of their state and though they were the ordinances of God are now become their own superstitions of no more use then heathen Ceremonies and observations unless to teach them that whiles they hold them Christ shall profit them nothing And for the Jew inwardly he is not nor can be for their Ordinances as now cannot work or convey renewing grace no more than heathen Rites Indeed salvation was of the Jews as Christ saith and there was a spirit sparingly conferred on some but now to expect any Regeneration any kernel in the husks now left any new creature should be in them that receive not but call Christ Anathema or consequently should have the spirit or any saving grace is as much as to say that a statue of stone may beget a living man And therefore that Doctrine of the Rabbins That one calls Pestilent whosoever professes Judaism howsoever he live shall have part in the world to come which Justin Martyr thus expresses that all Abrahams seed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Use 2 Christians be not you deceived with outwards and externals I mean deceived in your selves gross sins may be lest ways reformed Ordinances partaken in duties done and yet this inward work be wanting the heart enlightned broken quickned the will and affections sanctified are the things that must be sought after When a man white-washes or paints an old house it 's a sign he means not to pull it down You can conform to times and customs of Religion and begin to varnish over a rotten heart but that is a sign you mean not to pull all down and build new Is it some ends that you have set up that makes you cry up Religion This is but outward vvork this makes you but a Jew outwardly this is but to thaw on the sunnie side of the house and to freeze on the other Learn vvhat the inward part of godliness is A soul taken vvith Christ himself savouring the thingâ— of the Spirit his graces his vvays enquire after inward experiences and vvhat difference there is between the Word preached and the Word engroâ—â—ed between Baptism of
vvashing and that which is cleansing within for the Ordinances are but as a mould that casts a man into the very shape of themselves and forms an impression spiritual like themselves Use 3 Have you this inward man are you Christians inwardly Shew not your Opinions and Notions and Forms Have you the inward work Is the work of Regeneration passed upon you are you drawn into union and acquaintance with Christ have you felt any moulding and fashioning of your hearts into the Image of Christ Be not deceived in names equivocal there is a knowledge a faith a repentance a form of Religion that belongs to the Jew outwardly and there are such graces as are in the Christian inwardly and none else they have their proper marks as I have shewn you There is a world of Forms now reigning Religion runs out into leaves and notions I would have no man to flatter himself that though he make no shew yet he hath it within no no maâ—e me believe a dead man lives and then I will believe that there can be Grace without a change of the whole man inward and outward I am sad to see Religion cut in pieces and Christs Garment not only divided but his bones broken Haeresies Blasphemies playing at Tennis with Religion bandying this way and that way one Opinion unchurching another and all in confusion women Prophetesses and what not I cannot but wonder there is no hedg God stir up some Phineases to be zealons for God and his Church and truth before not only Government but Doctrine too and truth of Religion be disputed and baffled out of doors For your parts I cannot exhort you better than to mind the inwards of Religion self-denyal faith love of God and to be built up in them hold the vitals hold the head and though all the world reel into pieces you have that will save your own souls Use 4 Comfort to him that is a Jew inwardly his are the Promises they are made to the Christian inwardly many may excel you in parts and yet have no inward man in them they are nothing he is the Jew that is one inwardly when all is done thou art the Christian in whom Christ dwells by faith governs by love and builds by comforts and hopes that will never fade as David sweetly Psal 51. 6. Thâ—u desirest truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part thou hast made me to know wisdom You that have this inward man adorn that 1 Pct. 3. 3â—4 Let it not be the adorning and plaiting of the hair but let it be the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible in a meek and quiet spirit that 's of price with God this is the Gentlewomans Looking-glass Again When men judge you this will comfort you in 1 Gor. 4. 5. The Lord will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and then every man shall have praise of God When afflictions break the outward man 2 Cor. 4. 16. the inward man shall be renewed When endeavours fail and performances of duty prove uncomfortable yet this will comfort Rom. 7. 22. I delight in the Law of God according to the inner man He that hath an inward man hath work hath comfort work to take him up if he follow it that he shall not attend to wild fancies and conceits and comfort to refresh him in all times and conditions and the least is not that His praise is of God FINIS Hildersham Perkins Origen Hammond John 6. 28. Mark 10. 17. 1 Cor. 1. 30. Phil. 3. 8. 1. Cor. 3. 19. Mat. 19. 26. Exod. 10. 26. Mat. 19. 24. Mat. 11. 6. Marke 6. 3. Luke 7. 23. c. 2 Cor. 4. 17. Isa 30. 22. 2 Cor. 13. 8â— Mat. 13. 11. John 3. 19 1 Pet. 2. 2. Math. 21. 19. Psal 69. 13. 2 Cor. 6. 2. Mat. 23. 38. Gen. 6. â— Gen. 19. 33. 2 King 33. 3. Josh 24. 1â— Mark 16. 1â— Eph. 2. 10. Mat. 25. 8. Mat. 13. 6 7. Ezek. 20. 37. Matth. 3. 8. Luther Ephes 2. 5. Ephes 2. 1. Ephes 2. 10. Exod. 12. 23. John 8. 36. 2 Fet. 3. 5. 2 Cor. 10. Phil. 3. 8. Sept. 16. Sept. 23. Sept. 30. Octo. 14. Deut. 2. Octob. 21. Octo. 2 Decemb. 9. 〈…〉 Tacitm Rom. 10. 10. Joh. 4. 1 Thess 3. 10.