we rest not upon that grace meerly of having the Gospel preached and the Fountain declared to be opened unto us but there must be a divine hand to enable the will of man to come to this pool when it is moved Of any Text in Scripture this is most clear to prove the miserable impotency of sinful man to this point of salvation he cannot comply with this of himself No man can c. And if this do not suffice we will argue the point a little further Isa 53. 1. Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arme of the Lord revealed Here is Isaiah the Prophets report but there is an arm must be revealed both which must go together the report revealed by the Ministry and the arm of the Lord revealed must go together for else though they saw so many miracles the means of believing yet they believed not saith our Saviour quoting this Text John 12. 39. And whereas every one taught and drawn of God doth come and no man can come except so drawn it manifestly proves that as the coming is mans act and the free act of man for I think man is never more willing then when he is convinc'd indeed and enabled to come to Christ yet the drawing is Gods power that must first be and the drawing of God that is first in time for man doth not come that he may be drawn but because he is drawn therefore he comes And therefore this drawing of man to faith in Christ sounds like a work of Almighty power or a work of omnipotence Ephes 1. 19. The exceeding greatness of his power towards us that believe according to the working of his mighty power whereby he raised Christ from the dead and lifted him to glory The exceeding greatness of his power The Hyperbole of it here is a thrusting and crowding of words together a power that is compared to the raising of Christ Christ I say who bore our sins in his body on the tree though he lay under our sins for the death of Christ must be considered a little further no such load could depress him the Lord would have the stone rolled from his grave for him to rise again This was a work of mighty power and yet according to this God puts forth his hand in drawing of man to Christ so that as I conceive it cannot but argue that the free grace of God giving and the great power of God drawing makes faith to be above man and takes it from mans merit and mans power And truly it could not else be rightly said in Ephes 2. 8. Through faith not of your selves if this faith were of our selves The Root of this impotency shall be shewn you in five particulars First there are some footsteps of the Law of God remaining that were written in the heart of man In Rom. 2. 15. they shew the work of the Law written in their hearts that as by the rubbish that you see you conjecture what building there was before and by the defaced lines you may guess at the picture so you may by the common Notions left in mens minds judge of right and wrong and the differences between justice and injury without which no society could be of any men in the world but would be herds of wilde beasts rather then men but of Christ there appears nothing written naturally in the heart of man nothing at all concerning a Saviour and a Mediatour but an utter darkness and silence of Christ and consequently of Faith in Christ Secondly therefore man when his conscience is angry having something of the Law in it and accuses as it doth for sins against Nature common Law and common Light and when it accuses and troubles him being altogether ignorant of the righteousness of God by faith in Christ and how he should be saved and justifieed knows not till it be revealed by the Gospel for therein is the righteousness of God revealed Rom. 1. 7. For who can so much as guess by the pregnancy of natural light that God in his Covenant of Salvation should pitch on such a way as Christ a Sponsor or Surety the Mediator between God and man that he should make expiation for sin truly no more then Moses or an Israelite could have so much as found out the way of healing the biting of the fiery Serpents by a figure set upon a pole to be looked unto no man could imagine no mans reason could have found it out had they wandred in the wilderness never so many years and yet this was Gods way and a Type of Christ signifying what man could never have found out to conceive of compensation for sin by a Mediator which was a thing impossible and had not been known therefore man being ignorant of this must of necessity fly to his own plaisters and fig-leaves for if by nature he may be convinc'd of sin yet by the dictates of natural conscience he can never find out any righteousness and satisfaction to Gods justice then it must follow that he must fly to making a medicine of his own righteousness which is of works for that only comes by man to be found out as being next to hand in this case that I say or nothing as being his only hope and this bulrush the drowning man takes hold of and holds it fast as for life and so comes of necessity to settle on his own righteousness being ignorant of the righteousness of God which is by faith in Christ And this the Apostle tells you Rom. 10. 3. For they being ignorant of the righteousness of God went about to establish their own righteousness and so submitted not to the righteousness of God where you see the righteousness that is our own maintains our pride in that word submitted not and rising from ignorance of that of Gods righteousness to which we must submit by way of humiliation which is a cause that men believe not And then Thirdly and pray mark there is a double Revelation of Christ the one is a revealing of him by Gospel-doctrine the other is a revealing of him by spiritual light The revealing of Christ by Gospel-doctrine to the natural knowledge of mans corrupt understanding cannot procure or produce any other then literal knowledge of Christ The Scripture calls it knowledge in the letter as to know the Gospel as a History may be known to be true whereof a man hath a dogmatical knowledge you have many believers and these by knowing the Gospel by a natural light are differenced from Heathens But this doth not nor never will produce a saving faith most men have a literal knowledge we see in ordinary experience all men have some knowledge and Scholars a great deal yet being seen by natural light though revealed in the Gospel will not reach so far as to beget faith saving faith in Christ But the other revealing of Christ by the light of the Spirit of God conveying the knowledge of him into the mind and heart
he forbids it A horse or stomackful colt put the bridle on him and he is mad let him run in the field and he is quiet Let the Sun shine on a stinking dunghill and it stinks the worse not because the Sun gives pollution by its heat but by accident makes the stink break forth so much the more Alas when the Lord comes to put the bridle of restraint on man he is filld with more stomack and rage and when the sweet Sun shines on him to invite him to God he is still the worse and the rather evil so little compliance is there of mans heart with God And as we may truly say that Antipathies and Sympathies do shew us very far into nature where they are found as the Schools do well observe for a lamb to hate and fly from not this and that wolf but every one though it never saw it before which shews a general antipathy to all wolves So it is in this case if there were a Law of God made known to any natural man such a Law as he never saw nor heard of before he would hate it and never comply with it which shews the stone that is in his heart and manifests a rebellion in it against God As on the contrary a Sympathy an agreement A soul that loves and delights in the Law of God though most cross to private interests is a very excellent proof of grace that hath reconciled the enmity of the heart to God Rom. 7. 22. I delight in the Law of God concerning the inner man Fifthly and lastly the pleasingness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the heart with any lust to which its taken by peculiar agreement of nature which is peccatum in deliciis doth shew this contrariety unto God so long as this sin of delight continues his master-sin he will walk contrary to God say what you will I confess every man cannot practice every gross sin as to be a drunkard a whore-monger covetous no more then one man at one time can possibly be sick of all diseases but that sin which takes him up by natural propension inclination or custome or whatever it be that either takes acquaintance with or possession of him no such man can come to Christ He himself tells them How can ye believe that are taken up with worldly credit and ambition John 5. 4. Let it be any sin Covetousness Drunkenness or Lust which he feeds by other sins and serves as a master to which he is tyed as fast as by a Cable which he cannot break until divine grace appear to him and cannot get off by any power of his own but Gods no afflictions though they bray him as a fool in a morter pound him to pieces yet his folly shall not depart from him no vowes though he seem to bind himself never so firmly nothing while the lust remains will alter or change him nay set the judgement of God and death eternal before his eyes ye do nothing the pleasure of his sin remains Rom. 1. ult Who knowing the judgement of God that they that commit such things are worthy of death yet not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do them Nay would you think that any mans sin should be so fast rivetted in him as that it should cause him to love death He doth so interpretativè by Gods construction and interpretation Prov. 8. ult He that sinneth against me hurteth his soul and they that hate me love death Now how filthy and abominable is man saith God that drinks in iniquity like water comparing a natural man to a fish in the water in its own Element from which you know he cannot be willingly pulled to the dry bank and therefore I conclude that man is not willingly of himself brought into that estate though it be far better yea a thousand times better then his own until his nature be changed and then he is brought And so much for the first branch the Contrariety of corrupt nature to God to his Law and to his Grace But whereas an Objection might be made that man is not so contrary to grace because that shews him life Certainly there is a greater opposition in the heart of man to the grace of the Gospel then to the Law of Duty to humble man and shew him that the work of Conversion is from contrary to contrary And therefore let me make use of that which some say that God in creating the world drew the creatures out of nothing but in this new Creation Conversion he finds opposition and contrariety in the subject that he works upon that bids him battel and sets him at defiance The Minister converts by new objects and God by new natures until which there is little done The second Branch of this opposition of corrupt nature to God we call enmity unto or hatred of God himself self which I instance in to shew that poison venom that is in man in every one of your best hearts in your natural condition unto the Lord God you will not be known of it in your selves Hate God may some say there is not one of us that take our selves to be haters of God but seem to defie all that hate God But the Scripture speaks much of it Them that hate me saith God Exo. 20. 5. And he calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1. 30. Haters of God And in handling of this point I shall enter upon that sin which is diabolical First Hatred is a part of that diabolical malignity which makes man like the Devil for when he overthrew man at the first he spawned into man a certain diabolical seed not sins of sensuality and the flesh but malignity and opposition and spight against God this man is of a serpentine nature One man may be angry with another man but a Serpent hates the very nature of man Anger is in particulars hate in generals say the Schools so that this arises higher then the other doth into a hatred of God himself And then Secondly Hatred differs from Contrariety in this It rises from the consideration of such effects of justice which are threatned or executed upon man against his will punishing him for sin and so causes hatred but Contrariety is to the holiness of God and his Law and so is an opposite to Gods justice and the effects of it for corruption is so desperately carried against God that like the Devil it hates God punishing and inflicting not peradventure as God is a benefactor and sustainer of nature but he will not abide Gods vengeance on him Insomuch that a man in his private retired thoughts hath secret wishings in himself sometimes that God were not looking upon the effects of the Justice of God And this I will shew you in three Particulars And oh that this might rifle your hearts to go away from this self-love of yours whereby the great God is so opposed First all the hate that is in man aganst the Law
puts forth this power in this way the Gospel It s confest that the vessel or pipes by which this excellency of power is conveyed are earthen and contemptible But that is de industria on purpose 2 Cor. 4. 7. we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us the weakness of the vessel doth derogate from the power of the vessel It was his goodness and not unto your loss to teach you by men for if God had taught you by Angels that are by nature unsociable with men it had not been so well now God hath appointed to bring you to heaven by the ministry of men like your selves And in a way surable to man that is by word and doctrine by counsel instruction reason God will so convince and convert you not by insinuating a sudden power into the heart of man from whence Ministers are called workers together with God 2 Cor. 6. 1. and he also is said to work together with them Mark 16. 20. If God and man work together what shall we think of them that divide this partnership this conjunction Quest Oh but you Preach the law It is the Gospel that Converts Answ You are deceived we preach Christ when we preach the law as is plain when Paul was required by Felix to preach to him the faith of Christ saith the text he preacht of righteousness temperance and judgement to come whereat Felix trembled was this preaching the Faith of Christ yea or else Paul was deceived the Reason is because Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness Rom. 10 4. and because by the law men are concluded under sin that the promise that is the Gospel might be given to them that believe Gal. 3. 22. and if so what dissonancy will you make between preaching of the means and the end we are not so mad as to preach Salvation by the law and when we preach the Law to you to wound it is in order to the promise and Christ Jesus It is not the plungers that trouble the water that catch the Fish we know it is the Net but the plungers drive the Fish into the net that they may be caught we say the work of Salvation is not by the Law it s the net of the Gospel whereby men are caught to Everlasting Salvation But it s the terrour of the Law and the curse under which they are driven into this net t is the avenger of blood that pursues with the drawn sword that makes you fly to the City of refuge and therefore there is more of Christ preacht in a Sermon that you call Legal many times then in the vociferations clamors that silly people use of Christ Christ as they cryed Baal Baal though you pronounce nothing but Christ a hundred times together and therefore let me charge you for that I may have leave to do to those that are under my charge and exhort all others that since faith comes by hearing since you are born again of the uncorruptible seed of the word since his Ministers are in pain while they go traveling in their souls till Christ be formed in you since the Lord many times in his word honours the instrument in the work of Conversion with the honour of doing that which he doth by them S t Paul saith I am your father as Goliahs sword was honoured with the work that David did by it upon all these considerations be not you stricken with this madness as either to think that the excellency of power of Conversion is in the box that carries this treasure or to divide the treasure from the vessel that you have in it for then you lose it But where then will you have it But to consider in your serious thoughts what those gifts were which Christ gave to his Church on his triumphal day a phrase of speech alluding to the Roman triumph when a Conquer or came home and had a triumph allowed him by the Senate he spred his prizes that he brought home and gave magnificent gifts so the Apostle observes that when Christ ascended and rode in the triumphal Chariot to heaven he carried spoils with him and gave gifts to men and what were those gifts Eph. 4. 7. he gave Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers for the gathering and perfecting of the Saints or thus if you will he gave the Holy Ghost which doth not only work itself but makes overseers Acts 20. 28. and then works by them as the instrument is first made and then wrought with so the Holy Ghost makes you overseers and then works in and by them that are Ministers made by the Holy Ghost and therefore despise not means and instruments enough is said of that point to wise men Fifthly Nor will that doctrine abide this test that teacheth that man is the giver and God the receiver for the truth is God is the first giver in all kinds make him but first in the work of Calling Election Sanctification c. and you cannot be unsound or erroneous in any of these doctrines but that doctrine which makes man the giver and God the receiver cannot be true the reason is he loved us first saith the Apostle 1 Joh. 4. 19. You have not chosen me but I have chosen you Joh. 15. 16. and therefore it is said Rom. 11. 35. who hath first given to God and it shall be recompenced to him again that is that hath first done or performed any work that obliges God to recompence it those therefore that make man the first lover the first chuser the first giver they make man the creditor and God the debtor and how unsuitable is it with any modesty and ingenuity to speak so which of necessity must be if you make man first Sixthly Nor doth it follow by this test which is somewhat a difficult point that because there is a Covenant made with man upon conditions of faith and repentance therefore these conditions must be performed by one of the confederates that is by mans own power to confirm this it s said there was so much required of Adam and he had power and God expected the performance of the condition made with him And you know many times it is thus with men they expect a mutual performance of Covenants one with another and they do-in-many cases think that man hath power to perform the condition to which he obliges himself and yet sometimes t is otherwise there cannot a general rule be made of this a creditor requires the payment of the summ yet whether the debtor pays it of mony gotten by his own hand or borrow it or it be given him by some benefactor is not material only this is material that the condition be performed and the money paid so we may say in this point this is certain that the condition required of man is mans duty is mans act and the benefit of the Covenant is for him that performs
works going before and I for my part am of judgment that the preaching of the law used by divines for the humbling and awaking of secure hearts to look out after a Saviour was a proper way that the law as a Corrosive may eat and open the sore and then bring in the Gospel which indeed is the converting ordinance that works faith and the love of God as the poles that plunge the Water do not catch the Fish but the net yet they drive the Fish into that which doth catch them so I say not that the Law doth convert the doctrine of the Law setting home a mans Sins convincing and humbling man doth not properly bring a man in to Christ Jesus or faith in him but drives him to the Gospel-net to seek for refuge in the Lord Jesus Christ and this I speak as to the preparation of a man to Conversion I have hewed them by my Prophets and slain them by the words of my mouth Hos 6. 5. Oh! that we had these words of slaughter among us though I know and grant a man may be wrought upon by the Law that never comes home to conversion by the Gospel Now therefore I will open what goes to this work of Gods drawing or what there is required to this drawing of God in a few things First I will lay down for the opening of this drawing of God this point that you may know whether God hath drawn you Yea or No Man is not ordinarily converted by sudden enthusiasmes he knowes not when or how by sudden raptures but he is ordinarily prepared and subdued by the ministery of the Word as the Soil is plowed and by that fitted and prepared to be sown for no man sowes the Ground that is not prepared by the plough so it is here and this is the work of the exciting knocking awakning convincing Spirit to which belongs conversion and as the natural form hath preparation foregoing so hath the Spiritual form of Grace in the heart of man it were a wonder to see a thing begotten in a night to see the work of faith in an unbeliever the work of Conversion in a knotty weyward Soul wrought in a night that looks like the mushromes of Religion that grow up in our times of a sudden and have no appearance or knowledge of any work that might usher them that way and these preparations are often works of time such as the healing of a sore is It s a rare thing that a sore an inveterate sore should be healed in a night or an houre to which purpose as the plainest one of them I know of in the New-Testament for I know this Point is striven against by a great many that there is no such thing as a previous work precedaneous to a mans Conversion but God drops in suddenly consider Acts 2. 37. the Apostle Peter Preaching When they heard that Doctrine they were pricks unto the heart and said men and brethren what shall we do to be saved and he said unto them repent and be baptized Now to confesse the truth this Text is not a certain President nor doth it follow because these were that all that are brought to grace are brought so to for God is not tied to one and the same president to every man but here went before the full work of Conversion a breaking of the heart there was a griefe and fear of damnation seised upon them there was a desire of Freedom to know the way out and some hope of pardon This is the ordinary ministerial way though as I said before it is no certain president for the Plaister doth not lie so long upon every sore as it doth upon some therefore length of time in Conversion is not in all alike there must be longer work of smart and preparatories on some upon others it lies shorter on and makes quicker work and yet the work may be as well done to now these precedaneous preparations for we speak but vulgarly not accurately of this great point may be considered two waies either as preparatives unto life going before any sparks of Spiritual life begotten in the soul or as latent effects of life already begun as they are preparatives foregoing all degrees of Faith and Regeneration so they may tend to life if they be managed thereunto by God if God so manage this grief this sorrow for sin these wounds so they may tend to life but if they be found in hypocrites in men themselves that God leaves then they will be like an egge that may peradventure be hatcht to a Chicken but if left by the henne will come to nothing so this sorrow grief hope c. that may be wrought in hypocrites by the ministerial call of the word but are not sitten upon will come to nothing they die because they have no root and so are like the grasse in the stony ground for the present its green but it vanishes because it hath no root abiding Secondly if they be latent effects of a secret life already begun which few men know the time of its coming in the knowledg of the time of conversion or dropping in this Spiritual life into the Soul is a hard thing but if these initials be latent effects of some seed sown then they will abide hold out and continue and there is a difference between preparatives going before life and those we call latent effects of a secret life the one being left to your management will fail and come to nothing but if they be effects of life then they will continue and let me give you in this comparison as in the production of man For a spiritual birth much answers the natural birth there may be and are some qualifications of the matter whereof the bodie is made that foregoes the coming in of the Soul and there are some latent effects of the Soul already come in yet when this life came in she knew not peradventure that is the mother but here is the difference if they be effects of a body yet dead without life they may go away and often doe but if they be effects of life then they doe continue and there is growth and increase and a ripening till there be a full birth so t is in the Conversion of man those effects that proceed from a life already begun will hold out and therefore I am sure I am thus farre right on the point but what were those in Acts 2. 37. they were preparatives managed by God for it seems they came to effect did go before an act of regeneration Repent and be Baptized saith Peter God gave the act after that but God managed it so that they came to effect and brought forth repentance which had it been left to man peradventure had not wrought that effect Secondly Regeneration is properly the work of God in a man excited prepared quickned awakened convinc'd find this in your selves come to the threshold before you come into the house there
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
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
the knowledge of Christ Use 2 Secondly admire and magnifie Christ Jesus If Christ had opened the eye unstopped the deaf ear cut the string of the dumb tongue thou wouldest have leaped and rejoyced as they did in the Gospel These were the miracles he wrought when he was on earth but now if thou be a convert and he hath enlightned thy eye unloosed thy tongue that thou canst now speak to God in prayer and thanksgiving this is the miracle he works from Heaven exceeding those on earth upon the body and the reason is because these were wrought on them that must die if the dead were raised they died again But this miracle is wrought on thee that art not to die again thy spiritual death but always live as Austin saith And consider with thy self that among all the miraculous works of Christ that are reckoned Matth. 11. 4 5. The blind see the deaf hear the sick are raised up and walk this cure is added that the poor receive the Gospel As who should say these are the wonders I usually work and among them this may pass for a wonder too It s a pretty ingenious observation take something from it that may greaten your hearts to the admiration and magnifying the goodness of God And so I have shewn the greatness of the work Serm. 4 THe second Point is to shew the impotency and imbecillity of natural man of his own strength savingly to believe or convert himself It is said which I would have observed in John 5. 40. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you will not come to me that you might have life And of the very same persons and almost with the same breath in the 44. verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how can you believe you will not you cannot What do you gather from these two expressions You may very well collect that this cannot is a moral impotency and a moral impotency as learned men do know differs very little from an unwillingness you cannot believe because you will not being disabled by such worldly and carnal lusts and prejudices as do forestall and take up your hearts and make it justly to be said you cannot The reason why I compare together these two verses you will not come to me and ye cannot believe is to shew what manner of impotency Christ points us to in this matter namely Not a meer and simple impotency that is without our default but a moral and culpable impotency whereby the heart is captivated by some lust or forelaid with prejudice against Christ so as we cannot because we will not come to him And of this impotency let me say this to you at the first it takes away all excuse all defence and the more impotent the worse who can excuse his blindness that hath purposely put out his eyes yea though it be resembled in Scripture to a simple impossibility yet it is moral and culpable Can the Aethiopian change his skin Jer. 13. 23. then may you that are accustomed to do evil learn to do well it is a moral impotency the fault whereof may be charged upon you such as for which you stand culpable before God This impotency of man to convert or come to Christ I speak unto in this branch and mans unwillingness in the next And so ye shall have both the cannot and the will not There is an impotency in man and a disability to come in to Christ and act to his own conversion These are the same things but in the handling of this point I may sometimes name the one and not the other without offence Man in his integrity for truly the estate of mans created integrity hath as I conceive a mighty influence into all Divinity man in that estate had a posse velle to obey God a power to love and to keep communion with God An absolute velle was not determined but he had a power and therefore men that are under the fall as all men are must needs acknowledge they have lost somewhat by it we have lost the power to will which he had nay some say that if there were a power of believing in Christ and of conversion in lapsed man he should seem to have a greater power then Adam As the power to rise again from the dead is greater then to act life when a man is alive I hold it to be but a trifling objection which is made upon design and this is the design upon which it is made for clearly to know the reason of any thing is to know the thing it self to oblige God by vertue of his Covenant with man fallen to give forth universal grace because this faith in Christ this repentance were not lost in Adam who could not lose that which he had not neither are we to pay for that we took not up in him Therefore God is engaged to give to man a power to believe because he hath made a new Covenant with me he is bound to enable me to be responsible to the Covenant that he hath made This Objection amounts to no more but this That Adam could not exercise faith in Christ nor the grace of repentance I grant it there was no need of it nor conversion very true for that supposes a deviation and a fall If man say he could not look to the Serpent on the pole I answer true because neither had the fiery Serpent stung nor was the Serpent set upon the pole to heal them that were stung before the institution of God had taken place Adam did not exercise obedience to the fifth commandement and yet you account it one of the moral commands for he had no Parents and Superiors to honour Very true but there was a root of integrity a root of faith in God and love of God there was the image of God from whence if occasion had been grace might have budded forth But to argue from the not-exercising to the not having of grace is no argument There was a seminal in Adam of which there is none left in man the root of holiness the principles of faith these are lost Nor are there any seminals left in man out of which faith can be educed as forms are educed out of the fitness of the matter The Scripture seems to speak punctually to the point No man can come to me John 6. 44. The natural or animal man by the light of his intellectual perception cannot know the things of God 1 Cor. 2. 14. The wisdom or sense of the flesh is not subject to the Law of God nor can be Rom. 8. 7. They that are in the flesh cannot please God Rom. 8. 8. We are not sufficient that is not impowered of our selves to think any thing as of our selves 2 Cor. 2 3. And this is enough to prove this point of mans impotency and disability Which shall be handled in two members First No man can by his natural power convert and turn to God Secondly No man can come to Christ or believe
without life Now that it may be judged you are without and deprived of these there is no better argument to prove it then by that whereinto we are redintegrate by Christ this proves your lapse your loss your ruine for by that which is restored unto you you may know what loss you were at before but so as which is worthy observation at the first the Image of God was planted in man by creation for God created man after his own image The first man did not work the image of God in himself but it was planted in him by that creation by which he was made a man So this conversion comes not by any work of man this new Image of God is replanted by a second creation And therefore it s said in Ephes 4. 24. The new man is created after God in righteousness and holiness This I speak to shew that this flower needs not a watering only but a new plantation in our Garden that I might bring you to pray and give God no rest till you find this work wrought in you Secondly Consider man Positively and in him you shall find a world of lusts that byass him another way Lusts that fight against your conversion lusts that fight both against God and your souls so that no man can any more move and free himself from this lapsed state wherein he is then a bondman can free himself from his Master That 's a Scripture-comparison for there is not one lust you are under but you serve Serving divers lusts and pleasures Tit. 3. 3. one haling this way and another pulling that way and under the name of this bondage doth the Scripture often set forth mans impotent and indeed obstinate condition being as that servant in the Law that said I like my Master and will not go out free I will be a servant for ever There are many that say I will not leave my covetousness I like my sin bore my ear for perpetual servitude let sin be my Master for evermore Thus you see man is not only under privation but under the power of positive lusts Secondly From the work of Conversion it self that gives us very good reason no Philosophy in the world will deny this to be reason First this conversion to God is not wrought as habits that are generated produced and begotten in man by acts as a man writes often before he learns to write that is a moral way But this grace is planted in man first as potentia naturalis it produceth the acts and must first be The eye is a natural power 〈◊〉 a habit I do not by seeing learn to see as I do by writing learn to write but first I must have sight in my eye before I can make any act produce any fruit Grace is like sight in the eye we do not get grace by the several acts by us performed but first God plants it in our souls and then as with the eye we see Our Saviour Christ gives me the form of this reason First make the tree good and then the fruit will be good This must first be a man must first be endued with a divine and saving principle there must be a new man a new self a new creature before there can be any new acts How often have I told you that before this great work of God that plants a principle in me before this be wrought nothing at all can be expected from me Now Conversion is such a thing as this it makes the tree good and that cannot be by mans power because Conversion makes a new self in man I say it is impossible to reason and nature that this should be he that cannot do a good act can much less make himself a good tree Who ever heard of a thing in the world making it self Is any thing both a creature and a Creator I think there is no such thing in the world for if there were it would be something above a miracle A dead man raising himself its miracle great enough if another hand do it I say t is above a miracle and impossible in reason And truly if this Scripture-truth were brought to the ponderation of reason reason it self would not refragate and oppose the thing And secondly Conversion is a work supernatural and brings forth supernatural grace as to believe in Christ Jesus the Lord and to love God above self For that which is said in Scripture in the Law Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy mind and thy neighbour as thy self If thy neighbour be to be loved as thy self then that which went before is the loving God above self And if this be true as it is that God is to be loved above self it s an impossibility till there be a principle put into the mind and heart whereby to do it for self cannot work above self nothing can act above its sphere of activity my reason is as the Schoolmen observe if a thing act and bring forth any thing without it self there would be some effect without a cause and the cause cannot reach it which is clearly in reason impossible and a contradiction Darkness indeed was and light was called out it God commanded light to shine out of darkness in our new creation 2 Cor. 4. 6. but that darkness should produce light I say that light is without a cause for there is no causality in darkness and to make an effect without a cause is a thing contrary to nature and reason and therefore there must be a power to command it out otherwise you put nature to work above it self Thirdly If you consider the Gospel-reasons which that most of all insists on and these are the simplest they have no Philosophy in them Why no man hath power to convert himself there are two reasons the Gospel gives and there are no more that I can give in this point I am sure Bellarmine acknowledges it First it layes in caution against boasting and takes that for reason enough Why not If man were able to believe and convert himself then there is foundation laid for boasting and pride that man reflecting on himself might say I believed and for that reason the Apostle doth deny in Ephes 2. 9. Salvation saith he is by grace not of works lest any man should boast not so lest that should be It s contrary to the scope of the Gospel and also to the Gospel-design that is to unhinge the power of man and to draw all the water to Gods own mill the free grace of God And oh that we were in love with this free grace of God! that whereby when we were involved in sin we were brought out The second Reason the Gospel gives and it needs no more is it gives all the honour to Gods grace throughout assigning all the difference of one man from another to that fountain If a man converts himself then he differences himself from another man but the Scripture assigns
may be secundum quid or respectively impossible that is not simply so It s not simply impossible to rise from the dead for then it could never be but its impossible for a dead man to raise himself So to believe in Christ it s not impossible through grace the divine traction but to a man as he is in himself and in sin it is impossible Faith in Christ is not an impossible act but it is not possible by mans own power and therefore if Reason quarrel at God for laying the conditions of the Covenant of life upon impossibilities for not laying the condition of the Covenant in mans own power yet that Reason is without reason in it for the condition was once in mans power and the forfeiture of the Covenant the event may teach us to bless God that it is so no more that the condition of the Covenant lies no more in the power of man to forfeit it or in man only to accomplish it God hath given I do believe and doth give so much power unto man as may justifie his commanding man and condemning in case they do not observe his commands there is so much power given as may justifie God in both and so much knowledge as God doth give to any man in the world so much knowledge as any man hath or might have so much he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without excuse I think that 's a Principle and Maxime that will go far in all Divinity So much power as you have so much your excuse is taken from you so much you may believe and therefore are left inexcusable even those that have knowledge of God but by the light of Nature so much as they did know him are without excuse But certainly as it s said the purpose of Gods election stands not by our works but ex vocante of him that calleth Rom. 9. 11. so is his Covenant made good not by mans putting the condition but Gods giving of it else the covenant that he hath made with us should be a covenant of works or merits and not of grace if it did not stand upon Gods performance as it doth And therefore it s not laid upon an an impossible condition but a condition performed and made good by God himself I will put my law into their hearts and I will write it in their minds and they shall all know me that is shall believe in and love me and accept me for their God as the tenour of the covenant runs Heb. 8. 10. And the very reason why this covenant of life should not be defeated frustrated and made void therefore it s not committed to your power but reserved to the hands of the grace of God to make it good Rom. 4. 16. Therefore it is of faith that it might be of grace to the end that the Covenant might be sure to all the seed otherwise it had been as unsure as the Covenant that he made with Adam or as that which he made with Israel that God said was broken Heb. 8. 9. For in every Covenant that with Adam the promise was sure enough to the condition life was sure enough to the condition Do this if that condition had been performed it had been a sure covenant none surer What failed then the condition failed 〈◊〉 because it leaned on man and for that reason only it failed and therefore the covenant was not sure and this I have spoken all along to answer that objection that the covenant might be sure the condition doth not rest barely on the power of man But God performs the condition of the covenant that he makes with his people and I think he that gives the object of faith gives also the act of faith He that gave the serpent on the pole gives also the eye to look upon it that so Christ the object of your faith and faith that you might believe in him might be the gift of God For what avails Christ set forth to a people and no faith to lay hold on him Of what avail is the setting forth of an object where there is no eye to see it Grace I believe saving grace though I confess it is not so resented by many learned men comes from the purchase and merit of Christ as well as benefits of pardon The conditions and graces of the covenant come from the merit of Christ also without which there is no pardon since Christ is called Heb. 7. 12. the surety of a better Covenant an undertaker of the best Covenant Now all the question of the Text will be whose surety is Christ Is he Gods surety that makes it or mans surety with whom it is made Gods surety saith a learned man of latter times God and mans sure I think mans surety he is by giving satisfaction to the justice of God for the sins of man Gods surety he is by sending forth his Spirit to certifie and seal us Or thus he is surety for God that he will pardon us and sponsor or undertaker for us that we shall know God and believe in Christ and receive him for a Saviour therefore also called a Mediator of the same Covenant Now a Mediator is is not of one but of two parts in Zach. 13. 9. I will say You are my people they shall say The Lord is my God If Christ then be the surety of the Covenant Gods surety and ours for God and for us it will follow that Christ undertakes for us and that we have grace our believing our faith from his merit and his purchase Well then First I say all men are naturally unable to believe in Christ or to come unto him for though he be a fountain opened that was once a fountain sealed comparatively Zach. 13. 1. In that day a fountain shall be opened for sin and for uncleanness speaking in the dialect of the Jewes that is as in the Law there were sins and uncleanness sin to be purged by blood and uncleanness to be purified by water and there were expiations of sin and purgations of uncleanness represented in several Types So the Prophet shews that Christ shall answer them all 〈◊〉 Christ all these Types yet though he be a fountain opened as the impotent man said I have none to put me in Ioh. 5. 7. I lie lame and decrepid at the pool-side and when the water is moved have none to put me in So it may be said in this point there is a fountain opened in Christ Jesus for sin and uncleanness but none is able to come to it without a supernatural help and a divine hand go along with him The Gospel-preaching opens this fountain to you and this grace Pelagius rested upon and held that the grace of God was the preaching of the Word and opening the fountain to men For Orthodoxis verbis non abstinuit He as other Erronists that live in our times did not abstain from Orthodox words But what said Austin to them Nolumus istam gratiam
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
the will of man but God Those that do receive Christ are born again But this regeneration is denied First to a natural instinct not of blood Secondly to a carnal principle not of the will of the flesh Thirdly to any moral rational principle not of the will of man But it is affirmed to be an influence of God as it s said but of God There can be no just reason given that man should be unwilling to come to Christ or to be converted for no man can give any reason against the chief good or the only means that may serve to that end Mans happiness lies in the enjoying of God and the means tending thereunto is coming to and closing with Christ Jesus But there may be reason from the miserable and mischievous corruption of man that doth and will and can do nothing else but walk contrary to his own happiness the Bow is made to hit the mark but yet sometimes as we say it must needs miss the reason must be taken from the crookedness and deceitfulness of the Bow So it is with man he is made to be happy in the enjoyment of God by this one means of coming to Christ yet he must needs sometime miss the reason must be taken from the deceitfulness of the heart of man that is possest with vanity folly pride and lust This is the point then the unwillingness of man to his own Conversion And first in General I shall lay down this Reason for it that is the summ of all reasons That every man by nature is forelaid with some impediments and obstructions that prohibit his closure with Christ and that Gospel-way of salvation by the faith of Christ He fights against it he opposes it he is unwilling unto it Corrupt man fights against these two things the holy Law of God and the Gospel He fights against the law of God in maintenance of sin lust and corruption he fights against Christ and Gospel-grace as much as against the Law And this he doth in maintenance of that we call self and of the two this is the sharper opposition For the first desire of mans heart is to be himself and to seek himself and to maintain himself from all manner of captivity and therefore the Apostle tells us That there is might in this arm of God to bring every thought in us into captivity to the obedience of Christ To whom he would not come if he could preserve that self that is in him in the maintenance whereof he is unwilling to accept of the grace of the Gospel when it s offered And this point shall be thus handled First what I mean by the Gospel-way of Salvation these two things First the one and only way of the salvation of a sinner is that which is brought to light by the doctrine of the Gospel Moral doctrine teaches reformation of life according to principles of vertue but this which is called the glorious Gospel of the blessed God in 1 Tim. 1. 11. is that only which is the Jubilee-Trumpet proclaming the acceptable year of the Lord the day of salvation In allusion to which its said Psal 89. 15. Blessed are the people that hear the joyful sound for thereby is brought life and immortality to light viz. through the Gospel 2 Tim. 1. 10. shewing that life and immortality are hid and in the dark to all the world until they be brought to light by Gospel-doctrine For therein is the righteousness of God revealed Rom. 1. 17. The way of Gods making righteous or justification of man is revealed and made known to man by the doctrine of the Gospel For as the children of Israel in Aegypt may be might know that there was a promise of deliverance but whether they should deliver themselves or that Moses an exile and cast-out was the man to deliver them that they knew not So that Christ is that Moses which was to be manifested to Gods Israel to bring loft man out of damnation from Egyptian slavery under which he was it s only brought to light by the doctrine of the Gospel Secondly by this doctrine Christ is set forth the righteousness of a sinner and the root of spiritual and eternal life acknowledging Christ to be the tree of life into which all that are saved must be transplanted from off the tree of corruption whereon they naturally grow For Christ and a Believer make but one body Righteousness they have none at all but what they have through him spiritual and eternal life they have none but what they have from him as is shewn in Rom. 11. 24. by a comparison given of the branches of the tree Thou wert cut off from the Olive-tree wild by nature and wert grafted contrary to nature in the good Olive-tree Where you see that conversion of a man to Christ and Gospel-grace is compared to an ingrafting contrary unto nature for the graft grows not naturally but contrary to nature so that there must be a transplantation a cutting off man from the Crab-tree of natural corruption that he may contrary to nature be planted into Christ Jesus unto which work that man is unwilling may appear by these two expressions Thou wert cut off and To be grafted contrary to nature For to be cut off by sharpness from a condition to which a man is naturalized though it be worse and to be ingrafted contrary to nature though into a better man cannot be willing Secondly he is not willing to this way of salvation by transplantation into Christ upon these grounds First because this way of salvation is out of his sight for nature and the wisdom of it doth not teach it him though there be the greatest sagacity and quickness of scent in natural wisdom that you can imagine yet it cannot reveal Gods giving Jesus Christ the Lord to man there can be no willingness to receive that which is not known the greatest wisdom accounts it foolishness Those two words are taken for one and the same 1 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of God neither can know them Receiving is an act of faith and believing and goes not before knowing for being ignorant of Gods righteousness Rom. 10. 3. thats the way of Gods making man righteous ignoti nulla cupido And therefore as Israel in the wilderness did not know that the Serpent on the pole should heal the mortal sting and biting of the fiery Serpent till it was set up so Christ did as much lie out of the way of manifestation for mans wisdom to find out neither could it be known to a natural man before it had been revealed to him by the Gospel The second Reason arises thus As in nature they say there is no vacuity but every place in the whole world is full of somewhat until there come some other matter to expel it now so is it with the heart of man it s taken np with corruption and possest till the grace of God come and drive that
God puts in a mighty hand and an absolute will I will put my Law c. in the other he guides by his Spirit and a grace is given not so infallibly to bring the effect which is good not simply necessary to salvation because if you sin by not doing your duty yet your estate is not in danger and here let me suggest a meditation or two to such as are fit to make use of them First Let the regenerate consider that whereas they have resisted grace and the motions of it a thousand tmes and since their Conversion have grieved the Spirit by indulgence of their lusts against the motions of the Spirit and the dictates of their own consciences if God had permitted them unto themselves and let them have done so in the act of Conversion they had for ever perisht and their resistance at other times shews they might or would have done so then if God that may let his child slip and take a knock did not yet keep a hand upon them that they fall not into the fire Secondly Let them learn to understand God a right and to take comfort that though in other acts he please to suffer them often and very grievously to fall shewing thereby the perverseness of their spirits yet remaining so as that they may fear they may lose all and fall so as never to arise more yet be comforted that in such things as salvation lyes in he will be sure and an infallible God to his Elect to support and raise them up again and let them also remember that God so makes good the condition of his Covenant in things essential unto salvation to work them infallibly I will put my fear into their hearts that they shall not depart from me Jer. 32. 40. or as it is said Psal 37. 23 24. The Lord or dereth a good mans steps and he delighteth in his way though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand though he fall in the Covenant he shall not fall from it Reas 4 Fourthly and lastly Converting grace in the act of it cannot be resisted and defeated because it is given to that end to subdue and overcome the resistance of flesh and blood now that which is given to take away resistance no resistance can stand against it therefore in the work of Conversion it will leave in the heart no actual rebellion that shall perk up to defeat the work A nullo duro corde râ—spuitur it is not resisted by the heart that 's hard because it takes away the hardness and gives a heart of flesh Ezek. 36. 27. I will take away the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh take away the heart untractable and give a heart that 's tractable I will take away the heart that 's hard as stone to resist and give them a tender heart to feel their own misery I may give it by this comparison In a room if the windows be not shut the darkness cannot resist the light because it s given to that purpose to expell the darkness And when God gives any thing to take away an opposition that opposite cannot stand in its place so this Divine grace is refused by no hard heart of man when it comes with the meaning and purpose of God to carry it on because then it comes with commission and authority to remove obstacles and pull away bars that it may overcome And this much be spoken of Conversion as it denotes the act of God drawing or Converting and the deportment of mans heart under it The second consideration is as Conversion denotes the action of man Converting to God upon and by vertue of this drawing of God And what is the deportment of the heart when it is toucht by this loadstone and drawn by this grace freedome say I and willingness there follows thereupon a coming nay a running after God in Cant. 1. 4. For the power of God and willingness of man do consist together thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power Psal 110. 3. Now therefore I will say that man cannot be supposed in this act of Conversion as it is his to resist or be unwilling because he is made willing and the resistance for this act is overcome and subdued And therefore it is said as God draws so man comes and his coming is an act not of force but of freedom being both powerfully and sweetly drawn by the cords of man by the bonds of love Hos 11. 3. And therefore as mans resistance of Gods work and his free coming in to God cannot stand together in the same act there is reason in nature for that a man may as well move East and West at the same time as resist and be willing to come all at one time for there is a contradiction in the terms to say though a man doth believe yet he will not believe for man will not resist being made willing to comply with God and this is the miracle of Gods power and grace in mans Conversion that the heart so prone and apt to run into sin so headlong and uncontrouled should upon the touch of this loadstone of grace be made so free and delightful to come to God and by this marriage consent to joyn hands with God loathing in comparison of God the thoughts of those lusts and pleasures which he so doated on in the dayes of his captivity to sin and saying as they said to their Idols Fie upon you get you hence and therefore there can be no resistance remaining in this coming so that its clear that neither in the act of Gods drawing or in mans act of turning will there be found a victorious resistance an habitual corruption there will remain but that it is bridled at any time let it magnifie for ever Gods mercy and grace we can do nothing against the truth but for the truth saith the Apostle But though this may well be spoken to magnifie the grace of Conversion to set you to pray for it and to teach that God is able to carry man out of himself in despight of his teeth as I may say as Iron toucht with the loadftone cannot but move to the North yet withall to let you see to humble you the abomination that is in your hearts what enemies you are to Conversion and faith in Christ and consequently to your own salvation Serm. 11 NOw having said this concerning the grace put forth and exercised in the act of Conversion and shewn thaâ— Converting grace flowing from the purpose of God is in the act of Conversion victorious over the resistance of the corrupt heart and though it do not suddenly extirpate all the degrees of habitual perverseness and rebellion yet it binds up the actual resistance at that time as that it is imprevalent to divert the work of so powerful grace I come to the point wherein the resistance offered to the grace of God doth lie and
that is the grace that is promiscuously offered unto man in the Ministry of the Gospel or other external means though it be carried oâ— by great enlightnings moral suasions sweet invitations loud pulsations or knocking 's at the door of security and though by these means there be wrought some common graces that are common in elect and reprobate like the joy in the stony ground I say though these be yet both these offers of grace which being received would make a man happy are resisted and opposed and these shallow graces are but like some winter fruit that never ripen and come to maturity as the blade in the thorny and stony ground never came to ear well and so to harvest so these graces may be finally choaked and from them a man may finally fall away this is the point of resistance of this grace offered which before I give the reasons of I shall premise three things to be handled First Concerning these offers of grace I shall say three things Secondly Shew the entertainment of these offers is with opposition and recusancy Thirdly The dangerous case that man falls into by this refusal As concerning the offers of grace that God makes you in the Gospel know three things First That the Gospel tenour or terms may be propounded to every creature that 's the phrase of Christ Mark 16. 15. Go preach the Gospel to every creature that is in the dialect of Christ which was the received form of speech used at that time by the Jewish Rabbies every man every humane creature for it belongs not to the Angels that sinned though they be sinful creatures these Gospel proposals do not belong to them but every humane creature which is expounded by Matthew Go and Baptize that is Disciple all Nations Mat. 28. and what 's the meaning properly of all Nations and every creature this that whereas the Jewish Pale was but of one Nation they were the Church of God impaled and there was a wall of partition between them and all the world beside and he dealt not so with every Nation as he did with them It seems now the Pale is broken down the wall of partition and the several is made common now go preach to every creature that is the Jews only are not the subjects of Gospel promises but all and every man to them it may be proposed and what are those Gospel terms he that believes and is baptized shall be saved he that believes not shall be damned but is this Gospel he that believes not shall be damned To this I answer you must consider the meaning of it under the Law there was a curse went out against every man for every sin there could not be an idle word or thought but the curse of the Law went out against In Gal. 3. 10. Cursed is every one c. Now mark though this curse may go forth against every sin by the sentence of the Law yet it is dissolved and taken off from believers and abides only because of unbelief Joh. 3. ult Believing takes off every score and that only About these offers of the Gospel consider two things they are made with Invitation and with Encouragement First with Invitation of such as could not expect to be at the marriage feast of a Kings Son Go out saith the King to the high-wayes and hedges and invite the meanest and most remote creatures Mat. 22. 4. and they called in both good and bad and furnished the feast with guests all sorts may have these Gospel proposals made to them And Secondly It s made with Encouragement and that to the most crimson and scarlet sinners Isa 1. 16 17 18 Wash you make you clean c. None that came to Christ for cure were dismist without healing though they were Samaritans and not Israelites therefore no man can say that God by the tenour of the Gospel hath excluded him or shut the door against him for in Isa 56. 5 6. the Prophet Isaiah gives in words of Encouragement Let not the son of the stranger say I am cast out nor the Eunuch I am a dry tree for both the son of the stranger the Proselyte and the Eunuch had a mark of disgrace upon them for if they fear the Lord they shall enjoy the priviledges of children and favourites his meaning is there is no man so alien so remote from God and his favour that hath all the marks of disparagement upon him but if he will come in and believe the invitation is made to him I confess we read in the Scripture that the Spirit of God forbade the lantern-bearers of the Gospel to go into some Countries and the providence of God at all times and at this time so regulates the sun of the Gospel as that some people are as in night but this I say that no man is excluded by the Gospel tenour from the offer of grace that is propounded in the Gospel by any national bar as in former time And then Secondly As the Gospel offer and the proposals thereof may be made to every man without any other consideration then that he is a sinner Art thou a sinner for thee Christ is a Saviour that as the brazen Serpent was set upon the pole for the wounded and bitten with fiery Serpents So is grace offered in the Gospel to them that are finners without any other consideration for the offer of it understand me right but for the promise of the Gospel that 's made to every one that comes to Christ for the grace promised and here is no condition of worthiness but of fitness and meetness whereby a man may be in a nearer capacity but hath no more merit or worth as I shall here shew you The Gospel makes the Proclamation of pardon to all men that are in actual rebellion that as a Prince by his pardon charms the sword out of the hands of a Rebel so if your iron hearts were softned to understand the grace of God upon his Proclamation you might have the sword of rebellion charmed out of your hands and be brought into submission unto Christ but the Gospel makes the promise of pardon and grace to a believer in Christ and to every believer without any respect to what he hath been in times past whether he be Barbarian or Scythian bond or free for the righteousness of God is upon all and unto all that believe for there is no difference Rom. 3. 22. Mark and be invited I beseech you that have so long stood it out and resisted the grace of God Oh! be you invited to come in the promise is to every one that thirsteth Isa 55. 1. All that are weary and heavy-laden with the barthen of their sins and miseries Mat. 11. 28. And whosoever will viz. is willing let him come and take of the water of life freely Rev. 22. 17. Every one that believeth in Christ shall not perish but have eternal life John 3. 15 16. So that you see the
known and received Come forth to this day this day of grace for the longer it hath been the shorter it is Examin the success and fruit Oh England London I am loth to speak though I do not speak it as ominous In the old World when God said the days of man should be one hundred and twenty years it s not to be understood of mans age that 's but a simple meaning But the Days of my Patience toward him how many did the long suffering of God gather all this while I cannot say but out of the stood out of a world of men the Apostle Peter observes that which I observe to you In 1 Pet. 3. 20. there were but few that is but eight persons saved from water in this long day of grace dispenst to a world of men therefore Gather your selves together not in Congregations and companies but your thoughts together oh nation not desired lest the decree bring forth for the thing may be decreed and ye be as chaff that passes on a day Zephan 2. 1 2. for without all question when the winnowing day comes for England there will be many thousands found like chaffe that passes before the wind in a winnowing day and though you may think with your selves that the sun of the Gospel yet shineth bright yet remember so did the sun shine bright on Sodom the morning that the fire came on it the sun shines bright many times when its very near setting Oh Lament the sins of England we very well know and it s an observation well made that Josiah one of the last was one of the best Kings that ever sate upon the throne of Judah for whom was great lamentation that made an admirable reformation and entred into the Covenant with the Lord a reformation a none-such there comes in a bitter Pill after this Notwithstanding the Lord turned not away from the fierceness of his anger because of all the Provocations of Manasseth 2 Kings 23. 26. There were the sins of his Ancestors In Deuteronomy you have to deal with a Jealous God and in 1 Joh. 2. 18. if men understood the word when they read it John gave a true Character of the last times of the Jewish nation that 's the true meaning of it and you make use of that Scripture because you apply it to the Last day there are many Antichrists by which you may know it is the last time Let us Consider it as a Character that sits too close on us one preaches himself Christ another takes away his Deity Christ sets a character of the last times on Jerusalem This long you are to continue and then your day of grace is gone do you fear least your day of grace be swallowed up by those multitudes of heretical teachers that swarm among you It s true as the saying is Now a man may be as holy in England as he will without fear of persecution for holiness sake that the meaning and truly I may well say for it must be ballanced a man may be as negligent as he will as wild in his opinions without fear of giving an account or coercion and were it not for the goodness of servants and I beseech you in your places abuse not the common liberty you might take a master could be no master of his house nor could not undertake Joshua his undertaking I and my house will serve the Lord nor keep his sheep out of Rotting pastures except the conscience the heart be principled in orthodoxal and Godly ways of truth You read in the New Testament that the masters influence on his house in matters of Religion was great such a one baptized and all his house what consequence in that why that by example instruction or power one way or other did work them to come to the same bonds of Religion with themselves The Lord grant that you may see the day grace that in it those that have power may exhort the people under their roofs to day while It s called to day least they be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin Use 2 For particulars mark how Lovingly the scripture speaks to men that have the word and day of grace I shall name some places and by the way this point is mightily tended to in the epistle to the Hebrews which was written purposely to stir up the Jews that were running into by-wayes to hold fast the profession of the Gospel the first place is that Heb. 2. 3. wherefore having heard this doctrine we ought to give the more diligent heed least at any time we let them slip like Riddle dishes that hold not water put into them for if the law had punishments for sin how shall we escape if we c. meaning This is the last pull you have for the salvation of your souls the last draw that ever you shall make for your souls are damned by the law but yet you may live this is the last lot that falls if you neglect Salvation so great salvation there lies the sting of the words how shall we escape S t Mark lays down the tenour of the Gospel he that believes not shall be damned which is as peremptory speech as a man finds ordinarily in the law and more peremptory and John Baptiss which is a place also mistaken speaking of the Jewish state in Matth. 3. 10. tells them Now your Saviour is come to preach the Gospel look to it your time is at an end your destruction is nigh after the Gospel is come and refused Now the Ax is laid to the root of the tree Cut it down And consider that place Heb. 4. 1. let us fear least having a promise made us of entring into rest any of you should seem to come short of it a place full of sweet meditation as the Jews when they went out of Aegypt went on a promise of a rest in Canaan and yet came short of it so may we fear c. me thinks the heart of men should be pierc't with these Scriptures And Heb. 12. 14 15. looking diligently least any man fail of the Grace of God when preached to him he neglects it refuses it makes light of it as he did who was invited to the marriage of the Kings son And in Heb. 3. 12. take heed oh take heed least there be in axy of you an evil heart of unbelief to depart from the living God that your unbelief do not carry you away to continue in this resistance of the Grace of God Let not the day of grace be a day of provocation But exhort one another daily while it is called to day There are two Motives whereby I would move this point unto you and then dismiss it for still there will be backwardness Oh that our Lord Jesus would work a miracle on the dry land Mot. 1 First Thy particular day of grace wherein it is offered to thee may not be so long as the day of the nation nor so long
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
Law imposed upon our Mediator that is the Covenant made with Christ And Arminius in his Orations De Sacerdotio Christi confesses this Covenant made with Christ is very well exprest in these words Isa 53. 10. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin therefore his soul was to be an offering And the promise of the Covenant with Christ that he should see his seed this Covenant of God with the Mediator what he should perform as Mediator is pursued and brought to effect by God his sending of his Son But the Covenant made with sinners in a Mediator it is this If you believe in and come to this Lord Jesus whom he hath sent you shall be saved And this part of the Covenant is brought to effect and pursued by Gods drawing us to come to Christ The want of making distinction between the Covenant with the Mediator what he shall do he shall make his soul an offering for sin And what he shall have he shall see his seed he shall divide the spoil take the captive out of the hands of the Devil and between the Covenant with the sinner where there are the same two respects what he shall do he shall come unto and believe in the Lord Jesus and what he shall have he shall be justified saved and recovered cut of the hands of hell and damnation How shall man be able to do this saith God I will draw him for else he cannot come for No man can come to me except my Father draw him I say the not distinguishing of these two breeds great confusion in the apprehensions of men about the Covenant Thirdly Gods sending Christ puts a difference between mankind and the Angels that sinned But Gods drawing of man unto Christ puts a difference between the elect and others The speculation of which point is of delightful and pleasant consideration By sending Christ he puts a difference between mankind faln and lapsed and the Angels that fell there was no cord let down from heaven to them to draw them out of the pit into which they were faln By drawing unto Christ he puts a difference between those that God will save and those that he will not save As many as were ordained to eternal life believed Acts 13. 48. To the Angels that sinned Christ is not sent there you see the love of God to mankind And they that are not ordained to eternal life are not drawn that makes a distinction of men Fourthly God in sending Christ doth not look at mans faith as antecedent or required of man before God sends him But Gods drawing man to Christ works that faith whereby man is saved Gods sending Christ doth not look to faith at all because Christ is sent to man yet resting in his unbelief but that faith that is required to salvation is wrought by Gods drawing whereby he moulds the heart of man to Christ as by a familiar comparison may be instanced The eye looking up was not required to the setting up of the Serpent upon the pole by Gods command it was set up whether any man was stung or no but looking up was required to the recovery of the person stung Fifthly If God should have sent Christ and required it of mans power or left it to mans power to come in and to receive him there would not have been a man as I conceive saved And his sending which is Gods act would have faln short of its effect without Gods drawing because there would not have been faith found to have received and believed in him for No man can c. and so Christs Kingdom had not been set up and built there had no members been planted into this head But the gift of Christ to and for men being seconded by a power of bringing men in to Christ gives effect and success and therefore you shall find in the Gospel alwayes Gods giving of Christ to man is seconded by the giving of the Spirit that as we are redeemed reconciled and justified by Christs merit and blood so we must also be enlightened regenerate and sanctified by Gods Spirit the one of these accompanies the other And this power of the Spirit doth so certainly go along with Christs merit as to the salvation of any man that it is said Have one have both For he that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his Rom. 8. 9. Because though Christ be sent by the mission of God yet without this Spirit there is no drawing no traction of man to be partaker of Christ as we have some adumbration or shadow In Israel they are delivered from the destroying Angel by blood sprinkled on the door posts And from the Egyptian slavery by a mighty hand shewing these two works in the delivery of man out of the slavery under which he lay there is the work of Redemption by the blood of Christ sprinkled upon him and he must march out be drawn out of sin by an out-stretched arm and mighty hand these two must go together Sixthly There is a general encouragement you may call it Comfort that arises to us from Gods sending of Christ For where there is no hope there is no motion where there is no encouragement to believe there a man hath little heart From Gods sending Christ to save you there is encouragement but the present Comfort the special Consolation of a mans salvation arises from the second particular of the two that God hath drawn man to Christ Jesus there is I say an encouragement that God hath sent Christ that is there is a salvability men are made saveable from the curse and condemnation of the Law under which they are involved But the special comfort that they have to themselves in particular must arise from this that God hath drawn and by converting grace made them to believe in Christ For this faith this drawing of man to Christ is both a pledge of salvation for the future and a token of his election before-hand And that which as it were doth couple both the poles together the election of God and the salvation of man the one as a pledge because future the other as a mark or sign because past this is a comfortable point indeed But certainly the point of sending Christ to make atonement for all or of universal Redemption let it be supposed doth neither speak salvation nor election to any one in particular more then another and therefore such silly souls whether they be drawn by others or through their own ignorance of the point are mistaken and deceived that do build the comfort of their salvation upon that that God hath sent Christ for an encouragement to believe therefore they shall be saved they do but build Castles in the air that is without ground for the Scripture tells you that you must be in the faith and Christ must be in you except you be reprobates 2 Cor. 13. 5. It is this drawing you to come to Christ that strikes
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-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
though it be it self never so little a spark and unseen if you have such a kind of faith without all question you have been drawn of God for there is a double change that faith makes that shewes the truth of it First relative when mans relation to God is changed by it as having stood in the relation of a stranger unaquainted at a distance he is now made a son a friend as it s said of Abraham he believed and was called the friend of God James 2 23. And then Secondly There is a real change of heart of course of life as if the stream did run in a new channel with as great strength as before in the old heavenly things are set up Christ is prized and valued and this life and all the things of this life have an eclipse put upon them so that as he said I am not I that 's the fifth mark Sixtly God hath powerfully drawn thee to Christ if the knowledg of Christ do draw thee from all competitioning things besides Christ doth not woo in person but by his word his Spirit his virtue hast thou no favourite lust that can overdraw him that dares to stand in competition with thy service and the conduct of the Lord Jesus Is the promise of Christ more powerful with thy heart than the performance of the world his absent glory above the present inducements Art thou willing to be paid for thy service in spirituals and if God will to forbear temporals An admirable temper in a Christian The Apostle observes of Abraham and his seed that came out of their own country and found themselves not to be in the possession of the Land of Canaan saith he they might have returned if they would Heb. 11. 15. but that they would not do they embraced the promises that they saw afar off they took Gods pay as he would pay it though he would pay them nothing in this world they would take out the earthly Country in a heavenly and then it follows in ver 16. God was not ashamed to be called their God not ashamed of such a people as stick to him This is to live upon his word as Elshaddi though he be not known to them by his Name Jehovah I did not perform my promises in being to Abraham but he lived upon me as God Almighty as it 's explained in Rom 4. It 's never known what value and price a man sets upon Christ by saying nay to some slight lust or thing which he can easily part with but by that which is peccatum in deliciis our favourite sin our delight be it friend or worldly content or whatsoever else it 's known to be as the usual old saying is The Rabbits skin sticks at the head it cases off from the rest of the body easily but when it comes to the head there it sticks when God and his favour and our own sin stand in competition it sticks not till it is come to that to which he is married to his favourite When Christ tryed the young man that had spoken great things he doth not instance to bid him do this or that for these things saith he I have done but he demandeth the sale of his possessions Go sell all thou hast and come and follow me there his heart was sorrowful for the Text saith He had great possessions that was his master sin and from that I observe that God will try his people let us hang loose to that for in that we shall be soonest tryed Seventhly It seems to me that we are drawn when the withdrawments of Christ or of the Spirit or the light of Gods countenance do draw us more to seeking and pursuit this is a drawing by withdrawment it s the case of many a soul many times Christ withdraws stands behind the door Gods countenance is hidden well mark the effect and use of this withdrawing doth it draw you more eagerly out in pursuance doth this draw you to a more sharp and vehement seeking that shews some touch of the Load stone hath been that you have tasted some of this graciousness of God if so be that you have tasted that the Lord is gracious 1 Pet. 2 3. as an Angler will sometimes pull away the bait to quicken the fish to follow it such are these withdrawments of God from his own people you see an example of it verified in the Church Cant. 5. 6. My beloved had withdrawn himself I sought him She runs out presently after him 8. Lastly When the Name of Christ and the Grace from him and by him received is the strong Argument against sin the strongest motive of duty and obedience the Law of God is a strong obligation but the grace and Mercy of God is the sweetest obligation Stablish me saith David with thy free Spirit Psal 51. with the Spirit of a child so the Apostle gives a notable Argument against sin in 1 Cor. 6. 15. speaking about Fornication Shall I take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot God forbid What 's the genius and strength of the Apostles Argument that a man that is in Christ must consider that himself his body and all the members of his body are the members of Christ shall I prostitute the members of Christ to an harlot God forbid that I should do so so that the possession and title that Christ hath of us is the strongest Argument that can be against sin with a godlyman A Christian hath more Arguments against sin more Motives to obedience than any other man because he is all Christs and all his members as that Text saith are members of Christ he is not his own but the price of anothers blood and therefore let him carry the Name of Christ always in his mind as an excellent Argument against sin So much for the Point Whosoever comes to Christ believing in him doth come by the drawing of God which point would have some Use made of it though the matter all along be useful and practical And first Use 1 How certain those that are elected are of their believing and coming unto Christ by reason of this drawing of God this is a resurrection so it 's called and truly as certain as the resurrection of the body and ordinarily we hold it it certain that there shall be a resurrection of the body it 's as certain that there shall be a resurrection of those that God hath chosen unto Christ though they be for present dead and as the Apostle saith far off nay 't is as certain as the resurrection of Christ when he was dead in the grave and lay under the sins of mankind a terrible great stone to ly under yet he was certain to rise again the third day and the power toward the raising of those that believe is according to the working of the mighty power that wrought in Christ Ephes 1. 18 now it 's said that God loosed the cords of Christs death because it was