or both truly I think he should answer best that saith faith is actus totius hominis the act of the whole man the mind to know the will to Consent and Embrace the affections to rejoyce in and desire as the Scripture saith faith is seated in the heart all the heart Faith must be a work brought into the heart by the hand of God for if faith should come in by its own forcible entry by opposition man would fight against it at every door or room and therefore it remains that it must come into the heart voluntarily the heart must be made willing and when it is so it sets open every door that it will not fight against any entry It is God that makes the whole soul willing to the entrance of faith into it Reas 7 Seventhly Saving faith always flows or proceeds from a vital principle a dead man performs no act of life and if faith be an act of life then this faith cannot be performed by a man that is dead that is by a natural man dead in sin and therefore he that makes a man to believe in Christ must first out a life into him see the Reason how it hangs together a spiritual dead man can no more put life into himself then a natural dead man this argument proves that Gods drawing a man to Christ is as it were the raising of him from the dead that mans believing in Christ is as much as a resurrection from the dead and proves that Gods drawing must goe before mans coming or believing the passive work of Conversion preceds that which is called active Conversion the one is Gods the act of raising the other is mans the act of turning to God I know not what can be said against it Reas 8 Eightly The greatest opposition that is made to the plantation of grace yet in the heart of man is made to faith temptations are soarest oppositions are strongest against faith because the soul and salvation lies at stake upon it the hinge that salvation hangs on being in this point therefore it hath more opposition by sin and the devil then any other grace I have prayed saith Christ to Peter that thy faith fail not Why not that thy love or thy fear or thy patience fail not because the greatest batteries of the devil are against faith and the taking of that fort would take all and therefore all those considerations that give such weight to faith in order to Salvation do also give weight to the reason I am now upon that a supernatural hand is that which must work and create faith in us Reas 9 Lastly I should as easily and willingly ascribe the whole work of mans conversion and regeneration his new birth and justification all to the power of man dead in sin as I would ascribe thereto faith in or coming unto Christ and so let God sit by as a looker on and behold what a fine thred the will of man spins throughout the whole webb of conversion regeneration and believing and let sinful man be suae fortunae faber the workman of his own fortune as they use to say and where then shall be the commendation and praise of Glorious grace sure there will be the commendation of the will of man and not of the will of God and so all things will come at last result to this which the Serpent said to our first parents ye shall be as Gods if faith and coming to Christ be in the power of man you will be as God for not he that supplies the object of faith but he that supplies the power and act of faith the will and deed to believe sits highest in Glory the Reason is that notwithstanding the object of Faith revealed man might perish but he that gives me the act of believing and makes good that cannot perish but must be saved Let the evidence of these Reasons quiet and settle you upon this point And Serm. 21 Use 1 FIrst Make those men jealous and suspicious of their Faith that find an easie quiet and undisturbed faith that have believed time out of mind as they say ever since they could remember and never had â—â—sence and feeling of this drawing work of God without which faith cannot be wrought It is true I believe that regenerating grace steals into many a one even in their inâ—â—ncy before they can reflect upon themselves for this faith is not known without reflection and before they know who it is that calls Samuel Samuel and they have cause of praise afterward that God marked them for his sheep while they were but Lambs this may be and therefore I will not say that this point ties these men to know or to find out the time of the first working and plantation of faith in them But ordinarily those that are of age do hear the noise or voice of this wind when it blows though it be a secret work and thou knowest not whence it comes nor whither it goes yet they feel a work whereby they are drawn to believe in Christ and in every man ordinarily there are inward bickerings temptations troubles for sin fears all which do make faith hard and thereby as Israel coming out of Aegypt we have more sensible experiments of Gods goodness and power so in the first plantation and further growth of our faith there will be very much all along to teach us this lesson that iâ— is a very hard thing to believe either in God for matters of providence or in Christ for pardon of sin yea and many times after the shaken heart is come to a center the earth-quake may return again especially if we take hold of rotten refuges for it s we that make it hard to believe otherwise they that have a faith dogmatical some righteousness and works of their own to trust to it is to them in their thinking a very easie thing to believe in Christ but its guilt that abates confidence if we our selves did but know our secret guilt it must needs make it hard to us to believe in Christ and yet all that do believe have this guilt staring them in the face but the Goodness truth and freeness of the promise overcomes it Use 2 Secondly If God have drawn thee to Christ and made thee a believer then return and acknowledge to him the Glory Let it ravish thy heart with the love of God for his finger hath been in thy heart whether thou be sensible of it no and to whet and sharpen thy praise let the open sight of thy former unfitness to believe equal to the unfitness of other men and thy equal impotency and opposition to thy own happiness raise the tune of thy praise for a Christian must never lose the sence of his former sins I was a persecuter and injurious and then it follows in 1 Tim. 1. 13. and the grace of the Lord was exceeding abundant to me with faith and love and therefore thou hast reason to kiss that hand
that 's put forth in thy heart to draw and bring thee to Christ Jesus by faith and the reason of this thankfulness is three-fold Reas 1 First Faith is a discriminating grace it makes a difference between man and man to you it is given to them it is not given And if the Philosopher thought himself bound to be thankful to his gods for that he was a Grecian an Athenian a Philosopher this is worth all the bundle of such differences between man and man that God hath drawn thee to Christ savingly to take hold of him by Faith Reas 2 Secondly This Grace of faith is the main condition of the Covenant of life that whereas no man is saved but by being in the Covenant the condition is performed by God as well as the benefit promised faith is the very hinge on which the promise of Salvation turns the center on which it rests Rom. 10. 9. if thou confess with thy mouth and believe with thy heart thou shalt be saved where the Apostle brings in one in perplexity Who shall ascend up to heaven or go down to the deep who shall bring Christ to me why saith he the word is nigh if thou confess c. God might have given thee some other gift and made thee to excel and differ from another 1 Cor. 4. 7. but this makes heaven sure he hath given thee to Christ and Christ to thee Both of these are the gift of God and worthy to be praised Reas 3 Thirdly This faith is a mark and evidence that thou art one chosen of God and ordained to eternal life if there be any this must be chief so that from his faith whereby he is drawn to Christ he may draw an argument of life eternal As many as were ordained to life eternal did believe if from our love to God it may appear that we are called according to purpose Rom. 8. 29. then also from our faith For all that thou hast given to me shall come unto me saith our Saviour Use 3 Thirdly Then let an unbeliever pray for faith But to what purpose may some say let a believer pray in faith let an unbeliever pray for faith I dare not deterr an unregenerate man from the use of prayer happily no promise is made to such prayer nor no acceptance of the prayer as a savoury meat to God our Father but let not foolish disputers dispute you out of prayer for it is a worship of God and we are bound to worship him God calls upon us to make us a new heart that we may call upon him to do it for us the poor infirm and diseased cryed unto Christ for healing in the Gospel and when they came to him certainly they were not all believers and Simon Magus was sent to pray by Peter for forgiveness Acts 8. when you come to hear it is for faith and you then pâ—ay for the work of faith by the word you shew that you are convinc't of sin and that you do acknowledge God to be the Creator of faith And wicked men have greater mercies from God if not by way of Covenant and Promise yet in the way of free bounty and beneficence and therefore let them wait on him that hears the cry of young ravens Bow your knees pour out your prayers that you may come to Christ that he would not leave you to your selves your own emnity and opposition Use 4 Fourthly There appears by comparing things together that there is some admirable secret in this work of believing in and coming to Christ for if you observe there is all the reason in the world why a man should believe there being all arguments and motives of faith in Christ himself there are all manner of invitements and provocations in the word of God and there being some that do believe by such a faith as is under the rate of saving faith what may be the reason that our Saviour yet saith No man can come to me without a divine traction if I should handle these largely perhaps I should not be impertinent but I will be brief First there is all reason that man should come in to Christ Jesus for unless he do so and that sincerely the wrath of God abides on him It comes upon us for any sin but abides upon us for unbelief not that unbelief is the only sin that damns as some do teach in these days If a man be indicted of Felony and found guilty he is condemned for that but the reason why he is sent to execution is because that having the Book he cannot read so is unbelief the great Reason that all other sins are bound upon your backs none of them are pardoned Even as a woman in debt assoon as she takes a husband is no longer to be accounted in debt because all her debts involve him to whom she hath given her self So that very hour assoon as ever you believe you have your sins pardoned as the Israelite stung with a fiery Serpent assoon as ever he lookt up to the Serpent on the pole he recovered or as the Text saith he lived so he that believes is healed of all diseases restored into a state of favour made a Son and Heir of God for present title and all his mortal sins become venial yea not pardonable but pardoned Therefore there is all reason for it Secondly there are all Motives and Arguments for faith in Christ himself There is many a man would be glad of the benefits of Christ that doth not receive Union with Christ himself but marriage you know is not between a man and the dowry but between person and person Men obstruct their own Faith by looking to take rise for it in themselves but there is all in Christ he is the sinners Saviour not sinful Angels but sinful mans therefore no argument lies in sin to discourage thee because thy sin makes thee a due object as the biting of the fiery Serpent made a fit Patient for the Serpent on the Pole and as he is the sinners Saviour so he is the sent and sealed of God commissioned and authorized by him unto this saving work so that God cannot retract his act the promise of salvation to any that believes in him as he is the sent of God we need not doubt him whose anger it was that terrified us so he is freely offered and given to the sinner as a plaister wide enough for every sore being able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him Therefore all Motives are in him Thirdly God invites us by all manner of invitations and provocations to receive Christ And I have shewed and proved to you that he doth call you seriously and not tantalize us with the promise of faith for then he could not say How often would I but you would not The Call whereby God invites men to faith and repentance is serious Fourthly there are many that do believe and that with joy by a faith that is
reprobates one man from another It 's not sending Christ to men but drawing man to Christ that tells men who shall be saved who are elected as God sends Christ to man so he drawes man to Christ as he gives Christ to man so he draws men to Christ and those he gives to him he drawes to him For vers 37. All that the Father gives to me shall come to me and no man can come except the Father draw him therefore all that are given are drawn to Christ Reas 1 First Christ was not written in mans heart at first Christ was not written particularly in the heart of the first Adam but the Law was and therefore there are some remnants of the Law left as fragments of the old writing that were written in the heart of man at first but not a line of Christ in the Book of the Creatures or in the broken Table of mans heart and therefore since nothing of Christ was written in the Heart of natural man he must be revealed or else not known and therefore it s said 2 Tim. 1. 9 10. That Christ hath brought life and Immortality to light by the Gospel being therein revealed so that had there not been a book of Revelation revealing Christ to you Christ had not been known if there had not been a hand of drawing to bring you to Christ you had not come Christ reveales God and God reveales Christ who is a stranger to man till then Reas 2 Reas Secondly Man by nature is opposite to Christ Why he is opposite to the righteousness of another For every man naturally would be saved by his own he is opposite both to Justification Sanctification and Salvation by another and therefore that man may be brought of his natural root and pride whereby he despises and not submits to the righteousness of another Rom. 10. 3. and to be be sanctified and saved by another being full of himselfe It must needs be that except this man be drawn of God he will not he cannot come Reas 3 Thirdly God will not lose those that he hath given to Christ nor Christ lose one that God hath given to him Of all that thou hast given to me I have lost none save the Child of perdition that God might shew his love to Jesus Christ he will draw those that he hath given unto him the Elect of God are as deep in Sin as others are by their own natural condition and if they were not drawn by Gods mighty hand they themselves could not come and therefore the Lord will draw them that his gift to Christ might be maintained and made good there was great power shewn in bringing Israel out of Egypt which was a Type of Gods bringing His Elect out of the slavery of their natural condition wherein they lay the Elect are given to Christ and appointed to be members of him that Christ might not be a head without a body a bodilesse Christ he will bring all his members and plant them into him for the Election of God doth not make a man a member of Christ by his purpose or decree as the Clay appointed to be a Vessel of Honor hath no more form or fashion by the election until it come to working than that which is not so appointed So Gods Electing you to be Members of Christ Jesus is by purpose but Gods fashioning and forming and drawing you into the shape and likenesse of members that makes you so and till this work be you are at as great a difference and lie in as lost a â—â—ndition in your selves as others do Reas 4 Fourthly The following of Christ at that time of the world was so ill a bargain in the sight of flesh and blood in respect of the Crosse that attended him and in all times not only those but these so crosse and thwart is the receiving of Christ to the natural heart of man that it is a work of great Power to bring men to believe for there are three things so opposite and obstructive to mans coming that if he were not drawn by the power of God he would not come First Mans Reason which looks for satisfaction till it be repelled 2 Cor. 10. Secondly Mans Righteousnesse which man beares up and holds as fast as he can for it is his gaine Thirdly The lusts of man that are opposite to the Reign of Christ for he came to destroy the works of the Divel all which make it plain that it requires drawing to bring men to the close profession of him Serm. 25 Observ 3 Thirdly That Gods drawing is nothing opposite to mans Free coming Nor mans Free coming any thing contrary to Gods drawing but both of them do very well stand together for one may say if man do come to Christ freely as he is never more willing then when God is pleased to work upon his heart how is he drawn If he be drawn how doth he come We speak not of a Violent and Compulsorie drawing Ita credimus potentem ut negamus volentem saith Prosper We believe the Power of God fashioning and forming the heart and bringing it unto faith but we deny the work of God to be violent and compulsorie when the Apostle saith the love of Christ constrains us there is a Constraint of love 2 Cor. 5. 14. and therefore dream not of such a drawing which is whether you will or noâ— for there is a powerful constraint by love it selfe we do so believe the love of God to be potent as that we do deny it to be Violent this mans free coming to Christ is nothing contrary to Gods powerful drawing It s said I will draw them with the cords of man with bonds of love Hosea 11. 4. which is not a promise of Ravishment and Compulsion but of a gracious and sweet drawing of the people to him and doth not the Church pray for this drawing Cant. 1. 4. draw me and we will run after thee and do you think that the Church prayes for violence to be used No! the Church prayes for such a drawing of God as may be followed by the voluntary running of men is there any man that knows how strong and sweet this drawing of God is but doth and can pray for it with as great affection as he that sticks fast in the mire will cry for some to help him out because if it be a violence it is pleasing to him to be so drawn and therefore the old word in this point was fortiter suaviter God drawes men unto Christ strongly and sweetly 't is powerful and therefore strong and yet it is not violent but sweet too and is this drawing any thing contrary to mans freedome doth not God know how to work upon the heart of man determining and carrying it out so as shall not prejudice the freedome and inclination of it Cannot the maker of the heart work upon the heart he that turnes the heart as the rivers of water are turned in the
that you believe not few men that believe the one will believe the other they will not believe but that they can believe as if it were an easier matter to believe in Christ then to keep the law that is as if it were easier to obey the Gospel then t is to obey the law and that therefore such an omnipotent power as this divine drawing imports is not necessary to make a sinner believe Now I beseech you consider the Law hath something in you for being once written in the heart of man there do remain some fragments or rubbish if I may use that word in allusion to a building form but of the Gospel there is not a line in the heart of man by nature because it is wholly revealed and therefore it is as impossible by a saving faith to believe in Christ unto salvation as it is for a man to keep the law it 's as easy for a man to love God above self which the law requires as to believe in Christ Jesus with self denial for in both self goeth down to love with all the heart which the law requires is as impossible as to believe with all the heart as the Gospel requires and commands and therefore men are mistaken that think faith is in their power and confesse that obedience to the command is not Obj. But you will say the law requires perfection the Gospel only sincerity therefore the Gospel is easier of the two Answ It s true integrity is required in the law of God for you must not misse a hair if you will be saved that way Cursed is he that continues not in all things that are written in the Book of the Law to do them Gal. 3. 9. But now the Gospel requires only a sincere heart It 's true God in the Gospel is content and pleased with sincerity and mark what the Apostle saith concerning the law It 's a burden intollerable which neither they nor their fathers wâ—re able to bear Act. 15. 10. But Christ saith that his yoke is easy and his burden is light Matth. 11. 30. Here is the difference but to rise out of this estate into which we are plunged now for we must speak of a recovery and rising again this is as hard and difficult as it is for us to keep the law all is one Suppose a man dead lying in the grave bound in the grave-clothes as Lazarus was and a man dead not bound at all but perfectly loose from such impediments is it not all on to put life into either of these two so though there be not a full integrity of the duties required of necessity in the Gospel yeâ— man being dead and to rise recover and come again to a state of salvation and Gods Image it 's all one power that is put forth to raise a man by faith in Christ which is recovering Gospel grace as to set a man in the state of perfection which is the life of Gods Image but indeed this is made possible as I said through grace to believe but to keep the law perfectly is not made possible to us in this life no not by grace God left it under an impossibility called the impossibility of the law Rom. 8. and therefore as the Apostle speaks of that faith that is wrought in those that shall be saved it is wrought by an exceeding hyperbole of power 1 Epes 18. 19. â—he uses such a weight of words the exceeding greatness of his mighty power in them that do believe according to the power that was exercised in Christ when God raised him from the dead now Christ was perfectly dead and lay under the weight of the sinnes of all believers and therefore the power that raised him up was omnipotent and is not this power exemplified in raising you to faith which is a recovering grace except men be pleased to deny that man is not so dead as Christ was that he hath some degree of spiritual life though Christ had no degree of natural life for then he had not been dead as neither we if it be so and I know not why they should deny the same omnipotent power to raise them from being dead in sinnes to come to Christ for to deny the greatness of the power is to deny the degree of the death and therefore I think it to be a good reason for the conclusion of this digression from the privation oâ— defect that is in man to believe and the power that is necessary to relieve that defect and heal that privation to argue the impossibility of faith to a natural man And For that which is said if others of lower form lesse in parts do believe why not Iâ—â— why should not I think my self a believer as well as he or another I reply that in Scripture especially our Saviours doctrine the reason of believing and not believing seems to lie very high and out of sight as they say of the head of Nilus mark and take no offence but let your Reason stoop to God and his Word you believe not because you are not of my sheep John 10. 26. as many as were ordained to eternal life believed as if ordination to eternal life were the original or cause of believing Acts 13. 48. But we shall look only into man himself in whom there is reason enough for his unbelief how can you believe that receive honour one of another John 5. 40. there are so many reasons for unbelief as there are master sins for every master sin as it brings the soul under great guilt so it hinders the soul from coming to Christ Jesus but then what reason in man can there be given for his faith in Christ We see many simple men the Scripture calls them babes believe learned men do not We have read of a thousand converted at the first Sermon they heard as at Peters Sermon And again many hear a thousand Sermons and yet are not believers In short though nature and art in their works require the subject they work upon to be disposed and fitted with capacity else the work is hindred therefore the sun hardens and softens according to the temper of the subject on which it works but God that works this faith if he do not find a subject prepared as indeed he doth not he can make or create faith in most indisposed subjects for Creation requires not so much as matter to work on but works out of nothing as we know which nature cannot do When God works faith in yâ—â— he finds no propension to faith but opposition he finds nothing lesse then nothing in man but he works it I say there is no cause can be given in man why one believes and not another because it is the hand of free and powerful grace that works it in man without finding any propension unto it Reason The reason why these Gospel-graces do require a supernatural strength is this in general Christs dominion in man is begun and carried on first
GODS Drawing AND MANS Coming TO CHRIST Discovered in 32 SERMONS On John 6. 44. With the difference between a true inward Christian and the outward Formalist in three SERMONS On Rom. 2. 28 29. By Mr. RICHARD VINES late Minister of the Gospel at St. Laurence-Jury in London LONDON Printed for Abel Roper at the Sun against St. Dunstans Church in Fleet-street 1662. Good Reader THe great duty of Christianity is Coming to Christ and Christians are described to be those that come to God by him Heb. 7. 25. Now this work is not easily done Nature is averse from it Partly because Believing or Coming to Christ is a mystical duty not evident by natural light but instituted in the Gospel And we usually bid better welcome to our acquaintance than a meer stranger Moralities which are in part engraven upon mans heart go down sooner with us then matters of Faith Partly because Nature affecting a self-sufficiency is loth to be beholding to another and therefore doth not easily submit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 10. 3. to fetch all from Christ As a proud man will rather choose to wear a russet coat of his own than a silken garment of anothers Partly because it is a long time ere we can get men to be serious and to wind soul-affairs and if it be so hard a matter to bring them and themselves together What is it to bring them and Christ together Partly because Christ and the main of his Blessings lie in another in an invisible world and man that is so inchanted with the pleasures of sense and â—iassed with fleshly lusts which are importunate to be pleased with what is visible and present is not easily moved with unseen hopes and induced to deny himself and lay all his affections and interests at the feet of Christ and intirely to consecrate himself to the use and service of God For these and many other reasons man hangs off from Christ and nothing but a divine power can cure this aversness The work of reducing man from his strayings and bringing him to seek his happiness in God through Christ is carryed oâ— among the Divine Persons between the Father Son and Holy Ghost God the Father as a Judge by the spirit of bondage driveth us to Christ as Mediatour and Christ as Mediatour by the spirit of 〈◊〉 bringeth us back again to God as a Father Through him saith the Apostle Eph. 2. 13. we have access by one spirit unto the Father This mysterie is notably unfolded in the present Treatise and if either the weight and importance of the matter being one of the chiefest points in the Christian Religion or the known worth of the Author Mr. Richard Vines a man sufficiently eminent for the graces of the spirit for sound Learning and well-tempered moderation or the accuracy of discussion these Sermons being not the suddain issues of a light spirit but the fruit of grave and mature studies I say if these or any of these be any allective to thee thou wilt find them all in this Treatise that is now put into thy hands And because many pretend to Christ that are none of his there is added another Tract of the difference between a true inward Christian and an outward Formalist necessary to be subjoyned to the former that we may build surely on a sure foundation and not content our selves with a name that we live in Christ when indeed we are dead in sin I commend both to thy serious perusal and the Blessing of the Lords Grace in whom I am Thine in all Christian service Tho. Manton Errata PAge 6. line 22. for derisons read divisions p. 25. l. 10. for to r. no p. 4 â— 9. for as r. not p. 90. l. 28. for gripes r. gropes p. 138. l. 23. for Roâ— r. Luke p. 160. l. 30 blot out alwayes p. 214. l. 9. for mean r. meer p. 23â— l. 21. for volentem r. violentum p. 293. l. 22. r. While he is p. 313. l. 5. foâ— Sodom r. Scdem p. 320. l. 8. blot out to p. 326. l. 17. for is r. in p. 32â— l. 30. after Its add true p. 328. l. 22. r. a man may be full c. Reader THe Name and Memory of the judicious and Learned Author of these Sermons is so precious to me for his great worth and eminent abilities that I cannot but heartily rejoyce in the publication of any of his Labours that are proper and genuine And that these Sermons are such I am confidently assured If thou question the truth of this Come and see do but peruse them their features will shew who was their Father Sic oculos sic ille manus sic or a ferebat I commend them therefore to thy reading and thy self in all thy Christian endeavours to Gods blessing Tho. Jacomb D.D. Reader THough I may suppose that the precious name of Mr. R. Vines will do much in procuring thy estimation and acceptance of this Book yet if it had not a greater excellency I should not commend or tender it to thy perusal Though I have not so exactly read it as to give my judgement of every sentence yet by the general survey which I have made I am able to tell thee that the Doctrine of Conversion is plainly and judiciously here unfolded the necessity and victory of effectual Grace is solidly asserted and the opposition of corrupted nature discovered and in all thou art taught that greatest duty to know God as he is revealed in his infinite Goodness and incomprehensible Mercy to miserable man in and by his Blessed Son our Redeemer and to give him the Glory of his Love and Grace If thou have the Grace thou readest of it must needs be sweet to thee to read of so sweet a thing as the treasures of restoring saving Grace so copiously and clearly opened and to be employed in so high and sweet a work as to labour with all the Saints to comprehend what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledge to be filled with all the fulness of God The happiness of those that study Christ by the conduct of Christ and are strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man that Christ may even dwell in their hearts by Faith and they may be rooted and grounded in Love Eph. 3. 16 17 18 19. But if thou read of Grace with a graceless heart the Learning of the Writer and the clear decision of the several controversies may possibly be acceptable to thee but as for the sweetness of the excellent subject no wonder if thou be a stranger to it It is a pittiful thing to hear some men Learnedly discourse of the Nature and Necessity of Grace and disputing of its Universality and Speciality its sufficiency and efficacy the way of its operations whether Moral or Physical c. that yet never felt the illuminating changing renewing resolving mortifying strengthening or elevating works of Grace
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
these they shall have a form of godliness and deny the power of it That whereas its said of some of the Elements they move to the Center and not from it so I may say in this case a corrupt man alwayes moves towards this Center and moves not from it This self-love begets not a love but a contempt of God as Aquinas and takes the wall of him in every thing for it makes him a servant only to work my own interest and to enjoy my self which is the great Idol of man to which every man naturally burns incense and offers sacrifice and is no more able whatsoever he may pretend to exalt and set up God any further then may stand with self then a current of running water that comes from a Spring is able to run above the height of the Head or Fountain for then it would follow that a heavy body should run above it self Thirdly that the true love of God above self or all other things cannot possibly flow from any other principle but that which is above nature viz. regenerating grace And I take it to be one of the most demonstrative arguments and the first product of saving grace to love God for his holiness and ability to delight in him for himself as the Psalmist saith Delight in the Lord and he shall give thee thy hearts desire This shews that there is planted in the soul a similitude and likeness unto God which likeness is alwayes the cause of love and where this likeness is not it is impossible that the corrupt heart of man should put forth any act of love to God himself And therefore it s a very hard thing to perswade a natural man that he loves not God until he find that grace in himself that shews him plainly that he did not love him before and the reason is because every man living measures his love of God by a false measure For First either he measures the love of God to him by a common goodness of God which as it may stand with Gods hate of him so it may stand with his hate of God and so all that love of God is but a love unto himself because it s sounded meerly in nothing else but common goodness that God vouchsafes to you peradventure in this above other men For as it is said of Abraham He gave all that he had unto Isaac but unto the sons of his Concubines he gave gifts and sent them away Gen. 25. 6. so those that are indeed the beloved of God to them he gives the inheritance of divine grace but as for others he gives them gifts but sends them away from all comfortable presence and enjoyment of communion with him And therefore that 's a false measure to measure the love of God to you by Or Secondly he thinks and will not be beaten off it he loves God because he can say and that truly that God is amiable and to be beloved above all and that the chiefest good and happiness of man is to be found in God and in the enjoyment of him These are fair words But the Schoolmen have a true saying Mans corrupt nature is more corrupt quantum ad appetitum boni then quantum ad cognitionem boni moe out of the way in choise of good then in knowledge of truth And therefore as it is the best way to know whether you love God or no by bringing things to particulars unto choise and unto vote to hic nunc to particulars that stand in competition with God then t is plain with you and alas plain with us all in our natural condition that sensitive interest and sensual profit is chosen and embraced before God as infinite experience sheweth that the poorest and meanest lust or the enjoyment of any creature in the world when it comes to choise shall carry it quite away from God which is a demonstration that this love of God is not in some and doth not preponderate I shall shew you First that an unregenerate man cannot love God Secondly why he cannot love God First He cannot No man until God renew his Image in him can love God for there goes renewing grace to this work to love God above self it s a rare thing very seldom do you find out this corruption Ah I pity you you know not the half of that contrariety that is in every one of you to God In Deut. 30. 6. The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart For there is a foreskin upon the heart of man that must be taken away and that is a natural hardness and indisposition and this sticks upon the very elect of God themselves until they are called according to Gods purpose for they are born uncircumcised and have not this love of God in them but a contrariety and enmity to God Indeed its true they have a love of God towards them while they are in a state of alienation from him and that is called Amor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but not yet Amor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the love of his good pleasure towards them but not a love of complacency and well-pleasedness in them For so the Scripture calls him only that serves Christ in righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Ghost Rom. 14. 18. These are under the well-pleasedness of God only and therefore though the love of his purpose may be toward them yet this of complacency is not in them until they be converted I the Lord will circumcise thy heart to love c. Secondly the effects of alienation from God may be found in every natural man For so in Col. 1. 21. You were sometimes alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works And again in Ephes 4. 18. Being alienated from the life of God You will say this speaks to the Gentils what they were before they came to Christ I grant it but were the Jewes that were Church members as you may seem to be any better Of them Christ saith in John 5. 42. I know you that you have not the love of God in you You may very well think that they would have spit in the face of any that should have said they had not the love of God in them as you may hold any man in defiance that shall say it of you But you know not the enmity and contrariety that is in your hearts to God He proves it by this argument he that hath not true faith in Christ hath not a sincere love of God As men put fallacies to themselves in point of believing so in point of loving And I remember Aquinas goes about to prove that all unbelief arises from the hatred of God when a man traces his unbelief in Christ to the last result of it he shall find it to be the hate of God I would not strain things higher then they are but so far forth as they may give a good demonstration By which
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
upon their souls nor were ever brought by it to a Life of Faith to an hatred of their most secret sins to a predominant Love of God to a superlative esteem of spiritual things and to an Heavenly conversation and that must perish forever for want of that Grace yea for their contempt and hatred of it which they verbally magnified in their preaching and disputes If any subject in Divinity be practical and to be read with holy affection and resolution it is this Remember when thou readest of Grace that the Reader is one that is lost and miserable till Grace recover him and must be beholden to Grace to save him from everlasting wo. Remember that God hath therefore thus wonderfully revealed himself in Love that appearing most Lovely to us he may be most Loved by us and all the beams of his transcendent Goodness may terminate thus upon our hearts and heat them into ascendent flames of Love Read till thou thus Believest and thus Lovest and then thou hast read well And I hope thou wilt find much in these Sermons which may be bellows and fuel for this holy fire Though they are not those exact and elaborate works by which Mr. Vines should be known in his great abilities to the world but such Sermons as he ordinarily preached to his Flock yet if even here thou find not matter to encrease thy tears in the remembrance of those faithful Labourers that sin hath deprived England of thou differest from One of the afflicted servants of the Church Rich. Baxter These Books following are to be sold by Abel Roper at the Sun in Fleet-street ALl Mr. Vines Sermons published by himself collected into one Volume The Papers between his Majesty and the Divines at the Isle of Wight concerning Episcopal Government with Mr. Vines stating his Majesties Concessions Vindiciae Fâ—â—deris A Treatise of the Covenant of God entred into with mankind in the several kinds and degrees of it by Mr. Thomas Blake Minister of the Gospel The Covenant sealed or a Treatise of the Sacraments of both Covenants Polemical and Practical especially of the Sacraments of the Covenant of Grace by Mr. Thomas Blake his vindication of the Birth Priviledge or Covenant-Holiness of Believers and their issue in the time of the Gospel together with the Right of Infants to Baptism Mr. Anthony Burgess his Expository Comment Docâ—â—nal Controversal and Practical upon the whole first chapter of the second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians his Sermon at the Funeral of Mr. Blake Three Sermons of Dr. Tho. Jacombs Bucanus Common Places English A Discourse of the visible Church by Francis Fulwood Minister of the Gospel The Italian Convert or the life of Galeacius Caracciolus his admirable conversion from Popery and forsaking a rich Marquesdom for the Gospels sake St. Augustines Confessions translated into English by Dr. Watts Reynolds Celestial Amities or the souls sighing for the love of her Saviour his benefits of Afflictions his Advice against Libertinism his Eternity weighed with temporal and fading things of this world Iosephus History of the Iews fol. The works of Mr. William Perkins first Vol. fol. Dr. Fulk on the Rhemist Testament fol. The Temple of Solomon pourtrayed by light of Scripture by Samuel Lee fol. The Story of Stories in a Harmony of the four Evangelists octavo Gods Drawing AND Mans Coming to Christ JOHN 6. 44. No man cometh to me except my Father which hath sent me draw him Serm. 1 THis Text speaks plainly and fully enough to the point of mans Conversion for coming in to Christ upon his Call which is the phrase used in the Text. and Conversion unto God differ not but in sound of words which amount unto one and the same meaning The Philosopher in his Dialect would call this Conversion or this Coming unto Christ a motion not local from place to place but transitive from Term to Term for there are two Terms of every motion And the Evangelist according to Scripture expresses the terms of this motion diversly but denoting the same thing From darkness to light saith the Text Acts 26 18. And from the power of Satan unto God The Design that I have in my eye is to Treat of the point of Conversion not pretending to accurateness and curiositie anxiously inquiring after the method or manner of Gods working But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and practically to handle this point unto you For as thou knowest not what is the way of the Spirit or how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with Child so thou knowest not the works of God Eccles 11. 5. nor all the particulars of the methods and wayes wherein God works in the Conversion or Creation of this New man This Conversion sometimes denotes the potent and immediate work of God renewing and converting and this is called in my Text Gods drawing of a man to Christ in these words Except my Father draw him Sometimes it denotes the action of man converting himself to God by the Faith and Repentance which he doth receive from God and this my Text calls mans Coming unto Christ when he is called in that phrase No man can come to me except In time these two can hardly be distinguisht but in order of causality they are easie to be distinguished one from another I mean Gods work converting or drawing man and mans action converting and coming unto Christ The act of man in coming to Christ that 's not first but the work of God drawing in to Christ that is first and the act of mans coming must needs follow as the Sun must of necessitie first shine upon the wall before the wall can give or reflect light or heat from it self back again Facti sumus opus Dei We are first made the works or workmanship of God there is Gods drawing Then Facimus opera Dei we do the work of God or walk in the works of God which he hath ordained that we should walk in them Ephes 2. 10. There is our coming That you may clearly look into every corner of this Text you shall observe here two things First the doctrine that is here taught by our Saviour Secondly the reason of his teaching it at this time The Doctrine here laid forth consists in these three things First the magnifying of the work of God in mans Conversion to raise up your praises thanksgivings to God by whom you are what you are for to his Power and Grace our Saviour Christ assigns the only or the principal part of it and that 's exprest in the work of Gods drawing a man to Christ Therefore this Doctrine is not spoken in a simple form he doth not say in plain words My Father draws man unto me but it s spoken in an exceptive or exclusive form of words excluding mans power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 except my Father draws no man comes to me So that without the divine traction there is not an ability or power in man to come
And so much for this Point That it is not in the natural power of man to believe Serm. 6 IF you please to keep in mind the order and method of handling this Point No man can come to me you may remember I propounded to handle these two things the impotency of natural and corrupt man and the repugnancy and opposition of him The impotency or disability of man was first in general to his own conversion in particular to his coming in to Christ which is the particular in the Text And having done with the Impotency or Adunamy of man which is a privative thing I now come to that which is positive and hath more of ths will in it though as I shewed it was a moral impotency The opposition to this work which will shew you that corrupt man is by his own will oppositely carried towards God And this point as the former speaks generally to the opposition that there is in man to God or to the holiness of God in two things First his contrariety Secondly his enmity to the holiness of God or his Law And it speaks particularly to the opposition that corrupt man doth make to Christ or the grace of Christ that is offered in the Gospel And that also in two things First his averseness to come and Secondly his resistance of grace when it s offered to him In which four steps this opposition may be handled and manifestly seen shewing you thereby what a miserable thing a natural man is being in statu belli in a state of war and hostility against the great God his Law his Grace and consequently an enemy and opposite to his own happiness And this point shall be opened to you to this end to vilifie and depress the pretended pride or worthiness of man and to exalt the freeness and power of Gods grace in the salvation of man For there are two eminent things in that Doctrine that you call the free grace of God Freeness and power First the contrariety of man in the state of corruption unto the nature of God is palpable and may be felt and so indeed had need to be rather then only taught And it is this Contrariety to God that renders the natural condition of man most deplorable and is a very good argument as there is any to prove that David in that confession of his in the 51 Psal did intend the confession of his own sin and not the sin of his Mother I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my Mother warm me For he went backward from his own trasient and actual sins to the original and root of his malady and aggravated his sin by this contrariety to God which saith no more then that expression of Paul Rom. 7. Sin that dwells in me or haply that in Isa 48. 8. Thou wast called a transgressor from the womb And concerning this contrariety of man to God so deplored I shew you these three things in general First this Contrariety to God is not acquired or gotten by iteration of acts and actual sins but is innate and bred in nature As the strings of an instrument are out of tune before you play upon them and they sound harshly to you so is the heart of man the faculties there are vitiated but not quite blotted out but all the strings are out of tune before they come to be actuated For they have a good saying in the Schools and t is true First the person viz. Adam infected mans nature but now the nature infects the person so that there is this contrariety of man to God by nature For Secondly the Image of God in man was before this contrariety in corrupted nature but this contrariety to God is now before the Image of God restored to man therefore it s said Ephes 5. 8. Ye were sometimes darkness but now are light And Ye were dead in sins but now are quickened Ephes 2. 1. Ye were the servants of sin but now ye are made free from sin Rom. 6. 17. that look as life and death servitude and freedom light and darkness are contraries one to another So are exprest the state of Nature and the state of Grace Thirdly there are in sin say the Schools two parts the first mans aversion or turning from God the second mans conversion or turning to himself or the creature The one of these hath more of sensuality and self the other bewrays more Contrariety to God But to come more particularly to the point This contrariety shews it self in this that an unregenerate man cannot by any principle that is in nature love God above all things or above himself which thing if well minded may let you in to see spiritual wickedness and not only carnal and sensual self may love God as a benefactor or as a servant to his own ends whom he may make use of to gain by and live upon Call this love of God if you will but such a man doth uti Deo ut fruatur mundâ— uses God that he may enjoy the world A Merchant may traffique and commerce with an enemy whom he hates so you may converse with God whom you hate in your hearts meerly to get by him and for matter of advantage This love of God is not amor amicitiae a love of friendship but concupiscentiae a love of lust to gain by God a love of parasytism and flattery and self-love of God Concerning which self-love I say particularly thus much First that every man by nature is brim-ful of inordinate self-love I call it inordinate self-love for there is a subordinate self-love which neither can nor ought to be put off God having linked together his own glory and mans happiness in himself For the chief end of man is to please God and enjoy him Moses in denying of himself to please God had an eye to the recompence of reward But that 's inordinate self love when a man seeks God in order to his own ends and neglecting his holiness which it is impossible a corrupt man should love only serves himself upon God and makes use of him in prayer or otherwise for his private interest either ut prosit or ne noceat that God may profit him and keep him in health or wealth or that God may not hurt him and lay judgements torments and plagues upon him as the love of a whore is for hire This is that inordinate self-love that a man hath to himself because he sets himself above God as making himself the end and God the means to attain that end Secondly this Self-love with the branches of it which are very many self-seeking self-pleasing self-ayming c. is the root and mother of all sin And therefore when the Apostle makes you a catalogue of sin he sets this in the front in 2 Tim. 3. 3. Men shall be lovers of their own selves And then they shall be filled with all politick sins and all sins of private interests and above all this and more then
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
Grace put forth in the act of Conversion And for our clearer proceeding therein you must remember That Conversion doth either denote the work of God Converting man and this is Gods drawing or It denotes the action of man thereupon turning and coming in to Christ being thus moved and this is called mans coming in the text both of them make up compleat Conversion the one whereby God turns man and by the other man being wrought upon turns himself to Christ These two are inseparable in time but in order of causality Gods work is first the traction of God is before the coming of man the coming in of the light into a room we use to say expels darkness and plants in light though it be but one motion and one act so there must be the work of God enlightning the mind softning the heart drawing the will before there be a coming of man to God the act of drawing is Gods the act of Conversion or turning is mans God in his act of putting in and drawing forth faith doth not hinder but rather is the cause that the heart of man performs his own act and therefore the act of believing howsoever it be given by God yet being exercised and acted by us is our act for with the heart man believes Rom. 10. 10. as we use to say he that throws the bowl doth nor rowl or turn but the bowl by motion from the hand So when God puts forth this act to convert man the act is mans the act of Faith and Repentance and Conversion but the power and hand whereby the heart is turned that only is the act of God Well then First If we consider conversion as Gods drawing work converting the heart we may safely say The heart in that act doth not make actual resistance much less overcome and defeat the power of Grace which is put forth in believers with exceeding greatness of power according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead there you see the work described in Ephes 1. 19 20. It s true there may at that time and doth lurk a bitter root of proneness in the corrupt heart mark here is the knot and great point to resist the motions of the Spirit for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and this root of habitual perverseness is not wholly and presently eradicate and rooted out by Converting Grace But this we say that Grace doth so powerfully work in the work or act of Conversion it so sweetly plyes the affections the understanding and the will with such drawings and carries the work on with that actual strength that the actual resistance of the heart is tyed up bridled and suspended for that time that it doth not overcome the Grace of God but the Grace of God overcomes the heart by a victorious delight to yeild up it self to God though there be corruption in it it is so suspended as it doth not act I will give it you by this comparison The tyde doth not take from the river an aptness to run downwards to the Sea but so powerfully when it comes in bears the stream back that it cannot take his natural course I need not make application And this may teach all Converts with what measure of admiration and thankfulness to come to God for overcoming bridling and suspending these resistances of your froward hearts for having lived twenty or thirty years in resistance of Grace and keeping it at the staves end and after Conversion resisting Grace and quenching the Spirit so often as you do if God had left you in that act to these resistances you had been lost and undone and therefore that God at such a time should forbid still and quiet these rebellions and resistencies of your heart till he had turned the stream and taken away the stone this is an admirable demonstration of the mercy love and power of his grace to you Of all things wherein God is to be praised this is one that a rebellious man that had so often before time and since resisted grace that at that time when God Converted him he did not leave him to the resistencies of his heart And how would that child had he wit thank his Father for tying him hand and foot that he should not struggle and otherwise he could not do while he was cutting for the stone for the strugling might have prevented the cure When God comes to work upon the heart and man cannot but strive and resist and rebell against grace that God should take away at that time this resistance and bind a man hand and foot and so to overcome him with grace that he cannot resist it Oh the admirable wonderful mercy whereby the Lord makes a difference between his elect and others whom he leaves with the bridle on their necks to run away whether they will for it must be put among Gods promises and mercies when though with some sharpness he hinders us of the use of our liberty in hindring us from finding contentment in our walking contrary to our departure from him as you observe Hos 2. 6. I will hedge up thy way with thorns that thou shalt not find or enjoy thy paths this hedge of thorns is an admirable mercy for which the people of God have cause to bless God all their dayes that keeps them from finding that content in the way of their sins which otherwise they would have done this Converting grace doth so put forth it self in the act of Conversion of every sinner I know not your experiences of it that it subdues the actual resistance of mans heart at that time as the effect of it cannot be frustrated or defeated which teaches us with importunity of Prayer to beg this grace which comes with so much strength as that it bears down the wickedness of our hearts and irresistibly works a saving work Turn thou me and I shall be turned Jer. 31. 18. and draw me and we will run after thee Cant. 1. 3. And that you that have received such grace may magnifie the goodness and power of God towards you in that dispensations The Reasons why Converting Grace doth take away and overcome the resistance of mans heart at the act of Conversion which with great content and profit to the Reader may be given of the point are four Reas 1 First The Grace of Conversion doth not only move the heart to believe but it makes it to believe I speak of the act of Conversion it doth not only suadere but persuadere I cannot distinguish these words in English or this it doth not only stand at the door and knock and call as you would do to awaken them that are asleep within Rev. 3. 20. as exciting grace doth which is indeed a great favour which is resisted by man for to this Grace that knocks and is only pulsant calling and awakening the heart of man we may Ponere obicem put a bar bar the
affection and yet the proud and self-righteous people were gainsaying and contradicting thi◠was their resistance as long as Gods patience and do not you find this in your own hearts how often have you gainsaid and contradicted the God of heaven Fifthly The counsels invitations and reproofs of Wisdom i.e. of Christ are not regarded in Prov. 1. 24. a terrible place I have called and ye refused stretched out my hands and no man regarded ye have despised all my counsel and set at nought all my reproof or hated my reproof and the◠he proceeds to tell them how bitterly he will go out against them here is calling stretching out of hands counsel reproof and they all refused not regarded despised hated I think this amounts to the point of resistance Sixthly The Holy Ghost is resisted in Acts 7. 51. ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised ye do alwayes resist the Holy Ghost but how doth this stand with the former point that the Spirit of God in the point of Conversion cannot be resisted I answer The clear meaning of this phrase is the Holy Ghost speaking in the Prophets you have resisted the Holy Ghost speaking and testifying to you in the Prophets as if he had said the Holy Ghost speaking in the ministry and calling by the Word of the Gospel that 's it you have resisted for it s not meant of the renewing Spirit in the heart but of the Spirit testifying in the Prophets ye uncircumcised and stiff-necked like a Bullock of a hard neck that will take no yoke and uncircumcised that is hard and obstinate against God you do alway resist the Holy Ghost this was their resistance from whence you learn that there is a natural hardness of heart an obstinate neck that is the cause of mans resistance of the Holy Ghost both speaking in the Word and knocking at the door and exciting with motions the heart to believe all is in vain for it is but as knocking at a dead mans door or at a guilty persons door that will put more bars when one knocks so when God knocks and layes siege to mans heart there is made the greater opposition Seventhly Men that refuse to submit to the way of Salvation by God appointed are said to reject the counsel of God against themselves 〈◊〉 7. 30. speaking of some that came not in to the Baptism of John some read it Towards themselves the counsel of God towards them for their good or the counsel of God against themselves that is to their own hurt and prejudice in that they would not be baptized by Johns Ministry to the profession of the Lord Jesus people that will not come in to the Ordinances of God they reject the counsel of God against themselves to their own hurt this is through resistance Lastly Take a full measure of the height or this opposition there can be no higher expressions then those in Heb. 10. 29. to tread under foot the Son of God to account the blood of the Covenant an unholy or common thing and do despight to the Spirit of grace but who doth this are there such monsters in the world such miscreants as do this yes saith he that there is and who are they such as have been sanctified that is called into Christianity that 's the plain meaning and the word in the text reaches no farther separate from heathenish Idolatry and pollution to come to and profess the name of Christ and so have been sanctified and I take those in Heb. 6. 4. 5. to be the same men with these there it s said they were enlightned and tasted they were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and yet they fell here you find men sanctified to tread under foot the Son of God there is a double apostacy a simple apostacy called a stealing or a shrinking away from the profession of Religion And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a venome apostacy falling away with despight against Religion or Christ that in Heb. 6. speaks of the former this in Heb. 10. of the latter and what doth God construe their action to be a treading of the Son of God under foot and offering despight to the Spirit In all these particulars I have held my self to the New Testament and the words of Christ in it and now as I said that we have particularly pondred the words of Scripture in this point let us sum them up together here is hating opposing ones self slighting refusing resisting the holy Spirit rejecting the counsel of God and treding under foot the Son of God which fully amount to a resistance of the offers of grace Serm. 13 I Know it is a hard thing to convince any man of this therefore I have used Scripture words Gods language that we may not flatter our selves and that men may see there is more poyson in their hearts then they are aware of or will own I know what it is that usually blinds men that they will not own these expressions of Scripture to belong to them for who will call himself an opposer of grace offered a resister of the Holy Ghost and that is because you confess your selves to be glad of the tydings of the Gospel of remission of sin and deliverance from hell and you delight to hear of Salvation as it is generally conceived to be a state of happiness not as it is a state of holiness and communion with God and in any extremity agony and death into which you fall you pretend to have some desires of grace as a bridge unto Salvation or at least seem to magnifie it much in words these things seem to be an argument to you that you are not resisters and neglecters of this saving grace but you may well remember that the foolish Virgins knocked at the door and cryed Lord Lord open unto us and the stony ground heard and believed the Word of the Gospel with a kind of joy And there is not the veryest coward in the world but will take hold of a swords point to save his life and to pluck him out of the water the Gospel as it is interpreted and looked upon by the eye of self-self-love seems very attractive of the desire of man towards it so long as he may serve himself and his own advantage upon it namely to live in sin and to his sin and yet be saved at last when he can sin no more so long there is no carnal heart will resist and make opposition but all this may stand with hate of Christ and Grace for till a mans heart be thus moulded and tempered by God as to affect Grace for reconciliation and for conversion that so you may be Gods as well as have him yours so as to live to him as well as have Christ dye for you till then there is little but fallacy and falshood in you the man that thrust in at the marriage feast who came to fill his belly with good chear not for the honour of the bridegroom was cast out speechless
faith and repentance but God requires not the performance of the conditions by mans own power for therefore the Covenant is altered from Do this and live unto Believe in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved they are both exprest Rom. 10. 5 9. because man fallen man could not abide such a condition of life as must rest upon his own power to performance which was before possible to him while he stood in integrity but now is impossible to him in sin this objection may be further pursued and then I confess you make a hard knot of it Obj. Still it seems the condition continues impossible for man by a natural power cannot perform personal and perfect obedience neither can he believe neither keep the law nor obey the Gospel neither perform the condition of works nor yet of Faith and what are we then the better Answ You must distinguish between a natural power and a power restored by grace as to the natural power there is no more in man to believe in Christ then to perform the law to a natural power both these conditions are impossible let me not offend you in words for to Do this and live you do not pretend to but to Believe and come to Christ that you say you can But the text saith no man can come to me Oh that you could but feel this impotency in your selves but then the power restored is a power to believe in Christ which is not restored to keep the law of works but unfeignedly to believe in and love Christ and this power is given by the drawing of God to all that do indeed come to Christ those that are not drawn do not come all that come are drawn and impowred to believe Gods drawing and mans coming are both of one latitude one measure one extent as many as the Lord works upon and draws they do come ver 45. And those that are not drawn do not come ver 44. and this I call the restored power not restored to man to keep the Law but to believe in and receive Christ Jesus And so the power to perform the condition of the Covenant is a restored power but to perform the condition of the Covenant of works there is no power restored therefore Austin saith God will not that it should pertain but only to his Grace that man should come to him that being come he should not recede from him And that God would not have the condition of this Covenant to be built on mans power of performance I prove by three Reasons Reas 1 First God is pleased that his promise or Covenant should be sure to all the seed Rom. 4. 16. Therefore it is of faith that it may be by grace to the end that the promise might be sure to all the seed not to all the world but to all the seed and how unsure it had been if it had stood and bottomed on man the experience of the first man Adam doth teach who though in his integrity made shipwrack of all by defection from it much more may be said of man under sin were he not supported by the power of a better prop the Mediatour God will have it sure to all the seed And therefore will not establish it on the works of man because he betrayed it and brought shipwrack on it at first and there shall come a shipwrack on it no more Reas 2 Secondly God doth not expect that the conditions should be performed by man only calls for it as a duty that I owe but not as standing in my power But God makes promises of the very conditions which he requires not of the benefits of the Covenant only but of the graces of it that they may keep it Mark the promises of the Covenant I will put my Law into their hearts and write it in their minds and they shall all know me Heb. 8. 10 11. I will put my fear into their hearts that they shall not depart from me Jer. 32. 40. I will will put my spirit within them and cause them to walk in my statutes Ezek. 36. 27. I will take away a heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh Ezek. 11. 19. And who will say that these promises are built on any conditions in man Reas 3 Thirdly Because of this Covenant Christ is surety which in the first Covenant was not If we deal with a poor or suspected man we lie hard at him for a surety happily we will take a rich mans word Though there was no surety of the first Covenant for Adam had none yet now there is a surety given that must stand at stake and therefor it is said God hath made him a Mediator of a better Covenant Heb. 7. 22. and this surety-ship of Christ shews that man is not to be trusted but upon surety And what undertaking Christ performs may be seen in his account he makes of his sheep John 17. 8. I have manifested thy word unto them and they have received it and have known that I came out from thee And believed that thou hast sent me this is an excellent undertaker and a good Accountant for his sheep not one of them is lost they have received thy word they have believed A rare comfort for all that are Christs they are undertaken for Christ is accountable for them to God 7. Lastly Since the glory of God is thus kept intire that all things are of him through him to him Rom. 11. ult and that rectum est index sui obliqui the right line is index of it self and the oblique or Crooked Let whatsoever doctrine that makes not all to be of him through him and unto him be hence confuted by this excellent test as First That which makes man a beginner of Conversion and God a helper of those beginnings that affirms assisting but not preventing Grace that which makes grace the nurse not the mother that brings forth a crutch for the lame but not life to quicken the dead that which makes God the finisher but not the author of Faith this is not Scripture doctrine this makes not all to be of him Secondly That which affirms that though there be no merit in Justification yet there is a power in man for Sanctification because it deals unequally with a long arm and a short one allows no merit and yet assumes a power that sounds not well neither yet this is a thought that is in many a mans heart Oh that God would pardon me and for walking with God let me alone Oh that God would forgive me my sins and I le cleanse my self I le live to God you will not assume the merit of Justification but you may not set your power in the place of the spirit of God in point of sanctification no more then merit in place of the Lord Jesus for Justification for in Psal 103. he forgives all thy sin and heals all thy disease ver 3. where in one verse you may see both
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