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
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
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
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
argument it appears that there is not much love of God in the world or indeed in the Church And this contrariety to God may appear First in that a natural man hath not and cannot have any delight in communion with God and I think he can have no delight in God in Heaven or Earth In Earth he cannot t is an irk some thing They say When will the new Moon be gone and the Sabbath be over that we may set forth wheat and keep our markets Amos 8. 5. weary of communion with God Nay and some say that it is demonstrable that if by supposition an unregerate man were let into Heaven he would not take content there could not possibly have any delight in it proving by this supposition that if one were in heaven that had not this divine grace this likeness with God there would be no delight and content there with him to abide for both the happiness of the place is unproportionable to his sensuality and the holiness of Gods presence communion with him are as unsuitable to him as the glorious light of the Sun unto the eye of an owl which he cannot bear and is no more desirable then pearls that are cast before a swine For things are to be measured not by the excellency of the place it self but by the proportionableness of nature to them And therefore as you desire to find happiness and delight in heaven it self when you die so it concerns you to get your corrupt natures changed and sanctified without which I do verily believe heaven it self would not be heaven unto you Oh what a miserable case doth a corrupt and natural man live in that would not go to torment and perdition and cannot go to heaven and salvation because of the contrariety of his nature Secondly it appears in that a carnal man delights to do that which God hates and prefers it and is not troubled doth not tremble at his offence of God They rejoyce to do evil Pro. 2. 14. And if any of you sometimes find them to be troubled for sin and to be in anguish as it is ordinary it is but out of self-love being affrighted at the punishment and torment being willing to be rid of them for so the Devil is Art thou come to torment us before our time but not at the offence of God except as of a Judge which hath the Law ready in his mouth not of God as a Father which shews their fear to be servile and servile fear hath torment in it which love casts out and not filial and son like which love causes Thirdly it appears in the hatred they express to the Image of God in whomsoever they see it For as he and t is so all the world over from the beginning to the end that was born after the flesh it is not a falling out between man and man for a time but he that was born after the flesh persecuted or despised or mocked him that was born after the spirit Gal. 4. 19. as then so now that as they say the Leopard or Tygre will express their hatred to man even in his picture where they find it they will tear it in hatred unto man you shall find it so in the wicked carnal men of the world whereever they see the Image of God shine forth they will be sure to tear and persecute it and therefore from that it may be certainly concluded that they love not God And this is the contrariety that I charge upon corrupt nature unto God Secondly why a natural man loves not God First this rule may be the reason of it he loves not God at all that loves any thing more then God I think we shall set our selves into a very great strait anon an underlove is accounted none at all a woman would not much account of the loue of a husband if he loved one woman in the world more then her self love will not bear one more He shall leave father and mother saith the Scripture and cleave to his wife How do you think God will esteem and account that love to him if so be your selves or any creature in the world be loved above him or better then him And therefore the love of God then begins to be accounted lovely and reckoned for love when it exceeds all other love It s accounted by the surplussage of it that it hath above life and liberty above the world and all the dear and near things of the world if you account it otherwise you shall be mistaken As you account a thing to be weight if it draw the scale for that that makes one scale weigh down the other that makes the weight so though thou lovest God in many respects yet until it come to surplussage and preponderation God accounts not of it for the greater weight carries down the scale from him for while the scales stand even it is not accounted weight And therefore every natural man that committeth forniâ—ation with the creature and is married to some one or other lust hath no love to God because God is overweighed by it And this Doctrine our Saviour taught in Matth. 10. 37. He that loveth Father Mother son or daughter more then me is not worthy of me And the reason is while God and the creature are in competition while God stands not against us in any lust of ours we know not whether we love God or our selves best but when they come into election then it s seen As while the scales stand upon the Counter there is no sight which end is the weightier but when you take the ballance in hand then you find which preponderates So when you come to particulars either lose this profit or Gods favour while these stand in competition there is no knowledge no sight but when you come to try your hearts and consciences will quickly tell you the ballance doth not tell you which end the gold lies in and which the brass but where the most weight lies Every man tells himself that God is best to be loved and that end hath the gold in it yet the choice of the creature above God shews that there lies most weight and that 's pure interest and lust that takes place with you Thus it is when God is weighed against lust in a natural mans beam and therefore whatever you say in that point look to the election and choise of the heart that chuses the creature before God and shews that God is less esteemed then lust or a natural mans interest Secondly an unregenerate man cannot love God because he can have no assurance that God loves him first for that is a rule 1 John 4. 19. We love him because he loved us first that is to ordain and fashion us unto eternal life the sense and appearance whereof is hidden to a natural man and there must not only be a first love but also the sense and knowledge of it before it beget a reciprocal and answerable
the Holiness the Image of God rises originally from the hate of God himself there is the core of this disease you think if you hate man for the Image of God that is in him that you hate but man but the root of the disease lies in the hatred of God Therefore Christ teaches it John 15. 17. If the world hate you ye know it hated me before it hated you Men are ashamed to see this Fountain but the malice of the Devil shews whence this hatred doth arise Secondly every corrupt man more or less holds the truth of God in unrighteousness and doth as it were keep it under a bushel Rom. 1. 18. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteouss of men that hold the truth in unrighteousness That is that whereas there is a shining light that shines in man he hath common notions of right and wrong this he knows but he will not let it breath out in practice but lets his affections and lusts imprison and dam it up he will not let this light restrain his lusts There is no man living that lives up to his own light he knows more then he will practice and put forth to the glory of God in his place and family and therefore there is wrath to him There is no man in this place let him be never so vile but hath some beams of light Amat lucentem edit arguentem he loves the shining light but hates the reproving and convincing light This also is the sin of the Devil Thirdly this hatred appears in this man is angry that he may not sin impune and do what he will without controll and if he cannot then he fastens his hatred upon God God hath given him grace but he would fain enjoy and serve lusts and pleasures freely and would have impunity not to be punished he would sin and escape sin and be saved sin and be happy this is his temper And if the wrath of God be revealed that he cannot do so then he is carried out to an utter hatred of God himself for if he could he would continue and go on in the height of his iniquity and would not be punished but could wish that God were out of his way If he could disarm his justice he would and therefore he can be content that God give life and being and fuel to maintain his lusts but if he see that God come out to punish then he wishes with all his heart rather that God were not that there were no such inflictor of punishment upon man These are the secret thoughts the eruptions and belchings secret breakings up of hatred that are in the hearts of men to God And if you ask for an instance of it out of man I can give none but the Devil that in all these three steps wishes that God were not And this I have briefly said to shew the enmity of man to God that besides sensual lusts there should be such a poison in his spirit against the holy God which we hear of often in the Scripture the wisdom of the flesh or appetite call it what you will in Rom. 8. 7. is enmity unto God for it is not subject to the law of God let him be never so wise nor indeed can be And in Col. 1. 21. And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works And let no man marvel at it the reason is this the love of God will not stand with any thing that is better loved If any thing be better loved then God is then it turns to hatred Ye adulterers and adulteresses saith the Apostl Jam. 4. 4. meaning worldly men know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God Now if you recollect these two Arguments the Corruption and Contrariety that is in natural man to God and the Enmity that is in him I think you will say the first part is proved That no man can come to Christ by reason uot only of the impotency but the opposition that is in him This in general to the Opposition Serm. 8 NOw I am to go on particulary to handle this Opposition First mans unwillingness to believe and come in to grace offered Secondly his resistance against converting grace that offers it self First then I will shew you the unwillingness of corrupt natural man to accept of grace offered And this is a point wherein the demerit of man and the condemning Justice of God thereupon doth appear without all excuse of mans self without all exception against the Grace of God for what exception can man make against his condemnation that is willing to be condemned what excuse can he make for his unbelief that is unwilling to believe that whereas all creatures in the world do affect that most wherein their happiness doth lie and are infinitely carryed towards it in the persuite whereof no creature can be indifferent yet corrupt sinful man doth not only oppose the commands of God break his bonds asunder and cast his cords away Psal 2. 2. but is also unwilling unto salvation to which he is invited by so many solicitations to which he is drawn by so many powerful arguments and perswasions of the Word of God under the Gospel as are afforded him And this is the point I handle That man naturally is unwilling to be converted to turn to Christ that he may be saved I think you will hardly believe this point But it may justly be said he cannot come because he will not for in John 5. 40. this point is clearly proved You will not come to me that ye may have life And it is the complaint that our Saviour makes over Jerusalem Mat. 13. 37. How often would I have gathered thee and ye would not And in Prov. 1. 24. I have called and ye have refused I have stretched out my hands and none regarded you have set at naught my counsel and would have none of my reproof but have cast my words behind your backs Nay you would have none of me saith God Psal 81. 11. Israel would none of me They that have not heard of salvation offered do not seek it they to whom it hath been offered do neglect it and they to whom it is commended by all commendations they have despised it Conversion is as little beholding to the will of man as to any thing that whereas friends would have their friends and one relation would have another when they know Christ they would have them know Christ also The woman of Samaria called the whole Town out to Christ Conversion is least beholding to the Queen of Faculties as they call the Will of man which is rather the slave of all the rest the Captain of rebellion whereby man is unwilling to his own conversion and faith in Christ Jesus And therefore it is said in 1 Joh. 1. 13. We are born of God regenerate not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of
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
the stroak this teaching of God which teaches you to believe that gives you the particular assurance of salvation And therefore though God have sent Christ yet there are thousands of reprobate and rejected persons in the world It is Christ in you and you in him by Faith that strikes the stroak Seventhly The point of Gods sending Christ affords sweet meditation but the sense of Gods drawing thy soul unto Christ affords sweet consolation In the one thou mayst see the love of God to the world for God so loved the world John 3. 16. By the other thou mayst see his special love to thee concerning which you find it written by the Apostle Gal. 2. 20. He loved me and gave himself for me No man can say this word me until he be drawn unto Christ And when is that may some say that is not my point now to handle yet in brief I answer First When thou art come then thou hast been drawn If thou canst embrace and receive Christ as a Saviour and a Lord then thou hast been drawn Col. 2. 6. And therefore as I may say of the shadow on the Dyal that is gone to another line though you cannot see the motion yet you may conclude it is moved because it is gone to another line So you may certainly conclude that you are gone from the state of nature to the state of grace when there is a reception and embracing of Christ Jesus Secondly When thy enmity and opposition is removed and those things that obstructed thy faith are taken away Gods drawing doth that If there be an inclination to Christ as the chief Good come in place of the aversation that was there before if there be a complacency come in stead of the hardness and antipathy that was there before It is made one of the first signs of grace I will pour out upon them the Spirit of grace and supplication and they shall look on him whom they have pierced and mourn and be in bitterness Zach. 12. 10. spoken of the Jews This is a sign that there is a great change as when light comes into a chamber we conclude that the shutts of the window are removed so when you find a new light a new disposition of the heart to God you may conclude the obstructions are removed and the enmity is taken away So much for the second Corollary drawn from this point Use 3 Thirdly If no man can come to Christ except the Father draw him Hence we may learn how much faith and coming to Christ being both one ver 35. are mistaken in the world the great hinge on which the salvation of man turns It is undertaken and entertained as men think with great easiness and at pleasure performed without any sense or sensible need of Gods drawing without which Christ teaches us that no man can come to him I shall make it appear that this coming to Christ is I will not say hard and difficult for that intimates some possibility of mans performance but that it is altogether unperformable without the assistance of divine power That saying A man may believe in Christ if he will to take in that by the way is true and good if it be taken in a right sense for so the Scripture Rev. 22. 17. Whosoever will let him take the water of life freely But then I must say and I think Reason will go with me that every wish is not a will and every velleity as they call it is not a will set on edge an earnest thirsty will after Christ Jesus He that hath a will wrought by God and the truth is we differ from other men only in this all confess him to be free in believing But man is not made by himself free but the grace of God frees the will of man for if the Son make you free then are you free indeed And no man doth any thing in the world with greater freedom then a willingness to believe when of nilling he is made by God willing as Austin saith such a soul being freed from its servitude to thirst after the righteousness of God is pronounced blessed Matth. 5. 6. We may safely say he hath the seed of faith that hath this will in him But every Balaams wish to die the death of the righteous and every one that saith I will but doth not Matth. 21. 30. this is not reckoned in Scripture to be a will therefore men are as much mistaken in their willing as in their believing The Reasons of the opinion of this easiness of believing are three Reason 1 First The mistaking of Leah for Rachel My meaning is the taking of a Dogmatical for a saving Faith which is the common mistake of the world that live under the Gospel For this is but light oar that lies near day as the Mettalists say though it looks like gold it is not gold It looks like the Faith that saves but it is not it For this as the Apostle saith in another case they willingly know not This is not the Faith that is hard and difficult You must not look to be saved by a Christ without you but by a Christ within you For to be in the Faith and to have Christ in you is all one 2. Cor. 13. 5. As there are that may be called Disciples outwardly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 2. 28. and there are others that Christ calls Disciples indeed or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 really John 8. 31. So there is a Faith that brings forth a profession of Christ as the blade in the stony ground And there is a Faith that brings a man into possession of Christ and that is the Faith Now it is a fatal mistake of many men to reckon themselves in Christ and a state of salvation by a Faith that makes them only Disciples outwardly For even the greatest part of the called are not chosen That Faith must needs be unsaving that is consistent with predominant lusts that encounters not raigning sins For all resistance of sin in a Scripture-phrase is called conquest For in the resistance of it there is as much love seen to God as in the conquest of it though there be not so much power seen That which is the best kind of Faith and saving is that which is most hard difficult and impossible to man The very Faith of Miracles that you read of sometimes in the Scripture is not so hard as saving Faith to come unto and believe in Christ Certainly this is to be known those that came short of saving Faith have yet attained to the Faith of Miracles as Judas and others And therefore let us set these two the Faith which saves and that which saves not in front one against the other and see what the Scripture saith of both And you shall find the drawing power of God affixt to the saving faith but not to the other In John 2. 23. many believed on Christ when they saw the miracles that he did
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
are infrustrably brought home who being left unto themselves neither would nor could have been any more saved than those that do stand out against God for if none so left do come in we may well conclude that all in that case would have stood out as well as these do But here an Objection may be made Object That every man is self-indulgent man must be supposed to love himself and to chuse his own chief good or-salvation and therefore were not his hands tied up for want of power he would not want will but certainly be saved For Answer Answ This goes about to lay the fault on mans non posse not upon his non velle which yet our Saviour affirms Joh. 5. 40. Ye will not come to me c. It 's true God hath linked his Glory and mans chief good or salvation together and so there is a self-love that 's joyned with the love of God for the salvation of man being linked to the Glory of God it follows that there must be self-love joyned with it I mean spiritual self-love self-denying self-love But observe besides this there is a carnal and sensual self-love in all men and that we properly speak of when we speak of self-love that hath the stronger bias of the two and carries us from salvation rather than to it and this is the self-love which prompts us to that by which we are deceived all our life-time pursuing rather what hath the species and colour than what hath the reality of happiness and content And therefore that which is here alledged as a reason why we should all be saved by our own will if so be there were a power because there is self-love in us is rather the reason why no man would be saved there being two self-loves every man naturally following the heavier bias of the two which wheels off to the body to the world and to things speciously good and draws him off from the concernments of his salvation and this self-self-love rather is the cause of mans hate and dislike of God because he assigns and pronounces Judgment to sin which self-self-love loves and tenders salvation in such way as is destructive to carnal self-love But as for that which we call spiritual self-love there goes much Grace to the working of it in man indeed if we had this self-love we should have one of the greatest fruits of supernatural Grace This is not naturally in man himself nor can be until there be an alter ego a new self another self for there are two selfs commonly in every man Not I but sin in me Rom. 7. Not I but Christ lives in me Gal. 2. the one self-love follows the one the other the other which is the stronger and leads a man unto perdition Point 5 Fifthly and lastly Let all Patrons and Advocates of Grace maintain the prevalency of Grace by its own strength and not because of some accessaries that strike in with it at such a time as the tide that strikes in with the wind But my Father draws saith Christ The Jesuites that have a hand in this controversie will tell you That the power of Gods Grace is prevalent may fall out so or so in the event by reason of congruities and seasons fit moods and tempers and perswasions Blanda tempora fandi God speaks to men in a seasonable time Few men say they but may be wrought upon if they be taken by the right eare there are some times of speaking to men when they are in a good mood but otherwise come to speak to them when they are off the hooks in a morose untractable condition as Jonah was in when God said to him Dost thou well to be angry Yea said he I do well to be angry to the death then if you move them with Arguments they prevail not A man so taken may resist the offers of salvation but we hold that the Grace of God is strong by its own strength able to overcome the most morose obstinate cross grain that can be when God intends it to be powerful Maintain therefore the prevalency of Grace not doing as those that will allow Grace to be prevalent in event but it is by reason of advantages that hit at that time as Auxilliaries that come in and get victory this is too little to say of Grace that it stands in need of such helps but it conquers the most cross grained and unwilling heart and therefore the invention is but to disparage and disgrace the Grace of God If you understood these things it would I hope settle you to be firm Advocates of the Grace of God But Secondly The benefits that practical godliness doth reap by the exaltation of Grace First This Doctrine proclaims down pride and advances the cause of humility No men so humble as they that are most sensible of the free grace of God towards them to make them something when they were nothing If thou receive why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received 1 Cor. 4. 7. If you will hold your selves receivers that will pull down your glory for glory is of man that hath not received Secondly It advances thankfulness And these are as the two scales the one up the other down Thankfulness and Humility You have a brave close saying of our Saviour when the Leper came back to give thanks for his cleansing Where are the nine saith he and he that was cleansed and came back was a Samaritan that 's not an idle word the rest were Israelites and took their cleansing to be a courtesie due unto them but this man thinking himself remote and if he were a Saviour yet he was no Saviour to him he was cleansed and came and gave thanks shewing that a man that hath least reason to look for any thing is most thanful Thirdly The sence of Free-Grace hath so great an Obligation to dutie that I wonder any men should preach Free-Grace to loosen the silver Cords of Duty and Obedience the law of God is the strongest and Free-Grace the sweetest tie For the Love of Christ constraineth us that is by bond of Ingenuity Cor. 5. 14. Fourthly Free-Grace is a great Quickener and will not let a man lie stupid and laâ—ie and drowzie so often as he thinks of the Free-Grace of God to him it 's like the Cock that crowes that awakened Peter to his Sence and Tears makes a man that hath tasted that the Lord is Gracious like a drop of oyle on a rusty Spring makes it goe nimbly sweetly and pleasantly The sence of Gods mercy that God pickt him out and made him one that he would convert and that when he had no more propension and likelinesse then another this quickens a man Fifthly It is a strengthener of obedience because it brings a man in all cases to depend upon God as his Center The young men shall faint those proud strong lusty ones of themselves shall faint but they that trust in the Lord they
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
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