Grace put forth in the act of Conversion And for our clearer proceeding therein you must remember That Conversion doth either denote the work of God Converting man and this is Gods drawing or It denotes the action of man thereupon turning and coming in to Christ being thus moved and this is called mans coming in the text both of them make up compleat Conversion the one whereby God turns man and by the other man being wrought upon turns himself to Christ These two are inseparable in time but in order of causality Gods work is first the traction of God is before the coming of man the coming in of the light into a room we use to say expels darkness and plants in light though it be but one motion and one act so there must be the work of God enlightning the mind softning the heart drawing the will before there be a coming of man to God the act of drawing is Gods the act of Conversion or turning is mans God in his act of putting in and drawing forth faith doth not hinder but rather is the cause that the heart of man performs his own act and therefore the act of believing howsoever it be given by God yet being exercised and acted by us is our act for with the heart man believes Rom. 10. 10. as we use to say he that throws the bowl doth nor rowl or turn but the bowl by motion from the hand So when God puts forth this act to convert man the act is mans the act of Faith and Repentance and Conversion but the power and hand whereby the heart is turned that only is the act of God Well then First If we consider conversion as Gods drawing work converting the heart we may safely say The heart in that act doth not make actual resistance much less overcome and defeat the power of Grace which is put forth in believers with exceeding greatness of power according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead there you see the work described in Ephes 1. 19 20. It s true there may at that time and doth lurk a bitter root of proneness in the corrupt heart mark here is the knot and great point to resist the motions of the Spirit for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and this root of habitual perverseness is not wholly and presently eradicate and rooted out by Converting Grace But this we say that Grace doth so powerfully work in the work or act of Conversion it so sweetly plyes the affections the understanding and the will with such drawings and carries the work on with that actual strength that the actual resistance of the heart is tyed up bridled and suspended for that time that it doth not overcome the Grace of God but the Grace of God overcomes the heart by a victorious delight to yeild up it self to God though there be corruption in it it is so suspended as it doth not act I will give it you by this comparison The tyde doth not take from the river an aptness to run downwards to the Sea but so powerfully when it comes in bears the stream back that it cannot take his natural course I need not make application And this may teach all Converts with what measure of admiration and thankfulness to come to God for overcoming bridling and suspending these resistances of your froward hearts for having lived twenty or thirty years in resistance of Grace and keeping it at the staves end and after Conversion resisting Grace and quenching the Spirit so often as you do if God had left you in that act to these resistances you had been lost and undone and therefore that God at such a time should forbid still and quiet these rebellions and resistencies of your heart till he had turned the stream and taken away the stone this is an admirable demonstration of the mercy love and power of his grace to you Of all things wherein God is to be praised this is one that a rebellious man that had so often before time and since resisted grace that at that time when God Converted him he did not leave him to the resistencies of his heart And how would that child had he wit thank his Father for tying him hand and foot that he should not struggle and otherwise he could not do while he was cutting for the stone for the strugling might have prevented the cure When God comes to work upon the heart and man cannot but strive and resist and rebell against grace that God should take away at that time this resistance and bind a man hand and foot and so to overcome him with grace that he cannot resist it Oh the admirable wonderful mercy whereby the Lord makes a difference between his elect and others whom he leaves with the bridle on their necks to run away whether they will for it must be put among Gods promises and mercies when though with some sharpness he hinders us of the use of our liberty in hindring us from finding contentment in our walking contrary to our departure from him as you observe Hos 2. 6. I will hedge up thy way with thorns that thou shalt not find or enjoy thy paths this hedge of thorns is an admirable mercy for which the people of God have cause to bless God all their dayes that keeps them from finding that content in the way of their sins which otherwise they would have done this Converting grace doth so put forth it self in the act of Conversion of every sinner I know not your experiences of it that it subdues the actual resistance of mans heart at that time as the effect of it cannot be frustrated or defeated which teaches us with importunity of Prayer to beg this grace which comes with so much strength as that it bears down the wickedness of our hearts and irresistibly works a saving work Turn thou me and I shall be turned Jer. 31. 18. and draw me and we will run after thee Cant. 1. 3. And that you that have received such grace may magnifie the goodness and power of God towards you in that dispensations The Reasons why Converting Grace doth take away and overcome the resistance of mans heart at the act of Conversion which with great content and profit to the Reader may be given of the point are four Reas 1 First The Grace of Conversion doth not only move the heart to believe but it makes it to believe I speak of the act of Conversion it doth not only suadere but persuadere I cannot distinguish these words in English or this it doth not only stand at the door and knock and call as you would do to awaken them that are asleep within Rev. 3. 20. as exciting grace doth which is indeed a great favour which is resisted by man for to this Grace that knocks and is only pulsant calling and awakening the heart of man we may Ponere obicem put a bar bar the
not let us alone in our distance in our peace in our ease in the pursuit of the pleasures and profits of sin that is a sad and miserable word if spoken by God Let them alone Hos 4. 17. Ephraim is joyned to Idols let him alone When God finds a man joyned to his beloved lusts as Ephraim and the tenne tribes were joyned to the Idols that Jerobeam had set up to keep them from the temple and Jerusalem lest they should soduer and sement again oh miserable when God saies let a man alone in his waies when a mans interest lies in maintaining and keeping of his beloved sins So I gave them up to their own hearts lusts and they walked in their own counsels Psal 81. 12. It is a sinne and a punishment to be given up to the lusts of a mans own heart and to walk in his own counsels men that are thus given up the Lord hath punished them sufficiently men that are awakened and disturbed of their peace and course that find themselves disquieted from their dangerous waies the pillow of Sathan on which they slept securely how often do they mistake God and think that God doth it out of hatred to them when you see plainly that it is in mercy they are caused to tremble and to be troubled that they may have peace wounded that they may be healed the Lord doth as he saith in Hosea 2. 6. Find your own experience in that Text I will make a hedg of thornes about them and they shall not find their path then they shall say I will return to my first husband for it was better with me then then now God moves man by a kind of self-love if a man find it better with him when he is with God then he was before Oh! saith he I will return to my true husband for I am disquieted in this way of sinne this seems to be the way of God as the shepherd le ts loose his dog not upon his sheep to worry them but upon the stray sheep to bring it in again so God le ts loose some temptations inward disquietments on the stray sheep to this end that he may bring him in to his flâ—ck again that he may be saved And as Joseph when his Brethren came into Egypt for Corn spake roughly to them and clapt them into prison because he intended to bring them and himself into better acquaintance such is the way of God in conversion the Lord Jesus out of love disquiets the waters and though he doth not use other men so yet those that are his he frowns upon and le ts loose temptations upon them that he may bring them in when God will not let a man alone in a state of distance under sinful peace it is a good sign as it s said in Deut. 8. 15 16. God led thee through the terrible wildernesse wherein were fierie serpents he fed thee also with Manna he mixed mercy with sorrows manna with fiery Serpents mark to what purpose that he might prove thee and humble thee to do thee good at thy latter end here you see his manner of dealing he leads through the wilderness to do his people good and so many as are thus at first conversion assaulted and buffeted by Sathan pâ—stered with thoughts of blasphemie with outward afflictions its only to disquiet them and to hunt them as the prodigal was by famine out of the farre country to their Father or as Job saith Chap. 33. 17. That God may withdraw man from his purpose and hide pride from man man being pitcht and resolved on some way of sin in defiance to God and the losse of his soul God will withdraw him from his work and hide pride from man But now Object How may it be known and discovered to us that these are the drawings of God when he pursues us with disquietments and troubles and will not let us alone this is a profitable question Answ 1 First by this that God defeats all our contentments in most pleasing sins and makes our waies bitter though we are willing to be licking our lips yet we shall find gall in them and makes the wayes of God more eligible to us Hos 2. 6. She shall seek them but not find them c. and this until she say I will return c. the Lord drops gall into all your hony and contentment wherein before you seemed to have some delight he makes those waies unpleasant and if you have found content in them you shall have so no more Ans 2 Secondly That in the middest of all these troubles and temptations the Lord drops now and then a sweet drop of himself or of Christ into the soul stirring up desires and longings after him Now when the Lord so sweetly mixes this Manna and hony with these buffetings and temptations it 's a sign there are some workings on you the people of God at first conversion usually find now and then some sweet taste though it be but a drop on the Rods end as Jonathans was to inlighten their eyes and draw them after Christ Jesus the one drives the other draws that 's the fourth mark of Gods drawing It 's a great misery to be let lie in the lethargie of Sin Serm. 31 Fifthly We may know by our faith whether we were drawn by God for if that be saving and unfeigned faith it is of his drawing if superficial and dead such as that doth not own such an author for God never marries his Son to a dead soul nor to a dead faith until there be a quickning neither would Christ commit himself to such believers John 2. 24. as he perceived were hollow and fals-hearted and did not receive him in love There is a faith in temporaries hypocrites and common Christians which is not wrought by such power as Christ was raised by as the Apostle tells the Ephesians Chap. 1. 18 Their faith was wrought by the same power that God put forth in Christ when he raised him from the dead But as easily as the History of Alexander or William the Conqueror begets credit in the reader without any divine motion So the report of the Gospel begers a faith which doth arise by the calling of the word not by that which is a calling according to Gods purpose but the faith whereby we are drawn to Christ hath as I may say two faces I crave pardon for the word it looks backward and forward to election as a sign of that to salvation as the cause of that it s a fruit or effect of our election and a certain means of our salvation it bears upon it the mark of them both it alwaies purifies the heart wherein it is being never found in an unregenerate and unrenewed heart It makes the tree good and then the fruit It makes the tree good there is an alteration in the man And then the fruit good there is the product that it brings forth It makes the flax smoak at least
afforded that they may come but no marks that they shall be drawn Serm. 31 Use 3 Thirdly Consider what may be deduced from this point for the advancement of practical Godliness there is no point more copious in its use for the advancement of free grace then this doctrine of Gods powerful working and drawing men to Christ Jesus First It suggests matter of Humility grace is not loose though it be free there is no glorying at all left to us in the matter of our salvation all boasting is taken away by Gods drawing every point that 's profitable is so so far as it advances practical Religion and much of that consists in an humble frame of spirits for as lower grounds are richer and more fruitful then hill tops that see further but are more barren so a man that hath tasted of the tree of knowledge of good and evil may see further and discern more in matters of notion and speculation but the humble soul that hath seen the hand of God working its works in it is more fertile and fruitful to God Secondly It suggests matter of thankfulness for where humility goes before there thankfulness followes after and according to the proportion of the one is the other in 1 Pet. 2. 9. That you should shew forth the praise of him that hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light who were before no people when we come to consider and have these impressions set on our souls that he calls us out of our darkness for darkness is ours into his marvellous light thankfulness arises from this And as light came out of darkness so God hath shined into our hearts the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ Whence came the first light out of darkness where no man could have imagined the light to be so God hath called us out of darkness And Thirdly It calls for fruitfulness in requital of sogreat a grace fruitfulness is as we may say of varnish no colour of it self but sets off and puts a beauty upon other colours Fertillity is the nature of good soyl and men look for fruit from land or tree proportionable to the cost and labour bestowed so doth God expect fruitfulness according to the proportion of his goodness the meditation of this grace quickens the ingenuous heart to obedience when a man hath the sence of his justification that he is reconciled to God by the blood of Christ and that being reconciled we shall be saved by his life as 't is Rom. 5. 9. 10. this puts him on to a high degree of fruitfulness this manures the Tree and therefore in 1 John 4. 19. We love him because he first loved us and 5. chap. 3 vers It 's love that makes the Commandements not grievous Thus you see how it advances practical godliness And as it advances practick godliness so likewise it heightens all the obligations whereby a man can be obliged to God either to be humble thankful or fruitful they are advanced by the sence of the free grace of God Now for the advancement of obligations they are two-fold Such as have strength of Authority in them Or Such as have sweetness and constraint of love in them First obligations of authority are by the law of God For that doth not cease to oblige a believer being a perpetual law that God hath set on man in all states and conditions And then the Free grace of God is an obligation by a constraint of love the love of Christ constrains us in 2 Cor. 5. 14. Because we thus judg or have this sence that if one died for all then all are dead so that the obligation it puts upon you is of love and service above other men God may well expect some singular thing of you as namely first Because he hath drawn thee not others yea haply hath left many for one taken thou art one taken drawn out of the herd marked out for God as I said made to passe under the rod Vobis datum est non illis to you it is given c. not to others Secondly Because he hath drawn us when we withdrew for every man by nature doth withdraw even as a heifer withdrawes and will not be yoked so man withdrawes from the yoak of God from the doctrine from the faith the love and from the acquaintance of Christ Jesus and therefore it s said in Rom. 10. last vers I have stretched out my hands all the day long to a contradicting or withdrawing people Nay he not only draws us out of darkness and nothing but pursues and followes us when we run from him if the Lord should let men alone yea if the elect of God were let alone at first when God begins to draw they would be deserters forsakers and relinquish God you stiff necked people you do alwaies resist the Holy-Ghost but now God still knocks and if man comes not at first God knocks again and this bends mans heart to God that the Lord pursues him with mercy and followes him with loving kindness if God had let him alone he had perish'd but God would not let him have his will to perish Thirdly Because he hath drawn thee no better then others of the same clay saith the text the potter makes the difference not the clay are we better then they the Jew then the Gentile Romans 3. 9. No in no wise and therefore God to shew that there is no difference in man instances in twins that tumbled in a belly Rom. 9 10. Rebecca conceived by one even Isaac c. Nay it may be thou wast one of lower and meaner rank from whom God could not expect so much service so babes have it revealed not the wise Base things of the world are chosen not many noble and great Naaman the Syrian is cleansed and not many lepers in Israel who would think that Rahab the harlot should be named with Abraham in James 2. 25 Fourthly The Lord found thee when thou did'st not seek him he overcame thy opposition and resistance waiting that he might be gracious Isaiah 30. 18. if he had taken thy denyal and let thee alone if he had not overcome the evasions and Tergiversations of thy sturdy spirit by pursuing thee with fresh forces till he had brought every thought within thee into captivity unto the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10. 5. had he not stricken thee down as Paul was until he made thee say Lord what wilt thou have me to do what might have become of thee had he not hedged thee in with thorns and laid mustard on the breast to wean thee from thy sweet sins Lastly When God hath taken this course and won over and made the heart willing then a man accompts his own gain his arguments of confidence his own righteousness all dross and dung for the excellent knowledg of Christ Jesus in Phil. 3. 7 8. when the Lord hath given such a tast and sweetness then a man desires
Secondly Converting grace is Gods own not dispensed to any in a way of Justice but as a giâ—t of Gods meer will and pleasure and who shall call any maâ— to account for the gifts he gives if it were in justice there a man might demand account in Mat. 20. 15. is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own grace is Gods own and therefore is not tyed to accounts so it s argued Job 33. 15. why dost thou strive against the Lord he giveth no account of any of his matters and in respect of this soveraignty of God he hath no other rule to guide his gift of grace but his own will for he hath mercy on whom he will for who hath enjoyned him his way or who can say thou hast wrought iniquity Job 26. 23. therefore let those that from Converting grace do but seek an argument of excusing themselves and disputing with God in silence first ask themselves that question in Rom. 11. 35. who hath given to him first and it shall be given or rendred to him again first let him stand out and say this I have done for God and have given to him and therefore let him be just to render to me again or cease to quarrel Answ 3. Thirdly God doth not give Converting grace to all that have the offer to the end that he may make his grace the more glorious and admirable and his Elect the more thankful and obliged who when they see what the Lord hath done what scandal as it were he hath run himself into in the eyes of the world to greaten his mercy in their eyes how this is denyed to many better then themselves may stand admiring at that whereof no reason out of God and the cabinet of his will can be given If this grace which God hath given and will give to his Elect had been universal I do think I may very well say it must needs have fallen in price because reason teaches us that full markets make cheap commodities and therefore the wrath of God on vessels of wrath doth serve to shew forth his mercy on vessels of mercy Rom. 9. 22. to whom it appears to be riches of glory even by the consideration of Gods wrath upon others let Gods people look themselves in this glass and let them know that grace hath more glory by the property of discriminancy then it could have by universality for if diamonds were as common as Flints and Pebles I think people would not so much wear them on their fingers and so much of the first Premise I come to the second which is what entertainment the offers of grace do find with a natural man and that is opposition and resistance that look as the hard wall reverberates and beats back the ball that 's thrown against it and the harder you throw it the farther it recoils upon you so the hard heart of man by its renitency reacts and repulses the tenders of grace and because this is a point that no man will easily believe that he is a resister of grace therefore I mean to handle it only by opening some placâ—s of Scripture wherein you shall see that God charges this on you and then I shall sum them up into a total First there are two denominations of men that are said to hate the light and to hate Christ John 3. 20. every one that doth evil hates the light and John 15. 18. the world hates me the highest degree of malignity is exprest by hate the two highest and most pretious things Christ and light are hated by men that love their lust by the world that is in the dialect of Christ the not called the unregenerate which shews us the general state of men that are not brought into Christ they hate the light and they hate Christ but yet men will not own it they think not so so Hazael when he was accused by the Prophet that he should rip up women with child and other villanies when he came to be King What saith he am I a dog to do such great wickedness no more do men think this of themselves that they hate Christ or the light It s true the general and toothless light the shining and glistering light of speculation is pleasant that 's not the light which is hated but as the light that comes on sore eyes and causes them to smart is tedious so that light that discovers and convinces of sin and misery by reason thereof and threatens vengance from God for it that you cannot abide for mark the Word they hate the light lest their deeds should be reproved the reproving light is taken very ill they cannot bear that Secondly Those that are in impenitency drunk and asleep in the devils snare do oppose themselves or as the Word signifies are contrarily disposed and affected 2 Tim. 2. 25. Let the Minister instruct in meekness them that oppose themselves And who are these the secure wretched man who being drunk is fallen asleep in the snare of the devil for it is that he may awaken out of drunken sleep unto a sober mind those that lie cross in the way if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth which they disown and disavow and this is their resistance Thirdly The Gospel invitations are slighted by men of worldly spirits and employments whose very callings do call them from the Gospel feast Mat. 22. 1. For till a man be brought to God his imployment his lawful calling in the world makes him to slight the grace of God they were called to the Supper and the farm the oxen the merchandise and the marryed wife hinders their coming this and that other vanity are preferred for though heaven be never so great a thing as indeed it is yet to a man that hath a closer though a petty thing in his heart that hinders his choise of heaven as though the firmament be a great thing yet let a man put a six pence or three pence on his eye and it hinders his sight of heaven because a closer thing lies on his eye so when this world and the things thereof lie close to the heart though petty and mean they bring a contempt and slighting of this converting grace offered in the Word of the Gospel and therefore ver 5. they made light of it and ver 3. they would not come and this is their resistance Fourthly The patient expectation and loving call of God is gain said even by Israel that had the Ordinances of God what good did they they were resisted how is that proved in Rom. 9. ult all the day long the day of that Nation while it was a Nation till it grew night with them have I stretched out my hands to a gainsaying and contradicting people that believe not all day long there is patience have I stretched out my hands a Metaphor taken from a Mother calling her child there is a shew of calling with
to withdraw the offers as indeed he doth so as now after all they reject and hate the truth and are given up and let alone to go on in their lusts as the Lord saith Israel would have none of me therefore I gave them up c. Whence men become hardened in their security to rot and be stupified in their sins and at last come to that which the Scripture calls the worm that never dies in the world to come which above all other things as I conceive grows and breeds out of the neglect of grace offered the refusing and recusancy of the Lords stretched-out hand this this sharpens the teeth of that worm that will bite them the sorest and sting them the worst and upbraid them with this above all the neglect the refusal of grace given or offered Prop. 3 Thirdly Those whom God hath affected with some beginnings of grace he doth not usually desert nor desist to promote them in the way towards Conversion until either by their voluntary neglect or by the repulse of that Initial Grace of God he be by them first forsaken and cast of and this is the mirror of the kindness and mercy of God to poor men that when he hath begun to woo he follows them with kindness and calls not in his Jewels or rings until he be by the party woed denyed and repulsed take the talent from him saith our Saviour but it is not said till the man had hidden it in the ground Matth. 25. 28. and this seems to be given as the reason in Prov. 1. 24. often quoted I have called and ye refused I also will laugh at your destruction and mock when your fear cometh And this is also the reason of Gods forsaking 2 Chron. 24. 20. Because ye have forsaken the Lord he hath also forsaken you And Psalm 81. 11. My people would not hearken to my voice and Israel would none of me so I gave them up c. God may set up a candle or Candlestick to his people or that Nation â—t pleasure It is a work of grace not of justice nor of injustice to deny it but having afforded these means and Ordinances for Conversion it is not ordinary and there is no Scripture teaches that he takes away the aids or subsidiaries of exciting grace or the help given untill he hath been forsaken and there be a voluntary casting of him off untill as the text saith there be no remedy 2 Chron. 36. 16. Oh that the length of the patience and goodness of God might awaken your hearts to take Grace by the Forelock when it is coming towards you because opportunity and season going from you may be bald Prop. 4 Fourthly The Elect whom God hath chosen to salvation for their neglect and undervaluing the motions and excitations of Grace may be justly left and deserted though God doth not deal with them stricto Jure nor finally leave the pursuit of them I speak not of the grace of God in the act of Conversion that is victorious over the heart of man as hath been largely handled before but those overtures those precedaneous workings I now speak of If you consider the Elect of God in the state of grace that is the called even they are often wanting to the grace that is offered there is a great deal of neglect undervaluing and contempt that abounds in them And so for a time in some particulars they are left For a small moment have I forsaken thee I have hid my face from them Isaiah 54. 7 8. So it is said of Hezekiah 2 Chron. 32. 31. God left him to try him that he might know all that was in his heart And My beloved saith she Cant. 5. 6. was withdrawn I sought him but could not find him But this is done in a way of discipline for if the Lord should deal in strict Justice with his elect even for the neglect and resistance of grace after conversion how should they be able to stand before him But much more is this true of them in their natural state they are as opposite as others and therefore they may also be left and so they are but not finally but for Conviction And the Lord I am confident convinces most men before he converts them by giving them such offers as being left to their own management would come to nothing they would see that they have no more power of themselves then others And therefore as an Angler pulls back his bait many times to quicken the appetite of the Fâ—sh to take hold of it so many times God deals For he doth not use to take us short at the first nay and O the goodness of God that doth not he that said Matth 21. 29. I will not afterwards repented and went if we should be taken short at our first refusal all of us should rue it And therefore it is said The Lord of the Vineyard sent servants and he sent other servants and he sent yet again ver 37. which shews that God doth not use to take his people at advantage but sends servants after servants and the Son after that and yet most justly may leave us at the first Prop. 5 Fifthly That such is the special mercy of God and his grace unto the men of his purpose that though they do repulse this enlightning and exciting grace yet he never leaves them fully nor finally but continues to urge and pursue them untill he have subjugated them to his grace and placed them in the state of his Adopted I say those that he means to save that are ordained to life though they have repulsed you know it by your own experience blown out enlightnings and convictions and when they are wounded run to the herd as a wounded Deer to shift off the Arrow yet finally God will not leave them I will cause you saith God speaking to a people rebellious enough to pass under the rod not of correction but of propriety and interest A Metaphor taken from a man telling his sheep out of the Fold with a rod in the morning as they go out And I will bring you into the bond of the Covenant For the Elect of God are as a child if his arm be broken or out of joint he would not have it toucht but let alone so it might have ease Is it not so with us would not we be at ease and quiet Do not we cry and labour that our sores may not be toucht but are better pleased to be left in our security and natural condition yet God will follow us with conviction after conviction breaks our peace that it shall not cement or be soadered Make a thorny hedge about us that we shall not find our path Untill being convict we come to that I will return to God or my first husband for then it was better with me then now The Lord hews them and moulds their hearts till of unwilling he makes them willing and have brought them as those that are
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
in a Castle whose strong hold is beaten down they are forced to surrender to meer mercy upon the Victors own terms So the Lord will force his elect All that the Father hath given to me shall come to me John 6. 37. And do it for thy Name sake for our backslidings are many Jer. 14. 7. This is the word and may be spoken even by the elect of God And if this were not that God should not take the work into his hand he might stretch out his hand all the day long and find little but gainsayings and contradictions no effectual calling could be there would be no such thing as filial adoption the very election of God would be frustrate This was the remnant or end that I had to deliver on this point before I came to the General Uses of all There are two things that follow from what I have now said as two branches from one stemm viz. the Justifying of God and the magnifying of grace the one makes humble the other thanksul for the one Daniel was eminent Dan. 9. 5. To us belongeth confusion for we have rebelled against thee to thee belongeth righteousness The other eminent in Paul 1 Cor. 15. By the grace of God I am that I am Learn these two lessons that are of great use in Practical Religion Humility to justifie God that might have cast you off and laid you aside in the crowd with other men And the magnifying of this grace whereby he hath brought you out in despight of your own stubberness And so much for the opposition of man to grace offered Serm. 16 NOw follow the general Uses of all that hath been said upon the First Point No man can come to me And First Use 1 Hence I commend to you The true Test of sound and Christian Doctrine in this point of mans Conversion That both the Preacher of this point and the Hearer of it may cut by this thred that our Saviour hath set forth in this text And it is this That in the conversion of man the power of God and the freeness of his grace be magnified and the power or causality of man himself bâ— decryed For so the Text No man can come except my Father draw him This is the test But the touchstone that tryes other mettals who shall try it how shall it be made appear that this Doctrine is indeed the true test For that I will give you three Reasons First Because this Doctrine is consonant to the scope of Go Reas 1 spel doctrine which as it suggests matter of glorying to the sinner in himself confounded with shame and lost and never leaves him till it hath brought him to a state of glorying from his nothingness so it places this glorying in God only not self as the compating two places of Scripture doth witness the one is 1 Cor. 1. ult That he that gloryeth may glory in the Lord and Ephes 2. 9. Not of works for this Reason least any man should boast Which two places do shew the scope of Gospel Doctrine And there cannot be a better test of Doctrine then the consonancy of it with the main scope of the Gospel that is with the Analogy of Faith Rom. 12. 6. For if in expounding a particular Scripture a man seem to cut out one part of the garment unproportionable to the body he seems to have mist his measure and as it were to make a monstrous garment For the scope of the Scripture is the measure and test whereby any particular is to be measured therefore this must needs be a good test Reas 2 Secondly Because all the gracious works of God from first to last from election according to purpose to salvation in the Kingdom of heaven I say every one of these works upon and in his Elect to bring them to salvation do all conspire and tend unanimously to this great end the praise of his free and powerful grace Ephes 1. 6. He hath Predestinated and Adopted us that we might be to the praise of the glory of his grace And what are the other attributes of God past by in silence No But grace is like Varnish no colour of it self but serves to set off all other colours Wisdom Power Mercy and Love are included or set out by Grace And therefore the praise of grace is the praise of all for God doth not work for the exaltation of mans power or pride but to the praise of his own grace Reas 3 Thirdly This is a true test Because we find the confessed experience of Gods people avouching and attesting this the experience of Paul that great trumpet of grace 1 Cor. 9. 16. I have nothing to glory of and in 1 Cor. 12. 11. I am nothing For Gods second Church is built as Gods second Temple the second Church give me leave so to say I mean the Gospel Church not by might nor by power but by my spirit And they cry grace grace unto it Zach. 4. 6 7. as that which was called the second Temple was meaner built to outward shew then Solomons Temple and was built not by might nor by power but with much weakness of the people returned from Captivity and opposed of all hands So is the Gospel state of the Church built of a people returned from the captivity of Hell and death not by the might and power of man but by the Spirit of God And therefore he that made the arrogant Answer to that Question the Apostle propounds Who made thee to differ from another saying Ego me ipsum discerno I discriminate my self seems to be mistaken in his own Experience as Christians often are or not to own the confessed experience of Gods Converts as Paul and others that have been humbled out of themselves to acknowledge the free grace of God For I think we shall rarely find a man on his death-bed to be a Papist that is enlightened because then he finds he flies out of himself to Gods alone mercy Nor seldom find a man in point of conversion to be a Pelagian because he acknowledges it to be the Free grace of God that brings him both down and up Down to bring down his pride to throw down his strong holds And Up again by raising him from a state of nothing And therefore as the Apostle John in his time when there were many deceivers gone forth into the world as there are in the dayes wherein we live did give Christians a test or mark by which they might prove the spurious or the true whether they brought sealed measure with their Doctrine yea or no. And that test was the coming of Christ in the flesh for that was then commonly denyed by the spawn of Gnosticks saying If any come to you and bring not this Doctrine receive him not 2 John ver 10. And so most commonly all along in the Scripture where any dangerous error is confuted you shall find in that confutation a test given a touchstone whereby that Doctrine that is