you of sin and the danger of a natural condition it was mine own condition once and whether I have yet fully passed it I have much cause to fear I find my heart so carnal sold under sin Others of you may have some early glimmerings of the spirit dawning upon your souls The Lord cause the sun of righteousness to rise upon you with healing under his wings and bring your bloomings and buddings to ripeness and maturity Some others may have a through work of grace upon their hearts the Lord make such thankful for it is an inestimable mercy and keep their feet that they fall not Various are your conditions in regard of temporals and spirituals various are your relations to and acquaintance with me whatsoever the one or the other be let nothing be a bar to keep you from accepting the counsel of the holy Ghost which is sent in love let it therefore be so taken I would not these things should be a witness against you or me another day The Lord therefore for his Christ's sake so sanctifie these truths to us and us by these truths that we may all attain to grace and increase thereof to the comfort of our own souls to the praise and glory of God by Christ So prays Your dayly Orator at the throne of grace J. V. The Epistle to the READER Christian Reader THou mayst wonder to see me add to the pile and heap of books Not glory nor gain unless of God of souls though my heart be very evil and have the seeds of all sin in it are the wheels on which I move in this labour Not affectation but affection to my heavenly Father to my earthly Friends put me on to this Some years since in my publike preaching I went through the chief heads in Divinity and when I came to this of Effectual Calling I insisted the longer upon it because it was very practical and of great concernment I found it then making some impression I hope it may do so now if but one soul be thereby turned in to the Lord it is worth my pains though a thousand times more I was desirous to communicate it to my friends to whom I dedicated for their good if the Lord be pleased to bless it It had been a weary task to have transcribed many copies I was resolved therefore to take the shortest cut It is a complaint that the Press is oppressed and not without cause yet much Printing I think is no more to be indicted then much Preaching if so be the matter be sound and savoury That feminine toleration that Midwives so many spurious births into the world and that licentious liberty whereby any one and any thing may preach and be preached are well worthy of censure and sharp animadversions it is hard to say which more Much reading is a weariness to the flesh and so may much hearing yet if either be rendred under God a means of conviction and conversion to the spirit it is no matter Daniel got knowledge of things of concernment by books Dan. 9. 2. I see the Lord owneth and blesseth reading as well as hearing printing as well as preaching though of all means of grace I take preaching to be the King Mine own soul through the mercy of God for ever blessed be his name hath received some good if it be not presumption to say so that way as well as by the preaching of the word and though this be drawn up by a weak worthless creature yet God I see sometimes makes use of and blesseth a wooden as well as a golden instrument And though hereby I expose my self who am weak to the acute judgement of parted and learned men yet I weigh it not if but one soul may be gained and brought in to God by this service as I hope there shall and the Lord raiseth mine heart to some comfortable expectation thereof What a rejoycing would it be to me if my poor labours might tend to the enlargement of my soveraigns Kingdom Reader I shall no further apologize for or give an account of this undertaking though more might be said I desire thine earnest prayers that while I give these counsels and cautions to others my self may not be a cast-away as thou hast mine If thou be a sinner the Lord conform thee to his will if a Saint the Lord confirm thee in his ways The Lord be with thy spirit and his who is Thine as he hopes for thy souls good J. V. Imprimatur Edmund Calamy A SURVEY OF EFFECTUAL CALLING THE FIRST PART CHAP. I 8. Rom. 30. vers the begin Moreover whom he did Predestinate them he also called IN the first part of this Chapter Paul endeavours to comfort the Roman Saints against the Remainders of sin yet with this proviso and caution that they remain not in sin In this Second Part which begins at the seventeenth Verse he Sect. 1 prescribes an antidote to fortify their Spirits against adversity which is made up of many ingredients the last whereof though not the least is in the 28. vers viz. that God like a skilful Chymist will extract good out of evil and by his wise disposing cause advantage to grow upon the stalk of affliction which is proved in the two next Verses because nothing can break that Golden Chain wherein foreknowledge Predestination Vocation c. are Cohaerence linked together so that the words which I have pitched upon fall out to be the middle linke of this Chain which reacheth from Eternity to Eternity viz. from fore-knowledge and Predestination to Glory For the opening of the words Predestination Explication is a fore-ordaining or appointing even from Eternity in reference to the reasonable Sect. 2 Creature and is sometimes taken largely so as the twins of Election and reprobation lye in the Womb of it and sometimes strictly and synecdochically that it and Election are identified and so is it here used Them hath he called We know what it is to call to or upon another to do this or that so God calls them to Sanctity obedience conformity to his will yet so it is to be understood that he opens their ear to hear and inclines their heart to submit to this call He hath called The Preterperfect tense used for the Future Bez. in loc tense after the manner of the Hebrews and to denote a continued Act But I should rather think he so speaks in reference to those that are called already and so in them Personating all others that are the Children of Predestination or else to shew that those that are Predestinated shall as certainly be called as if they were already called for it is the manner of Scripture Sic narrare futura tanquam praeterita Haym to call the things that are not as if they were In the words are two parts Divis 1. The Subject 2. The Predicate Or 1. The Appointment to the end 2. The first step of the means to the end Viz. 1.
maiest recount many dealings of the Lord to thee in a more than usual manner and yet thou hast not set thy self to delight in him and his wayes Have none of his providences prevailed with you none of his mercies melted and moved you Innumerable have been the Lord's gracious eminent dealings towards you which are set off with the greater glory and splendour by the foil of some precedent or intermixed Psa 51. 8. Quam dives es in miseâ—icordia quam magnificus in justitia quam munificus in gratiâ Domine Deus noster non est qui similis sit tibi adversity or casualty your desperate wound was cured your broken bones God hath caused to rejoyce your poysoning hath been prevented the snare that was laid for you the Lord hath broken the time would fail to enumerate all so that thou maiest say How excellent is thy loving kindnesse O God Psal 36. 7. But O the sadnesse for all these thou hast gone on in thy sins and rebellions against God and hast not cared for a change from sin to grace thou hast slighted the Lord's sayings notwithstanding these his doings and hast contemned his calls notwithstanding these his carriages towards thee Ah soul is this 2 Sam. 16. 17. thy kindnesse to thy Friend What doest thou still stand out against the Lord and build Bulwarks against the most high This was the great sin of the Israelites anciently towards the Lord that they came not into him who had done so much for them They soon forgat God Psal 106. 21. their Saviour Doth not a Parent take it sadly when after all he seeth no amendment in the Child The Lord was angry with Salomon because his heart was turned from the God of Israel 1 Kings 11. 9. who had appeared to him twice How many times hath the Lord appeared to you and yet you have never appeared for him Have the paths of the Lord to thee been mercy and truth and yet hast not cared for his Christ his Covenant The Lord may say complainingly of thee as David of Nabal Surely in vain I Matt. 25. 10. 1 Sam. 25. 21. have kept all that this fellow hath in the Wildernesse so that nothing was missed of all that pertained to him and he hath requited me evil for good I have done thus and thus for this man or woman and yet I perceive nothing but stubbornesse and stoutnesse in them towards me Hast thou had so many word-calls and so many work-calls and yet hath no saving work passed upon thy soul Have there been such goings of the Lord to thee and yet no goings of thy soul to the Lord by Christ Do all these deeds of God bring thee to no duty for God Have they not made thee sit down and reflect upon thine own heart and say what shall I go on in my opposition against my portion and presevere against my rock and refuge against my Friend and Father Doest thou thus requite the Lord O foolish soul and unwise Is Dcut 32. 61. not he thy Father that hath bought thee hath he not made thee and established thee This Quo liberalius nobiscum agit Deus eo magis accendi decet pietatis studium in cordibus nostris Calv. in loc makes your condition sad and aggravates your rejecting the offers of grace more and more for our hearts should be tinded and fired at the beams of God's bounty and the fannings of his favours should blow that fire up to a flame The Lord hath sought by these to gain you and yet you have refused to give him your heart If you search all your common places I think you will not find an Argument whereby you may plead for your self 4. The lenitude of the spirit Adde to these S. 13 the actions of the spirit That hath gently striven but you have not been stirred that hath called but you have not answered Oh the Ad faciendum bonum quid in nobis bonus Spiritus operatur monet movet docet sweet gales that that hath breathed upon you which would have carried you into the haven of Christ's bosome into the creek of an estate of grace But you with the perversenesse of your will have rowed hard against the wind that you might not be born down by the sweet impulses thereof That hath taken you by the hand and hath said Come go along with me and I will shew you the Father it hath in love laid hold upon thee to lead thee to Christ but thou hast pulled away the shoulder It hath got thee into the ship and would have launched forth into the deep and have carried thee over to the other side to the land of promise but thou hast skipped out and made away from it O the renitencies and reluctancies of thy spirit against the reducing and reverting acts of the spirit It hath admonished and advised moved and minded taught and tutoured Monet memoriam movet voluntatem docet rationem Isa 30. 21 thee but thou hast not learned when thou hast been ready to turn aside to the right hand or to the left thou hast heard the spirit speaking a word behind thee saying This is the way walk in it When thou hast been ready to stretch forth thine hand to unrighteousnesse thou hast heard that saying Oh do not this abominable thing that I hate But thou hast not Jer. 44. 4. obeyed the voice thereof Though the Lord saith to thee as he said to Abraham in all that Sarah hath said unto thee hearken unto her Gen. 21. 12 voice so in all that the spirit saith unto thee hearken unto its voice The Poets tell of one Orpheus who was so cunning a player on the Harp that by his excellent Musick he drew after him wild Beasts Woods and Mountains and by the same recovered his Wife out of Hell The spirit hath made to thee the Musick of the spheares and plaid deliciously upon the strings of holy writings to allure but thou hast been more wild than the Beasts of the Woods more immoveable than the mountains and hast refused to follow its delightful harmony nay hast been unwilling to come out of the fire of Hell to be drawn out of the Hell of thy natural condition by the allurement of its choicest tunes and raised straines Sin hath taken you by one hand and the spirit by the other to draw you from sin to it self but you have scowled upon the spirit when you smiled upon sin The spirit hath shewed thee O man what is good Mie 6. 8. and what the Lord doth require of thee even to do justly and love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God But thy endeavours have not been suitable to the spirit's discoveries The spirit hath made to you revelations of God's will and yet there hath followed thereupon no reformation of your wayes Nay the spirit hath gone so far with you that it hath convinced you of thus much that you should
seek to be made good As ever you desire to be made a living Saint so see your selfe to be a lost sinner but the wretched world love and Joh. 3. 19. live in darkness and rather then they will have a true reflextion of their condition they either draw the curtain before the glass or put their hand before their eyes and so farre hath the God of this world infatuated them that they will draw up such conclusions to Conscientia est codex in quo quotidiana peccata conscribuntur which neither conscience if suffered to speak nor Scripture will give consent If you did but search consciences record and Scriptures testimonie sure you could not be of that perswasion whereof you are 2. Of Gods compassion people think that the S. 23 Divine being is all mercie and no justice and that by his mercy they shall be preserved from damnation though through wilfulness they persevere in their abominations This is the last refuge that they betake themselves to and the universal remedie and plaister that they think Vltimum refugium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be healed by It is true the mercy of God is the sovereign salve for the sores of our souls but it must be rightly spread and applied It is the onely balm of Gilead but it must be rightly used Gods mercy is sanctifying as well as saving renewing as well as redeeming delivering from the power as well as from the penalty of sin from the way as well as from the wages of sin and those that have not the first effect thereof cannot expect the latter If it bring not to repentance for sin it will never bring to acceptance in a Saviour The Author Rom. 2. 4. to the Hebrews speaking of mercy of the highest strain even that which comes to souls in the blood of Christ which though it be the pillar and basis of Gods kingdom yet he doth not infer that therfore be we what we will we shall shall be saved but this that we must have grace Heb. 12. 24. 28 29. whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly feare or otherwise he will be a consuming fire notwithstanding this eminent demonstration of his mercy The Lord saveth none in their sins but saved from your sins you may be To fancie such mercy is but In omni opere Dei est misericordia et justitia to fall down to an Idol for mercy and justice meet together the rising of one attribute is not built upon the ruine of another God is full of pity thou thinkest that he will spare thee though thou be never so full of impietie and therefore you send not forth so much as one thought to look after grace He that made you will not damn you he that formed you will not confound you for your sinnes you think Doe but consult that startling place in Esay It is a people of no understanding therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them and he that formed them will shew them no favour Esa 27. 11. Gods mercie you see will not advance you to happinesse if you live and die without holiness By such thoughts you make mercy a means to sink you which otherwise might be a means to save you what is this but to turn the grace of God into wantonness Be not deceived God will not be mocked the Lords mercy glorifieth in heaven onely those whom he sanctifieth on earth Though God be mercifull yet you will be miserable without grace presumption of Gods favour without a change on your heart will prove the confusion of your face and if because of his compassion you disobey the call of his Spirit you are like to meet with nothing but condemnation let mercie be a motive to draw you to contrition and not a means to drown you in perdition Every one though their hearts be fraughted with nothing but sin yet they would cast anchor in the mercy of God that they might be saved from tormenting tempests and so long as they think they shall have glory let who so will look after grace if they may be saved through Gods mercy what need they care for Christs Spirit but soul know thus much that though Gods mercy have neither bottom nor bank yet it will not benefit you in reference to glory if you come into and goe out of the world a sinfull wretch Those that confide in Gods mercy against Gods method are like to have a sad come off when it comes to the upshot 3. Sinful procrastinations This is another cause of peoples being without and not looking S. 24 after effectual calling because they defer and put it off to the time to come hereafter they think will be time enough though it be Qui non est hodiè cras minus aptus erit high time at present not considering that duration in sin brings obduration of heart in temporals people are altogether upon the speed and in spirituals altogether upon the slack It is an usual thing for people at 20 to put off repentance and the serious minding of their souls to 30 and when they are come to 30 to crave yet a further day and that the businesse may lie still till 40 and so putting off from one time to another from the Spring to Autumn from the flower to the fall of our age the work is undone for gray heads can find excuses as well as green heads for when they grow old then their senses sinke their memories grow mean their understandings decay and now it is no time for such things even as Thales who when his mother asked Plutarch him in his younger years why he did not marry answered He was too young and after in his elder years she putting the same question to him answered He was too old So the Lord by his Ministers and Spirit asketh people when they will marry be espoused to Jesus Christ they say It is too soon they have good desires to Christ but they would stay yet a while the Lord in patience waits and comes to them with the same query afterwards and then they say It is too late nature is decayed their spirits are spent but they will wish well and they would have God accept of that most put of all to the last and yet then they are as unfit and unwilling as ever and God in justice rejects them who injuriously refused him People are like little children who loathe to have their play spoiled or hindred by wet weather say Rain rain go away come again another day Sinners have sometimes convictions that they begin to melt and be sorrowful and the heavenly doctrine falls upon them in such drops that it begins to wet them to damp their sport to dull their joy and they bid it go away and if it come in old age it shall be welcome and put away the messages of God the calls of the spirit and say as Felix to Paul
good Sermons diligently pray devoutly and say Lord file off the too willing chains of my captivity Take words with you as Hos 14. 2. Quamdiu quis permistus est turbis non vacat soli Deo Hosea directs meditate duly on spiritual concernments on thy souls condition Be therefore retired sometimes for solitariness is the nurse of contemplation Ob. 1. But thou wilt say I can do nothing Sol. Be not like the Poeonians that would S. 17 not so much as break down a bridge to hinder Darius his passage though they were his vassals It is true thou canst not make thy self whole yet thou mayst do as the impotent man did lay thy self at the pool thou mayst be in God's way thou mayst read hear c. The Mariner can make neither wind nor tide yet he goes down and waiteth for both Though thou canst not turn thy self yet thou mayst desire Christ to tough thee at his royal stern That thou mayst be launched and thrust forth into this sea of ordinances duties and endeavours consider 1. The sayings of God 2. The success of the godly 1. The sayings of God by way of 1. Precept 2. Promise 1. Precept It is the command of God to give all diligence to make thy calling sure as S. 18 well by first acceptance as following assurance as well by conversion as confirmation he hath bidden thee use these helps and thou oughtest to obey his command if he bid thee let down thy net do not refuse it regard not Jussa sine culpâ non negliguntur objections of improbability or impossibility Do as he requires thou mayst catch something 2. Promise As his command is upon thee S. 19 to compel thee so his promise is before thee to countenance thee he hath said Seek and Mat. 6. 7. ye shall find c. and God's promises should be seeds of obedience to his commands 2. The success of the godly Others have S. 20 met with God in this way and why not thou Samuel while in God's courts had God's call 1 Sam. 3. to his confirmation Simeon while in the Temple met with Christ in his consolation So the Disciples after Christ's ascension while Acts 2. begin they were waiting found the Spirit working Ob. But thou wilt say What can ordinances S. 21 do can they give grace Sol. No yet they are helps though they be not masters of grace yet they are means to it they are like oyls which having no smell of their own perfumers use in the making of Plutarch their odours and precious oyntments They are like the Ark which though it were not the Numb 10. 33. resting place yet went before the people to seek it out for them They are like John Baptist who was not Christ himself but his 1 John 20. 23. harbinger 2. Caution And here take heed of two things 1. Satanical delusions 2. Sinful communion 1. Satanical delusions The Divel like S. 22 Antiochus destroys many by false peace Dan. 8. 25. When we have more than ordinary tempests we are ready to think the Divel hath an hand in them but undoubtedly he hath an hand in the calms that are in the brests of natural people despair may have slainits thousands but presumption hath slain its ten thousands More birds are caught with lime-twigs they say than are killed by the fowlers piece It will never be well so long as you think all is well 2. Sinful communion Avoid evil society S. 23 take heed of much drink and drinking company Sampson's mother was forbidden to Judg. 13. 4 5. drink wine or strong drink while she carried him in her womb Some think the reason of that to be because much strong drink withers the child in the mothers womb So will it do by all good motions if thou be immoderate that way It will be like the Dodonean well that will Elristus est daemon sponte in animum admissus quench a burning torch Thereby you make the divel an inmate and so keep out grace Take heed of bad companions of what strain soever they be 2. Manner And that is three fold 1. Seriousness 2. Soundness 3. Speediness 1. Seriousness Be serious in this work be not like the Athenians at whom one laughed because S. 24 they were serious and earnest about plays and shows How may are serious in triflles and slighty in weighty things triflles will hardly prove tumets 2. Soundness See that your work be perfect be S. 25 not an half Christian Once a child in Spain Rev. 3. 2. when it was coming out of its mothers womb returned thither again Let it not be so with thee when thou hast put thine hand to the plough do not look back again for all the world see that your calling be indeed effectual and to the purpose 3. Speediness Set about this work betimes S. 26 even now while thou art reading these lines many think of it when it is too late many are destroyed through delays Those that Eccles 12. 1. would be good truly must be good timely 3. Motive And that shall be but one viz. S. 27 Necessity Consider how necessary it is to be made new without regeneration to solid Ab omni nequitia mundum necesse est esse qui cupit regnare cum Christo piety there can be no restauration to spiritual peace as the Oracle told a people once so tell I you if you would have peace for the future you must for the present have war with your sins by conversion-conflicts No true security without through sanctity no heaven without holiness no salvation without sanctification Phocas thinking to secure himself with his high built walls after he had killed Mauritius heard a voice saying that sin within would undermine all So though thou be compassed about with natural and temporal good things they are but weak rampiers sin in thine heart will be thy mine if thou have not grace thou canst not possibly have glory I conclude all I have spoken in Moses his S. 28 words Set your hearts unto all the words which I testifie among you this day for it is not a vain Deut. 32. 46 47. thing for you because it is your life Oh that the Lord would write them on your minds and work them into your hearts that through his mercy and might his goodness and greatness they may be means of affecting your souls of effecting this work of effectual calling upon your whole man which shall be a crown of rejoycing to me of true comfort to you and that which is above over and the end of all of eternal glory to the Lord Amen FINIS The Contents of this Book The first Part. CHap. 1. The Proeme or Entrance page 1 Sect. 1. The dependance and coherence of the words p. 1 2 Sect. 2. The explication and division of the words p. 2 3 Sect. 3. The Doctrine raised from the words p. ibid. Chap. 2. 1 Of the kinds of
good Heart when they have a bad hand a right inside though a wrong outside to be fair within though foul without to have great Faith in the inward Man though grosse faults in the outward Man but grace cannot be hid it will discover it's self if fire be within heat will be without if the Heart live the Pulse will beat These are the Steps of the Jacobs Ladder whereby God descendeth into the Heart from the height of Predestination and causeth the Heart to ascend to himself from the depth of a natural and sinful condition and most blessed are the Soules that by the hand of grace are led thus far towards glory But I would not Soules should be troubled if their capacities cannot apprehend these workings in themselves in this order that is laid down but if they can find them in their own Hearts in truth though they cannot discern this order let them blesse God who hath thus blessed them with Spiritual blessings Nor do I lay down these things peremptorily as if there could not be a better and righter disposing them by transposition addition or subtraction but onely I humbly conceive according to that measure of light the Lord hath vouchsafed me who am lesse than the least of all his mercies that the will of God in his word the way of God in his works I mean of effectual calling and experience of precious Saints and chosen Vessels will own and say Amen to these things and now O blessed Spirit come down into the Hearts of the Readers of these lines and work these things in the Hearts of such of them as are strangers from the Covenants of promise CHAP. VIII VII The Concomitants Effects Consequences of Effectual calling 1. LIfe The first thing that followeth upon S. 1 Effectual calling is Life thereby a Man or Woman is made alive Spiritually This my Luke 15. 24. Son was dead but is now alive saith the Father of the Prodigal how excellent and desirable is natural life to us so that we are loth to part with it as one said when his Physitian brought him the message of death Oh let me live though it be but the life of a Toad under a Sill If the life of nature be so sweet how much sweeter then is the life of grace natural inspirations have their expirations but Spiritual breath can never be totally stopped the Earthly life may be terminated but the Spiritual cannot a life of vegetation which Plants have is something a life of sence which Beasts have is more a life of reason which Men have transcendeth the other but a life of grace which Saints have transcends them all A living Dog Eccles 9. 4. is better than a dead Lion A Flie because it hath life is more excellent than the glorious and shining body of the Sun when good old Jacob heard news of his Joseph it was a comforting cordial to him and reviving of his Spirits It is enough Joseph my Son is yet alive So Gen. 45. 28. saith a gracious Heart The Lines are fallen to me in pleasant places I have a goodly Heritage I am alive through the quickening grace of Ephes 2. 1. God pleasures sin world vanity away be gone it is enough I have enough Oh blessed be the Lord that hath redeemed me from the grave I was alive once in thought I am alive now in truth I was alive to my own seeming I am alive to my Souls saving sin lived and I was dead sin is dead and I am alive there is joy at Mans coming into the world sorrow at his going out so delightful is life so dolorous are the thoughts of death those that are effectually called are born never to die and how can they be but alive who come to Christ who is life it self as he is the true light to enlighten so the true life to enliven the Soul if the touch of dead Elisha's bones could make 2 Kings 13. 21. alive how much more then the touch of a living Christ All Saints are as the Children of light so of life Christ said Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life John 5. 40. Then those that come to him have life from him He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life John 3. 36. He hath that life begun which shall be ever God hath breathed the breath of life into such they then must needs be living Souls Such live a noble Heavenly compleat raised life we may say of such as David Lord thou hast made them little lower than the Angels and hast crowned them with glory and honour Psal 8. 5. Natures life is not Non est res magna vivere Sen. to be compared with this The voice of Christ is quickening for he saith the houre is coming and now is when the dead shal hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live Christ hath called and caused thee to hear and thou doest live to be in the Land of the Spiritually living is no small matter 2. Liberty All that are effectually called S. 2 have this effect of their calling that they are set at liberty Liberty is that we all crave liberty is that which onely Saints have It is every ones Prayer onely the Saints priviledge not a liberty to sin do I speak of but a liberty from sin not a liberty from good but to good Conscientia libera inquantum liberata à peccato such onely have the true liberty of conscience which many misse of while they muse on it to do what we would is not Freedom but servitude to do what God would is the Freedom that belongs to the Citizens of the Heavenly corporation the City of God the Church of God a natural Man is a Vassal a Slave to the tyranny of his lusts and sin but a Saint is free from sin from the penalty and from the power of it from it 's Domination though not it's Inhabitation free from it in affection Med. Ames lib. 1. cap. 27. Thes 21. v. though not in Action free from Hell also though not from the desert yet from the death of Hell free from the Law in regard of justification though not in regard of sanctification free from the condemnation though not from the commination of the Law and can it be otherwise with them who are in Christ he makes all his Free-men Free-women If the Son shall make you free ye shall be free indeed John 8. 36. This Freedom is of an excellent nature one told a certain people once that if they knew what a Jewel liberty were they would not part with it for all the Riches of Persia what a Pearl then is this liberty Now may a Man or Woman say as they in Psal 124. 7. Our Soul is escaped as a Bird out of the snare of the Fowlers the snare is broken and we are escaped How glad is a converted Man or Woman with Joseph that they are out
provide for the good and grace of Soules when his intention is to awake his own Servants there the execution is in part sometimes by making them the Servants of such or such a man when he purposeth to bring them into his orchard he provides sometimes by services a suitable Nursery for them Such as he will bring into the houshold of Faith he sometimes for that end placeth in the houshold of the Faithful and those that shall be brought into Gods Family are sealed first in the Family of those that are Gods and by being Servants of Gods Servants come to be Servants of God themselves by a temporal servitude the Lord making way for a Spiritual Freedome and by an Earthly subjection to an Heavenly manumission So it was with fugitive Onesimus who fled from the house of his Master Philemon and besides his Philem. 10 16. thoughts fel into the hands of his Master Christ Onesimus was Philemon's Servant Philemon was Paul's Friend and so by meanes of the Master Onesimus comes to knowledge of the Minister and as the one was his Earthly Master so the other his Heavenly Father for Paul begate him in his bonds one Prisoner loosing another and travailed of him in birth till Christ was formed in him and so the Servant became as good a man as his Master O Onesimus little didst thou think what God intended to do with thee when he brought thee Bonus etiam si servit liber est under Philemon's Government Thou mayest thou doest blesse God that ever thou camst under his roof so it hath been no doubt with many others besides Onesimus Many may have cause to admire the goodnesse of the Lord in planting them under a good Master and Mistresse or Dame whose counsels have been converting whose words have been working whose perswasions have been prevailing whose prayers have been powerful whose admonitions have been accepted whose motives have been melting whose reproofs have been reclaiming through the grace of God accompanying them The Lord seeth some young men or maids that belong to his election of grace and are Tit. 1. 16. yet in the ways of the reprobate being reprobate to every good work and the appointed time of their conversion draweth neer and beginneth to dawn well saith the Lord thou art mine yet still thine own mine by secret predestination thine own by open abomination mine according to my bosome will thine according to thy basest ways mine by choosing love thine own by sinful life thou little thinkest how I will make thee mine own every way I will incline thine and thy parents heart to put thee forth to pitch upon such a sentence I will displace another to place thee there you look at the ease profit conveniency of the service but though you purpose give me leave to dispose I will so order it that something read heard spoken done by some means or other there you shall be changed and be made restless till you find me without whom you are lost that it shall be said this Psal 81 4. man this maid was born there in the house of one of my Saints and holy ones O the sweet intendings and disposings of the Lord towards us how the Lord can turn things that seek mans way to the accomplishing his own wil. 4. By ordering their station Sometimes the S. 5 Lord pitcheth their tents in such a place where Valet interdum pro animae salute mutatio loci they shall have means God will bring the means and the end together when God fireth his beacon such as he intendeth shall have warning thereby he brings within ken of it when he soundeth the silver trumpet of the word such as he would have prepared thereby to battle with their sins he brings within hearing of it when God sets up a light in any place such as he intendeth shall thereby see the worst of their misery the way to mercy he brings within the beams and rays thereof God is the great Landlord all tenements are of his letting habitations of his appointing dwellings of his disposing he causeth some to wander from their native soil that so they come to have their natures changed the Lord removeth some from town to town that he may translate them from darknesse to light and this we may see in the 18th of the Acts 9 10. Be not afraid hut speak and hold not thy peace for I am with thee no man shal set on thee to hurt thee for I have much people in this City Observe here the ways goings of the Lord He intended to bring Paul to Corinth and to have such and such of his elected ones to be converted there by him whom he therfore first placeth in Corinth that they might be there during the time of Paul's ministring was not this a sweet providence for the Lord to bring them into Corinth for their conversion some places are like Goshen all light others like Egypt all darknesse some places have the dew of heaven and spiritual showres plentifully falling down upon them others like mount Gilboa upon which there cometh 2 Sam. 1. 21. neither rain nor dew some places are as sheep without a shepherd having either no guides or blind guides others enjoy that gracious promise I will give you pastors according to Jer. 3. 15. Plerumque dum â—utatur locus mutatur mentis affectus mine own heart now for the Lord to bring a man into such a Town and there turn him into such a Country and there by the means convert him to change ones house and thereby to change ones heart to change ones mansion and to change ones manners is a precious dispensation for the Lord as he appointed the time and hour so the means and place of conversion yet a fat soil a place of gain a good pennyworth are the things that commend habitations to many They love to sojourn in Mesech and to dwell in the tents of Kedar and have long dwelt with those that Psal 120. 5 6. are haters of goodnesse To live neer the Altar the Ark the Temple is a mercy of God and a means of good To think our selves best when we are farthest from the Sanctuary is a curse to be a door keeper in the house of God is the way to a cure 5. By prolonging their days many live to S. 6 be converted who had they died before had been condemned our times also are in the hands of the Lord he knoweth the day and hour of the conversion of his elect he will keep off dangers remove destruction defer death not terminate their time but continue their natural course lengthen their life till the hour of their holinesse the time of their turning the day of their deliverance be come for had they died before they had died in wickedness and had they died in wickedness they had been undone by wrath they had died in present sin and could not have escaped eternal sorrow as we may see
may charge Soules home with their sins Cry aloud spare not lift up thy voice like a Trumpet and shew my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins Isai 58. 1. Some are so fine fingered they dare not touch the sore so mure hearted they dare not search the wound so mealy-mouthed they cannot speak hard against sin some so guilty they are afraid to condemn themselves A Minister must Preach not as acquitting but accusing not as soothing but as searching not as discharging but charging the wicked and ungodly not as flattering but frowning upon sin not as pleasing man but pleasing God To Preach generally not particularly to Preach as a farre off never come near is not the way To make all wel for fear of ill will is too low a frame for the Spirit of a Minister of Jesus Christ to be in and argues an heart seeking more it's own temporal comfort than Gods Eternal glory I mean not that Ministers should particularize publikely persons or names or that that their words should savour of Spleen and Gall against ought but sin But this that they should charge their peoples sins upon them as Nathan said to David Thou art the man So they you are the 2 Sam. 12. 7. people that are thus and thus Let them endeavour to cause them to know that they are the people that have contemned Gods Commands broken his bonds worked wickednesse practised perversenesse refused repentance and slighted their own Soules that they are in a lost and undone condition after this manner did John the Baptist Preach to the Scribes and Pharisees Matth. 3. 7 8 9. He opens the Book and shewes them their sins he brings them to the brink of Hell and shewes them their danger and so doth Peter Him have ye taken and by wicked hands Crucified and slain Acts 2. 23. And did not the Lord blesse this his Preaching For they were pricked in their hearts and said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and Brethren what shall we do Verse 37. And so again in Acts 8. 20 21 22 23. Read them I pray How terrible doth Peter thunder there against Simon Magus and come home to him My heart riseth much against flattery especially in a Ministery it is a most desperate thing and of cursed consequence There is not a speedier way to damn Semper vitanda est perniciosa dulcedo people whereas a Ministers work is to Preach their Soules to Heaven For Ministers to hover and keep at a distance in their Preaching and never seek to come home nor get into the conscience argueth cowardize or unskilfulnesse Such Preaching will bring little of comfort to the Pastor or conversion to the people It is said of Bernard that once he Preached a curious neat flourishing Sermon and every one was taken with it though not by it but he was sad and heavy thereupon soon after he Preached another Sermon not of kin to the former but an home searching pressing Sermon it was no commendation of this as of the former But he carried it very lightsomely and cheerfully to what he did before the people asked him the reason of his so various divers Heri Bernardum hodie Christum deportment he answers yesterday I Preached Bernard to day Christ yesterday my self to day my Saviour Though people condemn such kind of Preaching yet God will crown it though it be harsh to flesh and blood yet it is health to the Soul and Spirit many look upon it as needlesse when the Lord knows it is very needful 3. Powerful Preaching Powerful zealous S. 12 Preaching is a means of effectual calling Ministers should Preach not with affectation but affection not with formality but fervency not with listlinesse but livelinesse Sermons should be fired with zeal and filled with love Cold dead lazy Preaching maketh Christians thereafter faint wooing for Christ goes away Qui timidè rogat negare docet with a denial if they be not more hot in their work they can never win the castle of the heart for Christ Eli's vile Children feared not their 1 Sam. 2. 25. Fathers faint chiding The Lord did earnestly protest to his people by his Ministers Jer. 11. 7. I earnestly protested saith the Lord or as in the original protesting I protested I delivered my mind to you over and over which sheweth earnestnesse Earnest Preaching many times brings early practice Ministers should first warm their hearts at the Spirits fire and then warm their Sermons at their hearts they should so speak that their words may seem not to fall from their heads but to rise from the hearts what comes from the heart is most like to go to the heart To speak as if one were afraid to wake the sleepers to disquiet sin as if one had no sence of grace or sin of mercy or misery is like to prove fruitlesse and without good issue Sinners are asleep and they must be rouzed they are secure and they must be rounded and they are regardlesse and must be ratled as the Heb. 4. 2 word should be mixed with Faith in the hearer so with fervency in the Preacher It is said of that eminent Divine Master Perkins that in his Preaching he would pronounce the word Damn with such an Emphasis that Fuller holy state he left a trembling impression upon the Spirits of his Auditors Ministers must be Boanerges Sons of Thunder as well as Barjonas Sons of Consolation when they speak they should 1 Pet. 4. 11. speak as the Oracles of God powerfully pressingly vehemently urgingly Reader when the word hath been powerfully Preached to thee in a zealous stirring way hast thou not had some convictions have not the secrets of thine heart been made manifest and thou been constrained to fall down and worship God and report and say the Lord is in this Minister 1 Cor. 14. 25. of a truth Hast not been almost a Christian thereby and thou that art Godly did not the Lord use the obstetrication of means of such kind of Preaching for bringing forth the Man-child of grace The Lord give such Watch-men such Work-men where they are wanted the Lord blesse them where they are seated Was not Christs Preaching after this manner How Pathetically doth he expresse himself Luke 13. 34 35. And can we learn of a greater Doctor than he And what else doth Paul mean and intend but earnest Preaching 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pasor Lex in his counsel to Timothy Preach the word be instant in season out of season 2 Tim. 4. 2. that is be earnest pressing be urgent as some translate the word 2. Means of the higher forme Now we S. 13 come to speak of means of a superiour order and that is the Spirit of the Lord the Spirit and the Word go together the one as the Servant the other as the Master the one as the Instrument Nisi Spiritus S. adsit cordi audientium
otiosus est sermo Doctoris the other as the Agent the one as Organical the other as Authentical as Christ said to his Disciples John 15. 5. so may the Spirit say to providences and the word without me ye can do nothing These wheeles would never go if the Spirit did not drive them these sailes would never fill if that did not blow hard these means would be but as dead carcasses if that did not enliven them Words Frustrà foris verba nostra streperent si internum magisterium S. S. deesset Ephes 6. 17. Ps â—27 1. would be but wind without the Spirits working If the word be not in the Spirits hand it will never cut down the weeds of sin nor slay the Goliah of natural rebellion therefore is it called the sword of the Spirit If the Spirit joyn not it self to the chariot it will move heavily as if the wheeles were taken off Except the Lord build the house they labour in vain that build it Unlesse the Spirit move upon the face of the Soul nothing will be brought to ripenesse and perfection As an Heathen could say when he had done some piece of eminent service It was not I that did this exploit but the Gods used me as an Instrument So may the fore-mentioned means say It is not we that have converted but the Spirit by us and may answer as Peter if we be examined of the good Acts 4. 9 10. that sinful Soules have received Be it known unto you all that by the power of the Spirit these Soules are alive this day If the Spirit do not prosper providences and work with the word the Soul can never be changed It is his proper work to give grace to grant holinesse and therefore is he called the Holy-ghost as is his name so is his nature and as his condition is so is his operation If the Spirit sit not at the stern the Minister shall plie the oar in vain Ministers may Act secondarily but the Spirit primarily they as choice subservients but the Spirit as chief superintendent they may carry on their work artificially as Servants but the Spirit architectonically as Master they may Preach out their hearts and if the Spirit doth not put out his hand Soules may go to Hell after all Now the Spirit helpeth and carrieth on this work by these actings The Spirit 1. Perswadeth 2. Fasteneth 3. Applieth 4. Examineth 5. Concludeth 6. Disquieteth 1. The first work of the Spirit is to perswade S. 14 the Soul to believe those things that are spoken Truths heard and not believed will take no place The word Preached did not profit them not being mixt with Faith in them that heard it Heb. 4. 2. The word was propounded to many yet profited but some taught to divers yet took but a few the word the same but not the work And the cause was as perswasion in the one so misperswasion or non-perswasion in the other If we be not perswaded of the sweet of a promise of the soure of a threatning of the reality of consolations pronounced of the certainty of comminations denounced of the verity of Doctrine commended and the necessity of duty commanded they may strike our ear but they will never reach the heart If one hear of a receit for the bodies good and believe not the contents thereof it will do them no good so it is in this case the Scripture is an whole Book of receits for our restitution of remedies for our maladies which we shall never follow if we believe not the vertue and use of them An unbelieving heart is like sandy Infidelitas sicut terra arenosa barren ground Now it is the work of the Spirit to perswade The belief of the misery of our Soules the mercy of a Saviour of the willingnesse and worthinesse of Christ in reference to redemption of the nature of sin and the need of Sanctity cannot be wrought in our Soules without the power of the Spirit We cannot perswade our selves the Minister cannot perswade us without the influx of the Holy-ghost We may go down into the Waters of the word and if the Spirit move not them and us we may come up again as leprous as ever we were Let the Minister informe soundly reprove sharply examine searchingly and exhort sweetly yet all is nothing unlesse the Spirit do something But the Spirit deals and treats with the Soul propounds delivers the truth of God answers objections silenceth queries infallibly demonstrates and by such strong Mediums proves it's Divine conclusions that the Soul is non-plus'd confuted hath nothing to say and is now so clearly convinced that unlesse it would deny principles and shut it's eyes against the light of Argument it must needs come over to the Spirits part and be of it's mind You that are effectually called what say you till the Spirit perswaded you could man prevail with you till you believed indeed the writings of the Prophets and Apostles and the sayings of Ministers from thence did you getany good till then was not allspoken as to the dead 2. It fasteneth In the next place the Spirit S. 15 fasteneth and fixed some word or providence upon the Soul which it cannot forget or shake off and causeth it like Mary to keep all these things and ponder them in their heart Some Luke 2. 19. general thoughts and sence of the word believed of providences experimented do light upon the Spirit of a man or woman but are soon scared away Now the Spirit cometh and holdeth these things to the heart the sound of the word cometh and goeth and the Lord in his providences passeth by us and we take little notice of him But the Spirit as the Master of the assemblies fasteneth something like a naile in a sure place and strikes the arrow into the side the Soul would put all away and thrust all out of doors by company mirth by letting in thoughts of vanity but the Spirit striveth against this stream and now the requiring repentance pressing piety reproving iniquity in general or such a sin in particular the threatning of fury promising favour such a passage or such a phrase in the Ministery of the word and for providences the visiting with sicknesse the lessening the estate the preserving from danger the saving from wrack or the like are so tied by the Spirit to the Soul that it cannot get loose from them and come so freely into it's thoughts that it cannot avoid acquaintance with them and now saith Oh such an expression of the Minister what means it by this providence what doth the Lord intend and where ever it is going whatever it is doing almost these things and thoughts do interveen the Soul cannot but revolve and turn them up and down in it's mind 3. It applieth The Spirit helpeth the Soul S. 16 to apply to it's self in particular what is spoken in the general We are all prone to excuse our selves and are like little Children
may be in this case if the heart say not Amen it is nothing the tongue is to be the hearts interpreter It is a broken and a contrite spirit that is a pleasing sacrifice to God The Lord complains of his people that they cried not unto him with their heart when they howled upon their bed if the heart and the tongue be not confederates it is no right confession 2. Not a vexing for sin only but a change S. 36 from it argueth this work there must be not only trouble but also turning of the mind There is a word that signifieth the change of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mind which is not used for Judas his repentance but another Manasseh's and Judas his repentance did differ very much Judas was so far from being changed from Judam proditorem non tam scelus quod commisit quam indulgentiae desperatio fecit penitus interire 1 Sam. 10. 6 9. bad to better that he fell from bad to worse from sinning against Christ's humanity by treachery to sin against his divinity by despair It is with those that are effectually called as it was with Saul in another case they are turned into other men and women and God hath given them another heart than they were or had before There must be in the soul a motion to good as well as a commotion because of evil it is duty not dolour only that makes and marks a Saint 3. A gracious heart is troubled at the commission S. 37 of sin because it is sin and done against God and in his sight How shall I do Gen. 39. 9. this great wickedness and sin against God saith Joseph Herod was troubled about putting Oderunt peccare mali formidine poenae oderunt peccare boni virtutis amore John to death only for fear of disgrace c. which might come upon him for taking away the life of such an eminent Preacher as John Baptist was Some are afraid to sin for fear of the rod others out of love to the rule the wicked dread the vengeance that follows sin but not the venome that is in sin 4. An heart effectually called loveth the S. 38 truth for it self because it is like God who is truth it self others for their credit profit or to be seen of men Jehu's fire of zeal was to warm himself by it was for a crown or he would never have skipped so high toward heaven But a godly soul is zealous though to its disadvantage I will speak of thy testimonies also before Kings and will not be ashamed Psal 119. 46. It is zealous out of the love it hath to God and his ways not out of sinful passion but sanctified affection 5. An heart effectually called desireth the S. 39 holiness as well as the happiness of God's people and doth as earnestly breath after sanctification as justification or glorification Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me Psal 51. 10. It is for the white as well as the red robe and makes as many prayers for purity as for pardon against the power as against the penalty of sin and when it desires heaven it is upon this account as much as any because it hopes it Nunquam justus arbitratur se comprehendisse nunquam dicit satis est shall be freed from its sins and shall not meet with the Cananite and Hittite in that land it hath insatiable desires as it were after grace and thirsteth exceedingly for these streams it accounteth holiness its great happiness and its glory in heaven to consist in conformity to God as well as communion with God 6. A gracious heart delighteth in the preaching S. 40 of the word because it receives good thereby and because the word meets with its sins It was not so with Herod for then he would have reformed his incest Mark 6. 17 18. A godly heart loveth the word because it is a corrasive as well as because it is a cordial the word is welcome to them when it frowns upon them as well as when it smiles upon them in its condemnations as well as its consolations 7. When converted souls desire others to S. 41 pray for them it is that they may have grace and that their corruption may be healed Jam. 5. 16. it is that sin rather than that sorrow be removed Pharaoh and Simon Magus desired others to pray for them that judgements might be removed or prevented A godly heart accounteth sin worse than evil and the worst of evils it desires an interest in the Saints prayers to perfect conversion and not only to prevent confusion and that the object of the Saints petitions for them may be spirituals rather than temporals special rather than common mercies it looks at God's glory as well as its own good in such requestings and if you ask such an one for what shall I speak unto the King of heaven for thee It will answer for the life of my soul for the slaying 2 Kings 4. 13. of my sins for the increasing of my grace that I may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing 8. A man or woman truly called so justifies S. 42 God in his dealings that it doth improve afflictions and get good by them and can say with David It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes It hearkeneth to the voice of the rod it is willing to receive instruction by the rod of correction It so justifies God that it wholly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lam 3. 22. condemns it self even to the pit of hell acknowledging it to be the Lord's mercies that it is not consumed It justifies the Lord when the stroak is off as well as when the stroak is on it justifies the Lord from a sincerely loathing apprehension of its own vileness and unworthiness 9. Such mourn inwardly as well as outwardly S. 43 they rend their hearts rather than Joel 2. 13. their garments their heart runs as well as their eye they mourn truly for their offences as done against Christ and the grace of God Zech. 12. 10. Isa 58. by him outward mourning only God condemneth Many weep with an Oynion when their rocky hearts do not melt many mourn in habit for their dead friends and it may be Non discordet cor tuum a facie tuâ rejoyce in heart But it is not so with such a soul but when it addresses it self to the duties of mourning and sorrow it acquaints the heart with it and invites it to this service and will not be satisfied without its presence the fountains of the great deep of its spirit are broken up its sorrow not only descends from the eyes but also ascends from the heart so that it can say with the Church of God My bowels Lam. 3. 20. are troubled mine heart is turned within me for I have grievously rebelled And with Jeremiah My bowels my bowels I am