or both truly I think he should answer best that saith faith is actus totius hominis the act of the whole man the mind to know the will to Consent and Embrace the affections to rejoyce in and desire as the Scripture saith faith is seated in the heart all the heart Faith must be a work brought into the heart by the hand of God for if faith should come in by its own forcible entry by opposition man would fight against it at every door or room and therefore it remains that it must come into the heart voluntarily the heart must be made willing and when it is so it sets open every door that it will not fight against any entry It is God that makes the whole soul willing to the entrance of faith into it Reas 7 Seventhly Saving faith always flows or proceeds from a vital principle a dead man performs no act of life and if faith be an act of life then this faith cannot be performed by a man that is dead that is by a natural man dead in sin and therefore he that makes a man to believe in Christ must first out a life into him see the Reason how it hangs together a spiritual dead man can no more put life into himself then a natural dead man this argument proves that Gods drawing a man to Christ is as it were the raising of him from the dead that mans believing in Christ is as much as a resurrection from the dead and proves that Gods drawing must goe before mans coming or believing the passive work of Conversion preceds that which is called active Conversion the one is Gods the act of raising the other is mans the act of turning to God I know not what can be said against it Reas 8 Eightly The greatest opposition that is made to the plantation of grace yet in the heart of man is made to faith temptations are soarest oppositions are strongest against faith because the soul and salvation lies at stake upon it the hinge that salvation hangs on being in this point therefore it hath more opposition by sin and the devil then any other grace I have prayed saith Christ to Peter that thy faith fail not Why not that thy love or thy fear or thy patience fail not because the greatest batteries of the devil are against faith and the taking of that fort would take all and therefore all those considerations that give such weight to faith in order to Salvation do also give weight to the reason I am now upon that a supernatural hand is that which must work and create faith in us Reas 9 Lastly I should as easily and willingly ascribe the whole work of mans conversion and regeneration his new birth and justification all to the power of man dead in sin as I would ascribe thereto faith in or coming unto Christ and so let God sit by as a looker on and behold what a fine thred the will of man spins throughout the whole webb of conversion regeneration and believing and let sinful man be suae fortunae faber the workman of his own fortune as they use to say and where then shall be the commendation and praise of Glorious grace sure there will be the commendation of the will of man and not of the will of God and so all things will come at last result to this which the Serpent said to our first parents ye shall be as Gods if faith and coming to Christ be in the power of man you will be as God for not he that supplies the object of faith but he that supplies the power and act of faith the will and deed to believe sits highest in Glory the Reason is that notwithstanding the object of Faith revealed man might perish but he that gives me the act of believing and makes good that cannot perish but must be saved Let the evidence of these Reasons quiet and settle you upon this point And Serm. 21 Use 1 FIrst Make those men jealous and suspicious of their Faith that find an easie quiet and undisturbed faith that have believed time out of mind as they say ever since they could remember and never had â—â—sence and feeling of this drawing work of God without which faith cannot be wrought It is true I believe that regenerating grace steals into many a one even in their inâ—â—ncy before they can reflect upon themselves for this faith is not known without reflection and before they know who it is that calls Samuel Samuel and they have cause of praise afterward that God marked them for his sheep while they were but Lambs this may be and therefore I will not say that this point ties these men to know or to find out the time of the first working and plantation of faith in them But ordinarily those that are of age do hear the noise or voice of this wind when it blows though it be a secret work and thou knowest not whence it comes nor whither it goes yet they feel a work whereby they are drawn to believe in Christ and in every man ordinarily there are inward bickerings temptations troubles for sin fears all which do make faith hard and thereby as Israel coming out of Aegypt we have more sensible experiments of Gods goodness and power so in the first plantation and further growth of our faith there will be very much all along to teach us this lesson that iâ— is a very hard thing to believe either in God for matters of providence or in Christ for pardon of sin yea and many times after the shaken heart is come to a center the earth-quake may return again especially if we take hold of rotten refuges for it s we that make it hard to believe otherwise they that have a faith dogmatical some righteousness and works of their own to trust to it is to them in their thinking a very easie thing to believe in Christ but its guilt that abates confidence if we our selves did but know our secret guilt it must needs make it hard to us to believe in Christ and yet all that do believe have this guilt staring them in the face but the Goodness truth and freeness of the promise overcomes it Use 2 Secondly If God have drawn thee to Christ and made thee a believer then return and acknowledge to him the Glory Let it ravish thy heart with the love of God for his finger hath been in thy heart whether thou be sensible of it no and to whet and sharpen thy praise let the open sight of thy former unfitness to believe equal to the unfitness of other men and thy equal impotency and opposition to thy own happiness raise the tune of thy praise for a Christian must never lose the sence of his former sins I was a persecuter and injurious and then it follows in 1 Tim. 1. 13. and the grace of the Lord was exceeding abundant to me with faith and love and therefore thou hast reason to kiss that hand
upon their souls nor were ever brought by it to a Life of Faith to an hatred of their most secret sins to a predominant Love of God to a superlative esteem of spiritual things and to an Heavenly conversation and that must perish forever for want of that Grace yea for their contempt and hatred of it which they verbally magnified in their preaching and disputes If any subject in Divinity be practical and to be read with holy affection and resolution it is this Remember when thou readest of Grace that the Reader is one that is lost and miserable till Grace recover him and must be beholden to Grace to save him from everlasting wo. Remember that God hath therefore thus wonderfully revealed himself in Love that appearing most Lovely to us he may be most Loved by us and all the beams of his transcendent Goodness may terminate thus upon our hearts and heat them into ascendent flames of Love Read till thou thus Believest and thus Lovest and then thou hast read well And I hope thou wilt find much in these Sermons which may be bellows and fuel for this holy fire Though they are not those exact and elaborate works by which Mr. Vines should be known in his great abilities to the world but such Sermons as he ordinarily preached to his Flock yet if even here thou find not matter to encrease thy tears in the remembrance of those faithful Labourers that sin hath deprived England of thou differest from One of the afflicted servants of the Church Rich. Baxter These Books following are to be sold by Abel Roper at the Sun in Fleet-street ALl Mr. Vines Sermons published by himself collected into one Volume The Papers between his Majesty and the Divines at the Isle of Wight concerning Episcopal Government with Mr. Vines stating his Majesties Concessions Vindiciae Fâ—â—deris A Treatise of the Covenant of God entred into with mankind in the several kinds and degrees of it by Mr. Thomas Blake Minister of the Gospel The Covenant sealed or a Treatise of the Sacraments of both Covenants Polemical and Practical especially of the Sacraments of the Covenant of Grace by Mr. Thomas Blake his vindication of the Birth Priviledge or Covenant-Holiness of Believers and their issue in the time of the Gospel together with the Right of Infants to Baptism Mr. Anthony Burgess his Expository Comment Docâ—â—nal Controversal and Practical upon the whole first chapter of the second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians his Sermon at the Funeral of Mr. Blake Three Sermons of Dr. Tho. Jacombs Bucanus Common Places English A Discourse of the visible Church by Francis Fulwood Minister of the Gospel The Italian Convert or the life of Galeacius Caracciolus his admirable conversion from Popery and forsaking a rich Marquesdom for the Gospels sake St. Augustines Confessions translated into English by Dr. Watts Reynolds Celestial Amities or the souls sighing for the love of her Saviour his benefits of Afflictions his Advice against Libertinism his Eternity weighed with temporal and fading things of this world Iosephus History of the Iews fol. The works of Mr. William Perkins first Vol. fol. Dr. Fulk on the Rhemist Testament fol. The Temple of Solomon pourtrayed by light of Scripture by Samuel Lee fol. The Story of Stories in a Harmony of the four Evangelists octavo Gods Drawing AND Mans Coming to Christ JOHN 6. 44. No man cometh to me except my Father which hath sent me draw him Serm. 1 THis Text speaks plainly and fully enough to the point of mans Conversion for coming in to Christ upon his Call which is the phrase used in the Text. and Conversion unto God differ not but in sound of words which amount unto one and the same meaning The Philosopher in his Dialect would call this Conversion or this Coming unto Christ a motion not local from place to place but transitive from Term to Term for there are two Terms of every motion And the Evangelist according to Scripture expresses the terms of this motion diversly but denoting the same thing From darkness to light saith the Text Acts 26 18. And from the power of Satan unto God The Design that I have in my eye is to Treat of the point of Conversion not pretending to accurateness and curiositie anxiously inquiring after the method or manner of Gods working But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and practically to handle this point unto you For as thou knowest not what is the way of the Spirit or how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with Child so thou knowest not the works of God Eccles 11. 5. nor all the particulars of the methods and wayes wherein God works in the Conversion or Creation of this New man This Conversion sometimes denotes the potent and immediate work of God renewing and converting and this is called in my Text Gods drawing of a man to Christ in these words Except my Father draw him Sometimes it denotes the action of man converting himself to God by the Faith and Repentance which he doth receive from God and this my Text calls mans Coming unto Christ when he is called in that phrase No man can come to me except In time these two can hardly be distinguisht but in order of causality they are easie to be distinguished one from another I mean Gods work converting or drawing man and mans action converting and coming unto Christ The act of man in coming to Christ that 's not first but the work of God drawing in to Christ that is first and the act of mans coming must needs follow as the Sun must of necessitie first shine upon the wall before the wall can give or reflect light or heat from it self back again Facti sumus opus Dei We are first made the works or workmanship of God there is Gods drawing Then Facimus opera Dei we do the work of God or walk in the works of God which he hath ordained that we should walk in them Ephes 2. 10. There is our coming That you may clearly look into every corner of this Text you shall observe here two things First the doctrine that is here taught by our Saviour Secondly the reason of his teaching it at this time The Doctrine here laid forth consists in these three things First the magnifying of the work of God in mans Conversion to raise up your praises thanksgivings to God by whom you are what you are for to his Power and Grace our Saviour Christ assigns the only or the principal part of it and that 's exprest in the work of Gods drawing a man to Christ Therefore this Doctrine is not spoken in a simple form he doth not say in plain words My Father draws man unto me but it s spoken in an exceptive or exclusive form of words excluding mans power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 except my Father draws no man comes to me So that without the divine traction there is not an ability or power in man to come
without life Now that it may be judged you are without and deprived of these there is no better argument to prove it then by that whereinto we are redintegrate by Christ this proves your lapse your loss your ruine for by that which is restored unto you you may know what loss you were at before but so as which is worthy observation at the first the Image of God was planted in man by creation for God created man after his own image The first man did not work the image of God in himself but it was planted in him by that creation by which he was made a man So this conversion comes not by any work of man this new Image of God is replanted by a second creation And therefore it s said in Ephes 4. 24. The new man is created after God in righteousness and holiness This I speak to shew that this flower needs not a watering only but a new plantation in our Garden that I might bring you to pray and give God no rest till you find this work wrought in you Secondly Consider man Positively and in him you shall find a world of lusts that byass him another way Lusts that fight against your conversion lusts that fight both against God and your souls so that no man can any more move and free himself from this lapsed state wherein he is then a bondman can free himself from his Master That 's a Scripture-comparison for there is not one lust you are under but you serve Serving divers lusts and pleasures Tit. 3. 3. one haling this way and another pulling that way and under the name of this bondage doth the Scripture often set forth mans impotent and indeed obstinate condition being as that servant in the Law that said I like my Master and will not go out free I will be a servant for ever There are many that say I will not leave my covetousness I like my sin bore my ear for perpetual servitude let sin be my Master for evermore Thus you see man is not only under privation but under the power of positive lusts Secondly From the work of Conversion it self that gives us very good reason no Philosophy in the world will deny this to be reason First this conversion to God is not wrought as habits that are generated produced and begotten in man by acts as a man writes often before he learns to write that is a moral way But this grace is planted in man first as potentia naturalis it produceth the acts and must first be The eye is a natural power 〈◊〉 a habit I do not by seeing learn to see as I do by writing learn to write but first I must have sight in my eye before I can make any act produce any fruit Grace is like sight in the eye we do not get grace by the several acts by us performed but first God plants it in our souls and then as with the eye we see Our Saviour Christ gives me the form of this reason First make the tree good and then the fruit will be good This must first be a man must first be endued with a divine and saving principle there must be a new man a new self a new creature before there can be any new acts How often have I told you that before this great work of God that plants a principle in me before this be wrought nothing at all can be expected from me Now Conversion is such a thing as this it makes the tree good and that cannot be by mans power because Conversion makes a new self in man I say it is impossible to reason and nature that this should be he that cannot do a good act can much less make himself a good tree Who ever heard of a thing in the world making it self Is any thing both a creature and a Creator I think there is no such thing in the world for if there were it would be something above a miracle A dead man raising himself its miracle great enough if another hand do it I say t is above a miracle and impossible in reason And truly if this Scripture-truth were brought to the ponderation of reason reason it self would not refragate and oppose the thing And secondly Conversion is a work supernatural and brings forth supernatural grace as to believe in Christ Jesus the Lord and to love God above self For that which is said in Scripture in the Law Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy mind and thy neighbour as thy self If thy neighbour be to be loved as thy self then that which went before is the loving God above self And if this be true as it is that God is to be loved above self it s an impossibility till there be a principle put into the mind and heart whereby to do it for self cannot work above self nothing can act above its sphere of activity my reason is as the Schoolmen observe if a thing act and bring forth any thing without it self there would be some effect without a cause and the cause cannot reach it which is clearly in reason impossible and a contradiction Darkness indeed was and light was called out it God commanded light to shine out of darkness in our new creation 2 Cor. 4. 6. but that darkness should produce light I say that light is without a cause for there is no causality in darkness and to make an effect without a cause is a thing contrary to nature and reason and therefore there must be a power to command it out otherwise you put nature to work above it self Thirdly If you consider the Gospel-reasons which that most of all insists on and these are the simplest they have no Philosophy in them Why no man hath power to convert himself there are two reasons the Gospel gives and there are no more that I can give in this point I am sure Bellarmine acknowledges it First it layes in caution against boasting and takes that for reason enough Why not If man were able to believe and convert himself then there is foundation laid for boasting and pride that man reflecting on himself might say I believed and for that reason the Apostle doth deny in Ephes 2. 9. Salvation saith he is by grace not of works lest any man should boast not so lest that should be It s contrary to the scope of the Gospel and also to the Gospel-design that is to unhinge the power of man and to draw all the water to Gods own mill the free grace of God And oh that we were in love with this free grace of God! that whereby when we were involved in sin we were brought out The second Reason the Gospel gives and it needs no more is it gives all the honour to Gods grace throughout assigning all the difference of one man from another to that fountain If a man converts himself then he differences himself from another man but the Scripture assigns
he forbids it A horse or stomackful colt put the bridle on him and he is mad let him run in the field and he is quiet Let the Sun shine on a stinking dunghill and it stinks the worse not because the Sun gives pollution by its heat but by accident makes the stink break forth so much the more Alas when the Lord comes to put the bridle of restraint on man he is filld with more stomack and rage and when the sweet Sun shines on him to invite him to God he is still the worse and the rather evil so little compliance is there of mans heart with God And as we may truly say that Antipathies and Sympathies do shew us very far into nature where they are found as the Schools do well observe for a lamb to hate and fly from not this and that wolf but every one though it never saw it before which shews a general antipathy to all wolves So it is in this case if there were a Law of God made known to any natural man such a Law as he never saw nor heard of before he would hate it and never comply with it which shews the stone that is in his heart and manifests a rebellion in it against God As on the contrary a Sympathy an agreement A soul that loves and delights in the Law of God though most cross to private interests is a very excellent proof of grace that hath reconciled the enmity of the heart to God Rom. 7. 22. I delight in the Law of God concerning the inner man Fifthly and lastly the pleasingness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the heart with any lust to which its taken by peculiar agreement of nature which is peccatum in deliciis doth shew this contrariety unto God so long as this sin of delight continues his master-sin he will walk contrary to God say what you will I confess every man cannot practice every gross sin as to be a drunkard a whore-monger covetous no more then one man at one time can possibly be sick of all diseases but that sin which takes him up by natural propension inclination or custome or whatever it be that either takes acquaintance with or possession of him no such man can come to Christ He himself tells them How can ye believe that are taken up with worldly credit and ambition John 5. 4. Let it be any sin Covetousness Drunkenness or Lust which he feeds by other sins and serves as a master to which he is tyed as fast as by a Cable which he cannot break until divine grace appear to him and cannot get off by any power of his own but Gods no afflictions though they bray him as a fool in a morter pound him to pieces yet his folly shall not depart from him no vowes though he seem to bind himself never so firmly nothing while the lust remains will alter or change him nay set the judgement of God and death eternal before his eyes ye do nothing the pleasure of his sin remains Rom. 1. ult Who knowing the judgement of God that they that commit such things are worthy of death yet not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do them Nay would you think that any mans sin should be so fast rivetted in him as that it should cause him to love death He doth so interpretativè by Gods construction and interpretation Prov. 8. ult He that sinneth against me hurteth his soul and they that hate me love death Now how filthy and abominable is man saith God that drinks in iniquity like water comparing a natural man to a fish in the water in its own Element from which you know he cannot be willingly pulled to the dry bank and therefore I conclude that man is not willingly of himself brought into that estate though it be far better yea a thousand times better then his own until his nature be changed and then he is brought And so much for the first branch the Contrariety of corrupt nature to God to his Law and to his Grace But whereas an Objection might be made that man is not so contrary to grace because that shews him life Certainly there is a greater opposition in the heart of man to the grace of the Gospel then to the Law of Duty to humble man and shew him that the work of Conversion is from contrary to contrary And therefore let me make use of that which some say that God in creating the world drew the creatures out of nothing but in this new Creation Conversion he finds opposition and contrariety in the subject that he works upon that bids him battel and sets him at defiance The Minister converts by new objects and God by new natures until which there is little done The second Branch of this opposition of corrupt nature to God we call enmity unto or hatred of God himself self which I instance in to shew that poison venom that is in man in every one of your best hearts in your natural condition unto the Lord God you will not be known of it in your selves Hate God may some say there is not one of us that take our selves to be haters of God but seem to defie all that hate God But the Scripture speaks much of it Them that hate me saith God Exo. 20. 5. And he calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1. 30. Haters of God And in handling of this point I shall enter upon that sin which is diabolical First Hatred is a part of that diabolical malignity which makes man like the Devil for when he overthrew man at the first he spawned into man a certain diabolical seed not sins of sensuality and the flesh but malignity and opposition and spight against God this man is of a serpentine nature One man may be angry with another man but a Serpent hates the very nature of man Anger is in particulars hate in generals say the Schools so that this arises higher then the other doth into a hatred of God himself And then Secondly Hatred differs from Contrariety in this It rises from the consideration of such effects of justice which are threatned or executed upon man against his will punishing him for sin and so causes hatred but Contrariety is to the holiness of God and his Law and so is an opposite to Gods justice and the effects of it for corruption is so desperately carried against God that like the Devil it hates God punishing and inflicting not peradventure as God is a benefactor and sustainer of nature but he will not abide Gods vengeance on him Insomuch that a man in his private retired thoughts hath secret wishings in himself sometimes that God were not looking upon the effects of the Justice of God And this I will shew you in three Particulars And oh that this might rifle your hearts to go away from this self-love of yours whereby the great God is so opposed First all the hate that is in man aganst the Law
door the faster as against a thief and invader that would come in by force but the Grace of Conversion opens the door and if there be no body within but those that bar the door it comes with such power as opens the door the heart and comes in and takes possession for of the two though corruption be strong yet grace especially when it comes in strength is the stronger Our Saviour in Luke 11. 21. tells us while the strong man possesses his goods all is well but when a stronger then he and that is the divine hand of God comes to take possession he binds the strong man what that binds up the resistance of the heart that when God comes to cut him of this stone and he would struggle and could not do otherwise Grace overcomes it finds a man in unbelief and doth not only command him to believe but gives faith therefore faith is not only the command but the gift of God it finds a man unwilling but it makes him willing it not only stirs up by way of exciting the will and the deed but it works to will and to do saith the Apostle Phil. 2. 13. how long may one cry and call aloud at a dead mans grave Arise come forth but if with the call there go forth a power as there did when Christ called Lazarus out of the grave then he rises and starts up This Converting grace is called by Divines Creatrix gratia a creating grace we are his workmanship created in Jesus Christ Ephes 2. 10. This raises the dead this gives Spirituale esse a spiritual being unto the soul it puts in a formal principle of eliciting holy acts this puts in new strength and heals the vicious inclinations this grace doth not only call and say Obey my voyce but it puts in the very grace of obedience I will put my law unto the heart and write it in the mind that they shall all know me Heb. 10. 16. this drawing is the teaching of God and Gods teaching is alway followed or accompanyed with success with the work it self viz. mans coming for every man that hath heard and learned thus comes to me every man John 6. 45. and in a word such is the power of this Converting grace that saith the Apostle it is mighty to cast down strong holds reasonings to bring down every high thing that exalts it self and to lead every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10. 4 5. and what 's that but it takes away the actual resistance of the heart at that present time Reas 2 Secondly If this Converting grace should not carry on the work with so efficacious and most sweet a hand as to overcome all our opposition one of these two things would follow First That our Conversion should be defeated and Gods intention towards his Elect should be frustrated for this grace of Conversion comes from the purpose of God which is infallible It is a calling according to his purpose Rom. 8. 29. what purpose why the purpose of his Election which must stand Rom. 9. 11. the purpose of God must stand that is not defeated frustrated and finally opposed for then it stands not And how doth it stand not of works and the compliance of the will of man but of Gods call now shall that grace that comes from a meaning and purpose of God be defeated by mans opposition and resistance no for then that could not be true that he hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardens God would have mercy on such a man but by his opposition made against that work he is defeated which would be a sad assertion Secondly Or else this must follow that the will of man casts the scales of his Conversion and so the chief part belongs to man which is to decide the determine the work for grace doth not then determine the will to a choice but the will determines grace to an effect oâ— event whereby man may stand out and say I made my self to differ from another for another man had as much grace as I but he repulsed and opposed it he shut the door against it but I let it in and therefore the act of difference between my self and other men is my own act the act of my own will but this I should by no means admit of for to me it seems incredible that God that made my will and gave it that liberty that it hath should not if he will so work on it or in it as he will to his own glory without any detriment to the nature or liberty of it having a most omnipotent power to incline the heart of man like a river of water whether he will De ipsis hominum volunt atibus facit quod vult God doth with the very will of man what he will as if he that makes a lock and knows all the springs of it should not be able to make a key to it without breaking it all to pieces and it is also a thing incredible to me that God that hath determined of some persons to grace and glory let me suppose that for I think it must be supposed should leave it to the will of man that knows not the purpose of God to him either to determine himself to grace or to defeat it at his pleasure this makes very ill musick in an humble and rational ear that God that determines a man to salvation should leave it to the pleasure of blind will to defeat the purpose of his grace for if he should stumble as I may say on the resistance of it he himself is gone for ever which leaves not unto God so much above the Publican or they that are past over as the Pharisee his God I thank thee Reas 3 Thirdly There is a good rule to be observed laid down by our Divines viz. To put difference between some principal acts of grace without which the salvation of Gods Elect consists not and those subsequent and following acts of grace or the motions thereof in the regenerate which though they were very good and godly acts yet a believer may be saved without them And upon the first sort viz. to believe in Christ to Convert to God to be made new creatures to persevere unto the end for the performance of these God in his time gives to his people such a grace as shall not be frustrate or defeated they shall be performed in thee But for other acts that God calls for of thee as to omit such a â—in or to do such and such a duty which being considered single and particular thou mayst be saved without in these he gives thee his Spirit whose conduct is to be followed but as experience shews the Elect and regenerate may deessegratiae may be wanting to this grace and repulse the motions and as it s said grieve the Spirit Ephes 4. 30. if in one sort of acts he should resist he is lost and therefore
greater guilt is upon them Serm. 14 LET all neglecters despisers and resisters of the Grace of God learn from henceforth to know in what respects their condition is worse then even those Infidels and heathens that unto this day do sit in darkness and the shadow of death their condition is worse in five regards Now I come to touch your pulse to shew you your condition if you be not converted and come in to Christ Jesus if there be not a work of saving conversion upon your souls First They are many times Judicially hardened in their resistance every mans heart is naturally hard but every man is not Judicially hardned as every man must dye but every man is not sentenced to dye by the Judge so there is a natural hardness and a sentential or a judicial hardness whereby God himself hardens the heart of man every man is not hardened as Pharaoh was such mens hardness is their sin and judgement to both in one Matth. 13. 14. there is the sentence which is repeated three or four times in the New Testament hearing you shall hear and not understand seeing you shall see and not perceive and this is the punishment of obduration and of mans own shutting of his eyes and then God seals up his eyes least they should be converted saith God and I should heal them And it is repeated again in Joh. 12. 40 a dreadful judgement that goes out against lazy sleepy neglectful hearers of the Gospel therefore they could not believe because God hath blinded them paenally judicially thou setest a lock on the door against his grace and he sets another lock on the door against thee In respect of their hardness of heart It s said they would not but in respect of Gods hardening It s said they could not which I perswade my self is a judgement largely extended in our Church thought men will not be convinc't of it Secondly Therefore the condition of these persons is very hopeless difficult yea and desperate there is no hope that the Bellows will do any good where the fire is gene out when there remains no spark alive in the heart of man there is a high word given of them in Heb. 6. 4. who were as greatly indowed as most of us It is impossible to renew them again by repentance And such is he that hath extinguished his taste And the Apostle useth a similitude taken from the earth that the rain comes oft upon as sermons upon you and the fruit it yields is nothing but briars and thonrs still they go on in sin the marks of a Cursed soile they are nigh to cursing whose end is to be burnt these are the people that have been purged by means used and yet were not purged and therefore shall not be purged any more Ezek. 24. 13. take therefore the grace of God by the forelock for as they say of time it may prove bald behind and there may be no lock to take hold of the twig of a tree that 's once dead never revives again there may grow others on the same root but a blasted bud never revives more when the master hath shut the door you may knock in vain And such as these that have refused the call of God they shall in their day saith God call on me but I will not answer they shall seek me early and not find me because in their day of grace I called and they refused me Prov. 1 28. Thirdly The neglected talent is taken from them Matth. 13. 12. Whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away that which he seems to have nay that which he hath God strips those professors of their parts that will not admit the power of his grace into their souls there shall be taken from them that which they seem to have the improvement of Grace and the keeping it alive is the way to encrease it and continue it But otherwise the kingdom shall be taken from you the Gospel shall be taken away and all the parts and endowments that you have got together you shall be stript stark-naked of them all In Mark. 4. 25 26. the example of this may be seen in the Jewish nation and other countreys towns and people that have been stript of the word and Gospel by their undervaluing refusal of the Grace offered unto them in tbeir day and the judgement is like the sin For Christ curseth the Barren Figtree with barrenness Never fruit grow more on thee Oh Let not this curse come on you consider the dreadful Judgement the curse it is called of the Figtree No prevention of this but by making use of your accepted time your day of Salvation without which your house will be left unto you desolate this is the judgement that flies over nations and countreys and particular persons I have observed men sometimes forward hearers of the word of God men of good Elevated affections seeming to be zealous and diligent in duties yet afterwards when the world hath grown upon them as it is apt to grow upon you all then God for the neglect of their talent hath come to distrain and what hath he left behind truly a kind of Bankrupt profession of Religion mouldring away and sinking to nothing a company of sick professors whose parts are spent and many times they grow sottish and stupid their parts that which they had is taken from them having forgotten saith the Apostle that they were purged from their old sins 2 Pet. 1. 9. Fourthly they are let alone to fill up the measure of their sins In this God deals with you as a physitian that leaves a desperate patient to his own appetite Give him what he will have you say for the physitian hath left him God comes at you no more to humble you to give you a feeling a heavenly thirst or appetite It is a sore judgement as any is yet men do not feel it when God pulls the bridle off a mans head and lets him run he that is filthy let him be filthy still when God doth not compass him about with a hedge of thorns but lets him alone Hos 2. 6. Oh miserable man In Psal 8â— 12. But my people would not hearken to my word and Israel would none of me here is their sin So I gave them up to their own hearts lust and they walked in their own counsels Ephraim is joyned to Idols let him alone Hos 4. 17. I will not punish their daughters when they commit adultery ver 14. but let them run to the end of their Teddar what a miserie is this whereof men are unsensible this is properly the punishment of the neglect of offered Grace Lastly The grieving of the waiting patience of God stretching out his hand all the day long and waiting on you beseeching you to come to Christ to receive the Lord Jesus and the answering and embittering it with provocations brings forth at last that fearful and irreversible oath of God at which me thinks any
always as the day of your lives Understand me right It may be but is not necessarily so Its true he that is joyned to the living of him there is hope we that know not Gods dispensations may hope the Best and its probable that where God continues his Gospel there is something yet to do there all are not come in while he sends his servant to Bid his guests yet your hearts may be hardened through unbelief and thy eyes may be sealed And though men may hope till the eleventh hour yet thou maist be under the irreversible oath of God and though he may send his servants to invite others yet those that were invited and did not come he will invite them no more Matth. 22. this many times comes to pass To make a general rule is hard and I will not venture on that but this I say it may be sun-rise with others when sun-set with thee and therefore I pray embrace the day of your visitation least it prove not so long as you expect Mot. 2 Secondly When thou wouldest after this day of grace is past thou shalt not God will laugh at your calamity they shall cry and I will not hear them Prov. 1. 26. when Esau would have inherited the Blessing he did it not Heb. 12. when the master hath shut the door if thou knock it is in vain No man can come to me except drawn what do you think these things to be only skar-crows they will be found one day to have some meaning in them therefore take the wind while it blows say Lord I bless thee yet I feel sense and have thirst hear thee knock yet I have taste and appetite Oh let not these sparks die in me let me take thy offer before thou past in thy hand and hold it out no more It s true while there remains these knocking 's God is not gone from the door But alas it s a very sad thing to think that men should conceive they have power to come and take the offer when they please Why may some say Object Will not God be found always when man seeks Answ Yes verily for so Hezekiah speaking to as lost a people as could be 2 Chron. 30. 9. God is gracieus and â—â—rciful and will not turn his face from you if you return to him But qui dat poenitenti veniam non dat peccanti poenitentiam he that gives pardon to the penitent when he doth repent he doth not always give repentance to the sinner And there if you well observe it lies the knot Heb. 6. 4. It s impossible saith he to renew such a man again by repentance he speaks nothings of pardon that will follow but speaks to the grace of repentance and have you power in your own hands It s impossible to renew them again such men may knock at the door may seek the Blessing may cry in calamity for every man may desire to be out of hell and to be happy when alas he hath not so much grace as sincâ—â—ly to desire Grace But then may some say to me Object Help us to some means to retrive the day of grace I have lost it I have outstood my time the day of grace is shut against me Answ There are means for a man that hath some spiritual life in him that is fallen into desertion to recal the spirit and blow up the motions to recover him as it were out of a swound to life again for rubbing of a man that hath life in him wil recall life to the outward parts But if you rub a dead man all day long you find no life a poor dejected soul that hath some sparks of grace in him may have life blown out of the embers but if it be dead at heart quite gone and extinct that 's another case If a man have through the natural resistency of his heart stood against Grace forty years together for they have grieved me saith God Forty years yet notwithstanding there may be possibility of the conversion and life of this man else Gods Elect should not be saved who frequently resist which is but a resistance natural that 's made by the obdurate hardness of their own hearts and they are not under the seal of the Irreversible oath of God But after that the oath of God is gone out against a man and the deadly seal is stamped on a soul that hath so often and so long and with such provocations resisted the arm the woâ—k and offer of grace to prescribe means to help up such a man again is to presâ—â—be Physick for a dead man or to call back the day after sun-set wihch I cannot do and they say how properly they speak I will not inquire that Christ himself did not die for the sin of final Impenitency for that sounds like a contradiction And therefore Beloved in the Lord carry but this from this sermon a preventive fear and trembling thats a preservative from the danger from which there appears to me no restorative If you look for restoratives after God hath sealed up the eyes for grieving of his patience it is in vain But if you will have a preventive or preservative from the danger why then to day while it is called to day come in lest you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin and so I have handled the three things Premised Serm. 15 BEing desirous to raise the thoughts of man concerning Gods free grace as high as may be and to lay his thoughts concerning himself as low I will therefore proceed one step further upon these words No man can And that shall be for the inquiry Whether the Elect of God whom he hath appointed and purposed to bring to Salvation be naturally of the same disposition and have in them the same spirit of opposition to grace offered as others have In handling of which I shall briefly lay down five Propositions as that which shall make an end of this point Prop. 1 First The motions incitements the knocking 's at the door afforded by God in the ministry of the word are neglected and resisted for the present by the elect of God as well as others I mean the elect in their present natural estate for their hearts are as hard and stony even digd out of the same quarry as any others And God we know doth not chuse any because they were but that they might or should be holy In Ephes 1. 4. which shews that holiness is not the cause but the fruit of Gods election Neither doth the purpose of God though it be for everlasting salvation while it is in his own breast make any change in the Elect as saith the rule of School Praedestinatio nihil ponit in Praedestinato Gods ordaining for life makes no alteration for present in those that are ordained until it come to calling according to purpose as notwithstanding our Saviours purpose to raise Lazarus unto life yet Lazarus for the present lay as dead as other
men not raised untill the time and that power that quickned him was put forth Israel in Aegypt was never more free notwithstanding Gods purpose of an afterwards deliverance which he did intend unto them till Moses the deliverer came Paul while he was an elect vessel not called was never the more holy for that untill the time of his conversion came For Election is unto the means as well as to the end which it could not be if holiness should precede For though there be a holiness before the End in regard of execution you have your fruit unto holiness and the end Eternal life Rom. 6. 22. yet there is no such thing before purpose and decree Elect through the sanctification of the spirit unto obedience 1 Pet. 1. 2. And therefore the Scripture constantly gives the natural character of the Elect of God the same as non-elect there is a double Character given of them a personal and a natural the personal Character is many times worse then that of others they confess that I was a Persecutor a Blaspheamer chief of sinners 1 Tim. 1 13 14. In their natural character they are described as of the same temper lump and mould with other men Among whom we also had our conversation in times past and were by nature Children of wrath as well as others Ephes 2. 3. And we our selves were also sometimes foolish disobedient serving divers lusts and pleasures Tit. 3. 3. For otherwise these three things would follow thereupon First The mystery of comparative Election why Jacob and not Esau would cease for the reason being open and known voideth the mysterie Secondly The distinction and difference of one man from another would be of man himself Thirdly The production of Grace would not be de novo by Creation You are his workmanship Created in Christ Jesus but would rather be as the Bellows that begers fire where there were sparks before then the putting in new sire where there was none before Prop. 2 Secondly The deserters of grace by them received and the resisters of Grace by God offered are Justly deserted by God and the offers in time taken from them The deserters of Grace received I mean that which they call common grace are such as either do put out the sparks or let them dye and go out Such as the Foolish Virgins whose lamps went out or as the two Grounds the stony and thornie whose green blade was blasted or choaked And such we have many amongst us that for a time and season do put forth blossoms they have Enlightnings Convictions and do pretend great affections some sence of sin at some time especially some desires of Deliverance and are like flowers in a waterpot that will keep fresh and maintain a greeness for a time but as the Scripture saith they have no root and so they wither and are extinguished Object But you will ask me What order or tendency have these workings unto regeneration Answ These are common to the Elect and non-Elect and they are Precedaneous and Previous works of grace towards regeneration being initial things that by the management of God do come to some effect in Gods elect but yet in themselves are such as may be suffocated and choaked for God doth not usually convert any of his people by way of sudden Ethusiasms as if one should think of life put into a stone or stock as if in an instant a stone should change into a man a heart of stone immediately change to a heart of flesh But God moulds prepares the heart by the ministry of the word and excitations of the spirit as it is said of Peters hearers in Acts 2. 37. they were pricked in their hearts and made to enquire what they should do to be saved For as it is in natural Generation there are many previous dispositions that go before the induction of the forme which gives it the specifical Being so are men brought to a spiritual nativity unto regeneration not by a sudden strait God doth work by these previous workings and in the way of his administrations he doth impart certain Initials or beginings of grace unto men Object 2. If this be that the men in whom these are wrought may desert extinguish and fall off why then will some say is this so culpable a thing to quench these that have no regenerating life in them Answ These are they against which the Scripture pours out so much wrath and declares so great danger in this case to such as shall desert forsake or extinguish these workings of initial beginnings as in that phrase Heb. 10. ult my soul shall have no pleasure in them that withdraw to perdition not because these have any root at the present for so our Saviour describes them in Matth. 13. 21. but because the things in themselves have a tendency to further ripening and perfection as the egg to the Chicken the Bud to the fruit and the embryo to the Child not yet actually perfect Gal 4. 19. I travel in pain till Christ be formed in you In which respect they are said to know the way of Righteousness 2 Pet 2. 20 21. And for this reason it is so culpable because they do destroy the fruit in the bud But then may some say Object 3. This renewing and converting grace comes immediately from God and doth not require any previous or precedaneous workings Answ The comparison of natural generation will give some light what to say of this for suppose the rational soul be infused not meerly traduced poured in from heaven by the hand of God yet notwithstanding there is use of marriage and many preparatory dispositions are required tending to the generation of a man so that you may rightly conceive here if grace be which yet I dispute not the begetting of a man to God there may notwithstanding be required many previous dispositions tending thereunto which that it is so may be evident to you by the means and instruments that God uses in Conversion the instruments are men the means are the ministry of the word I have begotten you by the Gospel saith the Apostle in 1 Cor. 4. 15. And if God was pleased immediately which I know not that any of you Expect and should be sorry you should be deluded so I say immediately to convert and suddenly to snatch a man out of his unregeneracy without conviction foregoing without knowledge and sorrow for sin desire of pardon and deliverance then neither would there be need of the ministry of men nor word preached neither need the Minister rightly divide the word as the Apostles phrase is that is plowing down the ridges of the law or laying up the furrows by the Gospel preaching this grace therefore is that which may be deserted and these offers of grace are many a time resisted and are by many finally resisted to the great danger of their souls and the loss of them And therefore it is just with God to desert these and
the act of God To speak plainly there can be no coming to Christ except there be first a drawing of God For no man can come to me except my Father draw him They are both of them delivered in Jer. 31. 18. 19. Turn thou me and I shall be turned After I was turned I repented there is the act of Ephraim after I had received the passive Conversion that God had drawn and turned me There is no resurrection from the dead without first a resuscitation the word and power of Christ goes forth before the act of Lazarus the Sun shines upon the wall before the wall can re-shine any beams of the Sun from it so there must be the work of God upon the heart the grace of God must shine there before the heart can return take hold and carry the soul to Jesus Christ And there are two Premises two Propositions that do carry on this Conclusion in the generality of it That no man will or can be saved if left to his own disposal or sufficiency Propos 1 First That every man in the world must reckon of himself to be one that naturally and of himself is come short of the glory of God And oh that this Point had a sensible Impression upon us all Rom. 3. 23. All have sinned and are come short of the glory of God the Justification of a sinner is Gods glory all are not only in but under sin Rom. 3. 9. nay all are not only fallen under sin but all are shut up concluded under sin Galat. 3. 22. all are not only shut up under sin in their own thoughts but by the Scripture shut up under sin the Scripture is the key whereby man is shut up and what possibility of escaping is there when all the world are shut up and certain it is that a man departed from God and fallen into himself is in the Scripture account in a lost estate and dead condition for that time as the Prodigals Father said of his son This my son was lost and dead but now upon his return he saith He was lost but now is found he was dead but is now alive Luke 15. 32. From that time that a man comes into Christ Jesus he is alive a man may live and yet be dead there is no time wherein you are to be reckoned alive and found but only from the time that you believe and take hold of Christ Jesus and therefore in 2 Cor. 5. 15. That henceforth those that live should not live unto themselves but to him that dyed for them and rose again which argues that all the time before they lived to themselves that is were dead That 's the first Proposition Propos 2 Secondly That every man in the world ought to reckon himself to lye still in this state of coming short until he be drawn to come in savingly to receive Jesus Christ For he that hath not the Son hath not life 1 John 5. 11. For so I would preach those out of Christ all of them dead I would unchrist them of that vain opinion that they have of being in him The Scripture is plain he remains under wrath till he come to believe receive and lay hold on Christ John 3. 36. For this is the only and necessary Condition of being saved that God hath assigned and proclaimed to lost man this is the new door for man shut out of Paradise to return to the Tree of life this is the only passible this is the certain way of re-instating man fallen short into capacity of the glory of God the Justification of a sinner is the glory of God and there is no other way but this those that you harp upon are false ways and to be abhorred Psal 119. For there are these two Reasons of it Reason 1 First It would be a disparagement and diminution to Christ if there should be found a second Saviour a second Way Truth and Life and therefore in 2 Cor. 11. 4 the Apostle challenges the Corinthians to find out if they can another Gospel another Christ another Spirit that cannot be found there is no other saving way but this The first Adam was but one and he lost all the second Adam must be but one neither as able to save all that are saved as the other was to destroy all that are destroyed Not that there is an equalitie in the number that are saved by the one and the damned and destroyed by the other that needs not to be but that the one is as only in saying as the other was in sinning Reason 2 Secondly That Christ is the only Condition of salvation appears by this because this will not stand with other Conditions of being saved which Man harps upon as works repentance sorrow for sin But there is but one because Christ will not stand with these For if Christ would stand with or consist with them then he should not be the onely way and the saving Truth Christ is made voyd by them Christ is of no effect to you if you will be justified by the works of the Law but if Christ be taken hold of by you then they are made void by Christ then the Righteousness of God makes void your own righteousness Not having my own as the Apostle saith in the like case Rom. 11. Either grace makes works to be no works or works makes grace to be no grace signifying that it must be this and not that not this and that not this with that which is necessarie to bring you to salvation but that it is Christ and not your own performances and works for without coming to Christ no salvation and no man can come to me except he be drawn that makes Demonstration thus A man cannot be saved except he receive Christ he cannot receive Christ except God draw him in therefore man left to his own disposal and the sufficiency of his own power cannot be saved this sum stands in plain Scripture terms This is the doctrinal Inference the practicall Use which I told you I would intermix with this Doctrinal is as followes First That we carefully maintain the necessity and soveraigntie the freeness of Gods grace and the power of it in the conversion of man Practic Use This is one practical and excellent Use that you carefully maintain these as Advocates of the grace of God the grace of God must be maintained and defended in these properties of it there hath rarely been found in the whole world in this point any man no not Pelagius himself that hath universally excluded or exploded the concurrence of the grace of God in the Course of salvation but have allowed it either for the inchoation or beginning of conversion or in the augmentation and increase of Grace or else in the consummation and finishing of it either for the sole work or the social work of it in and with man even very shame and the evidence of the point together forbids man to exclude that to which he
is obliged not only for a more easie conversion but for conversion it self for many have allowed it a place in making conversion more easie for a man to return and believe But we speak of the necessitie of it that conversion cannot be at all without it as therefore I may give it you by this comparison they that do allow the work of a Mid-wife in the helping of a child into the world do not by that make her the Parent of the child So they that allow the grace of God to be requisite to help man to conversion the knowledge of God and Faith do not thereby affirm the grace of God to be the Parent the Worker Authour and begetter of this Grace and therefore they say too little that make grace only an assistant And therefore as the Prophet in Zachary 4. speaking of the second Temple after Solomons Temple was burnt down by the King of Babylon they should cry Grace Grace to it not by might nor by power but that the Grace of God should be seen in the building of the second Temple So I may say of the building of this second Inner Temple in man after the death of the first I mean Gods Image in Man that it is a work all of Grace and therefore to set it in common place shews less sence of Gods honour by it and of our obligation to it then it requires Those that grant that man more easily comes to Heaven by grace adjuvant do say truth as Christ helping up Lazarus but raising him from the dead was more then so for he gave him life whereby he rise so to grace that it helps up man is to say Truth But if you will be good Advocates and plead the cause of Gods grace aright which men were famous for in former times when it was disparaged you must acknowledge preventing and preoccupating grace which wholly raiseth the dead man in that sence in which Austin calls it preventing that comes before our Act that praeoccupates a man not barely helping the man to rise alone but raising the man dead and begetting a new life in him Those who are only for adjuvant grace eclipse the glory of divine grace so as if they should say Christ helped up Lazarus who else could not so easily have risen up but it would have cost more ado to have effected it These are such as make the grace of Conversion to be as one horse in a Teem that helps indeed to pull out the stalled Cart the more easily but doth not come so home as that of Christ John 15 4. Severed from me ye can do nothing But let us account it to be the onely strength whereby we are pull'd out of the pit of damnation and perdition the Contest of Nature with Grace for place and power to make abatement of the necessitie soveraignty freedome and power of Grace in mans Conversion hath been in all times very great and some have given a greater share to mans power therein then others that have given too much Therefore there have been Pelagdians they went to the full and semi Pelagians And for ought I know there may be quarter Pelagians that deny some part of the Grace of God But it is to be observed that God by his Word hath alwayes determined the point for his own grace In his great Oracle which I account the case of Esau and Jacob to be when their Mother went to inquire the Lord answer'd I love the younger and hate the Elder and that before they had done good or evil It is my pleasure so to do for I will have mercy on whom I will Now if you will go about to ask me how Reason umpires this point in the Contest between Nature and Grace we know that Nature vanquish'd by the Word hath stood upon some proud and captious reasons which do rather shew that it is determined against her For the partie that mutinies and rebells doth confess it goâ—s against him the mutiny of Reason is the great reason that it goes against Reason in this point as in that Opposition Rom. 9. 19. Thou wilt say Why doth he yet complain who hath resisted his Will Man must needs be free and blameless for God would have him so Thus Reason mutinies and complains and comes with captious Arguments but the Apostle restrains it Nay O Man who art thou that disputeth with God which makes it clear that God hath determin'd against that part which holds up the wasters and makes insurrection So then the Grace of God is alone and that appears further that Nature at all times is willing to part stakes and it s a sign she is the wrong Mother because willing to come to division which Grace will not it will have all 〈◊〉 none I confess it is not the business of modest men for its liable to great exception and cavillation noâ— is it my design to cry down Nature further then it need and ought but this I speak against that those men that stickle for it do not give something only to Nature but plume it with the feathers of grace and inrich it with those spoiles that I take ill that me thinks is not right Let me give what I can what I ought to Nature Let me adorn it but with its own and if could be that Nature might be adorn'd and grace lose nothing it was more to be born But where the Sea gains the Shore loses so it is in these two as much as men set up Nature they pull down Grace Therefore you that will be Advocates for free Grace do you kiss the hand of that Grace whereby as the Apostle saith You are that as you are Iâ— prosecuting this I shall shew Serm. 23 First What are those Points or Articles of Doctrine that are to be defended and maintained to the end that the free Grace of God in the Conversion of our Souls may keep its necessity Soveraignty c. Secondly What those benefits are that practicle Godliness doth derive from the sence of Gods free Grace in making us something out of nothing us that were not yet to be The Points to be maintained for the Lustre and Glory of Gods free Grace are five the defending of which will keep you untainted from the diminution and disparagement that it receiv'd in any Point 1 First The reason of the difference which God makes between any man that is saved and one that is not is not Originally in Man himself If you wave or quit this you lose the point for this threed will run through the whole web If we ascend upwards and accompt the Heavenly Orbes S. Paul names the third Heavens Philosophers name more we must needs at length come to some first mover that we call the Primum Mobile that moves the rest under it and it self is not moved by any Orb above it for no process can be in infinitum So we may in the course of salvation count from step to step for so doth
must be buds before there be ripe fruit in the tree let there be day-break before there be Sun rise but when may it be said now the soul quickens now it lives 't is when God actually puts a principle of life into the Soul and changes it by habitual grace puts in the New creature the Divine nature and gives it power to believe And in this work there are two things that God doth to be considered first his taking away the heart of stone the vicious quality stocking up those roots of gall and wormwood sinne and delight in sinne and turning the heart into a softnesse and wearinesse of sinne and this he cals a taking away of the heart of stone Ezek. 36. 26. And then the second work that joines with and followes upon it is the planting of a new principle in its place as the heart of flesh is given to come in the place of the heart of stone whereby it shall be inclined to the work of faith and love and this shall be as Christ said a well of water springing up to everlasting life John the 7th and this is a work above the power of all means used in themselves till God use this Pen to write by but every tendent and previous act is not regeneration but that which gives a spiritual being and a vital principle for until there be a spiritual being begun there is no new Creature Thirdly There goes to this divine drawing a further work and truely that will not be acknowledged by many great men that out of the heart thus changed and prepared by habitual grace there is drawn out by the hand of God himself the very act of believing in Christ It is a hard thing to conceive how that should be but it is no otherwise then this that as when the wheel is made you put on your hand to turn it so when this habit of grace and new nature is put into the heart of man God puts forth this eximious act doth as it were lay his hand on the wheel turns the heart to draw out this act of Faith and this Christ speaks of heer coming is an act a motion a man cannot come till he move and so in Phil. 2. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Philip. 1. 19. to you is given to believe not to you is given the power to believe but God works the act the will not only the habitual change of the will when he hath habitually changed the heart then he drawes the act out the reason is if God had given the power and put a new principle into mans heart to turne and come to Christ and then leave him he had done no more for his Elect then he did for Adam when he was in his integrity God gave him a power to obey but he did not give him the act of obedience because there was a habit and a power given him and a sufficient power that he might have used if he would and have stood by it for if God had not only given him a power but this act then certainly he had stood but now the Conversion of man is certain not on a peradventure God puts a habit which he doth not leave to the will of man to act alone if he should I know not how it would succeed he doth not only habitually but graciously perform these great effects in his Elect and this is that which you may pray and look for and though you were possessors of the grace whereby you might be someway inclined yet look for this drawing of God whereby you may be dravvn to believing in Christ Serm. 27 The first part of this text vvhich concerns the impotency of man to come to Christ hath had much of the latter part intervvoven Gods dravving and therefore because I vvill not Tautologize I shall but as they say tie a knot upon the long thred that hath already run out in the handling of these vvords and shall make this point That they that come to Christ do come by the traction of God vvhich point I vvill open briefly in a few particulars First There is a sort of people in the world in whom God will magnifie his great power in drawing them into a state of salvation by bringing them in to Christ Jesus and they are described by a Character that is before hand unknown to us a great secret that they are a people known to him 2 Tim. 2. 19. The Lord knoweth them that are his and by this that they are given to Christ by the Father Joh. 6. 37. 39. they are called the chosen of God unto salvation 2 Thes 2. 13. they are the people of his inward and secret Covenant Secondly For these people that are thus set forth unto you God is the undertaker he undertakes for them to make them a new heart and a new spirit Ezek. 36. 27. to write his law in their minds and put it in their hearts Heb. 8. 10. Thirdly These all and every one shall be drawn to Christ they shall be all taught of God John 6. 44 45. Fourthly This undertaking work is succesful and effectual to these two things To the bringing of them in unto it To the keeping them in that state First To the bringing of them in for all that the Father hath given to me shall come to me vers 37. they shall all know me Jer. 31. 34. they shall all be taught of God v. 45 Secondly to the keeping of them in they shall not depart from me Jerem. 32. 40. they shall not withdraw of these the Apostle speaks Heb. 10. last vers we are not of them which withdraw to perdition And our Saviour Joh. 6. 37. them that come to me I will in no wise cast out And this is promised peremptorily of all that are Confederate or Covenanted persons they shall all come to Christ they shall all know me and I will give them a new heart and a new spirit every one of them shall be taught of God I will saith God and they shall And this Covenant of God thus made with his Chosen before the world began is irreversible not to be frustrated for 't is a purposed grace 2 Tim. 1. 9. There is not one of these in whom this undertaking grace shall not be operative working and succesful this is as the waters of Noah to me Isaiah 54. 9. God compares his Covenant with his people to the Covenant he made in Noahs floud and explains it thus as I have sworn that the flood shall return no more so that my Covenant concerning the waters cannot be reverst so neither shall the Covenant which I have made with thee be frustrate for it is a sealed Foundation the foundation of God stands sure and hath this Seal Tim. 2. 19. And concerning this know First That it is not built upon any contingent condition by us to be performed which man can defeat no more then there is required any such condition that the waters
be so odious by these few we may be convinced of our outwardness Observ 4 The fourth point that I observe is That in all times even those wherein religion appeared most outwardly carried on God did both aim at and expect an inwardness and real holiness in his people And comparatively did set the price and the praise upon the inward work the hidden man was alwaies in Gods accompt the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thing of great price 1 Pet. 3. 4. For as the Apostle distinguishes between such trivial questions that bred quarrels between Christians in his time and such things as the Kingdom of God consisted in Rom. 14. 17. For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy-Ghost For he that in these things serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men So the same Apostle speaking of the outward ordinances appointed unto and observed by the Jew as Circumcision which was their principal glory the seal of their Covenant standing the initial solemnity the bond of their obedience to the whole Law doth yet tell them that the inward circumcision the purity of the heart the inward work of the spirit upon their spirit was as to their salvation and as to acceptance and praise with God farre above that which had such esteem with men for though I know that Religion hath an outward part and an inward an outward part of positive worship as the Religion of the Jewes had and ours hath and an outward part of moral and practical holiness and righteousness James 1. 27. Pure Religion and undefiled is to visit the fatherless and widow in their affliction c. as both theirs and ours and though God require our bodies which are our outward part to be a living sacrifice presented to him Rom. 12. 1. yet are the Intrails and the Fat the inwards of Religion that without which all the rest is but a carkass of principal esteem with God the soul denominates and gives being to man yet his bodie is an essential part but the body without the soul is both lifeless and by reason of the retinue of death loathsome so it is the regenerating and renewing graces that give to us the life and beautie of a Christian yet so as outward duties of worship and of moral life are parts of Religion also but without an inwardness of spirit and a hidden man to accompany it they are all dead works and have no beauty in them This then is that I say that Religion is an inward thing Godliness heals our outward wayes by putting a bia◠within the bowl and the change is from within it give◠new principles new motives new manner of performance of duties the graces the comforts the sealings the experiences the communion with God and Christ are all inward things We judge of life by outward manifestations breathing moving but the seat of life is within This point is attested to by the testimony of three worlds the heathen world the Jewish and the Christian world The Heathens have seen and born witness that inward puritie is the cream and fat of all that they call the worship of God the rule of Scholars is that man is more corrupt in his morals than his intellectuals for to the lower part of the soul where the affections are the dregs do most settle they the heathens have a Theologie and a form of worship of their gods full of folly and vanitie but the wisest and soberest of them have confest that if God be a spirit he must be worshipped by a pure spirit si sit animus then puramente colendus so Persius who as the Apostle saies was one of the Heathen prophets Give me saith he Compositum jus jusque animi a due composure and honesty of mind and for my outward sacrifice farre litabe I le perform that with a few grains of Barly or meal and you may understand by Cicero 2. De natura deorum and by Seneca as Lactanctius cites him what uncontrollable conviction this hath even with natural men that honesty of mind and moral life is more pleasing to God then Hecatombs Then for the Jew it is very apparent how the Prophets call for holy life and for Circumcision of the heart Jer. 4. 4. and how they comparatively undervalue the outward forms in respect thereof Isaiah 66. 3. To him will I look that is of a contrite heart but otherwise the killing of an Oxe is as the slaying of a man and the offering of a lamb as he that cuts off a dogs neck Mic. 6. 7 8. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams c. He hath shewed thee O man what is good to love mercy to do justice and walk humbly with thy God And these outward ordinances of worship were never intended to continue for ever as you interpret the word ever for your ever hath sometimes an indefinite time therefore called ever as the Exod. 21. 6. and Deut. 15. thy servant for ever viz. till the Jubile but all your typical ordinances had their date and period God intended to shake them down that remaining things the everlasting Gospel might take place which cannot be shaken nor are to be removed Heb. 12. 27. It s said Heb. 9. 9. those outward and carnal ordinances were imposed till the time of reformation or correction and so long they had an excellent end and use but even then the circumcision of the flesh was but as Philo saith a symbol of circumcision of spirit and as the Apostle saith of your manna and rock it was but Christ and so of your outward worship the shell is valued for the kernel the bone for the marrow while the kernel and marrow is in them and now these typical symbols though they be mortua mortifera as to their use dead and deadly yet they are the word of God and may and do teach very much Gospel as the anatomie of a dead man teaches how the parts lie in a living man yet they continue not of further use to you and it may easily appear that God did intend to draw off this outwardness of worship by his taking off as you account fine things in the second temple which were found in the first and the Scripture promising a greater glory in the second temple than of the first cannot be understood otherwaies then that the outward glory was exchanged and recompenced by spiritual glory through Christ Hag 2. 9. consequently that the carnal outward should passe into spiritual glory which was both manifest when both the temple the seat of this outward service was demolished and the law the dignity of your nation led and shewn in triumph by the Roman Conqueror As for the attestation of the Gospel Christian that God aimes at inwardness and spiritualness especially I should but make expence of time and your patience to prove it for it is the whole scope and drift of the Gospel and that covenant
which is said to contain better promises then the former hath this as the first I le write my law in their heart and put it in their mind that is in their inwards Hebr. 8. 9. 10. But instead of lighting a candle to the sunne I shall endeavor shortly to make a brief Anatomic of this Jew or Christian that is one inwardly and how he is distinguished from him that is so outwardly 1. There is in every true Christian an inward and spiritual man this is called The new man Ephes 4. 24. The inward Rom 7. 24. 2 Cor. 4. 16. A dead man may have inward parts but he hath not an inward man because there is no soul so an outward Christian may have inward parts a dead knowledge a dead heart dead affections but no inward man because there is no work of grace in him and this is called an inward man because as corruption spreading over the whole man is called the old man so this inward renewing grace spreading into and over the whole man the mind will affections is called an inner man and this inner man is that which knows God believes in Christ loves fears thirsts after grace delights in Gods Commandments and hath a continual opposition to the old man counter-lusting counter-desiring and counter-standing it Christ dwells in your hearts saith the Apostle The holy Spirit is within you saith Christ but as the soul never is in a dead body because where it dwells life is so Christ never is in a man that is dead where he is life is there is an inward man he that hath not in him this inward man cannot be a Christian inwardly Secondly There is an inward work of God that goes to the forming and begetting of this inward man Outward Ordinances may make a Christian in the Letter but an inward work makes a Christian in Spirit I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts Jer 31. 33. A new heart will I give you and a new spirit 〈◊〉 put into you Ezek. 36. 26. I will put my Law into their minds and write it in their hearts Heb. 8. 10. These are Covenant-promises performed to all that are Covenant people In this inward work we have but the Ministry but the writing is by the Spirit as it 's said 2 Cor. 3. 3. Ministred by us but written by the Spirit of the living God Thirdly In this inward man wrought by an inward work consists the being of a true Christian for without this he that is called a Christian is no more a Christian than he that acts the part of a King is a King the name of a Christian is given or may follow from the outward profession but the nature is in this inward man He that begets communicates his Nature to the begotten he that paints a man imploys Art only but communicates no Nature God in a Christians new birth communicates holiness which is the Divine Nature but in an Hypocrite there is nothing but Art as I may say or some outward work for the outward forms may be painted yet inward forms cannot the lineaments of a Christian may be drawn to the life upon the white wall of an Hypocrite but the inward man which is that quod dat esse gives being to a Christian that cannot be but in a true Christian Fourthly He that is inwardly a Christian hath some marks of difference and distinction from the outward Christian forma dat distingui this inward work diffâ—renceth him from all sorts of them that are nominates and Christians outwardly First He is distinguished from the carnal Jew or Christian that professes Christ but lives in sin for though the outward Jew or Christian may hate some sins Thou abhorrest Idols thou hatest Popery and dost many good works yet that is out of some peculiar and particular indisposition to a particular sin and some particular approbation or liking of some good works but this hate of any sin or this inclination to a performance of any good works ariseth not from an inward nature or gracious principle as it doth in him that is a Christian inwardly and the reason is that contrariety to sin which is in a true Christian arising from this inward gracious Nature is to the whole species or kind of sin and is irreconcileable to any sin whatsoever as contrarieties of Nature are to the whole kind as light is contrary to all darkness and fire to all water so that this contrariety to sin arising from the inward man is universal to all sin though not an universal victory yet there is an universal contrariety victory argues strength contrariety argues nature hence it is that an outward Christian may hate one sin and love another becsuse there is not a gracious Nature in him which would be contrary to all And so also he may do good works but not out of a Nature that is in him for if it were from an inward Nature there would be an universal sympathy with and inclination towards God and all that is of God his Children his Commandments 1 Joh. 5. 12 3. Therefore saith the Apostle I delight in the Law of God according to the inner man Rom. 7. 22. not a particular good inclination but the Law in the whole of it It 's the victory of a Christian over corruption may not be full the performance of good may not be perfect but the inward Nature of a Christian is to be judged by the universal contrariety of his inward man to all sin and his universal inclination to God and holiness and that universal contrariety will beget a combate against all sin and that universall inclination to God an endeavour to all good but whether that combat be victorious or that performance be perfect though it may be much to shew the strength of a Christian yet it shewes not his inward nature but the other this universal contrariety to sin can be in no man but him that hath an universal sympathy with God and his whole law and image in his children they are both in him that is a Christian inwardly and they argue an inward nature of grace in him in which nature he differs from the carnal Christian who may oppose some sins and do some good works out of other principles and reasons Secondly This inward Christian is distinguished from a moral man that to his dogmatical faith and profession of Christ addeth moral vertue for there is as great difference between grace and virtue as between the sweet flowers spread upon a dead carkass and inward life a man be full of virtue 〈◊〉 and emptie of grace as a room exquisitely painted without light moral virtue is like flowers of needle work that are made by art but never grow from any living root natural temper disposition education produce moral virtues but now this inward man of a Christian is as I may say made up of Christ the knowledge faith love the tastes and rellish of Christ are
the ingredients that make up this inward man â— all his graces are but extracts out of Christ It is the knowledge of Jesus Christ that alters the properties of moral virtues and turns them into Evangelical graces fruits of the Spirit as the reasonable soul makes the sensitive operations which otherwayes are in bruits to be the act of a man I know a Christian may have more roughness of nature and more sturdiness of passions then is in many a moral man he that hath more Christianity may have less morality as there is more perfection of animal and sensitive faculties in some bruits then in some men I had rather fight against sin by a little of Christ in me then beat lusts and passions quite out of the field by the strength meerly of moral virtue because fighting against passions by the faith and love of Christ argues a Gospel inward life which is better then a freedom from vice by a company of dead virtues Thirdly This inward man is distinguished from all those common gifts and workings which may be in an outward Christian for there may be a large knowledge a kind of dogmatical faith a mercenary love of God a worldly sorrow for sin a desire of salvation and grace as a bridge to heaven but there is great difference between gifts and grace there is no grace but hath a counterfeit that goes under that same name and that is it which deceives men for likeness is the mother of error and it 's that makes examination so hard knowledge faith love repentance are to be distinguished for there are that bear the name of these but are not therefore this light oare is to be distinguished from true metal the Spirit works many things in those whom it unites not to the head and many have large gifts by dispensation from Christ that have no grace by virtue of their union with him as heat from the body into the clothes one weares but they do not argue union with the head Now there is a peculiar knowledg of God which is by his teaching which a man may rather feel than discribe there is a love of Christ himself not only of his benefits there is a repentance that rises out of love and not out of slavish fear and there are desires of grace for service and not only for a bridg to heaven this is the mark of true grace as distinguished from common it casts out self-love and as it comes from union so it drawes the soul into union and acquaintance with Christ himself the most intimate corruptions of men are pâ—ide and self which are not mortified by outward and common graces nor doth common grace draw into union with Christ but is wholly upon benefits and reward to seek God for God or love Christ for himself is above the power of all common shining glorious parts or 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 proper and peculiar to this inward man Fourthly A Christian inwardly is distinguished from the outwardly formed who in the form of Godliness is as well drest as the true Christian frequents ordinances complies in ritual and formal duties hath greater parts and abilities than this Christian inwardly we speak of but yet the inner Christian differs from the outward 1. In the principle that carries him which is regenerating grace a well of waâ—er that springs up in him to everlasting life 2. In the motive that impels and constrains him the love of Christ the sweet peculiar relishes of that love 3. In the manner which is with delight in God in his law and the commandments are not grievous 4. In the ends he aimes at which are not the base respects of self-love but the walking with God in communion and the enjoyment of God his God but as for the Christian outwardly he hath no principle no root in himself Matth. 13. 21. his motives are forrain springs and plummets as your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his manner of performance is but artificial and unsavoury his ends are like Jehu's that is his own and so his faith that he brags of is but want of temptation his assurance is but confidence in the flesh his quietness is but want of examination of his bottom his joy is the blaze of thorns his desiâ—es are but the eructations of self-love I have thus shewn you him that is a Christian inwardly and now for the use Use 1 First I would speak to the Jew but I can find neither Jew outwardly nor Jew inwardly as the text describes both for the Jew outwardly is not found because his outward ordinances which denominated him so are dead and gone the fall of the temple to which most of them was affixed broke most of them down and crusht them to death irrecoverably Those that now they hold as Circumcision sabbath difference of meats rules of marriage c. They are the ruines of the ruines of their state and though they were the ordinances of God are now become their own superstitions of no more use then heathen Ceremonies and observations unless to teach them that whiles they hold them Christ shall profit them nothing And for the Jew inwardly he is not nor can be for their Ordinances as now cannot work or convey renewing grace no more than heathen Rites Indeed salvation was of the Jews as Christ saith and there was a spirit sparingly conferred on some but now to expect any Regeneration any kernel in the husks now left any new creature should be in them that receive not but call Christ Anathema or consequently should have the spirit or any saving grace is as much as to say that a statue of stone may beget a living man And therefore that Doctrine of the Rabbins That one calls Pestilent whosoever professes Judaism howsoever he live shall have part in the world to come which Justin Martyr thus expresses that all Abrahams seed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Use 2 Christians be not you deceived with outwards and externals I mean deceived in your selves gross sins may be lest ways reformed Ordinances partaken in duties done and yet this inward work be wanting the heart enlightned broken quickned the will and affections sanctified are the things that must be sought after When a man white-washes or paints an old house it 's a sign he means not to pull it down You can conform to times and customs of Religion and begin to varnish over a rotten heart but that is a sign you mean not to pull all down and build new Is it some ends that you have set up that makes you cry up Religion This is but outward vvork this makes you but a Jew outwardly this is but to thaw on the sunnie side of the house and to freeze on the other Learn vvhat the inward part of godliness is A soul taken vvith Christ himself savouring the thingâ— of the Spirit his graces his vvays enquire after inward experiences and vvhat difference there is between the Word preached and the Word engroâ—â—ed between Baptism of