gratious operation of the Spirit not only giving the power but some way causing the very act Willing of distinct from giving the power of Willing and nilling which every sound man I mean every man in his right Wits hath Let every one now make hast and say hath he not waited long enough knocking while I refused to open Do not say I can when I will in this life turn and be accepted by your Doctrine therefore I may delay I have indeed shewed you can when you will but I have also shewed you cannot in a sense explained obtain of your self to Will it without extraordinary wonderful help from above If I maintained as some do that God only giveth men the Power of Willing and Nilling let it come from Nature or Grace that makes no difference in the case and that this is that Power without which men could not sin or which is all one could not be inexcusable in not turning to God and that God did not nor ever will go farther with any that are or ever were converted This would indeed be to maintain that you have no Impotency in any sense but that you can for any Impotency whatsoever Repent and turn as well as any that ever did turn and also that this you will have constantly while you are a man bound to repent and obey the Gospel This indeed would have some colour to maintain your presumption for then I could not tell nor any else how to calm your presumption in delaying but only by these two considerations you may die soon or be sooner deprived of your Reason and Understanding But beside these considerations I could not tell what argument to use to perswade men who are apt to have as good conceits of themselves as of others that are no more helped and inabled why they may not have a conceit they may at any time while continued sound men quit themselves as others that had no more help or assistance from Heaven and no more Impotency to Good then they will have and yet did quit themselves well after great neglects and long delays But I can tell you and have told you that by delaying and neglecting the means and helps and assistances he affords you increase your Moral Impotency and may and do provoke the Spirit to deny his help to work in you to Will while you have the power of Willing being sound men And if the Spirit do not help you in this extraordinary way you will as certainly as what is most certain go on even till Death through your morally insuperable wicked wilfulness And can no more in the moral sense explained thus Will Believe and Repent without this extraordinary help which you provoke him to deny you than a dead man can arise in a Natural sense without a Miracle Quest What may we do to be made willing to obtain and subserve this drawing of the Father and help of the Spirit to make us thus willing Answ Some have scarce any remiss will or desire at all of turning to God and so have as little desire to ask or use directions Some may be almost willing but not altogether in the prevailing degree as for example some are willing to part with many sins but it is not yet their prevailing will to part with all Some again are almost willing to give up themselves to God in every thing but there is an aestuation or fluctuation of their Will are waveringly willing off and on but are not come to a point to the settled firme choyce and resolution which is only the prevailing bent This drawing of the Father is frequently thus gradually at first a more wavering willingness is produced at last a more fixed and setled First Pride not your selves nay rest not satisfied as if safe for you are not in such begun willingness in your willingness in part to do some things yea many things as Herod yea all things like that young man in the Gospel who went away sorrowful as having some little willingness to what he refused but not a prevailing choice But yet own and bless God his Spirit for such beginnings if you desire they should grow and increase Know that these come not from your own wicked hearts of themselves Secondly Desire others to pray for you Thirdly Pray for these things as you are able Fourthly Meditate much on such things as may make you thus willing The vanity of the world Excellency of God the Love of God and Christ what he hath done and suffered for you c. Fifthly When almost willing unconstantly willing endeavour to engage your selves to tye your selves fast It is Gods way and you may expect his blessing on it so to engage your selves as you may say to temptations I have opened my mouth and cannot go back I have sworn and will perform Sixthly Let all take this advice Attend on his Ordinances He gives the encrease while Paul plants and Apollo waters Zach. 14.16 It shall come to pass that whosoever will not come up of all the Families of the carth to Jerusalem to worship the King the Lord of Hoasts on them shall be no rein Keep in his Church this is the way to expect raining on Irenaeus * Lib. cap. Sicut arida terra si non percipiat humorem non fructificar sic nos lignum a ridum existentes primum nunquam fructificaremus ad vitam sine supernâ voluntariâ pluviâ c. Qua propter necessarius nobis est ros Dei ut non comburamur neque infructuosi essiciamur c. calls the Spirit The Heavenly voluntary or arbitrary Rain And also compares it to the dew and the Church to Gideons Fleece on which the dew fell Keep in the way and road of the Spirit as you expect raining on Rejoyce to stand within Jerusalem's Gates Psal 122. The Church is Gods Vineyard it is good to be in it It lyeth more especially in the influences of the Sun and there fall the watering showers of Grace It is a fearful thing to run away from his walks And to get out of the reach of those weapons which are mighty through God Do not say Let ordinances alone till men be converted let Reading Hearring Praying alone Faith cometh by hearing beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord even in the glass of the Gospel we are transformed into his Image by the Spirit of the Lord. God opened Lydia 's heart in hearing Paul Act. 16.14 She heard us and God opened her heart to attend to the things spoken Let even them come that attend not God may open their hearts as hers to attend and consider They are said to reject the Counsel of God against themselves that refused to comply so far as to be baptized of John Luk. 7.29 30. It is a desireable thing for men to and dreadful for them not to frame their doings to return unto the Lord Hos 5.4 Now upon a Review of what I have said concerning Natural
Salvation would part with some sins they can best spare and do some duties they have no great aversness to and so either do leave such sins or would actually if they really thought Going so far would serve the turn Fourthly They or some of them have a remiss Will to perform the whole Gospel-condition to give up themselves to the obedience of Faith but the actual choice the prevailing part of their will is against it Aristotle's Instance is pertinent to explain this by ad Nicom lib. 3. A Mariner casts his goods over-board in a Storm to save his Life and Ship He puts the question Whether such actions should be called voluntary or involuntary he calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mixt actions for saith he No man would cast away his goods altogether willingly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but they are saith he rather voluntary actions for they are chosen and preferred by them as the wisest actions in such Circumstances Such a man would fain have his riches preserved and yet rather than lose his life chuses not to keep them resolved though repining to cast them away with the prevailing choice And though the other weaker inclination be a will a remiss will or volition naturally so called and really being a desire upon some reasons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle defines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rightly yet Morally it may be said to be no-Will For it is not to denominate not being the prevailing choice Qui mavult vult only in this sense so that you may say They will not in ordinary custom of speaking For where this chusing-Will is the imperate acts essentially follow and are performed in some measure or where they do not follow it is as much accepted by God as if they did e. g. If a mans prevailing choyce be to go to the Church he goes If to stay at home he stays if to pray he prays to give he gives except there be such a hindrance as will so far excuse as if he had done it as suppose the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be stiff or stubborn when the Will is not You see wicked men would have Christ and Heaven and would therefore remisly what they are convinced is the only means Holiness of heart and life yet the prevailing will is rather to lose happiness than to forgoe all their lusts to let go the offered happiness rather than live a Spiritual Heavenly life somthing unwilling thus to lose all yet with the prevailing bent of their will prefer this sinful course Fiftly In the regenerate the prevailing choice of their will is for the best Interest and this will Denominate they are willing in the properest sense there is no sin but they habitually would have strength against it and no duty but they would have strength to perform it And this will be accepted of God unto Salvation But yet their Will is renewed but in part and they have much unwillingness to it and will to the contrary they do not will in such a degree as they ought and this is their sin They would do such and such difficult duties and yet they would not and this is a Lamentation and should be for a Lamentation When I say they Would in a prevailing degree I know this cannot always be affirmed particularly pro Hic Nunc else they would never omit any known duty or commit any known sin for the Imperate acts would follow the Elicit I am somthing at a loss here how to express my Conceptions which are not very clear But you may conceive a Child may some-time disobey provoke his Parents though his general and habitual bent of heart and will be to please him And so Gods people's willingness to the whole and in general is greater than their unwillingness though not in the particular Act of known sin else I could not tell how to maintain that a Regenerate man hath the Gospel-condition in the main during a wilful sin and so is not unjustified whereas I cannot think such a one hath quite changed his ultimate end and is become unsanctified like another man for a time Me-thinks those words of the Apostle serve best of any I can think of to express my meaning by which if it be not the meaning of the words I only allude to them viz. So then with the mind I my self serve the Law of God but with the flesh the Law of Sin I my self which part do I my self wish most may prevail which side do I take which interest do I frown at and wish might go down That is I my self my will in the properest sense which I prevailingly habitually choose so as to be most displeased with my unwillingnesse and I find I am not displeased or not much at my unwillingness to sin I know it is difficult when a mans choice but-just turns the scale and is not vehement to discern which part he prevailingly takes And people though of great and strong affections to things above and in whom things below have very little Interest yet if their Reason be clouded with Melancholy or otherwise it is hard for them to know which is I I my self and which side they mainly take yet this is the way to enquire For come to a wicked man and he may say I my self serve the flesh and world and that interest I am most careful to secure and maintain whatever become of the Spirit 's Interest though my mind and Conscience is for the Law of God and serving of that and so I have a will to do somthing but the side I my self take and am most careful it go not down is the Flesh-interest And to answer to Rom. 7. I grant that Paul speaks in the person of a Regenerate man though some worthy men oppose it and as for what they object that he speaks of it as Aristotle represents his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Incontinent man who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 below a Moral man it is easily made apparently unlike if one by sin mean not gross sins but those of daily infirmity which Aristotle accounted no sins and by Flesh mean the most subjugated hated part of his will and affections and by his Mind the prevailing interest which he sided with However there is as much said Gal. 5 17. For the Flesh Lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh so that you cannot do the things which you would which words are confessed to speak of the Regenerate But to Answer First I doubt not but the Apostle desired to be freed from many Natural Imperfections that were his sorrows and punishments for sin and not his sins Secondly We must say the reason why the Apostle or any other do not do any duty they would is because they do not will it enough and what he did will in the prevailing degree he did it in some imperfect measure But he would fain have been freed from all unwillingness and have gotten on his Will further
of it than any that enjoy the Gospel as they confess that defend these words and this opinion else it would be Impertinent of this great favour by mis-improving Natural light But many were deprived of the Gospel before they could mis-improve their Natural Light as in the case above-named and the cause must be before the effect And God giveth the Gospel to many not improving their Natural Light well How contrary is this to Scripture to say that the Jews had Gods Statutes and Judgments because better than all other Nations The Jews indeed were deprived of such privileges because of their sin and unbelief but the Apostle signifies to us that the Gentiles were not taken in because better than they else they might boast against them in the sense he opposeth their boasting The Apostles were forbidden to preach to some where they found no opposition in the people and were commanded to preach to other places where they shewed themselves unworthy And to say that yet they not long after preached in those then prohibited places avails nothing for you will grant that many dyed in the mean time yet while you say that Gods denying the Gospel to any or denying the gracious help of his Spirit to any is for their sin and ill deserts I am far from opposing it I heartily grant it and it doth not in the least oppose what I say or help you while you mean it only absolutè absolutely But if you should mean it comparatè comparatively you see or may see by what I have said it is not true If a Prince take away the priviledges immunities of one City for their Rebellion and yet continueth the immunities to another City equal in the Rebellion If the Reason be asked absolutely why he took away the immunities of the City and would by no means spare it the Reason is their Rebellion their ill deserts But if the Reason be asked why he took away their immunities any more than he did from the other City it must be answered It was his pleasure and some special Grace or Favour to the other City was the cause of this difference i. e. not for any deserts or less ill deserts of that City spared It is here commonly replied Though it be granted that God doth give to some this way a special benefit without any deserts that others have not equally that want the Gospel yet we deny that God doth it out of any special or greater Love to them than he hath to others that enjoy it not And so they suppose they maintain yet by this saying but it would not help if true that God doth for the Salvation of all alike but only wherein mans free Will or which is all one as to the argument in hand mans free Will equally assisted by Grace occasioneth the difference And they cite a saying of Aquinas to shew they are not singular in this Opinion But this evasion is very harsh and very offensive to my Ears for if benefits be not conferred out of love and kindness they would be only benefits materially but not formally and so no thanks would be due for them no more than for benefits done to a man by another without or against the Dono'rs intention And so if special benefits in order to a mans Salvation ought to be apprehended to come not from special Love and good Will no special thanks could possibly be accounted due for them and consequently we are to account our selves no more bound to gratitude for the Gospel nor no more guilty of ingratitude in not improving it what ever else we may be guilty of than they are that want it What straits doth this Opinion of denying special Grace and kindness bring men into If the Gospel should by the Providence of God be sent into one of the American Countries they must unavoidably according to these principles think with themselves We are either better than other Americans and God is bound to do so or he would be culpably partial and so would do the same to every Country as good as we and so they cannot thank him for any special love or favour that he denyed to others as good as they or they must think with themselves If we be as bad as others that want the Gospel we need not thank him for the Gospel as coming from any love or good will that he hath to us more than to others that enjoy it not So also the Jews anciently might have said and so proportionably any Town that hath gotten a more powerful Ministry than formerly Either we are better than we were or than other Towns or if not we are no more beholden to him than they are that he takes not this pains with and so no more thanks due from us than them They say Where the great Sultan's Horse treads no grass will grow I may say with truth Where this opinion is held practically no Grace will grow and yet some maintain this with great confidence as seeing there is no way else to avoid special Grace and consequently Election And yet this evasion if true and not absurd doth not at all take off those difficulties that are pretended to follow from Election and special Grace but they as much encumber your Concessions still and a wicked heart would say I care not whether it be out of love or no so that God do but that more for me than others as bad as I that he knows will save me for if it be not out of love I shall be freed from the obligation of thankfulness Let such Scriptures as these be well considered to prove special benefits and to prove them to be from special love Deut. 7.8 The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth The Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number but because he loved you cap. 9.4 Speak not thou in thy heart after the Lord casteth out the people of the Land saying for my Righteousness the Lord hath brought me to this Land For the wickedness observe it of these Nations did the Lord drive them out but not for the Righteousness or uprightness of thy heart doest thou go into their Land Vnderstand therefore how he urgeth it as a matter of great concernment in Religion to make them thankful that the Lord giveth thee not this good Land for thy Righteousness The Learned Grotius hath this observation on this place as seeing it apparent hence Prima Dei beneficia sine meritis contingunt illis in troductio interram nobis ipsa fides Which I cannot English better than thus God giveth the first benefits without conditions and so giveth Faith or the Gospel-condition without Conditions though other consequent benefits upon conditions Now I doubt not but when God thus urged this upon the people Speak not in thy heart and Vnderstand therefore as of great concernment