the preaching of this saving doctrine may happily not believe as it s said of them that Paul preacht to from morning to night and opened Christ to them from Moses and the Prophets their own Scriptures yet how is this Sermon concluded in the 28 Acts 24 ver And some of them believed the things that were spoken and some believed not By this we may learn what to resolve upon and what to rest in if the word of the Gospel be inclucated and taught out of the Scripture with all possible advantages of conviction prejudices will remain and murmurings some believe and others believe not as they are drawn by a divine power in to Christ Jesus or not drawn There is some higher and secreter reason to be shewn for this then yet they think of and see in themselves for the Text tells you No man can come to me except my Father draw him When this drawing power goes forth then they come whom he draws not they murmur and take offence and prejudice And therefore it is said in Acts 13. 48. As many as were ordained to eternal life believed This we rest upon and are resolved But you believe not because you are not of my sheep John 10. 26. As for the Ministry of the Word in the hand of man it works but instrumentally and not as the principal cause It is not the axe that builds the house It s not the pencil that limbs or draws the picture but the workman by such instruments doth it as I may give instance both in faith and repentance See this in faith In Isa 53. 1. Lord who hath believed our report there 's the preaching and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed there is the inward working The revealing of Gods arm must go together with the report or else who hath believed it The word preacht and the work of God must go together So in repentance In 2 Tim. 2. 25. Let the Minister meekly instruct them that oppose themselves that murmur and are prejudiced if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth for else our instructions are but peradventure Use 2 Secondly If there be such disability and opposition in man here you learn that Gospel-hearers have need of subdued hearts Hearts mightily tamed and captivated to the very doctrine of the Word of God beaten down into a tractable humility For else as the best meat is distasteful to a corrupt and vitiated palat so will Gospel-doctrine the doctrine of free grace be scandalous and offensive to proud reasonings And I conceive it may be you have not observed it before that our Saviour when he began first to preach the Gospel did so much insist upon humility meekness poverty of spirit self-denial that his hearers might be subdued unto captivity of their reasonings and high thoughts as the Apostle excellently in 2 Cor. 10. 5. unto the obedience of Christ For I must say it no doctrine in the world was ever or will ever be again so obnoxious to scandal so opposite to the pride and so cross to the reason of man as the highest and sweetest of Gospel-doctrine the points of free grace which no man can receive without murmurings except the Lord first give him a very subdued spirit and a captivated reason And therefore though the benefits received from Jesus Christ be very great and every man will witness that Christ is worthy of all acceptation to save the chiefest of sinners yet when they come to look upon his person throughly and consider what may be said against him as well as what is said for him and the course and tenour of his doctrine that hath it in so many stumbling-blocks that may give distate its great odds that you would never have come in unto him were there not put forth in you a divine hand and a powerful to draw you A famous instance we have of this in Matth. 11. 5. when John Baptist sent his disciples to Christ to know whether he was he not that I believe John Baptist doubted of it for he was in prison and now ready to be offered why saith Christ tell John what you see the sick are healed the lame walk and all sorts are cured very good things such as no man could be offended at and then he adds Blessed is he that shall not be offended in me ver 6. as if he had said as there are many things in me and in my doctrine that draw men to me multitudes crowd after me because I heal cure and relieve them so there are others of hard digestion that may by their offensiveness to mens reason drive them from me So it was in this Chapter His disciples that followed him began to take offence and to cry out of hard sayings ver 60 61. and then presently go away and walk no more with him ver 66. Use 3 Lastly learn from hence A man obstructs his faith when he considers too much the appearance of inconsistencies of his reason and sense to faith in Christ As these Galilaeans Countrymen of Christs that knew his parentage and outward quality fell a murmuring at his doctrine that he came down from Heaven for their eyes were all on those things that they thought inconsistent to his coming from Heaven they could not stand with them and so obstructed their faith Whereupon he saith except God draw men out of their inconsistencies no man can come to me A man may follow his own reason unto an absolute unbelief and Atheism not that Scripture or divine Reason is to be rejected I do not speak to that point But I speak to that natural reason that is taken up from other grounds and not weighed in the ballance of the Word Faith believes God though reason comprehends him not there is no reason that I should have my reason satisfied in the point of eternal salvation by free grace but that I should have a clear word of God that I conceive necessary That God promises so or so that I must needs have as the object of my faith but that I should have my reason satisfied before I believe I know no reason of that Take it either in the narrative part of faith or the promissory part God promised Abraham a son in the old age of him and his wife when he did not expect such a thing did he say Shew me how that can be now I am old No he did believe that he was able to perform he received the word which he believed These people reasoned themselves into an absolute unbelief they considered the means of Christ what they saw in him but the excellency of Christ that he came from Heaven the Son of God the Saviour and Redeemer they believed not And therefore let me from that observe a notable lesson A man that will believe firmly let him look upon the excellency of Christ Jesus not on that which is offensive and scandalous to our reason It was excellent doctrine that
in your natural condition you have some thing which you call your gain Phil. 3. 7. and if you should presently die you have something to trust unto and while these remain with you it is not a hard thing for you to believe and therefore a man trusts to his fleshly confidence till he come to know Christ Jesus the Lord But when the soul is unhorst of her false confidence and true faith hath dismantled all mans strong holds that there is nothing to relieve it but faith in Christ when a man is left naked as Adam was of himself and his own righteousness and a man hath nothing to trust unto but the word of God whom he hath offended and yet now he must trust to it and venture his soul upon it when troubles and fearful questions do arise then you will find no sea no Euripus is more unconstant then the heart of man nothing more hard to fix this will make him cry out with Francis Spira Oh that I had but one dram of Faith O that my Faith were fixt and my heart by Faith these are the Reasons of that opinion the easiness of believing Now I must shew the contrary to this opinion about the easiness of Faith and to that end I shall say thus much that it is not properly said to be hard for a natural man to come to Christ for that may denote a possibility but that man cannot come without Gods drawing which I shall endeavour to prove First Because the Scripture makes it the work of God and the gift of God the work of God for he draws the gift of God for it is given to believe And in some places gives that as the reason why men cannot believe of themselves as in the text No man can except God draw which is given as the reason of the unbelief of these murmurers against Christs doctrine and ver 64. 65. its said Christ knew from the beginning who should not believe For no man can come to me except it were given him of my Father And our Saviour as appears by this thought it a good proof that they that were not drawn by Gods work nor had faith given them of his Father could not believe in him or come to him That faith is the gift of God it is said expresly Phil. 1. 29. to you it is given to believe sincerely And Matth. 13. 11. to you it is given to know the mysteries And Ephes 2. 8. you are saved by grace through Faith and this not of your selves it is the gift of God And Secondly That you may see that assigning of our Faith to Gods work and Gods gift doth deny man to be the social as well as sole cause of his faith and that God only teaches the heart to believe you may observe that it is spoken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of opposition unto and not of Composition or Concurrence of man with God in way of Co-ordination where the Scripture speaks of God it speaks of God as the sole cause Mark the antithetical places where it is not only said that God works it but God works it and not man Flesh and blood hath not revealed this to thee saith Christ to Peter Matth. 16. 17. but my Father our sufficiency is not of our selves to the least thought but of God 2 Cor. 3. 5. there is an antithesis excluding our selves Not of our selves but it is the gift of God Ephes 2. 8. As therefore they say in Philosophy God is Causa totius entis which doth deny all concausality he made us not we our selves in the hundred Psalm so it may be said that we are his creatures in grace as well as in nature We make not a haire of our selves no not the colour and shall we not lay it to heart In nature did I make my self why shall not I give as much to God in regeneration as generation seeing God is seen in the one as well as in the other Thirdly Faith in Christ is a distinguishing grace a work that differences those that are sheep from them that are not those that are given from them that are not given to Christ this is proved Matth. 13. 11. to you it is given to them it is not given to the babes it is revealed but hidden from the wise Matth. 11. 25. This coming unto Christ to speak plainly is a fruit and effect of election all that are chosen to Eternal Life shall come in unto and believe in Christ they shall all know me Heb. 8. 11. both the least and the greatest every man that is taught of God doth believe Joh. 6. 45. If any man living can know himself to be Elected of God how must he know it we must know our election if at all ascendendo not descendendo not prying into the abysse but beginning at the lowest round of the ladder my regeneration and Faith in Christ and from thence ascend As many as were ordained to eternal life believed Act. 13. 48. a place as it pinches hard so men have set their wits on the tenters to make something of it or rather nothing not as were qualified and disposed as say some but appointed or ordained It s vain to wash away the sence of the word We know it is called The faith of Gods elect and that it is said the election hath obtained Rom. 11. 4. our Saviour saith John 10. 26. you see the works that I do miracles that one would think might work faith but there is a secret reason why you believe not Because you are not of my sheep for all they do believe in me and this is my constant doctrine for this I have said unto you It is said of the Councel of Trent by him that wrote the history of that Councel that when those that were for the will and power of man disputed with the other party by reason they seemed to carry all before them to get the victory but when the other party that was for the Grace of God against the will of man came to back their arguments by Scripture not by reason then they went as far backward as forward It is objected that it is not likely that all that in that Congregation were ordained to life eternal did believe at that time It is but a quibble which we can speak no further unto then the text doth It is enough that the reason of believing is drawn from their ordination to life as John 6. 37. all that the Father giveth me shall come to me and if all that God giveth to Christ shall come to Christ we conclude that it is proper to those that are the elect of God to those God gives it in those God works it Serm. 20 NOW I come to lay down Reasons to prove true Faith to be the work of a supernatural hand taken from faith it self and the Reasons will be eight or nine because I would humble-men out of themselves and out of those vain thoughts that
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
there are many things whereof women have experience that counterfeit impregnation which is not so So there may be such appearings of believing in a man as give but an uncertain or fals evidence thereof therefore you need know some certain evidences that you are drawn to God for your comfort And First If you be come then you have been drawn this stands upon the evidence of the text the effect shewes the cause for no man can come except the father drawes If the wall shine you may conclude the sunne is up and shines upon it for it would give no light of it self but by reflection if you find in your hearts a willing receiving of Christ Jesus for your Saviour and Lord that you have surrendred and made a deed of gift of your selves to the Lord Jesus to be his certainly you have been drawn by God this light hath shined upon you otherwise you could not reflect it Secondly Is thy faith an inchristing that is a Christ receiving faith is it a marriage faith I call that a marriage faith which accepts of the person of Christ a Saviour and Lord which some call the faith of the person whereby you do not only believe for benefits without him but for the benefiâ—s with him there is a faith in formal hypocrites and such as the very sound of the word begets as we see in all or the generallity of us here in England that live under the sound of the word of the Gospel a kind of faith and opinion begotten in all men of Christ by a general and uncontrolled conviction as those that did believe when they saw the miracles that he did but he did not commit himself to them John 2. 24. But that which is called the faith of Gods Elect in Titus 1. 1. that 's not found in any but they that are thus drawn and is that which he works in man in pursuance of his purpose of election making good the rest of the links of the chain after the first namely effectual calling and Justification and Sanctification which every faith or believing doth not doe every faith you find in men is not in pursuance of this drawing of God as I have described it Thirdly When we can willingly subscribe to the course that God hath taken to save our souls which the most of men do not now the course that he hath taken is in another not in our selves it is in Christ by whom God doth justifie reconcile adopt sanctifie and govern all in Christ A sanctified heart submitting to this course of God is a sign that God hath drawn you and given you some taste of Christ Jesus and is your faith such a believing yea or no then certainly by the victoriousness of it to bring you to this pass it appears to be the teaching of God as it is delivered in 2 Cor. 10. 5. It is powerful to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ For man naturally and of himself thinks very meanly of this way and means of saving men by Christ for so it was in the type at first Israel thought very meanly of Moses when he came into Egypt one that seemed an unlikely instrument to cope with 〈◊〉 and such potent impediments And therefore the Jew hold fast his own righteousness and would not submit Rom. 10. 3. And mans pride makes greatest head and resistance against this way of Salvation that may be until it appear that there must be no Salve or Chirurgerie to apply to the sting of fierie Serpents on pain of death but that unlikely way of looking up to the brazen Serpent on the pole for he that used his own medicine perished and died So when a man is convinced that there is no salve of his own making no medicine of his own applying will serve the turn for a man may die under his medicine as well as under his sinne if he do not fly to this only remedy to look up by faith to Christ Jesus When he is convinc'd of this he will subscribe and give up his hand to God the Lord as it 's said and this submission doth stand in three things First In a contented losse of that which was his gain for every man hath somewhat to leaâ— upon that he may not lie open to the arrowes of the fiery law of God and his own conscience therefore some gâ—in he will have to shelter him and therefore when he can willingly esteem all those excellencies dung and dross and adventure to make himself empty and naked that he may be found in Christ Jesus Phil 3. 8 9. This is a sign of submitting to God as the storm makes the Merchant at Sea to submit he loves his goods but the danger of his life which the storm puts him into makes him heave them all over board It 's good when a man is willing to be a loser of his proud self-sufficiencies or his beloved sins to gain Christ for these are our hardest losses and to make Christ Jesus our gain answerable and valuable to and with all our losses A hard point but 't is a point of submission Secondly In a willing submission to the conduct of Christ as Israel if they will go out of Egypt they must submit to the conduct of Moses and go which way he will lead them for not the shortest but the safest way God leads them wherein he will shew them wonders further miracles then he had shewn in Egypt so this submission to the conduct of Christ in the wilderness that he leads you through where the cross the loss may make you more miserable for Religion for Christ then other men in the world are as the Apostle saith the confession of Christ makes us miserable men in the world miserable for religions sake which we might avoid if we would shun religions if this can be digested by you and there be a sweetning of sowre morsels by the name of Christ it argues well Thirdly In a cordial submission to Christ his wayes especially when they are quarreld by flesh and blood Some men are so bold as to account them foolish others as unreasonable most of us do account them hard and that we shall be contrary to other mens examples or reasons or principles and therefore it is a hard thing to submit to the waies of God without consulting with flesh and blood so as though reasons taken from religion are the strongest with us in any debate or consultation yet there is a propension in our natures to follow the guidance of our own reason until the Load-stone have toucht the Iron and caused it to look to the North point as you use to say till the interest of God have taken place in our hearts to draw them to Christ Jesus then there is a submission to Christ for righteousness and to those waies and Commandements that he injoines us be they never so hard and untractable to flesh and blood Fourthly When we find that God will
But they were false-hearted men that would not hold out if they came to wetting And so in Matth. 13. 21. and Luke 8. 13. they that received the word and with joy too they are such as believe but for a while but having no root they go away As the house built on the sand may stand till the wind blows And in John 12. 42. Many believed on him but yet they loved the praise of men more then the praise of God worldly things are preferred before spiritual And in Acts 8. 13 24. compared together Simon also believed but that did not pluck him out of the gall of bittterness nor unfetter him from the bond of iniquity That faith that lets a man lie in an unregenerate estate that is the faith of Simon Magus It is called Believing and you may so call your selves Believers and yet be without saving Faith For every place in which it is named sets a blemish upon it Shewing that such a believing is joyned with predominant lust But now the Faith that saves that is other wayes in Scripture described and set forth with other recommendations It is called a believing to the saving of the soul and so opposite to that which withdraws that is Faith for a time Mark the distinction and emphasis of the words in Heb. 10 ult It is a receiving of Christ Jesus as Saviour and Lord Col. 2. 6. which is alwayes accompanied with true regeneration In John 1. 12 13. Whosoever believes in Christ to the saving of his soul is born of God 1 John 5. 1. Whoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God Whoever believeth that he is so and so takes him And is called in Scripture by these properties and epithites a heart-purifying faith Acts 15. 9. a faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1. 5. the Faith of Gods elect 1 Tit. 1. a precious faith 2. Pet. 1. 1. an effectual or operative faith c. all this shews that though the Scripture call this and that both by the same name Believing yet they differ as much as saving and not saving Faith This is the first Reason concerning that opinion of the easiness of believing They that will be thus mistaken we may well say of them they are in danger to miss of their salvation Serm. 19 Reason 2 THe second Reason is That as men are mistaken in Faith as I have shewed so they are also mistaken in the Formalis ratio of believing The formal reason of Believing is the Word of the Gospel which is therefore called the power of God to salvation to every one that believes Rom. 1. 17. And it is an excellent mark of true and saving Faith that it hath been wrought in thee by the word of the Gospel by that which is called the hearing of Faith Gal. 3. 2. This is the reason of believing as you may gather from those words John 3. 33. he hath set to his seal that God is true i. e. he that believeth and he that believeth not makes God a lyar 1 John 5. 10. shewing that Gods Word or the testimony of Christ in the Word is the ground and true reason of believing all that do believe truely do resolve their Faith into this reason the truth and veracity of the Word of God but now the common Faith of most that live in the Church in the ayre of the Gospel if it be followed to the last resolve or resort of it is not into conviction by the word or spirit but the custom and example 〈◊〉 men that profess they believe Christ to be a Saviour because they see it commonly believed and owned in the Church that they live among these have the same reason for believing in Christ that the Turk hath for believing in Mahomet and that the Jew hath for his rejecting Christ whose Religion is milked into their mouths by education in such places and by such parents as are of this opinion thus it is with us that have suckt in this kind of believing with our milk which makes it easie to us as the Fathers authority to the Child in minority is the greatest in the world But to think that without a better Reason of our Faith we can be saved is a great mistake For the heart must be convinc't and principled by the Gospel and by the power of God therein Reas 3 The third reason of the easiness of this kind of unsaying Faith is freedom from temptations For many men are carryed on the wings of this Faith all their lives long freed from temptations doubts fears disquietments have no thoughts perplex them from the beginning to the end of their lives for they are temptations within that are the cause of the difficulty of believing when the wind lay Peter doubted not the Lord called and Peter went to him upon the water But when the wind rose and was boisterous then saith the text he was afraid and doubted Math. 14. 29. then Lord save me or else I perish then Christ saith Oh thou of little faith wherefore dost thou doubt when the wind was strong faith became weak when a man rides on in security and peace no guilt within no fears doubts or soul-troubles encountering him it s an easie thing to believe But when tribulation seizes upon the spirit and the wind arises then you come 〈◊〉 doubtings fears and disquietments and find it hard to believe then saith the heart Lord that I had but one drop of Faith that I were but able to come and be fixed upon the center of believing this is the common and greatest Reason of easie believing the empty traveller sings before the thief For First Satan rather keeps the peace of such a soul then molests it because he knows that his kingdom and possession is not endangered by such a faith as sights not against his dominion Pharaoh arms not his Egyptians whiles Israel followed a quiet drudgery and therefore the devil rather rocks the cradle then he will disquiet his sleeping Child And Secondly While a man is not sensible what it is to lose his soul nor feels the damnable sins he hath nor considers that the whole moment of his Salvation hangs only on this cord he doth not fear neither is disquieted But when he sees that life Eternal hangs upon this naile it startles him and makes him afraid When the man perceived that the cure of his child did he upon his believing it made him cry out Lord help my unbelief Mark 9. 24. They that see not the concernment of their believing unto Salvation cry not out for the help of their unbelief Reas 4 Fourthly While the props that a man leans upon remain uncashiered it is not hard for the man to believe Faith is the easiest thing in the world whiles a man rests upon something in himself while he swims upon the Bladders that are not pulled from under his arm-holes t is easie for him to keep his head above water Let me tell every one of you whiles you are
shall renew their strength they shall walk and runne and flie up as Eagles and not be faint Isay 10. last verse Sermon 24 Consect 6 Sixthly Gods drawing of impotent man to Christ is the cause of mans coming to Christ so that though most men seem and will not denie that they beleive yet no man savingly doth believe and come to Christ except God by an Almighty and Omnipotent hand doe draw him The drawing of God is called the Act of God converting man the coming of man is called the Act of man converting himselfe both you find in this text Gods drawing and mans coming In the first of these man is meerly passive in the second mans coming unto Christ he is active as by way of comparison the Sun shines upon the Wall the Wall is Passive doth nothing in the Walls shining back by vertue of the Sunnes shining upon it the wall may be said to be active because it shines back the Beams by reflexion a plain case God giving this Divine grace Man is passive therein man converting unto Christ and believing in him by vertue of the drawing of God is active and performes the duty that is required of him For though Faith be an Act of Gods Power giving yet it is an Act of Mans dutie I believed therefore I spake the Act is his the power is Gods this point our Saviour proves affirmatively by an Argument drawn out of the Prophet Isaiah that all that have been taught of the Father believe and come to Christ and because that every man so taught doth come therefore no man doth come but he that is drawn which is the Negative in the Text from the affirmative he proves this Negative every man that is taught of God comes to Christ therefore no man doth come but he that is so drawn as in the natural being there is the Creation of God making us so to be so in the Recreation or making man a new Creature there is a work of God making us to be so and I see no reason but man may as well make himselfe at first in the natural being that he hath as re-make himselfe spiritually And I wonder any man should pretend that man hath a greater stroke in making himself a new Creature then he had in making himself a creature at the first A man may raise him self from the natural and bodily death as easily as he can raise himself from a Spiritual death therefore it is said that God quickens â—s being dead Eph. 2. 5. Why then may some say iâ— there no power in man to come unto or to believe in Christ Jesus I answer there is not active power to begin to come but there there is a passive and obediential power as the School-men call it which is a power to receive this work of God to receive the impression from God but not an active power to work it in man himself as in Ezekiels dry bones the Question was Can these dry bones live there was no Power for them to come together to work life in themselves but a passive Power to receive the breath and life when God gave it So there is in Man he is not a stock or block but hath a power obediential to receive the work of God the work of Regeneration and of Faith is not wrought sine duobus without two as Bernard saith the one in quo the other à quo the one in whom it is wrought as the Subject that is impotent Man the one by whom it is wrought as the Agent that is the Omnipotent God it there were not such a nature in man a rational nature there is not quod salvatur that which could be saved if the arme of God were not revealed there is not quod salvat that by which man is saved so that there must be these two From this point thus laid down and opened unto you I will summe up certain observations proper to the Text. Observ 1 First God is first in order of Causality for if you ask which of these is first I say Gods work is first and then Man comes after and therefore the Apostle proves that man is not Saved and Justified by works for we are His workmanship Eph. 2. 10. and the dead doth not first work but the living upon the dead Ephes 2. 5. and as Ishewed in Jer. 31. 18. turne thou me and I shall be turned Gods act of turning Gods before mans being turned and after I was instructed I repented you may further read this point proved in Jer. 17. 14. Heal me Oh Lord and I shall be healed Save me and I shall be saved Gods healing and saving must precede and go before our being healed and saved It 's true in order of time a Christian is not alwaies sensible to observe the time of Gods working before the time of his Converting the work of God and the act of mango so near together who can discern by way of comparison any time between the shining of the Sun on the wall and the walls reflecting back the light of the Sun yet reason will tell you from the order of Causes the Sun must first shine on the Wall so neither is it in this Case The Lords drawing and Mans coming are not sensibly discerned in difference of time but in order of nature and Causality Gods work is first which drawes and mans conversion next which comes to Christ Christ taught this Point in the comparison between the fruit and the tree suppose the tree bad it brings not forth fruit that it may be changed into a good tree but first the Tree is made good and then yeelds good fruit Math. 12. 33. And Austin hath a like Similitude Non ideo currit rota ut fit rotunda sed quia est the wheel doth not therefore run that it may be round but first the wheel or bowl is made round and then they runne so man doth not work or act that he may be made a new Creature and walk in Gods way but first he is made Gods workmanship drawn by Divine grace and then acts and brings forth fruit to God and it is the saying of Hugo speaking of the grace of God and the will of man Gratia operatur eam deinde per eam First the grace of God works the will and then it works by the will here is the state of the point grace makes the will and works it and then works by it Reas And truely methinks that in reason and good manners it should be said by all men that Gods working upon man goes before mans working for or towards God that as the Creator I speak not of Relations for they are both together in nature is before the Creature in working the Spiritual Creator must be before the Spiritual Creature in the working of it as well as the Bodily For the making of this Point good I will lay down five Reasons First The Scripture asserts it I will give a new
that you believe not few men that believe the one will believe the other they will not believe but that they can believe as if it were an easier matter to believe in Christ then to keep the law that is as if it were easier to obey the Gospel then t is to obey the law and that therefore such an omnipotent power as this divine drawing imports is not necessary to make a sinner believe Now I beseech you consider the Law hath something in you for being once written in the heart of man there do remain some fragments or rubbish if I may use that word in allusion to a building form but of the Gospel there is not a line in the heart of man by nature because it is wholly revealed and therefore it is as impossible by a saving faith to believe in Christ unto salvation as it is for a man to keep the law it 's as easy for a man to love God above self which the law requires as to believe in Christ Jesus with self denial for in both self goeth down to love with all the heart which the law requires is as impossible as to believe with all the heart as the Gospel requires and commands and therefore men are mistaken that think faith is in their power and confesse that obedience to the command is not Obj. But you will say the law requires perfection the Gospel only sincerity therefore the Gospel is easier of the two Answ It s true integrity is required in the law of God for you must not misse a hair if you will be saved that way Cursed is he that continues not in all things that are written in the Book of the Law to do them Gal. 3. 9. But now the Gospel requires only a sincere heart It 's true God in the Gospel is content and pleased with sincerity and mark what the Apostle saith concerning the law It 's a burden intollerable which neither they nor their fathers wâ—re able to bear Act. 15. 10. But Christ saith that his yoke is easy and his burden is light Matth. 11. 30. Here is the difference but to rise out of this estate into which we are plunged now for we must speak of a recovery and rising again this is as hard and difficult as it is for us to keep the law all is one Suppose a man dead lying in the grave bound in the grave-clothes as Lazarus was and a man dead not bound at all but perfectly loose from such impediments is it not all on to put life into either of these two so though there be not a full integrity of the duties required of necessity in the Gospel yeâ— man being dead and to rise recover and come again to a state of salvation and Gods Image it 's all one power that is put forth to raise a man by faith in Christ which is recovering Gospel grace as to set a man in the state of perfection which is the life of Gods Image but indeed this is made possible as I said through grace to believe but to keep the law perfectly is not made possible to us in this life no not by grace God left it under an impossibility called the impossibility of the law Rom. 8. and therefore as the Apostle speaks of that faith that is wrought in those that shall be saved it is wrought by an exceeding hyperbole of power 1 Epes 18. 19. â—he uses such a weight of words the exceeding greatness of his mighty power in them that do believe according to the power that was exercised in Christ when God raised him from the dead now Christ was perfectly dead and lay under the weight of the sinnes of all believers and therefore the power that raised him up was omnipotent and is not this power exemplified in raising you to faith which is a recovering grace except men be pleased to deny that man is not so dead as Christ was that he hath some degree of spiritual life though Christ had no degree of natural life for then he had not been dead as neither we if it be so and I know not why they should deny the same omnipotent power to raise them from being dead in sinnes to come to Christ for to deny the greatness of the power is to deny the degree of the death and therefore I think it to be a good reason for the conclusion of this digression from the privation oâ— defect that is in man to believe and the power that is necessary to relieve that defect and heal that privation to argue the impossibility of faith to a natural man And For that which is said if others of lower form lesse in parts do believe why not Iâ—â— why should not I think my self a believer as well as he or another I reply that in Scripture especially our Saviours doctrine the reason of believing and not believing seems to lie very high and out of sight as they say of the head of Nilus mark and take no offence but let your Reason stoop to God and his Word you believe not because you are not of my sheep John 10. 26. as many as were ordained to eternal life believed as if ordination to eternal life were the original or cause of believing Acts 13. 48. But we shall look only into man himself in whom there is reason enough for his unbelief how can you believe that receive honour one of another John 5. 40. there are so many reasons for unbelief as there are master sins for every master sin as it brings the soul under great guilt so it hinders the soul from coming to Christ Jesus but then what reason in man can there be given for his faith in Christ We see many simple men the Scripture calls them babes believe learned men do not We have read of a thousand converted at the first Sermon they heard as at Peters Sermon And again many hear a thousand Sermons and yet are not believers In short though nature and art in their works require the subject they work upon to be disposed and fitted with capacity else the work is hindred therefore the sun hardens and softens according to the temper of the subject on which it works but God that works this faith if he do not find a subject prepared as indeed he doth not he can make or create faith in most indisposed subjects for Creation requires not so much as matter to work on but works out of nothing as we know which nature cannot do When God works faith in yâ—â— he finds no propension to faith but opposition he finds nothing lesse then nothing in man but he works it I say there is no cause can be given in man why one believes and not another because it is the hand of free and powerful grace that works it in man without finding any propension unto it Reason The reason why these Gospel-graces do require a supernatural strength is this in general Christs dominion in man is begun and carried on first