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
in him They are both one but for order sake we speak distinctly It s true we are commanded to turn in Ezek. 18. ver ult Wherefore turn and live And in another place Make you a new heart and a new spirit Because that is our duty and the condition of the covenant of life required of us The great condition is Turn and live Believe in Christ Jesus and be sâ—ved This is clear and there is no question against it But yet we are turned before we turn Jer. 31. 18. Turn thou me and I shall be turned and I will make you a new heart and I the Lord will circumcise thy heart For God makes good to his people not only the benefits and promises of the Covenant but the graces and conditions that are required he undertakes for grace as well as for the promise which is one of the greatest points and main hinge of Divinity The design and plot of God in the Gospel being to illustrate the glory of his grace having past by the Angels that sinned and leaving them without excuse without redemption very well Now then say I there is no point that serves better to that end then the depression of mans pride and power by that impotency and disability that is in man to that which is saving God by this magnifies the freeness of his grace that takes this work to his own power So that the conclusion will be mans foolishness doth magnifie Gods wisdom our unworthiness illustrates his freedom our poverty his riches our captivity his redemption and the enmity of man to God his reconciliation So that as in travelling by sea or land the more you raise one of the poles the more you depress the other and the higher one rises to your eye the lower the other sinks to your Horison So the same degree you raise man in worthiness or ability you lay low the grace of God and take it down from its due elevation The more you illustrate the free grace of God the more you derogate from the power and ability of man And therefore you may conclude there is no point or way serves more to the illustration of Gods grace then the depression of the pride and power of man To go on I must a little make a distinction No man can deny God to be the working or productive cause of grace but must some way or other exalt himself But I know very few men nay not excepting Pelagius himself that doth or hath denied God to be the working or productive cause of grace in us But they sufficiently depress the grace of God that will allow man the share of a meritorious or procuring cause to obtain it or some way or other to procure it of God For that is as contrary to the freeness of it as any thing can be If we give to man the working or producing of grace in his own heart that takes off from the drawing power of God to which it is to be assigned it takes from grace the power of it If we give to man the worthiness that takes off from grace the freeness of it for t is not free if there be a worthiness in man And we cannot give grace her due except we leave to her her power and her freeness And therefore Pelagius our Countryman at least a Welshman that said grace was given secundum merita according to works And the Semi-Pelagians that followed him that thought he went too high and therefore would mend the matter with Facienti quod in se est c. God denies not grace to men that do what they can that to a man that doth what he can though no such man I think is found in the world that walks up to the utmost of his light to him that doth the utmost of his power God doth not deny grace in our times when men have learned to spin a finer thred but to be as absolute fastened to the same doctrines as they were of old they do assign the first reason of Gods giving grace to the honesty and probity of man as they call it these spin a finer thred one then another But this I will say of them all That which they give to man they take off from God and so much as they give to mans worthiness or power so much they derogate from the power and freeness of God and do so much pull down grace as they build man And I think it to be a good rule We must build man upon God and not God upon man I confess that our Saviour here in my Text properly speaks of the power of man not the worthiness and merit which you may clear to your selves by the opposition Except my Father draw him which signifies some kind of power But I have spoken this little of distinction in derogation to the worthiness and merit of man that I might not trouble you with it afterwards and that I might shew you that mans merit is opposite to Gods free gift and free grace and will no more stand together then mans power and Gods drawing That 's an excellent Text for this purpose Rom. 11. 35. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who hath first given to God and it shall be given to him again reciprocally Thus much unto the point of merit because that I quit and come to that which my Text properly leads me to viz. The power of man to self-conversion or faith in Christ And here there are three things that offer themselves for distinctness of method First the subject unto whom this power is denied is every man in the world as he is considered abstractly in his corrupt natural estate without the traction of God No man Secondly that which is denied is power and ability to bring himself to God Not meerly will or readiness of will or forwardness as if man were in fetters or sick and crazy but power he cannot which is the most offensive denial that can be made to mans reason as leaving to man no share in his own conversion nor to God as they deeâ— any justice of commanding man to turn and believe Thirdly that unto which this power of man is denied is the most absolutely necessary thing to his salvation conversion and the most clearly easiest thing as men think which is believing in Christ then which they suppose that nothing is more facile and easie you think it to be as easie for a man to believe as for a sick man to cry out for a Physician or a hungry man to call for meat whereas Christ saith without coming to me you cannot live For t is a work that requires the drawing of God and such a work as is in no mans hand First the subject No man If I open this point genuinely according to the Text I must look back ver 41. where Christ silences the murmurers and gives them a general reason that reaches all them and all men else No man can And then also it gives a comfortable
are infrustrably brought home who being left unto themselves neither would nor could have been any more saved than those that do stand out against God for if none so left do come in we may well conclude that all in that case would have stood out as well as these do But here an Objection may be made Object That every man is self-indulgent man must be supposed to love himself and to chuse his own chief good or-salvation and therefore were not his hands tied up for want of power he would not want will but certainly be saved For Answer Answ This goes about to lay the fault on mans non posse not upon his non velle which yet our Saviour affirms Joh. 5. 40. Ye will not come to me c. It 's true God hath linked his Glory and mans chief good or salvation together and so there is a self-love that 's joyned with the love of God for the salvation of man being linked to the Glory of God it follows that there must be self-love joyned with it I mean spiritual self-love self-denying self-love But observe besides this there is a carnal and sensual self-love in all men and that we properly speak of when we speak of self-love that hath the stronger bias of the two and carries us from salvation rather than to it and this is the self-love which prompts us to that by which we are deceived all our life-time pursuing rather what hath the species and colour than what hath the reality of happiness and content And therefore that which is here alledged as a reason why we should all be saved by our own will if so be there were a power because there is self-love in us is rather the reason why no man would be saved there being two self-loves every man naturally following the heavier bias of the two which wheels off to the body to the world and to things speciously good and draws him off from the concernments of his salvation and this self-love rather is the cause of mans hate and dislike of God because he assigns and pronounces Judgment to sin which self-love loves and tenders salvation in such way as is destructive to carnal self-love But as for that which we call spiritual self-love there goes much Grace to the working of it in man indeed if we had this self-love we should have one of the greatest fruits of supernatural Grace This is not naturally in man himself nor can be until there be an alter ego a new self another self for there are two selfs commonly in every man Not I but sin in me Rom. 7. Not I but Christ lives in me Gal. 2. the one self-love follows the one the other the other which is the stronger and leads a man unto perdition Point 5 Fifthly and lastly Let all Patrons and Advocates of Grace maintain the prevalency of Grace by its own strength and not because of some accessaries that strike in with it at such a time as the tide that strikes in with the wind But my Father draws saith Christ The Jesuites that have a hand in this controversie will tell you That the power of Gods Grace is prevalent may fall out so or so in the event by reason of congruities and seasons fit moods and tempers and perswasions Blanda tempora fandi God speaks to men in a seasonable time Few men say they but may be wrought upon if they be taken by the right eare there are some times of speaking to men when they are in a good mood but otherwise come to speak to them when they are off the hooks in a morose untractable condition as Jonah was in when God said to him Dost thou well to be angry Yea said he I do well to be angry to the death then if you move them with Arguments they prevail not A man so taken may resist the offers of salvation but we hold that the Grace of God is strong by its own strength able to overcome the most morose obstinate cross grain that can be when God intends it to be powerful Maintain therefore the prevalency of Grace not doing as those that will allow Grace to be prevalent in event but it is by reason of advantages that hit at that time as Auxilliaries that come in and get victory this is too little to say of Grace that it stands in need of such helps but it conquers the most cross grained and unwilling heart and therefore the invention is but to disparage and disgrace the Grace of God If you understood these things it would I hope settle you to be firm Advocates of the Grace of God But Secondly The benefits that practical godliness doth reap by the exaltation of Grace First This Doctrine proclaims down pride and advances the cause of humility No men so humble as they that are most sensible of the free grace of God towards them to make them something when they were nothing If thou receive why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received 1 Cor. 4. 7. If you will hold your selves receivers that will pull down your glory for glory is of man that hath not received Secondly It advances thankfulness And these are as the two scales the one up the other down Thankfulness and Humility You have a brave close saying of our Saviour when the Leper came back to give thanks for his cleansing Where are the nine saith he and he that was cleansed and came back was a Samaritan that 's not an idle word the rest were Israelites and took their cleansing to be a courtesie due unto them but this man thinking himself remote and if he were a Saviour yet he was no Saviour to him he was cleansed and came and gave thanks shewing that a man that hath least reason to look for any thing is most thanful Thirdly The sence of Free-Grace hath so great an Obligation to dutie that I wonder any men should preach Free-Grace to loosen the silver Cords of Duty and Obedience the law of God is the strongest and Free-Grace the sweetest tie For the Love of Christ constraineth us that is by bond of Ingenuity Cor. 5. 14. Fourthly Free-Grace is a great Quickener and will not let a man lie stupid and laâ—ie and drowzie so often as he thinks of the Free-Grace of God to him it 's like the Cock that crowes that awakened Peter to his Sence and Tears makes a man that hath tasted that the Lord is Gracious like a drop of oyle on a rusty Spring makes it goe nimbly sweetly and pleasantly The sence of Gods mercy that God pickt him out and made him one that he would convert and that when he had no more propension and likelinesse then another this quickens a man Fifthly It is a strengthener of obedience because it brings a man in all cases to depend upon God as his Center The young men shall faint those proud strong lusty ones of themselves shall faint but they that trust in the Lord they
he was bread from Heaven somewhat more then Josephs son Look upon the excellencies of Christ Jesus the satisfaction that he hath made for you by his blood the acceptation of that satisfaction by God the Father and those things that are excellent and in this doctrine of free grace look well on the Soveraignty of God for he hath mercy on whom he will that surmounts the reason of man And so you may believe for the words sake that is delivered unto you and not because it is commended to you by sence and reason This that hath been delivered is but the preamble yet so necessary that it could not well be omitted Serm. 3 I Now proceed to the Doctrine here taught which I divided into three parts First the assignment of the power by which man comes to Christ unto divine drawing Except my Father draw him Secondly the insinuation of mans duty which is coming unto Christ which is not like the duties of the Law which yet we are all bound unto for the Law is a Law of duty But this is a Gospel-duty and doth denote the great condition of salvation the great condition of the Covenant upon which God will save mankind is that they believe in and come unto Christ Jesus implyed in these words No man can come to me Thirdly the depression of mans pride or derogation of mans power and natural abilities in these words No man can c. These are the three points that may profitably be handled out of these words The last of these points first comes to hand in the order of the Text which is Doct. 1 No man by self-power or self-ability can convert himself or come in to Jesus Christ That I might not go far to prove the point therefore I give it you in the words of the Text it self Which shews unto all men universally that what is of greatest necessity to mans salvation and tends to his greatest happiness which is to come to Christ and so consequently to be saved unto that he is impotent and without strength So that the Person upon whom we are to discourse is not a man already in grace but a man in a state of unregeneration The Subject of our discourse hath three characters given of him together Rom. 5. 6 8 10. While we were without strength while we were yet sinners while or when we were enemies Man thus qualified or rather unqualified may be and is a capable subject of divine traction or operation So that observe No man in himself while he lies in a state of fin an impotent estate without strength is a cause first moving himself to his own conversion And secondly he can be no cause moving God by any of his worthiness or works to convert him He moves not himself for he is without strength and he moves not God for he is a sinner and enemy to God and so consequently he moves not to his own conversion salvation either way either by way of power stirring up himself or by way of merit and desert stirring up God to move him This point shall be opened from three particulars The three particulars are First the greatness of the work it self to come to Christ that is to believe in him as you may see in the 35 verse and other verses of this Chapter The greatness of the work manifests that no man can Secondly the impotency or disability of man towards it Thirdly the opposition and resistance that natural man makes against it to the utmost of his power And sure he that considers these three particulars will grant that no man can come except it be by a greater power then his own and so consequently that the Doctrine is concluded and proved First the greatness of the work it self Lift up your ears that you may lift up your thanksgivings and praises Attend to the greatness of the work of Conversion and believing in Christ that you may magnifie and exalt it according to its worth The greatness of the work properly leads us to the main point to shew the imparity and impotency of man For as the greatness of the Heavens that are over our heads doth diminish the earth that 's under our feet and is the reason that its called punctum a little point so you may rationally conceive that the greatness of this work of mans conversion doth easily and rationally diminish the power and ability of man unto it and makes it nothing And the work is great in three regards First in respect of the change it self that is wrought upon every man that comes to God which is exprest in Scripture by terms of the greatest distance that can be from darkness to light a great change Secondly in respect of the power required for the effecting it which is the drawing of Almighty God Thirdly in respect of the concernment of it unto mans eternal happiness and salvation For except you be converted and thus drawn to the Lord Jesus there is no hope of salvation for you And therefore in Ezek. 18. last ver Wherefore turn and live ye The greatness of the work of mans conversion may be estimated and proved to you First by the names that are given unto it It is called a Creation a Resuscitation of the dead a begetting of a new Man or a new Creature or Regeneration Now mark how great a work that must be And though I confess that every similitude must not so be stretcht and urged as to make it run of all four which is but a kind of trifling preaching of Divinity yet we may press the scope of Scripture Similitudes may be preacht out of Gods Word according to the scope wherein the similitude holds which hereby intimates a great work which no man can work upon himself but is wrought by a divine hand non sine novitate essendi not without a newness of being as they use to speak Creation is such a work as brings forth a newness of being whereby that which is now made was not before It is not necessary I think to this work of Creation that it should presuppose a total non-entity or a not being to be before it For Eve the first woman formed of a rib yet may properly be said to be created yet creation may extend so far as to signifie a producing of something out of nothing For God when he made the world made the creatures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the things Heb. 11. 3. ver that did not appear And when he converts he chuses things that are not 1 Cor. 1. 28. that is that were not such as they are made that have not that existence as is given to them afterwards The Artificer and Workman requires and presupposes the matter that he works upon he doth not make the matter and therefore is not the cause totius entis as the Schoolmen use to say of the whole thing But God can such is his omnipotency call all things out of nothing else I assert 〈◊〉
Grace put forth in the act of Conversion And for our clearer proceeding therein you must remember That Conversion doth either denote the work of God Converting man and this is Gods drawing or It denotes the action of man thereupon turning and coming in to Christ being thus moved and this is called mans coming in the text both of them make up compleat Conversion the one whereby God turns man and by the other man being wrought upon turns himself to Christ These two are inseparable in time but in order of causality Gods work is first the traction of God is before the coming of man the coming in of the light into a room we use to say expels darkness and plants in light though it be but one motion and one act so there must be the work of God enlightning the mind softning the heart drawing the will before there be a coming of man to God the act of drawing is Gods the act of Conversion or turning is mans God in his act of putting in and drawing forth faith doth not hinder but rather is the cause that the heart of man performs his own act and therefore the act of believing howsoever it be given by God yet being exercised and acted by us is our act for with the heart man believes Rom. 10. 10. as we use to say he that throws the bowl doth nor rowl or turn but the bowl by motion from the hand So when God puts forth this act to convert man the act is mans the act of Faith and Repentance and Conversion but the power and hand whereby the heart is turned that only is the act of God Well then First If we consider conversion as Gods drawing work converting the heart we may safely say The heart in that act doth not make actual resistance much less overcome and defeat the power of Grace which is put forth in believers with exceeding greatness of power according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead there you see the work described in Ephes 1. 19 20. It s true there may at that time and doth lurk a bitter root of proneness in the corrupt heart mark here is the knot and great point to resist the motions of the Spirit for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and this root of habitual perverseness is not wholly and presently eradicate and rooted out by Converting Grace But this we say that Grace doth so powerfully work in the work or act of Conversion it so sweetly plyes the affections the understanding and the will with such drawings and carries the work on with that actual strength that the actual resistance of the heart is tyed up bridled and suspended for that time that it doth not overcome the Grace of God but the Grace of God overcomes the heart by a victorious delight to yeild up it self to God though there be corruption in it it is so suspended as it doth not act I will give it you by this comparison The tyde doth not take from the river an aptness to run downwards to the Sea but so powerfully when it comes in bears the stream back that it cannot take his natural course I need not make application And this may teach all Converts with what measure of admiration and thankfulness to come to God for overcoming bridling and suspending these resistances of your froward hearts for having lived twenty or thirty years in resistance of Grace and keeping it at the staves end and after Conversion resisting Grace and quenching the Spirit so often as you do if God had left you in that act to these resistances you had been lost and undone and therefore that God at such a time should forbid still and quiet these rebellions and resistencies of your heart till he had turned the stream and taken away the stone this is an admirable demonstration of the mercy love and power of his grace to you Of all things wherein God is to be praised this is one that a rebellious man that had so often before time and since resisted grace that at that time when God Converted him he did not leave him to the resistencies of his heart And how would that child had he wit thank his Father for tying him hand and foot that he should not struggle and otherwise he could not do while he was cutting for the stone for the strugling might have prevented the cure When God comes to work upon the heart and man cannot but strive and resist and rebell against grace that God should take away at that time this resistance and bind a man hand and foot and so to overcome him with grace that he cannot resist it Oh the admirable wonderful mercy whereby the Lord makes a difference between his elect and others whom he leaves with the bridle on their necks to run away whether they will for it must be put among Gods promises and mercies when though with some sharpness he hinders us of the use of our liberty in hindring us from finding contentment in our walking contrary to our departure from him as you observe Hos 2. 6. I will hedge up thy way with thorns that thou shalt not find or enjoy thy paths this hedge of thorns is an admirable mercy for which the people of God have cause to bless God all their dayes that keeps them from finding that content in the way of their sins which otherwise they would have done this Converting grace doth so put forth it self in the act of Conversion of every sinner I know not your experiences of it that it subdues the actual resistance of mans heart at that time as the effect of it cannot be frustrated or defeated which teaches us with importunity of Prayer to beg this grace which comes with so much strength as that it bears down the wickedness of our hearts and irresistibly works a saving work Turn thou me and I shall be turned Jer. 31. 18. and draw me and we will run after thee Cant. 1. 3. And that you that have received such grace may magnifie the goodness and power of God towards you in that dispensations The Reasons why Converting Grace doth take away and overcome the resistance of mans heart at the act of Conversion which with great content and profit to the Reader may be given of the point are four Reas 1 First The Grace of Conversion doth not only move the heart to believe but it makes it to believe I speak of the act of Conversion it doth not only suadere but persuadere I cannot distinguish these words in English or this it doth not only stand at the door and knock and call as you would do to awaken them that are asleep within Rev. 3. 20. as exciting grace doth which is indeed a great favour which is resisted by man for to this Grace that knocks and is only pulsant calling and awakening the heart of man we may Ponere obicem put a bar bar the
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
by the almighty power of God Secondly By the conquest of Christ himself for we must be partakers of that before we can believe And thirdly by the energie and operation of the Spirit so that we may say as it 's said Zachariah 4. 6. Not by strength he means humane not by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts But to speak particularly to the point Faith in Christ as it is a duty in respect of the command of God so it is a principle of new life in order to the recovery of the state of Gods Image Now let the consideration of faith as 't is a duty passe and consider it as 't is a principle seed and root of spiritual life whereby we live unto or with God and then tell me in a sober judgment whether nature can plant a supernatural principle For plantation of principles the strength must be supernatural whether a supernatural principle is likely to be planted by the power of nature I think there are but few that will affirm it Formes naturally begotten by generation are educed as Philosophers say out of the power of the matter But can a supernatural principle be educed by the power of the matter No they rise meerly out of nothing I do not discuss now whether every duty of faith and repentance require a supernatural strength proceeding from the principles already planted as fruit from the â—ooâ— but whether the principles themselves the habitual graces be of Gods plantation yea or no which no man will deny that thinks the new creature to be Gods work as well as natural man is For and it is but reasonable for me to speak it shall we by our natural being confessedly be the creatures of God and deny our selves as new creatures in regard of our spiritual being to be of God there are but two places of Scripture whereby I prove all this that I have recited John 1. 13. all believers are born viaâ— by regeneration not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God a plain denial of the will of man to be a concurrent agent or cause in the work of regeneration he denies three things that natural generation hath dependance on and affirms one not of blood as natural generation nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God This spiritual birth is left to be of God and his will and mark it is denied to be of the darling mans will Deut. 29 4. you have seen great signes and wonders that one would think should have brought faith out of a rock of stone for the space of forty years ever since you were in Egypt and came along through the wilderness and yet the Lord hath not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear to this day Objects they had that one would have thought should have wrought faith in the heart of man But the reason why they had not a jot of faith wrought in them for so long a time was because God had not given them eyes to see so that the natural light of man is not that wherein faith is seated man may see and not see see and wonder but not see and believe a clear attestation that he must see by Gods light and perceive by a sense given to the heart by God And so I have done with that question and shall now open the properties of this drawing of God which are four First It 's victorious over all incounters and opposition Secondly It makes the person drawn a volunteir Thirdly It s a drawing by teaching vers 45. Fourthly It is such as is peculiar and proper to the elect of God First It is a victorious drawing prevalent over all resistance that can be made against it there is a contrariety in the heart of natural man to grace especially to faith and no grace is so much opposed tempted beleaguered and fought against by the Devil as a mans faith and none that the contrariety of nature makes head and fights against and resists by reason of the innate enmity which is in it as Faith it makes resistance but how As a drop of water falling into a great fire makes resistance to the fire as a drop can do but cannot make a victorious resistance to quench the fire but is swallowed up by it so the resistance that is made against the power of God cannot be victorious but that the power of God overcomes all resistance and withdrawment My meaning is when God engages purposely and intentionally according to his elective purpose to draw men to Christ then this power of God becomes and appears to be victorious then let Onesimus run from his Master to Rome God will find him in a prison there and convert him let Naaman be in Syria let the widdow of Sarepta be in a City of Sidon that is as Christ means out of all high ways to conversion the power and grace of God will find them out I say when God intends the work For as Israel is prevailed over and kept in slavery until God saith I have seen I have seen the affliction of my people and am come down to deliver them then you know the deliverance is wrought in despight of Pharaoh then there was no longer keeping them under slavery So till the time be that God hath appointed to draw his Children of purpose to his Son by an actual call a sinful lustful person lies in slavery to every sinful lust every cord holds him and then he shall find a door open and the resistance removed and suspended for that time When Moses was in Egypt and an Egyptian fought against an Israelite he slew the Egyptian in rescue of an Israelite it was a preludium or presage that he should deliver Israel out of Egypt the whole body of them and therefore when the body came to be delivered forty years after this he did it with a mighty hand So God victoriously brings out of the state of sin single souls and slays their corruptions as victoriously as the whole Church shall be delivered at last from the greatest Pharaohs death divel and sin and therefore observe the stile used in the Covenant is very peremptory I will give I will put and on mans part They shall come They shall know They shall not depart away from me The reason of the victorious power of grace is that the world moves by carnal and sensual objects and so the Devil and Flesh they move objectively their motion whereby they move from God is but objective propounding pleasing or fearful objects to the mind of man either drawing or alluring or affrighting a man from faith in Christ now if Gods moving and drawing should not be more powerful and strong then the devils the worlds or mans own withdrawing there neither would nor could be conversion wrought if the drawing of man to Christ were not more powerful than mans withdrawment
not let us alone in our distance in our peace in our ease in the pursuit of the pleasures and profits of sin that is a sad and miserable word if spoken by God Let them alone Hos 4. 17. Ephraim is joyned to Idols let him alone When God finds a man joyned to his beloved lusts as Ephraim and the tenne tribes were joyned to the Idols that Jerobeam had set up to keep them from the temple and Jerusalem lest they should soduer and sement again oh miserable when God saies let a man alone in his waies when a mans interest lies in maintaining and keeping of his beloved sins So I gave them up to their own hearts lusts and they walked in their own counsels Psal 81. 12. It is a sinne and a punishment to be given up to the lusts of a mans own heart and to walk in his own counsels men that are thus given up the Lord hath punished them sufficiently men that are awakened and disturbed of their peace and course that find themselves disquieted from their dangerous waies the pillow of Sathan on which they slept securely how often do they mistake God and think that God doth it out of hatred to them when you see plainly that it is in mercy they are caused to tremble and to be troubled that they may have peace wounded that they may be healed the Lord doth as he saith in Hosea 2. 6. Find your own experience in that Text I will make a hedg of thornes about them and they shall not find their path then they shall say I will return to my first husband for it was better with me then then now God moves man by a kind of self-love if a man find it better with him when he is with God then he was before Oh! saith he I will return to my true husband for I am disquieted in this way of sinne this seems to be the way of God as the shepherd le ts loose his dog not upon his sheep to worry them but upon the stray sheep to bring it in again so God le ts loose some temptations inward disquietments on the stray sheep to this end that he may bring him in to his flâ—ck again that he may be saved And as Joseph when his Brethren came into Egypt for Corn spake roughly to them and clapt them into prison because he intended to bring them and himself into better acquaintance such is the way of God in conversion the Lord Jesus out of love disquiets the waters and though he doth not use other men so yet those that are his he frowns upon and le ts loose temptations upon them that he may bring them in when God will not let a man alone in a state of distance under sinful peace it is a good sign as it s said in Deut. 8. 15 16. God led thee through the terrible wildernesse wherein were fierie serpents he fed thee also with Manna he mixed mercy with sorrows manna with fiery Serpents mark to what purpose that he might prove thee and humble thee to do thee good at thy latter end here you see his manner of dealing he leads through the wilderness to do his people good and so many as are thus at first conversion assaulted and buffeted by Sathan pâ—stered with thoughts of blasphemie with outward afflictions its only to disquiet them and to hunt them as the prodigal was by famine out of the farre country to their Father or as Job saith Chap. 33. 17. That God may withdraw man from his purpose and hide pride from man man being pitcht and resolved on some way of sin in defiance to God and the losse of his soul God will withdraw him from his work and hide pride from man But now Object How may it be known and discovered to us that these are the drawings of God when he pursues us with disquietments and troubles and will not let us alone this is a profitable question Answ 1 First by this that God defeats all our contentments in most pleasing sins and makes our waies bitter though we are willing to be licking our lips yet we shall find gall in them and makes the wayes of God more eligible to us Hos 2. 6. She shall seek them but not find them c. and this until she say I will return c. the Lord drops gall into all your hony and contentment wherein before you seemed to have some delight he makes those waies unpleasant and if you have found content in them you shall have so no more Ans 2 Secondly That in the middest of all these troubles and temptations the Lord drops now and then a sweet drop of himself or of Christ into the soul stirring up desires and longings after him Now when the Lord so sweetly mixes this Manna and hony with these buffetings and temptations it 's a sign there are some workings on you the people of God at first conversion usually find now and then some sweet taste though it be but a drop on the Rods end as Jonathans was to inlighten their eyes and draw them after Christ Jesus the one drives the other draws that 's the fourth mark of Gods drawing It 's a great misery to be let lie in the lethargie of Sin Serm. 31 Fifthly We may know by our faith whether we were drawn by God for if that be saving and unfeigned faith it is of his drawing if superficial and dead such as that doth not own such an author for God never marries his Son to a dead soul nor to a dead faith until there be a quickning neither would Christ commit himself to such believers John 2. 24. as he perceived were hollow and fals-hearted and did not receive him in love There is a faith in temporaries hypocrites and common Christians which is not wrought by such power as Christ was raised by as the Apostle tells the Ephesians Chap. 1. 18 Their faith was wrought by the same power that God put forth in Christ when he raised him from the dead But as easily as the History of Alexander or William the Conqueror begets credit in the reader without any divine motion So the report of the Gospel begers a faith which doth arise by the calling of the word not by that which is a calling according to Gods purpose but the faith whereby we are drawn to Christ hath as I may say two faces I crave pardon for the word it looks backward and forward to election as a sign of that to salvation as the cause of that it s a fruit or effect of our election and a certain means of our salvation it bears upon it the mark of them both it alwaies purifies the heart wherein it is being never found in an unregenerate and unrenewed heart It makes the tree good and then the fruit It makes the tree good there is an alteration in the man And then the fruit good there is the product that it brings forth It makes the flax smoak at least