these they shall have a form of godliness and deny the power of it That whereas its said of some of the Elements they move to the Center and not from it so I may say in this case a corrupt man alwayes moves towards this Center and moves not from it This self-love begets not a love but a contempt of God as Aquinas and takes the wall of him in every thing for it makes him a servant only to work my own interest and to enjoy my self which is the great Idol of man to which every man naturally burns incense and offers sacrifice and is no more able whatsoever he may pretend to exalt and set up God any further then may stand with self then a current of running water that comes from a Spring is able to run above the height of the Head or Fountain for then it would follow that a heavy body should run above it self Thirdly that the true love of God above self or all other things cannot possibly flow from any other principle but that which is above nature viz. regenerating grace And I take it to be one of the most demonstrative arguments and the first product of saving grace to love God for his holiness and ability to delight in him for himself as the Psalmist saith Delight in the Lord and he shall give thee thy hearts desire This shews that there is planted in the soul a similitude and likeness unto God which likeness is alwayes the cause of love and where this likeness is not it is impossible that the corrupt heart of man should put forth any act of love to God himself And therefore it s a very hard thing to perswade a natural man that he loves not God until he find that grace in himself that shews him plainly that he did not love him before and the reason is because every man living measures his love of God by a false measure For First either he measures the love of God to him by a common goodness of God which as it may stand with Gods hate of him so it may stand with his hate of God and so all that love of God is but a love unto himself because it s sounded meerly in nothing else but common goodness that God vouchsafes to you peradventure in this above other men For as it is said of Abraham He gave all that he had unto Isaac but unto the sons of his Concubines he gave gifts and sent them away Gen. 25. 6. so those that are indeed the beloved of God to them he gives the inheritance of divine grace but as for others he gives them gifts but sends them away from all comfortable presence and enjoyment of communion with him And therefore that 's a false measure to measure the love of God to you by Or Secondly he thinks and will not be beaten off it he loves God because he can say and that truly that God is amiable and to be beloved above all and that the chiefest good and happiness of man is to be found in God and in the enjoyment of him These are fair words But the Schoolmen have a true saying Mans corrupt nature is more corrupt quantum ad appetitum boni then quantum ad cognitionem boni moe out of the way in choise of good then in knowledge of truth And therefore as it is the best way to know whether you love God or no by bringing things to particulars unto choise and unto vote to hic nunc to particulars that stand in competition with God then t is plain with you and alas plain with us all in our natural condition that sensitive interest and sensual profit is chosen and embraced before God as infinite experience sheweth that the poorest and meanest lust or the enjoyment of any creature in the world when it comes to choise shall carry it quite away from God which is a demonstration that this love of God is not in some and doth not preponderate I shall shew you First that an unregenerate man cannot love God Secondly why he cannot love God First He cannot No man until God renew his Image in him can love God for there goes renewing grace to this work to love God above self it s a rare thing very seldom do you find out this corruption Ah I pity you you know not the half of that contrariety that is in every one of you to God In Deut. 30. 6. The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart For there is a foreskin upon the heart of man that must be taken away and that is a natural hardness and indisposition and this sticks upon the very elect of God themselves until they are called according to Gods purpose for they are born uncircumcised and have not this love of God in them but a contrariety and enmity to God Indeed its true they have a love of God towards them while they are in a state of alienation from him and that is called Amor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but not yet Amor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the love of his good pleasure towards them but not a love of complacency and well-pleasedness in them For so the Scripture calls him only that serves Christ in righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Ghost Rom. 14. 18. These are under the well-pleasedness of God only and therefore though the love of his purpose may be toward them yet this of complacency is not in them until they be converted I the Lord will circumcise thy heart to love c. Secondly the effects of alienation from God may be found in every natural man For so in Col. 1. 21. You were sometimes alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works And again in Ephes 4. 18. Being alienated from the life of God You will say this speaks to the Gentils what they were before they came to Christ I grant it but were the Jewes that were Church members as you may seem to be any better Of them Christ saith in John 5. 42. I know you that you have not the love of God in you You may very well think that they would have spit in the face of any that should have said they had not the love of God in them as you may hold any man in defiance that shall say it of you But you know not the enmity and contrariety that is in your hearts to God He proves it by this argument he that hath not true faith in Christ hath not a sincere love of God As men put fallacies to themselves in point of believing so in point of loving And I remember Aquinas goes about to prove that all unbelief arises from the hatred of God when a man traces his unbelief in Christ to the last result of it he shall find it to be the hate of God I would not strain things higher then they are but so far forth as they may give a good demonstration By which
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-self-love loves and tenders salvation in such way as is destructive to carnal self-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
heart I will cause you to walk in my wayes Ezek. 36. 26. I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me Jer. 32. 40. The Lord thy God will Circumcise thy heart to love the Lord Deut 30. 6. So in the Text No man can come to me except my Father draw him here is the work of God for believing the drawing of the heart is Gods and then mans work followes and verse 45. Every man that hath heard and learnt of the Father comes to Me. I might multiply Scriptures but these may suffice Secondly Infused habits of Grace are not like acquisite and moral habits moral habits are begotten by Acts precedaneous and foregoing as he that will get an habit of writing must write get a habit by the Act but infused habits are powred in before the Acts because as in that which we call potentia Naturalis the faculties of seeing hearing and sence we do not by seeing and hearing learn to see and hear but we perform the Act by the habit First there is a power to see and hear and then we see and heare So 't is in these infuâ—ed habits that God powres into us by his Spirit there is an habit and then there followes an Act a faculty of knowing God and then an Act of loving God follows we do not acquire them by acts of our own we have the facultie the power first given and then we act Thirdly If God do but set the will of man in aequilibrio like a paire of even scales not determining it to conversion then he concurs but contingently but concomitantly upon condition that the will do and move it selfe and this indeed would be no great matter for by this meanes God doth lesse in the Conversion of man then man doth for the will of man gives the act turnes the scales specifies the event not the grace of God and how disgraceful is this to the will of God that the will of man should do it and the grace of God not so it would be if God should do no more then set the will of man in equipoise only make him able to turn himself Fourthly observe this Converting grace is given with that intention by God that the will and heart of man should be determined that the scales should be turned and man saved or else I pray what should the meaning of that be which is called the calling of God according to his purpose Rom. 8. 29. as those that love God are said to be such as are called with an intention of God to bring them to himself and oh how powerful and infrustrable is that grace which comes and is given by God with an intention to save you for if that grace should not save you you must say that God is not able to save you Oh! But may some say the hard heart of man may refuse rebel and resist not the intention of God certainly not the purpose of God doubtlesse Austin speaks very well to this purpose illa à nullo duro corde respuitur quia durities tollitur this grace this converting grace is refused by no hard heart because it 's therefore given that the hard heart of man may be taken away and as a man may properly convey it to you by this comparison light being given to take away darkness the darkness cannot resist the light because it 's therefore made that the darkness be expelled so that grace which is therefore given and intended to take away the heart of stone that is the resisting heart cannot be resisted because the intention carries it I will take away the heart of stone saith God and so to the comfort of a man thus converted by grace be it spoken the very stonie heart the hard heart cannot resist Fifthly If converting grace give not an ability or sufficiency but an indifferency onely and a power that a man may be saved if he will but no act is determined the elect have no more then other men a power only but they have no more reason of gratitude because it s their own will that inclines them to be saved when others are lost the Act of God therefore must be first otherwise men might say it 's true Lord thou gavest me a sufficiency and a power to be converted but the act the determining casting voice that turned the scale was my own therefore thou gavest me no more then thou gavest to Judas and others as well as to me And here beloved in the Lord you may see from this observation First Why God will have all the praise of Salvation to be to his grace Secondly why God will have all the glorying to himself for it would not be just with God to rob the will of man of glorying if man himself deserved it First God will have all the praise to be to his grace Eph. 1. 6. that we may be to the praise of the glory of his Grace 't is glorious grace indeed and that we may be to the praise and glory of it therefore God shewes and sets it forth in all the great Turnes of the Salvation of man the first step is Election then Calling Justification and glorification in all which grace is set forth that so all may be to the praise of glorious grace Secondly God will have all the glorying to himself and truly this is the great mark of Gospel doctrine that it brings the glory to God only in 1 Cor. 1. 3â— that be that glorieth may glory in the Lord therefore he hath made Christ to be Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption made Christ to be all that he that glorieth may glory in the Lord which could not be if man glory in himself or have works of his own Observ 2 Secondly That Gods drawing is the cause of mans coming here is Gods mission of Christ and here is Gods traction of man the Father sent me the Father drawes man there must be both had God sent Christ into the world and had not also drawn man to Christ then had been nothing done it was not indeed mans faith but Gods meer grace and mercie without the faith of man that sent Christ into the world it was not looking up that was required to the setting up of the serpent on the pole but God required mans looking up for his being healed by it so it was not mans Faith that was required to Christs mission but it is required to mans Justification for the reaping of the benefits of Salvation by Christ God requires that every one of you do believe in Jesus Christ and therefore the traction of God is required to this Faith Christ is given and sent to man by God without this Faith but that man may be saved by Christ Faith is required and we are drawn by God to believe in Christ he sends Christ to man and thereby differences Man from Divels to whom he is not sent he drawes man to Christ and thereby differences the Elect from
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