ready she was to be dejected from an over deep sence of her unworthiness will find reason to believe that this Man of God gave this Testimony of her to her as a Cordial to revive her Humble Spirit and therefore brings it in with And this to your comfort I add But I am too troublesom I fear to your Honour my hearty Prayers are that as you have begun so you may go on in living your Mothers Holy Life and that then yon may in a good Old Age dye her happy death with much Peace and Honour And that so long as you shall have a Posterity live on Earth your good Mother may never be Dead but may from Generation to Generation have those descending from her that will keep her Name and Pretious Example alive by a due Veneration of the one and Pious imitation of the other Madam I am your Honours most Humble Servant W. GVRNALL Evenham March 13. 1671. ERRATA PAge 51. Line 25. read Bewrayed pag. 87 l. 2O r. on p. 97. l. 22. r. sloughs p. 110 l. 11. r. Sin 1 Cor. 15.58 For as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. WHAT Luther said of Justification by Faith that may we concerning the Resurrection of the dead Articulus est Ecclesiae stantis aut cadentis it is an Article with which the Church standeth or falleth Yet so foul an errour had taken the head of some Members in the Church of Corinth as to deny this grand Truth which S t Paul calls in another place one of the principles of the Doctrine of Christ how say some among you there is no Resurrection of the dead v. 12. And is it not strange that such who professed to believe the Resurrection of Christ should deny their own but much more that any in the Church of Corinth especially in those early days should have such a darkness found upon their minds who stood so near the rising Sun and that while S t Paul himself was yet alive who had planted this Church by this we see though Truth is errours elder yet errour is not much Truths younger Though the Gospel-Church was purest in the Primitive times yet it soon began to corrupt in its Members Not unapt therefore was his saying who compared in this respect the gathering of Churches to the gathering of Apples which when first gathered may appear all fair and sound but then within a while some amongst them begin to speak and others to discover their rottinness No doubt this Church of Corinth and so others gathered by the rest of the Apostles appeared in their Members very sound in the faith and fair in their lives at their first embraceing of the Gospel yet some we see did thus soon discover corruption in both Now to recover the tainted and especially to preserve the sound from this dangerous infection the Apostle sets himself to defend this Article of our Faith well knowing that this was a blow made at the root of Christianity which must needs fall to the ground if this cannot be maintained and he doth it with such invincible arguments that if any Heretick shall now deny it the reason cannot be deficiency in the proof here given but rather a criminous conscience in himself which makes him on his own defence deny a Resurrection for fear of the Judgment which attends it Now the Apostle having done this and withal shewn the glorious array in which the Saints shall arise out of their beds of dust he then v. 55. sings his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or triumphant song over Death and out-braves this King of Terrours to his face that is wont to keep the hearts of poor Mortals in the miserable bondage of a slavish fear O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory As if he had said Death do now thy worst we fear thee not thou mayest indeed get us into thy hands but thou canst not long keep us in thy power fall we shall into the Grave but we fall to rise again and when we arise out of our Graves then shalt thou Death fall into thy Grave never to arise again Then v. 57. he sings with an holy ravishment of joy the praises of God and Christ our Redeemer by whose atchievement this glorious victory over death is won The sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law but thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ This indeed is our David who cut off the head of this Goliah with his own sword killed Death by falling dead upon it he unstung this Serpent by receiving its sting into his own blesed body He overcame this great Conquerour by submitting himself for a time to be conquered by it when Christ lost his life then his whole Army of Saints won the day Death now to them is no death that which was their punishment as Sinners is now their priviledge as Saints That which stood amongst the threatnings of the Law and was the most formidable of them all hath now changed its place and is got amongst the promises of the Gospel All things are yours or Life or Death 1 Cor. 3.21 So pretious an oyl doth our Apostle extract from this slain Scorpion so sweet an honey comb doth he find in this dead Lyons breast and gives it into the hand of the Saints to go eating of it to their unspeakable joy and comfort but is this victory over Death only matter of joy and comfort unto Believers Oh no Blessed art thou O Land when thy Princes eat for strength and not for drunkenness and blessed art thou O Emanuels Land when thy Saints feed on the priviledges and promises of the Gospel not to make them drunk with Pride nor to lay them asleepin Sloth but to rèfresh them to run the Race set before them and the Joy of the Lord becomes their strength the Apostle therefore goes on to improve and close up his discourse on this subject with an Exhortation to Duty Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast always abounding in the work of the Lord that is be stedfast in the faith of the Gospel and especially in the belief of this particular Article of our Christian faith the Resurrection of the dead and then live up unto this belief walk and work as for God while you live as believing you shall when dead rise again Now my Text hath the nature of a powerful Argument to inforce this Exhortation upon them for as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. In which words these two things are observable First the Nature and Quality of the service or work of God it is a Labour the Apostle changeth the the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Work which he had used in the Exhortation immediately preceding into this of Labour and that not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies any ordinary labour but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
which imports the hardest of labour Negotium quod nos caedit quasi vires frangit saith an Etymoligist and this we may conceive to pre-occupate an Objection of such that could be willing to do some work but afraid of meeting with too much labour Secondly Here is the reward that sweetens this labour and may make the Christian more easily submit unto it For as much as ye know your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. In which first here is the certainty of the reward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knowing or ye know your labour is not in vain It is not an uncertain surmise taken up by a self-flattering hope from some easie ground of a weak fortassis or may be but ye know it upon infallible grounds ye doubt no more of the being of another World where God will reward his faithful labourers then ye do of the being of this which you see with your bodily eyes and live at present in Here you know it though here you do not receive it Secondly the transcendency of this reward 't is a great reward as well as sure For there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this Phrase an elegant figure in Rhetorick wherein more is meant than is spoken the words sound low but the sense is high You shall not lose your labour that is you shall be infinite gainers by it you shall receive a reward greater than now you can conceive Thus in our own Language we are wont to speak when we would make one willing to do a work we set them about we 'll say to him you shall not repent doing of it you shall not be a loser or work for nothing in which we intend more than we express that it shall redound to his great advantage Thus here under this expression your labour is not in vain is intended no less than Heaven that exceeding great and eternal weight of glory which no tongue of men or Angels can express how great it is First of the first the nature or quality of the Christians work his work is a labour and so will every one find it that means to be faithful in doing of it Man is born to labour and the Christian is not born again to be idle God sends not his servants into the World as a Play-house but Work-house and such a work it is which he appoints them as is not an idle mans business that may be done sitting at his ease on the chair of sloth but requires his greatest pains and diligence therefore Christianity is in Scripture compared to the most toylsom imployments is it a labour to run a race which strains all parts of a mans body what is it then to run this spiritual race which is every step of the way up-hill and straineth not legs and lungs as the other doth but faith and patience which is a harder exercise Is the Husbandmans work laborious to plow up his stiff ground and with many a weary step to go sowing his heavy land especially in a wet season what then is the Christians labour who is to plow on the Rock to break up an heart by nature harder than stone and whose whole life is a wet seed-time he living in a Valley of tears Is the Souldiers work laborious and hazardous who must be content to lye hard and fair hard and which is more prepare for hard blows and knocks yea wounds and death it self then the Christians cannot be easie who must deny himself and take up his Cross and follow Christ and that cheerfully amidst all his losses and crosses For this Captain non amat gementem Militem loves not a Souldier that followeth him groaning and grumbling But for the further clearing and amplifying this point it will not be amiss to descend to some particulars to discover what it is that makes the Christians work so laborious and difficult and in the next place why God hath charged Religion with so much labour and so many difficulties First of the first The vast circumference of his duty the more strings an Instrument hath the more art is required to handle it well the larger the Field is the more labour it will cost him that is to Till it in a word the greater the Servants charge is and the more business which lies upon his hánds the more care is needful to tend it and where the care must be great the labour cannot be little because care is it self one of the greatest labours O how great then is the Christians labour whose care and duty has no less compass than the commandment of God which is of such vast comprehension that the Psalmist who saw an end of all perfections could see no end of it Psalm 119.96 I have seen an end of all perfections but thy commandment is exceeding broad The Commandment here includes both Law and Gospel and the Christians duty extends to yea diffuseth it self over both First the Law Moral this is bound upon the Christian in point of duty to make it his rule as strictly as it was upon innocent Adam himself though not upon such strait conditions and dismal consequences The Christian is bound to it upon peril of contracting sin though not of incurring death and damnation the Christian hath no more liberty to transgress the Law than Adam had though he hath a promise of pardon upon repentance when he hath sinned which Adam had not how indeed can we imagine that Christ who was made a curse for sin would come to be a cloak to sin now is it an easie work for the Christian to keep his heart in a sincere compliance with and respect to this Law in his daily walking a Law which is so large as reacheth from Heaven to Earth commanding us to keep a conscience void of offence to God and Man a Law so pure and precise that forbids all sin omissions of good as well as commissions of evil that indites him for a Murderer that doth not feed his Brother yea his Enemy as well as he that stabs him to the heart him that doth not pray to God as well as him that doth curse him the barren Heath without good fruit as well as the Dunghil-life of the profane sinner filled with the stinking weeds of gross crimes that condemneth sudden passions as well as deliberate sins that bindeth the soul to its good behaviour as well as the hands Is it an easie thing to hate every false way to be ready to every good work to have respect to every Command which yet he must have that will not be put to shame Psal 119.6 willing in all things to live honestly Yet this he must do that will keep a good conscience Heb. 13.18 is not here enough to fill the Christians head with care and his heart continually with an holy fear and trembling But this is not all his work for secondly the Evangelical Law is also bound upon the Christian the sum of which the Apostle gives us in
IMPRIMATUR Robert Grove THE CHRISTIANS Labour and Reward OR A SERMON Part of which was Preached at the Funeral of the Right Honourable the Lady Mary Vere Relict of Sir Horace Vere Baron of Tilbury on the 10 th of January 1671. At Castle Heviningham in Essex The memory of the Just is Blessed Prov. 10.7 By humility and the fear of the Lord are Riches Honour and Life Prov. 22. ver 14. By William Gurnall M. A. of Emman Coll. now Pastor of Lavenham Suffolk Nobilis genere sed multo nobilior Sanctitate Hieron Epitaph Paulae Matris Ep. 27. LONDON printed by J. M. for Ralph Smith at the Bible under the Piazzo of the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1672. TO THE Right Honourable Lady ELIZABETH Countess Dowager of Clare MADAM IT was a very merciful Providence which brought your Honour to your dear Mothers assistance in her dying sickness by which as you had the pleasure of recreating her Spirit with your presence and of giving an high Demonstration of your Piety to her in her low and weak state of body a vertue of great price with God and remarkably rewarded by him even in this life So also the happiness of being an eye witness to her Christian Deportment in her sharpest Pains and Agonies how her Faith and Patience triumphed over them all which no doubt did much sweeten the sorrow that her outward distress inflicted upon your tender Heart And indeed it is no wonder so holy a Life should have so Happy an end Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is Peace This Pretious Saint had made her Bed before she was to lye down on it Long had she been gathering these Spices Graces I mean for her dying Nest in the sweet Odours of which she at last so Holily and Peaceably breathed forth her Gracious Soul into the Arms of her beloved Saviour And now Madam seeing God hath determined your Will by declaring his it will highly become your Honour to bear her Decease as Saint Hierom did the death of the Noble Paula whom he so much honoured for her Piety Not by Mourning you have lost but by Praising God you had so Pretious a Saint to be your Mother and that you had her so long even to live to see and give her Blessing to your Childrens Children before her departure yea that you have her still Is there no way to have our Friends unless we have them in our sight She is not lost that still lives Her death was the end of her Mortality but there is no end of her Life In her Spirit she lives in Heaven with God to whom she lived on Earth In her good Name she lives with all that knew her or heard of her admirable Piety This like an after beam of the Sun-sett followed her to her bed of the Grave and still shines to her Honour The memory of the just is blessed though the name of the wicked rots even while it is remembred as the name of Pilate doth in the Creed to his reproach and curse And as to her Vertues she lives in your self and in as many other of her Noble Descendants as imitate her Piety It joyed this Blessed Saint while alive that she should leave her surviving Children and so many of her Grand-Children walking in the Truth And if an Heathen took such high content that the Honour which he arrived to befel him while his Parents were yet living whereby they had a pleasure in seeing his happiness How much more may it comfort the Pious Relations of this Saint that this their Pretious Parent had the joy of seeing them ennobled with Divine Grace and so in their way to Heaven before her self went thither I am sure it hath been an Heart-breaking-sorrow to some Children that they converted not to God before their Godly Parents bodies were converted into Dust and thereby cause them to go sighing with sorrow to their Graves who might they but first have seen them reclaimed would have gone down to them singing for joy It is a blessed sight to behold Children especially of Noble Persons imitating their Godly Parents Graces God is no respecter of Persons yet saith Saint Bernard I know not how it comes to pass that Vertue in a Noble Person doth more please Is it not haply because it is more conspicuous and so more attractive This Consideration made me more readily obey your Honours commands in publishing these mean Papers hoping that this great Example of Piety in so Noble a Lady together with the Honour that attended her to the Grave for it may cause some of high Birth a little more to consider their great mistake in thinking to overtake Honour in the dirty paths of Prophaneness and Irreligion and so be moved at last to change their way and turn into this clean road of Piety wherein this good Lady walking lived with so much esteem and dyed so wonderfully lamented The character that I have here given of her is True but not full nay far short of her worth Her Graces were of so high a strain that I may truly say what Saint Jerome did concerning his commending Marcella a Noble Roman Lady I was afraid to speak all I knew of her Wisdom Sanctity Charity and other Excellencies lest I should seem to exceed the belief of some those I mean who knew her not for as any were more and longer acquainted with her so their estimate of her advanced higher And must not that Piece be admirably well drawn which is most commended by those if able to judge that stand nearest and look longest on it And none I think will deny that famous light of his Age Bishop Usher to have been as able to judge in this case as any other and what an high esteem he had of this Lady and her Noble Lord and Husband also appears from a Letter written by him to her Forty years ago in which there is this passage The thing that I have most admired in your Noble Lord is that such lowliness of mind and such an high pitch of a brave Spirit should be yoaked together and lodged in one Breast And on the other side when I reflect upon you methinks I understand that saying of the Apostle better than I did That as the man is the Image and Glory of God so the woman is the Glory of the Man And to your comfort let me add this That if I have any insight in things of this Nature or have any judgment to discern of Spirits I have clearly beheld engraven in your Soul the Image and Superscription of my God Thus wrote this Excellent Person whose admirable judgment may keep any sober Person from thinking him in this high character guilty of rashness and light credulity and his known integrity is enough to free him from all suspicion of abusing his Pen to any servile flattery And they who knew the lowly Spirit of this good Lady and how
is But where may some say dwell these Men I am now directing my speech unto I wish they did not swarm every where and made not the greatest number in most of our Towns and Congregations I shall point at a few First He that conceits himself a Christian and nourisheth in him an hope of Salvation even whilst his life is prophane he no doubt thinks it too easie to be a Christian when a man shall think Christ will own him as his meerly for his Christian name and not reject him for his Heathenish Practices thinks that his heart is good though his life be wicked whereas his life could not be wicked if his heart was not so for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh when men shall think they are Gods Servants though they be the Devils Labourers that God is their Friend when they declare themselves every day his Enemies In a word to think they shall leap at death è coeno in coelum out of Delilahs lap into Abrahams bosom is not this to make it an easie thing to be a Christian and no hard matter to be saved and where is any one who hath not first been convinced from some work of the Spirit so bad that is not yet thus kind to himself yea have they not commonly the strongest Faith who have the weakest Grounds for it they build up Sion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity yet will they lean upon the Lord and say is not the Lord amongst us none evil can come upon us Who knocks more boldly at Heaven Gate to be let in than they whom Christ will reject as workers of iniquity O what a delusion is this Caligula never made himself more ridiculous than when he would be honoured as a God while he lived more like a Devil Before you would have others take you for Christians for Gods sake prove your selves men and not beasts as you do by your bruitish lives Talk not of your hopes of Salvation so long as the marks of Damnation are seen upon your flagitious lives If the way to Heaven were thus easie I promise you the Saints in all Ages have been much over-seen to take so great pains in mortifying their lusts in denying to satisfie their sensual appetite ad quid perditio haec to what purpose did they make so much waste of their sweat in their zealous serving God and of their tears that they could serve him no better if they might have gone to Heaven as these men hope to do That Fryar was far more sound in his judgment in this Point who Preaching at Rome one Lent when some Cardinals and many other great ones were present began his Sermon thus abruptly and Ironically Saint Peter was a Fool Saint Paul was a Fool and all the Primitive Christians were Fools for they thought the way to Heaven was by Prayers and Tears Watchings and Fastings severities of Mortification and denying the pomp and glory of this World Whereas you here in Rome spend your time in Balls and Masks live in Pomp and Pride Lust and Luxury and yet count your selves good Christians and hope to be saved but at last you will prove the Fools and they will be found to have been the Wise men Did ever any man arrive at London by going from it every sin is a step from God and the more we sin the further we depart from God Doth not he then take a wise course to come at last to the full enjoyment of God in Heaven who by a lend wicked life runs as far from him as his legs can carry him Secondly They who think they are good Christians and fair enough for Heaven though they have no more then a Negative Holiness the best that can be said of them is they are not so bad as the worst they do not take so much pains for Hell as others but none for Heaven they labour not so much in the Devils work but work not at all for God like those in the Gospel they stand idle all the day long and yet hope for a peny at night though they never entred into Christs Vineyard they are so far from labouring in the work of the Lord that they will not touch his work with one of their fingers Do not these think it very easie to be Christians as if God was bound to save them but they not bound to serve them Is not Heaven called a reward and what reward can be expected where no work is done if some that work shall be denyed all reward because they did not labour at it and some seek that shall not be able to enter because they do not strive then miserable must thy condition be who fallest short of those who themselves fall short of Heaven Thirdly Formalists and slothful Christians and how many are these who will not be Atheists to live without all Religion but resolve not to be Zealots They are more then key-cold but are afraid to be too hot in their work they are not idle but cannot be perswaded to be diligent they love such a temper in Religion for their Souls as they do a Climate for their Bodies to live in it must be a very temperate one afraid to exceed only in Piety and Holiness in which alone there can be no excess Oh what a delusion is this he that will chuse another temper for his Religion than God hath commanded had need provide another Heaven for himself than God hath prepared for that is given to the zealous Labourer not the lazie Loiterer The violent are they which take this Kingdom by force a man may be sure of Hell with a little pains but Heaven will certainly be lost without our labour and diligence and the reason is because every man is born in a state of sin and damnation and so needs no more than to fit still in that state to bring inevitable destruction upon him to Hell he will come soon enough though he gallop not so fast as others in riot and excess But alas we are born afar off from God and Heaven much labour is required to get into the way that leads to life Eternal and when we are in it many a weary step to take abundance of work to dispatch sins to mortifie temptations to resist afflictions to endure impaired Graces to repair weak to strengthen and to persevere in all this labour till death it self takes us off This we must do or else as Saint Paul said of their abiding in the Ship we cannot be saved It is with the Christians Spiritual Life in this respect as with his natural his body hath within it self that which is sufficient to cause the death of it but not to maintain its life This provision is without as a man he will dye though he make no use of knife or halter to dispatch himself not taking food or not using physick will do it alone Thus the Christian hath enough within him to procure his Spiritual death and
ready and prepared for every good work by daily combating with his corruptions and resisting temptations he learns more easily to overcome his Enemy And if in worldly trades this be accounted a sufficient reward to an Apprentice for serving out his time to learn the mystery of his Calling Oh what a reward is it by the daily practice of Godliness to learn more fully the Mystery of it This I am sure holy David set down for great gains I have remembred thy name O Lord in the night and have kept thy Law this I had because I kept thy Precepts Psal 119.55 And again I understand more than the Ancients because I kept thy Precepts ver 100. He did not grudge his own pains nor envy others ease so long as he might get more Heavenly Wisdom by it Secondly The Christians conscionable labour interesseth him in the special Providence of God for him while he is at work for God God will take care of him and what can he want that hath God for his Provider what or whom need he fear that hath God for his Protector For though all the Saints have a right in Promises yet none have a pleasant aptitude to apply the comfort of any one Promise while they are idle and negligent no this is the portion of the laborious Christian that walks in the actual exercise of his Grace No good thing shall he want that walks uprightly When God engageth to Abraham his Almightiness it is to him as walking before him not as sitting in the chair of sloth Thirdly The Christians labour is rewarded here with inward peace of Conscience and serenity of Mind Great peace have they that keep thy Law and nothing shall offend them Psalm 119.166 Peace be on them that walk by this rule as on the Israel of God Gal. 6. These are they in whose bosoms this Bird of Paradise sings her sweet Notes and her sweetest in foulest weather when sickness comes and death approacheth Now he that hath the testimony of his Conscience for having been a faithful Labourer in the Lords work will be able to make a comfortable reflection upon his past life For mens expectations of what is coming to them at death depends upon what their past lives have been Life is the time of sowing and death of reaping as they have sown so only can they expect to reap Life is a time for working and death for receiving the reward sutable to the work Hence it is when death is approaching Conscience if not seared and past all feeling is then carried back to review what the man hath been doing for whom he hath been labouring and therefore must needs bring in heavy tidings to the sinner of his approaching misery then it rips up all the stitches of that false peace which the ungodly wretch had been bolstred up with and tells him that now the Righteous Judge is at hand to pay him the dismal wages due to him for all the wicked works he hath done which makes the thoughts of death a terror to him But the Sincere Christian who hath laboured faithfully in the Lords work he then hath a pleasant Prospect to behold when he looks back upon his conscionable walking and can thence make his humble appeal to God and desire him to remember how he hath walked before him in Truth and with a Perfect Heart Oh what joy is this to his poor heart that his Conscience bears him witness he hath endeavoured to walk before God with godly simplicity and not in guile and can cast himself upon the Mercy of God in Christ and breathe out his Soul with a joyful expectation of being received into the Kingdom of Glory This premised I address my self to speak of the Christians reward in the other world this being principally if not solely in the Text where it is set forth two ways First By its certainty For as much as ye know Secondly By its transcendency Your labour is not in vain in the Lord. In which words you may remember I told you there is more intended than exprest First of the first The certainty of the Saints reward intimated by this Phrase ye know that is ye know it for a certain indubitable truth ye make no doubt of this thus is the Saints future Happiness spoke of with the greatest assurance and certainty We know that if our earthly house of his Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens 1 Cor. 5.1 We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him The Saints know this so well that they dare venture the loss of all they are worth here for the reward they expect there Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods knowing in your selves that ye have in Heaven a more enduring substance Heb. 10.34 yea they have refused their temporal life when offered to the prejudice of their eternal Heb. 11.35 Not accepting Deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection If any should ask how do they know so assuredly there is this reward I would ask such how they know the Sun to be when they see it shine if they say by seeing of it they may know that the Saint sees an Heaven as certainly by an eye of Faith as they can do the Sun by an eye of Sense Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen The very light of nature whereby the Heathens knew a God did let with it into their minds some knowledge of another world and of a double state therein of happiness to the good and misery to the wicked being not able otherwise to reconcile the unevenness of Providence in this world with the righteous nature of God but alas what was this lesser light which God left in man to rule him in the night of Heathenish darkness to the certainty of the Saints knowledge which comes in by the light of Faith first the Christians Faith is grounded on the testimony of God himself in his word Humane Faith is indeed the weakest and most uncertain kind of knowledge because mans testimony on which it relys is so fallible but Divine Faith the most certain because the testimony of God on which its weight bears is infallible One who cannot deceive because he is truth it self nor be deceived because he is wisdom it self So that though Faith be not Reason yet to believe what God saith is true there is the highest reason 2 ly As the testimony on which the Saints Faith relies is the infallible Word of God so his very Faith which relies on this Word of God is no other than the work of God the same Spirit who is the Author of that is the efficient of this for the Christian believes not from the power of his own will but the power of God mightily working his heart up to this supernatural act Hence we are said to be saved through Faith and that not of our selves it