he is converted For the act of faith and repentance and obedience is mans act and therefore those that poyson us with this doctrine Christ believes for me and repents for me tell us a ridiculous piece of non-sense No it is you that must repent and believe and act obedience for common reason will shew you oâ— sense it is not the Sun that sees for that which sees is the eye the Sun only gives light without which the eye cannot see And so we must distinguish between the power and the act God draws man to Christ Jesus the power is of him but coming to Christ or the act of Conversion that is mans the power is Christs the duty is yours And therefore though this doctrine be never so offensive yet it seems God puts his greatest glory in that which is most offensive to mans reason In the 33. of Exod. 19. ver I will make all my goodness to pass before thee and I will proclame the name of the Lord. And what is that Proclamation that doctrine that is conceived to be so scandalous I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and shew mercy to whom I will Which the Apostle insists upon in Rom. 9. where this point is agitated That 's the second Observation Thirdly for the silencing of these murmurers at Christ in the verse before the Text Christ gives the close reason of mans believing in him and mans not believing in him a closer reason then they were aware of The reason he gives is this That those that God draws to Christ they come to him ver 44. And every man that hath heard and learnt of the Father comes to me ver 45. There is the teaching of God called the drawing of God and perswading the mind of man which whoever hath believes and comes to Christ Jesus and every man that is not thus drawn is left unto himself is left under his own disability and so he cannot come For no man can come to me except the Father draw him Mans impotency is alledged on the one hand and Gods drawing is alledged on the other hand and though there might be great objections made against it yet our Saviour insists upon this close doctrine Joh. 10. 26 27. You believe not because you are not of my sheep Many other reasons might be given but he comes unto the bottom Because you are not called because you are not of my sheep by the election of God And so again in Joh. 6. 37. All that the Father hath given to me shall come to me You that are not of my sheep do not believe therefore you do not come And he sets it forth again ver 65. of this Chapter No man can come to me except it be given him of my Father These are strange reasons will reason say and rather apt to give offence then to take it off rather apt to breed murmurings then to qualifie and allay them And its true had Christ encouraged mans natural abilities and â—lattered them he should have pleased the corrupt and carnal reason of man for without all question that which most flatters self and carnal reason is most acceptable with you But so doth not he for he asserts that God must draw and give faith This gives all to Christ and assumes all the glory out of your hands to God whereby you may gather that those that are not of the sheep of Christ are not drawn those that are not of the sheep of Christ by Gods election they are not drawn to Christ by Gods operation This is that which reason stumbles and is offended at And How shall this offence that reason may take at the proceeding of God in this point be cured No way that I know in the world but this by laying down the wasters and the cudgels not disputing with and repining at God but humbly waiting on that hand which of necessity must work faith in you and convert you to this grace And that all unconverted persons may do so know it for a Maxime or a rule for so I take it to be that God hath taken the best and the surest way the most infallible that can be in the world to save his people which I thus illustrate Had the salvation of man been left to his own power as some would have it it had been desperate and hopeless to all men even to the best man in the world But now this powerful and gracious God hath reserved it in his own power for all those that are saved are saved by this power and this grace And now in this way of salvation some are saved some are in the way that God hath set for bringing man to Christ Jesus for if God had set forth Christ and caused him to be preacht to you yea if Christ should have shed his blood to have redeemed you notwithstanding all this it had been possible that not a man in the world might have been saved without this powerful drawing of God and this hand of God whereby he brings some men unto salvation And so now some are saved and so are obliged to greater admiration and thankfulness to this God then all the world besides are obliged to him for this differencing grace whereby he brought them unto Christ otherwise if he had left it to you to believe in Christ Jesus I cannot conceive how any one man in the world had been saved notwithstanding the Redemption laid down and the Atonement made which is a rare point and worthy of all serious disquisition and proof And I would I could convince men thereof that if it had been as they would have it there would not a man on earth be saved In the mean time let this pass for a proof That which never was yet in the world may rationally be presumed will never be That hitherto no man hath attained to faith no man hath come to Christ by the meer use of his own natural abilities and power without the working of this divine grace which all that partake of have magnified and blessed God for We know of none we read of none in the Scripture that have had this wrought in them but have returned the glory of it to God But because we do not find that it ever 〈◊〉 hath been we may conclude it shall never be that without this drawing of God any man can come to believe in Christ Jesus if it were left to their natural abilities and capacities Be they as they think them to be never so great and valuable all this is but premissary to the Doctrines in the Text. The Use of these Doctrines of Connexion altogether shall be threefold Use 1 First When the Word of the Gospel is improved with all manner of advantages among a people Whether in Capernaum as this was or living in a Parish as you do yet you shall find that many of the hearers of this doctrine may yet lie in their strong holds and lie under prejudices and notwithstanding
in a Castle whose strong hold is beaten down they are forced to surrender to meer mercy upon the Victors own terms So the Lord will force his elect All that the Father hath given to me shall come to me John 6. 37. And do it for thy Name sake for our backslidings are many Jer. 14. 7. This is the word and may be spoken even by the elect of God And if this were not that God should not take the work into his hand he might stretch out his hand all the day long and find little but gainsayings and contradictions no effectual calling could be there would be no such thing as filial adoption the very election of God would be frustrate This was the remnant or end that I had to deliver on this point before I came to the General Uses of all There are two things that follow from what I have now said as two branches from one stemm viz. the Justifying of God and the magnifying of grace the one makes humble the other thanksul for the one Daniel was eminent Dan. 9. 5. To us belongeth confusion for we have rebelled against thee to thee belongeth righteousness The other eminent in Paul 1 Cor. 15. By the grace of God I am that I am Learn these two lessons that are of great use in Practical Religion Humility to justifie God that might have cast you off and laid you aside in the crowd with other men And the magnifying of this grace whereby he hath brought you out in despight of your own stubberness And so much for the opposition of man to grace offered Serm. 16 NOw follow the general Uses of all that hath been said upon the First Point No man can come to me And First Use 1 Hence I commend to you The true Test of sound and Christian Doctrine in this point of mans Conversion That both the Preacher of this point and the Hearer of it may cut by this thred that our Saviour hath set forth in this text And it is this That in the conversion of man the power of God and the freeness of his grace be magnified and the power or causality of man himself bâ— decryed For so the Text No man can come except my Father draw him This is the test But the touchstone that tryes other mettals who shall try it how shall it be made appear that this Doctrine is indeed the true test For that I will give you three Reasons First Because this Doctrine is consonant to the scope of Go Reas 1 spel doctrine which as it suggests matter of glorying to the sinner in himself confounded with shame and lost and never leaves him till it hath brought him to a state of glorying from his nothingness so it places this glorying in God only not self as the compating two places of Scripture doth witness the one is 1 Cor. 1. ult That he that gloryeth may glory in the Lord and Ephes 2. 9. Not of works for this Reason least any man should boast Which two places do shew the scope of Gospel Doctrine And there cannot be a better test of Doctrine then the consonancy of it with the main scope of the Gospel that is with the Analogy of Faith Rom. 12. 6. For if in expounding a particular Scripture a man seem to cut out one part of the garment unproportionable to the body he seems to have mist his measure and as it were to make a monstrous garment For the scope of the Scripture is the measure and test whereby any particular is to be measured therefore this must needs be a good test Reas 2 Secondly Because all the gracious works of God from first to last from election according to purpose to salvation in the Kingdom of heaven I say every one of these works upon and in his Elect to bring them to salvation do all conspire and tend unanimously to this great end the praise of his free and powerful grace Ephes 1. 6. He hath Predestinated and Adopted us that we might be to the praise of the glory of his grace And what are the other attributes of God past by in silence No But grace is like Varnish no colour of it self but serves to set off all other colours Wisdom Power Mercy and Love are included or set out by Grace And therefore the praise of grace is the praise of all for God doth not work for the exaltation of mans power or pride but to the praise of his own grace Reas 3 Thirdly This is a true test Because we find the confessed experience of Gods people avouching and attesting this the experience of Paul that great trumpet of grace 1 Cor. 9. 16. I have nothing to glory of and in 1 Cor. 12. 11. I am nothing For Gods second Church is built as Gods second Temple the second Church give me leave so to say I mean the Gospel Church not by might nor by power but by my spirit And they cry grace grace unto it Zach. 4. 6 7. as that which was called the second Temple was meaner built to outward shew then Solomons Temple and was built not by might nor by power but with much weakness of the people returned from Captivity and opposed of all hands So is the Gospel state of the Church built of a people returned from the captivity of Hell and death not by the might and power of man but by the Spirit of God And therefore he that made the arrogant Answer to that Question the Apostle propounds Who made thee to differ from another saying Ego me ipsum discerno I discriminate my self seems to be mistaken in his own Experience as Christians often are or not to own the confessed experience of Gods Converts as Paul and others that have been humbled out of themselves to acknowledge the free grace of God For I think we shall rarely find a man on his death-bed to be a Papist that is enlightened because then he finds he flies out of himself to Gods alone mercy Nor seldom find a man in point of conversion to be a Pelagian because he acknowledges it to be the Free grace of God that brings him both down and up Down to bring down his pride to throw down his strong holds And Up again by raising him from a state of nothing And therefore as the Apostle John in his time when there were many deceivers gone forth into the world as there are in the dayes wherein we live did give Christians a test or mark by which they might prove the spurious or the true whether they brought sealed measure with their Doctrine yea or no. And that test was the coming of Christ in the flesh for that was then commonly denyed by the spawn of Gnosticks saying If any come to you and bring not this Doctrine receive him not 2 John ver 10. And so most commonly all along in the Scripture where any dangerous error is confuted you shall find in that confutation a test given a touchstone whereby that Doctrine that is
under the rate of saving because it is by a faith of Conviction not of Acceptance As a woman that can say nothing against a man yet gives not consent of marriage so they are convinc'd of the excellency and necessity of Christ and yet do not receive and accept him for good and all with self-outing and self-renouncing And all this being so as it is well might Austin say of this grace which Pelagius was content withal that is the doctrine exhortation excitation by way of object propounded and counsel moving Nolumus istam gratiam we are not content to rest in that grace but will have such as takes away the stony and gives a heart of flesh as it was with Lazarus he did not rise out of the Grave because he was bid to rise but with the word there went a powerful work and so he came forth Notwithstanding all this that I have said as touching the object of faith proposed the motives and means of Faith used which I confess are enough to lay the blame of non-believing at mans door yet this admirable secret of not believing upon all this arises from a higher reason or secret of God as appears by our Saviours Doctrine And the Reasons are two First Though all these be used as they are for the preparing and inclining and exciting man to believe That God may deal with man as a rational creature by moral means for God doth not draw man as a beam of timber or a stone is drawn by force but in a way of Understanding Reason and Argument yet that high design of God in giving men to Christ or not giving them to him is assigned by our Saviour as a Reason of mens coming or not coming to him Joh. 6 44 65. No man can come to me except it were given him of my Father and vers 37. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me The giving of Faith to man and of man to Christ are both Gods work And in John 10. 26. But ye believe not because ye are not of my Sheep that is not given to me by the Father And surely 't is for this secret reason that many in the world and in our Congregations that have all the formerly named Means and Motives to Faith do yet stand it out obstinately and those that have appeared the most unlikely of all others to be believers in Christ have after their long withstanding come in at length Seconldy The reason why all these do not work Faith is because they work but morally and objectively and do not haply ingenerate life by which they may be prevalent We do not wonder why a Trumpet doth not waken and why Musick doth not delight a dead man because neither the one nor the other doth beget life but supposes life to be Faith if it be lively and saving comes from a root of Life from the Spirit of Regeneration and renewing Grace and therefore where such Grace is not by the Spirit implanted in the heart all Means and Motives of Faith are but like the frictions and rubbings of a dead man which are profitable to awaken the spirits if there be life but not to recall or produce it and this is that which Christ speaks in the Text No man can come to me because he is of himself dead and void of power by Nature until God put a Spirit of life into him and when he is alive these Meanâ— and Motives may be profitable or as is usually said by S. Austin speaking of the Doctrine of Pelagius Hold a green branch or bunch of grass before a Sheep and if he be alive he may follow your hand but it gives not life to him if dead All that can be said is That there must be first a Plantation of a vital Principle a seed of spiritual life before there can be any Faith put forth to these Promises and Motives of Faith and therefore this bespeaks you all to use the means for life for God by these means works it But yet the means are left destitute unless joyntly with the Word of Faith there go the Work of Faith as with Lazarus come forth there went a Power to raise him from the dead and then man believes And this is the fourth Consectary from this point Serm. 22 Use 5 Fifthly No man in the world left to the disposal of his own will or to the sufficiency of his own power will or can move himself out of his lost condition into an actual state of salvation In ordinary things it is a clear Maxim That it is more easie destruere than astruere to throw down or to destroy than to build up to fell a Tree down than to plant and make it grow But in spiritual things that observation begets a Problem and hard Question Whether it be more easie to pull man down to remove him from himself and his own righteousness for 't is the mighty work of God that must do it 2 Cor. 10. 4 5. The weapons of our warfare are mighty through God to pull down to level imaginations and high things than when he is down to plant him into Christ Jesus to make him to believe Whether of these is the hardest work He that shall answer this I think might say as the Philosopher The expelling of darkness out of the Air and the introduction of light be two termes yet but one motion the act is but one to these two so the bringing man down and raising of him up the turning man from darkness to light as it is expressed Acts 26. 18. Though there be but one motion one act of Grace yet there are two termes darkness and light and so the matter is equally difficult yet for Order sake we begin with that which was first in time with the cutting off the Graft from the wilde Tree before we set or plant it in And therefore I have spâ—nt some time First in shewing mans indisposition to receive Jesus Christ which appears from Joh. 5. 40. Ye will not and Secondly mans impotency and inability in the Text No mâ—â— can except my Father draw him that is If left to your own disposal you would not if to your own sufficiency you â—â—ould not come to me And this being a point serving to pull down man that we may not make man the worker the doer the mover of his own salvation that we may build mans will upon God and not go about to build Gods Will upon man as if God did wait to see how man would dispose of himself I shall therefore proceed in it as homogeneous and agreeable to the former Doctrine in the Text. And the Reason is clear that no man in the world can because there would be no active Conversion were there not first a passive Conversion no active Conversion whereby man turns to God except there were first a passive Conversion whereby God turns man to God no Conversion could be the act of man if not first Conversion be
upon their souls nor were ever brought by it to a Life of Faith to an hatred of their most secret sins to a predominant Love of God to a superlative esteem of spiritual things and to an Heavenly conversation and that must perish forever for want of that Grace yea for their contempt and hatred of it which they verbally magnified in their preaching and disputes If any subject in Divinity be practical and to be read with holy affection and resolution it is this Remember when thou readest of Grace that the Reader is one that is lost and miserable till Grace recover him and must be beholden to Grace to save him from everlasting wo. Remember that God hath therefore thus wonderfully revealed himself in Love that appearing most Lovely to us he may be most Loved by us and all the beams of his transcendent Goodness may terminate thus upon our hearts and heat them into ascendent flames of Love Read till thou thus Believest and thus Lovest and then thou hast read well And I hope thou wilt find much in these Sermons which may be bellows and fuel for this holy fire Though they are not those exact and elaborate works by which Mr. Vines should be known in his great abilities to the world but such Sermons as he ordinarily preached to his Flock yet if even here thou find not matter to encrease thy tears in the remembrance of those faithful Labourers that sin hath deprived England of thou differest from One of the afflicted servants of the Church Rich. Baxter These Books following are to be sold by Abel Roper at the Sun in Fleet-street ALl Mr. Vines Sermons published by himself collected into one Volume The Papers between his Majesty and the Divines at the Isle of Wight concerning Episcopal Government with Mr. Vines stating his Majesties Concessions Vindiciae Fâ—â—deris A Treatise of the Covenant of God entred into with mankind in the several kinds and degrees of it by Mr. Thomas Blake Minister of the Gospel The Covenant sealed or a Treatise of the Sacraments of both Covenants Polemical and Practical especially of the Sacraments of the Covenant of Grace by Mr. Thomas Blake his vindication of the Birth Priviledge or Covenant-Holiness of Believers and their issue in the time of the Gospel together with the Right of Infants to Baptism Mr. Anthony Burgess his Expository Comment Docâ—â—nal Controversal and Practical upon the whole first chapter of the second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians his Sermon at the Funeral of Mr. Blake Three Sermons of Dr. Tho. Jacombs Bucanus Common Places English A Discourse of the visible Church by Francis Fulwood Minister of the Gospel The Italian Convert or the life of Galeacius Caracciolus his admirable conversion from Popery and forsaking a rich Marquesdom for the Gospels sake St. Augustines Confessions translated into English by Dr. Watts Reynolds Celestial Amities or the souls sighing for the love of her Saviour his benefits of Afflictions his Advice against Libertinism his Eternity weighed with temporal and fading things of this world Iosephus History of the Iews fol. The works of Mr. William Perkins first Vol. fol. Dr. Fulk on the Rhemist Testament fol. The Temple of Solomon pourtrayed by light of Scripture by Samuel Lee fol. The Story of Stories in a Harmony of the four Evangelists octavo Gods Drawing AND Mans Coming to Christ JOHN 6. 44. No man cometh to me except my Father which hath sent me draw him Serm. 1 THis Text speaks plainly and fully enough to the point of mans Conversion for coming in to Christ upon his Call which is the phrase used in the Text. and Conversion unto God differ not but in sound of words which amount unto one and the same meaning The Philosopher in his Dialect would call this Conversion or this Coming unto Christ a motion not local from place to place but transitive from Term to Term for there are two Terms of every motion And the Evangelist according to Scripture expresses the terms of this motion diversly but denoting the same thing From darkness to light saith the Text Acts 26 18. And from the power of Satan unto God The Design that I have in my eye is to Treat of the point of Conversion not pretending to accurateness and curiositie anxiously inquiring after the method or manner of Gods working But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and practically to handle this point unto you For as thou knowest not what is the way of the Spirit or how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with Child so thou knowest not the works of God Eccles 11. 5. nor all the particulars of the methods and wayes wherein God works in the Conversion or Creation of this New man This Conversion sometimes denotes the potent and immediate work of God renewing and converting and this is called in my Text Gods drawing of a man to Christ in these words Except my Father draw him Sometimes it denotes the action of man converting himself to God by the Faith and Repentance which he doth receive from God and this my Text calls mans Coming unto Christ when he is called in that phrase No man can come to me except In time these two can hardly be distinguisht but in order of causality they are easie to be distinguished one from another I mean Gods work converting or drawing man and mans action converting and coming unto Christ The act of man in coming to Christ that 's not first but the work of God drawing in to Christ that is first and the act of mans coming must needs follow as the Sun must of necessitie first shine upon the wall before the wall can give or reflect light or heat from it self back again Facti sumus opus Dei We are first made the works or workmanship of God there is Gods drawing Then Facimus opera Dei we do the work of God or walk in the works of God which he hath ordained that we should walk in them Ephes 2. 10. There is our coming That you may clearly look into every corner of this Text you shall observe here two things First the doctrine that is here taught by our Saviour Secondly the reason of his teaching it at this time The Doctrine here laid forth consists in these three things First the magnifying of the work of God in mans Conversion to raise up your praises thanksgivings to God by whom you are what you are for to his Power and Grace our Saviour Christ assigns the only or the principal part of it and that 's exprest in the work of Gods drawing a man to Christ Therefore this Doctrine is not spoken in a simple form he doth not say in plain words My Father draws man unto me but it s spoken in an exceptive or exclusive form of words excluding mans power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 except my Father draws no man comes to me So that without the divine traction there is not an ability or power in man to come
to Jesus Christ for he comes not by a power of his own but my Fathers drawing Secondly the insinuating of mans duty For here your duty is implyed in these words coming unto Christ Your coming unto Christ is the great charge or duty that lies upon you the observation of the Law of God and every of his commands that is duty But it is not duty of absolute necessity unto salvation but coming unto Christ is that which is of absolute necessity you cannot otherwise be saved because this contains the great condition of the Covenant of life and salvation upon which hinge eternal life doth hang and the whole work not only of your Conversion but of all the means that tend to your salvation do depend upon and are comprehended causally and eminently in this your coming unto Christ and therefore it is put for all here No man can come to me Thirdly the depression of mans pride or derogation of mans natural ability to faith in Christ or Conversion There is none of you but think it is an easie matter to believe that you can believe at pleasure it s very easie to believe Gods promises God speaking in his word Here now is the depression of mans pride as to this work No man can 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No man can come to me Grace and Gods power is here exalted exalted to the disparagement and diminution of mans own ability and it cannot otherwise be For as the Sun when it arises with his light blots out the light of the Moon and Stars that shined before so when the Lord Jesus doth appear unto you and God puts forth his arm to draw you to Christ Jesus this act of God doth as it were put down diminish disparage all the pretended ability of man his worthiness and merit This is the Doctrine that is here taught or the sum of Christs Doctrine in these words And then Secondly the reason of his now teaching it the hearers of Christ they were called Jews but indeed were Galileans his Countrymen that knew his education about Capernaum near Nazareth his hearers were observed by him to murmure at this doctrine as being very offensive to their ears and reason For Christ having preacht himself quite off those expectations that the Jews had of him that he should be a great and potent Prince a King and a great victorious Conqueror expectations wherewith they had been prepossest and preacht himself to be above that which they saw in him that he came down from heaven having preacht such doctrine that was very distasteful to their carnal ears for spiritual doctrine is always hateful to carnal ears they began to vent their hidden prejudices against him Say they v. 42. Is not this Jesus the son of Joseph Do not we know this mans Fathers and Mother for Nazareth where he lived was near to Capernaum how doth he say I came down from Heaven what an assumption is that That he called himself bread is a Metaphorical word and they used it in their speeches this troubled them not But that he came from Heaven and nothing appeared in him to be of Heaven more then other men this was distasteful to them Now our Saviour answers these prejudices and tells them that it did appear that the preventing Grace of God had not toucht their hearts to fashion and to mould them unto faith in him and therefore I find that your prejudices and carnal reasons stick by you still and continue your pride and obstinacy against me unto whom indeed no man can come except my Father draw him Here is the File of the Connexion of the words by this thred the words are to be cut out which shall serve to raise a porch or gate of Entrance into them And therefore I shall raise thence three Observations I pray God that none of you may be offended at this Doctrine For as I confess these Jews pretended somewhat for the offence they took at Christ Jesus his meanness and simplicity for he was mean and of simple appearance So this Doctrine may be somewhat offensive to you if you bring your own ears to hear it if this converting and preventing grace of God have not already began to mould and fashion your hearts to Christ Jesus and made you resolve to stick to him through thick and thin notwithstanding all scandals and offences that may appear to be in him First I observe That the Doctrine of Christ himself is entertained with distaste and murmuring by prejudicate and corrupt minds v. 41 42 43. The Jews then murmured at him for his doctrine c. Murmure not among your selves saith Christ Will you take me right in this word that I am now speaking Christ is the most scandalous person that ever was I mean fullest of scandals and offences to corrupt and carnal reason and interest His person how mighty scandalous his doctrine as well as his person his birth very mean his conversation while he lived in this world the death whereby he died on the Cross the administrations of the offices of his Kingdome as he administers is still even though he be in heaven glorious All of these are scandalous and full of offence unto corrupt reason How often hath it been upbraided to Christians that they believe in an ignominious and crucified Saviour that hung upon the Cross which the Apostle calls the scandal of the Cross How scandalous are the great afflictions that sit many times heavy and long upon the Church as if they had no deliverer How scandalous are the divisions of the Church as if they had not one Saviour and one Lord How scandalous to Christ are the corrupt and wicked lives of Christians that profess him He that will be a Christian indeed must have as they say a good swallow I mean he must swallow these hard morsels and a good digestion to digest iron to run through all the scandals that fleshly reason will lay in his way concerning all things that belong unto Christ It s a good observation A Christian must believe in a stumbling stone in a rock of offence Rom. 9. 33. Behold I lay in Sion a stumbling stone If he had said I lay a stone of safety a rock of refuge that had invited faith to come unto him But to say He that will believe in Christ must believe in a rock of offence in a stone of stumbling this seems rather to alienate the faith of man from Christ to estrange and throw faith off Oh how hard a thing is faith in Christ There must be such a faith as may overlook so many scandalous and offensive things so opposite to carnal reason That 's the first observation Secondly The more Evangelical the Doctrine and the sweeter the more is the offence and the greater is the dislike of it ver 41. because he said I am the bread that came from heaven because he rose high in his Doctrine above what they lookt for in him And who are these
that took offence Even disciples and they that followed him They say this is a hard saying and they also murmured nay they take the wing and fly away and leave him in the 61 62 63. verses of this Chapter Oh Beloved there are many of the followers of Christ that take offence at this Doctrine and it is to us even in our dayes very scandalous to many men and that 's the reason why I insist so long upon the Connexion If Christ preach himself the Son of God that is God For I pray let me give you warning once for all that the word frequently used in the Gospel the Son of God it means no less then God that Christ is God God as it were by nature It s used eighty eight times as I think in the New Testament The Son of God is God as well as man and therefore the Socinian doth but quibble as I may so say when he comes to distinguish Christ indeed is the Son of God and so are we called too But that phrase doth not imply that he is God Yes for they that heard the words took it so in John 10. 33 34 c. they took up stones to throw at him for his blasphemy and that was In that being man thou makest thy self God they took it in a right meaning The purest Gospel-doctrine is most harsh Christs preaching himself the Son of God was very unpleasing to these carnal men We measure Gospel-doctrine by the metwand of our wit and reason and peradventure by our learning which may be of great reach Therefore we are offended Now let me shew you this that The great design of the Gospel is to advance God and to lay man low And I beseech you carry this along as the great Design of the Gospel to advance the power and the grace of God in bringing men unto salvation and to lay man and all their parts and reason low God in the power and freedome of his grace saving man is advanced man in the power and merit of himself is extenuated and made nothing The design of the Gospel in giving all to God is seen by one Text In the 1 Cor. 1 Chap. last ver That he that glorieth may glory in the Lord shewing that the main plot of the Gospel is the advancement of Grace the depression of man and the derogation of mans abilities may be seen by what is said in Rom. 3. 17. Where is boasting then It is excluded saith he By what Law Not by the Law of works but by the Law of Faith And that 's the doctrine of the Gospel that takes men off from their own bottoms and hinges And so I think I have sufficiently proved it unto you Of Gospel doctrine that that advances free Grace is the most glorious to God the most full of admiration to them that are godly and yet the most obnoxious to offence and scandal of man to ordinary men of reason There are in this Doctrine so many offensive principles I shall instance in eight that I know are scandalous and offensive and stumbling-blocks to reason And much ado we have to leap over them when we come to believe First that the purpose of Gods Election and Chusing any man unto salvation is not founded on the merit that was the old word with the Fathers Schools we say on the Conditiou of Faith and Works foreseen but that God hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardens This is one scandalous point Rom. 9. 18. Secondly That before they had done either good or evil to say before they had actually done it is a kind of nonsense But before they had done it in foresight or prescience or before they were known or seen to do good or evil Esau and Jacob equals that tumbled both in one belly twins that had both one birth for these to be so differenced that God should say I have loved the one and hated the other This is another point scandalous and offensive to mans reason laid down in Rom. 9. 13. Thirdly That it is Grace that makes the difference and severance of one man from another that is the free grace of God abstracted from the worthiness or unworthiness of man Who made thee to differ O man sayes the Apostle Fourthly That the Jew or man whosoever he be that follows after Righteousness by the Law or Works did not artain it or overtake it as the word signifies and the Gentiles or other men that are of no name that follow not after righteousness by the Law or Works they do attain it and overtake it by faith in Christ This is a very hard point laid down in Rom. 9. 30 31. Fifthly That a man is not justified by the works that he doth or his duties or compliance with the Law but by the faith of Christ only whom he layes hold of being offered and freely tendered in the Gospel This is Gospel-doctrine laid down in Galat. 2. 16. Sixthly That the things of God that is that the saving things of God should be hid from the wise the prudent and learned men of the world that hold up their heads so high as they do and that to the poor and simple and mean that are meant by babes he should reveal them Matth. 11. 25. Father I thank thee c. hard and offensive to Reason Seventhly That many should be called by the preaching of the Word and of them that are called by the outward Ministery but very few chosen Look upon and consider your selves this is hard Matth. 22. 14. There are many called and great offers are made in the Gospel but few chosen and select Eighthly No man can believe or come to Christ except it be by the drawing of God Why sure this is a very hard point to the hearers of the Gospel that lay in prejudices and obstructions of Reason You cannot believe except the Lord draw and work this faith in you in John 6. 44 65. There are two things that make the doctrine of the Gospel something contemptuous tomen First because it opposes mens carnal interests It crosses the lusts of the flesh and of the world it brings men to self-denial Secondly because it is dissonant to reason to pride and self that is in men and thereby they are prejudiced First if God measure out his purposes and proceedings by his own soveraign will So that it is not in him that runs nor in him that wills as the Apostle hath delivered it Rom. 9. 16. but in God that shews mercy Then why doth God finde fault or complain of us why doth he finde fault with us that we do not believe that we stand out in opposition Who can help it ver 19 whose hand lies it in not ours This is the great offence Who hath refisted his will Nay but O man ver 20. Who art thou that repliest against God And then the Apostle goes on to clear the doctrine of free grace according to the method whereby
it can be cleared This seems to me a great scandal whereat men stumble Secondly if God command and require good works in his holy Word of us and yet tells me that his election of me to salvation doth not stand upon them but that the election whereby God hath chosen me to salvation is firm by his calling Rom. 9. 11. then if so be these works required and commanded will not serve my turn will not confirm my Election or Justification I may follow them and yet not attain righteousness by them Rom. 9. 31. This is a great scandal and offence to mans reason Thirdly if God cast so many of the world off and chuse so few of them that are called but throws them out as the man that was thrown from the Feast not having the wedding garment This is a miserable offence Fourthly if God require faith of me and repentance call for a new heart and a new spirit and saith Make you a new heart and yet teaches me that none can come except a divine power draw him except it be given him then he requires impossible things And is not this say some like to Pharaoh that will have the full tale of brick but will not find the people straw These are the offences taken by mans reason these raise up the murmurings these make some men leave the care of their salvation at six and seven If I am elected I shall be saved if I am not elected I cannot This makes men throw the plow into the hedge-bottom and let the ship ride before the sea and wind Upon all this that I have said it appears that the doctrine of Christ and of the free grace of God in Christ requires an humble heart a captivated reason or else prejudices of pride and the reason of man will trouble the whole Scene And I may give an instance in a point so resented in the times wherein we live by our Masters of Reason as some call themselves as the Gnosticks of old those damnable Hereticks called themselves the knowing men who had their opposition of Science falsly so called 1 Tim. 6. 20. This is it That Christs blood is not a blood of Atonement or expiation of sin that there is no proper compensation nor any satisfaction made or needful to Divine Justice for sin How then God pardons us our sins by an absolute goodness by an absolute free pardon without such satisfaction As a man forgives a delinquent without any satisfaction or as a man forgives a debt another man owes him freely for nothing And this is the great Hinge on which the Socinian Doctrine hangs which hath leavened and pass'd through so many men in our times But this free pardon without satisfaction of Gods justice ruines and razes the foundations of our Christian Faith as if men would not have Christ to do too much for them were angry at him for his being their surety for his paying their debt and freeing them from prison and damnation which makes me cry out as the Apostle doth in 1 Cor. 1. 20. Where is the wise where is the Scribe where is the Disputer of this world Let them take notice of it the great learned men that preach Heathenism among us Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world how by the Doctrine of Christ and free grace And this I preach that we may listen and hold the truths that to others are offensive overlooking all the scandals that may be found in the person and doctrine of Christ Serm. 2 NOtwithstanding I am not unsensible that the free grace of God may be so preacht or if you will so apprehended by you as it may be not only offensive to carnal reason but justly offensive to Faith and Christianity it self And this is when the doctrine of free grace keeps not the Channel but runs out on this side or that side without or besides its bounds then indeed it is justly offensive and scandalous and that may be in three regards First when it is made universal in extent For the freedom of this grace hath no affinity with the universality And though many do conceive that they cannot preach it free except they do also preach it universal I shall after shew that there is no kindred between them In the election of any man to salvation it is free because it excludes mans worthiness or works and yet it s not universal so as all are elected and chosen One calling I mean that calling that is according to purpose it is free not standing upon works You are called by Gods grace and yet t is not universal so as all men are called according to Gods purpose It s free to such as are called though it be not common to all Was not the grace of God free to Jacob yet not common to him and Esau It was free to Peter and yet not common to him and Judas To you it is given to know the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven there is the freedom to others it is not given there is a denial of the universality Maith 13. 11. And therefore we must distinguish between the offer of free grace and the effects of it grace in the offer of it may be common and in a sort universal but in the effects you shall always observe grace to be of a differencing nature it discriminates and makesâ— difference between one and another in salvation and therein is the glory of it and reason will shew that so far as it differences one from another it is not universal for that which differences cannot be universal the election hath obtained and the rest were hardeued Rom. 11. Secondly It is indeed offensive when it opens or is made to open a window to looseness of opinion or profaneness of life That makes it rather to be called loose grace then free grace for free grace truly preacht neither takes off the bridle of restraint of sin nor the spur of excitation of holiness from Gods Law these two must stand together Sin is restained by the Law of God there 's the bridle and then its a spur and incentive to obedience Shall we sin saith the Apostle because we are not under the Law but under Grace God forbid Rom. 6. 15. Again Shall we sin that Grace may abound Rom. 6. 1. No we may not make the doctrine of Gods free grace a Pander or a Porter to let in or open us the gate more freely to sin against him And the reason is excellent good there is no greater and sweeter obligation obliging man to thankfulness and obedience then this Doctrine of free grace The sense of this free grace I say is the most obliging and indearing of the heart to God of any doctrine that can be preacht so contrary is it from being a loosener of those bands whereby we are tyed to God Thirdly it is not rightly preached when it is made to deny to man all agency in Conversion as well as all power whereby
the preaching of this saving doctrine may happily not believe as it s said of them that Paul preacht to from morning to night and opened Christ to them from Moses and the Prophets their own Scriptures yet how is this Sermon concluded in the 28 Acts 24 ver And some of them believed the things that were spoken and some believed not By this we may learn what to resolve upon and what to rest in if the word of the Gospel be inclucated and taught out of the Scripture with all possible advantages of conviction prejudices will remain and murmurings some believe and others believe not as they are drawn by a divine power in to Christ Jesus or not drawn There is some higher and secreter reason to be shewn for this then yet they think of and see in themselves for the Text tells you No man can come to me except my Father draw him When this drawing power goes forth then they come whom he draws not they murmur and take offence and prejudice And therefore it is said in Acts 13. 48. As many as were ordained to eternal life believed This we rest upon and are resolved But you believe not because you are not of my sheep John 10. 26. As for the Ministry of the Word in the hand of man it works but instrumentally and not as the principal cause It is not the axe that builds the house It s not the pencil that limbs or draws the picture but the workman by such instruments doth it as I may give instance both in faith and repentance See this in faith In Isa 53. 1. Lord who hath believed our report there 's the preaching and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed there is the inward working The revealing of Gods arm must go together with the report or else who hath believed it The word preacht and the work of God must go together So in repentance In 2 Tim. 2. 25. Let the Minister meekly instruct them that oppose themselves that murmur and are prejudiced if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth for else our instructions are but peradventure Use 2 Secondly If there be such disability and opposition in man here you learn that Gospel-hearers have need of subdued hearts Hearts mightily tamed and captivated to the very doctrine of the Word of God beaten down into a tractable humility For else as the best meat is distasteful to a corrupt and vitiated palat so will Gospel-doctrine the doctrine of free grace be scandalous and offensive to proud reasonings And I conceive it may be you have not observed it before that our Saviour when he began first to preach the Gospel did so much insist upon humility meekness poverty of spirit self-denial that his hearers might be subdued unto captivity of their reasonings and high thoughts as the Apostle excellently in 2 Cor. 10. 5. unto the obedience of Christ For I must say it no doctrine in the world was ever or will ever be again so obnoxious to scandal so opposite to the pride and so cross to the reason of man as the highest and sweetest of gospel-Gospel-doctrine the points of free grace which no man can receive without murmurings except the Lord first give him a very subdued spirit and a captivated reason And therefore though the benefits received from Jesus Christ be very great and every man will witness that Christ is worthy of all acceptation to save the chiefest of sinners yet when they come to look upon his person throughly and consider what may be said against him as well as what is said for him and the course and tenour of his doctrine that hath it in so many stumbling-blocks that may give distate its great odds that you would never have come in unto him were there not put forth in you a divine hand and a powerful to draw you A famous instance we have of this in Matth. 11. 5. when John Baptist sent his disciples to Christ to know whether he was he not that I believe John Baptist doubted of it for he was in prison and now ready to be offered why saith Christ tell John what you see the sick are healed the lame walk and all sorts are cured very good things such as no man could be offended at and then he adds Blessed is he that shall not be offended in me ver 6. as if he had said as there are many things in me and in my doctrine that draw men to me multitudes crowd after me because I heal cure and relieve them so there are others of hard digestion that may by their offensiveness to mens reason drive them from me So it was in this Chapter His disciples that followed him began to take offence and to cry out of hard sayings ver 60 61. and then presently go away and walk no more with him ver 66. Use 3 Lastly learn from hence A man obstructs his faith when he considers too much the appearance of inconsistencies of his reason and sense to faith in Christ As these Galilaeans Countrymen of Christs that knew his parentage and outward quality fell a murmuring at his doctrine that he came down from Heaven for their eyes were all on those things that they thought inconsistent to his coming from Heaven they could not stand with them and so obstructed their faith Whereupon he saith except God draw men out of their inconsistencies no man can come to me A man may follow his own reason unto an absolute unbelief and Atheism not that Scripture or divine Reason is to be rejected I do not speak to that point But I speak to that natural reason that is taken up from other grounds and not weighed in the ballance of the Word Faith believes God though reason comprehends him not there is no reason that I should have my reason satisfied in the point of eternal salvation by free grace but that I should have a clear word of God that I conceive necessary That God promises so or so that I must needs have as the object of my faith but that I should have my reason satisfied before I believe I know no reason of that Take it either in the narrative part of faith or the promissory part God promised Abraham a son in the old age of him and his wife when he did not expect such a thing did he say Shew me how that can be now I am old No he did believe that he was able to perform he received the word which he believed These people reasoned themselves into an absolute unbelief they considered the means of Christ what they saw in him but the excellency of Christ that he came from Heaven the Son of God the Saviour and Redeemer they believed not And therefore let me from that observe a notable lesson A man that will believe firmly let him look upon the excellency of Christ Jesus not on that which is offensive and scandalous to our reason It was excellent doctrine that
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 〈◊〉
Erroneous may be tryed So in this point of Conversion of man and discriminating grace if any man blow the Bladder as well as the Trumpet to make him swell and sill him full of Pride and Self building God upon man and not man upon God Let this that I have said be the test at which you examine that Doctrine For as the letting fall of the string of a Vial or Lute too low or the straining it too high spoils the harmony And as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom 12. 6. the proportion is changed by adding a Unite unto or by substracting it from any number so in this point of converting grace if the denyal of mans power be drawn to deny mans duty or the Calling for Duty in Scripture be drawn so high as to exalt mans power the proportion and Harmony is spoiled in both After this animadversion and after such a test of Doctrine here found out and commended to you let me give you warning how to apply this sealed mete-wand to the Doctrine that you hear And I would that there were not so many instances as might be given that the Iniquity or Necessity of these times does require to be spoken unto First That Doctrine by this test sounds not clear but seems to have a crack in it That under pretence of duty doth conclude and advance mans power and the reason is plausible with those men that have learning enough that whereas it is said in Ezek. 18. 30. 31. Repent and make you a new heart and a new spirit and cast away your transgressions for why will you die and from Jer. 4. 4. Circumcise your selves to the Lord and be not stiff-necked take away the foreskin of your hearts from these commands doth conclude that man hath power to do it or else saith carnal Reason why is he commanded they that do make this conclusion let them be examined by this Establisht test of Doctrine and having hung the scales let us now weigh the point this is true What God in his law requires that the law supposes a power to be or to have been because the law of God doth not command things absolutely impossible to which there never was power given and therefore mans disability to perform any command arises accidentally when he hath disabled himself And this is called by the Apostle and the cause of it shewn in Rom. 8 8. the Impossibility of the law and that is through sin and corruption that hath Invaded man and disabled him unto obedience But now in case of this disability the law that requires the duty doth not argue a power in you but it doth drive disabled man to the remedie and that is the free grace of God and therefore he that calls on thee for repentance doth himself give it 2 Tim. 2. 25. he that bids Make you a new heart doth promise it I will give them a new heart Ezek. 36. 27. He that saith Circumcise your selves saith also I will circumcise your hearts Deut. 30. 6. The command shews what man owes to God and what must be in him if he will not dye and this drives him to the remedy the free and gracious promise of God to work this in him the measure of his duty is not the measure of his power as a man measures not his worth by what he ows no man will be so absurd and yet men will measure their power to repent to turn to God to believe in Christ by what indeed is their duty to do which is to say no more a false measure Secondly Nor are they to be heard that from qualifications of fitness do argue and conclude for qualifications of worthiness or merit observe for you will not understand the answer to these except you understand where the Errour lies the law uses this word worthy for a dueness of the reward of debt that that hath some proportion to the reward when the reward is of debt as the Apostle describes it but the Gospel dictionary useth the word worthiness for the fitness of a man to receive the reward of grace and promise and therefore in the Gospel they are usually pronounced worthy that are fitted and made meet for to receive Christ or the promise as the worthy receiver at the Lords table is not he that is meritoriously worthy but he that is meet that is qualified answerably to the Sacrament that hath in him such qualifications as are answerable to the body and blood of the Lord there exhibited and so you may read works meet for repentance and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to count worthy and make meet 2 Thes 1. 11. and Col. 1 12. are one and the same the Papists and Bellarmine himself that sought as far for that as any of them can search can hardly find in all Scripture Hebrew and Greek any thing that sounds toward merit of Salvation but worthiness of fitness that is an answerableness to the duty injoyned or mercy promised he hath made us meet to be inheritors this you may find everywhere without which no man can be saved and therefore to say this bottle is fit to hold such a proportion of wine and worth so much money are quite contrary sayings the one relating to the capacity the other to the metal of it so to say the thirsty the weary the laden are in a fit capacity for Christ and the promises by qualification of emptiness and therefore they have qualifications of merit and worthiness is altogether absurd and inconsequent and if any among us as there may be some that cannot digest these words qualifications towards Conversion c. a point that in the process of this discourse I shall touch upon will but clear their own mistakes there remains no quarrel upon the word at all for we mean not meritorious qualifications not any thing meritoriously conducing to mans conversion but meet and fit preparatives unto grace and glory such precedaneous workings as judgement sin and the law have discovered and preacht to men that they by being stâ—ng by the fiery Serpent may be fitted to look up to the serpent on the pole the Lord Jesus In a word they are qualifications of the subject recipient not merit of the thing to be received that they may receive the Grace as an empty bottle doth receive the liquor Thirdly That doctrine by this test will be found leavened that makes the ruinous condition of man less then it is for then consequently it will follow that the power of God in his restauration is less also as for instance if Lazarus be but sick his recovery is less then a resurrection If you make mans case better so as sickness is above death so far as mans power is made greater in themselves so far is the power of God made less then it is extreams on both hands are to be avoided in lessening the freeness or the power of man or in the greatning of it I will
not so decry the will of man in his conversion that I will deny it to be freer in that act then it is in any action of this life then it is to eat and drink c. but whence comes that freedom who hath unshackled nay who hath revived this will that is God The will of man is not so to be cryed down as to make him a brute nor yet so to be advanced as to make him more then a Servant They who make man who is dead in sin to be like the man in the parable half-dead Luk. 10. 30. which to answer that place by the way was enough to shew who was his neighbour It was enough for the scope of our Saviours Parable to suppose the man left half-dead do unawares wrong the quickening vertue of Christ You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins he that makes a man less then dead makes the quickening power that converts him less then a resurrection he that makes the captivity and bondage of a man less doth thereby make his freedom less too because these do follow one upon another bondage and freedom captivity and liberty as those Papists that free the virgin Mary from all sin do also remove Christ from being her Saviour his name shall be called Jesus because he saves his people from their sins if there be no sin from whence is the salvation if there be no salvation from whence is he called a Saviour as therefore I would not set works in the place of Justification which is Christs place so neither will I remove them from a necessary place in sanctification and salvation for they have a necessary place but not a place to work it for we must be Gods workmanship before we can do Gods work the Apostle makes that plain when he gives that as a reason nor in the place of Justification for that as I said is Christs place nor as a motive to move God to justifie a sinner for that is free grace nor as the condition and instrument for that is the place of faith yet they have a place in sanctification afterwards as the fruit of the tree though not as the root for a cypher that in the first place of a figure is nothing may in the second place add a value so that which in point of merit and causality is nothing yet if there be first grace a work of regeneration and sanctification wrought in the heart then I say there is something to be said of this obedience and as I will not give to man the working of the will and the deed so neither will I deny the working out of Salvation to be mans act and therefore those that say Christ repents for me and Christ believes for me as if so be it were not man that believes and the sinner that repents they speak a kind of non-sence the text I am upon teaches the contrary where he tells them the drawing is Gods the coming is mans act and duty and therefore it s not to be said Christ believes and repents for me for I must repent and believe or I am lost and lie in my lost estate The duty and act of faith and repentance are yours But the grace and power whereby these are wrought in you are God's and therefore the rule here is that the power and Grace of God be not degraded by the extenuation of mans natural sin and corruption but that rather the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the much more as it is said Rom. 5. 17. be given to the abundance of Grace for if you consider and compare together mans duty and Gods power mans act and the power of God that works the will and the deed rather give the more to God then sin if sin be abounding I would rather say Grace over-abounds because that is the favourable side and gives unto the grace of God more then peradventure some think to be due to him that where as abounding may be said of sin let super abounding be said of Grace Rom. 5. 20. Serm. 17 FOurthly Nor will that doctrine abide the due or true test that under the pretence of this sole power of God exerted in mans Conversion doth clamorously cry down all instruments and means Gospel and Gospel Ministry under this pretence that the sole power of mans new creation and conversion is of God and therefore hold that as God made this world without tools and instruments so God shall and will convert men by his converting grace without means instruments ministry and the like And what danger is it to snatch up a piece of a sentence for they have heard this doctrine from the orthodox that man cannot he is disabled to believe in Christ that the power is of God and have run away with it and thence have hatcht this fancie that therefore we need not look after these means shewing to us that preach that we had need to use due Correctives in our preaching for good medicines without apt Correctives sometimes breed wind or disease rather then cure it so this orthodox doctrine not rightly Corrected breeds this fancy that there is no need of instruments to work that whereof God hath the sole power These men I can say no less of them will teach God to convert man Let them teach themselves to stand in the way and rode of Christ where he walks and doth miracles Let them stand in the way of his ordinances For though I confess God can convert without ordinances and means yet to say that he doth so is as if because he did sometime make a man at full stature as Adam therefore he doth so always And so abolish mariage which he hath instituted for the propagation of mankind and so because God can convert man and bring him to a full autumne and state of grace at first that therefore God must abolish his own ordinances instituted for bringing his people to him Is it not enough that God hath tyed us to the use of Ordinances where Salvation is to be had but we must tie God according to our fancie either to or from the use of Ordinances what if God did extraordinarily without the plough maintain Israel in the wilderness by Manna bread from heaven is therefore God tyed to do the same by such extraordinary means when they come to their setled Land where they mow and sowe and reap Corn for themselves this doth not follow Where there are no ordinances to be had there God may work extraordinarily But God is not therefore bound to do it neither can we conclude he will do it let Naaman the Syrian be an extraordinary example of a man healed by miracle and those that Christ converted and healed what is this to our purpose God by his meer free will hath chosen this way of Gospel-ministry and ordained it to be the Power of God to Salvation Rom. 1 16. God puts forth a power when he converts a soul and he
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
the ingredients that make up this inward man â— all his graces are but extracts out of Christ It is the knowledge of Jesus Christ that alters the properties of moral virtues and turns them into Evangelical graces fruits of the Spirit as the reasonable soul makes the sensitive operations which otherwayes are in bruits to be the act of a man I know a Christian may have more roughness of nature and more sturdiness of passions then is in many a moral man he that hath more Christianity may have less morality as there is more perfection of animal and sensitive faculties in some bruits then in some men I had rather fight against sin by a little of Christ in me then beat lusts and passions quite out of the field by the strength meerly of moral virtue because fighting against passions by the faith and love of Christ argues a Gospel inward life which is better then a freedom from vice by a company of dead virtues Thirdly This inward man is distinguished from all those common gifts and workings which may be in an outward Christian for there may be a large knowledge a kind of dogmatical faith a mercenary love of God a worldly sorrow for sin a desire of salvation and grace as a bridge to heaven but there is great difference between gifts and grace there is no grace but hath a counterfeit that goes under that same name and that is it which deceives men for likeness is the mother of error and it 's that makes examination so hard knowledge faith love repentance are to be distinguished for there are that bear the name of these but are not therefore this light oare is to be distinguished from true metal the Spirit works many things in those whom it unites not to the head and many have large gifts by dispensation from Christ that have no grace by virtue of their union with him as heat from the body into the clothes one weares but they do not argue union with the head Now there is a peculiar knowledg of God which is by his teaching which a man may rather feel than discribe there is a love of Christ himself not only of his benefits there is a repentance that rises out of love and not out of slavish fear and there are desires of grace for service and not only for a bridg to heaven this is the mark of true grace as distinguished from common it casts out self-love and as it comes from union so it drawes the soul into union and acquaintance with Christ himself the most intimate corruptions of men are pâ—ide and self which are not mortified by outward and common graces nor doth common grace draw into union with Christ but is wholly upon benefits and reward to seek God for God or love Christ for himself is above the power of all common shining glorious parts or 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 proper and peculiar to this inward man Fourthly A Christian inwardly is distinguished from the outwardly formed who in the form of Godliness is as well drest as the true Christian frequents ordinances complies in ritual and formal duties hath greater parts and abilities than this Christian inwardly we speak of but yet the inner Christian differs from the outward 1. In the principle that carries him which is regenerating grace a well of waâ—er that springs up in him to everlasting life 2. In the motive that impels and constrains him the love of Christ the sweet peculiar relishes of that love 3. In the manner which is with delight in God in his law and the commandments are not grievous 4. In the ends he aimes at which are not the base respects of self-love but the walking with God in communion and the enjoyment of God his God but as for the Christian outwardly he hath no principle no root in himself Matth. 13. 21. his motives are forrain springs and plummets as your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his manner of performance is but artificial and unsavoury his ends are like Jehu's that is his own and so his faith that he brags of is but want of temptation his assurance is but confidence in the flesh his quietness is but want of examination of his bottom his joy is the blaze of thorns his desiâ—es are but the eructations of self-love I have thus shewn you him that is a Christian inwardly and now for the use Use 1 First I would speak to the Jew but I can find neither Jew outwardly nor Jew inwardly as the text describes both for the Jew outwardly is not found because his outward ordinances which denominated him so are dead and gone the fall of the temple to which most of them was affixed broke most of them down and crusht them to death irrecoverably Those that now they hold as Circumcision sabbath difference of meats rules of marriage c. They are the ruines of the ruines of their state and though they were the ordinances of God are now become their own superstitions of no more use then heathen Ceremonies and observations unless to teach them that whiles they hold them Christ shall profit them nothing And for the Jew inwardly he is not nor can be for their Ordinances as now cannot work or convey renewing grace no more than heathen Rites Indeed salvation was of the Jews as Christ saith and there was a spirit sparingly conferred on some but now to expect any Regeneration any kernel in the husks now left any new creature should be in them that receive not but call Christ Anathema or consequently should have the spirit or any saving grace is as much as to say that a statue of stone may beget a living man And therefore that Doctrine of the Rabbins That one calls Pestilent whosoever professes Judaism howsoever he live shall have part in the world to come which Justin Martyr thus expresses that all Abrahams seed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Use 2 Christians be not you deceived with outwards and externals I mean deceived in your selves gross sins may be lest ways reformed Ordinances partaken in duties done and yet this inward work be wanting the heart enlightned broken quickned the will and affections sanctified are the things that must be sought after When a man white-washes or paints an old house it 's a sign he means not to pull it down You can conform to times and customs of Religion and begin to varnish over a rotten heart but that is a sign you mean not to pull all down and build new Is it some ends that you have set up that makes you cry up Religion This is but outward vvork this makes you but a Jew outwardly this is but to thaw on the sunnie side of the house and to freeze on the other Learn vvhat the inward part of godliness is A soul taken vvith Christ himself savouring the thingâ— of the Spirit his graces his vvays enquire after inward experiences and vvhat difference there is between the Word preached and the Word engroâ—â—ed between Baptism of