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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57963	Christ dying and drawing sinners to himself, or, A survey of our Saviour in his soule-suffering, his lovelynesse in his death, and the efficacie thereof in which some cases of soule-trouble in weeke beleevers ... are opened ... delivered in sermons on the Evangel according to S. John Chap. XII, vers. 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33 ... / by Samuel Rutherford.	Rutherford, Samuel, 1600?-1661.	1647 (1647)	Wing R2373; ESTC R28117	628,133	674

ô house of Israel Christs will is heaven Christ thinks it is best that his Fathers will stand and his humane will be repealed Rom. 15.3 for even Christ pleased not himselfe to have no will of your owne is the Pearle in the ring a Jewel in submission 2. that the Lords end is good he minds to have me home to heaven then as in his six dayes workes of creation he made nothing ill so hee hath been working these five thousand years and all his works of providence are as good as his works of creation hee cannot chuse an ill meane for a good end if God draw my way to heaven through fire tortures bloud poverty though hee should traile me through hell hee cannot erre in leading I may erre in following Object But there is a better way beside and hee leades others through a rosie and greene valley and my way within few inches to it is a wildernesse of thornes Answ. Gold absolutely is better then a draught of water but comparatively water is better to Sampson dying for thirst then all the gold in the earth So cutting a veine is in it selfe ill but comparatively letting bloud through a cut veine is good for a man in danger of an extreame Feaver there is no better way out of heaven for thee then the very way that the Lord leades thee God not onely chuses persons but also things and every crosse that befalls thee is a chosen and selected crosse and it was shapen in length and breadth and measure and weight up before the Throne by Gods owne wise hand Heaven is the workehouse of all befals thee every evill is the birth that lay in the wombe of an infinitely wise decree so God is said to frame evill as a Potter doth an earthen vessell so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 jatsar signifieth Jer. 18.11 to frame a vessell of clay is a work of art and wisedome so it s a worke of deliberation and choise God is said to devise judgement against Babylon Jer. 51.12 And the Lord hath done to his people the things which he devised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to think meditate studie devise Deut. 19.18 and Isai. 45.7 he creates darknesse and evill it is such a worke of omnipotency and wisedome as the making of a world of nothing then if God follow infinite art in shaping vengeance against Babylon farre more must he wisely study to mould and shape afflictions for his owne for no afflictions befalleth the Saints but they be well framed chosen wisely studied forged and created crosses A Potter cannot frame by deeper Art and judgement a water-pot for such an end and use a fashioner cannot frame clothes in proportion for a mans body so fitly as the wise Lord in judgement and cunning shapes frames this affliction as a measure for thy foot only poverty for this man and its shapen to his measure wicked children and the sword on Davids house fittest for him such a loathsom disease for this Saint want of friends and banishment for such a man another more and heavier should be shapen to wide for thy soule and another lighter should have been too strait short and narrow for thee It s comfortable when I beleeve the draught portraiture and lineaments of my affliction were framed and carved in all the limmes bones parts qualities of it in the wise decree and in the heart and breast of Christ It were not good to bear a Crosse of the Devils shaping were there as much wormwood and gall in the Saints cup as the Devil would have in it then hell should be in every cup and how many hells should I drink and how often should the Church drinke death It s good I know Christ brewed the cup then it will worke the end for be it never so contrary and soure to my taste and so unsavory Christ will not taste poyson in it he hath purposed I should sail with no other winde to heaven and I know its better then any winde to me for that Port. Rule 6. Christ prescribes no way to his Father but in the generall The Lords will be done on me saith he be what it will Let hell and death and Devils malice and heavens indignation and enmity and warre ill-will and persecution from earth hard measure from friends and lovers if the will of my Father so be welcome with my soule welcome black crosse welcome pale death welcome curses and all the curses of God that the just Law could lay on all my children and they are a faire number welcome wrath of God welcome shame and the cold grave The submission of faith subscribeth a blanke paper let the Lord write in what he pleaseth patience dares not contest and stand upon pennies or pounds on hundreds or thousands with God Moses and Paul dare referre their heaven and their share in Christ and the book of life to Christ so the Lord may be glorified Submissive faith putteth much upon Christ Let him slay me yet I will trust in him said Iob 13.15 Heman alledgeth it was not one single crosse Psal. 88.7 Thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves And David Psal. 42.7 All thy waves and thy billowes are gone over me One of Gods waves could have drowned David afflictions coming in Armies and in a battle-array say that one single Souldier cannot subdue us Lawfull warre is the most violent and the last remedy against a State and it argueth a great necessity of the Sword Job had an Army sent against him and from heaven too cap. 6.4 The terrors of God doe set themselves in array against me See what a catalogue of sufferings Paul did referre to God 2 Cor. 11.23 24 25 c. one good violent death would have made away a stronger man then Paul yet he was willing for Christ to be in deaths ofen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many deaths many stripes many prisons five times nine and thirty stripes this was neer two hundred stripes every one of them was a little death Thrice beaten with rods once stoned thrice in shipwrack night and day sailing in the deep in journeying often in perils of waters in perils of robbers in perils of his owne country men in perils by the heathen in perils in the City in perils in the wildernes in perils in the Sea in perils among false brethren in wearinesse and painfulnesse in watching often in hunger in thirst in fasting often in cold in nakednesse c. Many of us would either have a crosse of our own carving as we love will-worship and will-duties so we love will-suffering and desire nothing more then if that we must suffer Christ with his tongue would licke all the gall off our crosse and leave nothing but honey and a crosse of sugar and milk we love to suffer with a reserve and to die upon a condition an indefinite and catholique resignation of our selves without exception to Christ and to undergoe many furnaces many hels

breath Natures weake leggs in walking up the Mount are good for the adding wind and tyde and high sailes to the praysing of Christ and free Grace Vtile est peccavisse noc●t p●ccare It is profitable that we have sinned that Grace may be extolled it is ill to sinne Even to the nature of man its good that hee hath dyed and hath beene in the grave yet it s not good but contrary to nature to die and to ly in the grave 6. It s our forgetfulnesse that wee see not the dearest to Christ hath beene kept lowest and most empty in their owne eyes hidden grace extolleth Christ. 2. That often the Saints are kept in a condition of sayling with as much wind as blows with praying and beleeving 3. That yet prayer and the sweating of Faith cannot earne nor promerit the renewed sense of Christ so as Christ returneth to eate his honey-combe and his wine and milke and banquet with the soule rather at the presence of these acts then for them as some have said thou●h with no strength of reason that fire burneth not the Sunne enlighteneth not the ●arth doth not send forth floures and herbes but God at the naked presence of these causes doth produce all effects yet in this case it hath a truth that the sweating of all supernaturall industry cannot redeeme the least halfe glimpse of Gods presence in the sense of eternall love when God is pleased for trial● to hide himselfe 7 Our great fault heere is merit that we tye the flowings and inundations of Christs love to the becke of our desires whereas we may know 1. That the Sunne doth not shine nor the raine water the earth in order to merit 2. Wee should know that grace and all the acts of grace are almes not debt and that a rich Saviour giveth grace to us as beggars and payeth it not to hirelings as the due or as wages wee can crave for our worke but wee love peny-worth's better then free-gifts But for this cause came I to this houre Christs worke of redemption was a most rationall worke and was full of causes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this saith that to redeeme losed sinners was not a rash and reasonlesse worke 1. There was no cause compelling Love cannot be forced John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Sonne c. Grace worketh more from an intrinsecall cause and more spontaneously then nature For Nature often is provoked by contraries for selfe-defence to worke as fire worketh on water as on a contrary the wolfe and the dogge pursue one another as enemies But Grace because grace hath abundance of causality and power in it selfe but hath no cause without it 2. Any necessitie of working from Goodnesse in the Agent as from such a principle is strong 1 Tim. 1.15 It s a true saying and by all meanes worthy to be received that Christ Iesus came into the world to save sinners If the thing be worthy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of all receipt and embracing then it must bee good an Agent working from a Principle of goodnesse doth in his kind worke necessarily though he may also worke from another principle freely John 10.11 I am the good shepherd the good shepherd giveth his life for his sheepe Luke 19.10 For the Sonne of man is come to seeke and to save that which is lost 3. God will seeke reasons or occasions without himselfe to be gracious to sinners When no reason or cause moveth a Physitian to cure but onely sicknesse and extreame misery wee know grace and compassion is the onely cause Ezech. 36.23 I will sanctifie my great name Why Which was prophaned among the heathen and which ye have prophaned in the midst of them then the true cause must bee expressed Vers. 22. Thus saith the Lord God I doe not this for your sakes O house of Israel but for mine holy Names sake 4. The Lord taketh a cause from the end of his comming Math. 20.28 The Sonne of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransome for many Joh. 18.37 To this end was I borne and for this cause came into the world that I should beare witnesse to the truth Joh. 10.10 I am come that they might have life and have it in aboundance 5. Some thing yea very much of God is in the creation much of God in his common providence but most of all yea whole God in the redemption of man God manifested in the flesh is the matter and subject of it Grace the moving cause most of all his attributes working for the manifestation of the Glory of pardoning mercy revenging justice exact faithfulnesse and truth freest grace omnipotency over hell devils sinne the World patience longanimity to man cooperate as the formall and finall causes it is a peece so rationall and full of causes that as he is happy Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas who can know the causes of things so Angels delight to be Schollers to read and study this mysterious art of free Grace Eph. 3.10 1 Pet. 1.12 Works without reasons and causes are foolish The cause why we doe not submit to God is because we lye under blind and fatherlesse crosses its true Affliction springs not out of the dust and crosses considered without God are twise crosses Three materiall circumstances in crosses are very considerable Quis quare quomodo 1. Who for what cause and how doth God afflict us Who afflicts is worthy to be known Esai 42.24 Who gave Jaakob for a spoile and Israel to the robbers The highest cause of causes did it Did not the Lord he against whom we have sinned 1 Sam. 3.18 It is the Lord let him doe what seemeth good to him 2. For what end God the Lord did this is a circumstance of comfort Why led the Lord Israel through a great and terrible wildernesse wherein were fiery Scorpions and Serpents and drought Deut. 8.16 That he might prove thee to doe thee good at thy latter end 3. And how the Lord correcteth is worthy to be known He correcteth Jaakob in measure Jer. 6.28 Mercy wrapped about the rod and a cup of gall and wormewood honeyed and oyled with free love and a piece of Christs heart and his stirred bowels mixed in with the cup is a mercifull little hell Psal. 6.1 Jer. 31.18 19 20. The Law saith A Bastard hath no father because his father is not knowne The Philistimes are plagued with Emerods but whether that ill was from the Lord or from Chance they know not The crosse to many is a bastard We suffer from Prelats because wee suffered Prelats to persecute the Saints Papists shed our bloud why Our fore-fathers burnt the witnesses of Christ and we never repented Christ and Anti-christ are at bloudy blowes in the camp Anti-christ hath killed many thousands in the three kingdomes for Religion that is the quarrell and

which is offensive to God 1. Temptation is a working or an act of stirring in the tempte● not Physicall but Morall and Objectiv● no tempter who is only a tempter can by any reall action fire the will Satan doth but knock by his Logick at the out-side of the doore but cannot open Free-will is a tender excellent piece of creation and either the best or the worst of the whole creation of God See well to it it s a worke of your whole life time to watch this doore 2. Tentation is an act of moving or stirring the powers of the man As when wine is stirred and wine and dreggs are jumbled through other or a Fountaine troubled and water and clay mixed in one hence every tempted person is some way a sufferer though hee know not particularly it is so As the Fish tempted with the ba●te the Bird with the Fowlers song are sufferers though they know not there is a breaking in upon the phancie sense reason will and affections to strike a hole in the soule So tempting is called piercing though the foole going to the chambers of death knoweth not that it is for his life Prov. 7.23 To be tempted is a matter of great concernment illumination is most necessary here and specially to know that God aymeth at the tryall of our Faith and other glorious ends And that 1. Satan seekes some of his owne worke in us as God seeketh to bring out some of his worke in us 2. That Satan aymes to goe betweene the beleever and his strong hold 3. That he aymeth at house-roome in the soule 3. The temptation works upon both the inward and outward man on senses fancie minde inclination will and affection but hath a speciall designe at the soule 4. By the temptation any is or may be moved to sinne for all tempted are not actually induced to sinne Christ was really tempted of the Devill but was never induced to sinne Satan shot his arrowes at Job for nothing he lost his labour in seeking the failing and drinking up of Peters faith Therefore to be tempted of the Devill or the World is not a sinne 5. The temptation worketh under the colour of good The first Printing iron and Master samplar of tempting hath this Character of apparent good Gen. 3.6 The Woman saw that the fruit was good 1. Because tempted persons are reasonable creatures and as instinct taketh with birds and beasts and poore nature swayeth elements in their motion so reason is a strong tying chaine 2. Every temptation hath a garment or rather a shirt of truth in the understanding and comming under the shaddow and rooffe of the desiring facultie as good nothing hindereth it to take but a marring of the understanding in apprehending some blacke spot in the fairenesse of it When Satan sayleth faire with favour of the winde and commeth in his Whites and in cloth of Gold as an Angel of light wee are as readily moved often such is our childishnesse with good-like as with good Beleeve not therefore a white Devill because white O beware to yeeld your tongue to licke a honey-temptation under the veile of sweetnesse Receive things rather because lawfull then because good or pleasant 2. Beleeve it there can be no reason for sinne no reason can wash the Devill to render him faire neither thirst nor company can bee a reason of drunkennesse An injury cannot justifie every Warre and bloud-shed because injury is a sinne and to wash one sinne with another is as if you should wash a foule face with Inke-water 3. Beleeve sinne to be folly and darknesse and light of reason can bee neither father nor mother to folly and darkenesse holinesse is white and faire within and without 6. The object of the temptation in the definition the terminus ad qu●m is that which is offensive to the majesty of God That we may understand this remember foure are said to tempt 1. God his tempting neither in the condition of the worke or intention of the worker is sinne But the Lord proveth you saith Moses to Israel that he might know whether yee love the Lord your God 2. Our owne lusts tempt and lead aside Jam. 1.14 And as fire cannot but make fire so both in the intention of the worke and the worker the end of temptation is sinne Concupiscence is a mother that cannot bring forth a good daughter 3. If men tempt to sinne as a Magistrate by good Laws tempteth wicked men the end is not necessarily sinne in the intention of the doer though no man can formally tempt another to sinne but he sinneth and tempteth to sinne both wayes And when Satan tempts hee driveth ever at sinne both waies we are to feare God to watch to stand out when he tempteth 2. Now we are to consider that though Satan be sentenced already and as a Malefactor under baile and in chaines yet hath he leave to walke too and fro in the earth and is not yet cast in prison nor are wee freed from his temptation the personall persecution and malice of Satan as we are from the persecution of the damned now in hell who did persecute us here on earth but cannot now No doubt but as the good Angels strooke the men of Sodome with blindnesse so the ill Angels have the like power on the senses a man possessed with the Devill was both dumbe and deafe Job 2.7 Satan smote Job with sore boiles from the sole of his foot unto his crown and so Devils have power over the senses and bodily organes and so of necessitie over the bloud to cause rottennesse in it which must be in boyles and to alter and infect the humors Psal. 78.49 Evill Angels were ministers of the Lords plagues on the Egyptians But I shall not thinke it a good Argument to prove that Angels can jumble the humours to make many things appear without that they are not and that they can work on the internall senses the fancie and imagination because we our selves by an act of free-will can stirre up the memory of things and provoke our fancies to the apprehension of things Ergo Angels either good or evill can doe the like This is but a sorry poore reason for we our selves can doe many things within our selves which the Angels cannot doe I know the thoughts of my owne heart when they come forth in act 1 Cor. 2.11 No Angels good or ill can know them I can with an obedientiall act of free-will by grace set my free-will on acts to command my memory fancy imagination thoughts to meditate on by-passed experiences of Divine favours and sweetly solace my selfe in God with these thoughts no Angels in heaven or hell can determine my free-will to those Spirituall acts yet by the grace of God I can doe it Nor is that true what ever an inferiour power can doe that a superiour can much more doe if there be orders in Angels a superiour Angel

beleeve they shall be saved the Lords purpose being ●o deny to them the grace of beleeving without which it is unpossible they can beleeve the promise in Gods purpose is not made with them He that so willeth what he promiseth upon a condition which he that so willeth only can doe and work and yet will not do or work the condition he doth indeed not will to the party what is so promised if John send Peter to work in his garden upon condition that if he worke he shall give him a talent a day and in the mean while Iohn onely can give to Peter strength of legs and armes and body to work can determine his consent to the work and yet refuse to give strength and to win his consent to the work Sure he never wi●led either to give him a talent for his work nor intended hee should work at all Hence I ar●ue it is against the wisedome of God to intend and will that the Reprobate be redeemed pardoned saved upon a condition which he himself only can work by his grace and absolutely and irresistibly will not work Now in Scripture such a thing is argued not to bee done because the Scripture must be fulfill●● and the decree of God and his will ful●●lled as Christs bones upon this ground could not be broken and such a thing is done that the Scripture and so the will and decree of God might be fulfilled so that which is never done is simply Gods will it shall never be done that which is done is simply Gods will it must be I mean either his permissive or approving will and the will of God revealing what is the duty of Reprobates though it never be done argu●s it was not simply the will of God hence that voluntas signi in which God reveales what is our dutie and what we ought to doe not what is his decree or what he either wil or ought to doe is not Gods will properly but by a figure only for commands and promises and threatnings revealed argue not the will and purpose decree or intention of God which are properly his will 10. It is against the wisedome of God to intend the actuall Redemption and salvation of all and every one and not to will nor work such conditions which onely he himself can work and are in his power only and without the which the creature cannot be redeemed and saved but he neither will nor doth work faith in all then he never intended the actuall redemption and salvation of all and every one Hence what ever wanton and lascivious reason can object against absolute Reprobation the absolute Redemption of some few a particular atton●ment of some few equally fighteth with the opinion of adversaries as against ours they say 1. God intends the eternall destruction of the innocent sinlesse and greatest part of mankind 2. Mercie bowels of compassion by your particular absolute Redemption is extended to few and all the rest of the lost world left to sincke eternally notwithstanding of the infinite and boundlesse love and man-kindnesse of God It s answered these fall with equall strength of wanton reason upon conditionall and universall Redemption or Gods conditionall and universall will to save all and every one for say that a father did foresee if he beget twenty sonnes that eighteen of them shall be cast in a river of fire to be burnt quick where they shall bee tormented ten thousand yeares ever dying and not able to finde death to end their miseries and that they may be Kings in great riches and honour upon a condition of such and such a carriage of them in their education and young yeares which this father can easily worke with one word yet hee willingly begets these children hee can worke such a condition in them as they may all be kings yet deliberatly this he will not doe but acts so upon the will of these children as he knowes indeclinably the greatest part of them all sh●ll be tormented for ten thousand yeares in this extreme fire Who can say 1. that this father quantum in se as farre as he can hath redeemed all and every one of his children from ten thousand yeares paine Who can say this father intended and willed the life and honour of these eighteene children when as hee might with no paine to himselfe most easily have wrought the condition in them which he wrought in others and would not Hence if there must bee a mystery in the Gospel and the Lords waies and thoughts must be above ours as farre as the heaven is above the earth if the Lord did foresee the greatest part of mankind and many legions of Angels should be cast in chaines of darknesse and in a lake of fire and brimstone for ever and ever 1. Vaine reason would say why did hee create them if hee fore-saw their misery would bee so deplorable and how can he earnestly and ardently with prayers obtestations wishes threatnings precepts promises desire their eternall salvation 2. If he could have hindred them to sinne as no question he could without hurting Adams freewill and without strangling the nature of free obedience in reference to threatning of ill and promising of good and life as wee see all Angels being equally under one law he kept some from sinne of free grace and permitted others to fall in eternall misery if he could have hindered them to sinne how created he them and gave them a law which he saw they would violate and make themselves eternally miserable 3. When the same Gospel was preached to some yea and to a huge multitude within the visible Church if the Lord willed all and every one to be saved and gave his Sonne to redeeme all and every one was there not an eternall and absolute will most unlike and disparous to some beside others when as he tooke a way of working with the Gospel preached on some which hee saw would eternally indeclinably and inevitably save them and a contrary way of working with others which hee foresaw would be fruitlesse ineffectuall and null and tend to their sadder condemnation now can he will both the redemption and salvation of these that he moveth ineffectually to obey and also efficaciously to obey Corvinus saith in this He willeth all ex aequo equally to be saved in regard of his affection and will to all but he willeth not all equally to be saved ex parte boni voliti in regard of the thing willed for he willeth the Gospel to be preached to some and of these that heare the Gospel he gives more grace yea more grace actu secundo efficaciously effectuall and denies both to other Nations and people and with this distinction he willeth and willeth not equally ex aequo the salvation of all But this is Petitio principii the disparitie of favours bestowed on persons and Nations doe argue in Scripture disparitie of good-wills in the Lord as because God sent his Law and