we rest not upon that grace meerly of having the Gospel preached and the Fountain declared to be opened unto us but there must be a divine hand to enable the will of man to come to this pool when it is moved Of any Text in Scripture this is most clear to prove the miserable impotency of sinful man to this point of salvation he cannot comply with this of himself No man can c. And if this do not suffice we will argue the point a little further Isa 53. 1. Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arme of the Lord revealed Here is Isaiah the Prophets report but there is an arm must be revealed both which must go together the report revealed by the Ministry and the arm of the Lord revealed must go together for else though they saw so many miracles the means of believing yet they believed not saith our Saviour quoting this Text John 12. 39. And whereas every one taught and drawn of God doth come and no man can come except so drawn it manifestly proves that as the coming is mans act and the free act of man for I think man is never more willing then when he is convinc'd indeed and enabled to come to Christ yet the drawing is Gods power that must first be and the drawing of God that is first in time for man doth not come that he may be drawn but because he is drawn therefore he comes And therefore this drawing of man to faith in Christ sounds like a work of Almighty power or a work of omnipotence Ephes 1. 19. The exceeding greatness of his power towards us that believe according to the working of his mighty power whereby he raised Christ from the dead and lifted him to glory The exceeding greatness of his power The Hyperbole of it here is a thrusting and crowding of words together a power that is compared to the raising of Christ Christ I say who bore our sins in his body on the tree though he lay under our sins for the death of Christ must be considered a little further no such load could depress him the Lord would have the stone rolled from his grave for him to rise again This was a work of mighty power and yet according to this God puts forth his hand in drawing of man to Christ so that as I conceive it cannot but argue that the free grace of God giving and the great power of God drawing makes faith to be above man and takes it from mans merit and mans power And truly it could not else be rightly said in Ephes 2. 8. Through faith not of your selves if this faith were of our selves The Root of this impotency shall be shewn you in five particulars First there are some footsteps of the Law of God remaining that were written in the heart of man In Rom. 2. 15. they shew the work of the Law written in their hearts that as by the rubbish that you see you conjecture what building there was before and by the defaced lines you may guess at the picture so you may by the common Notions left in mens minds judge of right and wrong and the differences between justice and injury without which no society could be of any men in the world but would be herds of wilde beasts rather then men but of Christ there appears nothing written naturally in the heart of man nothing at all concerning a Saviour and a Mediatour but an utter darkness and silence of Christ and consequently of Faith in Christ Secondly therefore man when his conscience is angry having something of the Law in it and accuses as it doth for sins against Nature common Law and common Light and when it accuses and troubles him being altogether ignorant of the righteousness of God by faith in Christ and how he should be saved and justifieed knows not till it be revealed by the Gospel for therein is the righteousness of God revealed Rom. 1. 7. For who can so much as guess by the pregnancy of natural light that God in his Covenant of Salvation should pitch on such a way as Christ a Sponsor or Surety the Mediator between God and man that he should make expiation for sin truly no more then Moses or an Israelite could have so much as found out the way of healing the biting of the fiery Serpents by a figure set upon a pole to be looked unto no man could imagine no mans reason could have found it out had they wandred in the wilderness never so many years and yet this was Gods way and a Type of Christ signifying what man could never have found out to conceive of compensation for sin by a Mediator which was a thing impossible and had not been known therefore man being ignorant of this must of necessity fly to his own plaisters and fig-leaves for if by nature he may be convinc'd of sin yet by the dictates of natural conscience he can never find out any righteousness and satisfaction to Gods justice then it must follow that he must fly to making a medicine of his own righteousness which is of works for that only comes by man to be found out as being next to hand in this case that I say or nothing as being his only hope and this bulrush the drowning man takes hold of and holds it fast as for life and so comes of necessity to settle on his own righteousness being ignorant of the righteousness of God which is by faith in Christ And this the Apostle tells you Rom. 10. 3. For they being ignorant of the righteousness of God went about to establish their own righteousness and so submitted not to the righteousness of God where you see the righteousness that is our own maintains our pride in that word submitted not and rising from ignorance of that of Gods righteousness to which we must submit by way of humiliation which is a cause that men believe not And then Thirdly and pray mark there is a double Revelation of Christ the one is a revealing of him by Gospel-doctrine the other is a revealing of him by spiritual light The revealing of Christ by Gospel-doctrine to the natural knowledge of mans corrupt understanding cannot procure or produce any other then literal knowledge of Christ The Scripture calls it knowledge in the letter as to know the Gospel as a History may be known to be true whereof a man hath a dogmatical knowledge you have many believers and these by knowing the Gospel by a natural light are differenced from Heathens But this doth not nor never will produce a saving faith most men have a literal knowledge we see in ordinary experience all men have some knowledge and Scholars a great deal yet being seen by natural light though revealed in the Gospel will not reach so far as to beget faith saving faith in Christ But the other revealing of Christ by the light of the Spirit of God conveying the knowledge of him into the mind and heart
love to God And therefore the love of God to his elect in their state of nature cannot produce any love in them to God why because it must be a thing known there must be day-break or Sun-rising a work of effectual vocation and calling by which light you may see it you can no more love God till not only you have his divine grace but also know it then the pavement can be hot or reflect heat to make you hot till the Sun hath shined upon it no more is it in your hearts to love God above self until the love of God hath shined into your hearts to make them in love with him And this is the second thing the contrariety of corrupt nature to God Serm. 7 THirdly the contrariety of corrupt nature unto grace is manifested in their mutual fight one against another Remember that I go about to prove that there is such opposition of a natural man to God as that he cannot convert himself and come in to Christ to believe for neither will sin give grace entrance admission nor will allow it quiet possession or dominion but they are always in unreconciliable war while there are remains of either For as it was said of Esau and Jacob when they strangely strugled and wrestled in their Mothers womb and she went to the Oracle and asked Why is it thus with me it was answered in Gen. 25. 23. There are two Nations and two manner of people in thy womb This sets forth to us grace and nature flesh and spirit which in the same womb of mans heart do fight and struggle and if you will have the very words it is in Gal. 5 17. These are set one against another the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh And these are of contrary perswasions principles byasses and affections and every man is opposite to this grace by reason that his corruption hath first possession and having so fights against that grace that comes to take him captive to Christ Jesus and there can be no more compliance in a natural man to comply with the grace of God then between fire and water why because there is a contrariety every thing that is be it of never so vile and base a being would be what it is and hath no principle to aspire to a higher being A spider cannot aspire to a being above her a toad or serpent cannot wish as I may say to be any thing then what they are only man indeed may aspire to be worse and more contrary to God but never better and therefore I see no reason that can be given why corruption should desire to change its estate into the state of grace Corruption supplanted grace at first and is always prone to supplant grace again Corruption supplanted Gods Image at first and is ever attempting to do so again but that through Christ grace comes in and supplants sin in part fighting down the dominion of it though not the existence and being of it Sin dwells in me saith the Apostle that look as Joshua when he came to the Land of Canaan destroyed all the Canaanitish Kings but not all the Canaanites and petty people for they were left for good uses to teach them humility and to do Gods work upon them so if ever regenerating grace come into the heart of man it will certainly kill and subdue all kingship and dominion of sin Sin shall not have dominion over you because you are not under the Law but grace But yet all sin is not extinguished the Canaanites yet live Sin dwels in the people of God but it dwels in them for good ends for if it had not been for good ends left be confident it should not have been There are two Uses of it for Humiliation and for Consolation For though it be a lamentation to every Christian to draw the clog Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Rom. 7. 14. yet it is a comfort when a man finds this contrariety in him he hath cause to bless God that he is not all of a piece that he is not all flesh that there is Esau and Jacob in him For it is not the conquest that shews grace but the fight or contrariety of grace unto corruption And were it not that grace had a stronger Second viz. Christ and the Spirit as it s delivered 1 John 4. 4. Greater is he that is in you then he that is in the world it would be extinguished and beaten out of the field every day for t is as easily put out as the light of the Sun would be put out by any interposition and would no longer live then a spark of fire in the Ocean but only God doth as well keep it in as bring it in at first by his mighty arm for as to heat the water you know there is need of fire but not to cool it the nature of the water will out the heat And though the Sun gives light yet there needs no cause of darkness for if the Sun cease to shine darkness it self returns and comes into the Air where it was before So the very cessation of the influences of the spirit if they should but cease though there were no contrary causes as there are from the flesh the world that infuses corruption yet these corruptions would return as the first inhabitants in man to which he is first principled so that it is the wonderful power of God that keeps grace alive That 's the third particular to prove this Contrariety that maintains the fight and keeps out divine grace until the heart be made willing to receive it Fourthly the Contrariety of corrupt nature unto God is manifested by this that the holy Law of God which the Apostle calls holy just and good makes sin more sinful and exasperates it into a greater height and therefore those men that live where the Law of God comes closest to them in reproof and correction are the wickedst men alive that as you see by making of a Dam the stream is raised and the water fumes and furiously beats against it so when a restraint is put upon the nature of man by the very Law of God nature it self I mean corrupt becomes furious And this point is taught almost in a whole Chapter Rom. 7. whereof excellent use may be made for a man to see his corruptions in Pauls glass ver 13. Was that which is good made death to me God forbid but sin that it might appear sin wrought death in me by that which is good and by the commandement became exceeding sinful What a miserable creature is natural man if God give him a commandement he is the worse for it there is a renitency an opposition in the heart of man to the Law of God that most appears in that we the less do what God commands because he commands it and we the rather do that which God forbids because
he forbids it A horse or stomackful colt put the bridle on him and he is mad let him run in the field and he is quiet Let the Sun shine on a stinking dunghill and it stinks the worse not because the Sun gives pollution by its heat but by accident makes the stink break forth so much the more Alas when the Lord comes to put the bridle of restraint on man he is filld with more stomack and rage and when the sweet Sun shines on him to invite him to God he is still the worse and the rather evil so little compliance is there of mans heart with God And as we may truly say that Antipathies and Sympathies do shew us very far into nature where they are found as the Schools do well observe for a lamb to hate and fly from not this and that wolf but every one though it never saw it before which shews a general antipathy to all wolves So it is in this case if there were a Law of God made known to any natural man such a Law as he never saw nor heard of before he would hate it and never comply with it which shews the stone that is in his heart and manifests a rebellion in it against God As on the contrary a Sympathy an agreement A soul that loves and delights in the Law of God though most cross to private interests is a very excellent proof of grace that hath reconciled the enmity of the heart to God Rom. 7. 22. I delight in the Law of God concerning the inner man Fifthly and lastly the pleasingness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the heart with any lust to which its taken by peculiar agreement of nature which is peccatum in deliciis doth shew this contrariety unto God so long as this sin of delight continues his master-sin he will walk contrary to God say what you will I confess every man cannot practice every gross sin as to be a drunkard a whore-monger covetous no more then one man at one time can possibly be sick of all diseases but that sin which takes him up by natural propension inclination or custome or whatever it be that either takes acquaintance with or possession of him no such man can come to Christ He himself tells them How can ye believe that are taken up with worldly credit and ambition John 5. 4. Let it be any sin Covetousness Drunkenness or Lust which he feeds by other sins and serves as a master to which he is tyed as fast as by a Cable which he cannot break until divine grace appear to him and cannot get off by any power of his own but Gods no afflictions though they bray him as a fool in a morter pound him to pieces yet his folly shall not depart from him no vowes though he seem to bind himself never so firmly nothing while the lust remains will alter or change him nay set the judgement of God and death eternal before his eyes ye do nothing the pleasure of his sin remains Rom. 1. ult Who knowing the judgement of God that they that commit such things are worthy of death yet not only do the same but have pleasure in them that do them Nay would you think that any mans sin should be so fast rivetted in him as that it should cause him to love death He doth so interpretativè by Gods construction and interpretation Prov. 8. ult He that sinneth against me hurteth his soul and they that hate me love death Now how filthy and abominable is man saith God that drinks in iniquity like water comparing a natural man to a fish in the water in its own Element from which you know he cannot be willingly pulled to the dry bank and therefore I conclude that man is not willingly of himself brought into that estate though it be far better yea a thousand times better then his own until his nature be changed and then he is brought And so much for the first branch the Contrariety of corrupt nature to God to his Law and to his Grace But whereas an Objection might be made that man is not so contrary to grace because that shews him life Certainly there is a greater opposition in the heart of man to the grace of the Gospel then to the Law of Duty to humble man and shew him that the work of Conversion is from contrary to contrary And therefore let me make use of that which some say that God in creating the world drew the creatures out of nothing but in this new Creation Conversion he finds opposition and contrariety in the subject that he works upon that bids him battel and sets him at defiance The Minister converts by new objects and God by new natures until which there is little done The second Branch of this opposition of corrupt nature to God we call enmity unto or hatred of God himself self which I instance in to shew that poison venom that is in man in every one of your best hearts in your natural condition unto the Lord God you will not be known of it in your selves Hate God may some say there is not one of us that take our selves to be haters of God but seem to defie all that hate God But the Scripture speaks much of it Them that hate me saith God Exo. 20. 5. And he calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1. 30. Haters of God And in handling of this point I shall enter upon that sin which is diabolical First Hatred is a part of that diabolical malignity which makes man like the Devil for when he overthrew man at the first he spawned into man a certain diabolical seed not sins of sensuality and the flesh but malignity and opposition and spight against God this man is of a serpentine nature One man may be angry with another man but a Serpent hates the very nature of man Anger is in particulars hate in generals say the Schools so that this arises higher then the other doth into a hatred of God himself And then Secondly Hatred differs from Contrariety in this It rises from the consideration of such effects of justice which are threatned or executed upon man against his will punishing him for sin and so causes hatred but Contrariety is to the holiness of God and his Law and so is an opposite to Gods justice and the effects of it for corruption is so desperately carried against God that like the Devil it hates God punishing and inflicting not peradventure as God is a benefactor and sustainer of nature but he will not abide Gods vengeance on him Insomuch that a man in his private retired thoughts hath secret wishings in himself sometimes that God were not looking upon the effects of the Justice of God And this I will shew you in three Particulars And oh that this might rifle your hearts to go away from this self-love of yours whereby the great God is so opposed First all the hate that is in man aganst the Law
that you believe not few men that believe the one will believe the other they will not believe but that they can believe as if it were an easier matter to believe in Christ then to keep the law that is as if it were easier to obey the Gospel then t is to obey the law and that therefore such an omnipotent power as this divine drawing imports is not necessary to make a sinner believe Now I beseech you consider the Law hath something in you for being once written in the heart of man there do remain some fragments or rubbish if I may use that word in allusion to a building form but of the Gospel there is not a line in the heart of man by nature because it is wholly revealed and therefore it is as impossible by a saving faith to believe in Christ unto salvation as it is for a man to keep the law it 's as easy for a man to love God above self which the law requires as to believe in Christ Jesus with self denial for in both self goeth down to love with all the heart which the law requires is as impossible as to believe with all the heart as the Gospel requires and commands and therefore men are mistaken that think faith is in their power and confesse that obedience to the command is not Obj. But you will say the law requires perfection the Gospel only sincerity therefore the Gospel is easier of the two Answ It s true integrity is required in the law of God for you must not misse a hair if you will be saved that way Cursed is he that continues not in all things that are written in the Book of the Law to do them Gal. 3. 9. But now the Gospel requires only a sincere heart It 's true God in the Gospel is content and pleased with sincerity and mark what the Apostle saith concerning the law It 's a burden intollerable which neither they nor their fathers wâ—re able to bear Act. 15. 10. But Christ saith that his yoke is easy and his burden is light Matth. 11. 30. Here is the difference but to rise out of this estate into which we are plunged now for we must speak of a recovery and rising again this is as hard and difficult as it is for us to keep the law all is one Suppose a man dead lying in the grave bound in the grave-clothes as Lazarus was and a man dead not bound at all but perfectly loose from such impediments is it not all on to put life into either of these two so though there be not a full integrity of the duties required of necessity in the Gospel yeâ— man being dead and to rise recover and come again to a state of salvation and Gods Image it 's all one power that is put forth to raise a man by faith in Christ which is recovering Gospel grace as to set a man in the state of perfection which is the life of Gods Image but indeed this is made possible as I said through grace to believe but to keep the law perfectly is not made possible to us in this life no not by grace God left it under an impossibility called the impossibility of the law Rom. 8. and therefore as the Apostle speaks of that faith that is wrought in those that shall be saved it is wrought by an exceeding hyperbole of power 1 Epes 18. 19. â—he uses such a weight of words the exceeding greatness of his mighty power in them that do believe according to the power that was exercised in Christ when God raised him from the dead now Christ was perfectly dead and lay under the weight of the sinnes of all believers and therefore the power that raised him up was omnipotent and is not this power exemplified in raising you to faith which is a recovering grace except men be pleased to deny that man is not so dead as Christ was that he hath some degree of spiritual life though Christ had no degree of natural life for then he had not been dead as neither we if it be so and I know not why they should deny the same omnipotent power to raise them from being dead in sinnes to come to Christ for to deny the greatness of the power is to deny the degree of the death and therefore I think it to be a good reason for the conclusion of this digression from the privation oâ— defect that is in man to believe and the power that is necessary to relieve that defect and heal that privation to argue the impossibility of faith to a natural man And For that which is said if others of lower form lesse in parts do believe why not Iâ—â— why should not I think my self a believer as well as he or another I reply that in Scripture especially our Saviours doctrine the reason of believing and not believing seems to lie very high and out of sight as they say of the head of Nilus mark and take no offence but let your Reason stoop to God and his Word you believe not because you are not of my sheep John 10. 26. as many as were ordained to eternal life believed as if ordination to eternal life were the original or cause of believing Acts 13. 48. But we shall look only into man himself in whom there is reason enough for his unbelief how can you believe that receive honour one of another John 5. 40. there are so many reasons for unbelief as there are master sins for every master sin as it brings the soul under great guilt so it hinders the soul from coming to Christ Jesus but then what reason in man can there be given for his faith in Christ We see many simple men the Scripture calls them babes believe learned men do not We have read of a thousand converted at the first Sermon they heard as at Peters Sermon And again many hear a thousand Sermons and yet are not believers In short though nature and art in their works require the subject they work upon to be disposed and fitted with capacity else the work is hindred therefore the sun hardens and softens according to the temper of the subject on which it works but God that works this faith if he do not find a subject prepared as indeed he doth not he can make or create faith in most indisposed subjects for Creation requires not so much as matter to work on but works out of nothing as we know which nature cannot do When God works faith in yâ—â— he finds no propension to faith but opposition he finds nothing lesse then nothing in man but he works it I say there is no cause can be given in man why one believes and not another because it is the hand of free and powerful grace that works it in man without finding any propension unto it Reason The reason why these Gospel-graces do require a supernatural strength is this in general Christs dominion in man is begun and carried on first
GODS Drawing AND MANS Coming TO CHRIST Discovered in 32 SERMONS On John 6. 44. With the difference between a true inward Christian and the outward Formalist in three SERMONS On Rom. 2. 28 29. By Mr. RICHARD VINES late Minister of the Gospel at St. Laurence-Jury in London LONDON Printed for Abel Roper at the Sun against St. Dunstans Church in Fleet-street 1662. Good Reader THe great duty of Christianity is Coming to Christ and Christians are described to be those that come to God by him Heb. 7. 25. Now this work is not easily done Nature is averse from it Partly because Believing or Coming to Christ is a mystical duty not evident by natural light but instituted in the Gospel And we usually bid better welcome to our acquaintance than a meer stranger Moralities which are in part engraven upon mans heart go down sooner with us then matters of Faith Partly because Nature affecting a self-sufficiency is loth to be beholding to another and therefore doth not easily submit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 10. 3. to fetch all from Christ As a proud man will rather choose to wear a russet coat of his own than a silken garment of anothers Partly because it is a long time ere we can get men to be serious and to wind soul-affairs and if it be so hard a matter to bring them and themselves together What is it to bring them and Christ together Partly because Christ and the main of his Blessings lie in another in an invisible world and man that is so inchanted with the pleasures of sense and â—iassed with fleshly lusts which are importunate to be pleased with what is visible and present is not easily moved with unseen hopes and induced to deny himself and lay all his affections and interests at the feet of Christ and intirely to consecrate himself to the use and service of God For these and many other reasons man hangs off from Christ and nothing but a divine power can cure this aversness The work of reducing man from his strayings and bringing him to seek his happiness in God through Christ is carryed oâ— among the Divine Persons between the Father Son and Holy Ghost God the Father as a Judge by the spirit of bondage driveth us to Christ as Mediatour and Christ as Mediatour by the spirit of 〈◊〉 bringeth us back again to God as a Father Through him saith the Apostle Eph. 2. 13. we have access by one spirit unto the Father This mysterie is notably unfolded in the present Treatise and if either the weight and importance of the matter being one of the chiefest points in the Christian Religion or the known worth of the Author Mr. Richard Vines a man sufficiently eminent for the graces of the spirit for sound Learning and well-tempered moderation or the accuracy of discussion these Sermons being not the suddain issues of a light spirit but the fruit of grave and mature studies I say if these or any of these be any allective to thee thou wilt find them all in this Treatise that is now put into thy hands And because many pretend to Christ that are none of his there is added another Tract of the difference between a true inward Christian and an outward Formalist necessary to be subjoyned to the former that we may build surely on a sure foundation and not content our selves with a name that we live in Christ when indeed we are dead in sin I commend both to thy serious perusal and the Blessing of the Lords Grace in whom I am Thine in all Christian service Tho. Manton Errata PAge 6. line 22. for derisons read divisions p. 25. l. 10. for to r. no p. 4 â— 9. for as r. not p. 90. l. 28. for gripes r. gropes p. 138. l. 23. for Roâ— r. Luke p. 160. l. 30 blot out alwayes p. 214. l. 9. for mean r. meer p. 23â— l. 21. for volentem r. violentum p. 293. l. 22. r. While he is p. 313. l. 5. foâ— Sodom r. Scdem p. 320. l. 8. blot out to p. 326. l. 17. for is r. in p. 32â— l. 30. after Its add true p. 328. l. 22. r. a man may be full c. Reader THe Name and Memory of the judicious and Learned Author of these Sermons is so precious to me for his great worth and eminent abilities that I cannot but heartily rejoyce in the publication of any of his Labours that are proper and genuine And that these Sermons are such I am confidently assured If thou question the truth of this Come and see do but peruse them their features will shew who was their Father Sic oculos sic ille manus sic or a ferebat I commend them therefore to thy reading and thy self in all thy Christian endeavours to Gods blessing Tho. Jacomb D.D. Reader THough I may suppose that the precious name of Mr. R. Vines will do much in procuring thy estimation and acceptance of this Book yet if it had not a greater excellency I should not commend or tender it to thy perusal Though I have not so exactly read it as to give my judgement of every sentence yet by the general survey which I have made I am able to tell thee that the Doctrine of Conversion is plainly and judiciously here unfolded the necessity and victory of effectual Grace is solidly asserted and the opposition of corrupted nature discovered and in all thou art taught that greatest duty to know God as he is revealed in his infinite Goodness and incomprehensible Mercy to miserable man in and by his Blessed Son our Redeemer and to give him the Glory of his Love and Grace If thou have the Grace thou readest of it must needs be sweet to thee to read of so sweet a thing as the treasures of restoring saving Grace so copiously and clearly opened and to be employed in so high and sweet a work as to labour with all the Saints to comprehend what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the Love of Christ which passeth knowledge to be filled with all the fulness of God The happiness of those that study Christ by the conduct of Christ and are strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man that Christ may even dwell in their hearts by Faith and they may be rooted and grounded in Love Eph. 3. 16 17 18 19. But if thou read of Grace with a graceless heart the Learning of the Writer and the clear decision of the several controversies may possibly be acceptable to thee but as for the sweetness of the excellent subject no wonder if thou be a stranger to it It is a pittiful thing to hear some men Learnedly discourse of the Nature and Necessity of Grace and disputing of its Universality and Speciality its sufficiency and efficacy the way of its operations whether Moral or Physical c. that yet never felt the illuminating changing renewing resolving mortifying strengthening or elevating works of Grace
And so much for this Point That it is not in the natural power of man to believe Serm. 6 IF you please to keep in mind the order and method of handling this Point No man can come to me you may remember I propounded to handle these two things the impotency of natural and corrupt man and the repugnancy and opposition of him The impotency or disability of man was first in general to his own conversion in particular to his coming in to Christ which is the particular in the Text And having done with the Impotency or Adunamy of man which is a privative thing I now come to that which is positive and hath more of ths will in it though as I shewed it was a moral impotency The opposition to this work which will shew you that corrupt man is by his own will oppositely carried towards God And this point as the former speaks generally to the opposition that there is in man to God or to the holiness of God in two things First his contrariety Secondly his enmity to the holiness of God or his Law And it speaks particularly to the opposition that corrupt man doth make to Christ or the grace of Christ that is offered in the Gospel And that also in two things First his averseness to come and Secondly his resistance of grace when it s offered to him In which four steps this opposition may be handled and manifestly seen shewing you thereby what a miserable thing a natural man is being in statu belli in a state of war and hostility against the great God his Law his Grace and consequently an enemy and opposite to his own happiness And this point shall be opened to you to this end to vilifie and depress the pretended pride or worthiness of man and to exalt the freeness and power of Gods grace in the salvation of man For there are two eminent things in that Doctrine that you call the free grace of God Freeness and power First the contrariety of man in the state of corruption unto the nature of God is palpable and may be felt and so indeed had need to be rather then only taught And it is this Contrariety to God that renders the natural condition of man most deplorable and is a very good argument as there is any to prove that David in that confession of his in the 51 Psal did intend the confession of his own sin and not the sin of his Mother I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my Mother warm me For he went backward from his own trasient and actual sins to the original and root of his malady and aggravated his sin by this contrariety to God which saith no more then that expression of Paul Rom. 7. Sin that dwells in me or haply that in Isa 48. 8. Thou wast called a transgressor from the womb And concerning this contrariety of man to God so deplored I shew you these three things in general First this Contrariety to God is not acquired or gotten by iteration of acts and actual sins but is innate and bred in nature As the strings of an instrument are out of tune before you play upon them and they sound harshly to you so is the heart of man the faculties there are vitiated but not quite blotted out but all the strings are out of tune before they come to be actuated For they have a good saying in the Schools and t is true First the person viz. Adam infected mans nature but now the nature infects the person so that there is this contrariety of man to God by nature For Secondly the Image of God in man was before this contrariety in corrupted nature but this contrariety to God is now before the Image of God restored to man therefore it s said Ephes 5. 8. Ye were sometimes darkness but now are light And Ye were dead in sins but now are quickened Ephes 2. 1. Ye were the servants of sin but now ye are made free from sin Rom. 6. 17. that look as life and death servitude and freedom light and darkness are contraries one to another So are exprest the state of Nature and the state of Grace Thirdly there are in sin say the Schools two parts the first mans aversion or turning from God the second mans conversion or turning to himself or the creature The one of these hath more of sensuality and self the other bewrays more Contrariety to God But to come more particularly to the point This contrariety shews it self in this that an unregenerate man cannot by any principle that is in nature love God above all things or above himself which thing if well minded may let you in to see spiritual wickedness and not only carnal and sensual self may love God as a benefactor or as a servant to his own ends whom he may make use of to gain by and live upon Call this love of God if you will but such a man doth uti Deo ut fruatur mundâ— uses God that he may enjoy the world A Merchant may traffique and commerce with an enemy whom he hates so you may converse with God whom you hate in your hearts meerly to get by him and for matter of advantage This love of God is not amor amicitiae a love of friendship but concupiscentiae a love of lust to gain by God a love of parasytism and flattery and self-love of God Concerning which self-love I say particularly thus much First that every man by nature is brim-ful of inordinate self-love I call it inordinate self-love for there is a subordinate self-love which neither can nor ought to be put off God having linked together his own glory and mans happiness in himself For the chief end of man is to please God and enjoy him Moses in denying of himself to please God had an eye to the recompence of reward But that 's inordinate self love when a man seeks God in order to his own ends and neglecting his holiness which it is impossible a corrupt man should love only serves himself upon God and makes use of him in prayer or otherwise for his private interest either ut prosit or ne noceat that God may profit him and keep him in health or wealth or that God may not hurt him and lay judgements torments and plagues upon him as the love of a whore is for hire This is that inordinate self-love that a man hath to himself because he sets himself above God as making himself the end and God the means to attain that end Secondly this Self-love with the branches of it which are very many self-seeking self-pleasing self-ayming c. is the root and mother of all sin And therefore when the Apostle makes you a catalogue of sin he sets this in the front in 2 Tim. 3. 3. Men shall be lovers of their own selves And then they shall be filled with all politick sins and all sins of private interests and above all this and more then
the will of man but God Those that do receive Christ are born again But this regeneration is denied First to a natural instinct not of blood Secondly to a carnal principle not of the will of the flesh Thirdly to any moral rational principle not of the will of man But it is affirmed to be an influence of God as it s said but of God There can be no just reason given that man should be unwilling to come to Christ or to be converted for no man can give any reason against the chief good or the only means that may serve to that end Mans happiness lies in the enjoying of God and the means tending thereunto is coming to and closing with Christ Jesus But there may be reason from the miserable and mischievous corruption of man that doth and will and can do nothing else but walk contrary to his own happiness the Bow is made to hit the mark but yet sometimes as we say it must needs miss the reason must be taken from the crookedness and deceitfulness of the Bow So it is with man he is made to be happy in the enjoyment of God by this one means of coming to Christ yet he must needs sometime miss the reason must be taken from the deceitfulness of the heart of man that is possest with vanity folly pride and lust This is the point then the unwillingness of man to his own Conversion And first in General I shall lay down this Reason for it that is the summ of all reasons That every man by nature is forelaid with some impediments and obstructions that prohibit his closure with Christ and that Gospel-way of salvation by the faith of Christ He fights against it he opposes it he is unwilling unto it Corrupt man fights against these two things the holy Law of God and the Gospel He fights against the law of God in maintenance of sin lust and corruption he fights against Christ and Gospel-grace as much as against the Law And this he doth in maintenance of that we call self and of the two this is the sharper opposition For the first desire of mans heart is to be himself and to seek himself and to maintain himself from all manner of captivity and therefore the Apostle tells us That there is might in this arm of God to bring every thought in us into captivity to the obedience of Christ To whom he would not come if he could preserve that self that is in him in the maintenance whereof he is unwilling to accept of the grace of the Gospel when it s offered And this point shall be thus handled First what I mean by the Gospel-way of Salvation these two things First the one and only way of the salvation of a sinner is that which is brought to light by the doctrine of the Gospel Moral doctrine teaches reformation of life according to principles of vertue but this which is called the glorious Gospel of the blessed God in 1 Tim. 1. 11. is that only which is the Jubilee-Trumpet proclaming the acceptable year of the Lord the day of salvation In allusion to which its said Psal 89. 15. Blessed are the people that hear the joyful sound for thereby is brought life and immortality to light viz. through the Gospel 2 Tim. 1. 10. shewing that life and immortality are hid and in the dark to all the world until they be brought to light by Gospel-doctrine For therein is the righteousness of God revealed Rom. 1. 17. The way of Gods making righteous or justification of man is revealed and made known to man by the doctrine of the Gospel For as the children of Israel in Aegypt may be might know that there was a promise of deliverance but whether they should deliver themselves or that Moses an exile and cast-out was the man to deliver them that they knew not So that Christ is that Moses which was to be manifested to Gods Israel to bring loft man out of damnation from Egyptian slavery under which he was it s only brought to light by the doctrine of the Gospel Secondly by this doctrine Christ is set forth the righteousness of a sinner and the root of spiritual and eternal life acknowledging Christ to be the tree of life into which all that are saved must be transplanted from off the tree of corruption whereon they naturally grow For Christ and a Believer make but one body Righteousness they have none at all but what they have through him spiritual and eternal life they have none but what they have from him as is shewn in Rom. 11. 24. by a comparison given of the branches of the tree Thou wert cut off from the Olive-tree wild by nature and wert grafted contrary to nature in the good Olive-tree Where you see that conversion of a man to Christ and Gospel-grace is compared to an ingrafting contrary unto nature for the graft grows not naturally but contrary to nature so that there must be a transplantation a cutting off man from the Crab-tree of natural corruption that he may contrary to nature be planted into Christ Jesus unto which work that man is unwilling may appear by these two expressions Thou wert cut off and To be grafted contrary to nature For to be cut off by sharpness from a condition to which a man is naturalized though it be worse and to be ingrafted contrary to nature though into a better man cannot be willing Secondly he is not willing to this way of salvation by transplantation into Christ upon these grounds First because this way of salvation is out of his sight for nature and the wisdom of it doth not teach it him though there be the greatest sagacity and quickness of scent in natural wisdom that you can imagine yet it cannot reveal Gods giving Jesus Christ the Lord to man there can be no willingness to receive that which is not known the greatest wisdom accounts it foolishness Those two words are taken for one and the same 1 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of God neither can know them Receiving is an act of faith and believing and goes not before knowing for being ignorant of Gods righteousness Rom. 10. 3. thats the way of Gods making man righteous ignoti nulla cupido And therefore as Israel in the wilderness did not know that the Serpent on the pole should heal the mortal sting and biting of the fiery Serpent till it was set up so Christ did as much lie out of the way of manifestation for mans wisdom to find out neither could it be known to a natural man before it had been revealed to him by the Gospel The second Reason arises thus As in nature they say there is no vacuity but every place in the whole world is full of somewhat until there come some other matter to expel it now so is it with the heart of man it s taken np with corruption and possest till the grace of God come and drive that
what he was or is But God that commands the walking will put on the Byas whereby thou shalt move right It is as one should say A hog or swine considering how a sheep feeds cleanly on the grass should never feed as a sheep and live as he doth It s true whiles he remains a swine But if the nature of a sheep be put into him if he be so principled and altered its impossible he should live otherwise if you measure the walking in Gods wayes by the lusts in you you are never able to endure to affect to love them But the change of the principle makes the thing to nature changed There is also a prejudice that a man shall see no good dayes lose all content and joy live a melancholike or recluse life c. this is a mistake he shall not lose but change his joy the countenance of God doth not darken the heart but puts in more delight then Corn and Wine and Oyl increasing Psal 4. 7. More of these prejudices might be named but I instance in some that you might find your own in you that render you unwilling to believe for they are but misapprehensions of Christ and the work of his Grace by which the will is hindred as the species or appearance of good doth most frequently invite it If I would strain hard there might be other reasons given for the unwillingness of man to accept of Grace offered him but these shall serve for this tract Serm. 10 THe fourth point serving to open the Adunamy or disability of man in respect of coming unto him which our Saviour holds forth in these words no man can come to me is mans resistance of Grace or the means thereof that are offered towards conversion and this resistance is the highest step for it is not so high to be unwilling to receive grace when it is offered as it is to resist grace whereby we might believe and be converted And the Point that shall be the foot of my discourse shall be laid down in these words That the natural corruption of man prompts him to a rebellion against and the resistance of grace offered him for conversion or bringing him in to faith in Christ Jesus Every one of us do stand in defiance all the dayes of our natural condition unto the very grace of God that is offered us for conversion I say all our dayes untill the time comes whereof the Apostle speaks that every thought in us be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10. 5. till then we stand it out in rebellion so that it may very justly be said by Wisdom Prov. 8. ult speaking in the person of God and Christ All they that hate me love death A strange servitude of a man under sin that for the sake thereof that which is the great terrour of the whole world death death eternal should interpretativè though not formaliter be loved Being to speak of this point of Resistance offered unto the grace of God we must note that Resistance is either between equal or unequal powers The Resistance that is between equal powers brings forth the indifferency of an equal Scale where neither end is victorious The Resistance between unequal powers is either when a lesser power resists the greater and then it retards the action but makes no conquest or when a greater power resists the lesser and that conquers the Resistance and swallows up the opposition So that upon this point of the Resistance of man because it is of no proportion to Gods omnipotency therefore if God should act ad extremum virium to the extremity or height of his own power there could be no opposition made unto Divine grace But because God is a free agent tempering his working by his will which gives the gage unto his power putting forth so much as he will and no more therefore is his grace whereby he calls man often frustrated and defeated of his work I will make no quarrel about these words which one calls prodigious words which learned men have made occasion of quarrel in the Church the resistibility and unresistibility of converting grace but so go on to handle this point as to divide an even thred that God may have and reap all the glory of this work of Conversion unto his free grace and sinful man nothing but thankfulness and self-confusion thankfulness if he be drawn or however self-confusion and abasement to himself as contributing nothing unto but a great deal of opposition and resistance against the work Let me fall upon a distinction that will clear your understandings in this intricate and difficult point We will distinguish first between the act of conversion or the grace that is exercised in the act And secondly The means and way of God which in the nature of it tends towards Conversion as preceding and preparing of the heart thereunto for its very well said by a learned man God doth not bring any man ordinarily into a state of Justification per subitum Enthusiasmum by sudden and upstart Enthusiasmes by an unexpected work of illumination but by previous means and methods and workings Now upon this distinction I say First That the Grace of God exerted and exercised in and to the act of Conversion so as it may be said now the man is Converted and born of God I say that Grace in that act being carryed on by the revealed arm of God is so potent and omnipotent as that indeed it is insuperable and cannot be resisted by any victorious resistance it conquers all the resistance of man that might be thought to frustrate and defeat it for when God hath a meaning and intention to overcome the heart of man effectually to draw him he puts forth a victorious power insuperable to any resistance that you can make to make void the work But Secondly That Grace which God offers and gives to sinful man which in the nature of it tends to the bringing of man to repentance and to faith in Christ Jesus leading thereunto as the Ministry of the Word and the excitations and internal motions of the Spirit of God being dispenst by a more common hand this Grace of God this Initial Grace this previous Grace tending to move excite and quicken man up these are defeated resisted and frustrated by mans resistance and indeed no man shall be able to lay his impotency and unbelief at the door of God But be made to take it upon himself upon the resistance that he makes against the hand of God stretched out to him he being a gainsaying soul and this is that I say which may be resisted and is Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the goodness of God leading to repentance these may be and are despised Rom. 2. 4. So then This distinction being laid we shall now enquire whether the heart of man do make actual and victorious resistance of Gods
man that hath life and sense in him should tremble Heb. 3. 11. So I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest that as there is an oath of God made to the heirs of promise to shew the immutability of his counsel Heb. 6. 17. marke it so this Oath is made a Barr against the Salvation of the resisters of his Grace as it is applyed and doth also signifie the immutability of his wrath that its like the law of the Medes and Persians that alters not and therefore fear to outstand the day of grace For be you assured that as sun-set to one may be and is sun-rise to another so the day of grace may arise to another and yet set to thee Oh that you would know and tremble at it fearing lest you should be at or past the sun-set of this day of grace and so I have finisht the three premises First That God offers Gospel Grace to men seriously and in good earnest Secondly It is natural to corrupt man to entertain this Grace offered with neglect and resistance Thirdly That therefore he is plunged into a sad and miserable Condition The second of which that its natural to man to entertain this grace offered with resistance is that which I am to shew the reason of The First and the Third that God offers that Grace which being resisted plunges men into worse condition then ever affords matter of use to us But for the reasons of this resistance though all reason is for mans acceptance thereof yet such is the frame of the heart that it opposeth it self against it and therefore cannot come to Jesus Christ the Reasons though they are manifold I need not long insist of having said so much on the point already I shall therefore only name a sixfold reason Reas 1 First from the natural temper of the heart of every man which is hard and impenitent and therefore called a heart that cannot Repent Rom. 2. 7. a heart of stone Ezekiel 36. 27. that is untractable to God and resisting as an adamant that resists and dulls the tool that should cut it the very sun that softens wax hardens clay the means of Grace harden therefore pray Oh Lord take away this heart of stone according to thy Covenant for a Broken and a tender heart is the Gift of God Reas 2 Secondly The contrariety of the disposition and inclination of the heart of man to Grace shews it for Grace offered and the heart to which its offered are as Contrary as light and darkness flesh and spirit and we know in nature that contraries cannot be reconciled overcome they they may be and many times one is by the victorious opposite fire may be extinguished by water but to make fire and water agree cannot be so may Grace overcome But the filth of the heart is unreconcileable having a contrary center to move unto and rest in Reas 3 Thirdly Grace disturbs the peace of a Corrupt heart and therefore is resisted It takes away the contentment which it finds in lusts and fins as the stronger man coming in Breaks the peace of the strong man armed and spoils his goods Matth. 12. 29. when the strong man the Devil keeps the house lust is in peace But when Christ comes he disturbs the peace and spoils the goods and that must needs cause dislike in the heart of man For men would not be awakened and disturbed Let me alone let me enjoy my peace you shall seldom see any conversion wrought without a great breach of peace when a mans peace is broken in which he slept upon the Cushion of the devil all his days it s a great sign that there is power of grace gone forth to make offers to convince and bring that sinner in this is the cause that in defence of its own peace the heart makes such resistance A Reas 4 Fourth cause of this resistance is the servitude of the will in Bondage unto sin which is not like other Bondages A Bondman is not content in his condition he would quit himself if he could and would be glad to hear news of his redemption But this is a voluntary Bondage and pleases better then a gracious freedom it s the bondage of the will and nothing can be more free and willing then that Titus 3. 3. serving divers lusts and pleasures is the character that the Apostles gives of a natural state the man is in bondage under servitude to lusts and pleasures and though a bondman usually desires freedom yet this bondage hath no such desires because it is not a painful irksome bondage It s like that of a fish that struggles against being pulled out of the water because it is his Element A bondage whereby the will of man whatever the School-men say is like a Roman Prisoner tied by both arms to two of his fellow prisoners so is the will bound by a corrupt Understanding on one hand and corrupt affections on the other so that alas how should this man willingly come to Christ no more then a prisoner in bondage can possibly break from his keepers and come to you Reas 5 Fifthly The heart is filled with Ignorant prejudices against Religion and Grace which it looks upon as an enemy that comes to strip it of all contentment and to bring it into captivity he thinks of Religion and all the pâ—rts of it otherwise then indeed it is that it is a morose way and will take away his delight or one thing or other he casts in his mind through the foulness of his fancy all the imaginations of the heart being evil only evil and that continually Gen. 6. 5. Reas 6 Lastly A prepossession or a further possession For corruption is the first inhabitant Every mans head is first taken up with ignorance and hate of God and as the first man that is possessour of a Castle will keep it against every Invader so man being first engaged in a party by the king of this world and put into the command of the Castle of his heart when Grace comes and in the name of God demands a surrendry into the right owners hands it s lookt upon as an invader And therefore he sets himself to keep it out because he will hold to his party so that grace cannot get admittance till it bring an ejectionem firmam to throw out the enemy in possession For these and such like Reasons man strives with God and by the withdrawment of grace God seems to be out-striven with by man Oh Jerusalem wilt thou not be made clean when will it once be Jer. 13. ult A phrase of speech that testifies there is a long patience in it The uses of the serious offers of Grace and the misery of those that resist those offers are these two Use 1 First in General England London thou hast had a long day of Grace where the Lord hath visited thee by tendring the things that belong unto thy peace Christ Jesus to be
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
channel It was the saying of Austin long agoe De ipsis hominum voluntatibus facit quod vult God works upon the will of man what he will doth not the Workman that makes the watch know all the springs and can set the watch going and doth not God that made the heart know how to move and determine it to himself did not God make the day without the Sun at first and cannot he move nature by his omnipotency without ordinary course It s true I know men acute men of the Schools do hold it hard if not impossible to reconcile Gods working with mans freedome and think it not feasible but rather that the one crosses and thwarts the other but I say there is a harmony and sweet agreement between Gods drawing and mans coming when he will convert and bring in the Soul to close with Jesus Christ as there is between a weight or plummet of a Clock that accelerates the motion and a natural propension towards the Center which both joyâ— and interâ—â—â—r noâ— so t is here the will of man moves freely and God by his drawing doth give to it a greater weight that accelerates the motion of the will and by how much the more the Lord drawes by so much the freer is the will made Oh! that men would consider this and if they do not understand this let them believe that God doth the I pray what may be the meaning of that place Phil. 2. 12. Work out your Salvation here is mans working for Gods works in you to Will and to Do a Text that plainly shewes that the work of God and the work of man may very well stand together and the truth is there are four things that I think according to the principles of learning of Scripture I am sure that may make Gods drawing man to Christ and mans free coming very reconcilable so as the more man is drawn the freer he shall be he shall come as the Text Nay he shall runne Cant. 1. 4. as the more weight the freelier moves the plummet downwards First I hold it to be a great truth that was espied by learned Naturalists Philosophers that that which is a mans chief good and so apprehended to be is pursued with infinite desire and the will is necessarily carried towards it there is no shiness no indifferency of a man to this for Appetit us summi boni 〈…〉 the desire of my Chief good is an infinite desire Why because the highest good must needs have the highest appetite there being nothing that may put measure or limitation to that desire and therefore in the desire thereof the heart is necessarily carried and not indifferently contingently remisly Secondly The chiefest good of man consists in this the having and enjoying of God foâ— this is the highest and most satisfactory good that fills the appetite whereby the heart of man can be taken up and that fully and there is but one medium to the attainment of this chiefest good there is but one line leads unto it and being so the chief good and the line are equally desired the meanes is knowing of Christ coming unto or coming in by Christ so that when the chief good is but one and the meanes but one to it there can be no dissent of mans heart to either of these when they are known and apprehended and that this is the chief good and the onely meanes to it you are taught in one text of Scripture as I conceive John 17. 3. This is life eternal that they know thee and him whom thou hast sent Jesuâ— Christ if the knowing of God life eternal be the 〈◊〉 bonum and knowing Christ the only means that leads to that end then without all question the will of man once apprehending this to be so is carried without indifferency necessarily in the pursuit of both Thirdly Now when enlightens convinces and convictively teaches the mind to know and see this chiefest good this God and to know the only mean to this happinesse the having of Christ Jesus then is the heart forcibly and freely drawn and cannot be other it cannot but pursue and follow after for the light of Gods teaching carries it and the bias of the will naturally followes the dictate of that light of God and so you have both in one Gods drawing and mans coming and the greater the drawing is the more light the mind hath the freer is the coming with greater propension and it is this teaching of God by which our Saviour explaines this word drawing in the next verse 45. It s written in the Prophets they shall be all taught of God every man that hath heard and learned of the Father comes to me So that hence I prove that the will naturally followes this voice of God and if this be Gods drawing Gods teaching what contradiction can there be between these two Gods drawing and Mans coming every one that is thus taught is a Comer a Believer in and a Closer with the Lord Jesus and doth as freely come as a man in the dark doth follow a Lanthorn or light set up Fourthly The great satisfaction which the heart of man finds in Christ Jesus thus taught and revealed to it in the light of the Spirit doth fully bind up and suspend the resistance or actual opposition of the heart at that time I confesse while corruption is in the heart of man there will be potentially some backwardness sluggishnesse and indisposition to walk with God as alwaies in the bottom of a vessel there will some dreggs remain but this the heart puts not out at the time of this satisfaction felt though at other times and in other matters it may like a bitter root vent out some gall that remaines yet when the Lord is working thus warmly and convictively upon the heart to turne it at that time this resistance is bound up and lies close and doth not break out but lies as if the hands were tied the resistance tamed and the opposition taken off as the exhalations drawn up by heavenly bodies do during the influence mount upwards on high and yet there is a power in the matter at some other time to move downwards again but that power is suspended for that time or as the fresh water-stream will runne amain being carried back with the tide And yet when 't is going back there is a propensness in it to run down the stream which to me seems lively to set out this point to you while the heart of man that is rebellious and reluctant hath this conviction on it and is taught to know God himself to be the chief good and Christ the only means leading thereunto For this time this resistance is bound up and opposition is not made though there be a power of resisting remaining that will sometimes put out it self though not now That 's the third Observation Observ 4 The fourth Observation is from these words Except my Father that hath sent me draw him
by the almighty power of God Secondly By the conquest of Christ himself for we must be partakers of that before we can believe And thirdly by the energie and operation of the Spirit so that we may say as it 's said Zachariah 4. 6. Not by strength he means humane not by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts But to speak particularly to the point Faith in Christ as it is a duty in respect of the command of God so it is a principle of new life in order to the recovery of the state of Gods Image Now let the consideration of faith as 't is a duty passe and consider it as 't is a principle seed and root of spiritual life whereby we live unto or with God and then tell me in a sober judgment whether nature can plant a supernatural principle For plantation of principles the strength must be supernatural whether a supernatural principle is likely to be planted by the power of nature I think there are but few that will affirm it Formes naturally begotten by generation are educed as Philosophers say out of the power of the matter But can a supernatural principle be educed by the power of the matter No they rise meerly out of nothing I do not discuss now whether every duty of faith and repentance require a supernatural strength proceeding from the principles already planted as fruit from the â—ooâ— but whether the principles themselves the habitual graces be of Gods plantation yea or no which no man will deny that thinks the new creature to be Gods work as well as natural man is For and it is but reasonable for me to speak it shall we by our natural being confessedly be the creatures of God and deny our selves as new creatures in regard of our spiritual being to be of God there are but two places of Scripture whereby I prove all this that I have recited John 1. 13. all believers are born viaâ— by regeneration not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God a plain denial of the will of man to be a concurrent agent or cause in the work of regeneration he denies three things that natural generation hath dependance on and affirms one not of blood as natural generation nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God This spiritual birth is left to be of God and his will and mark it is denied to be of the darling mans will Deut. 29 4. you have seen great signes and wonders that one would think should have brought faith out of a rock of stone for the space of forty years ever since you were in Egypt and came along through the wilderness and yet the Lord hath not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear to this day Objects they had that one would have thought should have wrought faith in the heart of man But the reason why they had not a jot of faith wrought in them for so long a time was because God had not given them eyes to see so that the natural light of man is not that wherein faith is seated man may see and not see see and wonder but not see and believe a clear attestation that he must see by Gods light and perceive by a sense given to the heart by God And so I have done with that question and shall now open the properties of this drawing of God which are four First It 's victorious over all incounters and opposition Secondly It makes the person drawn a volunteir Thirdly It s a drawing by teaching vers 45. Fourthly It is such as is peculiar and proper to the elect of God First It is a victorious drawing prevalent over all resistance that can be made against it there is a contrariety in the heart of natural man to grace especially to faith and no grace is so much opposed tempted beleaguered and fought against by the Devil as a mans faith and none that the contrariety of nature makes head and fights against and resists by reason of the innate enmity which is in it as Faith it makes resistance but how As a drop of water falling into a great fire makes resistance to the fire as a drop can do but cannot make a victorious resistance to quench the fire but is swallowed up by it so the resistance that is made against the power of God cannot be victorious but that the power of God overcomes all resistance and withdrawment My meaning is when God engages purposely and intentionally according to his elective purpose to draw men to Christ then this power of God becomes and appears to be victorious then let Onesimus run from his Master to Rome God will find him in a prison there and convert him let Naaman be in Syria let the widdow of Sarepta be in a City of Sidon that is as Christ means out of all high ways to conversion the power and grace of God will find them out I say when God intends the work For as Israel is prevailed over and kept in slavery until God saith I have seen I have seen the affliction of my people and am come down to deliver them then you know the deliverance is wrought in despight of Pharaoh then there was no longer keeping them under slavery So till the time be that God hath appointed to draw his Children of purpose to his Son by an actual call a sinful lustful person lies in slavery to every sinful lust every cord holds him and then he shall find a door open and the resistance removed and suspended for that time When Moses was in Egypt and an Egyptian fought against an Israelite he slew the Egyptian in rescue of an Israelite it was a preludium or presage that he should deliver Israel out of Egypt the whole body of them and therefore when the body came to be delivered forty years after this he did it with a mighty hand So God victoriously brings out of the state of sin single souls and slays their corruptions as victoriously as the whole Church shall be delivered at last from the greatest Pharaohs death divel and sin and therefore observe the stile used in the Covenant is very peremptory I will give I will put and on mans part They shall come They shall know They shall not depart away from me The reason of the victorious power of grace is that the world moves by carnal and sensual objects and so the Devil and Flesh they move objectively their motion whereby they move from God is but objective propounding pleasing or fearful objects to the mind of man either drawing or alluring or affrighting a man from faith in Christ now if Gods moving and drawing should not be more powerful and strong then the devils the worlds or mans own withdrawing there neither would nor could be conversion wrought if the drawing of man to Christ were not more powerful than mans withdrawment
the heart of man a voluntier or the will of man is freed by these two acts of God First he takes off and cuts in pieces the fetters of bondage wherein it s bound under sin concluded and shut up under sin and in captivity thereunto dead and bound too so man is said to be in bondage because until he be freed and plucked from his predominant pleasing lusts which are the strongest fetters of all he cannot stir a foot or move a step toward God till these fetters be taken off every natural man is under a necessity of sinning joyned with freedom of sinning he acts freely but yet necessarily sins against God as a bondman freely doth service to his Master but yet necessarily man is free to that particular whatever it be but yet he is necessarily under sin if he go even to perform holy duties he is under sin in regard of the manner of the performance of them or to give you a more lively comparison the fish is free to swim on this or that side of the prison in the Pond but yet cannot get out of the Pond so is man free enough to evil yet necessary is his bondage to it that he cannot stir he can do nothing but sin against God a miserable bondage and necessity of sinning Joh. 8. 34 36. He that committeth sin is the servant of sin But if the Son make you free ye shall be free indeed where you are taught this lesson they that live in sin are in bondage to it that this freedom from sin is the work of Christ Jesus and therefore till these fetters this bondage be taken off from the will of man man is necessarily under the power of it and cannot come to Christ But you may say The taking off the fetters from a dead man makes him no more free than before for still he is dead and stirs not I grant that and therefore Secondly God takes away the innate antipathy of the will and heart to God the enmity that you will not be perswaded is in you and creates a sympathy in the heart to cleave and come to Christ and this is by planting of another principle than was in it before And this shews this drawing of God to be of God when it is so powerful as it takes off those bitter strong resistances that are in the heart of man as it shewed the fire that Elias called for to come from God in that it swallowed up and lickt up the water So when the power of God thus drawing shall so overmaster the rebellion and opposition on the will of man which it makes and whereby it made head against God before this shews that it is the power of God But he sides there is also a sympathy put into the heart inclining it as iron toucht with the Load-stone hath a property of moving and sticking to the Load-stone These are natural comparisons If you see such thingsin nature will you not believe as Christ saith when they teach you heavenly things Will you not believe that God is able by this sympathy in the will to make the heart by power willing to come to Christ Jesus by virtue of which if the option was given to man what would he chuse what Lord would he serve what of all things in the world would he pitch his choyce upon if he might have it for wishing Why nothing but Christ saith the heart But what say you to victory over enemies to worldly greatness pleasures prosits of this or that kind No nothing but Christ the heart is toucht with this Load-stone and drawn to it from its proper center and so willing is this man to be drawn that all his prayers as at conversion every heart is prayer-ful and every corner serves for a Chappel wherein to vent his desires to God are for drawing Cant. 1. 4. Draw me and we will run after thee that God would work a further taste and a further inclination in him Therefore I may well say that this drawing and this free coming may well be compounded and stand together And yet man thus drawn as he comes freely so he comes certainly as it 's said Turn me and I shall be turned save me and I shall be saved Jer. 31. 18. speaking of the certainty that follows this power of God in turning or in saving man That is the second property The Third property of this drawing is this That it is a drawing teaching or a teaching drawing such a drawing as is by teaching and this appears if you compare the Text with the verse following where our Saviour produces a proof out of Isa 54. 13. to prove this drawing to him Is it not said in the Prophets All thy children shall be taught of God as all the children of the visible Church are taught by men so all thy children shall be taught of God and he proves they are drawn because they are thus taught For the opening of which point in a word or two You must know that the knowledg of God is put for all religion all acts of grace are denominated by this word knowing God this is the phrase of the Covenant in Jer. 31. 34. they shall all know me And that these are a peculiar and select people that do know him see how it followes in the same place for I will forgive their iniquities and their sins will I remember no more There is none to whom this knowledg is given but those whose sins are also pardoned who are taken into favour they that are thus forgiven do all know God for that which you call superficial knowledg I speak not of that now This knowing refers to teaching and learning not unto mans teaching but to Gods of whom this covenant people do learn and are taught and therefore instead of what is said John 6. 45. Every one that hath learned of the father It is said Hebr 8. 10. they shall all know me little and great one and other that have learned that is that have been taught And we are said in Eph. 4. 1â— to learn Christ and God is said as the Geneva Translation renders it Gen. 9. 27. to perswade Japhet into the Tents of Sem and all this I say about Gods teaching mans learning God's perswading and mans knowing of God to signifie that this work of God upon the mind of man enlightning and convincing it doth express this drawing of God not but that the will of man in his conversion is moved too for the illumination of the mind and the made motion of the will are two beginnings of Faith in man but if the corrupt will be only excited and awakened and not healed or changed that doth not do the work when the word of God excites and calls upon you if the will be not renewed the work is not done it would be but as the pounding of spice it sweet it will be more sweet if stink it will stink the more the Pestil doth not change the savour of