Erroneous may be tryed So in this point of Conversion of man and discriminating grace if any man blow the Bladder as well as the Trumpet to make him swell and sill him full of Pride and Self building God upon man and not man upon God Let this that I have said be the test at which you examine that Doctrine For as the letting fall of the string of a Vial or Lute too low or the straining it too high spoils the harmony And as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom 12. 6. the proportion is changed by adding a Unite unto or by substracting it from any number so in this point of converting grace if the denyal of mans power be drawn to deny mans duty or the Calling for Duty in Scripture be drawn so high as to exalt mans power the proportion and Harmony is spoiled in both After this animadversion and after such a test of Doctrine here found out and commended to you let me give you warning how to apply this sealed mete-wand to the Doctrine that you hear And I would that there were not so many instances as might be given that the Iniquity or Necessity of these times does require to be spoken unto First That Doctrine by this test sounds not clear but seems to have a crack in it That under pretence of duty doth conclude and advance mans power and the reason is plausible with those men that have learning enough that whereas it is said in Ezek. 18. 30. 31. Repent and make you a new heart and a new spirit and cast away your transgressions for why will you die and from Jer. 4. 4. Circumcise your selves to the Lord and be not stiff-necked take away the foreskin of your hearts from these commands doth conclude that man hath power to do it or else saith carnal Reason why is he commanded they that do make this conclusion let them be examined by this Establisht test of Doctrine and having hung the scales let us now weigh the point this is true What God in his law requires that the law supposes a power to be or to have been because the law of God doth not command things absolutely impossible to which there never was power given and therefore mans disability to perform any command arises accidentally when he hath disabled himself And this is called by the Apostle and the cause of it shewn in Rom. 8 8. the Impossibility of the law and that is through sin and corruption that hath Invaded man and disabled him unto obedience But now in case of this disability the law that requires the duty doth not argue a power in you but it doth drive disabled man to the remedie and that is the free grace of God and therefore he that calls on thee for repentance doth himself give it 2 Tim. 2. 25. he that bids Make you a new heart doth promise it I will give them a new heart Ezek. 36. 27. He that saith Circumcise your selves saith also I will circumcise your hearts Deut. 30. 6. The command shews what man owes to God and what must be in him if he will not dye and this drives him to the remedy the free and gracious promise of God to work this in him the measure of his duty is not the measure of his power as a man measures not his worth by what he ows no man will be so absurd and yet men will measure their power to repent to turn to God to believe in Christ by what indeed is their duty to do which is to say no more a false measure Secondly Nor are they to be heard that from qualifications of fitness do argue and conclude for qualifications of worthiness or merit observe for you will not understand the answer to these except you understand where the Errour lies the law uses this word worthy for a dueness of the reward of debt that that hath some proportion to the reward when the reward is of debt as the Apostle describes it but the Gospel dictionary useth the word worthiness for the fitness of a man to receive the reward of grace and promise and therefore in the Gospel they are usually pronounced worthy that are fitted and made meet for to receive Christ or the promise as the worthy receiver at the Lords table is not he that is meritoriously worthy but he that is meet that is qualified answerably to the Sacrament that hath in him such qualifications as are answerable to the body and blood of the Lord there exhibited and so you may read works meet for repentance and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to count worthy and make meet 2 Thes 1. 11. and Col. 1 12. are one and the same the Papists and Bellarmine himself that sought as far for that as any of them can search can hardly find in all Scripture Hebrew and Greek any thing that sounds toward merit of Salvation but worthiness of fitness that is an answerableness to the duty injoyned or mercy promised he hath made us meet to be inheritors this you may find everywhere without which no man can be saved and therefore to say this bottle is fit to hold such a proportion of wine and worth so much money are quite contrary sayings the one relating to the capacity the other to the metal of it so to say the thirsty the weary the laden are in a fit capacity for Christ and the promises by qualification of emptiness and therefore they have qualifications of merit and worthiness is altogether absurd and inconsequent and if any among us as there may be some that cannot digest these words qualifications towards Conversion c. a point that in the process of this discourse I shall touch upon will but clear their own mistakes there remains no quarrel upon the word at all for we mean not meritorious qualifications not any thing meritoriously conducing to mans conversion but meet and fit preparatives unto grace and glory such precedaneous workings as judgement sin and the law have discovered and preacht to men that they by being stâ—ng by the fiery Serpent may be fitted to look up to the serpent on the pole the Lord Jesus In a word they are qualifications of the subject recipient not merit of the thing to be received that they may receive the Grace as an empty bottle doth receive the liquor Thirdly That doctrine by this test will be found leavened that makes the ruinous condition of man less then it is for then consequently it will follow that the power of God in his restauration is less also as for instance if Lazarus be but sick his recovery is less then a resurrection If you make mans case better so as sickness is above death so far as mans power is made greater in themselves so far is the power of God made less then it is extreams on both hands are to be avoided in lessening the freeness or the power of man or in the greatning of it I will
quite contrary they shall be reconciled to agree And the reason is given verse 9. The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord. This knowledge of Christ whereby men are turned to God is the great thing that changes natures alters properties even as that is altered between the kid and the leopard That 's the second Argument Thirdly the greatness of the power that works unto faith in Christ that magnifies the work When Christ cast out Devils and healed all manner of diseases among the people while he lived upon the earth did he not put the world into admiration and astonishment yet this work of Conversion to bring sinful souls to God to pull them out of darkness and the damnable state wherein they lay this Christ makes a greater work in John 14. 12. where he saith He that believeth in me shall do the miracles and the works that I do and greater works then these shall be do when I go to the Father When I go to send the Holy Ghost from the Father unto the world what greater works can there be It cannot be otherwise explained then the Ancients downard from Origen The conversion of the world of the Gentil world from Heathenism and Idolatry and Devillism and vanity to Christ because they work such great conversions to turn men from darkness and Idolatry these are greater works then Christ himself did because he did not convert so many as they This is the Hyperbole of Gods power towards them that believe this is the working of his mighty power There is never a verse expresses it in so full words as that Ephes 1. 19. speaking of the power that he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead This power wrought in you when you believed Read this verse and consider it well I think you will never hereafter look upon it as an easie thing to believe the exceeding greatness of power Learned Divines observe there is an aggravation the raising power whereby Christ rose was a great power he lay under all the sins of mankind the greatest stone lay upon his grave that ever man had every man lay dead to his his own sins Christ lay under all the sins of mankind in their full weight That which went to raise Christ and to roll away the stone was a mighty power indeed and the same is put out in you whereby you are called out of darkness into light and from a natural state to believe in Christ Fourthly this is compared to such works as seem to us and are to mans power impossible to be done As to the Aethiopian his changing of his skin the leopard putting off his spots The Blackmoor cannet change his skin nor the leopard put off his spots Jer. 13. 23. When they can do so then may you that are wicked and accustomed to sin change and turn to God There is another instance in Luke 18. 25. Can a Camel go through the eye of a needle no more can a man that trusts in riches a worldly man believe or repent which are expressions of so great a height that we may well conclude the greatness of the work Fifthly this is a work to which Christ is required and wherein he must appear both satisfying and sanctifying for unless he appear in both there can be no conversion wrought on any man he must come by water and by blood 1 John 5. 6. The satisfaction of Christ that 's the taking away sin by his blood And therefore in John 12. 32. If I be lifted up I will draw all men to me here is another drawing There is Gods drawing by power and Christs drawing by his being lifted up by his meritorious â—ppearing to satisfie justice In the creation of the world there was no need of a satisfying and sanctifying Christ to appear It s true indeed Christ as God and the Son of God did appear for by him the worlds were made but as Mediator there was no appearance of Christ But now if he will convert a sinner and bring one of you home to God out of darkness into light here must Christ as Mediator appear Oh that men would admire the greatness of this work The Use of this part shall be twofold Use 1 The greatness of this work shews the reason of those sayings of Divines which were used by the Fathers of the Church in former times That the Church of God hath still her miracles and is not deprived of that gift Men may say that miracles are put down and ceased but the Church of God hath running and abiding in it the gift of miracles Why so Because God by the Ministry of the Word works after a wonderful and miraculous manner in the hearts of men to bring them out of Idolatry and self-vanity The raising of the Widows son from death to life that we read of in the Gospel and the raising of Lazarus that was four dayes dead in the grave these were great works But if you compare the conversion of sinners with them it is a greater work When Christ raised Lazarus it s said that he groaned in spirit that put him to his groans But when he came to redeem man that put him to his bloodshed And therefore on the sudden to change the heart of man from hating God as every natural man doth to love God from persecuting the truth to die for it from being inwardly possest by Satan to follow the Lord Jesus Christ I would have men to consider it that they may come with thanksgiving to the Table of the Lord. And what faith a reverend Divine that is now with God Conversion is the greatest Miracle that ever God â—â—ought And it is to be compared to the Creation of the world saith another and gives this reason The Spirit of God seems to make it a greater work To the creation of the world nothing was required but the word of God but to the conversion of a sinner the arm of the Lord alluding to Luke 2. the arm of the Lord and to Isa 53. 1. To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed And certainly there appears the most grace in it and a power above any creatures It is the assiduity and commonness of the work not the â—lightness and facility saith Austin that takes off the wonder of it The commonness of the Suns light makes it not so much regarded because it is day those men that have felt the power of God in their own spirits they know it is a wonder In the Gospel it was a Miracle to turn water into wine and is it nothing to change a filthy swine into a sheep and darkness into light The creatures at first were made by the Word of God but this Conversion is caused by the arm of God saith one It hath been Hyperbolically spoken of by the Ancients that lived in this Church of England as a very great work to turn the Gentil world and Heathens from their vanity to
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
that is the grace that is promiscuously offered unto man in the Ministry of the Gospel or other external means though it be carried oâ— by great enlightnings moral suasions sweet invitations loud pulsations or knocking 's at the door of security and though by these means there be wrought some common graces that are common in elect and reprobate like the joy in the stony ground I say though these be yet both these offers of grace which being received would make a man happy are resisted and opposed and these shallow graces are but like some winter fruit that never ripen and come to maturity as the blade in the thorny and stony ground never came to ear well and so to harvest so these graces may be finally choaked and from them a man may finally fall away this is the point of resistance of this grace offered which before I give the reasons of I shall premise three things to be handled First Concerning these offers of grace I shall say three things Secondly Shew the entertainment of these offers is with opposition and recusancy Thirdly The dangerous case that man falls into by this refusal As concerning the offers of grace that God makes you in the Gospel know three things First That the Gospel tenour or terms may be propounded to every creature that 's the phrase of Christ Mark 16. 15. Go preach the Gospel to every creature that is in the dialect of Christ which was the received form of speech used at that time by the Jewish Rabbies every man every humane creature for it belongs not to the Angels that sinned though they be sinful creatures these Gospel proposals do not belong to them but every humane creature which is expounded by Matthew Go and Baptize that is Disciple all Nations Mat. 28. and what 's the meaning properly of all Nations and every creature this that whereas the Jewish Pale was but of one Nation they were the Church of God impaled and there was a wall of partition between them and all the world beside and he dealt not so with every Nation as he did with them It seems now the Pale is broken down the wall of partition and the several is made common now go preach to every creature that is the Jews only are not the subjects of Gospel promises but all and every man to them it may be proposed and what are those Gospel terms he that believes and is baptized shall be saved he that believes not shall be damned but is this Gospel he that believes not shall be damned To this I answer you must consider the meaning of it under the Law there was a curse went out against every man for every sin there could not be an idle word or thought but the curse of the Law went out against In Gal. 3. 10. Cursed is every one c. Now mark though this curse may go forth against every sin by the sentence of the Law yet it is dissolved and taken off from believers and abides only because of unbelief Joh. 3. ult Believing takes off every score and that only About these offers of the Gospel consider two things they are made with Invitation and with Encouragement First with Invitation of such as could not expect to be at the marriage feast of a Kings Son Go out saith the King to the high-wayes and hedges and invite the meanest and most remote creatures Mat. 22. 4. and they called in both good and bad and furnished the feast with guests all sorts may have these Gospel proposals made to them And Secondly It s made with Encouragement and that to the most crimson and scarlet sinners Isa 1. 16 17 18 Wash you make you clean c. None that came to Christ for cure were dismist without healing though they were Samaritans and not Israelites therefore no man can say that God by the tenour of the Gospel hath excluded him or shut the door against him for in Isa 56. 5 6. the Prophet Isaiah gives in words of Encouragement Let not the son of the stranger say I am cast out nor the Eunuch I am a dry tree for both the son of the stranger the Proselyte and the Eunuch had a mark of disgrace upon them for if they fear the Lord they shall enjoy the priviledges of children and favourites his meaning is there is no man so alien so remote from God and his favour that hath all the marks of disparagement upon him but if he will come in and believe the invitation is made to him I confess we read in the Scripture that the Spirit of God forbade the lantern-bearers of the Gospel to go into some Countries and the providence of God at all times and at this time so regulates the sun of the Gospel as that some people are as in night but this I say that no man is excluded by the Gospel tenour from the offer of grace that is propounded in the Gospel by any national bar as in former time And then Secondly As the Gospel offer and the proposals thereof may be made to every man without any other consideration then that he is a sinner Art thou a sinner for thee Christ is a Saviour that as the brazen Serpent was set upon the pole for the wounded and bitten with fiery Serpents So is grace offered in the Gospel to them that are finners without any other consideration for the offer of it understand me right but for the promise of the Gospel that 's made to every one that comes to Christ for the grace promised and here is no condition of worthiness but of fitness and meetness whereby a man may be in a nearer capacity but hath no more merit or worth as I shall here shew you The Gospel makes the Proclamation of pardon to all men that are in actual rebellion that as a Prince by his pardon charms the sword out of the hands of a Rebel so if your iron hearts were softned to understand the grace of God upon his Proclamation you might have the sword of rebellion charmed out of your hands and be brought into submission unto Christ but the Gospel makes the promise of pardon and grace to a believer in Christ and to every believer without any respect to what he hath been in times past whether he be Barbarian or Scythian bond or free for the righteousness of God is upon all and unto all that believe for there is no difference Rom. 3. 22. Mark and be invited I beseech you that have so long stood it out and resisted the grace of God Oh! be you invited to come in the promise is to every one that thirsteth Isa 55. 1. All that are weary and heavy-laden with the barthen of their sins and miseries Mat. 11. 28. And whosoever will viz. is willing let him come and take of the water of life freely Rev. 22. 17. Every one that believeth in Christ shall not perish but have eternal life John 3. 15 16. So that you see the
grace published in the Word and left to the management of man convictively shews what even his Elect are that without his powerful hand to strike the stroke the work will not be done for the Elect of God as well as others being only morally moved and perswaded to Conversion do use the same shifts and Tergiversations make as much resistance and shew the same unwillingness as other men do and therefore take this for a rule and find it in your selves that God commonly convinces a man before he converts convinces man of his own impotency and opposition before he put forth his own arm and therefore leaves him to his own recusancy and resistance to â—ry his own strength and a long time lets him alone to his own purposes which will savour of pride enough untill God shew him the difference between the report of the word and the arm of the Lord revealed for although the word of God the Gospel that we preach unto you is the fittest means in the world of an external instrument to convert the heart of man and is furnisht with all requisites to work on the heart yet it s but like a key very suitable to the springs of a lock and put into it that will not shut the bolt and open the door without a hand to turn the key as well as put it in so if the Word preacht be never so fit to meet with the springs in mans heart yet if there be not a strong hand to turn the key the heart will not be opened so that when God convinces by the offer of grace and leaves you to your own acceptance little good will be done without the putting forth of his own arm to the work Secondly With these offers made in the Word God in Conversion goes out with his arm and so Conversion is wrought in those he purposes to call by the instrument morally by perswasion by Gods hand supernaturally so with the word that faith Lazarus come forth there goes a work of power to effect it this power goes forth with the Word as the hand with the ax with the instrument with the key for the honour of the ordinance And therefore it s told you while Peter spoke Acts 10. 44. the Holy Ghost fell upon the hearers meaning that there went out with the Word the power of the Holy Ghost to convert them that God calls according to his purpose he takes hold of their hearts with his powerful arm and brings them in yet not without means as if they were converted by Enthusiasms but in an ordinary way as I may clear it by a comparison frictions rubbings used sometimes to a people in a swound are very profitable to recall life where there was life before but if used to a dead carkass out of which life is gone doth nothing to beget or recall life so are the tenders of grace offered with exhortations and counsels motions and knocking 's if there be life of grace in the heart they are profitable to revive to call in to refresh grace but if used to a natural man to a man dead in sins of themselves they work nothing they leave him as dead as they found him untill there be a new life of grace put into him which is the work that I contend for to be of God Thirdly By these offers of grace and exhortations God takes from man all excuse all the light that God gives to man doth tend to render man unexcusable though it be but natural light for so far as it directs Rom. 1. 20. that they might be without excuse for what for not believing in Christ no that light went not so far no light leaves a man without excuse farther then it goes Gospel-light goes farther then natural light and convinces in a farther degree and proportion as the light is greater and as far as it convinces so far it will leave without excuse and therefore there is no man that hath Christ offered that is enlightned convinc't hath tenders made unto him but is left without excuse and though men in wantonness of disputes may weave a web of excuses and muster them up against God yet no man in agony of conscience upon his death-bed or at Gods Tribunal shall- be able to make any excuse for the neglect and resistance of the grace of God but shall be like him in Mat. 22. speechless he might have said somewhat for himself as to them that called him to the feast but there was no excuse to be made to the King There are two cases wherein all excuses are taken from man First In case of voluntary impotency by a mans own default as if he imbezel the stock committed to his hand and would make an excuse for non-payment of a debt though he may say he have it not that serves not his turn for you had it and the stock by you is imbezelled Or secondly if he be opposite and resist as if a man that will not or cannot see because he shuts the window and will not let the light in it s no excuse for him to say I do not see because its a voluntary act of his own to shut out the light in both cases he is without excuse But especially I lay weight on the latter the resistance of man and his opposition for there is no man living that rests in a simple impotency but resists and shuts his eyes and makes opposition to the grace of God tendred to him light is come into the world and men love darkness rather then light this is the condemnation Fourthly God in the Gospel seldom or never offers grace to a man but he affords and furnishes him with some degree of light and power to do more then he doth to go farther then he doth for in Rom. 1. 17. the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against those that hold the truth of God in unrighteousness that is for not living up to their light nor doing so much as they may or can no man in the world untill God work upon his heart savingly liveâ— up to his own rule neither doth facere quod in se est do so much as he might and hath power to do and therefore God is no way bound to give converting grace if a man will not imploy one talent so far as he may go with one what reason hath God to give that man five or ten talents None at all when the power and grace of God given is resisted and opposed and neglected What reason is there that men should cavil against the Lord and say I had not so many talents whereas he did not use the one he had no man is without a talent every man hath somewhat whereby he may trade for God and because he doth not do it certainly the Lord is free and clear if he do not give him more if he do not give him converting grace God will I say be clear when he is quarrelled at by man Answ 2.
affection and yet the proud and self-righteous people were gainsaying and contradicting thi◠was their resistance as long as Gods patience and do not you find this in your own hearts how often have you gainsaid and contradicted the God of heaven Fifthly The counsels invitations and reproofs of Wisdom i.e. of Christ are not regarded in Prov. 1. 24. a terrible place I have called and ye refused stretched out my hands and no man regarded ye have despised all my counsel and set at nought all my reproof or hated my reproof and the◠he proceeds to tell them how bitterly he will go out against them here is calling stretching out of hands counsel reproof and they all refused not regarded despised hated I think this amounts to the point of resistance Sixthly The Holy Ghost is resisted in Acts 7. 51. ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised ye do alwayes resist the Holy Ghost but how doth this stand with the former point that the Spirit of God in the point of Conversion cannot be resisted I answer The clear meaning of this phrase is the Holy Ghost speaking in the Prophets you have resisted the Holy Ghost speaking and testifying to you in the Prophets as if he had said the Holy Ghost speaking in the ministry and calling by the Word of the Gospel that 's it you have resisted for it s not meant of the renewing Spirit in the heart but of the Spirit testifying in the Prophets ye uncircumcised and stiff-necked like a Bullock of a hard neck that will take no yoke and uncircumcised that is hard and obstinate against God you do alway resist the Holy Ghost this was their resistance from whence you learn that there is a natural hardness of heart an obstinate neck that is the cause of mans resistance of the Holy Ghost both speaking in the Word and knocking at the door and exciting with motions the heart to believe all is in vain for it is but as knocking at a dead mans door or at a guilty persons door that will put more bars when one knocks so when God knocks and layes siege to mans heart there is made the greater opposition Seventhly Men that refuse to submit to the way of Salvation by God appointed are said to reject the counsel of God against themselves 〈◊〉 7. 30. speaking of some that came not in to the Baptism of John some read it Towards themselves the counsel of God towards them for their good or the counsel of God against themselves that is to their own hurt and prejudice in that they would not be baptized by Johns Ministry to the profession of the Lord Jesus people that will not come in to the Ordinances of God they reject the counsel of God against themselves to their own hurt this is through resistance Lastly Take a full measure of the height or this opposition there can be no higher expressions then those in Heb. 10. 29. to tread under foot the Son of God to account the blood of the Covenant an unholy or common thing and do despight to the Spirit of grace but who doth this are there such monsters in the world such miscreants as do this yes saith he that there is and who are they such as have been sanctified that is called into Christianity that 's the plain meaning and the word in the text reaches no farther separate from heathenish Idolatry and pollution to come to and profess the name of Christ and so have been sanctified and I take those in Heb. 6. 4. 5. to be the same men with these there it s said they were enlightned and tasted they were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and yet they fell here you find men sanctified to tread under foot the Son of God there is a double apostacy a simple apostacy called a stealing or a shrinking away from the profession of Religion And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a venome apostacy falling away with despight against Religion or Christ that in Heb. 6. speaks of the former this in Heb. 10. of the latter and what doth God construe their action to be a treading of the Son of God under foot and offering despight to the Spirit In all these particulars I have held my self to the New Testament and the words of Christ in it and now as I said that we have particularly pondred the words of Scripture in this point let us sum them up together here is hating opposing ones self slighting refusing resisting the holy Spirit rejecting the counsel of God and treding under foot the Son of God which fully amount to a resistance of the offers of grace Serm. 13 I Know it is a hard thing to convince any man of this therefore I have used Scripture words Gods language that we may not flatter our selves and that men may see there is more poyson in their hearts then they are aware of or will own I know what it is that usually blinds men that they will not own these expressions of Scripture to belong to them for who will call himself an opposer of grace offered a resister of the Holy Ghost and that is because you confess your selves to be glad of the tydings of the Gospel of remission of sin and deliverance from hell and you delight to hear of Salvation as it is generally conceived to be a state of happiness not as it is a state of holiness and communion with God and in any extremity agony and death into which you fall you pretend to have some desires of grace as a bridge unto Salvation or at least seem to magnifie it much in words these things seem to be an argument to you that you are not resisters and neglecters of this saving grace but you may well remember that the foolish Virgins knocked at the door and cryed Lord Lord open unto us and the stony ground heard and believed the Word of the Gospel with a kind of joy And there is not the veryest coward in the world but will take hold of a swords point to save his life and to pluck him out of the water the Gospel as it is interpreted and looked upon by the eye of self-love seems very attractive of the desire of man towards it so long as he may serve himself and his own advantage upon it namely to live in sin and to his sin and yet be saved at last when he can sin no more so long there is no carnal heart will resist and make opposition but all this may stand with hate of Christ and Grace for till a mans heart be thus moulded and tempered by God as to affect Grace for reconciliation and for conversion that so you may be Gods as well as have him yours so as to live to him as well as have Christ dye for you till then there is little but fallacy and falshood in you the man that thrust in at the marriage feast who came to fill his belly with good chear not for the honour of the bridegroom was cast out speechless
puts forth this power in this way the Gospel It s confest that the vessel or pipes by which this excellency of power is conveyed are earthen and contemptible But that is de industria on purpose 2 Cor. 4. 7. we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us the weakness of the vessel doth derogate from the power of the vessel It was his goodness and not unto your loss to teach you by men for if God had taught you by Angels that are by nature unsociable with men it had not been so well now God hath appointed to bring you to heaven by the ministry of men like your selves And in a way surable to man that is by word and doctrine by counsel instruction reason God will so convince and convert you not by insinuating a sudden power into the heart of man from whence Ministers are called workers together with God 2 Cor. 6. 1. and he also is said to work together with them Mark 16. 20. If God and man work together what shall we think of them that divide this partnership this conjunction Quest Oh but you Preach the law It is the Gospel that Converts Answ You are deceived we preach Christ when we preach the law as is plain when Paul was required by Felix to preach to him the faith of Christ saith the text he preacht of righteousness temperance and judgement to come whereat Felix trembled was this preaching the Faith of Christ yea or else Paul was deceived the Reason is because Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness Rom. 10 4. and because by the law men are concluded under sin that the promise that is the Gospel might be given to them that believe Gal. 3. 22. and if so what dissonancy will you make between preaching of the means and the end we are not so mad as to preach Salvation by the law and when we preach the Law to you to wound it is in order to the promise and Christ Jesus It is not the plungers that trouble the water that catch the Fish we know it is the Net but the plungers drive the Fish into the net that they may be caught we say the work of Salvation is not by the Law it s the net of the Gospel whereby men are caught to Everlasting Salvation But it s the terrour of the Law and the curse under which they are driven into this net t is the avenger of blood that pursues with the drawn sword that makes you fly to the City of refuge and therefore there is more of Christ preacht in a Sermon that you call Legal many times then in the vociferations clamors that silly people use of Christ Christ as they cryed Baal Baal though you pronounce nothing but Christ a hundred times together and therefore let me charge you for that I may have leave to do to those that are under my charge and exhort all others that since faith comes by hearing since you are born again of the uncorruptible seed of the word since his Ministers are in pain while they go traveling in their souls till Christ be formed in you since the Lord many times in his word honours the instrument in the work of Conversion with the honour of doing that which he doth by them S t Paul saith I am your father as Goliahs sword was honoured with the work that David did by it upon all these considerations be not you stricken with this madness as either to think that the excellency of power of Conversion is in the box that carries this treasure or to divide the treasure from the vessel that you have in it for then you lose it But where then will you have it But to consider in your serious thoughts what those gifts were which Christ gave to his Church on his triumphal day a phrase of speech alluding to the Roman triumph when a Conquer or came home and had a triumph allowed him by the Senate he spred his prizes that he brought home and gave magnificent gifts so the Apostle observes that when Christ ascended and rode in the triumphal Chariot to heaven he carried spoils with him and gave gifts to men and what were those gifts Eph. 4. 7. he gave Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers for the gathering and perfecting of the Saints or thus if you will he gave the Holy Ghost which doth not only work itself but makes overseers Acts 20. 28. and then works by them as the instrument is first made and then wrought with so the Holy Ghost makes you overseers and then works in and by them that are Ministers made by the Holy Ghost and therefore despise not means and instruments enough is said of that point to wise men Fifthly Nor will that doctrine abide this test that teacheth that man is the giver and God the receiver for the truth is God is the first giver in all kinds make him but first in the work of Calling Election Sanctification c. and you cannot be unsound or erroneous in any of these doctrines but that doctrine which makes man the giver and God the receiver cannot be true the reason is he loved us first saith the Apostle 1 Joh. 4. 19. You have not chosen me but I have chosen you Joh. 15. 16. and therefore it is said Rom. 11. 35. who hath first given to God and it shall be recompenced to him again that is that hath first done or performed any work that obliges God to recompence it those therefore that make man the first lover the first chuser the first giver they make man the creditor and God the debtor and how unsuitable is it with any modesty and ingenuity to speak so which of necessity must be if you make man first Sixthly Nor doth it follow by this test which is somewhat a difficult point that because there is a Covenant made with man upon conditions of faith and repentance therefore these conditions must be performed by one of the confederates that is by mans own power to confirm this it s said there was so much required of Adam and he had power and God expected the performance of the condition made with him And you know many times it is thus with men they expect a mutual performance of Covenants one with another and they do-in-many cases think that man hath power to perform the condition to which he obliges himself and yet sometimes t is otherwise there cannot a general rule be made of this a creditor requires the payment of the summ yet whether the debtor pays it of mony gotten by his own hand or borrow it or it be given him by some benefactor is not material only this is material that the condition be performed and the money paid so we may say in this point this is certain that the condition required of man is mans duty is mans act and the benefit of the Covenant is for him that performs
the stroak this teaching of God which teaches you to believe that gives you the particular assurance of salvation And therefore though God have sent Christ yet there are thousands of reprobate and rejected persons in the world It is Christ in you and you in him by Faith that strikes the stroak Seventhly The point of Gods sending Christ affords sweet meditation but the sense of Gods drawing thy soul unto Christ affords sweet consolation In the one thou mayst see the love of God to the world for God so loved the world John 3. 16. By the other thou mayst see his special love to thee concerning which you find it written by the Apostle Gal. 2. 20. He loved me and gave himself for me No man can say this word me until he be drawn unto Christ And when is that may some say that is not my point now to handle yet in brief I answer First When thou art come then thou hast been drawn If thou canst embrace and receive Christ as a Saviour and a Lord then thou hast been drawn Col. 2. 6. And therefore as I may say of the shadow on the Dyal that is gone to another line though you cannot see the motion yet you may conclude it is moved because it is gone to another line So you may certainly conclude that you are gone from the state of nature to the state of grace when there is a reception and embracing of Christ Jesus Secondly When thy enmity and opposition is removed and those things that obstructed thy faith are taken away Gods drawing doth that If there be an inclination to Christ as the chief Good come in place of the aversation that was there before if there be a complacency come in stead of the hardness and antipathy that was there before It is made one of the first signs of grace I will pour out upon them the Spirit of grace and supplication and they shall look on him whom they have pierced and mourn and be in bitterness Zach. 12. 10. spoken of the Jews This is a sign that there is a great change as when light comes into a chamber we conclude that the shutts of the window are removed so when you find a new light a new disposition of the heart to God you may conclude the obstructions are removed and the enmity is taken away So much for the second Corollary drawn from this point Use 3 Thirdly If no man can come to Christ except the Father draw him Hence we may learn how much faith and coming to Christ being both one ver 35. are mistaken in the world the great hinge on which the salvation of man turns It is undertaken and entertained as men think with great easiness and at pleasure performed without any sense or sensible need of Gods drawing without which Christ teaches us that no man can come to him I shall make it appear that this coming to Christ is I will not say hard and difficult for that intimates some possibility of mans performance but that it is altogether unperformable without the assistance of divine power That saying A man may believe in Christ if he will to take in that by the way is true and good if it be taken in a right sense for so the Scripture Rev. 22. 17. Whosoever will let him take the water of life freely But then I must say and I think Reason will go with me that every wish is not a will and every velleity as they call it is not a will set on edge an earnest thirsty will after Christ Jesus He that hath a will wrought by God and the truth is we differ from other men only in this all confess him to be free in believing But man is not made by himself free but the grace of God frees the will of man for if the Son make you free then are you free indeed And no man doth any thing in the world with greater freedom then a willingness to believe when of nilling he is made by God willing as Austin saith such a soul being freed from its servitude to thirst after the righteousness of God is pronounced blessed Matth. 5. 6. We may safely say he hath the seed of faith that hath this will in him But every Balaams wish to die the death of the righteous and every one that saith I will but doth not Matth. 21. 30. this is not reckoned in Scripture to be a will therefore men are as much mistaken in their willing as in their believing The Reasons of the opinion of this easiness of believing are three Reason 1 First The mistaking of Leah for Rachel My meaning is the taking of a Dogmatical for a saving Faith which is the common mistake of the world that live under the Gospel For this is but light oar that lies near day as the Mettalists say though it looks like gold it is not gold It looks like the Faith that saves but it is not it For this as the Apostle saith in another case they willingly know not This is not the Faith that is hard and difficult You must not look to be saved by a Christ without you but by a Christ within you For to be in the Faith and to have Christ in you is all one 2. Cor. 13. 5. As there are that may be called Disciples outwardly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 2. 28. and there are others that Christ calls Disciples indeed or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 really John 8. 31. So there is a Faith that brings forth a profession of Christ as the blade in the stony ground And there is a Faith that brings a man into possession of Christ and that is the Faith Now it is a fatal mistake of many men to reckon themselves in Christ and a state of salvation by a Faith that makes them only Disciples outwardly For even the greatest part of the called are not chosen That Faith must needs be unsaving that is consistent with predominant lusts that encounters not raigning sins For all resistance of sin in a Scripture-phrase is called conquest For in the resistance of it there is as much love seen to God as in the conquest of it though there be not so much power seen That which is the best kind of Faith and saving is that which is most hard difficult and impossible to man The very Faith of Miracles that you read of sometimes in the Scripture is not so hard as saving Faith to come unto and believe in Christ Certainly this is to be known those that came short of saving Faith have yet attained to the Faith of Miracles as Judas and others And therefore let us set these two the Faith which saves and that which saves not in front one against the other and see what the Scripture saith of both And you shall find the drawing power of God affixt to the saving faith but not to the other In John 2. 23. many believed on Christ when they saw the miracles that he did
But they were false-hearted men that would not hold out if they came to wetting And so in Matth. 13. 21. and Luke 8. 13. they that received the word and with joy too they are such as believe but for a while but having no root they go away As the house built on the sand may stand till the wind blows And in John 12. 42. Many believed on him but yet they loved the praise of men more then the praise of God worldly things are preferred before spiritual And in Acts 8. 13 24. compared together Simon also believed but that did not pluck him out of the gall of bittterness nor unfetter him from the bond of iniquity That faith that lets a man lie in an unregenerate estate that is the faith of Simon Magus It is called Believing and you may so call your selves Believers and yet be without saving Faith For every place in which it is named sets a blemish upon it Shewing that such a believing is joyned with predominant lust But now the Faith that saves that is other wayes in Scripture described and set forth with other recommendations It is called a believing to the saving of the soul and so opposite to that which withdraws that is Faith for a time Mark the distinction and emphasis of the words in Heb. 10 ult It is a receiving of Christ Jesus as Saviour and Lord Col. 2. 6. which is alwayes accompanied with true regeneration In John 1. 12 13. Whosoever believes in Christ to the saving of his soul is born of God 1 John 5. 1. Whoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God Whoever believeth that he is so and so takes him And is called in Scripture by these properties and epithites a heart-purifying faith Acts 15. 9. a faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1. 5. the Faith of Gods elect 1 Tit. 1. a precious faith 2. Pet. 1. 1. an effectual or operative faith c. all this shews that though the Scripture call this and that both by the same name Believing yet they differ as much as saving and not saving Faith This is the first Reason concerning that opinion of the easiness of believing They that will be thus mistaken we may well say of them they are in danger to miss of their salvation Serm. 19 Reason 2 THe second Reason is That as men are mistaken in Faith as I have shewed so they are also mistaken in the Formalis ratio of believing The formal reason of Believing is the Word of the Gospel which is therefore called the power of God to salvation to every one that believes Rom. 1. 17. And it is an excellent mark of true and saving Faith that it hath been wrought in thee by the word of the Gospel by that which is called the hearing of Faith Gal. 3. 2. This is the reason of believing as you may gather from those words John 3. 33. he hath set to his seal that God is true i. e. he that believeth and he that believeth not makes God a lyar 1 John 5. 10. shewing that Gods Word or the testimony of Christ in the Word is the ground and true reason of believing all that do believe truely do resolve their Faith into this reason the truth and veracity of the Word of God but now the common Faith of most that live in the Church in the ayre of the Gospel if it be followed to the last resolve or resort of it is not into conviction by the word or spirit but the custom and example 〈◊〉 men that profess they believe Christ to be a Saviour because they see it commonly believed and owned in the Church that they live among these have the same reason for believing in Christ that the Turk hath for believing in Mahomet and that the Jew hath for his rejecting Christ whose Religion is milked into their mouths by education in such places and by such parents as are of this opinion thus it is with us that have suckt in this kind of believing with our milk which makes it easie to us as the Fathers authority to the Child in minority is the greatest in the world But to think that without a better Reason of our Faith we can be saved is a great mistake For the heart must be convinc't and principled by the Gospel and by the power of God therein Reas 3 The third reason of the easiness of this kind of unsaying Faith is freedom from temptations For many men are carryed on the wings of this Faith all their lives long freed from temptations doubts fears disquietments have no thoughts perplex them from the beginning to the end of their lives for they are temptations within that are the cause of the difficulty of believing when the wind lay Peter doubted not the Lord called and Peter went to him upon the water But when the wind rose and was boisterous then saith the text he was afraid and doubted Math. 14. 29. then Lord save me or else I perish then Christ saith Oh thou of little faith wherefore dost thou doubt when the wind was strong faith became weak when a man rides on in security and peace no guilt within no fears doubts or soul-troubles encountering him it s an easie thing to believe But when tribulation seizes upon the spirit and the wind arises then you come 〈◊〉 doubtings fears and disquietments and find it hard to believe then saith the heart Lord that I had but one drop of Faith that I were but able to come and be fixed upon the center of believing this is the common and greatest Reason of easie believing the empty traveller sings before the thief For First Satan rather keeps the peace of such a soul then molests it because he knows that his kingdom and possession is not endangered by such a faith as sights not against his dominion Pharaoh arms not his Egyptians whiles Israel followed a quiet drudgery and therefore the devil rather rocks the cradle then he will disquiet his sleeping Child And Secondly While a man is not sensible what it is to lose his soul nor feels the damnable sins he hath nor considers that the whole moment of his Salvation hangs only on this cord he doth not fear neither is disquieted But when he sees that life Eternal hangs upon this naile it startles him and makes him afraid When the man perceived that the cure of his child did he upon his believing it made him cry out Lord help my unbelief Mark 9. 24. They that see not the concernment of their believing unto Salvation cry not out for the help of their unbelief Reas 4 Fourthly While the props that a man leans upon remain uncashiered it is not hard for the man to believe Faith is the easiest thing in the world whiles a man rests upon something in himself while he swims upon the Bladders that are not pulled from under his arm-holes t is easie for him to keep his head above water Let me tell every one of you whiles you are
is obliged not only for a more easie conversion but for conversion it self for many have allowed it a place in making conversion more easie for a man to return and believe But we speak of the necessitie of it that conversion cannot be at all without it as therefore I may give it you by this comparison they that do allow the work of a Mid-wife in the helping of a child into the world do not by that make her the Parent of the child So they that allow the grace of God to be requisite to help man to conversion the knowledge of God and Faith do not thereby affirm the grace of God to be the Parent the Worker Authour and begetter of this Grace and therefore they say too little that make grace only an assistant And therefore as the Prophet in Zachary 4. speaking of the second Temple after Solomons Temple was burnt down by the King of Babylon they should cry Grace Grace to it not by might nor by power but that the Grace of God should be seen in the building of the second Temple So I may say of the building of this second Inner Temple in man after the death of the first I mean Gods Image in Man that it is a work all of Grace and therefore to set it in common place shews less sence of Gods honour by it and of our obligation to it then it requires Those that grant that man more easily comes to Heaven by grace adjuvant do say truth as Christ helping up Lazarus but raising him from the dead was more then so for he gave him life whereby he rise so to grace that it helps up man is to say Truth But if you will be good Advocates and plead the cause of Gods grace aright which men were famous for in former times when it was disparaged you must acknowledge preventing and preoccupating grace which wholly raiseth the dead man in that sence in which Austin calls it preventing that comes before our Act that praeoccupates a man not barely helping the man to rise alone but raising the man dead and begetting a new life in him Those who are only for adjuvant grace eclipse the glory of divine grace so as if they should say Christ helped up Lazarus who else could not so easily have risen up but it would have cost more ado to have effected it These are such as make the grace of Conversion to be as one horse in a Teem that helps indeed to pull out the stalled Cart the more easily but doth not come so home as that of Christ John 15 4. Severed from me ye can do nothing But let us account it to be the onely strength whereby we are pull'd out of the pit of damnation and perdition the Contest of Nature with Grace for place and power to make abatement of the necessitie soveraignty freedome and power of Grace in mans Conversion hath been in all times very great and some have given a greater share to mans power therein then others that have given too much Therefore there have been Pelagdians they went to the full and semi Pelagians And for ought I know there may be quarter Pelagians that deny some part of the Grace of God But it is to be observed that God by his Word hath alwayes determined the point for his own grace In his great Oracle which I account the case of Esau and Jacob to be when their Mother went to inquire the Lord answer'd I love the younger and hate the Elder and that before they had done good or evil It is my pleasure so to do for I will have mercy on whom I will Now if you will go about to ask me how Reason umpires this point in the Contest between Nature and Grace we know that Nature vanquish'd by the Word hath stood upon some proud and captious reasons which do rather shew that it is determined against her For the partie that mutinies and rebells doth confess it goâ—s against him the mutiny of Reason is the great reason that it goes against Reason in this point as in that Opposition Rom. 9. 19. Thou wilt say Why doth he yet complain who hath resisted his Will Man must needs be free and blameless for God would have him so Thus Reason mutinies and complains and comes with captious Arguments but the Apostle restrains it Nay O Man who art thou that disputeth with God which makes it clear that God hath determin'd against that part which holds up the wasters and makes insurrection So then the Grace of God is alone and that appears further that Nature at all times is willing to part stakes and it s a sign she is the wrong Mother because willing to come to division which Grace will not it will have all 〈◊〉 none I confess it is not the business of modest men for its liable to great exception and cavillation noâ— is it my design to cry down Nature further then it need and ought but this I speak against that those men that stickle for it do not give something only to Nature but plume it with the feathers of grace and inrich it with those spoiles that I take ill that me thinks is not right Let me give what I can what I ought to Nature Let me adorn it but with its own and if could be that Nature might be adorn'd and grace lose nothing it was more to be born But where the Sea gains the Shore loses so it is in these two as much as men set up Nature they pull down Grace Therefore you that will be Advocates for free Grace do you kiss the hand of that Grace whereby as the Apostle saith You are that as you are Iâ— prosecuting this I shall shew Serm. 23 First What are those Points or Articles of Doctrine that are to be defended and maintained to the end that the free Grace of God in the Conversion of our Souls may keep its necessity Soveraignty c. Secondly What those benefits are that practicle Godliness doth derive from the sence of Gods free Grace in making us something out of nothing us that were not yet to be The Points to be maintained for the Lustre and Glory of Gods free Grace are five the defending of which will keep you untainted from the diminution and disparagement that it receiv'd in any Point 1 First The reason of the difference which God makes between any man that is saved and one that is not is not Originally in Man himself If you wave or quit this you lose the point for this threed will run through the whole web If we ascend upwards and accompt the Heavenly Orbes S. Paul names the third Heavens Philosophers name more we must needs at length come to some first mover that we call the Primum Mobile that moves the rest under it and it self is not moved by any Orb above it for no process can be in infinitum So we may in the course of salvation count from step to step for so doth
a man that is sweetly the drawing is not against the will because it makes the will willing it doth not move the wheel against the wheel or the natural motion of it but with it and then the heavier the plummet the faster the clock goes If the power of God go with the willâ— of man it moves more freely as the stream doth with the wind and tide then the more power God puts forth the more willing you come Thy people shall be willing shall be voluntiers in the day of thy Power Psal 110. 3. as if the power of God in that day wherein it s put forth should make a man a voluntier in coming to Christ Jesus It 's true God moves contrary to the natural stream as the tide carries up the River but when the Lord puts a new Principle a new bias into the bowl and that natural heart of sin is taken away then this coming though it be with drawing is so sweet that the soul prays Lord draw me and I will run Cant. 1. 3. Thirdly It is wondred at that God should command what he works or gives for if he mean to give it why doth he command and if he command how doth he give if it be a duty how is it Gods work and if it be Gods work how can it be my duty I Answer That God gives the grace he commands the duty bidden is also given and except it be given it is not the bidding will serve the turn 1 Joh. 3. 23. This is his command that we should believe in his Son So then our believing in Christ is a commandment of God And in Acts 17 30. God commands all men every where to repent Here you see that faith and repentance both of them are commanded of God and it s the command that makes them to be your duty Well yet for all this both these are given by God Phil. 1. 29. To you li's given to believe 2 Tim. 2. 25. If God peradventure shall give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth here you find that both are given Again Circumcisc your selves to the Lord and be no more stifnecked Jer. 44. Oh Lord may some say doth God put this impossible work upon me Ezek. 18. 31. Make you a new heart and a new spirit here these two are commanded Make you and Circumcise you and yet both these are promised and given Deut. 36. 6. I the Lord thy God will Circumcise thy heart and Ezek. 36. 26. I will make you a new heart and a new spirit Can any thing be plainer then this he commands and works that which he doth command he commands to convince us of our debt what is due and of our impotency that we cannot pay that we may fall down at the feet of this God and yet he gives too for the magnifying and honouring of his free grace to unworthy man and his power to impotent man that is unable and therefore we distinguish between Legal commands and Evangelical those of the law require the dutie but afford no strength but the Gospel which commands faith and repentance that are Gospel-graces carry the grace and power with them not unto all that shall oppose and shut the door but unto the Elect of God and the people of his inward Covenant So that for a man to say it 's a Gospel command is to say that 't is possible through grace that is there goes grace and power with it which the Lord will convey by the command for the commands of the Gospel are vehicula spiritus carriers and conveyers that carry along the Spirit with them John 6. 36. The words that I speak they are spirit and life being like the commands given to the dead Arise come forth It is a vain thing to speak commandingly to the dead true had they not ministred that which was commanded it had not prevailed and such are the Gospel-commands of repentance faith and making the new-heart or else how should the Gospel-word be called as it is the ministry of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3. 8. The ministery of the Spirit is Glorious So much for the removing of these â—ubs out of the way of Reason Serm. 28 Obj. We shall propound a question for the further handling of this point why should these Gospel-graces and especially faith that bring us to Christ require super-natural strength and drawing for their production And truly there lies some emphasis in this word Gospel-grace for may some say what do you mean by that I mean that grace which serves to the recovery of man to the Image of God which he had and hath lost for in this state of the Image of God which we had before we fell there was life but in this Gospel grace by that there is a resurrection unto that or a better life then we lost before for God intended to restore his Image unto man in Christ who is his Image and this Image is restored by the begetting of this Gospel grace that brings us to close with Christ so that this faith or coming to Christ is a grace of recovery or resurrection through and by which the Image we lost is again repaired now for these graces they do require a supernatural strength Answ It seems to me that a man that is able out of his own experience to make this objection is on the borders of believing for when as the difficulty of faith once appeares and man comes to be sensible and distrusts his own opposition then he begins to draw near or to be on the threshold of faith he that is at a losse is near his way the water being troubled there is no question but there is cure I but saith the cripple the Angel moves the water but I have no bodie to put me in so the promise invites the Word calls but I cannot close with Christ there held forth I am a cripple and no need but of a hand to help me and whereas in Isa 53. 1. there seems to be a double expression concerning this point of faith Lord who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed A man may say I heard the report and believe it to be true but the baring of the Lords arme must go to the making of man believe when we teach that men naturally cannot believe men wonder and say within themselves why should not I believe as well as another man I am as learned and knowing in the Scriptures and as pregnant as others and why should a man of a lesser measure and altitude of parts go before me in believing when we teach that men cannot keep the law of works there is never a one but will consent to it truly I cannot keep the Law I cannot love the Lord with all my heart and might and strength men yield they cannot but when we preach that faith is above your power you cannot believe and come to Christ though we report the report of Christ to you
though it be it self never so little a spark and unseen if you have such a kind of faith without all question you have been drawn of God for there is a double change that faith makes that shewes the truth of it First relative when mans relation to God is changed by it as having stood in the relation of a stranger unaquainted at a distance he is now made a son a friend as it s said of Abraham he believed and was called the friend of God James 2 23. And then Secondly There is a real change of heart of course of life as if the stream did run in a new channel with as great strength as before in the old heavenly things are set up Christ is prized and valued and this life and all the things of this life have an eclipse put upon them so that as he said I am not I that 's the fifth mark Sixtly God hath powerfully drawn thee to Christ if the knowledg of Christ do draw thee from all competitioning things besides Christ doth not woo in person but by his word his Spirit his virtue hast thou no favourite lust that can overdraw him that dares to stand in competition with thy service and the conduct of the Lord Jesus Is the promise of Christ more powerful with thy heart than the performance of the world his absent glory above the present inducements Art thou willing to be paid for thy service in spirituals and if God will to forbear temporals An admirable temper in a Christian The Apostle observes of Abraham and his seed that came out of their own country and found themselves not to be in the possession of the Land of Canaan saith he they might have returned if they would Heb. 11. 15. but that they would not do they embraced the promises that they saw afar off they took Gods pay as he would pay it though he would pay them nothing in this world they would take out the earthly Country in a heavenly and then it follows in ver 16. God was not ashamed to be called their God not ashamed of such a people as stick to him This is to live upon his word as Elshaddi though he be not known to them by his Name Jehovah I did not perform my promises in being to Abraham but he lived upon me as God Almighty as it 's explained in Rom 4. It 's never known what value and price a man sets upon Christ by saying nay to some slight lust or thing which he can easily part with but by that which is peccatum in deliciis our favourite sin our delight be it friend or worldly content or whatsoever else it 's known to be as the usual old saying is The Rabbits skin sticks at the head it cases off from the rest of the body easily but when it comes to the head there it sticks when God and his favour and our own sin stand in competition it sticks not till it is come to that to which he is married to his favourite When Christ tryed the young man that had spoken great things he doth not instance to bid him do this or that for these things saith he I have done but he demandeth the sale of his possessions Go sell all thou hast and come and follow me there his heart was sorrowful for the Text saith He had great possessions that was his master sin and from that I observe that God will try his people let us hang loose to that for in that we shall be soonest tryed Seventhly It seems to me that we are drawn when the withdrawments of Christ or of the Spirit or the light of Gods countenance do draw us more to seeking and pursuit this is a drawing by withdrawment it s the case of many a soul many times Christ withdraws stands behind the door Gods countenance is hidden well mark the effect and use of this withdrawing doth it draw you more eagerly out in pursuance doth this draw you to a more sharp and vehement seeking that shews some touch of the Load stone hath been that you have tasted some of this graciousness of God if so be that you have tasted that the Lord is gracious 1 Pet. 2 3. as an Angler will sometimes pull away the bait to quicken the fish to follow it such are these withdrawments of God from his own people you see an example of it verified in the Church Cant. 5. 6. My beloved had withdrawn himself I sought him She runs out presently after him 8. Lastly When the Name of Christ and the Grace from him and by him received is the strong Argument against sin the strongest motive of duty and obedience the Law of God is a strong obligation but the grace and Mercy of God is the sweetest obligation Stablish me saith David with thy free Spirit Psal 51. with the Spirit of a child so the Apostle gives a notable Argument against sin in 1 Cor. 6. 15. speaking about Fornication Shall I take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot God forbid What 's the genius and strength of the Apostles Argument that a man that is in Christ must consider that himself his body and all the members of his body are the members of Christ shall I prostitute the members of Christ to an harlot God forbid that I should do so so that the possession and title that Christ hath of us is the strongest Argument that can be against sin with a godlyman A Christian hath more Arguments against sin more Motives to obedience than any other man because he is all Christs and all his members as that Text saith are members of Christ he is not his own but the price of anothers blood and therefore let him carry the Name of Christ always in his mind as an excellent Argument against sin So much for the Point Whosoever comes to Christ believing in him doth come by the drawing of God which point would have some Use made of it though the matter all along be useful and practical And first Use 1 How certain those that are elected are of their believing and coming unto Christ by reason of this drawing of God this is a resurrection so it 's called and truly as certain as the resurrection of the body and ordinarily we hold it it certain that there shall be a resurrection of the body it 's as certain that there shall be a resurrection of those that God hath chosen unto Christ though they be for present dead and as the Apostle saith far off nay 't is as certain as the resurrection of Christ when he was dead in the grave and lay under the sins of mankind a terrible great stone to ly under yet he was certain to rise again the third day and the power toward the raising of those that believe is according to the working of the mighty power that wrought in Christ Ephes 1. 18 now it 's said that God loosed the cords of Christs death because it was
not we lovers of our selves covetous proud boasters c. having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof 2 Tim. 3. 2. c. I might go on and rather make a parallel than a difference between these two and therefore as the Apostle concludes this Jew to be no Jew so we may of this Christian and if those that preach the Gospel will do any good among a formal people they must take their Christianity from them you have a ground for it the Apostle took away Judaism from the Jews you must tell them that 't is not Christianity will profit and bring them to heaven if they be saved they must be convinc'd of this and then that Rule will follow He that thinks himself somewhâ—t when he is nothing deceives himself Gal. 6. 3. and many thousands are so deceived amongst you Use 2 Secondly If this be true Doctrine then rest not till you find in your selves some proof of an inward work some brokenness and softness of heart the heart of stone taken away some newness of spirit something of Christ Jesus Had the Jew found out the entrails of his Religion he had found Christ there over and over but he dreamed of a National salvation as I may almost say by virtue of a Covenant that had Inwards in it but he saw little Let me say to you You have spiritual Ordinances look for Christ in them he is the kernel of all Ordinances Go to God and pray Lord it is thy Covenant-promise to put thy Law into the Inwards of thy people Jer. 31. 33. and that there called Inwards the Apostle calls the writing of the Law in the heart and mind Heb. 8. 10. There are some that are otherways great men that when they come to die whither do they fly Bear me witness I die in the Protestant Faith I die in the Faith and Confession of the Church of England which I have pitied them in for that shews the rightness of the Faith which they profess but not the savingness of their Faith and profession as to them except they look as the Jews did for a National salvation because they are all of the true profession Others there are that when they have incorporated themselves into such a Body whereof the Characteristical mark is a separate opinion from other men then they think they are come into a state of salvation that they have been in Egypt all this while now they are come to Canaan Alas poor souls you will find something else wanting as the Apostle saith Others there are that depend much upon a holiness of their own making Pharisaically Papistically I never like this frame let the holiness that God hath appointed stand and let us stand to that and when all is said that I can say unto you here must be the great work to find an inward work of holiness in your souls though the Ordinances or form be of God as the Jews were much more when the holiness is of your stamping and therefore look for this inward work that ye be not only the Epistle of Christ written with ink in Letter but in the Spirit of the living God 2 Cor. 3. 2. There are two places that I will give you to set home this Exhortation from the most glorious Church that we read of in all the New Testament of highest elevation for variety of spiritual giâ—ts and abilities and they had greatest blots too which was the Church of Corinth to them the Apostle gives this Item in 1 Cor. 10. 5. Brethren I would not have you ignorant that our Fathers speaking in an Ecclesiastical sence did all eat of the same spiritual meat honoured with Sacraments extraordinary the Rock the Manna and both were Christ Yet with many of them God was not wel pleased and he gives the reason of it for they were tempters of Christ they had such sins upon them which you may charge upon your selves mutatis mutandis and yet this Church though they were so high he humbles them with such an exhortation as might shame them that is to a strange thing Examine whether ye be in the Faith and had Christ within them 2 Cor. 13. 5. We are I know not how many forms above that question and yet be sure though profession be never so high that 's the main thing to be inquired for Iâ— Christ in you you can talk of Christ without you but as gallant as you are you must prove your selves if Christ be in you and know that he is in you except you be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reprobates you are saved by a Christ in you The third Use of this Point is for reproof and I will willingly though I do it sorrowfully put my self into the number of the reproved Let every man therefore reprove himself for the exceeding great outwardness in Religion that abounds amongst us there is fire wanting in us time was and it was indeed the worst of times when Christians the professors of Christian Religion in England were practical and exceedingly addicted to practical holiness keeping a sweet inward communion with God and among themselves their conferences were savoury and their inward experiences communicated were excellent edifying and building up and Christ was 〈◊〉 set out to sale in all markets he was the penniworth held out in all Christian meetings but in these daies I may not wish for persecution I may say that the stomach they say makes better digestion in cold than in hot weather so when times are troublesome and unsafe the heat goes inward to make good digestion now there is necessity to call men to inwardness this and that opinion this and that conceit such a controversie blowing of a feather up and down between man and man matters of no concernment as he said and he was a very observing man do so take us up that the tree of knowledg is in greater request then the tree of life exceptis paucissimis omnis câ—tus Christianorum sentina vitiorum We may see our outwardness easilie and for it tax our selves our sabbath discourses what are they but tales or news We preachers preach our parts and you pray your gifts Nay St James saith sometimes you pray your lusts we studie our religion that we may conform to rising times parties customes we set our dials by the countenances of mortal men and which way that looks we set our profession our worship is but a carcass because we are but carkasses in it not answerable to that God who is a spirit whom we should serve in spirit and truth we conferre our notions or some lighter ware when we meet together we are seldome or rare in the duties of self-examination run over the daily circuit of our devotion that we have chosen to perform in our families as a post-horse runs his stage our fastings are but disguised self-seeking and our Religion it self a kind of Policie What need I go on to instance in those things that you take to