under the rate of saving because it is by a faith of Conviction not of Acceptance As a woman that can say nothing against a man yet gives not consent of marriage so they are convinc'd of the excellency and necessity of Christ and yet do not receive and accept him for good and all with self-outing and self-renouncing And all this being so as it is well might Austin say of this grace which Pelagius was content withal that is the doctrine exhortation excitation by way of object propounded and counsel moving Nolumus istam gratiam we are not content to rest in that grace but will have such as takes away the stony and gives a heart of flesh as it was with Lazarus he did not rise out of the Grave because he was bid to rise but with the word there went a powerful work and so he came forth Notwithstanding all this that I have said as touching the object of faith proposed the motives and means of Faith used which I confess are enough to lay the blame of non-believing at mans door yet this admirable secret of not believing upon all this arises from a higher reason or secret of God as appears by our Saviours Doctrine And the Reasons are two First Though all these be used as they are for the preparing and inclining and exciting man to believe That God may deal with man as a rational creature by moral means for God doth not draw man as a beam of timber or a stone is drawn by force but in a way of Understanding Reason and Argument yet that high design of God in giving men to Christ or not giving them to him is assigned by our Saviour as a Reason of mens coming or not coming to him Joh. 6 44 65. No man can come to me except it were given him of my Father and vers 37. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me The giving of Faith to man and of man to Christ are both Gods work And in John 10. 26. But ye believe not because ye are not of my Sheep that is not given to me by the Father And surely 't is for this secret reason that many in the world and in our Congregations that have all the formerly named Means and Motives to Faith do yet stand it out obstinately and those that have appeared the most unlikely of all others to be believers in Christ have after their long withstanding come in at length Seconldy The reason why all these do not work Faith is because they work but morally and objectively and do not haply ingenerate life by which they may be prevalent We do not wonder why a Trumpet doth not waken and why Musick doth not delight a dead man because neither the one nor the other doth beget life but supposes life to be Faith if it be lively and saving comes from a root of Life from the Spirit of Regeneration and renewing Grace and therefore where such Grace is not by the Spirit implanted in the heart all Means and Motives of Faith are but like the frictions and rubbings of a dead man which are profitable to awaken the spirits if there be life but not to recall or produce it and this is that which Christ speaks in the Text No man can come to me because he is of himself dead and void of power by Nature until God put a Spirit of life into him and when he is alive these Meanâ— and Motives may be profitable or as is usually said by S. Austin speaking of the Doctrine of Pelagius Hold a green branch or bunch of grass before a Sheep and if he be alive he may follow your hand but it gives not life to him if dead All that can be said is That there must be first a Plantation of a vital Principle a seed of spiritual life before there can be any Faith put forth to these Promises and Motives of Faith and therefore this bespeaks you all to use the means for life for God by these means works it But yet the means are left destitute unless joyntly with the Word of Faith there go the Work of Faith as with Lazarus come forth there went a Power to raise him from the dead and then man believes And this is the fourth Consectary from this point Serm. 22 Use 5 Fifthly No man in the world left to the disposal of his own will or to the sufficiency of his own power will or can move himself out of his lost condition into an actual state of salvation In ordinary things it is a clear Maxim That it is more easie destruere than astruere to throw down or to destroy than to build up to fell a Tree down than to plant and make it grow But in spiritual things that observation begets a Problem and hard Question Whether it be more easie to pull man down to remove him from himself and his own righteousness for 't is the mighty work of God that must do it 2 Cor. 10. 4 5. The weapons of our warfare are mighty through God to pull down to level imaginations and high things than when he is down to plant him into Christ Jesus to make him to believe Whether of these is the hardest work He that shall answer this I think might say as the Philosopher The expelling of darkness out of the Air and the introduction of light be two termes yet but one motion the act is but one to these two so the bringing man down and raising of him up the turning man from darkness to light as it is expressed Acts 26. 18. Though there be but one motion one act of Grace yet there are two termes darkness and light and so the matter is equally difficult yet for Order sake we begin with that which was first in time with the cutting off the Graft from the wilde Tree before we set or plant it in And therefore I have spâ—nt some time First in shewing mans indisposition to receive Jesus Christ which appears from Joh. 5. 40. Ye will not and Secondly mans impotency and inability in the Text No mâ—â— can except my Father draw him that is If left to your own disposal you would not if to your own sufficiency you â—â—ould not come to me And this being a point serving to pull down man that we may not make man the worker the doer the mover of his own salvation that we may build mans will upon God and not go about to build Gods Will upon man as if God did wait to see how man would dispose of himself I shall therefore proceed in it as homogeneous and agreeable to the former Doctrine in the Text. And the Reason is clear that no man in the world can because there would be no active Conversion were there not first a passive Conversion no active Conversion whereby man turns to God except there were first a passive Conversion whereby God turns man to God no Conversion could be the act of man if not first Conversion be
that took offence Even disciples and they that followed him They say this is a hard saying and they also murmured nay they take the wing and fly away and leave him in the 61 62 63. verses of this Chapter Oh Beloved there are many of the followers of Christ that take offence at this Doctrine and it is to us even in our dayes very scandalous to many men and that 's the reason why I insist so long upon the Connexion If Christ preach himself the Son of God that is God For I pray let me give you warning once for all that the word frequently used in the Gospel the Son of God it means no less then God that Christ is God God as it were by nature It s used eighty eight times as I think in the New Testament The Son of God is God as well as man and therefore the Socinian doth but quibble as I may so say when he comes to distinguish Christ indeed is the Son of God and so are we called too But that phrase doth not imply that he is God Yes for they that heard the words took it so in John 10. 33 34 c. they took up stones to throw at him for his blasphemy and that was In that being man thou makest thy self God they took it in a right meaning The purest Gospel-doctrine is most harsh Christs preaching himself the Son of God was very unpleasing to these carnal men We measure Gospel-doctrine by the metwand of our wit and reason and peradventure by our learning which may be of great reach Therefore we are offended Now let me shew you this that The great design of the Gospel is to advance God and to lay man low And I beseech you carry this along as the great Design of the Gospel to advance the power and the grace of God in bringing men unto salvation and to lay man and all their parts and reason low God in the power and freedome of his grace saving man is advanced man in the power and merit of himself is extenuated and made nothing The design of the Gospel in giving all to God is seen by one Text In the 1 Cor. 1 Chap. last ver That he that glorieth may glory in the Lord shewing that the main plot of the Gospel is the advancement of Grace the depression of man and the derogation of mans abilities may be seen by what is said in Rom. 3. 17. Where is boasting then It is excluded saith he By what Law Not by the Law of works but by the Law of Faith And that 's the doctrine of the Gospel that takes men off from their own bottoms and hinges And so I think I have sufficiently proved it unto you Of Gospel doctrine that that advances free Grace is the most glorious to God the most full of admiration to them that are godly and yet the most obnoxious to offence and scandal of man to ordinary men of reason There are in this Doctrine so many offensive principles I shall instance in eight that I know are scandalous and offensive and stumbling-blocks to reason And much ado we have to leap over them when we come to believe First that the purpose of Gods Election and Chusing any man unto salvation is not founded on the merit that was the old word with the Fathers Schools we say on the Conditiou of Faith and Works foreseen but that God hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardens This is one scandalous point Rom. 9. 18. Secondly That before they had done either good or evil to say before they had actually done it is a kind of nonsense But before they had done it in foresight or prescience or before they were known or seen to do good or evil Esau and Jacob equals that tumbled both in one belly twins that had both one birth for these to be so differenced that God should say I have loved the one and hated the other This is another point scandalous and offensive to mans reason laid down in Rom. 9. 13. Thirdly That it is Grace that makes the difference and severance of one man from another that is the free grace of God abstracted from the worthiness or unworthiness of man Who made thee to differ O man sayes the Apostle Fourthly That the Jew or man whosoever he be that follows after Righteousness by the Law or Works did not artain it or overtake it as the word signifies and the Gentiles or other men that are of no name that follow not after righteousness by the Law or Works they do attain it and overtake it by faith in Christ This is a very hard point laid down in Rom. 9. 30 31. Fifthly That a man is not justified by the works that he doth or his duties or compliance with the Law but by the faith of Christ only whom he layes hold of being offered and freely tendered in the Gospel This is Gospel-doctrine laid down in Galat. 2. 16. Sixthly That the things of God that is that the saving things of God should be hid from the wise the prudent and learned men of the world that hold up their heads so high as they do and that to the poor and simple and mean that are meant by babes he should reveal them Matth. 11. 25. Father I thank thee c. hard and offensive to Reason Seventhly That many should be called by the preaching of the Word and of them that are called by the outward Ministery but very few chosen Look upon and consider your selves this is hard Matth. 22. 14. There are many called and great offers are made in the Gospel but few chosen and select Eighthly No man can believe or come to Christ except it be by the drawing of God Why sure this is a very hard point to the hearers of the Gospel that lay in prejudices and obstructions of Reason You cannot believe except the Lord draw and work this faith in you in John 6. 44 65. There are two things that make the doctrine of the Gospel something contemptuous tomen First because it opposes mens carnal interests It crosses the lusts of the flesh and of the world it brings men to self-denial Secondly because it is dissonant to reason to pride and self that is in men and thereby they are prejudiced First if God measure out his purposes and proceedings by his own soveraign will So that it is not in him that runs nor in him that wills as the Apostle hath delivered it Rom. 9. 16. but in God that shews mercy Then why doth God finde fault or complain of us why doth he finde fault with us that we do not believe that we stand out in opposition Who can help it ver 19 whose hand lies it in not ours This is the great offence Who hath refisted his will Nay but O man ver 20. Who art thou that repliest against God And then the Apostle goes on to clear the doctrine of free grace according to the method whereby
the preaching of this saving doctrine may happily not believe as it s said of them that Paul preacht to from morning to night and opened Christ to them from Moses and the Prophets their own Scriptures yet how is this Sermon concluded in the 28 Acts 24 ver And some of them believed the things that were spoken and some believed not By this we may learn what to resolve upon and what to rest in if the word of the Gospel be inclucated and taught out of the Scripture with all possible advantages of conviction prejudices will remain and murmurings some believe and others believe not as they are drawn by a divine power in to Christ Jesus or not drawn There is some higher and secreter reason to be shewn for this then yet they think of and see in themselves for the Text tells you No man can come to me except my Father draw him When this drawing power goes forth then they come whom he draws not they murmur and take offence and prejudice And therefore it is said in Acts 13. 48. As many as were ordained to eternal life believed This we rest upon and are resolved But you believe not because you are not of my sheep John 10. 26. As for the Ministry of the Word in the hand of man it works but instrumentally and not as the principal cause It is not the axe that builds the house It s not the pencil that limbs or draws the picture but the workman by such instruments doth it as I may give instance both in faith and repentance See this in faith In Isa 53. 1. Lord who hath believed our report there 's the preaching and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed there is the inward working The revealing of Gods arm must go together with the report or else who hath believed it The word preacht and the work of God must go together So in repentance In 2 Tim. 2. 25. Let the Minister meekly instruct them that oppose themselves that murmur and are prejudiced if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth for else our instructions are but peradventure Use 2 Secondly If there be such disability and opposition in man here you learn that Gospel-hearers have need of subdued hearts Hearts mightily tamed and captivated to the very doctrine of the Word of God beaten down into a tractable humility For else as the best meat is distasteful to a corrupt and vitiated palat so will Gospel-doctrine the doctrine of free grace be scandalous and offensive to proud reasonings And I conceive it may be you have not observed it before that our Saviour when he began first to preach the Gospel did so much insist upon humility meekness poverty of spirit self-denial that his hearers might be subdued unto captivity of their reasonings and high thoughts as the Apostle excellently in 2 Cor. 10. 5. unto the obedience of Christ For I must say it no doctrine in the world was ever or will ever be again so obnoxious to scandal so opposite to the pride and so cross to the reason of man as the highest and sweetest of Gospel-doctrine the points of free grace which no man can receive without murmurings except the Lord first give him a very subdued spirit and a captivated reason And therefore though the benefits received from Jesus Christ be very great and every man will witness that Christ is worthy of all acceptation to save the chiefest of sinners yet when they come to look upon his person throughly and consider what may be said against him as well as what is said for him and the course and tenour of his doctrine that hath it in so many stumbling-blocks that may give distate its great odds that you would never have come in unto him were there not put forth in you a divine hand and a powerful to draw you A famous instance we have of this in Matth. 11. 5. when John Baptist sent his disciples to Christ to know whether he was he not that I believe John Baptist doubted of it for he was in prison and now ready to be offered why saith Christ tell John what you see the sick are healed the lame walk and all sorts are cured very good things such as no man could be offended at and then he adds Blessed is he that shall not be offended in me ver 6. as if he had said as there are many things in me and in my doctrine that draw men to me multitudes crowd after me because I heal cure and relieve them so there are others of hard digestion that may by their offensiveness to mens reason drive them from me So it was in this Chapter His disciples that followed him began to take offence and to cry out of hard sayings ver 60 61. and then presently go away and walk no more with him ver 66. Use 3 Lastly learn from hence A man obstructs his faith when he considers too much the appearance of inconsistencies of his reason and sense to faith in Christ As these Galilaeans Countrymen of Christs that knew his parentage and outward quality fell a murmuring at his doctrine that he came down from Heaven for their eyes were all on those things that they thought inconsistent to his coming from Heaven they could not stand with them and so obstructed their faith Whereupon he saith except God draw men out of their inconsistencies no man can come to me A man may follow his own reason unto an absolute unbelief and Atheism not that Scripture or divine Reason is to be rejected I do not speak to that point But I speak to that natural reason that is taken up from other grounds and not weighed in the ballance of the Word Faith believes God though reason comprehends him not there is no reason that I should have my reason satisfied in the point of eternal salvation by free grace but that I should have a clear word of God that I conceive necessary That God promises so or so that I must needs have as the object of my faith but that I should have my reason satisfied before I believe I know no reason of that Take it either in the narrative part of faith or the promissory part God promised Abraham a son in the old age of him and his wife when he did not expect such a thing did he say Shew me how that can be now I am old No he did believe that he was able to perform he received the word which he believed These people reasoned themselves into an absolute unbelief they considered the means of Christ what they saw in him but the excellency of Christ that he came from Heaven the Son of God the Saviour and Redeemer they believed not And therefore let me from that observe a notable lesson A man that will believe firmly let him look upon the excellency of Christ Jesus not on that which is offensive and scandalous to our reason It was excellent doctrine that
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
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
Proclamation is general the invitation of the thirsty to water wine milk of the loaden and weary unto rest of the willing unto the water of life and the Promise is general to all and every believer and that of eternal life and therefore you may conclude there is an offer of grace made to sinful and wicked men by the Gospel for thou saith the Psalmist of Christ hast received gifts for men yea for the rebellious also that God may dwell amongst them Psal 69. 18. And then Thirdly Which binds all the rest whomsoever God doth call to faith and Conversion by the invitations of his Word and by the pulsations or knocking 's of his Spirit he calls and invites them seriously and in good earnest what think you when Christ saith how often would I have gathered you and when God saith Ezek. 14. 13. I purged thee and thou wast not purged are these things spoken in jest we must not judge that grace is not offered in good earnest by the event that it hath in us for it may be frustrate and without success but judge by the nature of the benefit offered by the excitements afforded and the aids and motions supplyed and by the tendency of them what they mean and in their nature drive at even at the bringing of you to Christ Jesus let no man think with himself that God Tantalizeth man with the offers of his grace and that he is not really minded that they should be received but let this principle be setled and throughly fixt in your hearts that God is in good earnest and means seriously when he woes and invites you to repentance for this principle is of great use for that induces the acceptance the reality of the offerer no man will look on a bargain that is offered him in jest look after a gift though never so rich that is holden forth in a pretence and simulation this will not induce a man to look after grace if he hath this perswasion that God Tantalizeth him with it what man living under the Gospel can stand out and say Lord I would but thou wouldest not I put forth my hand and thou drewest back thine let no man think this to excuse himself upon God this was intended by a Parable Luke 19. 20. of him that had a talent given him who laid it up and did not use it thinking to excuse himself on the temper the austerity of the Master so to put off all blame from himself whereby our Saviour signifies that men would put the fault upon God saith he Master I knew thou wert a hard man that reapest where thou didst not sow therefore I laid up the talent that thou mightest have thy own the Master speaks to him calling him evil servant and retorts the objection upon himself if I were a hard man thou oughtest to have put forth thy talent rather he is deceived that thinks to clear his neglect by fastening a reason for it upon God for there are four things in the Scripture that seem to me to prove these offers of grace in the Gospel to be serious I know not how others may interpret them First The pathetical form that is used of inviting sinners so low sometimes that God doth beseech us to be reconciled God and Christ doth beseech you by us that are his Ministers and Embassadors 2 Corinthians 5. 20. Secondly By the frequent exhortations and amongst the rest for I should speak the whole Bible in a manner to name all that 2 Cor. 6. 1. we beseech you that you receive not the grace of God in vain for it s not offered to you in vain for he saith there is a day of Salvation and that is now And then Thirdly By the expostulations with careless and negligent men for not coming in neglecting or abusing these offers I wonder that you are so soon perverted and carryed away to another Gospel in Gal. 6. 1. And then Fourthly By the promises made and holden forth Rev. 3. 20. I stand at the door and knock if any man will open to me I will come and sup with him and do not all these forms of dealing with man prove sufficiently the reality of the offers of grace to a sinner yea verily and that he doth not dally with men For else First God should seem hereby to deceive men to offer them a purchase and a prize and call and invite them in the Name of his Son Christ and never mean or intend that this grace should be by them received Secondly The messengers whom God sends forth to be woers of chast virgins unto Christ and to bespeak the espousals as the Word is 2 Cor. 11. 1 2. they should be found false witnesses for what would you take him to be that should speak to a man to bespeak a virgin for him whom he never intends or means to have if she would have him And then Thirdly The neglect of this grace might more excusably be made a great deal and would have a greater colour of excuse for they would say there was indeed grace holden forth to them in mockery without any reality that they should receive it but now God finds 〈◊〉 with men and blames them for not acknowledging or not considering that his goodness should lead them to repentance and therefore do despise it as the phrase is Rom. 2. 4. And therefore it must be a plain case that the drift and scope of that goodness is to lead men to repentance and so the whole army of providentiâ—â— dispensations the offers made in the Word the excitements of the Spirit of God as well as other goodness do all speak and tend to the clearing of God of simulation or meer pretence I would it were believed that though you were never so remote and far from this grace and seem to despair that you cannot have it and think that God doth but dally when he makes the offer to you or whatever your apprehensions be settle it in your hearts the offer is real and God is serious and in good earnest wheâ— he offers Christ and grace in the Gospel One great objection there is in this point Quest How can these offers of grace be serious or in earnest when so many thousands called by the Word are not absolutely converted how doth God deal in good earnest in the offer of grace when he doth not absolutely give it and work this Conversion if God had a serious will it would be absolute by power to work that he calls men unto if God were in good earnest that I should be converted and believe in Christ then God by his absolute and peremptory will would give me this grace and work it in me Answ But we answer that the will of God may be serious though it be not absolute and peremptory God may by his serious will will that you repent and yet by his absolute will work it not The great iustance in this point is God had a serious will that
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.
I Confess Justification is like quitting of a Prisoner at the Goal delivery the sentence quits him in an instant and frees him But sanctification is like the healing of a wound by a Surgeon which is a progressive work a work of time the power of man is nothing in the one as well as the other without me you can do nothing both are from Christ that comes by water and blood 1 Joh. 5. 6. for the remission of sin and also for cleansing purging and purifying of the heart who is made both righteousness and sanctification to us 1 Cor. 1. 30. for else a man may be reformed by vertue not sanctified which is by grace or faith Thirdly That which though it denyes not grace to be of God no Pelagian would ever do that yet affirms the use of grace to be of man it is in man to receive it or not receive it to believe by it or no that is that God may give the power but not the act God gives the power whereby I may believe in Christ if I will But he gives not the act of believing And this is the great question which methinks is thus determined in the Scripture God saith the Apostle works both to will and to do and every man that hath learned of the Father comes to me Joh. 6. 45. for though your reason tells you that in many cases a man hath power to do that he doth not as to see when he shuts his eyes you must make a difference for when God works faith he frames the heart to use his grace and to believe as when the hand doth turn the wheel the wheel always tnrns for if it did not turn it takes away the subject of the question when there is a power put forth from God to work upon my heart to lead me to Christ he doth not therein only give a power that I shall use it as I list that 's clean contrary for if he turn me I am turned and if I am not turned he doth not turn me Fourthly that which teaches That Good works acceptable to God may be performed without a new nature and by this point I thrust every man to seek a new nature and a new being and not only to do good works for that contradicts the point of our Saviour Make the tree good and his fruit good There must first be Regeneration Renovation in the spirit of man whereby he must be implanted into Christ Jesus or there will never grow good fruit thereon Lastly that it is true God sends Christ as the text saith But there are so many attractives in him to draw a sinner that there needs no drawing of God there needs no drawing of a lost man to a Saviour no more then a poor man is drawn to a loaf of bread But sinners lost and undone stand in need of drawing And therefore I shall shew that as God gives Christ so he must give faith in Christ or I cannot be saved As God gives Christ and sends him to me so he must draw me and bring me to Christ or else no saving effect will follow And that shall be the second Use or Inference Serm. 18 Use 2 THat as God sends Christ to us so he must draw us also to him or else there can be no salvation and this may be thus proved Those that come not to Christ cannot be saved by him those of the world that are not drawn by this drawing of the Father do not come to Christ therefore they are not saved The service that this Inference doth is this will beat down the thoughts of many thousands that rest in this empty plea God hath sent Christ to die and to redeem mankind it is well and the plea is good for encouragement to believe but if this be all the consolation if this be all you rest upon Gods acts in sending Christ you are much mistaken for the great question is Hath God drawn thee to Christ Thou pleadest Christs mission but Canst thou make Gods traction of thee to appear This is the great point that this doctrine preaches as if Christ should say It is true My Father hath sent me and I am come to you by his appointment to shed my blood for you but you must come to me if you will have life and come to me you cannot except you be drawn by the power of him that sent me for no man can come to me except the Father draw him Whether of the two be most necessary to salvation Gods mission of Christ or Gods traction of man to Christ is as I conceive a trivial question hardly coming into the Schools which will tye a knot in any rush for they are both equally necessary as the Serpent on the pole in view to be lookt upon and the eye to see it were both necessary for the recovery of them that were bitten by fiery Serpents except God send Christ there is no object of Faith except God draw you to Christ there is no act of Faith And the necessity of the object and of the act cannot without fondness be compared together for both are in their kind necessary in the highest degree the mercy and the grace of God are eminent in both the Father his sending Christ and the Fathers drawing of sinners unto Christ they are both necessary But yet this sending and this drawing are of distinct consideration in divers respects First Gods sending Christ sets up to sinful man the object of his faith For though all the Scripture be the object of that they call the Catholick faith yet peculiarly Christ in the Scripture is the kernel and marrow of all the types in the Old Testament Christ is the object of Faith whereby it justifies For though the eye that lookt to the brazen Serpent could see many things besides yet they could have no cure by the sight of any thing but that this sets up to man the object of his Faith Gods drawing works in man the act of Faith If Christ had not been sent there had been no object to be believed on If God should not draw sinners to him there would be no faith to believe by So that it would be as with Israel if there were either no Serpent on the pole to be lookt unto or no eye to look up to it the recovery of those bitten with the fiery Serpents would fail Secondly Gods sending of Christ was in pursuance of his Covenant made with our Mediaeter Gods drawing unto Christ is in pursuance of his Covenant made with sinners in the Mediator That there is a Covenant of God the Father with Christ Jesus seems very probable because there was a Covenant made with the first Adam therefore also with the second And this is intimated by Christ himself in these words John 17. 4. I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do And in those Heb. 10. 9. Lo I come to do thy will O God For there is that we call the
or both truly I think he should answer best that saith faith is actus totius hominis the act of the whole man the mind to know the will to Consent and Embrace the affections to rejoyce in and desire as the Scripture saith faith is seated in the heart all the heart Faith must be a work brought into the heart by the hand of God for if faith should come in by its own forcible entry by opposition man would fight against it at every door or room and therefore it remains that it must come into the heart voluntarily the heart must be made willing and when it is so it sets open every door that it will not fight against any entry It is God that makes the whole soul willing to the entrance of faith into it Reas 7 Seventhly Saving faith always flows or proceeds from a vital principle a dead man performs no act of life and if faith be an act of life then this faith cannot be performed by a man that is dead that is by a natural man dead in sin and therefore he that makes a man to believe in Christ must first out a life into him see the Reason how it hangs together a spiritual dead man can no more put life into himself then a natural dead man this argument proves that Gods drawing a man to Christ is as it were the raising of him from the dead that mans believing in Christ is as much as a resurrection from the dead and proves that Gods drawing must goe before mans coming or believing the passive work of Conversion preceds that which is called active Conversion the one is Gods the act of raising the other is mans the act of turning to God I know not what can be said against it Reas 8 Eightly The greatest opposition that is made to the plantation of grace yet in the heart of man is made to faith temptations are soarest oppositions are strongest against faith because the soul and salvation lies at stake upon it the hinge that salvation hangs on being in this point therefore it hath more opposition by sin and the devil then any other grace I have prayed saith Christ to Peter that thy faith fail not Why not that thy love or thy fear or thy patience fail not because the greatest batteries of the devil are against faith and the taking of that fort would take all and therefore all those considerations that give such weight to faith in order to Salvation do also give weight to the reason I am now upon that a supernatural hand is that which must work and create faith in us Reas 9 Lastly I should as easily and willingly ascribe the whole work of mans conversion and regeneration his new birth and justification all to the power of man dead in sin as I would ascribe thereto faith in or coming unto Christ and so let God sit by as a looker on and behold what a fine thred the will of man spins throughout the whole webb of conversion regeneration and believing and let sinful man be suae fortunae faber the workman of his own fortune as they use to say and where then shall be the commendation and praise of Glorious grace sure there will be the commendation of the will of man and not of the will of God and so all things will come at last result to this which the Serpent said to our first parents ye shall be as Gods if faith and coming to Christ be in the power of man you will be as God for not he that supplies the object of faith but he that supplies the power and act of faith the will and deed to believe sits highest in Glory the Reason is that notwithstanding the object of Faith revealed man might perish but he that gives me the act of believing and makes good that cannot perish but must be saved Let the evidence of these Reasons quiet and settle you upon this point And Serm. 21 Use 1 FIrst Make those men jealous and suspicious of their Faith that find an easie quiet and undisturbed faith that have believed time out of mind as they say ever since they could remember and never had â—â—sence and feeling of this drawing work of God without which faith cannot be wrought It is true I believe that regenerating grace steals into many a one even in their inâ—â—ncy before they can reflect upon themselves for this faith is not known without reflection and before they know who it is that calls Samuel Samuel and they have cause of praise afterward that God marked them for his sheep while they were but Lambs this may be and therefore I will not say that this point ties these men to know or to find out the time of the first working and plantation of faith in them But ordinarily those that are of age do hear the noise or voice of this wind when it blows though it be a secret work and thou knowest not whence it comes nor whither it goes yet they feel a work whereby they are drawn to believe in Christ and in every man ordinarily there are inward bickerings temptations troubles for sin fears all which do make faith hard and thereby as Israel coming out of Aegypt we have more sensible experiments of Gods goodness and power so in the first plantation and further growth of our faith there will be very much all along to teach us this lesson that iâ— is a very hard thing to believe either in God for matters of providence or in Christ for pardon of sin yea and many times after the shaken heart is come to a center the earth-quake may return again especially if we take hold of rotten refuges for it s we that make it hard to believe otherwise they that have a faith dogmatical some righteousness and works of their own to trust to it is to them in their thinking a very easie thing to believe in Christ but its guilt that abates confidence if we our selves did but know our secret guilt it must needs make it hard to us to believe in Christ and yet all that do believe have this guilt staring them in the face but the Goodness truth and freeness of the promise overcomes it Use 2 Secondly If God have drawn thee to Christ and made thee a believer then return and acknowledge to him the Glory Let it ravish thy heart with the love of God for his finger hath been in thy heart whether thou be sensible of it no and to whet and sharpen thy praise let the open sight of thy former unfitness to believe equal to the unfitness of other men and thy equal impotency and opposition to thy own happiness raise the tune of thy praise for a Christian must never lose the sence of his former sins I was a persecuter and injurious and then it follows in 1 Tim. 1. 13. and the grace of the Lord was exceeding abundant to me with faith and love and therefore thou hast reason to kiss that hand
then any thing else so there was no opposition but now to this new creature there is not only in us no propension but there is more there is an antipathy and opposition so as God hath somewhat to take away as well as somewhat to give I will take away the heart of stone so that it is a harder matter to make a man a second time then at first Use 2 Secondly If it be Gods working and drawing whereby a man is wrought to faith learn that as God in working of Miracles did use men as in healing diseases and raising the Dead Paul and Peter c. So God in calling and begetting you to himself and his Son by the Gospel as Paul saith I have begotten you by the Gospel useth the Agency of men even in working Faith and Conversion this I thought good to put in because its clear and that no man might stumble to look for a kind of Enthusiastical Conversion that God should work Faith and Repentance without the use of any means God uses instruments to awaken you and excite you be you excited Behold I stand at the door and knock and God doth not ordinarily convert those whom before he hath not excited convinced and awakened there are instruments used though the power be Gods So as a man that hath a Sore expects not healing from the Cloth that holds on the Plaister but from the Plaister it self I make this comparison to signifie that we are but the Cloth that keeps on the Plaister we do but apply and hold it on Use 3 Thirdly If this be Gods way to bring those that he saves to Christ let it be your way in seeking Salvation to come in to Christ for this is the only way which God hath established and wherein man succeeds Serm. 26 Observ 5 Fifthly That both by the direct word no man can and by the Power of God which goes to the making man come it appears that man is Impotent and Unable of himself thereunto and there is more goes to the converting of a man then is in man himself which I confesse is a point that I pitcht upon before but it follows properly now I am gleaning from the words of the Text what can be further gathered from which observation these three things follow First That man is naturally at a distance from Christ being not in him already by his first birth but is to come unto him Secondly This coming of man to Christ Jesus is a motion or passage from state to state so that indeed no man doth come to Christ but he doth change his estate and condition Joh. 5. 24. he that believeth is pass'd from death to life Oh! that God would make you look out for this transition that you may be sure you stand not still in the first estate wherein you were Thirdly and lastly It follows that man is impotent to his greatest concernment not only for keeping the Law for whole and perfect obedience to God which yet may humble man but also to that on which hangs the great hinge of Eternal life his coming to Christ that so you may be confounded in your selves and quite ashamed Object Now by reason of an Objection that may be raised I shall start out of my way by a degression may some say if God will use instruments in working Faith or Conversion as the word and Gospel-ministry as a Lanthorn that holds out the light it seems to us that they do something therefore it followes if God work by them and they work under God that therefore God is not the Sole worker but these Instruments as working with God so the Scripture uses the Word Answ God doth work by the word and instruments ordinarily but do not deceive your selves we do not use to say the Ax did build this house But the Carpenter that wields and manages it noâ— the pen made the deed or drew the conveyance but the Secretary that used it this is proper in all speech we do not give away the work of the principal agent unto the instrument so neither may we say that the Minister works but instrumentally properly no otherwise then the pen drew the conveyance that we may bring all the honour and glory to God that works in us and therefore let no man look for a sudden enthusiastick conversion a faith wrought in without the ordinary way and means we do not prompt you to look for or to look unto and to say all in short God can bring forth and work faith in the heart of man by himself without instruments as he made the day before he made the Sun so that you see he did not need the Sun to make the day but now in the setled course of his providence he works by man Christ could have brought the Fish to hand to the shore but he would bring them to Peters net that was the usual instrument to catch the Fish so God that can work to bring you to Faith in Christ an extraordinary and easie way yet will bring you to the Gospel net because that 's the means appointed for the catching of the Fish this hinders not that God is the sole worker of Faith and I make it appear by this Similitude God appoints Marriage for the procreation of Children and the prepagation of Mankind and it cannot be in an ordinary way without it but will any man say the Soul is propogated the reasonable Soul is traduced No! you generally say God alone infuses the reasonable Soul into the body of the Child a fit instance to shew that wherein God only works yet there must be means used God drawes to Christ by a powerful work and yet he will have man excited awakened perswaded and he will have the door knockt at by the ministery of man to the end that man may first be made sensible of his own impotency and secondly that he may know what God doth for him that when the means used do not he can with a Key open the heart Thirdly that he may deal with man in a humane may with man as man in a moral way by Counsel and Instruction one man works upon another And doubtlesse God doth ordinarily give the quickening life the life of Faith and Grace when he hath first excited and hewed man by his word at least to make some preparation in man if it be but so farre as conviction goes for conviction is the last work wrought in man foregoing Christ Jesus look on your natural formes if but of a Chicken hatcht of an egge It 's not introduced without preparations and previous works foregoing and that there should be some preparations wrought in man in order to bringing him to Christ doth appear as without the sense of a disease no man seeks to a Physitian and the serpent on the pole would have been of no use unlesse some had been stung to look up to it for remedy these things seem clear to me that there are some previous
there are many things whereof women have experience that counterfeit impregnation which is not so So there may be such appearings of believing in a man as give but an uncertain or fals evidence thereof therefore you need know some certain evidences that you are drawn to God for your comfort And First If you be come then you have been drawn this stands upon the evidence of the text the effect shewes the cause for no man can come except the father drawes If the wall shine you may conclude the sunne is up and shines upon it for it would give no light of it self but by reflection if you find in your hearts a willing receiving of Christ Jesus for your Saviour and Lord that you have surrendred and made a deed of gift of your selves to the Lord Jesus to be his certainly you have been drawn by God this light hath shined upon you otherwise you could not reflect it Secondly Is thy faith an inchristing that is a Christ receiving faith is it a marriage faith I call that a marriage faith which accepts of the person of Christ a Saviour and Lord which some call the faith of the person whereby you do not only believe for benefits without him but for the benefiâ—s with him there is a faith in formal hypocrites and such as the very sound of the word begets as we see in all or the generallity of us here in England that live under the sound of the word of the Gospel a kind of faith and opinion begotten in all men of Christ by a general and uncontrolled conviction as those that did believe when they saw the miracles that he did but he did not commit himself to them John 2. 24. But that which is called the faith of Gods Elect in Titus 1. 1. that 's not found in any but they that are thus drawn and is that which he works in man in pursuance of his purpose of election making good the rest of the links of the chain after the first namely effectual calling and Justification and Sanctification which every faith or believing doth not doe every faith you find in men is not in pursuance of this drawing of God as I have described it Thirdly When we can willingly subscribe to the course that God hath taken to save our souls which the most of men do not now the course that he hath taken is in another not in our selves it is in Christ by whom God doth justifie reconcile adopt sanctifie and govern all in Christ A sanctified heart submitting to this course of God is a sign that God hath drawn you and given you some taste of Christ Jesus and is your faith such a believing yea or no then certainly by the victoriousness of it to bring you to this pass it appears to be the teaching of God as it is delivered in 2 Cor. 10. 5. It is powerful to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ For man naturally and of himself thinks very meanly of this way and means of saving men by Christ for so it was in the type at first Israel thought very meanly of Moses when he came into Egypt one that seemed an unlikely instrument to cope with 〈◊〉 and such potent impediments And therefore the Jew hold fast his own righteousness and would not submit Rom. 10. 3. And mans pride makes greatest head and resistance against this way of Salvation that may be until it appear that there must be no Salve or Chirurgerie to apply to the sting of fierie Serpents on pain of death but that unlikely way of looking up to the brazen Serpent on the pole for he that used his own medicine perished and died So when a man is convinced that there is no salve of his own making no medicine of his own applying will serve the turn for a man may die under his medicine as well as under his sinne if he do not fly to this only remedy to look up by faith to Christ Jesus When he is convinc'd of this he will subscribe and give up his hand to God the Lord as it 's said and this submission doth stand in three things First In a contented losse of that which was his gain for every man hath somewhat to leaâ— upon that he may not lie open to the arrowes of the fiery law of God and his own conscience therefore some gâ—in he will have to shelter him and therefore when he can willingly esteem all those excellencies dung and dross and adventure to make himself empty and naked that he may be found in Christ Jesus Phil 3. 8 9. This is a sign of submitting to God as the storm makes the Merchant at Sea to submit he loves his goods but the danger of his life which the storm puts him into makes him heave them all over board It 's good when a man is willing to be a loser of his proud self-sufficiencies or his beloved sins to gain Christ for these are our hardest losses and to make Christ Jesus our gain answerable and valuable to and with all our losses A hard point but 't is a point of submission Secondly In a willing submission to the conduct of Christ as Israel if they will go out of Egypt they must submit to the conduct of Moses and go which way he will lead them for not the shortest but the safest way God leads them wherein he will shew them wonders further miracles then he had shewn in Egypt so this submission to the conduct of Christ in the wilderness that he leads you through where the cross the loss may make you more miserable for Religion for Christ then other men in the world are as the Apostle saith the confession of Christ makes us miserable men in the world miserable for religions sake which we might avoid if we would shun religions if this can be digested by you and there be a sweetning of sowre morsels by the name of Christ it argues well Thirdly In a cordial submission to Christ his wayes especially when they are quarreld by flesh and blood Some men are so bold as to account them foolish others as unreasonable most of us do account them hard and that we shall be contrary to other mens examples or reasons or principles and therefore it is a hard thing to submit to the waies of God without consulting with flesh and blood so as though reasons taken from religion are the strongest with us in any debate or consultation yet there is a propension in our natures to follow the guidance of our own reason until the Load-stone have toucht the Iron and caused it to look to the North point as you use to say till the interest of God have taken place in our hearts to draw them to Christ Jesus then there is a submission to Christ for righteousness and to those waies and Commandements that he injoines us be they never so hard and untractable to flesh and blood Fourthly When we find that God will