all Ephraims prayer over again behinde his back 3. No answer from Christ is Hell to a Believer but to kisse and embrace hell because its Christs Hell is a work of much acceptance when you say He pray and die praying though I be never heard because praying is my dutie and Gods glory let me die in a dutie that glorifieth him 4. Wrestling addeth strength to armes and body praying and praying again strengthneth Faith customary running lengthneth the breath By much praying faith is well breathed Iacob is stronger in the morning when he hath prayed a whole night then at bed-time Gen. 32.26 The Angel said Let me go for the day breaketh And he said I will not let thee go till thou blesse me Then in the dawning he hath prayed harder and used his arms with greater violence then before by this hunger groweth fatter sense stronger it s here Eat and be hungry pray and desire more strongly to pray 3. Reasons of Gods not hearing prayer are 1. Superstitious and false worship Isa. 16.12 Moab wearied of his high places comes to his Sanctuary to pray but prevaileth not Wildfire cannot rost raw flesh 2. God hears not sinners Joh. 9.31 Let his prayer be sin Psal. 109.7 Yea the prayers of Britain are not heard nor their Solemn Fasts accepted for iniquity hath separated between God and us Es. 59.2 3. God heareth not whâ—n there 's a heart-love to vanity Psal. 66.18 Iob 35.15 4. God heareth not Malignants nor us when many are heart-enemies to the Cause Psal. 18.41 5. He heareth not bloudy men Es. 1.15 Now for the Saints sense maketh non answering a mercifull judgement it s here as in riches he is rich who thinketh himself rich and desireth no more So not to be answered is a plague but to find you are not answered and be sad for it hath much of Christ The Saints are heavier because God answereth not then because the mercy is denyed Quest. How shall we know we are answered Answ Hannah knew it by peace after prayer 2. Paul knew it by receiving new supply to bear the want of that he sought in prayer he is answered that is more heavenly after prayer 3. Liberty and boldnesse of Faith is a sign of an answered prayer The intercessor at the right hand of God cannot lose his own work his spirit groaneth in the Saints doth not my head accept what I set my heart on work to do Rom. 8.23 26 27. compared with Rev. 8.3 4. We are heard and answered of God when we are not heard and answered of God I pray for a temporall favour victory to Gods people in this battle they lose the day Yet I am heard and answered because I prayed for that victory not under the notion of victory but as linked with mercy to the Church and the honour of Christ So the formall object of my prayers was a spirituall mercy to the Church and the honour of Jesus Christ. Now the Lord by the losse of the day hath shewen mercy on his people in humbling them and glorifieth his Son in preserving a fallen people So he heareth that which is spirituall in my prayers he is not to hear the errors of them Christ putteth not drosse in his Censure of Gold 5. We are heard when ever we ask in Faith but let Faith reach no further then Gods will when we make Gods will our rule he will do his own will if he do not my wil it s to be noted That the creatures will divided from Gods will in things not necessary for Salvation and Gods glory is no part of Gods will and no asking of Faith Therefore Faith frequently in the Psalms prayeth and answereth Psal. 6. v. 4. compared with v. 9. Ps. 55.2 Attend unto me hear me v. 19. God shall hear and afflict them Ps. 57.1 Be mercifull unto me O God c. v. 3. He shall send from Heaven and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up Psal. 59. 1. Deliver me from mine enemies O my God 2. Deliver me from the workers of iniquity v. 10. The God of mercy shall prevent me God shall let me see my desire upon mine enemies Psal. 60.1 O God thou hast cast us off thou hast scattered us c. But in the end vers 12. Through God we shall do valiantly The prophecying of Faith is not dead with the Prophets Faith seeth afar off as yet to see things that God shall do either by Himself or by Angels is an act of prophecy and differeth not in nature from the propheticall light of the Prophets now the light of Faith seeth as yet the same to wit that Christ shall raise the dead and send his Angels to gather in his Wheat into his barne especially hope of glory is Propheticall 6. Patience to wait on while the vision speak is an answer 7. Some letters require no answer but are meer expressions of the desires of the friend the generall Prayers of the Saints that the Lord would gather in his elect that Christ would come and marry the Bride and consummate the Nuptials do refer to a reall answer when our Husband the King shall come in person at his second appearance 1. Vse You take it hard that you are not answered and that Christs door is not opened at your first knock David must knock Ps. 22. 2. O my God I cry by day and thou hearest not and in the night season I am not silent The Lords Church Lam. 3.8 And when I cry and shout he shuteth out my prayer Sweet Iesus the Heire of all prayed with teares and strong cries once O my father againe O my father and the third time O my father ere he was heard Wait on dye praying faint not 2. Vse It s good to have the heart stored with sweet principles of Christ when he heareth not at the first It s Christ he will answer It s but Christs out-side that is unkinde SERMON XII And his Disciples came and besought him saying Send her away c. IN the Disciples we see little tendernesse no more but send her away she troubleth us with crying forsooth they were sore slain that their dainty ears were pained with the crying of a poor woman Why they say not Dear master her little daughter is tormented with the Divel and thou her Saviour answerest her not one word she cannot but break her heart we pray thee Master heal her daughter Doct. Naturall men or Christs Disciples in so far as tâ—erâ— is flesh in them understandeth not the mystery of sorrow and fervour of affection in the Saints crying to God in disertion and not heard 1. Naturall men jeer at Christ deserted Psal 22.8 He trusted in the Lord let him deliver him Heavy was the spirit of the weeping Church a captive woman at the rivers of Babylon yet see they mock them Sing us one of the songs of Sion 2. Even the Saints in so far as
chase few men to Christ three grounds thereof p. 44 How men naturally love the Devil p. 45. Satan how an unclean spirit p. 46 It s true wisedome to know God savingly p. 47. What hearing bringeth souls to Christ p. 49. Four defects in hearing p. 50. Hell coming to our senses in this life should not cause us believe without effectuall Grace p. 51. It s good to border near to Christ p. 52. SERM. VI. Crying in prayer necessary p. 53. Five grounds thereof p. 54. Prayer sometimes wanteth words so as groaning goeth for Prayer p. 55. How many other expressions beside vocall praying go under the liew of praying in Gods accompt ibid. 8. Objections removed p 55.56.57.58 59 60. Some affections greater then tears p. 56. Looking up to heaven praying ibid. Breathing praying p. 57. That wherâ—in the least of prayer the Minimum quod sic consisteth ibid. Broken Prayers are Prayers p. 58. The Lord knoweth non-sense in a broken spirit to be good sense p. 59. SER. VII Why Christ is called frequently the Son of David not so the Son of Adam of Abraham p. 62. Christ a King by Covenant p. 63 What things be in the Covenant of Grace ibid. The parties of the Covenant p. 64 Christ hath a sevenfold relation to the Covenant 1. He is the Covenant it self 2. The Messenger 3. The Witnesse 4. The Surety 5. The Mediator 6. The Tâ—stator 7. The principall party contracter p. 64 65. Christ the Covenant it self ibid. Christ a Messenger of the Covenant in 4. particulars ibid. A Witnesse in four things p. 66. A Surety in three p. 67 68. A Mediator in three things 1. A Friend 2. A Reconciler 3. A Servant p. 69. Christ a servant of God and our servant ibid. Christ confirmed and sealed the Testament p. 70 Christ the principall consederate party ibid. The Covenant made with Christ personally not mystically proved from Gal. 3.16 The contrary Reasons answered p. 71. A Covenant between the Father the Son proved ibid. Of the Promises of the Covenant p. 73. Two sorts of Promises p. 74. Christ took a new Covenant right to God p. 75. Five sorts of promises made to Christ and by proportion to us ibid. SERM. VIII The condition of the Covenant p 77. Libertines deny all conditions of the Covenant p. 78. The new Covenant hath conditions to be performed by us ibid. Six Objections removed p. 77 78 79 80 81. A twofold dominion of gracious and supernaturall acts p. 79. We are not justified before we beleeve proved by six Arguments p. 81. A condition taken in a threefold Notion p. 83. It s not a proper condition by way of strict wage and work when we are said to be justified and saved upon condition of faith p. 85. The Freedom 2. Eternity 3. Well-ordering of the Covenant the three properties thereof p. 87 88. The freedom of the Covenant is seen in regard 1. of Persons 2. of Causes 3. of Time 4. of manner of dispensation p. 86 87. Uses of the Doctrine of the Covenant p. 88 89 90. SERM. IX Christ God and man and our comfort therein p. 91. Christ immediate in the Act of Redeeming us and so sweeter ibid. Christ incomparable p. 92. Four other necessary uses p. 91 92 93 94 95. To believers all temporall favours are spiritualized and watered with mercy four grounds thereof p. 96. By what reason our Father as a Father giveth us spiritual things by that same he giveth us all things p. 98. Mercy originally in Christ and how p. 99. SERM. X. Parents affection their spirituall duty to children p. 102. Thirteen Practicall Rules in observing passages of Divine providence p. 103 104 105 106 107 108. 1. We are neither to lead nor to stint Providence p. 103 2. But to observe God in his wayes and not to look to by-ways of providence ibid. 3. Omnipotency not laid down in pawne in any means p. 104. 4. God walketh not in the way that we imagine ibid. 5. Providence in its concatenation of Decrees actions events is one continued contexture going along from Creation to the day of Christs second coming without one broken threed p. 105. 6. The spirit is to be in an indifferency in all casts of Providence p. 106. 7. Low desires best p. 107. 8. We are to lie under providence submissively in all ibid. 9. Providence is a mistery ibid. 10. Walketh in uncertainties toward us ibid. 11. Silence is better then disputing p. 108. 12. It s good to consider both what is inflicted who ibid. 13. God alway ascendeth even when second causes descendeth ibid. SERM. XI Every temptation hath its taking power from the seeming goodnesse in it p. 109. Reasons why this was a temptation to the woman p. 110. The scope of the Temptation to make the tempted believe there is none like him p. 111. The non-answering of Christ is an answering ibid. 5. Reasons of the Lords not hearing of Prayer p. 113. Seven wayes prayers are answered ibid. Praying in Faith alwayes heard even when the particular which we suit in Prayer is denied p. 114. Faith in one and the same Prayer seeketh and knocketh and answereth and openeth to it self p. 115. The light of saving Faith and the Propheticall light of the Pen man of the word of God differ not in â—pâ—ce and nature ibid. The dearest not admitted into God at the first knock p 116. SERM. XII Naturall men and even the renewed in spirit in so far as there remaineth some flesh in them are ignorant of the mystery of an afflicted spirit p 117. Peace of conscience is a work of Creation p. 118. A reason why it s so hard to convince the deserted p. 119. Christ sweeter to the deserted then all the world ibid. Difference between Gods trying and the creatures tempâ—ing in three Positions p. 121. A Creature cannot put a fellow creature to act sin upon an intention of trying him ibid. In the actions of creatures we must know Quis 2. Quid 3 Quare Who â—ommandeth 2. What 3. And for what end In Gods actions It is enough to know Quis Who that is Jehovah p. 122. Four doubts of the tempted p. 124 125. In the sending of Christ to the lost sheep of the house of Israel there be three things considerable 1. His designation 2. Qualification 3. Commission p. 126. The Son most fit to be Mediator ibid. How Christ is qualified p. 127 His Commission ibid. It is not properly grace that we are born its grace that Christ is born p. 128. Gods hidden decree and his revealed will opened p. 129 A twofold intention in the promises ibid. How and who are to believe the Decree of Reprobation concerning themselves p. 130 SERM. XIII It s a priviledge of mercy that Christ is sent to the Jews first p. 131 Nine priviledges of the Jews p. 132. The honour and priviledges of Britain p. 133. The Redeemed called sheep upon four grounds p. 134. How passive the Redeemed are in the way to
whole captive Church saith The Lord is righteous for I have sinned 3. There is a promise made to these that confesse Pro. 28.13 Who so confesseth and forsaketh their sins shall have mercy Ps. 32.3 When I kept silence and confessed not my bones waxed old c. Vers. 5. I said I wil confesse my transgression unto the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin And this is not an old Testament-spirit onely for the same promise is 1 Joh. 1.8 9. If we confesse our sins he is faithfull and just to forgive Lev. 26.40 If they shall confesse their iniquity 42. Then will I remember my covenant with Iacob 3. Not to confesse is holden forth as a guiltinesse Jer. 2.35 Yet thou saidst Because I am innocent surely his anger shall turn from me behold I will plead with thee because thou sayest I have not sinned It s a token of impenitencie Jer. 8.6 No man repented him of his wickednesse saying what have I done 2. Ephraim Gods dear child is brought in as commended of God and the Lord telleth over again Ephraims prayers and sorrowing for sin Ier. 31.18 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself c. We have a precept for it in the New Testament Iam. 4.9 Be afflicted and mourn and weep Let your laughter bee turned to mourning and your joy to heavinesse 10. Humble your selves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up Now there is better reason to mourn for sin because they did lust war and were contentious then because there was afflictions on them Nature will cause any cry when punishment is on them but not nature but Grace not the flesh but the spirit causeth men sorrow for sin as sin Lev. 26.41 If then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity 42. Then I will remember my Covenant with Iacob 2. To mourn for sin is a grace promised under the New Test. Za. 12.10 And I will poure upon the house of David and upon the Inhabitants of Ierusalem the spirit of Grace and supplication and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn as one mourneth for his onely begotten son 3. Those for whom the consolations of Christ are ordained are the mourners in Zion But the consolations of Christ are not for legal mourners and such as are weary and laden for sin and yet never cometh to Christ nor believeth there 's no promise made to such mourners as Cain and Judas were Can we say that God promiseth Grace and mercy to any acts of the flesh or of unbelief 4. It s a mark of a conscience in a right frame to be affected with the sense of the least sin as David was one in whose conscience there remained the character of a stripe when he but cut the lap of Sauls Robe 1 Sa. 24.5 And when wicked men sin their conscience is past feeling Eph. 4.19 And seared with an hot iron 1 Tim. 4.2 It is not an argument of Faith apprehending sin pardoned not to mourn for sin and confesse it for if this be a good argument that if we being justified cannot but out of unbelief sorrow for a sin that before God is no sin as it is Jer. 50.20 Fully removed and taken away Joh. 1.29 Mic. 7.19 Cast in the depths of the Sea as Libertines argue for then say they we were both to believe that that sin remaineth and maketh the justified person lyable to Eternal wrath and so to sorrow for it as sin before God and also to believe that it is taken away and maketh the person not liable to Eternal wrath which are contradictory If this I say were a good Argument then were we not to eschew evill and to be averse to the acting of sin before it be committed for by the Doctrine of Antino All sins even ere they be committed yea from Eternity say some are as fully taken away pardoned as after they be committed and as when we do now believe and repent For if we were to have a will averse to the acting of sin before it be committed it must be upon this ground that it is sin before God and not taken away by Christs death else we should not abstain from it as sin but this is a false ground to Antinomians and inconsistent with the object of faith which is to beleeve this truth that all sins past present and to come are equally removed pardoned yea and in Christ taken away as if they never had been and so sorrow for sin committed being an act of the sanctified will displeased with sin if it be unlawfull the will of the justified person is not to be displeased with it ere it be committed but by the contrary if he is not to be displeased with sin commited but rather to will its commission not to sorrow for it because he beleeveth its pardoned and in Gods Court it s no sin to him being in Christ by the same ground ere it be committed in Gods Court it s no sin and so neither can he be displeased with it ere it be committed but may also will it and beleeve it s pardoned and he ought to have no act of remorse nor reluctance of conscience which is Gods Solicitour before the committing of it For how is it not equally an act of the flesh and unbeleef to fear sin to be committed as not pardoned in Christ as to fear sin already committed as not pardoned 2. If it be a lie and an act of unbeleef for any justified person to say Lord I have sinned O God thou knowest my foolishnesse and my sins are not hid from thee as justified David saith Psal. 69.5 in regard all his sins are pardoned and the man in faith contrary to the sense of his weak flesh is to beleeve that they are all taken away Upon the same pretended ground of faith he is to say Lord I shall never sin though I am to commit adultery and to murther innocent Uriah to morrow yet thou O God neither to morrow nor at any time dost see my foolishnesse and sins because the sins to come are equally removed and taken away in the free justification of grace as the sins already past Master Eaton saith To hold that when GOD hath justified both us and our works God yet seeth us in the imperfection of our sanctification is another evident mark of an hypocrite that was never yet truly humbled for the imperfection of his sanctification But these imperfections of our sanctification are left in us to our sense and feeling that they may be healed in our justification And hee bringeth pag. 375. diverse Reasons to prove That we are not both righteous in the sight of God and yet sinners in our selves Let me answer That Antinomians in this joyn hands with the Councell of Trent who curse us Protestants because we say The guilt of originall sin is taken away in Baptisme but that sin
Nay but if thou canst pray thou dost set the whole wheels of Omnipotency on work for the building of the Lords house in which regard the Prayer of a sick and poor man shall do more in War for the Cause of God then twenty thousand men It was not Ahasuerus nor the grace that Esther found in the eyes of the King that saved the whole Church of the Iews from destruction but the Prayers of Esther and her maids It s true an Angel broght Peter out of Prison Act. 12. But what stirred that wheel in Heaven vers 5. Here 's the Cause Prayer was made without ceasing to God for Peter by the Church Quod est causa causae est etiam causa causati Prayer Prayer can put a reeling and tottering on King and Court Pope Prelate and Babylon we are to pray the King of the bottomlesse pit the man of sin the graven Images of Apostate Rome out of the world Prayer can yoke all the swords in Europe against the Whore every one who hath the Spirit of Adoption though poor and rejected of men by prayer have powerfull influence on all the Nations of the earth on all Europe on the ends of the earth on the hearts of the Jews on Turkes and Indians Prayer can reach as far as Omnipotency accompanied by the wise decree of our Lord And the poorest Girle or Maid that can pray doth lend a strong lift to heighten the footstool of Christs Royall Throne children and poor Maids by Prayer may put the Crown on Christs head and hold up his Throne and may store and increase heaven by praying Thy Kingdome come and inlarge Hell and fill the pits with the dead bodies of Christs enemies and may by prayer binde Kings in Fetters chaine up and confine Devils subdue Kingdoms Great is thy Faith For the clearing of these words we are to consider three points 1. What Faith is 2. What a great Faith is 3. Why he saith thy Faith appropriating it to the woman Now of Faith I shall speak 1. A word of preparations for Faith 2. Of the grounds and necessary motives to Faith 3. Of the Ingredients of Faith 4. Of the sinners warrants to believe 5. Of divers sorts of false and ill rooted Faiths 1. There be some preparations which go before Faith 1. Faith is a seed of heaven it is not sowen by the good husbandman in unplowed and in Fallow ground Christ soweth not amongst thornes we are builded on the Faith stones are hewen rubbish removed before one stone be laid 2. Every act of Grace in God is an act of Omnipotency and so requireth not time or succession God might have set up the frame of the world in all its fulnesse with lesse then one thought or act of his will put forth by Omnipotency yet did our Lord subject the acts of creating the first world to the rule of time and to a circle of evening and morning nights and dayes so doth the Lord set up a new world of Faith in a soul void of Faith by degrees There 's a time when there 's neither perfect night nor perfect day but the twilight of the morning and God not withstanding created the morning no lesse then the noon day Sun There 's a half Summer and a half Spring in the close of the Spring which God made The Embrio or birth not yet animated is neither seed onely nor a man-child only so is a Convert in his first framing neither perfectly untamed corruption because there 's a crack and a throw in the iron sinew of the neck nor is he a thorow child of light but as we say in the dead-throw in the place of breaking forth of children as Hosea speaketh A child with his head come forth of the womb and no more and so half born only so is the Convert while he is in the making not taken off Christs wheels half in the borders of hell and looking a far off at the Suburbs of Heaven not far from the Kingdom of Heaven But 2. This bridge over the water between the kingdom of darknesse and the state of saving Grace hath no necessary connexion with that Kingdom of the Son of Gods love but such as it hath from the sole and meer decree of the free Election of Grace and therefore many Reprobates may enter the Bridge and never go along to the other Banke of the River God breaketh the Bridge this being the very division and parting of these two unsearchable wayes of Election and Reprobation yet so as the sin in cutting the bridge is the guilt of the Reprobate man As many births die in the breaking forth out of the womb divers Roses in the Bud are blasted and never see harvest through the fault of the seed not of the Sun 3. It s true the new creation and life of God is vertually Seminaliter in these preparations as the seed is a tree in hope the blossome an apple the foundation a Palace in its beginning so half a desire in the Non-converted is love sicknesse for Christ in the seed legall humiliation is in hope Evangelick Repentance and mortification But as the seed and the growing tree differ not gradually only but in nature specifically as a thing without life is not of that same nature and essence with a creature that hath a vegetative life and groweth so the preparatory good affections of desire hunger sorrow humiliation going before conversion differ specifically from those renewed affections which follow after The former being acts of Grace but not of saving grace which goeth along with the decree of Election of Grace and of like Latitude with it the latter being the native and connaturall fruits of the Spirit of which the Apostle speaketh Gal. 5.22.23 In which regard no man is morally and in regard of a divine promise such as this Do this and this and God shall bestow on you the Grace of conversion fitter and in a nearer disposition to conversion then another 1. Because we read not of any such promise in the Gospel 2. Because amongst things void of life all are equally void of life and there 's here no degrees of more or lesse life no intention no remission or flacking of the degrees of life for even as an Ape or an Horse are as equally no men as stones and dead earth are no men though an Ape or an Horse have life common to them with men which stones and earth have not yet they are equally as destitute of reason and an intellectual life which is the only life of a man as a man as stones and earth are So Saul only humbled by the terrours of the Law and sick of half raw desires of Christ is no lesse yet a creature void of the life of God then when he was in the highest pitch of obstinacy spitting out blood and murthers on the face of that Lord Jesus whom he persecuted and in this regard conversion is no lesse pure
Psal. 146.3 4. For that horse shall faint and fall to clay God alloweth Scotland to help England but will not have the souls of his children in England to ride upon an Army of another Nation and to trust in them for salvation To make fire is not so proper to fire To give light not so kindly to the Sun as salvation is Gods only due and therefore let England in this walk on foot and trust in the Lord. 5. The fifth ingredient also in Faith is that it s bottomed upon the sense and pain of a lost condition Poverty is the nearest capacity of believing This is Faiths method Be condemned and be saved Be hanged and be pardoned Be sick and be healed Mat. 9.13 Jam. 4.7 8. Mat. 11.28 Luke 19.10 Faith is a floor of Christs only planting yet it groweth out of no soil but out of the margin and bank of the lake of fire and brimstone in regard there be none so fit for Christ and Heaven as those who are self-sick and self-condemned to Hell This is a foundation to Christ that because the man is broken and has not bread therefore he must be sold and Christ must buy him and take him home to his fireside and clothe him and feed him The chased man pursued upon death and life who hath not a way for life but one nick of a rock if he misse that he is a dead man had he a hundred lives So is the believer pursued for blood there is but one City of refuge in Heaven or out of Heaven this is only only Jesus Christ the great rock And it is true it s in a manner forced Faith and forced love cast upon Christ upon a great venture yet we may make necessity here the greatest vertue or the highest grace and that is to come to Christ. Satan doth but ride upon the weaknesse of many proving that they are not worthy of Christ which is the way of a Sophist to prove an evident truth that cannot be denied But there 's no greater vantage can be had against Sin and Satan then this because I am unworthy of Christ and out of measure sinfull and I finde it is so Satan and conscience teaching me that truth to bring me on a false conclusion therefore ought I therefore must I come to Christ unworthy as I am For free-grace is moved from within it self from Gods good will only without any motion or action from sin to put it self forth upon the sinner to the end that sin being exceeding sinfull Grace may be abundantly Grace and no thanks to Satan for suggesting a true principle Thou art unworthy of Christ to promove a false conclusion Therefore thou art not to come to Christ for the contrary arguing is Gospel-logick Satans reasoning should be good if there were no way but the law to give life But because there is a Saviour a Gospel and a new and living way to Heaven The contrary arguing is the sinners life and happinesse 6. The sixt Ingredient in Faith is that the sinner can lay hold on the Promise 1. Not simply but with relation to the precept for presumptuous souls plunge in their foul souls in fair and precious promises and this is the Faith of Antinomians for the promise is not holden forth to sinners as sinners but as to such sinners for we make Faith to be an act of a sinner humbled wearied laden poor self-condemned now these be not all sinners but only some kinde of sinners Antinomians make faith an act of a lofty Pharisee of one vilde person applying with an immediate touch immediato contactu his hot boiling smoking lusts to Christs wounds blood merits without any conscience of a precedent Commandement that the person thus beleeving should be humbled wearied loaden grieved for sin I confess this is hasty hot work and maketh Faith a stride or one single step but it s a wanton fleshly and a presumptuous immediate work to lay hold on the promises of mercy and be saved This is the absolute and loose Faith that Papists and Arminians slandereth our Doctrine withall because we reject all foregoing merits good works congruous dispositions preparations moving God to convert this man because he hath such preparations and to reject and to leave another man to his own hardnesse of heart because he hath no such payment in hand by which he may redeem and buy conversion and the grace of Effectuall calling especially they building all upon a Babel of their own brick and clay that free-will in all acts of obedience before or after conversion is absolutely indifferent to do or not do to obey or not obey to choose Heaven and life hell or death as it pleaseth as being free and loosed from all Praedetermination and fore-going motion acting or bowing of the will comming either from Gods naturall or his efficacious or supernaturall Providence And so the Papist and Arminian on the one extremity inthroneth nature and extolleth proud merit and abaseth Christ and Free-grace The Familist Libertine and Antinomian on a contrary extremity and opposition turn man into a block and make him a meer patient in the way to Heaven and under pretence of exalting Christ and Free-grace set up the flesh liberty licence loosenesse on the throne and make the way to heaven on the other extremity as broad as to comply with all presumptuous proud fleshly men walking after their lusts and yet as they dream believing in Christ. 2. The soul seeth Christ in all his beauty excellency treasures of Free-grace lapped up with the curtain of many precious promises now the naturall man knowing the literall meaning and sense of the promises seeth in them but words of gold and things a far off and in truth taketh heaven to be a beautifull and golden phancy and the Gospel-promises a shower of pretious Rubies Saphirs Diamonds fallen out of the clouds only in a night dream and therefore jeers and scoffs at the day of judgment and at heaven and hell 2 Pet. 3.1 2 3. For can every capacity smell and taste the unsearchable riches of Christ the fulnesse of God in the womb of the promises by meditating on them and sending them in their sweetnesse and heavenly excellency down to the affections to embrace them No it cannot be that words and sounds and syllables can so work upon a natural spirit If you show not to a buyer pretious and rare commodities and bring them not before the sun he shall never be taken so with things hidden in your coffers as to be in love with them and to sell all he hath and buy them Preachers cannot nay it s not in their power to make the natural spirit see the beauty of Christ Paul Preacheth it but the Gospel is hidden from the blinded man 2 Cor. 4.3 If I cannot Communicate light far lesse can I infuse love in the soul of a lost man 3. Literall knowledge of Christ is not in the power of naturall men but laying down