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
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
what he was or is But God that commands the walking will put on the Byas whereby thou shalt move right It is as one should say A hog or swine considering how a sheep feeds cleanly on the grass should never feed as a sheep and live as he doth It s true whiles he remains a swine But if the nature of a sheep be put into him if he be so principled and altered its impossible he should live otherwise if you measure the walking in Gods wayes by the lusts in you you are never able to endure to affect to love them But the change of the principle makes the thing to nature changed There is also a prejudice that a man shall see no good dayes lose all content and joy live a melancholike or recluse life c. this is a mistake he shall not lose but change his joy the countenance of God doth not darken the heart but puts in more delight then Corn and Wine and Oyl increasing Psal 4. 7. More of these prejudices might be named but I instance in some that you might find your own in you that render you unwilling to believe for they are but misapprehensions of Christ and the work of his Grace by which the will is hindred as the species or appearance of good doth most frequently invite it If I would strain hard there might be other reasons given for the unwillingness of man to accept of Grace offered him but these shall serve for this tract Serm. 10 THe fourth point serving to open the Adunamy or disability of man in respect of coming unto him which our Saviour holds forth in these words no man can come to me is mans resistance of Grace or the means thereof that are offered towards conversion and this resistance is the highest step for it is not so high to be unwilling to receive grace when it is offered as it is to resist grace whereby we might believe and be converted And the Point that shall be the foot of my discourse shall be laid down in these words That the natural corruption of man prompts him to a rebellion against and the resistance of grace offered him for conversion or bringing him in to faith in Christ Jesus Every one of us do stand in defiance all the dayes of our natural condition unto the very grace of God that is offered us for conversion I say all our dayes untill the time comes whereof the Apostle speaks that every thought in us be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10. 5. till then we stand it out in rebellion so that it may very justly be said by Wisdom Prov. 8. ult speaking in the person of God and Christ All they that hate me love death A strange servitude of a man under sin that for the sake thereof that which is the great terrour of the whole world death death eternal should interpretativè though not formaliter be loved Being to speak of this point of Resistance offered unto the grace of God we must note that Resistance is either between equal or unequal powers The Resistance that is between equal powers brings forth the indifferency of an equal Scale where neither end is victorious The Resistance between unequal powers is either when a lesser power resists the greater and then it retards the action but makes no conquest or when a greater power resists the lesser and that conquers the Resistance and swallows up the opposition So that upon this point of the Resistance of man because it is of no proportion to Gods omnipotency therefore if God should act ad extremum virium to the extremity or height of his own power there could be no opposition made unto Divine grace But because God is a free agent tempering his working by his will which gives the gage unto his power putting forth so much as he will and no more therefore is his grace whereby he calls man often frustrated and defeated of his work I will make no quarrel about these words which one calls prodigious words which learned men have made occasion of quarrel in the Church the resistibility and unresistibility of converting grace but so go on to handle this point as to divide an even thred that God may have and reap all the glory of this work of Conversion unto his free grace and sinful man nothing but thankfulness and self-confusion thankfulness if he be drawn or however self-confusion and abasement to himself as contributing nothing unto but a great deal of opposition and resistance against the work Let me fall upon a distinction that will clear your understandings in this intricate and difficult point We will distinguish first between the act of conversion or the grace that is exercised in the act And secondly The means and way of God which in the nature of it tends towards Conversion as preceding and preparing of the heart thereunto for its very well said by a learned man God doth not bring any man ordinarily into a state of Justification per subitum Enthusiasmum by sudden and upstart Enthusiasmes by an unexpected work of illumination but by previous means and methods and workings Now upon this distinction I say First That the Grace of God exerted and exercised in and to the act of Conversion so as it may be said now the man is Converted and born of God I say that Grace in that act being carryed on by the revealed arm of God is so potent and omnipotent as that indeed it is insuperable and cannot be resisted by any victorious resistance it conquers all the resistance of man that might be thought to frustrate and defeat it for when God hath a meaning and intention to overcome the heart of man effectually to draw him he puts forth a victorious power insuperable to any resistance that you can make to make void the work But Secondly That Grace which God offers and gives to sinful man which in the nature of it tends to the bringing of man to repentance and to faith in Christ Jesus leading thereunto as the Ministry of the Word and the excitations and internal motions of the Spirit of God being dispenst by a more common hand this Grace of God this Initial Grace this previous Grace tending to move excite and quicken man up these are defeated resisted and frustrated by mans resistance and indeed no man shall be able to lay his impotency and unbelief at the door of God But be made to take it upon himself upon the resistance that he makes against the hand of God stretched out to him he being a gainsaying soul and this is that I say which may be resisted and is Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the goodness of God leading to repentance these may be and are despised Rom. 2. 4. So then This distinction being laid we shall now enquire whether the heart of man do make actual and victorious resistance of Gods
Grace put forth in the act of Conversion And for our clearer proceeding therein you must remember That Conversion doth either denote the work of God Converting man and this is Gods drawing or It denotes the action of man thereupon turning and coming in to Christ being thus moved and this is called mans coming in the text both of them make up compleat Conversion the one whereby God turns man and by the other man being wrought upon turns himself to Christ These two are inseparable in time but in order of causality Gods work is first the traction of God is before the coming of man the coming in of the light into a room we use to say expels darkness and plants in light though it be but one motion and one act so there must be the work of God enlightning the mind softning the heart drawing the will before there be a coming of man to God the act of drawing is Gods the act of Conversion or turning is mans God in his act of putting in and drawing forth faith doth not hinder but rather is the cause that the heart of man performs his own act and therefore the act of believing howsoever it be given by God yet being exercised and acted by us is our act for with the heart man believes Rom. 10. 10. as we use to say he that throws the bowl doth nor rowl or turn but the bowl by motion from the hand So when God puts forth this act to convert man the act is mans the act of Faith and Repentance and Conversion but the power and hand whereby the heart is turned that only is the act of God Well then First If we consider conversion as Gods drawing work converting the heart we may safely say The heart in that act doth not make actual resistance much less overcome and defeat the power of Grace which is put forth in believers with exceeding greatness of power according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead there you see the work described in Ephes 1. 19 20. It s true there may at that time and doth lurk a bitter root of proneness in the corrupt heart mark here is the knot and great point to resist the motions of the Spirit for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and this root of habitual perverseness is not wholly and presently eradicate and rooted out by Converting Grace But this we say that Grace doth so powerfully work in the work or act of Conversion it so sweetly plyes the affections the understanding and the will with such drawings and carries the work on with that actual strength that the actual resistance of the heart is tyed up bridled and suspended for that time that it doth not overcome the Grace of God but the Grace of God overcomes the heart by a victorious delight to yeild up it self to God though there be corruption in it it is so suspended as it doth not act I will give it you by this comparison The tyde doth not take from the river an aptness to run downwards to the Sea but so powerfully when it comes in bears the stream back that it cannot take his natural course I need not make application And this may teach all Converts with what measure of admiration and thankfulness to come to God for overcoming bridling and suspending these resistances of your froward hearts for having lived twenty or thirty years in resistance of Grace and keeping it at the staves end and after Conversion resisting Grace and quenching the Spirit so often as you do if God had left you in that act to these resistances you had been lost and undone and therefore that God at such a time should forbid still and quiet these rebellions and resistencies of your heart till he had turned the stream and taken away the stone this is an admirable demonstration of the mercy love and power of his grace to you Of all things wherein God is to be praised this is one that a rebellious man that had so often before time and since resisted grace that at that time when God Converted him he did not leave him to the resistencies of his heart And how would that child had he wit thank his Father for tying him hand and foot that he should not struggle and otherwise he could not do while he was cutting for the stone for the strugling might have prevented the cure When God comes to work upon the heart and man cannot but strive and resist and rebell against grace that God should take away at that time this resistance and bind a man hand and foot and so to overcome him with grace that he cannot resist it Oh the admirable wonderful mercy whereby the Lord makes a difference between his elect and others whom he leaves with the bridle on their necks to run away whether they will for it must be put among Gods promises and mercies when though with some sharpness he hinders us of the use of our liberty in hindring us from finding contentment in our walking contrary to our departure from him as you observe Hos 2. 6. I will hedge up thy way with thorns that thou shalt not find or enjoy thy paths this hedge of thorns is an admirable mercy for which the people of God have cause to bless God all their dayes that keeps them from finding that content in the way of their sins which otherwise they would have done this Converting grace doth so put forth it self in the act of Conversion of every sinner I know not your experiences of it that it subdues the actual resistance of mans heart at that time as the effect of it cannot be frustrated or defeated which teaches us with importunity of Prayer to beg this grace which comes with so much strength as that it bears down the wickedness of our hearts and irresistibly works a saving work Turn thou me and I shall be turned Jer. 31. 18. and draw me and we will run after thee Cant. 1. 3. And that you that have received such grace may magnifie the goodness and power of God towards you in that dispensations The Reasons why Converting Grace doth take away and overcome the resistance of mans heart at the act of Conversion which with great content and profit to the Reader may be given of the point are four Reas 1 First The Grace of Conversion doth not only move the heart to believe but it makes it to believe I speak of the act of Conversion it doth not only suadere but persuadere I cannot distinguish these words in English or this it doth not only stand at the door and knock and call as you would do to awaken them that are asleep within Rev. 3. 20. as exciting grace doth which is indeed a great favour which is resisted by man for to this Grace that knocks and is only pulsant calling and awakening the heart of man we may Ponere obicem put a bar bar the
sad and serious meditation he found no place for repentance I confess learned men with whom sometime I have gone in the exposition of this place say he found no place for the repentance of his Father he could not find means to make his Father repent for bestowing his blessing on his younger son yet truly it may well and conveniently be expounded He found no place for his own repentance though he sought it very carefully the Gift is gone from thee thou hast lost thy time And though thou Blubberest and Cryest to me with doleful tears I cannot help thee And therefore the Best counsel I can give any man in this point is this Work out your Salvation while God works make hay while Sun shines Somewhat like to that Phil. 2. 12. Work out your Salvation with fear and trembling for it is God that workes in you both to will and to do Giving the Reason from Gods working that we should work lest God that offers his Grace and stretches out his hand should pull it in again after his long suffering and waiting and offer no more And learn to know your day before it be lapsed for the lapse of this day is Fatal I may some say that 's worth the knowing Object But how shall I do that Answ First do ye find a prizing of and an Appetite to the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby that 's a sign that you are new-born babes the Child that cryes to suck is not dead look for this thirsting appetite Secondly If the spirit of God strive with you still Convincing and reproving are your hearts often Convict of secret sins if unfaithful in your calling you find no quiet it s a sign God hath not done with you for while the spirit strives its a day of Grace My spirit shall not alway strive with man Gen. 6. 3. Thirdly Do you find God making a thorny hedge about you ways and doth it stand and is not pulled up is there a restraint that a man cannot run out but his Conscience pricks him And when ever he sins in commissions or omissions the thorny hedge is still goreing and pricking him Hosea 2. 6. I will make a thorny hedge that thou shalt not find thy path not find Content in sin an Evident sign the door of grace is yet open Lastly Do you find pulsations beatings knocking 's doth any body rap at the door still as they have done behold saith God I stand at the door and knock Rev. 3. 20. if any man will open I will come in and sup this is an admirable sign the invitation of God holds out still motion upon motion beseeching upon beseeching the knocker at the door is seldome quiet by these you may know your day of Grace and therefore I say Call for the bellows while there is fire Blow the sparks which lie in the Embers and not all dead blow them up For if the sparks die if God call in his spirit from striving with you you shall blow among the dead ashes in vain Oh the miserie of man that doth not know his time especially the time of his visitation as Jerusalem For whereas the swallow and the stork do know their time yet in the 9. or 12. ver man knoweth not his time and therefore they are snared in an evil time and Chap. 8. 6. because to every purpose there is time and judgement if man hit the time well and Good but mark saith he because man doth not know his time take the nick therefore the misery of man is great upon him Second proposition which is a doleful one that In this day of grace when a man may take Heaven and Salvation by the Fore-lock as we use to say many times the things belonging to his eternal peace are hidden from his eyes which is by the Apostle made the marke of a lost man In 2 Cor. 4. 3. if our Gospel be hid that a man sees no beauty in it finds no power it s hid to them that are lost in whom the god of this world hath blinded their minds that the light should not shine into them And it was the observation of Christ that in Jerusalems day the things of her peace were now hid from her eyes Luk. 19. 42. never could blindness have fallen upon her or any man else in a worse time in the day of his visitation when the things of his peace are offered to him Now is the day in which as God opens the door widest so now the devil is most conversant about the eye least faith the Apostle the light of the glorious Gospel should shine into them the devils aim is to pick out the eyes of men this he most frequently aims in this day Thirdly Those that either refuse the grace that is offered to them or fall quite off from those initials and beginnings thereof which they had Received as I shewed when I handled the point of Apostacy they might do they bring themselves by both into a worse condition then such as remain in their natural estate blind and without all light then such as never had such offers made unto them And without all question you who either stand out against those offers to refuse them or desert relinquish those beginnings of grace that you have received no heathen man in the world is in a worse condition then you for this Christ also taught Matth. 10. 14 15. Whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorah in the day of judgement then for them Matth. 11. 21. we to thee Chorazin and Bethsaida Cities of Galilee where Christ walked It shall be easier for Tyre and Sidon Heathen Cities shall escape easier then such where the mighty works of Christ have been shewed forth Oh that men can hear these things with dull and drowsie ears doth nothing of this sit upon you It is a sign that your eyes are hidden in this your day if the mighty works had been shewn in them which have been shewn in you they would have repented And they have been shewn in you and you repent not And as this is said of the recusancy of Grace the greatest and most vulgar crime among us so it may be said of those under the Apostacie of it in 2 Pet. 2. 21. It had been better they had never known the way of righteousness then having known it to turn away from the holy Commandment given unto them Let this bound your wandring fancies and afright you from your Apostacy from God For as the Iron of the Stethee is the harder for the often knocking upon it so the heart of man that 's naturally hard by the often knocking and pressing the word of God upon it is made the harder And if the salt that seasons other things be in it self infatuate its good for nothing what shall season salt they that are in this case heavier judgement waits on them and
a man that is sweetly the drawing is not against the will because it makes the will willing it doth not move the wheel against the wheel or the natural motion of it but with it and then the heavier the plummet the faster the clock goes If the power of God go with the willâ— of man it moves more freely as the stream doth with the wind and tide then the more power God puts forth the more willing you come Thy people shall be willing shall be voluntiers in the day of thy Power Psal 110. 3. as if the power of God in that day wherein it s put forth should make a man a voluntier in coming to Christ Jesus It 's true God moves contrary to the natural stream as the tide carries up the River but when the Lord puts a new Principle a new bias into the bowl and that natural heart of sin is taken away then this coming though it be with drawing is so sweet that the soul prays Lord draw me and I will run Cant. 1. 3. Thirdly It is wondred at that God should command what he works or gives for if he mean to give it why doth he command and if he command how doth he give if it be a duty how is it Gods work and if it be Gods work how can it be my duty I Answer That God gives the grace he commands the duty bidden is also given and except it be given it is not the bidding will serve the turn 1 Joh. 3. 23. This is his command that we should believe in his Son So then our believing in Christ is a commandment of God And in Acts 17 30. God commands all men every where to repent Here you see that faith and repentance both of them are commanded of God and it s the command that makes them to be your duty Well yet for all this both these are given by God Phil. 1. 29. To you li's given to believe 2 Tim. 2. 25. If God peradventure shall give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth here you find that both are given Again Circumcisc your selves to the Lord and be no more stifnecked Jer. 44. Oh Lord may some say doth God put this impossible work upon me Ezek. 18. 31. Make you a new heart and a new spirit here these two are commanded Make you and Circumcise you and yet both these are promised and given Deut. 36. 6. I the Lord thy God will Circumcise thy heart and Ezek. 36. 26. I will make you a new heart and a new spirit Can any thing be plainer then this he commands and works that which he doth command he commands to convince us of our debt what is due and of our impotency that we cannot pay that we may fall down at the feet of this God and yet he gives too for the magnifying and honouring of his free grace to unworthy man and his power to impotent man that is unable and therefore we distinguish between Legal commands and Evangelical those of the law require the dutie but afford no strength but the Gospel which commands faith and repentance that are Gospel-graces carry the grace and power with them not unto all that shall oppose and shut the door but unto the Elect of God and the people of his inward Covenant So that for a man to say it 's a Gospel command is to say that 't is possible through grace that is there goes grace and power with it which the Lord will convey by the command for the commands of the Gospel are vehicula spiritus carriers and conveyers that carry along the Spirit with them John 6. 36. The words that I speak they are spirit and life being like the commands given to the dead Arise come forth It is a vain thing to speak commandingly to the dead true had they not ministred that which was commanded it had not prevailed and such are the Gospel-commands of repentance faith and making the new-heart or else how should the Gospel-word be called as it is the ministry of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3. 8. The ministery of the Spirit is Glorious So much for the removing of these â—ubs out of the way of Reason Serm. 28 Obj. We shall propound a question for the further handling of this point why should these Gospel-graces and especially faith that bring us to Christ require super-natural strength and drawing for their production And truly there lies some emphasis in this word Gospel-grace for may some say what do you mean by that I mean that grace which serves to the recovery of man to the Image of God which he had and hath lost for in this state of the Image of God which we had before we fell there was life but in this Gospel grace by that there is a resurrection unto that or a better life then we lost before for God intended to restore his Image unto man in Christ who is his Image and this Image is restored by the begetting of this Gospel grace that brings us to close with Christ so that this faith or coming to Christ is a grace of recovery or resurrection through and by which the Image we lost is again repaired now for these graces they do require a supernatural strength Answ It seems to me that a man that is able out of his own experience to make this objection is on the borders of believing for when as the difficulty of faith once appeares and man comes to be sensible and distrusts his own opposition then he begins to draw near or to be on the threshold of faith he that is at a losse is near his way the water being troubled there is no question but there is cure I but saith the cripple the Angel moves the water but I have no bodie to put me in so the promise invites the Word calls but I cannot close with Christ there held forth I am a cripple and no need but of a hand to help me and whereas in Isa 53. 1. there seems to be a double expression concerning this point of faith Lord who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed A man may say I heard the report and believe it to be true but the baring of the Lords arme must go to the making of man believe when we teach that men naturally cannot believe men wonder and say within themselves why should not I believe as well as another man I am as learned and knowing in the Scriptures and as pregnant as others and why should a man of a lesser measure and altitude of parts go before me in believing when we teach that men cannot keep the law of works there is never a one but will consent to it truly I cannot keep the Law I cannot love the Lord with all my heart and might and strength men yield they cannot but when we preach that faith is above your power you cannot believe and come to Christ though we report the report of Christ to you