But they were false-hearted men that would not hold out if they came to wetting And so in Matth. 13. 21. and Luke 8. 13. they that received the word and with joy too they are such as believe but for a while but having no root they go away As the house built on the sand may stand till the wind blows And in John 12. 42. Many believed on him but yet they loved the praise of men more then the praise of God worldly things are preferred before spiritual And in Acts 8. 13 24. compared together Simon also believed but that did not pluck him out of the gall of bittterness nor unfetter him from the bond of iniquity That faith that lets a man lie in an unregenerate estate that is the faith of Simon Magus It is called Believing and you may so call your selves Believers and yet be without saving Faith For every place in which it is named sets a blemish upon it Shewing that such a believing is joyned with predominant lust But now the Faith that saves that is other wayes in Scripture described and set forth with other recommendations It is called a believing to the saving of the soul and so opposite to that which withdraws that is Faith for a time Mark the distinction and emphasis of the words in Heb. 10 ult It is a receiving of Christ Jesus as Saviour and Lord Col. 2. 6. which is alwayes accompanied with true regeneration In John 1. 12 13. Whosoever believes in Christ to the saving of his soul is born of God 1 John 5. 1. Whoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God Whoever believeth that he is so and so takes him And is called in Scripture by these properties and epithites a heart-purifying faith Acts 15. 9. a faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1. 5. the Faith of Gods elect 1 Tit. 1. a precious faith 2. Pet. 1. 1. an effectual or operative faith c. all this shews that though the Scripture call this and that both by the same name Believing yet they differ as much as saving and not saving Faith This is the first Reason concerning that opinion of the easiness of believing They that will be thus mistaken we may well say of them they are in danger to miss of their salvation Serm. 19 Reason 2 THe second Reason is That as men are mistaken in Faith as I have shewed so they are also mistaken in the Formalis ratio of believing The formal reason of Believing is the Word of the Gospel which is therefore called the power of God to salvation to every one that believes Rom. 1. 17. And it is an excellent mark of true and saving Faith that it hath been wrought in thee by the word of the Gospel by that which is called the hearing of Faith Gal. 3. 2. This is the reason of believing as you may gather from those words John 3. 33. he hath set to his seal that God is true i. e. he that believeth and he that believeth not makes God a lyar 1 John 5. 10. shewing that Gods Word or the testimony of Christ in the Word is the ground and true reason of believing all that do believe truely do resolve their Faith into this reason the truth and veracity of the Word of God but now the common Faith of most that live in the Church in the ayre of the Gospel if it be followed to the last resolve or resort of it is not into conviction by the word or spirit but the custom and example 〈◊〉 men that profess they believe Christ to be a Saviour because they see it commonly believed and owned in the Church that they live among these have the same reason for believing in Christ that the Turk hath for believing in Mahomet and that the Jew hath for his rejecting Christ whose Religion is milked into their mouths by education in such places and by such parents as are of this opinion thus it is with us that have suckt in this kind of believing with our milk which makes it easie to us as the Fathers authority to the Child in minority is the greatest in the world But to think that without a better Reason of our Faith we can be saved is a great mistake For the heart must be convinc't and principled by the Gospel and by the power of God therein Reas 3 The third reason of the easiness of this kind of unsaying Faith is freedom from temptations For many men are carryed on the wings of this Faith all their lives long freed from temptations doubts fears disquietments have no thoughts perplex them from the beginning to the end of their lives for they are temptations within that are the cause of the difficulty of believing when the wind lay Peter doubted not the Lord called and Peter went to him upon the water But when the wind rose and was boisterous then saith the text he was afraid and doubted Math. 14. 29. then Lord save me or else I perish then Christ saith Oh thou of little faith wherefore dost thou doubt when the wind was strong faith became weak when a man rides on in security and peace no guilt within no fears doubts or soul-troubles encountering him it s an easie thing to believe But when tribulation seizes upon the spirit and the wind arises then you come 〈◊〉 doubtings fears and disquietments and find it hard to believe then saith the heart Lord that I had but one drop of Faith that I were but able to come and be fixed upon the center of believing this is the common and greatest Reason of easie believing the empty traveller sings before the thief For First Satan rather keeps the peace of such a soul then molests it because he knows that his kingdom and possession is not endangered by such a faith as sights not against his dominion Pharaoh arms not his Egyptians whiles Israel followed a quiet drudgery and therefore the devil rather rocks the cradle then he will disquiet his sleeping Child And Secondly While a man is not sensible what it is to lose his soul nor feels the damnable sins he hath nor considers that the whole moment of his Salvation hangs only on this cord he doth not fear neither is disquieted But when he sees that life Eternal hangs upon this naile it startles him and makes him afraid When the man perceived that the cure of his child did he upon his believing it made him cry out Lord help my unbelief Mark 9. 24. They that see not the concernment of their believing unto Salvation cry not out for the help of their unbelief Reas 4 Fourthly While the props that a man leans upon remain uncashiered it is not hard for the man to believe Faith is the easiest thing in the world whiles a man rests upon something in himself while he swims upon the Bladders that are not pulled from under his arm-holes t is easie for him to keep his head above water Let me tell every one of you whiles you are
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
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
the act of God To speak plainly there can be no coming to Christ except there be first a drawing of God For no man can come to me except my Father draw him They are both of them delivered in Jer. 31. 18. 19. Turn thou me and I shall be turned After I was turned I repented there is the act of Ephraim after I had received the passive Conversion that God had drawn and turned me There is no resurrection from the dead without first a resuscitation the word and power of Christ goes forth before the act of Lazarus the Sun shines upon the wall before the wall can re-shine any beams of the Sun from it so there must be the work of God upon the heart the grace of God must shine there before the heart can return take hold and carry the soul to Jesus Christ And there are two Premises two Propositions that do carry on this Conclusion in the generality of it That no man will or can be saved if left to his own disposal or sufficiency Propos 1 First That every man in the world must reckon of himself to be one that naturally and of himself is come short of the glory of God And oh that this Point had a sensible Impression upon us all Rom. 3. 23. All have sinned and are come short of the glory of God the Justification of a sinner is Gods glory all are not only in but under sin Rom. 3. 9. nay all are not only fallen under sin but all are shut up concluded under sin Galat. 3. 22. all are not only shut up under sin in their own thoughts but by the Scripture shut up under sin the Scripture is the key whereby man is shut up and what possibility of escaping is there when all the world are shut up and certain it is that a man departed from God and fallen into himself is in the Scripture account in a lost estate and dead condition for that time as the Prodigals Father said of his son This my son was lost and dead but now upon his return he saith He was lost but now is found he was dead but is now alive Luke 15. 32. From that time that a man comes into Christ Jesus he is alive a man may live and yet be dead there is no time wherein you are to be reckoned alive and found but only from the time that you believe and take hold of Christ Jesus and therefore in 2 Cor. 5. 15. That henceforth those that live should not live unto themselves but to him that dyed for them and rose again which argues that all the time before they lived to themselves that is were dead That 's the first Proposition Propos 2 Secondly That every man in the world ought to reckon himself to lye still in this state of coming short until he be drawn to come in savingly to receive Jesus Christ For he that hath not the Son hath not life 1 John 5. 11. For so I would preach those out of Christ all of them dead I would unchrist them of that vain opinion that they have of being in him The Scripture is plain he remains under wrath till he come to believe receive and lay hold on Christ John 3. 36. For this is the only and necessary Condition of being saved that God hath assigned and proclaimed to lost man this is the new door for man shut out of Paradise to return to the Tree of life this is the only passible this is the certain way of re-instating man fallen short into capacity of the glory of God the Justification of a sinner is the glory of God and there is no other way but this those that you harp upon are false ways and to be abhorred Psal 119. For there are these two Reasons of it Reason 1 First It would be a disparagement and diminution to Christ if there should be found a second Saviour a second Way Truth and Life and therefore in 2 Cor. 11. 4 the Apostle challenges the Corinthians to find out if they can another Gospel another Christ another Spirit that cannot be found there is no other saving way but this The first Adam was but one and he lost all the second Adam must be but one neither as able to save all that are saved as the other was to destroy all that are destroyed Not that there is an equalitie in the number that are saved by the one and the damned and destroyed by the other that needs not to be but that the one is as only in saying as the other was in sinning Reason 2 Secondly That Christ is the only Condition of salvation appears by this because this will not stand with other Conditions of being saved which Man harps upon as works repentance sorrow for sin But there is but one because Christ will not stand with these For if Christ would stand with or consist with them then he should not be the onely way and the saving Truth Christ is made voyd by them Christ is of no effect to you if you will be justified by the works of the Law but if Christ be taken hold of by you then they are made void by Christ then the Righteousness of God makes void your own righteousness Not having my own as the Apostle saith in the like case Rom. 11. Either grace makes works to be no works or works makes grace to be no grace signifying that it must be this and not that not this and that not this with that which is necessarie to bring you to salvation but that it is Christ and not your own performances and works for without coming to Christ no salvation and no man can come to me except he be drawn that makes Demonstration thus A man cannot be saved except he receive Christ he cannot receive Christ except God draw him in therefore man left to his own disposal and the sufficiency of his own power cannot be saved this sum stands in plain Scripture terms This is the doctrinal Inference the practicall Use which I told you I would intermix with this Doctrinal is as followes First That we carefully maintain the necessity and soveraigntie the freeness of Gods grace and the power of it in the conversion of man Practic Use This is one practical and excellent Use that you carefully maintain these as Advocates of the grace of God the grace of God must be maintained and defended in these properties of it there hath rarely been found in the whole world in this point any man no not Pelagius himself that hath universally excluded or exploded the concurrence of the grace of God in the Course of salvation but have allowed it either for the inchoation or beginning of conversion or in the augmentation and increase of Grace or else in the consummation and finishing of it either for the sole work or the social work of it in and with man even very shame and the evidence of the point together forbids man to exclude that to which he
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