Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A30696
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The necessity and reward of a willing mind a sermon preach'd at Exon before an assembly of ministers of the counties of Devon and Somerset, April 16, 1693 / by John Bush.
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Bush, John, fl. 1693.
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1693
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Wing B6231; ESTC R35793
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23,643
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37
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the Apostle makes so necessary to well doing that all may know whether they have this willing mind 2. Shew its Necessity in the general to all Men. 3. That Ministers above others should have it 4. Draw some practical Inferences from the Proposition in relation to us all as Christians but especially as Ministers 1. This willing mind seems to consist of two things 1. A fixing of the Will that it may stick to its duty 2. The chearfulness of the mind in its performance First The Will must be fixed without this nothing is done willingly The great Controversie of late hath been who doth determine the Will God by the Irresistible Operation of his Grace or Man by making those Operations to be effectual In which Controversie whilst some have given to Man more power than in truth is in him others have gone into another extreme those that go in the former extreme though otherwise very Learned Men do so rarely mention the Supernatural Operations of the Holy Spirit which are as necessary to deliver the Soul from the bonds of Sin as to Release the Body from the power of the Grave at the last day that as one saith of the Socinians 't is hard to call them Hereticks for they scarce deserve to be called Christians so of these Men 't is hard to say that they Preach another Gospel for they seldom Preach any Gospel and yet some have erred on the other hand as if God's Grace had so superseded Man's duty that there were nothing for us to do but to look when God will do it that we may sit still and do nothing The truth lieth between these two extremes which will the sooner appear if you consider that they only are willing whom God doth make willing and yet every Man that is truly willing his heart doth stir him up to his own duty and his own spirit doth make him willing 1. They only are willing whom God doth make willing for 't is his work to subdue the will a work that needs and becomes a God to do the work is the greatest manifestation of a Divine Power Psal 110.3 Thy people shall be a willing people in the day of thy power in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth The words seem to relate to those early and numerous Conversions which are recorded in the Acts of the Apostles where you find thousands at one Sermon converted to Christianity which times are therefore called the womb of the morning and the dew of Christ's youth because as he that goeth forth in the morning is then strongest for his Labour and the Young Man hath most agility of body to run the Race So the Grace of God in the first publishing of it should go forth with that power as is in the young for his Race as is in a strong Man for his Labour Hence it is that they that think they have made themselves willing do but deceive themselves when by the Grace of God they were not made so for the Will of Man is conquered by none but God Men may attempt it to bend it to God's Will as you would bend a crooked Stick it will return to its own crookedness And therefore Moses that knew what a great work 't is to fix the heart to its duty tells the People that though they had seen more of God's Power than ever any Nation before them or perhaps more than ever any Nation shall see whilst the World continueth if God would do this they would see more of a Divine Power than as yet they had seen Deut. 29.2 3 4. Ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the Land of Egypt unto Pharaoh and his Servants and to all his Land the great temptations which thine eyes have seen yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive the greatness of the work and the successlesness of outward means shews it to be God's work and therefore to argue against this from some difficulties that occur in stating the Controversies as to the manner of the operation of the Holy Spirit upon our Wills that because Man hath a self-determining Principle and is Master of his own actions which can't be denied yet to argue from hence that this can't agree with the Irresistible Operations of God's Grace is to pretend a tenderness to Human Nature that we may not wrong that and in the mean time wrong God as if we were to be more tender of Man's Honour than of God's Honour Why should it not suffice us what so many have said in this matter that the turning of the Will is done by Moral Perswasion as Man is a Rational Creature made for Moral Government but the Efficacy of God's Grace lieth in the immediate Operations of God's Spirit upon Man's Will which is subdued in a way of power as Man is a wicked Creature and yet so subdued that no Man is forced against his Will but made willing and yet that which makes him so is not the cooperation of his own Will with God's Spirit but the Conquest of the Spirit over the Will which being effectual Man shall not be able to Resist it and if he could he would not he is so drawn by Love as well as subdued by Power Now to scorn all this which in effect so many have done by saying How can this be and Man act as a self-determining Creature Master of his own Actions is to pretend that we can refine upon every thing that is done in the World when in the mean time if we descend into the manner of things we can give account of nothing for though we do all know that we can will and chuse and refuse and think and love and hate yet enquire how this is done how the Soul that is a Spirit doth operate upon the Body to move and stir it and how one thought doth beget another and who can give an account of all this Why then should we pretend to know how far the Spirit of God can operate upon our Souls to incline us to good and not destroy that determining Principle which is in all Men and therefore it will more become us to believe that which the Scripture is so positive in though we can't give an account how ' t is And as I hinted before there is not only need of God's Grace to determine the Will to its duty but to keep it there For we are apt to go off from our own Resolutions and Purposes and to lose the present Impression of God's Grace the willing mind will of it self become unwilling and therefore God having tryed us in Adam doth not trust us in the Second Covenant to our selves and we have need to consider this that we may not depend upon the first determination of our own Wills we are mutable fickle and unconstant Creatures our hearts are deceitful not only in this that they are not really willing when they
that is really Willing to turn to God doth determine to do it presently deferring to hereafter is the fruit of an unwilling Mind Pro. 3.27 28. Withhold not good from him to whom it is due when it is in the Power of thy hands to do it Say not to thy Neighbour go and come again and to Morrow I will give when thou hast it by thee The Wise Man considered that delaying is not safe for we may either loose the Opportunity of doing or which is worse the Will to perform the present Impression as well as the present opportunity may be gone by delaying without a good cause we make no Conscience of the Command that relates to the Time and to Morrow we may make no Conscience of that part of the Command that relates to the thing it self The Apostle whom God at an Instant Inclin'd to his Duty did immediately set about it Gal. â— 15 16 17 But when it pleased God who separated me from my Mothers Womb and called me by his grace to reveal his Son in me that I might Preach him among the eathen immediately I conferred not with flesh and Blood And therefore it must needs be a general mistake in the World for men to pretend that they are not only Convinced that 't is their Duty to lead a new Life but Willing and yet this must not be till hereafter And yet think it shall be well enough especially if it should happen that they live to that hereafter 't is true in some cases and as to some particular dutys It may consist with a willing mind to defer them when the present time is not convenient or when the time to come may prove more advantagious but as to the amendment of a Mans life to pretend to be willing but not for the present as in it self 't is not a real willingness so in some respect 't is a resolution to the contrary of what we pretend to and therefore how can such a purpose be pleasing to God consider that besides the danger that you run and the presumption that you manifest that the grace and Mercy of God nay God himself shall be at your beck when you shall be at leisure to return to him you do at present resolve that as yet you will not as if you had not enough provoked the Almighty as if the time past of your Life did not suffice you to have wrought wickedness but you will continue to do so longer you do in effect declare that you ought to live otherwise than you have done that you must do otherwise and be other manner of persons and yet though you have wronged God already and wearied the Almighty and though if you die in your Sins without repentance you expect damnation and though you have no assurance that God will give you longer time as to be sure you have not yet you will venture upon it you will run the hazard of being damned under a pretence that you will do your Duty hereafter when you have spent your time in Sin and can do God no Service when you can Sin no longer you will cease to do Evil and when you can do nothing then you will learn to do well when the day is at an end you will go forth to your Labour and when the Sun is setting then you will set forth for your Journey can this delaying consist with a willing mind 3. As for discouragements this disposition of mind will help us to overcome them In the best of times well doing will meet with if not direct opposition at least discouragements for whilst the World continueth the Seed of the Serpent which sprung up in Cain will be The World will be ungrateful malicious and opposit to what is good even Morality hath had its Persecutors much more shall all they that will live Godly in Christ Jesus the greatest Innocence the strictest life the most publick Spirit the utmost caution shall never be able at all times and in all places to protect the Servants of God from the tongues or hands and hatred of the wicked who rather than they will lose the opportunity of doing mischeif will turn Christians that under the pretence of the Christian name they may wreak their Malice upon them that differ not from them but in those things wherein they themselves differ from what they pretend to these men will shew a Reverence to the deceased Apostles and Disciples of our Saviour that they may mischief the living ones Nay sometimes persecute them for that very thing for which the Apostles and Disciples of our Lord are reverenced among Christians Just so the Jews did build and adorn the Sepulchers of the Prophets whom their fathers slew and did to the Disciples what their fathers did to the Prophets Now this disposition of mind will help us against these discouragements for 't is our unresolvedness that makes the discouragements that lye in our way more and greater than they are 4. Where this is we may expect Gods assisting Grace to help us to do what by his Grace we are Inclined to for though willing and doing are not equally easy yet if we humbly go to God under the sense of our Duty and do not lean too much to our own Resolutions God will not be wanting to us his Grace shall be sufficient for us Philip. 1.6 Being confident of this very thing that he that hath begun a good work in you will perform it untill the day of Jesus Christ 't is true God keeps this grace in his own hands but yet the giving of the first grace doth give us cause to depend upon him for this also which we shall be sure to obtain if we do not forfeit it by our neglects I say again where this willing Mind is in truth It will cause that we shall not be Barren nor Unfruitful in the knowledg of our Lord Jesus Christ for the Kingdom of God doth not consist in Word but in Power nor in wishing and willing but in doing and performing 3. Having shewn in the general the necessity of this disposition of Mind I would more particularly consider it as 't is necessary to Ministers to whom whilst I am speaking I would not be thought to pretend to speak what they can't tell me as well as I do them but only to put them in Remembrance of what they all know 1. Therefore we all know and therefore should consider that the bare Art of Preuching as a task expected at our hands every Lords-day can never please God but the Mind with which this and every other part of our Duty is perform'd God is a great God and a good Master and therefore a little forc'd service without our Wills or against our Will done because we dare not for shame do otherwise can this be Accepted and Rewarded 't is said in the general there must be a Willing Mind and then God accepts men according to what they have and can do and not according