affection and yet the proud and self-righteous people were gainsaying and contradicting thi◠was their resistance as long as Gods patience and do not you find this in your own hearts how often have you gainsaid and contradicted the God of heaven Fifthly The counsels invitations and reproofs of Wisdom i.e. of Christ are not regarded in Prov. 1. 24. a terrible place I have called and ye refused stretched out my hands and no man regarded ye have despised all my counsel and set at nought all my reproof or hated my reproof and the◠he proceeds to tell them how bitterly he will go out against them here is calling stretching out of hands counsel reproof and they all refused not regarded despised hated I think this amounts to the point of resistance Sixthly The Holy Ghost is resisted in Acts 7. 51. ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised ye do alwayes resist the Holy Ghost but how doth this stand with the former point that the Spirit of God in the point of Conversion cannot be resisted I answer The clear meaning of this phrase is the Holy Ghost speaking in the Prophets you have resisted the Holy Ghost speaking and testifying to you in the Prophets as if he had said the Holy Ghost speaking in the ministry and calling by the Word of the Gospel that 's it you have resisted for it s not meant of the renewing Spirit in the heart but of the Spirit testifying in the Prophets ye uncircumcised and stiff-necked like a Bullock of a hard neck that will take no yoke and uncircumcised that is hard and obstinate against God you do alway resist the Holy Ghost this was their resistance from whence you learn that there is a natural hardness of heart an obstinate neck that is the cause of mans resistance of the Holy Ghost both speaking in the Word and knocking at the door and exciting with motions the heart to believe all is in vain for it is but as knocking at a dead mans door or at a guilty persons door that will put more bars when one knocks so when God knocks and layes siege to mans heart there is made the greater opposition Seventhly Men that refuse to submit to the way of Salvation by God appointed are said to reject the counsel of God against themselves 〈◊〉 7. 30. speaking of some that came not in to the Baptism of John some read it Towards themselves the counsel of God towards them for their good or the counsel of God against themselves that is to their own hurt and prejudice in that they would not be baptized by Johns Ministry to the profession of the Lord Jesus people that will not come in to the Ordinances of God they reject the counsel of God against themselves to their own hurt this is through resistance Lastly Take a full measure of the height or this opposition there can be no higher expressions then those in Heb. 10. 29. to tread under foot the Son of God to account the blood of the Covenant an unholy or common thing and do despight to the Spirit of grace but who doth this are there such monsters in the world such miscreants as do this yes saith he that there is and who are they such as have been sanctified that is called into Christianity that 's the plain meaning and the word in the text reaches no farther separate from heathenish Idolatry and pollution to come to and profess the name of Christ and so have been sanctified and I take those in Heb. 6. 4. 5. to be the same men with these there it s said they were enlightned and tasted they were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and yet they fell here you find men sanctified to tread under foot the Son of God there is a double apostacy a simple apostacy called a stealing or a shrinking away from the profession of Religion And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a venome apostacy falling away with despight against Religion or Christ that in Heb. 6. speaks of the former this in Heb. 10. of the latter and what doth God construe their action to be a treading of the Son of God under foot and offering despight to the Spirit In all these particulars I have held my self to the New Testament and the words of Christ in it and now as I said that we have particularly pondred the words of Scripture in this point let us sum them up together here is hating opposing ones self slighting refusing resisting the holy Spirit rejecting the counsel of God and treding under foot the Son of God which fully amount to a resistance of the offers of grace Serm. 13 I Know it is a hard thing to convince any man of this therefore I have used Scripture words Gods language that we may not flatter our selves and that men may see there is more poyson in their hearts then they are aware of or will own I know what it is that usually blinds men that they will not own these expressions of Scripture to belong to them for who will call himself an opposer of grace offered a resister of the Holy Ghost and that is because you confess your selves to be glad of the tydings of the Gospel of remission of sin and deliverance from hell and you delight to hear of Salvation as it is generally conceived to be a state of happiness not as it is a state of holiness and communion with God and in any extremity agony and death into which you fall you pretend to have some desires of grace as a bridge unto Salvation or at least seem to magnifie it much in words these things seem to be an argument to you that you are not resisters and neglecters of this saving grace but you may well remember that the foolish Virgins knocked at the door and cryed Lord Lord open unto us and the stony ground heard and believed the Word of the Gospel with a kind of joy And there is not the veryest coward in the world but will take hold of a swords point to save his life and to pluck him out of the water the Gospel as it is interpreted and looked upon by the eye of self-love seems very attractive of the desire of man towards it so long as he may serve himself and his own advantage upon it namely to live in sin and to his sin and yet be saved at last when he can sin no more so long there is no carnal heart will resist and make opposition but all this may stand with hate of Christ and Grace for till a mans heart be thus moulded and tempered by God as to affect Grace for reconciliation and for conversion that so you may be Gods as well as have him yours so as to live to him as well as have Christ dye for you till then there is little but fallacy and falshood in you the man that thrust in at the marriage feast who came to fill his belly with good chear not for the honour of the bridegroom was cast out speechless
Wherein there are three things to be taken up First That it is the Father of Christ that draws all the saved unto Christ He draws all the appointed Members that are fore-given to his Son by him The Father hath given them and the Father that hath given them draws them Every one that is the Fathers gift to Christ is the Fathers workmanship drawn to and created in Christ Jesus For the gift of God which is by Election is made good by the drawing of God which is by his calling or his operation according thereunto now because they are the gift of God by election therefore they shall surely come to him by the Fathers traction All that the Father gives to me shall come to me ver 37. Why because my Father will draw them and if my Father will draw they shall come And therefore God in Joh. 15. 1 2. is compared to a husbandman that sets in the graff Christ is the stock or body of the tree that bears and feeds it and the Believer is the graff that is set in by the husbandman Here is a distinct operation God sets Christ sustains and maintains it and he that is called and converted is the graff planted into this Tree and saved by Christ Jesus Object But doth not Christ say in Joh. 12. 32. that he draws I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men to me How is it then said Except my Father draw him Answ Though I shall not exclude and shut out Christ himself and the Spirit of God from their agency in this work in bringing men to Christ yet we may thus distinguish upon this objection That Christ being crucified and lifted up draws all men to him objectively as a healing Serpent set on the pole to be looked upon by the eye of Faith But God the Father draws to Christ effectively and powerfully working that power and life in them whereby they may come begetting a new nature and giving a heart propending unto Christ and closing with him And therefore if God should send Christ and leave man to himself as most think they can believe and be converted by themselves this great inconveniency thereof would follow that the Election of God would be defeated and made frustrate but those he gives he makes to come to him to whom they are given and so becomes both Christs Father and theirs The second Branch of this fourth Observation is this By those words Except my Father draw there is no meanâ—â—g to shut out Christ or the Spirit from this drawing work for the work of the Trinity in converting man is undivided But shall I tell you by the relative name of Father is as often in other places meant except man be drawn by a Divine hand an omnipotent power and operation of God for that 's the thing that Christ intends that no man can come and be a believer in him except it be by a Divine power and operation wrought in him above man himself so that it is not any way intended to divide the Three Persons or separate any of them from this work but to divide the work of God from man and this is the reason that some men do affirm omnipotentissâ—mam potestatem a most almighty power to go forth from God that works the conversion of man because it 's said Except my Father draw him and truly I know not why that expression should be quarrelled at if we do but consider the impotency of man to believe in Christ and be converted if we consider next that it 's called a Creation created in Christ Jesus and a resurrection from the dead and if also we consider what the Apostle saith of it Ephes 1. 18. where there is weight of words the exceeding greatness of Gods power according to that which God put forth in raising Christ from the dead we need not be ashamed to say that God puts forth an almighty power in making man believe nor to look upon it as an uncouth expression Thirdly I observe from this Point How impotent and unable man is to that which is his greatest concernment I know we are weak in other things but to be weak in that which is the main concernment of salvation is sad This I would have you to observe that in that wherein your life lies and the way to life in that very thing you are weak as water and no more able to believe than to keep the Law and yet you will say by rote I think many times that it is impossible to keep the Law of God but will not grant but that you can believe and yet let it be observed here that God hereby signifies that you are as impotent to this that is the great concernment of man as to any thing else And There might be a fourth thing observable God that thus imploys his power doth it in his drawing man to Christ See the method whereby God will save you he will not go to bring you to the Father himself the Father to the Father immediately as to an absolute Judge as Luther saith What have I to do with an absolute God he will damn me and not abate me a farthing of the righteousness of the Law which I cannot keep It 's true he could have made man able to keep his Law and have made man perfect but God will keep his own way and save man in and by his Son Why may some say this is about why doth he bring men to Christ Surely God is so strict in keeping the way that he hath set for saving man because that is his Covenant and therefore brings to his Son Christ that he may save them and as the husbandman will graft you into him And let this that is Gods way be your way if you could find another do not look after it By this you shall know the power of God whether it be in you by this which is the work of it It sets you not to other ways but draws to Christ The Use of this fourth Observation may be three-fold Use 1 First Learn hence That a regenerate man is twice Gods Creature I may safely call him so once as he is a man in his natural estate made up of Soul and Body next as a regenerate man created in Christ and if men consider it well that a believer is called a new man a new Creature why should there be lesse power why should we think it lesse work to make a new man then to make a man to be Lay your heads to consider this point and you will find it very difficult why it should be more the hand of God in this then to make man to be man hath a natural life what is that to the purpose for natural life is but a death in comparison and therefore it s said them that are dead in Trespasses and Sins hath he quickned and whereas there was in the matter of our first creation no propension to become a man more
it can be cleared This seems to me a great scandal whereat men stumble Secondly if God command and require good works in his holy Word of us and yet tells me that his election of me to salvation doth not stand upon them but that the election whereby God hath chosen me to salvation is firm by his calling Rom. 9. 11. then if so be these works required and commanded will not serve my turn will not confirm my Election or Justification I may follow them and yet not attain righteousness by them Rom. 9. 31. This is a great scandal and offence to mans reason Thirdly if God cast so many of the world off and chuse so few of them that are called but throws them out as the man that was thrown from the Feast not having the wedding garment This is a miserable offence Fourthly if God require faith of me and repentance call for a new heart and a new spirit and saith Make you a new heart and yet teaches me that none can come except a divine power draw him except it be given him then he requires impossible things And is not this say some like to Pharaoh that will have the full tale of brick but will not find the people straw These are the offences taken by mans reason these raise up the murmurings these make some men leave the care of their salvation at six and seven If I am elected I shall be saved if I am not elected I cannot This makes men throw the plow into the hedge-bottom and let the ship ride before the sea and wind Upon all this that I have said it appears that the doctrine of Christ and of the free grace of God in Christ requires an humble heart a captivated reason or else prejudices of pride and the reason of man will trouble the whole Scene And I may give an instance in a point so resented in the times wherein we live by our Masters of Reason as some call themselves as the Gnosticks of old those damnable Hereticks called themselves the knowing men who had their opposition of Science falsly so called 1 Tim. 6. 20. This is it That Christs blood is not a blood of Atonement or expiation of sin that there is no proper compensation nor any satisfaction made or needful to Divine Justice for sin How then God pardons us our sins by an absolute goodness by an absolute free pardon without such satisfaction As a man forgives a delinquent without any satisfaction or as a man forgives a debt another man owes him freely for nothing And this is the great Hinge on which the Socinian Doctrine hangs which hath leavened and pass'd through so many men in our times But this free pardon without satisfaction of Gods justice ruines and razes the foundations of our Christian Faith as if men would not have Christ to do too much for them were angry at him for his being their surety for his paying their debt and freeing them from prison and damnation which makes me cry out as the Apostle doth in 1 Cor. 1. 20. Where is the wise where is the Scribe where is the Disputer of this world Let them take notice of it the great learned men that preach Heathenism among us Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world how by the Doctrine of Christ and free grace And this I preach that we may listen and hold the truths that to others are offensive overlooking all the scandals that may be found in the person and doctrine of Christ Serm. 2 NOtwithstanding I am not unsensible that the free grace of God may be so preacht or if you will so apprehended by you as it may be not only offensive to carnal reason but justly offensive to Faith and Christianity it self And this is when the doctrine of free grace keeps not the Channel but runs out on this side or that side without or besides its bounds then indeed it is justly offensive and scandalous and that may be in three regards First when it is made universal in extent For the freedom of this grace hath no affinity with the universality And though many do conceive that they cannot preach it free except they do also preach it universal I shall after shew that there is no kindred between them In the election of any man to salvation it is free because it excludes mans worthiness or works and yet it s not universal so as all are elected and chosen One calling I mean that calling that is according to purpose it is free not standing upon works You are called by Gods grace and yet t is not universal so as all men are called according to Gods purpose It s free to such as are called though it be not common to all Was not the grace of God free to Jacob yet not common to him and Esau It was free to Peter and yet not common to him and Judas To you it is given to know the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven there is the freedom to others it is not given there is a denial of the universality Maith 13. 11. And therefore we must distinguish between the offer of free grace and the effects of it grace in the offer of it may be common and in a sort universal but in the effects you shall always observe grace to be of a differencing nature it discriminates and makesâ— difference between one and another in salvation and therein is the glory of it and reason will shew that so far as it differences one from another it is not universal for that which differences cannot be universal the election hath obtained and the rest were hardeued Rom. 11. Secondly It is indeed offensive when it opens or is made to open a window to looseness of opinion or profaneness of life That makes it rather to be called loose grace then free grace for free grace truly preacht neither takes off the bridle of restraint of sin nor the spur of excitation of holiness from Gods Law these two must stand together Sin is restained by the Law of God there 's the bridle and then its a spur and incentive to obedience Shall we sin saith the Apostle because we are not under the Law but under Grace God forbid Rom. 6. 15. Again Shall we sin that Grace may abound Rom. 6. 1. No we may not make the doctrine of Gods free grace a Pander or a Porter to let in or open us the gate more freely to sin against him And the reason is excellent good there is no greater and sweeter obligation obliging man to thankfulness and obedience then this Doctrine of free grace The sense of this free grace I say is the most obliging and indearing of the heart to God of any doctrine that can be preacht so contrary is it from being a loosener of those bands whereby we are tyed to God Thirdly it is not rightly preached when it is made to deny to man all agency in Conversion as well as all power whereby
grace published in the Word and left to the management of man convictively shews what even his Elect are that without his powerful hand to strike the stroke the work will not be done for the Elect of God as well as others being only morally moved and perswaded to Conversion do use the same shifts and Tergiversations make as much resistance and shew the same unwillingness as other men do and therefore take this for a rule and find it in your selves that God commonly convinces a man before he converts convinces man of his own impotency and opposition before he put forth his own arm and therefore leaves him to his own recusancy and resistance to â—ry his own strength and a long time lets him alone to his own purposes which will savour of pride enough untill God shew him the difference between the report of the word and the arm of the Lord revealed for although the word of God the Gospel that we preach unto you is the fittest means in the world of an external instrument to convert the heart of man and is furnisht with all requisites to work on the heart yet it s but like a key very suitable to the springs of a lock and put into it that will not shut the bolt and open the door without a hand to turn the key as well as put it in so if the Word preacht be never so fit to meet with the springs in mans heart yet if there be not a strong hand to turn the key the heart will not be opened so that when God convinces by the offer of grace and leaves you to your own acceptance little good will be done without the putting forth of his own arm to the work Secondly With these offers made in the Word God in Conversion goes out with his arm and so Conversion is wrought in those he purposes to call by the instrument morally by perswasion by Gods hand supernaturally so with the word that faith Lazarus come forth there goes a work of power to effect it this power goes forth with the Word as the hand with the ax with the instrument with the key for the honour of the ordinance And therefore it s told you while Peter spoke Acts 10. 44. the Holy Ghost fell upon the hearers meaning that there went out with the Word the power of the Holy Ghost to convert them that God calls according to his purpose he takes hold of their hearts with his powerful arm and brings them in yet not without means as if they were converted by Enthusiasms but in an ordinary way as I may clear it by a comparison frictions rubbings used sometimes to a people in a swound are very profitable to recall life where there was life before but if used to a dead carkass out of which life is gone doth nothing to beget or recall life so are the tenders of grace offered with exhortations and counsels motions and knocking 's if there be life of grace in the heart they are profitable to revive to call in to refresh grace but if used to a natural man to a man dead in sins of themselves they work nothing they leave him as dead as they found him untill there be a new life of grace put into him which is the work that I contend for to be of God Thirdly By these offers of grace and exhortations God takes from man all excuse all the light that God gives to man doth tend to render man unexcusable though it be but natural light for so far as it directs Rom. 1. 20. that they might be without excuse for what for not believing in Christ no that light went not so far no light leaves a man without excuse farther then it goes Gospel-light goes farther then natural light and convinces in a farther degree and proportion as the light is greater and as far as it convinces so far it will leave without excuse and therefore there is no man that hath Christ offered that is enlightned convinc't hath tenders made unto him but is left without excuse and though men in wantonness of disputes may weave a web of excuses and muster them up against God yet no man in agony of conscience upon his death-bed or at Gods Tribunal shall- be able to make any excuse for the neglect and resistance of the grace of God but shall be like him in Mat. 22. speechless he might have said somewhat for himself as to them that called him to the feast but there was no excuse to be made to the King There are two cases wherein all excuses are taken from man First In case of voluntary impotency by a mans own default as if he imbezel the stock committed to his hand and would make an excuse for non-payment of a debt though he may say he have it not that serves not his turn for you had it and the stock by you is imbezelled Or secondly if he be opposite and resist as if a man that will not or cannot see because he shuts the window and will not let the light in it s no excuse for him to say I do not see because its a voluntary act of his own to shut out the light in both cases he is without excuse But especially I lay weight on the latter the resistance of man and his opposition for there is no man living that rests in a simple impotency but resists and shuts his eyes and makes opposition to the grace of God tendred to him light is come into the world and men love darkness rather then light this is the condemnation Fourthly God in the Gospel seldom or never offers grace to a man but he affords and furnishes him with some degree of light and power to do more then he doth to go farther then he doth for in Rom. 1. 17. the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against those that hold the truth of God in unrighteousness that is for not living up to their light nor doing so much as they may or can no man in the world untill God work upon his heart savingly liveâ— up to his own rule neither doth facere quod in se est do so much as he might and hath power to do and therefore God is no way bound to give converting grace if a man will not imploy one talent so far as he may go with one what reason hath God to give that man five or ten talents None at all when the power and grace of God given is resisted and opposed and neglected What reason is there that men should cavil against the Lord and say I had not so many talents whereas he did not use the one he had no man is without a talent every man hath somewhat whereby he may trade for God and because he doth not do it certainly the Lord is free and clear if he do not give him more if he do not give him converting grace God will I say be clear when he is quarrelled at by man Answ 2.
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