merit is of the reward and end and the Scripture insists on that word Rom. 11. 35 Who hath first given to God as if that could not be to make man the first giver to God for that makes God a debtour of that which he cannot owe viz. Grace For if it be Grace it cannot be debt for it s destroyed and therefore though God may be a debtour in regard of his promise yet he cannot owe beginnings but it any thing its reward to some precedent work of Grace and therefore as it is usual with us that the man sollicites the woman the woman thinks it undecent to her sex and modestie to wooe the man So God first invites offers and drawes man doth not first stretch out his hand to God but saith God I have stretched out my hand to again-saying people and our Saviour in John 15. 16. You have not chosen me but I have chosen â—ou Mark the Phrase as the Apostle saith The man was not deceived but the woman Was not the man deceived Yes but not first So it 's exprest We love him because he loved us first 1 Joh. 4. 19. And this God urges as that which most endears him that he is the first in the work he gives preventing and not only subsequent and following grace he is the Author not only the finisher he both begins the good-work and finishes it and our will doth not determine the will of God as they say but his will must needs determine ours the reason is because the determining will is the master-will the determined is the waiting-maid How incongruous is it to sence that the will of man being made willing should lead the will of God and not rather the will of God lead the will of man How incongruous is it that working is set before Being Every thing must have an esse before operari now its Regeneration and Conversion that gives a Being makes the new creature For if a man should work before he be then it would set even Philosophy cross to it self But man doth not work or make himself nor give himself a spiritual being for Ephes 2. 10. We are his workmanship created in Jesus Christ c. which is the Apostles Argument to prove that salvation is not of our selves no more than Creation As therefore the Tree must be made good before the fruit can be good so the man must be a new creature and that he cannot make himself to be and therefore Grace first workes and this preserves its place which is to begin and to create Point 3 The third point which the Advocate of Grace maintains is That God puts forth more or greater Grace in those that are saved than in those who are not saved This is one of the greatest points in the whole subject of Grace which if you understand and rightly is that which states the Question in difference in all this controversie namely that Peter for example is more engaged and bound to God than Judas for the grace that is given him and had more bestowed on him that Judas had and if so then God puts forth more grace in them he saves than in them he doth not save I dispute not whether of them that are saved all are partakers of equal grace those that had talents were not all equal But I am speaking of the saved and the not saved and do say That if equal Grace be given to two they will both be saved if equal Grace had been given to Judas as to Peter then Judas would have been saved as well as Peter one as well as the other No you will say that follows not for there may be some one that hath less Grace afforded him than another and yet is saved by the less when the other is not saved by the greater because the one joyns with and applies himself to the less Grace when the other resists the greater as a weak horse that buckles to it will draw more than a restive lazy Jade though stronger that hangs back as in weighing of weights by the scales if there be a difference in the scale and one end be heavier it shall weigh down a greater weight because it hath somewhat to help it viz. the weight of the scale it self But if this be granted then man turns the scale for if one man may be saved with less Grace than another it is not Grace that makes the difference but it is the will of man that by joyning of his forces with the lesser Grace the weaker Grace makes the scales praeponderate and so it comes to that which we must of necessity avoid if we will defend the free Grace of God that that which makes the difference is in man somewhat what that he hath from himself that turns the Balance and therefore I conclude for I think it a Demonstration that two men receiving equal Grace will both be saved for if he that receives the lesser Grace shall be saved and not he that receives the greater that must be because the will of man strikes in then the will of man hath somewhat to say and plead I make my self to differ I have reason to glory in my self because having less grace than another had I determine my own will to salvation Point 4 Fourthly That which is a point that few men will believe but it must be maintained it is far better and more for our comfort that our salvation is carried on by the free grace of God and the Soveraignty thereof than if it had been committed to our own hand and left to our liberty and power The sence of man doth rather incline to think it had been better for mankind that they themselves might have had some stroke in their own hands to have brought themselves unto salvation and then it is very likely that more men by far would have been saved than will be saved now and that there is more Justice that men should be condemned for not believing when they may and have power if they will for he that hath power to believe in Christ if he will and doth not his condemnation seems more just But that is a great errour for now that it is in Gods hand it 's more likely and better for our salvation because now some will certainly be saved those whom God hath chosen and elected and those few on whom he determines to shew his grace they will be saved their salvation will be carried on infrustrably and invincibly but if it were left to the liberty of man as man is now to dispose of himself I say Not one man in the world would have been saved for man being once a bankrupt already and having lost that stock of Grace bestowed upon him at first and having no power in his hand to recover all had certainly perished or uncertainly been saved if left to themselves therefore the salvation of Gods Elect is in a far surer hand than if it had remained in mans power for they
upon their souls nor were ever brought by it to a Life of Faith to an hatred of their most secret sins to a predominant Love of God to a superlative esteem of spiritual things and to an Heavenly conversation and that must perish forever for want of that Grace yea for their contempt and hatred of it which they verbally magnified in their preaching and disputes If any subject in Divinity be practical and to be read with holy affection and resolution it is this Remember when thou readest of Grace that the Reader is one that is lost and miserable till Grace recover him and must be beholden to Grace to save him from everlasting wo. Remember that God hath therefore thus wonderfully revealed himself in Love that appearing most Lovely to us he may be most Loved by us and all the beams of his transcendent Goodness may terminate thus upon our hearts and heat them into ascendent flames of Love Read till thou thus Believest and thus Lovest and then thou hast read well And I hope thou wilt find much in these Sermons which may be bellows and fuel for this holy fire Though they are not those exact and elaborate works by which Mr. Vines should be known in his great abilities to the world but such Sermons as he ordinarily preached to his Flock yet if even here thou find not matter to encrease thy tears in the remembrance of those faithful Labourers that sin hath deprived England of thou differest from One of the afflicted servants of the Church Rich. Baxter These Books following are to be sold by Abel Roper at the Sun in Fleet-street ALl Mr. Vines Sermons published by himself collected into one Volume The Papers between his Majesty and the Divines at the Isle of Wight concerning Episcopal Government with Mr. Vines stating his Majesties Concessions Vindiciae Fâ—â—deris A Treatise of the Covenant of God entred into with mankind in the several kinds and degrees of it by Mr. Thomas Blake Minister of the Gospel The Covenant sealed or a Treatise of the Sacraments of both Covenants Polemical and Practical especially of the Sacraments of the Covenant of Grace by Mr. Thomas Blake his vindication of the Birth Priviledge or Covenant-Holiness of Believers and their issue in the time of the Gospel together with the Right of Infants to Baptism Mr. Anthony Burgess his Expository Comment Docâ—â—nal Controversal and Practical upon the whole first chapter of the second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians his Sermon at the Funeral of Mr. Blake Three Sermons of Dr. Tho. Jacombs Bucanus Common Places English A Discourse of the visible Church by Francis Fulwood Minister of the Gospel The Italian Convert or the life of Galeacius Caracciolus his admirable conversion from Popery and forsaking a rich Marquesdom for the Gospels sake St. Augustines Confessions translated into English by Dr. Watts Reynolds Celestial Amities or the souls sighing for the love of her Saviour his benefits of Afflictions his Advice against Libertinism his Eternity weighed with temporal and fading things of this world Iosephus History of the Iews fol. The works of Mr. William Perkins first Vol. fol. Dr. Fulk on the Rhemist Testament fol. The Temple of Solomon pourtrayed by light of Scripture by Samuel Lee fol. The Story of Stories in a Harmony of the four Evangelists octavo Gods Drawing AND Mans Coming to Christ JOHN 6. 44. No man cometh to me except my Father which hath sent me draw him Serm. 1 THis Text speaks plainly and fully enough to the point of mans Conversion for coming in to Christ upon his Call which is the phrase used in the Text. and Conversion unto God differ not but in sound of words which amount unto one and the same meaning The Philosopher in his Dialect would call this Conversion or this Coming unto Christ a motion not local from place to place but transitive from Term to Term for there are two Terms of every motion And the Evangelist according to Scripture expresses the terms of this motion diversly but denoting the same thing From darkness to light saith the Text Acts 26 18. And from the power of Satan unto God The Design that I have in my eye is to Treat of the point of Conversion not pretending to accurateness and curiositie anxiously inquiring after the method or manner of Gods working But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and practically to handle this point unto you For as thou knowest not what is the way of the Spirit or how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with Child so thou knowest not the works of God Eccles 11. 5. nor all the particulars of the methods and wayes wherein God works in the Conversion or Creation of this New man This Conversion sometimes denotes the potent and immediate work of God renewing and converting and this is called in my Text Gods drawing of a man to Christ in these words Except my Father draw him Sometimes it denotes the action of man converting himself to God by the Faith and Repentance which he doth receive from God and this my Text calls mans Coming unto Christ when he is called in that phrase No man can come to me except In time these two can hardly be distinguisht but in order of causality they are easie to be distinguished one from another I mean Gods work converting or drawing man and mans action converting and coming unto Christ The act of man in coming to Christ that 's not first but the work of God drawing in to Christ that is first and the act of mans coming must needs follow as the Sun must of necessitie first shine upon the wall before the wall can give or reflect light or heat from it self back again Facti sumus opus Dei We are first made the works or workmanship of God there is Gods drawing Then Facimus opera Dei we do the work of God or walk in the works of God which he hath ordained that we should walk in them Ephes 2. 10. There is our coming That you may clearly look into every corner of this Text you shall observe here two things First the doctrine that is here taught by our Saviour Secondly the reason of his teaching it at this time The Doctrine here laid forth consists in these three things First the magnifying of the work of God in mans Conversion to raise up your praises thanksgivings to God by whom you are what you are for to his Power and Grace our Saviour Christ assigns the only or the principal part of it and that 's exprest in the work of Gods drawing a man to Christ Therefore this Doctrine is not spoken in a simple form he doth not say in plain words My Father draws man unto me but it s spoken in an exceptive or exclusive form of words excluding mans power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 except my Father draws no man comes to me So that without the divine traction there is not an ability or power in man to come
matter co-eternal with God which I should not do God requires not in his call that the matter be sitted to his hand he creates us of nothing For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus 2 Eph. 10. And that you may see there is nothing in the work of man that gives any being and rise to Conversion and Regeneration you may note that it is so wrought in us as it is compared to that which was brought forth at first out of nothing in 2 Cor. 4. 6. Whereas in the first Creation there was darkness and then light was called out of darkness by the word of Gods command So saith the Apostle God commands light to shine out of darkness in every one that is converted to him he brings him into a state of light and knowledge out of just nothing as the light was at first commanded to shine out of darkness having no pre-existency in the darkness as any seed of light I know this is quotidianum argumentum an every days argument and therefore I will go on to the next Which signifies the greatness of this work a Resurrection or Resuscitation on mans part and passively a resurrection on Gods part and actively a raising of them that are dead in trespasses and sins Ephes 2. 1. called a quickening of men together with Christ that were dead before which clearly resembles it to a miraculous work For such is the raising of the dead Were not they miracles whereby Christ raised the dead And though I confess the similitude between natural and spiritual death is not to be squeezed into impertinencies yet I say that those that shall make natural man to be as it were sick and wounded and only in fetters and not stark dead in spirituals they wrong the grace of God whereby man is converted and as the saying is that which gains in one part loses in another so look where man gains in this point God loses They take from God the eminency of his power so much as they give to man and so enrich man by robbery of God himself and so make it a less work then indeed it is it being a less work and wonder to heal a sick then to raise a dead man That word Regeneration or second Birth doth also denote the gracious act of Gods great power whereby he brings man into a new estate for generation even in nature if it be but of a chicken out of an egg it is full of admiration and worthy to be the object of the enquiry of the learnedst men And therefore what shall we think of Regeneration of this second Birth as it s called which Nicodemus in John 3 wondred and marvelled what it should be why should not we think this to be a great work which is said not to be of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God 1 John 13. And our Saviour shews me thinks a natural reason That which is born of the flesh is flesh like it self for the flesh can beget nothing to the spirit And that which is born of the spirit is spirit the spirit begets not to the flesh nor the flesh unto the spirit but every thing begets unto its like John 3. 6. And therefore if this be so Regeneration must be a great work That 's my first Argument from the titles that are given unto it Secondly the greatness of the work is manifested by the greatness of the change wrought in them that are converted Lay your hearts unto the marks and note for every man converted is changed from contrary to contrary from death to life from darkness to light from the remotest terms that can be self and God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For man exalts self and hates and opposes God Now this man shall be changed from self to God Be ye met amorphosed saith the Text be ye changed in the spirit of your minds Rom. 12. 2. Now look by way of comparison for we may well compare Scripture things with Scripture As the resurrection of the body is attended with a change of that body that rises into a spiritual and incorruptible body He shall change our vile bodies that it shall be like unto his glorious body 1 Cor. 15. So the resurrection of the soul is accompanied with a mighty change of natural disposition and of those habitual principles of lust and corruption which had first taken root and haply by time custome and education more fixt in you Rooted they are naturally and therefore when you come to be changed in these do not you think as great a change follows in this resurrection as on the resurrectection of the body Nothing makes so great a change as this converting grace whereby God draws man to Christ Jesus The moral Philosopher teaches vertue excellently to appalliate the nature of man for indeed he can teach no further that is he can teach amendment of vice by vertue but they know not the meaning of those Scripture-words Creation Resurrection Regeneration these they are very great strangers unto emendation of life is all they speak of Justin Martyr in his second Apology shews what a wonderful change was wrought in them that were religious in them that were called In his time the people did observe it the libidinous are chaste the drunkards made sober the worldlings that had great estates and were tenacious hard enough sell their estates and communicate to them that were converted with them and so goes on to shew as the Scripture speaks the professors of Magical Arts and such ungodly Impostures sold and made away their books and Paul that had destroyed the faith preacht it We preach men not only out of sin but out of vertue for Conversion is a change extended thus far as bringing man into grace and unto Christ Our Saviour called the young Ruler beyond the vertue that he professed Follow me saith he Oh beloved to come to Christ Jesus and to be converted by spiritual grace is beyond all the vertue that you profess And therefore we preach men not only out of vice but vertue Nothing lies nearer our self-love then our lands and houses right hands right eyes and the like yet Christ calls men to the loss of these and he calls to no more then grace enables easily to perform The greatest conquest of spiritual grace in any man is over self-love and self-seeking and therefore for a man to deny himself in any case that is for the excellency of Christ is the greatest change that can be wrought in any man For a man to deny himself upon a force is nothing but to do it out of sympathy is much As we find this change described in Isa 11. 6. where you must allow to the Prophet such expressions The wolf and the lamb shall dwell together the leopard and the kid the calf and the lyon You must not think this is to be understood of wilde beasts but of wilde men whose dispositions being
without life Now that it may be judged you are without and deprived of these there is no better argument to prove it then by that whereinto we are redintegrate by Christ this proves your lapse your loss your ruine for by that which is restored unto you you may know what loss you were at before but so as which is worthy observation at the first the Image of God was planted in man by creation for God created man after his own image The first man did not work the image of God in himself but it was planted in him by that creation by which he was made a man So this conversion comes not by any work of man this new Image of God is replanted by a second creation And therefore it s said in Ephes 4. 24. The new man is created after God in righteousness and holiness This I speak to shew that this flower needs not a watering only but a new plantation in our Garden that I might bring you to pray and give God no rest till you find this work wrought in you Secondly Consider man Positively and in him you shall find a world of lusts that byass him another way Lusts that fight against your conversion lusts that fight both against God and your souls so that no man can any more move and free himself from this lapsed state wherein he is then a bondman can free himself from his Master That 's a Scripture-comparison for there is not one lust you are under but you serve Serving divers lusts and pleasures Tit. 3. 3. one haling this way and another pulling that way and under the name of this bondage doth the Scripture often set forth mans impotent and indeed obstinate condition being as that servant in the Law that said I like my Master and will not go out free I will be a servant for ever There are many that say I will not leave my covetousness I like my sin bore my ear for perpetual servitude let sin be my Master for evermore Thus you see man is not only under privation but under the power of positive lusts Secondly From the work of Conversion it self that gives us very good reason no Philosophy in the world will deny this to be reason First this conversion to God is not wrought as habits that are generated produced and begotten in man by acts as a man writes often before he learns to write that is a moral way But this grace is planted in man first as potentia naturalis it produceth the acts and must first be The eye is a natural power 〈◊〉 a habit I do not by seeing learn to see as I do by writing learn to write but first I must have sight in my eye before I can make any act produce any fruit Grace is like sight in the eye we do not get grace by the several acts by us performed but first God plants it in our souls and then as with the eye we see Our Saviour Christ gives me the form of this reason First make the tree good and then the fruit will be good This must first be a man must first be endued with a divine and saving principle there must be a new man a new self a new creature before there can be any new acts How often have I told you that before this great work of God that plants a principle in me before this be wrought nothing at all can be expected from me Now Conversion is such a thing as this it makes the tree good and that cannot be by mans power because Conversion makes a new self in man I say it is impossible to reason and nature that this should be he that cannot do a good act can much less make himself a good tree Who ever heard of a thing in the world making it self Is any thing both a creature and a Creator I think there is no such thing in the world for if there were it would be something above a miracle A dead man raising himself its miracle great enough if another hand do it I say t is above a miracle and impossible in reason And truly if this Scripture-truth were brought to the ponderation of reason reason it self would not refragate and oppose the thing And secondly Conversion is a work supernatural and brings forth supernatural grace as to believe in Christ Jesus the Lord and to love God above self For that which is said in Scripture in the Law Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy mind and thy neighbour as thy self If thy neighbour be to be loved as thy self then that which went before is the loving God above self And if this be true as it is that God is to be loved above self it s an impossibility till there be a principle put into the mind and heart whereby to do it for self cannot work above self nothing can act above its sphere of activity my reason is as the Schoolmen observe if a thing act and bring forth any thing without it self there would be some effect without a cause and the cause cannot reach it which is clearly in reason impossible and a contradiction Darkness indeed was and light was called out it God commanded light to shine out of darkness in our new creation 2 Cor. 4. 6. but that darkness should produce light I say that light is without a cause for there is no causality in darkness and to make an effect without a cause is a thing contrary to nature and reason and therefore there must be a power to command it out otherwise you put nature to work above it self Thirdly If you consider the Gospel-reasons which that most of all insists on and these are the simplest they have no Philosophy in them Why no man hath power to convert himself there are two reasons the Gospel gives and there are no more that I can give in this point I am sure Bellarmine acknowledges it First it layes in caution against boasting and takes that for reason enough Why not If man were able to believe and convert himself then there is foundation laid for boasting and pride that man reflecting on himself might say I believed and for that reason the Apostle doth deny in Ephes 2. 9. Salvation saith he is by grace not of works lest any man should boast not so lest that should be It s contrary to the scope of the Gospel and also to the Gospel-design that is to unhinge the power of man and to draw all the water to Gods own mill the free grace of God And oh that we were in love with this free grace of God! that whereby when we were involved in sin we were brought out The second Reason the Gospel gives and it needs no more is it gives all the honour to Gods grace throughout assigning all the difference of one man from another to that fountain If a man converts himself then he differences himself from another man but the Scripture assigns
Adam should stand for God was not in jest in that business but God had not an absolute will that he should stand so as to work and confirm him in that estate so as to cause Adam to stand in his integrity so the will of God may be serious in commanding of a man to repent and yet not absolute and peremptory to work it in that man if he refuse to obey the command when God commands a man to make him a new heart to circumcise his heart or to obey his holy Laws in all these God is serious and in good earnest notwithstanding he doth not absolutely work these in all In the Elect of God whom he hath chosen he doth indeed not only command but works it In all he doth not And the reason is because God is serious in his conditional promises or Covenant when he speaks to man to believe and thereupon promises pardon he is in good earnest for he would have men to believe and it is their sin not to do it and then if they do the connexion between faith and pardon is sure a man earnestly perswades his servant or friend to be cut of the stone they will not the man takes his child and binds him cuts and cures him he goes further with his child then he did with his friend or servant yet he did seriously perswade them though he did not go so far with them nor had he reason but leaves them to themselves not that a similitude should run on four feet but take it in the general meaning God doth perswade with men to break the stone and to plough up the fallow ground of their hearts but he takes them that belong to the Election of his grace and whereas they refuse this grace as well as others he takes away the heart of stone from them I will take away the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh and therefore when the Lord saith thus in Ezek. 18. 31 32. Cast away your transgressions make you a new heart and a new spirit for why will ye dye O house of Israel I have no pleasure in the death of him that dyes therefore tâ—rn your selves and live be assured God is in good earnest with you this is his serious will this God calls upon man for notwithstanding he doth not work this new heart in all but in some for he saith in Ezek. 36. 27. a new heart I will give you he bids them to circumcise and saith I the Lord will circumcise Deut. 30 6. mans duty is made Gods act that which God requires in man seriously is made Gods act to perform in man graciously in the mean time by his calling and offering of life he hereby shews you what is his will of approbation that is what is the acceptable and perfect will of God Rom. 12. 2. there is an acceptable will and an effective will of God the acceptable will of God is seen in this call and offer of grace the effective will of God is that of his purpose which is effective of the work works the work upon you now God is serious when he speaks according to his acceptable will though he doth not effect it absolutely and peremptorily Serm. 12 THE acceptable will of God is your Sanctification 2 Th. 4. 3. this is the will of God your sanctification this God approves and the effective will of God whereby he works is like that I will be thou clean Mat. 8. 3. or that Jam. 1. 18. of his own will begat he us The acceptable will of God is that which shews your duty and what you must have if you will not dye if you will be saved Ezek. 18. 31. Cast from you all your transgressions make you 〈◊〉 new heart and a new spirit for why will ye dye the effective will of God is that which works both to will and to do which saith I will take away the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh and I will give a new heart and a new spirit Ezek. 36. 26 27. The acceptable will is his signifying will what he will have done by us The effective will is the will of his purpose what he will do in us The oâ—â— shews it self in the word the other in the work This acceptable will of God manifested in Evangelical commands and promises whereby he commands faith and repentance and promises pardon of sin and life is that which we must look unto and prove as the Apostle saith Rom. 12. 3. and this is seriously proposed to men But the will of Gods purpose his effective will is secret and so cannot be the guide of our addresses to God nor the rule of our believing for Gods acceptable will is the rule of our faith And this will of Gods purpose though it be absolutely performed in and unto all that are under that purpose yet there is an outward calling of many that are not chosen and there are offers of grace to infinite unto whom it is not powerfully given for it is said to you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom but to others it is not given and yet to those to whom it is not absolutely given it is seriously offered according to the effective will is the one and according to the acceptable will is the other and here comes in a question Quest What is the reason that God effectually works that grace in one which he doth but offer to another that God works by his absolute will the grace of Conversion and Faith in some which he offers and requires according to his acceptable will of others and why doth he so pathetically work with counsells and perswasions that which he might command if God command light to shine out of darkness and do not create that light the light doth not shine one word fiat lux would effect the work which he commands to be wrought in us and by us is resisted this is the great objection To this I say three things Answ First That God might have converted his Elect as he made this world that is immediately without tools or instruments God in the Conversion of man will deal with man as man he will use a ministry a means by exhortation by conviction by counsel and by moral perswasions that as it s said Hos 11. 3. he will draw with the cords of man so he will deal with man as man by reasonable counsels and perswasions leading him not as a stock by a Cable rope of meer force but so as that he may by excitation quicken the affections by enlightning convince the understanding by awakening carry the will this must be that the affections may be allured and drawn up to the consideration of spiritual things so that this being the way of God of necessity it doth require that there be used means motions counsels perswasions and the like I have to say further on this head these four things First God by these offers and tenders of
not so decry the will of man in his conversion that I will deny it to be freer in that act then it is in any action of this life then it is to eat and drink c. but whence comes that freedom who hath unshackled nay who hath revived this will that is God The will of man is not so to be cryed down as to make him a brute nor yet so to be advanced as to make him more then a Servant They who make man who is dead in sin to be like the man in the parable half-dead Luk. 10. 30. which to answer that place by the way was enough to shew who was his neighbour It was enough for the scope of our Saviours Parable to suppose the man left half-dead do unawares wrong the quickening vertue of Christ You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins he that makes a man less then dead makes the quickening power that converts him less then a resurrection he that makes the captivity and bondage of a man less doth thereby make his freedom less too because these do follow one upon another bondage and freedom captivity and liberty as those Papists that free the virgin Mary from all sin do also remove Christ from being her Saviour his name shall be called Jesus because he saves his people from their sins if there be no sin from whence is the salvation if there be no salvation from whence is he called a Saviour as therefore I would not set works in the place of Justification which is Christs place so neither will I remove them from a necessary place in sanctification and salvation for they have a necessary place but not a place to work it for we must be Gods workmanship before we can do Gods work the Apostle makes that plain when he gives that as a reason nor in the place of Justification for that as I said is Christs place nor as a motive to move God to justifie a sinner for that is free grace nor as the condition and instrument for that is the place of faith yet they have a place in sanctification afterwards as the fruit of the tree though not as the root for a cypher that in the first place of a figure is nothing may in the second place add a value so that which in point of merit and causality is nothing yet if there be first grace a work of regeneration and sanctification wrought in the heart then I say there is something to be said of this obedience and as I will not give to man the working of the will and the deed so neither will I deny the working out of Salvation to be mans act and therefore those that say Christ repents for me and Christ believes for me as if so be it were not man that believes and the sinner that repents they speak a kind of non-sence the text I am upon teaches the contrary where he tells them the drawing is Gods the coming is mans act and duty and therefore it s not to be said Christ believes and repents for me for I must repent and believe or I am lost and lie in my lost estate The duty and act of faith and repentance are yours But the grace and power whereby these are wrought in you are God's and therefore the rule here is that the power and Grace of God be not degraded by the extenuation of mans natural sin and corruption but that rather the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the much more as it is said Rom. 5. 17. be given to the abundance of Grace for if you consider and compare together mans duty and Gods power mans act and the power of God that works the will and the deed rather give the more to God then sin if sin be abounding I would rather say Grace over-abounds because that is the favourable side and gives unto the grace of God more then peradventure some think to be due to him that where as abounding may be said of sin let super abounding be said of Grace Rom. 5. 20. Serm. 17 FOurthly Nor will that doctrine abide the due or true test that under the pretence of this sole power of God exerted in mans Conversion doth clamorously cry down all instruments and means Gospel and Gospel Ministry under this pretence that the sole power of mans new creation and conversion is of God and therefore hold that as God made this world without tools and instruments so God shall and will convert men by his converting grace without means instruments ministry and the like And what danger is it to snatch up a piece of a sentence for they have heard this doctrine from the orthodox that man cannot he is disabled to believe in Christ that the power is of God and have run away with it and thence have hatcht this fancie that therefore we need not look after these means shewing to us that preach that we had need to use due Correctives in our preaching for good medicines without apt Correctives sometimes breed wind or disease rather then cure it so this orthodox doctrine not rightly Corrected breeds this fancy that there is no need of instruments to work that whereof God hath the sole power These men I can say no less of them will teach God to convert man Let them teach themselves to stand in the way and rode of Christ where he walks and doth miracles Let them stand in the way of his ordinances For though I confess God can convert without ordinances and means yet to say that he doth so is as if because he did sometime make a man at full stature as Adam therefore he doth so always And so abolish mariage which he hath instituted for the propagation of mankind and so because God can convert man and bring him to a full autumne and state of grace at first that therefore God must abolish his own ordinances instituted for bringing his people to him Is it not enough that God hath tyed us to the use of Ordinances where Salvation is to be had but we must tie God according to our fancie either to or from the use of Ordinances what if God did extraordinarily without the plough maintain Israel in the wilderness by Manna bread from heaven is therefore God tyed to do the same by such extraordinary means when they come to their setled Land where they mow and sowe and reap Corn for themselves this doth not follow Where there are no ordinances to be had there God may work extraordinarily But God is not therefore bound to do it neither can we conclude he will do it let Naaman the Syrian be an extraordinary example of a man healed by miracle and those that Christ converted and healed what is this to our purpose God by his meer free will hath chosen this way of Gospel-ministry and ordained it to be the Power of God to Salvation Rom. 1 16. God puts forth a power when he converts a soul and he
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
shall renew their strength they shall walk and runne and flie up as Eagles and not be faint Isay 10. last verse Sermon 24 Consect 6 Sixthly Gods drawing of impotent man to Christ is the cause of mans coming to Christ so that though most men seem and will not denie that they beleive yet no man savingly doth believe and come to Christ except God by an Almighty and Omnipotent hand doe draw him The drawing of God is called the Act of God converting man the coming of man is called the Act of man converting himselfe both you find in this text Gods drawing and mans coming In the first of these man is meerly passive in the second mans coming unto Christ he is active as by way of comparison the Sun shines upon the Wall the Wall is Passive doth nothing in the Walls shining back by vertue of the Sunnes shining upon it the wall may be said to be active because it shines back the Beams by reflexion a plain case God giving this Divine grace Man is passive therein man converting unto Christ and believing in him by vertue of the drawing of God is active and performes the duty that is required of him For though Faith be an Act of Gods Power giving yet it is an Act of Mans dutie I believed therefore I spake the Act is his the power is Gods this point our Saviour proves affirmatively by an Argument drawn out of the Prophet Isaiah that all that have been taught of the Father believe and come to Christ and because that every man so taught doth come therefore no man doth come but he that is drawn which is the Negative in the Text from the affirmative he proves this Negative every man that is taught of God comes to Christ therefore no man doth come but he that is so drawn as in the natural being there is the Creation of God making us so to be so in the Recreation or making man a new Creature there is a work of God making us to be so and I see no reason but man may as well make himselfe at first in the natural being that he hath as re-make himselfe spiritually And I wonder any man should pretend that man hath a greater stroke in making himself a new Creature then he had in making himself a creature at the first A man may raise him self from the natural and bodily death as easily as he can raise himself from a Spiritual death therefore it is said that God quickens â—s being dead Eph. 2. 5. Why then may some say iâ— there no power in man to come unto or to believe in Christ Jesus I answer there is not active power to begin to come but there there is a passive and obediential power as the School-men call it which is a power to receive this work of God to receive the impression from God but not an active power to work it in man himself as in Ezekiels dry bones the Question was Can these dry bones live there was no Power for them to come together to work life in themselves but a passive Power to receive the breath and life when God gave it So there is in Man he is not a stock or block but hath a power obediential to receive the work of God the work of Regeneration and of Faith is not wrought sine duobus without two as Bernard saith the one in quo the other à quo the one in whom it is wrought as the Subject that is impotent Man the one by whom it is wrought as the Agent that is the Omnipotent God it there were not such a nature in man a rational nature there is not quod salvatur that which could be saved if the arme of God were not revealed there is not quod salvat that by which man is saved so that there must be these two From this point thus laid down and opened unto you I will summe up certain observations proper to the Text. Observ 1 First God is first in order of Causality for if you ask which of these is first I say Gods work is first and then Man comes after and therefore the Apostle proves that man is not Saved and Justified by works for we are His workmanship Eph. 2. 10. and the dead doth not first work but the living upon the dead Ephes 2. 5. and as Ishewed in Jer. 31. 18. turne thou me and I shall be turned Gods act of turning Gods before mans being turned and after I was instructed I repented you may further read this point proved in Jer. 17. 14. Heal me Oh Lord and I shall be healed Save me and I shall be saved Gods healing and saving must precede and go before our being healed and saved It 's true in order of time a Christian is not alwaies sensible to observe the time of Gods working before the time of his Converting the work of God and the act of mango so near together who can discern by way of comparison any time between the shining of the Sun on the wall and the walls reflecting back the light of the Sun yet reason will tell you from the order of Causes the Sun must first shine on the Wall so neither is it in this Case The Lords drawing and Mans coming are not sensibly discerned in difference of time but in order of nature and Causality Gods work is first which drawes and mans conversion next which comes to Christ Christ taught this Point in the comparison between the fruit and the tree suppose the tree bad it brings not forth fruit that it may be changed into a good tree but first the Tree is made good and then yeelds good fruit Math. 12. 33. And Austin hath a like Similitude Non ideo currit rota ut fit rotunda sed quia est the wheel doth not therefore run that it may be round but first the wheel or bowl is made round and then they runne so man doth not work or act that he may be made a new Creature and walk in Gods way but first he is made Gods workmanship drawn by Divine grace and then acts and brings forth fruit to God and it is the saying of Hugo speaking of the grace of God and the will of man Gratia operatur eam deinde per eam First the grace of God works the will and then it works by the will here is the state of the point grace makes the will and works it and then works by it Reas And truely methinks that in reason and good manners it should be said by all men that Gods working upon man goes before mans working for or towards God that as the Creator I speak not of Relations for they are both together in nature is before the Creature in working the Spiritual Creator must be before the Spiritual Creature in the working of it as well as the Bodily For the making of this Point good I will lay down five Reasons First The Scripture asserts it I will give a new
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 himself and is pleased with that with which he was displeased before when the heart is thus overcome then it submits he stands faire in his own eyes no more his own face pleases him no longer he rebels no more but submits to the righteousness of God Ro. 10. 3. and so receives Christ as the greatest treasure in the world therefore free grace is a great obligation it binds strongly by the constraint of love Fourthly I close all with a motive to examination whether you be partakers of this drawing now before the Sacrament you are called the Lord invites you to his table he invites his friends his children these he calls by the word every ordinance breathes unto you little else but Christ Jesus for all sanctifying strengthning and corroborating grace from whence come they surely in Hosea 14 8. from me is thy fruit found all your strength arises from the greater and further reception of Christ Jesus therefore examine whether this work of God hath been on you to draw you to Christ Jesus faith is not a vulgar grace it is not an easie thing it comes from divine omnipotency and power as we say of the resurrection whereby a dead man rises from the grave it is a work of the power of God and therefore Christ confuting the Sadduces that denied it said you erre not knowing the Scriptures and the power of God I am saith Christ the resurrection and the life No man is alive till he take hold of and believe in the Lord Jesus now can a dead man be raised from the dead and not be sensible do you think faith is not a sensible work yes as 't is a powerful work so 't is sensible to man yet I confess men may be deceived as women are by false tumors and swellings so there are many delusions whereby a man may take himself to be in a state of grace when he is not because there is a false faith as well as a true it is the point of examination pressed by St Paul in 2 Cor. 13. 5. because of such moment examine your selves whether you be in the faith whether Christ be in you many think of a Christ without them you are all glad to know that Christ gave himself for you that he gave himself to be the blood of atonement but is he yours by the blood of sprinkling the Scripture puts this to the trial by words that intimate Christ within men Galath 4. 19. my little children of whom I travel in pain till Christ be formed in you and Ephes 3. 17. Christ dwels in our hearts by faith Gal. 2. 20 Christ liveth in me these phrases do difference the Jew outwardly from the Jew inwardly and teach in like proportion that he is not a Jew that hath the outward character and not the circumcision of the Spirit Ro 2 28. and let that obligation sit on you in the 2 Tim. 2. 19. Let every one that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity for else it s not the sacraments will serve turne in 1 Cor. 10. 4 5. they eat of the same spiritual meat with us But God was not well pleased with them they were wicked and therefore examine your selves what work of God you have found upon your hearts whether you are renewed by the Holy-Ghost in Tit. 3. 5. God is said to save man by the washing of regeneration v. 6. that being justified by his grace you might be made heirs of eternal life To move you consider Motive 2 First The graces that have connexion with or do accompany salvation are inward things there is an inward seal a white stone with a name in it known to them that have it Sacraments seal the outward part the conditional compact that whosoever believes shall not perish but it is the Spirit that witnesses to ours that we are sons of God Motive 2 Secondly That unto and by those inward graces God drawes his people thus he undertakes to create a new heart to put his law into their mind this is that which is called the teaching of God Gods drawing so that its the inward work that gives thee comfort of this business But Object Doth not the manducation of Christs body and blood in the Sacrament tend unto this inward and spiritual inhabitation of Christ in us Answer Yes And so did the outward ordinances of the Jewes they tended to spiritual things there circumcision signified an inward circumcision as our baptisme an inward washing and our eating and drinking sets forth our communion of his body and blood our union and communion which are spiritual are here exhibited unto us as meat and drink of life as John 6. 37. He that eats me shall live by me this in this chapter so much spoken of is not sacramental but it is spiritual eating for it was spoken before the institution of the supper but it speaks of the kernel of it the eating of Christ his body by faith And so much for this text THE DIFFERENCE Between a True Inward Christian And the Outward Formalist DISCOVERED In three Sermons on Rom. 2. 28 29. By M r RICHARD VINES Late Preacher of Gods Word at S t Laurence Jury LONDON LONDON Printed for Abel Roper 1662. THE DIFFERENCE Between a True Inward Christian And the Outward Formalist Rom. 2. 28 29. For he is not a Jew that is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision which is outward in the flesh But he is a Jew that is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter whose praise is not of men but of God THe Apostle before he makes entrance upon the Doctrine of Justification which is one of the Cardinal Points of the Christian Religion doth convince and conclude that both Jews and Gentiles and so consequently all mankind are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under sin Rom. 3. 9. draws up the conclusion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have shewn cause before or charged all men to be under sin teaching all Masters of conviction the necessity of that method to cut off the branch which is to be ingraffed from the tree where it had its first birth before it can be fit for coalition with a new stock and for participation of the root and fatness of the Olive Tree first make a man a sinner my meaning is make him miserable and when the strugling fish that is stricken with the hook is tired or choaked you may more easily draw him to the shore The great Rule to be observed in the conviction of gainsayers is to disarm them of their Armour those inward reasonings and strong holds wherein they trust then it is an eaâ—ier thing to bring them in when that wherein they trusted is 〈◊〉 down about their ears Think not saith S. John to say within your selves We have Abraham to our Father think it not speaking to the inward reasonings of the Jews at that 〈◊〉 The Apostle imitating this course â—oth as concerning the heathen