not give his Glory to ãâã Isa. 42. 8. The Lord Jesus as he will not suffer ãâã Corruption never so strong to hinder his Work when he will accomplish it so neither will he suffer ãâã of our performances or abilities be they what ãâã will to joyn Purchasers with him in the ãâã of Grace as though he were not either able or willing to be the Author and sinisher of our Faith ãâã No no We must not ad of ours but in ãâã case take all of him and from him not bring ãâã own wisdom with us but become fools that we ãâã be wise and that 's the way which God hath ãâã to gain information not think to ioyn our ãâã with Christ and so become Co-partners with ãâã I speak of the first Work of Conversion to ãâã our selves Holy Just and Wise but ãâã our selves we must look that he should be made Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and ãâã to us Hence the Apostle Phil. 3. 9. professeth he desired ãâã to be found in Christ not only as not having his ãâã sins but not having his own ãâã which ãâã by the Law A Real Renouncing of our own worthiness of that Grace and Mercy which we need and without which ãâã are most miserable this being one Condition of the Second Covenant of Grace made in Christ wherby it 's differenced from that of the Law made with Adam Namely That Holiness and Righteousnes wherewith the Nature of man was beautified in Paradice though it was not so natural as issuing out of the Principles out of which he was compounded and made yet by all Orthodox Divines it is in this sense judged natural in that in Gods wise Providence and righteous appointment it was due to Nature It being cross to the wise proceeding of the infinite wise God to require Obedience from a Creature if he should not have given ability to the Creature to perform it It Arguing weakness and unskilfulness at the least in the Workman to make a thing for an End and not make it able to attain the End ãâã which it was made But in this Second Covenant of the Gospel it is far otherwise when we in our first ãâã had mispent the stock the Lord had bestowed upon us we were unworthy to be betrusted with any more and hence it coms to pass when the Lord wil lay hold upon the proud heart of a Sinner and draw him to himself he sinks his Spirit with the sence of his own wretchedness so that he sees and confesseth freely that he is undone without Mercy and yet conceives it 's not possible that ever such a worthless worm should partake thereof acknowledgeth it's just with God to deny to give nay to offer Grace to him that hath slighted rejected opposed Grace from day to day He knowes he cannot procure or Purchase Gods favor challenge he dare not without it he concludes he must perish and yet deserves by his own confession he should never obtain it Dan. 9. 7 8. O Lord Righteousness belongs to thee but unto us confufion of face nothing but shame and confusion belongs to us no mercy nor grace Ezek. 36. 31 32. They shal loarh themselves in their own eyes and not for your ãâã do I these things saith the Lord be ashamed and confounded O house of Israel In a word then is a man truly worthy that is fit to hear of and to receive mercy when he is rightly really become ãâã of his own unworthiness The soul now stands ready to side it with Christ for him to take possession of it that though the soul be not able to kill sin yet it 's empty the Coast is cleer as when Joab sent to David to come and take the City so the soul stands ready that if Jesus Christ would come and take possession of it and do that for it which it cannot do it self this is that that it would have the soul is content that Christ should do all as suppose a City that is Garrisoned with Enemies they cannot get them out themselves but they are willing that the General should come with his Soldiers and drive them out and place another Garrison there so the soul is content that Christ should dispossess whatsoever opposeth him and do whatsoever is pleasing to himself Isa. 26. 13. O Lord our God ãâã Lords besides thee have had Dominion over us but by thee only will we make mention of thy Name as if the soul should say I cannot subdue my sins my self but let Christ do what is good in his eyes the soul is content that Christ should work upon it and do all for it The Second Particular to be attended for the Explication of the Point is to shew the Manner of this Work and that will also appear in Four things The soul of a sinner is meerly patient herein it 's wrought upon him not wrought by him by any power he hath inherent in himself so the phrase and language of Scripture Jer. 31. 18. Turn me and I shal be turned and verse 19. After I was turned I ãâã that also includes as much Gal. 4. 9. we know God ãâã rather in this first Work are known of him And therefore it 's no work of Sanctification properly and as it 's taken in a narrow and strict sense for the sinner be ng justified by Faith and having the Spirit of Adoption dwelling in him hath received a principle of life wherby he comes to be active Act. 15 9. Having purified their hearts by faith This only is in way of preparation to fit us for our being in Christ that I may receive this power this is to make room for faith and Christ that having received him I might be enabled by the power of the Spirit to run right which is Sanctification Hence then go no further than this work the sinner as yet is not a good Tree nor can he bring forth good Fruit but is in way of preparation to be made one yet this work as it comes from the Spirit is good and pleasing to God because the Spirit is a good tree and is the Author of this I only am the receiver of it and therefore it is none of my fruit properly nor am I said to do any thing to please God by this because it 's done in me not by me As it is in the infusion of the Grace of Faith look at it as the soul is the subject of the Work the act it self comes from the Spirit and as a fruit of the Spirit it is good and accepted of God yet I cannot properly be said to please God in it because it is not an act done by me Hence those feeble Objections fall to the ground and are wiped away with a wet finger If there be any saving Preparation before the infusion of Faith then the soul brings forth good fruit and is a good tree without Faith And Secondly then there is somthing which pleaseth God
heart stil more ãâã it from Hypocrisie and makes it ãâã refined causeth the heart to come forth from each new Cast and moulding with a deeper and fairer Impression ãâã his Image and Glory If then the Holy Ghost the Writer of his Law in the Heart set that high value upon that Work ãâã his that he vouchsafeth to take ãâã pains to write it over and over again in the same Tablet Let it be no Diminution to this great Author but let us bless God rather for the Providence that the same Divine Hand and Spirit should set him this Task to take the Doctrine of ãâã VVork into a second yea a third Review and thereby make it as it were the ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the VVork of his Life Only thus it is That the other Great Points as Union with Christ Justification Adoption Sanctification and Glory which Subjects as he was able for so his heart was most in them he hath left unfinished And so thereby as is most likely multitndes of precious yea glorious thoughts which he might have reserved as often fals out to Preachers and Writers for those higher Subjects as the Close and Centre and Crown of what forewent as preparative thereto are now perished and laid in the dust with him None but Christ was ever yet able to finish all that Work which was in his Heart to do Farewel Thomas Goodwin Philip Nye Eleven Books made in New-England by Mr. Thomas Hooker and printed from his Papers written with ãâã own Hand are now published in ãâã volnms two in Quartò one in Octa. vo VIZ. The Application of Redemption by the Effectual Work of the Word and Spirit of Christ for the ãâã home of lost ãâã unto God The First Book on 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. The Second on ãâã 1. 21. The Third on Luk. 1. 17. The Fourth on 2 Cor. 6. 2. The Fift on ' ãâã 20. ãâã 6 7 The Sixt on Revel 3. 17. The Seventh ãâã Rom. 8. 7. The Eight on John 6. 44. The ãâã on ãâã 57. 15. The Tenth on Acts 2. 37. The Last viz. Christ's Prayer for ãâã ãâã John 17. There are Six more Books of Mr. Hookers now printing in two Volums The Contents BOOK I. On 1 Pet. 1. 18. Ye were redeemed by the Blood of Christ. Oct. Christ hath purchased all spiritual good for His. 5 For Explication three things  What this Spiritual good is  All that we lost in Adam all that we need and ãâã desire to make us happy  How Christ hath purchased this by laying down ãâã sufficient price for it viz. His Death and Obedience  ãâã two hence 8 1 Instruction See how difficult it is to obtain the least spiritual good Nothing to be had without this Purchase  2 Reproof to two sorts  1 To those that have interest in this Purchase ãâã improve it not  2 To those that catch at it having no right ãâã unto  3 FOR HIS here consider ãâã 1 The special respect in which they come to have ãâã in Christs merits ãâã on Sinners ãâã Elect. ãâã But as the Seed of the Covenant such as shall ãâã leeve  2 Christ hath purchased FOR THEM  1 In their room  2 For their good  Reasons why Christ hath purchased only for His ãâã the Faithful not for all ãâã ãâã  1 The ãâã of God is satisfied only for them  2 Christ prayed only for them  3 They only shall be saved  4 They ãâã have the means of Salvation made ãâã ãâã to them Many have not so much as ãâã means  ãâã sour hence ãâã 1 ãâã ãâã ãâã three things  1 ãâã ãâã challenge any spiritual good to ãâã ãâã before he beleeve ãâã For  1 No man hath Christ but by Faith  2 Beleevers ãâã are in the Covenant of ãâã  3 ãâã are in the state of ãâã  2 The Spirit of God deth not witness to any ãâã interest in this spiritual good before and ãâã Faith Because  1 It 's a falshood cross to the Covenant of ãâã  2 An ãâã is uncapable of knowing receiving such a witness  Inferences hence 29 1 It 's a delusion to say you may have Christ before Faith this is the ground of Prophaneness and ãâã  2 There are no absolute Promises in the Covenant of Grace but such as do either express or imply the condition of Faith And yet it 's a Covenant of free Grace  3 The ãâã of Christ never gives evidence to any man of his good Estate without respect to a qualification viz. Faith and Grace Because 41 1 This work of Evidencing is a work of Applicacion  2 The Spirit never Evidenceth without tha Word  3 The Spirit alwaies ãâã by applying of a general Promise wherein particular persons are included  4 This would be to charge the Spirit with witnessing a falshood  5 The Spirit ever witnesseth as the Covenant of Grace doth  6 The Spirit witnesseth in the same respect as the Father intended and Christ purchased  7 The Evidence of spiritual Knowledge and Assurance of Faith arise upon the same ground  Hence see the excellency and blessed condition of Beleevers 54 Confutation it dasheth the dream of universal Redemption 57 Objections Answered  Exhortation to provoke our hearts 66 1 To get Faith  2 To have all at Christs Command and lay out all for his praise  BOOK II On Matth. 1. 21. He shall save his People from ãâã sins DOCT. Christ puts all his into possession of all ãâã Good that he hath purchased  Two Branches  Branch 1. Redemption and Application are of ãâã extent For ãâã 1 The Spirit applies Redemption to all and ãâã such as the Father intended and Christ ãâã sed it ãâã 2 Application was the end of purchasing  3 If the Application were narrower than the ãâã chase then Christ should have died for many ãâã should have no benefit by his death  Uses three hence  1 Consutation of these false Opinions  1 Christ died for all  2 Christ died for all in point of Impetration ãâã not of Application  3 That the Application of mercy depends upon liberty of mans will  2 Instruction See the Reason why the work of ãâã cation prevails so powerfully though sinners ãâã it  Christ having redeemed them will and doth ãâã that Redemption to them  Direction to distressed sinners Look to the purchase and blood of Christ.  ãâã 2. The Manner bow this Application is wrought  Three things implied in that 81 No man can make Application of any spiritual good in Christ to himself  1 Nor by power wrest it  2 Nor by Justice claim it  3 Nor able to receive it  4 Nor willing to be made able  Uses four hence  It dasheth the ãâã of such as conceive they have power to take Christ and Grace when they
all from Christ for ãâã both the Party and it self in its imperfections ãâã pardoned A Second Pretence is That I cannot know ãâã my Faith and Grace be good before I know ãâã my estate be good Where these Two things ãâã plain 1 A man may be in a good estate in Nature before ãâã 2 A man may know that he is so without the ãâã or seeing of Faith or Grace The Revelation comes and sayes Thou art a Son ãâã God thy sins are pardoned and if you once get ãâã a Revelation though your Faith and Grace be ãâã you may repair hither this will serve before you do know this you can never know the ãâã of your Grace and Faith And in truth I suspect here is the Mysterie of this Opinion the very Hinge upon which all the rest turn And therefore though in words they will say This Evidence cannot be before Faith that is In time yet in Nature it may be though this Evidence and Faith are coexisting and coappearing together in time they exist and appear together yet this Evidence may be before Faith in Nature An Opinion which is desperately dangerous For That which contradicts the Gospel is false ãâã to say a man may be in a good estate before Faith contradicts the Gospel He upon whom the wrath ãâã God ãâã he is not in a good estate but he that beleeves not the wrath of God remains upon him Joh. 3. 36. He that is not within the state of the Covenant of Grace he cannot know himself in a good estate but without Faith no man is in the estate of the Covenant of Grace For they only who are of Faith are within that Covenant Gal. 3. 9. As my Election is so is the Evidence of my Consolation but my Election is without any Eye to Works If ãâã be the meaning As my Election is of ãâã ãâã so also is my ãâã and the Evidence thereof of free Grace it is true But if this be the meaning ãâã as Election depends upon no Means nor Works no more doth the Evidence of my Consolation it s very false It amounts to this If the Decree of God be independent then is the Execution then which nothing is more contrary to Scripture and common Experience 1 Pet. 1. 9. Receiving the End of your Faith the salvation of your souls Rom. ãâã 13. Filled with joy and peace in Beleeving In a word We are Justified and Saved freely and yet both by Faith and yet we are not Elected by Faith Gather up the meaning of the Question briefly 1 ãâã Evidence is meant The Spirit witnessing and I ãâã This discerning is by Science of Knowledge and Assurance of Faith the one helps the other 2 It is concerning these Spiritual Priviledges Justification Adoption Reconciliation Glorification It cannot be touching the working of Faith or any Qualification to be wrought because it is without respect to any Qualification and must in their apprehension Evidence none Nay there can be no Evidence that is neither science of spiritual Wisdom or assurance of Faith that God will work the first Condition of Grace Because they are Effects of the first Grace and presuppose it 3 Lastly This Evidence is immediate not in regard of the Word according to which it is dispensed but in regard of any Qualification which is neither expressed on Gods part nor attended on my part though it may be there Now we see the plain meaning of the Question I affirm it to be an Erroneous and dangerous Assertion and therefore do Oppose this against it Viz. The Spirit of God never gives such an immediate Evidence of Spiritual Priviledges without a respect to a Qualification The Arguments now follow The First is taken from the nature of this Work his work of Evidencing is a work of Application ãâã to be referred and according to that to be ãâã for the Priviledges themselves Justification Adoption c. carry the marks of Distinction and ãâã from the World and do appertain only to such as the Lord hath taken for his own Deut. ãâã last Who is like unto thee O Israel a people ãâã by the Lord And in this regard they are called ãâã peculiar taken in from the Common of the ãâã Acts 26. 18. He turns them from Satan to God and then they receive forgiveness of sins and ãâã among them that are sanctified by Faith in him When the Soul is called and turned to God ãâã there is an Application of all spiritual good Hence the Reason follows thus No work of Application is without respect to a Qualification but Evidencing is a work of Application without an act of Receiving there is no Application for the applying of any thing to another ever in common sense implyes some to whom it must be applyed and who must receive it But ãâã ãâã to a Qualification there is no act of receiving ãâã Priviledges therefore without respect to a ãâã there is no application of them If the very act of Receiving be performed by a Qualification then without respect to this there is no Receiving But the very act of Receiving is done by a Qualification 1 Cor. 2. 14. The Natural man receives not the things of the spirit of God therefore there must be more than Nature Joh. 1. 12. To. ãâã many as Received him he gave this Power and Priviledge to be the Sons of God even to as many as beleeve on his name Receiving and Beleeving are all one Thus then Without a Qualification of Faith there is no Receiving and without Receiving respected there is no applying of any Priviledges ãâã without applying no Evidencing therefore ãâã respect to a Qualification there is no Evidence ãâã by the Spirit nor enjoyed by the Soul If the Spirit of God give immediate Evidence of these Priviledges without respect to the Condition ãâã Qualification ãâã it gives in Evidence ãâã the Word But the Spirit never Evidenceth without the Word ãâã 14. 26. When the Comforter is come he will teach ãâã all things and bring to your remembrance ãâã I have said unto you but he will teach ãâã nor evidence nothing else but what Christ hath ãâã in his Word If there be no Word but the Word ãâã a Conditional Promise by which the having of ãâã Priviledges of Justification and Adoption is ãâã Then the Spirit witnesseth without a ãâã if it evidence without respect to a ãâã But there is no Word but that of a ãâã Promise viz. wherein the Condition is either ãâã or understood wherein our Justification ãâã Adoption is Evidenced Mark 16. 16. the ãâã ãâã the Gospel is cleer He that beleeveth shall be ãâã As it is Rom. 3. 30. God is one and the same ãâã the manner of Justification is one and the same ãâã never justifies any but by Faith and ãâã ãâã certain there is no Promise in the Scripture but ãâã it doth express or imply a Condition Isa. 43. ãâã I will blot out thy sins sor my
and then the soul pleaseth God without Faith The Answer is easie and at hand These saving Preparations are no acts of mine therefore not my fruit nor can I be said to do any thing to please God by them because they are ãâã in me not by me and the soul may have a good work wrought upon it and be the receiver of it though not the Author of it but as they come from the Spirit of God who is holy and blessed so are they good fruits and truly pleasing to God This Preparative Work imports not so much any gracious habit or spiritual quality which is put into the soul as a principle by which it is enabled to act that which concerns its everlasting welfare but it s rather an act of the spirit of Christ whereby it doth fling down those strong holds dispossess the power of Satan and quit the soul from those overpowering and prevailing claims which Satan and Sin ãâã over it as to exercise their tyranny and authority upon it The soul sues out a divorce now that is to weaken and wholly to remove the claim of marriage and authority which the party challenged thereby to act upon the party and overrule her and yet ãâã divorce is neither marriage nor matrimonial love but making room for the right and possession of the spirit by faith as Hos. 3. 3. Thou shalt not befor another so I will be for thee Acts ' 26 18. To turn men from darkness and from the power of Satan It 's a cutting off of the branch that it grow not upon its old root and receive not sap and influence therefrom For in the Fall of Man there was a double work of Sin First a turning of the soul from God Then Secondly a settling of the soul upon the root of Adams rebellion by a delivery of it up into the hand and power of perverted mutability whence comes a daily influence and entercourse of the power of sin and of Satan by sin acting of it as he will now this cutting off the soul by preparation breaks off the continuance and growing to the root of ãâã which being interrupted and intercepted it cannot act and carry the soul as formerly When this Preparation is fully wrought Faith is certainly and wil undoubtedly be infused and cannot be hindered when I say it is compleat and come to its full period in ultimata dispositione for there is a legal preparation which may befall Reprobates it is a plashing of the soul not a total cutting off the soul from sin which makes corruption couch more close but will never kill it nor is appointed by God for this end to make way for the form of Faith but for other ends as shall appear in the use of the point But there is also an Evangelical Preparation wherin the Lord intends to fit the soul fully for faith and its implanting by faith into Christ and this end he doth never he can never miss For there is no Efficient that spends his time labor in preparing the matter but he will bring in the form unless either he wanted wisdom in beginning that which he should not perfect or wanted power in making a preparation for that he could never bring to perfection but neither of these can befall the Lord. Mal. 3. 1. When the soul is prepared then the Lord presently comes into it Hence that Cavill is crushed as being a ãâã meerly coyned to cast a blemish upon this truth say they who deny this Work imagin a man in this Preparative Work should die whither should he go to Heaven he cannot ãâã he hath not life not having Christ to Hell he cannot because he hath a ãâã Work wrought upon him The Answer is he is in a state of Salvation Preparatively and shall certainly possess it because he cannot but have faith and be united to Christ and so saved by him The like may be said of such as are Justified what if they should die before they be Sanctified no impure thing shall see Gods face the Answer here and there will be alike This Preparation makes the sinner give way to Christ in all of himself and that in al things there is not a corner in the heart not an affection no back door no ãâã or cunning conveyance in the soul to be kept from Christ But it sets open the Door and delivers up the Keys into the hands of Christ. Either all or none at all not cut but cut off the soul is not only changed from her lusts but divorced fully In Jer. 3. 10. It is said they turned not to the Lord with all their hearts but fainedly there is some secret lust reserved in the heart that is the bane of all Hypocrites but this Preparative Work fetcheth off the heart from al secret distempers there is none reserved but the soul is willing that the Lord Christ should take away every thing that hinders A reservation of any lust will not stand with Preparation a sad Preparation fetcheth off the whol soul. Three Reasons why there must be such a Preparation First let the Testimony of the Scriptures be heard which will evince it and Secondly the force of Argument which will conclude it undeniable The Scriptures are pregnant which speak to this point I shall insist mainly upon three John 5. 44. When our Savior had in the foregoing verses discovered the unteachable stifness of the hard hearted and rebellious Jews that though they had the Preaching of John the Baptist who was a shining and a burning light to point out our Savior to them they saw the works of our Savior daily before their eyes that might convince them yea ãâã the Scriptures the Records of the counsels of God which might shew them the way to life in Christ and perswade their hearts to imbrace it yet our Savior upbraids their rebellion to their faces Ye will not come to me that you might have life verse 40. But the question might grow what might be the cause of this incorrigible perversness of their spirits for if another came in his own name they would hear him but though he came in his Fathers name they would not receive him verse 43. He answers therefore in vers 44. How can ye beleeve which receive honor one of another but seek not the honor that comes from God only Where these Two things are plain 1 When the poyse of corruption and the body of death so far prevails that we seek our selves and set up our own persons in the eyes and hearts of others when we would study to please men and to seek applause and approbation from them and satisfie our selves therein and so set up our selves in their esteem our Savior professeth and that peremptorily how can ye beleeve that is it is impossible ye should beleeve as if he should say these two are so contrary as Heaven and Earth one to another they cannot meet together in one heart and therefore this is made
Cor. 11. 28. than he that had ãâã havock of them Acts 9. Who more fit to be ãâã Messenger of Peace and to breath out glad tidings ãâã Salvation to fainting souls than he who had ãâã out threatnings against them Acts 9. 1. Who more ãâã to pity the Saints than he who cut of his madness had persecuted them and that to the death before Acts 26. 11. But in the crazy and decayed estate of fainting Age when the whol frame begins to shake and go ãâã ruine how unable are we to perform the meanest service how ãâã to be imployed in works of greatest weight The members of a man converted are called Weapons of Holiness and Servants of Righteousness Rom. 6. 19. but doting heads palsie hands feeble knees faultring tongues are but broken weapons and lame Servants utterly unworthy to be used in the fighting of Gods Battels or performance of his Service how shall those hands which hang down for faintness be able to work the works of God how shall the feet that cannot stir walk in his waies or that tongue tell of his praise that cleaves unto the ãâã of the mouth and cannot talk two ready words To gripe the Sum of the Point in short If Nature be now most pliable to be prepared to receive Grace corruption not now so ãâã to ãâã it our abilities most able to improve it then is it a reasonable Truth that the God of Wisdom though he call some at any Age yet he should Convert most at this Age. Learn we hence to take out a Lesson of Sobriety not to be too rash and Censorious touching the final estate of any in this life since it is never too ãâã for the Lord to call though at the Eleventh hour It 's the Apostles Counsel Judg nothing before the time that is Judg nothing that is secret and uncertain determine not of any mans final condition because the time is not yet come this life is a time of mercy to some sooner to some later After death comes Judgment when God shall lay open the secrets and ãâã counsels of the heart then judg and spare not but ãâã then refer al unto the Lord and therfore if the question be touching the final estate of others we should answer with modesty as the Prophet did to the Lord in another case Ezek. 37. 2 3. When ãâã Lord had shewed him a field full of dead bones ãâã dry he asked him Son of man shall these dead bone live the Prophet answers Lord thou knowest it rests in thine own wil to work this so great a work and in thine own Counsel to determine it So ãâã the demand be Shall this gray headed sinner ãâã come to Grace he that hath been an old Standard-bearer in the Camp of the Devil shal he ever ãâã a faithful Soldier to the Lord Christ can this seared Conscience ever be made sensible of its sin ãâã ãâã The answer of the Prophet will ãâã us Lord thou only knowest It 's not for us to judg Secret things belong unto the Lord. For ãâã to pry into the Ark of his privy and concealed Counsels we cannot do it without desperate pride and apparent danger Thus far indeed we may go without any breach of Charity and the Word will ãâã us sufficient warrant to wit Observing the lives ãâã men Of some of some I say we may conclude and that certainly that as yet they are in the state of Nature in a miserable and damnable condition Object If it be replyed Doth any man know that heart Who knows what is in man but the spirit of man 1 Cor. 2. 11. Answ. Can the spirit of a man pry into every corner of his Conscience and know his own condition After he hath told what he knows I may know it as well as himself and somtimes better Thus the Practice of a man discovers his Spirit A rotten Conversation when the constant tenure and frame of a mans course is corrupt and ãâã it ãâã to all the world who have wisdom to ãâã there is a refuse and an ãâã disposition within The fool saies the wise man Eccles. 10. 3. ãâã to every one as he ãâã by the way that he is a fool After the ãâã hath felt the Pulse and heard ãâã complaint of the Patient what 's the pain and ãâã the part affected how the fits and returns of ãâã distemper takes him he knows the disease far ãâã than the man that feels it it may be it's ãâã stone in the Reins the inflamation of the Liver Consumption of the Lungs the parts are within and ãâã cause of the Disease also but it discovers it self ãâã that undoubtedly many times by Symptomes ãâã thus it is with the sickness of the Body it is so ãâã the distempers of the soul the Practice of a ãâã is as the Pulse if that be commonly uneven ãâã and irreligious it argues it 's not the fit of a ãâã but even the very frame and constitution ãâã a corrupt and irreligious heart When a mans ãâã carriage and communication leaves a noysom ãâã and scent and ãâã of prophaness behind ãâã it evidently proclaims to any who have but ãâã Wisdom and Grace that these dead works ãâã from a rotten carkass of a Body of death ãâã it's our Saviors direction and conclusion he ãâã as never failing Matth. 7. 16. 20. By their ãâã you shall know them An evil tree cannot ãâã forth good fruits and a good tree cannot ãâã forth evil fruits and therefore he doubles the ãâã as that which is undeniable by their ãâã you shall know them The holy Apostle is ãâã peremptory 1 John 3. 10. In this are the children of God known and the children of the Devil ãâã doth not righteousness is not of God and ãâã that loveth not his Brother Where there be Three Particulars suit the Point in hand 1 There are but two sorts of men in the World ãâã Children of God and the children of the Devil 2 These may be known 3 He that is a hater of the Saints and a worker of iniquity hath the Brand-mark of a child of the Devil by which he may be discerned It is not then a breach of Charity to judg the tree by the fruits the ãâã by the Symptomes yea it was folly and little less than madness to do other As the Word ãâã I may judg and so should But to ãâã the Lord out of the Throne of Judgment to sit upon the life and death of mens souls to set down mens peremptory doom further than the Word warrants as though we had been admitted into Gods secrets and seen the Books of Reprobation and Election drawn this is hellish impiety and presumption we may boldly say the tree is not a Vine that brings forth Thorns nor that a Fig-tree that beareth Thistles he who hath a naughty life cannot have a good heart He who serves ' Mammon cannot serve God Mat. 6. 24. He who walks after the lusts of the flesh
give entertainment to him but unless the heart be broken and humbled we cannot receive Faith that we may receive Christ. And while the soul is thus breaking and humbling Faith also is coming in a right sense rightly understood whereof we shal speak somwhat largely if the Lord give us leave to come to that place The Words thus opened the Point is the very letter of the Text which looks full upon every Hearer or Reader that will look upon the Text. The Heart must be broken and humbled before the Lord will own it as His take up his abode with it and rule in it There must be Contrition and Humiliation before the Lord comes to take possession the House must be aired and fitted before it comes to be inhabited swept by brokenness and emptiness of Spirit before the Lord will come to set up his abode in it This was typified in the passage of the Children of Israel towards the promised Land they must come into and go through a vast and a roaring Wilderness where they must be bruised with many pressures humbled under many over-bearing difficulties they were to meet withal before they could possess that good Land which abounded with all prosperity flowed with Milk and Honey The Truth of this Type the Prophet Hosea explains and expresseth at large in the Lords dealing with his People in regard of their Spiritual Condition Hos. 2. 14 15. I will lead ãâã into the wilderness and break her heart with many bruising Miseries and then I will speak kindly to her heart and will give her the Valley of Achor for a door of hope the story you may recal out of Jos. 7. 28. when Achan had offended in the execrable thing and the hearts of the Israelites were discomfited and failed like water spilt upon the ground because they had caused the Lord to depart away from them the Text saies they having found out the offender by lot they stoned him and they said thou hast troubled Israel we will trouble thee and they called it the Valley of Achor and after that God supported their hearts with hope and encouraged them with success both in prevailing over their Enemies and in possessing the Land So it shall be Spiritually the Valley of Consternation perplexity of Spirit and brokenness of heart is the very gale and entrance of any sound hope and assured expectation of good This I take to be the true meaning and intendment of the place and part of the description of a good Hearer Luke 8. 15. Who with an honest and good heart receives the Word and keeps it by strong hand and brings forth fruit with patience the fruit is Obedience Patience is part of Sanctification and the holy disposition of heart that must be in the heart that brings and bears such fruit that which makes the heart good is Faith in Vocation which enables the soul to lay hold upon Christ in the Word and from him to receive that lively vertue of Patience and readiness to every holy word and work And an honest heart is a contrite and humble heart so rightly prepared that Faith is infused and the soul thereby carried unto Christ and quickened with patience to persevere in good Duties As we say of Grounds before we cast in Seed there is two things to be attended there It must be a fit ground and a fat ground the ground is fit when the weeds and green sword are plowed up and the soyl there and made mould And this is done in ãâã and Humiliation then it must be a fat ground the soyl must have heart we say the ground is plowed well and lies well but it 's worn out it 's out of heart Now Faith fats the soyl furnisheth the soul with ability to fasten upon Christ and so to receive the Seed of the Word and the Graces of Sanctification and thence it produceth good ãâã in Obedience Upon this condition Gods favor is promised Psal. 34. 18. The Lord is nigh to them that be of a contrite spirit and saveth them that be of a broken heart Isay 61. 3. He gives the Garment of praise to those that have had the spirit of heaviness it will suit none fit none it 's prepared for none but such it 's their Livery only Upon this condition it is obtained Mat. 18. 3. Unless ye be converted and become as little Children ye can in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven 2 Chron. 33. 12. It 's said of Mannasseh he humbled himself greatly and made supplication and the Lord was intreated of him such persons and services are highly accepted Psal. 51. 17. A broken and contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise nay he wil undoubtedly accept of it The Reasons of the Point are taken partly in regard of the heart which without these will neither be fitted nor enabled to act upon God in Christ for any good partly in regard of God all his Ordinances and Dispensations will be unprofitable and unable to do that good which he intends and we need To the first in regard of our Hearts those Lets and impediments which put a kind of incapability yea and impossibility upon the soul whereby the coming of Faith into the Heart and so the entrance and residence of the Spirit are hindred are by this disposition wrought and removed These Impediments are two The ãâã which stops the way and work of Faith is a setled kind of contentedness in our corrupt condition and the blind yet bold and presumptuous confidence that a natural man hath and would maintain of his good condition Each man sits down willingly well apaid with his own estate and portion sees no need of any change and therefore not willing to hear of it Each man is so full of self-love that he is loth to pass a sentence against his own soul to become a judg and self-condemner and consequently an executioner of all his hopes and comforts at once and so put his happiness and help out of his own hand Besides we are Naturally afraid out of the privy yet direful guilt of our own Consciences to profess the wretchedness of our own miserable and damnable Condition as to put it upon a peremptory conclusion and that beyond question I am undone I am a damned man in the Gall of bitterness in the bonds of iniquity lest they should stir such horrors which they are neither able to quiet nor yet able to bear And therefore out of the presumption of their own hearts they would easily perswade and delude themselves they have no cause to alter their condition and therfore they should not endeavor it Hence the carnal heart is said to bear up himself against all the assaults of the Word Deut. 29. 19. When all the Curses of the Law were denounced with never so much evidence yet the presumptuous sinner blesseth himself promiseth all good to himself and secretly feeds himself with vain hopes that he shal attain it therfore he wil
peccator sed ãâã crediturus as may appear in this expression As Adam being a common person and root of all mankind and in their room he sinned for himself and all his that is all those that were to proceed of him by natural generation so that if there were any ãâã should not have been begotten of him as they ãâã not of his nature no more should they be ãâã or his fault So it is with the second Adam ãâã a common root suffered and obeyed for all his ãâã is all those that should come of him and be ãâã by spiritual generation so that if there were any ãâã did not partake of his spirit in effectual Vocation ãâã Faith neither should they have benefit by his ãâã so that if the Lord should in his Election ãâã and create thousands of men ãâã in holiness ãâã so save them by a Covenant of works in yielding ãâã obedience they should never be partakers of ãâã death and obedience of Christ or have the vertue ãâã applied to them though Elect. A sinner then under the Covenant of Grace the ãâã of the Covenant for whom he undertakes to make him self denying and beleeving and so one of the posterity of Christ for him Christ dies and this I chuse ãâã than that consideration of Elect as Elect for these Reasons 1. Because the merits and mediation of our Savior seem to challenge in Scripture some special respect in the party to himself and put a new kind of relation and consideration upon him Now to be Elect is before or without any such respect God Electing of his out of his meer good will and pleasure not looking to our sin or Savior Eph. 5. 23. Christ is the Savior of his Body vers 25. Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that is the called beleeving and this is the reason Paul and the rest of the Saints ãâã themselves into the company of Beleevers He gave himself ãâã us Tit. 2. 14. John 17. 20. I pray not for the world but for those that shall beleeve on me 2. In what relation Christ looks at his as the Head of the Covenant in the same he looks at his in the work of Redemption and purchase for that he performs as head But as he is head of the Covenant ãâã looks at his as Members called by him and to be ãâã ted to him Therefore in that relation he laid ãâã his life and blood for them 3. By this means we may perceive a more easie passage for the execution of Gods Judgments and ãâã and a fitter way to stop the mouths of many ãâã would fain load the truth with many absurdities ãâã Hence men are made justly faulty and guilty ãâã their own death in not beleeving nor relying upon Mediator thus graciously offered in the second ãâã nant through their own corruption and hardness ãâã heart neglecting their Savior Though it be as impossible to beleeve as to fulfil the Law yet because ãâã comes through their own original sin whereby ãâã refuse beleef in the one as obedience to the other they are punished for both Hence also that cavil is crossed whereby they ãâã load our Doctrine of special Redemption with ãâã In vain it is say they to perswade a Reprobate to beleeve for if he could attain it he is ãâã come within the compass of a person rightly qualified for Redemption for he is not elected Now Election is the Lords work only and not mans no not in innocency and therefore in vain to labor for it when ãâã was and is impossible to attain it Whereas this gloss is hence plainly confuted For if Christ died for al that shal beleeve in him whosoever shall or will beleeve in him shall not spend his labor in vain If he say he cannot beleeve Answ. The fault is his own let him but lie under the stroke of the ãâã ãâã resistance and he shall receive it FOR HIS The meaning of that Particle is ãâã Two things 1. In their room in their stead 2 Sam. 18. last Would God I had died for thee Rom. 5. 7 8. Christ ãâã for us we being sinners should have died and suffered our selves but Christ did this for us he died in our room 2. For their good He died for us to redeem and save us to make us partakers of that his obedience and suffering for our good and benefit Coloss. 1. 24. I rejoyce in my sufferings for you saies Paul he suffered for their good comfort and encouragement And thus Christ layed down his life for his sheep Joh. 10. 11. that they might have life and salvation thereby It 's true in both the second issues from the first the first is the ground of the second The Reasons of the Doctrine come now to be scanned Christ died and merited either for his and the faithful only or for all indifferently If for all then ãâã shed his blood suffered the pains of the first and the second death and performed whatever was due unto Divine Justice in the behalf of the unfaithful and such which are and shal be damned and that in their stead as their surety for that 's the meaning of those phrases He laid down his life for his sheep Joh. 10. 11. He gave himself for his Church Eph. 5. 25. that is he suffered and performed all in their room as their surety Heb. 7. 22. And that he must be their surety and in their stead perform all may appear divers waies 1 For as the first Adam was a common person and head of the first Covenant and did covenant with God for himself and his so that what he performed or failed in they were all subject unto the same condition and should in the same manner partake thereof So the Lord Christ the second Adam he is the head of the second Covenant of Grace and therefore engaged himself unto God the Father as a common pledg for himself and his posterity that shall come of ãâã 2 What the Lord Christ ãâã and performed that the Law exacted and the Father required of him even when he endured the direful indignation of God the Father and bore the sierceness of his fury seizing upon him But the Father could neither in Equity exact these punishments or in Justice ãâã them upon him for any desert of his own for any thing he had that was evil or any thing he did commit which ãâã contrary to his righteous Will and holy Rule of the Law Being wholly ãâã from all sin he should be freed from all plagues and death which is the ãâã of sin where there is no ãâã no sorrow no ãâã can be His punishments which he endured and God exacted for there was nothing done but according to his counsel were for sin therefore for ãâã sins imputed to him therefore he was surety in ãâã room therefore if he suffereed for all he had the ãâã of all imputed and so was surety in the place or all 3 Lastly The
prayed in vain and no man ever attained ãâã thereby if they would and as they may and mought according to this Doctrine of Devils resist the ãâã of the blood of Christ and his Spirit and their ãâã Salvation purchased for them by Christ. So that the Seed of the Woman did not break the Serpents head Gen. 3. 15. It was not certain that ãâã Savior should see his Seed Isa. 53. 10. Our Savior Christ was mistaken when he said I have other ãâã those also I must bring they shall ãâã my voice they might reply But we may chuse and Christ must ãâã us leave It hence follows That our Savior Christ is not so able to save as Adam to destroy It s not in the Will of Adams Posterity to stop the guilt and filth of his ãâã to seiz upon them to their condemnation but the first Adam will undoubtedly pollute and condemn all those that he Covenanted for and ãâã the second Adam cannot save ánd sanctifie all that he ãâã for contrary to the triumph of the Apostle Rom. 5. 15. If through the offence of one many be dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many It hence follows Christ hath purchased a right to all Spiritual good but not the Communication and Possession thereof undoubtedly to be bestowed contrary ãâã Job 17. 19. For their sakes I sanctifie my self that ãâã also may be sanctified Eph. 1. 3. Lastly How deeply injurious and dishonorable is ãâã this to our blessed Saviour How derogatory to ãâã Wisdom to purpose that he can never accomplish How cross to his power that he should aim at that by ãâã Death which either Satan or mans corruption ãâã be more able to cross than he to effect Nay How senseless and unreasonable is it that Gods justice ãâã hinder this work and yet sin should when all ãâã strength that sin hath is indeed from the Law the ãâã of sin is the Law 1 Cor. 15. 56. from that Commission which Divine Justice puts into its ãâã If Christ Merited and Purchased Redemption for All then he Wills and intends seriously that all should ãâã saved then he will afford the means to attain it for ãâã end and the means the end in intention and the ãâã in execution go both together and none in ãâã sever them much less will the Lord who is ãâã Author of all wisdom Rom. 10. 17. Faith comes ãâã Hearing and Hearing by the Word of God But Sense and Experience of all men of all ages makes it beyond question That God gives not the means of Salvation to All Psal. 147. 19. He hath given his word unto Israel he hath not dealt so with ãâã Nation Paul makes it the priviledge of ãâã Jew to them was committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3. 2. They alone Called they alone in ãâã they alone honored with all the Priviledges of all Gods Ordinances Yea the Lord neglected the ãâã condition of the Gentiles in former ages he ãâã not after them cared not for them nay they ãâã without God without Christ without Hope a far off not within the ken and call of Salvation ãâã such is the condition of many Nations of the ãâã at this day who have not so much as any means of ãâã granted unto them nor any sound of the Gospel of Christ amongst them Now do any in ãâã prepare Physick for the good of another and yet ãâã Patient never have it never hear of it The Answer which is here made by Papists and ãâã is this That though God doth not afford equal external means of Calling yet he calls all ãâã therefore they make a double kind of Calling 1 ãâã diately by the Law 2 Immediately by the ãâã Not that the Law can cause Faith in Christ ãâã but only in way of preparation by these degrees ãâã Lord hath left the work of the Law and the ãâã of his Image in the nature of man and withal hath ãâã forded him so much and so many helps out of ãâã creatures to manifest his goodness and majesty to ãâã that if he use this stock well he out of his bounty ãâã afford him the Gospel and other saving means to ãâã him to Faith and so to Happiness and to this ãâã that place is usually alleadged Rom. 1. 19 20. ãâã which may be known of God is manifest in them ãâã If they use this light of Nature well God will ãâã them the light of Grace when they abuse that ãâã have its just with God to with-hold what they ãâã and to take away that he gave To this I Reply The Ground of the ãâã 1 False 2 Vain False Because it crosseth that Liberty which ãâã Lord challengeth and useth in the dispensation of ãâã means of Salvation without any respect to the ãâã use of the gifts of Nature The Lord chose a ãâã to himself of the weakest and the worst Deut. 7. Deut. 9. 5. 6. The Lord set his love upon thee ãâã ãâã ãâã for thou art a stiff necked ãâã he set up a partition wall between them and ãâã meerly out of his own good pleasure whereas ãâã to this Opinion had the Gentiles used their ãâã well they might have pulled down the partition ãâã 2 It s contrary to that experience we have of Gods ãâã in the sending of the means that many times ãâã who abuse them most they enjoy them those who ãâã have used them ãâã they want them Matt. 1. 21. ãâã to thee Corazin Wo to thee ãâã ãâã the great works been done in Sodom à nd ãâã which have been done in thee they would ãâã repented in sackcloth and ashes As its a false so it s a vain Conceit Because no man ãâã ever have the means of grace vouchsafed upon ãâã condition in that no man ever did or in truth will ãâã the Condition for then are these Gifts used ãâã when they attain their end they then attain their ãâã when they are used in a right order and ãâã to God and his Glory Rom. 1. 21. so as to ãâã God as God but no natural man did or ever will ãâã this Instruction From the Doctrine delivered we may ãâã to Answer some Cases of Conscience which ãâã our Spiritual Estates and Comforts First Case of Conscience Whether a man can challenge any interest in any Spiritual Good in Christ or can bring in any proof ãâã himself of any Spiritual Good received or ãâã to him from Christ before he beleeve By no means It is a conceit cross to the Covenant of God the Scriptures of Truth the grace of God in Christ and unto the ãâã of that plentiful and great Redemption which our Savior Christ hath wrought for his For God never decreed any good ãâã ver intended any good but for beleeving Sinners ãâã suffered and performed all that he did only for ãâã sinners as be the seed of the
Covenant and shall be ãâã gotren of him by spiritual regeneration 1 Pet. 1. 3 4 He hath begotten us again to a lively hope to an ãâã heritance immortal that fades not away and ãâã serves us through faith unto salvation The ãâã must be begotten and born before he can be Heir ãâã the ãâã ãâã So here The Doctrine formerly delivered doth ãâã dash this Imagination and ãâã If Christ ãâã sed all for Beleevers as ãâã then they must be such ãâã fore they can challenge and take this Purchase as ãâã own it is the Condition that Christ requires ãâã which he communicates all that saving and ãâã good Take these Arguments for the further ãâã of this Truth The First is taken from 1 Joh. 5. 12. He that ãâã the Son hath life in him are hid all the treasures ãâã Wisdom and Knowledg yea of Grace and ãâã and therefore it is said ãâã Father ãâã given ãâã us eternal life and that life is in his Son v. 11. ãâã is the Fountain of all blessings that hath them the ãâã that communicates them The Spirit ãâã all of God to the Saints but the Spirit takes all ãâã the Son before he so doth Joh. 16. 14 15. He is ãâã accomplishment of all promises in him they are ãâã and Amen 2 Cor. 1. 20. All Promises all ãâã all Life is in Christ Therefore He must be had ãâã they can be enjoyed But there is no enjoying of ãâã but by Faith 1 Joh. 12. To as many as ãâã ãâã he gave power to be the Sons of God to as many as ãâã on his name We have him not before we ãâã him we receive him not before we beleeve in ãâã upon this condition God gives his Son John 3. 16. God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that as many as beleeved in him should not perish but have everlasting life God gives him to none but such as beleeve God gives Salvation by him to none but by this means Joh. 17. 3. This is eternal life to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou bast sent This is the knowledg of Faith and it is said to be life because it is the only means to bring and derive life from God in Christ to us So that They who alone have Christ they only have life But Beleevers only have Christ. Therefore they only have title unto life Those only have title to Life and Salvation who are under the compass of the Covenant of Grace For there are but Two Covenants under which all men are ãâã the Covenant of Works or the Covenant of Grace Rom. 6. 14. Sin shall not have dominion over you because ye are not under the law but under grace Gal. 3. 17. the law which was 430 years after cannot make the Covenant of God in Christ of none effect The Covenant of Works was Do and live The Covenant of Grace Beleeve and live Adam had the stock in his own hand and might of himself by Grace received have wrought out his own Salvation All the fall'n Sons of Adam must receive it from ãâã because they have it not of themselves But I assume no man can be under the Covenant of Grace that is not under the Condition of Faith for ãâã is that only which brings him into it and estates him ãâã it and therefore Gal. 3. 9 20. this is made the proper difference and indeed the full description of ãâã in these estates they which be of Faith are ãâã with faithful Abraham They which are in ãâã Covenant of Grace are said to be such as are of ãâã of the stock and linage and generation of Faith ãâã ãâã wrought by the Spirit and Word the Soul ãâã ãâã unto Christ thereby and so hath its ãâã birch and Being by Faith Faith giving subsistance ãâã him as he is a Christian But vers 10. They that ãâã of the Works of the law that is those that are ãâã the power of the breach of it by Adam they are ãâã the Curse they act by the power of the breach ãâã the Covenant of Works and therefore are under ãâã just judgments of God denounced against such as ãâã and die therein Hence then I Reason They who are not under the Condition of ãâã Covenant of Grace they cannot be assured groundedly of their good estate But they who are not Beleevers are not under ãâã Compass and Condition of the ãâã of Grace And therefore they cannot be assured of ãâã good estates They who are really and in truth in the state ãâã Condemnation they cannot have any grounded evidence of their Salvation and Comfort therefrom because these two are opposite one to another professedly contrary one against the other and therefore can ãâã more possibly agree together then to be darkness ãâã light to be in Hell and Heaven together But he ãâã is without the grace of Faith he is Condemned already he is now under the Sentence and Doom ãâã utter Condemnation ãâã 3. 18. He is cast in all ãâã Courts in Heaven and Earth the Law condemns ãâã because he doth not Do it the Gospel condemns ãâã because he doth not Beleeve it he cannot satisfie ãâã ãâã nor yet comes up to the Condition of the ãâã Therefore Faith is said to be counted for ãâã Rom. 4. 9. and Rom. 3. 30. It is one God ãâã justifies the Circumcision by Faith and the ãâã through Faith It is the common way ãâã indeed the only way whereby Justification is ãâã to all the Sons of men who shall ever be made ãâã thereof This is the ãâã going link of Pauls ãâã Rom. 8. 30. Whom he called them he justisied ãâã whom he justified them he glorified It s as ãâã to be Justified before we be Called as it is for ãâã man to be ãâã before he be Justified and this ãâã Calling out of World Sin and Self unto God in Christ undoubtedly includes the Work of ãâã in it and ever leaves spiritual and saving ãâã and qualifications upon the Soul Hence ãâã He that is really under the state of Condemnation cannot challenge any interest in eternal life or have any evidence that his estate is good But he that Beleeves not is Condemned already Called he is not Justified he cannot be in this Condition Therefore he can Challenge no Interest in nor hath any grounded Assurance of Eternal Life A Second Case of Conscience Whether the Spirit of God doth not or may not by a special and immediate revelation witness some spiritual good as pardon of Sin Adoption Justisication to a man before he doth Beleeve It s true a man himself cannot by discourse make it good to himself or to another unless he have Faith But may not the Spirit of God witness to him without and before Faith The Answer is Negative The Reasons ãâã Two That which is a Falshood and an Error ãâã the Covenant of Grace the Spirit of God never ãâã nor will
Lord our God Here again is the sum of the Covenant comprised and all the particulars with the manner of the work included and presupposed as the Apostle once for all expounds these and the like passages 2 Cor. 6. 16. I will be their God and they shall be my people wherefore come out from among ãâã and be ye separate and touch no unclean thing and I will receive you and will be a father to you and ye ãâã be my sons and daughters saith the Lord ãâã If they touch no unclean thing but be separate ãâã Sin Self and the Creature and so come out of ãâã these in preparation and come to him in effectual vocation then he will be a father to them in his Christ and make them his Children in Adoption and then he will write his laws in their hearts and renew them to that Holiness which in Adam they lost and so enable them to walk in his wayes And therefore when the Lord promiseth by the ãâã Isa. 43. 25 I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for my own names sake and will not remember ãâã sins that is I do justifie thee freely when I have made thee to beleeve by my free grace For it cannot be conceived that the Lord would pass the Sentence of Absolution upon her while she remained in the ãâã of Unbelief For then that of the Apostle should fail It s one God that justifies the Jews by Faith and the Gentiles through Faith Rom. 3. 30. Therefore look the 20 and 21 vers of this Chapt. for we must not have one place justle against another and there you shall ãâã it is said I will do this and that for my People my Chosen which are Beleevers and of them and unto them it is said vers 25. I will blot out thy sins for my own sake The resolving of these Cases and information of these Doubts infers undeniably thus much That there is no Absolute Promise that either gives or maintains assurance of our good estate but such only wherein God engageth ãâã to work the Condition or else doth of necessity imply it wrought It will be said That the Covenant of Grace is free and issues out of the free Mercy of God in Christ and therefore the Lord hath not in it any respect to any thing we have or do It s all confessed and yet there is no prejudice at ãâã accrews to the Cause in hand Free Grace is the Fountain of all It makes the ãâã it works the Condition it maintains the ãâã which is wrought Ephes. 2. 8. By Grace ãâã ye saved through Faith And though God both require and work the ãâã Eph. 2. 8. Faith is the Gift of God Yet it not for our Faith or for the worth of any Grace ãâã is in us that we have life and salvation but by ãâã and those as means and wayes by Grace ãâã and provided to give life ãâã is of ãâã Grace doth it not therefore require ãâã in ãâã Party that is Justified nor yet suppose him to be ãâã The Apostle openly contradicts such a ãâã Rom. 8. 30. Whom he called them he justified ãâã is also of Free Grace and yet doth it ãâã suppose Sanctification and Holiness in the Party ãâã must possess it Without Holiness no man shall ãâã the Lord Heb. 12. 14. As my Glorification doth ãâã hinder the freedom of my Justification because it ãâã before it so my Justification doth not hinder the ãâã of my Vocation because Vocation goes ãâã it but only shewes the order and manner of Gods ãâã Third Case of Conscience Though a man can have no Right to any Spiritual ãâã in Christ without Faith and though the ãâã never witnesseth this without or before Faith ãâã when Faith is there when some gracious ãâã is wrought may not doth not the Spirit ãâã a mans good estate without any respect to ãâã or any gracious Qualification existent in the ãâã I Answer So marvelous secret and unsearchable are the Dispensations of the Spirit unto the Soul ãâã as the wind blows where it ãâã thou hearest ãâã sound of it thou knowest not whence it comes ãâã whither it goes So it is here The hidden ãâã ousness of the manner of the Spirits work in the ãâã of it is so hard to discern that to make any approach so as to discover the way of God and to undermine an Error entrenching thereabout by ãâã of Reason is more than ordinarily ãâã and therefore for our better proceeding in Answer ãâã this Question I shall Endeavor to do these ãâã Things 1 State the Question and open it in the ãâã thereof 2 Give in such Arguments as we conceive ãâã plainest Evidence with them to settle ãâã Truth 3 Answer some such Objections as are of greatest weight For the right ãâã of the Question in ãâã to the Case propounded I lay down this Conclusion The Spirit of God never gives in immediate ãâã of any right we have to or that we are made ãâã of any benesit from Christ without respect ãâã some Qualification gracious Disposition or Condition in the Soul There are Three Particulars to be Opened for the right understanding of this Conclusion First What is meant by Evidence Answer ãâã light of ãâã let in on Gods part and ãâã on ours whereby either we have or may have ãâã true and never failing ground of right discerning ãâã what is so manifested and apprehended so that Evidence ãâã First That God by his Spirit manifests his ãâã and our Good and that we either do or may ãâã it for our Comfort For it s the aim of the ãâã to understand this Evidence with Application ãâã the truth to our own particular estate For we ãâã not now what the Word is in it self or what ãâã Spirit doth in the ordinary dispensation thereof ãâã that is light in it self and makes all things ãâã indifferently at all times Eph. 5. 13. but here we ãâã this Discovery and Manifestation of the Mind ãâã God as it comes home to our Particular that ãâã ãâã and hearts may be settled As Luke 24. 32. He opened the Scriptures vers 45. He opened their ãâã that they might understand the ãâã and so the truth was more cleer and their sight ãâã cleer 1 Cor. 2. 12. He hath given us his spirit ãâã we may know the things that are freely given to ãâã of God 1 Joh. 5. 20. He hath given us an ãâã that we may know that we know him Secondly This right discerning on our part is not ãâã a certain knowledge or science of that good ãâã is thus witnessed to us but an assurance of Faith whereby the heart embraceth it as true to it ãâã good for it The one of these is a help to the ãâã sanctisied reason or reason exercised about ãâã truths is an instrument appointed by God in the and of his Spirit to beget this act of Faith for ãâã exercised about the Word and
Work of the ãâã it brings in the light of the truth as a mighty ãâã with more strength and plainness to the heart ãâã draws out this act of divine Faith whereby it ãâã this as a truth of God For look what the ãâã of another man may do in the use of the Word ãâã Ordinance that my Reason used in such a manner ãâã to God may do But another man by the ãâã of Reason or strength of Argument out of the ãâã may convince my Conscience nay settle and ãâã my heart in assurance of a truth which formerly I saw not and therefore it is said Acts 14. 22. they confirmed the souls of the Disciples exhorting them c. True it is the Grace and Habit of Faith is presumed and was wrought before by the ãâã power of the Spirit which raised Christ from the dead ãâã being wrought the truths of God under the exercise of ãâã Reason will not only settle our judgement in knowing but our assurance of Faith in ãâã firmly beleeving and embracing for first truths ãâã to the understanding to be judged before they be ãâã up and presented to the heart to be beleeved Psal. 9. 10. They that know thy name will trust in ãâã This is eternal life to know thee Joh. 17. 3. ãâã 2 Pet. 1. 3. Through the knowledge of our Lord ãâã Savior For a blind hood-winkt Faith is the ãâã of Apostates and Papists of Deceivers and ãâã but not the Faith of Gods Elect. Secondly This Evidence is laid out according ãâã its proper object according to which it looks in ãâã place and in this Dispute Namely 1 Its ãâã aright to what spiritual benefit we shall have Or ãâã the possession or partaking of what we do enjoy ãâã Christ and these are rather some spiritual priviledge or blessings received and manifested by our ãâã tions than the Qualifications themselves as the ãâã terms of the Question do undeniably determine Hence its plain according to the Opinion of ãâã that hold the ãâã of the Question ãâã ed It is not touching the ãâã of Faith in ãâã Soul because this Evidence in the Question ãâã Faith wrought Again it s not touching any ãâã ãâã on or Qualification of Grace to be wrought in ãâã Soul For I take ãâã to be an everlasting truth The ãâã never doth give nor can there be any vidence that God will work the first Condition Grace or the first Grace in the Soul before it be ãâã for as we heard Evidence carries Two things ãâã it 1 God reveals his Will to or work upon the ãâã 2 There is both Science issuing from that ãâã wisdom that hath been set up in the mind and ãâã of Faith which embraceth that truth and ãâã ãâã firmly being so cleerly and firmly assented ãâã Hence it follows necessarily and ãâã That which presupposeth the first Grace wrought ãâã the Soul and is an effect of that that cannot be ãâã before the first Grace be wrought but Evidence ãâã presupposeth spiritual science and assurance ãâã Faith therefore it cannot be before the first Grace ãâã before Faith be wrought ãâã the Soul Hence that ãâã the Apostle 1 Cor. 2. last Who knows the mind ãâã the Lord but we have the mind of Christ because ãâã have the Spirit of Christ and that cannot be had without Faith Gal. 3. 14. That we may receive the Promise of the spirit through Faith Those Promises then which imply the working of ãâã Condition of the Covenant or the first Grace do ãâã Three things 1 What God alone can do as ãâã to his peculiar Prerogative 2 What ãâã will do for his that is Such as shall come of his Son Christ the second Adam 3 What the means ãâã manner is by which he will do it As The seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents ãâã I will take away the heart of stone and give ãâã an heart of flesh c. That is I alone can do ãâã and I will do it for those that are the Seed of the Covenant for still such Promises have an eye to the Covenant of the Church and the Faithful ãâã it as ãâã will Circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed c. And by the manifestation of the Fulness and Freeness of this Mercy of mine I will work it There is an irresistable light which the Lord lets into ãâã mind at the first call which makes way for Faith and is a direct act of Knowledge which turns the ãâã of the Soul to look to that fulness of power and ãâã of mercy by which the heart is drawn to ãâã but the reflect act of evidence by which we are assured of what God hath done to us and for us ãâã whereby we see that we do see is after this and implyes the thing done before we see it The issue is The object of this Evidence we now speak of is not gracious Qualifications wrought ãâã to be wrought but our right to or possession of ãâã Priviledges as thou art my Son thy ãâã ãâã accepted thy sins are pardoned But how ãâã shouldest be brought to these or have thy heart framed to receive these that is not attended at all the spiritual Priviledges which we have or hope ãâã mainly attended in this work of Evidence are Pardon and Forgiveness in our Justification our Adoption and Acceptation to be Sons and the Reconciliation of our Persons to the Lord and our happiness ãâã These are the spiritual Benefits which are here considered and about which the ãâã is meant The Third term to be opeend in the Question is Immediate Evidence without respect to Faith or any saving Qualification Its called Immediate in this Dispute not because it is without the word or not by means of the Word for to deny that would be too loathsom ãâã but immediat in respect of ãâã condition going before out of which it might ãâã For however the Question propounded grants ãâã Faith and Grace is there yet the Evidence must be had without eying or attending any thing of a Qualification I ãâã a double Pretence which ãâã this kind of Curiosity First a fear least they should prejudice the freeness Grace if any Condition or Qualification in any ãâã should be attended 1 A Conceit directly and expresly contrary to ãâã very letter of the Text and intendment of the ãâã Rom. 4. 16. Therefore it is of Faith that it might by Grace and if the being of Faith in the relying ãâã Christ in the act of it do not hinder free Grace ãâã less will the seeing of it 2 Besides if a ãâã attended would ãâã free Grace then the Covenant of the Gospel ãâã not attend and by name expresly require ãâã or else it should not be a Covenant of ãâã 3 It s Free Grace that makes and works the ãâã and when it s wrought there is nothing given ãâã it or the Party who beleeves for his Faith but ãâã its an Empty hand to take
names sake Here ãâã no Qualifications you 'l say whereas if you ãâã but look into some Verses of the Chapter going ãâã as vers 20. he speaks to his People His ãâã these are said ãâã 21. to be such as he had ãâã for himself and vers 22. he calls them Jacob ãâã Israel that is The Israel of God as the Apostle ãâã them Gal. 6. 16. true beleevers Hos. 14. 4. I ãâã love them freely therefore here 's no ãâã because none expressed But mark the 1 2 and ãâã verses you shall find who those are that the Lord ãâã freely such as having fall'n by their iniquitie Return to the Lord saying Take away all iniquity ãâã shall not save us in thee the fatherless sind mercy that is Those that have such Qualifications as these they are the Persons whom the Lord ãâã freely It is impossible it should be ãâã Rom. 4. 23. As Abraham was justified so must we but he was justified by Faith and therefore there ãâã no Promise revealing Justification or Adoption but either it doth expres or imply this condition of ãâã When the Spirit doth Evidence my Justification or Salvation out of the Word it doth it one or these Two wayes Either by the Application of some general Promise in which each Particular and so myself as a particular am included Or ãâã there ãâã some special Word appointed appropriated to me alone and is spoken to none but me as Isa. 45. ãâã Thus saith the Lord to his anointed to Cyrus c. None was here intended but Cyrus This second ãâã a Familistical Dream and forceth men to Revelations without the Word because there is no such expression to be found in the Word ãâã therefore sober-minded men who have their senses about them dare not entertain it perceiving indeed as the ãâã is that such a Conceit is little better than a Frenzy The first way then of Evidencing must needs be taken Whence I Reason Whatever is testified to the Soul by way of Application of the General to the Particular or by way of Collection of the Particular from the General that is ever done with respect to a Condition As it thus appears by Induction the Evidence must needs run in this manner Either All men are Justified but thou art a man therefore thou art justified Or All Sinners are justified but thou art a sinner therefore thou art justisied Or All Self-denying beleeving sinners are justified but thou art such a one therefore thou art justified The Two First here are false only this Third ãâã last is true and that carries a Qualification ãâã it If a man fly to Election and say All the Elect are justified that 's false Or thus ãâã the Elect shall be called and justified that is no ãâã of Evidencing neither for as was shewed ãâã there can be no Evidence i. e. Science and ãâã of Faith of the working of the first ãâã before it be wrought therefore there is no ãâã way but the applying of a General including a ãâã to my self in particular as All that ãâã as Abraham are justified but I am one ãâã them This is good To make the Spirit testifie a falshood and my ãâã to receive it is unlawful to charge untruth ãâã the Spirit is blasphemous to bring my self into ãâã by-path that is erroneous But to make the ãâã testifie that Pardon and Adoption belongs to any ãâã falls upon any subject without respect to a ãâã is to make the Spirit testifie a falshood ãâã it is to make it testifie cross to a rule of Truth which the Spirit of God hath given in the Word For the Rule of Truth is plain Rom. 8. 30. Whom ãâã called them he justified and them he glorified Therefore to say the Spirit will witness to one ãâã ãâã not called is to make him witness against ãâã Rule Joh. 1. 12. To them that receive him he gave ãâã to be the Sons of God It s a staple Rule Therefore no man is a Son before he receive Christ therefore to make the Spirit to witness to a man ãâã ãâã is a Son of God when he hath not received Christ would make him speak Cross to this Word of Truth Look how the Covenant of Grace testifies a mans good estate and the interest he hath to any spiritual good in Christ so the spirit of Grace doth ãâã it fo the Spirit of Grace and the Covenant of ãâã go hand in hand and otherwise how could it ãâã true That the Gospel should be sufficient to make ãâã man perfect and compleat in the spiritual ãâã of his Soul as well as in those things which ãâã mainly and meerly Essential to eternal life 2 ãâã 3. 16. And here is the limits and bounds of that comfort the Spirit is sent to bring its confined ãâã this compass Joh. 14. 26. I will send the ãâã and he shall bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you when he comes ãâã a Comforter when that is the main scope of ãâã Commission to make known all the grounds of Comfort to the Saints and to let in the good of them into their Souls when he remembers them of all ãâã and teacheth all things appertaining thereunto ãâã ads no more but recals what Christ hath said Besides that testimony which is beyond the Gospel should not be tryed by the Gospel for that which ãâã beyond the measure cannot be measured by it ãâã Gospel is the Rule of our Faith and of our Comfort and if this testimony was beyond the reach of the Gospel it could never be judged by it This would not only set open a Gap to all Delusions but break down the banks that the sea of all sottish Imaginations may break in upon the mind and apprehensions of a man and carry them away with mighty violence without controul But the Covenant of Grace doth ãâã our interest in these Priviledges ever with an eye and respect to some spiritual ãâã It is the tenure of the Gospel according to the very letter and naked terms of it Mark 16. 16. Go preach the Gospel ãâã that beleevs shall be saved they and they only and none but they therefore it follows he that ãâã not shall be ãâã Jer. 31. 33. This is the ãâã that I will make with the house of Israel I will ãâã my laws in their hearts and in their inward ãâã will I put them Look to the Covenant as made ãâã Adam Gen. 3. 15. as renewed with Abraham He beleeved and it was counted for righteousness Gen. 15. 6. And so it is in the whole frame of the ãâã still the Covenant of Grace gives witness to ãâã mans good estate with respect to Faith therefore ãâã the Spirit of Grace doth testifie also If God the Father intended these Priviledges ãâã to such under such a respect or Condition Christ ãâã all these benefits for such alone and the ãâã applyed them only unto such then the ãâã witnesseth the
Possession of those spiritual ãâã unto such only Because the witnessing of ãâã Spirit is of equal extent with Gods intent in ãâã these with Christs intent and purpose in ãâã these with its own work in applying ãâã Whatever respect makes a thing an adequat ãâã of a work in such a kind all works of that ãâã are ever applyed to that thing under that ãâã The King gives a Charter in His Royal Grant ãâã such who are Free-men of such a Corporation ãâã that bought it Purchased only for such there is ãâã ground in true right and reason why they should ãâã bestowed upon any but such nor can any apply Priviledge aright unless he do apply it with an eye ãâã such a Condition that must stear the whol course ãâã a righteous proceeding in that kind That which ãâã the Formalis ratio of the subject in Application ãâã must needs be attended in every work of ãâã either of Comfort or Priviledge if ãâã the Rule aright But it hath appeared in brief ãâã That such who shall be the seed of the ãâã to them God the Father intended these ãâã Priviledges Joh. 3. 16. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whosoever should ãâã in him should not perish but have eternal life ãâã them as such Christ Purchased these Joh. 17. ãâã I pray not for the World but for them that shall ãâã And so the Spirit applyes as when Paul ãâã appointed to ãâã the Gentiles this was his ãâã He was to turn men from Satan to God that ãâã they might receive remission of sins and ãâã So the Spirit by the Ministry of the Word makes ãâã of these Priviledges and never otherwise and therefore never gives other witness Upon what ground the Evidence of Science ãâã Knowledg of my Justification and Adoption ãâã according to truth upon that ground ariseth my ãâã of Faith for both these I told you in ãâã Explication were included and must be ãâã in the work of Evidence and it s as ãâã out of the Principles of right Reason and Experience and Scriptures also that alone which my ãâã judgeth my ãâã embraceth there is nothing ãâã come to the Wil but by the Understanding what ãâã Eye sees not the Heart affects not No light come into this Room but by this Window Look therefore what the Understanding apprehends and ãâã it apprehends it so is it presented to the Heart ãâã so by the Heart is it entertained Joh. 4. 10. ãâã thou known thou wouldst have asked him water ãâã he would have given thee water of life So the ãâã Joh. 4. 42. Now we beleeve because ãâã have heard him and know that this is the ãâã of the World this is cleer But now My Knowledge and Science if true ãâã sound it ever issues out of the Concurrence and ãâã together in my Apprehension of a ãâã Qualification ãâã the Priviledges and ãâã Priviledges received thereby For it s a ruled ãâã ãâã the common Course of Reason That Knowledge ãâã Science that is sound judgment of a truth ever issues out of a simple term or one thing as one ãâã it self ãâã Instance I express in word or attend in my ãâã Pardon that word or term Adoption ãâã ãâã take them several and asunder Here ãâã no Judgment can be ãâã nor can any that hear ãâã or conclude ãâã the having or not ãâã of any of these So again Sin Faith ãâã I cannot judge what these are or in whom ãâã are there is neither Knowledge nor ãâã nor Comfort comes hence But dispose and ãâã them together As An Unbeleever is Pardoned I judge this ãâã now because ãâã things are joyned together ãâã natures agree not and the expression is not as ãâã things be ãâã i s a false Proposition or ãâã cross to the Scripture He that beleeves not ãâã condemned Joh. 3. 18. A Beleever is ãâã The ãâã Answers the nature of the ãâã and ãâã truth a d meaning of the ãâã and therefore its true I so judge it and so ãâã it and so only if I either know it aright or ãâã it aright And mark this knowledge issues ãâã the right apprehension of both parts as they ãâã together which ãâã be but only by a ãâã Qualification The Sum then is If the right and true Knowledge of the Application of any spiritual Priviledges ãâã from the attendance of the ãâã subject and quality with which it is disposed then my Evidence and Assurance must arise so too But so my Knowledge ariseth therefore so my Assurance must arise also The like you may say and it will be seasonable and exceeding useful to consider it No ãâã or witness can be attended without the thing ãâã and that according to the mind of the ãâã or ãâã you must take one with another to make up an Evidence to look upon those simple expressions Pardon Mercy Redemption and run away with them and the sweetness in them and ãâã look at the right disposition of them according to the witness of the Spirit and mind of the testifier it s not possible to have either sound Faith or ãâã in this way because I cannot have true Knowledge thus Thou Unbeleever Uncalled Art Pardoned ãâã false Before thou knowest the right disposition ãâã these together thou canst not pass a right Judgment or have a right Evidence Christ came to ãâã sinners beleeving humbled sinners That is true To come to an End Hold these Principles in the Severals and so you shall be able to see the frame ãâã the ãâã how it lies 1 None but Parties Qualified viz. ãâã are the subjects of these ãâã Joh. 3. 16. Joh. 3. last 2 The Spirit never witnesseth these ãâã but according to this meaning He alwayes means those who are ãâã true subjects of these Priviledges and ãâã only according to the meaning of the Word 3 We cannot know the Testimony of the Spirit-unless we know it according to ãâã meaning Therefore we must of necessity know the qualification of the Person Receiving as ãâã as the Priviledge and Blessing Received I must know my self a Beleever as well as Justified Adopted because this is the meaning of the Word and Spirit This may suffice for Arguments to confirm the truth propounded We shall now remove a stumbling stone or two out of the way and omitting all others I shall only Answer Two Objections which carry either ãâã or seeming probability with them From that of 1 Joh. 5. 7 8. There be three that ãâã record in heaven the Father the Word and ãâã Spirit and these three are one And there are ãâã that bear witness in Earth the Spirit Water and Blood and these three agree in one Here say some are several sorts of ãâã one distinct from another one before another and one more excellent than the other and therefore ãâã one may be without respect to the other the witness of the Spirit without attending either Water or Blood either Sanctification or
any saving Work If there were no Doubt moved no Question Controverted by way of any seeming Collection from the place the very Mysterious depths of the ãâã herein delivered drives all Interpreters to a stand and puts the most Judicious beyond their thoughts so that there is more ãâã to ãâã the mind of God in the words then to make Answer to the Objection hence collected We will ãâã Shortly open the meaning of the Words 2 Then ãâã what may be truly Collected from them and ãâã it will appear that the Objection fetched from ãâã will find no footing in this place The scope of the Apostle in vers 4 5. is That ãâã Christ is the Son of God and that Faith which ãâã the world must look to him and rest ãâã him This he ãâã to me to prove and explicate in both the parts of it in vers 6. And secondly amplyfieth it in the following 7. and 8. verses His proof is taken from ãâã type of his Priestly-Office the truth whereof he accomplished in the great Work of Redemption He that comes by water and blood he is the son of God But Jesus Christ came by water and blood His comming implys 1 His Fathers Sending 2 ãâã Own Undertaking that great Work of our Recovery not only by Water as the Levites who were washed Numb 8. 6. 7. but by Blood also as the Priests Levit. 8. 6. 22 23 24. By Water I conceive is meant The Holiness of his Nature in which he was Conceived and for which end he was overshad owed by the Spirit By Blood is meant that Expiation and Satisfaction he made to the Law of God by shedding his Blood So that He that had all that and ãâã all that which was shadowed by the Priests He is that Jesus the son of God for ãâã And the Spirit bears witness because the Spirit is Truth This seems to me to be the fairest sense and to be preferred before all that I can see brought By Spirit in the First place is meant Gods ãâã the Holy Ghost By Spirit in the Second place I do think ãâã is meant For so you shall find the word used 2 Cor. 4. 13. Having the same Spirit of Faith So that the Spirit of God comming from the Father and the Son would testifie by the aspertion of this Water and Blood that my Faith is true when it assures my heart that this Jesus is the Son of God 2 He amplifies this proof by bringing in the number of witnesses and the manner of their witnessing For their number they are Six The Father sending The Son coming The Spirit certifying in this ãâã manner of working they are distinct and herein appear to be distinct witnesses and this their witness is from Heaven signifying where they are and from whence they express their witness The Father speaks from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Mat. 3. last The Son professeth so often of himself That he came out of the bosom of the Father John 1. 18. John 3. 13. No man can ascend to Heaven but the Son of man who came down from Heaven John 6. 38. I came down from Heaven not to do my own will but the will of him that sent ãâã Lastly in Mat. 3. last The Spirit of God descended down upon him in the likeness of a Dove these speak from Heaven and their expressions are ãâã in the word without us whether we beleeve or no. Three again speak and witness from Earth for Christ dwels in us here on Earth the Spirit Water and Blood There is no doubt but by Water is meant Sanctification by Blood Justification all the Question lies upon the third What is meant by Spirit Under correction I take it It 's meant of Faith for besides that 2 Tim. 1. 7. all graces are called the Spirit we have received the Spirit of Power of Love and of a sound mind this is expresly so named 2 Cor. 4. 13. we having the same Spirit of Faith this is most safe and most sutable to the analogy of Faith and the intendment of the Text. There are but Three great Works unto which all the rest may be referred Vocation Justification Sanctification all these in us give in witness and evîdence That Jesus the Savior of the World must be the Son of God sent of him who sends also his Spirit into our hearts to work thus in us and by these works to evidence to us Himself and his Office The Truths then which according to the right meaning of the words may hence be collected are these There be six Witnesses Three of these witness from Heaven and their Testimony is left in the word without us The other three from Earth from the operation of the work of Grace and these are within us Al these agree in this as the thing winessed ãâã Jesus the Saviour of his People is the Son of God The witness of those from Heaven is greater than that which is on Earth But touching the witnessing of my good ãâã without respect to a gracius disposition or qualification there is not a syllable in the Text that sounds that way or carries any appearance to that purpose If every Work of Grace or the truth of a gracious qualification be witnessed by the Spirit and is lastly resolved therinto So that I Beleeve the work of Grace in me to be true because the Spirit witnesseth it then I must have an absolute ground to Beleeve the Spirit I wil open this Phrase the witness of the Spirit on an absolute ground Either it s meant ãâã the witness of the Spirit is attended without any respect to a work that is witnessed then its false and absurd that I should discern the witness of the Spirit without any respect to the thing witnessed ãâã made known to me by it for as hath been ãâã before witness and the thing witnessed go both together Or it s meant thus That when I have received the witness of the Spirit to my self then I ãâã prove it upon an absolute ground Hath Christ purchased al spiritual good for His for Beleevers Hence then we may see the ãâã of the faithful and the priviledg of those that ãâã above all people upon earth To you the Father intended al the treasuries of grace and glory in your stead Christ suffered performed all that the Law required and Justice exacted for you it is he hath purchased al that good that you need doth not that please you al you can desire doth not that quiet you nay all that you can receive through al eternitie doth not that satisfie There is none like unto you never the like was done for any as for you It was Moses Collection and caused his wonderment in the Consideration thereof Deut. 33. 29. When he had recounted the wonderful Preservations the Lord had wrought Priviledges he honoured them with and bestowed upon them he breaks forth into these expressions Blessed art thou
so catcheth at it meerly out of their own ãâã This ãâã false Application and this I take to be the cause of the blind presumption of the unwelcome guest Mat. 22. 12. Friend how camest thou in hither not ãâã thy Wedding Garment He heard of the ãâã provided and that the Lord kept open doors and therefore he adventured to croud in amongst the company therefore our Savior challengeth him How camest thou in If Coming here was ãâã why should he be blamed whether was not the wound therefore in a disorderly manner of beleeving and coming He came in his own strength and did not look to Christ to give him a heart to beleeve it answers not the guise and wear at this Wedding which is that the Lord must as well guide us in our coming and order that as well as order the dainties he prepares and ãâã us unto The Second Ground of mistake in our Application When out of common illumination set up in the mind terror and astonishment let in upon the ãâã together with notice and conviction it 's only in Christ that must and can do us good Out of these common insightnings and legal terrors the soul is stirred out of a natural ãâã to procure it's own safety to catch at that comfort and supply whereby it may succor and releeve it self out of these pressures which are too heavy for it Now as long as those fears and the noyse of those direful threatnings of the Lord continue in the view of the soul and as long as it doth not discern its own falsness in this imagined and self-deceiving application out of self love to self ends all that while in a blind kind of boldness it may pretend to hang upon Christ and free mercy But when either the legal stroke ceaseth that he feels not a need of the balsom or that he fails of his end and this groundles application which is nothing els but a presumption fails then al this work falls to the ground and his hopes and heart fails him and all he will then say I applyed mercy to my ãâã but God never did I catcht at a promise and Christ but God never gave him to me And this is the cause why thousands ãâã short when it comes to a dead lift their conversion the promises and mercy they have laid hold upon come to nothing the truth is they took a Christ but God never applyed him to them O Application is a wonderful work Thus Esau who despised the birthright and blessing indeed yet out of self love for self ends he seeks the blessing with tears but not with a faith of Application a faith of Gods operation For the root of faith is in the Lord Christ issuing from the work of his spirit and therefore he must apply himself to us before we can apply him to our own hearts As the beams of the Sun must come down to the waters before it can draw up the water in clouds and vapors So here The Root of this Application being in Christ when we cannot keep our selves yet he keeps us by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation he keeps us and keeps our faith I have prayed said Christ to Peter that thy faith fail not he keeps us to a Kingdom and keeps a Kingdom for us he puts us into possession and none can put us out Hence we may observe the madness of the ãâã hearts of men which transports them beyond all the bounds of reason carries them against the Principles of Nature and common Sense which makes them not only miserable but unwilling to be made happy Was there ever any sick man that was not content to be healed and any in prison and pressures that was not willing to be delivered any helpless that was not desirous to be eased and succored by another yet this is the hellish and unreasonable venom of a distempered and sinful heart that loves its poyson delights in its bolts and prison destitute of all Spiritual good hath neither hope nor help in its self to get or receive any can do no good for it self and yet is unwilling that God should do any good fot it or make it capable of receiving any famish they do and would not have meat provided that might sustein them perish they do and yet would not have the power of the Word work kindly and effectually upon them for their safety and deliverance it 's not a sickness only but a Spiritual madness if men carry themselves so when they are sick we say it is a Frenzy thus Isay 30. 10 11. They say to the Seers see not to the Prophets prophesie not ãâã not counsel not but cause the holy one of Israel to cease from us This is the temper of every Natural man in this world This serves to justifie the equal and righteous proceedings of the Lord in the utter ãâã and destruction of the ungodly and the Enemies of his Grace at the great day of Judgment when they shall be full of their ãâã and full of their plagues cast out of the presence of the Lord or the least expression of any gracious ãâã attribute of God nor bounty to pity them nor patience to bear with them but they lie under the power of their sins and the infinite displeasure of the Almighty This is that will stop all mouths and answer all cavils they have no more but what they would have they want nothing but what they were weary of You would be proud and stubborn and rebellious and you shall be so you shall have your belly full of your abominations and now you have your wills you were weary of the Word that would reveal your sins convince your consciences subdue your corruptions the truth was your only trouble you were troubled with Counsels Reproofs ãâã Ministers that you could not have your full swing in your sins God will ease you of that trouble you shall never see the face of a Saint that may counsel you never hear the voyce of a Minister to reprove you never have the Word to work upon you you have said to the Almighty ãâã away from us we desire not the knowledg of thy ãâã now you have your desires They that ãâã me love death Prov. 8. last you have what you loved you could not help your selves you say but you would not have the Lord make you capable of any help Thus every mouth is stopped and the Lord justified out of the Consciences and Confessions of the wicked themselves 2 How this good is made ours For the manner and order of putting us into ãâã of all this good it will appear in Four Particulars The Soul is made capable of all that Spiritual good and those Precious blessings which ãâã to ãâã ãâã is and must be first room made for the ãâã of these or els there is no Possibilitie to ãâã of these a man cannot be in heaven and hell at ãâã happy and miserable at
art ãâã Prisoner of Hell ãâã up in the chains of pride and infidelitie and the Devil keeps thee under Lock ãâã Key as it were and thou doest shut out the means ãâã Grace Why behold Jesus Christ who dyed and hath ãâã againe he hath the Keys of Hell and Death ãâã when thou doest say good Lord is it ãâã that ãâã this proud heart of mine should have any good that ever these sins of mine should be pardoned or subdued O look now to the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus beseech him that only can do it that hath a commanding power over Hel and Sin and the Devil beseech him that lives for ever that opens and no man shuts that he would open thy heart and ãâã thy soul from Sin and Satan cry Lord here 's a proud heart a dead heart and an unbeleeving heart O let that power of thine unlock my heart and ãâã me of al the evils of my Sins and possess me of al the good things of Jesus Christ therefore have an eye stil to the Resurrection of Christ. But you wil ãâã It is not possible it is that Jesus that I have sinned against resisted despised and the hour and power of darkness is upon my soul Legions of Devils dwels here prevailing over me and drawing me to sin Ay Brethren yet Christ by the power of his ãâã can do it for you Acts 2. 24. It was not possible that he should be held by the bonds of death when our Savior Christ was dying upon the Cross having the guilt of the sins of al the Elect upon him al the Devils in Hel came about him then but it was not possible that he should be overcome by them therefore look thou up to him and say Blessed Lord ãâã thou that wast once under the power of darkness but it was not possible thou couldest be held by it O behold and see and have mercy I am under the power of darkness under the power of sin and Satan and I cannot get loose yet if thou wilt please to open the Prison doors and to bring me forth if thou wilt open my heart nothing can shut it Thus you must have recourse to Jesus Christ as risen from the dead having al power in his own hands if indeed you would ãâã the work of Application to be a saving and a ãâã work You that are brought to Christ look hither stil when you find Satan too subtile for you and ãâã too strong for you be sure to keep your eye here and keep your faith here look to Christ and to his death and to his obedience But look to his Resurrection also Col. 2. 12. You are buried with Christ in Baptism wherin also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who raised him from the dead That is our Faith should be ãâã upon the Resurrection of Christ as that by vertue of which we shal rise with Christ get power against our sins You that have mighty distempers strong corruptions you must look to ãâã power that raised Christ from the dead this is the skil of faith like the Apothecary when he knows the Disease he goes to the right Box and applies the right Remedy So here thou hast a dead heart a vain mind a heart that canst not apply any saving good to thy self look not now to the Justice of God that wil condem thee but look to the operation of a God that ãâã quicken and raise up thy dead heart as he did ãâã ãâã Jesus Christ be ãâã you set your faith upon ãâã operation of God which raised Christ from the dead without this al our Preaching and your Hearing were in vain as the Apostle ãâã 1 Cor. 15. 14. ãâã ãâã Ministers on Earth had ãâã and Preached and ãâã and done what they could if ãâã had not ãâã again al had been in vain we might have flung ãâã against the wind the Devils would have laughed ãâã us al you Preach and you Pray as when ãâã shoot ãâã shot against a Castle they do but laugh at them for it So here If Christ be not risen our Preaching is in vain and your Faith in vain You ãâã for ãâã and we Preach to commuicate Grace we would have you quickned and you come for that ãâã now that that must give success to al is the ãâã ãâã Christ or else al is in vain So likewise ãâã ãâã one to thee as if Christ had not risen at al if thou ãâã not the power of it in thy own soul O therefore when you come to the Ordinances of God look up to the Resurrection of ãâã that the Minister may speak and pray and that you may hear and attend by the power of the Resurrection of Jesus that ãâã ãâã dead heart of thine may find a raising quickning ãâã from Sin and Death to Grace and ãâã by the ãâã of ãâã ãâã The Second Proposition Having dispatched the First we come to the Second Proposition ãâã in the foregoing ãâã concerning the ãâã of Application ãâã That that power by which the Lord ãâã ãâã Application is an Almighty power This work of Application looks to God as the Author ãâã it not in regard of any common ãâã ãâã providence whereby he leadeth out the act of every Creatues abilitity to it's end in al the several kinds ãâã Acts 17. 28. In him we live and move The strong man faints if God withdraw the weak is strong if God assist Nor yet in regard of that ãâã which the Lord vouchsafeÌth to the work of grace ãâã wrought But ãâã puts forth an Almighty power upon the soul when he is pleased to bring it home ãâã himself the Cause is ordinary but the Work it ãâã is extraordinary there is a mass of Miracles met ãâã when a sinner is Converted It was a Miracle when the Blind was made to See the Dumb to Speak the Deaf to Hear and the Dead to Live but in ãâã al these are met together the Blind mind is Enlightned the Dumb mouth is Opened the Heart ãâã was shut up under hardness is Opened and ãâã and the Dead soul is restored to Life again Mat. ãâã 5. That power whereby Christ was raised from ãâã dead is an Almighty power but that he puts ãâã ãâã the woking of faith in al that belong to him Eph. ãâã 18. His exceeding great power according to the ãâã of his mighty power in you that beleeve as ãâã wrought in Christ in raising him up from the dead Hence the working of grace is called a Resurrection Rev. 20 6. John 5. 20. The dead shall hear ãâã voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall ãâã So again Eph. 2. 1. 2. You that were dead ãâã sins and trespasses hath he quickned Look we not only at the Weakness but the hellish Opposition that a man hath naturally against al good ãâã wil appear it must be more than an ordinary power ãâã gives a being to grace in
which the Lord ãâã appointed for the revelation and communication ãâã all Spiritual Good Again remember this The Word is but an Instrument or means and therefore it ãâã no further than the Lord Christ works with it ãâã the operation of his Spirit hence it 's called the ãâã of the Spirit Eph. 6. 17. and Rom. 1. 16. The Gospel is the Power of God unto Salvation as ãâã Lord puts forth his Power in and by the Gospel Secondly It is the Word in the ' Ministry of it the ãâã published and preached the Word rightly ãâã as the Apostle speaks 2 Tim. 2. 15. that is ãâã the Word is rightly opened and rightly applied works then more powerfully because ãâã ãâã to the Will of the Principal Agent and according to the weakness of them to whom it is delivered as the chewing of meat fits it for the Stomach and therfore it nourisheth more the pounding of ãâã makes it smel more so it is with the Word when opened and applied according to the mind of God it ãâã the savor of Life unto Life 2 Cor. 2. 16. so ãâã Rom. 10. 17. Faith cometh by hearing of the Word of God it is not meant that faith comes by hearing of the Word read for that kind of preaching is ãâã meant for which a man is sent ãâã 15. How can they preach except they be sent but for bare reading no man had need to be sent 2 Cor. 5. 17 18. God ãâã in Christ reconciling the world to himself and hath committed to us the Word of Reconciliation that is the Lord hath delegated the dispensation of his Word in a way of Explication and Application of it to ãâã faithful Ministers Only here observe Gods Order 1 The Power resideth first in Christ and his Spirit 2 From Christ and his Spirit it comes to the Word 3 From the Word to the Administration thereof by the Dispensers where you find most of the Word and most evidence of the Spirit there you shall find the work to go on powerfully and successfully for the bringing home of souls to God It is not all Eloquence ãâã humane Excellency in the world but where a man walketh with God in the use of his Ordinances as when Paul was preaching God opened the heart of Lydia Acts 16. 14. The Word is like a Burning-Glass that which burns and heats is not the Glass but the beams of the Sun that pierceth through the Glass so it is the Power of Christ in a Promise in a Command that makes it pierce to the heart Gal. 2. 8. He that wrought effectually in Peter to the Ministry of the Circumcision was mighty in me towards the Gentils alas what is Paul or Peter or Apollo as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 2. 5. but Ministers by whom you beleeve as the Lord gives to every man ãâã are ãâã Instruments which stir no further than the ãâã will move by them nor can do no more than the ãâã will work by them Word Prayer Preaching Sacraments these are ãâã weak in themselves yet are they mighty through God to bring in the souls of men in obedience to the Lord. Thus I have done with the Explication of this general Conclusion together with the particular Propositions contained in it that God himself the Father through Christ by his Spirit by an Almighty Power is the Principal Cause and the Ministry of the Word the Instrumental Cause of the Application of all saving good Let me ad some Uses that flow from ãâã Information in Two things First Hence we learn That the ãâã of the work of Gods Grace upon the souls of his Servants is not done by moral perswasion that 's Pelagianism and Arminianism they require no more to the conversion of a sinner but meer perswasion the Promises of Grace must be pressed the excellency and glory of Christ discovered and that say they is all that is needful lay but these before a man and he hath power to embrace and receive them if he will It is a false conceit If that Power that raised up Christ from the dead must be put forth for the bringing home of a soul to God then there must be more than moral perswasion which only stirs up and draws out that ability that is within us Men may come dead and sit so and return so and be never the better for all the Ordinances and means of Grace if they have no more than them Isa. 57. 19. I create the fruit of the Lips peace peace to him that is neer and to him that is far off it is a creating Power that must be put forth Ministers do speak in vain else Hence again it 's certain the work of God in Application is irresistible This is the main ãâã from whence that Error is confuted That Power ãâã raised Christ from the dead was irresistible notwithstanding all sins and all Devils notwithstanding ãâã hour and power of darkness yet he ãâã up himself from the dead and by the same Almighty ãâã Power he works faith in our hearts and quickens ãâã with Spiritual Life when we were dead in sins and trespasses Eph. 2. 1 2. It 's true there is nothing but Nature and corruption in a man and by vertue of that a man opposeth and resisteth the work of Grace yet so to resist as to frustrate the work of God it is impossible God were not Almighty if sin and Satan could hinder his Work Tryal of our Conversion Observe whether the work of Application come from Heaven or no if so it leaves the ãâã of an Almighty Power upon the soul as Christ said The Baptism of John ãâã it from Heaven or from man So I say of Application Is it from Heaven or from your self ãâã is certain if it be not from the Almighty Power of God it will never bring thee to God neither in this world nor the world to come If the soul can say it was not the power of Men or Means or Ordinances I had all these I understood all these and yet was the same man still I had the old pride and lusts still they lodged in my bosom and came out as occasion served as a dog returning to his vomit till the Lord came from Heaven and broke in mightily upon my heart and there was no resisting of him If you say Must every one see the working of this Almighty Power in his own soul This Work may be really and savingly wrought though the Saints do not generally see and ãâã ãâã and how there is an impression made upon the ãâã the Almighty Power of God even as ãâã are grown though it be not observed how We see the Power of God in other things They are Natural and outward this inward and Spiritual Take the influences of the Heavens and ãâã Minerals and wonderful things that are wrought ãâã yet there is not one of a thousand that are ãâã to discern and discover these But this Influence of the
ãâã Power of God in the conversion of a ãâã is far more secret and Spiritual such as we are ãâã able to reach It is the prayer of the Apostle for the Ephesians Chap. 1. 17 18. that they might know the working of his mighty Power in working Faith it is the most mysterious of all the works of God it shakes the ãâã of the ablest Divines upon Earth Comfort to releeve the hearts of sinners against desperate discouragements when the floods of iniquity ãâã in amain upon the soul the sinner looks to his ãâã to Gods Ordinances and Providences and ãâã the Work of God that should be wrought in him and ãâã what ods and disproportion there is between his Soul and that blessed Work that should be in him why truly this is the only help to a soul in such a case with man it is impossible but not with God for with him all things are possible Matth. 19. 26. Though there be such a vast disproportion between thy own ability and this Work that thou shouldest never attain ãâã if thou wert left to thy self yet know that Christ by the Almighty Power of his Spirit is able to do it for thee But the soul will say the truth is there is not so much disproportion but there is as much opposition in my soul to the work of Grace why should God ever give me that mercy which I would not have and that Grace which my soul hath so much opposed this is another depth Why yet know thou that Gol can overwork all these and will do so for thee if thou seek unto him But know this to thy ever lasting terror That if thou do ãâã thus in the hardness and opposition of thy heart against Christ and his Grace that this Power of the Lord that would convert thee will put forth it self to confound thee to thine eternal ruine Exhortation Not to defer the time ãâã Grace but every soul of us with trembling hearts to attend upon the Lord in the use of means that he may be pleased to work his own good Work in us It 's that the Apostle exhorts unto Phil. 2. 12. Workout your ãâã with fear and trembling and he gives the reason of it For saies he it's God that worketh in you to ãâã and to do of his own good pleasure that is it is in Gods hand to help us or to forsake us either ãâã make the means effectual for our saving good or else to withdraw his presence and blessing from them while we do enjoy them ãâã Be ãâã fearful not to slight any Ordinance God hath appointed as Naamans ãâã said to him Go and try it he that now counsels you to it may bless it and work by it if it please him Secondly Tremblingly fear to fall short of Gods Power in an Ordinance for a man may fall short of God and Christ and Grace and all good even while he doth enjoy the Ordinances of God and live under them therefore say as Elisha did Where is the Lord God of Eliah Here is the Word and here is the Ordinance but where is the Lord God of this Word the God of Preaching and Praying It is not in the Minister or the means to do good to my soul but Lord speak thou the word and it shall work upon my soul as he said 2 Kings 4. 29 30. As the Lord lives ãâã will not leave thee till thou go with me do thou so when the Lord gives thee means say I will not leave the Lord until he make this Counsel this Word this Ordinance effectual for my saving good Be also tremblingly fearful when the Lord works by any Ordinance lest you should go out from or with draw your self from the power of it when you find and feel somthing more than Man and Means and Ordinances Oh let it not slip away the Lord was in that word do not suffer that stroke to go away because God is there now the Lord is working be you sure to follow the blow and give not over wrastiing ãâã striving with the Lord until he bless you with the ãâã working of his Word and Spirit and so apply unto thy soul all Spiritual Good in Jesus Christ. BOOK III. LUK. 1. 17. To make ready a People prepared for the Lord. HAving dispatched the Nature of Application in the General The Parts thereof come to be Considered in the next place These are Two 1 A Preparation of the Soul for Christ. 2 An Implantation of the Soul into Christ. That so having the Son we may be sure to have life 1 Joh. 5. 12. possessing him who is the heir of all we may be possessed of all both Temporal and Spiritual Blessings with him But before the Soul can be engrafted into the true Vine Christ Jesus it must be prepared and fitted thereunto by the powerful work of the Spirit of God upon it being not fit to receive a Christ by Nature and unable to fit its self thereunto by any liberty of Will or any sufficiency natural it hath When then these Two Works are imprinted upon the Soul the Sinner comes to take full possession of a Savior and to have all those Spiritual good things which Christ hath Purchased applyed unto him And thus these Two taking up the whole Nature of Application it 's manifest they must be the Parts of Application as reason inforceth The First is thus Described Preparation is a fitting of a sinner for his Being in Christ. The words of the Text will afford us full ground for the Handling and Discovering of this Truth To prepare a People fitted for the Lord Which words make known the main Task that was imposed upon John the Baptist and that great Work of his Ministery being the Forerunner of our Savior Christ wherewith he was betrusted and for which he was every way fitted with Gifts and Graces proportionable Therefore it s said in the beginning of the Verse He shall come in the Spirit and Power of Elias i. e. He shall have that large measure of gracious and Ministerial Gifts that special presence and assistance of the Spirit of the Lord accompanying of him as somtimes Elias had that so in the corrupt and declining state of the Church which was now exceeding great he might set things in a better frame build up the Breaches made taking off those Dissentions Errors and Divisions which had spread over the Body and eaten into the Bowels of the Church of the Jews like a Gangrene or Cancer And therefore as it was foretold of him so it was performed by him Matth. 17. 11. He did restore all things Namely such was the lively and over-ruling power of his Ministery that he wrought the Hearts of the Children otherwise ãâã and rebellious to the wisdom of the just men that laying aside all carnal wisdom of the ãâã which was enmity against God and caused ãâã and strifes among men they came to judge ãâã of things that were excellent to
such a Christ pleaseth us well but such a Christ will never do us good 2 This makes a man bold to adventure upon the commission of the grossest evill this makes him fearless to continue in it makes him negligent and regardless by godly sorrow and saving repentance to recover out of it he passeth not he cares not to take his poyson and to drink it in as his daily dyet he carries his ãâã about him and that which will undoubtedly cure him he may yet maintain union with Christ and communion with his cursed Lusts. 3 This makes a man slight in holy servises so as neither to put a price upon them nor to see an excellencie in them or iudg aright of the necessity of such performances he becomes sleepy and heartless in what he doth he is sure of a Christ that will answer all and therefore he troubles not himself with holy duties if he stumble upon the doing of them so if he neglect the doing of them so he hath a way to help all he can have a Christ he conceives without these and therefore he makes no great matter whether he do these or no. 4 Nay if he may have union to Christ while he is in his corruption if so he is then in a good estate for he that hath the son ãâã life 1 John 5. 12. Therefore he may have evidence of his good estate without the sight of any saving qualification because he may have a Christ and so be in a good estate without any saving qualification And therefore this Evidence must needs come from an immediate revelation from Heaven for there is no appearance no manifestation of it on Earth either in our hearts or lives in what we have or do and therefore then our good estate may be sure unto us by Christ when we have nothing but sin and do nothing but commit sin And hence because both graces and gracious actions may be wanting in this union to Christ because separable from it thererefore the want of them cannot infer the deniall of a good estate nor the presence of them conclude the certainty of a good estate because they are not proper and peculiar to such a condition for then they could not be severed from it which they may And thus this one Delusion like an Egyptian fog darkens the whol Heavens even the bright beams of the Sun of the Gospel and the everlasting Covenant of Gods free grace cuts the sinews of sincerity and eats out the blood and spirits of the power nd presence and life of Grace and under a pretence of advancing Christ and Free Grace destroies his Kingdom and frustrates the coming of Christ into the World For he came for this end 1 John 3. 8. To destroy the Works of the Devil the Apostle concludes it verse 10. as a proof beyond all question or exception the child of the Devil is manifest in this He that hates his brother and works unrighteousness is the Child of the Devil and yet upon this grant and according to this ground a man may do both these and yet be united unto Christ and so be blessed of him Look we therefore at these so desperate ãâã not as Rocks and Sands where men may suffer Shipwrack and yet be recovered but like a devouring Gulf or Whirl-pool whereinto whosoever comes there is no hope nor help to come out as cutting a man off from the careful and consciencious use of the means appointed by God in the Gospel to recover him As a Ship that is foundred in the midst of the main Ocean without the sight of any succor or hope of Relief Besides then the Arguments formerly alleaged I shall propound some other to fortifie against this so dangerous a Deceit Reasons to prove that Christ cannot be united to the Soul while it is in its Natural Condition and the state of Unbeleef Taken from John 14. 17. Christ saies he would send them another Comforter even the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive Every man while he is in his corrupt and natural condition he is one of the World Eph. 2. 2. When in times passed ye walked according to the course of this world vers 3. Among whom also we had our Conversations in times past in the lusts of the flesh How otherwise could they be called ãâã of the World unless they were in it They who cannot receive the Spirit cannot receive the Lord Jesus nor union to him but men Naturally cannot receive the Spirit therefore they must be called out of the World and from the Power of Satan and so be prepared and then receive Faith that so they may receive ãâã But Conversion being a Creating Work a Work of Creation needs ãâã preparation to ãâã or for it ãâã his Word is ãâã he calls men his people who are not his people and by calling them so he makes them to be so Preparation is required to the implantation of the ãâã into Christ not ãâã regard of God or his work upon us as though he needed any help to the execution of his holy wil but in regard of the thing wrought in us for he working all things according to the counsel of his own will and the rules of his Infinite Wisdom he needs not any help in his work yet it is ãâã his perfection and sufficiency to go against the wise Order set down in the Dispensation of his Providence for the bringing about of this work the causes of a thing do not help God in Working or Creating they are necessarily required to make up the thing wrought or created there is nothing in a blind eye ãâã may help God to restore it to sight yet God according to reason must put a power and ability of sight or a ãâã faculty before he will nay indeed can bring forth seeing God can turn Water into Wine but in reason he must destroy the Nature of Water and then make Wine for it implies a contradiction to say that Water should remain Water and yet have Wine made out of it So it is in the soul he can change a proud and unbeleeving heart into a ãâã heart but he must first destroy the power of unbeleef ãâã ãâã can bring in faith He that is under the power of infidelity and corrupt Nature he is under the guilt of his sins and in the state of condemnation John 3. 18. He that beleeves not is condemned already and vers 36. The wrath of God abides upon him But he that is in Christ to him there is no condemnation Rom. 8. 1. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Matth. 3. last and for his sake with all that are in him Now to be in the state of condemnation and acceptation together in the state of Life and death to have the wrath of God abiding and the good pleasure of God resting upon a party at the ãâã time ãâã a perfect contradiction and so impossibilities in
reason Where there is nothing but opposition and resistance between two there can be no union for all union implies ãâã and agreement there must be a mutual accord ãâã things on both hands before they can be made one Amos 3. 3. Can two walk together except they be agreed love tends to unity and ãâã the cause of it and that ever presupposeth some I keneis But ãâã man remaining in the state of Unbeleef and Corruption is wholly opposite to Christ and the work of his Spirit he is wholly Flesh John 3. 6. And the flesh lusts against the spirit and these are ãâã Gal. 4. 17. the wisdom of the flesh is ãâã against God it is not subject nor can be subject to the Law so far from closing with the work of the Spirit as it is not able to bear it The Scribes and ãâã rejected the counsel against themselues i. e. to their own ãâã Acts 7. 51. Ye stifnecked and ãâã hearted ye have ever resisted the Spirit of the Lord. Paul did no more than every Natural man would do Being mad saies he I persecuted that way The way of Christ and so Christ himself In a word It 's said of all and it 's true of all the best of the Saints take them in their Naturals ye were darkness Eph. 5. 10. darkness cannot but oppose light He that is acted wholly by the power of Infidelity he must resist the work of Faith and so the receiving of Christ by it There are but Two Covenants that ever God made with man touching his everlasting Estate The Covenant of Works or of the Law the Covenan of the Gospel and so of Grace and these two Covenants are so opposite that the one ãâã the other If it be of Works it is no more of Grace else Works were not Works If it be of Grace it is no more of ãâã else Grace were no more Grace Rom. 11. 6. Hence they are severed as far as blessing and cursing Gal. 3. 9 10. So then they which be of Faith are blessed with faithful Abraham For as many as are of the Works of the Law are under the Curse Now all men by Nature are Members and Heirs of the first Adam and therefore under his Covenant and under his Curse Rom. 7. 5. 8. Whilst we were in the ãâã the motions of sins which were by the Law did work in our Members to bring forth fruit unto death Those who are in Christ are under the Covenant of Grace and Life for he that hath the Son hath Life Hence I ãâã To be under two contrary Covenants of Law and Grace is impossible because so a man should be accursed and blessed at once But he that is in his corrupt Condition and state of Infidelity he is under the Covenant of Works he that is in Christ under the Covenant of Grace Hence followeth a Fifth Reason Who ever is under Grace over them sin shall not have Dominion Rom. 6. 14. Sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the Law but under Grace ãâã they who are in their natural condition and in the state of Unbeleef they are under the power and dominion of ãâã therefore they are not under Grace nor yet in Christ. This discovers the folly and dasheth the fond conceit of many carnal men who have framed a speedy way to Heaven in their own fancies through which yet never any had passage thither to wit they fondly imagine they have Christ and Mercy at command and that they can make a step to Heaven in the turning of a hand they ãâã not make such large provision or preparation before to tire out themselves with tedious and heart breaking sorrows and dayly remorse ãâã their dayly failings smal warning will serve ãâã mens turns Be it they love their lusts and practise them they harbor continually their noysom distempers in their souls express ãâã also in their lives they crave but the ãâã of ãâã few hours before their ãâã to fit themselves for their departure and happiness a few forced sighs faigned and formal confessions of their evils and howling for pardon out of the horror of their spirits now and then customarily adding a Lord have mercy on me they suppose they have made all even with God but if they can but get the Sacrament they conclude all is sure they must needs go post hast to Heaven if they can but say they beleeve Christ must comfort them cannot but save them No no Brethren the Word reveals none our Savior accepts of no such agreement he comes upon no such terms to bring any comfort with him unless any man should be so far forsaken of reason and sense as to imagine the Lord Jesus would carry the Drunkard and his Cups the Adulterer and his Harlots also the riotous Gamester his Cards and Dice Hawks and Hounds and all to Heaven together which is ãâã and incredible Oh! these men will one day find and that to their wo they cozened their own souls by their own folly whereas sound ãâã cost more the way must be prepared thy heart loosened rent and plucked away from thy corruptions before the Lord Jesus will vouchsafe once to look in upon thee No Harbenger before no King follows after where the heart is not ãâã for a Savior there is no hope to ãâã the presence of a Savior It 's the condition upon which his coming is promised and can be expected upon any sure ground It 's the order and connexion of things ãâã ãâã hath set in the work of Grace Luke 3. 8. And all flesh shall see the ãâã of the Lord. The Copulative Particle And tells us the sight of Salvation depends upon that which went before when we see the mountains of Pride high and lofty imaginations levelled crooked perversness of our own spirits taken off and we made meek and tractable then there is some hope that Salvation will appear unto us but if any man will yet rear up mighty Bulwarks and strong holds of rebellion and hardness of heart and maintain those high imaginations sturdy distempers of pride security and carnal confidence he must know whoever he be that as yet he is not within the ken of mercy and though he look until his eyes ãâã in his head and his heart ãâã in his body he ãâã never come within a true sight of Salvation much less may he think ever to be made partaker of it why confer with thy own conscience Dost thou think it fit the King should lie in the Truckle-bed under a company of Traitors Is it reasonable the Lord ãâã should be an ãâã to thy lusts No certainly the gods that thou hast obeyed by those thou must be saved thou would have thy lusts but reject Christ thou shalt perish with them but the presence of the Lord Jesus thou canst not enjoy Let the ãâã man forsake his way and the unrighteous man ãâã ãâã and return unto the Lord for he will
they should have received the Word with sorrow first and then afterwards with joy and therefore this sudden and disorderly coming brings as sudden and shameful departing away therefore it follows in the 21. verse Yet hath be not root in himself but dureth only for awhile and in the time of temptation falls away As it is with the corn upon the House top it flourisheth and fades speedily but no man fills his hand with it But would you not have a man to beleeve is it not a duty which God reveals and commands upon no less hazard than the loss of eternal life He that beleeves not is condemned already John 3. 18. This is the sin of all sins which the spirit convinceth the world of that they do not beleeve John 16. 8. Can a man do so necessary a duty too soon or hath he allowance to neglect it and not beleeve at any time why would you not have a man to beleeve at some times when God commands him to beleeve at all times No God forbid There is no allowance for unbeleef at any time It 's his duty for ever to ãâã it the Ministers duty to exhort unto it and require it Beleeve ãâã he can but that he will never be able to do it to be married to Christ and sin also to be under the ãâã of corruption and ãâã command of the Lord Jesus to grow upon two stocks at one and the same time t is not possible And when the Lord in his word so strictly enjoyns it and his ãâã call upon men to beleeve the aim and intendment of both is to ãâã them to use ãâã means and take that ãâã whereby they may come and beleeve First to make room for Faith before they can receive Faith first go out of themselves and ãâã before they can go unto a Savior and therefore this is not to hinder the work of Beleeving but to further it and that unto the utmost according to the mind of God A Third sort who miss the way to the Lord Jesus are such who indeed attend ãâã work in the right place but spoyl it in the doing make an entrance but never come to any perfection yea pervert it ãâã by their rash and unskilful proceeding There be some quarrels and babbles raised between the soul and a mans sinful distempers they begin to be at ods and contention and therefore upon a push they purpose to part dwellings because of some hard measure that they find unexpectedly from their beloved lusts the venom thereof vexeth his spirit and the sting of those terrors and the righteous plagues which are now deserved and so presented before the veiw of the soul makes him sal out with his corruptions as having expected other and more pleasing dealing at theirhands and that upon their ãâã and pretences made but ãâã he feels the bitterness thereof and therefore can ãâã judg of them by his owne sense and experience and thus the terror and trouble and hart-smart which his sin hath wrought in him setts him busily and resolutely to the reformation and amendment of it and in this turn there may be no Sinne he Sees or knowes but in his own apprehension he would renounce all no Service or duty but he doth approue and practise all selfe-terror setts him a worke for ãâã owne honor or quiet and pitch him at what narrownes you will he will Come to it And as the dint of the blow is and the power and strength of the ordinances under which he lives and the Constant houlding himselfe to the use and excercise of holy duties continue this may continue long and cause both Confidence and comfort with it And this is a dangerous and desperate mistake being a preparatiue for a Child of the law i. e. to a legall reformation not for the implantation of the soul into Christ and here millions perish When by self terror occasioned by the sting of Sin the Sinner is set upon reformation and that with much violence with a kind of thorownes stricktnes to procure his owne safetie selfe loue meeting with terror setts a man upon amendment of himselfe for selfe ends as his owne salvation and honor That preparation which sets a soul upon reformation so that he attayns his end and ease there so that there is deep silence about a Christ nor yet sight and sence of the need of him its certaine it s naught for it issues only from this principle and when that failes both his duties and comforts come to an end This was the guise of that young man Matth. 19. 20. who could say to our Saviour I have kept all the commandements from my youth what lack I yet he lived in a reformed way and rested there when yet his heart was not loosened from his ãâã Corruptions and therfore when he came to the triall he would rather part with ãâã and heaven and happiness then part with his ãâã I his was also the frame of those hipocrites Isay. 50 36. who fasted and afflicted their soules and yet did not loose the bonds of wickedness A saving preparation though it be not a principle of life yet it makes way and roome for the comming of a Christ that will ãâã a principle of life into the soul this is the end of it and if it cease before it come ãâã it misseth its end A fourth sort are such who have weltered long in their owne sorrowes and their owne performances and Services and ãâã find and therfore are forced to ãâã there is neither power nor pardon nor peace there to be had for their guilt and ãâã and distempers remaine as before and therfore they see all in ãâã Christ know they must have it from him and are ãâã to expect it therfore they ply him with ãâã ãâã prayers yea are contented that he should doe all for them Only they would ãâã with him ãâã ãâã in this proviso that he must doe it for them ãâã ãâã spoke of the Centurion Luke 7. 4. he is ãâã for whom thou shouldst doe this So they thinke of themselves since they sorrow and seek and attend upon him according to his will they cannot ãâã with patience to think they should misse These men have not renounced their owne worthyness and would inded ãâã in upon the prviledge of the Lord and not make it free and so not grace How shall the soul know it ãâã thus look to much to its owne worthiness I answer in two things 1. If it ãâã snarle at Gods dealings and quarrell with his ãâã and privily ãâã and repine when they see others have more and better then they I see others have been humbled and pardoned and comforted but I go on still in a disconsolate way the Saints of God have sought the Lord and found him gracious to their souls they have used the means and found a blessing upon them but I pray and fast and use all the means of Grace and yet I feel
day the things belonging to thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes Will you suffer Christ to stand thus knocking at the door of your hearts and not let him in Take heed of this Christ knocks this day at your hearts if you now give him his last Answer and shut the door against him it may prove to be the last knocking you may hap never to see him more A plain and powerful Ministerie is the only Ordinary Means to Prepare the heart soundly for Christ. Hence it is when our Savior would have this work done he prepares a workman fit for it and furnisheth him with abilities which might enable him to the discharge thereof the work is great and the service difficult and therefore Elias is fitted with a Spirit suitable with Power answerable unto that purpose for which he was appointed an Instrument as we say for the nonce John the Baptist he also inherits these abilities and that Minister must be an Elias i. e. must have his Spirit and Power in proportion if ever this great work of preparation followeth his hand with Comfort and Success As it was in the Material so also is it in the building of this spiritual temple in which the holy Ghost doth dwell The Elect of God are like trees of righteousness the Word is like the Ax that must be lifted by a skilful and strong arm of a cunning Minister who like a Spiritual Artificer must hew and square and take off the knotty untowardnrss in the Soul before we can come to couch close and settle upon the Lord Christ as the Corner stone Paul calls the Saints Gods husbandry 1 Cor. 3. 9. A powerful humbling Ministery is like the Plow to plow up the fallow ground the thorny sensual hearts of sinful men to receive the immortal seed of the Word of Promise and the Spirit of Christ thereby For the Opening of the Point Two Things are 1 What is meant by a plain and powerful Ministery such as that of Elias 2 How this hath force to effect so great a Work The plainness of the Ministery appears When the Language and Words are such as those of the meanest Capacity have some acquaintance with and may be able to conceive when the Preacher ãâã his Speech to the shallow understanding of the Simplest Hearer so far as in him lies alwayes avoiding the frothy tinkling of quaint and far ãâã ãâã which take off and blunt as ãâã were the edge of the blessed Truth and Word of God ãâã the Apostle rejects the wisdom of Words as that which makes the Cross of Christ that is The Doctrine of Christ Crucisied revealed in the Gospel to lose his proper and powerful effect when it is lo Preached where let it be observed that it is not only the vanity and emptiness of Words which is here condemned but even that pompous gaudiness and elegancy of ãâã which after an unsuspected manner steals away the mind and affection from the truth and stayes it with it self when it should be a means both to convey both Attention and Affection from it self to the truth He that puts so much Sugar into the Potion that he hinders the strength and the work of it by such a kind of mixture though he please the Pallat of the ãâã yet thereby ãâã wrongs both the Physick and his Health So here in Preaching For the excellency of Eloquence and entising words of humane Wisdom which in case were commendable to be used by him who is an Orator or a Declamor in the School in the ãâã becomes ever Fruitless and many times hurtful and prejudicial to the saving success of the Gospel Hence the Apostle makes these as Opposite 2 Cor. 2. 4. My Speech and my preaching was not with entising words of mans wisdom but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power taking this for granted as it appears in ãâã of the Speech the pompe of entising words ãâã ãâã be discovered if we would have the Spirit in the powerful work of it be demonstrated and made to appear so much sweetness of words as may make way for the ãâã of the Gospel may be admitted and no more And as all kind of Curiosity and ãâã is to be avoided so all obscure and unusual ãâã dark Sentences and Expressions strange Languages are much more to be rejected as opposite even to the end of speaking much more to plainness of the Preaching of the tuth Words are appointed by God in his Providence to be Carriers as it were by whose help the thoughts of our minds and the savory apprehensions of truth may be communicated and conveyed over to the understanding of others whereas by mystical and dark Sentences he that comes to hear can by no means profit because he cannot conceive and so both Hearer and Speaker must needs miss their end and lose their labor since the one doth no good in his Speech because he so speaks that the other can receive no benefit He that hath a Pastoral heart must be so affected in dispensing the Doctrine of Grace as Paul was in writing Rom. 1. 7. to all that are To all that be at Rome so should he labor to reach out mercy and comfort to every soul in the congregation by every sentence he delivers as much as in him lies whereas mystical cloudy discourses which exceed the capacity and understanding of most in the assembly it s not possible they should work powerfully upon their Consciences That which the Mind conceives not the Heart affects not Ministers should be and if faithful they wil be as nurses to the people they will prepare milk for the meanest and weakest and meat for all but never give dry crust or ãâã in stead of bread to any for that was not to feed but to starve the Child Hence the Apostle concludes strange Languages in the delivery of the truth to be a Curse sent of God upon a people and therefore the Minister that so Communicates the Word he is the Messenger that brings a Curse to the ãâã 1 Cor. 14. 21 22. In the Law it is written with men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people wherefore tongues are fore a sign not to them that believe but to them that believe not whereas Prophecying should be in that openness and familiarity of Language that the unbeleiving yea unlearned should be convinced and have the secrets of his heart made manifest to his own Conscience that so he may be truly humbled and acknowledge Gods power and presence in the virtue of his own Ordinance blessed by him 1 Cor. 14. 24. It was the complaint of God Job 38. 2. That Counsel was darkened by Words without Knowledg It was not allowed in Jobs Conference and debate of Questions with his friends it cannot but be much more condemned in publishing the mysteries of Life and Salvation to others Its the scope of the Calling and Work of
successively As the same vessel is capable of puddle and pure water the same eye is capable of sight and blindness So the Will at several times as several impressions may be made upon it is capable of Sin and Grace Jer. 4. 3. Break up ãâã fallow ground of your hearts The Nature of man is arrable ground though now it lie fallow by ãâã of the weeds of wickedness the brambles of Baggage base lusts have over-run it yet it may be ãâã the soul may be converted again So men are called Living stones 1 Pet. 2. 5. Though the frame of the heart like that goodly building of Jerusalem have not a stone left upon a stone yet the stones wil ãâã again And hence though there be not the next passive power in a soul possessed with sin to receive the things of God because the soul is wholly possessed with corruption so becomes wholly indisposed thereunto It being impossible that Two Contraries should be in the same subject at the same time that the body distempered with unnatural heats should receive a natural and moderate temper at the same time cannot be yet remove the unnatural and the body is capable of the natural Hence it is the soul hath ever in it a remote power to partake of Grace As the Soul is ever seeking of a better but because it cannot meet with it it is unsatisfied which shews it was made for a better Which makes me that I cannot yet see Why there is any need to flye to the Obed ential power which men marvelous Judicious betake themselves to in this Dispute When a Creature hath not a capability in its kind and nature to entertain such an impression further than it yeilds to the Almighty hand of God to make it what he wil As Matt. 3. 9. God is able of stones to raise up Children unto Abraham Stones wil yeild to God to make them Children But under favor I conceive that is not here needful That God should make a new Faculty or give another natural power than before as he must do if he make Bread or Children of stones As a Wheel that runs wrong you need not another Wheel but another and a right ãâã of ãâã The Faculty of the Will attended only in its natural being and ability cannot Will a spiritual or supernatural good but must have aspiratual and supernatural power put into it to enable it to put forth a ãâã work Because nothing can act beyond the bounds of its being and ability The Trees grow but move not the bruit Creatures move but Reason not Wicked men can Reason and Will natural and corrupt things because they have Reason Nature and Corruption And Morral things also because they have some ãâã of the Spirit as wil carry them to act seemly between man and man but to close with God and his Holiness and the purity and spiritualness of a Rule they cannot 1 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man receives not the things of God Prov. 24. 7. Wisdom is too high for a fool If the Will out of a Nature Ability or Faculty could chuse a supernatural good then where there is this Faculty this act may be put forth Then the Devils and Damned in Hell may love God above al make choice of the chiesest good and close with the last end and so might be happy For they have this faculty of Will The Promise is full and free Let him that Wills take of the water of life and live for ever Rev. 22. 17. Hence its plain its a false Opinion and grounded on a false bottom and principle that to have an indifferency to any thing propounded to take it or not to take it is that liberty which issues from the nature of the Will Because it issues not from the Faculty at al to wil a supernatural good no more than from a dead man to take meat As a Wheel doth not run round because wood or iron but because the art of wheel-making is imprinted upon it because so framed and fashioned If therefore the question be asked If the Will be not free in Preparation Answ. There is no Will in the first work of Preparation there is the Faculty of Will but not the act of Will The Corruption that takes possession of the Will and rules in it it utterly indisposeth the soul to receive any spiritual power from God and consequently disenables it to put forth any spiritual or supernatural work It is not subject to the Law of God neither can be Rom. 8. 7. It wil not beat the impression of the power of the Spirit Job 8. 37. The Word of Christ found no place in the Jews that were under the power of their Corruptions Acts 13. 46. They put away the Word from them yea Truth is a trouble and a torment to a Carnal heart and the nature of the thing evinceth so much Matthew 6. 24. Ye cannot serve two Masters God and Mammon Joh. 5. 44. Ye cannot believe that seek honor one from another Rom. 2. 4. The hard heart cannot repent Shut up we are under unbelief and we shut out the Lord Jesus who comes not unless the door be opened It is not possible that contraries should be at the same time in the same subject Though there be no force afforded to the Faculty of the Will yet the power of Corruption must by a holy kind of Violence be removed before any spiritual power can be imprinted upon the soul wherby it may put forth any spiritual act First I say There is no violence offered to the Faculty of ãâã ãâã For that as it hath been proved before is a capable subject both of Grace and Sin successively and in order as the air is capable of light and darkness indifferently and the one being removed the other is entertained with ease and readiness without any compulsion there needs none it requires none here As the same wax wil receive several and contrary impressions at several times so the soul which hath been made partaker of the image of God is also capable of the print impression of the image of old Adam when once the gracious disposition hath been defaced it 's capable of receiving the impression of Gods Image again when once Adams image is dispossessed Yet Secondly There must be a holy kind of violence offered unto Corruption before it can be dispossessed and removed and so way and room made for the entertainment of Faith and Christ thereby Reasons are Either Corruption must by violence be taken away or else it wil naturally and of its own accord go away and depart from the soul. For it hath been in the former Conclusions manifected That there must be a spiritual power put into the will before it can put forth a ãâã act And while Corruption takes place there is no place of entertainment ãâã this spiritual ability therefore Corruption must be removed by violence Naturally it wil not go away therefore by
utter insufficiency in what he hath or doth for to procure the least spiritual relief unto his soul now the Coast is cleer that Faith may come to us and we by that be enabled to come to Christ. We are now to pursue these two according to the order propounded And first of the former the Sum of which Work may thus be described Contrition is that Preparative Disposition of Heart when by the sight of sin and the punishment due to the same the soul is brought to sound sorrow for it and so brought to detest it and to sequester it self from it The Description stands upon two Passages mainly I. The Causes which bring in this Contrition 1. Sight of Sin 2. Sorrow for Sin II. The Effects which nextly discover this and whereby it comes to be known 1. Detestation of Sin 2. Sequestration from sin And here I desire that still may be remembred which I mentioned and discovered before That all these are things rather wrought upon us by the impression and motion of the Spirit than performed by any inward principle and habitual power of Grace received and this the manner of the expressions in the words of the description plainly intimates the soul brought to see his sins brought to forrow for them brought to detest them and sequester it self from them For the sinner would not look upon the loathsomness of his soul and the filth of his sinful distempers but the Lord laies it before him and holds his apprehension to it follows him with the remembrance of it and forceth his thoughts to give attendance thereunto Psal. 51. 3. My sin is ever before me which way soever he turns his thoughts his sins stared him in the face and were full in his view they dwelt with him and were dayly in his presence that where ever he was they were he could not look off from them look which way he would 2. The sinner would shake off the sorrow that now seizeth upon him and seems to overbear him like a mighty stream he labors to beat back the blow and to make an escape from under the stroke of the Truth that stabs and wounds his heart with the direful expression of Gods displeasure and dreadfulness of the evil that doth attend him but he can neither avoid it nor remove it neither keep himself from the wound nor cure it Psal. 40. Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me that I cannot look up a similitude taken from the Prey that flies from the Pursuer though he would have fled from the terrors of the Almighty wrested and rescued himself from under the attachment yet they overtake him and take such hold of him that he cannot escape Psal. 38. 2. Thine Arrows stick fast in me and thine hand presseth me sore he would have plucked out the Arrows of Gods indignation but his skil and strength failed him he could not be eased they could not be removed from him until at length the soul feeling the wrath of the Almighty and seeing no way to avoid an everlasting separation from the Lord if yet his sins be entertained by him being thus pressed by the power of that undeniable Truth which laies open the loathsomness of his sin and makes him feel the bitterness thereof he is carried with detestation against it and driven to make a sequestration from it Of the fuller meaning of both these when we shal come to the particular scanning of them in their proper place For the ground of my following discourse I have taken the words of the Text in which you have the grounds and hints of all the former Truths not implyed only by way of collection but expresly ãâã down and professedly aimed at as evidently discovering the manner of Gods dealing herein The knowledg of their sins set down with the Causes thereof when they heard these things Hearing not that every hearing or bare hearing would serve the ãâã for it 's beyond question that thousands do and many there did hear those savory Truths seasonably dispensed by Peter which were never either throughly convinced nor had their hearts in any manner affected therewith the meaning therefore must needs be this When by their hearing they rightly discerned and cleerly conceived those things i. e. the nature of those sins which Peter had discovered and charged so punctually upon them Let all the House of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ. When they so heard that they yielded and assented fully to that which was ãâã peremptorily ãâã by the Apostle then they were pricked to the heart We have then here the fight and knowledg of their sin together with the Causes by which they came to attain it and those were here intimated in the words Their Conviction in that they stood here indited and accused by Peter and condemned in their own Consciences that they were the guilty persons guilty of no less than the blood of the Lord Jesus the Son of God and Savior of the World who is now advanced at Gods right hand as Lord and King and shall come in flaming fire as a Judg to condemn them for their bloody sins who came in the flesh as a Redeemer to save them from their sins But they rejected him and their own mercy and safety and this saies the Apostle admits no opposition no disputation at all Let the House of Israel know assuredly ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã It 's a Truth that stands as Mount Zion that cannot be stirred it is beyond all cavelling questioning doubting ãâã all probability or ãâã to be other a Truth not subject to any slipping or uncertainty so the word signifies The particular application that the Apostle here useth of their special sins he doth not hover in generals shoot at rovers but le ts fly point blank in the faces of them This Jesus whom ye have crucified He names not any other blames not any other now saies not ãâã was a wretch that betraied Christ the Soldiers cruel and injurious that took him and bound him Pilate ãâã fearful and unjust that condemned him he will not now speak to men absent but you are they that crucified him you that cried let his ãâã ãâã ãâã us you shall have blood enough plagues enough this particular application sets hard ãâã deep they heard these their sins thus ripped up and themselves arrested for them There is a serious ãâã and attention here also implyed The word is in the Participle Hearing noting a continued act Hearing bearing these sadly attending and pondering of them in their thoughts they came then to be pierced Thus we have the sight of their sins here laid open to us together with the Causes thereof The second thing in this contrition is sound and through sorrow and that is expressed in the next Phrase they were pierced not in their eyes only which made them weep but in their hearts which made them bleed inwardly with Godly sorrow Their
his sight and that he that glories might glory in the Lord. By what Law is boasting excluded by the Law of Works Nay but by the Law of Faith Rom. 3. 27. For if Abraham had been justified by Works he had whereof to glory Rom. 4. 2. And therefore as in the Material it 's so in the Spiritual Temple the laying of the first and lowest stone and adding of the last all the people cried Grace Grace and hence the whol chain is as it were of Gods own making and tying Whom he predestinated them he called and whom he called them he justified and whom he justified them he glorified Rom. 8. 30. and the end and issue of all is set down by the holy Apostle Eph. 4. 15. when all the Churches shall meet at the great day of Appearance in the unity of the Faith it is to the acknowledgment of the Son of God By whom were you called humbled justified adopted sanctified By the Son of God receive all from him return all to him But this Opinion plucks the Crown from Christs Head the Glory from his Work the Praise from his Grace and gives it to the will of man and the improvement of those abilities and opportunities the Lord hath put into his hand because by this means he makes himself to differ For set Paul and Judas in the same rank let them enjoy the same means share in the same liberties advantages opportunities one as the other Paul by the good use of his free will he plaies the good Husband he doth what he can and he obtains what he wants and receives Grace Judas plaies the Prodigal and Unthrift doth not what he should and might and therefore he wants Grace so that they were both equal in the priviledges and opportunities they received from God they differ not there that Paul hath that Grace which Judas wants he may thank his own pains and improvement and glory in himself and them Nay Paul is not bound to be thankful to God for any thing more than Judas for he had no more from God by this Opinion than Judas what he had and received more it was by his own improvements which to conceit is a most hellish delusion Lastly If by the improvements of Abilities and Advantages we certainly receive Spiritual Grace then this must follow Either because such improvement deserves Grace or do immediately and nextly dispose the soul to receive Grace or that such improvements have a promise made to them from God But none of al these can be granted They cannot deserve Grace because when we have done what we can we must conclude as we shal have cause to confess we are unprofitable Luke 17. 10. The plowing and so the praying of the wicked is sin his most beautiful performances are from the flesh and so sinful and deserve the just wrath of God and therefore no Grace nor Glory John 3. 8. They do not nor can dispose the soul as that it may be thereby a fit subject to receive Grace Those actions which leave the soul under the power of sin and acted by sin and a man in a Natural condition those stil leave the soul indisposed to Grace for the Natural man perceives not the things of Grace nor can he receive them 1 Cor. 2. 14. they found him in the world and they leave him in the world and the world cannot receive the holy Ghost John 14. 17. Natural and corrupt actions cannot prepare immediately for Supernatural Grace There is no promise of giving saving Grace to such and none could ever be shewed That which somtimes the Arminians pretend but press it with no great confidence is in Matth. 25. 29. in the Parable of the Talents To every man that hath shall be given and to him that hath not shall be taken away even that he hath Hence He that hath and useth his Natural abilities wel shal be given Supernatural Answ. That gloss corrupts ãâã Text and doth not suit with the Scope and Circumstances of the Parable as hath been made good by many Arguments by such as have diligently searched into the sence of the place The unprofitable Servant that used not his Talents wel he is to receive that Sentence ãâã must be cast into utter darkness which were it understood according to the former Opinion it would infer an apparent falshood He that did not improve his Talent was forth with to be cast into utter darkness but many that do not use their natural abilities and the special advantages wel have been formerly and wil without question be brought home to Christ and happiness 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. Know ye not that no Adulterer Covetous Reviler Extortioner shal inherit the Kingdom of Heaven but such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are clensed 1 Pet. 4. 2. It is sufficient that in time past we have had our Conversation among the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness ãâã excess of Riot Revellings and abominable ãâã These did not use their Natural abilities wel and yet were not cast out into utter darkness therefore the using of the Natural abilities is not the having or the using of the Talent there meant ãâã I suppose the meaning of the Phrase is by him that hath is meant the man that is truly gracious the Talent is the Gospel by having is the receiving and ãâã of it in a good and honest heart and the sanctified use of it in a saving manner For the Evangelists Expressions seem undeniable to evidence this meaning Matth. 13. 11 12. When our Savior Christ had told his Disciples it was given to them q. d. it 's the peculiar special work of the Spirit of Grace in your hearts to know the mysteries of the Kingdom but to them it is not given he ads the reason and proof in the next verse for to him that hath he that in sincerity entertains the Gospel shal have a further communication of the Truth and sweetness of the Gospel to his soul but whosoever hath not whosoever entertains not the Gospel in truth and uprightness from him shall be taken away the Gospel which by a seeming profession of fals-hearted lazy entertainment he would seem to have but never had in sincerity the like connexion is found Mark 4. 24 25. Take heed what you hear and unto you that hear i. e. that do take heed what you hear more shal be given for to him that hath shall be given but ãâã that hath not i. e. that doth not take heed what he hears and so receives not the Word in sincerity from him shall be taken even that he hath But if the saving work of the Word doth not depend upon my endeavor why should I endeavor any further any longer or attend the use of the means or practice answerable thereunto Thou thy self and al thy services being in a natural estate are as a menstruous cloth both in themselves and in the sight of Gods pure eyes unanswerable to Gods
measure of Grace and Godliness Surely not as other men use to do and therefore it 's a great suspicion he came not truly by his Grace nor is he truly that he seems to be great sins cost other men great sorrows grievous scandals cost great grief of heart great heart-breakings humiliations and satisfactions great Grace and power against sin great pains and the highest strain of exactness in speeches and practices they that knew and see the Conversations of such never saw nor knew any such matter it 's certain he and al the Christians in the world may justly question his uprightness ãâã yet he be not worse than nothing if there were a true inventory taken of his Estate in Grace out of the depth of prophaneness to come to the height of holiness at unawares it 's a work of delusion not of true conversion to God Trees that are planted in Gods Orchard they take root downward and then bring forth fruit upward Upstart Christians are like Jonah his Guord grow ãâã and ãâã presently flourish and fade and al in a day Untimely births are never true nor yet of continuance when an old sore is healed too hastily it never proves sound it 's ãâã over ãâã cured festers inwardly proves more grievous and dangerous than at the first The skilful Chyrurgeon wil tel you it must be searched lanced tented before it attain its ful and perfect Cure So it is with that cankered corrupt ãâã of thine who hast lived and continued in those loathsom abominations which thou hast hugged in thy bosom it must be lanced by the cutting knife of the Law and the dreadful curse thereof searched by the soul-saving preaching of the Gospel and dayly tented with constant contritions and breakings of heart otherwise know assuredly that those hellish lusts of thine wil imposthume within thy soul and in issue break out more loathsomly and thy latter end wil be worse than thy beginning To find little or no hardness in that which in thy reason thou conceivest and concludest to be the hardest work of all how canst thou but suspect thou art cozened and mistaken Make it thine own case in another thing and be thine own Judg ãâã thou enjoyned to drain a Quagmire or a dirty rotten Swamp to fit it for the Plough and should any man seem to perswade it would cost but litte time or labor might easily be dispatched thou would'st scarsly with patience hear such an expression as that which is expressly contrary to common sense why should men speak of impossibilities or think that men should conceive that reasonable that is against Reason not only Trees felled stubbed removed but the ground gained which is not arable and al this in a short space with ease Look now into thy condition with this resemblance and be thine own Judg thou hast a dunghil heart a soul like a dirty swamp those hellish abominations which have taken up thy mind and will and affections in which thou hast continued and unto which thou hast been accustomed so that thy heart is like a standing puddle of prophaneness which have weakened and wasted the very faculties of thy soul so that thy heart is not fallow ground as the Prophet speaks Plow up the fallow ground Jer. 4. it 's not ãâã ground even abilities so wasted and disordered with thy wretched and unreasonable lusts and dost thou think that these abilities can be ãâã easily and thy Spirit made good soyl even a good and honest heart without extraordinary power on Gods part and more than ordinary labor on thine When the covetous yong man that was glewed to the world and had his heart riveted in restless and immoderate desires after these Earthly things so that all the directions which our Savior gave and the great offers he made of Heaven and Salvation could not take off his affections but he went away sorrowful saies our Savior How hard is it for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven it 's easier for a Cable rope to enter in at the eye of a Needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Grace here and Glory hereafter Matth. ãâã 22 23 24. He spake of one it 's true of all by the like proportion how hard is it for a rich man it 's as true to say how hard is it for a riotous unclean malitious voluptuous self-conceited rebellious wretch he that hath scandalously continued in these accustomed himself to these how hard is it for such saies the Text. And doest thou find it easie a Holy-day task and a trifling labor that which may suddenly be done without such trouble either Christ is deceived or thou art mistaken either the Word fails or thy apprehension fails Whether the Scriptures or thy Conceit is to be beleeved let thine heart judg unless thou wilt be an Atheist The Word in reason never wrought that work nor wil it give in Evidence and approbation thereof The Prophet Isai. 46. last describing a rebellious sinner he thus speaks of him Hearken ye stout-hearted who are far from righteousness A man that hath gone many yeers and that with much speed and labor one way which is down-hil to return to the same place when the way is more difficult with a little time and less labor there is little probability if possibility in reason So here thou hast hurried headlong in the waies of wickedness hast had ful wind and tide Satans temptation thine own corruption to carry thee with mighty violence many yeers together in thy ãâã course dost thou think suddenly and easily to ãâã back No beleeve it thou must take many a weary step send out many a heavy sigh tug at it with continual prayers and tears and the utmost improvement of al thine ãâã nay it will cost thee hot water the setting on before thou seest that day I read of a double expression 1. Of the Devils going out 2. Of his casting out ãâã 12. 43 When the unclean spirit goes out c. which is done by ãâã outward and serious reformation and some sudden resolution wrought out of terror to forsake such and such courses this smoaks Satan out of his house c. COMFORT This is ground of great support and in Truth of strong consolation to shore up the hearts of forlorn and scandalous Creatures when they lie under the most direful strokes of Gods heaviest displeasure When the loath somness of their lives and hellish abominations of their hearts are presented to their view their Consciences now accuse and the Lord from Heaven by his infinite indignation encamps against them with Armies of terrors so that to their sight and sence there is nothing appearing but present ruin and confusion Yet out of the strong comes sweet greatest safety issues out of the heaviest searchings and breakings of heart Here is now ground of strong support to bear thy ãâã above all these devouring horrors which like so many waves would overwhelm thy soul. The
himself to him and to Samuel very yong at about fourteen yeers Somtimes God keeps his by the strokes of his common Graces restraining from scandalous evils and constraining by means appointed and blessed to that end the holy ãâã the counsels and examples of Godly Parents the society of such who are ãâã the power of the Ordinances under which they are bred and brought up toling and tilling of their ãâã and affections by many moral perswasions to the love and liking of the excellency of a holy course which he knows how to present and by which to ãâã out the exercise of all those moral abilities they are endued withal and at the last insensibly and yet truly ãâã them off from the root of old Adam and implants into the ãâã Vine Christ Jesus Ladia and Zachaeus are Presidents of Gods proceeding in this case whence it is that many a godly man and true Convert never knew the time of his Conversion only he knows he was blind and God hath brought him to see the wonders of his way and Truth Only a Three-fold Caution is ãâã to be attended Though the manner of Gods dealing be divers and degrees of this work of Contrition differ in most ãâã the Nature and substance of the work is really and truly wrought in all that are effectually called out of the world themselves and sins to the Lord Jesus as shall after appear when we come to give in the Evidences of the Point in hand only now it shal suffice to propound these two places ãâã 3. 1. Behold I will send my Messenger and he shal prepare the way ãâã me and the Lord whom ye ãâã shall suddenly come into his Temple and this preparation his Harbenger John Baptist discovers Luke 3. 5. Every mountain shal be brought low and the valleyes filled crooked things made straight and rough things plain and then all ãâã shal see the salvation of the Lord. And the evidence ãâã this appears in the question they made What shal we do c. It 's Gods way of entertainment which himself prescribes Rev. 3. 2. Behold I stand at thee door and knock if any man will open the door I and my Father will come in to him and sup with him Unless the door be opened there is no expectation of Christs coming and supping now all men are shut up under unbelief and so the power of their sins the opening of the heart is the loosening of the soul from the league of these lusts which is done by Contrition true a man may pick the lock or break the lock open the door and lift up the latch gently or else unhinge it with violence and noise that al the house and al the town may hear but it 's opened both waies Though a man truly called happily cannot tell the time of his Conversion yet every one should and if gracious he can give such proper and special evidence such never failing and infallible fruits of this work that they may undoubtedly discover to others and ascertain to his own soul that the stroke is struck indeed that he hath been called out of the world and from darkness to his marvelous light that the Lord hath broken his heart kindly or else he cannot ãâã ãâã he wil ever bind him up with his saving and healing compassions It 's a safe way to view over these primitive and first impressions of the Lord upon the soul and a principle of Grace received to renew and act over dayly these first Editions and Spiritual Dispositions imprinted upon the heart they were first ãâã upon us but after Grace received they may should be ãâã by us we should act them over again This is the Advice and Direction which our Savior so seasonably and so sadly leaves upon record upon the Conscience of his Disciples When Peter was ãâã of his fall and denyal of his Master he also leaves this Receipt with him ãâã his recovery after the wound taken When thou art converted strengthen thy Brethren Luke 22 32. Peter was converted ãâã before and called effectually unto Christ and by faith made one with him and this faith he did not nay could not lose for Christ prayed his faith should not fail but in our fals there is a weakening and blemishing of this work of Conversion and an aversion in some measure left upon the soul therefore we should labor a new Conversion i. e. renew and act over the work of Conversion be broken hearted humbled drawn to Christ afresh and as necessary as the renewal of the act of faith is the repairing and renewing of these acts also for there is no going to Christ if we go not out of sin and self Hence again our Savior when he would take off and reform that ambitious humor which had vented it self among the Disciples when each man strove to be highest one at the right hand another at the left the rest they disdained this ãâã pang our Savior applies this Receipt to ãâã this corruption ãâã 18. 2. 3. Jesus called a little Child and set him in the midst of them and said unto them Verily I say unto you unless ye be converted and become as little Children ye shal not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven The Disciples were called and so converted truly savingly humbled and yet they must renew and act over again these first impressions of the powerful operations of the Spirit of God be broken hearted loosened from thy lusts as at the sirst be abased and brought to nothing in thine own sence and apprehension as at the first be drawn to Christ as at the first and there is more reason and greater necessity of this than men are readily aware of For A wound here is never recovered in any following work upon the soul unless we go back and begin again miss here and we miss all spoil all our proceedings in progress of the Work of Grace He that enters not at the right gate the faster he goes the further out of his way Never loosened and divorced from the league with some darling lust thou canst not be Espoused to Christ therefore not called therefore not justified ãâã sanctified nor glorified thy reformations are false thy peace counterfeit and al thy comforts thou conceit'st thou hast they are meer forgeries and delusions thou art fast in the Devils clutches as long as thou hast thy sins he hath thee at command The Mettal that is not melted there is no making polishing perfecting any Vessel for any use with it Cleer this cleer all i. e. we make way for the Evidences that appertain to our comfort and spiritual condition in our whol course mark al the recoylings of our Consciences the misgiving of our hearts the staggering and doubting of the Truth of Gods Work or the assurance of Gods Love they turn still upon this hinge here they fortifie Oh the lusts I brought with me from my Cradle the old haunt of heart the old sin therefore I am
the world to honor him to esteem him yet ãâã dasheth all what avails it so long as this Pride ãâã peevishness this frothy vain heart remains within me When the heart is assaulted with some sudden qualm or deadly fume that assaults the spirits ãâã ye drive it from his heart nothing will do him good Oh he is sick at the heart now I thank the Lord it 's gone from my heart So it is with the plague of ãâã that assaults the heart a man that knows it and ãâã ãâã and is really sick of the lusts and corruptions that are in his heart he can never be at quiet till he find his heart in some measure freed from the power and poyson of those sinful distempers as Rebecca said If Jacob should take a wife of the Daughters of Heth what good shall my life do me Gen. 27. last So what good wil my credit my profit my profession all my priviledges and performances do me if my heart be married to any base lust ãâã my corrupt will and my wayward peevish stiffness and malignancy of heart continue with me still But thou that canst lift up thy head and know all these evils in thee that God knows and thou knowest there are such bosom abominations which thy heart finds and takes contentment in thou canst live with them talk with them lie down and sleep with them and arise with them again nay and thy corrupt heart is restless if it may not be pleased and satisfied with thy lusts Amon is sick of Incest Ahab of Covetousness unless they may enjoy ãâã lusts they cannot enjoy their lives Grace I would not trouble my self or spend any time to prove that such have any grace When a mans sins are so far from being his vexation that it is his vexation that he cannot have free ãâã to commit his sins that he is vexed with the word that discovers his evil vexed with Conscience that checks him for it plagued and tormented with all that come in his way that will cross him in his lusts if there be a graceless heart in Hell thou art one to this very day thou didst never know what it was to put off the will of sinning Observe where the will takes up its last stand and what it looks at as that which lastly satisfies its desire either in pretended parting with sin or in performance of duties or improvement of means The end steers the action and gives in evidence of the goodness of it The Merchant and the Pyrate goes in the same channel useth the same wind to carry them the same Compass to direct the one about his honest Affairs to serve Gods Providence and his own Duty and the other to serve his own covetous and unlawful lusts of Theevery and spoiling So here I speak it for this purpose because it 's one of the cunning cheats of a deceitful heart he will perform such Duties and forsake such sins not because he either loves the Duty or loaths the sin but because he would land himself at the place where he would be at some other end of his own Nay it 's possible and ordinary for a man to part with his sin for a push when indeed it is only that he may keep his sin As Paul spake of Onesimus he departed from him for a season that he might be received for ever and as the Adultress chides her mate before others that she may enjoy him more freely without fear or suspition so it 's usual for a false heart to chide with his corruptions and to speak great words against them when yet the secret ãâã is but to enjoy them more freely by that means therefore let not the Devil cozen you with colors your confessions and resolutions your prayers and tears against your sins and that in secret and that unto God if your hearts ãâã these but as means for your own ends you never were willing to part with sin The ãâã of a gracious heart is Never to take up his stand till he come to God and the guidance of his Grace and Spirit Hosea 14. 2 3. c. Take away all iniquitie and receive us graciously what have I to do any more with Idols c. and the heart wil never more have to do with these sins but with God he sees these evils sorrows for these ãâã to have these removed that he may be under the power of God and his Grace As Samuel said to Israel 1 Sam. 7. 3 4. If you do return unto the Lord with all your hearts then put away your gods and prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve him only So if you be indeed resolved to forsake your sins and renounce your corruptions then abandon them and al occasions leading to them and al beginnings of them and submit your selves your thoughts and affections to the Lord and to his Word and serve him only Lodg thy soul here and let it never take up its stand until it come hither The last Use is of Exhortation and Direction both together It should guide us and it should perswade us to take the right way of Reformation Never leave thy prayers and tears and sorrows and remorse until thou come to thy very heart thy tongue professeth fair and thy hand forbears the practice of evil but ask thy heart Heart what sayest thou Shame may prevail with thee Authority of men may constrain thee and conscience may force thee to abstain from evil I but what saies thy Heart art thou willing to part with thy sin I do not do it I dare not do it but Will what sayest thou Heart what sayest thou Never cease before you be able to answer I am really willing to part with every sin I am convinced of It was the great complaint of Moses concerning the People of Israel that notwithstanding al that the Lord had done for them yet they had not a heart to fear him and to walk in obedience before him So ãâã may say God hath crowned thee with ãâã honored thee with encouragements thou hast the Esteem of others thou hast all Liberties and opportunities to be as good as thou shouldest be but truly all these will do thee no good unless thou hast a heart for God and against thy sin therefore rest no where until thou hast this The great Fort that must be taken is the Will or else all the rest is as good as nothing he that wil cure a disease must not only skin it over but must take away the core of it if he think to heal it throughly and cure it fully So here it is not enough to wash a mans mouth and to wipe his hands but the core of a mans corruptions must be got away thy soul must be brought off from the Will of sinning as wel as from the Practice of sinning or else thy soul will never be brought home to God stay not therefore till thou comest hither and be sure to make sound work
here Men that cleer ground they content not themselves to lop off the tops of trees but they stub up the roots then they make cleer work So here be sure you stub up the heart and will of sinning that 's the root of all or else al that you do is in vain it was our Saviors expression to the Pharisees Luke 11. 39. Ye fools that make clean the outside of the cup and the platter but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness they began on the wrong side they contented themselves to ãâã the ãâã their outward conversation to manward and left corruption in their hearts unsubdued unremoved and therefore our Savior Christ calls them fools and hypocrites for their labor What can you say to my life what hath any man against me if thou hast no more ãâã say for thy self than that comes to thou hast nothing at al ãâã thy heart be not clensed from those iecret corruptions of thine Let me leave Two or Three Directions here that are just in my way not interfering with any thing to be spoken afterward Know that the greatest work of Reformation Repentance and the comfort of a mans spiritual condition it lies mainly in the Will the greatest work and the greatest difficulty lies here Brethren If you look at it as a matter of ease that thou canst do it with the turning of a hand and make wash-work of it thou never knewest it and thou shalt never attain it It 's one of the Devils greatest delusions whereby he cozens thousands to perswade men it 's an easie matter to be Religious No ãâã know it unless you find it the greatest work in the world you will never find endeavors suitable nor success answerable for the comfort of your own souls Oh therefore that every man would go home convinced and perswaded God hath helped me to temper my tongue and to keep my hands the Lord hath given me an enlightened Judgment a reformed life but Oh the difficult work is behind this wretched heart of mine the hardness of that the impossibility of that conclude it therefore and resolve upon it it wil cost me hard work and unless the Lord enable me and set in mightily and constantly upon my soul the work will never be done The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked Jer. 17. 9. there is no hope of it as it were the hand and eye and tongue may be reformed but the heart is desperate who can know it who can mend it who can overpower it If thou hast found it easie nay if thou didst never stand amazed at the difficulty of the work about thy heart to get that severed from thy sins thou never hadst the right discerning of it to this day Paul cried out of the Body of Death Rom. 7. last who shal deliver me from it not from the eye or the hand but from the heart the will of Pride the wil of Uncleanness the will of ãâã and here he is at a stand at an amaze with himself who shal deliver me Beleaguer thy heart and will with the cleer evidence of the Truth of God that it may not be able to make an escape from under it It is with subduing the Will as it is in winning a strong Hold it 's marvelous hard to ãâã unto it no battery can be made against it those that are do not prevail ãâã ãâã taking of it then they besiege it so that none shall come in to bring any help ãâã none go out to find any relief then in time they will be famished out and so forced to surrender Do so with thy soul thou hast a crooked proud ãâã will that hath outbid al the Ordinances of God no battery could ever prevail against it therefore labor to besiege it with the Evidence and plainness of undeniable Arguments of Truth from the Word that nothing may come in nor out listen not to any carnal Reasons within suffer not either honor or profit or pleasure from without to enfeeble the power of the Truth but so besiege it with the Evidence of the Word that the soul may say this is my sin this is my plague this is my state it will be my ruine unless the Lord shew mercy to me this wil tire the heart of a man and there is no other way in the world and it 's certain that the heart wil either lay down his corruption or his conviction but this is our misery that some go out and some come in and so the heart is relieved and holds the siege long The last Direction which may prepare us for the next Point viz. The hand of the Lord to work this for us When thou art perswaded this stubborn heart will cost me many a prayer and tear and bring me often upon my knees it wil never do else if I think it 's easie I never knew what it was and when thy heart is so besieged that it finds no relief Then Brethren look often up to Heaven He only that made the heart can frame the heart to the blessed obedience of his own wil al that we can do is to use the means and lie under the Ordinances that God may do that for us which he requires of us It 's the Lords own Promise Ezek. 36. 26 27. I will take away the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh therefore go and cry to Heaven and say Lord it is not in our hands to do it but thou hast said thou wilt give unto thy servants a heart to hate sin we come and beseech thee deny it not unto us Look to him we should in whose hand our hearts are that he may do that for us which we cannot do for our selves BOOK VIII JOHN 6. 44. No man can come to Me unless My Father which sent Me Draw him WE have already Debated and Dispatched TWO of those Divine Truths wherein the Dispensation and manner of Gods working upon the Soul in preparation was conceived and described 1 That he finds the sinner settled upon his ãâã and in the security of a sinful Condition 2 That he was wholly unwilling to be severed therefrom That it is a Death to him to be awakened out of this dead sleep when he saw no danger nor feared any but pleased himself in his Dreams and deluded ãâã of his own happy Condition 3 The Third and last Point now comes to skanning and Consideration wherein indeed the Pith and Marrow of this so deep and mysterious a Dispensation of the Lord upon the Soul discovers it self The Two former only made way for the more plain Explication of this last and the more easie Apprehension of it by those who are willing to understand Namely That by a holy kind of violence he is driven out of his sin and Drawn unto Christ by God the Father notwithstanding al the ãâã and utter unwillingness to the contrary And for the foundation of our following Discourse we have chosen these