Chapter 4

CHAP. IV.

Now the third particular we proposed to speak to, was the connexion between the habits of grace, and actual breathings; and how we may by using habits fetch home the breathings of the Spirit. The habit of grace is to be considered two ways. 1. In order to God. 2. In its own nature. In order to God 1. The Father. 2. The Son. 3. The Spirit.

1. In order to God and his holy decree, if the Lord ordain a certain number to glory, and upon that account bestow the habit of grace upon these so chosen; then God, who does nothing in vain, when he creates powers and habits, must intend to send influences to act upon these powers and habits; as when God creates the Sun, a heavenly body, which is apt to move, to send forth heat and light, he must intend by constant law and decree to join his influences to the moving and shining of the Sun; otherwise, if he had created these heavenly bodies never to be acted upon for the sending forth of their virtues of light, heat, motion, he had created Sun and Stars in vain. So if the husbandman make a plough, and never make use of it for tilling the ground; and make a sickle, and never put it in act for reaping, he must have made the plough and the sickle in vain. If the Lord pour the habit of grace and supplication upon the house of David, then have the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who have received that grace, ground of faith and hope, that the Lord shall suitably to his intended end, and begun work, bestow saving influences on them, to believe and repent, to look on him by faith whom they have pierced, and mourn over Christ whom they have slain by their sins, as a man mourns and is in bitterness for his first-born (Zechariah 12:10). Otherwise the Lord bestows that habit of grace in vain, which we are not to imagine of the only wise Lord (Psalms 89:47). If the Lord pour water upon the thirsty ground, and his Spirit upon the seed of Jacob, the nature of husbandry, which joins end and means, requires that he join to the new heart, and new spirit, influences for the growing of the seed of Jacob, as the willows by the water courses; and that he lead the trembling hand at the pen, and give influences of grace to swear and subscribe that they shall be the Lord's married land, joined to him in a perpetual covenant (Isaiah 44:3, 4, 5).

2. The graciousness of the Lord's holy nature revealed (Exodus 34:6): The Lord God merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth to fallen man (for he has revealed no pardoning grace and mercy to fallen Angels; nor is that the scope of Moses, Exodus 34, or of the Scripture any where). Now if so, he as the Lord is under some necessity (upon supposal that he created men and Angels) to declare his pure unmixed justice in the fallen Angels; so by some necessity of decency suitable to his goodness and holy nature he must choose some to glory, and give them inherent habits of grace, that he may carry them to heaven in a way of voluntary obedience: so that upon supposal he has so declared himself to Angels and men, there must be glorious emanations and out-goings of free grace, both to ordain some to glory, and beautify them with the habit of faith to believe in him that justifies the sinner, and habits of sanctification. I say, upon supposal he so reveal himself in his word; otherwise, absolutely and simply the contrary order, that he had placed fallen Angels in man's room, and men in the place of fallen Angels, had been as just and good as that which now is.

3. The holy Lord gives some to Christ: and his enduing them with grace to come, and giving to them of his free grace the habit of faith, it's an engaging of the holy Lord to give influences suitable to the habit: upon the very account that the Lord make over a man to Christ, and create his own image in him, he intends to make him an honourable vessel in his house, and to adorn the man so gifted to Christ; as when the Lord builds a house, he minds that some shall dwell in it.

And 2. the great design of free grace in Christ must in these two bring him under a holy necessity to bring his many children to glory; for the decree of election is an act of the three persons (John 10:16): Other sheep I have, and they are not yet in his actual possession, but he has an actual right to them, I have paid a ransom for them, them also I must bring in. Christ is under a necessity of driving them in, then is Christ under a necessity of a decree common to him with the Father and the Spirit, to breathe upon and cherish the habit of grace, that his great design of free grace in the work of redemption may stand sure, and attain its graciously designed end; as also he is

2. Under an official and mediatory necessity to the chosen, to bestow on them the freely given habit of grace; and so I judge, with reverence of the judgment of others, that Christ has an advocation and office of intercession for the elect, even such as are not yet actually converted: not that he extends the same acts of advocation to the chosen converted, and to the chosen not yet converted.

1. Because Christ as Mediator and high Priest prays for them, and so that habits of grace and influences may be bestowed on them (John 17:20): Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. Nor can it be said that Christ intends not they should reap any mediatory fruit of his prayer, till they be born and actually believe; for he prays and intercedes for their conversion and faith, they yet being in nature and unrenewed; for that is true in some sense, Christ prays for their faith actual, when it is in being, and shall actually be assaulted, that it may not fail them under temptation; and so that prayer of Christ for the disciples and Peter, stands good for all believers, when they shall actually believe and be winnowed, as Peter was: the millions of them neither did believe nor were born, when Christ as an high Priest offered to the Father both the one and the other prayer; but that Christ in no sense intercedes for the chosen till they be converted and actually believe, cannot be defended. For

Whatever Christ has purchased by the merit of his death, as our high Priest, offering himself on the cross for the elect, that same Christ as our high Priest in heaven applies them as Intercessor. This proposition must be sure; for what Christ purchases and buys by the merit of his death on the cross, that he actually makes good as Intercessor in heaven. It's true he is said to buy and redeem persons, not things, or graces, as faith and the habit of grace, he purchases an inheritance and a redemption to us, and we have repentance and remission of sins in and through his blood; for, in his blood, by a Hebraism, is, for his blood; and yet remission of sins is not properly redeemed or ransomed, never being captivated; but in justice that remission could not be ours but by satisfaction. But so it is, that Christ purchased by the merit of his death, as our high Priest, offering himself for the elect on the cross, that we should be freed from all iniquity (Titus 2:14), from our vain conversation of unbelief (1 Peter 1:18), that we should have repentance, remission of our sins in his blood, and faith, the free gift of God in Christ even when we were not yet born. And he died for us while we were yet sinners, weak and ungodly (Romans 5:6). And God commends his love to us that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners; for if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. If Christ as high Priest offer himself a sacrifice for us, to obtain reconciliation to us, when we were not born, and when we were ungodly and enemies, he must intercede, that such a purchased reconciliation and merited grace, the grace of faith, and the habit of faith, be in his due time bestowed on us.

If Christ as our high Priest have received the elect from the Father, "Yours they were, and you gave them to me"; and as Redeemer entrusted to bring them in, he must send the Gospel to them as Mediator, and intercede, that Apostles, Evangelists, Pastors, Teachers may be gifted with the Spirit, and sent to preach; for the giving of the Spirit that way is a fruit of Christ's ascension and kingly triumphing, while as he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men, as Intercessor, for perfecting of the saints, and the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:11, 12, 13), that the Gentiles who believe not, and the blind, may see and be converted (Acts 26:17, 18; Acts 13:46, 47, 48; 1 Corinthians 3:5; Matthew 4:15, 16; John 10:16).

Christ, who had reared up a new form of providence, having chosen his own to life, must, as Mediator, take care of the coming of the elect into the world, and have a special eye over the ways of his own chosen, that Saul and others fall not into that unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost, and that Saul before his conversion go not farther on than making havoc of the Church, yet ignorantly through unbelief; and this is the more to be laid hold on, that the man Christ's coming into the world is, and goes along with, his own decree of electing some to glory, and to the great work of saving lost sinners (Luke 19:10; Matthew 20:28; 1 Timothy 1:15), of bearing a rare and singular testimony to the Gospel beyond all Martyrs that ever lived (John 18:37), as is clear in the birth and deliverance of Moses (Exodus 2; Exodus 3). And also Christ in his providence of predestination to life, as Lord Mediator, causes the chosen to be born and live, when the Gospel is preached, and comes to their ears, and works powerfully on their hearts (Acts 16:9, 10; Acts 8:7, 8; Acts 19; Acts 9:11, 12, 13, &c.).

In another consideration there is an official love of Christ, founded upon the identity of nature which is between Christ and chosen ones, and the man Christ loving his neighbor as himself; and the humanity and natural compassion in Christ is not destroyed, but perfected by his state of glory; he remains a feeling, compassionate high Priest (Hebrews 4:14, 15; Luke 5:1, 2, 3). And also this puts Christ to stretch his love to the unconverted that are his flesh, and given to him, that he must bestow habits of grace on them, and gather the sheep with his arm, and drive gently those that are with young, and give new influences to fainting ones, and refreshing warmness in his bosom to the cold and weak young ones in the flock (Isaiah 40:11; Isaiah 42:1, 2, 3).

If the Spirit be a sanctifier, and a leader, he must be no less constant to his holy end, and gracious design, to give what fits the chosen for their journey; and so must both give the first anointing (the dewing and first rain of spirit poured on the wilderness) and also add new oil to prevent withering and drying up, and add the royal and kingly seal to confirm and make out his work to the day of redemption. Ah, am I master of the fountain? (says the withered dry tree) Yes, the three Agents in heaven bring themselves (to speak so) under this holy necessity to bring down influences to the souls of all his chosen.

If any saving work be in you, it speaks a design of grace in the Father and the Son, which they shall ripen and carry on to perfection.

Fret not at such as are without. God minds love to the chosen ones of them, and to reach them with his love in time.

Get the Spirit, he shall not be idle, but daily act, and Christ in him shall set up a new fabric of providence, and a new reign in the soul.

In the looking on the frame of providence in them, that they are not born in China, not in Turkey, not in America; but in a land of life, in the kingdom of heaven, where the Gospel is preached: look spiritually, not naturally upon the time and place of your birth; it is either the greatest good, or the greatest ill and misery that you can meet with.

Consider what is the weight of the guiltiness of [illegible] despised Gospel, that you go to hell through Christ's bounds, Emmanuel's land, where the word of the kingdom is preached in the very eye of the Redeemer; whereas Heathens are in a manner behind the Redeemer's back.

The husbandman's plowing preaches bread and corn in the land; the setting up of the shepherd-tents before your door proclaims Christ's shepherd-care to feed you; love Christ, and follow the shepherd.

Collect rather the affirmative the negative conclusion. When Christ sets up a husbandry in the Vineyard, can you tell who are interdicted heirs, and say, I am a bramble, and a cursed briar, and no plant of righteousness, no vine-tree, therefore he has no thoughts to make me a part of the soil that the Father of Christ shall labor and purge? Who told you news of Christ's thoughts to interdict you from getting good of the Gospel? Rather collect the contrary. I found a candle lighted in the land of my nativity, though my father be an Amorite, and my mother a Hittite. Why, but I may be a piece of lost money whom he seeks; if yes, love Christ. Love's logic is, I love Christ, or I desire to love Christ, therefore Christ loves me; and I desire to use the means of salvation, and to go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, and keep the Feast of Tabernacles; therefore I shall be no family or part of the land of Egypt, on which there comes no rain (Zechariah 14:17, 18, 19). Seldom does the use of means want influences; where the Lord gives any tolerable conscience of plowing and planting, there he sends down watering and refreshing showers from heaven.

There's an instinct of nature's logic, framing hellish consequences; Christ loves not me, therefore I will not treat with Christ, nor come in terms of communing with him; and withal there is no anxious missing of inherent habits; it's not from the Spirit of God ever to be missing objective grace, which is eternally in God, and never in a paining way to miss subjective grace inherent: who is angry? Who has resisted his will (Romans 9)? And it's Satan's method first to miss God's love to you, and make a quarrel with God for that, before you miss your love to God, and to the Redeemer Christ, and make a plea with yourself for not loving of lovely Jesus Christ. The servant's word is (Matthew 25) I knew you were a hard man. Do you know not yourself to be a servant graceless and malignant?

The habit of grace in its own nature is of a middle nature, between a power and an act: (and to come now to the third particular) there is for the further clearing of the connection between the habit of grace and the acts of grace a question to be cleared, whether or not the habit of grace may be by and utterly cease from acting? To which the answer is in these assertions.

Assert. 1. No habit of grace, or any habit as such, can reduce itself to acting, for it is well near to the nature of a power; the Sun, Moon, and Stars move not themselves, but are moved by some other powers whatever they be. We are commanded to stir up the grace that is in us (2 Timothy 1:6), then must the habit lie dead as it were, except we improve it: the two talents do not make themselves four; the man to whom the talents were given must do that (Matthew 25).

Assert. 2. It's not improbable that saving grace of itself, being not God, nor the holy Ghost himself, but a created thing, may, as to its own nature, perish and dry up. For it is not to be trusted in; nor does the weight of our standing against temptations consist in our stock, but in the Lord's conserving power. Peter had saving faith, but that faith could neither keep Peter from falling, nor keep the faith from failing; but the standing of Peter's faith (Luke 22:32) is in Christ's intercession; I have prayed for you, lest your faith be sunken down: that which needs a keeper without itself, cannot keep itself; for faith is but an instrumental keeper. But (1 Peter 1:5) we are kept, and our faith by the power of God. As also (Jeremiah 1:9) the weight of Jeremiah's standing courageously in his ministry is not on Jeremiah, his stock and habit of grace, though the Lord had put much precious metal in him, and made him a brazen wall (as Prophets are of themselves but clay bottles that are soon broken) but in the Lord's actual supporting of him by influences from God, 19. I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you; and therefore the strength, immortality, and stability of the habit of grace is in his power who furnishes actual influences. In the decree of God. In his covenant and promise. In the intercession of Christ; no man then can commit idolatry with saving inherent grace to put it in the room of God, and to trust in it. Be not secure, but be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might (Ephesians 6:10), who must furnish new influences of grace.

Assert. 3. The habit of grace so far may cease to act and lie dead, as notwithstanding that the beloved Christ knocks and speaks heaven into the Church, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, &c. (Canticles 5:2), yet she opens not; the habit being under the ashes, yea, being a little frozen and blunted, the spouse shifts his presence; I have put off my coat, how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them? And the habit of grace does not hinder David, and Peter, and Lot, but upon the Lord's withdrawing of actual influences they may fall into atrocious and heinous sins.

Assert. 4. Yet in some sense the habit of grace rests not. For the habit of grace according to the degrees makes the man stronger: as John Baptist by the indwelling of the holy Ghost in some fullness is stronger against temptations of persecutors; and so is Steven fuller of the holy Ghost, than men not converted. The habit of grace debilitates, weakens the acts of sin in the regenerate, that they sin not with full bensil of will; as the indwelling body of sin again weakens the acts of faith, and others the like flowing from the habit of grace; the combat between the flesh and the spirit proves both the one and the other (Romans 7:14, 15, 16, &c.), for this combat is ever in the regenerate. The habit of grace of itself as a weight disposes the renewed man to resist sin; as a stone though violently detained in the air, actu primo, habitually of itself, inclines the stone to move downward to its natural place; from where come some far-off tendency and habitual bowings of the heart to the love of Christ, as warmness of heart (Luke 24:32), stirring of bowels at the inward motions of Christ on the soul, even when he is kept out (Canticles 5).

The covered and borne down habit of grace may and does break out into praying after him when he is away, and most anxiously and carefully seeks him (Cantilces 3:1, 2, 3, 4; John 20:13).

There is no such sleeping but the heart is waking, and breaks out in these acts first, and misses him; he knocks, and says, Open; then she knew he was without. They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him (John 20). I sought him, but I found him not (Cantilces 3:2); there is a discerning that it was his knock and breathing. And 2. his voice, My heart waked at the voice of my Beloved. 3. She knew his very words, and repeats them, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, &c. though then sleeping. 4. There is a spiritual wishing; O! if I could open and overcome the temptation of carnal drowsiness; this appears in the Spouse's confession of the excuse, he knocked and spake lovely, and I refused rudely to open; I have cast off my coat, this is told by her by way of confession of sin; I have put off my coat, how shall I put it on; for there may from the habit of grace arise an habitual and a conditional desire that the temptation had never assaulted, and yet there is an absolute consent to the temptation, and a wish that this sinful pleasure were not astray to the Law; which is in effect a labouring to reconcile my carnal lust and the Lord's holy Law, and it is as if I should say, Ah, if I might enjoy my lawless pleasure, and yet the Lord not be displeased: some sick man's lusts after contradictions that in his fever he might drink wine, and yet be free of a further pain of fever; but all this is but a virtual fretting against God that ever he made such a Law. Evah desired that the falsely supposed Godhead which Satan said should be the reward of eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge, should have been really and truly in eating that fruit, and that was a clear fretting against the wisdom of God, who made such a law as lays bands upon men, and forbids them to eat of all fruit (Genesis 3:2, 3). Yet would difference be made between the carnal man's wish, that he might enjoy his sweet lusts, and not feel the smart of the evil of punishment; and the spiritual man's would-not to do the evil that he hates (Romans 7:15, 16), and yet he does it, and so virtually desires there were nothing offensive and displeasing to God in it. 4. From this habit it is that the Spouse sends commendation to absent Christ (to speak so) and desires the daughters of Jerusalem to tell him that she is sick of love for him (Cantilces 5:8). 5. There are checks and soul-sorrow at the thoughts of the words he once spake (Cantilces 5:6); my soul failed when he spake; hence there are godly reluctancies and spiritual propensions of the spirit and renewed man entering dissent and protestations on the contrary (Romans 7:15): For that which I do I allow not; for what I would, that I do not; but what I hate, that I do. Hence the spirit's spiritual counter-workings contrary to the flesh, and the gracious pleadings in favors of Christ, What do you? is not this against free love? Ah, will you grieve such a beloved? Hence the inward prickings and cuttings of the heart, like the wane-rest of the Horologue, ever stirring and checking the conscience; if experience say nothing of this thorn in the soul, and of the weakness of the bones, little is known of the work of the spirit. 6. There is ever an holy apology and clearing of the renewed part, that the spirit does his part (Romans 7:22): I delight in the Law of God after the inward man. v. 9. The renewed man would do good; v. 16. consents to the Law, that it is good, and lays the blame upon the fleshly will and sin dwelling in the man; v. 17. now it's no more I that do it, but sin dwelling in me. 7. From this habit it is that the renewed man is a captive, a sufferer, a complainer (Romans 7:23, 24): O wretched man that I am, &c. 8. The spirit is contrary to the flesh (Galatians 5:17), and when fire and water yoke in the cloud there is thunder, and nature suffers pain; and there are actions and passions, and reactions on both sides, and finally the habit of grace so far never rests, as the flesh cannot get sin perfected without a battle, and some thunder in the soul. Hence we see, did we improve the habit of grace, how many spiritual actions we may set about, and what wind and breathings we might fetch if we should hoise up all the sails; the very setting out to sea, and laying all the sails open in their breadth and length to the heaven should create some wind; we lay not open our affections in their length and breadth, in the use of all the ordinances before the Lord; Open your mouth wide and I will fill it (Psalms 81); nor do we improve the stock of habitual grace; the not improving of the stock in trading brings on poverty.