2. The Manner How It Is Wrought

The principle says thus. It's made theirs] the Doctrine thus. They are put into possession of all saving good by Christ.] Here three things are implied.

- 1 They cannot make it their own [illegible] they cannot put themselves into possession. - 2 The manner and order how this is done. - 3 The cause that does it.

Of these we shall speak in their order.

1. It is not in any man's power to make [illegible] of any spiritual good which Christ [illegible] purchased, to himself; for if he could, he [illegible] do it some of these ways.

Either by force we must take it, rush by [illegible] into the right and possession of the Lord Jesus, [illegible] wrest by strong hand everlasting happiness from [illegible] whether he will or no. But that's impossible, [illegible] what is the clay to the Potter? So the Prophet expresses the difference; the interrogation shows [illegible] impossibility of the opposition: they may [illegible] with his will but they cannot cross it, [illegible] the [illegible] "Who has resisted his will?" (Romans 9:19) and therefore the Lord [illegible] the Vineyard determines it by his absolute good [illegible] sure (Matthew 20:14-15), "I will give to this last [illegible] you, may I not do what I will with my own?" (Isaiah 45:9; Jeremiah 18:6)

As by force we cannot take it, so by justice we [illegible] not challenge it, or claim any interest therein for [illegible] thing we have or do. Nothing we have can [illegible] it, nothing we can do can deserve it at the hands [illegible] Christ. For the conclusion is firm, when we [illegible] done all we can we are [illegible] servants [illegible] have done no more than we should (Luke 17). Indeed we do much that we should not do (Psalms [illegible]).

3. If [illegible] should strictly mark what is done [illegible] miss, Lord, who could abide it.

We of ourselves are not capable of this, [illegible] provided and freely offered to us (John 1:5). [illegible] shined in [illegible] the darkness [illegible] did not receive it (John 14:17). "I will send the Spirit whom the World cannot receive" (1 Corinthians 2:14). The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit, neither can he receive them [illegible] and therefore our Saviour complains that his word found no place in them, all the room was taken up already (John 8:37), as our Saviour when he came into the World, so when [illegible] comes into men's hearts; yes, if a natural man might [illegible] Heaven for the taking, if it were put into his hand [illegible] were not able to hold it. So the young man when he [illegible] as free an offer and as fair terms as ever were [illegible] to any, "Go and sell all that you have, come [illegible] me and you shall have treasure in Heaven," it [illegible] said he went away sorrowful, he would none of the Kingdom of Heaven upon those terms, he neither [illegible] nor could receive it (Matthew 19:21-22).

A man would not be made capable, he would not [illegible] God enable him to receive that grace which being [illegible] would take away those distempers which do [illegible] take place in him. From this comes all those quarrels, [illegible] that contention between the heart and the word, [illegible] men are not able to bear or hear the blessed truth [illegible] God, that it should reveal or remove their [illegible] from them. The soul says to the word as he did: [illegible] "Have you found me, O my enemy?" (1 Kings 21:20) The carnal [illegible] is not subject to the Law of God nor indeed can [illegible] (Romans 8:7). So Augustine confessed, that when [illegible] prayed against his lusts, he secretly wished that [illegible] would not hear his prayer.

It dashes the vain imagination of a company of [illegible] ignorant creatures whom Satan carries [illegible] down to Hell, by a false conceit of their [illegible] to compass and contrive their own spiritual [illegible] according to their own humor; they put [illegible] opportunities, slight all offers of life and means [illegible] grace, proceed fearlessly in the pursuit of any [illegible]; whatever best suits their own carnal [illegible], presuming vainly of their own power to help, as they list and like best, when and [illegible] they will. Tell them of the [illegible] of the work, shortness of their time, uncertainty of their lives; how [illegible] and irrecoverable their hazard and loss will be, and therefore they should [illegible] and take greedily each opportunity that is presented to them. They [illegible] their retreat here, and here they [illegible] themselves, against all fears that might surprise, terrors that might take hold upon them, threatenings of the [illegible] which might shake their hearts in their [illegible]. They have found a nearer way and [illegible] would not put themselves to unnecessary [illegible] though they begin late they can do [illegible] with [illegible] labor, and much [illegible] and yet do it well; what [illegible] wear out his days in melancholy [illegible] sink his heart in sadness and discouragement, [illegible] his [illegible] of her present content and delight, and [illegible] themselves more miserable than they need when [illegible] years grow on, and their eyes grow dim, [illegible] strength [illegible] them, then they will cry [illegible] seek pardon, and repent of their [illegible], [illegible] of Christ, and then [illegible] is [illegible]. Thus they conceive [illegible] is [illegible] either to [illegible] mercy or [illegible], to [illegible] or take eternal [illegible] salvation as they list. True, they cannot [illegible] nor are they able to purchase it, but [illegible] has [illegible] merited eternal life and God so freely [illegible] it to [illegible] man that will, they put it beyond [illegible] peradventures [illegible] make no doubt of it, but to make [illegible] their own as [illegible]. And by this self-deceiving [illegible] men suddenly drop down to destruction, [illegible] they do indeed [illegible] where they are and what [illegible] do.

But, what a desperate folly is this? So to [illegible] man's soul, as to put the weight of eternal life and salvation, and all the hopes you have merely upon [illegible], so that according to the course you have plotted it's utterly impossible you should [illegible] of any good. For;

First, you do not know whether you shall live, it is [illegible] in your hand to maintain your own natural life; for [illegible] what is our life? A bubble, a flower, a shadow — [illegible] the bubble breaks, and the flower fades, and the [illegible] [illegible] away. You are not certain you shall live till [illegible] evening, or if you do, how do you know [illegible] you shall have ability to seek to the Lord for mercy? [illegible] your brain is grown weak, not able to remember or [illegible] the things belonging to your peace, and when [illegible] is grown [illegible] weak it's not able to grapple with [illegible], when the days of sorrow and sickness are [illegible] upon you, and you say "I have no pleasure in [illegible]."

Imagine, God gives you life, and you have ability [illegible] nature about you, yet who knows whether ever God will give you a heart to look for mercy (Luke 23 [illegible]). [illegible] is said one of the thieves reviled Christ; when [illegible] was to die he fell a railing afresh upon our Savior [illegible], saying, if you be the Christ save yourself [illegible] us. One would have thought the place of [illegible], and the ghastly looks of death now presented [illegible] his eyes, might have put other words into his [illegible], other thoughts into his mind, but he could [illegible] leave his life than his blasphemy. So a [illegible] going to die, a minister coming to him stirred [illegible] him up to cry to the Lord and to look to heaven for [illegible]; he professed (though he was then going to [illegible] gallows) that he would not do it — "O," says he, "I [illegible] rejected counsel in my life, and I cannot take [illegible] at my death."

If yet the rack of conscience does constrain you towards your latter end to vent out those hideous apprehensions of God's displeasure, and your own misery, and therefore you are now restless in seeking for mercy, it shall be all in vain and without [illegible] (John 8:21). The rebellious Jews who disdained Christ and all his counsels, and refused his mercy when it was tendered to them at their doors, Christ says to them, "You shall seek me but you shall not find me, but shall die in your sins; you lived in them, and you shall die in them; though you leave your lives your sins will not leave you, they shall rot with you in your graves and rise with you to judgment, and go with you to hell; where I go you cannot come, therefore you cannot come to Christ and grace, for if they might do so, they might come to heaven." It was one part of the folly of the foolish virgins to sleep away their time and never sought to get oil into their lamps until it was too late, and then they cried to their fellows [illegible] us some of your [illegible] for our lamps are gone out — some of that faith and repentance which formerly they conceived they could find at every shop, but they had little enough for themselves, and therefore bid them go into the city and buy. But all was in vain; they missed of their oil and missed of their entrance also into the Bridegroom's chamber. You are one of these deluded creatures; you think either you can make oil or buy oil when you like — you will find too late that you do egregiously befool yourself, when though you knock never so hard, cry never so loud, you shall find no acceptance, nor gain any entertainment from the Lord. Indeed our Savior, that he might crush such [illegible] conceits, he [illegible] down the conclusion peremptory that it might forever silence such imaginations: after the young man had the offer of eternal life and trampled it under feet, and our Savior had told them it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of [illegible] needle than for a rich man to enter in at the kingdom of heaven, they replied, "Who then can be saved?" He answered plainly, and beyond all question (Matthew 19:26), "With men it is impossible" — if all the angels in heaven would come to help, if all the ministers on earth should labor to persuade, it would be impossible that of yourself you should entertain the offers of grace. If you support your heart and your hopes also upon this — what you purpose, what you intend to do — know, it is impossible that ever you should be good, or partake of any spiritual good for your [illegible] welfare. It is not in your power to live, to have [illegible] ability to seek, or a heart, if able, or success in seeking; indeed, it is impossible you should be made partaker of any spiritual good, if you will go no other way to gain interest in it.

Ground of trial and examination, whether ever we had any saving and spiritual good applied to us in a right manner: in our temporal estates in civil proceedings among men, it is not enough to lay claim to lands and inheritances unless by a legal course they be conveyed and settled upon us — otherwise a man may be unsettled and shaken out of all before he is aware. It is so in our spiritual estate: those high and happy privileges which Christ has purchased, [illegible] great salvation he has wrought and tenders also in the gospel — it is not enough to claim it, and catch at the comforts and benefits that come thereby, unless they be conveyed and settled upon us in a gospel way; otherwise the devil may sink our hearts, and shake all our hopes, when we least suspect it. You say, the pardon that Christ has purchased, the holiness that he has promised to bestow upon his own, that grace and life, that rich mercy and plentiful redemption which he has revealed so fully, so freely tendered to his own — you say it is yours. I say, how did you come by it? How did you come to be made possessor of it? You will perhaps answer, "Though long it was before I either knew or considered what sin or [illegible] meant, yet the Lord at last by the ministry of the Word, and the work of the Spirit, made me see the [illegible] of my heart and life; the terrors of my conscience were like a continued rack night and day, and the wound thereof was so dreadful, that I found it beyond the skill [illegible] power of means to do me good until the Lord Christ and his abundant mercy, and rich redemption which he had wrought was proclaimed — and there I heard and found there was no name under heaven whereby I might be saved, but only the name of Jesus (Acts 4:12), and so I took the promises of the gospel, cast myself upon Christ, and hung upon free mercy for the supply of all that good I desired and wanted."

You take Christ? You hang upon free mercy? But how did you come by the power which did enable you so to do? You say you took the promises, but who gave them to you, or gave you a hand to lay hold upon them? True, mercy is free and sufficient, the promises are precious and saving, but if they never come to be yours but as you by your own power did make them your own, certainly you will in the end fall short of them, and of your own comfort and all.

Unless he who provided and gave you promises, does provide and give you a heart [illegible] to take them, you will never take possession of them; unless Christ comprehend you, you will never apprehend him (Philippians 3:11). You are utterly mistaken if you do not find application beyond your strength as well as redemption: this mistake in imagining that we can make the application arises especially upon a double ground, which is most dangerous and least discerned.

First, when from the general offer of the freeness and fullness of that superabundant mercy that is in Christ, and invitation to it from the Lord with [illegible] instant and overbearing importunity and [illegible] of compassion — "Oh that there [illegible] such hearts in [illegible]; turn you, why will you die?" — "As I live," says the Lord, "I desire not the death of a sinner" (Deuteronomy 5:21; Ezekiel 33:11): the heart [illegible] to be tickled and affected at the goodness of the [illegible], as being beyond its expectation, that there is [illegible] a possibility of relief and succor, and therefore [illegible] at it, out of a misguided apprehension, that it lies [illegible] common for all comers, not looking for any special [illegible] the soul must have before it comes to share [illegible].

This was the wound of the stony-ground hearers, [illegible] received the word with joy, and yet had no root (Matthew 13:20-21). Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners — oh that's a word forever to be received; scarlet sinners may be pardoned — the heart is tickled with it, and so catches at it, merely out of their own [illegible]. This [illegible] false application, and this I take to be the cause of the blind presumption of the unwelcome guest (Matthew 22:12): "Friend, how did you come in here, not [illegible] your wedding garment?" He heard of the [illegible] provided, and that the Lord kept open doors, and therefore he ventured to crowd in among the company; therefore our Savior challenges him, "How did you come in?" If coming here was [illegible], why should he be blamed? Was not the fault therefore in a disorderly manner of believing and coming? He came in his own strength, and did not look to Christ to give him a heart to believe; it answers not the manner and custom 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 [illegible] us to.

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 [illegible], together with notice and conviction that it is only in Christ that must and can do us good. Out of these common enlightenings and legal terrors, the soul is stirred — out of a natural [illegible] to procure its own safety — to catch at that comfort and supply, whereby it may succor and relieve itself out of these pressures which are too heavy for it.

Now as long as those fears and the noise of those dreadful threatenings of the Lord continue in the view of the soul, and as long as it does not discern its own falseness 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 ceases so that he feels not a need of the balm, or that he fails of his end, and this groundless application — which is nothing else but a presumption — fails, then all this work falls to the ground, and his hopes and heart fail him and all. He will then say, "I applied mercy to my [illegible], but God never did; I caught at a promise and Christ, but God never gave him to me." And this is the cause why thousands [reconstructed: fall] 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 applied 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 God's operation (Genesis 27:34; [reconstructed: Hebrews 12:16-17]).

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 ourselves, yet he keeps us by the power of God through faith to salvation; he keeps us, and keeps our faith. "I have prayed," said Christ to Peter, "that your 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 [illegible] hearts of men, which transports them beyond all the bounds of reason, carries them against the principles of nature and common sense, and 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 poison, delights in its bolts and prison, destitute of all spiritual good, has neither hope nor help in itself to get or receive any, can do no good for itself, and yet is unwilling that God should do any good for it, or make it capable of receiving any. Famish they do, and would not have meat provided that might sustain 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 is not a sickness only, but a spiritual madness. If men carry themselves so when they are sick, we say it is a frenzy. Thus (Isaiah 30:10-11): they say to the seers, "See not"; to the prophets, "Prophesy not, [illegible] 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 justify the equal and righteous proceedings of the Lord in the utter [illegible] and destruction of the ungodly, and the enemies of his Grace; at the great day of Judgment when they shall be full of their [illegible], and full of their plagues, cast out of the presence of the Lord, or the least expression of any gracious [illegible] 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, [illegible], 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 voice of a minister to reprove you, never have the Word to work upon you; you have said to the Almighty, [illegible] away from us, we desire not the knowledge of your [illegible]; now you have your desires. They that [illegible] me, love death (Proverbs 8, last verse): you have what you loved, you could not help yourselves (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.