Book 8

_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 God's working upon the soul in preparation was conceived and described.

- 1 That he finds the sinner settled upon his [illegible], 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 [illegible] of his own happy condition. - 3 The third and last point now comes to scanning and consideration, wherein indeed the pith and marrow of this so deep and mysterious a dispensation of the Lord upon the soul discovers itself; the two former only made way for the more plain explication of this last, and the more easy 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 to Christ by God the Father, notwithstanding all the [illegible] and utter unwillingness to the contrary.

And for the foundation of our following discourse we have chosen these words, which out of the very scope of the place and intention of our Savior, present to our view the former point, and [illegible] in full sense thereof from the very letter of the word: I shall omit all other particulars in the verse, [illegible] only single out that which directly concerns my purpose in hand. And that's this.

God the Father by a holy kind of violence as it were, plucks his own out of their corruptions, and draws them to believe in Christ.

Before I come to handle this point, this I would premise by way of preface, that I purpose to handle both these together; both, plucking from corruption and drawing to believe, for they are both performed by the same action, or motion; and therefore it is most fit as they be in nature together, so we should discover them together. For as it is in bodily things that are obvious to our eye and [illegible], he that plucks two things asunder which were glued, by the same motion at the same instant [illegible] he plucks the one from the other, he plucks [illegible] brings the one nearer to himself. So here, by [illegible] same stroke, and at the same time the Lord is [illegible] to pluck the soul from sin to which it was [illegible], he brings it nearer to himself, and it is made [illegible] for himself, that so it may be united to his [illegible]. And these two are required before a man can receive that grace that he stands in need of. As in a part out of joint that is possessed of many [illegible] humors, or broken splinters of bones, which [illegible] the temper, and hinder the joint from his right work and returning to his right place — for a thorough cure the noisomeness of the former is to be removed [illegible] would hinder the part from jointing and [illegible] to its right place, and this cannot be done but with [illegible] kind of violence, which is now our point to be opened and confirmed. For our more orderly proceeding, because the path is not beaten by any pregnant and plain [illegible], we shall desire to [illegible] things with as much evidence as we can, and therefore we shall inquire,

- 1 How many sorts of drawings there are, and so which [illegible] meant in this place. - 2 What is the proper nature of that which [illegible] here understood in the kind of it. - 3 How God does put forth this, and by [illegible] means? - 4 Wherein this holy violence is best [illegible] and rightly apprehended in this work. - 5 How this pulling of the soul from sin, and drawing of it to believe, is accomplished, by this violence. - 6 Why this work of attraction is given to the Father.

These things being considered and cleared, the frame in so mysterious a dispensation will be discerned in some measure, as may satisfy a judicious hearer.

To the first. There is a double drawing, or constraint.

Improperly so [illegible]; and it is called a moral suasion, to wit, when by outward presenting and offering, or by some vehement pressing and applying an object to the mind, or heart, the affections come to be [illegible], and the will comes to be prevailingly moved, and strongly persuaded to the work. The properties of this kind of constraint are two,

- 1 The objects or arguments offered and propounded, infuse no power into the will which it had not, but only stirs up, and calls out that which was there before implanted, to put forth itself into action. - 2 When these persuasions are offered, there is still left an indifference; there remains a freedom in the will, to refuse or receive as she sees [illegible].

Thus the wedge of gold and the Babylonian garment, it persuaded and prevailed with Achan's heart, to covet, and to hide, and then by falsehood to defend it (Joshua 7:21). This occasion, or beautiful bait, drew out that wretched covetousness that [illegible] there before. Thus Lydia (Acts 16:15), by her importunity she is said to constrain Paul, who perhaps otherwise intended it not: maybe, he had weighty occasions which would have carried him another way. Thus in (Luke 24:29), it is said by pressing importunity they compelled our Savior to stay with them, who otherwise would have gone further. (Luke 14:23) Compel them to come in.

This the Jesuits, and Papists, and many of the School, conceive and conclude marvelously, peremptorily, and stiffly maintain it even to the death, That this is the only way of God's drawing. Namely, God opens the eye, and stirs up the will, by propounding objects of worth and greatest excellency; and this is all they would have [illegible] words require. But this gloss [illegible] the text, nor can it stand with the scope of the context or intent of our Savior; for [illegible] words are added by way of correction, when the Pharisees in the foregoing verses murmured at the doctrine of our Savior, with which they were willing to quarrel, because they could not understand; and at his means, which they were willing to despise. Our Savior to prevent the scandal which weak ones might happily take, because people of such place and quality rejected his person and doctrine; he adds these words, None can come to Me, except My Father draw him. Which is, Murmur not, be not offended that the [illegible] do not entertain me, nor the Gospel, it is a greater work to believe, than either the power or skill of the [illegible], let them admire at their excellency as they please. But it issues out of the purpose and good pleasure of my Father, none have power to come, unless he be pleased to draw [illegible] that they may come; where two things are [illegible].

- 1 There must be drawing, before coming. - 2 They who are drawn, will certainly come.

As the force of the argument proves; otherwise [illegible] reason of our Savior was of no force: for it had [illegible] easy to reply; The Father may draw many [illegible] yet those never come; therefore that is not a [illegible] reason why they did not come; from where it is [illegible] the aim of the text disannuls and [illegible] that [illegible].

They who are drawn will come and fail not: but many have these outward suasions; the Scribes and Pharisees, who blasphemed the Lord Jesus, had [illegible]; and therefore these suasions and [illegible] offers are not the drawing here meant.

There is, as divines call it, a physical, or natural drawing, and constraint; (I would rather call it, a drawing of internal operation) whereby not only the eye is opened, and objects propounded, but there is a power and prevailing impression put upon the will, which gives ability, whereby it may be carried and determined upon its object. So that two things are here,

- 1 There is a spiritual and divine power, a divine inspiration falls powerfully upon the will. - 2 By this the will is determined, and undoubtedly carried to its object.

To speak familiarly, plucking implies a breach of the union between sin and the soul, and [illegible] from yielding subjection [illegible]. 2 There is the turning of the heart the right way, or a right set of soul (being formerly perverted) put upon it. In which, to speak properly, the [illegible] puts not forth a deliberate act, but is acted by another; as it was in the raising of Lazarus when he stank in the grave, not only those noisome distempers were removed, and the unnatural [illegible] which attended his body chased away, but the [illegible] also was returned and brought again to union [illegible] his body. So here,

The nature of this drawing, and special [illegible] of it.

It is the motion and powerful impression of the Spirit of God upon the soul, not any habit of grace in it, nor any act of the soul which concurs with the work of God in this first stroke of preparation.

For,

The soul that is wholly possessed by the habits of sin, is not yet capable of the habit of grace; [illegible] my flesh dwells no good thing (Romans 7:18). The vessel cannot be full of filthy and puddle water, and at the same time receive that which is pure.

It is the aim of this work to make way and room for the habit of grace, to be received; and therefore it is not a habit, nor any act of a habit in the soul as yet. Therefore it is said, God first turns from darkness, and then to light (Acts 26:18). He takes away the heart of stone before he gives a new heart (Ezekiel 11:19).

This is the influence of light and virtue into the mind and will, by the receiving of which they may be elevated and lifted up above their own ability to supernatural works in future times: and therefore this cannot be the act of the will and [illegible], since they cannot of themselves let in any [illegible] into themselves. Therefore the Lord takes [illegible] to himself as his own work. Here belongs [illegible] question,

Whether nature or grace be the first subject of [illegible]? Nature cannot, for (1 Corinthians 2:14) the [illegible] man receives not the things of God, nor can [illegible]: yet grace cannot do it; for [illegible] there should be grace, before the first [illegible].

Grace is attended in a double respect: 1 As it [illegible] a habit or gracious quality received into the soul.

As it is a gracious impression upon the soul, the [illegible] must be prepared before any habit of grace [illegible] be received: but there needs no disposition in [illegible] soul to receive the work of the Spirit that must [illegible]. There needs no preparation to make way [illegible] the work of preparation, but there needs [illegible] to make way for the habit. That which [illegible] the first disposition, needs no former, nor yet [illegible] any former.

It is not nature, but the soul prepared that is the [illegible] of the first habit. The soul unprepared [illegible] the subject of the Spirit that prepares it.

The means how God works the cords, by which [illegible] draws.

The Spirit of the Lord lets in some powerful light [reconstructed: of] the Truth into the soul when he is passing on in [reconstructed: the] ways of destruction, and tells him, This is not [reconstructed: the] right way to life and salvation; you must go [reconstructed: another] way if ever you go to heaven: The poor deluded, blinded creature never dreaming of [reconstructed: any] such matter, so that he drives the soul to [reconstructed: these] thoughts: If this be the straight way to happiness, [reconstructed: I] have been out of the way all my lifetime; If this [reconstructed: be] true, my condition is miserable. (Isaiah 65:1) I [reconstructed: am] sought of them that asked not for me, I am found [reconstructed: of] those that sought me not: Thus the shepherd pursues the wandering sheep, If he had not found it, it [reconstructed: had] never found home: How many give in evidence [reconstructed: out] of their own experience in this kind: I never doubted of my estate, nor ever [reconstructed: felt] any necessity to be other, or do other; I went as others did, it may be for fashion sake, either company carried me, or custom prevailed with me; or may be the novelty of the thing enticed me to go, I as little thought of my death, as ever to have my sin and shame discovered: (Job 36:9) When the Lord gets man into fetters, then he shows them their transgressions, and how they have exceeded.

Thus the Lord is said to stand and knock at the door of the soul when the sinner is fast asleep (Revelation 3:20). He dazzles the apprehension by some mighty flash of truth, like lightning darted in, which makes the soul at a maze by reason of the suddenness, and unexpectedness, and strangeness of it. This knock makes the sinner so far to hear, and to take notice of it that some body is at the door, and causes him happily to make inquiry, Who is there? So (Acts 9:4-6). There shines a sudden light about Paul, and a voice heard from heaven, Saul, Saul, Why do you persecute me? As who should say, You are utterly mistaken, you do not know where you are, what you do, you mistake a Friend instead of an Enemy. And therefore he amazed and astonished, answers, and [reconstructed: says], Who are you Lord? Thus the sinner is made to look about him, where am I? this is not the way to heaven. And though the soul would shut its eyes against the evidence and power of the truth, which carries a kind of amazing virtue with it, and therefore invents shifts to defeat the work of it, yet the Lord will follow it, and fasten it upon the soul so as that it shall not avoid it: he that stands knocking at the door will lift up the latch, and make the truth break in; as the sun rising will break through the least crevice. This is the first means whereby the Lord comes to lay hold upon the mind and soul of a sinner, he has the sinner in chase as it were, that he cannot get out of his sight, or make an escape; Thus by the hook of instruction he lays hold upon him.

He encloses him with the cords of mercy, whereby he [reconstructed: draws] the soul, and compasses the heart on every side, with the tender of his compassions (Hosea 11:4). I drew them with the cords of a man, the bonds of love; and this the Lord does to take off those desperate discouragements which otherwise would deaden the heart, and split the hopes of a forlorn sinner, and so pluck up his endeavors by the roots, under the appearance of impossibilities: It can never be attained, why therefore should it be expected, or endeavored after? To abate therefore of these overbearing [reconstructed: fears], which otherwise would sink the heart, and swallow it up; the Lord casts in some discovery of the largeness of his compassions, and intimates there is no danger to be feared in coming to the Lord, because there is none intended. When Christ stands at the door and knocks, men are afraid to let in enemies that intended our ruin; so it is [reconstructed: with] the sinner, he is afraid of God's justice because of his [reconstructed: evil] deservings. What? is Christ at the door? Is it not that Christ, whose grace I have refused, whose Spirit I have grieved, whose words I have cast [reconstructed: behind] my back? he certainly comes to destroy me who have destroyed his truth, and trampled his honor [reconstructed: under] my feet: And therefore the Lord lets in that evidence to the soul as sometimes to his disciples, Be not afraid, it is I; I come not as a judge to condemn you, but as a Savior to save you; I desire your conversion, not your confusion. So our Savior expressed himself to [reconstructed: Paul] (Acts 9), Who are you Lord? (says he) I am Jesus, that is, I am a Savior to save my people from their sins; and so of you, to save you from your sins: Why will you oppose your own mercy, and so your own safety? Why will you persecute him that comes to preserve you? This cable of mercy is made up of four cords, which cannot easily be broken.

The infinite sufficiency of that saving health that is in the Lord Jesus, the boundless and bottomless depths of mercy, and that plentiful redemption that is provided and laid up in Christ. That sea of mercy and grace that is able to drown all our sins and guilt, and remove all our [reconstructed: obstacles], a treasure that cannot be spent, a fountain that cannot be drawn dry. (Isaiah 55:7) Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy, and to our God, and he will abundantly pardon: He has pardons in store, such as lie by him, they are not to seek, he has bowels of mercy yet opened, arms of pity and compassion yet stretched out to [reconstructed: receive] you. Nay, though you could not imagine it, or conceive it, yet he can do it (Psalm 103:10-11). He deals not with us after our iniquities, but as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy to them that fear him. (Psalm 130:7-8) Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with him there is multiplied [reconstructed: mercy], and he shall deliver him from all his iniquities. You have multiplied your sins and provocations, he has multiplied compassions: Lo, there you shall see a Manasseh pardoned, a Paul [reconstructed: converted], and yet there is room for you also. He never casts off any that come to him, therefore it is your fault only which casts off mercy.

If yet the sinner stand murmuring; behold yet further: He has not only sufficiency and enough to do you good, but freely and frankly offers [reconstructed: it] to all that will have it: He is not only content and ready that you should come, but invites, and persuades you to come, that you may be partakers of it (Jeremiah 3:22): Come to me you rebellious children, and I will heal your backslidings. With that, the sinner is at a wonderment with himself; did he not say rebellious sinners? Did he not invite such? Why may not I therefore be entertained?

Yes, the words are express, Come you backsliding children. If then there be any doubt arising, God clears it; any question, the Lord answers it; any hindrance, he removes it. They say, if a man put away his wife, shall she return again (Jeremiah 3:1, 2, 7)? Among men it is usual and ordinary, if an adulterous wife depart away, her husband receives her not again; yet return to me, says the Lord, though you have played the harlot with many lovers. And (verse 7), After you have done all these things, yet return to me. Then the soul bethinks itself, shall all these abominations be cleansed? All these rebellions remitted? What after all this pride, and uncleanness, and covetousness; in fact, after all the abuse of God's grace and mercy, yet accepted, yet received, yet [reconstructed: forgiven]. Either then now or never. He that [reconstructed: rejects] so gracious a command, so kind an offer, it is a wonder if the Lord do not cast him off, and curse him forever; in fact, is he not worthy he should be so?

The Lord not only offers it freely that we might be encouraged: but heartily intends it; indeed, entreats it earnestly that indeed we might be persuaded without gainsaying to yield. He not only commands the sinner to come, but if he go away, mercy pursues him; if yet he seems to withdraw himself, mercy lays hold on him, will not leave him, but weeps over him, kneels down before him, and begs importunately at his hands his own reconciliation with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:17). The Lord by us does beseech you to be reconciled, the ministers proclaim it, but God professes it; they desire men, and God in them [reconstructed: beseeches], and entreats to be reconciled.

This makes the bowels of a sinner to roll within him and drives him to a stand, and almost overcomes our unkind natures: What! A king to entreat a traitor to be pardoned; the judge a thief to be acquitted; a conqueror fall at the foot of a captive and his prisoner, and desire him to be reconciled. [reconstructed: I, that] God, the great God of heaven and earth who was offended by us, who has no need of us, who was infinitely happy in himself without us who might with the breath of his nostrils forever confound us, and that justly; why it had been enough, and enough a conscience, but to admit such accursed dust and ashes into his presence, [reconstructed: and] to hear him speak, and give him but leave to bewail his sins before he should have perished for them. It had been a high favor and mercy to have given him leave to have begged mercy, though he had never granted it. But to hear me when I call and cry, to receive me to favor when I come, that is as much as could be desired. But that God should stoop to man, heaven to earth, [reconstructed: greatness] to meanness, he that was offended by me, had no need of me, was happy without me, and might have honored the name of his justice in my everlasting confusion, not only to hear me and receive me when I come, but to send after me, but to beseech a damned forlorn creature to be pardoned. This is the wonder of mercy more than I could have conceived, durst have begged, indeed I should have conceived it unreasonable to have desired it, nor could I have thought it, but that the Lord has said it and done it. His will be done, and blessed be his holy name forever. Oh that I should live to hear of this mercy, but wretch that I am if I should outlive the offer of it, or not entertain it. I need not question, that the Lord is serious and heartily willing to have the tender of his grace entertained, and myself forever comforted therein and thereby. Why he takes his oath, not that he can change, but that he would have me be settledly assured thereof. As I live, says the Lord, I desire not the death of a sinner but rather that he should repent and live (Ezekiel 33:11). If God does not desire my death but my repentance, why should I desire my own death? So that the heart of a sinner could almost be content to give way, but yet his loose domineering lusts will not give leave.

If yet the sinner will not come away but stays still, and clings to his darling lusts, the Lord leaves the record of these his kindnesses upon his heart, and still out of his long sufferance waits for his amendment and repentance, puts him in mind, and lies pulling at him with these cords of his compassions. (Isaiah 30:18) He waits to be gracious: He takes fresh and renewed throws of patience and travails as it were in expectation of the return of a sinner. (Jeremiah 13, last verse) Oh Jerusalem, will you not be made clean? When will it once be? As a woman in travail, Oh when will the good hour come? Oh! consider this, Is it not a shame for you to suffer the Lord Christ to meet with you at every turn, to follow you from place to place, to attend upon you, in the seas where you have [illegible], upon the shores where you have landed, in the houses where you dwell, to pursue you in the fields, to hang his pardons at your doors, and to kneel to you at your bed-sides, when you lie down, and when you awake; Oh! when will it once be? Let this day be the last day of sinning, of lazing in a Christian course, of carnal formality, let this time, this night be the last night of provocation and unprofitableness under all the privileges and means of grace you enjoy: Once at last let that proud heart be humbled, that peevish spirit meekened, those covetous desires, unclean affections be changed: when will it once be? See how the Lord sends by the prophet, and pleads with them, and puts them beyond all appearance of any pretense. Turn you, turn you, why will you die, oh you house of Israel? (Ezekiel 33:11) Have you any reason to desire, or endeavor your own destruction, against your own reason, your own good, my will, why will you die? Plead thus with your own hearts for your own comfort. I have reason to return, but no reason to die; what is most for my good, and the Lord so much desires, Let me endeavor it. See then how these cords of [illegible] compass about the sinner, and lie hard at him to draw him from his sin.

The Lord proclaims his mercy openly, freely offers it, heartily intends it, waits to communicate it, lays siege to the soul by his long sufferance: There is enough to procure all good, distrust it not: He freely invites, fear it not, you may be bold to go: he intends it heartily, question it not: yet he is [illegible] and wooing, delay it not [illegible], but hearken to his voice.

But if these limetwigs of love cannot catch you, these cords of mercy cannot hold you, he has iron chains which will either pluck you from your evil ways, or they will pull you all in pieces. The third means therefore by which the Lord draws, is the cord of conscience: If the bonds of a man and of kindness will not prevail with us, the iron hook of conscience will drag us with a witness to forsake our beloved lusts, to come to the Lord to be ruled and to be saved. Now the hooks whereby conscience holds us are three principally, whereby it tears the heart away from those wretched distempers, and holds the soul from under the power of such base corruptions which have taken greater place, and exercised greater power over it.

God stirs up conscience, and arms it with authority for the stilling and settling of such unruly distempers which heretofore have refused his power and neglected his law, and so took much place in the soul, and carried it to the commission of much evil against the mind of conscience. So that whereas conscience was kept under before by reason of the mutinies and conspiracies of many corruptions in the heart; and was blinded, [illegible], and benummed with the violence and unruly rage of many wretched lusts, so that either it did not see what was to be done, or could not be heard in what it would speak, at least was utterly unable to prevail. The Lord now has awakened conscience, and put that life, virtue, and authority into it: That now conscience begins afresh to take upon him, and to show his sovereignty and rule; he will not take it as he has done, but publicly proclaims his [illegible] charge, and edicts, not to be contradicted or controlled upon the pain of the severest punishments.

This is the first work of conscience to be a forewarner, and to admonish the soul of evil, to exercise a severe charge, and give uncontrollable commands against sin: So that corruption comes to be snubbed and checked, and the soul kept in awe under him which it scorned before. It fares in this case with conscience as with a high sheriff, or some special officer of note in the country, in the absence of the king, while he is gone aside there arises a mutiny and tumult of unruly persons, which tear his commission, withstand his proceedings, and offer in an outrageous manner to lay violent hands upon his person; so that as he can do nothing, so he dares show little distaste, but express no strong opposition against them, as not having power enough to surprise and crush them in their [illegible], but is compelled to sit still, and say nothing, knowing as David said, You are too strong for me, you sons of Zeruiah: He finds his party too weak to deal with them, therefore puts up all contempts and indignities for the while; Nay, as it is with many [illegible], their numbers being many, their carriage furious and unreasonable, sometimes they strike the constable instead of being ruled by him; but when the king returns, renews his commission, and gives him more power than ever, and sends supply to aid and [illegible] him, then the sheriff lifts up his head, having got a larger [illegible], comes with more undaunted courage and resolution, having got assistance [illegible] to support himself; and he makes open proclamation, That whereas there has been such and such [illegible], be it known, that they are all to be [illegible] and commanded in the king's name, upon [illegible] notice hereof to lay down all weapons, to still all [illegible] disorders upon pain of death to any that shall [illegible] the law in that case.

So it is with conscience, when by the crowd and [reconstructed: press] of many accursed lusts and corruptions, [reconstructed: its] eye is blinded, the edge dulled, the commands of [reconstructed: it] [reconstructed: scorned], so that men make a mock of conscience, [illegible]? Your conscience will not serve you, your [reconstructed: conscience] will not suffer you, to lie, to laze, to [illegible], to deceive, your conscience will not allow it, [reconstructed: do] you make a fool of your [reconstructed: conscience]? What care [reconstructed: I] for conscience or you either, I will do what I like, what I list for all conscience. Thus a company of [illegible] imprison the High Sheriff, or beset his house. [reconstructed: But] when God shall awaken conscience, and quicken [reconstructed: it], and renew the commission in the hand of [reconstructed: it], so that it comes enlightened and armed with [illegible] from Heaven, he then makes open [illegible] to the sinner, forewarns and threatens the [reconstructed: sinner], you that have had no care of the [illegible] of God, but slighted all directions and [illegible] of his Word; be it known to you by [illegible] received from Heaven, I charge you in the name of the Lord Jesus, as you will answer it at that great day, upon pain of everlasting damnation, take heed of these sins, and lay down these rebellions, and withal shows his warrant. And look here (2 Thessalonians 1:8): The Lord Jesus will come in flaming fire to render vengeance against all that know not God, and obey not the Gospel; take heed therefore of this disobedience against the Gospel, you will rue it eternally else. And lo here again (Proverbs 29:1): He that being often reproved hardens his heart, shall suddenly be consumed, and that without remedy; you have been often reproved for these and these evils, and still your heart is hardened against all reproofs, take heed lest sudden destruction come upon you. So again (1 Corinthians 6:9): Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, [reconstructed: nor] extortioners, shall inherit the Kingdom of God. Do you not know this (says conscience) have I not often told you of this? Have I not warned you of it? And yet you are still guilty of these and these evils. Thus conscience comes armed with evidence and authority of the truth; like the angel with a drawn sword in his hand, stands as the watchman to give warning, he still minds and remembers the sinner of his ways, and of God's righteous judgments. As sometimes Moses to Israel (Deuteronomy 30:17-18): But if your heart turn away that you will not hear, I denounce to you this day, you shall surely perish; and if any man when he hears these words, shall bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace though I add drunkenness to thirst, the wrath of the Lord will smoke against that man, and he will cut him off, etc. This charge and awful command of conscience makes the soul shy of stirring out to such ungodly courses, makes the corruptions skulk in as it were, so that they dare not show their heads. This is the roaring of the lion, that makes all tremble and be at a stand, the direful warnings and threatenings that conscience sets up and gives in, out of the authority and sovereignty of the truth, which is dreadful in presenting the displeasure of the Lord; so that the sinner withdraws himself from such courses, companies, practices, to which he was addicted, and had formerly bestowed himself.

When now the Devil and his instruments, the world and her favorites, perceive their company [reconstructed: gone], their companions departed, they all set [reconstructed: upon] the soul, and labor to withdraw it from under the charge and command of conscience: the world by her allurements, Satan by his temptations, and [reconstructed: the] accursed delights of our sinful lusts, they all [reconstructed: assault] the soul, and by their wiles persuade the sinner [reconstructed: to] join sides with them, and not to be awed or carried by any contrary command: these be (say they) [reconstructed: only] denounced, but threatened men live long, this wind shakes no corn, this is in way of policy to scare men, but it is not in earnest to hurt men, the same has been spoken to others, but nothing inflicted upon them, they never found, never felt any such sore blows as all those terrible shakings of the [reconstructed: law] would pretend. Thus the sinner is yet drawn aside to follow his sinful courses: conscience therefore makes after him, lays violent hands upon him, and holds him faster than ever; he becomes now an accuser of him, who was only a friendly admonisher before; a swift witness, indeed, a thousand witnesses against him before the tribunal of the Lord, by reason of his sins committed. He raises therefore hue and cry after the sinner, finds and arrests him; he that was God's herald before to tell and proclaim what should be done; becomes now God's officer to summon, his sergeant to arrest him for what he has done; he that directed him before, now smites him; as (2 Samuel 24:10) David's heart smote him after he had numbered the people. Though the sinner could avoid or neglect the command of conscience, he cannot avoid the stroke of conscience: though he could avoid the warning of conscience, and cast away that, yet he cannot avoid the horror of conscience (Romans 2:14). His thoughts accusing of him in God's behalf, and his accusations will be heard — in fact, his judgment is now aggravated, because of the command that was [reconstructed: given], as Gideon dealt with the men of Succoth, who scorned him, when he pursued Zebah and Zalmunnah (Judges 8:7). Returning, he tore their flesh with the thorns of the wilderness. So [reconstructed: Conscience,] after his commands have been slighted, and his warnings cast behind the back, he surprises the sinner in the midst of his [reconstructed: mirth] and greatest jollity; you shall answer for these sins before the judge of the world, and so follows him home to his house, and to his bed, and [reconstructed: lays] violent hands upon him, and drags him before the tribunal of the Lord, and there indicts and accuses him. Lord, this is the man, an enemy to your majesty, a traitor against the truth, that has conspired with sin and Satan, and his secret lusts against the blood of Jesus, and the power of grace and godliness. What? is this he that has borne a private grudge against the power of the Word, a malice against the Saints, that has committed such and such sins? Yes Lord, he has done so, and been so, at such a time, and such a place, in such a company, he has been guilty of such abominations; in fact (says conscience) you know that I know, such a night, what privy plottings, and cunning conspiracies your heart, and your lusts, your pride and [reconstructed: covetousness], and uncleanness had, what consultations you had against the Lord: take him therefore, horror and anguish of heart, keep him in bondage and thralldom, until he be content to repent, to take shame, and bid an everlasting [reconstructed: farewell] to [reconstructed: sin and Satan]. With that the flashes of hell fire seize upon his soul, the venom of the vengeance of the Lord pursues him, his arrows stick fast in him, and the poison thereof [reconstructed: drinks] up his [reconstructed: spirit]. The galls and stabs of conscience make him bleed inwardly: so [reconstructed: that] all his friends, delights, comforts, [reconstructed: pleasures], corruptions, cannot bail him, or pluck [reconstructed: out] this hook of horror out of his heart. And thus [reconstructed: the] poor sinner like a malefactor goes up and down [reconstructed: with] his jailer, an accusing conscience to attend [reconstructed: him]; the chains of darkness, of horror and guilt to [reconstructed: fetter] and shackle him, that he becomes weary of his [reconstructed: life], and not worth the ground he goes on. Until he [reconstructed: comes] to confessing, bewailing, repenting, reforming, [reconstructed: amending], indeed, engaging himself to his conscience, [reconstructed: promising] that as in God's sight, that if he will abate his [reconstructed: severity], he will obey his commands, listen to his [reconstructed: counsel], and yield to whatever either it shall reveal [reconstructed: to] him, or require of him. So that conscience seems [reconstructed: to] be quieted for the while, and abates the soul of [reconstructed: its] overbearing horror, lets him out of prison upon [reconstructed: his] sufficient bail.

When his accursed crew, the lusts with whom he [reconstructed: has] been in league, see that he is got out of prison [illegible], they again set upon him to see if by any means [reconstructed: they] can bring him to their bent, to embrace the old [illegible] ways of ungodliness. Tush, says carnal reason, the worst is past, the danger is over, why should he slay himself with needless sorrow, and [illegible], smoke away his days in desperate [illegible], and make himself miserable in laying more burden upon himself than God requires, or reason allows: If the Lord in his providence has [reconstructed: freed] him of his inconveniences, why should he [reconstructed: add to] them without need, and without profit? Let him therefore refresh himself with those former [illegible], and shake off those heavy damps, which are indeed the death of the soul, the ruin of his [illegible], and himself also in the issue. In conclusion, the heart begins to recoil back again to the former courses to [reconstructed: lust] after those former lusts, as ancient lovers, to parley with them, to give entertainment to them, [illegible] so to be overcome by them. So that now he is [reconstructed: as] deeply endeared to them as ever, follows them as eagerly, and takes as much contentment in them as [reconstructed: they] do in their ancient playfellows, and [illegible] when they have been long parted: till [reconstructed: Conscience] lays the last hook upon him, and rends him all in pieces. As it forewarned him of sin that it might not [reconstructed: be] committed, and accused him for sin when it [reconstructed: was] committed: so now it becomes an executioner [reconstructed: of] the final doom and judgment which belongs [reconstructed: to] him; because against all means of redress he [reconstructed: still] continues in his sin, so that now conscience [reconstructed: does] not present him before the tribunal of the Lord [reconstructed: for] trial or accusation, for that is over; but as one [reconstructed: who] is convicted and condemned, he drags him to [illegible] (1 John 3:20). If our hearts condemn [reconstructed: us], God is greater than our hearts (Proverbs 29:1). [reconstructed: He] that being often admonished hardens his heart, [reconstructed: he] shall perish without remedy; you are the man, [reconstructed: this] is your condition, this will be your condemnation, [reconstructed: you] have been often admonished, [reconstructed: at] such a time, [reconstructed: at] such a time, by a [illegible], a friend, a minister, [reconstructed: and] did your heart rise with [illegible] and indignation, [reconstructed: you were] not able to abide the man, nor to undergo the admonition; therefore you [reconstructed: shall] perish, [reconstructed: for] there is [reconstructed: no] remedy: with that conscience delivers him up [reconstructed: to] the hands of the tormentors; take him, you [illegible] spirits, depart from hence to your grave, and [reconstructed: from] there to the place of execution. He would [illegible] his evil, let him perish in it, he would not [reconstructed: be] reformed, let him be for ever accursed: so that the sinner conceives himself past hope and help, looks [reconstructed: every] hour and moment to be turned off the [illegible]. For as a man arrested for one debt, may be a [illegible] some few pounds, many thousands are presently [illegible] upon him, all creditors come in, with bill after [reconstructed: bill], so that as a man utterly undone, lie he may, and [illegible] he must, but to be delivered he cannot once look.

So the [illegible] being under the arrest of conscience for the transgression of the law, the Gospel now comes in upon the sinner, his bill comes in fresh upon him, he is arrested at the suit of patience which [reconstructed: he] has abused, of mercy, which he has slighted, long sufferance, which he has perverted; they all [illegible] for justice, justice Lord against this sinful [illegible]. So that the sinner conceives himself in the [illegible] of the Devil really, and irrecoverably in hell. Lo, says the sinner, The Devil, the Devil; there he is, he is come for me. When he lies panting upon his sick-bed, if he do but close his eyes together to sleep, his dreams [illegible] him, his thoughts [illegible] him, and he awakens terrified and distracted, as though he were posting down to the pit, he [illegible] up, and raves; Why go then; I must go. His friends pity him, weep over him, and endeavor to [illegible] him, Why, you are in your bed, and among your dear friends, where will you go? I must go to hell, Satan is sent from God to fetch me; Oh my stubbornness, my carelessness, my contempt of the Lord and his truth, has justly brought me to this. Why, but there is yet grace and mercy; Oh! it had been happy for me I had never had the offer of grace and mercy; it is mercy that I have rejected, and grace that I have opposed, and cast all the compassions of the Lord behind my back, to follow my [illegible] courses. And with what face can I beg mercy who have abused it? Crave grace who have opposed [illegible]? He cannot be saved that mercy cannot but [illegible], and mercy should be unmerciful to its [illegible] if [illegible] should not cast away him that has cast away it: But do you now judge so? And would you now do so as formerly? You have conceived the greatest [illegible] in your sinful distempers, pleased yourself in your pride, and looseness, and vanities, taken content in your corruptions, in casting away the holy commands of God: Would you give yourself the like liberty? Or can you take the [illegible] comfort in the same ways now? Oh no: I now see how sin has deceived me, and my own corrupt heart has deceived myself, that which was my pleasure and delight, is now my plague, my poison: but would you be content to part with these, and take grace and mercy in the room of them? Oh that I might: but there is no reason that I should expect it, [illegible] God should do it. Why, if you would have mercy, God will show you mercy: Then the Lord give me a will, and give me mercy, and give me grace whether I will or no, it would be better with me then, than now (Hosea 2:8).

By this time the heart and corruption are almost pulled asunder; therefore the last cord is this, The Lord by the hand of his almighty Spirit [illegible] pluck it quite asunder, that the will of the sinner may never solder again with his corruption, nor suit any [illegible] with them: It is the same power that raised Christ from the dead (Ephesians 1:19). It is the same power that raises the dead to life (John 5:25). The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and those that do hear shall live. Indeed, the Lord is said to create lips to speak peace (Isaiah 57:19). He puts forth a creating power, when he will lead and heal the sinner. The Lord Christ commands sin as sometimes Satan, Come out of him you unclean spirit, and trouble him no more: That which all the disciples did not, could not, Christ did there in the possession bodily, so here spiritually.

How this holy kind of violence may best be discerned.

I shall answer to this in several conclusions.

The will of a man is in itself, and in its own nature, a capable subject of sin and grace. I say, look at it as in its own nature considered, both these in a right order, and according to a rule of right [illegible] may be in it 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. (Jeremiah 4:3) Break up [illegible] fallow ground of your hearts: the nature of man is arable ground: though now it lie fallow by [illegible] of the weeds of wickedness, the brambles of baggage, base lusts have over-run it, yet it may be [illegible], the soul may be converted again. So men are called living stones (1 Peter 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 will [illegible] 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, and 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 has 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 shows it was made for a better.

Which makes me that I cannot yet see, why there is any need to fly to the obediential power, which men marvelous judicious betake themselves to in this dispute. When a creature has not a capability in its kind and nature to entertain such an impression further than it yields to the almighty hand of God to make it what he will, as (Matthew 3:9) God is able of stones to raise up children to Abraham: stones will yield 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 [illegible] of [illegible].

The faculty of the will attended only in its natural being and ability, cannot will a spiritual or supernatural good; but must have a spiritual and supernatural power put into it, to enable it to put forth a [illegible] work.

Because nothing can act beyond the bounds of its being and ability: the trees grow, but move not; the brute creatures move, but reason not; wicked men can reason, and will natural and corrupt things, because they have reason, nature, and corruption. And moral things also, because they have some [illegible] of the Spirit as will 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 Corinthians 2:14) The natural man receives not the things of God. (Proverbs 24:7) Wisdom is too high for a fool.

If the will out of a natural ability, or faculty, could choose 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 all, make choice of the chiefest 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 forever (Revelation 22:17).

Hence it is plain it is a false opinion and grounded on a false bottom and principle; that to have an indifference to any thing proposed, 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 all to will a supernatural good, no more than from a dead man to take meat. As a wheel does not run round because of 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 — Answer: 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, utterly indisposes the soul to receive any spiritual power from God, and consequently disables it to put forth any spiritual or supernatural work. It is not subject to the law of God, neither can be (Romans 8:7). It will not bear the impression of the power of the Spirit. (John 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. Indeed, truth is a trouble and a torment to a carnal heart, and the nature of the thing makes this clear. (Matthew 6:24) You cannot serve two masters, God and Mammon. (John 5:44) You cannot believe that seek honor one from another. (Romans 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, whereby it may put forth any spiritual act.

First I say, there is no violence offered to the faculty of [illegible]. For that (as it has 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 will receive several and contrary impressions, at several times; so the soul which has been made partaker of the image of God, is also capable of the print and impression of the image of old Adam, when once the gracious disposition has been defaced, it is capable of receiving the impression of God's image again when once Adam's image is dispossessed.

Yet secondly, there must be a holy kind of violence offered to 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 will naturally and of its own accord go away, and depart from the soul. For it has been in the former conclusions manifested, that there must be a spiritual power put into the will before it can put forth a [reconstructed: spiritual] act. And while corruption takes place, there is no place of entertainment [reconstructed: for] this spiritual ability; therefore corruption must be removed by violence. Naturally it will not go away, therefore by constraint it must be forced away. It will not depart away of its own accord, because of the [reconstructed: nearness] and naturalness it [reconstructed: has] to the heart in which it is. The eye will not go out of the head in which it is seated, unless it be plucked out: the hand will not fall off from the body unless it be cut off: the soul would not willingly forsake the body to which it is received, and in which it takes up its abode, unless by some [illegible] which breaks the union between it and the body it being driven away, and forced away. Now our lusts in our hearts are like the members in our bodies (Colossians 3:6). They are tender as the eye, [reconstructed: firm] as the hand, as dear as our souls, yea, even the soul of our souls, and life of our lives, while we are and remain in our natural and corrupt estate. Therefore they must by constraint be driven out, they will not go out. Yea, it is against reason, and in truth cross to common sense, that the quality should of its own nature [reconstructed: depart] from the subject, they who have agreement one with another, should as enemies, and as [reconstructed: far apart] as be at odds and difference go from the other: and this is the condition and disposition [reconstructed: of] the nature of man, they are in the nearest league of love one with another, and therefore of themselves as in truth they cannot, so they would not depart one from another (Jeremiah 13:23). Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may you also which are [reconstructed: accustomed] to do evil. They are not spots that are taken occasionally, or sootiness that is smeared upon them, but they issue out of their natural constitution, and the very seed which they are made of: and therefore their nature must be altered before they can be removed.

Look we at the opposition between the Spirit of Grace that does remove the corruption, and the [reconstructed: corruption] it [reconstructed: removes] that is removed: and we shall [reconstructed: clearly] have [reconstructed: clear] evidence, and that [reconstructed: proof] of the former conclusion.

One contrary drives away another out of the subject in which it is by constraint and violence: but the work of the Spirit as contrary to sin, drives it out of the soul in which it is seated as in its natural subject, therefore this must be done with violence. The first part is plain by the principles of [reconstructed: natural philosophy] received, that is, that the ground of all constraint is that crossness and contrariety between the [reconstructed: natures] of things, and their actions: every thing is [reconstructed: inclined] to that which is suitable to its own nature, [reconstructed: acting by] its own proper power and inclination; there needs no constraint to make the fire burn, the [reconstructed: sea to] roar, and [reconstructed: heavy] things to descend, a wolf to prey and raven: but to make heavy things to ascend, the lion to be as mild as a lamb, the [reconstructed: wolf] as harmless as a kid, there must be a strong hand of an almighty power to make such a change, and by a kind of violence to [reconstructed: overcome] the crossness and [reconstructed: contrariety] which carries these in professed opposition. The second part is as [reconstructed: plain] out of pregnant proof from Scripture, which settles it as sure as Mount Zion. (Romans 8:2) The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed me from the law of sin and death. There is a sovereignty of [reconstructed: supreme] rule set up in the soul, and therefore it gives law to the whole man, for that is the prerogative of a supreme commander; now there is a repeal of these laws, a crushing, and a conquering of the supreme power by the Spirit of life in Christ, which therefore disannuls all those edicts and commands that carnal sensual lusts of the old man had thus set up and erected. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5) The weapons of our warfare are mighty through God: when the Gospel carries the power of God with it to [reconstructed: prevail], it flings down the strong holds that [reconstructed: exalt themselves] against Christ, and [reconstructed: brings] every [reconstructed: thought] to the obedience of Christ. Thus it [reconstructed: overthrows and removes] corruptions. And this is done in way of contrariety (Galatians 5:17). The Spirit lusts against [reconstructed: the flesh], and the flesh against the Spirit; and these two are contrary. And therefore it is termed a fight and [reconstructed: warfare] (Romans 7:23). I see another law in my members rebelling against the law of my mind [reconstructed: and carrying me captive]. Fighting is [reconstructed: done] with [reconstructed: force] and violence; where there is [reconstructed: hatred] and enmity, there is [reconstructed: strife] and [reconstructed: conflict], not kindness and persuasion only. Such is the work here.

Look we at the nature of the work: that also will of necessity require as much, whether [reconstructed: we consider] sin, or Satan? The dominion of the [reconstructed: former] is [reconstructed: strong], and the power of the other [reconstructed: is mighty], and [reconstructed: neither] of these can be brought about but by a [reconstructed: work] of violence.

1 The dominion of sin: the Lord now quells and crushes utterly, that sovereignty and supremacy it has formerly exercised over the sinner: so the apostle (Romans 6:14) brings in this as the ground of that spiritual deliverance from the authority of our distempers, sin shall not have dominion over you, because you are not under the law, but under grace: whenever we become under the Covenant of Grace, and the Lord Jesus the second Adam [reconstructed: engrafts] us and begets us to himself, as soon as we are of the seed of that Covenant, he thereby takes off that dominion to which we were formerly subject, while we were under the Covenant of the Law broken, it did break us, and deliver us to the authority of our distempers: this was typified by the year of Jubilee under the old law, when the slave or servant was freed from his master's rule and claim; and therefore when our Savior is promised as he that should bring Jacob [reconstructed: back] to God, and so become light and salvation to the ends of the earth (Isaiah 49:5, 8-9). To be the head of the Covenant of Grace: and that which is added is marvelously strange, to establish the earth, and to cause to inherit the desolate places.

That restoration which comes by Christ, it brings a new face or frame upon the creatures, even those that are of the most despicable condition, desolate persons, and hearts, and lives; when wicked men and their ways are like wildernesses overgrown with weeds. Then the Lord [illegible] to the prisoners, go forth, and to such as are in darkness show yourselves. They that were buried and overwhelmed with the dimness of their own distempers and delusions, they should come out of the dungeon and grave of darkness: be revealed; the word is in the passive: the truth should be revealed in you, to you, to give you a light you had not, to act you, and carry you to see that you did not: yourselves should be revealed to yourselves, and your sins to your souls, the first is a power put into them, the second an act wrought in them, and by them, the word in the original signifying both. So that though they might be pursued by their sins, they should never be imprisoned more, that was not now their state to be prisoners, but to be free men forever, though clouded with darkness of their sins, yet never overwhelmed with darkness, but they should be able to see their sins, and to see a way out of them, in which they should walk.

This is that also which is expressed by the Apostle John (1 John 3:5, 8), that our Savior came to destroy the works of the Devil: now he was the author of sin, and the first sinner, and therefore called the evil one, the father of lies, and that when he tells lies, he tells them of his own, the first original comes from him, and all lusts are but his brood (John 8:44). The lusts of your father you will do; they are but the seed of Satan cast into the souls of men. Now Christ came to destroy all these.

That which destroys corruption must needs offer a kind of violence to corruption, for each thing desires the preservation of itself, and it is against the will of sin to destroy itself: it is Calvin's expression upon the place, the works of the Devil will never destroy themselves: therefore Christ by his Spirit must destroy them by a strong hand. It is therefore a sleepy dotage, and a deluded dream to make such an explication; that by some moral persuasions presented to the blind mind of a sinner, sin should be persuaded to destroy itself: or (which is the [illegible] of that opinion rightly expressed) that there should be some arguments propounded to corruption to draw out the power of corruption, to destroy the power of corruption; in which falsehood there is such a senseless kind of silliness, that it is a wonder that men who arrogate the excellency of the depths of disputes, and would have the world conceive them the darlings of wisdom, cut out of purpose to search into the secrets of all [illegible], should ever be taken aside by such a dream; but that the Lord in his just judgment righteously delivers men up to their own devices, when they despise his counsel. For better explication than that which I make, no man can ever make of that imagination according to truth; for a moral [illegible] in the proper nature and work of it, is not to give power to the subject that had it not, but to draw forth the power it has to perform any action; so that when a sinner (as we have proved) is wholly acted by the power and [illegible] of his corruptions, things in that are spiritual, that is, though he has some relics of the image yet left within him, some common stock of moral abilities imprinted upon him, yet whatever his shows, his appearances, his performances be in civil services, the sovereignty of corruption in the heart is such it over-rules all, to false ends, and suiting of itself, and giving satisfaction to the flesh; so that in the [illegible], to stir up the sovereign power of sin in the soul of a [illegible] to forsake sin, is to draw forth the power of [illegible] to [illegible] itself, which has not the least appearance of a [illegible] in [illegible] with it. So that I conclude this third argument which is open and plain.

That which destroys the power of sin, that offers a holy kind of violence to it. But the Lord by his [illegible] destroys the power of sin, therefore he offers a holy kind of violence to it.

Hence, before we pass (for to this place this consideration is proper) we may see the difference between restraining grace in the reprobate and hypocrite, and saving, and effectually converting grace.

The act of sin only in the one is hindered; the power of sin in the other is subdued, the one curbs and confines the corrupt nature, as a fox in a chain, a wolf in a snare, they have the same nature still, but they have not the same liberty to put forth their ravenous desires and [illegible], and therefore will do it when opportunity serves. Converting grace severs the subtle and cruel dispositions from them [illegible], and overcomes and conquers the cruelty of their natures, so that as they do not, so in truth they cannot put forth such savage practices as before: the one abates the resistance that is in the heart against God, his truth, and ways for the while, makes a man's distempers recoil and [reconstructed: restrain] themselves, and makes them not appear for the present: but this takes away the sovereignty and prevailing power of resistance. As it is in war, when a pitched field is fought, and the bodies of both armies meet, each standing in the defense and [reconstructed: advantage] of its own [reconstructed: ground]; but when the day is got, and the battle won, and the forces of the [reconstructed: enemy] not only defeated and [reconstructed: routed], but slain and cut in pieces, so that their strength is broken, and they utterly disabled to make head, with any hope of recovering the field, or repairing their losses; there may happily some scattered companies be skulking here and there, and pilfering and molesting the state, but they have no hope to recover their power; the country and kingdom falls wholly to the conqueror. So here, when the corrupt heart comes in professed opposition against the Lord Jesus, in the power of his ordinances, and the Lord is pleased to put forth his power to the vanquishing, and subduing the soul to himself; the sinner gathers up all his forces as loath to lose his delightful lusts (as sometimes the [reconstructed: Philistines] against the coming of the Ark, (1 Samuel 4:7-9): the Philistines were afraid, and they said, God is come into the camp, and they said, woe to us, who shall deliver us from the hands of these mighty Gods? Be strong and conduct yourselves like men, O you Philistines, that you be not servants to the Hebrews:) so, the soul rises up in way of resistance against the word and power of his grace, but in the issue the dominion of these distempers is so quelled, and the power of them so crushed, that it can never make head against the power of the Spirit; only the remainder of those wretched lusts will be still pilfering, provoking, and molesting the good Spirit of God, and work of his grace; but can never recover the rule it once had; but the country, the heart and conscience of a sinner falls wholly to the dispose of Christ. Thus Saul goes into the field, has a pitched battle against the Lord Christ, as resolving to fight it out to the last man; but in the end, when he saw there was no hope to prevail, instead of fiercely resisting, he humbly gives way, and lays down not only the act of opposing, but the will of opposing, Lord (says he) what will you have me to do? This seems to be the meaning of that old sentence of Augustine, which all divines embrace and follow, and I desire no more for the cause if it be rightly scanned and considered; God makes of an unwilling will, a willing will: for the right understanding of which truth, observe these particulars:

1. The will is wholly unwilling to receive any [illegible] good, but carried out by the power of corruption against it. 2. Willingness must be wrought where this unwillingness is. 3. The will must cease to be unwilling, and resistance must be removed before submission can be brought into it: unwillingness cannot will good: aversion cannot will conversion. 4. What will remove or take away this unwillingness? It is impossible it should itself remove or destroy itself: there is nothing in the will besides that can do it, for it has no spiritual power to good: therefore there must be an almighty constraining power that must by a holy kind of violence take that away, and then another may be brought in.

But if the will does not freely will the removal of corruption, then is it compelled contrary to the nature of the will, and the way of God's providence, as implying a contradiction.

It follows not: either it freely wills the removing of sin, or else it is compelled to it; I put a third: a sinner has no will at all to it; for to will not to do it freely is contrary to the nature of the will, and the rules of right reason: but to have the work done without the will of man, which has no hand in it, is a sound truth and a safe assertion.

These three are apparently distinct,

1. To will freely. 2. To will by constraint. 3. Not to will at all: but to have the work done only from the will of another.

But if there be a kind of violence offered to the will of a sinner in the removal of his sin, then the will is compelled. But there is a kind of violence offered (for that is what is affirmed) therefore the will is compelled, which must not be granted.

I answer three things.

1. When we say the will is free and cannot be forced; the right meaning is this, TO WILL, is, when a man is a cause by counsel of his work, so that when reason has dictated and discovered what is fit to be done the will out of a sovereignty of authority and inward power expresses her pleasure to make choice of it: to be forced to do a thing is by a strong hand of outward constraint against our inward inclination and disposition to be compelled to do a thing. [illegible] Two cannot stand together as being apparently contradictory the one to the other. To do a thing out of my own proper, inward inclination: to do a thing by outward [reconstructed: constraint]. For it is all one as to say: we should do a thing out of our inward inclination, and not out of our inward inclination: a cause acting by counsel, should be a cause acting by necessity, one contrary should be another.

2 This act may be opposed from without: indeed, act and power may be destroyed, without any prejudice to the liberty of the will, or any way of providence, or a reasonable proceeding. So the text, (Ezekiel 36:27) I will take away the heart of stone, and give to them a heart of [illegible], a new heart and a new spirit will I put within them. (Galatians 5:24) They who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with [illegible] affections and [illegible]. Original sin is flesh, the [illegible] are the actings of it, and the affections are [illegible][illegible] that are apt and ready to entertain such provocations, and to break out into such [illegible]. It's impossible that while a thing acts by his own inward inclination, it should by outward force act against its inclination, though it's possible and reasonable that the Lord cross both, indeed, destroy both act, and inclination and all, as he will. God (as we may speak with reverence and fear) cannot make nature remaining to act against [illegible]: for then, when there is the greatest consension, there should be greatest opposition, and one thing should be opposite to itself. The [illegible][illegible] are the principles of constitution should be causes of destruction, which reason abhors; but yet he can destroy nature without any breach of rule, or reason: So here, God can destroy the will and power of sinning, according to all the rules of reason and [illegible], but it's against both, that God should compel the will of sinning, to be willing to destroy itself.

3 In this work of drawing, and in this act of God whereby the will of sinning is removed, the will is a mere patient and sufferer, and though the will while it acts by its own inclination cannot be compelled to act against it, yet it may be compelled to bear and suffer the destroying hand of God's power to take away this corrupt [illegible] in the sovereignty of it.

As the wills of the devils and damned in hell are forced to suffer, and that unwillingly, without any impeachment of their freedom and liberty of their wills in commission of any sin, which they daily practice. Have you come to torment us before the time, say they to our Savior: It was a torment to them to be crossed and plagued, yet it could not be avoided. As it is in a sick body, the power of the medicine which is sovereign and healing, it will by little and little abate the distemper, and allay the violent work of the humor, whether it be in over-much healing, aching, pinching, and at length consume the malignant humor itself: It's reasonable that the noisome humors should bear the power of the medicine that will consume them, but it's against reason to think that they should consume themselves.

Hold therefore these three things.

- 1 It's not against the liberty of the will, that the act of corruption should be opposed, and the power subdued. - 2 Then the will is said to be compelled, not when it suffers only force from without. But when it's forced from without to do against its own inclination from within. - 3 Where the will has no power to put forth any act upon any object, there is no will properly to speak, and there can be no violence or compulsion which can be prejudicial.

Consider the nature of this work in regard of the power of Satan: Here also a holy violence will of necessity be required; For Satan (as we read before) he exercises a sovereign command over the corrupt heart of a sinner, rules them as he pleases, and takes them captive at his will (2 Timothy 2, last verse). Now Satan will not, in fact he cannot be entreated, but must be compelled to lay down his jurisdiction. (Hebrews 2:14) Through death he destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the Devil: He destroyed him, that is, He took off all his activity, and the sovereignty of power that he exercised. (Acts 26:18) Paul was sent to turn men from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God. That is, To bring them from under the rule and regiment of the government and dominion of Satan: From the claim of his power, not from the malice of his pursuit. (Luke 11:21) When the stronger man comes and takes from him all his armor: This is not done with the will and approbation of Satan, but by compulsion: For do but weigh a little what manner of construction in a common apprehension can be made of a moral persuasion in this case: Namely, The Lord Christ casts in so many convicting arguments into the mind of Satan, and stirs up that malice and envy that is within him, that he does persuade Satan to destroy his own malice and envy; indeed, persuades him to lay down his power, and to make choice, and desire that the Spirit of Christ should exercise power in the soul. He conquers him only by persuading him, to yield willing subjection to the power of Christ, which is indeed to make Satan a saint, and the devil not to be the prince of darkness.

The power and rule of Satan cannot be destroyed without violence, but in this work Satan's power is destroyed, and himself bound and conquered; therefore it's done by violence.

Fifthly, Now we are to inquire,

How the plucking of the soul from sin, and drawing to Christ is accomplished by this holy violence.

To which I answer, 1 generally. 2 particularly.

1 Generally, thus: All that hold that sin and Satan had of the soul, and all that authority they exercised in it is now removed, and the bent and set of the heart is now under the hand of the Spirit of God.

The Lord comes now to manifest his claim, and to make good and challenge the right he has to the soul through his Christ whom he has appointed to bring his own to himself: This is his good pleasure for the execution of which he has sent the [reconstructed: Lord Jesus]. (Isaiah 49:45) Therefore he is said to be formed from the womb, to be a servant to God the Father, to restore the preserved of Israel, and to be the salvation of God to the ends of the earth.

Hence that of our Savior Christ, John 10:16: Other sheep I have, there's the ground, those I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; they are mine, I have died for them, sin and Satan shall not keep them, shall not hold them; hands off sin, hands off Satan, I must humble them, and call them, and justify them, and [illegible] them, and save them for ever. And therefore the Lord was typified in the parable of the owner, that left ninety-nine to seek the lost sheep (Luke 15:4-5). And when it could not seek its own good or Christ, or find either, the Lord sought it out and found it, and brought it home upon his shoulder.

2. More particularly: the accomplishment of this work discovers itself in four particulars.

The Lord calls in that commission which formerly he put into the hands of Satan, to lay hold of the heart of a sinner, as a malefactor charged with high treason committed against God and Heaven, and therefore it was he sent him with his mittimus, (as the justice does the felon) into the custody and keeping of Satan, that since he would not be ruled by the law of liberty and life, he should be made a slave to sin, and subject to death, and that for ever, to be kept in the chains of darkness until the day of [illegible] great jail delivery, and the declaration of the fierce wrath of God, and this during good pleasure: during the pleasure of the Lord, or until you shall understand his Majesty's pleasure to the [illegible]. For still you must remember, that as in courts and course of justice among men upon earth, it is so in the court of Heaven, and the proceedings of the Almighty, the malefactor is the King's prisoner. The jailer is but the keeper or under officer, entrusted with the execution of justice, the Lord is the sole commander of men's souls, and of life and death, to which they are liable by reason of their sins: this being the commission the Lord put into the hands of Satan and sin for the present, unless any express appear to the contrary: He is now pleased to signify to the Prince of Darkness, and to the power of Hell, and to those damned spirits by the ministry of the Word in the mouths of his servants, and by the hand and almighty operation of his Spirit: Be it known [illegible] you, you principalities of [illegible] and spiritual wickedness, that take possession of, and rule in the hearts of the children of disobedience, that upon the first hearing of this holy Word and message dispensed by my faithful servant as a warrant under my hand, that it is my royal will and command, that you forthwith let loose that poor [illegible], who has been long prisoner in the chains of darkness: For my justice is fully answered, and satisfaction fully accepted: Fail not at your [illegible], under [illegible] displeasure of the Almighty. Dated at the court of mercy before all worlds, published this present day and instant, according to the counsel of my own will.

This puts the powers of darkness, the devils and his angels to deep consultation about what to do; they see they have no warrant now to hold the sinner any longer, and yet they have no will to let him go. They are [illegible] loath to part with him, and yet their power is gone by which they have until now kept him, for the strength of [illegible] is the law (1 Corinthians 15:56). And this is to take away the devil's armor (Luke 11:22). When justice will deliver the sinner, Satan has no power to hold him. As our Savior said to Pilate, when [illegible] said, I have power to bind you, or to loose you; our Savior [illegible], You had no power, [illegible] was given you from above (John 19:11). So Satan has no power but what is given from above, according to the edict of God's revenging justice and their just deservings: therefore now God the Father, through the perfect death and satisfaction of [illegible] the Lord Jesus has yielded, the edict of [illegible] is [illegible], and therefore the devils cannot [illegible]. As it was said touching our Savior, when he was in [illegible] it was impossible he should be [illegible] (Acts 2:24) — [illegible] God's justice was answered to here.

When the Devil's power is now gone, and Justice has signified her pleasure — that the prisoner must be set loose — they then begin to pretend the right they have, and the claim they can make yet to the sinner. Therefore sin and [reconstructed: Satan] seem to plead their own cause in way of justice, and that which cannot be gainsaid, as that the souls of such [illegible] creatures do appertain to them; for besides (says Satan) the statute law, "The soul that sins, that soul must die." The evidence is clear from their practice and experience: whether these be the seed of the serpent, because they express the nature of the serpent in their actions. Is it not written (John 8:44), "You are of your Father the Devil, for the lusts of your Father you will do." These are they whose hearts, if they were discerned, whose conduct, if it were traced and taken notice of, would give in evidence that the [reconstructed: seed] of the serpent was in the one, and the venom of the serpent in the other. Why, have they not — nay, do they not continue to do the lusts of the Devil to this day? They have the spirit of sin and Satan within them, and therefore they are their children, and therefore sin and Satan [reconstructed: have] a right and title to them. Is it not again written (Romans 6:16), "Do you not know that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are." As who should say, It is a ruled case, common and confessed by the verdict of all: If you yield yourselves to obey sin, you are the servants of sin. Therefore says sin and Satan, since we have such law on our side for our right, we crave our right; for these have yielded themselves servants to my temptations, says Satan, and to my allurements says the world, and to my instigation says sin; therefore they are our servants, therefore let us have them still. To which the Lord answers, and justice also replies: While they did remain the seed of the serpent, and in the state of the children of wrath, so long you have reason to have them, and right to challenge them, and therefore it is you have detained them as prisoners to your pleasure to this day. Yea, but says the Father: The Lord Jesus whom I have sent, he has undertaken to pacify my wrath, and purchase their deliverance, and so has done, for he has bought them of divine justice, and therefore has right now to make them the seed of the covenant of grace, and to bring them to himself and life; as they are, and have been the seed of the serpent and estranged from me and happiness. And therefore he has not only done for them what was required on their behalf, but he will work in them what may be answerable to the covenant and the condition of it; therefore your claim is nothing. This under correction, I take to be the meaning of that place (Romans 8:2-4), which is mysterious and dark, and dazzles the eyes of judicious interpreters, so that several senses appear to the several apprehensions of men. We will open it briefly as we pass by, and apply it to our [illegible]. And that which I suppose will give some light to the true intent of the place, and will be as a key to the Scripture and set open the sense, so that an easy apprehension may give a sure guess at the purpose of the Spirit, is this: I suppose the words must be understood of the work [reconstructed: that] the Spirit wrought in us, and the impressions of grace left upon the soul, not of the work of justification, which is wholly without us in the Lord Jesus our surety, and only counted ours. And this that phrase in the fourth verse seems to me of necessity to imply — where it is evident that the end of the former work of Christ is made this: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Whereas in the work of justification, the truth of the work, the meaning of the Lord, and expression of Scripture is other (2 Corinthians 5, last verse): Christ was made sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, not in ourselves. That righteousness for which we are justified is fulfilled for us by Christ and is in him; it is not fulfilled in us. For it is the doctrine of the Popish sect, who are adversaries to God's grace, that we are justified for anything wrought in us, and for which we are forever to renounce them. And hence it is (Philippians 3:7): "Not having my own righteousness, but that which is of God in Christ" — therefore not in us properly. This being granted, I shall shortly give you the meaning of this third verse. "For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." The apostle had evidenced the state of a man in Christ by the fruits of it: he walks not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (verse 1). The question might be: How does that come about? He answers (verse 2): The law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ (as the head) has freed me — and so all his body, and each member — from the law of sin; that is, the sovereign rule of sin and death. But why was the Spirit of Christ necessarily required to do this, since the mind of God is in the law revealed, and my obedience required therein? Is it not enough that I understand this, and thereby be enabled to follow it? The apostle answers, No: It was impossible for the law to enable a man to walk after the Spirit, and to be free from the law of sin — for so the causal [For] knits this verse as a proof of the former — not because the law was faulty, but because our flesh, our natures were corrupt, and therefore it is not enough that the Lord should tell and teach, unless there be some other Spirit and power to enable.

But how then comes this other Spirit? He answers, [illegible]. 3. God [illegible] his Son to take our nature upon him, who was like to us in all but sin, and he sent him to take our nature [illegible]; that is, for the removal of sin: And these words are to be referred to those going before, he sent not to those after he condemned sin. As thus, He sent his Son in the similitude of sinful flesh, for sin, for the removal of sin; and he condemned sin in the flesh, that is, in the virtue of the sufferings of his flesh he did abolish and destroy the [illegible] and jurisdiction of sin, so that sin as we may say has lost its cause, and is as we [illegible] to speak, non-suited; fails wholly in all the pleas it can or does make for any right it has to the soul of a sinner: As we say of a man that is cast in law, that the cause went against him, his cause is condemned, or his cause is damned, his claim is false and feeble, and has no force to carry the thing he would. So here, sin fails of its claim, is wholly cast in the suit that it makes for the challenge of the soul: Divine justice delivered it into its power because it was wronged, but must now deliver it out of the claim and authority of sin, being satisfied: And from here this will be attained, that the righteousness which the law requires, may by the Spirit of Christ be wrought in me, [illegible] by way of [illegible], hereafter in perfection.

To the like purpose is the meaning of that place also, 1 [reconstructed: Peter] 4:6. For, for this end was the Gospel preached to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. In the first verse, from the death and sufferings of our Savior, he persuaded those to whom he wrote, that they should [illegible] that application by way of proportion, that [illegible] who suffered in the flesh, that is, had their fleshly [illegible][illegible] by the death of Christ, should cease from [illegible]. This 6th verse is one proof of that, For, for [illegible] end was the Gospel preached to men alive when [illegible] heard it, but now dead; so that those that are [illegible] alive, and those that are [illegible], they might be [illegible] in the flesh; that is, their lusts of the flesh might have sentence passed against them, and execution done upon them, and so be abolished, even that flesh, those lustings which are [illegible], according to men, which come from corrupt nature, that so we may live in the Spirit according to God and his counsel, which guides us according to God's mind. To this place also appertains that in Romans 7:4. Therefore my brethren you are become dead to the law, by the body of Christ, that you should be married to another, even to him that is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit to God. And verse 6. But now you are delivered from the law, that being dead in which we were held: that is, The marriage covenant between sin and the soul being broken wherein we were held: The full comparison of which, those words are but one part, is taken by way of resemblance from marriage; namely, As long as the man lives, the woman is bound by marriage covenant; he may plead it, and she cannot gainsay it but she is his: But if the husband be dead, then she is free, the law or covenant cannot bind her, there is no claim on the man's part that can be pretended, nor right on her part acknowledged. So is it between sin and the soul, who were as it were handfasted together by reason of the breach of the law, being thereby delivered up in God's [illegible] justice to the jurisdiction and authority thereof: But when by Christ the law is now satisfied, and justice answered, and the soul delivered from under the covenant of the law as broken, and the power of sin removed, the bond of the covenant whereby they were married, is now disannulled, so that sin cannot challenge any right over the soul, no more than a dead husband, nor yet should the soul yield to any such claim.

As sin and Satan can make no claim to the soul, so neither can they keep possession of it; but they are ousted there also by Christ. For as it is in marriage, the woman who is engaged by marriage covenant, as she is bound by law to the man, so are they tied to mutual cohabitation one with another, possession and enjoyment of each other: so here, when by the breach of the covenant of the law, the soul was under the right and claim of sin, sin and Satan took up their abode in the soul, and took possession of it. So Satan is said to cast it into the mind of Judas, and to enter into him (Luke 22:3). And Judas himself is said to be a devil (John 6, last verse). That was only spiritually. And what he did to him, he does to all the children of wrath, while they remain in their natural estate, when now the Lord Jesus comes to bring the soul under the covenant of grace and to make the sinner one of the seed of that covenant, he casts out sin and Satan, and dispossesses them so, that they cannot have ingress and egress as before, nor can he say, I will return to my house, nor take up his abode there, nor will he find it swept and garnished that he may solace himself therein, and enjoy his habitation as in former times, but he finds the door now shut against him. This is the meaning of that place (John 12:31): Now is the judgment of this world; now is the Prince of the world cast [reconstructed: out]: and I if I be lifted up will draw all men after [reconstructed: me]. Our Savior in the foregoing verses being to [reconstructed: enter] into his Agony, and sensible of the dreadful [reconstructed: cup] of his Father, he prays, Father keep [reconstructed: me] from this hour, but for this cause came I to [reconstructed: this] hour. Father, glorify yourself: that is, In his [reconstructed: death]. And the voice from Heaven answered, I [reconstructed: have glorified it], and will glorify it: I have glorified myself [reconstructed: in] your life, I will glorify myself in your death. [reconstructed: Then] our Savior adds, Now: that is, When he was [reconstructed: about to] suffer the judgment of this world. That will be [reconstructed: accomplished] when he is crucified. The Prince of this [reconstructed: world], Satan, is cast out, shall be cast out from taking [reconstructed: and] keeping possession of the souls of sinners. For [reconstructed: when] Christ be lifted up, on the cross, and suffer, he [reconstructed: will] by the power of his death break down the [reconstructed: middle] wall, and draw all nations, his elect out of [reconstructed: all] nations shall be called by the preaching of the [reconstructed: Gospel]. This I take it, also is the meaning of that place, [reconstructed: John] 16:11. When the Spirit comes, he convinces [reconstructed: the] world of sin, that they be miserable in regard of [reconstructed: sin], of righteousness, that there is salvation in a Christ, and free pardon; and of judgment, because [reconstructed: the] Prince of this world is judged. This shows the [illegible] of the sovereign government of our Savior, so (John 5:22): All judgment is given into the hands of Christ, that is the immediate dispensation of all sovereign power and rule. And this was one of the things that Peter, in whose ministry the Spirit after the Ascension of our Savior convinced the world of (Acts 2:36): Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this same Jesus both Lord and Christ. So that he will not break the bruised reed, which is done in contrition, when the soul is bruised with the sight and sense of sin, and yet is indeed wholly helpless and weak, yet he will not break it by despair, until [reconstructed: he] bring judgment to victory, make his government and dispensation victorious.

The soul comes now not to be acted by the motions of sin, nor carried by the temptations of Satan as formerly, that however it is true, that while Satan converses here in the camp of the saints in the warfare of this world, and while we carry these bodies, the houses of clay without us, and a body of death within us; it cannot be but [reconstructed: that] sin and Satan will give many assaults and press in mightily upon the soul, and with the violence of their charge sometimes may crowd the soul out of its intended course of spiritual conversation, and jostle it aside out of the right way, yet they shall never be able to prevail, as to pervert the frame of it: but the set, and face, and frame of the soul will be towards God, and the bent of it for him.

Hence Christ is said by death to destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil (Hebrews 2:14). To destroy him (in the original) is to take off the activity of Satan, and by a deadly blow to stay the prevailing virtue of any temptation, as that it shall not sway the soul to its bent, though it may hinder the soul and dull the acts of it in the daily exercise of spiritual duties. Look as it is in a bowl that is strongly biased one way, and so carried to the mark, however by many rubs and ruggedness of the way, it may be turned aside and jostled out of the right track, yet it sets toward the mark, and is carried that way, and will fall that way by the force of the bias that does over-sway it. So it is here, the Spirit of the Lord that lays hold upon the soul, is like the weight of this bias, that is fastened to it, and closes with it: so that however the strength of temptation or corruption may by a [reconstructed: great] violence jostle the soul out of the way, and out of that right and righteous proceeding in which [reconstructed: it] ought to walk, yet the over-swaying hand of the Spirit will keep the bent and set of it towards the Lord and his truth. (1 John 3:8): Christ was manifested that he might destroy the works of the [reconstructed: devil]; that he might analyze and unravel, and undo [reconstructed: it], as it were, and take in pieces that frame of wickedness which Satan had set up in the heart, and turn it upside down. When the soul was turned from God, to sin, and the creature, Christ came that [reconstructed: it] might be turned from sin and the creature to God again: The word is the same with that (John 2:19), [Greek text], destroy, or take down this temple: And here, (1 John 3:8), [Greek text]: so to loosen one tied in bands. So the Lord Christ does the works of Satan; Satan may grapple with the soul, and lay violent hands upon the heart, but bind it he can never more, or make it a servant to himself.

Question 6: Why is this work of attraction given to the Father; as in the text, None can come to me, but whom the Father draws?

I Answer. This work, as all actions which pass upon the creature and leave some change there, are equally and indifferently wrought by all the [illegible] in the most glorious and blessed Trinity, and so are truly understood of all, and truly given [illegible]: but only they are in several places in an [illegible] manner attributed to some because of some peculiar consideration that may be attended by [illegible] of some circumstances in the place; and so the intention of the Spirit, and aim of the text, may rightly be attended and conceived in this place; [illegible] shall a little explicate and unfold both, that all mistakes may be prevented.

This work of drawing is common to all [illegible] three persons.

That which issues from the Deity and [illegible] firstly, that must indifferently belong to all the persons: for as all the persons have the same individual essence wholly and equally communicated, they are all one God. The unity of the Godhead is a [illegible] of it, and all in a like manner at once given to them [illegible]. And from there it follows, that as the same essence, [illegible] the same both attributes and actions which appertain to the Godhead, or be done by the Godhead, are wholly and jointly affirmed of all the persons. They all are infinite, eternal, omnipotent: [illegible] create, redeem, call, convert, sanctify; because these actions are creatures, therefore [illegible] the first being, but from the first; therefore from the Godhead: and therefore are truly said to [illegible] done by all that have the Godhead, and are truly said to be God, and so by all the persons.

Again, look we to the language of the Spirit [illegible] the Scripture, we shall see that either the very [illegible] of the text so speaks as here, or else the same thing in the same [illegible], in some variety of explication [illegible] given to all.

That which is here said of the Father, our [illegible] speaks upon the like occasion of himself (John 12:31): "And I, if I be lifted up, shall draw all people to me." The same word here and there is used. The [illegible] work also intended, though not in the same expressions, is affirmed of the Holy Ghost (John 16:9-10): "I will send the Spirit, and he shall convince of sin, of righteousness, of judgment." This conviction is the special work of the Spirit in this great [illegible] of attraction.

Lastly, it is a known and received principle of [illegible], that the persons differ each from other, [illegible] in some internal and incommunicable relative [illegible], whereby the personality of each is [illegible], and the person distinguished, as begetting [illegible] the Father, to be begotten to the Son, to proceed [illegible] both to the Holy Ghost: and so the order [illegible] manner of the working of each which of [illegible] follow from this, as the Father works of [illegible] and first in order, the Son from the Father and [illegible] in order, the Holy Ghost from both, and [illegible] last in order. And therefore observe from [illegible] before we pass, that it is a dangerous deceit, [illegible] a desperate mistake, so to appropriate this work [illegible] the Father, and some other actions to the Son, [illegible] Holy Ghost, as that we should thereby bring in [illegible] ranks and conditions of Christians. As [illegible] example, from this fancy men have forged such [illegible] of the works of the persons, and such [illegible] suitable of Christians who receive such [illegible]; as they attribute drawing to the [illegible], liberty to the Son, power to the Spirit: and [illegible], such are under the Father's work: such under [illegible] Son's work but yet are not attained to the work [illegible] the Holy Ghost. And such who are to be under [illegible] work of the Spirit and so to be sealed, they have [illegible] all the former: whereas in truth, and according [illegible] the simplicity of the Scriptures, all these works [illegible] saving, and all of them wrought by all the [illegible], and he that is under the work of the Father in [illegible] of these, is also under the work of Christ, and [illegible] Spirit in them all. For as drawing (before) is [illegible] to all as well as the Father, the like we may say of liberty, and power. Does the Son set us free (John 8:31)? So does the Spirit. For (2 Corinthians 3:17): "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom: the law of the Spirit of life has freed us from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2). Does the Spirit seal us (Ephesians 1:13)? So does the Father also (2 Corinthians 1:12): "He that confirms and seals us is God, who has given to us his Holy Spirit." So likewise our Savior who has the two-edged sword in his hand (Revelation 2:17): he gives the white stone and the new name that no man knows. That is the secret of adoption, and seal of sonship; indeed, it is general: "Whatever he sees the Father do, even those things the Son does also" (John 5:19). We must be [illegible] and wary therefore that we be not taken aside [illegible] that delusion.

Though this work be wrought by all, yet it is attributed to the Father here in the text: because the manner of his work is more plainly discovered, and expressed also experimentally to the heart; and that as here he is [illegible], [illegible] send the Lord Jesus. I shall shortly open both: first, why it is ascribed to the Father; and second, why to the Father as sending the Lord Jesus, "Unless the Father which has sent me, draw him."

First then, why is the Father said to draw?

This drawing, as we have disputed formerly, implies two things in it of necessity: first, [illegible] from which the soul is drawn, and that is sin upon which the soul was [illegible]; second, something to which the soul is drawn, and that is [illegible]. Now both the expressions serve both these intentions in a most pregnant manner.

Because the Father's manifesting himself in his displeasure to the soul, does [illegible] and most [illegible] the work of that holy violence [illegible] is [illegible] to the soul [illegible] the [illegible] of the [illegible] from it, and [illegible] which this drawing we know is [illegible], [illegible], which may [illegible] be conceived.

The sin of Adam falling from his creation in which the [illegible] of the Father's working is especially discovered, in that he is the original in the Deity, first in order, and working from himself, and creation is the original of things, there they have their beginnings. Hence in Scripture it is said to be [illegible] directly against him, and indirectly against the Son and the Holy Ghost; because that work wherein though they all worked, yet the manner of the Father's dispensation did principally appear. 1 John 2:1. Little children, sin not at all, but if any man do sin, we have an Advocate with the Father. He says not, We have an Advocate with an Advocate: Christ is not properly, and firstly, and directly an Advocate to himself, but an Advocate is to plead with the party offended, in behalf of him who stands guilty and has offended, and therefore he is said to be an Advocate with the Father, because he was the offended party properly and directly. Christ an Advocate to plead the cause of his people, the Spirit the witness to certify of the success what the Advocate has done for them, and what acceptance he has found with the Father in their behalf.

Hence the Father's displeasure in the fierceness of it comes as most cross, and directly contrary to sin, and so the sinner; because directly wronged, and therefore has most reason, and is most ready to offer violence to the sin, for the destruction of that, and the confusion and condemnation of the sinner because of that. And hence therefore the resistance of sin comes to be destroyed, and the soul of the sinner most affrighted for it, and wearied with it, and so compelled to part. And therefore our Savior who was in our stead, and became our surety, and bore our sorrows, the chastisement of our peace being upon him, He says, Shall I not drink of [illegible] cup which the Father will give me? (John 18:11). By cup is meant those sufferings in our behalf [illegible] the Father had appointed, and did also lay upon him; and so consequently upon us in him.

If the fierceness of the wrath of the Father as the party directly offended is most cross to the sin of [illegible] sinner, and most dreadful to his soul as guilty, [illegible] the expression thereof even in that regard, is most fit, by a kind of violence to remove sin from the soul, and to force the soul from it.

Again, the Father as he sends Christ, [illegible] to him: because when he so makes himself manifest to the sinner, he shows the soul where [illegible] should go, and what certain success it may expect; indeed, easy and ready acceptance with the Father, and deliverance from his wrath, and the vengeance deserved if it do go. For when the sinner comes indeed to look upon the ghastly visage of sin, to see the heinousness, and the insufferable bitterness of that evil that does undoubtedly attend upon it, he now concludes he must either part from sin, or else he must needs perish in it: it cannot be avoided. Go he must from his sin, but where to go he cannot tell, that the filth and guilt of sin may be removed from him, and he delivered from the wrath of the Father which he has deserved by it. When he has sought far and near for succor and shelter, that heaven and earth professes there is no salvation to be had in us. Holy ordinances and duties say, We have heard of the name thereof, but we neither have it, nor can give it, only we have heard tell there is salvation in Christ, and in no other name under heaven. The [illegible] therefore intends to make out to a Christ, but [illegible] the question and doubt meets him, Though Christ can discharge my debt, lay down and present sufficient pay, it is yet doubtful whether the [illegible], being the creditor, will accept of it, and rest [illegible] with it, or no. Indeed, says the text, the Father has sent him for this purpose to be his salvation to the ends of the earth, and therefore he will not refuse him. Briefly, there be three things [illegible] in this sending, which may draw the [illegible] of the sinner towards Christ.

- 1 That God has appointed him, in his [illegible] purpose and counsel, to accomplish this work, [illegible] 49. The Lord has called me, verse 1. And he [illegible] to me, You are my servant, in you will I [illegible] glorified, verse 3. You shall be my salvation to [illegible] ends of the earth, verse 6. (John 6:27). For him [illegible] the Father sealed: a comparison taken from princes when they would send any with certain evidence of their appointment and approbation, they [illegible] him a commission, and signify their mind under [illegible] hand and seal: so the commission and [illegible] of the Father, is as it were the evidence, and [illegible] undeniable, that he was designed to this [illegible]. - 2 That he has fitted and furnished him with all [illegible] abilities and sufficiency to discharge the [illegible] of redemption committed to him, (Psalm 89:19). He has laid salvation upon one that is mighty [illegible] save: indeed, (Isaiah 61:1-2). The Spirit of God was [illegible] him, and he has anointed him, that is, [illegible] him with grace, that he might suit all the [illegible] and desires of his people, indeed, with the Spirit above measure, (John 3:34). - 3 That he accepts of him, and his service and mediation, in the behalf of all those whose [illegible] and places he sustains, (Matthew 3, last verse). This is my [illegible], in whom I am well pleased: not with whom only, but in whom, with all those whose place he sustains, and whose surety he was.

If God the Father who was offended, and that deeply with my sin, and therefore is now come out against me, either to destroy my sin, or to ruin and condemn my soul, he has appointed the Lord Jesus his Son to deliver poor creatures from their sins and from his wrath, and he has fitted him for this so great a work, and he will accept him only, and all that sue for acceptance in him. He only appointed, fitted, and accepted for sinners, let us therefore look towards him, and go to him. The Father that has sent him for this end, would drive me out of my sins, and send me to him for succor and relief, that I may be sure to speed. And I may be sure the Father who is so deeply offended, will never refuse him, [illegible] me, if I come to him through his Christ.

So we have done with the explication of the point.

Instruction. We may hence by way of collection infer several things, which are of much consequence in our daily course, and yet all appertain to this place as to their proper residence where they have their first [reconstructed: rise], and therefore may most clearly and rightly be here discussed and so discerned by those who will incline their ear, and apply their heart to wisdom.

Hence it follows by force of undeniable consequence, that this work of attraction (and so of preventing grace) proceeds from God as the only cause thereof, and depends wholly upon his [illegible] pleasure, and that he works in us without us: we being destitute of all ability which might help thereunto.

That which is done by a holy kind of violence against the natural inclination of the heart, that must needs be done upon us, but not by us; we have no hand in that work, and so it is here as has been proved. Let me add two or three reasons more besides the evidence of the rule from where it is immediately deduced.

Here that weapon comes first to hand which some of the ancients have so often used in this cause, and it's the canon of the Apostle, and that staple principle that cannot be gain-said (Romans 9:16): It is not in him that wills, or in him that runs, but in God that shows mercy. Where all other helping causes that may share in the conversion and bringing home of the sinner, are wholly denied and cast out, though they were means of special improvement, that if anything might seem to further it, they might have been of peculiar use, and of a speeding nature. It was not a sleepy, careless, slighting of the attainment of any spiritual good, or a slothful attendance upon it, nor is it a kind of heartless, and spiritless affection to it that are here rejected, in fact though his will was there, and the strength of endeavor, yet both miss the mark; the Apostle is plain and peremptory, let him set heart, and feet, and hand, and head on work, he shall never do no good on it, it is not there. It's merely only in him that shows mercy.

It was wont to be answered by the Pelagians, that it is so said, that it's not in him that runs, or wills, without mercy pitying of him, and grace assisting of him, he cannot do it without these, let him do what he can; yet he can do it with these. The vanity of which answer has been long since discovered, as that it crosses and corrupts the very meaning of the Apostle. For then the meaning upon the self same grounds would here be thus, as it is not in him that wills and runs without God assisting, co-working; so you might turn the tables: it's not in God that shows mercy without him that wills and runs. For if the words be not a plain and peremptory denial, but only comparatively to be taken, it's not so much, or not in his willing and running without mercy prevailing and helping, yet they concur as causes in this work; then may they as [illegible] be taken the other way: it's not in God that shows mercy only and wholly, but in him that wills and runs in part, which is to destroy the text, and to cross the intent of the Spirit.

That dispensation of God which gives ability and a principle to the will for to work that act and dispensation must be before the ability of the will and act of it, and so cannot be caused by it. As if God put a soul into those dead dry bones in Ezekiel 37, that they might live, this putting in of the [illegible] from where comes life, is before, and so without the work of the soul, or life also; and not at all caused by either. But this preparation and pulling away from sin, is to make way for a spiritual ability to be given to the will for to work, and therefore it is before the will and work, and either of them as any cause. So the Apostle John (1 John 5:20): he has given us a mind to know him and his Christ. Not only drawn out this act of knowledge, but given a mind also to enable us to this. (2 Corinthians 3:5) We [illegible] no sufficiency as of ourselves to think a good thought, but all our sufficiency is of God: not only the thinking, but the [illegible] to it. It's he that gives a [illegible] of flesh, and then causes us to walk in his ways (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

This is to be observed against a wretched shift and cursed cavil of the Jesuits; when they would pretend to give way to the grace of God; and yet in truth take away what they give: and therefore they yield freely and fully, that it is God who gives both the will and the deed. And grace is required of necessity to both, and neither can be without it; nor will nor deed. But in truth this is nothing but a color of words, when the sense which they follow sounds quite contrary. For ask but their meaning, and when they have opened themselves, all comes to thus much; that the Lord has a concourse and a co-working in the will and deed, and sends forth an influence into the act of the will, and of the work done: and leads forth and guides both to their end. And this is no more than he does with the act of any creature; the first cause concurring with the second: for in him it is that we live, and move, and have our being. As it is with two men that draw a boat or a ship together, each man has a principle and power of his own whereby he draws, but both these meet, and concur, and co-work together, in the drawing. So that all this that is said is but indeed to darken and delude the truth; indeed, to destroy the work of God's grace, and deceive the reader. For this gives no more to the work of God's grace in conversion, than it does to the act of providence upon, and with the act of any reasonable creature.

Whereas this must be observed carefully, and forever maintained as the everlasting truth of God, that the Lord gives a spiritual power to the work, which it had not before. He concurs with the act of that power when it is put forth; he gives him a being in the [reconstructed: order] of grace, before he leads out the act of that being. He first lets in an influence of a powerful impression upon the faculty of the will, before he concurs with the act [reconstructed: or] deed. He gives a heart of flesh, and then causes them to walk in his ways. As if one could put a principle of life and motion into another, and then draw forth the act of that power to the performance of the work — as to draw a boat, etc. This comparison will [reconstructed: confirm] the truth of the work.

As it is with the sons of the first Adam, in the work of their generation naturally, and the perverting and turning aside their souls from the Lord: so it is with the sons of the second Adam in their spiritual regeneration and conversion. But in the [reconstructed: former], the work is wrought in them without them; so it is said [reconstructed: of] Adam, he begot a son in his own image (Genesis 5:3). That the son was begotten in point of natural constitution, and that he was in Adam's image, his mind darkened, his will perverted, and the whole frame and disposition of the whole man turned aside from God; all which is wrought in the child without any act on the child's part. So [reconstructed: it] is with every one that is begotten to God by a new conversion. There is an impression of God's Spirit to turn them from [reconstructed: darkness] to God, without any ability of their own, further than it was given them by God, and acted by his Spirit. Of [reconstructed: his] own will he begot us (James 1:18). Born not of the will of blood, nor of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:13).

Hence then it follows in the second place, that the conversion of a sinner depends not upon, [reconstructed: nor] is lastly resolved into the liberty of man's will, which is the proper opinion of the Arminians, and somewhat more [reconstructed: extreme] than the [reconstructed: Arminians] themselves will own. The sum of it, and the full sense of it will appear in the answer to this question: Suppose that all outward means have been used and improved by providence upon two persons indifferently, in the same place enjoying the same helps — say Judas and Peter, who were both trained up under the wing of Christ, and received the droppings of his daily counsels alike, their minds both so far enlightened, and their consciences convinced of the things of God and grace, that they see what the will of God is, and what their way is to happiness, by believing in Christ.

Here grows the question: Why does Peter receive Christ, and Judas reject him? The answer and last resolution of Arminians is here: it was in the liberty of their own wills, and Peter would close with Christ, Judas would refuse him. But the orthodox divines answer out of the Word: the Lord gives a heart of flesh to Peter, and enables him — which he denies to Judas, as he [reconstructed: justly] may, and Judas has justly deserved he should. The wretchedness and falseness of the former opinion appears as from the former ground, so also from these following arguments.

If the will of itself has not the next passive power to receive grace and Christ, then it is not in its liberty to choose or refuse. But it has not the next passive power (Romans 8:7) — it is not subject to the law of God; indeed, it cannot be subject to receive the work, therefore not choose the work much less.

If it be in the liberty of the will either to choose or refuse, and that our conversion is lastly resolved into that, then it is in a man's own proper power and freedom to make himself to [reconstructed: differ] from another — which the Apostle peremptorily and professedly denies (2 Corinthians 4:7): Who makes you to differ? And what do you have that you have not received? The Arminians will say: it was my own will that made me to differ, the liberty of my own choice, because I used and improved my freedom well, which another did not.

That which exalts the will of man above the power and will of God, and makes it the more principal cause of our conversion, is injurious to God's grace, and opposed to his truth, and the aim of his counsel, which is to work all for the manifestation of the glory of his free grace. But this opinion does so. For it makes it in the power of man's will to frustrate and overpower all the means which are provided, and the operations of the Spirit upon the soul — for, for all these, the soul may not be converted. But if this be put forth, then the work is accomplished and brought to perfection without fail. That in genere [reconstructed: causae instrumentalis]; this in genere causae efficientis proprie sic dictae. That is only to stir up power; this alone puts forth the power by [reconstructed: which] it is wrought.

This delusion is exceedingly derogatory to the glory of God, and deprives God of that praise and thanksgiving which is due to his name. For upon this ground, a reprobate wretch who shall perish forever in the bottomless pit stands as much bound to God for his grace and bounty as he that is saved. For they were all equal in the means provided, in the operation of the Spirit, and the offers tendered for good. Had the one the ordinance, the other had so too. Had the one privileges and abilities, the other shared equally in these. Was the one enlightened and persuaded, so was the other. That the one received Christ — that was his free will; he may thank himself for that, and not God.

But the saints, when they come to acknowledge the Son of God, at the meeting of all the churches they profess the contrary. It was not their prayers, their tears, nor hearing, [reconstructed: nor their] resolutions, [reconstructed: nor their] performances — for all these their guilt still remained, the power of their corruptions not removed.

It was not any ability or natural gifts that could do it; for they see the spawn of all sin in their hearts, and had certainly had the strength of all distempers in their lives, that they are not in the dungeon with witches, upon the chain with malefactors — they cannot thank their good nature for it. Indeed, it was not in all the means, though spiritual and powerful; the ministers showed the way, they set forth the glorious things of God and grace, but it was not that which did it. But it was only in God who showed mercy — merely, only, wholly, out of the free mercy of the Lord.

Hence, our conversion depends not upon, nor issues not from the congruity of all such means, or the [illegible] suitableness of all such circumstances which may help forward those forcible persuasions which the Lord does present to the soul, and whereby he would so call the soul of a sinner to himself, as that his call may certainly find success. I conceive it meet to add this collection to the former, partly because this is the proper place to which it ought to be referred, and where it should be disputed, and from the former doctrine receives its doom, and confutation.

The brain of the Jesuits is the womb that bore it, and their forgery gave it its first being; a brat of their brain, a conceit which they forged and anvilled out of the froth of their own imaginations: for when they saw that it was a conclusion absurd and unreasonable, indeed, that which sounded harshly even to common sense to affirm, [illegible] a man's conversion was lastly resolved into the liberty of a man's own will; which advances man's free will above God's free grace, and makes the will of man a superior and more principal cause of our effectual calling, than the work of God's Spirit and grace.

It was so loathsome to look upon, that they resolved not to own it in such apprehensions, but they devised to put another visor upon it, that so [reconstructed: it] might appear other, when it was presented in other apprehensions; and because they cannot maintain what they say, they would say something which neither they, nor any else can understand. For they set down their opinion in these expressions.

When God (say they) who made all creatures, and so the will of man, by his wisdom and foreknowledge fully understood, what each creature and so the will of man would do in every event, condition, and occasion that could betide it: He also foresaw when the will of man was set in such a condition, so disposed, so suited with several circumstances, and conveniences, when his persuasions would find the greatest congruity and agreeableness with his disposition: and then presents such arguments that suit his disposition, and so undoubtedly prevails. So that these three particulars are attended in it.

- 1 The Lord works only by moral persuasions; that is the alone way that he takes to draw, not offering any violence, for that they think is unnatural, and unreasonable. - 2 The will is still left indifferent, and in its own liberty to choose, or refuse. - 3 The Lord out of his wisdom and foreknowledge, sees how to hit the heart in a right vein, takes the sinner in a good mood, hits his humor, watches as it were his advantages, observes what will meet and suit his disposition, and then presses it, and so [illegible].

He that God at such a time, in such a manner, by such means presses, as carry a congruous, a suitable, and answerable agreeableness to his disposition, he is converted. He that has not such hints taken to hit his disposition, he is not converted. So that two men sitting at the same sermon, the Spirit equally [illegible] both, the wills of both being equally apt and able to receive the work of the Spirit, yet there is congruity and suitableness in the one, and there the word speeds; not so in another, and there the word takes no place, [reconstructed: nor] prevails. Ask them what this congruity and agreeableness is? They [reconstructed: say] they cannot tell. And thus they mud the water and raise the dust, that they may go away in the dark, that others may not see them, nor see where they go. And thus they labor to shift off the pressure of reason, as hares when they are pursued they fall to their jumps and doublings, but all in vain, for the [illegible] of this conceit is confuted from the former doctrine.

For if this attraction be wrought by the impression of the work of the Spirit, without us though in us, then does it not issue from any congruity of circumstances, which may call forth the ability of our wills to this work: but this work is wrought in us without us, we not sharing in any manner, as any cause thereof. Therefore no power, nor disposition in our will, carried by any congruity of any helps, does or can procure it.

If the Lord does by a holy kind of violence destroy the resistance of the will, when it does, and cannot but oppose this work; and therefore expresses the power of his Spirit in way of contrariety to its inclination, then does it not look to any congruity of any circumstances to draw home the soul. But the former is true as has been abundantly proved before; therefore the latter also.

Nor do they, or can they by this pretence prevent the former absurdity, as resolving the conversion of the sinner, upon the freedom of the will.

For they themselves confess, as you heard in the explication of the cause, that this persuasion of the Lord put forth in this congruity and suitableness of all the circumstances; it leaves the will still at his liberty and indifference, as the masters and maintainers of this opinion do profess: from which I reason thus,

If it be left in the power of the will, either to receive or refuse this congruous persuasion, then is it in the power of the will still, whether the act of conversion shall follow or not; then is the efficacy and success of the work of the means and the Spirit resolved lastly into a man's will. For if it be in his will to succeed, or not to succeed the work of conversion, then is it in the power of it, to make, or not to make the means efficacious, for therein lies the efficacy of grace.

But besides the former principles, weigh we a little the following arguments, which further discover the folly and falsehood of this delusion.

First, Experiment: Then, Argument.

First, the experience of the saints left on record in the Scriptures (which give witness [illegible]) give in evidence, and that undeniably, that in truth the dispensation of the Lord is quite [illegible] to this conceit: who is pleased herein to magnify the freedom, and power, and riches of grace, that [illegible] takes sinners at the worst, and over-powers the perverseness of their hearts, and that many times when they are come to the height, and that in the very heat of their rebellions, that they might indeed confess it, and all the world see it. It is not the suitableness of our disposition which God needs to take advantage by, but the almighty and all-sufficient efficacy of his grace is such, that he does what he will, when our wills most oppose, and in reason there is least probability and possibility in the work of causes to attain this effect. Thus the Israelites (Ezekiel 16:3-4), when the Lord called them, and took them to himself, he professes their navel was not cut, nor salted with salt, nor washed; but he saw them weltering in their blood, and that was a time of love which the Lord took, and said to them, Live. (Isaiah 43:24-25) When they wearied him with their wickedness, and made him to serve with their iniquities, then he said, I, even I for my own name's sake will blot out your iniquities. It was the carriage of God to Abraham, and typified out in the son of his promise, when his body was dead, her womb was barren, then he gives them a son: he brings and begins his church out of the dust, and calls things that are not, as though they were.

Paul is breathing out threatenings against Christ, fierce in the pursuit of his poor members, and resolved to see the ruin of them, as he himself speaks of himself, he was mad with malice, and made havoc with the church (Acts 26:11; Acts 1:1; Galatians 1, last verse). The Lord takes this time, when he was at the height and rough of his outrage, to bring him to the embracing of the truth, when he was come out in greatest outrage in opposition and persecution of it (Acts 9). And this was usual in the course of providence, and the dispensation of the means of grace, for he himself gives the ground of God's dealing, and his aim in this (1 Timothy 1:16): to wit, that he might be an example and pattern to all posterity to support the hearts of the rebellious Gentiles, that they might not sink under the weight of their insufferable [illegible], but yet to seek the Lord.

So it was with these converts (Acts 2): some mocked, some blasphemed, [illegible] derided the Apostles, and that was the season the Lord took to set upon their hearts by the ministry of the Apostles. And were the Scripture silent in this case, how often have we found it in our own experience acknowledged by many, those who came purposely to deride and [reconstructed: scorn] the ministry of the Word, sometimes to entrap and ensnare the minister, sometimes to see, and slight, and jeer at the assemblies of the saints: that was the time which the Lord took to seize upon their souls, to convince, convert, and save them through mercy. What congruity or suitableness was there then for this work, unless you will make contrariety and the height of sinful rage, and opposition to be congruity? This is God's manner to do wonderful things beyond the reach of common reason; when it was hard to the people of the captivity to believe it, God then says it was not hard to work it: (Zechariah 8:6) Thus says the Lord to this people, If it be marvelous in your eyes, should it be marvelous in my eyes?

God usually carries the chiefest of the expressions of his providence by way of contrariety, and cross means in common apprehension, and the course of things, that he might silence the pride of all flesh, and the forgery of all [illegible], who are the professed enemies of his grace. So Elijah, when he would make way for the glory of the miracle and manifestation of God's power, he does not only lay the sacrifice upon the altar without fire, but digs ditches deep, and fills them with water, that the power of the fire might appear more remarkably (1 Kings 18:33-35). So here,

To this experience, which cannot be [illegible], take these reasons for further clearing of the truth, and the crushing of this erroneous conceit.

If the conversion or attraction of a sinner be lastly resolved into the congruity and suitableness of moral persuasions: then may it lastly depend upon some natural cause, or in truth upon some common circumstance of some outward occasion, and convenience with which the sinner may meet in the use of means. For in the meeting and concurrence of these, as time, place, order, or outward helps, and the disposition of the party, in some, or all of these this congruity will consist. But this is to resolve our spiritual and supernatural call into a natural cause against rule and reason. For nothing can exceed the bounds of that ability which the Lord in the way of his providence has set in the creature; natural causes produce natural effects only: (John 1:12) which are born not of blood, nor of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh: there is nothing in corruption, or natural disposition, or the excellency of any [illegible], that brings forth this spiritual birth. In fact, the Apostle professedly excludes all these as not able to bring about this work, and therefore sets out the vanity and emptiness of them, when they are at the highest: we preach (says the Apostle) wisdom to those that are perfect, which this world, nor the princes of this world were never able to reach to (1 Corinthians 2:6, 8). If any were suited with the choicest means, or had liberty to enjoy the choicest opportunities, or the best advantages, according to their hearts' content, these were the men, and yet these could [illegible] of this work: [illegible], a [illegible] of outward means which properly reach not the [illegible] work, prove an [illegible] to this effectual calling. So the Apostle (1 Corinthians 1:26): not many wise, not many rich, [illegible] many noble: [illegible] wisdom and choice abilities, wealth and outward [illegible], honor and [illegible], they are in [illegible], and so [illegible], and therefore congruous to help forward a [illegible] course (because those that are not subordinate, [illegible], are [illegible] [illegible], and the argument follows [illegible]) [illegible] reason if any, then these who had [illegible] and choice abilities to improve the means, [illegible] [illegible] the work, those who had wealth to purchase them, those who had authority to [illegible] and them to serve their turn, they should be suited to all [illegible] encouragements, to [illegible] on in a Christian course, but we see this does it not.

Some who have the greatest [illegible] and suitableness of all moral persuasions, to draw their hearts to Christ, do remain for ever at greatest distance from him; therefore saving conversion is not resolved into, nor depends certainly upon the congruity of moral persuasions. That some have such suitableness and yet remain at such a distance, I instance in [illegible] those that sin the sin against the Holy Ghost, and count the blood of Jesus a common thing: That these have the congruity of all means to prevail with them, the Word will give in [illegible] proof (Hebrews 6:5-6). They taste of the heavenly gift, that is faith; are made [illegible] of the Holy Ghost, have tasted of the good Word of God, and of the powers of the world to come: They have a taste of vocation, of adoption, and [illegible], and [illegible]; and that there were [illegible] of moral [illegible] to work these, I thus show, Where there is a concurrence of all moral causes which by the rule of providence the Lord has appointed, all those that he has fitted and proportioned both to the nature of the soul, and the nature of the spiritual work needful for it; such whom he has so far breathed upon and worked with, that there is a taste of all the saving work of God left upon the soul, only the truth and reality of the work is [illegible], comes as near to effectual calling as may be, and not be called; as near to the stamp of true sanctification as can be, and not be sanctified: there is the congruity of all moral persuasions, and the meeting and concourse of the strength of all arguments and reasons that can be propounded, only there is yet a principle internal wanting, which should indeed change the will. For if the contrary to all these be incongruous, and carry a kind of unsuitableness, either to the necessities of the soul, and the work of God upon the soul for its saving good, then the presence of these carry an undoubted congruity, and answerableness to all the good of the soul and the work that should be done upon it. For certain it is when all the means that God has appointed are attended and used, also in the order and manner he has appointed, neither more help, nor more congruity can be desired, nor yet attained; for if there be any other means which God has not appointed, those will prove hindrances not helps; or if they be used in any other order than that he has ordained, these are disorderly perverted and abused, and made unserviceable to do their work, or attain their end. And yet when the power of all these is improved to affect the will, and stir and provoke it, but not change it, it is never savingly brought home to God. So Moses, concerning the condition of the Israelites (Deuteronomy 4:34) compared with (Deuteronomy 29:4): Did ever God assay to take a people to himself with signs and wonders, and great temptations, and out of the heavens he made you hear his voice, that he might instruct you: What then was wanting? He suited them with all miraculous expressions of his love and mercy; but this was [illegible], To this day he has not given you a heart. And if he give you all mercies beside, tried you with all corrections, pursued with miraculous expressions of his power and faithfulness, if yet he give [reconstructed: not] a new heart, all that ever he shall give will never do you good. So the Prophet, when he was appointed and fitted in an especial manner, having his tongue touched with a coal from the altar, when he was furnished with gracious abilities from Christ to dispense the Word, yet all was to make their ears heavy, and their hearts fat, and their eyes blind, that they should not see, nor believe, nor be converted (Isaiah 6:7-8). And therefore the Apostle when he had given the doom upon those backsliders, he adds, We are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, which these did not (Hebrews 6:9).

If all means and helps that can be used in way of moral persuasions, are wholly incongruous, and utterly unable to work upon the corrupt heart of man, then there is no congruity of such persuasions, that can savingly convert, or call the soul, or draw the sinner to Christ: But all means in way of moral persuasions that can be used, are indeed wholly incongruous, and utterly unable to work upon the corrupt heart of a sinner to his conversion; but they reach not the distemper or cause of a man's misery and therefore can never do the cure. For these are to call forth the power a man has into act, whereas the [illegible] wants all spiritual power, whereby [illegible] may be enabled to put forth any act that may be acceptable to God (Romans 5:6). When we were without strength; and the Apostle does not say, We have some sufficiency to think a good thought, if some arguments were suggested to draw it out, but does plainly and peremptorily affirm, That all our sufficiency is from God, and therefore none firstly of ourselves (2 Corinthians 3:5).

How silly was it, and incongruous to common sense to provide the sweetest sounds, and choicest music to delight a deaf man? To present the pleasantest colors to affect and please him that is blind, to set the most sovereign cordials and the most curious rarities and dainties before a dead man to refresh him? Yet such is the condition of every natural man concerning the things of grace: He is deaf and hears not, blind and sees not, dead and relishes not any thing that appertains to his peace, unless then you give him a new soul whereby he may live, all outward services are utterly unsuitable to his condition. In a word this quaint device of the Jesuit is so far from any sap, or any real subtlety in it, that the opinion quite contrary (in a true sense) is most consonant to the truth.

The means (then) appointed and used in providence by the Lord, may be attended in a double respect, either in regard of the end the Lord aims at, and the effect he intends; and so it is true, the means which the Lord has ordained carry congruity and suitableness for the attainment of his own end, and accomplishment of his own work.

But secondly, If we look at the corrupt heart, and nature, and will of man, which is now to be subdued, and his darling corruptions now to be removed from him, then it is most certain the means which the Lord has ordained and uses for his conversion carry not any congruity, but a contrariety to his corrupt heart and will.

That which must expel and [illegible] corruption in the heart, that must not have [illegible] but a [illegible] to it. But the means which the Lord [illegible] to call and draw [illegible], are to destroy and expel the corruption; therefore they must have not a congruity, but a contrariety and crossness to them.

That question which is attended with so many tedious [illegible], is from the former doctrine [illegible] and concluded, and that undeniably, and because [illegible] does [illegible] properly to this place, I shall [illegible] express it: Hence then it follows,

The power of grace put forth in the work of conversion, is irresistible.

When I say, irresistible: We mean not that the corrupt heart does not oppose and resist the operation of the Spirit, and the [illegible] of the ordinance: for while that [illegible] is [illegible], it cannot but labor the preservation of itself, and therefore cannot but oppose the power of God's Spirit, which works the destruction of it. But this is the meaning, it cannot so prevail as to [illegible] God's intent, or to prejudice the work of his grace, as that it should not find [illegible] in the [illegible] of the sinner, or hinder his [illegible] home to Christ. This collection in [illegible], is [illegible] demonstratively, and undeniably from the former doctrine.

That grace which takes away the power of resistance stirred up by Satan, or the corrupt heart of a sinner, that cannot be resisted. But the grace of God put forth in preparation, and drawing does by [illegible] of [illegible] take away the power of resistance in the [illegible] heart of a sinner; and therefore it cannot be resisted.

Hence it follows again in the fifth place,

Wherever there is spiritual sufficiency of grace; there is also spiritual efficacy put forth [illegible] work of [illegible].

These two go hand in hand in this [illegible] of God, and are either the same really, or do [illegible] accompany one another. And I therefore mention this collection, not only [illegible] of the [illegible] of it, as that it needs to be unfolded and apprehended aright, especially considering [illegible] is the proper seal to which it must be referred, where his stock and [illegible] may be observed, and where his [illegible] may be disputed and [illegible].

But [illegible] I [illegible] it convenient to take the more [illegible] thereof, [illegible] of the special benefit and use thereof. The right [illegible] of this makes ready way for the clear [illegible] of the delusions of the Jesuits which they have invented and set up as blinds in the way that men might not see the [illegible] of the Lord, and set forth and acknowledge the power and glory of his [illegible]. In fact, it has found favor with some who otherwise follow the [illegible], and that truly, in their [illegible] of the drawing of God, [illegible] according to their diverse apprehensions, they set down explications of their own thoughts in a diverse manner.

Their general tenet is this, they make this [illegible] distribution of the work of God's grace in conversion,

Auxilium est vel, Sufficiens. Efficax.

The dispensation of the work of grace in the way of conversion, is either by way of sufficiency [illegible]: either sufficient, or effectual and efficient.

- 1 All men say they have sufficient help from God in the dispensation of the ways of his providences and ordinances, that they may be converted were it not their own fault; they [illegible] a power and a [illegible] by the supply of this sufficient help from God to this end and for this work, and yet though they may, yet they do not attain success. - 2 But the elect and such as the Lord has set apart to himself, have the efficacy of this spiritual help from the Lord, as that they shall be, and in their times are actually called and converted to God. Against these forgeries, I desire this fifth collection may be attended.

Wherever there is sufficiency of exciting and preventing grace, put forth by the Lord, for the drawing, and converting of the sinner; there is also the efficacy of that grace which never fails to attain success.

First, we shall open this collection, that [illegible] full meaning may fairly and plainly be apprehended.

Secondly, we shall show how it follows evidently from the former doctrine, as that the one cannot be granted, but the other must needs be yielded.

For the understanding of the collection, attend three things.

That this exciting or preventing grace of God, it is not any habit, or gracious disposition imprinted upon the soul, by which it was in power or possibility to act or not to act, as it seems good and suits best with its own purpose. For example sake, in those actions wherein men are causes by counsel, they have [illegible] and power to put forth such an action, or withhold the doing of it as they see fit. A man has a power to go here or there, to speak these or those words, yet he may sit still, and stop his motion, he may be mute, and silence his words. But as we heard before, it is the motion or actual impression of the work of the Spirit, so that God is not purposing and decreeing within himself, but putting his purpose into a powerful execution, and so comes under such words to be deciphered, as drawing, teaching, turning; all which show an actual expression of God's power and pleasure.

Sufficiency of any cause or causes is to be attended, either absolutely in regard of the end at which they look, and then that is absolutely sufficient which can attain his end without any other; if any hindrances it can remove, if any wants it can supply, if anything to be done, it can procure it, accomplish it; (1 Corinthians 12:9). My grace is sufficient for you. And thus some causes may be sufficient for the accomplishment of one effect, which are not for another. Those common strokes of the Spirit in illumination, and conviction, and moral [illegible], in propounding arguments to the hearts, [illegible] pressing on mightily by evidence of reason, are sufficient to make people beyond [illegible]. (John 15:[illegible]). If I had not come and spoken to them, they had [illegible] no sin; but now they have no cloak for their [illegible]. (Ezekiel 3:11). Whether they [illegible] hear, or whether they will forbear, yet this they shall know there [illegible] been a prophet among them. It is sufficient to condemn them, if not to convert them. But these are not sufficient to [illegible] the work of conversion, for there is more power required to that: there is not only an enlightening of the understanding, but [illegible] opening of the heart; (Acts 3:11). [illegible] baptize [illegible] water, but there is one that comes [illegible], he [illegible] with the Holy Ghost and fire.

There is sufficiency upon comparison or supposition, upon this ground or supposal that we take in other causes, in their [illegible] and [illegible] work with others; and this is very improperly and abusively said to be sufficient. This is the [illegible] of the Popish crew: there is sufficient help vouchsafed on God's part to [illegible], for salvation and conversion, if they would [illegible] of the freedom of their own wills use and improve them for the end that the Lord has appointed them, and does now [illegible] them if they will give way, and welcome [illegible] the light which the Lord has now [illegible], and not reject the [illegible] of God against [illegible]: which is in truth to say it is not sufficient to work their wills and hearts to this, but it is sufficient to present, and persuade the heart if it will — for they who make the will of man a partial cause with God in this work, [illegible] that [illegible] will and grace of God and his Spirit is not the sole and alone cause, and therefore not the sufficient [illegible] to do it. As if two men be partial causes in drawing a ship, neither are sufficient to do it.

The like mistake is in that expression and comparison, in which the supporters of this opinion do so much please themselves: say they, the eye has sufficient power to see, but yet unless the air be enlightened, and the object presented to it, it will never see or perceive it, nor put forth this power effectually upon the object. Answer: The mistake is merely in the manner of the expression misunderstood: for seeing implies two things in it. First, to act upon an object when it is presented in a right distance, and through a fit means. Second, to bring this object in such a manner to the eye. That the eye is sufficient to do the first, and is also effectual that way; the eye is not sufficient to the second, and therefore no wonder it does not perform it. Thus it is in the spiritual work; Deuteronomy 29:4. Though they had seen many signs and wonders, yet nothing was sufficient to work upon them, and prevail with them effectually: and it is added, because that to that day God had not given them an [illegible]. He had given them wonders, provided ordinances, crowned [illegible] with privileges, and these might perhaps convict and condemn, being sufficient for that: but not to convert, unless he had given them a heart. This is the difference our Savior gives of the sufficiency, and so the efficacy of God's dispensations, Matthew 13:11, 13. To them I speak in parables, that seeing they may see and not perceive; hearing they may hear, and not understand: but to you is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. He not only gives to his disciples a word, but a mind to know.

Efficacious, or effectual grace and help is, when the work formerly intended and purposed by the Lord, is now really accomplished, actually performed, and put into execution: when the soul [illegible] turned, and called according to his purpose, Romans [illegible]:28. So that the full sense is, wherever there is [illegible] absolute sufficiency of preventing and [illegible] grace, there is an actual efficacy in the accomplishment of that work upon the soul. And this [illegible] from the former doctrine by force of [illegible] argument several ways: thus,

Where there is the concurrence of all [illegible] putting forth themselves for the work of conversion, there that work will certainly and effectually be brought forth; because there is no more required to the existence of anything, than the causes of it, and those jointly working for that end. But [illegible] there is the sufficiency of preventing grace, there [illegible] all the causes of conversion, and all these working: for in that there is a sufficiency, therein all the [illegible] are implied: in that it is the sufficiency of [illegible] grace, which is a motion and impression of [illegible] Spirit, therein the action of these is expressed: and the work must needs follow, and the drawing [illegible] fail to be efficacious. For the reason why a reasonable agent is sufficient to accomplish, and [illegible] does not; it is, because he has power but [illegible] and does not put forth that power to the [illegible] of the work: but so it is not here.

Where God's preventing grace is put forth, there the work of conversion does undoubtedly follow; because it alone works it in us, without us: but [illegible] there is [illegible] help of our drawing, there [illegible] preventing grace is put forth: therefore there [illegible] conversion must needs be effectual.

Where all the power of resistance is [illegible][illegible] might hinder the work of our conversion, there our conversion must needs be effectual, but [illegible][illegible] drawing is, and so sufficiency of God's exciting grace, (for that and drawing are alone) there all the [illegible] of resistance which might hinder is removed: therefore where this sufficiency is, the work of our calling must needs be effectual.

Hence again it follows by undeniable evidence, that all men have not sufficient help of preventing grace whereby they may be called effectually, and [illegible] conversion wrought without fail, if they would but improve the help as they may. This [illegible] immediately from the foregoing grant, and [illegible] beyond all gainsaying.

For sense and experience puts it beyond all doubt and dispute, that all men have not tasted [illegible] efficacy of saving calling, but the efficacy and sufficiency of exciting grace are either all one, or without fail go always together; therefore to whom [illegible] efficacy of this preventing grace is not dispensed to them, the sufficiency is not.

Again, the letter of the text gives in testimony beyond control; they who share not in the drawing of the Father, they partake not of the sufficiency of exciting grace: for herein the very nature of it lies, and the words are pregnant, 'No man can come to me, he has not power to come unless the Father draw him.' But the Father draws not all, for that is the scope of our Savior's direction and caution whereby he would check the murmuring of the Jews, quarreling with his doctrine, and despising his person; now lest any should be taken aside by their sinful example, our Savior adds this as the reason, and leaves it upon record, 'No man can come to me, be his place, his parts, his excellencies and abilities never so great and glorious, therefore marvel not, it is not in their practice, it is beyond their power, unless they are drawn,' [illegible] yet they are not, nor are likely to be.

Again, there is yet a special work of God's grace and favor, the want of which our Savior makes a never failing [reconstructed: reason] why the souls of sinners never share in Christ, and [reconstructed: therefore] neither in eternal life; (John 6:36). I said to you, that you also have seen me and believe not: But they might have [reconstructed: asked for] a reason to be rendered, and a [reconstructed: reason] given, why that should be charged; our Savior gives in his argument which will admit no answer to satisfy it, hardly a pretense to avoid the [reconstructed: force] of it. (Verse 37.) All that my Father gives shall come to me, and him that comes to me, I will in no wise cast out. Not to be given, then is one cause why men cannot come; and so have not sufficiency of help to enable them to that work, and to partake of the comfort.

Lastly, the sufficiency of exciting grace may be attended two ways. Either, first, in respect of the outward dispensation of the means, which the Lord [reconstructed: has] appointed, and by which his grace and Spirit is conveyed. Or, secondly, there is also the internal operation of the Holy Spirit, in which only the sufficiency of saving calling is accomplished. Now many thousand thousands there be that never communicated in any of these — either the external, or [reconstructed: internal]: [reconstructed: first], in the external; when the special privileges under the law were enclosed, and appropriated to the nation of the Jews, "You alone have I known of all the nations of the world" (Amos 3:2). "To them belong the adoption, and the glory and the covenant, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises" (Romans 9:4). "He has not dealt so with other nations, neither have the heathen the knowledge of his ways" (Psalm 147:20). They who never heard of [reconstructed: Christ], nor grace, nor sin, nor conversion, nor salvation, [reconstructed: certainly] have not sufficiency of outward means whereby [reconstructed: they] might be converted. (Acts 17:30.) The times [reconstructed: of] that ignorance, he overlooked: he regarded [reconstructed: not] the Gentiles; but now he commands all men to [reconstructed: turn] and repent; as if he should say, before he [reconstructed: would] not so much as call the Gentiles to the [reconstructed: knowledge] of the things of grace. And for the inward [reconstructed: work], how many thousands have not the common [reconstructed: operations] of the Spirit which tend to conviction, and [reconstructed: saving] persuasion, of whom that of the prophet is [reconstructed: said], "To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" ([reconstructed: Isaiah] 53:1). Multitudes there be, to whom the word is [reconstructed: a savor] of death (2 Corinthians 2:16), in whom the God of [reconstructed: this] world has blinded their eyes (2 Corinthians 4:4), that [reconstructed: they] might not see the glory of God; who seeing see [reconstructed: yet] perceive not, hearing they hear and yet [reconstructed: understand] not, their ears are made heavy and their [reconstructed: hearts] fat, that they should not be converted. The whole nation of the Jews now curse the Lord Jesus [reconstructed: in] their synagogues, and therefore have no drawing [reconstructed: toward] the Lord Jesus. And so much for the first use of instruction.

The second use is for consolation, to several sorts of men.

First, here is ground of incomparable, and inconceivable comfort to support the hearts of [reconstructed: poor] sinners, from sinking under desperate [reconstructed: despair], and that irrecoverably. When their corruptions come in upon them like the mighty ocean, when innumerable evils compass them about, [reconstructed: when] their sins take hold upon them, that they are not [reconstructed: able] to look up, they are more than the hairs of their [reconstructed: head], and their very hearts fail them: they find the opposition so strong, and themselves so weak, [reconstructed: the] work of deliverance so impossible to their own sense and experience, that their prayers and endeavors, and hearts [reconstructed: fail] them: yet here is a gale [reconstructed: of] hope, and that which will uphold the heart, if [reconstructed: the] Lord will have in the soul, all opposition in [reconstructed: heaven] and earth, shall never hold it.

As he must needs go whom the devil drives, so [reconstructed: he] must [reconstructed: needs] come whom God will draw: though [reconstructed: the] means prevail not, your prayers speed not, you [reconstructed: are] not able by all your endeavors to bear up against [reconstructed: the] stream, yet God is able, and it is his work, here stay your heart, God can do it, and who knows but [reconstructed: he] may.

Briefly, the discouragements are three.

First, the assaults of Satan — he comes in amain, and makes batteries against the heart, he musters up all his forces, and presents to the view of the sinner all the darkness of the kingdom of darkness, and [reconstructed: pours] the venom of sin in the twinkling of an eye: [reconstructed: He] presents all his sins that ever he has committed with all the aggravating circumstances against mercies, covenants, checks of conscience: "Lo," says Satan, "do you not see all these, and they come in, [reconstructed: in] troops, there is no end of them, not only in New England, but upon the sea, in the land of our nativity," and he brings him to his cradle, and [reconstructed: shows] him how he came a child of wrath into the world. Withal, Satan lets in the guilt of all these sins upon the soul: says Satan, if one sin deserves everlasting condemnation as you know it does, what then is deserved by so many sins committed, continued in, repeated, against means and mercies, why hell is too little for such a rebel, God must make a new hell for such a wretch. And withal Satan tells him the date of mercy is past, your best days are done, you have had means, and mercies, and friends to counsel you; very good, now mercy is gone and past, you shall hear no more of the mercy of God, or of Jesus Christ. Now Satan hurries the [reconstructed: soul] when he has got him here — the multitude of his sins, the guilt of his sins, and mercy past — why now had you not better go out of the world, than to live without hope, and multiply your sins, and so your plagues forever? Here he hurries the soul up and down, and gives him no leave to think of mercy. "Oh!" says the soul, "Is there no hope in Jesus Christ, the means of grace, and the Spirit of God?" "Why," says Satan, "do not you deceive yourself, you have had means, and mercies, and you are just in the place where you were, therefore you had best put an end to your sins, and self, and life, and all."

Now mark [illegible]; in this case you should have recourse to the former doctrine, Satan will not, cannot be entreated — that's true: but God is stronger than Satan, and he can cast him out of your soul; it is not arguments that can do it, but God can do it. Say therefore, though my prayers, my endeavors, my heart, my hopes fail me, yet God [illegible] do it; though my soul cannot leave my sin, [illegible] my [illegible] will not, cannot leave my soul, yet God can force away my sin from my soul, and command my soul to return from iniquity. God can do this (Romans 16:20): "The God of peace shall beat down Satan under your feet shortly." Whatever becomes of your sense and feeling, listen not, attend not to his temptations; be sure to retire here as to your castle — God can do it, it is the almighty work of God; there stand, there live, and there die. Christ told his disciples, he saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning (Luke 10:18) — that is, suddenly and strangely. And (John 16:11): "Now shall the prince [illegible] this world be judged." God will judge Satan for all those temptations and delusions of his; do not you own them, and God will condemn him for them. Indeed, as it is (Isaiah 43:6): "I will say to the North, Give up; to the South, Keep not back; bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth." Though you should be in the mouth of hell, or in the bottom of the sea, yet God is able to call you from there: he that says to the sea, Give up your dead; he can say to hell, Give up your damned. Therefore bear up your heart and hopes, and expectation that God may do that for you, which you are not able to conceive of.

But yet there is another ground of discouragement: Satan is malicious, but oh! the world and the snares thereof are so many, so mighty, that the soul is still in a maze, taken in a net as it were, and knows not which way to turn. And there are some kinds of sins which snare a man exceedingly by the world: as when loose companions have [illegible] within a man, and licentious courses have taken away the heart of a man — oh! the heart comes [illegible] hardly there. The sinner shakes at the sight of [illegible] companions, he is convinced and resolved [illegible] them, and yet he goes away to them, and is led by them, and when the adulterer is taken with his adulterous mate, they scarce ever return again. [illegible] lamentable what those that are acquainted with cases of conscience this way do know: still [illegible] mates tempt, and these companions overbear — though they resolve, and promise, and vow, [illegible] pray, yet they are in again, just in the place [illegible] they were. So that the soul says, I am not able [illegible] resist these temptations, I am never able to get [illegible] of these snares, therefore sin I shall, and sin I must, and perish I must: temptations are desperate; here a man lies prostrate under them, not able to recover out of them.

Now brethren, when you are in such a case as this — you see your sins, you confess them, pray against them, and yet are taken aside by them — your heart is strongly engaged, and ensnared, and you are not able to get from under these sins.

Here is all the hope I can give you: it is in God's hand yet to pluck off your soul, and to take away your heart for all that. You know how Solomon the wisest, and Samson the strongest, were deluded and snared, and taken by their own corruptions and snares of the world — Samson's head upon Delilah's lap, he would sit and lie, though he died for it. Brethren, it is here only that God may do good to you: if I [illegible] tell you it is in the power of means and mercies, and any congruity of means, or liberty of your own wills, your souls might be deceived, but would never be comforted. But look up to the Lord, there is hope in him, there is mercy with him. (John 16:33): "Be of good comfort," says our Savior Christ, "I have overcome the world." Indeed, the Lord declares it (Ezekiel [illegible]:32): "They shall loathe themselves in the sight of all their doings that have not been good." Say then, God is able to make me loathe myself and my snares, and all the sinful entanglements that my heart is so taken aside with — this is that only that will sustain you and support you. (John 10:16): "I have other sheep, and they shall hear my voice, and them I must bring." I must bring the [illegible] from his cups, the adulterer from the arms of his [illegible], and the worldly man from all the snares of the world; the Lord can do it, and will do it also for those that belong to him. Therefore to that God look, [illegible] that Christ look, who has said it, and can do it — he can do it for you as well as for any other.

A third ground of discouragement which the sinner finds, and that is the worst of all, namely, the stiffness and stubbornness of his own heart; he cannot blame the Devil for [illegible] of him, or the world for snaring of him; he says, and knows his heart is as bad as Hell itself, he has courted and desired temptations, his heart has been lingering and hankering after them: and had not God been merciful to him, he had lived, and lain, and perished forever in his sins. In fact, though there were no [illegible] to tempt, nor world to allure, yet I have a heart like a dunghill, that steams up continually noisome abominations: in fact, that which is worst of all, if after all the mercies I have abused, and sins committed, I had a heart that could repent there was some hope: but Oh! the stiffness and knottiness of this heart of mine, I have had conscience checking of me, and the minister reproving of me, and the Spirit of God striving with me, but Oh! I have a hard heart that cannot repent; and this is the plague of all plagues, worse than the Devil and Hell itself. How shall I help myself here? Moral persuasions? Alas my heart spurns at them all, and makes nothing of them all, I have had the minister speaking to my soul, and the flashes of Hell in my face, and yet alas! such is the desperate frame of my heart, that I will have my sins or [illegible] die for it. What will all moral persuasions, and congruity of means do here? Alas! the heart scorns all: as in the case of a man, who fell into deep distress and horror of conscience [illegible] he had [illegible] the sin against the Holy Ghost, lying in that a twelve month together, and the Lord let loose the [illegible] of his own Spirit upon him, that he often thought to lay violent hands upon himself, but this was all that he had to support himself in that sad time; my salvation is not in my own hand, it is not in my will, but in God's will. It is not in him that wills, or in him that runs, but in God that shows mercy (James 1:18). Of his own will he has begotten us by the word of truth. He that made the will, can only convert the will: Oh! then bless God, that has taken our salvation into his own hand, for if it were in our hands, if it were left to our wills, we should never have it. This is that which may uphold the heart in the midst of all the heavy temptation, which will [illegible] or last seize upon the hearts of men.

Again: secondly, it is matter of consolation to all the faithful who have found this work of God upon their souls; it will afford them ground of glorious support to fence and fortify their souls against the days of difficulty, and times of distress, against whatever discouragements or desertions may [illegible] them from within, whatever assaults or temptations may press in upon them from without in the following course of their lives in future times. From hence they may promise themselves assistance and deliverance without fail, and certainly expect it. Whatever the temptations be they shall never prevail against them, whatever the power and strength of their corruptions be, they shall never be able hurtfully to overcome them; if God the Father has once drawn them to his Christ, when they did nothing but oppose this work, all the power of Hell shall never be able to withdraw them from the Lord Jesus, when they desire to cleave to him, and to be his. He that plucked me away from my sin with a holy kind of violence, when I loved it as my life, and was loath to part with it, will he deny his [illegible] to me when I strive against it? He that forced his mercy upon me when I resisted it in the days of my folly and wretchedness, when I resolved I would none of him; will he deny me mercy when he has given me a heart to beg and prize it? He that sought me, and drew me, when I forsook him, will he not embrace and entertain a poor creature when I seek and sue for acceptance from him? Thus the Apostle disputes and clears himself with much boldness, and assurance of invincible success, and he gains and gets the higher ground of his fears and discouragements (Romans 5:6, 9). If Christ died for us when we were of no strength, indeed, when we were ungodly, how much more being justified by his death shall we be saved from wrath through him, for if when we were enemies, we were reconciled, how much more shall we be saved by his life? If when we had no strength, he rescued us from the hand of Hell, and sin, and when enemies reconciled us: when he has given us strength and made us his friends, will he not forever relieve and succor us? Indeed, much more says the Apostle, he gets upon the higher ground and triumphs over all the enemies of our salvation, as knowing he should certainly be assisted against them all.

Thus Samuel shored up the dismayed and sinking hearts of the rebellious Israelites, when the Lord had thundered out his displeasure against them, by reason they had wretchedly, and treacherously, and unfaithfully rejected the Lord and his gracious government, when they would not believe Samuel's words, he tells them, That God would thunder out his threatenings from heaven (1 Samuel 12:17-18). And when the people saw the lightning and heard the thunder, and then saw the heinousness of their sins, and feared what heavy punishment they might expect from so terrible a God. Then they that cared not for his words and counsels, crave his prayers, Oh pray for us (say they) for we have sinned, and to all our other sins have added this, in asking for a King. Samuel to prevent the deadly symptom of desperate discouragement, which would drive them from the Lord, and so from their own comfort; [reconstructed: he says], You have indeed sinned, yet turn you not aside from following the Lord: And again he adds, Turn not aside to vain things that cannot help: And he gives this as a ground, For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you his people: He that out of mercy made you his people when you were not, he will not forsake you when he has called you to him: As the elders of Israel reasoned when they were to war with Jehu in the defence of their master's sons (2 Kings 10:4). Behold two kings could not stand before him, how shall we? Let this be your comfort and undoubted evidence of succor and deliverance: When your heart was Satan's home, and the power of darkness dwelt in it, when he had levied all his forces, he was strengthened and encouraged, by all the advantages that might be; he had the hold of the heart, and entrenched himself in the stubbornness, and invincible stiffness of my will, and that I was resolved to leave my life, but never to leave my lusts, nor renounce his temptations, which I entertained as my delight, and sided with all allurements, and stood in open [illegible] against the Holy One of Israel. If Satan in his full power could not keep his hold, nor my heart, but the Lord cast him out; when he is conquered, and his forces spoiled by the Lord Christ: Shall he not forever keep him out? When I was under the power of Satan, he then rescued me; being now rescued from his rage, and beyond his power shall he not preserve me? He that destroyed the works of Satan when he was in his full strength, entrenched, fortified in the unconquerable stiffness of his will, and took away his armor: being disarmed, dispossessed, and conquered, shall he ever be able to recover and set up his works again? By no means.

The third and last use of this doctrine, is of exhortation. First, To the converted: Then, To the unconverted: Here is something for both.

First the converted are hereby to be provoked to follow the dealing of the Lord: Here is a pattern to order their daily practice by. Has God, does God deal so with poor creatures as to draw them from their sins to [illegible] Christ? Go your ways, and do likewise. Herein show yourselves children of your heavenly Father, be merciful as he is merciful. And if in any case, I take it, mercy is herein to be discerned, ought to be practiced and expressed. As the elect of God put on bowels of mercy (Colossians 4:11). If you be the elect of God show it in this, if ever you have received mercy express it, if ever God has shown favor to you, show the fruit thereof in showing compassion to others: put to the best of your endeavors, even by a holy kind of violence to pluck away poor sinners from their sins, to the Lord. So David (Psalm 51:13), I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners shall be converted to you: I will take no nay at their hands, they are stubborn, I was so; they resist, I did so; they are unwilling to part with their sins, I was so; and yet the Lord has done me good, and overcome all my evil with goodness, when I was in my blood, when I lay weltering in the guilt and filth of my sins, when I said I would have my sins and I would die, and was resolved to destroy myself, then he said to me, Live poor creature, Live: You cannot get your heart away from your corruptions, the Lord will do it for you, indeed he can do it for you without you; If he will put forth the same power upon your soul as he has done upon my soul you shall be drawn from your sins to Jesus Christ. In a word.

1 Do what you can yourself. 2 Help them with supply from others.

First do what you can yourself; let every man in his own particular set upon all such loving means as are in your power, compassionately and courageously to draw sinners from their sins to Christ: (Hebrews 3:13) Exhort one another daily, lest any be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. (1 Thessalonians 5:14) Now we exhort you brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble minded, support the weak, be patient towards all men: As who should say, Lay about you to do all the good you can; he makes a Christian man to be as busy as a bee, that he should go nowhere, but should seek and find occasion of doing good to one or other, you will meet with some that are unruly, warn them and instruct them; and some that are weak, labor to strengthen them; some that are feeble minded and discouraged Christians, labor to quicken and encourage them: Let not those thoughts be found once in your heart, Am I my brother's keeper? Yes, you are, or else you are his murderer; will you defend his house from a thief, his body from [illegible]? In fact, would you ease and raise his donkey from falling, and return his ox from straying? And will you not do much more for his soul? Therefore take all opportunities that are offered, and seek what is not offered, and improve what you have to the [illegible]. (Jude 23) And others save with fear, plucking them out of the fire. If your neighbor's ox were in the pit, or himself in the fire, you would break [illegible] the door and not strain compliments, much more when his soul is fallen into his distempers, as into a deep ditch, his soul is [illegible] on fire from Hell, [illegible] away the drunkard from his cups, and hale the covetous man from the world, and those whom you see to be [illegible] by any special corruption, do [illegible] you can to rescue them from the snare of the Devil; and double your forces, lay battery against the heart, to it again and take better hold; it may be he sees his evil, and acknowledges his sin, and yet returns to it again, return you to your prayers, and tears, and [illegible], if he forget your counsels, counsel him again, admonish again, besiege him, lie at him; when you meet him in the way, walk in the field, [illegible] at the table, leave some remembrance upon [illegible] of those you converse with, say and do something that may help to draw their souls from their sins to Christ. God has dealt so with you, therefore deal you so with others.

Succor them also by all other means. [illegible] you according to your power and place, to [illegible] them under the means of grace; As they said one [illegible] another, (Isaiah 2:3) Come let us go up to the house [illegible] the Lord, he will teach us of his ways. And as [illegible] good man Cornelius, when Peter was to come [illegible] preach the Gospel to him, (Acts 10:24) he calls [illegible] his friends and kindred together that the Lord [illegible] work upon them; and says he, We are all here ready to hear what the Lord has commanded you. This especially belongs to all such as have power and authority over others, as magistrates may compel the subjects, the master may compel his servants, and the father his children to use the means (for they can go no farther than a moral violence) and to be under those ordinances which they in their own consciences are convinced of to be the means of conversion and salvation: And look as they did when our Savior Christ came to any place, they brought the blind and the deaf, and dumb, and those that were possessed of devils, and laid them down before him, and entreated him to cure them; (Mark 2:4) So if you have a stubborn servant, or a rebellious child, all the means you have used can do no good upon him, bring him before the Lord in the use of the ordinances, lay him down before him, and tell him what his case is, what a blind mind, and what a hard heart he has, and how he is possessed with a devil, of pride, and self-willedness, and resistance against God, and grace; and say, It is with you alone, O Lord, to work upon him; Thus we should use all the means we can to draw others to Jesus Christ.

Here is also a word of exhortation to the unconverted, such as are not yet called: You are to be entreated, That as ever you desire to see the face of God in Christ, as ever you desire to gain evidence of God's love here and happiness in another world, be sure of this, That you come under the call of God; This work of drawing is God's proper work, come therefore under his hand, when distributions are stirring every man goes to that door: So here, It is not in man, nor in ordinances, that is true: but there God dispenses it, (Romans 1:16) The Gospel is the power of God to salvation: And if the Lord draw by his Spirit in his ordinances, repair you to his ordinances forever. It is the Lord only that makes his call effectual, therefore come under [illegible] call of his in his ordinances.

It is God only that does this work in us [illegible] us: It is not in our power to help ourselves, therefore better sit still, than rise and fall; why [illegible] we endeavor that we can never do?

I do not say you can do the work, but do [illegible] go to him that can do it. You say you cannot [illegible] go; I confess you cannot as a Christian, but [illegible] I exhort to is, Do what you can as a man, improve those faculties, and parts, and gifts that [illegible] yet left in you; and come under, and keep [illegible] the call of God. God meets his people in the [illegible] of his worship, in the use of the ordinances which he appoints, therefore go you there to meet with him. You have an ear to hear the word therefore your feet can carry you to other places, let them carry you to the house of God, that mind and memory of yours can meditate upon other things, [illegible] it meditate upon the word, and fasten upon the truth and the reasons thereof; I do not say you [illegible] pray so as to please God, but pray still, who knows but God may help you; you can confer [illegible] things of no profit, and remember idle things of [illegible] worth; in fact, such as leave a taint of corruption [illegible] pollution upon your soul; use that mind, and [illegible] thoughts, and that tongue of yours about the [illegible] of God and Jesus Christ. You may do this, [illegible] should do this.

Attend further these two directions.

Present yourself before God in the use of [reconstructed: the] means of grace, and when you are there [reconstructed: deny] your own abilities, either to do good to yourself, or [reconstructed: to] receive good from God in all the means that are appointed for your good. Say therefore, Lord, it [reconstructed: is] not in man or means to do any good to my soul, [illegible] heart here, and be sure your soul be rightly [reconstructed: persuaded] of it. And mark what Balaam said, Lo, I [reconstructed: am] come now, have I now any power at all to say [reconstructed: any] thing? (Numbers 22:38). So say you, Here's a [reconstructed: blind] mind, a dead heart, a damned soul, I live to [reconstructed: see] and hear that, that thousands desired but never [reconstructed: obtained]; but now I am here, Lord, have I any [reconstructed: power] to receive any good from any of the ordinances, [reconstructed: therefore], Lord, the work is yours, do all for your servants, [reconstructed: and] receive all the glory from me. You think you [reconstructed: have] a large understanding to catch the reason of the [reconstructed: Word], and a strong memory and can recount what [reconstructed: you] hear, and you go for a right godly man, because [reconstructed: you] hear, and repeat, and profess, etc. You may [reconstructed: with] all this be utterly destitute of any saving work [reconstructed: in] your soul; you have the outside but you cannot come at the kernel, the sap, the sweet, the good of the ordinances. Therefore say thus: I can hear [reconstructed: the] Word, blessed be your name, and I am able to remember, and repeat, and to discourse of the things of God, but oh! the power of God to work upon my [reconstructed: soul] — that I want. Here's a blind mind, and a dead [reconstructed: heart], a lame heart; Lord work upon it, and draw [reconstructed: me] to yourself and that effectually. It was [reconstructed: a notable] speech (2 Chronicles 20:12), when [reconstructed: Jehoshaphat] had mustered up all the forces of Israel: Yet, says he, We have no strength, nor do [reconstructed: we] know what to do, but our eyes are to [reconstructed: you]. So should you say, for you may have [reconstructed: natural] strength, and moral strength, but spiritual [reconstructed: strength] to hear profitably, and savingly, and to bring [reconstructed: forth] fruit to God, this is not in any man's power of himself. Therefore say it, and acknowledge it: Lord, though I do what I can, yet I have no strength, [reconstructed: nor] do I know what to do, but mine eyes are to [reconstructed: you].

When you are got here and keep here, be sure now not to leave the ordinances of God, before you find some power beyond the power of ordinances, and man, and means; leave them not till you find the almighty power of God working upon your souls. As the woman who labored of the bloody issue, and had [reconstructed: spent] all, she came and desired, oh! that [reconstructed: she] might touch the hem of the garment of Christ, and she felt in herself she was made whole (Matthew 9:21-22). You know the pride, and peevishness, [reconstructed: and] uncleanness of your nature, the bloody issues of corruption in your soul — that neither word nor ordinances could help you to this day, you have spent all, and done all you can do in the use of means, and yet the issue is, the proud heart, the carnal heart, the unclean heart remains still, taken aside by [illegible] still. What will you do now, you are in the crowd of means and helps, but say, oh! the hem of the garment of Jesus. That virtue and power may come from Jesus Christ [reconstructed: to] work upon this soul [reconstructed: of] mine. But how shall I know that? Answer: When you see the ordinance so upon your soul really as you see it in your understanding and judgment, when you find it in the work of it upon your heart, as you apprehend it in the letter of it. And [reconstructed: then] you shall [reconstructed: see] the work really done, and your heart bowed, and loosened from those base distempers — you never touch Jesus Christ until you find it so. Therefore as the widow, whose child was dead, when Elisha sent his servant, she was not contented with that; but says, As the Lord lives, and [reconstructed: as] your soul [reconstructed: lives], I will not leave you (2 Kings 4:30). The man came, and the staff was laid, but [reconstructed: the] child was dead, till the prophet came, and the power of God came along with him, and then [reconstructed: the] child arose. Let me leave this upon record for ever among you: this effectual drawing and quickening of the heart is the alone work of God. It is not in him that wills, nor in him that runs, [reconstructed: but] in God that shows mercy. You know (many of you, hundreds for all I know) that you never knew what Christ and his grace meant; and you know your hearts close with your sins though you dare not give way to them. Now mark, when you come and hear the mind of God, and the ministers speak to you, and the will of God is published: oh! go your ways home, and say, As the Lord lives, I will not leave you until the Lord has spoken to my soul, till I find the effectual work of the Word and Spirit of God drawing my soul from my sins to Jesus Christ. Therefore call for that same showing of mercy which the apostle speaks of (Romans 9:16): So then it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy. When you have run what you can, and willed what you are able, then look up to the Lord to show you mercy; the minister has spoken what he can, and I have heard what I can, but Lord show mercy; and never leave until you have found that the Lord has showed you mercy, in this work of drawing your soul from sin to Christ.