Sermon III (continued, part 2)
to bring Christ and the soul together, requires the almighty -power of God, Eph. i. 19. The grace of faith by which we come to Christ, is as much the free gift of God, as Christ himself,who is the object of faith, Phil. i. 29. " To you it is free- " lygiven to believe." And this will easily appear to your understandings, ifyoudobut consider
The {Act, and of this work of faith, or coming to Christ, Enemies }
First, Confider the subject of faith in which it is wrought ; or what it is that is drawn to Christ : It is the heart ofa sinner which is naturally as indisposed for this work, as the wood which Elijah laid in order upon the altar, was to catch fire, when he had poured so much water upon it, as did not only wet the wood, but also filled up the trench round about it, I Kings xviii. 33. For it is naturally a dark, blind, and ignorant, heart, Job. xi . 12. And such an heart can never believe, till he that commanded the light to shine out of darkness do shine into it, 2 Cor. v. 14.
Nor will it avail anything to say, though man be born in dark - nessand ignorance, yet afterwards he may acquire knowledge in the use of means, as we see many natural men do to a very high degree: For this is not that light that brings the soul to
yea, this natural, unsanctified lightblindsthe foul, and
174 SERM. IV. The Method of Grace.
prejudices it more against Christ than ever it was before, 1 Cor, i. 21, 26.
As it isa blind ignorant heart, so it is a selfish heart by na ture: Allitsdesigns and aims terminate in self: this is the cen ter and weight of the soul; no righteousness but its own is fought after, that, or none, Rom. x. 3. Now, for a soul to renounce and deny self, in all its forms, modes, and interesls, as every one doth thatcometh to Christ; to disclaim and deny natural, moral, and religious self, and come to Christ, as a poor, miserable,wretched,empty creature; to live upon hisrighteoufness forever, is as supernatural and wonderful, as to fee thethills and mountains start from their bases and centres, and fly like wandering atoms in the air.
Nay, this heart which is to come to Christ, isnotonlydark and selfish, but full of pride. O it is a desperate proud heart by nature, it cannot submit to come to Christ, as Benhadad's
tothekingof Israel, withsackcloth on their loins, andropesupon their heads. To take guilt, shame, and confufionof face to ourselves, and acknowledge the righteoufnels of God in our eternal damnation ; to come to Christ naked, and empty, as one that justifies the ungodly : I say, nature left to itself, would asfoonbedamnedas do this: the proud heart can never come to this, till the Lord have humbled and broken it by his power.
Secondly, Let us take the act of faith intoconfideration also, as it is here described by the soul's coming to Jesus Christ ; and you will find a necessity of the Father's drawings; for this evi dentlyimplies, that which is against the stream and current of corrupt nature, and that which is above the sphere and capacity of the most refined and accomplimed nature.
First, It is against the stream and current of our corrupt nature to come to Christ. For let us but confider the term from which the soul departs, when it comes to Christ. In that day it leaves all its lusts, and ways off in, how pleasant, sweet, and profitable soever they have been unto it, Isa. Iv. 7. "Let the " wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteousmanhis thoughts, " and let him return unto the Lord:" Way and thoughts, i. e. both the practice ofanddelighthe had in sin, must be forsaken, and the outward and inward man must be cleansed from it. Now there are in the bosoms ofunregenerate men such darling
that have given them so much practical and speculative pleasure, which have brought so much profit to them ; which havebeenbornandbred up with them; and which, upon all these accounts, are endeared to their souls to that degree, that
SERM. IV. 175 The Method of Grace.
it is easier for them to die, than to forsake them: yea, nothing ismorecommon among such men,than to venture eternal damnation, rather than suffer a separation from their fins.
And which is yet more difficult incoming to Christ, the soul forsakes not only its sinful self, but its righteous sfelf: i. e. not only its worst sins, butitsbestperformances, accomplishments, and excellencies. Now this is one of the greatest straits that nature can be put to: Righteousness,by works,was the drft liquorthatever was put into the vessel, and it still retains the tangand favour of it, and will totheendoftheworld, Rom. x. 3. "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going " about to establish their own righteousness,have not submit- " ted themselves unto the righteoudness of God." εκ υπετάγησαν, they have not submitted: To come naked and empty to Christ, and receive all from him as a free-gift, is, to proud corruptna. ture, the greatest abasement and submission in the world.
Let the gospel furnish it stable with the richest and costhest dainties that ever the blood of Christ purchased,suchisthepride of nature, that itdisdains to taste them, except it may also pay for the fame. If the old hivebe removed from theplacewhere it was wont to stand, the bees will come home to the old place, yea, and many ofthemyou shall find will die there, rather than goto the hive, though it stand ina farbetterplace than it did before. Just so stands the case with men. The hive is removed, i. e. we are no more to expect righteousness as Adam did, by obeying and working, but by believing and coming to Christ ; butnaturehadas lievebe damnedasdothis: Itstillgoes about to establish its own rigteousness.
Virtues, duties, and moral excellencies, these are the ornaments of nature; here is nature set off in its sumptuous attire, and rich embellishments, and now to renounce it, disclaim and contemn it, as dross and dung, in comparison of Christ, as be.
lieversdo, Phil. iii. 8. This, I say, is against the grain of nature. We reckon it the strange effect offelf-denial in Mahomet the Great *, who being fo enamoured with his beautiful Irene, would be persuaded, upon reasons of state, with his own hand to strike off her head; and that, even when the appeared in all herrichornaments before him, rather like such a goddess, as the poets intheirextasies use tofeign, thanamortalcreature. And yet certainly this is nothing to that self-denial which is exercised in our coming to Christ.
Secondly,Aud if we look to the other term to which the soul i * Knolles History of the Turks.
176 The Method of Grace. SERM. IV. moves, we shall find it acting as much above the sphere and ability of improved nature, as here it acts and moves against the
and current of corrupted nature : for how wonderful and supernatural an adventure is that, which the soul makes in the day that it comes to Jesus Christ .
Surely, foranypoor foul to venture itself for ever upon Jesus Christ, whom it never saw, nay, upon Christ, whose very existence, its own unbelief calls in question whether he be or no : and thatwhenitis evenweigheddown to the dust, with theburdensome sense of its own vileness and total unworthiness, feeling nothing in itself but finand misery, the workings of death and fears of wrath : to go to Christ, of whose pardoning grace and mercy itneverhadany the least experience,nor can find any groundofhope in itself that it shall be accepted; this is as much above the power of nature, as it is for a stone to rife from the earth, and fix itself among the stars. Well might the apostle a. scribe it to that almighty Power which raised up Christ from the dead, Eph. i. 19, 20. If the Lord draw not the soul, and that omnipotently, it can never come from itself to Christ. And yet farther,
Thirdly, The natural impossibility of coming to Christ, will more clearly appear, if we consider the enemies to faith ; or what blocks are rolled by Satan and his instruments, into the way to Christ : to mention, in this place,no more but our own carnal reason, as it is armed and managed by thefubtilty of Satan, what a wonder is it that any foul should come to Christ ?
are the strongholds,(mentioned 2 Cor.x. 4 ) out of which those objections, fears, and discouragements sally, by which the soul is fiercely assaulted in the way to Christ.
Wiltthou forsake all thy pleasures, merry company, and sensible comforts, to live a sad, retired, pensive life ? Wilt thou beggar and undo thyself, letgo allthycomforts in hand, for an hope of that which thine eyes never saw, nor haft thou any certainty that it is any more than a fancy ? Wilt thou that haft lived in reputation and credit all thy life, now become the scorn and contempt of the world ? Thinkest thou thyself able to livefuch a strict, severe, mortified, and self-denying a life, as the word of God requires ? And what if persecution should arise, (as thou mayest expect it will),canstthou forsake father and mother, wifeandchildren,yea, and give up thine own life too, toa cruel and bloody death ! be advised better, before thou resolve in so.
important a matter. What thinkest thou of thy forefathers, that livedanddied in that way thou art now living? Art thou wiser than they ? Do not the generalityofmenwalk in the fame
SERM. IV. 177 The Method of Grace.
paths thou hast hitherto walked in ? If this way lead to hell, as thou feareft it may, think then how many millions of men must perish as well as thyself; and is such a supposition consistent with the gracious and merciful nature of God ? Besides, think what fort of people those are, unto whom thou art about to join thyself in this new way ? Are there not to be found among them many things todiscouragethee, and cool thy zeal ? They are generally of the lower andbaser fort of men, poor and despicable : Seeft thou not, though their profession be holy, how earthly, carnal, proud, factious, and hypocritical, manyofthem are found to be! And doubtless, the rest are like them, though their hypocrisy be not yet discovered.
Owhat stands anddemurs ? what hesitations and doubts, is the soul clogged with in its way to Christ ! But yet none of these can withhold and detain the soul, when the Father draws ; Greater, then, is he that is in us, than he that is in the world.
And thus you fee the nature, manner, and efficacy of divine drawings, and how impossible it is for any foul to come to Christ without them.
The inferences and improvements of the point follow. Infer. 1. How deeply and thoroughly is the nature of man corrupted, and what an enemy is every man to his own happiness, that he must be drawn to it ? John v . 40. " You will not come unto me, that ye might have life." Life is defireable in every man's eyes, and eternal is the most excellent life; yet, in this, the world is rather agreed to die and perish for ever, than come to Christ for life. Had Christ told us of fields and vineyards, sheep and oxen, gold and silver, honours and sensual pleasures, who would not have come to him for these ? But to tell of mortification, self-denial, strictness of life, andfufferings for his fake, and all this for an happiness to be enjoyed in the world to come, nature will never like such a propofitionas this.
You fee where it sticks, not in a simple inability to believe, but in an inability complicated with enmity; they neither can come, nor will come to Christ : It is true, all that do come to Christ, come willingly; but thanks be to the grace of God, that hath freed and persuaded the will, else they had never been willing to come : Who ever found his own heart first stir and move towards Christ ? How long may we wait and expect, before we shall feel our hearts naturally burn with desires after, and love to Jesus Christ ?
This aversion of the will and affections from God, is one of VOL. II. Aa
178 The Method of Grace. SERM. IV.
the main roots of original fin. No argument can prevail to bring the soul to Christ, till this be mattered and overpowered by the Father's drawing. In our motions to fin, we need re training, but in all our motions to Christ, we as much need drawing. He that comes to heaven may fay, Lord, if I had had my own way and will, I had never come here; if thou hadst not drawn me, I should never have come to thee. O the riches of the grace of God! Oh unparalleled mercy and goodness ! not only to prepare prep such a glory as this for an unworthy foul, but to put forth the exceeding greatness of thy power, afterwards / to draw an unwilling foul to the enjoyment of it.
Infer. 2. What enemies are they to God, and the souls of men, that do all they can to discourage and hinder the conversion of men to Christ ? God draws forward, and these do all that in them lies to draw backward, (i. e.) to prejudice and discourage them from coming to Jesus Christ in the way of faith : this isa direct opposition to God, and a plain confederacy with the devil. O, how many have been thus discouraged in their way to Christ, by their carnal relations, I cannot say friends ! Their greatest enemies have been the men of their own house. These have pleaded (as if the devil had hired and fee'd them) against the everlasting welfare of their own flesh. O cruel parents, brethren, and sisters, thatjeer, frown, and threaten, where they
encourage, assist, and rejoice ! Such parents are the devil's children. Satan chuses such instruments as you are, above all others, for this work : he knows what influence and autho- 'rity you have upon them, and over them ; and what fear, love, and dependance, they have for you, and upon you; so that none in all the world are like to manage the design of their damnation fo effectually, as you are like to do.
Will you neither come to Christ yourselves, nor suffer your dear relations that would? Had you rather find them in the alehoufe, than in the closet ? Did you inftrumentally give them their being, and will you be the instruments of ruining for ever those beings they had from you ? Did you so earnestly desire children, fo tenderly nurse and provide for them; take such delight in them ; and, after all this, do what in you lies to damn and destroy them; If these lines shall fall into any such hands, O that God would set home the conviction, and ferfe of this horrid evil upon their hearts. And no less guilty of this fin are scandalous and loose professors, who serve to furnish the devil with the greatest arguments he hath to dissuade men from coming to Christ : it is your loofunefs, andhypocrify,by which he hopes to scare others
SERM. IV. 179 The Method of Grace. from Christ. It is said, Cant. ii. 7. " I charge you by the rots " and hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my be . " loved till he please."
Roes and hinds, like young converts and comers towards Christ, are shy and timerous creatures, that start at the least found, or yelp of a dog, and fly away. Take heed what you do in this case, left you go down to hell under the guilt of damning more fouls than your own .
Infer. 3. Learn hence, the true ground and reason of those trange, amazing, and supernatural effects, that you behold, and fo admire in the world, as often as youfeefinnersforfaking their pleasant, profitable corruptions, and companions, and embracing the ways of Christ, godliness, and mortification . 66 It is said, 1 Pet. iv. 4. They think it strange, that you run not with them into the same excess of riot ;" The word is, εν ὦξενίζονται ,they stand at a gaze, as the hen that hath hatch partridge eggs doth, when the fees them take the wing and fly away from her.
Beloved, it is the world's wonder to see their companions in fin forsake them; those that were once as prophane, and vain as themselves, it may be more, to forsake their society, retire into their closets, mourn for fin, spend their time in meditation and prayer, embrace the severest duties, and content to run the greatest hazard in the world for Christ; but they fee not that almighty power that draws them, which is too strong for all the sinful ties and engagements in the world to withhold and detain them.
66 A man would have wondered to see Elisha leave the oxen, and run after Elijah, saying, Let me go, I pray thee, and kiís my father and mother, and then I will follow thee ;" when Elijah had said nothing to persuade him to follow him, only, as he passed by him, he cast his mantle on him, 1 Kings x. 19, 20. Surely that foul whom God draws, must needs leave all and follow Christ, for the power of God resteth on it. All carnal ties and engagements to fin, break and give way, when the Father draws the soul to Christ in the day of his power.
Infer. 4. Is this thefirstspring ofspiritualmotion after Christ ? Learn then from bence, how it comes to pass that fomany excellentfermons, andpowerfulperfuafions are ineffectual, and cannot draw and win one foul to Christ. Surely it is because ministers drawatone ; and the specialfavingpower of Godgues not forth, at all times alike, with their endeavours .
Paul was a chosen vessel, filled with a greater measure of gifts Aaz
180 The Method of Grace. SERM . IV. and graces by the Spirit, than any that wentbeforehim, or followed after him; and, as his talents, so his diligence in improving them, was beyond any recorded example we read of a. mongst men ; " He rather flew like a seraphim, than travelled " upon his master's errand about the world*." Apollos was an eloquent preacher, and mighty in the scriptures, yet Paul is nothing, and Apollos nothng ; but God that gives the increase," I Cor. iii . 7. We are too apt to admire men, yea, and the best are but too apt to go forth in the strength of their own parts and preparations; but God secures his own glory, andmagnifies his own power, frequently, in giving success to weaker endeavours, and men of lower abilities, when he withholds it from men of more raised, refined, and excellent gifts and abilities.
It is our great honour, who are the ministers of the gospel, that we are συνέγροι, workers together with God, I Cor. iii. 9. in his strength we can prevail ; "the weapons of our warfare are " mighty through God," 2 Cor. x. 4. But if his presence, blessing, and assistance, be not with us, we are nothing, we can do nothing.
If we prepare diligently, pray heartily, preach zealoufly, and our hearers go as they came, without any spiritual effects and fruits of our labours, what shall we say, but as Martha said to Christ, " Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not " died :" Had the Spirit of God gone forth with his especial efficacy and blessing, with this prayer, or that sermon, these fouls had not departed dead, and senseless from under it.
Infer. 5. Doth all success and efficacy depend upon the Father's drawings ? Let none then despair of their unregenerate, and carnal relations, over whose obstinacy they do, and have cause to mourn .
What, if they have been as many years under the preaching of the gospel, as the poor man lay at the pool of Bethesda, and hitherto to no purpose ? A time may come at last, (as it did for him) when the Spirit of God may move upon the waters ; I mean put a quickening and converting power into the means, and then the desire of your souls for them shall be fulfilled.
It may be, you have poured out many prayers, and tears to the Lord for them ; you have cried for them as Abraham for hisfon, " O that lihmael might live before thee ! " O that this poor husband, wife, child, brother, or sister, might live in thy fight ; and still you fee them continue carnal, dead, and sense
* Ως πτηνος την οικεμενην, και ως ασωματος διεδραμε. Chryfoft.
SERM . IV. The Method of Grace. 181 less : Well, but yet give not up your hopes, nor cease your pious endeavours, the time may come when the Father may draw as well as you, and then you shall see them quit all, and come to Christ ; and nothing shall binder them. They are now drawn away of their own lusts ; they are easily drawn away by their sinful companions ; but when God draws, none of these shall withdraw them from the Lord Jesus, What is their ignorance, obstinacy, and hardness of heart, before that mighty power that subdues all things to itself ? Go therefore to the Lord, by prayer, for them, and say, Lord, I have laboured for my poor relations in vain, I have spent my exhortations to little purpose ; the work is too difficult for me, can I carry it no farther, but thou canst: O let thy power go forth ; they shall be willing day of thy power.
Infer 6. If none can come to Christ, except the Father draw them, then surely none can be drawn from Christ except the Father leave them : That power which at first drew them to
Christ, can secure and establish them in Christ to the end, John Χ. 20. " My Father which gave them me is greater than " all, andnoman is able to pluck them out of my Father's "hand."
When the power of God at first draws us out of our natural state to Christ, it finds us not only impotent, but obstinate, not only unable, but unwilling to come; and yet this power of God prevails against all opposition : How much more is it able to preserve and secure us, when his fear is put into our inward parts, sothatwedare not depart, we have no will to depart from him ? Well then, if the world fay, I will ensnare thee; If the devil say,
I will destroy thee; if the flesh say I will betray thee ; yet thou art secure and safe, as long as God hath said," I will never leave
" thee nor forsake thee," Heb. xiii. 5 .
Infer. 7. Let this engage you to a constant attendance upon the ordinances of God, in which this drawing power of Godisfometimes put forth upon the hearts of men.
Beloved, there are certain seasons in which the Lord comes nigh to men in the ordinances and duties of his worship ; and we know not at what time the Lord cometh forth by his Spirit upon this design: he many times comes in an hour when we think not of him ; " I am found of them that fought me not, " Isa. lxv. 1. It is good therefore, to be found in the way of the Spirit: Had that poor man, that lay so long at the pool of Bethesda, reasoned thus with himself,So long have I lain here invainexpecting a cure, it is to no purpose to wait longer, and so had been absent at that very timewhenthe angel came down,
182 The Method of Grace. SERM .V. he had, in all likelihood,carried his disease to the grave with him.
How dost thou know but this veryfabbath, this sermon, this prayer, which thou hast no heart to attend, and are tempted to neglect, may be the season, and instrument wherein, and by which, the Lord may do that for thy soul, which was never done before ?
Infer. 8. To conclude, How are all the faints engagedtoputforth all the power and ability they have for Gad, who hathputforth his infinite almighty power to draw them to Christ !
God hath done great things for your souls; he hath drawn you out of the miserable state of fin and wrath ; and that when he let others go, by nature as good as you, he hath drawn you into union with Christ, and communion with his glorious privi vileges. Othatyou would henceforth employ all the power you have, for God, in the duties of obedience, and in drawing others to Christ, as much as in you lies, and say continually with the Church, "Draw me, we will run after thee," Cant. i. 4.
Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ . 5995959