The Divine Will Considered in its Eternal Decrees and Holy Execution, Chapter 9 (2 of 3)

The Divine Will Considered in its Eternal Decrees and Holy Execution · Chapter 9 (2 of 3)

p. 4113. The Almightiness of Grace can only effect it. As the Scripture sets out Conversion as a great Work, so it sets out an almighty Grace as the Cause thereof. He that believes, acording to some Scriptures, that in the work of Conversion there is a resurrection of the soul from the dead, a p. 412transformation of a stony heart into flesh, and a Creation of a new heart and new spirit, must also believe, according to other Scriptures, that in the production of that Work there is put forth a divine power, excellency of power, and exceeding greatness of power, such as raised up Christ from the dead. In Conversion there is not only a light shining round about the Sinner, but a light shining into him; not only a waking of a sleepy Will, but a quickning of a dead one; not only a proposal of divine Objects, but an infusion of divine Principles: therefore the Grace effecting it must be almighty. That in the Prophet [I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, Ezek. 36. 27.] is as much a word of Power as the Fiat which made the World; that in the Gospel [the hour cometh and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live, Joh. 5. 25.] sounds out as great an efficacy as that other, Lazarus come forth; nothing less than almighty Power can effect it.

2. After what manner is it wrought? Our Saviour sets out the Mystery of Regeneration by the Wind, the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, p. 413and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit, Joh. 3. 8. In Regeneration the Spirit blows with such a sound as breaks the Stone in the Heart, and with such lively gales as quicken the dead Soul, but the manner of this Work is in a great measure secret and incomprehensible by us. If we know not how the Bones grow in the Womb, how much less how Christ is formed in the Heart. No man perfectly knows the least Atom or Dust in Nature, how much less the grand Mystery of Grace? Here then we must procede with great modesty and sobriety, keeping as close as may be to the line and level of Scripture. Now here I shall make a threefold Enquiry.

1. Whether the Word of God be the Means or Instrument of Conversion?

2. Whether the Will of Man be converted by the Intervention of the enlightned Understanding?

3. Whether the Work of Conversion be wrought in an irresistible way?

1. Whether the Word be the Means or Instrument of Conversion? And here I shall endeavour two things.

1. I will prove that it is so.

2. I will enquire how far or in what sence it may be called so?

p. 4141. I shall prove that it is so, and that by three Arguments.

1. Plain Scripture asserts it.

2. Successive Experience shews it.

3. The Analogy between the Principles of the new Creature and the Properties of the Word induces it.

1. Plain Scripture asserts it. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God, Rom. 10. 17. the holy scriptures are able to make wise unto salvation, 2 Tim. 3. 15. the Law is perfect converting the soul, Psal. 19. 7. the Gospel is the power of God to salvation to the believer, Rom. 1. 16. and for the Unbeliever who accounts it foolishness and weakness, the Apostle assures us that the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men, 1 Cor. 1. 25. so much wiser as to out-reason their carnal Understanding, and so much stronger as to out-wrestle their carnal Wills and Affections. The Gospel 'tis Ministerium Spiritûs, the ministration of the Spirit, 2 Cor. 3. 8. the Golden Pipe, through which the Oil of Grace is emptied out into mens Hearts, and the great Organ, through which the holy Ghost breathes spiritual Life into them; 'tis the seed of the new creature, we are begotten by p. 415the word of truth, Jam. 1. 18. born again not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever, 1 Pet. 1. 23. 'tis the white horse upon which Christ rides conquering and to conquer, Rev. 6. 2. Conversion is a Conquest over the Minds and Wills of Men, and for the obtaining thereof, Christ rides foreign upon the word of truth, Psal. 45. 5. and because there be high things and strong holds in mens Hearts, the Word is as a mighty Engine in his hands to cast down those heights and holds and captivate every thought to himself, 2 Cor. 10. 4, 5. The Apostle taking notice of the work of Faith, labour of Love and patience of Hope in the Thessalonians, 1 Thes. 1. 3. gives us a clear account whence those choice Graces came, the fontal Cause of them was Election, Ver. 4. and the instrumental the Gospel, Ver. 5. For (saith he) our Gospel came unto you not in word only, but in power and in the holy Ghost, and in much assurance. In a word: All the Current of Scripture seals up this Truth.

2. Successive Experience shews it. St. Peter at once caught 3000. Souls in the Net of the Gospel, Acts 2. 41. St. Paul came to the Romans foreign, in the p. 416fulness of the evangelical blessing, Rom. 15. 29. the Corinthians were his seal, 1 Cor. 9. 2. and the Thessalonians his joy and crown, 1 Thess. 2. 19. In all Ages of the Church, God's Ministers have had a proof of Christ speaking in them, and God's People have felt the Word to be Spirit and Life to them; in all places where God's Name hath been recorded, his blessing hath been afforded; where the Seed of the Word hath been sown, new Creatures more or less have sprung up out of it. Were there a general Assembly of the First-born, what stories would they tell us about the power of the Word? One would say, Hell flashed in my face out of such a Threatning; another, Heaven opened to me in such a Promise; a third, the Beauty of Holiness appeared to me in such a Precept: every one in the Language of his own Experience would speak forth the wonders of the Word. How many have been forced by the power of it to fall down, and worship, and say, God is in it of a truth? How many have experimentally felt it, pointing out their darling Lust, plucking again and again at the Iron-sinew in their Wills, lifting and thrusting hard at the World in their Hearts, and at last carrying away their p. 417Souls in a fiery Chariot of holy Affections towards God in Christ? The common sense of Christians bears witness to the Efficacy of it.

3. The Analogy between the Principles of the new Creature and the Properties of the Word induces it. If we compare the Understanding of the new Creature with the Word; there is a Principle of excellent knowledge, and here is the word of truth, Eph. 1. 13. there is a lively and spiritual Knowledg, and here are lively oracles, Act. 7. 38. and words which are spirit and life, Joh. 6. 63. there is a near and intimate knowledg, and here is a word quick and powerful, piercing into the very soul and spirit, Heb. 4. 12. there is a divine Faith or perswasion, and here are faithful sayings worthy of all acceptation, 1 Tim. 4. 9. there is a clear Vision, an open-fac'd Knowledge, and here is a clear Revelation, a pure glass reflecting the Glory of God upon the heart, 2 Cor. 3. 18. there is a practical Knowledge, and here is a doctrine according to godliness, 1 Tim. 6. 3. Again, if we compare the Will of the new Creature with the Word; there are holy Desires breathing after, and holy Resolutions fixing upon God as the ultimate End, and here are the goads and the nails, p. 418Eccl. 12. 11. which stir up those Desires, and fasten those Resolutions in the Heart; there is Freedom indeed, spiritual Liberty in the ways of God, and here is freemaking truth, Joh. 8. 32. and a law of liberty, Jam. 1. 25. there is a fiducial and complacential rest in God, and here are foreign, words of faith to lean upon, 1 Tim. 4. 6. and foreign words of delight to take pleasure in, Eccles. 12. 10. there is a closing with Christ in all his Offices, as Prophet, Priest and King, and here is this Prophet speaking to us, this Priest dying and as it were crucified before our eyes, & this King upon his Throne with a Sceptre of Righteousness in his hand; there is a sorrow for, & hatred of Sin, and here is that which pricks us at the heart, and shews us Sin as an abominable thing. If we compare the Affections of the new Creature with the Word; there is a reduction of the Affections unto Reason, and here is Reason in its height and pureness; there the World hath but a very low place, and here it hath but a very mean character; there the Affections are inflamed towards God, and here's the holy Fire which makes our hearts burn within us towards him. Every way there is a wonderful Analogy between the p. 419Principles of the New Creature and the Properties of the Word, which plainly speaks forth the aptness and congrulty of the Word to be a Means or Instrument of Conversion.

2. How far or in what sence may the Word be called a Means or Instrument thereof? In answer whereunto I shall first lay down two things as common Concessions, and then come to the main Quaere.

The two Concessions are these.

1. That the Word is a Means or Instrument of the Preparatives to Conversion; 'tis as a fire and a hammer, Jer. 23. 29. When the holy Ghost blows in this Fire upon the Conscience, every Sin looks like a Spark of Hell; when the Almighty Arms set home this hammer, it breaks the rocky Heart all to pieces. No sooner doth the Commandment come home to the Heart, but sin revives and the sinner dies, Rom. 7. 9. the Sin, which before lay as dead in the sleepy Conscience, now lives and gnaws upon the Heart, as if the neverdying Worm were there; the sinner, who before was alive in his own Self-righteousness and Self-sufficiency, now is a dead man, one who hath the sentence of death in himself, and feels as it were the pangs of Hell in Conscience.

p. 4202. That the Word is a Means or Instrument to reduce the Principles of Grace into actual Conversion. When God stirs up and flutters over the Nest of gracious Principles, 'tis by the wings of the Spirit and Word; when the Spices of the Garden flow out, 'tis from the North and South wind, the Spirit blowing in Threatnings or Promises. That which makes the Roots of Graces cast forth themselves into Acts, is the Dew of auxiliary Grace, and that Dew falls with the Manna of the Word. That Grace with our Spirit, which stirs up the Principles of Grace into exercise, comes in the clothing or investiture of some holy Truth or other. Hence the Apostle counts it one of his Master-pieces, foreign, to stir up pure minds by his Epistles, 2. Pet. 3. 1.

These two Concessions being laid down, the main Quaere is touching the production of gracious Principles, Whether as to that, the Word may not be an Instrument in God's Hand? Many learned Divines speak of the Word as operating only morally and objectively. Mr. Pemble distinguishes thus; Instruments are either cooperative or passive, and the Word must be one of the two; cooperative it is not, moving or working on the Soul by p. 421any inward force of it self, it is therefore in it self a passive instrument working only per modum objecti; now no Object whatsoever hath any power per se to work any thing on the Organ, but is only an occasion of working. And a little after, he saith thus, I cannot better express the manner how the holy Ghost useth the Word in the work of Sanctification, than by a similitude; Christ meeting a dead Coarse in the City of Nain, touches the Bier and utters these words, Young man, I say unto thee, arise; but could these words do any thing to raise him? No, 'twas Christ's invisible power that quickned the dead, not his words which only declared what he meant to do by his power: So in this matter of Conversion, Christ bids us believe and repent, but these Commands work nothing of themselves, but take effect by the only power of God working upon the Heart. Thus that learned man. But methinks this is too low; the Word of it self operates morally and objectively, and shall it do no more as clothed and accompanied by the holy Spirit? Surely the Scripture-strains touching the Words Efficacy are so high, that it cannot be nudum signum, no not as to the production of gracious p. 422Principles; St. James is express, of his own will begat he us, foreign, with the word of truth, Jam. 1. 18. and St. Paul is more emphatical; In Christ Jesus. I have begotten you foreign, by or through the Gospel, 1 Cor. 4. 15. 'tis not foreign, according to the Gospel, but foreign, by or through the Gospel, as pointing out the Instrumentality of it in the Generation of the new Creature. And St. Peter is yet in a higher strain; We are born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, foreign, by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever, 1 Pet. 1. 23. where, besides the emphatical foreign, the Word is stiled no less than the incorruptible Seed; not only a Sampler externally shewing the figures and lineaments of the new Creature, but a seed too springing up into, and for ever living in the new Creature. Faith (which is the new Creatures Head) is foreign, by or out of hearing the word, Rom. 10. 17. and so are all those sanctifying Graces, which as it were make up the new Creatures Body: For thus our Saviour prays; Sanctifie them through thy truth, thy word is truth, Joh. 17. 17. and thus he practises too, he sanctifies & cleanses his Church by the word, Eph. 5. 26. Surely those Scriptures p. 423which are able foreign, to make wise to salvation, 2 Tim. 3. 15. must do somewhat as to the Principles of Knowledge in the Understanding; that Law, which is foreign converting or restoring the soul, Psal. 19. 7. must do somewhat as to the Principles of Grace in the Will; that Word, which is foreign, able to save the soul, Jam. 1. 21. must also be able to sanctifie it, because without holiness there is no seeing of God; that Doctrine, which is foreign, healing doctrine, 1 Tim. 1. 10. must operate somewhat as to the Principles of Grace which heal the deadly wound of Original Corruption. The converted Corinthians were Christ's Epistle, and the Apostle's too, written by the holy Spirit, and ministred by the Apostle also, 2 Cor. 3. 2, 3. The Apostle's weapons were mighty through God to captivate every thought to Christ, 2 Cor. 10. 4, 5. which could not be if they were not also mighty through God to set up Christ's Throne in the heart. These Scriptures constrain me to believe, that the Word doth operate in the production of gracious Principles, only not as it is alone or separate from the holy Spirit, for so it operates only morally and objectively; but as it is p. 424clothed in the power and virtue of the Spirit, for so it becomes spirit and life to the Soul. As for the Similitude used by Mr. Pemble, I conceive that the raising of the young man from a natural Death, and the raising of a sinner from a spiritual Death are not every way parallel: For in that there was no capacity at all in the naturally dead to receive the words of Christ, in this there is a passive capacity in the spiritually dead to take in the Word of God as from a divine Impression; in that the words of Christ entred not at all into the naturally dead, in this the Word of God enters into the spiritually dead, even intimately into his very heart; in that the words of Christ were transient and passed away, in this the Word of God though it may pass away as to its sounds and syllables, yet as to its substance it lives and abides for ever in the new Creature: Wherefore (these differences considered) I conclude, That Christ's words were only declarative in that Resurrection, but God's Word is operative also in this. The manner how God works gracious Principles in and by his Word as an Instrument, is a Secret which I dare not pry into; only for a little more illustration of the Words Efficacy p. 425in the production of gracious Principles, there are two Instants or Moments to be distinctly considered.

1. The first Instant or Moment is that wherein there is a close Application and intimate Inning of the Word in the Heart; in common Auditors the Word is upon the Heart, but here it is in it; in temporary Believers the Word is in some degree in the heart, but here it is in it intimately. This close Application is excellently set out in Scripture; 'tis a nail fastned, Eccles. 12. 11. 'tis a word engrafted, Jam. 1. 21. 'tis instruction sealed, Joh 33. 16. 'tis the Law put and written in the heart, Heb. 8. 10. 'tis wisdom entring into the heart, Prov. 2. 10. 'tis the Apostles foreign, or entrance into his auditors, 1 Thess. 2. 1. 'tis the word having a place in us, Joh. 8. 37. and such a place as to root in our hearts; thus Joh says of himself foreign the root of the word is found in me, Joh 19. 28. and this Root is such as will abide in us and become the incorruptible seed of the new Creature. This close Application is a glorious work of God, and the Word is not altogether passive therein, but in the hand of the Spirit 'tis quick and powerful, as a sharp Sword piercing and cutting its way into the heart, Heb. 4. 12. p. 426and as a mighty Engine casting down imaginations and high things there, 2 Cor. 10. 5. that it self may have a place and Throne in the same.

2. The second Instant or Moment is that wherein God in and by the Word, so intimately inned in the Heart, doth produce the Principles of Grace there; in the first Moment the indwelling Word makes the Heart a spiritual Bethlehem, a House of Bread, in the second Christ is spiritually born there; in the first Moment the incorruptible Seed is sown in the Heart, in the second it springs up into a new Creature. The Scripture seems to me to hold out this Method very clearly, the engrafted word is able to save the soul, Jam. 1. 21. the Word saves the Soul, but not merely as outwardly expressed, but as inwardly engrafted. Faith comes by hearing the word, Rom. 10. 17. but is that a mere outward hearing? No surely, there is a hearing of the Father and so a coming to Christ, Joh. 6. 45. There is the powerful and intimate demonstration of the Spirit, and so faith stands in the power of God, 1 Cor. 2. 4, 5. that is to say, in that power of God (which intimately demonstrates and closely applies the Word unto the Heart) as its true p. 427Cause and Foundation. When the Apostle speaks of the Thessalonians Faith and Love, 1 Thess. 1. 3. he there opens the causes thereof, viz. the fontal Cause God's Election, Ver. 4. and the instrumental Cause the Gospel, Ver. 5. but how could the Gospel be an Instrument? The Apostle tells us, that it came to them not in word only, but in power and in the holy Ghost; it was strongly and sweetly set home upon the Heart, and from that Impress came Faith and Love. The Wise Man would have the Word kept in the midst of the heart, and his Reason is, because it is life, Prov. 4. 21, 22. The Word in the Ear only is but a transient …, but the Word in the midst of the Heart is Spirit and Life. Job proves the truth of his Grace thus, The root of the word is in me, Joh 19. 28. The Word as shining on the Head lights up Notions, but as rooted in the Heart springs up in Graces. St. John tells the Young Men that they are strong, and for a …eason adds this, the word of God abides in them, 1 Joh. 2. 14. St. Paul first speaks of his foreign, or entrance into his auditors, and then of their turn to the living and true God, 1 Thess. 1. 9. The entrance of the word into the Understanding giveth p. 428light, Psal. 119. 130. and when it passeth from the Understanding to the Will, 'tis spiritually a word upon the wheels, and inwardly becomes free-making truth, Joh. 8. 32. ennobling the Will with true Liberty in the ways of God. Epaphras was in an Agony of Prayer for the Colossians, that they might be filled in all the will of God, Col. 4. 12. the more filling with God's Will, the more true Liberty in ours. St. Peter clearly asserts, that we are born again of the incorruptible seed of the word, 1 Pet. 1. 23. In which words his plain meaning is, that the Word being intimately sown in the Heart, doth under the warming influences of the ho… spirit spring up into the new Creature; and to make this the plainer, he adds, that the word lives and abides for ever, speaking (as I take it) not of the Words living and abiding in it self, but of its living and abiding in the new Creature: As it is with natural Seed or Grain sown, the Husk or outward part passes away, but the lively or substantial part springs up into the Stalk, Blade and Ear; so it is with the Seed of the Word, the letters and syllables, the noise and sound of words pass away, but the lively and substantial Truth springs up into the p. 429new Creature, and in it lives and abides for ever. God made two great Promises of Regeneration, the one, That he would write the Law in the heart, and the other, That he would give a new heart, and the latter he fulfils by the former.

In these two Instants, distinguishable at least in Nature, doth God by his Word bring forth the Principles of Grace. Now here I would conclude this point, but that I am obviated by two Objections.

The one absolutely against the Words Instrumentality.

The other against the Method proposed in the two Instants.

1. Object. That against the Words Instrumentality is this; The Production of gracious Principles is a Creation, and in Creation there can be no Instrument at all, and therefore the Word cannot be an Instrument in that Production.

In answer to which Objection founded on Philosophical Principles, I think it were enough to say with the Psalmist, Thy testimonies are wonderful, Psal. 119. 129. or with the convicted man, God is in it of a truth, 1 Cor. 14. 25. or with the Apostle, The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men, 1 Cor. p. 4301. 25. The Scriptures asserting this Instrumentality, what if this Philosophical Objection could not be answered, must therefore the holy Oracle be rejected? What if Reason cannot comprehend it, must therefore Faith renounce it? How much better is that old Gloss, Taceat Mulier in Ecclesia, Let Reason be silent in the Church. But for some satisfaction, I shall offer four things to your consideration.

1. Consider who is the principal Agent, who but the Almighty? and if he will appear in the word (as the Expression is, Acts 26. 16.) what may not be done by it? The Apostle was but an earthen vessel, yet a Minister of the quickning Spirit, because God foreign, made him sufficient to be such a one, 2 Cor. 3. 6. If he make the Word sufficient to regenerate, who can gainsay it?

2. Consider what the Instrument is, 'tis the Word of God; the two grand Truths therein are the Law and Gospel, and what are these in their eternal Idea? The Law is an foreign or eternal Off-shining from the divine Will as Righteous, and the Gospel is an foreign or eternal Off-shining from the divine Will as gracious, and what are they in their external Revelation? The Scripture is foreign, breathed out from the p. 431very mind and heart of God, and therefore cannot be less than a lively Picture or Image of the divine Will: Wherefore that such a Word, as is the Image of the divine Will, should instrumentally produce the new Creature, which is the Image of the divine Nature, seems to me rather congruous than impossible.

3. Consider what the Principles of Grace are, they are not Substances, but Accidents, depending upon their Subject in esse & operari, and may more properly be said to be increated than created; now if there could be no Instrument in the Creation of Substances, yet why may not there be one in the Increation of Accidents?

4. Consider what a kind of Creation the production of gracious Principles is: Is it every way pure Creation? How then is it Generation? how Resurrection? Pure Creation can be neither of these: You'l say, 'tis Generation and Resurrection but metaphorically only; very well; if it be but so, the Metaphor must be founded on some true likeness or analogy between these and the production of gracious Principles, which is altogether unimaginable in a pure Creation. It remains p. 432therefore that the production of gracious Principles is stiled all these in Scripture, partly to import the excellency of the work, such as cannot be fully expressed by any single one of these, & partly to hint out the nature of the work, such as hath in it somewhat analogous to every one of these: Wherefore I take it to be thus, 'tis a Creation, because a real production of gracious Principles by Almighty Power, 'tis a Generation, because of the immortal Seed of the Word, and 'tis a Resurrection, because a man spiritually dead is raised up to divine life: Now if there could be no Instrument in a pure Creation, yet may there be one in the production of gracious Principles, because that is not purely Creation, though there be a creating power put forth therein.

2. Object. The other Objection is against the Method proposed in the two Instants, viz. That first in Nature the Word is put into the Heart, and then the Principles of Grace are produced, which is contrary to that, the natural man receives not the things of God, 1 Cor. 2. 14. and contrary to that, the word did not profit them not being mixed with faith, Heb. 4. 2. and also contrary to the scope of that Parable, p. 433where the Seed of the Word only fructifies in a good and honest heart, Luk. 8. 15. for according to the Method of the two Instants, the Natural man doth receive the things of God, the Word doth profit before it is mixed with Faith, and the Seed doth fructifie in a Heart not good or honest.

In answer whereunto, I conceive that the Method proposed in the two Instants doth not contradict any of these Scriptures. As for the first place, The natural man receives not the things of God, I answer that the Things or Truths of God may be received in the Heart two ways; either passively by way of Impression from the holy Spirit, or actually by way of actual discerning them in the Understanding, and embracing them in the Will: the former is a reception of them according to the obediential Capacity of the Heart, the latter a reception of them according to the spiritual Faculty thereof: the former doth at least in Nature go before the Principles of Grace, in order to their Production; the latter doth follow after the Principles of Grace, as the fruit thereof. The former is that which is done in the first Instant abovementioned, the latter is that which is p. 434spoken of by the Apostle in the Text abovenamed; for there he saith, that the natural man receiveth not the things of God, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned, where evidently he speaks of such a receiving as is an actual knowing and spiritual discerning of the things of God: Wherefore according to the Apostle, this active receiving doth presuppose the Principles of Grace already in Being; but the other passive receiving (of which the Apostle there speaks not) doth only presuppose an obediential Capacity in the Soul. There is a double obediential Capacity in the Soul to receive the Truths of God as by way of Impression; the ultimate and radical Capacity is the Rationality of the Soul, and the next and immediate Capacity is that Softness of Heart which is wrought in the preparatory work of Conversion. The Soul as rational is capable to receive an impression of Truths from God, and as softned it is yet further disposed thereunto. This is that obediential Capacity which is required in the Method of the two Instants, and which the Apostle in that place doth not so much as touch upon.

As for the second place, the word did not p. 435profit them, not being mixed with faith; I answer, that the Word may be considered under a double Notion, either as it is operative of Faith, or as it is promissive of Rest to Believers: Take it as operative of Faith, and so it profits not being mixed with Faith, otherwise faith could not come by hearing, as the Apostle asserts, Rom. 10. 17. but take it as promissive of Rest to Believers, and so it doth not profit not being mixed with Faith; that is, Faith (which is the Condition of the Promise) not being performed, the eternal Rest (which is the thing promised) cannot belong to them: and this is clearly the Apostle's meaning; for having spoken of a promise of rest, Heb. 4. Ver. 1. he adds Ver. 2. the word (that is, the Promise of Rest spoken of before) did not profit them not being mixed with faith, that is, the promised Rest was of no effect to them because they were Unbelievers; and in this sence the words no way oppose the Method in the two Instants.

As for the Parable where it is said that the Seed of the Word fructifies in the good and honest heart, I answer, that the Seed of the Word may be said to fructifie two ways, either internally in the production of p. 436inward Graces, or externally in the production of outward good Works: Now our Saviours scope in this parable, at least in the latter part thereof, touching the good Ground, was to shew how the Word did fructifie in the production of outward good Works; this is clear, because it is such a fructification as presupposes a good & honest heart: so that our Saviour doth not here deny the Words fructification in the production of Graces, but assert the Words fructification in the production of good works. Nay, in the former part of the Parable touching the three sorts of bad Ground, laying down the impediments of the Words fructification, and those impediments being in themselves impediments to all kind of fructification, as well that which is in the Production of Graces, as that which is in the production of good Works; he seems by way of implication to hint out the Words fructification in the production of Graces, according to the Method of the two Instants; for he saith, that the word did not fructifie in the stony ground, because they had no root, Luk. 8. 13. intimating that the Word must first root, before it can fructifie at all: So that if we might gather out of this Parable the whole Method of the Words fructification, p. 437it seems to be thus; first, the Word must be notionally understood, which was wanting in him by the way-side; then it must be inwardly rooted, which was wanting in the stony Ground; then it must cast the choaking World out of the heart, which was wanting in the thorny Ground; then it makes the Heart a good and honest Heart; and lastly, it makes that good and honest Heart fructifie in all outward good Works: Wherefore this Parable is so far from contradicting, that it seems rather to illustrate the Method proposed in the two Instants abovesaid.

Having passed the first Quaere, I procede to the second.

2. Quaere, Whether the Will of Man be converted by the Intervention of the enlightned Understanding?

In answer to which I shall lay down two Positions.

1. That the Will of Man doth infallibly and necessarily follow the practical Understanding.

2. That the Will of Man doth so in the matter of Conversion.

But that there may be a clear Foundation, I shall first lay down some differences between theoretical Knowledg and practical p. 438as to the Truths & Things of God. And

1. These differ Subjectivè; not as if these were not both in the same Understanding, but that their way of inhesion there is different. Theoretical Knowledge is in the Understanding but superficially, a flash and away, a light taste, such as was in those Apostates, Heb. 6. 5. a word sown but unrooted, such as that in the stony ground, Matth. 13. 21. but practical Knowledge is deeply radicated in the Understanding; 'tis truth in the hidden parts, wisdom entring into the soul, and a word sinking down into the heart, and (which is a second difference springing out of the former) theoretical Knowledg, being but superficial, hath much of doubtings and fluctuations; it sees and sees not, it is a dark and half vision, a perswasion foreign, in a little, as the expression is, Acts 26. 28. but practical Knowledge being deeply radicated hath much of certainty and assurance in it; 'tis instruction sealed, a vision unveiled and with open face: a man need not say, Who shall ascend into heaven? or who shall descend into the deep? the word is in the heart in such a sensible Presentiality as makes a thorough perswasion of the truth thereof.

2. These differ Objectivé. Theoretical p. 439Knowledge represents things as good or evil only in the general, but practical Knowledge represents this or that as good or evil in its individuality and as cloathed with all its circumstances. In Herod's theoretical Knowledge 'twas evil to kill John Baptist, but in his practical Judgment, with the circumstance of his Oath, 'twas good in his eyes to do so. The theoretical Knowledge in the stony Ground pronounces the Word to be good, but the practical Judgment sentences it evil with Persecution. But to carry on the difference a little further: Theoretical Knowledge, representing things as good or evil only in the general, speaks little or nothing to Practice, but practical Knowledge representing this or that as good or evil in its individual circumstances speaks absolutely and with a kind of Authority; this must be done, and that must not be done: When it says, This must be done, it is promotive of the duty; They that know thy name will trust in thee, Psal. 9. 10. and by the same Reason will do other duties required by thee: When it says, That must not be done, it is preventive of Sin; If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory, 1 Cor. 2. 8. that is, a practical Knowledge p. 440would effectually have impeded that sin, and by the same reason will it impede other sins; both ways it hath a great influence into Practice.

3. These differ essentially. Theoretical Knowledge is in some sence but knowledge falsly so called, because it knows not the things of God as they are proposed to be known; those things are proposed to be known not as mere Notions, but as practical things, to be above all other things chosen, loved, embraced and practised: Wherefore a theoretical Knowledg, knowing them notionally only, even whilest it is materially true, hath a secret lye in it, because it judges of them theoretically only, of which it should judge practically. Thus the Apostle, He that saith I know him, and keepeth not his commandments is a lyar and the truth is not in him, 1 Joh. 2. 4. not in him as it should be; for in the midst of all his puffing Knowledge, he knoweth nothing as he ought to know, 1 Cor. 8. 2. because not in a practical way; but practical Knowledge is a true Knowledg, it knows the things of God as they are proposed to be known, that is, not as mere Notions, but as things to be practically improved in heart and life; it knows p. 441them as it ought to know them. And out of this difference arises a second: Theoretical Knowledge being but a false Knowledge is but a weak and dead thing, able to put forth no vital or spiritual Action: Just as a flash of Lightning in the night, it makes all the way plain, but before one step can be taken, all is in darkness; such a vanishing vapour is mere Notion, which puffs the Head but penetrates not into the Heart. But practical Knowledge, being a true Knowledge, hath strength and life in it, it puts forth vital and spiritual Actions. Hence our Saviour calls it no less than eternal life, Joh. 17. 3. it forges out the blood and vital Spirits of the new Creature, strengthens him with spiritual Bones and Sinews, and sets him in Motion towards the Crown of Life in Heaven.

These differences premised, I procede to prove the two Positions laid down.

1. The first was this, That Man's Will doth infallibly and necessarily follow the practical Understanding, and this I shall endeavour to make out,

1. From God's Ordination, in which there are two things to be considered.

1. God never made the Will of Man to stand alone.

p. 4422. God never made it to go alone: both which may yet be, if it follow not the practical Understanding.

1. God never made the Will of Man to stand alone, but he would have it depend upon the Understanding: As he made the Sensitive Appetite to depend upon the Senses, so he made the Will to depend upon the Understanding. Hence the Will, which is in it self but caeca Potentia, a blind Power, in its dependance is foreign, a rational Appetite. …. Rhet. Li. 1. cap. 10.If the Will do not depend upon the Understanding, where doth it stand but upon the Base of its own Independency? You'l say, No, not so, for still it is under the guidance of Providence. I answer, That Providence, which rules all things in a sweet Congruity to their Natures, rules the Will, not as a Brute but as a rational Appetite; and how that can be without its dependance on the Understanding I know not.

2. God never made it to go alone; 'tis in it self but a blind Power, and God never made the blind to go alone. Even in Brutes there is Sense to light the appetite, much more in Man Understanding to light the Will. Hence the Understanding is called p. 443foreign, the leading or ruling Faculty, and lucerna Domini, the candle of the Lord, Prov. 20. 27. without it the Will is all in the dark. If the Will can go alone in any Acts, surely it must be in Acts of Sin, which have much of darkness in them; but even there, whilest the holy Law of God is violated, the Dictates of the corrupt Understanding are observed: If the Will can go alone in any Acts of Sin, surely it must be above all in such Acts as are most against Knowledge; but even there, whilest theoretical Knowledge is opposed, the practical Judgment is fulfilled. Hence such presumptuous sinners as rebel against the light, are yet said to walk in their own counsels, Psal. 81. 12. because they follow their practical Judgement; and to erre in their hearts, Psal. 95. 10. because that practical Judgment which they follow is corrupt and erroneous; and to make them Idols according to their own understanding, Hos. 13. 2. because first the Understanding frames the Idol, and then the Will falls down and worshippeth.

2. I argue from the Will it self, which may be considered two ways, either as it is in it self, or as it is in dependance upon the Understanding.

p. 4441. As it is in it self, and so it is an Appetite; its Object is Good real or at least apparant, (for malum, quà malum, non est appetibile) and that Good must be proposed by the Understanding, for that is instead of Eyes to the Will. Suppose then that the Understanding do shew forth to the Will such a thing as good pro hîc & nunc, and that so good, that it is immediately to be embraced, and cannot without a present evil be neglected, no not for a moment; if in this Case the Will may refuse this Object, it may appetere malum sub ratione mali, that is, appetere non appetibile, and in so doing it may cease to be, what it essentially is, an Appetite.

2. As it is in dependance upon the Understanding, and so it is a rational Appetite, and (which results from thence) it is a free Appetite; the root of its Freedom is in the Understanding. Why hath a Will a liberty of Spontaneity to some Objects, but because the Understanding represents them as good pro hîc & nunc? Why a liberty of Contradiction to other Objects, but because the Understanding looks on them as matters of little or no moment? One would think so odious and detestable a thing as Sin, could not be chosen by p. 445the Will; but the erring Understanding gilds and glosses it over with a shew of Good. One would think, such glorious and all-desirable Objects as are in the Gospel could not be refused by the Will, but the blind Understanding sees little or no worth at all in them. But now if the practical Judgment propose a thing as Good, and the Will reject it, 'tis no longer a rational Appetite but a Brute; neither is it any longer free, but cut off and in statu separato from the Root and Fountain of its Liberty; neither is its Act a free Act, but belluinus impetus, a brutish violence, for it hath no Understanding at all at the root and bottom of it, no more than the Act of a Beast hath. What then shall we say? Can the Will cease to be a rational and free Appetite? Or may it be rational and free without an Understanding? Neither of these can be: Wherefore it remains that it must follow the practical Judgment, and so continue free and rational.

3. I argue from the Effect, which shews much of harmony between the Posture of the Understanding and the Posture of the Will. Is the Understanding determinate? So is the Will: Hence if the Understanding represent a thing as good, the Will p. 446embraces it as such, if as a greater good, it embraces it the more, if as a summum bonum, it embraces it summo conatu. On the other hand, if the Understanding represent a thing as evil, the Will starts back from it; if as a greater evil, it flies yet further from it; if as malum maximum, it can never fly far enough from it. Is the Understanding pendulous? So is the Will too: Hence if the Understanding represent a thing as a matter indifferent, having little or nothing of moment in it, one way or other, the Will doth not infallibly will it as it doth the good, nor nill it as it doth the evil, but in a pendulous way it hangs off and plays on, because the Understanding doth not pronounce it good or evil, but only indifferent. The Will observes every motion of the practical Judgment; if that say, Yonder is such a good, the Will cleaves to it as Ruth to Naomi; if that say, There is such an evil, the Will flies from it as Moses from the Serpent; if that say, Such a thing is indifferent, the Will stands as the King of Babylon, at the parting of the way, Ezek. 21. 21. it may will or not will; for there is an aequilibrium in the Will answering the aequilibrium in the Understanding.

p. 4474. I argue from the consequent Absurdity: If the Will do not follow the practical Judgment, then although the practical Judgment be never so right, yet may the Will transgress, and by consequence a man may be a sinner and no fool, which is impossible. In Scripture Sin is foreign an aberration, Isai. 5. 18. foreign, a missing of the mark, 1 Joh. 3. 4. foreign, an ignorance, Heb. 9. 7. foreign, an error, Rom. 1. 27. error in heart, Heb. 3. 10. and error of way, James 5. 20. and (which is the fullest expression of all) folly, foolishness and madness, Eccl. 7. 25. as if all words were too little to express the folly thereof: Also sinners are straglers or wanderers, Isai. 53. 6. foreign, without mind, Tit. 3. 3. simple ones such as want heart, Prov. 9. 4. foreign, unreasonable men, 2 Thess. 3. 2. fools, nay madmen, Acts 26. 11. nay, as if there were nothing of Man in them, foreign, brute heasts, 2 Pet. 2. 12. Even in the first Sin of Man the Apostle tells us, that the woman foreign, being deceived, was in the transgression, 1 Tim. 2. 14. First there was an Error, a false End in her mind, and then the forbidden fruit was embraced by her Will. But now after all this, if the practical Judgment be right set, and yet the Will may turn away unto p. 448Sin, then that which is impossible in Scripture may be possible in Nature; there may be a Sinner and no Fool, Sin and no Folly, Wandring without Error, missing the Mark without any false End, Transgression and nothing of Deception in it, a Man and a Brute coupled together in the same Act, the Understanding playing the Man in its right directions, and the Will playing the Brute in its irrational aversation: All which Absurdities are unavoidable by such as assert, that the Will doth not follow the practical Judgment.

2. Posit. Leaving the first Position, I procede to the second, viz. That the Will of Man doth infallibly follow the practical Understanding in the matter of Conversion.

And here again I might reinforce the former Arguments with an Emphasis: If the Will cannot stand alone and upon the bottom of its own independency in other matters, much less can it do so in Conversion, to which the working and drawing of Almighty Grace is requisite: If in other matters the Will cannot go alone without the Torch of Reason, surely in Conversion it cannot go alone without the Torch of supernatural Illumination. If p. 449the Will by deserting a lesser good propoposed by the Understanding do appetere malum sub ratione mali, then the Will by deserting God proposed as the summum bonum by the Understanding doth appetere summum malum so; if the Will by rejecting an inferiour Good proposed by the practical Judgment must become bruitish and irrational, how much more bruitish and irrational must it become by rejecting the summum bonum so proposed? If the Will may be determined by the Understanding as to a lesser Good, nay, as to a false lying Good, as in the Case of Sin, how much rather may it be so determined as to the summum bonum? If by the Wills turning away from the Understanding right set, there may be Sin in the Will, and no Folly in the Understanding, which is impossible; then by such turning away there may be no Charity in the Will, and yet true Faith in the Understanding, which is also impossible. But pretermi… ting these, I come more closely to the Thesis, that is, That the Will doth follow the Understanding in the business of Conversion. Now whereas the Conversion of the Will is double; either it is the production of gracious Principles in the Will, or p. 450it is the actual Conversion of the Will: in the first the Will is Passive, in the other Active. The Wills following the Understanding is double also; as to the Principles of Grace in the Will, the Understanding is as the Channel through which those Principles are infused into the Will; as to the actual Conversion of the Will, the Understanding is as a potent Perswader inducing the Will unto actual Conversion. In the first the Will follows the Understanding passively only and by way of reception of Principles; in the second the Will follows the Understanding Actively and by way of free Actuation of those Principles.

I shall speak somewhat to both these.

1. As to the Principles of Grace in the Will, the Understanding is as the Channel through which those Principles are transfused into the Will. God doth not infuse the Principles of Grace into the Will foreign, but he puts in his hand by the hole of the door, and so the churches bowels are moved for him, Cant. 5. 4. he puts in his Grace at the Understanding, and so the Will and Affections are turned to him; he purifies the heart by faith, Acts 15. 9. that is, through Faith in the Understanding he influences p. 451Holiness into the Will, and this Holiness is called by the Apostle holiness of truth, Eph. 4. 24. not only because 'tis a real Holiness, but especially because 'tis wrought through the Truth, first entring in at the Understanding, and so passing on to the Will: and that this is the Apostle's meaning appears, because he opposes holiness of truth, in the 24. Verse, to the lusts of deceit in the 22. Verse. As those are lusts of deceit, because the lusting Will follows upon the erring Understanding, so this is holiness of truth, because the holy Will follows upon the true Understanding. The practical Knowledge of God is stiled eternal life, Joh. 17. 3. and a well-spring of life, Prov. 16. 22. & the reason is, because through it all quickning Graces do as a River of Life flow into the Will. Above all that of the Apostle is most pregnant, Beholding as in a glass the glory of God, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the spirit of the Lord, 2 Cor. 3. 18. The Glory of God is reflected from Christ upon the Gospel, and from the Gospel upon the Understanding, and from the Understanding upon the Will, and so we are changed into his glorious Image. In Man's first Transgression Death entred in at the Windows of the p. 452Mind, and so got into the secret Closet of the Heart, and in Man's first Conversion Life comes in at the Mind and so passes down into the Will. All the Grace that a man hath (saith Dr. Preston) passes in through the Understanding; and if it were not so, how could the Word be an Instrument of the Wills Regeneration? There is no passage for it into the Will but through the Understanding. In Regeneration the Law is writ in the heart, and how can that be but through the Understanding? The appetitive Faculty is naturally crooked, and if ever it be made right, it must be through the apprehensive Faculty: all the things of Godliness are given foreign, through the knowledge of God, 2 Pet. 1. 3. that's the great Channel by which all Grace passes into the Will.

2. As to the actual Conversion of the Will, the Understanding is as a potent Perswader effectually inducing the Will thereunto. There are three principal things in the Wills actual Conversion, viz. a turning to God as its supreme End, an embracing Christ as the only Way, and a rejection of Sin as the great Obstacle; and in all these the Will doth follow the Understanding.

p. 4531. The Will doth follow the Understanding in its turn to God as the supreme End, and this appears divers ways.

1. The Scriptures clear it to us; there we find in conjunction bethinking and turning, 2 Chron. 6. 37. remembring and turning, Psal. 22. 27. considering and turning, Ezek. 18. 28. understanding and turning, Mat. 13. 15. and opening the eyes and turning, Act. 26. 18. in all which places the Understanding goes before, and the Will follows after. There we find Conversion to be a thing wrought by Perswasion, God shall perswade Japheth, Gen. 9. 27. by Inshining, God hath shined in our hearts, 2 Cor. 4. 6. by Teaching, they shall be all taught of God, Joh. 6. 45. by Anointing, you have an unction from the holy one, 1 Joh. 2. 20. and by coming to a mans self, Luk. 15. 17. first the Prodigal came to himself, and then he returned to his Father: the import of all which is plainly thus much, That God doth actually draw home the Will unto himself through the Understanding; Thy people (saith the Psalmist) shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth, Psal. 110. 3. here are a willing People like the Dew for multitude, p. 454but whence are they? Whence, but from the womb of the morning? The morning of supernatural Illumination is the Womb out of which they issue: As long as there is no morning in men, as the Expression is, Isai. 8. 20. there is no Will at all to God; but as soon as the day dawns in their hearts, out comes a willing People as Dew from the morning.

2. The Nature of the Will holds forth thus much: The Will naturally wills Blessedness or the ultimate End in general, because it is a Good perfective and expletive of the Soul, but the Will doth not naturally fix on this or that thing as its blessedness or ultimate End in particular. One Man fixes on Mammon as his chief Good, another makes his Belly his God, a third is all for the Pride of Life; whence is the Will thus determined? Either it must be determined by it self, or else by the Understanding; not by it self, for it is a blind Faculty, and cannot of it self judg any thing to be a chief Good, much less can it fix it self on it as such; wherefore it must be determined by the Understanding. One Man chuses Mammon to be his chief Good, because (as the Psalmist hath it) his inward thought is, that his house shall continue for p. 455ever, Psal. 49. 11. that's lasting happiness, saith his carnal Understanding. Another makes his Belly his God, because his inward thought is, Eat, drink, and be merry, Luk. 12. 19. there is nothing better, saith his bruitish Understanding. A third is all for the Pride of Life, because his inward thought is, to be a Lucifer in Self-excellencies, that's the top of Bliss, saith his soaring Understanding. In every one of these, first the Understanding makes the Idol, and then the Will doth fall down and worship. Now if the Will may be determined by the Understanding to such false Beatitudes as these, how much more may it be determined by the Understanding to God who is the true blessedness?

3. This appears from the Excellency of that practical Understanding which draws the Will unto actual Conversion. 'Tis an excellent Understanding for the Object of it; being in the Mount of Transfiguration it shews forth unto the Will, not Creatures, Chips of Being, in the shell of Time, but a Jehovah of Self-beingness, a God of Allsufficiency dwelling in Eternity; not Streams of Life or Goodness in the Creature-channel, but a Fountain of living waters, an Ocean of immense Goodness, such p. 456as cannot be sailed over by Faith or Vision; not golden or pearly Mountains, but an infinite Mass of free Grace, unsearchable riches of Mercy, such as cannot be …old over to all Eternity; not shadows or little portions of Being, but the foreign, Revel. 1. 4. the true I am, the foreign, or the all things, 1 Cor. 15. 28. in whom are all the rich Mines of universal Blessedness; and (which is the sweetness of all) it shews forth this God not as reserving himself only to himself, but as freely offering himself to poor worms. Oh my Soul! stand still and adore the opening of his Bowels and Self-motion of his Grace; this Jehovah of Self-beingness and All-sufficiency will make over himself to thee, this Fountain of Life and Goodness will flow out to thee, this rich Mass of Grace and Mercy will portion thee, this I am and ever-blessed All is an inheritance for thee, and in inheriting him thou maist after a wonderful manner inherit all things. This is the infinite Excellency of the Object; but after what manner doth the Understanding shew it forth unto the Will? Surely, though as much below his worth as finite is below infinite, yet in an excellent way; the Understanding shews forth God unto the Will p. 457not in a dead or literal manner, but with spiritual liveliness and (as I may so say) in sparkles of Glory; for it is eternal life, and Heaven it self dawns in it, not darkly or at a distance, but clearly and closely; the day-star is up in the heart, and God approaches near unto the Will, his goodness passes before it, and leaves some holy touches and savours thereupon; not in a weak and languishing manner, but powerfully and effectually. The Apostle joins the demonstration of the Spirit and power together, 1 Cor. 2. 4. There is such a Demonstration of the Spirit in the Understanding as cannot be denied, and from thence such a Power upon the Will as cannot be frustrated, not notionally only but practically; it seriously presseth in upon the Will. Here, O rational Appetite! here is a God indeed; his Grace free, his Mercy Self-moving; take him and thou hast all, lose him and thou hast nothing: Now, Oh! now is the accepted time, the day of Salvation; in his Favour there is Life, in his Wrath nothing but Death: If he bless thee, none can curse, if he curse thee none can bless; now or never turn and live. After this manner doth it practically press in upon the Will. Now when p. 458the Understanding holds forth such an excellent Object in such an excellent manner unto the Will, already principled with Grace, how can it chuse but actually close in with it? Such a Knowledge being really actuated, can the Will turn aside to other Objects for its happiness? The simple one may turn away, Prov. 1. 32. but shall a man of understanding do so? A deceived heart may turn aside, Isai. 44. 20. but shall the wise in heart do so? A heart of unbelief may depart from the living God, Heb. 3. 12. but shall a man of precious faith do so? But whither can he turn? What, to the Riches of the World? 'Tis but dross to the unsearchable Riches of Christ, saith the Understanding: What, to Honours? 'Tis but a blast to the true Honour which cometh of God only, saith the Understanding: What, to Pleasures? These are muddy Puddles to the pure Rivers of Pleasure above, saith the Understanding. This Understanding doth as it were blast all the World, crucifie the Universe, and by a prospect of Faith see the Heavens on fire, the Earth burnt up, and the Elements melting with fervent heat, and can the Will fall in love with the Dust and Cinders of it? Surely it will not. But if the Will cannot p. 459turn aside to such false Beatitudes, yet may it not suspend its Act as to the true? Suspend! what from its own blessedness verily, thoroughly believed? What from God the all in all plainly, powerfully demonstrated to be such? And what for just nothing, for a sic volo? Can it be so brutishly free at so dear a rate as to be eternally miserable? Will it hang off from perfect Blessedness? or can it do so, and the summū malū not fall into its embraces? And may a Will renewed with the holy Ghost, and right set by gracious Principles do thus? Surely it cannot, They that know thy name will trust in thee, Psal. 9. 10. and (which follows upon Trust) will love thee, and (which streams from Love) will obey thee, and (which is the Crown of Obedience) will resign up themselves to thee for all their happiness. Where such an excellent Understanding goes before, there the Will doth infallibly follow after, even in actual Conversion unto God as its supreme End.

2. The Will doth follow the Understanding in its embracing of Christ as the only way, and this appears

1. From several Sciptures. To know JesusChrist is eternal life, Joh. 17. 3. it quickens the Will to embrace him. Christ told p. 460the Woman, If thou hadst known the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water, Joh. 4. 10. A true Knowledge of Christ would have inflamed her desires after him, and those desires would have breathed out prayers for the living Water. Our Saviour quotes that in the Prophets [And they shall be all taught of God] and and what follows upon that teaching? Every man therefore (saith he) that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me, Joh. 6. 45. True Knowledge makes a man come to Christ, and that without fail, for 'tis so in every man that hears and learns of the Father, not in one or two, but in every man, and how doth Knowledge do this? How, but by glorifying Christ unto the Will? The Spirit (saith Christ) shall glorifie me; how so? He shall take of mine and shall shew unto you, Joh. 16. 14, 15. the holy Spirit takes Christ and shews him after a wonderful manner, it glorifies him in the Understanding, and through the Understanding it glorifies him before the Will, and so the Will is sweetly and strongly drawn unto him.

2. From the Will it self. If the Will be p. 461determined by the Understanding, unto God as its ultimate End, then is it also determined by the Understanding, unto Christ as the only way thereunto. Indeed if the Understanding did propose an End, and withal two distinct ways of equal tendency thereunto, then the Will might be free to either of those ways: But when the Understanding proposes God as the End, and Christ as the only Way to that End, then the Will must infallibly close in with Christ; it must, or lose its End or Blessedness; it must, or the summū malū will fall into its arms. When the Understanding tells the Will in good earnest, there is no other way but one, there is no other Name under Heaven but Jesus only, the Will is sweetly constrained into his embraces.

3. From the Understanding which shews forth Christ to be the perfect Way sutable to all our wants in our passage to God the true End. Thou wouldest come to God but for the weight of Sin and Wrath, Loe, here is an High-priest with Expiating Blood; thou wouldst come to God but thou knowest not the way thither, here's a Prophet with words of Light and Life; thou wouldst come to God but for the pressure of thy reigning p. 462Lusts, here's a King with a Sceptre of Righteousness to subdue them; thou wouldst come to God but for want of a gracious Heart, here's a Treasury of all Grace and Holiness. The Understanding still points at Christ; Art thou in darkness? he is a sun of righteousness; Art thou in death? he is the resurrection and the life; Art thou a withered branch? he is a root of fatness and sweetness; Art thou a lost and halfdamned Creature? he is a Saviour able to save to the uttermost. This Understanding glorifies Christ in all his Offices, sings the sing of the Lamb, and cries him up for altogether precious; this is the Window or Lattess at which his all-fair Person looks in upon the Will, the Conduit through which the sweet Ointment of his Name is poured out unto the Will, and the Crucifix which shews forth his bloody Passion in lively colours before the Will. This Understanding practically presses the Will to embrace him; O my Soul! now hear and live; take him and everlasting Mercy meets thee, leave him and devouring Justice overtakes thee; catch hold on this Prince of Life, or die for ever; look up to this Brightness of Glory, or be in utter Darkness; wash in his Blood, or bleed p. 463in eternal Flames; put on his righteousness, or be naked to all Eternity; there is no way into the Holy of Holies, but through the Veil of his Flesh; enter, and thou hast an ever-blessed God to make thee happy neglect, and thou hast a righteous God to make thee for ever miserable. When Christ through the Understanding thus pours out his precious Name as an Ointment unto the Will, how can it chuse but love him? When through this hole of the door he thus drops in his sweet-smelling Truths upon the Will, how can it chuse but rise and open to him? If it do not, whither will it turn? What, to the Creatures? they are all Blackamoors to this all-lovely Jesus; What, to repentant Tears? those want washing in his Blood; What, to its good Works and Righteousness? they are but a filthy Rag. There is such a foreign, such a transcendent Excellency in the Knowledge of Christ, that it makes all other things but as dung before the Will, Phil. 3. 8. Hence the Will hath no whither else to turn: But if it turn no whither else, may it not suspend its Act as to Christ? Suspend! what from the only way to Blessedness evidently pointed out? What from him who is all desires really believed p. 464to be such? Can it thus wave Happiness and embrace mere nothing in the room thereof? and can it do thus when a right-set Understanding is really actuated, and it self truly principled with Grace? Surely it cannot be. No sooner did Christ see the budding Graces of his Church, but his soul made him like the chariots of Amminadib, Cant. 6. 11, 12. and no sooner do Christians see the lovely Excellencies of Christ, but they will become an Amminadib, a willing people, and their Wills as so many swift Chariots to convey them unto him. Thus the Will follows the Understanding in its embraces of Christ as the Way.

3. The Will follows the Understanding in its rejection of Sin as the great Obstacle, and this also appears

1. From several Scriptures; there we find on the one hand that Folly is the root of the Commission of Sin, The foolishness of man perverteth his way, Prov. 19. 3. Why doth the Atheist say in his heart, there is no God? Because he is a fool, Psal. 14. 1. Why do the Mammonists boast and trust in their uncertain Riches? Because their way is their folly, Psal. 49. 13. Why doth the blind Idolater fall down to the Stock p. 465of a Tree? Because a deceived heart hath turned him aside, Isai. 44. 19, 20. Why did the rebellious Israelites grieve their good God forty years together? Because they did err in their hearts, Psal. 95. 10. On the other hand, there we find that true Wisdom or Understanding is the root of the rejection of Sin, To depart from evil is understanding, Job 28. 28. the pollutions of the world are escaped through the knowledge of Christ, 2 Pet. 2. 20. through thy precepts (saith David) I get understanding, what then? therefore I hate every false way, Psal. 119. 104. and again, I esteem all thy precepts to be right, and what follows? I hate every false way, Ver. 128. First, there was a right Judgement in his Understanding, and thence issued an hatred of Sin in his Will. For all the Wolves and the Leopards, yet (saith God) they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy Mountain; why so? Because the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, Isai. 11. 9. that saving Knowledge should turn them into Lambs and little Children, and make them leave off their barbarous and inhumane cruelty. Hence Repentance (which includes in it an hatred and rejection of Sin) is stiled foreign, a transmentation or postmentation; p. 499because when a man comes to himself in a right Understanding, he hates & rejects Sin.

2. From the Will it self: If that follow the Understanding in turning to God as its supreme End, and in embracing of Christ as the only way, then by necessary consequence it must needs follow the Understanding in the rejection of Sin as the great Obstacle; for if it follow not here also, it must wave its supreme End and the Way thither, it must resolve upon a Happiness without God and Christ. If the Understanding say to the Will, There is no other Cloud betwixt thee and the Father of Lights, no other distance betwixt thee and the Fountain of living Waters, none but Sin alone, surely the Will must bid it be gone for ever.

3. From the Understanding which so represents Sin, as that the Will doth turn away from it, and this it doth three ways.

1. The Understanding doth represent Sin as a grand evil; it sets it forth as an Ataxy in man, Rebellion against God, Spears and Nails to Jesus Christ, Quench-coal to the Spirit of Grace, Blur and Stain to the Soul, groaning Burthen on the back of the whole Creation, Venom and perfect Quintessence of all evils, a thing of such monstrous p. 467deformities, as if it did appear in its own prodigious shape, would not be touched upon by Man, and how can the Will being a rational Appetite doat upon such a thing? Surely upon it as such it cannot; wherefore Sin (that it may be welcome to the Will) covers it self with Figleaves as Adam, it veils its face like Tamar, it paints and tires like Jezabel, it disguises and feigns it self to be another like Jeroboam's Wife, it courts and flatters to steal away hearts like Absalom, it comes like Agrippa and Bernice with great pomp in fancy of some apparent goodness; offering it self to our Saviour it wrapped up it self in all the glories of the World, nay, in the Mantle of Scripture and Angelical protection; coming to Adam, it held forth an Apple, and promised no less than a God-head; ever it hath a lye and a cheat in it. Hence it is called a false way, Psal. 119. 104. and foreign the work of a lye, Prov. 11. 18. there is in it foreign, a sleight, as in cogging Dice, Eph. 4. 14. it makes every sinner believe that he shall have the cast of happiness, but coggs away his Soul. This is that deceitfulness of sin, by which it insinuates it self into the Will; but this right Understanding hath a counter-work, it unleaves p. 468and unveils Sin, it unpaints & undresses it, it plucks off it false appearances and disguises, it disrobes it of all its pomps and fancy, it discovers the lye and cheat in it, and makes it appear in its own ugly hue and shameful nakedness; Achan's Sin was wrapt up in a Baby lonish Garment, but unclothe it, and it was an accursed thing; Saul's Sin was covered over with Sacrifices, but unveil it, and 'twas witchcraft-like rebellion; Judas his Sin about the precious Ointment was painted over with Charity, but unpaint it and 'twas arrant thievery; Paul's Sin wore a Cloak of Zeal, but undress it, and 'twas bloody persecution. This right Understanding plucks the lye out of Sins mouth, and the paint off from its face, and all the Robes of apparent Goodness off from its back; and so constrains it to go naked before the Will, and thereby it appears what it is, foreign, sinning sin, Rom. 7. 13. foreign the evil of evils, Hos. 10. 15. altogether evil, and nothing but evil; and now how can the Will embrace it as good? How can it chuse but reject it as evil? Now, if ever, shall Sin be crucified. Male-factors were first stripped and then crucified: Sin in its Attire is a King in its Robes p. 469sitting on the Heart as a Throne; but Sin stript naked by the Understanding is a Malefactor ready for the Cross, and there the Will will surely nail it; the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing, saith the Prophet, Isai. 10. 27. Sin is a Yoke upon the Will fastened there by a lye, an appearance of some false Good, but the Anointing (which is truth, 1 Joh. 2. 27.) reveals the lye, and then off comes the yoke. Doth Sin profer a World? This Anointing is an inward Ecclesiastes crying out, All is vanity; Doth it profer Honors or Riches or Pleasures? What for a Soul, a Christ, a God? No cheat like that, saith the Anointing; Doth it promise Happiness? You do but flatter and lye, saith the Anoining, you have nothing but Death and Hell to bestow. Christ was manifested, foreign that he might dissolve the works of the devil, that is, sins in men, 1 Joh. 3. 8. and he dissolves them by this Anointing. Sin is in union with the Will, because Sin is in composition with some seeming Good; break the composition between Sin and the seeming Good, and you dissolve the union between Sin and the Will. The worldly Man's Will is in union with his Sin, because his Sin is in composition with the World; p. 470break the composition by a right Understanding, make him indeed see that the World is but foreign, a figure or fashion, and Riches but a thing that is not; dissolve the World by Faith, and instantly the Sin will drop out of his Will, for Sin as mere Sin will not down with the Will. If therefore the compound of apparent Goodness be once broken by the Understanding, the Will must needs cast it out as altogether evil, because it is an Object capable of its embraces.

2. The Understanding doth represent Sin as the Devils Work. Should the Devil visibly appear, and offer to the Covetous his Bags, or to the Drunkard his Cups, surely they would hardly take them at his hands. Wherefore Satan transforms himself into many shapes, and puts on Changes of Raiment that he may act invisible. But on the other hand, Christ foreign, spoils, or more properly, unclothes him, Col. 2. 15. he spoiled him meritoriously on the Cross, and unclothes him efficaciously in the Hearts of Men. Christ was so quick of understanding, that he found out Satan even in Peter's tender indulgence, and Christ gives such a true Understanding unto the Heart, that it sees Satan lurking p. 471in every Sin: Oh! says the true Understanding, there is a bloody Devil in all thy Malice, a blasphemous Devil in all thy Prophaneness, a lying Devil in all thy Hypocrisies, a proud Devil in all thy Self-excellencies, a Devil in the Swine in all thy Sensualities, and in every Sin Satan stands at thy right hand, Now when the Devil thus appears in Sin, surely the Will must needs turn away from it.

3. The Understanding doth represent Sin as the only Obstacle of Happiness. The Understanding views the all-blessed God with his infinite Bowels, and the all-precious Jesus with his infinite Merits; it lets in some Glimpses of Glory, and takes as it were a Prospect of Eternity; it travels over the Land of Promise, and tastes the Milk and Honey of free Grace flowing there; and after all this it cries out, Oh! my Soul, nothing can hinder thee from all these but Sin, nor Sin neither, unless indulg'd; this is the only Gulf between thee and thy God, the only Distance between thee and thy sweet Jesus, the only Bar to the Heaven of Glory, and the only Flaw in thy title to the Land of Promise. When the Understanding shews Sin to be such indeed, surely the Will cannot but reject it.

p. 472Thus the Will follows the Understanding, in turning to God the supreme End, in embracing Christ the only Way, and in rejecting Sin the great Obstacle, which are the three grand things in actual Conversion.

Now here I would have closed up this Point, but that there are two main Objections to be solved.

Object. 1. This Thesis of the Wills following the Understanding takes away the necessity of gracious Principles in the Will.

Object. 2. This Thesis overturns the Liberty of the Will.

1. This Thesis takes away the necessity of gracious Principles in the Will; what need of any there, seeing the Will is so good a follower?

As to this I shall answer two things.

1. This Thesis is so far from taking away the necessity of gracious Principles in the Will, that it discovers the way how those gracious Principles come to be wrought there. 'Tis in this Case between the Understanding and those gracious Principles, as 'tis between the beams of Light and the accompanying Heat: As Heat comes down from the Sun into the lower World in the p. 473Vehicle of natural Light, so Holiness comes down from the Sun of Righteousness into the Will in the Vehicle of supernatural Light. When the Day dawns in the Heart, the Heart waxes warm with spiritual Life; Give me understanding, saith David, and I shall keep thy Law; yea, I shall keep it with my whole heart, Psal. 119. 34. Why is he so earnest for Understanding? Is the Understanding all? May not the Will hang back for all that? No, Give me Understanding and I shall keep thy Law; yea, I shall keep it with my whole heart: that will set all my Soul in a right posture towards the Law of God.

2. Notwithstanding this Thesis, there is yet a treble Necessity of gracious Principles in the Will; for

1. God calls for them.

2. The Will it self stands in need of them.

3. The Perfection of the new Creature cannot stand without them.

1. God calls for them; above all things he calls for a heart, a pure heart, such as works out the mixtures of Corruption; a right heart, such as lies level to the Rule of Righteousness; this he desires, he desires truth in the inward parts, Psal. 51. 6. this he p. 474delights in, he hath pleasure in uprightness, 1 Chron. 29. 17. where this is found, he passes by many infirmities; I have eaten (saith Christ) my honey-comb with my honey, Wax and all, Wax and all, Cant. 5. 1. Infirmities do not hinder acceptance; but where this is wanting, he sets a black mark upon men, even whilest they do that which is materially good. Amaziah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart, 2 Chron. 25. 2. there is a black mark set upon him for want of Integrity. But now without gracious Principles in the Heart, how can the Heart be right or pure? which way can God's Call be answered, or his Desire or Delight attained?

2. The Will it self stands in need of them. The Will of fallen Man what is it but a very Shoal of inordinate Affections, a Womb of evil Concupiscence? Here is the foreign, the conceiving lust, Jam. 1. 15. that which teems out a generation of wickednesses: Here is an Abyss, a bottomless Pit of evils, such as smoaks and vomits up all manner of Abominations. Every carnal Heart hath in it a plague of Rotterness which is still starting from God, & an Iron-sinew of Rebellion which is still p. 475contradicting God; and how can this Hell of Lust in the Will ever be quenched but by the clean water? How can this deadly wound of Corruption there ever be healed but by gracious Principles?

3. The Perfection of the new Creature cannot stand without them. The new Creature is a new men, all over new, new in its Desires as well as in its Intellectuals; 'tis a perfect man in Christ, perfect in all its parts; it hath a Heart as well as a Head. Should the Will want gracious Principles, the new Creature must want a Heart, the old Heart will not serve the turn; the new Man is but half a Man without a new heart. There was put into the Breast-plate of Judgment the Urim and the Thummim, that is, Lights and Perfections, both were in it or else it had not been perfect: The full substance of this Type was only in Christ, who was full of all Grace and Truth; but there is a measure of it in every true Christian, who puts on the breast-plate of faith and love, 1 Thess. 5. 8. Faith is a kind of Urim in his Understanding, and Love a kind of Thummim in his Will; and both together make up his complete Breast-plate. But if there were no gracious Principles in his Will, he should p. 476have an Urim without a Thummim, Light in the Mind without Integrity in the Heart; and by consequence he could be but one half of a Christian.