Influences of the Life of Grace, Part 3 · Chapter 4
CHAP. IV.
Now the third particular we propoſed to ſpeak to, was the connexion between the habits of grace, and actual breathings; and how we may by uſing habits fetch home the breathings of the Spirit.
The habit of grace is to be conſidered two ways.
1. In order to God.
2. In its own nature.
In order to God
1. The Father.
2. The Son.
3. The Spirit.
1. IN order to God and his holy decree, if the Lord ordain a certain number to glory,The Lord by inſuſing the habit of grace comes under ſome neceſſity to give ſuitable influences thereunto. and upon that account beſtow the habit of grace upon theſe ſo choſen; then God, who doth nothing in vain, when he creates powers and habits, muſt intend to ſend influences to act upon theſe powers and habits; as when God creates the Sun, a heavenly body, which is apt to move, to ſend forth heat and light, he muſt intend by conſtant law and decree to joyn his influences to the moving and ſhining of the Sun; otherwiſe, if he had created theſe heavenly bodies never to be acted upon for the ſending forth of their vertues of light, heat, motion, he had created Sun and Stars in vai…: …o if the husbandman make a plough, and never make uſe of it for tilling the ground; and make a ſickle, and never put it in act for reaping,Divers neceſſities under which the Lord is to confer influences of grace. he muſt have made the ploug… and the ſickle in vain. If the Lord pour the habit of grace and ſupplication upon the houſe of David, then have the inhabitants of Jeruſalem, who have received that g…ace, ground of faith and hope, that the Lord ſhall ſuit…bly to his intended end, and begun work, beſtow ſaving influences on them, to believe and repent, to look on him by faith whom they have pierced, and mourn over Chriſt whom they have ſlain by their ſins, as a man mournes and is in bitterneſs for his firſt-born, Zech. 12. 10. otherwiſe the Lord beſtowes that habit of grace in vain, which we are not to imagine of the only wiſe Lord, Pſal. 89. 47. If the Lord pour water upon the thirſty ground, and his Spirit upon the ſeed of Jacob, the nature of husbandry, which joyns end and meanes, requireth that he joyn to the new heart, and new ſpirit, influences for the growing of the ſeed of Jacob, as the willows by the water courſes; and that he lead the trembling hand at the pen, and give influences of grace to ſwear and ſubſcribe that they ſhall be the Lords maried land, joyned to him in a perpetual covenant, Iſa. 44. 3, 4, 5.
2. The graciouſneſs of the Lords holy nature revealed, Exod. 34. 6. The Lord God merciful and gracious, long-ſuffering, and abundant in goodneſs and truth to fallen man (for he hath revealed no pardoning grace and mercy to fallen Angels; nor is that the ſcope of Moſes, Exo. 34. or of the Scripture any where.) Now if ſo, he as the Lord is under ſome neceſſity (upon ſuppoſal that he created men and Angels) to declare his pure immixed juſtice in the fallen Angels; ſo by ſome neceſſity of decency ſuitable to his goodneſſe and holy nature he muſt chooſe ſome to glory, and give them inherent habits of grace, that he may carry them to heaven in a way of voluntary obedience: ſo that upon ſuppoſal he hath ſo declared himſelf to Angels and men, there muſt be glorious emanations and out-goings of free grace, both to ordain ſome to glory, and beautifie them with the habit of faith to believe in him that juſtifies the ſinner, and habits of ſanctification. I ſay, upon ſuppoſal he ſo reveal himſelf in his word; otherwiſe, abſolutely and ſimply the the contrary order, that he had placed fallen Angels in mans room, and men in the place of fallen Angels, had been as juſt and good as that which now is.
3. The holy Lord gives ſome to Chriſt: and his enduing them with grace to come, and giving to them of his free grace the habit of faith, it's an engaging of the holy Lord to give influences ſuitable to the habit: upon the very account that the Lord make over a man to Chriſt, and create his own image in him, he intends to make him an honourable veſſel in his houſe, and to adorn the man ſo gifted to Chriſt; as when the Lord builds a houſe, he minds that ſome ſhall dwell in it.
And 2. the great deſigne of free grace in Chriſt muſt in theſe two bring him under a holy neceſſity to bring his many children to glory; for the decree of election is an act of the three perſons, John 10. 16. Other ſheep I have foreign, and they are not yet in his actual poſſeſſion, but he hath an actual right to them, I have paid a ranſome for them, them alſo I muſt bring in foreign, Chriſt is under a neceſſity of driving them in, then is Chriſt under a neceſſity of a decree common to him with the Father and the Spirit, to breath upon and cheriſh the habit of grace, that his great deſigne of free grace in the work of redemption may ſtand ſure, and attain its graciouſly deſigned end; as alſo he is
2. Under an official and mediatory neceſſity to the choſen, to beſtow on them the freely given habit of grace; and ſo I judge,Chriſt advocates for the elect yet not converted, to bring them in to himſelf. with reverence of the judgment of others, that Chriſt hath an advocation and office of interceſſion for the elect, even ſuch as are not yet actually converted: not that he extends the ſame acts of advocation to the choſen converted, and to the choſen not yet converted.
1. Becauſe Chriſt as Mediator and high Prieſt prayes for them, and ſo that habits of grace and influences may be beſtowed on them, John 17. 20. Neither pray I for theſe alone, but for them alſo which ſhall believe on me through their word. Nor can it be ſaid that Chriſt intends not they ſhould reap any mediatory fruit of his prayer, till they be born and actually believe; for he prayes and intercedes for their converſion and faith, they yet being in nature and unrenewed; for that is true in ſome ſenſe, Chriſt prays for their faith actual, when it is in being, and ſhall actually be aſſaulted, that it may not fail them under temptation; and ſo that prayer of Chriſt for the diſciples and Peter, ſtands good for all believers, when they ſhall actually believe and be winnowed, as Peter was: the millions of them neither did believe nor were born, when Chriſt as an high Prieſt offered to the father both the one & the other prayer; but that Chriſt in no ſenſe intercedes for the choſen till they be converted and actually believe, cannot be defended. For
2. Whatſoever Chriſt hath purchaſed by the merit of his death, as our high Prieſt, offering himſelf on the croſs for the elect, that ſame Chriſt as our high Prieſt in heaven applyes them as Interceſſor. This propoſition muſt be ſure; for what Chriſt purchaſeth and buyeth by the merit of his death on the croſs, that he actually makes good as Interceſſor in heaven. It's true he is ſaid to buy and redeem perſons, not things, or graces, as faith and the habit of grace, he purchaſeth an inheritance and a redemption to us, and we have repentance and remiſſion of ſins in and through his blood; for, in his blood, by an Hebraiſm, is, for his blood; and yet remiſſion of ſins is not properly redeemed or ranſomed, never being captivated; but in juſtice that remiſſion could not be ours but by ſatisfaction. But ſo it is, that Chriſt purchaſed by the merit of his death, as our high Prieſt, offering himſelf for the elect…on the croſs, that we ſhould be freed from all iniquity, Tit. 2. 14. from our vain converſation of unbelief, 1 Pet. 1. 18. that we ſhould have repentance, remiſſion of our ſins in his blood, and faith, the free gift of God in Chriſt even when we were not yet born. And he died for us while we were yet ſinners, weak and ungodly, Rom. 5. 6. And God commends his love to us that Chriſt died for us foreign, while we were yet ſinners; for if when we were enemies, foreign, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, we ſhall be ſaved by his life. If Chriſt as high Prieſt offer himſelf a ſacrifice for us, to obtain reconciliation to us, when we were not born, and when we were ungodly and enemie, she muſt intercede, that ſuch a purchaſed reconciliation and merited grace, the grace of faith, and the habit of faith, be in his due time beſtowed on us.
3. If Chriſt as our high Prieſt have received the elect from the Father, Thine they were, and thou gaveſt them to me; John▪ 17. 6, 9, 10.and as Redeemer entruſted to bring them in, he muſt ſend the Goſpel to them as Mediator, and intercede, that Apoſtles, Evangeliſts, Paſtors, Teachers may be gifted with the Spirit, and ſent to preach; for the giving of the Spirit that way is a fruit of Chriſts aſcenſion and kingly triumphing, while as he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men, as Interceſſor, for perfecting of the Saints, and the work of the Miniſtery, Eph. 4. 11, 12, 13. that the Gentiles who believe not, and the blind, may ſee and be converted, Acts 26. 17, 18. Acts 13. 46, 47, 48. 1 Cor. 3. 5. Matth. 4. 15, 16. John 10. 16.
4. Chriſt, who had reared up a new form of providence, having choſen his own to life, muſt, as Mediator, take care of the coming of the elect into the world, and have a ſpecial eye over the wayes of his own choſen, that Saul and others fall not into that unpardonable ſin againſt the holy Ghoſt, and that Saul before his converſion goe not farther on then making havock of the Church, yet ignorantly through unbelief; and this is the more to be laid hold on, that the man Chriſts coming into the world, is, and goes along with his own decree of electing ſome to glory, and to the great work of ſaving loſt ſinners, Luke 19. 10. Matth. 20. 28. 1 Tim. 1. 15. of bearing a rare and ſingular teſtimony to the Goſpel beyond all Martyrs that ever lived, John 18. 37. as is clear in the birth and deliverance of Moſes, Exod. 2. Exod. 3. And alſo Chriſt in his providence of predeſtination to life, as Lord Mediator cauſeth the choſen to be born and live, when the Goſpel is preached, and comes to their ears, and works powerfully on their hearts, Acts 16. 9, 10. Acts 8. 7, 8. Acts 19. Acts 9. 11, 12, 13, &c.
5. In another conſideration there is an official love of Chriſt, founded upon the identity of nature which is between Chriſt and choſen ones, and the man Chriſt loving his neighbour as himſelf; and the humanity and natural compaſſion in Chriſt is not deſtroyed, but perfected by his ſtate of glory; he remains a feeling, compaſſionate high Prieſt, Heb. 4. 14, 15. Luke 5. 1, 2, 3. And alſo this puts Chriſt to ſtretch his love to the unconverted that are his fleſh, and given to him, that he muſt beſtow habits of grace on them, and gather the ſheep with his arm, and drive gently thoſe that are with young, and give new influences to fainting ones, and refreſhing warmneſſe in his boſome to the cold and weak young ones in the flock, Iſa. 40. 11. Iſa. 42. 1, 2, 3.
3.The Spirits office puts him under a neceſſity of giving influences. If the Spirit be a ſanctifier, and a leader, he muſt be no leſs conſtant to his holy end, and gracious deſigne, to give what fits the choſen for their journey; and ſo muſt both give the firſt anointing (the dewing and firſt rain of ſpirit poured on the wilderneſſe) and alſo add new oyl to prevent withering and drying up, and adde the royal and kingly ſeal to confirm and make out his work unto the day of redemption. Ah, am I maſter of the fountain? (ſaith the withered dry tree) yea, the three Agents in heaven bring themſelves (to ſpeak ſo) under this holy neceſſity to bring down influences to the ſouls of all his choſen.
2.Ʋſes from the Lords neceſſity of giving gracious influences If any ſaving work be in you, it ſpeaks a deſigne of grace in the Father and the Son, which they ſhall ripen and carry on to perfection.
3. Fret not at ſuch as are without. God minds love to the choſen ones of them, and to reach them with his love in time.
4. Get the Spirit, he ſhall not be idle, but daily act, and Chriſt in him ſhall ſet up a new fabrick of providence, and a new reign in the ſoul.
5. In the looking on the frame of providence in them, that they are not born in China, not in Turky, not in America; but in a land of life, in the kingdome of heaven, where the Goſpel is preached: Look ſpiritually, not naturally upon the time and place of your birth; it is either the greateſt good, or the greateſt ill and miſery that ye can meet with.
2. Conſider what is the weight of the guiltineſſe of … deſpiſed Goſpel, that you goe to hell through Chriſts bounds, Emanuels land, where the word of the kingdom is preached in the very eye of the Redeemer; whereas Heathens are in a manner behind the Redeemers back.
3. The husbandmans plowing preacheth bread and corn in the land; the ſetting up of the ſhepherd-tents before your door, proclames Chriſts ſhepherd-care to feed you; love Chriſt, and follow the ſhepherd.
4. Collect rather the affirmative … the negative concluſion. When Chriſt ſets up a husbandry in … Vineyard, can ye tell who are interdited heirs, and ſay, I am a bramble, and a curſed briar, and no plant of righteouſneſs, no vine-tree, therefore he hath no thoughts to make me a part of the ſoyl that the Father of Chriſt ſhall labour and purge? Who told you newes of Chriſts thoughts to interdite you from getting good of the Goſpel? rather collect the contrary. I found a candle lighted in the land of my nativity, though my father be an Amorite, and my mother a Hittite. Why, but I may be a piece of loſt money whom he ſeeks; if yea, love Chriſt. Loves logick is, I love Chriſt, or I deſire to love Chriſt, therefore Chriſt loves me; and I deſire to uſe the meanes of ſalvation, and to goe up to Jeruſalem to worſhip the King, and keep the Feaſt of Tabernacles; therefore I ſhall be no family or part of the land of Egypt, on which there comes no rain, Zech. 14. 17, 18, 19. Seldome doth the uſe of means want influences; where the Lord gives any tolerable conſcience of plowing and planting, there he ſends down watering and refreſhing ſhowres from heaven.
There's an inſtinct of natures logick, framing helliſh conſequences; Chriſt loves not me, therefore I wil not treat with Chriſt,Firſt to frame doubts about predeſtination t… life; and to miſs eternall love before we miſs inherent ſaving grace is Satans method. nor come in terms of communing with him; and withal there is no anxious miſſing of inherent habits; it's not from the Spirit of God ever to be miſſing objective grace, which is eternally in God, and never in a paining way to miſs ſubjective grace inherent: who is angry? who hath reſiſted his will? Rom. 9. And it's Satans method firſt to miſs Gods love to you, and make a quarrel with God for that, before you miſs your love to God, and to the Redeemer Chriſt, and make a plea with your ſelf for not loving of lovely Jeſus Chriſt. The ſervants word is Matth. 25. I knew thou waſt a hard man. Knoweſt thou not thy ſelf to be a ſervant graceleſſe and malignant?
The habit of grace in its own nature is of a middle nature, betwixt a power and an act: (and to come now to the third particular) there is for the further clearing of the connexion betwi… … habit of grace and the acts of grace a queſtion …o be cleared,Whether the habit of grace may ceaſe in the regenerate from all its operations. Whether or not the habit of grace may …e by and utterly ceaſe from acting? to which the anſwer is in theſe aſſertions.
Aſſert. 1. No habit of grace, or any habit as ſuch, can reduce it ſelf to acting, for it is well neer to the nature of a power; the Sun, Moon, and Stars move not themſelves, but are moved by ſome other powers whatever they be. 2. We are commanded to ſtir up the grace that is in us, 2 Tim. 1. 6. then muſt the habit lie dead as it were, except we improve it: the two talents do not make themſelves four; the man to whom the talents were given muſt do that, Matth. 25.
Aſſert. The habit of grace is not eternal.2. It's not improbable that ſaving grace of it ſelf, being not God, nor the holy Ghoſt himſelf, but a created thing, may, as to its own nature, periſh and dry up. 1. For it is not to be truſted in; nor doth the weight of our ſtanding againſt temptations conſiſt in our ſtock, but in the Lords conſerving power. Peter had ſaving faith, but that faith could neither keep Peter from falling, nor keep the faith from failing; but the ſtanding of Peter's faith (Luke 22. 32.) is in Chriſts interceſſion; I have prayed for thee, le…t thy faith foreign be ſunken down: that which needs a keeper without it ſelf, cannot keep it ſelf; for faith is but an inſtrumental keeper. But 1 Pet. 1. 5. we are kept, and our faith foreign by the power of God. As alſo Jer. 1. 9. the weight of Jeremiah's ſtanding couragiouſly in his Miniſtry is not on Jeremiah, his ſtock and habit of grace, though the Lord had put much precious mettal in him, and made him a brazen wall (as Prophets are of themſelves but clay bottles that are ſoon broken) but in the Lords actual ſupporting of him by influences from God, 19. I am with thee, ſaith the Lord, to deliver thee; and therefore the ſtrength, immortality, and ſtability of the habit of grace is in his power who furniſhes actual influences. 2. In the decree of God. 3. In his covenant and promiſe. 4. In the interceſſion of Chriſt; no man then can commit idolatry with ſaving inherent grace to put it in the room of God, and to truſt in it. Be not ſecure, but be ſtrong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, Eph. 6. 10. who muſt furniſh new influences of grace.
Aſſert. 3. The habit of grace ſo far may ceaſe to act and lie dead,The habit of grace ceaſeth not. as notwithſtanding that the beloved Chriſt knocks and ſpeaks heaven into the Church, Open to me, my ſiſter, my love, my dove, &c. Cant. 5. 2. yet ſhe opens not; the habit being under the aſhes, yea, being a little frozen and blunted, the ſpouſe ſhifts his preſence; I have put off my coat, how ſhall I put it on? I have waſhed my feet, how ſhall I defile them? And the habit of grace doth not hinder David, and Peter, and Lot, but upon the Lords withdrawing of actual influences they may fall into atrocious and hainous ſins.
Aſſert. 4. Yet in ſome ſenſe the habit of grace reſts not. For 1. The habit of grace according to the degrees makes the man ſtronger: as John Baptiſt by the indwelling of the holy Ghoſt in ſome fulneſs is ſtronger againſt temptations of perſecutors; and ſo is Steven fuller of the holy Ghoſt, then men not converted. 2. The habit of grace debilitates, weakens the acts of ſin in the regenerate, that they ſin not with full benſil of will; as the indwelling body of ſin again weakens the acts of faith, and others the like flowing from the habit of grace; the combat betwixt the fleſh and the ſpirit proves both the one and the other,How many acts we may bring out of the habit of grace. Rom. 7. 14, 15, 16, &c. for this combat is ever in the regenerate. 3. The habit of grace of it ſelf as a weight diſpoſes the renewed man to reſiſt ſin; as a ſtone though violently detained in the air, actu primo, habitually of it ſelf, inclines the ſtone to move downward to its natural place; whence come ſome far-off tendency and habitual bowings of the heart to the love of Chriſt, as warmneſs of heart, Luke 24. 32. ſtirring of bowels at the inward motions of Chriſt on the ſoul, even when he is kept out, Cant. 5.
5. The covered and borne down habit of grace may and doth break out into praying after him when he is away, and moſt anxiouſly and carefully ſeeks him, Cant. 3. 1, 2, 3, 4. John 20. 13.
6. There is no ſuch ſleeping but the heart is waking, and breaks out in theſe acts firſt, and miſſes him; he knocks, and ſays, Open; then ſhe knew he was without. They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him, John 20. I ſought him, but I found him not, Cant. 3. 2. there is a diſcerning that it was his knock and breathing. And 2. his voice, My heart waked at the voice of my Beloved. 3. She knew his very words, and repeats them, Open to me, my ſiſter, my love, my dove, &c. though then ſleeping. 4. There is a ſpiritual wiſhing; O! if I could open and overcome the temptation of carnal drowſineſs; this appears in the Spouſes confeſſion of the excuſe, he knocked and ſpake lovely, and I refuſed rudely to open; I have caſt off my coat, this is told by her by way of confeſſion of ſin; I have put off my coat, how ſhall I put it on; for there may from the habit of grace ariſe an habitual and a conditional deſire that the temptation had never aſſaulted,There is a conſenting to the temptation, which is a wiſhing that our luſt and Gods Law might both ſtand, and a virtual wiſhing that the Law of God had never had being. and yet there is an abſolute conſent to the temptation, and a wiſh that this ſinful pleaſure were not aſtray to the Law; which is in effect a labouring to reconcile my carnal luſt and the Lord's holy Law, and it is as if I ſhould ſay, Ah, if I might enjoy my lawleſs pleaſure, and yet the Lord not be diſpleaſed: ſome ſick mans luſts after contradictions that in his fever he might drink wine, and yet be free of a further pain of fever; but all this is but a virtual fretting againſt God that ever he made ſuch a Law. Evah deſired that the falſly ſuppoſed Godhead which Satan ſaid ſhould be the reward of eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge, ſhould have been really and truly in eating that fruit, and that was a clear fretting againſt the wiſedom of God, who made ſuch a law as laies bands upon men, and forbids them to eat of all fruit, Gen. 3. 2, 3. yet would difference be made betwixt the carnal mans wiſh,Eight evidences that in the regenerate the ſaving habit of grace never ceaſeth from omitting ſome influences. that he might enjoy his ſweet luſts, and not feel the ſmart of the evil of puniſhment; and the ſpiritual mans woulding not to do the evil that he hates, Rom. 7. 15, 16. and yet he does it, and ſo virtually deſires there were nothing offenſive and diſpleaſing to God in it. 4. From this habit it is that the Spouſe ſends commendation to abſent Chriſt (to ſpeak ſo) and deſires the daughters of Jeruſalem to tell him that ſhe is ſick of love for him, Cant. 5. 8. 5. There are checks and ſoul-ſorrow at the thoughts of the words he once ſpake, Cant. 5. 6. my ſoul failed when he ſpake; hence there are godly reluctancies and ſpiritual propenſions of the ſpirit and renewed man entering diſſent and proteſtations on the contrary. Rom. 7. 15. For that which I do I allow not; for what I would, that I do not; but what I hate, that I do. Hence the ſpirits ſpiritual counter-workings contrary to the fleſh, and the gracious pleadings in favours of Chriſt, What do you? is not this againſt free love? Ah, will you grieve ſuch a beloved? hence the inward prickings and cuttings of the heart, like the wane-reſt of the Horologue, ever ſtirring and checking the conſcience; if experience ſay nothing of this thorn in the ſoul, and of the weakneſs of the bones, little is known of the work of the ſpirit. 6. There is ever an holy apology and clearing of the renewed part, that the ſpirit doth his part. Rom. 7. 22. I delight in the Law of God after the inward man. v. 9. The renewed man would do good; v. 16. conſents to the Law, that it is good, and laies the blame upon the fleſhly will and ſin dwelling in the man; v. 17. now its no more I that do it, but ſin dwelling in me. 7. From this habit it is that the renewed man is a captive, a ſufferer, a complainer, Rom. 7. 23, 24. O wretched man that I am, &c. 8. The ſpirit is contrary to the fleſh, Gal. 5. 17. and when fire and water yoake in the cloud there is thunder, and nature ſuffers pain; and there are actions and paſſions, and reactions on both ſides, and finally the habit of grace ſo far never reſts, as the fleſh cannot get ſin perfected without a battle, and ſome thunder in the ſoul. Hence we ſee, did we improve the habit of grace, how many ſpiritual actions we may ſet about, and what wind and breathings we might fetch if we ſhould…hoiſe up all the ſails; the very ſetting out to ſea, and laying all the ſails open in their bredth and length to the heaven ſhould create ſome wind; we lay not open our affections in their length and bredth, in the uſe of all the ordinances before the Lord; Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it, Pſal. 81. nor do we improve the ſtock of habitual grace; the not improving of the ſtock in trading brings on poverty.