Influences of the Life of Grace, Part 3 · Chapter 8
CHAP. VIII.
Q. 4. Is there no running except God enlarge the heart? what then can we do?
ASſert. 1. Without ſome enlargement of heart there is no running; the negative is true, none come to Chriſt except ſuch as the father draws, John 6. 44. John 15. 5. and the affirmative is true, all that are drawn, and have heard and learned of the Father, do run and come apace, Cant. 1. 4. John 6. 44. There is a ſpiritual riches in heavenly and ſpiritual ſuppoſitions. O for more of Chriſt to ern his praiſes with a ſhout which might waken Angels and Men, all men in this ſide and in the other ſide of the Sun, and that all creatures might hear and put to their ſeal, and cry Amen to the Pſalm.
Aſſert. 2. The uſe we are to make of our ſinful weakneſs is not to ſit ſtill: he loves death who ſays, I cannot heal my ſelf;What uſe we are to make of our inability to run except God enlarge the heart. art and skill muſt only do it, therefore Ile ſeek to no Phyſitian; if the Lord will not do it, let me die. The huſbandman were mad who would ſay, my plowing, ſowing, early riſing, and late labouring can never make the corn to grow except God give the increaſe, therefore Ile fold my hands and take the other ſleep: and if another ſay, God only creates the wind, therefore Ile never ſet my foot in a ſhip; ſo is it here, what can the dead and the ſick ſinner do if the Phyſitian Chriſt will neither quicken nor cure? his influences of life are above my reach, therefore Ile never make out to Chriſt, nor ask for the Goſpel; if Chriſt will not heal us we muſt pine away in our ſins; how then ſhall we live? this is to tempt Chriſt, and to bring him under a new miraculous way to heal and ſave the ſinner in his dream, without hearing the Goſpel; which is, that God ſhould bring bread and cloathing to the ſleeping mans bed-ſide. The contrary is Phil. 2. 13. work becauſe he works. Cant. 1. Draw, and we will run; the Spouſe ſaith not, Lord, draw that we may ſleep.
2. Our impotency leads us to turn ſinful wickedneſs in mournful confeſſion and godly complaining, as the Saints do Pſalm 51. 5. Jer. 14. 4. Iſa. 64. 8, 9. Dan. 9. 5, 6, 11. Pſalm 116. 6, 7.
3.How men naturally complain of ſin original. Cain, Pharaoh, Saul, Magus, never complain of themſelves: Heathens complain of ſin original, not as mans ſin, but as Socinians and Pelagians complain of it, as mans miſery, and the Lords fault and ſin (with reverence to his holineſs) in that God and the ſtep-mother nature have dealt worſe with man in bringing him into the world naked, weeping, weak, ſick, dying, then with bulls, that are born with thick skins, and have horns to defend them: Its a ſhameful accuſing of God to deny original ſin to be a tranſgreſſion of the Law, ſuch as deſerveth death eternal. Ah, our pride, who dare bark againſt God when we ſhould weep over our own wolfiſh and beaſtly nature.
Aſſert. 3. We do not ſo much in the uſe of means as our lameneſs doth permit.We do not ſo much as by ſtrength of nature we may do, and we add to our own lameneſs, and unjuſtly complain of God for our ſinful impotency. The Lord hath drawn a bill in the conſcience, that the blind will not ſo much as open their eye-lids; we may be a law to our ſelves, Rom. 1. 14, 15. we know God (by nature) and glorifie him not as God, Rom. 1. 2. 15. we may go many miles farther toward God by Natures light, but we ſit ſtill.
2. Yea, we blow out the candle; and here the criple and lame man breaks his own legs and arms the ſecond time, and complains of the Phyſitian Chriſt that he will not heal him againſt his will: he who adds to his ſickneſs a poyſon drink, cannot father his death upon the Phyſitian. Ah, we ſtir not broken legs and arms upon and towards the Phyſitian Chriſt.
3. The criple may move and creep toward the Phyſitian. The motion of ſuch as ſtepped in the pool immediately after the Angel troubled the water, John 5. was not a motion of perfect nature, nor a perfect motion, but yet a means of health it was; Chriſt rejects not criple and ſickly motions in uſing means towards himſelf.
Aſſert. 4. The motions of the Spirit (to come to the renewed mans caſe) ſerve as legs to bear the criple-man, but not as eyes; for Pſalm 119. 105. Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and light to my path. Yea, a doubt it is if the motions of the Spirit,The Spirit as the Spirit lays no obligation on us, but to move in Scriptural duties. as the Spirit without the word, lay an obligation on us to follow theſe motions, except when the Spirit ſpeaks to Paul and Barnabas to go to Macedonia, not to Bythinia; and then the word of the Spirit becomes formally the word of the Lord, as the word of Chriſt from his mouth is the word of God: but heed is to be taken in a ſpecial manner, when the baſtard ſpirit ſpeaks to Becold, to Hichol, and ſuch wizards; for God ſpeaks like God, and his own know his voice, and the children of the Divel know alſo their fathers voice; learn to go as far as you can in the way to Chriſt.
1. No violence but from your own heart ſtands in your way;No violence but from our ſelves hinders us to believe. the birth helps it ſelf in the womb to come out, work with the tide or againſt it; he who rowes with oars in a manner helps the wind; they deſire not to ſail who will not ſtir a foot to the ſhip.
2. Hearing in Lydia, and the Gaoler reading, in the Eunuch diligent taking heed to the word of the Goſpel preached by Phillip in the Samaritans, God loves uſing of external meanes pro tanto.the woman of Samaria conferring with Chriſt, have in them, though they come not up to the nature of a perfect duty, ſomewhat of the ordinance of Chriſt, and Chriſt loves to be in his own ordinances pro tanto; How farre we may act to fetch the wind, and to get influences.its true, the unrenewed man cannot uſe the means formally as they are referred to Chriſt, and for Chriſt, until his will and intention be renewed, yet he is in the way to Chriſt, and materially he comes to Chriſt; nor is walking to the ſhip on dry land an act of ſailing; nor the ſick mans journeying to the Phyſitian, or his ſimple receiving of medicine, an act of healing; its good to come to the work-houſe of the ſpirit, the preached Goſpel, and to lie under the breathing of the Lord when the word is ſpoken; lend the letter of the Goſpel, lodging in the outer houſe, the ear and literal underſtanding; go in to the Potters houſe, and ſtand beſide the furnace, and behold what work the Lord hath.
3. Upon the wheels towards others, and how many he meets with in the way of his ordinances & frames the new creature in them, & makes a real change in them, that you wonder at them, knowing thy were blind, and now they ſee.
2. As for renewed ones theſe caſes are conſiderable,
1. When the letter of the Law is granted, there is ſomething, and a great ſomething wanting, Pſal. 119. 29. remove from me the way of lying, foreign be grace over thy Law to me; which is firſt a ſuit that deeper and deeper ſpiritual impreſſions of God in the Law may be engraven on him, till he be filled with all the fulneſs of God; and influences may amount to a ſtrong habit, following of hearing, reading, conferring, meditating, with much praying for ſpiritual teaching from him (as all along through Pſal. 119.) would make us rich in influences.
2. The natural man never miſſes life and quickning influences in the word, the ſpiritual doth, Pſalm 119. 50. This is my comfort in mine affliction, for thy word hath quickned me. Its not a bad property of the earth to gape and thirſt for rain, there is no ſuch gaping and thirſting in the rock; the ſtone is never parched for want of rain; but this parchedneſs is a neereſt diſpoſition for influences of ſope and moiſture from the clouds, and though the thirſty man pray not, yet thirſt it ſelf calls for watering influences; as the Lord diſappoints not nature, ſo uſes he not to fruſtrate gracious thirſt of ſuitable influences of grace, and theſe are put together, and both are ſatisfied Pſalm 145. 15, 16, 19. So his way, Matth. 5. 6. Luke 1. 53. if thirſts for life, and not for the bare condemning letter.
3. There is ſomething which we call fetching of the wind, and caſting of a board again to wind to the right harbour, and it is a ſort of courting the wind, and that is the caſe of the ſoul that would live upon influences, its fit to pant and gape, and carefully wait on for the holy breathings of the Lord; could we wait in the way that the Spirit uſes to come, and attend him in ordinances, he muſt come that way, as Zacheus caſt himſelf in that way of Chriſt; providence places two blind beggars in Chriſts way, & the Lord thereby beſtows the Son of Davids mercy on them; and providence placed the woman of Samaria at the well of Jacob, and Chriſt muſt needs go thorow Samaria, and her way, ſhe looked for water from Jacobs well, and looked not for the Meſſiah; yet ſhe meets with him, and feels his influences before ſhe goes hence: but we are with ordinances to lie at the tide, and wait for, and ſeek the flowings of the Spirit; in one and the ſame work the ſounding of the word and the breathing of the Spirit may be attended, Pſalm 130. 5. I wait for the Lord, my ſoul doth wait. Whether in his real helping and hearing, my crying out of the deeps, or on his ſaving actings upon the dead heart, and in his word do I hope: there may be a caſting of the goods in the ſea to help the ſhip to land: there is failing of the eyes in waiting for God, Pſalm 69. 3. Pſalm 119. 8. My ſoul fainteth for thy ſalvation. 13. I opened my mouth & panted, for I longed for thy ſalvation; I cannot create breathings. But the man in a pit or dungeon, though he can make no help to himſelf, yet he can cry and make uſe of arms and legs when a rope is caſt down to him.
4. Blowing of the bellows adds nothing to the fire, yet it removes the aſhes, it fans away the earthy part, and rarifies it, and acts upon the ſmoke, and adds quickning; it's fit to blow upon the habit of grace and heavenly diſpoſition, yea, to blow in a ſanctified way, in a gift; ſo Paul, 2 Tim. 1. 6. Wherefore I put thee in remembrance, to ſtir up the gift of God which is in thee by the laying on of my hands. Eraſmus ſaith foreign is an elegant metaphor from ſuch as care for the fire, which is as it were buried under aſhes, they blow with the bellows, and revive and ſtir up the fire like to die out; others think it an alluſion to the Prieſts dayly watching to cheriſh and keep in the fire which the Lord ſent down from heaven, and to caſt new fewel to it. So is that 1 Tim. 4. 14. foreign, neglect not the gift that is in thee; let it not ruſt: ſelf-ſharping and ſelf-impulſion upon the heart, and acting upon the habit, which is in worſe caſe becauſe it lodges in a lazy heart, is required: we may deaden and neglect both our ſouls and the new habit, whereas that prayer (Lord, increaſe our faith) teacheth that we by diligent acting add to the habit, to the gift, talent and diſpenſation, and the improving of theſe are forcible means to draw down freſh influences of life: the Lord of his grace having brought himſelf (reſerving actings of ſoveraignty and deep wiſedom) under a ſort of promiſſory neceſſity to beſtow influences, and to give one talent to him who makes five talents ten; idleneſs and ſleeping then muſt be no ſmall obſtruction to new quickening influences.
5. As the husbandman is a fellow-worker in his way with induſtry and art, with the Lord and nature, to fit his ridges by plowing and ſowing to receive influences of dew and rain, and impreſſion from heaven; and he works with God and nature, who labours the vineyard, purges out brambles, briars, ſtones, prunes the young vine-trees, that they may receive influences from Sunne, Moon, Heavens, and Clouds. Yet no husbandman, no vinedreſſer, can be Lord of the influences of heaven: ſo hath the Lord commanded us to plow up the fallow-ground of our hearts, and not to ſow among thorns; to lie under the husbandry of Miniſters ſent of God; to frequent ordinances; to yield up our hearts by willing conſent to be acted on by God; to reſign them, and put the heart out of our poſſeſſion, and yield to that ſuit, My ſon give me thy heart; elſe we mock God in ſuiting from him enlargedneſs of heart, in a ſort of compromiſing that we ſhall run, if he ſhall draw and enlarge: But we keep faſt poſſeſſion of our own hearts, and doe not reſign them to God. Hence a word of wakening to cry to harp and pſaltery, to our gift, and to our tongue, and to our ſleepy hearts, Pſal. 57. 8. is requiſite; as alſo 2. that we chide with our unbelieving ſoules, Pſal. 42. 5, 11. and command the renewed part to act upon the heart, to accuſe, and convince, and rebuke the heart, 1 Sam. 24. 5. 1 John 3. 20.
6. The ſoul can be in no ſuch dead caſe, but it's capable of an Evangelick command. Sardis hath a name; they are living and yet are dead: then is it uſeleſs to ſpeak to Sardis now dead? no: Rev. 3. 2. Strengthen that which remaines. There fly ſparkles of fire from the red hot iron of the ſmith upon thoſe about, whether they will or no. From that charge, Open to me my ſiſter, my love, &c. there came upon her, whether ſhe would or not, flamings of love, which brought influences on her bowels.