Christ Dying and Drawing Sinners to Himself

III.

Of the third Article. Touching the form and nature and manner of drawing: 1. Its a question, Whether this drawing be Justification, or Sanctification? Antinomians say its both: But withal, both is one, (say they.)

Answer.

Posit. 1. Drawing is relative to running and walking, Cant. 1.4. Now this is rather in acts of Sanctification, and in running in the ways of God's commandments, Psal. 119.32. then in Justification, though coming go for an act of believing and approaching to Christ, Joh. 6.44. and so excludes not faith.

Pos. 2. It is most unsound to affirm, that Justification and Regeneration are all one; for this must confound all acts flowing from Justification, with those that flow from Regeneration, or the infused habit of Sanctification. 1. Justification is an indivisible act; the person is but once for all justified, by grace. But Sanctification is a continued daily act. 2. Justification doth not grow; the sinner is either freed from the guilt of sin, and justified, or not freed; there is not a third. But in Sanctification, we are said to grow in grace, 2 Pet. 3.14. and advance in sanctification: nor is it ever consummate and perfect, so long as we bear about a body of sin.

Pos. 3. To repent, to mortify sin, is not to condemn all our works, (as M. Town saith) righteousness, and judgment, and our best things in us, and then by faith to fly to grace; nor is it to distrust our own righteousness, and embrace Christ's in the promise. 1. Because this is faith; and the Scripture saith, we are justified by faith. 2. We receive Christ by faith, Joh. 1.12. (3.) We receive and embrace the promise by faith, Heb. 11.11. and were persuaded of them. 4. We are to believe without staggering, Rom. 4.19. (5.) We have peace of conscience through faith, Rom. 5.1. (6.) By faith we have access into this grace, wherein we stand, Rom. 5.2. And boldness to enter into the holy of holiest, and draw near to our High Priest, with full assurance of faith, Heb. 10.19, 20, 21, 22. Now we are not justified by repentance and morti • ication; we neither receive Christ, nor embrace the promises by repentance. The Apostle requireth in repentance, sorrow, carefulness to eschew sin, clearing, indignation, fear, zeal, desire, revenge, 2 Cor. 7.10, 11. but nowhere doth the Scripture require this as an ingredient of repentance, that we have boldness and access, and full assurance: nor do Antinomians admit, that by repentance we have peace, or pardon, but this they ascribe to faith.

A second Question is, How far the Law can draw a sinner to Christ? Antinomians tell us of a Legal drawing and conversion, and of an Evangelike drawing; the Legal drawing, they say, is ours; the latter theirs.

Asser. 1. The difference between the letter of the Law, and the Gospel, is not in the manner of working; for the letter of either Law or Gospel, is alike ineffectual and fruitless to draw any to Christ. Christ preached the Gospel to hard-hearted Pharisees, it moved them not. Moses preached the Law and the curses thereof to the stiff-necked Jews, and they were as little humbled. Sounds and syllables of ten hells, of twenty heavens and Gospels, without the Spirits working, are alike fruitless. And we grant the Law is a sleepy Keeper of a captive sinner; he may either steal away from his Keeper, or if he be awed with his Keeper, he is not kept from any spiritual, internal breach of the Law, nor moved thereby to sincere and spiritual walking. But the difference between Law and Gospel, is not in the internal manner of working, but in two other things. 1. In the matter contained in Law and Gospel: because nature is refractory to violence, and the Law can do nothing but curse sinners, therefore it can draw no man to Christ. The Gospel again contains sweet and glorious promises of giving a new heart, to the elect; of admitting to the Prince of peace, laden and broken-hearted mourners in Zion ; and in conferring on them a free imputed righteousness; and this is in it self a taking-way; but without the Gospel-spirit utterly ineffectual. 2. To the Gospel there is a Spirit added, which worketh as God doth, with an omnipotent pull; and this Spirit doth also use the Law to prepare and humble; though this be by an higher power then goeth along with the Law, as the Law.

Asser. 2. The Gospel-love of Christ freeth a captive from under the Law, as a Curser, and delivers him over to the Law, as to a Pedagogue to lead him to Christ, and as to an Instructer to rule and lead him when he is come to Christ. Love is the immediate and nearest lord; Law the mediate and remote lord. Love biddeth the man do all for Christ; the Law now of it self, because of our sinfulness, is a bitter and sour thing; but now the Law is dipped in Christ's Gospel-love, and is sugared and honeyed, and evangelized with Free grace, and receives a new form from Christ, and is become sweeter then the honey and the honey-comb, to draw and persuade: and all the Law is made a new Commandment of love, and a Gospel-yoke, sweet and easy; but still the Law obligeth justified men to obedience, not only for the matter of it, but for the supreme authority of the Lawgiver; now Christ, who came to fulfill, not to dissolve the Law, doth not remove this authority, but addeth a new bond of obligation, from the tie of Redemption in Jesus Christ, and we are freed from the curse of the Law. 2. The rigid exaction of obedience, every way perfect. 3. The seeking of life and justification by the Law.

Asser. 3. There be two things in the Law. 1. The authority and power to command, direct, and regulate the creature to an end, in acts of righteousness and holiness. 2. A secondary authority, to punish eternally the breakers of the Law, and to reward those that obey. These are two different things; suppose Adam had never sinned, the Law had been the Law; and suppose Adam had never obeyed, the Law also should have been the Law, and in the former case, there should have been no punishment, in the latter no reward. Antinomians confound these two. M ^r . Town saith, It cannot be said, that my spirit doth that voluntarily, which the command of the Law bindeth and forceth unto. It is one thing for a man at his own free lyberty to keep the Kings high way of the Law; and another to keep it by pales and ditches, that he cannot without danger go out of it. It cannot be denied, but that the Gospel both chargeth or aweth us to believe in Christ, and to bring forth good fruits, worthy of Christ, except we would be hewn down, and cast into the fire ; and also that Grace worketh Faith, and to will, and to do; and so voluntary obedience and obligation of a command, may as well consist, as bearing Christ's yoke, and soul-rest; yea, and delight, and joy unspeakable, and glorious, may be and are in one regenerate person. Crisp and his followers are far wide, for Christ died freely, out of extreme love, and yet he died out of a command laid on him, to lay down his life for his sheep, though no penal power was above Christ's head, to punish him if he should not die, Joh. 10.18. Nor was there need of any power to force him sub penâ, or to awe him, if he should not obey; so do Angels, with wings of most exact willingness, obey God, yet are they under the authority of a Law, and command, but yet under no compelling punishment, Psalm. 103.20.21. Psalm. 104.4. So in the Saints love hath changed the chains, not the subjection. Love hath made the Law silken cords; and whereas corrupt will was a wicked Landlord, and lust a lawless tyrant, and the Law had a dominion over the sinner, in regard of the curse. Now the Spirit leads the will under the same commanding power of the Law-giver, frees the sinner from the curse, and turns forcing and cursing power in fetters of love; so that the Spirit draws the will sweetly to obey the same Lord, the same law, only Christ hath taken the rod out of the Laws hand, and the rod was broken and spent on his own back. The fewd between the Law and the sinner is not so irreconcilable, as the Antinomians conceive, so as it cannot be removed, except the Law be destroyed, and the sinners free will loosed from law. It standeth in blessing, and cursing; salvation, and damnation: that are effects of the Law as observed, or violated. Now, Christ was made a curse, and condemned to die for the sinner; all the rest of the Law remains. It is most false that M. Town saith, To justify and condemn are as proper and essential to the Law, as to command. 2. It is false that we are freed from active obedience to the Moral Law, because Christ came under active obedience to the Moral Law ; for the Law required obedience out of love. Antinomians cannot say, that we are freed from obedience out of love; for it is clear, Antinomians will have us obliged by no Law to love our brother; to abstain from worldly lusts, that war against the soul ; but in so doing, we must seek to be justified by the works of the Law. This consequence we deny. To keep one Ceremony of Moses draws a bill on us of debt to keep all the Ceremonial Law; because now its unlawful in any sort. But to do the duties of the Moral Law, as by Christ we are enabled, lays no such debt on us, but testifies our thankfulness to Christ, as to our Husband and Redeemer.

The other considerable thing here, is the way and manner of Christ's drawing.

Asser. 1. The particular exact knowledge of the Lord's manner of drawing of sinners, may be unknown to many that are drawn. 1. In the very works of nature, the growing of bones in the womb, is a mystery; far more the way of the Spirit, Eccles. 11.5. Know ye the balancing of the clouds? Job could not answer this. And who knows how the Lord patched together a piece of red clay, and made it a fit shape to receive an heavenly and immortal spirit? and at what window the soul came in? 2. How God with one key of omnipotency hath opened so many millions of doors sin • e the Creation, and hath drawn so many to him, must be a mystery. There be many sundry locks, and many various turnings and throwings of the same key, and but one key. 1. Some Christ draws by the heart, as Lydia, Matthew: Love sweetly and softly bloweth up the door, and the King is within doors in the floor of the house before they be aware. Others Christ trailes and draggeth by violence, rather by the hair of the head, then by the heart, as the Jailor, Act. 16. and Saul, Act. 9. who are plunged over ears in hell, and pulled above water by the hair of the head: sure thousands do wear a crown of glory before the throne, who were never at making of themselves away by killing themselves, as the Jailor was. A third sort know they are drawn, but how, or when, or the Mathematical point of time, they know not: some are full of the Holy Ghost from the womb, as John the Baptist. Ye must not cast off all, nor must Saints say they are none of Christ's, because they cannot tell you histories and wonders of themselves, and of their own conversion: some are drawn by miracles, some without miracles; the word of God is the Road-way. Arminians have no ground to deny that we are irresistibly converted, because we know not the particular way how Omnipotency conspireth strongly, but sweetly, to win consent, without internal violence of our will, which so wills, as it may refuse. Joh. 9. diverse times the Jews ask the blind man, What did he to thee, how opened he thine eyes? He gives them one sure and true Answer, One thing I know, once I was blind, now I see. All can give this testimony, early or late, I know I am drawn. Its good the soul can say, Christ is here, I find him and feel him; but whether he came in at the door, or the window, or digged a hole in the wall, I know not. All may know they were blind as well as others, and by nature the children of wrath ; as ye know Adam hath had a building in you, (though now ye be renewed in the spirit of the mind ) by the old stones and rubbish in the house, and by the stirrings of the old man: When ye see the bones of a half dead man, and his grave, and find some warmness of life and heat, ye know there hath been life and strength in the man; so though ye cannot tell when Christ was first formed in you, yet ye find the bones and some warm blood, and some life-stirring of concupiscence in the old man, though Christ have made his grave, and he be well near completely buried, and his one foot in the grave. God hath appointed a time for the coming of the Swallow; a season when flowers shall be on the earth, and when not; an hour when the sea shall be full tide; but there is no set day, not a determinate and set summer known to us, when the wind shall blow up doors and locks of the soul, and Christ shall come in. But yet they are not Christ's who neither know how they are drawn, nor can give any proofs that they are drawn. The Apostle saith, 1 Cor. 2.12. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. The converted can say, I was such a man, 1 Tim. 1.13. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , but I obtained mercy ; or, I was all be-mercied, filled with mercy. As Ezek. 16. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Thy time was a time of loves. As a constellation is not one single star, but many; so the converted soul observeth a confluence, a bundle, an army of free loves, all in one cluster, meeting and growing upon one stalk: As to be borne where the voice of the Turtle is heard in the land, its free love; to hear such a Sermon, free love; that the man spake such an excellent word, free love; that I was not sleeping when it was spoken, free love; that the Holy Ghost drove that word into the soul, as a nail fastened by the Master of the assembly, it was free mercy: so that there's a meeting of shining favors of God, in obtaining mercy; and this would be observed.

Asser. 2. There be two ordinary ways of God, in drawing sinners: one Moral, by words; another Physical and real, by strong hand. Which may be cleared thus: Fancie, led with some gilding of apparent or seeming good, as hope of food, doth allure and draw the bird to the grin; and sometime pleasure, as a glass, and the singing of the Fowler: So is fish drawn to nibble at the angle and lines cast out, hoping to get food. Now this is like Moral drawing in men; and all this is but objective, working on the fancy. But when the foot and wing of the bird is entangled with the net, and the fish hath swallowed down the bait, and an instrument of death under it, now the Fowler draweth the bird, and the Fisher the fish, a far other way, even by real violence. The Physician makes the sick child thirsty, then allures him to drink physic, under the notion of drink to quench his thirst: this is moral drawing of the child by wiles. But when the child hath drunk, the drink works not by wiles, or morally, but naturally, without freedom, and whether the child will or no, it purgeth head and stomach.

That there is a Moral working by the word, in the drawing of sinners to Christ, though most evident, yet must be proved against Antinomians and Enthusiasts, who write, That the whole letter of the Scripture holds forth a covenant of works. And, The due search and knowledge of the holy Scripture, is not a safe and sure way of searching and finding Christ. And, There is a testimony of the Spirit, and voice unto the soul, merely immediate, without any respect unto, or concurrence with the word. And, Such a faith as is wrought by a practical Syllogism, or the word of God, is but an human faith; because the conclusion followeth but from the strength of reasonings, or reason, not from the power of God, by which alone divine things are wrought ; Ephes. 1.19, 20. Col. 2.20. and that because such a faith wrought by the word, the works (of sanctification in the regenerate) and light of a renewed conscience, are all done by things that are created blessings and gifts; and these cannot produce that which is only produced by an Almighty power. For the word of it self without the Spirit, (yet the word is more then works of sanctification) is but a dead letter ; but that God works faith by the word, his own Spirit concurring, is clear.

[unspec 1] 1. The Prophets allege this for their warrant, Thus saith the Lord. Ergo, You must believe it. And one more and greater then all the Prophets, But I say, so Christ God equal with the Father speaketh.

2. Rom. 10.17. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by [unspec 2] the word of God. Verse 14. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? Its true, the word, the works of God, are not the principal object of faith, nor objectum quod ; faith rests only on God, and the Lord Jesus, Joh. 14.1. 1 Thes. 1.8. Your faith toward God. 1 Pet. 1.21. Deut. 1.32. Joh. 3.12. Gen. 15.6. Dan. 6.23. Rom. 4.3. Gal. 2.16. 2 Tim. 1.12. The word, promises, and Prophets and Apostles, are all creatures, and but media fidei, the means of saving faith: they are objectum quo, Joh. 5.46. Psal. 106.12. Exod. 4.8. Psal. 78.7. of themselves they are dead letters, and dead things, and cannot without the Spirit produce faith: Yea, all habits of grace, of faith, of love, in us, are like the streams of a fountain that would dry up of themselves, if the spring did not, with a sort of eternity, furnish them new supply; so would habits of grace, being but created things, wither in us, if they were not supplied from the Fountain Christ. And all beings created, in comparison of the first Being, are nothing; and all nations to him are less then nothing, and vanity, Isai. 40.17. and so are the infused habits of grace nothing. If this were the meaning of Familists and Antinomians, who say that there is in us no inherent grace, but that grace is only in Christ, we should not contend with them. We teach no such thing, as that Reasonings, Syllogisms, or the Scriptures, without the Spirit can produce Faith, yet is it vain arguing, to say rain, and dew, the Summer-Sun, good soil cannot bring forth roses, flowers, vines, corns; because sure, it is a work of Omnipotencie, that produceth all these; and so its vain to say, that because Faith is the work of the omnipotency of Grace. therefore Faith cometh not by hearing, and reasoning from Scripture: the contrary whereof is evident in Christ's proving of the resurrection, by consequence from Scripture, Mat. 22.31, 32. Luk. 20.37. • 8. Nor can any say, Christ may make discourses from Scripture, and his reasonings, because he is the King of the Church, are valid, and may produce faith, but we cannot do the like, nor are our reasonings, Scriptures; for Christ r • buketh the Sadducees, Ye err not knowing the Scriptures, &c. because they believed not the consequences of Scripture as Scripture, and made not the like discourse, for the building of themselves in the faith.

3. The searching of the Scriptures is life eternal, the only [unspec 3] way to find Christ. Joh. 5.39. Acts 10.43. Rom. 3.21. Isaiah 8.20.

4. Gen. 9.27. God shall persuade Japheth (by the Scriptures [unspec 4] preached) and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, Acts 16.14. God's opening of the heart, and Lydia's hearing and attending to the word that Paul spoke, go together.

5. The way of Enthusiasts, in rejecting both Law and Gospel, [unspec 5] and all the written word of God, is because there is no light in them. Some immediate sense of God, and working of the holy Ghost, on the soul of the child of God, witnessing to me in particular, that I am the child of God, I deny not, and that my name expressly is not in Scripture, is as true; but this testimony excludeth not the Scripture, as if the searching thereof were [unspec 1] no safe way of finding Christ, as they blasphemously say, 1. [unspec 2] Because this Enthusiasm, excludeth the only revealed rule, by which we try the Spirits, and we are forbidden to presume above that which is written, 1 Cor. 4.16. and Enthusiasts have acted murders, and much wickedness under this notion of inspirations of the Spirit. 2. Because if the matter of that which is revealed, be not according to the written Word; Now after the Scriptrue is signed by Christ's own hand, Revel. 22.18. I see not what we are to believe of these inspirations. What extraordinary impulsions, and prophetical instincts have been in holy men, and such as God hath raised to reform his Churches, can be no rule to us. 3. If there be any mark of Scriptural [unspec 3] sanctification, that doth not agree to Scripture, the rule of righteousness, though found in a person not mentioned in Scripture, its a delusion. 4. Its all the reason in the world, [unspec 4] that a sinner be drawn to Christ. For Christ is the most rational object that is, he being the wisdom of God. And man is led and taken with reason. Christ is a convincing thing, and invincibly bindeth reason: so the forlorn Son, before he return to his Father, argueth, Luke 15.17. My Father hath bread, he giveth it to servants, and I am a starving Son ; therefore I will return to my Father ; and the wise Merchant must discourse, Matth. 13.45, 46. Christ is a precious pearl, all that I have in the world are but common stones and clay to him; therefore I cast my account thus, to sell all, and to buy him. So Matth. 9.21. the diseased Woman hath heart-Logic within herself, if a touch of the border of his garment may heal me, then I will go to Christ ; and the unjust Steward, cast Syllogism • s, thus; I cannot work, and a lodging in heaven I must have, and there is but one way to come by it, to make me a friend in heaven. Yea, a fools paradise, a wedge of gold, is a strong reason. Prov. 7.21. The Whore forced the young man with guilded words and the outside of reason. Faith is the deepest and soundest understanding, the gold, the flour of reason. Christ can make me a King, therefore I will be drawn to him. Poor Adam out-witted himself, turned distracted, he studied an apple, so while he studied all his postrity out of their wits, and now we are borne 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , mad fools, Tit 3.3. What is the Gospel? but a mass, a Sea, a world of fair, and precious truths, that says, come borne-Idiots to wisdom, and be made eternal Kings: this is good reason. For the other way of drawing, we shall speak of it here-after.

Asser. 3. In words and oratory there is no power, to make the blind see, and the dead live. Will ye preach heaven, and Christ seven times, and let Angels preach above a dead man's grave, Ye do just nothing. But Christ's word is more then a word. Joh. 4.10. Jesus said, if thou knewest that gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, give me drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. Psalm. 119.33. Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes, and I shall keep it unto the end. Psalm▪ 9.10. Those that know thy name, will put their trust in thee. Christ said, but, Follow me, to Matthew. And I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, live. Ezech. 16.6. One word live, is with child of omnipotency; Majesty, and heaven, and glory lie in the womb of one world, when Christ speaks as Christ, he speaks pounds and talent-weights, Luk. 24.32. The Disciples going to Emans, say one to another; did not our hearts burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures? There be co • es of fire, and fire-brands in Christ's words. Christ is quick of understanding, to know what word is the fittest key, to shoot the iron bar that keeps th • heart closed; he opens seal • s on the heart with authority, violence may break up sealed letters, but it may be unjustly done; but authority can open Kings seals justly. Christ not only teacheth how to love, or modum rei, but he teacheth Love it self, he draweth a lump of love out of his own heart, and casts it in the sinners heart; the Spirit persuadeth God, Gal. 1.10. then he must persuade Christ, and persuade heaven, this is more then to speak persuasive words of God and Christ, it is to cast Christ in at the ear, and in the bottom of the heart, with words. Men open things that they may be plain to the understanding, Christ opens the faculty it self to understand. The Sun gives light, but cannot create eyes to see, Christ can whole the broken optic nerves. He creates both the Sun, and tyes a knot upon the broken eye-strings, that the blind man sees bravely.

Asser. 4. One general is inseparable from Christ's drawing, that for the manner of drawing, he doth it out of mere free Love. The principle of drawing on Christ's part, is great love. Ephes. 2.4. God rich in mercy, for his great love, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sin quickened us in Christ. Tit. 3.4. But when the b • untie, and man-love, or rather, the man-kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us. Thanks to the birth of love, and of felt love Col. 1.12, 13. Giving thanks to the Father 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 who hath delivered, who hath snatched us with haste and violence, from the power of darkness, and hath translated us to the kingdom of the Son of his love. • . This love hath in regard of his fervor, much haste, and loseth no time, but comes and draws, and pulls the sinner out of hell, before he be past recovery, and cold dead; as a Father seeing his child fall in the water, and wrestling with the proud floods, he runs, ere he be dead, out of hand to pull him out. Luk. 15.10. The Father ran and fell on his neck, and kissed him. The Fathers running saith, that the love of Christ hath need of haste to prevent a sinner, and that he is eager and hot in his love; when Christ runs to save, he would gladly save; he draws with good will, when he runs and sweats to come in the nick of due time to save: So Cant. 2.8. when he cometh to save his Church, or comfort her in her faintings, loves pace is swift, like the running of a Roe or a young Hart. Behold he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping on the hills. And it is an expression of the extreme desire that Christ hath of an union with us, and how fain he would have the company of sinners: So we difference between inviting or calling; yea, or leading and drawing in calling and leading; Christ leaveth more to our will, whether we will come or refuse, but in drawing there is more of violence, less of will.

3. In drawing there is love-sickness, and lovely pain 〈◊〉 [unspec 1] in Christ's ravishings. 1. When Christ cannot obtain and win the consent and good-liking of the sinner to his love, he ravisheth, and with strong hand draws the sinner to himself, when invitations do not the business, and he knocks, and we will not open, then a more powerful work must follow. Cant. 5.4. My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him. Christ drives such as will not [unspec 2] be led. 2. And these who will not be invited, he must draw them, rather then want them: he draws with compassion, as being overcommed with love; for his bowels are moved for Ephraim, Jer. 31. he draws while his arms bleed. 3. And [unspec 3] does not only knock, but he stands and knocks, Revel. 3.20. His standing, notes his importunity of mercy, how gladly he would be in, and he useth this as an argument to move his Spouse, out of humanity, to pity him, and give him one nights lodging in the soul, Cant. 5.2. Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled. Why, I stand long, I wait on in patience, forcing my love on you. For my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. Every word is love, Open, open my sister, I am a brother, not a stranger; open my love, for I have interest in thee, every word is a talent weight of free grace.

4. Not only is drawing an expression of his love of union [unspec 4] with sinners; for he bears the sinner, he translates the sinner 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he gives the sinner a lift to set him out of one country into another, into a far choiser land, out of a land of death, into the Kingdom of his dear Son, Col. 1.13. And the little lambes that have no legs of their own, Christ shall be legs to them. Isaiah 40.11. He shall gather the little lambes (and so the Hebrew) with his arm, and carry them in his bosom. I should wish no higher happiness out of heaven, then to be carried in the circle of Christ's arms, and to lie with the lambes, in his bosom, and be warmed with the heart-love, that comes out of his breast. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is to carry on the shoulders; and Aaron is said in the same word, Exod. 28. to carry the names of the children of Israel on his breast, as a man is said to carry his child in his arms, Deut. 1.31. And Christ, Luk. 15.5. finding the lost sheep, layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. Legges I have none (saith the sinner) and so cannot go to the new kingdom. What then (saith Christ) I have legs and arms both for you, to serve you. I will bear you if ye can neither lead nor drive. A sinner is as heavy as a mountain of iron, and cannot be drawn or borne, but they be heavy lumps of hell that Christ cannot bear to heaven. Christ's love hath mighty arms, and great and strong bones. Christ now above five thousand years hath been carrying tired lambes up to heaven, in ones and twoes, and is not yet wearied, of bringing up his many children to glory, and will not rest till there be not one lamb of all the flock out of that great and capacious fold; and drawn they must be, whom Christ's love draweth. Christ's love is not so loose in griping as to miss any he intends to put in his bosom.

[unspec 5]

5. The particular way of loves drawing is lovely and sweetly, and with strong allurements.

1 Redemption is a sweet word to a captive, but Redemption by Law is not so sweet, as Redemption by Love. For Redemption is nothing comparable to Redemption dipt and watered with free love, I ought no more to be Redeemed, then the damed Devils, Christ is not my debtor, he owes me nothing, but eternal vengeance • ; nevertheless, he out of only strong love, Redeemed me. O this is two Redemptions.

2. Drawing by free and strong love is an easy work, and [unspec 2] so is it easy to be drawn; because all works of love are easy, as the act of marrying is no great pain, the Solemnities and Ceremonies of marriage are more toilsome th • n Marriage it self. All the right Mariages in the world are made by love; a • d th • re is no more, but I consent, I say Amen, to have Christ for my husband, and he saith Hosea 3.3. Captive woman bought for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half, thou shalt be for me, and not for another, and I will also be for thee, and there's an end. Christ's chariot run • s on wheels of love, and the pace is soft and sweet.

3. The way of loves working through delight is sweet, to [unspec 3] the drawn soul, when Christ hands the heart, and the love of Christ's soft fingers grasps about the soul, how alluring and captivating is Christ; when he comes in to the heart, his fingers drop pure myrrh. What honey, or what heaven drops are these? Christ's honey-comb was gathered, and made out of that flour that incomparable rose, never planted with hands, out of Christ himself, from the bottom of eternity, from the head and root of infinite ages, which have neither head nor bottom, and out of Christ freely loving, freely choosing the creature to himself. Cant. 1.3. Because of the savor of thy good ointments, thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the Virgins love thee. Cant. 5.11. Christ's head is of most fine gold. What think ye of the golden and choice eminencies that are in Christ? of a clothing of increated glory that goes about Christ? Cant. 2.3. I sat down under his shadow, w • th great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. Christ's love casteth so sweet a smell, that his love leads not, but draws, yet loves cords are softer then oil. The honey of Christ's love was gathered out of the flowers that grow in that highest mountain of roses, a larger field of flowers then ten millions of earths, and out of the fair blossoms, and sweet heavenly sop of the tree of life; the glory of Lebanon, and excellency of Sharon, is nothing to this. Bring all your senses, see, hear, feel, taste, and smell, what transcendent sweetness of heaven is in this love; a Sea of love is nothing, it hath a bottom; a heaven of love is nothing, it hath a brim; but infinite love hath no bounds.

4. Love draws strongly and irresistibly: Christ never wooed a soul with his free love, but he wins the love and heart. Death and the grave and hell are conquering things for strength, and have subdued huge multitudes, since the Creation; but the love of Christ is stronger and more constraining, Cant. 8.6, 7. The coals of love burn more strongly then any other fire. The flames and coals of God are mighty hot; they burnt up hell and death to ashes: how much more will they take a sinner? Christ cast out coals of love with that word, Matthew, follow me: and there is no resisting, he arose and followed him. Christ's love draws till he bleed, and he loves till he die of love. His love must prevail, for Omnipotency was in it. Had there been ten thousand worlds more of sinners, Christ hath love for them all. And had the elect world had ten thousand millions more of rebellions then they have, all these sins should have been infinitely below the conquering power of Christ's love. Never sinner went to hell Victor, to • ay, Love could not pardon me; I was in sin above Christ's omnipotency of love. Never sinner went to heaven, but Christ's love had the better of him. Great heaven is but an house full of millions of vanquished captives, that Christ's love followed, and over-took, and subdued. O loves prisoners, praise, praise the Prince of love. Sense of this love so swells and so ascends, that the Spouse, Cant. 5.10. is not Master of words: every word is like a mountain, if you come to his Person, Nature, Offices; none speak like Christ, none breathe like him; Mirrhe, Aloes, and Cinnamon, all the perfumes, all the trees of frankincense, all the powders of the Merchants, that Assyria, or Egypt, or what Countries else ever had, are but short and poor shadows to him: These are but hungry generals. 2. For beauty he hath no match amongst men; because he is fairer then all the sons of men. Christ hath a most goodly face. But of this hereafter. 3. For the sweetness and excellency of nature, he's God equal with the Father: when ye say God ; ye say all things. God is a taking and a drawing excellency: The image of the invisible God; he that is, he that was, and he which is to come, the Alpha and Omega, the be • inning and the end, the first and the last, of time, of creation, of what possible excellency we can conceive; for our conception can reach no higher then time, and created things. 4. For greatness of Majesty. 5. For lowliness of tender love. 6. For freeness • of grace. 7. For glory diffused through all his Attributes. 8. For sovereignty and absoluteness of power, &c. who is like to our Lord Jesus? 9. For sweetness and loveliness of relations; the only begotten Son of God, no relation like this: The Creator of the ends of the earth, the Savior, the good Shepherd, the Redeemer, the great Bishop of our souls, the Angel of the Covenant, the head of the body the Church, and of Principalities and Powers, the King of Ages, the Prince of peace, of the Kings of the earth ; the living Ark of heaven, the Song of Angels and glorified Saints, but they cannot outsing him; the Joy and Glory of that land, the Flower and Crown of the Fathers de • ights, the sweet Rose of that Garden of solace and joy. Compare other things with Christ, and they bear no weight: cast into the balance with him Angels, and he is Wisdom, they but wise Men ; they are liars, and lighter then vanity, and Christ is the Amen, the faithful Witness, the express Image of the Fathers substantial glory: Cast into the scales kings, all kings, and all their glory, he is the King of all these kings. Cast in millions of talents weight of glory, and gain, they are but bits of paper, and chaff, weight they have none to him. Cast in two worlds, that is nothing; add to the weight millions of heavens of heavens, the balance cannot down, the scales are unequal; Christ is a huge over-weight.

To all these drawing powers in Christ, in the general, because Christ is the Master and King of the Land, where his own created kings dwell, we may add a strong drawing argument, from the condition of the glorified in heaven; because Christ useth this as a strong argum • nt to those that come to him, Joh. 6.37. Isai. 55.3. Joh. 5.40. Mat. 11.26. Revel. 21.6. & 22.17. we may use it after him. The Earth is but a Potters house, that is full of earth • n-pots and Venice-glasses, and withal taken by a Conqueror, who can make no other use of these vessels, but break them all to sheards; it cannot be a drawing and alluring thing. Death hath conquered the earth, and these many hundred Ages hath been breaking of the clay-pots, both men and other corruptible things, into broken chips and pieces of dust. But Christ draweth, by offering a more enduring City: That Christ can give, and promiseth heaven to his followers, is a strong argument, and draws powerfully. 1. Heaven is not one single Palace, but its a City; a Metropolis, a Mother-City, [unspec ·1] the first City of God's Creation, for dignity and glory; Revel. 21. chap. 22. But a City is too little; therefore its more, its a Kingdom, Luk. 12.32. & 22.23. Yea but a Kingdom may be too little; therefore its a World, Luk. 20.35. It is a World, and for eminency, a World to come ; Heb. 6.5. the World of Ages. 2. The lowest stones of it are not earth, as [unspec 2] our Cities here, but twelve manner of precious stones are the foundation of it. 3. In what City in the earth do men walk [unspec 3] upon Gold? or dwell within walls of Gold? But under the feet of the inhabitants there is Gold ; all the streets and fields of that Kingdom and World are, Revel. 21.21. Pure gold, as it were transparent glass. 4. Then all the inhabitants are kings, [unspec 4] Revel. 22.5. And they shall reign forever and ever. Whole heaven entirely and fully enjoyed by one glorified Saint, as if there were not one but this one person alone; all and everyone hath the whole Kingdom at his will, and is filled with God, as if there were no fellows there to share with him. 5. O so broad and large as that Land is, being the heaven of [unspec 5] heavens! As the greater circle must contain the less, so all the dwellings here are but caves under the earth, and hol • s of poor clay, in the bosom of this. But there are many dwelling places, Joh. 14. and there lodges so many thousand Kings. O what fair fields, mountains of roses and spices, gardens of length and breadth above millions of miles are nothing; and among these, trees of Paradise; every bird in every bush sings, Worthy is the Lamb ; every bottle is filled with the new wine of heaven: O the wines, the lilies, the roses, the precious trees that grow in Immanuels Land! And they sweat out balm of praise • s in those mountains. 6. If men knew what a drawing [unspec 6] and alluring thing is the tree of life, that is in the midst of the street of the new Land, the tree that beareth at once twelve •• nner of fruits, and yieldeth her fruit every month ; an hundred harvests in one year are nothing here; and all are but shadows, there is nothing so low as gold, as twelve manner of precious stones, nothing so base in this high and glorious Kingdom as gardens, trees, and the like: Comparisons are created shadows, that come not up to express the glory of the thing. And for Christ himself, signified under this expression, he is the most, yea the only drawing glory in heaven and earth. 1. He is the High King of all the made and crowned kings in [unspec 1] the Land. 2. The only heaven and sum, yea the all of all [unspec 2] the shadowed expressions of the Kingdom, whatever is spoken of that glory comes home to this, to magnify Christ, to make him as God equal with the Father and Spirit, all one; and all the only heaven of all heaven, and all in all, to the Saints. Then created delights there, as divided from him, must be nothing in nothing, as he is all in all. 3. Nothing can take the eyes and [unspec 3] hearts of the glorified, being now made so capacious and wide vessels to contain glory, as he can do. What can terminate, bound, and lill a glorified soul, but Christ enjoyed? Abraham, Moses, Elias, the Prophets, the Apostles, all the glorified Martyrs and Witnesses of Jesus Christ, especially now being clothed with majesty and glory with Christ, must be more lovely objects then when they were on earth, and if Christ were not there, would appear more then they do; but the Saints have neither leisure nor heart to feed themselves with beholding of creatures, but sure all the eyes in heaven, which are a fair and numerous company, are upon, only, only Jesus Christ: The father hath no leisure to look over his shoulder to the son, nor the husband to the wife, in that City; Christ takes all eyes off created things, there; its enough for Angels and Men to study Christ for all eternity: it shall be their only labor to read Christ, to smell Christ, to hear and see and taste Christ: All the eyes of that numerous host of Angels and Men shall be on him; and he is worthy and above the admiration, the thoughts [unspec 4] and apprehensions of all that heavenly Army. 4. Then Christ shall appear a far other Christ in heaven then we do apprehend him now on earth; not that he is not the same, but because neither we have eyes to see him in the Kingdom of grace as he is, (narrow vessels cannot receive Christ diffused in glory, as he now is) nor doth Christ make out himself in that latitude and greatness to us now, as he is to be seen and enjoyed in the heavens. 1 Joh. 3.2. We shall then see him as he is. What, do we not now see him as he is? No; we see him as he is in report, and shadowed out to us in the Gospel, the Gospel is the Portraiture of the King, which h • e sent to another Land to be seen by his Bride, but the Bride never seeth him as he is, in his best Sabbath-Robe-Royal of immediate glory, till she be married unto him: So Kings and Queens on earth woo one another. And, 5. In heaven Christ is (to [unspec 5] speak so) in the element, prime fountain, and seat of God as God, where he showeth himself to be immediately seen and enjoyed; and its as it were by the second hand, by Messengers, words, mediation, that we enjoy Christ here; he sendeth to us, rather then cometh in person. An immediate touch of th • apples of the tree of life while they yet grow on the tree of life, is more then derived and borrowed communion. To see Christ himself, the red and white in his own face, to hear himself speak, to see him as he is, and in his robes of Majesty now at the right hand of God, is, in thousand thousand degrees, more then all the pictured (if I may so speak) and shadowed fruition we have here. The Gospel is but the Bridegroom's Mirror and Looking-glass, and our created Prospect; but O his own immediate perfume, his myrrh, the ointments and the smell that glory casteth in heaven, who can express? 6. We never [unspec 6] see all the in-side of Christ, and the mysteries of that glorious Ark opened, till the light of glory discover him: Thousands of excellencies of Christ shall then be revealed, that we see not now. 7. O what delights he casteth forth from himself! The river of life is more then a sea of milk, wine and [unspec 7] honey. To suck the breasts of the consolations of Christ, and eat of the clusters that grow on that noble Vine Jesus Christ, and take them off the tree with your own hand, is a desirable and excellent thing. The more excellent the soil is, the wines, the apples, the pomegranates, the roses, the lilies must be the more delicious; and the nearer the sun, the better; the more of summer, the more of day, the more excellent the fruits of the Land are: Believe it, the wines of that Paradise grow in a brave Land. O but Christ is a blessed soil; roses and lilies, apples of love that are eternally summer-green are sweet, that grow out of him: the honey of that Land, the honey of heaven, is more then honey; the honey of love, pure and unmixed, must be incomparable. 8. The Mediators hand wipes the foul [unspec 8] face, and the tears off all the weeping strangers that come thither; he layeth the head of a friend under his chin, between his breasts. Joh. 14.3. Revel. 21.4. Death is cried down, pain, sickness, crying, sadness, sorrow, are all acted and voted out of the House, and out from all the inhabitants of the Land, for ever and ever. 9. It must be a delightsome City that hath [unspec 9] ever summer, without winter; ever day, without night; ever day-light, without sun or moon or candle-light; because the Lord God giveth them light, Revel. 22.5. No danger of sunburning or summer-scorching, or winter-blasting: all morning without twy-light, all noon-day without one cloud for eternity, is joyful: light, and day, and summer, flowing immediately [unspec 10] from the Lamb, is admirable. 10. (1) Joy, (2) full joy, (3) fullness of joy, (4) pleasures, (5) pleasures that last for evermore, (6) and that at God's right hand, yea (7) in his face, [unspec 11] is above our thoughts, Psal. 16.10, 11. 11. O the music of the Sanctuary, the sinless and well-tuned Psalms, the songs of the high Temple, without a Temple or Ordinances as we have here, and these exalting him that sits on the Throne for evermore. All which, with many other considerations, are strong drawing invitations to come to Christ.

Asser. 5. Christ draweth with three sorts of General Arguments, in this Moral way: The first is taken from pleasure; this is the beauty that is in God, 1. That is in a communion with God. 2. The delectation we have in God as love-worthy to the understanding. For the drawing beauty of God, a word: 1. Of God's beauty. 2. Of God's beauty in Christ. 3. Of the relative beauty of God in Christ to Men and Angels. 1. Beauty, as we take it, is the loveliness of face and person arising from 1. the natural well contempered color, 2. the due proportion of stature and members of body, 3. the integrity of parts; as that there is nothing wanting for bodily perfection. So beauty formally is not in God, who hath not a body: Nor speak we of Christ's bodily beauty, as Man. Then beauty, by analogy, and eminently, must be in God: So as there be four things in the creature to make up beauty to the bodily eyes, and there be, by proportion, those same four things in God; for if beauty be good, and a desirable perfection in the creature, it must be in an infinite and eminent way in God; as the perfection of the effect, is in the cause. If the roses, lilies, meadows be fair, he must be fairer who created them; but in another kind. If the heavens, stars, and sun be beautiful, the lovely Lord who made them must have their beauty in an high measure. Zech. 9.17. How great is the Lord's goodness, how great is his beauty? What then is the beauty of God? I conceive it to be, The amenity and loveliness of his nature and all infinite perfections, as this pleasantness offers it self to his own understanding, and the understanding of men and Angels, and as bodily beauty satisfies the eyes, and so acts on the heart to win love to beauty; so the truth of the Lord's nature, and all his Attributes offered to the understanding and mind, and drawing from them admiration or wondering, and love is the beauty of God; David maketh this his one thing, Psal. 27.4. That (saith he) I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and inquire in his Temple. See then as white and red excellently contempered maketh pleasure and delectation to the eyes, and through these windows to the mind and heart, so there ariseth from the nature of God and his Attributes a sweet intelligibility, as David desires no other life but to stand beside God, and behold with his mind and faiths eyes, God in his Nature and Attributes, as he reveals himself to the creature. The Queen of Sheba came a far journey to see Solomon, because of his perfection; some common people desire to see the King; the Lord is a fair and pleasant object to the understanding.

2. There is in beauty a due proportion of members. 1. quantity. 2. situation. 3. stature. Let a person have a most pleasant color, yet if the ears and nose be as little as an Ant, or as big as an ordinary man's leg, he is not beautiful. 2. If members be not right seated, if the one eye be two inches lower in the face then the other, it mars the beauty; or if the head be in the breast, it is a monster. Or 3. if the stature be not due, as if the person be the stature of ten men, and too big; or the stature of an infant, or a Dove; had he all other things for color and proportion, his beauty is no beauty, but an error of nature, he is not as he should be, now the Lord is beautiful because infiniteness, and sweetness of order is so spread over his nature and Attributes, nothing can be added to him, nothing taken from him, and he is not all mercy only, but infinitely just; were God infinitely true yet not meek and gracious, he should not be beautiful; had he all perfections, but weak, mortal, not omnipotent, not eternal, his beauty should be mar • ed; then one attribute does not over-top, out-border or limit another; were he infinite in power, but finite in mercy, the luster and amenity of God were defaced.

3. There is integrity of parts in beauty. Were a person fairer then Absalom, and wanted a nose or an arm, the beauty should be lame. The Lord is complete and absolutely perfect in his blessed nature, and attributes.

4. All these required in beauty, must be natural, and truly and really there. Borrowed colors, and painting, and fair-ding of the face, as Jezebel did, are not beauty: the Lord in all his perfections is truly that which he seems to be. Now as there is in Roses, gardens, creatures that are fair, something pl •• sant, that ravisheth eye and heart; so there are in God so many fair and pleasant truths to take the mind, and God is so capatious, and so comprehensive a truth, and so lovely, such a bottomless Sea of wonders, and to the understanding that beholds God's beauty, there is an amenity, goodliness, a splendor, an irradiation of brightness, a loveliness, and drawing sweetness of excellency, diffused through the Lord's nature. Hence heaven is a seeing of God face to face, Revel. 22.4. Matth. 18.10. Now God hath not a face; but the face of a man is the most heavenly visible part in man, there is majesty and gravity in it, much of the art and goodliness of the creature is in his face. To see God's face, is to behold God's blessed essence, so far as the creature can see God. Now as we may be said to see the Suns face, when we see the Sun, as we are able to behold it; but there is beauty, and such vehemency of visibility in it, as it exceedeth our faculty of seeing; so do we see God's face, when we nearly behold him, not by hear-say, but immediately. Let us imagine that millions of Suns in the firmament, were all massed and framed in one Sun, and that the sense of seeing that is in all men, that ever hath been, or may be, yet this Sun should far excel this faculty of seeing: so suppose that the Lord should create an understanding faculty of man or Angels, millions of degrees more vigorous and apprehensive, then if all the men and Angels that are, or possibly may be created, were contemperated in one, yet could not this understanding so see God's transcendent and superexcellent beauty, but there should remain unseen treasures of loveliness never seen, yea, it involves an eternal contradiction, that the creature can see to the bottom of the Creator.

All this bounty of God is holden forth to us in Christ. Psal. 45.10. He is fairer then the Sons of men. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the word is of a double form, to note a double excellency. Cant. 1.16. Behold thou art fair my beloved, yea pleasant, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifieth lovely, amiable, acceptable. The Seventy render it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Psal. 146. It is pleasant, and sweet. 2 Sam. 1.26. Thou wast very pleasant to me. Cant. 5.10. He is white and ruddy Vers. 15. His countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the Cedars. Rev. 1.16. His countenance as when the Sun shineth in his 〈◊〉 strength. All the beauty of God is put forth in Christ. Isaiah 33.17. Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty. Hebr. 1.3. Christ is the brightness of his Fathers glory. The light of the Sun in the air is the accidental reflection of the Suns beams; Christ is the substantial reflection of the Fathers light and glory; for he is God equal with the Father, and the same God.

3. This beauty to Men and Angels is an high beauty, Angels have eyes within and without, Revel. 4.6. to behold the beauty of the Lord, and it takes up their eyes always to behold his face; and there is no beauty of truth they desire more to behold, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , 1 Pet. 1.12. as to stoop down, and to look into a dark and veiled thing, with the bowing of the head, and bending of the neck; the Seventy use for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Cant. 2.9. Where Christ is said to stand behind the wall, and look out at the casements, with great attention of mind ; It is to look down over a window, bending the head, Exod. 25.18, 19, 20. Joh. 20.5. They stooped down and saw the linen clothes. Luk. 24.12. Angels are not curious, but they must see exceeding great beauty, and wonder much at the excellency of Christ, when they cannot get their eyes pulled off Jesus Christ.

2. There is a beauty of Christ in a communion with God, which is a ravishing thing. When the soul comes to Christ, he seeth a beauty of holiness, and Christ is taken with this beauty. Psalm. 110.3. So shall the King greatly desire thy beauty. Psalm. 45.11. Thou hast ravished my heart, (saith Christ to his Spouse) Cant. 4.9. my sister, my Spouse. —Vers. 10. How fair is thy love, my Sister, my Spouse; how much better is thy love then wine, and the smell of thine ointments then all spices. Vers. 11. Thy lips, O my Spouse, drop as the honey-comb; honey and milk are under thy tongue, and the smell of thy garments is as the smell of Lebanon. Zion is the perfection of beauty, Psal. 50.2. All this beauty and sweetness cometh from Christ, there is no such thing in the people of God, as they are sinful men, considered in their natural condition; and therefore it must be fountain-beauty in him, as in the cause, and original of beauty.

2. There is a del • ct • tlon in a communion with God. This is one general, Prov. 3.17. All Wisdomes ways are ways of pleasure ; to the spiritual soul, every step to heaven is a paradise.

1. What sweetness is in the sense of the love of Christ to delight all, the spiritual senses? 1. The smell of Christ's Spicknurd, his Myrrh, Aloes, and Cassia, his Yvorie chambers sm • ll of heaven; the ointment of his garments bring God to the Sense. Psalm. 45.8. All thy garments smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia: out of the yvorie palaces, there have they made th • e glad. Cant. 1.13. A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me, he shall lie all night between my breasts.

2.To the sight Christ is a delightful thing; To behold God, in Christ, is a changing sight. 2 Cor. 3.18. But we all with open face-beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord, Ephes. 1.17. Math. 16.17. 1 Joh. 2.37. To see the King in his beauty, is a thing full of ravishing delight. 3. It taketh the third spiritual sense of hearing; the Spouse, Cant. 2.8. is so taken with the sweetness of Christ's tongue, that for joy she can but speak broken and imperfect words. The voice of my beloved ; It is not a perfect speech, but for joy she can speak no more. Its the voice of joy and gladness, that with the very sound can heal broken bones, Psal. 51.8. and which David desired to hear. O if you heard Christ speak, Cant. 5.13. His lips are like Lilies, dropping sweet smelling Myrrh; Heavens music, the honey of the new Land is in his tongue, the Church cheereth her soul with t • is. Cant. 2.10. My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. Christ's piping in the joyful Gospel-tiding, Vers. 5. should make us dance. Matth. 11.17. Christ harping and singing sinners, with joyful promises out of he • l to heaven, must have a drawing sweetness to move stones, if the sinner have ears to hear; and what heat and warmness of love must it bring, when Christ is heard say, Isaiah 54.11. O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with Sapphires? He doubles his words, he desires Jerusalem's ears may own this cry, Isaiah 40.1. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith the Lord, speak to the heart of Jerusalem.

4. Christ is sweet to the spiritual taste. Cant. 2.3. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet in my mouth. Psal. 34.8. O taste and see that the Lord is good. Christ is a curious banquet, the Wine, the Milk, the Honey, and the fatted calf killed, are all but shadows to Christ's excellent Gospel-dainties.

5. The sense of touching, which is the most spiritual, is the heavenly feelings, sense, and experience of God's consolations, and this sense is fed with the kisses of Christ's mouth, Cant. 1.3. With the hid Manna, the White stone, the new Name.

3. Joy is a drawing delight. Psal. 16.11. In his face there is fullness of joy. Look how far God's face casts down from heaven, sparkles of joy on us, as far goes our joy; and we are said in believing, 1 Pet. 1.8. to rejoice with joy unspeakable, and glorious.

4. There is particularly delectation, Psal. 36.8. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink of the rivers of thy pleasures. Should not this draw men to Christ? And there must be abundance of pleasures where there is a river of pleasures; as Psalm. 46.4. There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the City of God. What a Sea of Seas must God himself be? His full and bright face, his white throne, his harpers and heavenly troops that surround the throne, the Lamb the heaven of heavens it self, the tree of life eternally green, eternally adorned both at once with soul-delighting blossoms, and loaden with twelve manner of fruit every month. Peace of conscience from the sense of reconciliation, the first fruits of Emmanuels land, that lies beyond Time and Death; must all be above expression.

There is a second drawing motive in Christ, and this is from gain; which is eminently in Christ.

1. The drawn soul hath bread by the covenant of grace, his yearly rent is written in the New Testament, Christ is his rentall book and heritage. Isaiah 33.16. He shall dwell on high, his place of defense shall be the munition of Rocks ; for his lodging, he shall not lie in the fields. Bread shall be given him, his waters shall be sure ; or faithful: bread and drink are unfaithful, uncertain, and winged to natural men. 1 Tim. 6.17. Riches hath an, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , an uncertainty, like Ghosts or Spirits that ye see, but they evanish out of your sight, and disappear; or like clouds, or fire-lightnings in the air, that come and go suddenly; but bread is faithful and sure to the soul drawn to Christ; when the covenanted people are so drawn, that they receive a new heart; then God, saith Ezech. 36.29. I will also save you from all your uncleanness. What then? And I will call for the corn and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. Vers. 34. And the land shall be tilled. Does the New Testament provide for the plowing of your land? Yea, it doth? Yea, know Wisdoms attendants and allacays. Pr • . 3.16. On her right hand, is length of days, and on her left hand, riches and honor. Eternity hath the honor, and the right hand. Riches is the left hand blessing of wisdom.

2. It should draw us in the own kind to Christ, in regard, Christ is more then gain. Pro. 3.14. Wisdomes merchandise is better then silver, and her gain then fine gold. Vers. 15. She is more precious then Rubies. (2) Job 28.1. Wisdom cannot be gotten for gold. (3) Is there not some worth in Gold? Vers. 16. Wisdom cannot be valued with the gold of Ophyre, with the precious Onix, with the Sapphire. Vers. 17. The Gold and the Crystal cannot equal it. (4) May, there not be bidding and buying, and words of a market here? Nay, the disproportion between Christ and Gold is so great, that a rational Merchant can never speak of such a bargain. Vers. 18. No mention shall be made, of Corall, or of Pearls, for the price of Wisdom is above Rubies. Say that heaven and earth, and all within the bosom and circumference of heaven, and millions of more worlds were turned into Gold, Pearl, Sapphires, Rubies, and what else ye can imagine; ye undervalue Christ, if ye speak of buying of him.

3. Being drawn to Christ maketh all yours; when ye are hungry, all the bread of the earth is your Fathers: When ye are in a Ship, year in Christ's Fathers waters; when ye travel in Summer, ye see your Redeemers fields, your Savior's woods, trees, flowers, corns, cattels, birds; Yea, and all things are yours, 1 Cor. 3.21. Not in possession, but in a choiser free-holding, in free heritage, Psal. 37.11. Ye have the broad, rent, the fair In-come of all things. Your land is named, All things. Revel. 21.7. He that overcometh shall inherit all things.

4. All you have, a morsel of green herbs, a bed of straw, want, hunger, wealth, are guilded and watered with Christ. [unspec 4]

The third drawing thing in Christ, is Honor. The Church is a Princesse daughter, Cant. 7.1. A Kings daughter, Psal. [unspec 3] 45.13. A Queen in gold of Ophire. Psal. 45.9. Kings and Priests unto God. Revel. 1.5. Not young Kings only, but Crowned Kings. And they had on their heads crowns of gold, Revel. 4.4. Every Saint rules the Nations with a rod of iron. Every believer is a Catholic King, and swaies the Scepter over all the Kingdoms of the world. (1.) In regard that his head Christ guides all Kings, Courts, and Kingdoms; all the [unspec 1] world, and the weight of States, Empires, not indirectly, and only in ordine ad Spiritualia ; but directly, and the weight of the Church triumphing, and the Church fighting, are upon the shoulders of our brother and Savior. (2.) In that by faith he breaks and overcomes the world. (3.) And by prayer, [unspec 2] which is more then the key of Europa, Africa, and Asia, he [unspec 3] can bring in the nations to Christ, and shut and open heaven.

2. Consider what God makes them. To him that lays hold [unspec 2] on my Covenant saith the Lord, Isaiah 56.5. I will give within my house, and my walls, a name. But what is a name? A name is but name? A name better then the name of sons and daughters, even an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. An everlasting name (I confess) is more then a name. Isaiah 43.4. Since thou wast precious in my sight, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 thou hast been glorious, or honorable. 1 Chron. 4.9. And Jabez was more honorable then his brethren ; the same word, and way, Vers. 10. And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast. It was said of Reuben, Gen. 49.4. Reuben thou shalt not excel ; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 nor be an overplus in praise, its to remain or abound either in quantity or quality; for his incest deprived him of his excellency, Prov. 12. • 6. The righteous is more abundant (the same word) more honorable, glorious, or excellent then his neighbor.

[unspec 3] 3. The Lord who knows the weight of things, Angels and Men ; esteems highly of them. Cant. 5.2. My Sister, my Love, my Dove. The Spouse must in Christ's heart, have an high respect, when he saith, Cant. 4.1. Behold thou art fair, my love ; and that cannot content him, he addeth. Behold, thou art fair, Cant. 6.9. my dove, my undefiled is but one, she is the only one of her mother, she is the choice one of her that bare her. The Saints in Christ's books are jewels, Mal. 3.17. His on • lie choice, the flour of the earth. All the world is Christ's refuse, and King are but mortar to him; the Saints are Christ's ass • ssors, and the Kings Peers to judge the world with him, Lord's of the higher House, Christ devides the throne with them, Luk. 22.30. 1 Cor. 6.2. Revel. .21. The Lord so far honoreth them, as to put them on all his secrets, Psalm. 25.4. The secrets of the Lord are with them that fear him, Joh 14.21. I will manifest myself unto him they are of his Cabinet counsel, Cant. 2.4. The King brought me into his house of Wine; his secrets of love, and free grace are there.

[unspec 4] 4. Christ so honoreth them, that he professeth, he desires a a communion with them. Cant. 4.8. Com • with me from Lebanon, my Spouse. Joh. 14.23. The Father and I will come un-him, and make our abode with him. Cant. 2.16. He seedeth among the Lilies, till the day break ; the Lord familiarly converseth with them.

Use 1. All them who are taken with fair things, and are so soft, as pleasures they must have, and will not be drawn to Christ, the pleasantest and fairest one that ever heaven had, are much prejudged; ye warm yourselves, O children of men, at the outside of a painted fire. Your pleasure (and we may believe Solomon ) are flowers worm-eaten, and as garments torn and thread bare. Solomon's honey, and Samson's Delilah, are sweet drinks that swells them; when these work on their stomach, they are glad to vomit them out, and are pained with sickness, at the remembance of them; there is no drawing beauty to Christ, behold him in all his excellencies. Cant. 5.10. My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. Vers. 11. His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushie, and black as a raven. Vers. 12. His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of water, washed with milk, and fitly set. Vers. 13. His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers; his lips like Lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh. Vers. 14. His hands are as gold rings set with Berill; his belly is as bright yvorie, over-laid with Sapphires. Vers. 15. His legs are as pillars of Marble, set upon sockets of fine gold, his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the Cedars. Vers. 16. His mouth is most sweet ; or in the abstract 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 sweetnesses, and he is all desires, all loves, and all of him, or every piece of him is love; and when John sees him, Revel. 1. O what a sight, Vers. 13. He was clothed with a garment down to the feet, and girt about the paps, with a golden girdle. Verse. 14. His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire. Vers. 15. And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned into a furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters. Vers. 16. And he had in his right hand seven stars. He hath the Churches, and all the elect in his right hand, and ou • of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword, and his countenance was as the Sun shineth in his strength. When John saw him thus, he was so over-gloried with the beauty and brightness of his Majesty, that whereas he was wont to lean on his bosom in the days of his flesh, now he is not able to stand, and endure one glance of his highest glory; but (saith he) Ver. 17. And when I saw him, I fell down at his feet as dead. And there was much lovely and tender affection lapped up in this glory, when poor John fell a swouning at his feet; Christ for all his glory, holds his head in his swoon. And he laid his right hand on my head, saying unto me, fear not, I am the first, and the last. I am good for swouning and dying sinners. Why, I am he that liveth, and was dead: And behold, I live for evermore. Would sinners but draw near, and come and see this King Solomon in his chariot of love, behold his beauty, the uncreated white and red in his counten • nce, he would draw souls to him; there is omnipotency of love in his countenance, all that is said of him here, are but created shadows; a • , words are short to express his nature, person, office, lovelynesse, desireableness. What a broad and beautiful face must he have, who with one smile, and one turning of his countenance, looks upon all in heaven, and all in the earth, and casts a heaven of burning love, East, and West, South, and North, through heaven and earth, and fills them all? Suppose omnipotency would enlarge the globe of the world, and the heaven of heavens, and cause it to swell to the quantity, and number of millions of millions of worlds, and make it so huge and capacious a vessel▪ and fill it with so many millions of elect Men and Angels, and then fill them, and all this wide circle with love; it would no more come near to take in Christ's lovely beauty, then a spoon can contain all the Seas; or then a child can hide in his hand the globe of the world. Yea, suppose all the corns of sand in all the earth and shores, all the flowers, all the herbs, and all the leaves, all the twigs of trees in woods and forests since the creation, all the drops of dew and rain that ever the clouds send down, all the stars in heaven, all the lithes, joints, drops of blood, hairs, of all the elect on earth, that are, have been, or shall be, were all rational creatures, and had the wisdom and tongues of Angels, to speak of the loveliness, beauty, virtues of Jesus Christ, they would in all their expressions stay, millions of miles, on this side of Christ, and his loveliness, and beauty. It is the wicked fleshly disposition of Libertines, who turn all the beauty, excellency, freeness of grace in Christ, to a cloak of licentiousness, and a liberty of all Religions; they highly under-value free grace, as any Heretics, that ever the Church of Christ law, who turn all sanctification, all the grace of Christ that should be expressed in strict, precise, accurate walking with God, (but as far from merit, as grace and and debt, as Christ's free grace, and the condemning Law) into a notional speculative apprehension, or rather a presumptuous imagination, or Antinomian faith; that Christ hath obeyed, mortified the lusts of the flesh for the sinner; that no Law, no commandment of God, no letter of the Word, obligeth us to walk with God ; only an immediate Enthiasticall unwarrantable inspiration of a Spirit, without the Word, or blasts of love when they come, and not but when they come, engageth believers to keep any commandment of God. Never Pelagian, Jesuit, Arminian, were such disgraceful enemies to Jesus Christ, to free justification, and the grace of the Gospel, as Antinomians, for they make the Law of God and the love of God in commanding holy walking opposite; all the doctrine of the New Testament that teacheth and commandeth to deny ungodliness; all the Old Testament, and particularly the 119. Psalm, reconcileth the Law commanding to keep the Lord's ways, and testimonies, and the love of Christ, sweetening with delight and joy, holy walking, as one and the same way of God.

Use 2. Again nothing more lesseneth Christ, then the heightening of the world in the hearts of men; Haman had the scum of the pleasures of 127. Kingdoms, yet there was a bone wrong in his foot, anger and malice to see Mordecai is a hell to him; its a sweeter burden to bear the fire and coals of the love of Christ in the heart, then the hell of envy in the soul: Nay, say that all the damned in hell were brought up with their burning and fiery chains of eternal wrath to the outermost door of heaven, and strike up a window, and let them look in and behold the Throne, and the Lamb, and the troops of glorified ones clothed in white, with crowns of gold on their head, and palms in their hands showing their Kingly and victorious condition, and let them through a window in heaven, hear the music of the new Song, the eternal praises of the conquering King and Redeemer, they should not only be sweetened in their pain, but convinced of their foolish choice that they hunted with much sweating after carnal delights, and lost the fullness of joy and pleasures that lasts for evermore in the Lord's face.

Would we believe the Spies that have been visiting the new Land that Immanuel God with us is Lord of; hear, for Moses he was in that Land, and he saith, Deut. 33.29. Happy art thou O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency. David was there a landed man, and what saith he of that new Land that Christ hath found out, Psal. 16. Canaan at its best is but a wilderness to it. Vers. 6. The lines are fallen to me in pleasant (things, or places.) Then there must be multitudes of pleasures, not one only in God; My heritage is pleasant above me, above my thoughts, or I have a goodly heritage. Solomon was a messenger who saw both lands, and he saith, Eccles. 2.13. Then I saw that wisdom excelled folly, as far as light exceedeth darkness. And the Spouse saith, Cant. 1.12. When the King sitteth at his table, my Spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof. 13. A bundle of Myrrh is my beloved, he shall lie all night between my breasts. Cant. 2.4. He brought me to the banqueting house and his banner over me was love. All the Song reporteth great things of the Kingdom of Grace. Ask of Isaiah, What saw ye there, he answereth, c. 25.6. It is a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees of fat things full of marrow. And Ezekiel saith, That there shall be a brave summer in that land. Chap. 47.12. By the river upon the bank thereof on this side, and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his month, because their waters issued out from the Sanctuary, and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine ; This hath real truth even in the Kingdom of Grace. And J • remiah saw the fruits of the Land, and a golden age there. Cap. 31.12. Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock, and of the herd, and their soul shall be as a watered garden, and they shall not sorrow anymore at all ; and Christ brings good news out of that country, Mat. 22. That the life of all there is the life of Banqueters, called to the Marriage-feast of a Kings Son, of which everyone hath a Wedding garment: And if ye ask tidings of John, What saw ye, and heard ye there? he saith, I saw a Princes daughter with a Crown on her head, Rev. 21.10. He shown me the great City, the holy Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God: Even an enemy who saw the land a far off, and was not near the borders of it, saith, Numb. 24.5. How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles O Israel! Surely Prov. 2.10. Knowledge is pleasant to the soul. O all ye pleasures of the flesh, blush and be ashamed, all world-worshippers be confounded that ye toile yourselves in the fire for such short follies; Were there no other pleasure in godliness; but to behold the Lord Jesus, what a pleasant sight must he be? The Templ • , th • t stately and Kingly house, of fair carved stones, cedar wood, almug trees, brass, silver, gold, scarlet, purple, silks, in the art of the curious fabric and structure, was a wonder to the beholders. What beauty must be in the Samplar! O what happiness to stand beside that dainty precious Ark, weighted now with so huge a lump of Majesty, as infinite glory▪ to see that King on his Throne, the Lamb, the fair tree of life, the branches which cannot for the narrow • ess of the place have room to grow within the huge and capacious borders of the heaven of heavens▪ For the heaven of heavens cannot contain him. What pen though dipped in the river of life that flows from under the Sanctuary can write? what tongue though shapen out of all the Angels of that high Kingdom, and watered with the milk and wine of that good land, can sufficienly praise this heart ravishing flour of Angels, this heavens wonder, the spotless and infinitely beautiful Prince, the crown, the garlan • , the joy of heaven, the wonder of wonders for eternity to Men and Angels ? What a life must it be to stand under the shadow of this precious Tree of Life, and to cast up your eyes and see a multitude without quantity of the Apples of Glory, and to put up your hand, and not only feel, but touch, smell, see love it self, and be warmed with the heat of immediate love that comes out from the precious heart and bowels of this princely and Royal Standard-bearer, and Leader of the white and glorious troops and companies that are before the Throne: If one said but finding the far off dew-drops that falls at so many millions of miles distance from that higher mountain of God, down to this low region, Psal. 63.5. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fa • nesse. What must the glory itself be that is in this dainty delightful one? we have but the droppings of the house here.

Use 3. Natural men say this Kingdom is a sour, sad and we • ping Land; here is repentance, sorrow for sin, morti • ication. True; but tears that wash those lovely feet that were pi • rced for sinners, are tears of honey and wine, and the joy of Christ's banqueting-house: and mortification, flowing from a loathing and a soul-surfeit of the creature, and a tasting of the new wine of Christ's Fathers higher palace, is rather a piece of the margin and bor • er of heaven, then a sour and sad life.

Object. 2. But discipline, and the rod, and censures of Christ's house, makes the Church terrible as an army with banners. Christ's yoke is easy, he hath not cords and bands to cut the necks of those that follow him.

Answ. 1. Yea but this rod is a rod of love, only used that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus, 1 Cor. 5.5. for the gaining of the soul, Mat. 18.15. for building of souls. 2 Cor. 10.8. And Christ's cords are silken and soft, and bands of love, every thread twisted out of the love of Christ. Hos. 11.4. I drew them with the cords of men, with the bands of love. But consider, Psal. 48. The Lord's mountain of holiness is glorious. Vers. 2. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is mount Zion, the City of the great King. But is it so to all? Vers. 5. No: But loe, the kings were assembled, they passed by together; they saw it, and so they marvelled: they were troubled, and hasted away. Vers. 6. Terror took hold on them, and pain, as a woman in travel. What cause is there here that the kings should be afraid? They see a beautiful Princesse, the daughter of a glorious King, the joy of the whole earth ; yet the Lord's people works on them 1. a wondering ; 2. more, trouble of mind; 3. flying; they haste away, and cannot behold the beauty of God in a Kings daughter: 4. terror takes hold on them, and quaking of conscience: 5. when the Powers of the world, Princes, States, Parliaments, see the convincing glory of another world in the Church, they part with child for pain. It is known, some have such antipathy with a Rose, which is a pleasant creature of God, that the smell of it hath made them fall a swooning. Jerusalem is the rebellious City, Ezr. 4.12. therefore men are unwilling it should be built. Lusts in men's minds, either heresies, or any other fleshly affection, is against the building of the house of God.

Use 4. A believer is a rich man, and an honorable, say he were a beggar on the dung-hill: Christ cannot be poor, and he is a fellow-heir with Christ, Rom. 8.17. We must think the father of a rich heir hath bowels of iron, and sucked a Tiger when he was young, who suffereth the heir, remaining an heir, to starve. As the natural man is but a fragment of clay, so he hath a life like an house let for money; and the rent and in-come that the house pays to the Lord of the land, is but hungering clay, a dead rent, and some new-borne vanities of homage and service; but the promise, the Magna Charta, and the Charter of food and raiment that is an article of the Covenant of grace, is a full assurance that the Saints are the Noblemen Pensioners of the Prince of the kings of the earth: And Christ hath so broad a board, that he doth pay all his Pensioners. And the Saints are truly honorable, being come of the blood-royal, of the Princely seed, Joh. 1.13. 1 Joh. 3.1, 9. And the Church is a spiritual Monarchy: The Plant of renown, their Head, said of her, Isai. 62.3. Thou shalt be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.

Asser. 6. The other particular manner of drawing sinners to Christ, is real: In which we are to consider these two.

• 1. God's fit application of his drawing of the will.
• 2. His irresistible pull of omnipotency.

In the former way of working, I desire that notice be taken (for Doctrines cause, rather then for Art of Logical method) of these four ways:

• 1. God worketh by measure and proportion.
• 2. By condiscension.
• 3. By fit internal application.
• 4. By external, providential accommodation of outward means.

1. In works of omnipotency without God, we see he keeps proportion with that which he works upon: When God waters the earth, he opens not all the windows of heaven, as he did in the Deluge, to pour on mountains and valleys all his waters in one heap; for he should then not refresh, but drown the earth: therefore he makes the clouds like a sieve, and divides the rain in hosts and millions of drops of dew, that every single flower, and inch of earth may receive moistening, according to its proportion. If the sun were as low down as the c • ouds, it should, with heat, burn up every green herb, tree, rose, flower, and our bodies; and if it were the highest of Planets, all vegetables on earth should perish through extreme cold. It may be a question, though the omnipotent power of God move the will invincibly and irresistibly, Whether Omnipotency puts forth all its strength on the will; or, whether the will be able to bear the swing of Omnipotency in its full strength? If the Fowler should apply all his force and strength to catch the bird alive, he should strangle and kill it. Divines say, that Christ's dominion in turning the will, is, Dominium forte, sed suave ; strong, but sweet and alluring: No wonder, if he carry the lambs in his bosom, Isai. 40.11. the warmness and heat of his bosom must sweetly allure the will▪ Drive a Chariot as swiftly as an Eagle flieth, and ye fire and break the wheels: Knock Crystal glasses with hammers, as if ye were cleaving wood, and ye can make no vessels of them. This is not to deny that God's omnipotent power must turn the will, but to show how sweetly he leadeth the inclinations.

2. The Lord by wiles and art works upon the will: Hos. 2.14. I will allure her, and bring her to the wilderness, and speak to her heart. The word of alluring is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 seductus, deceptus fuit ; to be beguiled; and the Hebrew is, I will beguile, or deceive her; as Deut▪ 11.26. Take heed to yourselves that your heart be not deceived. So Pethi is the simple man, that is facile and easily persuaded. Psal. 116.6. The Lord preserveth the simple. Then he saith he will speak to her heart, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 super, secundum, he will speak friendly to her; not according to the renewed heart, for it was not yet renewed; not according to the corrupt and unrenewed heart, for nothing that the Lord speaketh according to sinners, is suitable, but contrary to the renewed heart, and to internal persuading; but he speaketh all reason, according to the temper and natural frame of the heart, to convince and persuade that there is more reason in turning to God, then that the wit or engine of man can speak against it. Grace is pia fraus, a holy deceit, that ere the soul be aware, it is catched: and though that be spoken of Christ, Cant. 6.12. Ere ever I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadab ; yet it hath truth in this, that 1. No unconverted man intends to be converted, till God convert him; because spiritual intention is a vital act of the soul living to God: No living man can put forth a vital act of life, till the Lord be pleased to give him a new life. 2. That spiritual love alluring the soul, worketh by such art as cannot be resisted: Hence, conversion and being drawn to Christ, is termed by the name of charming ; even as turning off Christ is a bewitching, or killing with an evil eye, as we say; Gal. 3.1. And so being drawn to God, is called a charming. And the wicked are rebuked for this, Psal. 58.4, 5. that being strangers to God, they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear, and will not hearken to the voice of Charmers, (or Singers, who sing as Witches and Enchanters do) charming wisely. There be two words that signify • enchanting; the former is to mutter with a low voice, as they do to serpents, to take and kill them: the other is to conjoin and associate in one, as Witches do, things most contrary. Conversion to God, is to be allured, bewitched, overcome with the art of heaven, that changeth the heart. And the Lord made Peter and the Apostles fishers of men. Christ layeth out hooks and lines in the Gospel, Luk. 5.10. to catch men with hope, as fishes are taken. Christ so condiscendeth to work upon the will, as with art, and unawares the will is taken, and made sick of love for Christ, and the man intended no such thing; as sickness cometh on men beside their knowledge or intention: So Christ maketh himself and heaven so lovely, and such a proportion and similitude between the soul and his beauty, as he app • ares most desirable, taking and alluring. Gal. 4.20. I desire to be present among you (saith Paul) and to change my voice: I desire not to speak roughly, and with asperity, as I have written; but as a mother speaketh to her children, to allure you. The word of God is an arrow that kills afar off, and ere ye see it. There is a great difficulty to persuade a man who is in another element, and without the sphere of the Gospels activity; as Christ and the natural man are in two contrary elements: There is required art for a man on the earth, to take a bird flying in the air; or for a man in a ship, or on the bank of the river, to catch a fish swimming in the element of the water. Christ lays out the wit, the art, and the wiles of free grace to charm the sinner; but the sinner stops his ear: there is need of the witch-craft of heaven to do this. The love of Christ, and his tongue is a great Inchantresse; Ezek. 16.8. I said unto thee, when thou wast dying in thy blood, Live.

3. Christ knoweth how to apply himself internally to the will. Suppose one were to persuade a stiff and inexorable man, and knew what argument would win his heart, he would use that. The will is like a great curious engine of a water-work, consisting of an hundred wheels, of which one being moved, it moveth all the ninety nine beside; because this is the Master wheel, that stirreth all the rest. Now the Lord knoweth how to reach down his hand to the bottom of the elective faculty, and that wheel being moved, without more ado, it draws all the affections, as subordinate wheels. If the key be not so fitted in the work, wards and turnings of it, as to remove the cross-bar, it cannot open the door. Omnipotency of grace is so framed and accommodated by infinite wisdom, as that it can shoot aside the dissenting power, without any violence, and get open the door. If free will be the workmanship of God, as we must confess, it is a needless arguing of Arminians and Jesuits to say, that free will is essentially a power absolutely loosed from predeterminating Providence; so as whatever God doth on the contrary, it may do, or not do; it may nill, will, choose, refuse or suspend its action; for such a creature, so absolute, so sovereign and independent, as he that made it cannot without violence to nature, turn, move, bow, determine and master it in all its elective power for his own ends, and as seemeth good to the Potter, for the manifestation of mercy and justice, is to say, He that made the free will, cannot have mercy on it; he that framed the clay-vessel, cannot use it for honor or dishonor, as he pleaseth; he that molded and created the horologe, and all the pins, pieces and parts, hath not power to turn the wheels as he pleaseth.

4. Christ in external means accommodates himself so, in the revealing of himself, as he thinks good.

• 1. In accommodating his influence with his word.
• 2. With externals of providence.

The breathings of the Holy Ghost go so along with the word, as the word and the Spirit are united, as if they were one Agent; as sweet smells are carried through the air to the nose. The word is the chariot, the vehiculum, the horse; the Spirit the Rider. The word the arrow, the Spirit steeleth and sharpeneth the arrow. The word the sword, the Spirit the steel-mouth and edge that cutteth and divideth asunder the soul and the spirit, the marrow and the joints, Heb. 4.12. It is the same Christ in all his loveliness and sweetness that is preached in the word, and conveyed to the soul; not God or Christ as abstracted from the word, as Enthusiasts dream. And though the Preacher add a Ministerial spirit to the word, to cause Felix tremble; yet he is not Master of the saving and converting Spirit. Golden words, though all Gospel, and honeyed with heaven and glory, planting and watering, without the Spirit are nothing.

In externals of providence, God chooseth,

• 1. Means.
• 2. Time.
• 3. Disposition.
• 4. Anticipation of the sinners intention.
• 5. Fit words.

1. In means. God appears to Moses, acquainted with mountains, and woods, in a bush which burnt with fire; to the Wisemen, skilled in the motions of the heaven, in a new star; to Peter a fisher, in a draught of fishes.

2. He setteth a time, and takes the sinner in his month, Jer. 2.24. In his time of love. Ezech. 16.8. When he is ripe, like the first ripe in the fig-tree, Hos. 9.10.

3. Often he chooseth in the furnace, Hos. 5. Last verse, I will return to my place. Hebrew, till they make defection, or be guilty ; for the most part, man is not guilty in his own eyes, while he be as Manasseh was in the briars; the fire melting the silver portrait of a horse causes it loss the figure of head, feet, legs, and turns all in liquid white water, and then the metal is ready to receive a far other shape, of a man, or any other thing, the man is ductill, and bowable, and • npartiall, when God seals and stamps the rodd; he is not so wedded to himself as before; it may be also, that mercies, and great deliverances, and favors, melt the man, and bring him to some gracious capacity to be wrought on by Christ.

4. Christ anticipates the current of the heart and intention. When Saul is on a banquet of blood, Christ out-runs him, and turns him; all men are converted, contrary to their intentions, thousands are in a channel and current of high provocations, and they are in the fury of swelling over the banks, and Christ gets before them, to turn the current to another channel. Christ is swift, and they are all chased men that are converted. Sure, Matthew that morning he came to the receipt of custom, minded nothing, but money, and his count book, and had not a forset purpose of Christ ; and because, intentions, purposes, counsels, are as it were, essential to rational men, as men, and the refined'st acts of reason, and their noblest, and most Angel-like works; and Christ catcheth sinners contrary to their intentions; and in this sense, saves the sinner, blesses him, and gives him Christ, and heaven, against his will, whether he will or not, that is, whether he spiritually will or no▪ or whether he savingly intend his own conversion, or not.

5. There is one golden word, (and God is in the word) one good word that is fit, and dexterous, hic & nunc, Prov. 25.11. A word fitly spoken, Heb. a word spoken on his wheels, is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. Sure Christ's words to a sinner ripe for conversion, moves on wheels, that is, in such order, as two wheels in one cart, they answer most friendly one to another in their motion, because Christ observeth due circumstances, of time, place, person, congruency with the will and disposition; As Hos. 2.14. and Solomon's Ecoles. 12.10. The Preacher sought to find out acceptable words, Hebr. words of will, or of good will ; Christ was greater then Solomon, and is a higher Preacher then he, and seeks out words to the heart, that burns the heart, Luk. 24.32. Sure, there is more of heaven, more life, and fire, in these words to Matthew, Follow me ; and to dying Jerusalem, Live ; then in ordinary words, the Hebrews call vain words. Isaiah 36.5. A word of lips. Prov. 14.23. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 these be words of wind, that are empty, and have no fruit; the words of the Lord fitted for converting, are words of the heart, and words of power which want not the effect, they are words fit for the heart, Isaiah 40.2. Hos. 2.14. Such words as teach the heart, Isaiah 54.13. Joh. 6.45. there is an uncreated word suitable for the heart, that goes along with the word spoken, and that meets with all the byases, turnings, and contradictions of the heart, and takes the man; and no word, but that only can do the business, there is a word that is with child of love; a word cometh from God, and its a coal from the Altar, that is before the Lord's throne, and it fires up all iron locks in the soul, that the will must yield. The woman of Samaria, heareth but these words, I am he that talketh with thee,