First, It is against the stream and current of our corrupt nature to come to Christ. For let us but consider the term from which the soul departs, when it comes to Christ. In that day it leaves all its lusts, and ways of sin, how pleasant, sweet, and profitable soever they have been unto it, Isa. lv. 7. " Let the wicked forsake " his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him " return unto the Lord." Way and thoughts, i. e. both the prac- tice of, and delight he had in sin, must be forsaken, and the out- ward and inward man must be cleansed from it. Now there are in the bosoms of unregenerate men such darling lusts, that have given them so much practical and speculative pleasure, which have brought so much profit to them, which have been born and bred up with them ; and which, upon all these accounts, are endeared to their souls to that degree, that it is easier for them to die, than to forsake them ; yea, nothing is more common among such men, than to venture eternal damnation, rather than suffer a separation from their sins.
And which is }*et more difficult in coming to Christ, the soul forsakes not only its sinful self, but its righteous self, i. e. not only its worst sins, but its best performances, accomplishments, and excellencies. Now this is one of the greatest straits that nature can be put to. Righteousness by works was the first liquor that ever was put into the vessel, and it still retains the tang and savour of it, and will to the end of the world, Rom. x. 3. " For they, being " ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish " their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the " righteousness of God." ax, w&raynmv, they have not submitted. To come naked and empty to Christ, and receive all from him as a free gift, is, to proud corrupt nature, the greatest abasement and submission in the world.
Let the gospel furnish its table with the richest and costliest dainties that ever the blood of Christ purchased, such is the pride of nature, that it disdains to taste then), except it may also pay for the same. If the old hive be removed from the place where it
78 THE METHOD OF GRACE. SERM. IV.
was wont to stand, the bees will come home to the old place, yea, and many of them you shall find will die there, rather than go to the hive, though it stand in a far better place than it did before. Just so stands the case with men. The hive is removed, i. e. we are not to expect righteousness as Adam did, by obeying and work- ing, but by believing and coming to Christ; but nature had as soon be damned as do this : It still goes about to establish its own righteousness.
Virtues, duties, and moral excellencies, these are the ornaments of nature ; here is nature set off in its sumptuous attire, and rich embellishments, and now to renounce it, disclaim and contemn it, as dross and dung, in comparison of Christ, as believers do, Phil, iii. 8. this, I say, is against the grain of nature. We reckon it the strange effect of self-denial in Mahomet the Great *, who being so enamoured with his beautiful Irene, would be persuaded, upon reasons of state, with his own hand to strike off her head : and that even when she appeared in all her rich ornaments before him, rather like such a goddess, as the poets in their ecstasies use to feign, than a mortal creature. And yet certainly this is nothing to that self-denial which is exercised in our coming to Christ.
Secondly, And if we look to the other term to which the soul moves, we shall find it acting as much above the sphere and ability of improved nature, as here it acts and moves against the stream and current of corrupted nature : for how wonderful and superna- tural an adventure is that, which the soul makes in the day that it comes to Jesus Christ.
Surely, for any poor soul to venture itself for ever upon Jesus Christ whom it never saw, nay, upon Christ, whose very existence its own unbelief calls in question whether he be or no : and that when it is even weighed down to the dust, with the burdensome sense of its own vileness and total unworthiness, feeling nothing in itself but sin and misery, the workings of death and fears of wrath : to go to Christ, of whose pardoning grace and mercy it never had any the least experience, nor can find any ground of hope in it- self that it shall be accepted ; this is as much above the power of nature, as it is for a stone to rise from the earth, and fix itself among the stars. Well might the apostle ascribe it to that Al- mighty Power which raised up Christ from the dead, Eph. i. 19, 20. If the Lord draw not the soul, and that omnipotently, it can never come from itself to Christ. And yet farther,
Thirdly, The natural impossibility of coming to Christ, will more clearly appear, if we consider the enemies to faith, or what blocks are rolled by Satan and his instruments into the way to Christ :
* Knolle's History of the Turks.
SERM. IV. THE METHOD OF GRACE. 79
to mention, in this place, no more but our own carnal reason, as it is armed and managed by the subtilty of Satan, what a wonder is it that any soul should come to Christ ?
These are the strong holds, (mentioned 2 Cor. x. 4.) out of which those objections, fears, and discouragements sally, by which the soul is fiercely assaulted in the way to Christ.