[4.] In blessing the means, quite besides the purpose and intention of the parties that receive benefit by them, as appeareth by the circum- stances of their conversion and first acceptance of Christ ; many times they come where they may hear of God and Christ, with careless and slight spirits, or drop in by chance, as Paul's infidel : 1 Cor. xv. 24, 25, ' There cometh in one that believeth not.' How many do thus stumble upon grace unawares to themselves, not minding or desiring any such matter ; but God directeth a serious word that pierceth into their very
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hearta. Sometimes God calleth them, when opposing and persecuting, aa Paul, Acts ix., Vergerius. Many, when they came to scoff, have felt the mighty power and majesty of God in his ordinances ; and what begun with scoffing ended in a more serious work : Isa. Ivii. 18, ' He went on frowardly in the way of his own heart : I have seen his ways, and I will heal him.' The officers that came to attack Christ, John vii. 46, said, 'Never man spake like this man.' Sometimes men have been loth to come, drawn with much importunity against their inclination and prejudices : John i. 46, ' Can any good come out of Nazareth ? ' saith Nathanael to Pbihp. ' Come and see ; ' and there he met with Christ. The Galileans were a ruder part of ' the Jews, a gross and blockish sort of people. It was generally conceived no prophet was of that country where Jonah was ; thus Nathanael held off out of a prejudicate opinion. Many of these things which come as it were by chance to ns, and without our foresight, are well foreseen and wisely ordered by God ; as Augustine was carried besides his purpose, that God's purpose might come to pass in the conversion of Firmus a Manichee.
[5.] In suiting all his dealings with them, so after convereion, that they may be kept blameless to his heavenly kingdom, John x. 3. Christ calleth his sheep by name ; knoweth all his flock particularly ; taketh notice of all their persons and conditions ; hath a special affection to them and care of them ; so Ps. i. 6, ' The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous ; ' knoweth their necessities, straits, hopes, burdens, and temptations. His business in heaven is to order his providence for their good, 2 Chrou. xvi. 9 ; sometimes giveth seasonable correction : Ps. cxix. 75, ' I know, 0 Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me ; ' 1 Peter i. 6, ' Now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness ; ' sometimes to lessen the affliction or remove it : Ps. cxxv. 3, ' For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous, lest the righteous put forth their hands to iniquity ; ' and 1 Cor. x. 13, ' But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will also with the tempta- tion make a way to escajie, that ye may be able to bear it' God con- sidereth who needeth chastening, and who needeth protection and deliverance : thus I have stated it. Secondly, I shall give you an argument or two to confirm it — 1. That there is a difference between man and man is plain and obvious to sense ; some are good and holy, others are naught and wicked ; some understand the gospel, others are ignorant of it ; some scoff, others believe ; some have a dead faith, others a lively and deep sense of the world to come, and make preparation accordingly. Ask the reason of this difference, whence is it ? You will say their choice and inclination : some choose the better part, others abandon them- selves to their lusts and brutish satisfactions. True ; but whence cometh this different choice and inclination ? Experience showeth us that man from his infancy and childhood is very corrupt, and more inclinable to evil than to good, to things earthly than heavenly, carnal than spiritual ; and you may as well expect to gather grapes from thorns, and figs from thistles, as that man of his own accord should become good and holy, and that we should be able to bring our own hearts to love God and delight in God : Job xiv. 4, ' Who can bring a clean thing out of an
YeB. 28.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. 299
unclean? not one.' Well, then, since all are not good, but some are, whence cometh the difference ? Is it from a better temper and con.sti- tution of body ? that is a benefit and gift of God ; but this is not the whole cause. Many besot brave wits, and spoil an excellent temper and constitution of body, by their intemperance and incontinency ; and, on the other side, many of crabbed and depraved tempers master their natural inclination by grace ; and God doth often choose beams and rafters for the sanctuary of the most crooked timber. Is it education, and setting their inclinations right from their infancy ? It is, I confess, a great advantage to be brought up in the nurture and information of the Lord, in a course of virtue and religion : Prov. xxii. 6, ' Train up a cliild in the way that he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.' The first infusions stick by us, and conduce, if not to conversion, yet to conviction ; but many wrest themselves out of the arms of the best education, and turn the back upon all those godly counsels and instructions whicli are instilled into them. Is it the ordi- nances and means of grace ? These certainly have great force and efficacy this way. God knowetli what keys will fit the wards of the lock ; if any- thing, the doctrine of the gospel will do it. But they have not all believed : Rom. x. 16, ' For Isaiah saith. Who hath believed our report ?' We see the same seed that thriveth in the good and honest heart is lost in highway, stony, thorny ground ; the difference is not in seed, but soil ; whatever means and helps you can imagine, all is nothing till God puts a new heart into us. Is it a good temper and disposition of mind, so that grace is represented to us congruously, so that it findeth us fitly 2)repared ? Certainly seasons should not be over-slipped, but yet this is not the adequate cause of conversion, that some believe, others not, because we are so happy to find them in a disposition of mind to obey the word. We see that many that come with an ill disposition and temper of soul to hear the word of God, yet God taketh them by the heart. People should bring a prepared mind, free from distractions and prejudices. But that is not all that is necessary : we are to use the means, but the success is from God, who will take his own time. Chris- tians, when they think themselves best prepared, find not that efficacy in the word they could desire.