and therefore do they fare so ill in it, John xv. 19. Because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.' Christ, and through him to the blessed so 2. Called unto Jesus ciety of another world. So the call runs, Matth. xi. 28. 'Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' The society they are called and come to is that of God himself, the holy angels, all the saints in heaven and earth which have gone before them, Jesus Christ being the blessed bond of the society, the centre of union wherein they meet, Heb. xii. 22, 23, 24. Ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel.' Here the call is, 'All things are ready; come unto the marriage,' Matth. xxii. 4. Thus they are, like Noah, called into the ark, where they will be safe when the deluge of wrath sweeps away the world of the ungodly. Like Lot, they are called unto Zoar, where they will be safe while fire and brimstone is rained on those that stay behind. They are called to the feast on the great sacrifice, Christ crucified, while others perish for want; to the partaking of the benefits of Christ's redemption, while others have neither part nor lot in that matter, but must fall a sacrifice for their own sins to avenging justice. The particulars they are called to, will serve them to tell through eternity. IV. I proceed to shew what makes the call effectual to some, when it is not so to others. Negatively, 1. It is neither the piety, parts, nor seriousness of those who are employed to carry the gospel-call to sinners, 1 Cor. iii. 7. Indeed, if moral suasion were sufficient to bring sinners back to God, men that have the art of persuading, and can speak movingly and seriously could not fail to have vast numbers of converts. But that work is not so brought about, Luke xvi. ult. Hence said Abraham to the rich man in hell, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.' Never did these, conjunctly or severally, appear in any, as in Christ, who 'spake as never man spake.' But behold the issue, John xii. 37, 38. But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: that the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?' 2. Neither is it one that uses his own free-will better than another does, Rom. ix. 6. 'It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. For every man will be unwilling till the power from another quarter make him willing, John vi. 44. If it were so, one man should make himself to differ from another in that grand point. But hear what the Apostle Paul says, 1 Cor. iv. 7. 'Who maketh thee to differ from another?' Men are dead in trespasses and sins, and such cannot difference themselves. 2. Positively. We may say in this case, 'Not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord.' It is the Spirit of the Lord, accompanying the call of the word, that makes it effectual, John vi. 63. Hence days of the plentiful effusion of the Spirit are good days for the take of souls, and contrarywise, when the Spirit is restrained, Peal, ex. 3. Therefore Isaiah resolves the question thus, Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?' The report may reach the ears, but it is the arm of the Lord that must open the heart, as it did that of Lydia. Mahomet II. the Turkish emperor, having desired to see Scanderbeg's scymitar, said, that he saw nothing in it more than ordinary; the other returned him answer, that the virtue of the weapon depended on the strength of his arm. V. It may be asked, What necessity is there for their being thus called? The necessity of it is manifest to all that know their natural case. 1. They are far off, Eph. ii. 13. far from God, and Christ, and all good, Eph. ii. 12. Hence the call is, 'Draw nigh to God.' We are at a distance from him naturally; not a distance of place, for God is every where, Acts xvii. 27. but of opposition, as far from him as war from pea«e, black from white, and hell from heaven. Our nature is contrary to his, and our will to his will, Rom. viii. 7. And there is no bringing us to him but by a very powerful and effectual call, whereby the sinner is irresistibly drawn, John vi. 44. No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me, draw him.' 2. They are hard and fast asleep, and they need this call, Eph. v. 14. Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.' The ship they are in is every moment in hazard of being swallowed up of the waves, for the storm of wrath is gone out against it; but, like Jonah, they are down in the sides of the ship, know nothing of the matter to purpose, but are fast asleep. All their spiritual senses are locked up, they can neither see nor hear. Ministers cry, conscience cries, Awake thou sleeper, but to no purpose; if they be disturbed, they lay down 6 their heads again, and take yet a little sleep, a little slumber, though they should never awaken till they be in the bottom of the deep. And thus on they sleep, till the Spirit of the Lord call them effectually. 3. If they were awakened, they know not where to go to, Acts ii. 37. When they find the house on fire about their heads, they know not how to make their escape. The law-light that awakens them, cannot let them see Christ. He is preached and pointed out in the word, but they cannot take up the city of refuge, nor the way that leads to it, 1 Cor. ii. 14. until the Spirit of the Lord call them by his power, and they hear the voice behind them, saying, 'This is the way, walk ye in it.' Christ is a veiled Saviour to the natural man, till his eyes be opened. 4. If they did know where to go to, they are not willing to go thither, John v. 40. They are naturally unwilling to leave their lusts; all the milk and honey of the heavenly Canaan held forth in the gospel, cannot wean their hearts from the flesh-pots of Egypt. To leave a lust is like the cutting off of a right hand. And in this respect they need a powerful call, such a word from the Lord himself as makes the mountains to shake, the rocks to rend, and the graves to give up their dead, and the whale to vomit up Jonah. And particularly they are naturally unwilling to come to Christ, and will not be made willing in a day of power, Psal. ex. 3. When they are convinced of their disease, yet they cannot think to employ that Physician, or undergo his method of cure. Hence so many awakened sinners employ physicians of no value; they will go to the law that wounded them, they will watch, pray, mourn, and macerate their own bodies, rather than believe. For there is a peculiar enmity in man's nature against the gospel-way of salvation. So there is a necessity of an effectual call. 5. If they were willing to go to Christ, yet being awakened, they dare not venture, guilt so stares them in the face, Jer. ii. 25. 'Thou saidst, There is no hope.' While the man is asleep, it is nothing to him to believe, to come to Christ; like people that walk in their sleep, they can go any where fearlessly. But when he is awakened, it is not so easy. He will then be like Adam, hiding himself on hearing the voice of the Lord, and will not come till he be called by the Lord himself. Hence so many words of grace heaped on one another in gospel-invitations, Isa. lv. 7, 8, 9. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.' For the Lord knows, that however the sinner unawakened thinks coming to Christ a light thing, yet when once awakened, doubts and fears will be going as thick as dust in the sweeping of a dry floor. 6. Lastly, If they durst come, yet they cannot come, unless they be drawn, John vi. 44. forecited. Sinners naturally are not only asleep, but dead in sins. And no less power is requisite to bring them than to raise the dead, and therefore this call is a voice that raiseth the dead, John v. 25. The product of this call is a new creation, Eph. ii. 10, compare Rom. iv. 17. VI. Lastly, I shall more particularly explain the nature of effectual calling. Ye see it is the work of the Lord's Spirit; and there is a twofold work of the Spirit upon the elect soul in effectual calling, one on the understanding, and the other on the will. FIRST, On the understanding. This is the leading faculty of the soul, which by sin is overspread with darkness, Eph. v. 8. Satan finishes his work here, who, when he has got the soul asleep, shuts door and window, and draws the curtains, that the light may not enter, that so the soul may sleep the sleep of death; does as the Philistines did with Samson, puts out the sinner's eyes, when his strength is gone. And God begins his work here, as in the first creation, so in the second creation, The earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light and there was light' Gen. i. 2, 3. Now, the work of the Spirit herein is twofold. And that FIRST, An illumination of the soul from mount Sinai. is conviction of sin and misery, John xvi. 8. or the law-work. Spirit of the Lord speaks to the soul as it were out of the midst of the fire; but there is blackness, darkness, and tempest, mixed with this light. And here consider the matter, the effects, the means, and the depth, of this conviction. First, The matter of this conviction which is twofold. The Spi 1. Sin, John xvi. 8. He will reprove the world of sin.' rit of the Lord convinces the man that he is a sinner, and sets his particular sins in order before him, Psal. l. 21. Then sins that are out of mind, as dead and buried, have a fearful resurrection, Rom. vii. 9. The spirit of bondage leads his prisoner in chains, through the several parts and steps of this life, to his very birth; and shews him convincingly his sins in them: lets him see such ill in sin as ho never saw before, how heinously God takes it, and that with the several aggravations thereof. 2. Misery, John xvi. 8. The Spirit of the Lord convinces him, that he is lost and undone, Luke Xv. 17. Being convicted and found guilty, sentence passes on him within his own breast, whereby he sees himself doomed to eternal death. He is convinced, as if an angel from heaven should tell him, that he is under God's wrath and curse, and that therefore, if he die in that case, he will perish for ever. He sees God to be his enemy; his word to speak no good of him, and all God's creatures his enemies in some sort ready armed against him. Secondly, The effects of it are these three especially. 1. Remorse, Acts ii. 37. They were pricked in their hearts.' The man's conscience now galls him, and he is stung to the heart by the serpent which he hugged so kindly. Waves of killing grief and sorrow go over his soul, for his bypast folly and madness. He sees he has been murdering his own soul, and he groans out an elegy over his dead self. 2. Terror, Acts xvi. 27. as in the case of the Phillippian jailor. He sees now how he has to do with a holy just God, and how fearful a thing it is to fall into his hands. Horror takes hold on him, because of the judgments which he valued no more than the shadow of the mountains before. Then the stoutest sinner will quake at the shaking of a leaf, within his bosom, at the thought of death and eternity. A word from the Lord will pierce like a sword. 3. Anxiety, Acts ii. 37. The soul is then stretched on the rack, and would fain know if there be any hope. Sometimes it hopes, sometimes fears, but always would fain be delivered. This anxiety will fill head, and heart, and hand, and swallow up all other cares; for then the soul sees the truth of that saying, 'What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?' Mat. xvi. 26. Thirdly, The means by which this conviction is wrought. The Spirit of the Lord makes use of the word for that effect, and particularly of the law. The elect soul is brought prisoner to Mount Sinai, and there the Spirit of the Lord reads a dreadful lecture of the fiery law unto it. And here, 1. By the commands, the Spirit convinces of sin, Rom. vii. 7. The law is held out in its spirituality, and it proves to be the candle of the Lord, searching the innermost parts of the belly; a looking glass, wherein one gets such a sight of himself as he never had before. 2. By the threatenings and curse of the law, the Spirit convinces of misery. There they read their doom, Gal. iii. 10. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the |
