Answ. Because God puts forth his power in some and not in others; there is not a greater instance of the power of God in the whole World than this, In bringing over the heart of a sinner to believe in Christ. O the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe! This is the undoubted experience of every true Believer. You who know not how you came by your Faith, but slid into it by custom, education, and long continuance under the means of Grace, and have always counted it an easy thing to believe; let me tell you, you know not what it is to believe, to this day. 'Tis true God makes it easy to believe, but so that we still see it impossible to believe without his help. I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me: I live, yet not I: We may soar aloft when upon Eagles wings; we may move any where as we are carried; but all this while we know we are not the cause of our own motion; the Spring of it is not in our selves, acti agimus, we act as we are acted; the root bears us, not we the root; we feel Christ living in us; We live, because he lives in us. What we receive from another, is ours when we receive it; but 'tis not from our selves because we receive it from another: God makes us so to work, in such a dependence upon him, that we see 'tis He that worketh in us both to will and to do: To ascribe the free acts of own will to another, requires a humble mind sensible of its own weakness, and of the secret ways of Gods divine communications to his creature Man, exactly suited to the rational nature of so free an agent as Man is; the freedom of whose will is preserved under a constant dependence upon God in every thing he do's: God that gave him this freedom, can cause him freely to act it as he pleases; otherwise Man would not be a governable creature, if the natural freedom of his will did exempt him from a due subjection to God that made him; in which subjection he is as free, as he could be supposed to be, if left to himself to do what he list: A Believer lists and wills what he do's, and yet he do's not do what he lists, but freely subjects his own will to the will of God, whose service is perfect freedom. A Saint keeps up the liberty of his will, by a voluntary obedience to the will of God, and this is his Grace; till our stubborn Hearts are brought to this, they are, and will be rebellious against God.
Answ. Because God puts forth his power in some and not in others; there is not a greater instance of the power of God in the whole World than this, In bringing over the heart of a sinner to believe in Christ. O the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe! This is the undoubted experience of every true Believer. You who know not how you came by your Faith, but slid into it by custom, education, and long continuance under the means of Grace, and have always counted it an easie thing to believe; let me tell you, you know not what it is to believe, to this day. 'Tis true God makes it easie to believe, but so that we still see it impossible to believe without his help. I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me: I live, yet not I: We may soar aloft when upon Eagles wings; we may move any where as we are carried; but all this while we know we are not the cause of our own motion; the Spring of it is not in our selves, acti agimus, we act as we are acted; the root bears us, not we the root; we feel Christ living in us; We live, because he lives in us. What we receive from another, is ours when we receive it; but 'tis not from our selves because we receive it from another: God makes us so to work, in such a dependance upon him, that we see 'tis He that worketh in us both to will and to do: To ascribe the free acts of own will to another, requires a humble mind sensible of its own weakness, and of the secret ways of Gods divine communications to his creature Man, exactly suted to the rational nature of so free an agent as Man is; the freedom of whose will is preserved under a constant dependance upon God in every thing he do's: God that gave him this freedom, can cause him freely to act it as he pleases; otherwise Man would not be a governable creature, if the natural freedom of his will did exempt him from a due subjection to God that made him; in which subjection he is as free, as he could be supposed to be, if left to himself to do what he list: A Believer lists and wills what he do's, and yet he do's not do what he lists, but freely subjects his own will to the will of God, whose service is perfect freedom. A Saint keeps up the liberty of his will, by a voluntary obedience to the will of God, and this is his Grace; till our stubborn Hearts are brought to this, they are, and will be rebellious against God.
