CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

Reasons. 1 1. From that original sin defiling the whole man with all the cursed effects thereof, for we are not merely deprived of all good but positively inclined to all evil, and filled with a cursed opposition to what is holy; The Scripture is very plentiful and emphatical in describing this sinful misery of ours; We are brambles and briars in the Wilderness till he plant us goodly plants in his Garden; We are compared to all manner of beasts for the sinful qualities in us, till he make us Sons of God, so that we would wonder to see the presumption and arrogancy of those Doctrines that would make man free to do good; Whereas our Saviour said, Then are we free when the Son hath made us free, Joh. 8.36. Tunc arbitrium est liberum, quando liberatum.

Reasons. 1 1. From that original sin defiling the whole man with all the cursed effects thereof, for we are not meerly deprived of all good but positively inclined to all evil, and filled with a cursed opposition to what is holy; The Scripture is very plentiful and emphatical in describing this sinful misery of ours; We are brambles and briars in the Wildernesse till he plant us goodly plants in his Garden; We are compared to all manner of beasts for the sinful qualities in us, till he make us Sons of God, so that we would wonder to see the presumption and arrogancy of those Doctrines that would make man free to do good; Whereas our Saviour said, Then are we free when the Son hath made us free, Joh. 8.36. Tunc arbitrium est liberum, quando liberatum.

Reasons. 2 2. It's all of grace, because the Scripture attributeth this work solely to God; That famous promise I will take away an heart of stone, Eze. 11.19. I will give an heart of flesh, I will write my Law in their hearts, do argue he must be wilfully blind that will not acknowledge this to be Gods work alone; Now then if it be Gods work it cannot be ours also, unless subjectively, not causally; Hence it's called the New Creature, because God immediately gives us such a being, and indeed the experience of the godly soul doth evidently witness this; How long should I have wallowed in my lusts? how unwilling to leave them till God changed my heart; If God had stayed for my consent and cooperation, I had still been in the gall of bitterness; It's God then and not man who layeth the first stone in this spiritual building: Doth not the heart of a godly man inform him of more Orthodoxy in this Point then most Books will do? Didst thou not keep thy lusts with all might? Didst thou not wage open war against God? Didst thou yield thy self by agreement, or not rather by full conquest?