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

2. Though God and Christ be in us, yet they are in us, as free agents, communicating efficacy and power according to that measure and degree they please. If Christ were in us as a natural agent, as the fire burneth, or the Sun shineth, then he being also omnipotent, would produce the greatest effects of grace possible in every believer, because he is free and worketh according to his own counsel, therefore he distributeth grace, as he pleaseth, to some more, to some less, to none according to what shall be hereafter; Therefore though he might sanctify thee perfectly, yet he will not.

2. Though God and Christ be in us, yet they are in us, as free agents, communicating efficacy and power according to that measure and degree they please. If Christ were in us as a natural agent, as the fire burneth, or the Sun shineth, then he being also omnipotent, would produce the greatest effects of grace possible in every beleever, because he is free and worketh according to his own councel, therefore he distributeth grace, as he pleaseth, to some more, to some lesse, to none according to what shall be hereafter; Therefore though he might sanctifie thee perfectly, yet he will not.

3. Christ is not only in us thus freely working in us, but he hath also bounded and ordered the way of dispensations of his grace, so that he doth not put forth power in us ⟨p. 631⟩after we are regenerated, as if we were so many brute creatures, but he requireth our co-operation and stirring up of our selves. Though in the initials of grace we are passive, yet not in the progress; and though it be Christ that doth daily quicken and preserve us, yet we so distemper our selves, that some obstructions may be put to his operative presence. As

3. Christ is not only in us thus freely working in us, but he hath also bounded and ordered the way of dispensations of his grace, so that he doth not put forth power in us ⟨p. 631⟩