The safety of appearing at the day of judgement, in the righteousness of Christ

Answer.

Liberty does consist in an indifferency unto contrary Acts or Objects: sometimes indeed men have such a liberty, but that is peculiar to some cases: liberty is not opposed to necessity but to force: the will cannot be force by any external violence, but it may be necessitated by reason and conviction: natural men sin voluntarily yet necessarily: they reject the Gospel voluntarily, Joh. 5.40. yet necessarily, Joh. 6.44. Saints in heaven love and serve God necessarily yet freely: so tis here, Psal. 110.3. thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.

From this Particular we may conclude the faith of such men to be false as have made a faith of their own: convinced sinners hearing they shall certainly be ruined that do not believe in Christ, and that they that do believe shall be saved, set themselves in their own strengths to work their hearts to this duty, and after a while imagine that they have got the victory, and have prevailed over their unbelief, and wrought their hearts unto a closure with Christ: this Faith is not right: its very true that after a man has been brought in, he may in this way, by Gods assistance come to perform renewed acts of Faith: but it is never thus in the first closure with Christ; at first God lays a necessity upon men, they cannot but come to Christ, Eph. 1 19, 20. what is the exceeding greatness if his power to us-ward, who believe, according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead: when the sinner comes indeed to Christ, he is compelled to come, Luk 14.23.