Thomas Manton · 23 of 60

Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. · Part 3

[7.] A loathness to know the will of God, to search and inquire into it, argueth deceit, and that we are loath to come under the power of it. Some men shrewdly suspect it is true, but are loath to inquire into it: John iii. 20, ‘Every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.’ They have a shrewd guess about the ways of God, but will not search to be satisfied: 2 Pet. iii. 5, ‘They are willingly ignorant.’ As Tertullian saith of the heathens, they would not search into the Christian religion, because they had a mind to hate it; so these are loath to inquire further into the will of God. There is a great deal of deceit in it; it shows we are afraid to come too near a suspected truth. Again, now and then when lusts are under some restraint, men seem to lie much under the will of God. A horse that is kept low is easily ruled by the rider, but when fed high he grows headstrong. Many times in a mean condition a man seems to make conscience of doing the will of God; but when prosperous, he waxeth wanton and disobedient: Jer. v. 5, ‘I will get me to the great men, but these have altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds.’

So that there are a great many mistakes about doing the will of God, therefore you had need search.

Secondly, How shall we know we are rightly affected with the will of God?

[1.] When God’s will is reason enough for what he hath required of us; when a man is so sensible of God’s will that this is instead of all reasons. Obedience is never right but when it is done upon the mere sight of God’s will. This is enough to a gracious heart, that this is the will of God, 1 Pet. ii. 15, 1 Thes. v. 18, though the duty be never so cross to our own desires and interests. This is to obey the commandment for the commandment’s sake, without any other reason or inducement. There is, indeed, ratio formalis and ratio motiva, the formal reasons of obedience and the motives of obedience. The formal reason of obedience is the sight of God’s will, the motives to obedience are rewards and a dread of punishment. The formal reason is God’s will; and this is pure obedience, to do what God wills be cause God wills it.

[2.] When a man is very inquisitive to know what is the will of his heavenly Father. When he doth not only practise what he knows, but searcheth that he may know more: Rom. xii. 2, ‘That ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God;’ and, Eph. v. 17, ‘Be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.’ When a man is desirous to know the whole will of God, not for curiosity but for practice, that he might do it. When the understanding hath a confused notion of a thing they will not know it distinctly, but when men search, and are willing to find out the counsel of God in all things that they may come up to it, this is a sign the heart is rightly affected to the will of God.

[3.] Hereby may you know your affection to God’s will, by keeping yourselves from your sins: Ps. xviii. 23, ‘I was upright before him, and kept myself from mine iniquity.’ There is an iniquity that we may call ours, upon which the will is most passionately addicted; be it worldliness, sensuality, inordinate desire of reputation and respect with men. Now, when we are plucking out our right eye, and cutting off our right hand, Mat. v. 29—when we are mortifying and subduing our lusts—when we can deny ourselves in those things to which the heart is most wedded, that is a sign of compliance with the will of God.

The second point.

Doct. 2. That it is the Lord which giveth to will and to do those things which are pleasing in his sight.

Therefore we ask it of him, ‘Thy will be done,’ —that is, as I explained it, we ask of him a heart, skill, and strength to do his holy will.

Here I shall tell you:—

1. What I mean by the point.

2. Give you the proof of it.

I. What I mean by the point:—

1. I mean thus, that in the work of conversion God doth all: Ezek. xi. 19, ‘I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and I will give them an heart of flesh.’ The benefit of a tender sanctified heart is God’s gift: Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27, ‘A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh, and I will cause you to walk in my statutes.’ Mark, a new heart—that is, another heart, a heart to understand, a heart to love, a heart to do the will of God, he gives it. He doth not only offer it, or prepare it, make way for it, but ‘I will give you a heart of flesh.’

2. This is that I mean, that after conversion God still concurreth. He doth not only give the habit of grace, but actual help in the work of obedience. ‘He worketh all our works in us.’ Isa. xxvi. 12. His actual help is necessary to direct, quicken, strengthen, protect, and defend us. To direct us: Ps. lxxiii. 24, ‘Thou shalt guide me by thy counsel, and bring me to thy glory.’ In our way to heaven, we need not only a rule and path, but a guide. The rule is the law of God, but the guide is the Spirit of God. To quicken and excite us by effectual motions: a drowsiness and a deadness is apt to creep upon our hearts, and we see in the same duty it is a hard matter to keep up the same frame of spirit, the same vigour of affection, life, and warmth; and therefore we had need go to God often, as David: Ps. cxix. 37, ‘Quicken thou me in thy way.’ It is God which doth renew the vigour of the life of grace upon all occasions, when it begins to languish and droop. To corroborate and strengthen what we have received: Eph. iii. 16, the apostle prays there that he would ‘strengthen with might by his Spirit in the inner man;’ and, 1 Pet. v. 10, ‘Make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.’ There are many words heaped up there to show how God is interested in maintaining and keeping afoot that which he hath planted in the soul. In protecting and defending them against the incursions and assaults of the devil, who always lieth in wait to surprise the soul, to withdraw us from God. The regenerate are not only escaped out of his clutches, but are advanced and appointed to be Satan’s judges, which an envious and proud spirit cannot endure; therefore he maligns, assaults, and besiegeth them with temptations daily. Now, it is God that defends: John xvii. 11, ‘Keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me;’ by thy name—that is, by thy power.

3. God must not only help us in the general, and upon weighty occasions, but in every act, from the “beginning of the spiritual life to the end. It is not enough to say that the first principles and motions are of God, but the flowing forth of all motions and actions, according to those principles: Phil. ii. 13, ‘It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.’ God not only gives the desire and purpose, but he gives grace to the good which we will and purpose to do. These two are distinct; and we may have assistance in one kind and not in another; willing and doing, I mean, are different. Paul saith, Rom. vii. 18: ‘To will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.’ To will is more than to think; and to exert, and put forth our will into action, it is more than both; and in all we need God’s help. We cannot think a good thought, nor conceive a holy purpose, much less perform a good action, without God, so that every moment we need renewed strength. As long as the work of grace is powerful and renewed in us, so long we are kept in a warm and healthful frame; but we grow vain, loose, earthly, carnal again, and off from God, when this heat and warmth of grace is withdrawn; and therefore God still concurreth in the whole business of our obedience to him.

II. Having showed what I mean, and how far God is interested in this work, what need we have to desire we may do his will; let us prove it. And because it is a weighty point, I shall prove it by parts.

1. As to the first grace, that it is God alone which frames our hearts to the obedience of his will.

2. That when we are thus framed by grace, after conversion, it is God still concurs, and must help us to do his will.

First, As to the first grace, I shall prove that it is God alone, by the power of his own Spirit, which frames our hearts to the obedience of his will. This will appear by considering:—

(1.) What man is by nature.

(2.) The words by which our cure is expressed, and the way God takes to put us into a course of obedience.

(3.) What the scripture speaks as to the utter impotency of man, to the framing of his heart to the obedience of God’s will.

(1.) First, This will appear by those notions or emphatical terms by which the scripture doth set forth man’s condition before God works upon him. He is one that is ‘born in sin:’ Ps. li. 5, ‘Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me;’ and things natural are not easily altered. And as he is born in sin, so he is greedy of sin: Job xv. 16, ‘He drinketh in iniquity like water;’ it noteth a vehement propension, as greedy to sin as a thirsty man to drink. Thirst is the most implacable appetite, hunger is far better borne. It is the constant frame of his heart: Gen. vi. 5, ‘Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually.’ Oh, how many aggravating and increasing circumstances are there named. There is a mint that is always at work; the mind is coining evil thoughts, and the heart evil desires and carnal motions; and the memory is the closet and storehouse where they are lodged and kept. This is the case of man, born in sin, greedy and thirsty of sin, and one whose thoughts are evil continually.

But may not a man be reclaimed? Oh no, for he hath a heart of stone: Ezek. xxxvi. 26, ‘I will take away the heart of stone.’ Every man that comes to be converted hath a heart of stone; and what is that? insensible, inflexible. Insensible, he hath no feeling of his condition; inflexible, he will not be moved and wrought upon by the word, and the Spirit, and providence. How many means are wasted upon him, and to no purpose! And Jer. xvii. 9, ‘The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?’ It invents all kinds of shifts and excuses to elude God, or rather to cheat itself. When God comes to work upon man, it slides away from under his hand, as if salvation itself should not save them. Yea, but is not the New Testament more favourable to man than the Old? Or, is not man grown better now there is so much of God’s grace discovered? I answer, there is a perfect harmony between the Testaments: there he is styled ‘a child of wrath by nature,’ Eph. ii. 3; the elect as well as others were so. There you will find him to be a ‘servant of sin.’ Rom. vi. 17. Never such an imperious master as sin is, never such a willing servant as man is. Sin never leaves commanding, and we love to work, and therefore are at its beck. There you will find him to be represented as a man that hath a ‘blind understanding,’ and a ‘hard heart,’ and one that is ‘averse from the life of God.’ Eph. iv. 18. There you will find him to be one that is an ‘enemy to the law of God,’ ‘enmity’ itself, Rom. viii. 7; one that neither will nor ‘can please God.’ One that is blind, and knows not what to do: 2 Pet. i. 9, ‘He that lacketh these things is blind.’ and with such a blindness as is far worse than bodily. A man that is blind in his bodily eyes, would think it to be a great happiness to have a fit guide: as in Acts xiii. 11, when Elymas was smitten blind, ‘he sought about for somebody to lead him by the hand.’ But he that is spiritually blind, cannot endure to have a guide; or if one would lead him, and direct him in the right way, he is angry. And as the scripture represents him as blind, so without strength: Rom. v. 9, ‘Dead in trespasses and sins;’ Eph. ii. 5, yea, worse than dead; a dead man doth no more hurt, his evil dieth with him; but there is a life of resistance and rebellion against God that goeth along. I have spoken but little, yet put all together, and then it shows what a miserable wretched creature man is.

The scripture doth not speak this by chance, it is not an hyperbole used once or twice, but everywhere, where it speaks of this matter, it sets out man to be blind, hard, dead, obstinate, and averse from God. Certainly man contributes little to his own conversion, if the word of God sets him out everywhere to be such a one; he cannot hunger and thirst after Christ, that drinks in iniquity like water. Nothing in his nature to carry him to grace, who is altogether sinful.

If the scripture had only said that man had accustomed himself to sin, and was not born in sin: if it had said that man is very prone, and not greedy and thirsty in iniquity: if it had only said that man .did often think evil, but not continually: if the scripture had said that man was somewhat obstinate, but not a stone, an adamant, and like the nether mill-stone: that he had been indifferent to God and the world, God and the flesh, and not a professed enemy: that he had been a captive of sin, and not a servant of sin: that man had been weak and not dead: only a neuter and not a rebel: then there might have been something in man; and the work of conversion and reducing to God had not been so great. But the scripture saith the quite contrary, that man is all this and much more, therefore this clears it up, that his conversion is not in himself, but it is God must work this good work upon him, or else he can never be renewed.

(2.) Secondly, Let us consider the terms how the cure is wrought. Certainly to remedy so great an evil, requireth an omnipotent, an almighty power. Therefore see how conversion is described in scripture, sometimes by enlightening the mind: Eph. i. 18, ‘The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling,’ &c. Man, the best creature on this side heaven, is stark blind in the things of God. If he should go to see with the light of nature, how would he grope at noon-day! If he should put on the spectacles of art he will but be little better. Nay, let him take further the glass of the word, yet how blind in a spiritual sense. Something there must be done upon the faculty; the object must not only be revealed, but the eye must be enlightened. There are thick scales upon his eye, as Paul had in his blindness, that must be taken off, before he can see into the things of God.

But is this all, enlightening the eye? No; the scripture describeth this work of God by opening of the heart: Acts xvi. 14, ‘God opened the heart of Lydia, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.’ God doth not only knock at the heart—that he doth by his word, and by the external means—but he openeth the heart; he must open the door before he can come in, enter, and take possession.

As to the means, God trieth key after key, one providence after another. As when a man would open a door, he knows not what key will fit the lock, he trieth key after key; so God trieth one cross, one affliction after another, one sermon, one message after another; but until he puts his fingers upon the hole of the lock, we shall not open.

But these words are not emphatical enough, therefore it is expressed by a regeneration: John iii. 3, ‘Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Mark, they must not only be reformed, but must be regenerated and born again.

Now, because this is an ordinary work which falleth out in the course of causes, therefore there is a more solemn notion used, it is expressed by a resurrection: Eph. ii. 5, ‘He hath raised you up together with Christ.’ Yea, but that which hath been may be again, therefore it is expressed not only by a resurrection, but by a creation: Eph. ii. 10, ‘We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works:’ 2 Cor. iv. 6, ‘He that commandeth the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts.’ And we are called new creatures. And higher than this, it is expressed not only by a creation, but by a victory and overcoming. It is resembled by beating and binding of the strong man, and rescuing and taking away his prey from him: Luke xi. 21, 22; 1 John iv. 4. ‘By bringing into captivity every proud thought to the obedience of Christ,’ 2 Cor. x. 5.

These expressions the scripture useth to set out the mystery of grace, the power of God that worketh in us. What is wanting in one is supplied in another.

(3.) The third thing I shall produce; That the scripture doth expressly deny any power in man to convert himself to God: 1 Cor. ii. 14, ‘The natural man cannot know the things of the Spirit of God, because they are spiritually discerned;’ and as he cannot know, so he cannot obey: Rom. viii. 7, ‘The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be; and they cannot please God:’ ver. 8. And they cannot come to Christ: John vi. 44, ‘No man can come to me except the Father draw him.’ And they cannot do anything without Christ, John xv. 15; and they cannot think a good thought, 2 Cor. iii. 5: and they cannot bring forth good fruit, Mat. vii. 18; and they cannot speak a good word, Mat. xii. 34; and they cannot believe, John xii. 39; and they cannot do that which is good, Jer. xiii. 23, ‘Ye that are accustomed to do evil, cannot do good.’ From whence doth all this deficiency in them arise? Partly from nature, partly from custom. Besides the natural there is a customary and habitual depravation. By nature we are averse from God, and by custom we are more confirmed in this evil aversation from God. Man, by lying long in his unregeneracy, hath his averseness from God increased and strengthened upon him. Naturally we are in love with the world, and have declined God and the things of God. Consider him in his naturals, he ‘cannot know the things of the Spirit:’ 1 Cor. ii. 14. And the carnal mind cannot be subject to the law of God, being at enmity against him, Rom. viii. 7. There are other places express this cannot, which derive it from custom; they are become slaves to their lusts, and their sins have gotten such a hand over them that they know not how to break them off: Jer. xiii. 23, ‘Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.’ And so where it is said: John xii. 39, ‘They could not believe.’ Naturally man is unable; but that place speaks of another degree of impossibility through contracted obstinacy and judicial obduration. Thus you see man is wholly impotent as to this work, and it is the Lord alone must do it.

Object. But here is an objection. If it be so that man hath such an utter impotency to convert himself to God, how can it stand with the mercy of God, as the creator of mankind, to require the debt of obedience from him that is not able to pay? How can it stand with the justice of God to punish him with eternal death, for the neglect of that which he is not able to do? and how can it stand with the wisdom of the supreme lawgiver, to exhort him by promises and threatenings, who hath no power to do what he is exhorted to do?

I answer:—

1. As to the first; how can it stand with the mercy of God to require the debt of obedience from him that is not able to pay? God hath not lost his right, though man hath lost his power; their impotency doth not dissolve their obligation. A drunken servant is a servant still. It is against all reason a master should lose his right by the servant’s default. A prodigal debtor hath nothing to pay, yet he is liable to be sued for the debt without any injustice. God contracted with us in Adam, and gave us a power which we lost by his fall; and therefore though our power be gone, yet God may demand his due to obey and please him; especially since this obedience God required of Adam, was not only due by covenant and positive law, but by immutable right and natural justice of man. Men think it harsh to suffer for Adam’s fault, to which they were not conscious and actually consenting.

Yea, but consider, every man will find an Adam in his own heart. The old man is there, we are still sinning away those relics of natural light in conscience, and those few moral inclinations which are left. There is a little ability and strength he hath as a man, and shall not God challenge the debt of obedience from a proud prodigal debtor, that is weakening and wasting himself more and more? We are proud, therefore God may exact it of us. We think we are able to obey and do his will, when we are weak; we are poor, yet think ourselves rich; therefore God may admonish us of our duty, demand his right to show our impotency and beggary, and that we may not pretend we were not called upon for what we owe. But man is not only a proud debtor, but we are prodigal debtors; those relics of conscience and moral and human inclinations, which escaped out of the ruins of the fall, we lose those things every day, and embezzle them away by the service of sin. Therefore it standeth fully with the clemency of God, as creator of mankind, to require the debt of him that wastes that little stock he hath.

2. As to the other part, how it can stand with the justice of God to punish him with eternal death, for the neglect of that he cannot do. I answer: Besides natural impotency, there is voluntary. We must not consider man merely as impotent to good, but as delighting in evil, as loving it with all his heart. This cannot indeed is a will not, it is a voluntary impotence. ‘You will not come to me, that ye might have life:’ John v. 40. Our impotency lies in our obstinacy. So man is left without excuse, because we freely refuse the grace offered, and by continuing in sin we increase our bondage, and draw an inveterate custom upon ourselves, and so grow every day more obstinate against God.

3. As to the last, how can it stand with the wisdom of God to exhort him with promises and threatenings, that hath no power to do that which he is exhorted to?

I answer: These exhortations, they carry their own blessing with them to those to whom God means them for good. As God’s creating word carried with it its power: ‘Be there light, and there was light;’ and as Christ’s word carried forth his power, it was not in vain to say, ‘Lazarus, come forth,’ though he was dead, and could not hear it; there was a mighty power went with the word; so there is power goes along with the exhortations of the gospel, to work grace in the hearts of those to whom God intends it as a blessing.

Yea, but if this be for the elect’s sake only, and to convey that power to them, to what use doth it stand to others? If the elect did dwell alone, and were a distinct community among themselves, the objection were plausible; but they are hidden among others: therefore reprobates are called obiter, by the by, as others are called according to purpose; and therefore they have the benefit of the common call and the common offer. The world stands for the elect’s sake, yet others have the benefit of the world and worldly things. So the word is preached for the elect’s sake, yet others have the benefit of an external call. The sun shines, though blind men see it not. The rain falls upon rocks and mountains, as well as fruitful valleys; so God may suffer these exhortations to light upon wicked men. And again, as to them, it is for their conviction; it is to bridle their corruptions; it is at least a means to civilise them, and keep them from growing worse: therefore such kind of doctrines and persuasions restrain their wickedness. Therefore it stands well enough with the wisdom of the lawgiver to call upon men, and invite them with promises and threatenings, to repentance.

Therefore now let me show how doth God reduce and frame our hearts to the obedience of his will. The ways God useth are of two sorts, moral and real.

[1.] God works morally, so as to preserve man’s nature, and the principles thereof; therefore he works by sweet inclination, not with violence. So he comes with blandishments and comfortable words: Hosea ii. 14, ‘I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.’ So, Gen. ix. 27, ‘The Lord shall persuade Japhet, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem.’ By fair and kindly words, he draweth on men to the liking of the gospel. He offereth no violence to our natural principles, but to our corruptions. God doth not make the will to be no will, but to be a good will; he restoreth the faculties to their right use and exercise; he layeth forth the beauty and excellency of his grace, and a glorious estate he sets before our eyes, and so outbids temptation, and draweth our hearts to himself. And God not only doth work suitably to our general nature, as we are reasonable creatures, but suitably to the particular frame of the heart. Some are of a stout and stubborn temper, and will not be subdued by milder means and motives; therefore God breaks them with fears and terrors, and with a spirit of conviction; and others, he draws them on by love, and by a gentle application.

That God hath respect to men’s particular tempers was figured in those extraordinary ways of appearance and manifestation; they are fitted according to the state of men. To Moses, that was a shepherd, and was acquainted with bushes, God appears in a bush of fire; and to the wise men, that were skilled in the motions of the heavenly bodies, he appears in a star; and to Peter, that was a fisherman, he appears to him, and shows his power first in the draught of fishes, So still these are pledges of this kind of dispensation: that God will work suitably, not only to our general nature as men, but to our particular state and temper. Yea, yet further, to set on this moral way of working, there is a fit subordination of the circumstances of providence. God ‘takes the wild asses in their month;’ and he hath his reason wherein to surprise the hearts of sinners: Prov. xxv. 11, ‘A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.’ God comes in in a fit season; as when a soul is humbled by some sudden accident; as one was converted by seeing a man fall down dead suddenly by him. God ordereth some providences to work, and awaken the hearts of men; or else by some great affliction: Hos. ii. 14, ‘I will bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.’ God finds many a sinner in the briars, as Abraham found the lamb. Stub born humours are then most broken. Metal in the furnace is capable of any form. God may suit and dispose us so that he may come in in a fit season to the soul, or in terrors of conscience, when the heart is scourged with remorse for great sins. All this is God’s moral work.