The Divine Will Considered in its Eternal Decrees and Holy Execution, Chapter 9 (1 of 3)

The Divine Will Considered in its Eternal Decrees and Holy Execution · Chapter 9 (1 of 3)

p. 346CHAP. IX. Of the Work of Conversion.

HAving passed over Redemption, I come to Conversion; there we had Christ formed in the Womb, here we have p. 347him formed in the Heart; there we had Christ coming in the Flesh and working miracles on mens Bodies, here we have him coming in the Spirit and working miracles in mens Souls; there we had Christ pouring forth his Blood and reconciling us to God's Justice, here we have him pouring forth his Spirit and reconciling us to God's Holiness. Now in my discourse touching Conversion, I shall reduce all to 3. Quaeries.

1. What is Mans state before Conversion?

2. What is the Nature of the Work?

3. Who is the Worker thereof?

In the first we shall meet with the extreme Necessity of the work, in the second with the intrinsecal Excellency thereof, and in the third with the Power and Grace of the great Agent.

1. What is Man's State before Conversion? I mean Man fallen, for Man standing needed no Conversion; and this I shall consider two ways.

1. What it is in general in relation to the whole Man?

2. What it is in particular in relation to the several parts of Man?

1. What it is in general? and this I shall open in two things.

1. 'Tis a State of Estrangement from God.

p. 3482. 'Tis a State of Enmity against God.

1. 'Tis a State of Estrangement from God; a natural Man is estranged from the womb, Psal. 58. 3. without God in the world, Eph. 2. 12. God is all round about him in the witnessing Creatures, and yet he is without God in the World; God is in him in the Lamp of Conscience, & yet he is without God in his Heart, for there he saith, There is no God, Psal. 14. 1. Which way soever God comes forth to meet him, whether from Mount Sinai in the fiery Law, or from Mount Sion in Gospel-charms of free Grace, still he flies away from God's presence; and if God pursue after him, he'l say to God in plain Terms, Depart from me, Job. 21. 14. and if any reliques of light will not depart, but stay behind in his heart, he shuts them up in the prison of unrighteousness, Rom. 1. 18. His Ubi is with Cain in Nod the Land of wandring and demigration, and with the Prodigal in a far Country, where he is far off from God, Psal. 73. 27. and God far off from him, Prov. 15. 29. & if ever he be saved, he must be brought from far, Isai. 43. 6. Now upon a distinct View this is a deplorable Condition; for

1. A natural Man being estranged from God the Fountain of Life, must p. 349needs be a dead Man, dead in sins and trespasses, Eph. 2. 1. because alienated from the Life of God; he is not only as the man in the Gospel, half dead, Luk. 10. 30. (who is there set forth not as a figure of Original Corruption, but as an Object of Charity, as is very evident by the scope of the Parable, which is ushered in with that Question, And who is my neighbour, Ver. 29? and at last closed up with the like, Which of the three was neighbour to him Ver. 36?) but he is altogether dead in Spirituals; there are no true vital Spirits of Faith in him, no true motions of Obedience, no pulse of heavenly Affections, no breath of Spiritual Prayer, no taste of the Gospel-wine and Marrow, no feeling of all that massy Sin and Wrath which lies upon him; all his Life is a Death-wandering, all his rest is in the Congregation of the dead, Prov. 21. 16. Give him all the Statures of natural Excellencies, strew him over with the flowers of sweetest Morality, and spangle him with the Notions of sublime Theology, yet still he is but a dead man, his Soul a dead Soul, his Faith a dead Faith, his Works dead works, and his Hopes and Comfors but as the giving up of the Ghost. But you'l say, Is not Man p. 350a living Creature? Hath he not a Reason and reliques of Light in it? Hath he not a free Will and Seeds of Moral Vertue in it? And why then do you call him dead? I answer; Man is a living Creature, alive in Naturals, but dead in Spirituals; he hath a Reason, but, because there is no light of life in it, 'tis but a dead Reason; his reliques of Light argue no more Spiritual Life in him, than knowledge doth in Devils; he hath a free Will, but for want of the freedom indeed, 'tis only free among the dead, I mean, to this or that carnal or natural Work, and not to the Will of God; he hath some Seeds of Moral Vertue in him, but alas! these are of too low an Extraction to be any Particles of spiritual Life. Mere Moral Vertues are by God's blessing on humane Industry struck as sparks out of natural Principles, but Spiritual Life is a Fire dropt down from Heaven into the Heart; mere Moral Vertues descending but from natural Principles never ascend up to God as their end, but Spiritual Life as it is originally born of God, so it is ultimately terminated in him. Wherefore a man may be naturally, nay morally alive, and yet be spiritually dead.

2. A natural Man being estranged from p. 351God, who is an infinite Spirit, must needs be Flesh: Thus God calls the Men of the old World flesh, Gen. 6. 3. thus our Saviour sets out Regeneration by its opposite, That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit, Joh. 3. 6. As the Body separate from the Soul is Flesh, such as moulders into Dust, and putrifies into Worms; so the Soul separate from God is Flesh too, such as turns into the Dust of earthly things, and rots in those Lusts which breed the never-dying Worm in Hell; neither is this Flesh only in the lower Rooms of the Soul, but in the upmost Faculties of Reason and Will. In the Reason there is the cankred flesh of Errors and Heresies, and in the Will there is the dead flesh of Impotency, and the proud flesh of Obstinacy against the Will of God. Hence the Apostle tells us of a foreign, a mind of flesh, Col. 2. 18. and of foreign, wills of flesh, Eph. 2. 3. And therefore the true Circumcision is in the heart and in the spirit, Rom. 2. 29. even in the highest Faculties and Powers of the Soul.

3. A natural Man being estranged from God, who is the Beauty of Holiness, must needs be very impure; he is filthy or stinking, Psal. 14. 3. an unclean thing, Joh 14. 4. p. 352he lies polluted in his blood, with a Leprosie in his head, and a Plague in his heart, clothed in filthy rags of Sin, and rolling in the mire and vomit of Corruption; so great is his filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, that he taints whatsoever he touches; his very Prayers are an abomination, and his Services as dung before God: Neither is this pollution only in the sensitive Soul but also in the rational, there is filthiness of spirit, 2 Cor. 7. 1. and disilement in the very mind and conscience, Tit. 1. 15. there is no sound part, but all over wounds and bruises and putrifying sores.

4. A natural Man being estranged from God, who is Jehovah or Beingness, must needs be a very Nullity in spirituals. If a Creature be separate from the God of Nature, 'tis a Nullity in naturals; and if a rational Creature be separate from the God of Grace, he is a Nullity in spirituals. Sure, if he were any thing at all, he might speak or think, but he can do neither: As running a fountain of Words as his tongue is, he cannot say, Jesus is the Lord, 1 Cor. 12. 3. and as swarming a Hive of Thoughts as his Heart is, he cannot think any thing as of himself, 2 Cor. 3. 5. The great Apostle gives a double account of himself, an account p. 353what he is in himself, I am nothing, saith he, 2 Cor. 12. 11. and an account what he is by Grace, by the grace of God I am what I am, 1 Cor. 15. 10. all his nothingness is in and of himself, and all his spiritual essence is in and of Grace. A mere Natural man is nothing in Spirituals, his eyes are on that which is not, Prov. 23. 5. his joy is in a thing of nought, Amos 6. 13. and all the false Gods in his heart are foreign nihilitates, nothingnesses, Psal. 96. 5. As they are Creatures in the World, they are Beings, but as they are Idols in his …, they are nothing, nothing to make a God of, and he, who makes them such, is like unto them, even nothing in Spirituals.

2. 'Tis a State of Enmity against God; he is not only a Stranger but an enemy too, Col. 1. 21. nay, which is more, his carnal Mind is enmity against God, Rom. 8. 7. Enmity is irreconcileable, it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be, not unless the Enmity be slain in it; nay, further the Apostle call the Gentiles foreign haters of God, Rom. 1. 30. and Hatred is Enmity boiled up to the height. Hatred (saith the Philosopher) seeks foreign, the Not-being of the thing hated; and such is man's Wickedness that strikes as it were p. 354at the Life and Being of God, it had rather that God should not be, than that Lusts should be restrained. The Scripture sets out some grand Enemies as opposing God openly and upon the Stage of the World, and by what they did openly, we may discern what spirit and mystery of Iniquity is working in every Natural man's heart secretly; there is in him some of the corrupt flesh of the old World; somewhat of Pharaoh's spirit, which secretly saith, Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice? Somewhat of the bloody Jew, which is ready to crucifie the Son of God afresh, and trample his precious blood under-foot; somewhat of the proud Antichrist, the man of sin, which exalts it self above God, its own Reason above the Wisdom of God, and its own Will above the Will of God. The very same Venom and Poyson of Enmity, which the Grand Enemies of God pour out openly, privily lurks and works in every Natural Man.

Thus in general, Man's State is Estrangement and Enmity. But to procede.

2. What is Man's State in particular, in relation to his several parts? Now here the same Estrangement and Enmity shews forth it self according to the Nature of each part.

p. 3551. As for the Understanding, 'tis turned away from God, the first and essential Truth, and so become a Forge of lying Vanities; 'tis turned away from God the first and essential Light, and so become a dark place, nay, darkness it self, Eph. 5. 8. and if the light be darkness, how great is that darkness? So great it is, that a Natural man sets an higher estimate on the Follies of Time than on the Blessedness of Eternity, and rates the broken Cisterns above the Fountain of living waters. foreign, the souly man, who hath nothing but a rational Soul, the Spirit of a mere man in him, foreign, receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, 2 Cor. 2. 14. One would think that all Truths should be welcome to a rational Soul, and above all, the Mysteries of Heaven; but he receiveth them not. And this the Apostle lays down distinctly; The spirit of man knows the things of man, because they are within his own Line; but the things of God are only known by the Spirit of God, because they are above the Sphere of natural Reason. As the things of Man are above the Sphere of Sense, so the things of God are above the Sphere of Reason; and yet as if they were below it, the Natural man counts them foolishness, p. 356which evinces an extreme foolishness in his own heart; he is not a Man, not an understanding Creature in Spirituals. Agur is a Brute in his own eyes, I have not the understanding of a man, saith he, Prov. 30. 2. The Apostle proving all under sin, asserts that there is none that understandeth, Rom. 3. 11. Millions of ratinal Creatures in the World, and yet there is none that understandeth; and his proof is invincible, there is none that seeketh after God, which sure would be done, if there were any spark of spiritual Understanding in him. 'Tis true there may be a mass of Notions in a man unconverted, but not a dram of spiritual Knowledge. Seeing he sees not; he sees the things of God in the image or picture of the Letter, but he sees them not in their liveliness and inward Glory: Just as the carnal Israelites who saw their Manna and Sacrifices only in the outside, but saw not Christ in them; or as those false Seekers, of whom Christ saith, Ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled, Joh. 6. 26. There was a Miracle in those very Loaves, but they saw only the carnal and grosser part of the Miracle, and not the Glory and Power p. 357of Christ's Deity sparkling out in it. An Unconverted man knows nothing as he ought to know it; no, not in the midst of his notions, there is no savouring, tasting or practical Knowledge in him, nothing but a husk, shell or form of Knowledg, and in the midst thereof a real enmity against the things known. Whilest the light of Truth shines only in the Notion, he likes it well enough; but if it waken Conscience, check Lust, press Duty, or any way offer to assume its Supremacy in his heart or life, he instantly hates it as an enemy.

2. As for the Will, the Principle of Freedom, 'tis turn'd from God the primum liberum, and from his service the vera libertas; and so it is become servum arbitrium, an arrant Slave, bound in the bonds of iniquity, and (which is the height of Slavery) 'tis in love with its Bonds; and (which is the intenseness and intimateness of that love) when Christ comes to break these Bonds, 'tis loth to be made free indeed, the iron is so entred into his soul; the Bondage is so intimate in the forlorn Will, that it looks on God's service as bondage, and Sins bondage as freedom: and hence it is dead and lame to God's ways, but runs and flies in Sins. Again, the natural Will p. 358is turned away from God the holy One, and so it's become desperately wicked, Jer. 17. 9. a Fountain of blood, out of which evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies naturally procede, Matth. 15. 19. a Forge of iniquities. foreign All the forming or framing of the heart; every purpose and desire effigiated there is only evil continually, Gen. 6. 5. all's marred upon the Wheel of man's corrupt Will. Nay further, the natural Will is turned from God who is Being, and so it's become a Nullity in Spirituals. What God says of Israel, he mav well say of every Natural man, foreign he hath no will to me, Psal. 81. 11. the Object of the Will is Good, and yet all the fontal Goodness in God moves it not. Nay, lastly, there is an Enmity in the Will against God. Every Natural man, as a part of the corrupt World, lies foreign, in the Devil, 1 Joh. 5. 19. and his heart as a hell sets his tongue on fire, James 3. 6. Deum ipsum (quantum in ipsâ est) perimit voluntas propria, saith one, clearly, it would (if it could) abrogate God's Holiness, blindfold his Omniscience, and chain up his Justice in order to the fruition of its lusts.

3. As for the Affections, there's nothing p. 359but monstrous Ataxy in them. Love in a Natural Man dotes upon abomination, and Hatred breaks out against goodness it self; Hope hangs upon a broken reed, and Fear starts and trembles at its fellow-mortal; Joy triumphs in the pleasures of sin, and therein virtually sports it self with the flames of Hell; and Sorrow which should wait upon Sin pours out it self over worldly Crosses: all the Affections are out of frame and place. At first they were born Subjects to the Kingdom of Reason, but the Rational Faculties (which are the man) rebelling against God in the first Adam, the Affections (which are the brutal part) mutin and rise up in Arms against Reason, and by an unnatural violence depose it; and so unman the man. Hence he becomes foreign, as the unreasonable beasts that perish. What Asaph was in his Envy at the foolish, that is every man in his inordinate Affections; he is foreign a great beast before God, Psal. 73. 22. Here Dinah, that is, the judgement is deflowred by the Son of Chamor, that is, an Ass (as his Name imports.) A generation of bruitish Lusts ravish the Soul. Here are the foreign, the vile Affections, which debase the Immortal Soul to the dust of p. 360the Earth. Here the foreign Dii Stercorei, those dungy Gods of sensual Lusts, carnal Profits, and worldly Honours ascend up into the heart, and as Gods assume the throne of it, command the power of it, and by a kind of omnipresence fill the whole circumference thereof. Here is the troubled sea of passions and affections, where Satan the great Leviathan raises up the winds and waves of all inordinate motions, making the heart boil as a pot, and sporting himself in the sinful tossings thereof.

4. As for the members of the body, they are foreign, weapons of unrighteousness, Rom. 6. 13. The Law of Sin issues out its commands in the soul, that speeds them to the members of the body, and these are ready to put them in execution.

Thus deplorable is mans state before Conversion, which if duly weighed, is enough to make every one cry out, Oh! what shall I do to be saved? wherefore I proceed to consider the second Quaere.

2. What is the nature of the Work? And here I shall unfold two things:

1. What are the preparatives to Conversion?

2. What is the work of Conversion it self?

p. 3611. What are the preparatives to Conversion? For as God makes a way to his anger in punishing, so he makes a way to his Mercy in converting sinners. First, the fallow-ground of the heart must be broken up, before the Seed of God be cast into it: first, Moses must hew the Tables of the Heart, and then God writes the Law upon them. Manasseh will not humble and turn unto the Lord, till he be in chains. Every natural man is a Manasseh, a forgetter of God (as that name imports) and will not remember and turn unto the Lord, till the Spirit of bondage lay him up in chains under deep Convictions of Sin and Wrath. As when Christ came in the flesh, John Baptist prepared his way by the doctrine of Repentance: So when Christ is formed in the heart, John, that is, Gods Grace prepares his way by legal humiliations. Now the preparatory works to Conversion are these.

1. There is a Conviction of Sin, the Spirit foreign shall convince the world of sin, Joh. 16. 8. not only of Sin in general, but in particular. The Law as 'tis in the Letter only operates little, but as 'tis in the Spirits hand it is foreign, Rom. 7. 9. it comes home to the heart, and gives it a p. 362full Charge, as Nathan to David, Thou art the Man. These are Sins, saith the Law, and these hast thou done, saith Conscience; and from particular sins, the Spirit leads up the Sinner to the fountain of blood in his Nature, it shews him a Seminary of corruption in his own heart, it makes him smell the sink of sin in his ownbosome; neither is this conviction only rational and notional, but real and intuitvie. Sin with all its Hosts is as it were mustered and set in order before his eyes, Psal. 50. 21. Nay, it takes hold upon him, and he is made to possess it as his own, which forces him at last to cry out, Guilty, Guilty.

1. There is a Conviction of Wrath. When Satan gave man his first fall, he instilled this Principle into him, thou shalt not surely dye, Gen. 3. 4. No, though thou eat the … thou shalt not. On the contrary, when God comes to recover a Soul out of its Fall, he speaks in the same language as to Abimelech, Behold thou art but a dead man, Gen. 20. 3. The wages of sin is death; and because such sins are found in thee, thou hast the sentence of death in thy self. In conviction God sets up a Judgement-seat in the heart; and there after Law-accusations p. 363and Conscience-proofs, the Sinner is sentenced to death, and after sentence he is drawn into the valley of Achor, or trouble, to be stoned with the curses of the Law, and scourged with Scorpions of Wrath; he hangs by the thred of his life over the bottomless gulph of perdition, and out of the fiery Law Hell doth as it were flash in his face.

3. Out of these convictions there ariseth legal fear. Gods judgements, which before were far above out of his sight, now approach near unto him; qualms come over Conscience, and hell-pains begin to seize the Soul: this fear hath torment, a kind of hell in it, and out of this legal fear issues a flood of legal sorrows for sin, as procurative of wrath; Gods arrows stick fast in the Soul; and hence men are pricked in heart, Acts 2. 37. and which is more, wounded in spirit, Prov. 18. 14. and these wounds stink and are corrupt, till the balm of Christs blood be poured into them. Such is the weight of these fears and sorrows, that it presses the Soul into a self-weariness, and by degrees breaks it all to pieces, that there is scarce left a shard thereof to take a little fire from the hearth, or water out of the Pit of any Creaturecomfort.

p. 3644. In the midst of these fears and sorrows, some glimmerings and appearances of mercy in Christ offer themselves to the Soul, and the Soul begins to have some vellcities and imperfect wouldings after Mercy, anguish and bitterness make it cry out, Oh! What shall I do to be saved? The scorching flames of Gods wrath leave a thirst in the heart after the coolings and refrigerations of pardoning Mercy, and in proportion to these wouldings and velleities, there are some light touches and tasts of Free Grace, some flashes of joy in the Word, and Christ the marrow thereof; and yet all this while there is no root of Spiritual life in the heart. These are the preparatories of Conversion, only we must not conceive them to be such formal immediate dispositions as infallibly inferr Conversion after them; for such prepared ones, though not far from the Kingdom of Heaven, may yet possibly never enter into it: neither must we look on these preparations, though Gods usual method, as necessary on Gods part; for if he please to use his Prerogative, he can make even dry bones to rattle and come together again without any previous dispositions. He can say unto men, even when they are in their p. 365blood, Live; and that word, as with child of Omnipotency, shall instantly bring forth the New Creature.

2. What is the work of Conversion it self? I answer, 'Tis that inward Principle of Grace, whereby a man is made able and willing to turn from all Creatures unto God in Christ. Conversion is a motion of the Soul, and therefore there must be an inward Principle, called in Scripture a Root; The root of the matter is in me, saith Job, Job 19. 28. Friends, you look upon me as if I were nothing but leaves of hypocrisie, but the inward Root of Holiness is in me. Conversion is a supernatural motion, and therefore there must be an inward Principle of Grace, called by the Apostle, the Divine Nature, 2 Pet. 1. 4. the Humane Nature cannot elevate it self so high as Conversion, but the Divine Nature can do it. By this inward Principle of Grace man becomes able, he hath an active posse convertere, and which is more, a velle too, he becomes able and willing to turn. Conversion is called in Scripture foreign a returning unto God. Mans Natural state wants a Turn, and Gods Supernatural Grace effects it. Motion is between two terms; the terminus à quo in conversion p. 366is all Creatures. Creatures as Creatures are the footsteps of Gods Power and Goodness; and so we must not turn from a worm, but see God in it: but Creatures as they are deifyed and idolized in the heart become lying vanities and empty nothings, and so in Conversion we turn from them all. The world without us is a Glass of the Divine Wisdom and Goodness, and so Conversion gives a sanctified use of it; but the world within us, the world in the heart is nothing but a lust, 1 John 2. 16. sitting in the place and Throne of God, I mean, the chief and uppermost seat of the Soul, and so Conversion casts it out of the heart. The Soul in Conversion moves towards God as its true centre, and therefore must leave all the world behind its back. The terminus ad quem in Conversion is God. A man before Conversion walks in an Image, Psal. 39. 6. he thinks that he moves towards happiness in this or that Creature, but all the while he is but in an image or picture of happiness: but in Conversion he moves really to God the Centre and Sabbath of Souls. Lastly, in Conversion there is a turning unto God in Christ. To turn to God is a most rational Act, for he is the p. 367only true end of the Soul; and to turn to God in Christ is a most Regular Act, for he is the only true way to that end. The way into the Holy of holies is only through the vail of Christs flesh. If we go to God out of Christ, we go to a consuming fire; but if we go to God in him, we go to a reconciled Father, who is ready to fall upon our necks, and kiss and welcome us with his Love revealed in the face of Christ.

Now in Conversion there are two instants or moments to be distinctly considered.

1. The first instant is habitual Conversion, or the habits or vital Principles of Grace which incline and dispose the Soul to actual Conversion.

2. The second instant is actual Conversion, or the actuation and crowning issue of those Principles in an actual turn to God.

1. As to the habits or vital Principles of Grace I shall do two things.

1. I shall demonstrate that there are habits or Principles of Grace.

2. I shall particularly unfold what they are.

1. I shall demonstrate that there are p. 368such things. The Remonstrants mince the business; There is (say they) potentia supernaturalis concessa voluntati ad hoc ut credere & bene Act. Synod. in Art. 3. & 4.agere possit; but as as for any habitual Grace, they tell us, Scholasticorum figmentum est, & corum qui simul & somel optant infundi omnes illos habitus, quos actibus crebris comparare nimis laboriosum esse arbitrantur. Now there is a vast difference between a mere posse convertere, and those Habits or Principles of Grace which dispose and encline the Soul to actual Conversion. A mere posse convertere doth not include in it any inward disposition or inclination in the Soul to turn to God, no more than the posse peccare in innocent Adam did include in it an inward disposition or inclination in the Soul to depart from God; but the Habits or Principles of Grace do incline and dispose the Soul to actual Conversion. Again, a mere posse convertere doth not denominate a man gracious no more than the posse peccare in innocent Adam did denominate him sinful; but the Habits or Principles of Grace do denominate a man gracious. And the Reason is, a mere posse may be abstract from the Nature or Essence of the p. 369thing into which it is reducible, but the Habit or vital Principle hath something of the Nature or Essence of the thing in it; nay, it is virtually and seminally the thing it self. A mere posse peccare in Adam before his Fall did not denominate him sinful, because it had nothing of the nature of Sin in it; but the Habits and Seeds of Corruption after the Fall did denominate him very sinful, because they were virtually & seminally all Sin. A mere posse convertere doth not denominate a man gracious, because it is abstract from the Nature and Essence of the thing; but the Habits or Principles of Grace do denominate him such, because they were virtually and seminally all Grace. Now that there are such Habits or Principles of Grace, and not only a naked Power, I shall thus demonstrate.

1. Out of the Scriptures, which do elegantly and emphatically decypher out those Habits or Principles to us. Wonderful is the variety of Expressions to this purpose. These Habits or Principles are called, the new heart and new spirit, Ezek. 36. 26. the new man, Eph. 4. 24. the new creature, 2 Cor. 5. 17. the hidden man of the heart, 1 Pet. 3. 4. the good treasure of the p. 370heart, Matth. 12. 35. the glory within, Psal. 45. 13. eternal life abiding in us, 1 Joh. 3. 15. a well of water springing up into everlasting life, Joh. 4. 14. the teaching and abiding anointing, 1 Joh. 2. 27. the renewing of the holy Ghost, Tit. 3. 5. the seed of God remaining in us, 1 Joh. 3. 9. the life of God, Eph. 4. 18. and, which is the sublimest word of all, the divine nature, 2 Pet. 1. 4. And is all this glory of words poured out upon a mere posse; which doth not so much as encline to Conversion? Are not here the noblest and highest Inclinations set forth unto us? Hath not the new heart, which hath eternal life in it, a propensity to Acts of spiritual life? Will not the new creature renewed by the holy Ghost, and sweetned by the holy Unction have some Odours and Fragrancies breaking forth from it? Can the hidden man be ever hid, the good treasure ever sealed, and the glory within ever shut up? Must not the Well of life break forth, the seed and life of God spring up, and the divine nature shew forth it self? and do not these denominate him gracious in whom they are? What doth a new heart speak him? How doth the good treasure enrich him, the glory within illustrate him, the holy unction perfume him, p. 371the life and seed of God quicken him, the renewing of the holy Ghost alter him, and the divine nature glorifie him? Here are pregnant denominations indeed, but there is not a tittle of this in a mere posse convertere; wherefore these expressions are of a nobler emphasis than so. You'l say, 'tis true, these expressions shew forth habits or principles of Grace, but not such as go before the actual consent of the will to Gods Call, but such as follow after it, nay, after frequent acts thereof.

Unto which I shall answer two things:

1. The habits and principles of Grace decyphered in the Scriptures aforesaid, are there set out as the royal acts of pure Free Grace, and not as pendents upon mans Will; and for this I shall give two eminent instances, omitting others; The first is in that famous place, Ezek. 36. where God promises a new heart, ver. 26. and his own spirit, ver. 27. but withal he enters a double protestation, one before the Promise, Thus saith the Lord, I do not this for your sakes O house of Israel, but for mine own holy names sake, ver. 22. and another after it, Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you, be ashamed and confounded for your own wayes p. 372O house of Israel, ver. 32. What could be more said to exalt God and his Free Grace, and to annihilate man and his Works? How could the True God enter such protestations, if the great promise of a new-heart hang in suspence upon mans actual consent? When a man without the new-heart gives that actual consent, there in something, which instead of shame and confusion, is worthy to be noted as a matter of Praise and Glory. But you'l say, these protestations respect not the way or order of working these gracious habits, but exclude mans worth or dignity in the business. Now albeit God do not give the new-heart for mans consent, yet he may do it upon or after mans consent. I answer, these protestations shew, that before the new heart there is nothing in man but what is matter of shame and confusion, and by consequence the actual consent of the Will, which is a matter of Praise and Glory, cannot so much as in order exist before the new-heart. The second instance is that, Tit. 3. 5. where the Apostle opens the fountain of Regeneration; Not by works of Righteousness which we have done, but according to his Mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing p. 373of the Holy Ghost. We are saved by washing and renewing, but in what way or method is this wrought? The Apostle tells us, not by works of Righteousness, but of mere mercy. Surely if there be any Righteousness in man, it must be in his Will, and if any work of Righteousness be in the Will, an actual consent to Gods Call must be such a work. Yet the Apostle asserts that our Regeneration was not by works of Righteousness but of Gods Mercy. Again, 'tis observable, that the Apostle doth not say, Not for works of Righteousness, as only excluding the meritorious dignity thereof, but he saith, Not by works of Righteousness, as denying the very existence thereof in order to Regeneration.

2. If the actual consent of the Will to the Calls of God do indeed precede the habits or principles of Grace, then what is that which gives an actual consent to Gods Call? What else but the stony heart, the old Creature, the wisdom of man, and the humane nature? For the mere posse convertere doth not include in it a heart of flesh, a new Creature, an holy Unction, or divine Nature; therefore the consent precedent to these Gracious Principles must p. 374be given by the stony heart, old Creature, humane Wisdome and Nature, which is very incongruous. Let us hear Anselms determination in this case, Voluntas non rectè vult nisi quia recta est: sicut non est acutus visus, quia De Concordiâ, Cap. 13.videt acute, sed ideò videt acutè quia acutus est; it a voluntas non est recta, quia vult rectè, sed rectè vult, quoniam est recta. To the same purpose is that of our Saviour; A corrupt tree foreign cannot bring forth good fruit, Mat. 7. 18. that is, whilst it is corrupt, it cannot, A corrupt tree may become a good tree, but whilst it is corrupt it cannot bring forth good fruit; as when the Apostle saith. The carnal mind cannot be subject to Gods Law, Rom. 8. 7. the meaning is, that whilst it is carnal it cannot; and how then can the Will, whilst it is a corrupt tree, bring forth so precious a fruit as an assent to Gods Call? How can such a grape of Heaven grow upon the thorns of an unregenerate heart? You'l say, I must not call the Will a corrupt tree, when there is a posse convertere supernaturally poured into it; but if that posse do not denominate it gracious, surely it is as yet but corrupt, and whilst it is such, it may be so called.

p. 3752. I argue from the Glory of free Grace, one of its Crown-jewels is, that it makes gracious Principles where there were none before; it new creates in Christ, and so gives Principles of Spiritual being; it quickens the dead, and so gives Principles of Spiritual Life: thus free Grace is blessed from the fountain of Israel, from the fontal Principles of the new Creature. But those which deny gracious Principles, darken free Grace in that which is its prime lustre. But here I shall be asked whether that posse convertere be not such a Principle? I answer No; a Principle is more than a bare, posse. There was in Adam in innocency a posse peccare, and yet there was no Principle of sin in him; after the same manner, there is (say the Remonstrants) a posse convertere given to fallen man, but this is no Principle of Grace in him. But not to strive about words, suppose it might be called a Principle, yet what a grand disparagement to free Grace is it, to say, that there was as much of Principle in innocent Adam by Nature towards his sinful transgression, as there is in fallen Man by Grace towards his actual Conversion? Such as deny gracious habits, and grant only a naked power must say so.

p. 3763. I argue from the sweetness of Providence. As 'tis the Glory of free Grace that there are gracious Principles made, so 'tis the sweetness of providence, that those Principles are made first; and then congruous acts issue from thence. The only wise God disposes things in the sweetest method. In the body of Nature first a Sun and then a beam, first a Fountain and then a stream, first a Root and then a fruit. In the Soul of Man negative faculties precede acts of life, sensitive acts of sense, and intellectual acts of reason. Hence those acts issue forth in an easie connaturalness to their Principles. And can there be less of the beauty of providence in the Spiritual world than in the natural? Should there not be as sweet an order in the new Creature as in the old? Ought not supernatural acts to issue forth in as great connaturalness to their Principles as natural? If so, then there must be habits of Grace to precede the acts; if not, then those acts, which are above nature in facto esse, as to their essential excellency, must be below it in fieri, as to their procedure from causes; nay, 'tis hardly imaginable, that those acts should at all come forth into being without gracious Principles. If the Will be not p. 377changed by regenerating Grace, how is it constituted in ordine agentium supernaturalium? And if not, how can it actually turn to God, seeing that is actus ordinis supernaturalis? Every one that doth righteousness is born of God, 1 Joh. 2. 29. To turn unto God is a prime act of Righteousness; and how then can it be done before Regeneration? Wherefore the Scripture method is clear; first a good tree and then good fruit, Mat. 7. 17. first a good treasure in the heart, and then good things out of it, Mat. 12. 35. first we are created in Christ, and then we walk in good works, Eph. 2. 10. And thus Spiritual acts are done in the easiness of the new Creature, because in a way connatural to Spiritual Principles.

4. If there be no habits or principles of Grace, what is that that makes the grand difference between a godly and an ungodly man? Surely, either it must be the acts of Faith and other Graces, or else the habits and principles thereof. 'Tis not the acts of Faith and other Graces, for two Reasons:

1. Because that which makes the difference must be somewhat permanent; such was Caleb's other spirit which differenced p. 378him from the murmuring Congregation, Numb. 14. 24. Such was Job's Root which differenced him from the leavy hypocrite, Job 19. 28. But the acts of Faith and other Graces are transient; wherefore if these be all the difference, what becomes of a Godly man in his sleep or phrensie, wherein no such acts are put forth? Doth he drop out of the state of Grace without any apostasie, or continue in it without any differencing quality? neither is possible; he back-slides not from God, and how can he be out of the state of Grace? he is but as other men are, and how can he be in it? It remains therefore that the habits of Grace make the difference; for by reason of these he is not as other men are, no, not when the Acts of Grace are suspended, because he hath another spirit in him.

2. All men being by Nature ungodly, that which chiefly makes the difference must denominate a man changed. Now in every change the Terminus is somewhat permanent; in Alteration 'tis a permanent Quality, in Augmentation 'tis a permanent Quantity, in Generation 'tis a substantial Form, and in Regeneration 'tis a new creature born of the incorruptible p. 379seed of the Word, 1 Pet. 1. 23. The Terminus of this gracious Change is set out in Scripture as a permanent thing; sometimes 'tis called light; ye were darkness but now light in the Lord, Eph. 5. 8. sometimes life; this my son was dead and is alive again, Luk. 15. 24. sometimes the new man; old things are past away, behold all things are become new, 2 Cor. 5. 17. still it is somewhat parmanent. Hence it appears, that the Acts of Faith and other Graces (which are transient) do not so properly denominate a man changed, as improve the Change already made. The wild Tree is changed by the Graff, and not by the After-fruit; the Natural man is changed by the ingrafted Word, and not by the fruits of Faith and other Graces, which naturally grow upon the Root of habitual Grace. That a corrupt Tree is made good is a great Change; but that a good Tree brings forth good fruit is altogether connatural.

If there be no Habits or Principles of Grace, how can the Natural man's deadly Wound, I mean Original Corruption ever be healed? Habitual Corruption cannot be healed but by habitual Grace, the Plague of the Heart cannot be healed but p. 380by the holy Unction; instead of the old Heart there must be a new one, or else there is no healing, and without healing how can such a sound Act as Conversion come forth? It remains therefore, that there are Habits or Principles of Grace.

2. Having proved that there are such Habits or Principles, I come to unfold what they are; and this I cannot better do, than by shewing what they are in the several Faculties. Wherefore

1. As to the Understanding, there is a Principle of excellent Knowledge; I say, excellent, not only in respect of the matter of it, being heavenly Mysteries; but also in respect of the Nature of it, 'tis too high for a fool; nay, 'tis a Story higher than the Knowledge of all the unregenerate Rabbies in the World: Tis 'not a mere literal Knowledge, a knowing of Christ after the flesh, but a spiritual, a revealing spiritual things in their spiritual Glory; 'tis not a dead Knowledge called by the Apostle foreign, a form of knowledg, Rom. 2. 20. such as is but a liveless figure or appearance, but 'tis a lively Knowledge called by the Wiseman a well-spring of life, Prov. 16. 22. and by our Saviour the light p. 381of life, Joh. 8. 12. 'Tis not a Knowledge without Sense, but such as hath Sense, nay, all the Senses of the inward man in it; 'tis a seeing of the just one, Acts 22. 14. a hearing and learning of the Father, Joh. 6. 45. a smelling and savouring the sweet odours of the Gospel, 2. Cor. 2. 14. a tasting how good and gracious the Lord is, Psal. 34. 81. a tactual knowledge, a spiritual touching and handling of the word of life, 1 Joh. 1. 1. here are seminally and virtually all those spiritual Senses which discern good and evil. 'Tis not a dark and duskish Knowledge, but clear and lightsome; 'tis seeing with the veil off and face open, 2 Cor. 3. 16, 18. 'tis the day dawning and the day-star arising in the heart, 2 Pet. 1. 19. Here God shines into the heart, and things are seen eye to eye, as the expression is, Isai. 52. 8. that is, in a clear evidence of the truth. 'Tis not a Knowledge at a distance and afar off, as Dives saw Abraham, and as every natural man sees the things of Faith, but a near and intimate Knowledge. 'Tis wisdom in the hidden parts, Psal. 51. 6. 'tis wisdom entring into the heart, Prov. 2. 10. 'tis a reason delivered over to the power of holy truths, Rom. 6. 17. 'tis foreign, the word engrafted or innaturalized in the mind, Jam. 1. 21. p. 392Hereby the Truth approaches and presentiates it self to the Soul in so clear and near a manner as that it works a firm assent and perswasion thereof, and that upon the divine Authority shining and sparkling out in the same. This Principle saith Amen to all the Truths in Scripture; by it we come to know truths in our selves, Heb. 10. 34. and to carry the witness thereof within us, 1 Joh. 5. 10. As Jesus Christ is the Amen, the faithful and true witness who sealed the Truths of the Gospel outwardly by his Blood, so the holy Unction dropping down fom Christ is an Amen, a faithful and true witness sealing up those Truths inwardly in the heart. And this clear and near Knowledge, as it assures and perswades a man of those Truths, is Faith in the Understanding; for this sets to its seal that God is true in them, 1 Joh. 3. 33. 'Tis not a mere notional Knowledge floating in the Brain, vaunting in the Tongue or flourishing in a leavy Profession; but 'tis a practical Knowledge influxive into the Will, inflammative to the Affections, and directive to the whole Life. This is that Principle of excellent Knowledge whereby the Soul is enabled to see God as the only supreme End, Christ as the only p. 393true Way, and Sin as the only great Obstacle thereunto.

2. As to the Will there is a Principle of Holiness and Rectitude, such as makes the Heart pure and right, such as sets the Will into a right frame and posture in a threefold Respect.

1. In reference to the true End of Man.

2. In reference to the right Means.

3. In reference to the grand Obstacle.

1. It sets the Will into a right posture in reference to Man's true End. Man's true End is God alone; for he is fontal Goodness, Allness of Perfections; the primum amabile, and ultimus finis, the great Alpha and Omega of Spirits, perfectly able to still all the desires, and fill all the crannies thereof. Now this rectifying Principle in the Will, as respective to this supreme End, shews forth it self three ways.

1. In that it is a desiring Principle. Desire is the first-born of the Will, the first opening of the rational Appetite, and this Principle sanctifies it and sets it apart for God as its supreme End; it enclines and disposes the Will to pant and p. 384thirst after God, to faint and cry out for him, to enquire and seek after him with all the heart. Before the Will Cain-like did go out from the Lord's presence, but now David-like it desires to dwell in his house and behold his beauty. Before the Will lay dead in the Grave of Creature-deadness, but now it hath the life of God in it quickning it to holy breathings after him: before there was such a gravedo liberi arbitrii, such Talents of Carnality upon the Will, that it could in no wise lift up it self, but lay among the pots and embraced dunghils; but now it hath the wings of a Dove to elevate it self to God. Here is the first resurrection of the Will; here are the foreign, ascensions in the heart, as the Septuagint hath it, Psal. 84. 5. The nature of this Principle is to ascend up to God and leave all the World behind its back. As the Principle of perswading Knowledge is Faith in the Understanding, so this desiring Principle is Love in the Will in its primordial propensities; there is spiritual Life in primoradio, in its first Light, and here is spiritual life in primo ardore, in its first heat.

2. In that it is a purposing Principle, such as inclines and disposes the Soul to pitch by a serious determination upon p. 385God as its only happiness, and to cleave unto him with purpose of heart, Act. 11. 23. This renders a man a true spiritual Levite, who (as his name imports) is joined to the Lord & become one spirit with him, 1 Cor. 6. 17. And as the first-born were dedicated to God, and afterwards the Levites; so the desiring Principle first dedicates the Desires the first-born of the Will to God, and then this purposing Principle makes a man a spiritual Levite consecrated to God by a holy Conjunction with him. This is that Key of David or Love (as David imports) which opens the everlasting doors of the Will that the king of glory may come in, Psal. 24. 7. This is that sweet voice of David or Love which upon mature deliberation is ready to break out, Whom have I in heaven but thee? whom on earth besides thee? Psal. 73. 25. In Heaven there are glorious Angels, and on Earth multitudes of good Creatures, but none of them all are my end or happiness; none, none but God alone. Were Heaven and Earth emptied of all their Furniture, still I should have my end as long as I have my God, who fills them both with his presence; whilest he is with me there can be no such thing as Emptiness, for he is all in all, waving all p. 386the World, I pitch upon him alone as my only end. I can truly say to the Covetous, God is my gold, Job 22. 25. to the Ambitious, God is my glory, Psal. 3. 3. to the Voluptuous, God is my delight, Isai. 58. 14. to the Souldier, God is my buckler and high tower, Psal. 18. 2. to the Mariner, God is my broad rivers and streams, Isai. 33. 21. to the Potentates and Emperours of the World, God is my crown and diadem, Isai. 28. 5. and to those who with Esau have enough of the World, Jacob-like, I have all, Gen. 33. 11. all in one, even in God alone. Such Resolutions as these are the proper Issues of this purposing Principle, this makes the Will free indeed; before it was free in Naturals, but now in Spirituals, which is freedom indeed. When the Will fixes it self upon the Creature as its End, it is in straits in a house of bondage. Take the World in its own place, 'tis a spacious Looking-glass of God's Power and Goodness, but take it as a man's End and Happiness, 'tis too strait and narrow for the immortal Spirit to breathe in. Hence carnal Men even in the fulness of sufficiency are yet instraits, Job 20. 22. but when the Will through this purposing Principle fixes it self upon God as its End, 'tis free indeed. The p. 387Rabbins call God foreign Place, and a large one he is; no less than an Infinity and Immensity of Goodness, such as no desire or out-going of the Will can ever pass thorough. Here there is Room enough for an immortal Spirit, Goodness enough to satiate the rational Appetite for ever. Now as the desiring Principle is Love in the Will in its first Plantation; so this purposing Principle is Love further rooted and grounded in the same Faculty.

3. In that it is a resting Principle, such as enclines and disposes the Will to a double rest in God.

1. To a Rest of Innitence.

2. To a Rest of Complacence.

1. To a Rest of Innitence; it inclines the Will to lean and roll it self upon God, and to set its faith and hope in him: hereby the Heart hath an access unto God, and casts and ventures it self upon him for all its happiness, as being fully resolved in it self to be happy only in him. And this is no other than Faith in the Will considered ut in ultimo termino, in God its only resting-place. We which believe (saith the Apostle) do enter into rest, Heb. 4. 3. Faith makes a man cease from himself and enter into rest by a fiducial repose on God's Allsufficiency.

p. 3882. To a Rest of Complacency; it enclines the Will to delight in the Almighty, Isai. 58. 14. and count him its exceeding joy, Psal. 43. 4. Hereby the Soul dwells at ease, or lodges in goodness (as the Original hath it) Psal. 25. 13. hereby it lies down in the bosom of bliss and hath peace for its tabernacle, Job 5. 24. God was the Levites inheritance, Deut. 18. 2. As the purposing Principle makes a man a spiritual Levite, so the resting Principle gives a man an inheritance in God; and this is Love in its triumph and joy inheriting all things in Gods Mercy and glorious All-sufficiency.

2. This Principle of Rectitude or Holiness sets the Will right in reference to the true Means. The true Means is Jesus Christ the Mediator; the only way into the Holy of Holies is through the Veil of his flesh. We are in a treble Incapacity of returning unto God our ultimate End: We are in the Darkness of Sin and see not the right path thither, and as to this, Christ is the way, as a Prophet teaching us by his Spirit and Word: We are in the Guiltiness of Sin and dare not approach thither, and as to this, Christ is the way, as a Priest offering up his Blood and Righteousness for us: We are in the Impotency and Enmity of p. 389Sin, and cannot, will not of our selves return thither, and as to this, Christ is the way as a King, subduing and ruling us by his gracious Sceptre; God hath sealed Christ to all these Offices for this very end to bring us home to himself. Now this Principle sets the Will right in reference to Christ in all his Offices.

1. Take him as a Prophet, this Principle sets the Heart right in a threefold respect.

1. 'Tis a Principle of humble Teachableness. God (who is the Soul's Centre) dwelling in Light unapproachable, and Christ (who is in the Father's bosom) being the great revealer of him, this Principle enclines the Will to hearken to Christ; the ear is opened or revealed to hear the great Prophet in all things. There is a foreign, or readiness of mind to let in every beam of Light and catch at every drop of Truth which falls from Christ. Before Man was a Wolf and a Lion for bruitish untractableness, but now a little child may lead him, Isai. 11. 6. even the least truth or message from Christ; he will not be unruly or break away from it for a World, but meekness and humility make him as a little Child ruleable by every word of Christ.

p. 3902. 'Tis a Principle of Faith, ready to receive Christ in the name of a Prophet. Christ doth no sooner usher in a Truth into the Soul, but this Principle clasps about it with fiducial embraces, and says, This is a beam from the Sun of righteousness, this is a message from the Angel of the Covenant, sent on purpose to setch me away to God. Hereby the Soul is disposed to believe Christ's Words, and receive his Testimony.

3. 'Tis a Principle of Love, ready to embrace Christ as the Angel of God's face or presence, and kiss the Son as revealing holy secrets from the Fathers bosom. This Principle hangs upon Christ's myrrh-dropping lips, and when he speaks, it catches up his words as the words of eternal life; every Truth is received in Love as from Christ's hand, and above all, Christ himself is very precious, because he is the brightness of glory.

2. Take him as a Priest, this Principle sets the Heart right towards him. Under the Law the Levites were given to the Priest; under the Gospel those who are spiritual Levites, are given to Christ the High-priest. Now the Principle (whereby they are given to Christ as a Priest) is double.

p. 3911. 'Tis a Principle of Faith enclining the Soul to wash in the Laver of Christ's Blood, and wrap up it self in the Robe of his Righteousness. This is called in Scripture trusting in Christs name, Matth. 12. 21. faith in his blood, Rom. 3. 25. receiving the atonement, Rom. 5. 11. and receiving the gift of righteousness, Rom. 5. 17. When a Soul comes up out of the wilderness of Sin to return to God, all the way it leans upon Jesus Christ, Cant. 8. 5.

2. 'Tis a Principle of Love enclining the Soul to love Jesus Christ as its Priest. When once there are Faith-glances in the Understanding at Christ crucified, and Faith-rollings in the Will upon him, the holy Fire (called a vehement Flame, or, as it is in the Original, the Flame of God, Cant. 8. 6.) kindles upon the heart and makes it burn with true love to Christ: Oh! says the Soul, this is he who made the Robe of Righteousness for me, and how much love was there in every thread of it? This is he who drunk off the Cup of trembling for me, and how much wrath did my sins squeez into it? When on Earth he bore my sins upon the Cross, and now in Heaven he bears my name upon his heart; his Person is all desires, his Blood all preciousness, p. 392his Righteousness all glory, his Love all heights and depths and breadths surpassing knowledge, and who can chuse but love him? There is no high Priest or Sacrifice but himself, no Balm or healing but in his Wounds, no Intercessor above but his Blood and Righteousness, no Beauty or Glory in all the visible World like that in his Cross, and how can the heart refuse his Espousals? This is a Principle of sweet closure with Christ; this makes the Soul breathe after, nay approach to Christ, and when it hath a being in him, such is the holy aspiration of this Principle, that still it desires to be more perfectly and intimately in him; no embraces near enough, there's too much distance in every union: When the Soul is brother and sister and mother to him, still 'twould be nearer, nothing less than one spirit, 1 Cor. 6. 17. and when 'tis so in some measure, still it presses hard after more oneness with him: Oh! that the Veil of darkness were quite off! that the remnants of separating Corruption were quite out! Oh! for more gales of Faith and Prayer to blow up this holy Fire! for more effusions of the holy Unction to feed and enflame it! Thus this Principle is hiatus Voluntatis, the opening or p. 393thirsty gaping of the Will for more and more of Christ, and all that it may dwell in God who is Love it self.

3. Take him as a King, this Principle sets the Heart right towards him. Hence a man becomes foreign, in a fit posture towards the kingdom of God, Luk. 9. 62. and that in a threefold respect.

1. This Principle is a Principle of Faith: God made Christ a King, & Faith owns him as such; God gave him all the power in heaven and earth, and Faith gives him all the power in the upper and lower Faculties of the Soul. This Principle rests upon him as a King, able to put all his enemies under his feet: Are there strong holds of Sin in us? this Principle rests on him as the power of God to cast them down: Are there Armies of temptations round about us? this Principle rests on him as the Captain of salvation to scatter them. As soon as this Principle is in the Soul, the Soul is no longer where it was, but translated into the kingdom of Christ, Col. 1. 13. Before it was in a region of Darkness, but now in a place of marvellous Light; its native soil was spiritual Sodom and Egypt, where Sin is a Law, but now it is in the Dominions of Christ, where the Law of the Spirit frees from the p. 394Law of sin: and because, after the Law or Reign of Sin is broken, the remnants or reliques of Corruption are still in us, therefore this Principle doth in a wonderful manner rest upon Christ for a more thorough purging out thereof.

2. This Principle is a Principle of Love, disposing the Soul to love Christ as a Melchisedek, a king of righteousness, and to kiss his sceptre as a sceptre of righteousness. This Principle desires and delights above all places to dwell in Immanuels land, and by a holy acquiescence under his Law, it sits down (as it were) in the kingdom of God. Hence the Heart is willing that Christ should reign over it, & that all his Enemies should be made his footstool, even those that dwell in its own bosom; if he come & search for darling Lusts there, this Principle will open every fold, and unlock every secret place of the Heart to discover them: If he come and slay them with the Sword of his mouth, this Principle will be consenting to their death, and pray, So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord, even all the remainders of Corruption lying in my Heart.

3. This Principle is a Principle of Obedience; and this is no other but the two p. 395former Principles of Faith and Love conspiring together to do the Will of Christ. Christ is at the right hand of God, and the Soul by Faith and Love is at the right hand of Christ, Psal. 45. 9. ready to hear and do all his pleasure, Ver. 10. Faith hath two Eyes, & whilest one is upon the propitiatory Cross, the other is upon the holy Crown of Jesus. Love hath two Hands, and whil'st one is thrust into his side and bleeding Wounds, the other is busie in keeping his righteous Laws and Commands. No sooner doth a Command drop down from him, but Faith catches it up; Oh! says Faith, this comes from the King of Kings and must be done; and this great King (says Love) obeyed for me even to the Cross, and how can I do less than obey him? His commandments are all right, his yoke easie, his service freedom, and his love constraining.

3. This Principle sets the Will into a right Frame in respect of that great Obstacle, Sin. Sin separates between God and the Soul, but this Principle separates between the Soul and Sin; and this in three respects.

1. As it is a Principle of Evangelical Sorrow. Sin is contracted with pleasure and must be dissolved with sorrow, and p. 396this dissolution will not be kindly, unless the Sorrow be Evangelical; Legal Sorrow is a preparative to Conversion, but Evangelical is an essential ingredient in it; in Legal sorrow the Heart breaks under the Fears of Hell and Death, but in Evangelical it thaws under the Beams of free Grace; it melts for the exceeding sinfulness of Sin, it bleeds over the bleeding Wounds of Christ, it grieves at the grievings of the holy Spirit, it blushes and shames it self for the stains cast upon Gods Glory, & it is offended & full fraught with displicency at its many & great offences of the divine Majesty. This is foreign, sorrow according to God, 2 Cor. 7. 10. Sorrow for Sin as Sin, such as God would have. This turns the sweet morsels of Sin into bitter herbs, and the pleasant streams of lust into blood; hereby Sin is in some degree loosened out of the Heart.

2. As it is a Principle of hatred enclining the Will to hate every false way. The Scripture sets out Sin as a very odious thing, 'tis the poyson of asps, Rom. 3. 13. the dogs vomit, 2 Pet. 2. 22. a menstruous cloth, Isai. 30. 22. foreign, the superfluity or excrement of all evil, Jam. 1. 21. enmity to God, Rom. 8. 7. the abominable thing which p. 397God hates, Jer. 44. 4. and that with great hatred, Hos. 9. 7. Now the Heart (when this Principle is in it) hates and abhorrs the taste of this poison, the smell of this vomit, the touch of this menstruous cloth, the sight or appearance of this filthy excrement, the thought of this enmity to God, and the very presence of this abominable thing; this hatred is the very life and spirit of Repentance: As the love of Sin is the vinculum unionis or vital spirit whereby the Soul and Sin are intimately united together, so the hatred of Sin is the solutio vinculi, or the extinction of that vital spirit, whereby the Soul and Sin are separated one from another.

3. As it is a Principle of actual Reformation or forsaking of Sin; and this is no other than the two former Principles of Sorrow and Hatred conspiring together to make away with Sin. Sorrow nails the old Man with all his members upon the Cross there to die in pains and agonies, and Hatred pierces into his very Heart and lets out his vital Blood, I mean, the love of Sin, that he may be sure to die and not revive again; where these two are, a man suffers in the flesh and ceases from sin, 1 Pet. 4. 1. he cannot foreign, commit sin, 1 Joh. p. 3983. 9. not so as he did before. Sorrow forbids it to be the joy of his way, and Hatred forbids it to be the love of his Heart, and both cast it out as an unclean thing, causing God's departure from the Soul.

3. As to the Affections, there is a Principle which tunes and harmonizes them, and that in a threefold respect.

1. 'Tis a Principle reductive of the Affections to the Rule of Reason. God in Creation made Man a Lord over Brutes, & anointed Reason to reign over the Affections; but as soon as Man rebelled against God, all within him and without him was hurled into confusion: Without, the brute Beasts rebelled against his person; and within, the brutish Lusts rebelled against his Reason; but when converting Grace reduces Man into order again, then the beasts of the field are at peace with him, Joh 5. 23. and the Affections of the Heart throw down their arms and confess their homage to the Kingdom of Reason. This Principle makes a man able to rule over his own spirit, Prov. 16. 32. and say with Authority to one Affection, Go and it goeth, and to another, come, and it cometh. 'Tis true, Moral Vertue doth in its way subject the Affections to Reason, but this p. 399supernatural Principle doth it in a more excellent manner; there the Subjection is to Reason as the supreme Faculty of the Soul, but here it is to it as the candle of the Lord▪ even for his sake who lighted it up for the guidance of the blind Faculties; there it is to Reason as a natural Light, but here it is to it as supernaturally illuminated. The holy Spirit makes the Truths of the Gospel to become the Law of the mind, and this Law of the mind rules over the Affections; the Affections are the foreign, the Woman-part in us, the head of this woman is the Man or Reason, and the head of this Man is Christ and his holy unction.

2. 'Tis a Principle moderative of the Affections as to the things of the World. Before Conversion the Earth hath its Throne in the Heart, but this Principle shakes the earth out of her place; before, the Affections are as Sails spread open to the gales of the World, but this Principle contracts and folds them up lest the spirit of the World should fill them: Earthly things are foreign, the smallest things of all, 1 Cor. 6. 2. and (where this Principle is) a very small portion of them will suffice, Agur's dimensum, Daniels pulse, our Saviours daily bread, Pauls food and raiment, Luther's p. 400Herring, any thing with the word of blessing will serve the turn; when there is little or nothing without, still there is an foreign, a self-sufficiency of holy content within; and when there is a concourse or affluence of all outward blessings, this Principle is as Balast to keep the Heart from drowning and overwhelming it self therein; there is such an holy allay upon the Soul, that in the lowest ebbs of adversity it possesses all things in its God, and in the highest tides of prosperity it will not be possessed by any thing in the World: Alas! saith the Soul, all this is but thick clay, and why should I lade my Eagle-affections with it? All this is but foreign, much fancy, and why should an immortal Soul be set upon it? The whole World is but foreign, a figure or shadow, and that Time (which invelopes it) is but foreign, time contracted, and contracted into a foreign, for so the Apostle calls the world foreign, the now world, 2 Tim. 4. 10. Wherefore a shadow of Affections is big enough for a figure, and the shortest glance of the Heart long enough for a foreign, a transient and momentany thing which perishes with the very using. The World in Scripture is set out as a nullity, a thing that is p. 401not, Prov. 23. 5. and this Principle deals with it as such; it makes a man rejoyce as if he rejoiced not, and buy as if he possessed not: the Affections, like translated Enoch, are not found here below, because God hath translated them.

3. 'Tis a Principle inflammative of the Affections towards God and the things of God; before, the Affections run down to the World as their Centre, but this Principle turns the stream of the Soul upward towards God; now Love, which is the Key of the heart, opens & unlocks it unto God; Desire, which is Love in motion, goes out in holy breathings and thirstings after him; and if he stay away from the Soul, Hope, which is Love in expectation, looks and waits for his approaches to the Soul; and when he doth approach thither, Delight, which is Love in rest or acquiescence, joys and keeps sabbath in his presence; and lest this Sabbath should be broken, Fear, which is the Soul's Sentinel, watches against Sin as the great make-bate and incendiary; and when Sin offers to enter the Soul, Hatred, which is the Soul's Guard, shuts the doors against it with an holy displicency and antipathy; and if it do enter there, Anger, which is the Soul's Sword, strikes at it p. 402with indignation, and Sorrow, which is the Soul's Issue, vents and lets out the corrupt blood and humours out of it; and (which is the heat and height of all) Zeal sets the Soul on fire and makes it burn foreign, in that which is good, for the Glory of God who is the supreme Good, and against the commission of Sin which is the supreme Evil. Thus the whole foreign trade or converse of the Affections is in heaven, Phil. 3. 20. This Principle sets the Heart upon God above all; it may and doth love Creatures as the Prints of his Power and Goodness, Ordinances as the Conduit-pipes of his Grace and Spirit, and Saints as the lively Pictures and Resemblances of his Holiness, but it sets the Heart upon God above all. This Principle is a Fire dropt down from Heaven into the Heart to consume the dross of Corruption, and inflame the Affections towards God; 'tis a touch from Christ risen and sitting in Glory to raise up the Affections out of the Tombs and Graves of earthly Vanities, and to quicken and inspire them with the life of God, that God may be all in all therein.

2. Having shewed what Conversion is in the first instant, I procede to the second; p. 403In the first instant the Lamps of Grace are made, in the second they are lighted up; in the first instant the new Creature is begotten of God in all its parts and proportions, in the second it is born into the spiritual World; in the first instant the Tree of Righteousness is planted, in the second it buds and blossoms and brings forth precious fruit; there is an actuation of gracious Principles, an actual turning of the Soul to God. The Understanding doth actually see God as the supreme End, Christ as the true Way, and Sin as the great Obstacle. The Will, as to God the supreme End, doth actually breathe after him in holy desires, fix on him by serious purposes and rest in him fiducially and complacentially for all happiness. As to Christ, the true way, it doth actually embrace and receive him as a Prophet for Guidance and Instruction, as a Priest for Satisfaction and Intercession, and as a King in the Government of his Spirit and Word. And as to Sin, the great Obstacle, it doth actually surround it with Sorrow, fight against it with Hatred, and overcome it by a real Reformation. The Affections do actually bow down under Reasons Sceptre, come off from the World's Breasts, p. 404and ascend up in holy Flames towards God; and under this sanctified and actually returning Soul, the members of the Body become foreign, weapons of righteousness, actually performing and executing the commands thereof. Thus all the Habits and Principles of Grace are actuated, and all the Powers and Faculties of Man are actually returned unto God. Now this actual Conversion comes into Being three ways.

1. As from the inward vital Principles of Grace; there is a divine Life and Vigour in them putting forth the Soul to Acts congruous and connatural thereunto; the divine nature will be shewing forth it self, the well of living water will be springing up, the seed of God will be shooting forth, the kingdom of heaven, though but as a grain of Mustard-seed, will at last become a Tree. When there is a Principle of right Knowledge in the Understanding, it is a well-spring of life, Prov. 16. 22. and the wise (who have it) shall understand, Dan. 12 10. When there is a Principle of Rectitude in the Will, integrity will guide it and direct its way, Prov. 11. 3, 5. the foreign the rectitudes or rightnesses will love Jesus Christ, Cant. 1. 4. that is, such hearts p. 405as have right Principles in them will assuredly love him, for the Byass of those Principles draws to it; converting Israel will cast forth his roots, Hos. 14. 5. the root of Faith casts forth it self in actual believing, the root of Love in actual loving; The root of the righteous yieldeth its fruit, Prov. 12. 12. The very Nature of these Principles is to dispose the Soul to actual Conversion. Even moral Vertues dispose to moral Acts, how much more do supernatural Principles dispose to spiritual Acts? Moral Habits are of our own house, but supernatural Principles are of a higher Extraction, coming down from Heaven and stiled the vertues of God, 1 Pet. 2. 9. therefore there must needs be more Vertue and Vigour in them than in moral Habits, which come forth out of Principles of Reason and are the Vertues of Men.

2. Actual Conversion comes into Being, as from the assistant and auxiliary Grace of God. When the Apostle gives account of himself as to the Principles of Grace, he saith, By the grace of God I am that I am; all his spiritual Essence was from free Grace: When he gives an account of himself as to the exercise of Grace, he saith, I laboured, yet not I, but the Grace of God which was p. 406with me, 1 Cor. 15. 10. auxiliary Grace (which was with him) moved the Principles of Grace (which made up his spiritual Essence) into actual exercise. The new Creature can no more do ought of it self than the old: As natural Agents live and move in the God of Nature, so spiritual Agents live and move in the God of Grace. Wherefore, that there may be actual Conversion indeed, there is help from the holy One, a quickning virtue from God, Psal. 119. 37. a stirring up and fluttering over the nest of gracious Principles, Deut. 32. 11. a supply of the Spirit, Phil. 1. 19. and grace with our Spirit Philem. Ver. 25. nay, in a sober sence, Immanuel, God with us, foreign the Lord with us to encline our hearts to him, 1 Kings 8. 57, 58. God himself is as dew to Israel, and then the roots of Grace cast forth themselves, Hos. 14. 5. God blows and breathes upon his garden by auxiliary Grace, and then the spices thereof flow out in the actual exercise of Grace, Cant. 4. 16.

3. Actual Conversion comes into Being as from the Soul it self. Timothy must foreign, stir or blow up his grace, 2 Tim. 1. 6. auxiliary Grace stirs and blows up the Principles of Grace, the Principles of Grace stir and blow up the Soul, and the p. 407Soul, by virtue of those Principles and Assistances, stirs and blows up it self unto actual Conversion. Anima (as a Learned Man hath it) priùs act a agit, & priùs mota movet, & priùs à Deo conversà convertit se ad Deum. Hence in Scripture Conversion is stiled man's act, he believes to righteousness, Rom. 10. 10. he returns to the Lord with all his heart, 1 Sam. 7. 3. he gives himself unto the Lord, 2. Cor. 8. 5. he obeys to the form of Gospel-doctrine, Rom. 6. 17. still it is man's act: Where we may note a remarkable difference between habitual and actual Conversion; in the production of actual Conversion Man is active, but in the production of gracious Principles he is passive. We read in Scripture of men believing and repenting, but we never read of any man who made himself a new heart and a new spirit; these are of God's make only, but being made, the man (in whom they are) through auxiliary Grace doth actually turn to God.

Having shewed what Conversion is in the first and second instant thereof, I pass on to the next and last Quaere, viz.

3. Who is the Worker of Conversion? and this I shall cleave asunder into three Questions.

p. 4081. Whether God be not the Author of Conversion?

2. After what manner it is wrought?

3. Whether God's Will be not always accomplished therein?

1. Whether God be not the Author of it? And to this Scripture and Reason answer in the affirmative.

1. Scripture asserts it; there Conversion is painted out under various Notions. With reference to our old Corruption, 'tis called a new heart; with reference to the Seed of the Word, 'tis a generation; with reference to our natural Birth, 'tis a regeneration; with reference to the Law in the Letter, 'tis the Law in the heart; with reference to the World, 'tis a heavenly call out of it; with reference to Satan, 'tis a translation out of his kingdom; with reference to Christ, 'tis a coming to him by faith; with reference to God, 'tis a returning or conversion to him; with reference to our death in Sins, 'tis a resurrection, a quickning of the dead; with reference to our nullity in Spirituals, 'tis a creation or a new creature. The Scripture phrases it many ways, but still it sets forth God as the supreme Author of it: Be it a new Heart, God is the giver of it, Ezek. 36. 26. be it a Generation p. 409or Regeneration, God is the father of it, Jam. 1. 18. be it the Law in the heart, God is the writer of it, Heb. 8. 10. be it a Call out of the World, God is the caller, 2 Tim. 1. 9. be it a Translation out of Satan's Kingdom, God is the translator, Col. 1. 13. be it a coming to Christ, God is the drawer, Joh. 6. 44. be it a turning or returning to God, God is the converter; to him the Church prays, Turn us, O Lord, and we shall be turned, Lam. 5. 21. be it a Resurrection, God is the quickner, Eph. 2. 5. be it a new Creation, God is the creator and we are foreign, his workmanship created in Christ Jesus, Eph. 2. 10. Every way God is the Author of Conversion; even in Actual Conversion, whilest the Act is Man's, the Grace is God's; for he worketh the Will and the Deed.

2. Reason evinces this, and that 3 ways.

1. Creature-weakness needs it, Man cannot convert himself; the Natural man foreign, receiveth not the things of God, 1 Cor. 2. 14. nay, foreign, he cannot be subject to God's Law, Rom. 8. 7. as to God foreign he wants a heart, Prov. 9. 4. a Stone he hath, which resists God's Will, but a heart he hath not to obey the same. His Will is tota cupiditas, a Lust rather than a Will, p. 410no wonder if he cannot by his own power convert himself. Conversion is a thing above the Sphere of lapsed Nature, nay, beyond the line of Angels; Man's Heart is so dark, that those stars of light cannot irradiate it, and so cold, that those flames of love cannot warm it; there is such an Ironsinew in it, as the heavenly hosts (which excel in strength) cannot bow, but must leave it to the Arms of the Almighty, and when he doth it, they joy over the Convert as a wonder of Power and Grace.

2. The Excellency of the Work calls for it. The Body of Nature is a rare piece, but the Soul of Man is of a nobler value, and in the Soul, converting Grace (which is but an Accident) is worth more than the Soul it self, 'tis the Soul's Rectitude, 'tis glory within, 'tis the precious hidden man of the heart, 'tis the very image of God, 'tis Christ formed in us, 'tis anima in centro, the Soul centred in God, joined unto him, and after a wonderful manner becoming one spirit with him, 'tis Faith in the true one, Love in the essential Love, a mind light in the Lord, and a Will at liberty in the Will of the primum liberum, and who can be Author thereof but God alone? God made all things p. 411ab Angelo usque ad vermiculum, from the Angel in Heaven to the Worm on Earth, but in Conversion he makes a poor Worm angelize: God must be owned in every Atom of Nature, how much more in the great Work of Grace? This is one of the foreign, the wonderful works of God, Acts, 2. 11. St. Austin tells a Story of one, who was seduced at first but to deny God's Tract. in Joh….Creatorship in the Fly, afterwards came to deny it in the Bird, and then in the Beast, and at last in Man: But if any one should procede so far as to deny him in Conversion, it would be more prodigious Blasphemy than all the rest. Saving Grace is a ray or sparkle of the Deity, a thing merely foreign, according to God, Eph. 4. 24. there is more of God to be seen in it than in all the World of Creatures besides, and by consequence to deny him in that is more than to deny him in all the rest.