Repentance and Faith are conditions sufficient so saith that Gospel which reveals our salvation To say the Consequence is fallacious because this condition of setting up of the glory of Grace above our salvation is contained in them Say in which Define them both and see if we can find it For Faith in Christ That we said is that saving Grace whereby we receive him as he is offered in the Gospel and so rest upon him alone for salvation This definition agreeth with the Scriptures and is not at all deficient we have proved it before having opened how Christ is offered and how Christ is received c. it is not contained in this For Repentance to life the essence of it lyes in the Souls turning from all sin with grief and hatred of it unto God I will not set down a large description of it Our Catechisme gives it Now how can that condition be contained here being I am not to turn from my own salvation this is no term from which I am called I must turn only from sin God requires no more as to the term from which I turn Arg. 5. Lastly This Condition of setting up the glory of Gods Grace above our salvation must be had in Heaven Therefore to require it here and that upon this penalty the loss of our Souls for want of it agrees not with solid reason Quest Why do you tie it up to Heaven I answer So long as the means to an end is incomplete imperfect so long the end to which that means tends is but imperfectly attained Now so long as believers are in this world with a body of death within temptations from World and Satan without lying in so many dangers and fears every day that many times the Soul knoweth not what to say of it self but thinks it shall one day perish this heart of mine will undo me temptations without drive so hard against the Soul the means as yet is very imperfect though the Soul seeth it is Grace only through Christ which can save it and thinks it shall magnifie his Grace if he will save it yet it fears often it will not be its portion hence as yet God hath not his end or but very little but when the Believer is got into Heaven out of the Gun-shot of all temptations when it is secure and safe for ever knowing danger any more salvation is perfected and the means to Gods end compleated now begin the Songs to the praise of the riches of Grace and the Lamb to be sung and shall be sung to eternity now God hath his end compleated Grace in our salvation and above our salvation for ever triumphing If the authority of Mr. Rogers being a man so eminent in abilities and grace do make you think it must needs be true for such mens Opinions as these do prevail exceedingly upon Christians that are not able to examine Doctrines then take his Opinion which I had from his own mouth for as I preached against this Doctrine when I lived by him so I conferred with him about it and wrote down what he said to me in the Margent of his Book when I came from him his words were these The Soul in its first coming home to Christ doth seek its own salvation after union with Christ it seeks the honour of God and its own salvation subordinate to it It must first have a good savour of God it must first have tasted of his love before it can come to this That is to exalt his glory above its own salvation But this saying and his Books do not agree For if so be the Soul must have union with Christ first and in its union doth and may seek its own salvation and must have a taste of Gods love he must mean by this favour and taste a secret intimation of his reconciled love some good evidence of it before it comes to this setting up the glory of his Grace above its own salvation how is it that this self-love in not subordaining its own salvation to Gods glory which will deprive the Soul of all its labour and pains as he saith so dangerous that it will undo it how is it I say that this is found in a person united to Christ yea and there lieth till the Soul gets a taste of the love of God This I cannot understand How long is it before many poor Souls can get a taste and how little of it when it comes how short a time doth it stay Bara-hora brevis mora Thus I have endeavoured to remove those blocks which were layed in the way by these eminent men whom I do so much honour they have been a trouble to my self as to my own state which hath made me to examine them and weigh them in the ballance of the Sanctuary which must determine all questions and sit Judge upon all our writings the men being holy able and experienced men made me more to fear had they been young men in the heat of their affections I should not have regarded them as I saw one book the Authors name I forgot who gave such signs of hypocrisie that will cut off many a gracious heart but I saw by his picture at the beginning he was but young and so did not regard him How far that I have written may tend to the satisfaction of those Souls who have been or are troubled with these doubts which have been raised by these worthy men to the troubling of the peace and evidence of many gracious Christians I leave to the judgment of judicious and experienced Divines I bless God for my own part I am at rest as to these doubts though I have been disquieted by them unless I meet with better Scriptures and Arguments then yet I have done Having then opened the work of Effectual Calling and shewn how the Spirit of God prepares the Soul for Christ and unites it to Christ I will now make some improvement of the whole by way of Application though in this I intend to be but short by reason there are so many excellent books printed and men of such eminent gifts so excellently skilled in Gospel work that had it not been for these doubts which I know have troubled divers and for some of them no Divines that I knew had spoken to them though I found by discourse with them they were not of the same judgment with these reverend men I say had it not been for this I would never have set pen to paper for I know not for substance what I can write that hath not been written by more able pens yet variety of gifts may please the Reader and help on his spiritual edification From the whole work then I will conclude if this be effectual Calling and that which makes real Christians Then First The number of Real Christians is but small whatever those who are called Christians think Secondly The number of Real Christians is greater than those who are Real Christians giving judgment upon
a Wife so comely that few Women like her He answered Yea were she not my Wife I could love her It seems had she been his Whore he could love her he thought none like her but because she was his Wife hedged in by God now he did not care for her I do not say what a heart had he but good Lord what hearts have we Let God deal exceeding well with us better then that our corrupt hearts chuse yet if God hath by his holy Will tyed us up to that which is better and a mans own reason yield it to be better Sin takes occasion by the Law and works all manner of Concupiscence Rom. 7.8 that is best which is cross to God So true is that which that Divine Poet Herbert hath sung concerning this very Sin If God had laid all common certainly Man would have been the Incloser but since now God hath impal'd us on the contrary Man breaks the fence and every ground will plow O what were man might he himself misplace Sure to be cross he would shift feet and face Still we see God and we part only upon inordinacy So we may go on in any other Sin Profit Gain Riches are great things in mens eyes and doth God deny these likewise to his people It may be you will say few of these Precisians Puritans Fanaticks as now called thrive in the world we must not look for Riches amongst them in the way they take And what I pray do profit and riches follow all those who are strangers to God and follow after the world that make Mammon their God Do we not see the contrary How many of those who have kept close to God hath the Lord blessed and given them power to get wealth Deut. 8.18 when others have sunk and come to nothing If a mean condition be the common portion of his people yet a little that a righteous man hath is better then the riches of many wicked Psal 37.16 Sure I am The blessing of the Lord it maketh rich and be addeth no sorrow with it Prov. 10.22 This is your Bible you say which we little regard we will believe our senses for all your Bible and you may believe your senses if you please and see if you do not feel the truth of what our Bible saith There was one in London a Broaker who was resolved for Gain and had it seems a secret and sinful way in his Trade to attain his end Coming under the ministry of one with whom I was acquainted and who told me the story it seems the Word met with him and set Conscience upon his back which made the man so troubled that he could not tell what to do to let go this secret way of gain he could not yield to that to follow it he could not with quiet his Conscience did so gall him he comes to the Minister oft-times and talks with him fain would he have found a way to conjure down his Conscience that he might have gone on quietly but could not for a long time he would follow the Minister sometimes in the street with these words Good Sir let me alone but one half year and then I will give up this course Friend said the Minister I meddle not with thee I speak not to thee But it seems the man found that true that it was not the blessing of God made him rich and he found sorrow with his Riches and so have many hundreds more while others have found Profit and Riches coming in with the enjoyment of God with them So that still God withholdeth no good thing from them that walk uprightly Psal 84 11. Fourthly May not a man be as well without these lusts as with them I appeal to any mans experience even thy self who makest this Objection let the corruption be what it will If a man be intemperate following his pot and companions one day the next day he keeps sober sollows his Calling is he not as well this day when sober as yesterday when intemperate Doth he not see intemperance may be spared without any dammage or hinderance to a mans content Take any other lust is not the chast person as well as he that is unclean Is not a man when meek as well as when he is passionate and froward Doth not experience teach us there is no need of these lusts How often have Christians and those that do not fall into sins to blemish their Profession been angry with themselves yea almost stampt with vexing must I cross the Will of so great and glorious a Majesty offend so sweet a Saviour trouble my peace hinder my comforts for that which I can as well spare as the dirt of my shooes have no more need of it and yet this body of death how it clogs me Fifthly We will grant it that thy lust or idol which thou so lovest doth give delight to thy corrupt heart but is the good so great that it countervails the evil that attends it We say and that truly a man may buy gold too dear so may men buy pleasures and profits too dear How quickly are the pleasures of sin over pass away in the act some of the strongest of them Pleasures of sin for a season Heb. 11.25 but the evil that attends sin hath the word Never attending it The Worm never dies Should a Prince give a Subject leave to fill himself with what pleasures his heart could desire his mind invent and enjoy them to the height the longest day in Summer but at night he must go lie in an Oven fiery hot would any man chuse the pleasures of one day upon this condition A plain similitude but illustrates the thing in hand If thou shouldest live the longest measure of time that any man hath done and spend all that time in nothing but pleasures which no man ever did but met with some crosses afflictions or sickness but at the evening of this life must take up thy lodging in the everlasting burnings and devouring fire Isa 33.14 were those pleasures answerable to these everlasting burnings An English Merchant that lived at Dantzick now with God told us this story and it was true A friend of his a Merchant also upon what grounds I know not went to a Covent and dined with some Fryars his entertainment was very noble after he had dined and seen all the Merchant fell to commending their pleasant lives Yea said one of the Friars to him we live gallantly indeed had we any body to go to hell for us when we die Were the evils that follow sin no other then what some feel even in this life and for many their lusts have brought them upon them yet he were a fool who would give up himself to the pleasures of any lust to lie under such evils at last What wants poverty and misery have some come to who had once good Estates but spent them in serving their lusts What torments do many feel in their bodies by the French
shew that all who live as he did shall be happy as he is being now risen but raised by God not by himself and ascended into glory A goodly business an excellent gift to set out the love of God by had his Power Wisdom and Goodness in the Creation been no more than this the invisible things of him the eternal power and Godhead Rom 1.20 had never been seen to convince a Heathen by the light of Nature His miraculous Conception what is in this Adam's forming out of the earth was infinitely more miraculous But this Son had no sin no more had Adam when God made him and though he did live without sin that is little the Angels do as much That he died so have many Martyrs more as bad deaths and worse to bear testimony to the Doctrine of God and God will raise them also So that if the gift of God be no more than the Socinians Jesus we will never wonder at this love of God the Text may well leave out the so loved for this is not love to set out a God by our understandings can easily grasp this being a pitiful small gift this is not as he said a gift like a thing I must give like a King But now for God to send his only begotten Son therefore of the same essence with the Father as Children are of the Father else no Son the wonderful the mighty God Isai 9.6 1 Tim. 3.16 to take on him then he must have a praeexistence for non ens cannot take the seed of Abraham Heb. 2.16 to redeem the seed of Abraham that he must be made of a Woman made under the Law that he might redeem them that are under the Law being made himself a curse Gal. 4.4 5. Gal. 3.13 This is a gift indeed this argues love like a God indeed The Creation doth not more demonstrate his power and wisdom to be infinite than this gift demonstrates his love to be infinite he may well put so to this love this confounds swallows up the understanding sets it in amazement and there leaves it as do the other Attributes of God this love bears a full proportion with his other Attributes The Socinians Jesus debase God and make his Attributes of love unbecoming God The Socinians make great use of Matth. 28.18 All power c. But that was Gods love to his Son as he had been a Servant and done his Fathers work this is part of his wages but his love to us is in the gift of his Son and his dying for us Rom. 5.8 there look for the so loved Again in 1 Pet. 1.12 we read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propriae usitatur de iis qui studio intuendi penitius introspiciendi se inclinant quique summ◠studio omnia explorant ac diligenter fixis oculis intuentur Which things the Angels desire to look into the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to look into is used of John John 20.5 and of Peter Luke 24.12 when they stooped down and looked wishly to see whether Christ were not in the Sepulchre and in James 1.25 Who so looketh into the perfect Law which the Dutch translate thus he that narrowly looketh for such looking the Law requireth it notes a curious prying into that which hath some veiled or secret rarity in it Grotius saith the Apostle hath a respect to Exod. 25.20 where the Cherubims the representative Angels were made with their eyes looking down to the Mercy seat What our Lord said to the Multitude Matth. 11.7 concerning John What went ye out into the wilderness to see so may I have leave with honour to those blessed Creatures to say What is it ye bow your selves to see What is it you are curious to pry into a Socinian Jesus You see but a man yea but he is a man whose conception is wonderful in the womb of a Virgin But the forming of the woman of the rib of the man and Adam out of the earth is a thousand times more wonderful than the forming of a man of the seed of the woman which concurs to all generations of men But he is without sin So are ye and so was Adam once and though now we are fallen yet considering that body of death within and the temptations that arise from thence and without from Satan and World it is a wonder that so many Saints walk so holily as they do But he preached the way to Heaven And this was preached before by Moses and Prophets as well as by the Socinians Jesus Enoch Abraham the Patriarchs knew the way to Heaven and were Pilgrims here Heb. 11.13 14 15 16. But he died to confirm his Doctrine So have thousands of Martyrs But he was raised again the third day The Socinians Jesus could not raise himself but if God raised him so shall all the Saints be raised as well as he the time on the third day makes nothing to raise the bodies of Saints dead so many hundred of years since is a wonder infinitely beyond the raising of a Socinians Jesus the third day And this wonder is to be performed by our Jesus John 6.39 40 44 54. This work is too hard for the Socinians Jesus therefore are the Socinians as faulty and erroneous in the Doctrine of the Resurrection Corpora haec quae nunc circum ferimus resurrectura non credimus saith Smalcius Now where is that Mystery where is that manifold wisdom of God Ephes 3.9 10. O ye blessed Angels that ye are so desirous to look into and find out Here is no such rare Invention in this Socinians Jesus to take up the thoughts of a man with admiration much less of Angels But to see God manifest in the flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 to see the second person in the Trinity united to that holy thing conceived in the womb of the Virgin to see him made under the Law yea made a Curse to see him made sin who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. last For God to find a way how to justifie a sinful condemned wretch and yet he be just true and holy none of these Attributes suffer and yet Mercy triumph in saving a sinner yea that he should find out a way to give his offended Justice greater satisfaction while he sheweth mercy in saving sinners than he could ever have received either by the confusion or annihilation of them to see him reconciling a world of obstinate and rebellious enemies unto himself and all this by the blood and righteousness of our Jesus God in our flesh to see him incorporating Christ and his Church things in their own distinct natures as unapt for mixture as fire and water here is a mystery indeed here is manifold wisdom of God indeed worthy to set the blessed Angels on work to find out worthy to set heaven and earth admiring And now we can see good reason why it is said Worship him all ye Angels Heb 1.6 But the
they think but in scares any thing while under fears and horrors I was once sent for to a Gentleman who lay at an Inn who was under some trouble of mind as I was told I knew no reason why I should be sent for there being other Ministers in the Town more able and my self but a stranger at the Inn when I came into the Chamber I found the man in dreadful horrour his carriage towards me was such as I abhor my self ever since at the remembrance of it the man was under the terrible apprehensions of a damned estate what sin was then set home upon him I know not to enquire into his particular sin was not I thought convenient I never saw his face before nor never after but once in a Church three dayes after seeing the man in this Agony just like the Jaylour I could not but speak to him as Paul did opening the work of faith in Christ what it was I could say nothing to him by way of question if he were willing to embrace him c. but he yielded in all things to me nothing came amiss now but I feared then it was but in a horrible scare I could not learn what was his name nor how to enquire after him what became of this work The Merchants goods shall over board in a storm not because he hates them to save Ship from sinking himself from drowning though when the storm is over he wisheth he had them again with all his heart A man that is drowning will catch hold of a sharp Sword though it cuts his hands to save himself if that will save him If you will say men by these scares and fears may be made very willing to embrace Christ for their Saviour from these evils which they so fear I grant it this is one thing that moves the will in the real Christian to embrace Christ the privative good it shall enjoy by him delivering of the Soul from wrath to come and none ever did close with him but had an eye to this and this most affected also when it comes first to him yet in this is a free and willing choice for here is good to be enjoyed but if this be all and the Soul seeth nothing else in him I doubt this will not hold when these fears grow off the heart will back again and be weary of its Match Thirdly As it is an advised and free so it is a full choice understand me rightly by the word full I do not mean such a perfection as if the whole of the Soul did so close with Christ and embrace him that there were nothing in the will cross to this reception of Christ for we are but in part renewed though we are quickened Ephes 2.1 yet so quickened as there remains a body of death behind Rom. 7.24 and the unrenewed dead part will never make this choice but what Philip said to the Eunuch Acts 8.37 If thou believest with all thine heart So here the Believer chuseth with all his heart Such is the prevalency of the will in its choice that there is not many times so much as any actual resistance of the unrenewed part felt to oppose this choice but as if there were no such thing as a corrupt unrenewed part to oppose the whole Soul comes off fully in the choice of Christ the heart is not divided there is not a heart and a heart as in those hypocritical penitents Jer. 3.10 Her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned to me with her whole heart but feignedly Here was no full turning the whole heart went not after God but was divided and to be sure God had the least part As in repenting so in believing the whole heart comes to Christ If a rich person and every way an object of love should ask a poor woman wilt thou have me for thy Husband and is in earnest as if Boaz should have put that question to Ruth what would have been her answer Yea with all my heart there is a full choice So doth the Soul answer to this question wilt thou have Christ Yea with all my heart the best bargain that ever I made The fulness of the choice is felt in this that this choice is made with complacency the heart is exceedingly well pleased delighted satisfied in its choice and finds it self at rest in Christ What David said Return to thy rest O my soul Psal 116.7 This Soul saith to it self can I but get this Christ that I have real union with him and he once undertakes for me I shall then be at rest I am satisfied fully with him What the Father said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Matth. 3.17 The believing Soul saith This is my beloved Saviour with whom I am well pleased The Father is pleased and the Believer is pleased with Christ Fourthly It is a firm constant abiding choice or reception of Christ Take the Real Christian when you will yet you shall find he holds to his choice when he is wurried with his base temptations that labour to draw away the will yet here he holds no I do not repent me of my choice Take him under his dark temptations when he apprehends Christ will not receive him nor chuse him yet he doth receive and embrace Christ It was an advised free and full choice therefore it proves a constant firm choice It was not in a scare when I was forced and that scare being removed now the will goeth off again to its former lovers It is so indeed in the unsound Christian but not in the real Christian When persons have lived together in a married estate thirty years have seen the infirmities of each other if the question were then put suppose you were now to make your choice where would you chuse If the answer be heartily made I would chuse where I did before the same choice I made then I make now that Match that choice was well made Let Christians live in married covenant with Christ thirty and thirty years when they have experienced not the infirmities of Christ in whom there is none though he experience ours sufficiently but the troubles they meet with from within from without the infirmities which Paul mentions 2 Cor. 12.9 10. upon the account of keeping close with Christ and walking with him if then you put the question if you were put to your choice now Where would you chuse Who should be the beloved of your Soul You should soon hear the answer they would not stand long as if they were in doubt what to say what Christ said of Mary Luke 10. last Mary hath chosen the good part which shall never be taken from her As that which Mary had chosen shall never be taken away so Maries choice and every sound Believers choice with her of that part is not taken away nor shall be changed That was one reason why God saith in the forementioned Text Hosea 2.19 I will betroth thee unto me
clear discoveries of God and from thence the clearer discoveries of sin the greater are the fears and terrors the greater sorrows the greater hatred against sin yea I doubt not to say according to the degrees of this light so are the different conversations of Christians that some are so eminent in holiness above others so above the world so awful reverent in their conversation or in their worshipping of God it is because some see God know God in a more eminent manner then others do and thus seeing of him they see every thing else which would draw them from God I have insisted a little more upon this head of Illumination because I see most Divines put so little in it but all in the will what the Spirit works there I grant it great is the work of the Spirit upon the will and I say great is the work of the Spirit upon the understanding it is both scriptural rational and experimental to him that observes and traces his heart in the workings of it CHAP. III. Of Conviction COnviction follows Illumination as I said before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est certu immotis argumentis ita convincere ut consciontia errorem sentiat Argumentum demonstrativum objicere quod eludi nequeat there cannot be Conviction without Light The Spirit is a practical Teacher he doth not teach the elect now converting notions about sin and the state of a sinner but applieth his doctrine to the person thou art the man this miserable state is thine when he heard the Minister before he could turn off the Sermon as not belonging to him it may be he will say the Person met with such a one to day and adds his Troth or Faith to it but it did not concern himself or if it came so close that his Conscience tells him it did concern him yet he will have some shift to evade the power of the Word but now the Spirit comes to work this trade ceases now all is applied to himself Nathan to help David to see the greatness of his sin sets up a light by a Parable Ficta arguunt nothing less then death must be the punishment if David be Judge 1 Sam. 12.5 but then Nathan applies the Parable De te narratur Fabula David is couvinced and Conviction brings forth Confession with sound Repentance Concerning Conviction I shall lay down a few Positions and then shut up both these Chapters together First Position The work of the Spirit in Conviction is not ingeneral that the person is a sinner Those who are not Atheists in judgment whether there be any such is much questioned and denied though those whom Voetius mentions and our times Disp l. 1. p. 218 219. would make one conclude there are many such in whom the sparks of natural light are not quite extinct and live under the preaching of the Word and hear others say they are sinners are content to acknowledge themselves sinners And who is not This is no matter of shame being every bodies case they are but as their neighbours they seem then to be convinced of sin but if you come to ask these persons of what particular sin are they guilty they know not one If you say this is not possible Yes I have found it in my own observation amongst those who have offered themselves to the Lords Supper when I have examined them about the sense of their own sinful condition fearing lest they had no more then this general notion conviction I cannot call it that they as all else are sinners I have asked them what particular sin they have been guilty of not that I desired to know their sins I told them but only to know whether there were any more then this general notion they had taken up that all are sinners Hence they reported I brought up Auricular Confession But this I found not one particular sin could they give an account of I went over the ten Commandments and told them how I was guilty to see if by this means I could convince them of any particular sin but when I had done all I could not hear of any one sin they were guilty of The same a neighbour Minister eminent in Gods work found in a woman who came to him seeming to be under great horror of Conscience the woman cried out so loud that he desired her to restrain her self But what is the matter Oh she is a sinner and this was all for a good space of time he could get from her she was a sinner He then asked her what sin she was guilty of No particular sin he could get from her He then went over the ten Commandements and told her how he was guilty but when he had so done there was not one she was guilty of for he asked her in particular I dount not but there are many thousands more of this stamp if we did but search into ignorant families especially among women whom modesty or rather the restraining Providence of God hath kept in from breaking forth into open and gross vices One woman I knew who was indeed convinced of one sin if you will call it Conviction how she knew it to be a sin you may easily conceive One Lords day morning the woman was spinning going to her next neighbour to fetch fire her neighbour asked her what she meant to spin on this day She asked her what day was it it seems the woman had forgot the day when the woman told her what day it was O said she have I lived thus long and never sinned against God and must I sin against him now She was above seventy years near fourscore I conceive when she spake this but so long it seems lived without sin till this Lords day morning then she thought she had sinned Second Position The Spirit convinceth not all of the same particular sin though persons be guilty of the same sin I say he convinceth not all of the same in the first work he will do afterwards Sins are various and so is the Spirits work in Conviction at first but this is sure let him set home any sn it shall be enough he will do his work by it he doth not alwayes begin with that sin which is most obvious which one would think should be Conviction there being easiest to effect I have marvelled to hear the sins that some Christians have told me God first convinced them by it 's true they were fins but such as those who are Christians and we hope really so do not much think upon It seems God doth not judge of sins as we do if he will shew himself to a Soul and shew it any particular sin it is guilty of that Soul shall see evil enough in that sin to cast it down But let the Spirit convince of what particular sin he pleaseth he convinceth themall of that in which all sin meets of the punishment I mean that the wages of sin is death Third Position Vsually the
Spirit in the first work convinceth the Soul by that sin in which the snner took most pleasure and delight Here Conviction is easiest effected and this sin will the Spirit imbitter to the Soul the peccatum in deliciis the sin which he hides under the tongue Job 20.12 this we hear of commonly in the day of Christs power Fleshly lusts lye fairest in view a mans natural Conscience can more easily work here How terribly hath the Word spoken against Covetousness what sin more common but how rare a thing is it to hear of a person whom the Lord convinceth of that sin in his first work yea it were well if those who go for Christians were convinced of it afterwards yea when this sin hath got such a head that the bones of the lust as we say stick out others may see it but how hard to convince men of it it is a common thing for men to bespatter one another with this sin and some I have observed most deeply guilty of it themselves yet they not covetous in their own opinion for God to begin his conviction by spiritual lusts this is not so common yet sometimes I have known it I will not enlarge upon this head as I intend not upon any Fourth Position The Spirit in the first stroke doth not usually set home all a mans actual sins but commonly two or three kinds of sin Enough to do his work By degrees he gives the Soul a view of all his vile pranks Sins forgotten buried long ago out of mind he makes these revive come out of their graves and appear to men but to have them all come in at the first without a great support the Soul could not stand but must utterly sink it cannot stand in one sense by what he doth set home but if all came in at once it would be overwhelmed My transgression is sealed up in a bag and thou sowest up mine iniquity saith Job ch 14. v. 17. Did Job find it so Yea and so do others they are sealed up and sown up and such things are to be brought forth again So doth the Spirit bring them forth sins committed twenty thirty years since come now as fresh to mind with all the circumstances as if yesterday committed but not all in the first stroke Fifth Position That the Spirit in the first stroke convinceth all the elect of original sin I dare not affirm it That he doth convince all I speak of persons adult first or last yea and that early also I doubt not of it but to say he doth it in the very first stroke of Conversion this I dare not defend Mr. Shepherd moves the question Conversion p. 15. Whether the Lord convinceth all the elect at first of the sin of their nature and shews them their original sin in and about this first stroke of Conviction He answers I doubt not of it Paul would have been alive and a proud Pharisee still if the Lord had not let him by the Law see this sin Rom. 7.9 To what he saith after I readily agree that he doth first or last in a lesser or greater measure c. but this doth not seem to agree with the former As to his instance of Paul because he was so convinced ergo All are and must be convinced of it in this first stroke I am not satisfied in the consequence yet it may be Paul's persecution was a sin more set home at first this I grant if the state of a person be as Paul's was one that rests in himself hath good thoughts of his own righteousness duties and doings and upon these bears up himself then no doubt if God works upon such a one in the first stroke he sets home original sin It is hard to prove that those Converts in the second of Acts were convinced of their original sin at that time when they were pricked at their hearts the sin that Peter charged them with was their crucifying of Jesus who was both Lord and Christ ver 36. and upon this they were pricked in their hearts ver 37. That the Jaylour Acts 16. was convinced of this sin when he came in trembling to Paul and put forth that question What shall I do to be saved I dare not affirm it because I know not how to prove it Convinced he was of sin and that he was an undone condemned Creature And I hope it cannot be denied that the Spirit of God may so set home some particular actual sins that shall make the Soul see it self in such a lost and damned condition that the news of a Saviour will be welcome and glad it may enjoy him upon any terms This we observe is the ordinary way of the Spirit in persons adult living in sins against light especially he doth so set home sins and follow his work so close that the sinner hath not leisure to turn aside to the by-paths of his own righteousness which he hath none and duties but is pursued so hard that he is glad to fly for refuge to Christ though the sense of his original sin as yet hath not seized upon him as it will afterwards and therein I do heartily agree with Mr. Shepherd that first or last God doth convince His of original sin Hence for any Christian to call into question the truth of his Conversion because he was not convinced of his original sin in the first snoke of Conversion though adult when God first began to work this is but a needless troubling of himself but of this more hereafter By this work of Illumination and Conviction those vain hopes wherewith so many delude themselves that their case is not so bad as some of these censorious Ministers would make men believe but they may do well enough Their quarrellings with the Word and Ministry their extenuations of sin their shiftings of the Word from themselves to others as not belonging to them the slight thoughts they had of a man in his natural state the fickleness and unconstancy of mind whence nothing would sasten or hold upon them these and such like things are removed and way made for further workings 1. Hence How far are they from Conversion who have not attained to this first work no not so much as in the notion they are not yet come to so much light and conviction to see themselves sinners that they are sinners they will not deny because you say you are a sinner and all men say they are sinners and it is no shame to be what all men are but if you come to any particular sn they know none they are guilty of as I have given instance before and others I could mention who having lived to above sixty years when they have been asked How do you hope to be saved have answered roundly They have not sinned against God in all their life Others They have kept the Commandements of God but for a state of sin and misery they neither feel it know it nor believe