viz. the Son of God and consequently that his doctrine is of divine authority Many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his Disciples which are not written in this Book But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his name John 29.30 31. These miracles in conjunction with the nature of our Saviours doctrine in nothing contrary to natural Religion had certainly a very great tendency in them to beget a belief in him and of his doctrine or else he would never have marvelled as he did at the unbelief of those which saw them and heard him Mark 6.6 He marvelled at their unbelief Their unbelief under such circumstances is mentioned again as matter of wonder John 12.37 But though he had done so many miracles before them yet they believed not on him But this would have been no matter of marvel to our Saviour or wonder to his Disciples if there had not been a mighty power in those miracles to convirce men and to persuade them to believe To this end also served the resurrection of Christ from the dead for by that he was mightily declared to be the Son of God Rom. 1.4 And when the Apostles of our Lord were after his Resurrection sent forth to convert the World to Christianity by preaching the Gospel to them as a means to make it efficacious to this end and to procure it credit and authority in the minds of men they were endued by the Lord with a power of working miracles and of speaking with new tongues Mark 16.20 They went forth and preached every where the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following Heb. 2.4 God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will And it was in respect of these powerful confirmations of the Gospel I doubt not that S. Paul says his preaching was in demonstration of the spirit and of power and not with enticing or persuasible words of mans wisdom 1 Cor. 2.4 It was by reason of this kind of demonstration of the Gospel to be from God which was made by the miraculous operation of the Spirit by the Apostles that the Gospel was received as the Word of God and not as the Word of Man as all those Discourses of Philosophers were which had no other confirmation than what the Wit and Oratory of men could derive from principles of natural and humane Wisdom But the Apostles doctrine as it was in the nature of it above humane pitch to find out so their way of confirming of it was above all humane power and wisdom also As their doctrine was known onely by the Holy Spirits revealing so the arguments motives and reasons by which they persuaded men to believe it to be from God were fetched from the Spirits own mighty operations which were visible to men as well those that did not as those which did believe They compared and suited spiritual things with spiritual ver 13. The nature of their arguments by which they persuaded men to believe their doctrine were suited to the nature of their doctrine both being from the Holy Spirit The one by the Spirits revelation to the Apostles the other by the Spirits miraculous operations by the Apostles They proved their doctrine was revealed to them by God by the testimony which he gave that he had sent them to preach what they did preach by enabling them to do such things which none could do but by virtue of a divine power which put forth it self in them God as was said did bear them witness by signs wonders and by divers miracles which he enabled them to do and to shew And being the Gospel was upon the account of this confirmation received as the Word of God and not of Man as the Author of it therefore it was that it did operate so powerfully as it did in the hearts and lives of them that received it to the transforming them in their minds and spirits and in the tenour of their lives and actions into other manner of men than they were before By reason of which transformation the Scripture stiles them New Creatures and the man thus altered the New Man When ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us saith S. Paul ye received it not as the word of man but as it is in truth the Word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe 1 Thess 2.13 The Gospel then thus confirmed as hath been represented was and is so glorious an object of Faith and so every way sitted and prepared to command mens belief of it that S. Paul supposeth it impossible but that men should believe it unless the Devil hath strangely blinded their minds And therefore he saith 2 Cor. 4.3 4. If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost in whom the God of this World hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them And thus we see what great assistance God hath vouchsafed us for our performing the condition of the promise by giving us his Gospel The Lord by his Prophet speaking of how much he had done for his People of old to enable them to be what he expected they should be in order to the happiness he designed them saith Isa 5.4 What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it that is What in reason could they expect he should have done more to make them become obedient and fruitful than he had done And yet he hath done much more for us who live under the Gospel than he did for them For he hath sent his own Son to reconcile us to himself and himself to us by his death He hath sent his own Son to persuade men which is more than all the Prophets which he sent before And as he is greater himself so he persuades by greater arguments than the Prophets were wont to do both in respect of what hath been done for us already to oblige us and in respect of what he will do in rewarding if obedient and in punishing if disobedient And all this lies fair before us in the Gospel by which life and immortality is brought to light and which comes to us more gloriously attested also than the doctrine of Moses and the Prophets did to them And therefore the Lord may much more appeal to us than he did to them and say What could have been done more to engage you to believe and obey the Gospel and so to perform the condition of the promise which I have not done And if so How then shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him And yet behold
not be in doubt of their own good estate Godward though they have not found in themselves so tormenting a sense of their spiritual danger as some others have done to prepare and dispose them to repent and believe the Gospel if they can but find and feel in themselves Repentance and Faith in the true nature and genuine effects of them No man need much to be concerned about the nature of the means as whether it be proportionate to the end after he once sees the end effected in himself His sense of danger is sufficient which causeth him to fly in due time to the place of refuge There needs a greater sense of danger and more affecting fears to make one willing to part with those sins and evil ways he hath been long accustomed to and hath had a strong affection for than there is to make another willing to forego those evils he never had much to do with nor much affection for An ordinary blast may throw down a Plant before it hath taken rooting when no less than a great tempest and strong blast will tear up a Tree of long standing and deep rooting Yet I must say that the greater sense men have of the greatness of the danger they were in and the more that sense hath afflicted their soul with fear and grief by so much the more they are likely to value and prize to love and honour that Saviour by whom they find themselves delivered from it Hence it is that such as have been greater sinners than others before conversion have many times proved more eminent Saints than others after fuller of love to Christ and zeal for him Thus it was with Mary Magdalen who loved much because much was forgiven her as our Saviour said Whereas as he observes likewise that he to whom but little is forgiven the same loveth but little Luke 27.47 And thus I have dispatched the first of the two things I proposed to insist on and to explain to wit what is done by God by way of preparation to dispose the minds of men to perform the condition of the promise I shall now proceed to the second which is to shew what is done by God to assist men in the actual performance of that condition on which pardon of sin and eternal life are promised CHAP. IV. How by the very Nature of the Gospel God does assist men in performing the condition of the Promise IN shewing what God does in assisting men in the performance of the condition of the promise of Pardon and Life two things will come under consideration I. What assistance is given by God by his very giving us the Gospel to this end and II. What by the influence and operation of his Spirit 1. That men are assisted by the Gospel in their performing the condition of the promise of pardon and life is very evident S. Paul saith it is the power of God to salvation to every one that believeth Rom. 1.16 That he had begotten the Christian Corinthians through the Gospel 1 Cor. 4.15 And S. James that God of his own will begat the Christians by the word of truth Jam. 1.18 And S. Peter that they were born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever 1 Pet. 1.23 Supposing men to be prepared by such teaching of God the Father as hath been before described the Gospel it self is of such a nature as makes it very apt to attract and draw such men to the belief of it and obedience to it when attended to in which the performance of the condition of the promise doth consist and this in a double respect I. In respect of the subject matter of it or things contained in it II. In respect of the evidence by which it is confirmed to be from God and undoubtedly true 1. In respect of the subject matter of it or things contained in it As for instance it contains a Declaration who and what an one Jesus Christ is viz. the Son of God and Saviour of the World and what he hath suffered to make atonement for the sin of the World and to obtain reconciliation between God and men after their rebellion against him And the Gospel as such cannot but facilitate its own way into the minds of such men as are burdened and pained with the sense of their own guilt and liableness to Gods displeasure It being suited to their case and contrived on purpose to give to such ease and relief it cannot but render it self acceptable to them This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners saith S. Paul 1 Tim. 1.15 It is indeed a saying a doctrine worthy of acceptation if any thing is so which the World ever knew yea worthy of all acceptation to the highest degree And its being so makes sinners which are sensible of their very great need of a Saviour the more ready and willing to believe it and to hearken to any thing that tends to strengthen their belief of it We have a saying which is found true upon common observation That men are willing to believe that to be true which they would fain have to prove so and are inquisitive after the evidence of its truth that they may confidently believe it and rejoice in it I have shewed before with what joy the Gospel was entertained at its first going forth into the World by such as were to any considerable degree made sensible of the danger they were in by reason of sin and therefore I do not need to enlarge upon it farther here Again the Gospel contains great and precious promises of pardon of sin and eternal life upon condition of Repentance Faith and new Obedience and most dreadful threatnings against such as reject those terms Now the Gospel in these respects is of a persuasive nature and hath an aptness and fitness in it to prevail with men to use their endeavours of performing the condition of escaping the damnation of Hell and of obtaining the glory of Heaven First the terrible threatnings denounced against such as continue unreformed in their lives when these fall into minds already disquieted with fears for what is past are very apt to alienate mens minds from sin and so to help on the performance of that part of the condition of the promise which consisteth in Repentance or amendment of life The stronger sense men have of their danger by reason of sin formerly committed and also of running into greater danger if they continue in sin after pardon is offered upon condition of amendment the more easily will they be persuaded and prevailed upon to accept of the condition of pardon and to put forth their endeavour to perform it The sense of danger which divine threatnings do awake in men when any thing strong will cause them to enquire how they may escape it to the end they may speedily fall upon the use of
right eye to do it they were in danger of being cast into Hell where their Worm dieth not and the Fire is not quenched Mark 9.43 That they were condemned already and that the wrath of God did abide on them so long as they continued in unbelief John 3.18 36. When S. Paul preached Repentance at Athens his argument to persuade to it was because God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the World in righteousness Acts 17.30 31. And no greater argument can be used to awaken mens fears and to hasten them out of an impenitent state than to set before them the terrour of that day and the danger they are in every hour of falling under it so long as they remain unreformed The consideration of which while the impression was upon him made Felix the Roman Governour on the Bench to tremble when Paul at the Bar reasoned of righteousness temperance and the judgment to come Acts 24.25 And generally mens Repentance takes its first rise from their fears of falling under the wrath of Almighty God Which doth very well accord with what was said by David in the Psalms and twice by Solomon in his Proverbs The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom Psal 111.10 Prov. 1.7 and 9.10 The beginning of Wisdom that is of becoming truly wise as men are when they become truly religious and never till then And this usually begins as I say in those fears which are raised in men out of a sense of their obnoxiousness to the wrath and displeasure of God for sin past And from thence indeed it proceeds to a fear of displeasing him any farther for time to come in hope of obtaining pardon for what is past and this is wisdom indeed there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be seared Psal 130.4 But fear in this latter sense hath its rise and beginning from fear in the former The principle of Self-preservation which is deeply rooted in every mans nature does naturally cause a fear of God as armed with Almighty power to destroy them that have provoked him But in mans degenerate state we cannot say it is so natural to fear displeasing him nor is attained to without some hope of pardon for what is past Fear in the former sense goes before fear in the latter as the needle does before the thred It hath indeed as godly sorrow hath a tendency in it to work Repentance though neither of them amount to saving repentance it self Fear of wrath hath torment in it and that prepares a man to hearken to that which will give him ease to wit the doctrine of pardon through Christ and to the doctrine of Repentance as the condition of obtaining it As rain and moisture are to the ground on which Weeds or Thorns grow to prepare the way of tearing them up by the root so is the fear of Gods wrath to make way for the plucking up mens lusts by the root it makes the heart more soft and tender For by how much sin hath disquieted and perplexed the mind with fears of the wrath of God provided it be not to excess as in case of despair by so much the less grievous it will be to part with it in hope of obtaining both ease and pardon thereby But here to prevent all mis use of this Doctrine touching the necessity of a sense in each sinner of his obnoxiousness to the wrath of God to prepare him for such a Repentance Faith and Obedience as is saving let this be observed and remembred by way of caution to wit That no greater a sense hereof is necessary to this end than that which issues and ends in such a Repentance Faith and Obedience We must not measure the truth and sincerity of our Repentance Faith and Obedience by the measure or degree of the sense we have of our liableness to Gods wrath or our fears of it but on the contrary the dueness or sufficiency of such a sense to prepare us by the truth and sincerity of our Repentance Faith and Obedience It is not unlikely but that Cain and Judas might have a greater sense of their obnoxiousness to the wrath and displeasure of God than most of those who through a due sense of their liableness to wrath have been prepared for a saving Repentance Faith and Obedience but yet we cannot judge by that that they had any such Repentance or Faith So much sense therefore of mens danger by reason of their guilt of sin is sufficient be it more or less as does prevail with them sincerely to repent of sin past to receive Christ Jesus as Saviour Lord and Governour for time to come to save them from sin by his death and to be governed by his precepts and example for all times to come whether peaceful and prosperous or however adverse or hazardous they may be And the reason why such a sense is sufficient be it more or less is because it reacheth its end it hath done its work for which it was raised by God when once it hath thus drawn men to Christ to become his true Disciples to believe in him and to learn of him the Christian life All means whatsoever are sufficient in their kind when they attain their end for which they were appointed and so this of which we now speak This is a truth seen by its own light By this the great mistake of some good people appears who have been afraid to apply Christ unto themselves as a Saviour and to lay hold of the gracious promises of the Gospel as being in doubt with themselves whether they had been sufficiently humbled broken and prepared by legal terrors when yet they have been zealously desirous and industrious to approve themselves to him in a good life When once men are made willing to receive Christ as Lord and Saviour and to walk in him as they have received him there is no place left to question whether their humiliation hath been sufficient or no. For our Saviours invitation of coming to him is made to him that is athirst and his promise to him that does come in good earnest is that he will by no means cast him out The promise of being received if they do come to Christ is not made upon condition of being thus or thus humbled but upon condition of their coming to him Nor does any degree of that humiliation which consisteth in fear or terror avail any man further than it is an occasion of his applying himself to the remedy prepared by God against his danger By what hath been said to shew what sense of ones spiritual danger is sufficient in its kind and for the end for which it serves it may appear also That such persons as have by the advantage of a pious education drunk in operative principles of godliness in the early days of their lives so that like Ohadiah they have feared God from their youth or as Timothy have known the holy Scriptures from a child need
such means by which such an escape may be obtained Thus those pricked in their hearts Acts 2. cried out Men and brethren what shall we do And the Goaler when once in a trembling posture Sirs what shall I do to be saved Acts 16.30 These affectionate enquiries caused by a sense of their danger argued their willingness to do any thing they could to escape it of which they gave proof by setting immediately and without any delay upon what they were directed to do to that end This sense of danger awakened by divine threatnings so long as it lasteth will take off that pleasure which men before were wont to find in ways of sin and wickedness and make the taste of them bitter and by that means estrange their minds from them What is it that makes men at any time to fall out with their sins and turn them off but an awakened sense in themselves by which thy feel they have been betrayed by them into the snare of death into such danger as that the very sense and fear of it quite swallows up that pleasure which they were wont to take in those sins And under these circumstances it will be a matter of far less difficulty for men to perform the condition of the promise so far as that stands in forsaking of sin than it would be to continue in it For in this case they find the fear and trouble which still is at the heels of sin is far greater than any pleasure they can then find in it In vain is the Net spread in the sight of any Bird saith Solomon Prov. 1.17 Even so while men have their eye upon the present fear and future danger sin exposeth them to it disarms the temptation to it of its power and renders it too weak to prevail with them to run themselves into the torments of present fears and into eternal destruction for the future A Dog will forbear his otherwise desired morsel while his eye is upon the Cudgel which is held over him Secondly the promise through Christ of such inestimable benefits as the pardon of sin and the eternal glory of Heaven are upon condition as of Faith so of sincere Obedience hath a great tendency in it to reconcile our minds to our duty in particular acts of obedience It is inseparable from the nature of men to desire the happiness of their own Being in the general notion of it and for perpetuity also And the more desirable any object is and the more there is in it to make our happiness great the more powerfully are we drawn thereby to comply with the condition and to use the means of obtaining it when we hope it to be attainable The greater and more attractive the object of desire is by so much will the difficulty of the condition and means of obtaining it seem the less Jacobs serving seven years for Rachel seemed to him but a few days for the love wherewith he loved her All which shews that the immense greatness of the benefits promis'd in the Gospel does tend greatly to reconcile our minds to the condition of obtaining them notwithstanding some present difficulties do attend it Just as we see in other things Men would not cark and care moil and toil as they do nor undertake such wearisom journies and hazardous voyages as men commonly do were it not that the benefit they expect to obtain thereby does reconcile their minds to these difficulties What enabled Moses to forsake the treasures of Egypt and the honours of Pharaohs Court and to unite himself with an oppressed People when he could not otherwise avoid sin and serve his God as he had a mind to do Why it was the eye the respect he had therein unto the recompence of the reward Heb. 11.25 26. The hope of the recompence of reward made the difficulties of Gods service the reproach of Christ and suffering with the People of God more eligible and desirable than the pleasures of sin which were but for a season Hope of benefit we see then is a great and powerful principle of action in men and if the promise of the great things of the Gospel does but affect stir up and quicken our hope this will be enough to put those endeavours into motion by which the condition of obtaining them will be performed It is by the exceeding great and precious promises of the Gospel that men are made partakers of a divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 And the reason is because these promises do affect their hope this hope changeth the thoughts and purposes of men in order to the obtaining of the things promised and hoped for by all which they become new men restored to the image of God which had been lost by sin which is the divine nature The difficult part of performing the condition of the promise of pardon and life lies in mens forsaking the sins to which they had been accustomed and in practising the contrary Vertues from which they have been estranged But the Gospel we see enables men to do both by working upon their fears and hopes For when two such powerful principles of action concur and conspire together to promote the same end to produce the same effect as they do in this though in different respects the operation must needs be very great powerful and prevalent and the work like to go on with good success Fear and hope are the two handles of the Soul by which it is taken hold of and drawn 2. Having thus shewed how apt and fit the Gospel is in respect of the subject matter of it to draw men to such a belief of it and obedience to it as in which the performance of the condition of the promise of pardon and life doth consist I am now to shew in the next place its farther aptitude this way in respect of that evidence it hath of its Divinity Truth and Infallibility For indeed all the power it hath to work upon mens fears and hopes by its menaces and promises to the producing of their effects in mens lives and actions depends wholly upon the supposition of its truth and certainty Men would not be moved neither by the threatnings nor promises of the Gospel how great soever they be did they believe the Gospel to be but fabulous And therefore the All-wise God hath as much concerned himself to give sufficient attestation to the truth of the Gospel as he hath to acquaint men with the things reported in it To this end the Almighty Father hath by a voice from Heaven testified that Jesus Christ is his beloved Son and that his doctrine is to be attended to as to one whom he had sent into the World to declare his whole mind touching mens salvation Mat. 3.17 and 17.5 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him To the same purpose also served those numerous miracles which he wrought For these were signs to assure us that he was what he affirmed himself to be
watered but God gave the increase saith S. Paul So then neither is he that planteth any thing neither he that watereth but God that giveth the increase 1 Cor. 3.6 7. Upon this account all that appearance of the Vertues of Christ which is in true Christians by which they give some good account unto the World what an one Christ is and what manner of thing his Gospel is is ascribed unto the operation of his holy Spirit upon their hearts in that metaphorical way used by S. Paul when he told the Christians at Corinth That they were the Epistle of Christ written by the Spirit of the living God upon the fleshly Tables of their hearts 2 Cor. 3.3 Thus much in general to shew that there is an assistance by the operation of Gods Spirit vouchsafed unto men in performing the condition of the promise over and besides what assistance they receive therein from the nature of the Gospel I shall now proceed to shew a little more particularly how men are assisted by the operation and influence of the Holy Spirit in performing the condition of the promise of pardon and life Not to undertake to describe all those ways by which God communicates his aids unto men in performing the condition of the promise but onely so much of those divine methods as may give some light in the thing and some satisfaction to our minds touching this great affair of our souls 1. One of the first things is a procuring from men or Gods working in them a fixedness of thoughts upon the things which concern their salvation or damnation a keeping their minds upon them Before this is done men may have many fluctuating thoughts about God and Christ Heaven and Hell and about the way of escaping the one and of obtaining the other and yet be little or nothing the better for them For these being things out of sight and remote from the senses there are a multitude of other thoughts which throng into the mind from external objects that lie open to the senses which scatter and divide yea and which in a great measure exclude and thrust out of the mind those other more necessary thoughts The thoughts and cares about the Farm the Merchandize the Oxen and the marrying of a Wife spoken of in the Parable yea and worse than these about unlawful pleasures and undue seeking of honours these so entertain and take up mens minds that thoughts of God and another World and the great concerns of Religion which have not the advantage of making their way into the mind by the senses have little or no room there Hence comes the sin of forgetting God so much spoken of in Scripture which carries in it a forgetting our accountableness to him and consequently a forgetfulness of all those things which depend upon ourminding of these Now while thoughts of this nature rule and bear sway in the mind and other thoughts are onely now and then floating there without any setled abode these latter can have no powerful influence to alter the standing temper of the mind or to change the motions and operations of the will which yet are necessary to the performing of the condition of the Promise And therefore one of the first things as I say which God does in assisting men in the performance of the condition of the promise is to stay and six their thoughts upon the things which concern their salvation Though their thoughts are and must be exercised about the things of this present life yet their thoughts about their souls and another World are so fixed by God in their minds when thus assisted by him that they are continually intermingling themselves with their other thoughts and correcting their extravagancy and exercising a power over them Here now they dwell though they must give some place to other necessary thoughts yet so as that they are never long absent but still return into the mind Thus the good Ground hearers which bring forth fruit with patience are said to be such as having heard the Word keep it Luke 8.15 that is they keep it on their minds so as that it is not stolen out of their hearts by the evil one by filling the mind with other things as it befals the Stony ground hearers nor choaked or stifled in its operation by an over-powering multitude of other thoughts about things grateful to the flesh as about riches and pleasures and lusts of other things as it is in the Thorny ground hearers Not as if where God thus sixeth the thoughts upon their principal objects that there he gives memories to retain all they hear that is not meant by their keeping the word but that such keep upon their minds the scope and substance of those points of the Christian Religion as are necessary to their salvation as the fruit of all their Hearing It is the ingrafted Word which is able to save the soul Jamâ—◠〈…〉 21. that is as it is ingrafted upon the mind by setled thoughts and sixed consideration without which men may hear all the days of their life and yet be but as the silly women S. Paul speaks of laden with sins and led away with divers lusts who were always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth 2 Tim. 3.6 7. The Lord made David wise through his Word but it was by keeping it and his mind together Thou saith he through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies for they are ever with me I have more understanding than all my Teachers for thy testimonies are my meditation Psal 119.98 99. Thus when the Lord assisted Lydia in the business of her believing he opened her heart so that she attended to the things which were spoken by Paul She held her self to them so the Dutch Translators render it she kept her mind staid upon them by serious consideration And this we see was the effect of Gods operation upon her mind he opened her heart so that sheattended Acts 16.14 It is God that thus puts his Law into mens minds that pitcheth and terminateth their thoughts upon the things contained in it according to the tenour of the New Covenant Heb. 8.10 This is one thing wherein the Divine Assistance doth consist 2. Another thing is the Holy Spirits operation upon the mind enabling it by the light of the Gospel to discern the nature tendency and usefulness of the things discovered and revealed by the Gospel By mans Apostasie from God and customary sinning the mind is darkened the eye of the understanding corrupted and thereby to a great degree rendred impotent and unable to discern things discovered by the Gospel to be what they are though set before it Like the man in the Gospel who while imperfectly cured of his blindness saw men walking as Trees they have and can have in that state but confused and indistinct notions of spiritual things if the eye be evil the whole body is full of darkness This being mans case there
is need of a Divine Power to work some cure upon the Eye of the mind to discern aright concerning the things of the Gospel David had some sense of this upon his mind when he prayed thus unto God Open thou mine eyes that I may behold the wondrous things of thy Law Psal 119.18 The Disciples had not right notions of things revealed by the Scriptures concerning Christ until our Saviour opened their understandings to understand the Scriptures Luke 24.45 When the Veil is taken away so that men with open face behold the glorious things of the Lord in the Gospel it is by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 Though the hope of the Christians calling and the riches of the glory of Gods inheritance in the Saints are revealed in the Gospel yet S. Paul knew for all that that there was need of having the eyes of the understanding inlightned to know and discern what those are and therefore prayed unto the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for it in the behalf of the Ephesians c. 1.17 18. And if these Christians after they believed stood in need to have the eyes of their understanding further enlightned by God in order to a more clear and full prospect of the gloriousness of the Hope set before them for the strengthening and encouraging them to persevere and hold out in their obedience to the Gospel then doubtless they much more stood in need of some enlightning by God in this kind to enable them at first to begin to be sincerely obedient In the dark men are apt to mistake one thing for another so before this illumination of the mind by the Spirit of God they are apt to call evil good and good evil to put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter to chuse evil under the notion of good and to refuse good under the notion of evil But when the light of the Law and Gospel are let into the mind by which every thing is discovered and discerned in its true shape and colour then Sin and Vertue appear to be what they are in their own nature sin to be sin indeed and vertue and goodness to be vertue and goodness indeed Then sin appears in the turpitude deformity and malignity of its nature and in its tendency to the ruine of the subject in which it dwells and righteousness vertue and goodness appear in their beauty and usefulness and in their tendency to the happiness of such in whom they dwell For instance Before this illumination men are apt to mistake the doctrine of the grace of God which brings salvation and to think they shall be saved because Christ died for sinners and because they believe he did so especially if they be but now and then troubled in their minds and sorry for their sins and do pray God to pardon them though they still continue in them But when the eyes of their understanding are opened to see things as they are and are represented in the Gospel then they perceive none shall be saved by the death of Christ what ever their belief may be but such as shall be persuaded by the great motives of the Gospel to be reconciled to God by being reconciled to their Duty throwing down the weapons of their rebellion and becoming universally sincerely obedient to his government according to the Laws of Jesus Christ This illumination of the mind by God contributes so much towards mens performing the condition of the promise that the whole of their conversion is sometimes meant in Scripture when but this only is mentioned Heb. 10.32 3. Another part of the Divine Assistance afforded unto men in performing the condition of the promise is the Holy Spirits operation upon the will to assist it in what is proper to it in performing of the condition of the promise For what ever sense there is begot in men of the danger they are in by reason of sin or whatever illumination is wrought in the mind touching the way and method laid down by God of escaping that danger yet until the will be changed and wrought to a firm resotion of complying with the terms on which the promise of pardon and life through Christ is made the work is not done the person is not regenerate nor in a regular capacity of enjoying what is conditionally obtained by Christ and conditionally promised through him Men are not begotten of God nor born of God as the Scripture speaks of some that are they are not begotten by the word of truth nor born again of the immortal seed of the Word until the change be made in the will as well as in the understanding and when ever it is made it is the effect of a divine operation It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure Phil. 2.13 Now in that assistance which is vouchsafed unto men in renewing them in their wills in working in them to will several things are to be considered 1. The Holy Spirit disposeth the Will to be passive in reference to those notices given by the enlightned mind and understanding touching those things which have been discovered to it by the Gospel through the illuminating operation of the Spirit upon it The Will having been accustomed to busie and exercise it self about other objects such as the senses have presented to it things that concern onely this present world and life it will hardly suffer any passage for heavenly and divine things which are strangers to it without some divine operation of the Spirit to incline the will thereto or to open a passage for them Which is done I conceive by suspending the evil influence which the will had upon the understanding in keeping or with-holding it from considering with any seriousness and frequency the things that concern the soul and another life And if the understanding be but at liberty seriously and frequently to consider such things as well as those that concern onely this present life the will then cannot but see and taste them to be better because the mind and judgment in such case cannot but represent them to the will as much better and as things wherein the happiness of our nature is much more concerned than in any than in all the things of this world God in taking off the will from the foresaid bad influence it had upon the considerative faculty takes away the heart of stone the Scripture speaks of For the heart of stone which God said he would take away signifies the inflexible temper of the will and the resistance it makes against the understandings taking those things into serious consideration which tend to persuade the will to alter its purposes and to alter its choice of objects Mens not considering things that concern their souls and another life when yet they can and do consider things that relate to the animal life is justly imputed to the faultiness of their wills they do not consider them because they will not