When a sinner is sanctified Of Sanctification Which may be considered In the cause of it he is then made alive At this I suppose the Text doth principally aim This Life is considerable 1. In the Cause of it which is no other but the Spirit of Jesus Christ who unites Christ and the Soul together and upon this union the Soul is quickned with the life of Christ I live by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2. 20. 2. In the Nature of it it is a novum spirituale esse which doth regenerate the man and as it were create him In the nature of it again The Scripture stiles this quality a new creature and the new man It is an holy living principle In a word this life is nothing else but the Grace of the Spirit regenerating and renewing the whole soul of a sinner It is saving light set up in the Mind and saving wisdome set up in the Judgment and saving grace set up in the Will and Affections which alter the old sinfull nature in man and are a new spiritual inclination to matters that are spiritual yea and a new spiritual ability or power in the whole soul of man to work that is spiritual Whereas the Understanding could not know the things of God now it is enabled to know them and to admire them and to study them whereas the Will was both unable to good and unwilling to good and only set on what was evil now being quickned by Grace it is drawn off from that affectionate inclination to evil and it is bent and inclined and in some measure enabled to desire Christ to love Jesus Christ to fear God to obey God and to walk with God And when this comes into the heart of a sinner he is said to be alive again Shall I draw out my thoughts of this Subject more clearly unto When a sinner is made alive Jesus Christ applies himself unto the soul and breaths into it the breath of life you Take me then thus When any sinner is made spiritually alive 1. Jesus Christ applies himself to the Soul and he breaths into it the Spirit of Life He doth with a poor dead soul much like as Eliah did with the Shunamites dead child who lay upon the child and put his mouth upon the childs mouth and his eyes upon the childs eyes and his hands upon the childs hands and he stretched himself upon the child and the flesh of the child waxed warm So the Lord Jesus applies himself by his Spirit to the soul of a sinner to all the soul of a sinner and works mightily in it producing knowledge in a blind mind and feeling in an hard heart and faith in an unbelieving spirit and all his Graces in the whole Soul 2. Which gracious principles He puts in living principles are all of them living principles and alter all the soul and incline it spiritually So that the man who cared not for God nor Christ nor Grace nor holy Duties heretofore now his soul bends to these and he minds these and he is never better than when he is thinking of God and mourning for his sins and thirsting for Christ and praying to God and hearing of the Word of God this is his desire and this is his delight 3. There is a power in these principles of spiritual life A power There is power of spiritual life in these principles against his sins so that now he can hate them and say What have I to do any more with Idols Get ye hence And a power in his affections so that now he is able to love God above all and able to fear God and not displease him willingly And a power in his will so that now he is able to come to Christ and cleave to Christ as his onely happiness And a power to spiritual actions so that he is now able to hear and understand to pray and wrestle to pray and believe to believe and repent Quest 2. How it may be evidenced that the converted man is How this may be evidenced thus made spiritually alive Sol. Thus 1. Every converted man hath a living union with Jesus Christ he is brought into He hath a living union with Christ fellowship with Christ Now Jesus Christ is a living Head and all his members are living Members 1 Joh. 5. 12. He that hath the Son hath life And Joh. 6. 51. I am the living bread if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever 〈◊〉 2. All true grace is of a living nature False grace is a dead thing it True grace is of a living nature hath no life and can give no life but true grace is living True â—aith is a living faith I live by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2. 20. And true hope is a living hope 1 Pet. 1. 3. God hath begotten us to a lively hope 3. Every converted man is the child of the living God he is born of the Spirit who is the Spirit of life He is a child of the living God God is not the God of the dead but of the living and God as a Father never begets any dead Children All his children are begot after his own image they are partakers of the Divine nature and that is a living nature 〈◊〉 4. The converted man lives the rest He lives the rest of his life to God of his life unto God 1. Pet. 3. 2. None of us liveth to himself for whether we live we live unto the Lord Rom. 14. 8. Can he possibly live unto the Lord until he be made alive by the Lord What glory can God get by the life of a dead sinner The living the living he shall praise thee as I do this day said Hezâ—kiah Isa 38. 19. God must have much glory from the converted man not only passive glory on him this he hath on wicked men but active glory from him glory from his believing and glory from his obedience which cannot be unless he be made alive spiritually alive The Use of this Doctrine shall be to draw you into a searching acquaintance with your spiritual condition There is not Vse Trial of our selves about our spiritual life a business which can possibly concern you more nearly than this Whether you be children of Death or of Life Whether yet dead in sins or quickned by the life of grace Can it be said of us as here of the Prodigal This my Son was dead but is alive So we were sometimes disobedient ignorant proud vile serving divers lusts but after that the grace of God hath appeared we are alive we have put off those lusts and have other Principles other Natures other Lives Let me offer unto you four Motives to try your souls about their spiritual Motives to this Trial. Life 1. You have enjoyed the means of Life The Gospel is often You have enjoied the means of life called the Word of Life
but the real cause of his sinning is his own will for he loves Darkness rather then Light and had rather serve his Lusts then God he makes choice of them before God as the multitude did of Barrabas before Christ and when Life and Death God and Sin are propounded yea and that with the true rewards from the one and severe wrath from the other yet he like Issachar bowes down under the burthen and loves rest he had rather go on in his sins and will not leave them And therefore we alone are guilty of our own bloud God is innocent as well as just our condemnation is but a due guerdon or paiment for our own voluntary departings from God A third moral Observation is this that The pleasures of sinning will quickly end and the end of them is extreme misery The Prodigal Doct. 3. The pleasures of sin will quickly end in misery here will be gone he must have pleasure his Fathers house was too strict well he begins his â—iotous living but then you read that he quickly consumed and wasted all his substance and brought himself into such extreme necessities that he became a servant to the swine and fain would have fed his belly with the husks which they left but none gave unto him This point I intend more fully to press which contains in it two branches 1. That the pleasures of sinning are but short 2. That though delights and pleasures begin a sinfull course yet extreme necessity and misery or streights do end it 1. The pleasures and delights of sinning are but short The riotous life of the Prodigal was a present consumption of his estate The pleasures of sin are but short The pleasure of sin is like a Candle which in the very burning and lighting burns and consumes away It is in Scripture compared to the crackling of thorns which is but a speedy blaze and to the Lightning which is but a glance and a flash and away and to a season the pleasures of sin for a season Heb. 11. which is a very inch of time a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little article of time for though time be long yet a season is but a short space In Job the pleasure of sin is compared to a sweet morsel a morsel is no great quantity and though it be sweet yet it slips quickly away from the tongue and palate And the Apostle compares it to a bait wherewith a fish is taken the fish looks on and nibbles a little and takes it down and then away goes the bait Cain pleased himself a while but not long for the sin of murther presently pursued and cried against him And Adam before him had but one taste of the forbidden tree it quickly set his teeth on edge Gehazi's gold and garments and Achan's wedge as they were stoln waters and though sweet yet short So was it with Ahab he got Naboths vineyard sinfully but he scarce ever enjoyed it he met with a mighty curse from God presently upon him But here observe that the pleasures of sin may be said to be In respect of estimation short 1. In respect of estimation when the hearts of men judge of them as false unlawfull and short Thus Moses esteemed of them and therefore refused the pleasures of sin which were but for a season 2. In respect of duration For if Life itself be not long In respect of duration the pleasures of sin must needs be short It is true that as long as the impenitent soul hath a being the guilt of his sin shall have a being and consistence in the soul but at the utmost sinful pleasures extend not beyond our life their date then of necessity must be expired though usually they are extinguished or interrupted before and life is a very short tale hour moment 3. In comparison In comparison with eternity with eternity though a man should live in the pleasures of sin 20 40 60 years yet what is that space of time to an eternity of sorrows and bitterness Compare the longest time with eternity it is scarce a considerable moment But you may demand Why should the pleasures of sin be so short Sol. Nay Reasons of it you might rather demand Why they should be at all for indeed real pleasure cannot arise out of sinful acts yet a carnal and sensual pleasure there is which is nevertheless short Because 1. Sin is never so pleasant but it breeds that which is Sin is never so pleasant but it breeds that which is unpleasant unpleasant nay the more pleasure we find in it the more displeasure it works like a draught of beer which the more fully and pleasantly drops down the more danger is added to the patient So is it with sin it seems a delightful thing to you to follow your lusts your evil waies but the more you sin the more you increase your guilt and guilt is but a sword to cut the throat of your sinful pleasures It is like sweet poison which goes down easily and delightfully but it will suddenly disturb and crack the body 2. God hath cursed the waies of sin and therefore though they God hath cursed the ways of sin seem pleasant for a while yet that shall not be long he hath hedged it with thorns threatned all evil miserable and judicial evil against it And look as when a good man earnestly presses God upon his promises his sorrowes shall not stay long but sighs and tears shall flie away So when a wicked man provoketh God by his sinnings his pleasures shall be short for the Lord will perform his threatnings against him 3. The pleasures of sin must necessarily be short because conscience Conscience cannot be long quiet cannot be long quiet If you should wound and wound a man he will begin to feel and to complain even your pleasant sinnings are the most grievous woundings of conscience and conscience will not bear it will awake with blood trickling and will be revenged of you with most bitter expostulations severe accusations unsufferable gnawings and then where are the pleasures of your sins Who can stand before envy said Solomon so against conscience the wounds thereof yea and her woundings by it who can bear thy delights will sink and flie off yea thy heart will fail thee utterly when conscience ariseth to accuse and condemn thy sinful pleasures 4. They raise up manifold afflictions and calamities which shorten our pleasures and delights They raise up manifold afflictions But I proceed to the opening of the second branch viz. the endings of sin That though a sinful course may begin in many Sin will end in many miseries pleasures yet it shall end in many miseries extremities and straits There are diverse sorts of ending of things some end by way of annihilation as the souls of the beasts they shall cease to be they are resolved into nothing some end by way of perfection as the souls and waies of
are but stolen waters and at the best but for a season they will end bitterly and on the contrary That Repentance from sin makes way for the most precious fountains of the most living comforts that it enables a man for a nearer conjunction with the truest happiness and fulness of most infinite goodness and lets in to such pleasures and joyes which pass all understanding c. Now the soul is reduced to a right judgment and begins to contemn those false vain deluding temptations by sin and is carried off to another course or way which will afford the real solid superlative advantages in happiness and comfort c. 2. This Comparison will win our love and affection to a Converted and penitent condition It is true that as long as the heart loves This wins our love to a converted condition sin it will never leave it for love is an iron clasp a strengthning quality a strong and tenacious quality but if a mans love be changed then his sinfull wayes will quickly be changed for that way doth the heart and life go that love doâ—h go they are not out who say that Amor is Radix actionum as well as Passionum Now by a right comparison of estates there will appear in a converted and penitent condition the sole and sufficient causes of Love viz. Good and the best good and only good and most proper and sutable good all which is apt to draw love and consequently Repentance for as much as Conversion from sin begins in love to God 3. This comparing of estates in the wofulness of the one and This occasionally stirs up the beat to fly to God by Prayer and in the use of meanes in the happiness of the other that the one is death and the other is life as Moses propounds it to the Israelites occasionally stirs up the heart to fly unto God by prayer and in the use of other means for grace and ability to leave the paths of death and to walk in the wayes of life for naturally men do affect life and happiness and are afraid of death and misery The first Use which I would make of this shall be for Information Use For information Of the cause why many are yet in their sins You here see the Cause why many are yet in their sins that they repent not though we preach though God punisheth though man counsels Surely they never yet did search their hearts and wayes they never did consider of what they have done they are like the Laodiceans who thought themselves to be rich and increased and to stand in need of nothing but they never yet saw their blindness nakedness and extreme poverty and misery There are many duties unto which men will be perswaded as to hear the Word receive the Sacrament give some Almes say some Prayers and now and then to confer of some good but of all the duties which do so nearly concern them they are hardly perswaded to this viz. to consider of their sins 't is true they will confess That all men are sinners and themselves too but as some do with their debts they care not to see and view them so many with their spiritual estates they have no mind to search into them to look them over to meditate of the Vileness of them Consider these things 1. That this inconsideration leaves many a sin already committed upon a sad account God doth consider Considerations to such as doe not Consider their wayes them though we will not they are in his book and before his eye though we will not think and look on them 2. That it ripens sin exceedingly The heart which will not consider of past will break out into sin future it will be high in sinning if negligent in considering he will venture deeply who knows not the nature nor the merit of sinning 3. All the work of Repentance will lye flat and dead Why where can be that brokenness of heart that filial lamentation for sinning that remorse of spirit that indignation that detestation of it that resolution against it that watchfulness and fear until by a sound consideration we come to see the vileness and miserableness of sinning c. He who thinks his way right will not turn aside and that man who knows no better will never leave or change a bad course 4. You advantage Temptations exceedingly You are under the edge and power of them all for you see nothing to hinder you the motions to sin will pass without any contradiction for you know not the evil nor misery of being impenitent Great sins will seem but little little will seem none how easie is he to sin who considers not the great evil in sin 5. All the edge of the Ordinances is blunted and dulled by inconsideration they are but water on the Tiles which passe away For what are Threatnings against sin what operation have they on us to make us tremble and humble our hearts whiles we hear them as Pieces discharged at others not at our selves And so what force have the Precepts for new Obedience or the Promises for much mercy to the Penitent until we see that we are the men as Nathan said to David whom all this concerns 6. You will never prize Christ aright nor the love of God in giving of Christ nor will you ever seek him to purpose with hungrings and thirstings until you do seriously consider of your sinful estates A man if whole will not seek to the Physician and if he hath but a scratch will not send to the Chyrurgion No sense or slight sense of sin hath no influence on ouâ— affections but let a man sadly view and find out that he is bad indeed out with God ready for Hell must perish for sin this man will cry out Is there no Balm in Gilead is there no hope for us sinners He will enquire for a Saviour and when he knows him he will with tears beseech him O the hope of Israel and the Saviour thereof in the time of Trouble Master have mercy on me or else I perish if thou canst do any thing save me 7. You will never come to any true setledness nor grounded assurance of peace with God nor in your own Consciences until you do throughly consider of your sinful conditions and estates For how know you whether you be good or bad in Covenant or out of Covenant with God that he will save you or condemn you what shall become of you when you die Untill you by solid Consideration find out the vileness and miserableness of your sinful condition out of which you must indeed be translated if ever you would be saved or know assuredly that you shall be saved 8. You will not know how to make special requests unto God For you know not the nature nor danger of that pride of that hypocrisie of that uncleanness of that envy and malice c. which are in you When we do not know what our selves
thy owne deceitfull heart which represented the work with more difficulty but now having taken upon thee the yoke of Christ thou shalt find it easie and that God can as well work in thee to do as to will 2. They More Comfortable will be more comfortable Meer purposes cannot spring up such comforts as actings nay even weak actings yield a thousand times more comfort than strong resolutions All the sap in the root doth not make the flower to smell sweet unless that sap comes to a blossome We cannot say our resolutions are solid if unactive If they do not alter the course for ought as we know yet they may be but false flashes occasional impressions not springing from renewing Grace which will break out into practise but from servile causes which may be sufficient to stop a sinner and with Saul to profess he will persecute David no more But when Execution attends Resolution now the heart may be confident that there is a renewing Principle implanted which carries the soul from one degree to another from convictions to resolutions from resolutions to actions from actions to courses with stedfastness and fruitfulness 4. The Soul gets no ground by meer Resolutions It doth neither The soul gets no ground by meer resolutitions alter the inward frame nor mend the outward life that which is of no influence is of no furtherance if the resolution be onâ—y a resolution it is but a dead thing Now I come to the Application of all this to our selves You have seen that penitent resolutions should fall into present executions Vse good purposes should be turned into quick practices The great enquiry will hence be What do we it is observed of some â—â—quire whether it be so with us Nations that they are too soon in the Field and of others too long on the bench too quick in action and too long in consultation I confess that Repentance should begin â—n deliberation and it should descend to resolution but there is more required to building then a preparation of wood and stone Thou hast resolved to leave such and such a sin Oh! in thy last sickness in thy last cross in thy last distress of conscience at the last Sermon didst thou not resolve upon it I will never serve such a lust more I will walk more conscienciously before the Lord But what is done shew me thy Repentance in the acting part as well as in the contriving part thou art still held fast with the Cords of the same lusts and art wallowing still in the same mire and art lingering yet and hastes not to come out of thy sinful wayes Zacheus made haste and came down at once do we do so David thought on his wayes and turned his feet unto Gods Luke 19. 5. Psal 119. 59. Testimonies he made haste and delayed not to keep his Commandments But may not the Lord say of us as he did of the Israelites How long will it be ere they believe me so how long will it be ere we turn indeed from our sins to God 'T is true some resolutions there are working in us oftentimes but like the goodness of Ephraim and Judah Oh Ephraim what shall I do unto thee Oh Judah what shall I do unto thee for your goodness is as a Morning Hos 6. 4. Cloud and as the early Dew it goeth away So is it with many of us we purpose and profess but we fall back to our sins still what we were that we are The time is not yet come said they to build the house of God Hag. 1. Our purposes are past but our executions are still still to come Consider of a few things 1. Why do you resolve at all when yet you execute and act nothing at all Resolutio est opus Why do you resolve at all without execution imperfectum Ordinabile doth not resolution tend to action will God be mocked with meer purposes or think you to charm and satisfie your consciences alwayes upon frequent sinnings to multiply resolutions only Alas if Repentance be not now done it is not yet begun so much as thou dost thou repent'st if sin be yet to be left as yet it is not left and then where art thou as yet but in an impetitent condition 2. Is not Repentance a great work Why then is it not thy present work Thy Soul is embarked It not Repentance a great work why not then thy present work in that Vessel eternity depends upon a moment That which must be done why is it not quickly done and if it be not presently done we may be eternally undone why do we defer the doing of that the best work should have the best time and place 3. Is not thy life a shortest breath a thinnest vapour a flying Post a gleaning shadow every moment we Thy life is very short are dying eat and dye sleep and dye Should not our last work be our present work when our last work may be our next work 4. It cannot be less then presumption to put off the practical It is presumption to put off the practical part of Repâ—ntance part of Repentance Either you must presume upon future life which yet is a Cord that thou canst not lengthen or you must presume on future strength which is a marrow still wasted by a lingring disease or you must presume on Divine Grace which may be an hand justly withdrawn because it was a mercy unjustly referred and delayed 5. You will but harden your hearts the more and skill the way of hypocrisie the more for Deâ—ay hardens the heart the more thus to untwist your Cords wherewith you have so often bound your selves makes you to venture and venture yet a little further yet once more till a little and a little inflames your Souls to much evil and the custome of sinning wears out both the sense of sin and resolutions against it 6. Lastly You do but aggravate your sins the more by naked and empty resolutions against And aggravates our sins by empty resolutions against them them you do not hinder the course of it and you do intensively raise the gult of it for sinning against resolution in a sinning against express light and against a condemning light A person who hath resolved to leave such a course it is supposed that he not only knows it to be evil but likewise condemns it as evil Now it is a great aggravation of sin to continue in it with light revealing and accusing and cutting Obj. But some may say We hope that though our Executions are not so full yet they are real the quality is there thoughâ— the equality be not something we do though not so much Sol. To this I answer 1. That it is most evident that many persons do not by practise and execution answer their resolutions at all their resolution arise from such grounds as will not hold out to an execution and practice If one should
pleaseth and when he pleaseth He hath the command of the heart and grace Take the heart as usually we do for any or all the faculties of the soul yea as corrupted by nature and custome yet God hath a dominion over it and he can make new impressions and divine alterations and inclinations upon it The Understanding naturally is blind and dark unable to unfold and apprehend the morality of conditions actions objects but God can turn it from darkness to light he can imprint on it the clearest light whereby it shall be able to behold what is good and what is evil The Judgment naturally is erroneous it mistakes good for evil and evil for good judgeth sinfull evil as the best and sweetest way condemneth good as most contrary to us to our delights courses ends But God is able to imprint on mans Judgment a discerning and righteously sentencing ability that a man shall not only see his sinfull nature and life but condemn it I was mad saith Paul such a fool a beast was I. They shall remember their evil wayes and loath themselves Hos 2. 7. as his greatest evil and misery and conclude that a new holy penitent life is the best of all lives and that for himself The Conscience is either sleepy or seared naturally But God can awaken it and imprint on it a power to feel sin to complain accuse indite wound and slay the sinner that he shall have no rest as long as he lies in his sinfull condition Sin revived and I died Rom. 7. The Will is naturally averse and perverse it is set against all spiritual good and set upon evil But cannot God alter this Will He can easily turn it about let him but drop in the least degree of Grace and the Will presently wheels about and is as ready and desirous and cleaving to good as ever it was to evil Lord what wilt thou have me to do Act. 9. So for the Affections the Lord hath the dominion over them He can make them to love him as much and more than ever they loved sin and to grieve and to hate and to fear sin c. Get thee hence what have I any more to do with Idols 4. The Lord doth sometimes convert a great sinner to glorifie his God doth this to glorifie his own grace own Grace 1. The power of it that it is able to cure great and strong diseases If ordinary sinners onely were converted men would imagine but a common and vulgar power lay in converting Grace where there is a lesser opposition there a weaker strength may suffice to do the work But if sin be strong now the power of Grace appears in rescuing the soul even from the Gates of Hell and from the Powers of Darkness 2. The riches of it When all the world knows and the man himself knows That there was nothing in him but a vilest heart and lewdest course and yet Divine Grace hath converted him O saith he this was rich Mercy and Grace indeed The Apostle saith That God quickned the dead Ephesians that he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace chap. 2. vers 7. O saith the great sinner now converted never was there such a gracious and such a mercifull God such a kind and loving God I was dead and he hath made me alive I was the greatest of sinners and I have yet obtained the sweetest of mercies I was the greatest Enemy and yet God would be my kindest Friend overcome by Sin and now overcome by Grace falling down into Hell and now lifted up to Heaven so bad that Justice might have had much Glory to damn me yet God hath been so good that Mercy shall have the Glory to save me Vsâ— â—o relieve the troubled Conscience and distressed Conscience You shall find by experience these two Truths 1. That whiles men are in a dead lost vile and unsensible condition they then imagine that their sins are little and mercies great and they have power to turn to God when they please 2. That when they come to be truly sensible of their hearts and ways then their sins appear exceeding great and the mercy and grace of God seem little O! they have withstood the offers of grace and all self-power is gone and the greatness of their sinning is an absolute bar to their conversion And there are eight Reasons why a man made sensible of Reasons why a man sensible of his great sin thinks God will not convert him his great sinnings inclines to think that God will never convert him 1. Because he hath been one who hath exceedingly provoked God to wrath against him He sees great wrath in God and that he hath by his continual sinnings incensed the Lord. O saith he it is mercy that must convert but I have turned a mercifull God into a just God and a kind God into an angry God my great sins have put me into the hands of his great wrath 2. Because such a person sees his condition lying under the threatnings of God and out of the reach of the promises of God God threatning him Warrants issued out to take and arrest him an Arrow levell'd at him God hath said That he will wound the hairy scalp of him that goes still on in his iniquities and that he who hardens his heart being often râ—proved shall be destroyed without remedy Now I have been that sinner 3. Because such a person feels the impressions of Gods displeasure on his Conscience He is in the very hands of wrath Conscience tells him Thou art the man and these have been thy sinnings these have been thy ways and thy doings and Conscience condemns him for one who hath delighted himself in evil and secretly goes and smites him with unavoidable fears and terrours Now when a man feels wrath 't is an hard thing to perswade him that God hath any thoughts and intentions of mercy and grace for him 4. Such a person ordinarily looks more upon the examples of destruction than upon the instances of conversion rather what God hath done against them than for any of them O saith he God in Scripture hath often left such and such great sinners to their As the Israelites Psal 81. 12. 2 Thes 2. Jâ—r 13. 14. own hearts lusts and he hath given them up to Satans delusions and to a reprobate mind and sense and would not have mercy on them he would deal with them no more 5. The distance twixt his greatly sinning soul and converting grace seems to him wondrously large If I had been but sick and weak but can a dead man live should a Rebel be embraced can a Blackmore be made white It is great grace to convert a little sinner but what grace is sufficient to convert so great a sinner 6. He measures the disposition of Divine Grace by the indisposition of his own heart O saith he I have been how long how stubbornly unwilling to receive grace how violent to oppose grace If I
Another is accidental which alters the qualities of man Naaman was the same man when he was a Leper and when he was cured of his Leprosie he was the same for substance of it there was no change but he was not the same for the accidental quality because his leprosie was changed Such a change is there in conversion the sinfull Leprosie is changed and a fair beautiful form of holiness is put into his soul the Glove is now perfumed the bitter water is now seasoned another nature contrary to his former nature is now infused old things are past away all things are become new 2. Cor. 5. 17. Againe observe that the accidental change or alteration of a person is likewise two-fold 1. One is Corruptive which is from good to evil such a change was there in the Angels that fell they fell from heaven to hell from being Children of Light to be the Princes of darkness and such a change was there in Adam that fell O what a change what a sudden loss of great possessions of unspeakable perfections O how good once he was O what a sinner now he is 2. Another is perfective which is from evil to Good Such a change is Conversion Why it is from sin to God It is more then for Joseph to leave the prison and be made a Prince when a man is converted he is now raised and enabled with the nature and life and excellencies of God and Christ true Conversion is a perfecting change One distinction more I cannot omit It is this The perfective change is likewise two-fold 1. Relative and forinsecal as in the Justification of a sinner when a sinner is Justified the state of this sinner is changed before it he was in the state of death and condemnation after it he is in the state of life and absolution 2. Inherent and intrinsecal as here in the conversion of a sinner which is a change within a man a change not so properly of his condition as of his disposition even from one contrary to another and that à Genere ad Genus from one kind of quality to another kind A sinner hath sometimes a contrary motion of good to evil put into him but this is not Conversion for it is not a mutation but a motion A sinners inclination is sometimes withheld that he doth not sin yet this is not conversion for it is a chaining only not a changing of his disposition the Lyon is a Lyon in chains A sinner goes from one sin to another he leaveth his riotousness and turneth to coveteousness he leaveth profaneness and turneth to hypocrisy yet this is not Conversion for his sinful disposition is not altered from kind to kind It is but a shifting from one evil to another evil as the wind from one poynt to another it is not a change from evil to good If a man could leave all the sins in the world and yet he loved and served but one this man is not a converted man because conversion is a change from one kind to a contrary kind which the man comes short of whose heart is still set on any one sin 2. True Conversion is a very great and notable Change It is a very great and not able change there is no change I think in all the world of that height and depth as the conversion of a sinner No not that from Grace to Glory because it is but ab imperfecto and this is à contrario The Scripture doth frequently parallel it even with those changes which are miraculous When Christ made the blind to see and the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak and the dead to live and dispossessed Devils these were very great and notable changes take them single and they were so Now all these miracles are wrought in any one converted person 'T is called a Creation a Resurrection c. because God puts out as much Power in the Conversion of a sinner as he did in creating the World It is the prime work of the Spirit of Christ the top the very highest when any one man is converted the blind is made to see and the deaf is made to hear Isai 29. 18. In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the Book and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness and the dumb is made to speak and the lame is made to leap Isai 35. 5. The eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped v. 6. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart and the tongue of the dumb sing Yea and the dead is made to live This my Son was dead and is alive again and so many sins as there are from which the heart is converted of so many Devils is that heart dispossessed thy filthiness was an unclean Devil and thy persecution was a raging Devil every sin that possessed thee was a strong Devil within thee Oh what a great change is it to behold a stone turned into flesh and yet in Conversion The heart of stone is turned into an heart of flesh Ezek. 36. 26. What a change were it to see a stone changed into a Son of Abraham and yet in Conversion a stony hearted sinner is changed into a Son of God what a change were it to see darkness turned into light yet in Conversion it is so Ye were once darkness but now are ye light in the Lord Eph. 5. 8. What shall I say in Conversion the Bramble becomes a Fig Tree and the Lion becomes a Lamb and the Wilderness is turned into a Paradise and Hell is turned into Heaven the Extortioner turns liberal so did Zacheus the Persecutor becomes a Martyr so did Paul the hideous sinner become a Saint so did Four things seâ— out the greatness of this change Theâ—e is a change of nature in nature the Corinthians the blasphemer now fears an oath There are four things which set out the greatness of the change in a sinners Conversion 1. There is a change of nature in nature there is a man and a man in the same man an old man and a new man in the same man two judgments in one judgment two wills in one will like two Armies in one Field or like the Twins in Rebecca's Womb. 2. There is the strangest unlikeness to a This is in a moment mans self in a moment that ever was in a moment to hate Christ exceedingly and the next moment to love Christ above all to crucifie Christ because he said he was the Son of God and presently confess that he is the Son of God to mock the Apostles as drunkards and presently cry out what shall we do c. this moment to love sin as if it were my only Heaven and the next moment to loath sin as if it were my only Hell Now to count all truth and holiness but as dung to the World and presently to count all the World but as dung