believe the Doctrine of Religion so as that he maketh no question of the truth thereof he doth well and he ought to be thankful for this common light and help of the spirit for all men have not this Faith of Assent to the truth of Christian Religion Yea at some special seasons of temptation a Child of God may be much troubled about some main points of the Gospel but the God of all Grace will after they have seen their own weakness a while and been greatly humbled established them and settle them again But I say that a meer Assent to the truth of Religion is not enough to prove a man to be converted for that may be without the true love and liking of Religion in the heart That believing in Christ which is peculiar to those that are saved may be thus described It is a principle infused by the Spirit of God into the heart whereby a poor sinner inlightned to see the truth of Christian Religion and convinced of his lost and miserable estate by sin and taken off from all hope and confidence in himself doth trust and rely upon Jesus Christ our great high Priest and Mediatour to be pardoned and accepted and be made an Heir of Eternal life through him The nature of this Grace may be further understood by considering how it is set forth by various expressions in the Scripture 1. 'T is called a trusting in Christ or a hoping in Christ Ephes 1.12 13. That we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ In whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth Now this Expression holds forth thus much to us That when a poor Sinner is convinced of his miserable estate by sin if the Lord have a gracious purpose to him he will take him off from trusting in any thing in himself to justifie him in Gods sight and reveal the Lord Jesus Christ to him the onely Redeemer and mighty to save and so enable the poor Sinner to trust in him and lay the whole weight and stress of his Soul upon him 2. Believing in Christ is called a flieing for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us in the Gospel Heb. 6.18 When the Soul is said to flee for refuge it is an illusion to the City of refuge under the Law to which the Man-slayer was to flee from the Avenger of blood and it is to shew that when the Lord converts a Sinner he maketh him see the danger he is in he maketh him cry out O the Avenger of blood O the wrath of God is fit to overtake me How shall I escape What shall I do The Lord fills a poor Sinner with fear and solicitousness about his condition as the Man-slayer under the Law was about the saving of his life from the Avenger of blood If the Lord take delight in us to make us his people he will convince us of sin and make us see that the Curse of the Law is pursuing of us to take vengeance on us for our sins and make us cry out for a City of refuge and will shew us that all other things are but refuges of lies and that the Lord Jesus is the onely City of refuge and safety for a poor Sinner to flee unto he is the strong City the salvation that is in him will be as Walls and Bulwarks about a poor guilty Sinner for ever that gets into him Till Sinners be sensible of sin and see in what an evil case and condition they are the vengeance of eternal fire being ready to seize upon them they regard not a City of refuge what care they for Jesus Christ let others look after him and take him that see their need of him they apprehend no danger in their present condition they see no need of an Ark for the saving of their Souls they see no deluge of wrath coming till it may be 't is too late and then they cry out an Ark an Ark a Christ a Christ when their day of Grace is past They see no need of a City of refuge they think they are safe and well enough what should they sear till it may be the time is past and the Gate of the City of refuge shut against them then O who shall bring us into the strong City Who will bring us into the City of refuge O a Christ a Christ to save me or else I am now even now sinking into the bottomless Pit But as many as are ordained to eternal life shall believe on the Name of the Son of God to them he shall be precious they shall make him their strong City their hiding place their Tower of defence and City of refuge There is another Expression in this place to set forth the work of believing and the Nature of it when the Apostle shews that the design of the Soul in its coming to Christ is to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us in him namely the hope of pardon salvation and eternal life The Lord shews a poor Sinner that as much as he hath broker the Law yet there is One that came to seek and to save lost sinners and that there is hope set before miserable sinners in the Gospel and so Christ is called our hope 1 Timâ— 1.1 the Object and Ground of Hope He it whom there is hope for poor sinners Now then the laying hold of this hope is believing on Christ Many never knew what it was to fear and tremble and see what a storm their sins had raised that they were in danger to be cast away for ever nor ever yet knew what it was to Iay hold on the hope that iâ— through Christ to be as the Anchor foâ— their Souls both sure and stedfast to holâ— them and keep them from eternal ship wracks By the way if any shall say in these Expressions about believing here is no mention of the Souls submitting to Christs Lordship consenting to be ruled and governed by him renouncing the dominion of sin I answer that Frame of spirit that Principle is wrought in all that do truly believe but there is so much spoken in the Scripture of Faith under these notions of trusting on Corist fleeing for refuge to him and laying hold on the hope that is set before us in him for such reasons as these following 1. Because although when a Soul is converted he takes Christ as a Sanctifier as well as a Saviour and is affected with the filth of sin as well as the guilt of sin yet the principal thing that the Soul is affected withall the first is What shall I do to be saved As the Jaylor cried out Acts 16.13 This is not yet so fully his great question What shall I do to be sanctified But O how shall I be saved from Hell and eternal damnation that I may not have the wrath of God abide upon me for ever and so the poor sinner is directed to spy out
think that this work of Regeneration is the matter of our Justification By Grace we are saved freely by Grace through the Redemption which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. The work of Conversion and the Graces of the Spirit wrought in us do only accompany Salvation as the Apostle speaketh Hebr. 6.9 are wrought in those that are saved and go along with them and accompany them to Heaven Yea those Graces for the substance leave them not when they have accompanied them thither but are persected here But the work of Conversion is called a saving work of the Spirit because it is wrought in all them and onely in them who are saved by the free grace of God in Christ Now my way will be clearer to proceed Secondly We have as we are in the state of Nature lost the Image of God consisting in spiritual knowledge holiness and righteousness Regeneration is wrought in those that are saved to deliver them from this part of their Misery Man was at first made upright made in the Image of God in respect of those spiritual and heavenly Endowments he was furnished with But it is otherwise with us by our Fall our Vnderstanding is darkned like Sampson our Eyes are put out That glimmering of light to know that there is a God and that some things are evil and some things good seems rather to be a new Gift of God and common Illumination of the Spirit since the Fall of Adam to be some curb and restraint to Sin in the World then any remainder of Gods Image which was upon us in our first Creation For the peace of Gods Church for the benefit of humane Society and such like reasons God bestows this common illumination and conviction upon men without which this World would be like Hell and men would be like Devils Marvel not at this saying that men would be so vile if it were not for this common illumination of the Spirit and common light that God giveth to the Sons of Men seeing the Nature of Man is wholly corrupted and the thoughts of his heart are evil and onely evil and that continually A dangerous mistake it is of the people commonly called Quakers that they make the heeding and attending to this common light to be Conversion which thing is to be found among many sober Heathens But it is not to be much wonder'd at in that People seeing they are generally very Ignorant even of the very Fundamentals of Religion 'T is true this common light is a great Gift of God to the World to keep up some Peace and Order and common honesty amongst men But the New Birth and true Conversion is a thing of a far higher Nature consisting in a more special Illumination of the Spirit to shew us our lost estate by Nature and to reveal Christ to us as an Object of Faith and it is such a work of the Spirit upon the Soul as doth enable us to believe on the Name of the Son of God to mourn for Sin to hate Sin and to walk in Obedience unto God not meerly from Convictions of Conscience and fear of the Wrath to come but from a delight to do the Will of God and a fixed Principle of Gospel ingenuity and gratitude to God for the exceeding riches of his Grace and kindness towards us through Christ Jesus But for a further discovery of the depravedness and corruption of our Nature whereby it may appear that there is such a need of a new Birth and Conversion let us consider things more particularly 1. As was touched before There is wonderful ignorance in men about Heavenly things It is an amazing thing if you enquire into people yea those that are grown to be Men and Women yea many that have gray hairs upon them how ignorant they are about Adams Fall Man's lost estate by Nature the Incarnation of Christ and redemption by him And if so many be so grosly ignorant amongst us where they have the Bible in their own Tongue and where they live under the Preaching of the Word and such helps to get Knowledge how ignorant and spiritually blind are we by Nature and without the means of light 2. There is a strange carelesness in man about his future and Eternal State looking only at these seen things which are temporal That except a man be awakened and roused up by Afflictions or Convictions of the Spirit men are in a profound and deep sleep and take no care what shall become of their Souls when they die and go hence But live without studying of the Scriptures without serious and constant praying to God without speaking of Heavenly matters at all as if they had not immortal Souls that must be happy or miserable for ever in another World And if one tell them of Heaven and Hell and that upon this moment depends Eternity they think a man is Brain-sick and Fantastical 3. There is a proneness yea a strong bent and inclination in man to all evil To Blaspheming of God to Murder to Theft to Covetousness to all kinds of Uncleanness to Drunkenness to Lying and though by education company employment terrors of Conscience fear of punishment from God or man respect to name and reputation in the World and by the temper and constitution of the Body this wicked bent of the heart may be much curbed and kept in yet there is in all by nature such an evil frame and disposition that there is no sin so black so horrible so hainous but man is prone to it 4. There is in man not only an Indisposition but Opposition of the heart to any thing that good is not onely to Gospel Grace and Holiness to believe in Christ to repent and to walking in the Spirit but even to Civility and Morality and those things which yet natural men many times do So that I take that common change that is in men from the grossest vices to some sobriety temperance and justice to proceed not from the power of corrupt nature but from a kind of common Grace and common Illumination of the Spirit which God distributeth to man as it pleases him to make him useful to humane Society If there be any need to enlarge upon this Subject to shew the Sinfulness and Corruption of man by Nature omitting many other ways of Sin let us but seriously consider the Sins of the Eye the Sins of the Tongue and the Sins of the Thoughts 1. The Sins of the Eye shew the wonderfull corruption that is within the heart of man Sin within in the heart sits looking out at those Windows of the eyes and there when it seeth a suitable Object how it lusts after it When we see beauty then we have wanton eyes when we see fine houses and riches we have covetous eyes or envious eyes when we view our own gifts and greatness and converse with those that are below us what scornful eyes and looks have we The eye is a curious piece of Gods workmanship all
by the Ministry of the Word as if he himself had spoken immediately from Heaven to them by name and so the Lord hath made that unlikely time the time of love and the Day of his power to their Souls Sometimes when Ministers have been straightned in their affections and expressions in Preaching more then they have used to be that they have gone on heavily in the work and haver reflected upon their service with much humiliation to their own Spirits yet God hath sometimes done much by such weak means and converted some effectually at that time that there hath been more good done at that time then at many other times so far as comes to their knowledge when they have been much assisted in the work God knows how his faithful Servants would preach and set forth his truth and he is pleased to enlarge things by the inward light of his Spirit upon the minds of the hearers sometimes above what they did sufficiently clear to them All these Observations run into this that God worketh all in all he is the Author and Finisher of our Faith and that Ministers can do no good nor People that hear them receive any good but as it is given from above and when he will work nothing shall let it not the ignorant indisposedness and prejudice of the hearers nor the defects and weakness of his Servants that speak in his Name 3. Some of the worst natural tempers not onely of the weakest parts but of most froward and cross Spirits are wrought upon by the grace of God and men of ripe wits and of more affable and courteous natures are never converted unto God Those differences among men that arise from their constitutions of body whether it be for the better or the worse alter not the case God hath mercy on whom he will have mercy God can convert those who are of the worst natural tempers and without he infuse grace those who are of the sweetest natural dispositions will never turn unto the Lord yea the composedness of their natural temper may turn much to their prejudice making them think they are in a good estate because they do not break out into such passions and intemperances that others are very Subject to although they know nothing of any New birth and sanctifying work of the spirit upon their souls 4. Some very dissolute and prophane persons are converted and many others that are free from such gross vice are never born again Publicans and Harlots and such as the theif upon the Cross are sometimes brought to a sight of their sins and to repent and believe in Christ when others that never were so vile go on quietly resting in their formality and morality and never see their need of Christ and a work of grace upon their hearts and so perish for ever When God doth convert men that have been notorious Sinners filled with all unrighteousness drunkards swearers scoffers at Religion and old in sin too habituated and accustomed to all kind of evil he proclames unto us that the power of converting souls is of God and not of man It is true it doth require the exceeding greatness of Gods power to convince a proud Pharisee that trusteth in himself that he is righteous and despiseth the righteousness of Christ that he is in the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity and to bring him as a poor lost and undone Sinner to seek for life from Christ and in some respects such have greater difficulties to be carried thorough to Christ then others yet in regard that some of the other sort are so outragious in sin and almost down right Atheists that make a mock and jear of all religion and regard of God and the world to come if the Lord please to convert such as sometimes he doth the exceeding greatness of Gods power shines forth most eminently therein When the passages of mens Conversion shall be known in the world to come it will be matter of everlasting wonderment and astonishment to Angels and men for then it will appear that God is to be admired for his free grace and the exceeding greatness of his power to all that believe Lastly that I may stand no longer upon this Point let us consider a few places of Scripture more that beyond all contradiction to establish this truth that conversion is wrought in the soul of man by the power of God alone It is said the exceeding greatness of his power worketh towards them that believe and that according to his mighty power which wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead Ephes 1.19 20. He that hath wrought us to the self same thing is God 2 Corin. 5.5 Hence it is a very proper expression that wee commonly use when we speak of mens conversion to say they were wrought upon at such a time for indeed except God had wrought them by the exceeding greatness of his power to this self same thing they had never turned from Sin to Christ A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you I will take away the heart of stone and give you an heart of flesh Ezek. 36.26 27. In Conversion the habit of grace is secretly infused into the heart as life into a dead man the soul is passive at first hence it is said of God in reference unto this work Jam. 1.18 That of his own will begat he us of his own will that shews it is of his own meer grace and when it is said he begat us that shews that it is of his own power and that the Soul is first passive in the work When a Soul is converted it doth repent and doth act saith on Christ and is active in a way of Grace but first the Lord begets us spiritually and in uses spiritual life We must not imagine that the soul never acts at all first or last and that there are no created habits of grace but first the Lord infuses the habit of Grace wherein the Soul is passive and the Soul being changed and sanctifyed thereby through the help and influence of the spirit exciting and assisting that New spiritual Life put into us we are enabled to put forth acts of Faith Repentance and other Graces First the Lord puts spiritual Life into us and then in him through his concurrence and secret assistance we move and act spiritually and graciously The summe of all is this God first giveth repentance and then we repent God first giveth faith and then we believe All those Scriptures were it is said that God giveth repentance and giveth Faith and worketh in us to will and to do might all be insisted on for further confirmation of this truth That conversion is wrought by the power of God alone Likewise all those Scriptures that set forth the weakness of the Saints even after they are in the state of grace how they yet cry out to be delivered from the body of death what need they