man he is. James i. 23. As the light of the fun difcovers the little motes, fo the light of the word fhining into confcience, difcovers little *fins. 2. The word hath vim legislativam, the power of a law; it gives law to the whole foul, binds confcience; it is therefore frequently called the law in fcripture, unless thy law had been my delight, &c. Pfal. cxix. 92. To the law and to the teftimony. Ifa. viii. 20. This is fpoken of the whole word of God, which is therefore called a law, because of its binding power upon the conscience. 3. It hath vim judacativam, a judging power. John xii. 48. "The word that I have fpoken, the fame fhall judge him in the laft day." The fentence that God will pafs upon finners hereafter, is no other than what the word paffeth upon them here; the judgment day of God, is not a day wherein God will pafs any new fentence, but it is fuch a day wherein God will make a folemn pubiic ratification of the judgment paffed by the miniftry of the word upon fouls here; this I gather clearly from Matth. xviii. 18. "Whatfoever ye fhall bind on earth, fhall be bound in heaven, and whatfoever ye shall lofe on earth, fhall be loofed in heaven." So that by bringing a man's heart to the word, and trying it by that, he may quickly know what that fentence is that God will pafs upon his foul at the last day; for as the judgment of the word is now, fuch will the judgment of God be concerning him in the laft day. day. Indeed there is a two-fold power further than this in the word. It hath "vim plafticam, & vim falvificam." A begetting and faving power; but this is put forth only upon fome. But the other is more extenfive, and hath a great caufality upon a profeffion of goodness, even among them that have no grace. A man that is under this three-fold power of difcerning law and judgment, that hath his heart ranfacked and discovered, his conscience bound and awed, his state and finful condition judged and condemned, may take up a refolution of a new life, and convent himself to a great profeffion of religion. 3. A man may go far in this courfe of profeffion, from affection of applaufe and credit, and to get a name in the world; as it is faid of the Pharifees, "They love to pray in the market-places, and in the corners of the streets to be feen of men." Matth. vi. 5. Many are of Machiavel's principle, that the appearance of virtue is to be fought; because tho' the use of it is a trouble, yet the credit of it is a help. Jerom in his epiftle to Julian, calls fuch, "Popularis in aure vilia mancipia," the bafe bond flaves of common fame. Many a man doth that for credit, that he will not do for confcience, and own religion more for the fake of luft, than for the fake of Chrift; thus making God's ftream to turn the devil's mill. Fourthly, It is from a defire of falvation; there there is in all men a defire of falvation; it is natural to every being, to love and feek its own prefervation; who will fhew us any good? Pfal. iv. 6. This is the language of nature feeking happiness to itself. Many a man may be carried fo far out in the defires of falvation, as to do many things to obtain it. So did the young man, "Good master, what good things fhall I do that I may inherit eternal life? He went far, and did much, 0beyed many commands, and all out of a defire of falvation; fo then, put thefe together, and there is answer to that question. The call of confcience. The power of the word. The affection of credit.-And, Thefe may carry a man fo far, as to be almoft a Chriftian. The third question propounded, is this: Queft. Thirdly, Whence is it, that many are but almost Christians, when they have gone thus far? What is the cause of this? Anf. I might multiply anfwers to this queftion, but I fhall inftance in two only, which I judge the moft material. First, It is for want of right and found conviction; if a man be not throughly convinced of fin, and his heart truly broken, whatever his profeffion of godlinefs may be, yet he will be fure to mifcarry; every work of conviction is not a through work; there are convictions that that are only natural and rational, but not from the powerful work of the spirit of God. Rational conviction is that which proceeds from the working of a natural conscience, charging guilt from the light of nature, by the help of thofe Koinai ennoiai, common principles of reafon that are in all men. This is the conviction you read of, Rom. ii. 14, 15. It is faid, that the Gentiles which had not the law, yet had their confcience bearing witness, and accufing or excufing one another. The they had not the light of the fcripture, yet had they conviction from the light of nature. Now by the help of the gofpel-light, thefe convic tions may be much improved, and yet the heart not renewed. But then, there is a fpiritual conviction, and this is that work of the fpirit of God upon the finner's heart by the word, whereby the guilt and filth of fin is fully discovered, and the wo and mifery of a natural state diftinctly set home upon the confcience, to the dread and terror of the finner, whilft he abides in that state and condition. And this is the conviction that is a found and through work: Many have their convictions, but not this fpiritual conviction. Query. Now you will fay, fuppofe I am. at any time under conviction, how fhall I know whether my convictions be only from a natural confcience, or whether they be from the fpirit of God? Anf. I should digrefs too much to draw out the folution of this question to its juft length: length: I fhall therefore in five things only lay down the most confiderable difference between the one and the other. I. Natural conviction reaches chiefly to open and fcandalous fins; fins against the light of nature: For natural conviction can reach no farther than natural light. But fpiritual conviction reaches to fecret, inward and undifcerned fins, fuch as hypocrify, formality, lukewarmness, deadness, and hardness of heart, &c. Obferve then, whether your trouble for fin looks inward as well as outward, and reaches not only to open fins, but to fecret lufts, to inward and fpiritual fins; and if fo, this is a fure fign of the work of the spirit, because the trouble occafioned by these fins, bears a more immediate relation to the holiness of God, who only is offended by them, they being fuch as none elfe can fee or know. 2. Natural convictions deal only with a man's conversation, not with his state and condition; with fins actual, not to original: But fpiritual conviction reaches to all fins, to fins. of heart, as well as fins of life; to the fin of our nature, as well as the fins of practice; to the fin that is born in us, as well as the fin that is done by us. Where the spirit of the Lord cometh to work effectually in a foul, he holdeth the glafs of the law before the finner's eyes, and openeth his eyes to look into the glafs, and to fee all that deformity and filthinefs that is in his heart and nature. The Apo ftle |