'Neither can he know them,' i. e. there is an absolute impossibility in it, that any one remaining in his natural principles, without the assistance of God, should apprehend or conceive the excellency of spiritual objects. So that a man may as soon read the letter of the Scripture without eyes, as understand the mysteries of the gospel without grace. And this is not at all to be wondered at; especially, if we consider the vast and infinite disproportion betwixt the object and the faculty; the object to be apprehended being nothing less than the best of beings, God; and the faculty whereby we apprehend it, nothing more than the power of a finite creature polluted with the worst of evils, sin.

So that I believe it a thousand times easier for a worm, a fly, or any other despicable insect whatsoever, to understand the affairs of men, than for the best of men in a natural state to apprehend the things of God. No; there is none can know God, nor, by consequence, any thing that is really good, but only so far as they are partakers of the divine nature we must, in some measure, be like to God, before we can have any true conceptions of him, or be really delighted with him; we must have a spiritual sight, before we can behold spiritual things; which every natural man being destitute of, he can see no comeliness in Christ, why he should be desired; nor any amiableness in religion, why it should be embraced.

And hence it is, that I believe, the first work that

God puts forth upon the soul in order to its conversion, is, to raise up a spiritual light within it, to clear up its apprehensions about spiritual matters, so as to enable the soul to look upon God as the chiefest good, and the enjoyment of him as the

greatest bliss: whereby the soul may clearly discern between good and evil, and evidently perceive, that nothing is good, but so far as it is like to God; and nothing evil, but so far as it resembles sin.

But this is not all the work that God hath to do upon a sinful soul, to bring it to himself; for though I must confess that in natural things, the will always follows the ultimate dictates of the understanding, so as to choose and embrace what the understanding represents to it, under the comely dress of good and amiable, and to refuse and abhor whatever, under the same representation, appears to be evil and dangerous; I say, though I must confess, it is so in natural, yet I believe, it is not so in spiritual matters. For, though the understanding may have never such clear apprehensions of spiritual good, yet the will is not at all affected with it, without the joint operations of the grace of God upon us; all of us too sadly experiencing what St. Paul long ago bewailed in himself, that 'what we do, we allow not,'' that though our judgments condemn what we do, yet we cannot choose but do it; though our understandings clearly discover to us the excellence of grace and glory, yet our wills overpowered with their own corruptions, are strangely hurried into sin and misery, I must confess, it is a truth which I should scarcely have ever believed, if I had not such daily experience of it but, alas! there is scarce an hour in the day, but I may go about lamenting, with Medea in Seneca, Video meliora, proboque; deteriora sequor; though I see what is good, yea, and judge it to be the better, yet I very often choose the worse.

Rom. vii. 15.

And the reason of it is, because, as by our fall from God, the whole soul was desperately corrupted; so it is not the rectifying of one faculty, which can make the whole straight; but as the whole was changed from holiness to sin, so must the whole be changed again from sin to holiness, before it can be inserted into a state of grace, or so much as an act of grace to be exerted by it.

Now, therefore, the understanding and will being two distinct faculties, or, at least two distinct acts in the soul, it is impossible for the understanding to be so enlightened, as to prefer the good before the evil, and yet for the will to remain so corrupt, as to choose the evil before the good. And hence it is, that where God intends to work over a soul to himself, he doth not only pass an enlightening act upon the understanding and its apprehensions, but likewise a sanctifying act upon the will and its affections, that when the soul perceives the glory of God, and the beauty of holiness, it may presently close with, and entertain it with the choicest of its affections. And without God's thus drawing it, the understanding could never allure the soul to good.

And therefore it is, that for all the clear discoveries which the understanding may make to itself concerning the glories of the invisible world, yet God assures us, it is himself alone that affects the soul with them, by inclining its will to them: for it is God which worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure." So that, though God offer heaven to all that will accept of it, in the holy Scriptures; yet none can accept of it, but such

1 Phil. ii. 13.

but those

whom himself stirs up by his Holy Spirit to endeavour after it. And thus we find it was in Israel's return from Babylon to Jerusalem, though king Cyrus made a proclamation, that whosoever would might go up to worship at the holy city,' yet there was none that accepted of the offer, whose spirit God had raised to go up.' though God doth, as it were, proclaim to all the world, that whosoever will come to Christ shall certainly be saved, yet it doth not follow, that all shall receive salvation from him, because it is certain all will not come; or rather, none can will to come unless God enable him.

So here,

I am sure, to say none shall be saved, but those that will of themselves, would be sad news for me, whose will is naturally so backward to every thing that is good. But this is my comfort, I am as certain, my salvation is of God, as I am certain it cannot be of myself. It is Christ who vouchsafed to die for me, who hath likewise promised to live within me it is he that will work all my works, both for me and in me too. In a word, it is to him I am beholden, not only for my spiritual blessings and enjoyments, but even for my temporal ones too, which, in and through his name, I daily put up my petitions for. So that I have not so much as a morsel of bread, in mercy, from God, but only upon the account of Christ: not a drop of drink, but what flows to me in his blood. It is he that is the very blessing of all my blessings, without whom my very mercies would prove but curses, and my prosperity would but work my ruin.

"Whither therefore, should I go, my dear and

1 Ezra, i. 3, 5.

blessed Saviour, but unto thee? Thou hast the words of eternal life.' And how shall I come, but by thee? Thou hast the treasures of all grace. O thou, that hast wrought out my salvation for me, be pleased likewise to work this salvation in me; give me, I beseech thee, such a measure of thy grace, as to believe in thee here upon earth: and then give me such degrees of glory, as fully to enjoy thee for ever in heaven."

ARTICLE IX.

I believe God entered into a double covenant with man, the covenant of works made with the first, and the covenant of grace made in the second Adam.

THAT the most high God should take a piece of earth, work it up into the frame and fashion of a man, and breathe into his nostrils the breath of life,' and then should enter into a covenant with it, and should say, 'Do this and live,' when man was bound to do it, whether he could live by it or no, was without doubt, a great and amazing act of love and condescension; but that, when this covenant was unhappily broken by the first, God should instantly vouchsafe to renew it in the second Adam; and that too upon better terms, and more easy conditions than the former, was yet a more surprising mercy: for the same day that Adam eat the forbidden fruit did God make him this promise, that the seed of the woman should