of fear and a'lonifhment, as if no le!fe than ,·ery hell and horror were ready to. feize upon his body and foul. I fay not what meafure of this wrath is poure~ on all men .in the·r converfion. for I fuppofe fome feel more, and fome have ldfe of tt; but I venly believe, fome there are that (in thefe. pangs of the new birt.h) have been fc:orched (as it were) with the very flames of hell, mfomuch that they mtght truly fay wtth Davzd, Godswrath lieth hard upon me, and he hath ajJMI:ed "" wtth all hu waves; Pfal. 88. 7· And no wonder, for this is the time of fear: now it is that Satan firiv~s bufily•to· fiifle the new man in the womb; and therefore he that before dummlhed hts fms, and made ·them appe~r little or nothing in his eyes, when he once fees the man fmltten down intothe place of4!:.1gons, and covered with ;heJhadow ofdeath, then he puts into his mindc his innumerabfe fins, and (that whtch tmmedtately follows) the curfe of the Law and the wrath of God, which he yet makes 111ore grifly and fierce, with a pur– pore' to plunge him into the bottomle!fe_pit of horror artd dcfpair.. By this means he perfwadcd Caill to cry out(when he was mthts cafe).111y punijhment •sgreater than I ca11 bear· or as others tranflate, Mine iniquity isgreater than can be forgiven, Gen. 4• , 3 . And' therefore thus far the unregenerate goes with the man ~orn again;- both have a fight of fin, and fcnfe of wrath, b~t here they part; for the man unregenerate either links under it, or labours to allay tt w1th worldly comforts, ·or fome counter– feit calm: but themall bom ttgain, is onely humbled by it, and feeks the right way to cure it, and at hfl (by the help of Gods Spmt) he pa!fcth qmte through Lt ; I"fnean through this hell upon earth,into the fpiritual pleafures of the Kingdome ofgrace,which Pf1l. 8S. 7· 1., ffal. 44· 19 Gen. 4· r;. is to bebom again] . . . . · ,. . The third flcp isSor rCIV f orfin, and thts tS n?ore pecu!tar to Gods chtlde; there is aforrow, which is a common work ofgrace,whtch an hypocrite may have; and there is aforrctv which is a work of fpecial grace, and this likewife precedes the exercife of faith . Butfome objeCt, c;hrifl mull work thisforrow, or it is goodfornothing; now ·if Chrift be in the foul workingformv, then there is faith; therefore faith mull go before forrow. I anfwer, although it is true that Chrifl cannot be in the foul, but in the fame inflant thtrc is the habit of faith ; yet it follows not that faith is beforef orrow ; for tire liabits of thefe graces are both together, al)d at o ce in the fou~ ; or ,howfoever, it follows not that the foul is enabled by an ad: of fatt flpply Chnlt to tt fclf a!foon as Chrilt . is in the foul, or a!foon as the habit of faith t thfufed into the foul: The quetlion is, whether the foul in rcfped: of us (who can onely judge of the habit by the ael:) cannot be faid to have forrotv or repentance before faith? the queflion i.s not, which the foul hath firfl in refpeel: of Gods gift, but which it afis firft for our apprehenfion ? Surely to us it firft (orrows for fin, and then it afis or exercifeth faith by coming to Chrifl:/ and relying upon Chrifl: for falvation, &c. Obferve, thisforrow is fumetimes taken largely, for the whole work of converfion; fometimes firicrly, for conviCtion, con– tntioll:, and humiliation; in like manner repentance is taken fometimes largely_, andl fomet1mes il:ricrly : By this diftinction it may eafily appear how forrow goes befor~ •·epentanc•, and how repentance goes before faith. Indeed, for the latter is the greater controverfie; but fome reconcile it thus : Repentancehath two parts, the averfion of• the foul fromfin, and the converfion of the foul to God ; the latter part of it .is oneJ.y an effect of fatth, the former part of it, viz... the turningof thd foul from fin is alfo an effect, but not onely an effect; for it is begun before faith, though it be not ended till our !tfe end. Some object, that God works repentance and faith together : But we d,fpute not how God works them, but how the foul aa's them; not which is in the foul firil:, but which appears out of the foul firfi : neither is it any now thing· in Phllo· fophy to fay, Thofe caufeswhich produce an effect, though they be in time together, yet ar~ mutually before one another in order Of nature in divers r,efpe:ts to tlieir feverat caufahttes. Thus a man mult have ~epentance before he have faving and juil:ifyingfaith; and yet a~anmull: have faith before the workof.repentancebe pfrfcCl in the foul. As we ma.mtam repentance to be a preced~nt work·; fo w~deny it not to be a fubfequ~nt c,ffe,fi · And that Sorrow LS before the btrth too, the Apoftle tnbtr(iates, 2 Cor. 7. ~o. t ~dl_r forrow work! repentance, that is,.f orrow prep~res n marrfor repentance, i·t goes a· ore tt and prepares f~r it. And now it is, that GOds Spirit begins to renew his heart, as God htmfelf proclanneth. I.will f'" ane.wfpirit wirhin tlieni, imd I will ta/is the ftony hearroHtof therr bodw, a11d wtligwe rhem(lb"eart of jlejb, Ez.ek. 1 1. 19. his heart that , I > ;, 2 Cor. 7. >it E7.<k 11. it ,
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