ESSAY V. I59 scend to our frailty, and-teach us to conceive of the infinite- and eternal things of God, by way of time and succession, that we may obtain a fuller and clearer understanding of them ; for no created mind is capacious enough to grasp all the divine decrees in one single thought, as that God does who formed them. It should be observed also, that though the actions of the soul of man are generally produced in a successive way, yet sometimes two or three of these acts are so swift in their succes sion, and so nearly simultaneous, or at thesame moment thatthey areblended together, or are so interwoven in many cases, that it is hard to say, which is first, and which is last : And many times also, in one and the same act of the soul, there are such diffe- rent views and designs concurring, as may make it look like two or three distinct actions So returning to God by Jesus Christ, includes in it both repentance, with all the acts contained therein, as well as faith, with all its subordinate motions; it is re- pentance, as it is a return to God ; it is faith, as Jesus Christ is the medium of this return. I put in this caution- here, only to shew that we are not to "expect every single sinner át<sat returns to God by Jesus Christ, must have all these. particular motions of the soul, -or -all these transactions sensibly passing through his mind, and that in the same order as is here represented ; yet the representation of these things in some rati- onal order, may greatly help the conception of the whole, and give persons somewhat of a more clear and more distiuctidea of it.' Let us then here-take a survey of those "several steps, whereby God may be supposed to draw near to fallen man, in order to his recovery, and thereby we shall learn what cor- responding steps sinners must take, in order to their coming to God." I. The blessed God surveying his lower creation, beheld all mankind as creatures in general fallen from his image and his love, and at a wide and dreadful distance from their Creator. Compare Ps. xiv. 2, 3. with Rom. iii. 9-12. "TheLord look- ed down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand and seek God : theyare allgone, aside, they are altogether become filthy ; there is none that doth . good, no, not one. This text of the psalmist is cited by the apostle in Rom: iii. 9--12. to prove that all mankind is afar off from God by nature ; and therefore I mayjustly use this scrip- ture, to prove that God beheld us in this fallen state ; he saw us lie under the righteous condemnation of his broken law, justly exposed to misery, and deserving his indignation and wrath, under a sentence of death, and yet still going farther from him without his fear or his love. Now in correspondence with this view, which God has taken
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