'4 • Be!I&• To•n. ward feaJ, yet WC fee not, we feel riot the manner of the inward working; for this ~ . tr:~~· ";~· alfo is the fccret of the *Spirit of God. Hu.::, 11 r fid(·mhab/l utjl m Sec. D1 Ftcl« conce1 n1ng rhe Aurhour of the grouncls of tllc oM and nc::w Religion S 2 • l'hi~s t /i m irJf.J.IItJl#f pnrentM &. llldlnll/tOJ.e .• U11J:JUS P,,rt: f(cu.nd<~ C11tecJuj quejl.74• Spmnu o;.ratiu Ill porenuw ,llim£ lp[onil~.)ltt1::ellaE. Ho~,·nt.:;,prmumfidct. lanch. tncap. 2 ad Ephtj. Paf,m. Syl!tag. j. 6. c. 37· John 16. 8. !!.cm.S. rs. ln others is t!Je "''" birtli \vrought afrer Baptifm<; fo Polam#: but whether afu·r 1Japtifme, .or in Baprifme, we Will not dtfputc; onely (as the cafe l!ands with us) this I affirm, That there ts no mantfcl!atton of rhe new birth, ~mttl after Baptifme: But when after Bapttfme? I anfwer, whenfoever men recetve Chnll by latth, which though it be many_years after,yet then do they feel the power of God regenerate them, and to work all thmgs m them, whtch he offered m Baptdine. Now the manner vf this feeling (or of Gods Spirit working) proceeds ufually thus: There be certain l!eps of degrecs(fay Divines) by which it paffeth; and howfoever ih thofe whom God hath bleifed with that great favour ot holy and Chril!ian educJtio 11 (the Spirit ~f God dropping grace into theirhearts, even very betimes) thefe l!eps, or degrees, arc not fo eafily percetved: Yet 111 thofe men who have lived long in fin, whofe fins have been groife, and great, and grievous, no foon cr come they to a neov birth but they can feel grace work in them ll:ep after l!ep, and thefe ll:eps we !hall reckon to the number of eight. The fir!! is a fight of fin, and this our Saviour reckons for the fir!! wotk ofthe Spirit, When he is come, he JVi/1 reprove rhe world offin, John i 6. 8. Of fin, how? why thus: no fooner begins this bleifed change from nature to gr~ce, but the confcience (wrought on by Gods Word) opens its book, and prcfents to the foul a bed.roll of thofe many, inighty, hainous fins, committed again!! God artd man; there he may read in bloody burning lines the abominations of his youth, the fins of all his life; and to bring them into method,the Commandments of God !!and as a remcmbranccr before his eyes : the fir!! tells him ofhis loving fomewhat above God: the fecond, of his worfhipping a falfe god, or the true God after a falfe manner : the third, of his difhonouring the great and mighty name of God ; the fourth, of his breaking the Lords dayes, either in do– ing the works ofthe fle!h, or leaving undone the works of the Spirit: tior is this all; as againll: God, fo again!! his neighbour hath he finned : the fifth tells him of his ftub– borneife and difobej ience: the fixth, ofhts paflions, and defir~ of revenge: the feventh, of his Iewdneffe and lul!ful courfes : the eighth, of his robberies and covetous thefts: the ninth, of his lies and nanders, back-bitings, and rafh judgements : the tenth, of his covetous thoughts, and motions ofthe heart to all manner of evil. Good Lord! what a number of evils, yea, what _inn!lmerable fwam1es of lawleife thoughts, and words, and aCl:ions doth he read in hisconfcience? .Bot ab<lve all, his darling-delignt, his beloved fin is writ in greatel! charaCl:ers; this he finds to have bewitched him mol!, and to have domineered above all the reil: in.his walled confcience; this fin in fome is worldlinell'c, wantonneife, ufury, pride, revenge, or the like; in others, it is drun · kenneife, gluttony, gaming, fcurril jel!ing, fimony, or the like; whatfoever it is, th~ confcience tells him of it again and again; where that he may read it, together with his other fins, ·the Spirit of God now opens the eyes of his minde, and lets him fee the very mud and filth ofhis foul, that lay at the bottome befot'e unfcen, and undifccrned. l'his is the fir!! working of the new life, to wit, a feeling ofthe old doath ofhis foul in fins and trefpaffes; and here the !\xiome is true,1Vogeneration JVithollt corrRption; a man mull fir!! feele this death, before he is born again.] The Second l!ep is, Senfe ofdivine tvrarh, which begets in him fear; fo the 1\poll:le,' The fpirit ofbondage begers fear, Rom. 8. 15. and thus it works: no fooner hath the lnan a fight and feeling of his fin, but then Gods Spirit(now called thefpirit ifbondage) prefents to him the armory of Cods flaming wrath, aud fiery indignation; this makes him to feel (as if lle were pricked with the ll:roak of an arro\v, or point of a fword; or fling ofad Adder) that he is a moll: curfed and damnable orcature, jul!ly deferving all the miferies of thrs fife, and all the fiery torments ofhell in tha;.life to come; yea, this makes hiin tremble, and lland, and look, as if he were throughly frighted with tne an· gry countenance of God Afn)ighty: Would.you view hil!l in this cafe{ his cot\fcience hath now awaked hitll out of his dead fenfuallleep,by theTrumpet of thcLaw,his heart is now fcorched with the fecret fence of Gods angry face, his loulls now full forely crufhed urtQer the mol! grievous burden of innumer~ble fins, his thoughts are now fulf . . ~f
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