250 BAXTER'S DYING THOUGHTS. 3. In this disposed matter it causeth vegetable life itself. So doth the Spirit of God, 1. operate on millions but lifeless ac cidents, as the sun on a stone wall. 2. On others dispose and prepare them to divine life. 3. On others so disposed it effecteth the divine life itself, when holy love is turned into a habit like to nature. That none but the Holy Ghost doth make this holy change' is evident; for the effect cannot transcend the causes. 1. Nature alone is dark, and knoweth not the attractive amiableness of God, till illuminated ; nor can give us a satisfactory notice of God's,special love to us. 2. Nature is guilty, and guilt breedeth fears of justice, and fear makes us become wild, and fly from God, lest hr should hurt us. 3. Nature is under penal sufferingsalready; and feeleth pain, fear, and many hurts, and foreseeth death ; and under this is un- disposed, of itself, to feel the pleasure of God's love. 4. Nature is corrupted and diverted to creature vanity, and its appetite' goeth another way, and cannot cure itself and make itself suitable to the amiableness of God. 5. God hateth wickedness ànd wicked men; and mere nature cannot secure us, that we are saved from that enmity. Diligence may do much tó get religious knowledge, and words, and all that which I call the art of religion ; and God may bless this as a preparation to holy life and love. But till the soul's ap- petite incline, with desire, to God and holiness, divine things will not sweetly relish. And this is a great comfort to the thoughts of the sanctified, that certainly their holy appetite, desire, and complacency, is the work of the Holy Ghost. For, 1. this secureth them of the love of God, ofwhich it is the proper token. 2. And it assureth them of their union with Christ, when they live because he liáeth, even by the Spirit, which is his seal and pledge. 3. And it proveth both a future life and their title to it; for God maketh not all this preparation for it by his Spirit in vain. But alas'! if it were not a work that bath great impediment, it would not be so rare,in the world. What is it in us, that keepeth the sun of love from so shining on us as to revive our souls into holy contentments and delight? It roust be supposed, 1. that all God's gifts are free, and that he giveth not to' all alike; the' wonderful variety of creatures proveth this.' 2. The reasons of his differencing works are his own will, and inferior reasons are mostly unknown to us, of which he is, not bound to give us'an account. 3. But yet we see that God doth his works in a causal order,
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