Head I 7he Will renewed. 6 . • J l 1. The will is cured of its utter in;;bility to will what is good. While the opening (;f the prifon to them that are bound, is proclaimed in the gofpel ; · the Spirit of God comes · . to the pdfon-door, opens it, goes to the prifoner', and by the power of his grace makes his chains fall off; breaks the bonds of iniquity wherewith he was held in fin,fo as he could neither will nor do any thing truly good; brings him forth into a large place, working in hitp hol h to rJJi/1 and to d~ o/'hiJ g(}odpleajuu, Philip. ii. 1 3· Then it is that the foul, that was fixed to the earth, can move heavenward ; the ,withered band is refiored, and can be L1retched out .. 2. There is wrought in the will a fixed aver !ion to evit In regeneration, a man gets a new tpirit put within him,. Ezek. xxxvi •. 26. and that JPirit !ujleth againfl th~ j!e/lr,, Gal. v. 17. The fweet rnorfeJ of fin, fo greedily fwallow– ed down, he now lotthes, and would fain be ri'd of it ; even as willingly as one, that had dmnk a cup· of poifon, would, thllOw it up again~ \Nhen the fpring is fiopt, the mud lieS' in the weB tlnmoved; but when once d1efpring is deared·,. the waters fpringing up, will work the mud away by de– grees. Even"fo, when a man continues irvan up regenerate· , tiate, fi.n Ji~;s at eafe in the heart; bur as foon as th~ Lorcf ftrikes the rocky hean~ with the rod ofh~s firength, in t!~ tla y of convedion, grace is in him a W;elt ofrwa If:'r fpring– ing ~Pinto et•t>rlafling life, John iv. I 4· working away na-– tural corr1:1ption, and gr'adNally purifying the leart, ' Acts· xv . 9· Th~ renewed will rifeth ep againH fin, {hikes at the root thereof, and the brancl}es too.. Lufls ·are· now grievous, and the foul endeavours to !larve then1: the. corrupt nature is the fou.rce of al'l evil, an-d therefOJe the ) foul wi~ be often laying it before the great PhyGcian,. 0 · what farrow, fbame, and felf-lothing fiU th~ heart, in the day that grace makes its tr:iumphant- enterance 'into it! for, now the madman is come to himfelf, aAd the remem:– brance of his follies cannot but cut him to the heaH. Lafif.y, The will is endued with an inclinatron, ben~,. and propenfity to good. In its depraved ftate,. it lay quite anoth,er way: berng prone and bent to1evrJ · only: but 110~, by a pull of the omnipotent all-conquering. arm, it is drawn from evil to good, and gets another fet. And as the former fet vias natural; fo thi5 is natural too,. in· re- . · · ' fipe& \ '
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=