of Santlificati~n . r6i is · gracious,' ·Joel ii. IJ. Rent your /,earts-a'!ti turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, and ofgreat /lind1lefi. And this like a ham– mer breaketh the rock in pieces. The party being, as is before declared, renewed in the whole man, put into a fiate of death unto fin, and life unto righteouf– nefs, the new nature vents itfelf, in an ingenuous an<! thorow turning from fin unto God, in heart and life, By believing the finner returns unt<;> God as a portion, wherein to reft:: in repenting he returns unto God as a Lord and Mafier, whom he is to obey. ' He turns ~ from fin unto God, coming back as a runaway fervant to his mafier, ·returning to his place aqd duty in the family. And he returns with blufhing and tears. 'He is fill'd with forrow _and iliame f9r offending agood and gracious God. His heart is turn'd again11: fin, in hatred ofit : he hates it not only as a hurtful thing .that would ruin him, but as a filthy and lothfome thing, that defiles him.. He lothes it, as the abomi· nable thing that God hates ; 'as the deformity ofthe foul, the very reverfe of the glorious holinefs ofGod ex– prefs'd in his Jaw. He lothes himfelf for it; calls himfelf fool and~ beafi, for his entertaining it ;l fn1ites on h'is breafi, as if he would bruife that hlreafi it was bred ih ; and fmites on his thigh, as if he'd br-eak tpe legs that carried him in the way of it. Luke xv. 20, 21. and xviii. IJ . .]er. xxxi. I8, 19. And he re– turns with full purpqfe of; .and endeavour after new obedience ; with a heart inclined to keep God•sjfa– tutes always, even unto the end, Pf"id. cxix. I 2. and fill'd with carefulnefs in that point, vehement dejii·e of it, and zeal for it, 2 Cor. vii. I 1. ' Secondly, The other chief branch of tbe promife of fanctification, is the promife of actual grace a9d firength for all holy obedience; · whereby one may _ b~ enabled acceptably to perform obedience, in all and every act of mortification, or dying unto fin ~, and
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