732 The Almoft-Cbrijlian Di[cuvered. Now I have fhewed you how far the Will it felf may be changed in unregenerate Perfons; they maywilhafter Grace,and refolve to be better,and to do better and yet fall fhort of faving Grace ; and alfo what it is that hinders this change fr~m being a thorow work of Grace, what it is that obfrrutts them when they are almoft that they are not altigether Chrijfi.tns. ' Fifthly, As for the Life and ConverfatioN. There may be a ~r~at .c.hange wrought in the Lives of unregenerate Perfons,who yet fall fhort ofChnfllamty. The Apollle, 2 Pet. 2. 20. fpeaks of fuch who having efcaptd the pollution; of the world, through Lujf were again emangled therem, and overM come, &c. It feems to efcapc the Pollutions of the World, is no Argument of true Grace, unlefs they be alfo cleanfed from t~e ~ollutions of the Heart; for Sin may be left merely from external and forced Pnnctple, fnch as Terrors of Confcience fer the heavy Judgments of God. When God fets up a flaming Sword between a Sinner and thofe Sins which he accounts his Paradife here ; now to leave Sin up.. on fuch a ftrait as this is, is ~o leave it with a great deal of relutlancy · as when a Mariner in a Storm cafts h1s Goods over-board into the Sea, it is witl~ his W ill indeed; but it is with an unwilling willingnefs; he is frighted and terrified to it: So when the Soul is toffed with. the Tempeft of Divine Wrath, and when ready to be fplit upon the Rock of Ages, and funk and be [wallowed up in a Sea of Fire and Brimftone, he is forced to light himfelf, and to caft this and that dear Luft over-board; this he doth from his Will; but it is fuch a forced Will as that ofMariners, who throw their Treafure over-board, and as foon as the Tempeft is over the one gathers up his floating Wrecks, and the other his Sins. Thefe Men leav~ their Sins, as Lot's Wife left Sodom; they dare no longer continue in it left Fire and Brimftone rain upon them, and yet when they do leave them, they give many a wifhly look back again, and have !trong and vehement dcftres after them. That Reformation. of ~ife that only ~rees us from debau~h~dnefs, ~h~t fa\ls far fhort of true Chrifbamty, and of makmg us altogtther Chrifham; thiS IS that with which many footh up themfelves when they refleCt back upon the wild Extravagances of their former time, how outrageoufiy wicked they have been, Riotous, Drunkards Unclean, Blafphemers, and now they find themfelves deadned to thefe Sins, and grown Men of ltaid and fober lives, they ltraightway conclude, Certainly this great change could never be made on them otherwife than by the renewing work of the Holy Ghoft; and yet in this. am«ndment t~ere may ~e no ~o~k of Regeneration; for Men may gather up their loofe and d1ffolute Lives within fame compafs of Civility and. Morality, and yet.b~ utterly Stranger~ !O this W.ork. Much of this may be afcnbed partly to Convi(\"Ions of God,s Sptrit, awakemng natural Confcience to fee the horrour and danger of fuch 1daring and outrageouJ Sins, and partly too from Prudence, gotten from frequent experience of manifold inconve.. niences that they brought upon themfelves by fuch Sins; and both thefe ConviCtions and moral Prudence are Principles that fall very far fhort ef true Chriitianity. Ufually all the fpecious Reformation and Amendment of thefe Mens Lives, is in effect: either a changing of the Sin, or a tiring out the Sinner. Firft, The Life mayfeem to be reformed, when Men exchange their rude and boi• fterous Sins for fuch as are more demure and fober ; from riotous, they grow worldly; from prophane and irreligious, they grow fuperftitious and hypocritical; from Atheifts, they grow Hereticks; from Sins of Pratl:icc, tO Sins of Contemplation: They are aJ't to think, certainly this change muft .needs be the change of their Nature, when indeed it is but the change of their Sins; and ufuaUy it is fuch a change too, though it render the Life more inoffenfive, yet it makes the Soul more incurable. St . .Auftin, in his 19th Epiftle, tells us, That Vices may give place, when Vertue or Grace do not take it. Secondly, The Life may fecm to be reformed, when Men are only tirtd out; when ---t}Jey have out· grown their Sins. There are Sins which are proper and peculiar to fuch a ftate and feafon of a Man's Life, upon the alteration of which they vaniJh and difappear : Sins of Youth drop off from declining Age, as mif-becoming them. :Now this deceives Men, when they look back to the Vanities which they have for• faken; how deadncd are they to thofe Sinful ways which before they much de... lighted in? They conclude certainly this great cha"nge muft needs proceed from true Grace, when they do not leave their Sins fo much as their Sins leave them, a~<i drop off from them as rotlen fruit lrom a Tree; the Faculties of their Minds, - and
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