PREPARATORY UNTO REGENERATION. 739 ry interest, they are not given up unto them; yet, by the decays of the power of their convictions, and the ground that sin gets upon them, they become walking and talking skeletons in religion, dry, sapless, useless worldlings. But where the soul is inlaid with real sav- ing-grace, it is in a state of thriving continually. Such a one will go on from strength to strength, from grace to grace, from glory to glory, and will be fat and flourishing in old age. : By these things may we learn to distinguish 'in ourselves between the preparatory work mentioned, and that of real saving conversion un- to God. And these are some of the heads of those. .. operations ofthe Holy Spirit on the minds ofmen,which oftentimes are preparatory unto a real conversion unto. God; and sometimes their contempt and rejection, a great aggravation of the sin and misery of them in whom they were wrought. Seat. 20 And these things, as they are clearly laid down in the scripture, and exemplified in sundry in- stances, so, for the substance of them, they have been acknowledged(till of late) by all Christians; only some of the Papists have carried them so far, as to make them formally dispositive unt¢ justification,; and to have a congruous merit thereof. But this the ancients denied, who would not allow that either any such preparation, or any moral virtues did capacitate men for real conver- sion, observing that others were often called before those who were so qualified. * And in them there are +goads and nails, which have been fastened by wise and experienced masters of the assemblies, to the great ad- Nonne advertimus mattes fideles nostros ambulantes dam Dei, as nulls pane ingenio compara non dean quo undam hareticorum, sed edam minarmn? Item nonne videmusquosdam hommes utriusque sexes in conjugali castitate viventessine querela, et temenvel bmreticos vel Pa- tSm vantage of the souls ofmen. For, observing the usual ways and means whereby these effects are wrought in the minds of the hearers ofthe word, with their conse- quences, in sorrow, troubles, fear, and humiliations, and the courses which they take to improve them, or to extricate themselves from the perplexity of them, they have managed the rules of scripture with their own and others experiencesuitable thereunto, to the great bene- fit of the church of God. That these things are now despised and laughed to scorn, is no part of the hap- piness of the age wherein we live, as -the event will manifest. Sect. 2I.And in the mean time, ifany suppose that we will forego those truths and doctrines which are so plainly revealed in the scripture, the knowledge whereof is so useful unto the souls of men, and whosé publica- tion in preaching hath been of so great advantage to the church of God, merely -because they understand them not, and therefore reproach them, they will be greatly mistaken. Let them lay aside that unchristian way of treating about these things which they have engaged in; and plainly prove that men need not be convinced of sin; that they ought not to be humbled for it, nor af- fected with sorrow with respect unto it; that they ought not to seek for a remedy or deliverance from it; that all men are not born in a state of sin; that our nature is not depraved by the fall; that we are able to do all that is required of us, without the internal aids and assist- ances of the Spirit of God, and they shall be diligently attendedunto. gana, vel sham in vera fide et vera Ecelesia sic sepidot, ut eos miremur eretricum et histrionum subito conversorum, non sotum sapientia èt temperantia, sed etiam fide, spe et Chantare svperari. August. lib. 2. Quest. ad dimplician. q. t. 22
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