240 SIXTH SERMON unclean, because the very mind and conscience of such men is defiled, Tit. i. 15. This then is the first work in effectual calling, the opening of the eye of the mind rightly to conceive of the things of God, of the guilt of sin, of the heaviness of wrath, of the peril of perishing, of the weight and moment of dam- nation and salvation, of the things that concern its everlasting peace, of the righteousness of Christ, of the beauties of holiness, of the exceeding abundant weight of glory, of the comforts of the Holy Spirit, and the unspeakable and glorious joy shed forth into the heart by believing. These truths the heart is so convinced of, as seriously to ponder them, and to fix its deepest and saddest considerations upon them. 2. An act of spiritual inclining and effectual deter- mining the will of man to embrace the ultimate dictate of a mind thus enlightened, and to make a most free, spontaneous, and joyful choice of super- natural good things thus rightly apprehended, upon a clear and deliberate consideration of their excellency above all other things, Phil. iii. 8. This act of choosing the Lord for our portion and chiefest good ; and of cleaving unto him, we find often mentioned in the scripture, Deut. xxx. 19. Josh. xxiv. 22. Psa. lxxxiv. 10. Heb. xi. 25. Acts xi. 23. Psa. cxix. 30, 31. 173. When the soul of a man is so thoroughly by God's teaching convinced of the danger and misery of sin, wherein so long as a man continueth he lives only to dishonour God, and to undo himself ; he prizes the benefit of righteousness in Christ, whereby he is reconciled unto God, and adopted unto a glorious inheritance ; and of the beauty of holiness, whereby he is conformed unto Christ his head, and fitted for the inheritance. These previous acts of heavenly teaching, are always seconded with effectual operations
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