change of the will, wherein grace doth principally consist. This is the first principal act from the Spirit of Life; without which whatsoever other change is wrought upon us, is no more than to set the hand of the watch to the right hour when the spring is broken. The philosophers call the will, the commanding, swaying faculty of the soul; that controls all the inferior faculties, and makes them obey its inclinations: so that, such as the will is, such is the whole man. And, therefore, tue Scripture, in setting forth the twofold state of men, doth it by shewing the temper of their wills. Unregenerate men are described by their wilfulness: Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life: John v. 40. The people of God are described by their willingness: Ps. cx. 3. They shall be a willing people in the day of thy power.

And here I shall endeavour Two things.

To shew you after what manner the Spirit of God doth work this renewing change upon the will.

To shew you what other change is wrought upon it, which falls short of true grace, though oftentimes it is

taken for it.

[1] For the first, we must know that there are two ways, whereby God doth effectually change the heart and will of a sinner: and these are moral suasions; and physical determinations, which are nothing else but God's all-powerful grace, whereby he doth immediately turn the bent and inclination of . the will towards himself.

And both these do always concur and agree to this great change. He doth first convince a sinner and persuade him of the rationality of the ways of God; and of the vileness and emptiness of those vain things, which his desires so eagerly pursue: and, on the other hand, he clearly represents the glory and excellency of himself and his ways; that he is the greatest good that we can enjoy ; and yet there is no other way to enjoy him, but by loving and serving him. To do this, he makes use of moral suasions; and works upon our reason, by cogent and prevailing arguments; which, at last, diffuseth such heavenly sweetness through the heart of a Christian, as makes him disrelish those fulsome delights of sin, that separate from that Infinite Good, with which it holds comparison: so that he finds more true delight in God and his ways, and more alluring and charming joy in them, than ever he did before in sensual pleasure: we

are thereby carried forth unto them by an infallible, yet altogether free, voluntary, and amorous motion. And this is done by the real efficiency likewise of the Spirit of God upon the will: and this efficiency is so sweetly attempered to the native liberty of the will, that it would be a pain and torment to the soul to be separated from that God, whom now his understanding doth apprehend, and whom his will doth clasp about, as the real and chief good. Here, you see, are both moral suasions and physical determinations of the will to the work of grace. God doth really determine it, by the efficacious touch of his grace; whereby he powerfully turns the bent and inclination of it to himself, which before stood towards sin and vanity. And, that this might not infringe the will's prerogative of acting freely, he doth at the same time morally persuade it, by representing himself as the best and most satisfying object of it. Notwithstanding, then, the irresistibleness of God's working upon the will; yet, still, man's will is free in God's working of grace, which some have thought to be an irreconcilable difference. For the freedom of the will doth not consist in redoubled pure acts; for, otherwise, the saints and angels themselves, who are under that blessed necessity that they cannot but love and serve God, would not love him and serve him freely. The liberty of the will consists in an acting upon rational grounds and motives; which, by how much stronger they are, by so much more they turn the necessity of the will to him, and yet by so much the more the will is free in acting: so that here, that the liberty of the will may not violate the causality of God's purpose, he changeth it by the power of his irresistible grace; and, yet, that this irresistible grace may not violate the liberty of the will, which is its natural privilege, he persuades it by such natural arguments that it could not act freely if it should dissent from them. Though God useth infinite power, yet he useth no violence he subdues the will, but doth not compel it. This is that victorious grace, that doth not more overcome a sinner's resistance, than it doth his prejudice: it overcomes ali oppositions, by its own irresistible power; and it overcomes all prejudices, by its attractive sweetness: and, whenever it brings him to submit to God, it makes him to apprehend that his chief happiness and joy is to do so. And it is the same, that doth afterwards preserve Christians from total apostacy: for, though there be such a constant supply of grace, to keep them that

they shall never draw back to perdition; yet, withal, their own freedom is such, that they may if they will: but, when the will ceaseth its freedom, it never inclines but to that, which is most pleasing; and nothing is pleasing to a renewed and sanctified will, so much as that Sovereign Good, which comprehends in it all other good.

Thus you see how God disposeth of the will of man; changing it, without constraining it; turning it, not forcibly, but infallibly to himself; when he draws it by the sweet and effica cious operation of his grace.

Thus I have dispatched the first thing, and shewed how God works the renewing change upon the will of a sinner.

[2] The second particular is to shew you, What other change may be wrought upon the will: which yet falls short of true grace; and may bring a man almost to Christianity, and yet leave him in a natural state and condition.

1st. An unregenerate man may have many faint velleities, and wishings, and wouldings after grace.

When he hears so much spoken of the beauty and excellency of holiness, he is convinced, in his judgment, that those things are true: that without holiness no man shall see the Lord: that though, while he is carnal, spiritual duties are tedious and a burden to him; yet, were he spiritual, they would become more delightful to him, than those very pleasures of sin, which keep him from closing with grace: and that, were he renewed, those very pleasures of sin would become unsavoury to him; and that, which now he is afraid to lose if he would turn to couscience, he would not value the loss of. When an unregenerate man, I say, is thus convinced of this, it will make him to break out into pangs of affectionate wishing for grace. "Oh, that I were holy and gracious! I wish my heart were changed and renewed. I wish I were better, and could do better." I appeal to every man's conscience, when he hath been convinced of the excellency and desirableness of holiness, whether he hath not breathed forth such wishes as these. When you have seen a Christian, that is eminent and exemplary for piety, have not you wished yourself in his condition; not only in respect of his future reward and glory, but also in respect of his present grace? have you not wished, that such had been your comeliness and beauty? have you not wished, not only with Balaam, to die the death of the righteous, and that your last end might be like his; but also your

:

life by living righteously? and yet still you continue in the same course and sinful state as formerly! Now such empty velleities and idle wishes, an unregenerate man may possibly have he may wish he were a saint; even as a fond foolish man, according to his idle fancy, may wish that he were an angel. But such wishes do not put him upon a constant attempt and use of the means, whereby he might become such. His wishes and his sighs vanish away together; the one retaining no longer an impression upon his heart, than the other in the air: he runs into the commission of that sin, which with his mouth he wishes he might not commit; and lives in the neglect of holy duties, and yet can wish that he had performed them. Such contradictory wishes have unregenerate men! they wish themselves holy; and yet are wilfully sinful: they wish that they were better; and yet will not endeavour their own amendment.

2dly. An unregenerate man may not rest in these wishes, but he may rise to a resolution.

I say, to some degree of resolution: they resolve many things; that their lusts shall no longer enslave them, that the pleasures of the world shall no longer bewitch them, that the difficulties of religion shall no longer affright them; but that they will break through all, and act like men. And with such generous and ingenuous resolutions as these, men, in their natural estate, may fortify themselves. Grace they know they must have, else they are eternally undone: they know that God hath not been wanting to their endeavours; and they peremptorily resolve, that they will not be wanting to themselves. We may see the same strong resolutions, of those, that came to enquire of Jeremiah, chap. xlii. 5, 6. They said...The Lord be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all things for the which the Lord thy God shall send thee to us, &c. and, yet, none more rebellious and disobedient against God, than these men, that make this remonstrance.

3dly. And, now, notwithstanding these wishes and these resolutions, the will of a natural man falls short of a saving change; and that, usually, in these particulars.

(1st) In that it is a fickle and unconstant will.

Their desires may be sometimes violent and passionate, as if they would take heaven by force, and wrest mercy out of the hands of God: their prayers may be importunate and earnest, as if they would take no denial: but this violent spirit is soon spent, and this full bent of their souls soon flags, and returns

again, as formerly, ever and anon into the commission of some foul and gross sins. Such a will as this, though at first it hurries them apace, yet is soon tired, and leaves them short of grace and heaven. The Christian Race is not to be run by so many fits, but by a constant course and progress; still getting ground upon our lusts; still approaching nearer to the kingdom of heaven. But it is with such men, as it is with the sea, when a spring-tide covers all the shore: when it ebbs, it discovers nothing but sands, where before was nothing but deep water. So, these affected and flowing Christians discover, that there is nothing but barren sands at the bottom; and that they are as unstable as water. A Christian is not made in a fit: neither is the work of grace wrought in a passion; but it is a settled, solemn, and constant frame of heart, that brings a man to Christ and salvation.

(2dly) The will of an unregenerate man is never universally changed: still he reserves to himself some lust or other, that he will not part withal.

Their resolutions, concerning their sins, are such as the resolution of Naaman the Assyrian: 2 Kings v. 18. In this thing, the Lord pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, &c. the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing. So, men may be peremptory in their resolutions to forsake their sins; yet still there may be some one dear lust or other, that makes them cry, with Naaman, Lord, pardon thy serpant in this thing: they will be willing to receive Christ, if they may be allowed in one darling-sin. Now the partition, that any one sin makes between Christ and the soul, must needs hinder the soul from closing with Christ: as, if you throw but any little thing between the branch and the stock that it is engrafted into, the sap will never be communicated to it, and so it will never grow up to be a plant.

(3dly) The will of an unregenerate man is usually irrational. It would obtain the end; and yet not use the means. Grace, possibly, they would have; but they cannot bring their averse wills to close with the performance of those unpleasing and irksome duties, wherein God usually bestows grace, and by which he conveys grace to the soul. Could they be holy with a wish, and a sudden fancy that enflames them, then none should be better Christians than themselves: could they enter into heaven by being willing, none then should shine above them