this great soul-transforming change, if we severally consider the particulars of it. As for orthodoxy in doctrinals, it is in itself a highly laudable thing; and in respect of the fundamentals (for therefore are they so called) indispensably necessary to blessedness. As that cannot be without holiness, so nor holiness without truth. John. 17. 17. But, (besides that this is that which every one pretends to) is every thing which is necessary, sufficient? As to natural necessity (which is that we now speak to) reason, and intellectual nature are also necessary; shall therefore all men, yea, and devils too, be saved? Besides, are you sure you believe the grand articles of the Christian religion? Consider a little, the grounds and effects of that pretended faith.

(1.) Its grounds; every assent is as the grounds of it are. Deal truly here with thy soul. Can you tell wherefore you are a christian? what are thy inducements to be of this religion? are they not such as are common to thee with them that are of a false religion? (I am here happily prevented by a worthy author, to which I recommend thee, but at the present a little bethink thyself,) Is it not possible thou mayst be a christian for the same reasons for which one may be a Jew, or a Mahometan, or a mere P agan ? as namely, education, custom, law, example, outward advantage, &c. Now consider, if thou find this upon inquiry to be thy case, the motives of thy being a christian admit of being cast together into this form of reasoning. That religion which a man's forefathers were of, which is established by law, or generally obtains in the country where he lives, the profession whereof, most conduces to, or best consists with his credit, and other outward advantages, that religion he is to embrace as the true religion. But such I find the christian religion to be to me; therefore, &c. The proposition here is manifestly false; for it contains grounds common to all religions, publicly owned, and professed throughout the world; and sure all cannot be true: and hence the conclusion (though materially considered it be true, yet) formally considered, as a conclusion issuing from such premises, must needs be false; and what then is become of thy orthodoxy; when, as to the formal object of thy faith, thou believest but as Mahometans and Pagans do? when thou art of this faith, by fate or chance only, not choice or rational inducement?

(2.) As to the effects of thy faith: let them be inquired into also, and they will certainly bear proportion to the grounds of it. The gospel is the power of God to salvation to every one that believes; (Rom. 1. 16. 1 Thes. 2. 13.) to them that believe it not, it signifies nothing. The word of God received with a divine faith, as the word of God, works effectually upon

*Mr. Pink's trial of sincere love to Christ.

all that so receive it, that is, all that believe. What such efficacious workings of it hast thou felt upon thy soul? Certainly, its most connatural effect is that very change of heart, and inclination God-ward, of wich we have been speaking. What is so suitable to the gospel-revelation, as a good temper of heart God-ward? And how absurd is it to introduce the cause on purpose to exclude its genuine inseparable effect? But evident it is, (though true faith cannot,) that superficial, irrational assent, in which alone many glory, may too well consist with a disaffected heart towards God: and can it then signify any thing towards thy blessedness? sure to be so a solifidian is to be a nullifidian. Faith not working by love is not faith; at least profits nothing. For thy outward conformity in the solemnities of worship, it is imputable to so corrupt motives and principles, that the thing itself, abstractively considered, can never be thought characteristical and dististinguishing of the heirs of blessedness. The worst of men, may perform the best of outward duties. Thy most glorious boasted virtues, if they grow not from the proper root, love to God, they are but splendid sins, as above appears, and hath been truly said of old. Thy repentance is either true or false; if true, it is that very change of mind and heart I speak of, and is therefore eminently signalized by that note, it is repentance towards God; if false, God will not be mocked. For thy regeneration in baptism; what can it avail thee, as to this blessedness, if the present temper of thy heart be unsuitable, thereto? Didst thou ever know any that held, that all the baptized should be saved? Will thy infant sanctity excuse the enmity and disaffection to God of thy riper age?

In short, if we seclude this work of God upon the soul, how inconsiderable is the difference between the Christian and the heathen world? wherein can it then be understood to lie, but in some ineffectual notions, and external observances? And can it be thought that the righteous, holy God will make so vast a difference in the states of men hereafter, who differ so little here? or that it shall so highly recommend a man to God, that it was his lot to be born, and to have lived upon such a turf or soil, or in such a clime or part of the world? His gracious providence is thankfully to be acknowledged and adored, that hath assigned us our stations under the gospel; but then it must be remembered, the gospel hath the goodness, not of the end, but of the means; which, as by our improvement or non-improvement, it becomes effectual or ineffectual, doth acquit from, or aggravate condemnation: and that it works not as a charm or spell, we know not how, or why, or when we think not of it; but by recommending itself in the demonstration and power of the Holy Ghost, to our reason and consciences, to our wills and affections, till we be delivered up into the mould or form of it. Rom. 6. 17. Surely were it so slight a matter, as too many

fondly dream, that must distinguish between them that shall be saved and shall perish, there would need no striving to enter in at the strait gate; and the disciples question would never have been, who then shall be saved? but rather, who shall not be saved? nor would it have been resolved by our Saviour into the immediate power of him alone, to whom all things are possible (Matt. 19. 26.) that any are saved at all; nor have been so earnestly asserted by him, that none could come to him, but whom his Father draws. John. 6. 44. The obvious import of which passages is such, that if careless sinners could once obtain of themselves seriously to consider them, methinks they would find little rest in their spirits, till they might discern a work wrought there, in some degree worthy of God, an impression some way proportionable to the power of an almighty arm; and that might speak God its author. For notwithstanding the soul's natural capacities before asserted and inferred, its moral incapacity, I mean its wicked aversation from God, is such as none but God himself can overcome. Now is that aversation the less culpable, for that it is so hardly overcome, but the more. It is an aversation of will; and who sees not, that every man is more wicked, according as his will is more wickedly bent? Hence his impotency or inability to turn to God, is not such as that he cannot turn if he would; but it consists in this, that he is not willing. He affects a distance from God. Which shews therefore the necessity still of this change. For the possibility of it, and the encouragement (according to the methods wherein God is wont to dispense his grace) the sinner hath to hope and endeavor it, will more fitly fall into consideration elsewhere.

*That moral incapacity is also in some sense truly natural, that is, in the same sense wherein we are said to be by nature the children of wrath, Eph. 2. 3. Therefore human nature must be considered as created by God, and as propagated by man. In the former sense, as God is the author of it, it is taken in this distinction, of moral and natural impotency, which needs not further explication; yet you may take this account of it from Dr. Twisse, Impotentia faciendi quod Deo gratum est et acceptum, non est impotentia naturæ, sed morum. Nulla etenim nobis deest facultas naturæ per peccatum originale, juxta illud Augustini; Nulli agnoscendi veritatis abstulit facultatem. Adhuc remanet potentia, qua facere possumus quæcunque volumus: the inability to do what is pleasing and acceptable to God, is not a natural but moral inability. For no faculty of our nature is taken away from us by original sin (as saith Augustine,) it has taken from no man the faculty of discerning truth. The power still remains by which we can do whatsoever we choose. Vind. I. 3. errat. 9. sect. 6. Naturalem potentiam, quidlibet agendi pro arbitrio ipsorum, dicimus ad omnes transmitti, non autem potentiam moralem: we say that the natural power of doing any thing according to our will is preserved to all, but not moral power. Vindic. Criminat. 3. S. 1. digr. 2. chap. 3.

CHAPTER XIII.

4 Inference. That the soul in which such a change is wrought, restlessly pursues this blessedness till it be attained. 5 Inference. That the knowing of God, and conformity to him, are satisfying things, and do now in a degree satisfy, according to the measure wherein they are attained. 6 Inference. That the love of God towards his people is great, that hath designed for them so great, and even a satisfying good.

4. It is further to be inferred, that a soul wherein such a change is wrought, pursues this blessedness with restless, supreme desire, till it attain to the fulness thereof. We have here a plainly implied description of the posture and tendency of such a soul (even of a sanctified holy soul, which had therefore undergone this blessed change) towards this state of blessedness. I shall (saith he) be satisfied with thy likeness, as though he had said, I cannot be satisfied otherwise. We have seen how great a change is necessary to dispose the soul to this blessedness, which being once wrought, nothing else can now satisfy it. Such a thing is this blessedness, (I speak now of so much of it as is previous and conducing to satisfaction, or of blessedness materially considered, the divine glory to be beheld and participated:) it is of that nature, it makes the soul restless, it lets it not be quiet, after it hath got some apprehension of it, till it attain the full enjoyment. The whole life of such a one, is a continual seeking God's face. So attractive is this glory of a subject rightly disposed to it: while others crave corn and wine, this is the sum of the holy soul's desires, Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance, &c. Psal. 4. 6. The same thing is the object of its present desires that shall be of its eternal satisfaction and enjoyment. This is now its one thing, the request insisted on, to behold the beauty of the Lord, &c. (Psal. 27. 4.) and while in any measure it doth so, yet it is still looking for this blessed hope, still hoping to be like him, see him as he is. The expectation of satisfaction in this state, implies the restless working of desire till then; for what is this satisfaction, but the fulfilling of our desires, the perfecting of the soul's motions in a complacential rest? Motion and rest do exactly correspond each to other. Nothing can naturally rest in any place, to which it was not before naturally inclined to move. And the rest is proportionably more composed and steady, according as the motion was stronger and more vigorous. By how much the hea

vier any body is, so much the stronger and less resistible is its motion downward; and then accordingly it is less moveable when it hath attained its resting place. It is therefore a vanity and contradiction, to speak of the soul's being satisfied in that which it was not before desirous of.* And that state which it shall ultimately and eternally acquiesce in (with a rest that must therefore be understood to be most composed and sedate,) towards it, it must needs move with the strongest and most unsatisfied desire, a desire that is supreme, prevalent, and triumphant over all other desires, and over all other obstructions to itself; least capable of diversion, or of pitching upon any thing short of the term aimed at. Ask therefore the holy soul, What is thy supreme desire? and so far as it understands itself, it must answer, "To see and partake the divine glory; to behold the blessed face of God, till his likeness be transfused through all my powers, and his entire image be perfectly formed in me : present to my view what else you will, I can be satisfied in nothing else but this." Therefere this leaves a black note upon those wretched souls that are wholly strangers to such desires; that would be better satisfied to dwell always in dust; that shun the blessed face of God as hell itself; and to whom the most despicable vanity is a more desirable sight than that of divine glory. Miserable souls! Consider your state, can that be your blessedness which you desire not? or do you think God will receive any into his blessed presence, to whom it shall be a burden! Methinks, upon the reading of this you should presently doom yourselves, and see your sentence written in your breast. Compare your hearts with this holy man's; see if there be any thing like this in the temper of your spirits; and never think well of yourselves till you find it so.

5. The knowledge of God, and conformity to him, are in their own nature apt to satisfy the desires of the soul, and even now actually do so, in the measure wherein they are attained. Some things are not of a satisfying nature; there is nothing tending to satisfaction in them. And then the continual heaping together of such things, doth no more towards satisfaction, than the accumulating of mathematical points would towards the compacting of a solid body; or the multiplication of cyphers only, to the making of a sum. But what shall one day satisfy, hath in itself a power and aptitude thereto. The act, whenever it is, supposes the power. Therefore the hungry craving soul, that would fain be happy, but knows not how, needs not spend its days in making uncertain guesses, and fruitless attempts and

*Aptitudinally, I mean, and ex hypothesi, 'that is supposing the knowledge of the object: otherwise as to actual explicit desires, God doth give us beyond what we can ask or think. But it is impossible the soul should rest satisfied in that, which upon knowledge it is undesirous of, and doth or would reject.