Englands duty under the present gospel liberty from Revel. III, vers. 20

Secondly, Consider the Subject wrought upon, viz. the dead, hard, obstinate heart of a blind perverse sinner, an heart harder by Nature than the nether Millstone. It is as easy to melt the most obdurate Rock into a sweet Syrup, as it is to melt the heart of a Sinner into penitential sorrows for sin. What! to bring a dead heart to life. To make that man bitterly bewail the sins that were his pleasure and delight, more than ever he bewailed the death of the nearest and dearest Relation in the world! To make a proud heart renounce its own self-righteousness, which it so dotes upon, and take all shame and reproach to it self upon the account of sin! This is wonderful. You would think it a strange thing to see the course of the Tide stopped with the breath of a man; but O what a marvellous thing is here, that at the preaching of the Gospel by a poor worm, the Lord should turn the Tide of the Will, and thus work about the Soul to a ready compliance with his most self-denying terms and proposals!

Secondly, Consider the Subject wrought upon, viz. the dead, hard, obstinate heart of a blind perverse sinner, an heart harder by Nature than the nether Millstone. It is as easie to melt the most obdurate Rock into a sweet Syrup, as it is to melt the heart of a Sinner into penitential forrows for sin. What! to bring a dead heart to life. To make that man bitterly bewail the sins that were his pleasure and delight, more than ever he bewailed the death of the nearest and dearest Relation in the world! To make a proud heart renounce its own self-righteousness, which it so dotes upon, and take all shame and reproach to it self upon the account of sin! This is wonderful. You would think it a strange thing to see the course of the Tyde stopt with the breath of a man; but O what a marvellous thing is here, that at the preaching of the Gospel by a poor worm, the Lord should turn the Tyde of the Will, and thus work about the Soul to a ready compliance with his most self-denying terms and proposals!

Thirdly, And that which farther increaseth the difficulty of believing is the fierce and obstinate opposition made by the Enemies of Faith: All the powers of Hell and Earth, Devils and Men without us, are confederate and in league with the Corruptions within us, to rest and hinder this work of believing. Never is the Devil more busy than when Christ and the Soul are treating about Union. Oh the Discouragements, Objections and Difficulties that are rolled into the way of Faith! One while it is the highest