The application of redemption

that is, his true Worship that would bring them to him; and that is the meaning of that Phrase, Ephes. 2. 12. Without God in the World; that is, without the true Worship of God: so that they who want the true Worship of God, are without God. So they who have the manner of the true Worship, and want both Spirit and Truth, in which God will be worshipped, they have the Appearance, but want the Spirit and Truth of the true manner they have. So of the rest. Thus it is with thousands in the Church, which hear, and know, and have the Letter of the Law, and yet are indeed without the Power and Spirit; and therefore they neither see the evil of their sins by it, nor yet receive any spiritual Direction from it, nor indeed know any such thing; and therefore though their carriages are somewhat reformed, yet their inward corruptions are not ⟨p. 40⟩observed, at least not reformed, or they made sensible of them: As it is with a purr-blind man, he may see things of a greater bulk, as a great Print, or the like; but the smallest Print, or the least pricks, he perceives not: So it is with a purr-blind Christian who cannot see afar off, 2 Pet. 1. 9. If there be some loathsome and gross sins discovered, he can see them; but to see the stirrings of sin in his Nature, and the secret inclinations of his soul to sin, and the base aims and ends that are up and down in his heart in the performance of holy Duties, to see the smallest Print of the Law discovering secret and spiritual wickedness in the Heart, that a man that hath no more than Nature cannot see. And therefore (for we come to the Point) the Spirit of Bondage is required which may let in the light of the Law into the mind, and set on the power of it mightily upon the consciences of sinners, and so dazzle their Eyes, and daunt their hearts with the dreadfulness of their sins, Rom. 8. 15. You have not received the spirit of Bondage again to fear: as who should say, it's a gift, and it must be received, or else we shall not by all that we can do, attain the bondage and thraldom of that base condition in which we are (whereof more afterward in Conviction.) The Law is a Hammer, but it will not break the Flint unless the hand óf the Spirit take it and use it; a Hammer in the hand of a Child will not move the stones; so the Law in the hand of a man or Minister, it is as a Rod to whip us unto Christ;