The application of redemption

The two former may agree to a false-hearted Hypocrite,§3 he may have a lighter stroke of the Spirit of Bondage, and the Law may convince him, and his own heart condemn him, and he may go away in dreadful horror for his sins, and yet it doth not remove the Rule of Ignorance, ⟨p. 41⟩and darkness out of the mind, but the Saints of God have the two former and they have this further, viz. such a through stroke of the spirit of bondage as takes away the rule of darkness and removes the Sovereignty and Authority of it from the mind this I take to be the meaning of that phrase, Acts. 26. 18. to turn them from darkness to Light. When the Lord will work throughly, he will not only scatter the fogs and disperse the grossest of the dimness and darkness of a mans mind, and leave the soul under the power of it for all that. The hypocrite may be dazzled and astonished by the light of the truth breaking upon him, but yet his understanding is under the power of darkness, but the Saints of God are turned from it, that is their understandings are delivered from under the power of that darkness that was in them before. Conceive it thus, when the night comes darkness overspreads the face of the Earth, and though there be Moon-light, or some flash of Lightning sometimes, that may something take off the grossness and blackness of darkness but yet it is dark still, the Moon-light or Star-light doth not remove the rule of darkness: but when the Sun ariseth in the East we say it is day break, and you shall see apparently when light comes with a Command of the Sun, it scatters the darkness that was in the air, it removes the rule of it, and it rules there it self; So it is with the spirit of bondage, when he comes to an hypocrite he enlightens him with Star-light or Moon-light as it were, so that the grossness of darkness and blindness is scattered, that now a terrified hypocrite sees his sins, and is able to Discourse of sin and of the Law of God and to Discover it to others, and yet it is but Moonshine it makes not day, the root and rule of Darkness is there still, which stops and hinders the intercourse of the dispensations of God unto the soul.

The two former may agree to a false-hearted Hypocrite,§3 he may have a lighter stroke of the Spirit of Bondage, and the Law may convince him, and his own heart condemn him, and he may go away in dreadful horror for his sins, and yet it doth not remove the Rule of Ignorance,