The application of redemption

First, This excuse that would cover one sin, discovers another; and thy Plea doth give in undeniable evidence that all the means of Grace that ever thou hast enjoyed, and God hath vouchsafed, hath never wrought upon thee, nor prevailed with thee for good to this very day, nor hast thou received benefit or profit therefrom; but all the pains that hath been taken with thee is like water spilt upon the ground. For that's the manner of the Lords proceeding with the soul of a sinner, when he intends savingly and effectually to work upon him, he ⟨p. 123⟩changeth his Nature, gives him another heart, and as it was said of Saul in a like case, 1 Sam. he makes him another man. It's the Prophecy of the power of the Gospel, The Leopard becomes as a Lamb, and the Lyon as a Kid, Isai. 11. 6. the savage, harsh, and […] distempers, which like a fretting Leprosy, possessed the nature of sinners, are taken away when the Lord comes to take possession of them, or to prevail with them in the power of any Ordinance. It's the first step in the profession of the Gospel: He that will be Christs Disciple must deny himself, he must be able to say as the blind man whom our Saviour cured; I was blind, but now I see; I was dead, but now I am alive: I was of a proud, peevish, wayward, waspish, contentious, froward, quarrelsome disposition, could agree with no body, nor with my self neither, but since the Lord hath met with me, and wrought upon me by his Word and Spirit, I am not I; I have another mind, and another heart, and another carriage and Conversation than formerly. He that is in Christ, and Christ in him, he is a new Creature, and hath a new Nature, he strives most against that unto which he is most addicted by his own disposition, he watcheth how to prevent that, he fears all the day long lest he should be surprised with it, fortifies most in the improvement of all means against that, confesseth that with most sorrow and bitterness, seeks with most care and diligence to obtain help from Heaven to subdue that, and commonly gets the greatest ground against the same.

First, This excuse that would cover one sin, discovers another; and thy Plea doth give in undeniable evidence that all the means of Grace that ever thou hast enjoyed, and God hath vouchsafed, hath never wrought upon thee, nor prevailed with thee for good to this very day, nor hast thou received benefit or profit therefrom; but al the pains that hath been taken with thee is like water spilt upon the ground. For that's the manner of the Lords proceeding with the soul of a sinner, when he intends savingly and effectually to work upon him, he