The application of redemption

They come to be helpless in regard of all means, that §3the Lord hath provided, or the mercies that the Lord ⟨p. 257⟩hath offered unto them, and doth yet strive with them in, Its sin that stops the intercourse between God and the soul, his ordinances and our Consciences, takes and […] the passage, that the power of the means never work upon us, the sweetness of his mercies never affect us, the virtue of his ordinances find no place, leave no impression upon the soul; This is the fruit which the prophet lays forth of the rebellions and […] of the Jews, which made them ripe for everlasting ruin, Isa. 6. 9. 10. Make the heart of this people […], and their ears heavy, and by that time they are sure enough for ever seeing the face of God, or receiving […] by any means; seeing they may see and not perceive, hearing they may hear and […] understand, least they be converted. They are far enough from conversion and so from salvation, Its that also which is of necessity implied in the former expression; they shall be filled with their own devises, so there is no entrance, no acceptance of any direction from the will and word of God. As it is in vessels that are brim full of liquor ready to run over, there is no room for a spoonful of the most precious liquor to be put into them. So through the just desert of their sin they are so fully possessed with the power of their corruptions which have had commission to rule them, that as our saviour said John 8. 37. There is no place for the word. Their minds so full of pride of their own carnal reason, that there is no room for instruction to direct or inform them, their hearts so full of stiffness and perverseness, that there is no place for reproof that may prevail with them and reform them, the spirit so full of falseness and ready to take hold upon […], that there is no place for the […] of the truth to frame them to the […] and singleness of carriage as suits with Gods mind; so that all means of grace and ordinances take their leave of the sinner, work no more upon that heart that hath […] long and so often opposed the work thereof […]. 51. 9. We would have healed Babylon, […] she ⟨p. 258⟩