The application of redemption

No Union but by an Act, for no qualities close §2with their Object but by an Act. But now look at the soul in this present condition, as it comes to consideration in this place, as to have the resistance removed, and it self turned from sin, and in way to be turned to God. Should this be done by a gracious Habit? then there should be communion with Christ, before any union to him, or acting upon him; all which imply so many impossibilities, and cross the whole course of Gods Dispensation.

No Union but by an Act, for no qualities close §2with their Object but by an Act. But now look at the soul in this present condition, as it comes to consideration in this place, as to have the resistance removed, and it self turned from sin, and in way to be turned to God. Should this be done by a gracious Habit? then there should be communion with Christ, before any union to him, or acting upon him; all which imply so many impossibilities, and cross the whol course of Gods Dispensation.

Those gracious Habits, when and wheresoever they §3be in any Subject, it becomes free (sometimes the actions thereof are suspended and cease, as in sleep) and then the act and order of things, is according to their own liberty in an indifferency; so that were either the resistance against the work of Grace to be removed, or the heart carried to God from hence, it were in our choice to be converted, or not converted, whenas it hath been proved, our Conversion is wrought irresistibly, and determined to one side, not issuing from the liberty of our choice, and therefore it is brought about by the irresistible impression of the work of the Spirit: In a word, ⟨p. 491⟩to issue this Point, Look as it is in the will of every Son of Adam, when he comes to be averted, and turned […] God to sin in the course of Natural Generation; so it is in a right proportion in the […] of every man begotten of the Second Adam, when he comes to be turned from sin to God in Spiritual Conversion. Look at the will of a Child in the course of Natural Generation, as it is created by God, and comes holy and undefiled out of his hand; as the question, How comes the will of the Child to be turned from God to sin? it cannot be by any actual sin of its own, it hath committed none; it cannot be by any corrupt quality first put into it, before it was turned from God, and by which, that turning aside is wrought, for then it should be under the power of sin, while yet it is under the power of God. But by virtue of Adams sin, and the Curse that attends the breach of the Covenant, and by means of the next Parent in the work of Generation; the Body made wonderfully, and the Soul created holy by God, he as an unskilful workman, by the virtue of the Curse, acting the work of Generation under the power of the Curse, and power of a perverted will, turns the set of the Soul from God, joins body and soul in a wrong and exorbitant manner; hence they […] to be in a disorderly frame, the wheels run wrong, under the power of original corruption, and struck wrong by actual transgression; so that there is the strength of the Curse, the push of Divine Justice, and the perverting stroke of the next Parent turns the soul from God to sin, whence it comes to be wholly possessed and acted by corruption.