Thus the Lord is said To stand and knock at the door of the soul when the sinner is fast asleep, Rev. 3. 20. He dazzles the apprehension by some mighty flash of truth, like lightning darted in, which makes the soul at a maze by reason of the suddenness, and unexpectedness, and strangeness of it. This knock makes the sinner so far to hear, and to take notice of it that some body is at the door, and causes him happily to make enquiry, Who is there? So Acts 9. 4, 5, 6. There shines a sudden Light about Paul, and a voice heard from heaven, Saul, Saul, Why persecutest thou me? As who should say, Thou art utterly mistaken, thou knowest not, where thou art, what thou doest, thou mistakest a Friend in stead of an Enemy. And therefore he amazed and astonished, Answers, and […], Who art thou Lord? Thus the sinner is made to look about him, ⟨p. 357⟩where am I? this is not the way to Heaven. And though the soul would shut its eyes against the Evidence and Power of the Truth, which carries a kind of amazing virtue with it, and therefore invents shifts to defeat the work of it, yet the Lord will follow it, and fasten it upon the soul so as that it shall not avoid it: he that stands knocking at the door will lift up the latch, and make the Truth break in; as the Sun rising will break through the least crevice. This is the first means whereby the Lord comes to lay hold upon the mind and soul of a sinner, he hath the sinner in chase as it were, that he cannot get out of his sight, or make an escape; Thus by the hook of Instruction he lays hold upon him.
Thus the Lord is said To stand and knock at the door of the soul when the sinner is fast asleep, Rev. 3. 20. He dazles the apprehension by some mighty flash of truth, like lightning darted in, which makes the soul at a maze by reason of the suddenness, and unexpectedness, and strangness of it. This knock makes the sinner so far to hear, and to take notice of it that some body is at the door, and causes him happily to make enquiry, Who is there? So Acts 9. 4, 5, 6. There shines a suddain Light about Paul, and a voyce heard from heaven, Saul, Saul, Why persecutest thou me? As who should say, Thou art utterly mistaken, thou knowest not, where thou art, what thou doest, thou mistakest a Friend in stead of an Enemy. And therefore he amazed and astonished, Answers, and 〈…〉, Who art thou Lord? Thus the sinner is made to look about him, ⟨p. 357⟩where am I? this is not the way to Heaven. And though the soul would shut its eyes against the Evidence and Power of the Truth, which carries a kind of amazing vertue with it, and therefore invents shifts to defeat the work of it, yet the Lord wil follow it, and fasten it upon the soul so as that it shal not avoid it: he that stands knocking at the door wil lift up the latch, and make the Truth break in; as the Sun rising wil break through the least crevis. This is the first means whereby the Lord comes to lay hold upon the mind and soul of a sinner, he hath the sinner in chase as it were, that he cannot get out of his sight, or make an escape; Thus by the hook of Instruction he laies hold upon him.
