First, When God goes about effectually to call a poor sinner into a state of grace, he puts a clear light into his soul, whereby he may see the heinous and aggravated nature of all his sins, more then ever he did before. Rom. 7.8, 9, 13. Paul tells ⟨p. 26⟩you, Before the commandment came, he was alive, and sin was dead; that is, before the power of the word came upon his conscience to convert him, he was alive; i.e. he thought he was a good man, and a just man, and he thought sin was dead, sin was destroyed; he never knew sin so sinful: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died: but when the word of God came with power upon my conscience, and light upon my judgement, then I saw I was a dead man, sin had killed me, and I saw sin was reigning, and sin was raging in me: and what then? ver. 13. I saw sin exceeding sinful: he never saw sin so before conversion, before his Call, when he was a Pharisee; but when the word of God came with power upon his conscience to call him, then saith he, I saw sin to be exceeding sinful. Now (O Beloved) hath ever God done thus with your souls? may be you look upon sin with a transient and general view but do you look upon sin so as to see more evil in sin then ever you saw before? This is the course God usually takes. Me thinks God deals with a converted sinner, as it is spoken in Job 33.27, 28. He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it doth not profit me, he will deliver his soul from going down into the pit, and his life shall see the light: that is, God looks upon the mass of mankind in the world, and saith, if any man say he hath sinned, and it did not profit him, that is, if he look upon sin as an evil, and that he never did get good by it: then saith God, I will deliver his soul from hell, and bring him to heaven.
First, When God goes about effectually to call a poor sinner into a state of grace, he puts a clear light into his soul, whereby he may see the hainous and aggravated nature of all his sins, more then ever he did before. Rom. 7.8, 9, 13. Paul tells ⟨p. 26⟩you, Before the commandment came, he was alive, and sin was dead; that is, before the power of the word came upon his conscience to convert him, he was alive; i.e. he thought he was a good man, and a just man, and he thought sin was dead, sin was destroied; he never knew sin so sinful: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died: but when the word of God came with power upon my conscience, and light upon my judgement, then I saw I was a dead man, sin had kil'd me, and I saw sin was raigning, and sin was raging in me: and what then? ver. 13. I saw sin exceeding sinful: he never saw sin so before conversion, before his Call, when he was a Pharisee; but when the word of God came with power upon his conscience to call him, then saith he, I saw sin to be exceeding sinful. Now (O Beloved) hath ever God done thus with your souls? may be you look upon sin with a transient and general view but do you look upon sin so as to see more evil in sin then ever you saw before? This is the course God usually takes. Me thinks God deals with a converted sinner, as it is spoken in Job 33.27, 28. He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it doth not profit me, he will deliver his soul from going down into the pit, and his life shall see the light: that is, God looks upon the mass of mankind in the world, and saith, if any man say he hath sinned, and it did not profit him, that is, if he look upon sin as an evil, and that he never did get good by it: then saith God, I will deliver his soul from hell, and bring him to heaven.
