Sermons preached

III. How they are fitted and prepared by this new Nature that is put into them for good Works?

Answ. There is a remote Preparation, and a near Preparation.

1. The remote Preparation is an Inclination and Propensity to all the Acts of the holy and heavenly Life. All Creatures have an Inclination to their proper Operations, so the new Creature. As the Sparks fly up, and the Stones downward by an Inclination of Nature; so are their Hearts bent to please and serve God. The Inclination is natural, the Acts are voluntary, because it is an Inclination of a free Agent. The Law of God is in their Hearts, Psal. 40. 8. Psal. 37. 31. Others force themselves, but here there is an Affinity between the Work and the vital Principle which is in us, so that we need not much enforcement. 1 Thess. 4. 9. As touching Brotherly Love, I need not write unto you, for you are taught of God to love one another. Now God's teaching is not by Expression, but by Impression; he hath inclined, suited our Hearts to it. As there need not many Arguments to move the Mother to give suck to her tender Infant, Nature ⟨p. 401⟩hath taught her, left such an Instinct and Inclination upon her, which doth sufficiently excite her to do it.