Sermons preached

(1.) In the Way God taketh to convert Souls to Himself, there is a sweet Contemperation and Mixture of Wisdom and Power. There is a Proposal of Truth and Good to the Understanding and the Will: and by the secret Power of his Grace it is made effectual. We are taught and drawn, Joh. 6. 44, 45. No Man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me, draw him. In the 45th vers. And they shall be all taught of God. Every Man therefore that hath heard and learned ⟨p. 152⟩of the Father, cometh unto me. There is opening of blind Eyes, and the turning of an hard Heart; Acts 26. 18. To open their Eyes, and to turn them from Darkness to Light, &c. Eph. 1. 18. The Eyes of the Understanding being opened, &c. Col. 3. 10. Renewed in Knowledge. Turning the Heart: Acts 16. 29. God opened the Heart of Lydia. Acts 11. 21. The Hand of the Lord was with him; and a great Number believed, and turned to the Lord. His Hand implieth his Power. Thus God worketh strongly, like Himself; sweetly, with respect to us, that he may not oppress the Liberty of our Faculties. Christ comes into the Heart, not by Force, but by Consent. We are transformed, but so as we prove what the Will of God is, Rom. 12. 2. He draweth, we run, Cant. 1. 4. The Power of God, and Liberty of Man, do sweetly consist together. As God is said to create in us a new Heart, he is also said to give us a free Spirit, Psal. 51. 10, 12. Eph. 2. 10. We are said to be his Workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good Works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them. So he puts a new Heart, and we are said, to walk in his Ways.