Twenty sermons preached at Oxford before His Majesty, and elsewhere

And now to fit us for this, God's blessed Spirit works by his Word, to open unto us the rigour and strictness of the Law, and our wants; to enlighten our understandings, that we stand in great need; to win our affection, and open the Gospel and its comforts.

Therefore, first, for the time of need: The Law reveals unto us our woeful condition, to be born in sin, as the Pharisee said, and yet not able to see it. Every man may say in generalities, I am a sinner; yet to say, and know himself to be such a sinner as indeed he is, to stand in such need; that he cannot do. This one would think to be a matter of sense, but unless God's Spirit open our eyes, we can never see our selves to be such sinners as we are; or else what is the reason that the child of God cries out more against his sin and the weight thereof after his conversion, than he did before? What, are his sins greater or more, than they were formerly? No, but his Light is greater; his eyes are opened, and now he sees more clearly what sin is. When the Sun shines, and its rays come in, what a number of motes do we discover, which before we saw not? Not as if the Sun-beams made them, or the Sun raised the dust; no, there are here as many motes, and as much dust flying about, as if the Sun shined here: What is the matter then; Why this; the Sun discovers them to us. So that here is the point, Our sins in our souls are as motes in the air, and are not more than they were before conversion; but we cannot see them, till the glorious beams of God's Spirit shine upon us. The sight of sin, and of the danger that comes by it, is the work of God's Spirit. The Spirit discovers sin unto us, Joh. 16.8. When the Spirit cometh, he shall convince the world of sin: the word is [Greek or Hebrew], the Spirit shall convince them: And the same word is used, Heb. 11.1. where Faith is said to be the evidence of things not seen, [Greek or Hebrew]. Heretofore we had a slight imagination of our sins; but to have our mouth stopped, and to be convinced, is not a work of flesh and blood, but of God's Spirit,