expresses it, is in their ears [1], even the sentence ef their own damnation; and the awful curse of an almighty, sin-avenging God comes into their bowels like water, and like oil into their bones [2]. They are filled with such deep remorse for their past sins, that they verily think no iniquity was ever like theirs, and that no punishment will be like theirs. They hardly see a glimmering of hope that they shall obtain deliverance, but expect, in a very little while, to be sealed up under wrath, if they are not already When they hear the offers and the promises of the Gospel, they can apply none of them to themselves, and find comfort in none: but every threatening and every curse of the book of God seems to have been written as their intended portion. And thus, perhaps, they continue for weeks or for months together, expecting every day and every night that destruction from God, which is now a terror to them (3), should utterly swallow them up, and leave them aeither root nor branch, neither comfort nor hope (4). The law is a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ (5), and it scourges them with the most rigorous discipline; yea, the infernal lion roars over them, though he is not permitted to devour them: he particularly terrifies them when they think of approaching God, as if they were to meet with some peculiar danger there, where alone they can find their relief: or, if they do in broken accents utter their prayer before God, it seems to be shut out (6), and they are apprehensive that it is turned into sin (7). Yet there is one thing to be observed in the midst of this scene

[1] Job xv. 21 [2] Psal. cix. 18. [3] Job xxxi. 23. Mal. iv. 1. [5] Gal. iii. 24. [6]Lam. iii. 8. [73Ps. cix. 7.

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of horror, and it is a circumstance of great impor tance; "that they justify God when he seems most inexorable, and subscribe to that sentence as righteous which dooms them to eternal ruin.”

2. Others are "melted into deep sorrows."

Their cycs run down with tears; and they are ready to wish that their head were waters, and their eyes fountains, that they might continue to weep day and night (1). They see the evil of sin, and the misery to which it has reduced them, in a most deplorable view; and it may be, while those described under the former head are ready to tremble because they cannot weep, these are ready to weep, because they cannot tremble. They lament, among other things, the want of those strong horrors which some have felt: they cry out, "Woe is me, for I am undone (2); I have destroyed myself, and in myself is not my help found (3):" and it may be, they are a considerable time Lefore they can persuade themselves there is any help for them, even in God. They know there is help in him through Christ for penitent and believing sinners: but they cannot easily be convinced that they believe, because they do not feel that confident trust which some others have much sooner been brought to; and they are afraid, lest whatever they experience, which looks like repentance, should be only the false appearance of it, proceeding from mere self-love and a natural dread of future misery. They dwell perpetually on the dark side of things: they read over the catalogue of their iniquities again and again, and attend to those passages in which the wrath of God is revealed from hraver [1] Jer. ix, 1, 18.

[2] Tea, vi. 5.

against every kind and degree of sin (1); while they are slow of heart to admit those reviving consolations which the various rich and precious promises of the Gospel are so admirably well calculated to administer.

The state of such souls, when they are first za. vingly enlightened, is like that of the earth, when fogs and mists have veiled the face of the sun after it is risen. But it very often happens, with respect to such souls, that when these mists are at length dispersed, a very bright and cheerful day opens: they are comforted by the warmer beams of the Sun of Righteousness, according to the hours in which they have been beclouded, and are made glad accor ding to the days in which they were afflicted (2): and going on to fear the Lord, and to obey the voice of his servant, though they have long walked in darkness, and seen no light, they are at length encouraged by his Spirit enforcing the exhortations of his word, to trust in the name of the Lord, and stay themselves on their God (3).

3. Some are "captivated with astonishing and delightful views of the love of God in Christ."

There is always, as we observed before, in the a wakened soul, some conviction of sin and apprehension of danger; nevertheless, there are instances in which God heals almost as soon as he wounds, and speaks peace almost as soon as he speaks trouble. He graciously shortens, to some souls, the pangs of the new birth, and gives them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the [1] Rom. i. 18. [2] Psal. xc. 15. [3] Isa. I. 10.

spirit of heaviness (1). The news of salvation by the blood, and righteousness, and grace of Christ, is received with so thankful a sense, with so joyful a compliance, that the soul, feeling beyond all doubt the cordial sincerity with which it embraces the of fer, is filled with joy unspeakable, and full of glory (2): the heart does magnify the Lord, and the spirit rejoices in God its Saviour (3).

This was remarkably the case of the jailer, who is thevery night in which he was converted, that same night in which the foundation of his house had been shaken, and his own soul too shaken, by an earthquake, so that he had endeavored to lay violent hands on himself: yet, I say, that very night, be fore the day appeared, having been directed to be lieve on the Lord Jesus Christ, that he might be sav ed, and been enabled, by Divine grace, to comply with the exhortation, it is added concerning him, that he rejoiced, believing in God with all his house (4).Thus too the Thessalonians, though they received the word in much affliction, and ran the risk of losing their possessions and their lives in adhering to it, yet received it with joy of the Holy Ghost (5). And though I cannot say this is. God's most ordinary way of dealing, and though I fear the counterfeit appearance of such a work as this often leaves men in the number of those whom our Lord represents by stony ground hearers (6); yet it is certain, some instances of this kind are still to be found, But then I must observe, this is a joy attended with the deepest humility, and animates the soul to the [1] Isa, Ixi 3. [3] Luke i. 46, 47. [4] Acts xvi, 34.\[571 Thes. i. 6. [6] Mat. xiii. 20, 21.

[2] Pet. i. 8.

most ardent and affectionate resolution of walking worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness (1). ́

4. Others, and these perhaps the greatest part of such as are religiously educated, are "led on by such gentle and insensible degrees, that they can hardly recollect any remarkable circumstances that have attended their conversion, nor can certainly fix on the particular time of it."

God is sometimes in the preceding instances, in the whirlwind, the carthquake, and the fire; but he is also frequently in the still small voice (2). The operations of the Holy Spirit on the soul are often, and perhaps generally, of such a nature, that it is diffi eult exactly to distinguish them from the rational. exercise of our own thoughts, because the Spirit opsrates by suggesting rational views of things, and awakening rational affections. For whatever some have vainly and dangerously insinuated, nothing is so rational as the sentiments and temper which prevail in renewed souls, and to which it is the work of God's regenerating Spirit to bring them.

These operations, where there is a religious education, often begin very early: but then, in some degree, the impressions wear off from the weak and flexible mind; and perhaps there are various instanees in which they alternately revive and decay again. And this vicissitude of affectionate applica tions to religion under moving ordinances, afflictions, [2] 1 Kings xix. 11, 12.

11 Col. i. 10, 11. ́