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'he did predeftinate, them he alfo called.' Acts 13. 48. As many as were ordained to eternal " life, believed.' It is effectual on them, in that, fooner or later, they certainly come to Chrift upon the Call: John vi. 37. All that the Father giveth " me, shall come to me.'

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Our effectual Calling is the Work of God's Spirits 1 Theff. i. 4. 5. Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but alfo in power, and in the Holy Ghoft, and in much affurance.' John vi. 63. It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are fpirit, and they are life.' And thereby he doth perfuade and enable us to embrace Fefus Chrift freely offered to us in the Gospel. The Spirit renders the Gofpel-call effectual on us, powerfully determining us, and putting us in a Capacity, to answer the Call, by embracing Chrift. He determines us to anfwer the Gospel-call, by perfuading us effectually to embrace Chrift: Gen, God fhall enlarge [Marg. perfuade] Japheth, and he fhall dwell in the tents of Shem. John vi. 44. 45. No man can come to me, exс cept the Father which hath fent me, draw him : and I will raife him up at the laft day. It is written in the prophets, And they fhall be all 6 taught of God. Every man therefore that hath 6 heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh · unto me.' Phil. ii. 13. It is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. He puts us in a Capacity to anfwer the Gofpel-call, by enabling us to embrace Chrift, John vi. 44, 45. Phil. ii. 13. above cited. There is need of the Spirit's calling us effectually, by perfuading

ix. 27.

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perfuading and enabling us to come to Chrift in Union and Communion with him; becaufe, being in ourselves dead in Sin, we are neither willing nor able to come: John v. 25. Verily verily I fay unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead fhall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear, fhall live.' Compared with Pfal. cx. 3. Thy people fhall be willing in the day of thy power.' Phil. ii. 13. John vi. 44. forecited.

The Spirit perfuades and enables us to embrace Jefus Chrift freely offered to us in the Gospel, by convincing us of our Sin and Mifery, enlightening our Minds in the Knowledge of Chrift, and renewing our Wills. The Work of the Spirit for perfuading and enabling us to embrace Chrift, is threefold; namely, Conviction, faving Illumination, and the renewing of the Will. But Conviction is not a, Work of the Spirit, of the fame Kind with the other two.

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Conviction is a Work of the Spirit, acting as a Spirit of Bondage upon us, Rom. viii. 15. The Spirit, acting as a Spirit of Bondage, convinceth us of our Sin and Mifery: John xvi. 8. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of fin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.' Acts ii. 37. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and faid unto Peter, and to the rest of the apoftles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? The Effect of the Spirit's Work of Conviction upon us, is a Sight of our Sins as heinous in the Sight of God, and of his Wrath due to us for them, filling us with Remorse, Terror, and Anxiety, John xvi. 8. Acts ii. 37. forecited. Chap. xvi. 29. Then he [the jailor]

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called for a light, and fprang in, and came " trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas.' The Word of God by which the Spirit works that Conviction, is the Law: Rom. iii. 20. By the 'law is the knowledge of fin.' He convinceth us of our Sin by it, bringing home on our Confciences the Commands of the Law, as of divine Authority, and binding on us in particular: Rom. vii. 7. What shall we fay then? is the law fin? God ‹ forbid. Nay, I had not known fin but by the law: for I had not known luft, except the law had faid, Thou shalt not covet. Compared with Exod. xx. i. And God fpake all these words, c. He convinceth us of our Mifery by it, bringing home on our Confciences the Curfe of the Law, as the Curfe of the Lord himself, binding on us in particular: Gal. iii. 10. As many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse : for it is written, Curfed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.' Compared with Rom. iii. 19: 'Now we know that what things fo6 ever the law faith, it faith to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.' Mal. iii. 9. 'Ye are curfed with a curfe; for ye have robbed me.' That Law-work doth not iffue in Faith and Conversion, in all whom it is wrought upon: Matth. xxvii. 3. 4. 5. Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he faw that ' he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of filver to the chief priests and elders, faying, I have finned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And he caft down the pieces of filver in the temple, and departed,

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and went and hanged himself.' Acts xxiv. 25. And as Paul reafoned of righteoufnefs, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, ' and answered, Go thy way for this time; when 'I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.' Neither is that Law-work of the fame Measure in all that are converted: Luke xix. 6. 'And Zaccheus made hafte, and came down, and received him 'joyfully.' Compared with Acts ix. 9. And Saul was three days without fight, and neither did eat nor drink.' But fo much of it is neceffary, as brings the Soul to fee an abfolute Need of Chrift, and to defpair of Relief by any other Way: Gal. iii. 24. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster, to bring us unto Chrift, that we might be juftified by faith.' Luke vi. 48. 'He is like a man which built an houfe, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock,' &c. The Part this Law-work of the Spirit hath in the perfuading and enabling us to embrace Jefus Christ, is, that it begins the Perfuafion. It begins the Perfuafion, urging us with our loft and undone State, and our Need of a Saviour: Gal. iii. 23. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, fhut up unto the faith which fhould after'wards be revealed.' Exod. xx. 18. 19. And all the people faw the thunderings, and the lightenings, and the noife of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people faw it, they removed, and flood afar off. And they faid unto Mofes, Speak thou with us, and we will hear but let not God fpeak with us, left we die.' But this Law-work neither perfects the Perfuafion, nor enables us to embrace Chrift: Rom. viii. 3. 'For what the law could not do in that it

was

was weak through the flesh, God fending his own Son in the likeness of finful flesh, and for 'fin condemned fin in the flesh.' Heb. vii. 19. For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did.'

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Saving Illumination, and the renewing of the Will, are Works of the Spirit acting as a Spirit of Life within us: 2 Cor. iv. 6. For God, who com'manded the light to shine out of darkness, hath 'fhined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jefus Chrift. Compared with John viii. 12. Then fpake Jefus again unto them, saying, I am 'the light of the world: he that followeth me, 'fhall not walk in darkness, but fhall have the 6 light of life.' Ezek. xxxvi. 26. 27. 'A new heart alfa will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the ftony "heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and caufe you to walk in my ftatutes, and ye fhall keep my judgments, and do them. The Spirit of Life, from Chrift the Head, is conveyed into us in the Word: John vi. 63. It is the fpirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I fpeak unto you, they' · are fpirit, and they are life. Not in the Word of the Law, but in the Word of the Gofpel: Gal. iii. 2. This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the 'hearing of faith?' 2 Cor. iii. 7. 8. But if the 'ministration of death written and engraven in ftones, was glorious, fo that the children of Ifrael could not stedfaftly behold the face of Mofes, for the glory of his countenance, which

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