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without the favour of God, but can I do so when I have nothing else to live on? Alas! is that fit to be instead of God and heaven to me, that will not keep me out of the grave, nor keep my strongest or most beautiful parts from rotting in the dust; no, nor keep my soul from everlasting torments? Oh, what shall I do if I have not a better portion than this? Woe to me that ever I was born, if I be not better provided for before I die! Thus doth God take off the soul in conversion from its former ends, and makes it say, Lord, these will not serve my turn; O put me not off with such things as these. When the soul is thus loosened from its former delight, and seeth that it must be something else that must be his happiness; then doth the Spirit by the word of God reveal to him the certainty and the fulness of that glory that is to be had by Christ in the everlasting love and fruition of God; and then he sees that though it be not here to be had, yet it is to be had hereafter; and that man was made to higher things than he hath hitherto minded. Now he begins to bethink himself in good sadness, that heaven may be had, and that for him as well as others; the impossibility is taken away by Christ, and the door is set open; the glory is inconceivable, and if he can but once get it he is made for ever. These thoughts now work in the heart of the man that never had such lively working thoughts of it before. So that now he feeleth his heart burn within him, when he hath once found where his happiness is to be had; presently, the Spirit having touched his heart with an effectual inclination thereto, he is bent upon it, and sets his heart and face to seek it. And now this is his business; comparatively he hath nothing else to do. Now it must be God or none; heaven, or nothing that will serve his turn. Now if God should offer him, I will give thee mirth and riches for a thousand years without interruption, I will give thee the good word of all about thee, I will make thee the greatest man on earth, and thou shalt have the world at will; but not my love and grace in Christ, nor the hope of everlasting glory:' this would be the saddest news that ever came to his soul. It is not now the same thing that would please him as before. Tell not him now of profit and pleasure; it is everlasting pleasure that he must have. He hath another journey to go, another home

to regard, another kind of trade to drive on in the world than before he had. Now he "looketh for a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God;" and therefore doth take himself but as a stranger on earth, and one that sojourneth in a foreign country'. Now the best of worldly things will no longer satisfy them; but they "desire a better country, that is, an heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a citym." Now they are soundly persuaded that "there is a God, and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him;" and that this reward is beyond the grave, and therefore they have respect to the recompence of reward, and are content to submit to the sufferings of this life, that so they may obtain a better resurrection". He now is to this world as a dead man in comparison; "crucified to the world, and the world to him"." "And his life is hid with Christ in God; and when Christ, who is his life, shall ap pear, then shall he appear also with him in glory P."

Beloved hearers, you may easily conceive that it is a very great change, that causeth a man to have other ends than ever he had before, and that quite turneth the very bent of his heart and life, and maketh him have quite a contrary business in the world, than before he had; that setteth a man's face another way, so that he that before went one way, doth now go the clean contrary. Alas! it is not the restraint of a wicked work or two, or the outward civilizing of your lives, that is true conversion. It is such a change as I am now describing to you, that turneth you quite ano ther way. If you are true Christians that hear me, you know it, or may know it, to be thus with yourselves. For certainly you have had experience of this in your souls. It were no impossible thing for you now, if you were but willing, to know certainly whether you be converted, yea or no. One would think that a man's end might be discerned above all things. Cannot you know what you like and love best? And what you would fain have? And what you cannot be content without? And what you drive at in the course of' your lives? And what you place your hopes and happiness in, which you will have, though you part with all to get it?

Heb. xi. 9, 10, 13. 0 Gal. vi. 14.

m Heb. xi. 16. P Col. iii. 3, 4.

n Heb. xi. 6, 26, 35.

And what it is that beareth down all things else in your hearts and lives? Why something or other doth this, whatsoever it be, and this is your end. And one would think, that this which so much takes one up, and so much sways, and is the business of his life, might be well discerned. Sirs, deal truly between God and your souls. What hath your hearts? What game do you follow? What do you mind above all? I ask not whether you set not a foot now and then out of the way: but which way are you travelling? For earth or for heaven? O that you would but be faithful to your souls in this trial! I have often told you, and will tell you yet again, and desire you to remember it as long as you live, that this is the true difference between every true converted soul, and all hypocrites and carnal men in the world; That to the true Christian indeed, God and everlasting glory is his main end, and religion is his business, and all worldly things come in but upon the bye, and therefore he can have them, or be without them; whereas with all hypocrites and carnal men, the pleasing of their flesh in this world, is their main end; and therefore worldliness, voluptuousness, or ambition is their business, and the matters of God and religion come in but upon the bye, and therefore they can taste of them, or they can be without them.' I would you would keep this one mark by you while you live by which you may judge yourselves without deceit; and so the true Christian need not deny his sincerity, nor the hypocrite imagine that he is what he is not, but might certainly know that he is yet in the flesh. And thus I have shewn you what is the second part of Conversion of the Will or Heart, even the change of a man's ends and intentions.

3. The third part of the work of Conversion on the Will, is this, The same Spirit in the word, which changeth a man's ends, doth also change him as to the choice of means, and causes him to choose what before he refused, and to consent to that which before he did reject. Heaven is not obtained in every way, but in God's own way, and if a man should never so much intend God as his end, and yet not seek him in the means of his appointment, (though I think there is none that doth so, or that ever these indeed are separated, yet I say, if such a thing were,) it would not save him. It is

not enough to know where we must be happy, but we must also know how to come thither. There is but one right way to salvation in the main, and he that will be saved, must be sure to hit it.

(1) There are two sorts of means or ways to salvation; not contrary, but one subordinate to the other; but one is the chief and principal way, and that is Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost; the other is the subservient way, and that is the means that Christ hath appointed under himself. When man was lost, there was no remedy for him in heaven or earth, but the ever-living Son of God to come down from heaven, and take our nature, and perfectly obey the law, and suffer for our disobedience; this he did in compassion to mankind. He was born of a virgin, without man, and without sin, by the power of the Holy Ghost. He lived on earth without sin also, and proved his Godhead and doctrine by his works; he raised the dead, healed the lame, the blind, the sick, and at last offered himself on the cross a sacrifice for our sins, in, suffering that which we must else have suffered; and being buried, he rose again on the third day, and after forty days in the sight of his disciples, ascended into heaven, where he is now in our nature interceding for us, and preparing us a place. And before he departed from earth, he ordained this law, and sent his disciples to preach it to all the world; that all they that would renounce their own works, and trust their souls upon his redemption and ransom, and forsake the world, the flesh, and the devil, and take him for their only Lord and Saviour, and so return to God himself, shall receive the pardon of all their sin, and be made the heirs of everlasting glory. And he hath promised also to send his sanctifying Spirit to dwell and work in those that believe. Thus you see what is the principal means of salvation: it is the Lord Jesus Christ, who having suffered for us, is offered to us in the Gospel, to be our Head and Husband, our Saviour and our Lord.

Two things are here of absolute necessity to our salvation: the one is, to believe unfeignedly that Christ is the Messiah and Redeemer of the world: and the second is, to accept him as he is offered to us in the Gospel. Now the heart of an unconverted sinner is against both these. 1. It doth not soundly believe the truth of Christ's incarnation, resurrec

tion, and ascension, but only by a common, customary, superficial belief: but of this I spoke before. 2. He doth not welcome Christ to his soul, as he is offered to him; partly because men are unhumbled and feel not the need of Christ; for" the whole need not a physician, but they that are sick" and partly, because that Christ would reclaim them from the way that they take pleasure in, and would bring them into a way that is against their hearts; and many other causes there are. So that, even where Christ seemeth to be much honoured, and men will bow, and do the greatest reverence to his name, and profess themselves his faithful servants, and that they trust their salvation on him alone: yet for all this they do not savingly or sincerely believe in him. They have learned to speak well of Christ, and they are willing to `be forgiven by him; but they never laid hold on him, as a drowning man would do on that which might save him; nor did they ever feel at their hearts, what a glorious work of mercy he hath wrought in their redemption; and how much he hath done for them, and how much he hath engaged their souls unto himself. They never had any of the saints' admiration at the height, and breadth, and length, and depth, nor have they been taken up with this astonishing project of love, as men thus redeemed at such a rate must be; nor would they ever consent that Christ should rule over them, and mortify their lusts, and bring them back from the flesh to God: and therefore they are unbelievers, even while they profess the faith of Christ. But when converting grace comes, as it raiseth the soul's estimation of Christ, as I have said before, so doth it open the heart to his entertainment. Ọ what glad news is it to desolate, self-condemned souls to hear that the Son of God hath bought them with his blood! It is life to them to hear the glad tidings of their redemption. It is the very work of the Spirit in conversion, to bring the soul into this admiration of redemption; and to shew it the riches of grace in Christ, and the mystery of this blessed work, when his eyes are opened to see how God designed here the magnifying of his love; and how glorious God is in his mercy in the work of redemption, even as glorious as in his power in the work of creation. And when his wounded soul hath well understood

q Epb. iii. 18.