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IV. I proceed to fhew what makes the call effectual to fome, when it is not fo to others. Negatively,

1. It is neither the piety, parts, nor ferioufnefs of those who are employed to carry the gospel-call to finners, 1 Cor. iii. 7. Indeed, if moral fuafion were fufficient to bring finners back to God; men that have the art of perfuading, and can fpeak movingly and seriously, could not fail to have vaft numbers of converts. But that work is not fo brought about, Luke xvi. ult. Hence faid Abraham to the rich man in hell, if they hear not Mofes and the prophets, neither will they be perfuaded though one rofe from the dead. Never did thefe conjunctly or feverally appear in any, as in Chrift, who fpake as never man fpake. But behold the iffue, John xii. 37. 38. But though he had done fo many miracles before them, yet they believed not on bim: that the faying of Efaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he fpake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?

2. Neither is it one that ufes his own free-will better than another does, Rom. ix. 16. It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that Sheweth mercy. For every man will be unwilling till the power from another quarter make him willing, John vi. 44: If it were fo, one man fhould make himself to differ from another in that grand point. But hear what the apostle Paul fays, 1 Cor. iv. 7. Who maketh thee to differ from another? Men are dead in trefpaffes and fins, and fuch cannot difference themselves.

2. Pofitively. We may fay, in this cafe, Not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord. It is the Spirit of the Lord accompanying the call of the word, that makes it effectual, John vi. 63. Hence days of the plentiful effufion of the Spirit are good days for the take of fouls, and contrariwife when the Spirit is reftrained, Pfal. cx. 3. Therefore Ifaiah refolves the queftion thus, Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

The report may reach the ears, but it is the arm of the Lord that muft open the heart, as it did that of Lydia. Mahomet II, the Turkish emperor, having defired to fee Scanderbeg's fcimitar, said, that he faw nothing in it more than ordinary; the other returned him anfwer, That the virtue of the weapon depended on the ftrength of his arm.

V. It may be afked, What neceffity is there for their being thus called? The neceffity of it is manifeft to all that know their natural cafe.

1. They are far off, Eph. ii. 13. far from God, and Chrift, and all good, Eph, ii. 12, Hence the call is, Draw nigh to God. We are at a diftance from him naturally; not a distance of place, for God is every where, Acts xvii. 27. but of oppofition, as far from him as war from peace, black from white, and hell from heaven. Our nature is contrary to his, and our will to his will, Rom. viii. 7. And there is no bring. ing us to him but by a very powerful and effectual call, whereby the finner is irrefiftibly drawn, John vi. 44. No man can come to me, except the Father which hath fent me, draw him.

2. They are hard and fast asleep, and they need this call, Eph, v. 14. Awake thou that fleepest, and arife from the dead, and Christ hall give thee light. The Thip they are in is every moment in hazard of being fwallowed up of the waves, for the ftorm of wrath is gone out against it; but like Jonah they are down in the fides of the fhip, know nothing of the matter to purpose, but are faft afleep. All their fpiritual fenfes are locked up, they can neither fee nor hear. Minifters cry, confcience cries, Awake thou sleeper, but to no purpofe; if they be difturbed, they lay down their heads again, and take yet a little fleep, a little flumber, though they fhould never awaken till they be in the bottom of the deep, And thus on they fleep, till the Spirit of the Lord call them effectually.

3. If they were awakened, they know not where to

go to, Acts ii. 37. When they find the houfe on fire about their heads, they know not how to make their cfcape. The law-light that awakens them, cannot let them fee Chrift. He is preached and pointed out in the word, but they cannot take up the city of refuge, nor the way that leads to it, 1 Cor. ii. 14. until the Spirit of the Lord call them by his power, and they hear the voice behind them, faying, This is the way, walk ye in it. Chrift is a vailed Saviour to the natural inan, till his eyes be opened.

4. If they did know where to go to, they are not willing to go thither, John v. 40. They are naturally unwilling to leave their lufts; all the milk and honey of the heavenly Canaan held forth in the gofpel, cannot wean their hearts from the flesh-pots of Egypt. To leave a luft is like the cutting off of a right hand. And in this refpect they need a powerful call, fuch a word from the Lord himfelf as makes the mountains to fhake, the rocks to rent, and the graves to give up their dead, and the whale to vomit up Jonah. And particularly they are naturally unwilling to come to Chrift, and will not be made willing till a day of power, Pfal. cx. 3. When they are convinced of their disease, yet they cannot think to employ that Phyfician, or undergo his method of cure. Hence fo many awakened finners employ phyficians of no vaJue; they will go to the law that wounded them, they will watch, pray, mourn, and macerate their own bodies, rather than believe. For there is a peculiar enmity in man's nature against the gofpel-way of falvation. So there is a neceffity of an effectual call.

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5. If they were willing to go to Chrift, yet being awakened, they dare not venture, guilt fo ftares them in the face, Jer. ii. 25. Thou faidft, There is no hope, While the man is afleep, it is nothing to him to believe, to come to Chrift; like people that walk in their fleep, they can go any where fearlessly. But when he is awakened, it is not fo eafy. He will then be like Adam hiding himself on hearing the voice of the Lord,

and will not come till he be called by the Lord himfelf. Hence fo many words of grace heaped on one another in gofpel-invitations, If. lv. 7. 8. 9. Let the wicked forfake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, faith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, fo are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For the Lord knows, that however the finner unawakened thinks coming to Chrift a light thing, yet when once awakened, doubts and fears will be going as thick as duft in the fweeping of a dry floor.

6. Lastly, If they durft come, yet they cannot come, unless they be drawn, John vi. 44. forecited. Sinners naturally are not only afleep, but dead in fins. And no lefs power is requifite to bring them than to raise the dead, and therefore this call is a voice that raiseth the dead, John v. 25. The product of this call is a new creation, Eph. ii. 10. compare Rom. iv. 17.

VI. Laftly, I fhall more particularly explain the na* ture of effectual calling. Ye fee it is the work of the Lord's Spirit; and there is a twofold work of the Spirit on the elect foul in effectual calling; one on the understanding, and the other on the will.

FIRST, On the understanding. This is the leading faculty of the foul, which by fin is overspread with darkness, Eph. v. 8, Satan finishes his work here, who, when he has got the foul afleep, fhuts door and window, draws the curtains, that the light may not enter, that fo the foul may fleep the fleep of death; does as the Philiftines did with Samfon, puts out the finner's eyes, when his ftrength is gone. And God begins his work here: as in the firft creation, fo in the fecond creation, The earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And

God faid, Let there be light: and there was light, Gen. i. 2. 3. Now, the work of the Spirit herein is twofold.

FIRST, An illumination of the foul from mount Sinai. And that is conviction of fin and mifery, John xvi. 8. or the law-work. The Spirit of the Lord fpeaks to the foul as it were out of the midft of the fire; but there is blacknefs, darkness, and tempeft mixed with this light. And here confider the matter, the effects, the means, and the depth of this conviction.

First, The matter of this conviction, which is twofold.

1. Sin, John xvi. 8. He will reprove the world of fin. The Spirit of the Lord convinces the man that he is a finner, and fets his particular fins in order before him, Pfal. 1. 21. Then fins that were out of mind as dead and buried, have a fearful refurrection, Rom. vii. 9. The Spirit of bondage leads his prifoner in chains, through the feveral parts and steps of his life, to his very birth; and fhews him convincingly his fins in them lets him fee fuch ill in fin as he never faw before, how hainoufly God takes it, and that with the feveral aggravations thereof.

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2. Mifery, John xvi. 8, The Spirit of the Lord con vinces him, that he is loft and undone, Luke xv. 17. Being convicted and found guilty, fentence paffes on him within his own breaft, whereby he fees himself doomed to eternal death. He is convinced, as if an angel from heaven fhould tell him, that he is under God's wrath and curfe, and that therefore if he die in that cafe, he will perifh for ever. He fees God to be enemy; his word to fpeak no good of him, and all God's creatures his enemies in fome fort ready armed against him.

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Secondly, The effects of it are these three especial ly:

1. Remorfe, Acts ii. 37. They were pricked in their hearts. The man's confcience now galls him, and he is ftung to the heart by the ferpent which he hugged

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