[ A] be soon chill'd with the damp it meets with in us. For example, there
is no doubt, beloved, but the Spirit of God accompanies his Word, as
at this time, to your ears; if you will but open at its knock, and re∣ceive,
and entertain it in your hearts, it shall prove unto you accord∣ing
to its most glorious attribute, Rom. i. The power of God unto sal∣vation:
But if you will refuse it, your stubborness may repel and
frustrate God's Work, but not annihilate it; though you will not be
saved by it, it is God's still, and so shall continue to witness against you
[ B] at the day of doom. Every word that was every darted from that Spirit,
as a beam or javelin of that piercing Sun, every atome of that flaming
Sword, as the word is phrased, shall not, though it be rebated, va∣nish:
the day of vengeance shall instruct your Souls, that it was sent
from God, and since it was once refused, hath been kept in store, not
to upbraid, but damn you.
Many other petty occasions the Spirit ordinarily takes to put off
the Cloud, and open his Face towards us: nay, it were not a ground∣less
[ C] doubt, whether he do not always shine, and the cloud be only
in our hearts, which makes us think the Sun is gone down, or quite
extinct, if at any time we feel not his rays within us. Beloved, there
be many things amongst us, that single fire can do nothing upon; they
are of such a stubborn, frozen nature, there must be some material
thing for the fire to consist in, a sharp iron, red hot, that may bore,
as well as burn or else there is small hopes of conquering them. Many
men are so hardned and congealed in sin, that the ordinary beam of
[ D] the Spirit cannot hope to melt them; the fire must come consubstan∣tiate
with some solid instrument, some sound, corpulent, piercing
judgment, or else it will be very unlikely to thrive. True it is, the
Spirit is an omnipotent Agent, which can so invisibly infuse and
insinuate its vertue through the inward man, that the whole most
enraged adversary shall presently fall to the earth, Act. ix. the whole
carnal man lie prostrate, and the sinner be without delay converted;
and this is a Miracle which I desire from my heart, might be present∣ly
[ E] shewed upon every Soul here present.
But that which is to my present purpose, is only this, That God
hath also other manners and ways of working, which are truly to be
said to have descended from Heaven, though they are not so successful
as to bring us thither; other more calm, and less boysterous influen∣ces,
which if they were received into an honest heart, might prove
semen immortalitatis, and in time encrease, and grow up to immor∣tality.
[ F] There is no such encumbrance to trash us in our Christian Progress
as a fancy that some men get possessed with; that if they are elected,
they shall be called and saved in spight of their teeth; every man ex∣pecting
an extraordinary call, because Saul met with one; and per∣haps
running the more fiercely, because Saul was then called, when
he was most violent in his full speed of malice against Christians.