before; which some understand by Vivification or Quickning, 1 Cor. 15.45. Eph. 2.1. and opening the Heart, Act. 16.14. and Understand∣ing, Luk. 24.45. Bending also, and applying the Faculty to the Object, in order to its receiving of the Impress and stamp thereof upon it, Job. 33.16. the Signature of Truth upon the Mind and Heart, all which I deny not; but still, evident it is That God worketh not any Moral Change on the Understanding otherwise than objectively, also by offering Reason to it, or proposing that before it which invincibly bindeth it to an admittance there∣of, Hos. 11.4. and the Gospel is the deepest Reason, and Faith the most solid Understanding, Mat. 13.44, 45. Isa. 1.18. the Word of God is the Seed of the New Birth out of all question, Jam. 1.18. 1 Pet. 1.23. and that as proposed to the mind, 1 Cor. 4.15. and intertained there, Jam. 1.21. Nor doth God work on the Will or Affections, or Execu∣tive power in Conversion, otherwise than Mediante ratione by the inter∣vention, of Reason, 1 Cor. 2.4. not by any Physical attingency immediate∣ly, but by Moral Suasion, and Objective Proposal, by the Mind, the eye of the Soul. God shall perswade Japhet, Gen 9.27. By objective Pro∣posal, and moral Suasion, I do not intend onely, that of God Externally, in his Word Commanding, Perswading, Counselling, &c. or in and by the Ministry of Man; but moreover his Internal application to the Soul in the Ministry of the Word, or otherwise; where yet the Word is the Instrument in the hand of the Spirit, working in a Moral way; efficiently too in a Sense; yet not modo Physico after the manner of a real Impulse, or proper Physical Action or Causation. God knoweth how to reach the Reason, and Elective Faculty, the main Springs of the Soul, and how to fasten a Nail there, Eccl. 12.11. a fit Word, spoken on his Wheeles, Prov. 25.11. how to catch the Soul e're it is aware, Luk. 5.10. to allure and draw, Cant. 1.4. (not motu physico by proper physical determina∣tion I take it, but) by convincing Reason and Teaching, Instructing with a strong hand, Isa. 8.11. Every man that hath heard and learned of the Father, cometh unto me, Joh. 6.44, 45. is made Willing, Psal. 110.3. the Stony Heart, all Prepossession and Aversation against God and Godli∣ness, is removed, Ezek. 36.26. and its sense of things is changed, Rom. 8.5. and the new man is put on, viz. in a Moral sense, Eph. 4.24. the propension and inclination of the Subject altered and changed, and become a radicated Principle in the Soul, disposing it unto Holiness.If the Devil can so far overmatch the Understanding of man, when by God left to his delusions, that an an effectual working is ascri∣bed to him, 2 Thes. 2 9. (Whom yet all acknowledge to work only mor∣ally and objectively, 1 King. 22.21.) Who can say but that God, who 0