As the Holy Spirit of God dwells and rules in sanctified souls, walks in them as in hallowed temples, guiding and comforting them; so Satan dwells in unregenerate hearts, inflaming them with his temptations, and using their faculties and members as instruments of unrighteousness. And then,

He will be their tormentor in the world to come: he that tempts now, will torment then. 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Matt. 25: 41. Flee, therefore, and escape for your lives, sleep not quietly another night in so dismal and dreadful a state. "If the Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed." John 8:36.

2. What a glorious work of sovereign, omnipotent grace is the effectual conversion of a sinner unto God. If every heart by nature be secured for Satan under so many locks and bars, the opening of any heart to Christ is deservedly marvellous in our eyes. You all acknowledge that the opening of the graves at the resurrection will be a glorious display of Almighty power, and so it will: it will be a wonderful thing to see the graves opened and the dead raised at the voice of the archangel and the trump of God; but give me leave to say that the opening of thy heart, poor sinner, to receive Christ, is a more glorious work than that of raising the dead; it is therefore deservedly put in the first rank of the great mysteries of godliness, that Christ is "believed on in the world." 1 Tim. 3: 16. He that well considers Christ, may justly wonder that all the hearts in the enlightened world do not stand wide open to embrace him; yet he that shall consider the frame and temper of the natural heart, and how strongly Satan has intrenched and fortified himself in it, may justly wonder to hear of a work of conversion in an age. O brethren, consider the marvels of conversion, the wonderful works of God upon the soul that opens unto Christ by faith.

There is a new eye created in the mind: "The Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true." 1 John, 5:20. O that precious eye of faith, which shows the soul as it were a new world, a world of new and ravishing objects. Eph. 5:8. All the angels in heaven, all the ministers and libraries upon earth, cannot create such an eye and give such an illumination; it is only He who "commanded the light to shine out of darkness, that" thus "shineth in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." 2 Cor. 4: 6.

And what a glorious supernatural work is the conviction of the conscience by the saving beams of light upon it. Now the conscience, which lay in a dead sleep, begins to startle and look about it with fear and horror. Life and feeling have got into it, and now it cries, "Ah, sick, sick at the heart for sin, sick for a Saviour."

And no less marvellous an effect of the Almighty power is the bowing of the stubborn will so efficaciously, so congruously, and so determinately and fixedly to the Lord Jesus. The will is efficaciously determined, so as no power of hell or nature can resist or frustrate that mighty power which worketh effectually in all them that believe. 1 Thess. 2:13. Yet it works not by way of compulsion, but in harmony with and agreeably to the nature of the will: "I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love." Hosea 11:4. Satan bids for the soul, but Christ infinitely outbids all his offers; eternal, spiritual, and unsearchable riches, instead of sensual, perishing enjoyments, which determine the choice of the will in its own natural method, by the sight of the excelling glory of spiritual things. And thus the mighty, supernatural power of God opens the heart which Satan had secured so many ways against Christ.

3. Hence it also follows, that man has no will of his own to supernatural good. The will cannot, by its own

power, open itself to receive Christ by faith. When it does open to him, it is not by its natural power, but by the power of God upon it. The admirers of nature talk much of the sovereignty of the will, as if it alone had escaped the fall, and that no more than moral suasion is needed to open it to Christ; that is, that God needs do no more to save men than the devil does to damn them. But if ever God makes you sensible what the work of saving conversion is, you will quickly find that your will is lame to spiritual things; you will cry out of a wounded will, as well as of a dark head and a hard heart. You will quickly find that "it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his own good pleasure." Phil. 2: 13. The birth of the new creature is not of the will of man, but of God. John 1:13.

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4. Learn, hence, the necessity of conversion in order to salvation. Christ and heaven are shut up against you till your hearts are savingly opened unto him. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again." John 3:7. O sinner, that hard heart of thine must be humbled; thy stubborn and refractory will must be bowed; all the powers of thy soul must be unlocked and opened to Christ; he must come into thy soul, or thou canst never see the face of God in peace. It is Christ in you that is "the hope of glory." Col. 1:27. Till thy heart is opened, Christ, with all the hopes of glory, stands without thee. If hope from the death of Christ, without the application of his Spirit, be enough to save men, then why are any damned? See 1 Cor. 1:30. Adam's sin damns none but only such as are in him; and Christ's righteousness saves none but those that are by faith in him the eternal purpose of the Father, the meritorious death of the Son, put no man into the state of salvation and happiness till both are brought home by the Spirit's powerful application in the work of saving conversion. It is good news indeed, that Christ died for sinners; it is good news that Christ is brought to our very doors in the tenders of the

gospel, and that the Spirit knocks at the door of our hearts, by many convictions and persuasions to open to him and enjoy the unspeakable benefits of his death: these things bring us nigh to Christ and salvation; and yet all this may be, eventually, but a dreadful aggravation of our damnation, and will certainly be so to them whose hearts are but almost opened to Christ.

5. See, hence, the necessity of fervent prayer to accompany the preaching of the gospel. Without the Spirit and power of God accompanying the word, no heart can ever be opened to Christ: alas, such bars as these are too strong for the breath of man to break; let ministers pray, and the people pray, that the gospel may be preached "with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." 1 Pet. 1:12. It greatly concerns us who preach the gospel, to wrestle with God upon our knees for help in the dispensation of it unto the people—to steep that seed we sow among you in tears and prayers before you hear it. And I beseech you, brethren, let us not strive alone; join your cries to heaven with ours, for the blessing of the Spirit upon the word. How does Paul beg of the people, as a beggar would for alms, for their assistance in prayer: "I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me." Rom. 15:30.

For want of such wrestlings with God in prayer, there is so little efficacy in ordinances. Martha told her Saviour, “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died,” John 11:21; and I may tell you, that if the Spirit had been here, your souls had not remained dead under the word as they do this day. O when the Sabbath draws near, let fervent cries ascend from every family to heaven. Lord, pour out thy Spirit with thy word; make it mighty through thy power to open these gates of iron and break asunder these bars of brass.

The subject supplies us with matter for EXHORTATION to duty. Seeing the case stands thus, that all hearts by nature are barred and shut up against Christ, let every soul strive to its uttermost to get the heart and will opened to Christ : "Strive to enter in at the strait gate." Luke 13:24. Christ is at the door; O strive with yourselves as well as with God now to get it opened, now that salvation is come so near your souls.

OBJECTION. But have you not told us that no sinner can open his own heart, nor bow his own will to Christ?

ANSWER. True, he cannot convert himself, but he may do many things in order to it, and which have a tendency to it, which he does not do; and so he perishes, not because he cannot, but because he will not open his heart to Christ.

Many things may be done by sinners which are not done; and though in themselves they are insufficient, yet being the way in which the Spirit of God usually works, we are bound to do them. As for example, 1. If it be not in your power to open your heart to Christ, it is in your power to forbear the external acts of sin, which set your heart the more against Christ. Who forces thine hands to steal, or thy tongue to swear or lie? Who forces the cup of excess down your throat? 2. If you cannot open your heart under the word, it is in your power to attend upon the external duties and ordinances of the gospel. Why cannot those feet carry thee to the assemblies of the saints, as well as to a tavern? 3. And if you cannot admit the word effectually into your heart, certainly you can apply your mind with more attention and consideration to it than you do. Who forces thine eyes to wander, or closes them with sleep, when the awful matters of eternal life and death are sounding in thine ears? 4. If you cannot open your heart to embrace Christ, certainly you can reflect when the obvious characters of a Christless state are plainly held forth before your eyes. God has given you a self-reflecting power: the spirit of