If every heart by nature be secured for Satan under so many locks and bars, then the opening of any heart to Christ is de- servedly 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 behold the gi-aves opened, and the dead raised at the voice of the Arch- An gel, and the trump of God ; but yet give me leave to say, that the opening of thy heart, poor sinner, to receive Christy is a more glorious work than that of raising the dead ; it is therefore deservedly put into the first rank of the great mysteries of godli- ness, that Christ is believed on in the world, 1 Tim. ii. 16. He that well views and considers Christ, may justly wonder that all the hearts in the enlightened world do not stand wide open to em- brace him ; and he that shall consider the frame and temper of the natural heart, and how strongly Satan hath entrenched and forti- fied 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.
1. There is a new eye created in the mind: " Tlie Son of God *' is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know *' him that is true,"" 1 John v. W. O that eye, that precious eye of faith, which shews the soul, as it were a new w^orld, a world of new and ravishing objects, Eph v. 8. All the angels in heaven, ministers, and Libraries upon earth, cannot create such an eye, give such an illumination ; it is only he that " 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. iv. 6.
2. And what a glorious superaatural work is the conviction of the conscience by the powerful stroke of the saving beams of light Upon it ? Now the conscience, that lay in a dead sleep, begins to startle and look about it with fear and horror. Life and sense is got into it, and now it cries. Ah, sick, sick, sick at the heart for sin, sick for a Saviour.
3. 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 Thes. ii. 13. Yet it works ^lot by way of compulsion, but in a way congruous and agreeable to the nature of the will, Hosea xi. 4. " I drew them with the
** cords o^ a mart, with the bands of love." Satan bids for the soul, Christ infinitely out-bids all his offers ; eternal, spiritual, and unsearchable riches, instead of sensitive, 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 that heart which Satan had secured so many ways against Christ.
Infer. 3. Hence it also follows^ that man hath rio free-will ofhin own to supernatural good. The will cannot, by its own power, open itself to receive Christ by faith. When it doth open to him, it i^ not virtute innata, sed illata, not by its natural power, but by the power of God upon it. The admirers of nature talk much of thel sovereignty, virginity, and liberty of the will, as if it alone had escaped the fall, and that no more but a moral suasion is needed toi open it to Christ ; that is, that God doth need no more to save men than the devil doth to damn them. But if ever God make you sensible what the work of saving conversion is, you will quickly find that your will is lame, its freedom to spiritual things gone ; 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 alone that *' worketh in you both to will and to do of his own good pleasure," Phil. ii. 13. That the birth of the new creature is not of the will of man, but of God, John i. 13.
Infer. 4. Learn hence the necessity of conversion, in order to salvation. Christ and heaven are shut up against you till your hearts be savingly opened unto him. " Verily, verily, I say untor you, you must be born again," John iii. 5. O sinner, that hard Iieart of thine must be humbled ; thy stubborn and refractory will must be bowed ; all the powers of thy soul must be unlocked and opened unto 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. i. 27. Till thy heart be opened, Christ, with all the hopes of glory, stand without thee. And if hopes from the death of Christ without us, without the application of his person, be enough so save men, then why are any damned ? Consult 1 Cor. 1. 30. Adam''s sin damns none but only such as are in him ; and Christ's righteousness saves none but those only 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 be brought home by the Spirit's powerful application in the work of saving conversion. It is good news, good 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 nigli to Christ, the next door to 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.
Infer. 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. i. 12. It greatly concerns us that preach the gospel to wrestle with God upon our kness, to accompany us in the dispensation of it imto 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 doth Paul beg of the people, as a beggar would beg for an alms at the door, for their assistance in prayer, Rom.- xv. 30. " I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord " Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive " together witli me in your prayers to God for me."