' The dignity which Adam lost ; nay, I think in this parable God sets forth his good- ness and our happiness in restoring to us more by the death of the second Adam, than we lost by the sin of the first Adam.
' An awakened conscience is like Prometheus's vulture, it lies ever gnawing.
* Titus's motto was, Frinceps bonut orbia amor, all the world falls in love with a good prince, with a merciful prince. [Cf. Josephus, tub nomine. — G.]
348 HEAVEN ON EARTH. [ROM. VIII. 32-34!.
King Antigonus his pulliug a sheep with his own hands out of a dirty ditch, as he was passing by, drew his subjects exceedingly to com- mend him and love him.' So King Jesus pulling of poor souls out of their sins, and as it were out of hell, cannot but draw them to be much in the commendations of Christ, and strong in their love to Christ. Christ hath nothing more in his eye, nor upon his heart, than to act towards bis people in such ways and at such seasons as may most win upon their affections. And therefore it is, that sometimes he gives the strongest consolation at first conversion.
(3.) Tlie third ground. Christ sometimes at first conversion grants to his people the sweetest manifestations of his love, that tliey may he the more active, fervent, abundant, and constant in ways of grace wnd holiness.^ He knows that divine manifestations of love will most awaken, quicken, and engage the soul to ways of piety and sanctity.
Look what wings are to the bird, oil to the wheels, weights to the clock, a reward to the coward, and the loadstone to the needle, that are the smiles and discoveries of God to a poor soul at his conversion. The manifestatations of divine love puts heat and life into the soul, it makes the soul very serious and studious how to act for God, and live to God, and walk with God. Ah ! says a soul under the beams of divine love, it is my meat and drink, it is my joy and crown to do all I can for that God that hath done so much for me, as to know me in darkness, and to speak love to me when I was most unlovely ; to turn my mourning into rejoicing, and my hell into a heaven.
(4.) The fourth ground. Christ sometimes at first conversion gives his people the sweetest manifestations of his love, to fence and fortify them against Saians fiery temptations. Before Christ shall be led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, the Spirit of the Lord shall descend upon him like a dove, and he shall hear a voice from heaven, saying, ' This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased/ Mat. iii. 16, 17,^ that so he may be strong in resisting, and glorious in triumphing over all the assaults and temptations of Satan, Eph. vi. 16. So many times at first conversion, the Lord makes out sweet mani- festations of his love to the soul, that so the soul may stand fast, and not give ground, and in the sense of divine love may so manage the shield of faith, as to quench ail the fiery darts of the devil.
The Lord knows that when he sets upon the delivering of a poor soul from the kingdom of darkness, and translating it into the kingdom of his dear Son, that Satan will roar and rage, rend and tear, as he did him, Mark ix. 25, 26, ' When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee to come out of him. And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him : and he was as one dead ; inso- much that many said. He is dead.' No sooner did Jesus Christ look with an eye of love, pity, and compassion upon the boy, but the devil in his rage and wrath falls a-renting and tearing of him, as mad dogs
^ Diod. lib. xviii.-xx. ; Plutarch. Eumenes and Demetrius- — G.
* Amor dei nunquam otiosus est ; operatur enim magna si est ; si vero operari renuit, amor nan est ; the love of God is never idle, for if it is, it worketh great things ; but if it re- fuse to work, it is not love. So said Bradford, and other blessed souls.
• ivioKtifa. is an emphatical word, and signifies that infinite affection, delight, and con- tent that God the Father did take in Christ.
Rom. VIII. 82-34.] HJiLiVEN on eakth. 349
do things they fasten upon. This poor child had never so sore a fit as now he was nearest the cure. When rich mercy and glorious power is nearest the soul, then Satan most storms and rages against the soul. Col. i. 13.* The more the bowels of Christ do work towards a sinner, the more furious will Satan assault that sinner. Therefore divine wisdom and goodness does the more eminently shine in giving the poor soul some sight of Canaan, and some bunches and clusters of that land, upon its first coming out of the wilderness of sin and sorrow.
But that no soul may mistake this last proposition, give me leave to premise these two cautions.
[1.] The first caution. That God does manifest his love only to some at their first conversion, not to all. Though he dearly loves every penitent soul, yet he does not manifest his love at first conversion to every penitent souL God is a free agent, to work where he will, and when he will, and to reveal his love how he will, and when he will, and to whom he will. It is one thing for God to work a work of grace upon the soul, and another thing for God to shew the soul that work.^
God oftentimes works grace in a silent and secret way, and takes sometimes five, sometimes ten, sometimes fifteen, sometimes twenty years ; yea, sometimes more, before he will make a clear and satisfying report of his own work upon the soul. Though our graces be our best jewels, yet they are sometimes, at first conversion, so weak and imper- fect, that we are not able to see their lustre. The being of grace makes our estates safe and sure, the seeing of grace makes our lives sweet and comfortable.