But this is past and gone. There is a wonderful power that goes along with the word.
[1.] A power to humble and terrify those that scoffed at the miracles : Acts ii, 37, ' When they heard tliis, they were pricked in their hearts, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles. Men and brethi-en, what shall we do ? ' The word can do that which a miracle cannot ; make the stoutest hearts relent and yield. One instance more : Acts xxiv. 25, ' And as he reasoned of i-ighteousness, temperance, and judg- ment to come, Felix trembled.' Mark the disadvantage ; the prisoner maketh the judge tremble, the man none of the tcnderest, a pagan, and to boot an obdurate sinner ; but Paul by his power caused these. Terrors of conscience, v/hich are raised by the word, all wicked men feel not, but soon may ; they fear them that feel them not : John iii. 20, ' For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometli to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.' Conviction in one of these spiritual agonies exceeds all natural passions ; fears of the wrath of God scorch more, and breed more restlessness and disquietness to the soul, their thoughts become a burden to them: ' He is convinced of all, and judged of all; and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest, and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and. report that God is in you of a truth,' 1 Cor. xiv. 24, 25. His sins revived, the poor creature lieth grovelling.
VeR. 129.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXTX. 341
[2.] There is a converting and transforming power in the word of God: Rom. i. 16, 'For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God nnto salvation to every one that believeth ;' 1 Thes. i. 9, ' For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God ; ' from a false to a true, a bad to a better. Men brought up in a false religion, there is much ado to take them off : ' Have any nations changed their gods ? ' Though their worship be never so vain and foolish, yet this power the word hath, even over those that have been rooted and habituated in superstitious customs. The gods they had prayed to in their adversities, praised in their prosperity, deprecated their anger when any judgment upon them, magnified their goodness when any good received, built them temples, offered them gifts ; must they break those images, destroy those temples, deny those gods ? How dear idols are, Rachel's stealing away her father's images clearly showeth, Gen. xxxi. 34. She was one of them that built God's Israel, yet she hath a hankering after her father's idols. No humours so obstinate and stiff as those that are found in religious customs. They accnsed Stephen for changing the customs Moses delivered, Acts vi. 14 ; and Paul, that he taught customs which were not lawful for Romans to observe, Acts xvi. 21. Certainly it is a very hard thing to bring men out of an old religion into a new one. Again, the convert- ing of nuin from a state of nature to a state of grace, so that they are, as it were, born again : James i. IS, ' Of his own will begat he us, with the M-ord of truth ; that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creation.' It is a hard matter to change natures, to turn a lion into a lamb : Isa. xi. 6, ' The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the falling together, and a little child shall lead them.' Yet this will the gospel do, make him that resembleth the devil in his contempt of God, envy, revenge, to be like Clu'ist ; I say the gospel doth it : 2 Cor. iii. 18, ' But we all with open face beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.' To bring us to love what we naturally hate, and to hate what we naturally love ; that the heart should be turned from all creatures, himself and all, to God ; that they shonld be induced to tnrn from the creature to God, to seek out happiness in him ; from self to Christ, from sin to holiness ; that God's desires should be our desires, his will our will, his delights our delights; the natural heart is averse from this : Rom. viii. 7, ' The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.' That the hearts, spirits, dispositions of men should be turned upside down : 1 Cor. vi. 9-11, 'Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves Avith mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you ; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God;' Isa. Iv. 13, 'Instead of the thorns shall come up the fig-tree; and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle-tree.' A mighty change wrought, to be changed nut only in their lives, but natures.