The sweet providence of God brings those that belong to election under the compass of the means at one time or other. Let the devil, and the instruments of the devil, rage and oppose, and do what they can, those that belong to God, God will have a time to bring them within the com- pass of his calling, and effectually call them by his Spirit. As here Lydia, there was a sweet preventing •;- providence that she never thought of. God brought an apostle for the salvation of her soul. She heard Paul, and was converted. To come to the description of her conversion in the next words.
' Whose heart the Lord opened to attend to the things that were spoken of Paul.'
God opened her heart. To what purpose ? ' To attend to the things spoken of Paul.'
' God, by the word preached,' opens the hearts to attend to the word. By the word we arc fitted to the word. The Spirit and the word draw us to themselves ; the Spirit and the word draw us to regard the word ; by the word her heart was opened to attend to the word.
First, I will speak of the openinrf her heart. And then of her attending upon the word preached by Paul, ' God opened her heart.' She was a religious woman, yet her heart was shut before God opened it. She was religious in her kind, yet her heart must be further opened before she could be saved. There is no staying in preparations in this or that degree, as many abortives in our times that make many offers. They have the Spirit of bondage, and are cast down ; but there they stick, and never come to proof. But those that will attain to salvation must not rest in religious dispositions, in good affections, and gracious oflers. They must go on further and further, as we see here : ' God opened her heart.'
Observe then in the opening of the heart these things.
1. First, The heart is natxiralhj shut and closed vp, as indeed it is to spi- ritual things. It is open enough to the world, and to base contentments here ; but it is shut to heaven and heavenly things. Naturally it is clean locked up.
* Tliat is, ' going before,' = anticipating. — G.
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LYDIA S CON^TERSION.
Partly in its own nature, being corrupt and earthly ; partly because Satan he bcsicgoth all the senses, and shuts up all. There is a spirit of deafness and blindness, and a spirit of darkness and deafness in people, before God hath brought them by the powerful work of the gospel from the kingdom of Satan, that possesseth every man naturally. Naturally therefore our hearts are not open, but locked and shut up. That is supposed here. So that except God be merciful to break the prison, as it were, whereby by unbelief and the wickedness of our nature we are shut up, there is no hope of salvation at all. God opens the heart.
2. The second thing is this, that as our hearts are shut and closed up naturally, so God, and God alone, opens the heart, by his Spirit in the use of the means. God opened Lydia's heart.
God hath many keys. He hath the kc}- of heaven to command the rain to come down. He hath the key of the womb ; the key of hell and the grave ; and the key of the heart especially. ' He opens, and no man shuts ; and shuts and no man opens,' Kev. iii. 7. He hath the key of the heart to open the understanding, the memory, the will, and afi'ections. God, and God only, hath the key of the heart to open that. It is his pre- rogative. He made the heart, and he only hath to do with the heart. He can unmake it, and make it new again, as those that make locks can do. And if the heart be in ill temper, he can take it in pieces, and bring it to nothing as it were, as it must be before conversion ; and he can make it a new heart again. It is God that opens the heart, and God only. All the angels in heaven cannot give one grace, not the least grace. Grace comes merely"' from God. It is merely from God. All the creatures in the world cannot open the heart, but God only by his Holy Spirit. For nature cannot do above its sphere, as we say, above its own power. Natural things can do but natural things. For nature to raise itself up to believe heavenly things, it cannot be. Therefore as you see vapours go as high as the sun draws them up, and no higher, so the soul of man is lift up to heavenly things by the power of God's Spirit. God draws us and then we follow. God, I say, only openeth the heart.
(1.) Because there is not only want of strength in the soul to open itself, but likewise there is enmity a)id poison in the heart to shut itself, and shut out all f/oodness. A man hath no senses to spiritual things, no eyes, no ears, no taste, no life. Nay,
(2.) There is an opjMsition to all. ' A natural man perceiveth not the things of God, neither can he,' 1 Cor. ii. 14. He wants senses, and those senses he hath are set against goodness, as the apostle saith, ' he estcemeth them foolishness.' I need not be much in so easy an argument, that you are well enough acquainted with. Naturally the heart is shut, and God only must open it.