CHAP. YI.] IN THE INSTANCE OF AUGUSTINE. 361
speakable variety. Some he leads by the gates of death and hell unto rest in his love, like the people of old through the waste and howling wilderness into Canaan; and the paths of others he makes plain and easy unto them. Some walk or wander long in darkness; in the souls of others Christ is formed in the first gracious visitation.
[6.] There is, as was said, no certain measure or degree of these accidents or consequents of conviction to be prescribed unto any as antecedaneously necessary to sincere conversion and sound believing; but these two things in general are so: — \st Such a conviction of sin, — that is, of a state of sin, of a course of sin, of actual sins, against the light of natural conscience, — as that the soul is satisfied that it is thereby obnoxious unto the curse of the law and the wrath of God. Thus, at least, doth God conclude and shut up every one under sin on whom he will have mercy; for "every mouth must be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God," Rom. iii. 19 ; Gal. iii. 22. Without this no man ever did, nor ever will, sincerely believe in Jesus Christ; for he calleth none unto him but those who in some mea- sure are weary or thirsty, or one way or other seek after deliverance. " The whole," he tells us, — that is, those who so conceit themselves, — "have no need of a physician ;" they will neither inquire after him nor care to go unto him when they are invited so to do. See Isa. xxxii. 2. ^dly. A due apprehension and resolved judgment that there is no way within the compass of a man's own contrivance to find out, or his ability to make use of and to walk in, nor any other way of God's appointment or approbation, which will deliver the soul in and from the state and condition wherein it is and that which it fears, but only that which is proposed in the gospel by Jesus Christ.
[7.] Where these things are, the duty of a person so convinced is, — Is^, To inquire after and to receive the revelation of Jesus Christ, and the righteousness of God in him, John i. 12. And in order hereunto, he ought, — (\st) To own the sentence of the laio under which he sufFereth, justifying God in his righteousness and the law in its holiness, whatever be the issue of this dispensation to- wards himself, Rom. iii. 19, 20, vii. 12, 13; for God in this work intends to break the stubbornness of men's hearts, and to hide pride from them, chap. iii. 4. (2dly.) Not hastily to believe every thing that will propose itself unto him as a remedy or means of relief, Micah vi. 6, 7. The things which will present themselves in such a case as means of relief are of two sorts: — [Is^.] Such as the fears and superstitions of men have suggested or will suggest. That which hath raised all the false religion which is in the world is nothing but a contrivance for the satisfaction of men's consciences under convictions. To pass by Gentilism, this is the very life and soul of Popery. What is the meaning of the sacrifice of the mass, of purga-
SG2 THE MANNER OF CONVERSION EXPLAINED [BOOK III.
tory, of pardons, penances, indulgences, abstinences, and tlie like things innumerable, but only to satisfy conscience by them, perplexed with a sense of sin? Hence many among them, after great and out- rageous wickednesses, do betake themselves to their highest monas- tical severity. The life and soul of superstition consists in endea- vours to quiet and charm the consciences of men convinced of sin. {2dly.] That which is pressed with most vehemency and jolausibility, being suggested by the law itself, in a way of escape from the dan- ger of its sentence, as the sense of what it speaks, represented in a natural conscience, is legal righteousness, to be sought after in amendment of life. This proposeth itself unto the soul, as with great importunity, so with great advantages, to further its accept- ance ; for, — First, The matter of it is unquestionably necessary, and without it in its proper place, and with respect unto its proper end, there is no sincere conversion unto God. Secondly, It is looked on as the sense of the law, or as that which will give satisfaction thereunto. But there is a deceit in all these things as to the end j)roposed, and if any amendment of life be leaned on to that purpose, it will prove a broken reed, and pierce the hand of him that rests upon it ; for al- though the law require at all times an abstinence from sin, and so for the future, which in a sinner is amendment of life, yet it proposeth it not as that which will deliver any soul from the guilt of sin already contracted, which is the state under consideration. And if it win upon the mind to accept of its terms unto that end or purpose, it can do no more, nor will do less, than shut up the person under its curse. Idly. It is the duty of persons in such a condition to beware of entangling temptations; as, — (Isi.) That they have not attained such a degree of sorrow for sin and humiliation as is necessary unto them that are called to believe in Jesus Christ. There was, indeed, more reason of giving caution against temptations of this kind in former days, when preachers of the gospel dealt more severely, — I wish I may not also say more sincerely, — with the consciences of con- vinced sinners, than it is the manner of most now to do. But it is yet possible that herein may lie a mistake, seeing no such degrees of these things as some may be troubled about are prescribed for any such end either in the law or gospel, {2dly.) That those who per- suade them to believe know not how great sinners they are. But yet they know that Christ called the greatest ; and it is an undervalua- tion of the grace of Christ to suppose that the greatest sins should disappoint the effects of it in any that sincerely come unto him.