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but as the redeemed, delivered and peculiar people of Christ, agreeably to the text. (h) In order to obtain assurance by good works, do not compare yourselves with those who are further advanced than ye are, with your great duty, or with the strength of the old man : but consider your desire and love to holiness, and your opposition to sin, and "the willingness of your mind, which renders you acceptable," 2 Cor. viii. 12.

Do ye not think highly of your good works, because they are few, and exceedingly defective, the Lord will discover to you and others the good that is in them, and that proceedeth from his Spirit, how ye have confessed his truth, embraced his grace, earnestly longed for his promises, obeyed his commandments, fought against sin, pressed toward perfection, prayed in secret; yea, he will more than Paul, " remember your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thess. i. 3, and he will according to his promise, Psalm lxxx. 7, enable you to "go from strength to strength, and every one of you shall appear before God in Zion," Amen.

:

VOL, II.

THE

NATURE OF CONVERSION

AND OF

GOOD WORKS

XXXIII. LORD'S DAY.

2 Cor. vii. 10, 11. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salva tion, not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. For behold, this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge!

Q. 88. In how many parts doth the true conversion of man consist? A In two parts; in the mortification of the old, and in the quickening of the new man.

Q. 89. What is the mortification of the old man ?

A. It is a sincere sorrow of heart that we have provoked God by our sins; and more and more to hate and flee from them.

Q. 90. What is the quickening of the new man ?

A. It is a sincere joy of heart in God, through Christ, and with love and delight to live according to the will of God in all good works.

Q. 91. But what are good works?

A. Only those which proceed from a true faith, are performed according to the law of God, and to his glory; and not such as are founded on our imagination, or the institutions of men.

"A

16

GOOD man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man, out of theevil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh." Thus speaks the Lord Jesus, Luke vi. 45. The tongue, and all the outward actions are the interpreters of the heart, and show how a person is internally disposed. The index will show whether a clock is in order or whether it is not; the vessel will afford that which it contains; and as the fruit is, so is the tree: "For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit," saith the Saviour, Luke vi. 43. Thus it is also with a man; if he be good, he will do that which is good, and if he be evil, he will do that which is evil The sinner hath by nature a wicked and an unbelieving heart to depart from the living God, and he manifests it in all that he doth. Therefore the Saviour said to the slandering Pharisees, Matt. xii. 34. "O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things?" What remedy is there for this? shall the sinner only amend his conduct in some measure, and accustom his tongue to decent language? This is impossible: the evil treasure of his heart will, though he strive against it, continually yield and bring forth evil things; the heart must therefore be changed and amended, if it shall afford better things. If we will make the fruit good, we must first make the tree good," as Jesus speaks, Matt. xii. 43. As we make a tree and its fruit good by inserting a better graft into it, so the sinner must also be ingrafted into Christ, that he may "partake of the root, and fatness of that olive tree," Rom. xi. 17. But how shall he be ingrafted into him? by regeneration, faith and conversion, whereby, being wholly changed to that which is good, he brings forth also good works. So Paul showed that the sinner " must first repent, and that then he must do works meet for repentance," Acts xxvi 20.

In this manner doth the instructor also proceed. After he had insisted on the necessity of good works, he doth not hasten to the law, as the rule of good works, but requires first that the heart of man, which is evil, should be changed, that he may out of 'hat good treasure also bring forth good works.

There are two particulars in this Lord's day, which require our exposition:

I. The nature of conversion, Questions 88, 89, 90.
II. The nature of good works, Question 91.

I. The Remonstrants imagine that the instructor ought not te have treated of conversion here, but before the doctrine of deliverance, that so the work of man might precede the grace of God, as if the grace of God did not prevent the works of man, and conversion did not flow from our deliverance. We cannot understand any thing, unless we understand the name that expresseth the nature of that thing. The word bekeeren in our Low Dutch language, as also the Hebrew word schub, to return, and the Greek word epistrephein, to convert, to convert ourselves, signifieth to turn again to that from which we had turned away before; and it expresses therefore very properly the nature of conversion. God had created man for himself, and after his image, ut man is by sin turned from God to himself, to a, and to Satan; but by conversion, he turns himself from himself, from sin and Satan to the Lord, that he may obtain mercy of him, and live for him; in this manner is conversion described, Isaiah xxxi. 6. "Turn ye unto him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted." So "Paul was sent to turn the Gentiles from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they might receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith in Christ," Acts xxvi. 17, 18.

But let us penetrate somewhat deeper into this matter. That conversion should consist, as the Romanists fancy, "in sorrow of heart, in confession with the mouth, auricular confession, and in making satisfaction with our works, by undergoing a certain penance, which the priest, who is the confessor, imposes upon the sinner," this is an invention, which is beside the word of God, it is no gracious work of God, nor virtue of man, but a mere punishment, and an engine to torture the conscience. This conversion of the Papists is not as good as the conversion of Judas; for he "repented," and had more sorrow of heart, than is required of any Papist, for " he hanged himself;" he confessed his sins also very circumstantially to the priests, when he said, "I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood." He satisfied readily and actually, when "he brought the thirty pieces of silver again to the chief priests and elders," Matt. xxvii. 3, 4, 5.

The instructor rejecting a false, or a half and pretended conver sion, like that of Cain, Saul, Ahab, Judas, and the Popish conversion, inquires concerning "a true" conversion, which he describes as con

sisting in two parts, 1. The mortification of the old man, 2. The quickening of the new man.

1 The old man, as we may all easily conceive, is not another person, distinct from the man who is converted, but the evil disposition, which is in the man himself, to wit, the natural corruption of man, destitute of the image of God, and possessed of the image of Satan, which fills his soul with hideous abominations, excites him to every abominable sin, and urges him on from sin to sin. "The old man is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts," saith Paul, Eph. iv. 22. This evil disposition is called a man, not only because it possesseth the whole man, "defiles his understanding and conscience," and whatsoever he doth, Titus i. 15, 16, and "rules in his mortal body," Rom. vi. 12, and because the man loves it, as much as he loves himself, 2 Tim. ii. 2; but also because it hath all the parts of a man. There is "a fleshly mind," Col. ii. 18, "desires and a will of the flesh," Eph. it. 3, "a body of sin," Rom. vi. 6. "flesh," John iii. 6, " members on earth," Col. iii. 6, "a life after the flesh," Rom. viii. 13. It is not without reason, that it is called also "the old" man; for it is as old as the man himself, and is born with him, Psalm li. 5. Gen. viii. 21. Yea, it is as old as Adam, through whose sin this old man hath been transmitted to all his descendents; for afier Adam had by his first sin admitted this old man, " he begat a son in his own likeness, after his image," Gen. v. 3. This is explained very beautifully by the apostle, when he saith, 1 Cor. xv. 47, 48, 49. "The first man is of the earth, earthy. As is the earthy, such arė they also that are earthy. We bear the image of the earthy." We may therefore call this old man the old Adam. This old man doth wholly possess and rule over the sinner, while in his natural state, John iii. 6, but exists only in part in those who possess grace, vexing them, and violently taking them captive against their will, but not ruling over them, according to Rom. vi. 14. vii. 22, 23.

This

Conversion consists in the mortification of the old man. mortification is explained by the instructor, as consisting in a twofold assault on the old man, by which a mortal wound is given him. The first is " a sincere sorrow of heart, that we have provoked God by our sins. We cannot understand wherein this sincere sorrow consists, without considering the several steps of our conversion. (a) The sinner bereaved of his reason before his conversion, knowing nothing of himself, and running headlong on in sin, comes in the work of conversion to himself, with the prodigal son, Luke xv. 17. He looks into himself and sees clearly and experimentally his abominable apostacy from God, the evil disposition of his soul, and

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