g, but it is of the Holy Ghost, If our gospel be hid, it is hid
to them that are lost, in whom the god of this world hath blinded
their minds, and darkened their understandings, and hardened their
hearts, etc. Therefore the application of this grace is also of God;
it is all within his plan; he has appointed means, and commanded our
diligence in the use of them. We have his Bible in our hands, his
ministers in our churches, who are also pastors and teachers if we
apply for their aid in private; we have a throne of grace to go to,
and many great and precious promises held up in God's word for us to
embrace and plead for Christ's sake: we have many prayers in the
Scriptures which we may adopt.

"I acknowledge we are all still dependent for the effect; that
must be from God himself. But he does honor his own ordinances. He
puts forth his power, and convinces of sin; this is his first work.
The soul is awakened, aroused, convinced of sin and misery; sins of
the heart, sins of the tongue, sins of the life, press upon the
conscience which never disturbed us before; misspent time, wasted
talents, lost opportunities, neglect of God's word and ordinances, so
that the soul cannot rest. O, my Juliet, this is a hopeful case. I
hope you have experienced something of this. It is one of the surest
marks of the operation of the Spirit of God, and a prelude to the new
birth. It never takes place without it, for the whole need not a
physician, but they that are sick. Only the weary and heavy laden will
prize rest, and Christ is the rest they need; only a convinced sinner
will or can prize the Saviour, and now the Lord opens his mind to
understand the Scriptures. He sees the provision which God has made
for ruined sinners, by providing a substitute to stand in his room; he
perceives how God can be just and justify the sinner who takes shelter
in Jesus; he falls in with God's gracious plan: receives the Lord
Jesus as God's gift to sinners; trusts entirely in his merits for
pardon, peace, reconciliation, and eternal life; resigns his soul into
the hands of his Saviour, in the faith that he will save it, and
devotes himself unreservedly to his service, in the faith that he will
give him grace to live to him in all holy obedience. Now, and not till
now, according to God's promise, he receives power to become his
child; this is God's order, John 1:12. Now he receives life and begins
to live; but there is yet a great work before him. It ha