The Exposition.

IN a man there must be considered three things, the substance of the bodie and soule, whereof a man is said to consist, the faculties placed in the soule and exercised in the bodie, as vnderstanding, will, affections: the integritie and puritie of the faculties, wherby they are conformable to the will of God, and beare his Image. And since the fall of Adam, man is not depriued of his substance or of the powers and faculties of his soule, but onely of the third, which is the puritie of nature, and therefore the conuersion of a sinner, whereof the conclusion speaketh, is not the change of the substance of man, or the faculties of the soule: but a renewing and restoring of that puritie and holinesse which was lost by mans fall, with the abolishment of that naturall corruption that is in all the powers of the soule. This is the worke of God, and of God alone, and that on this manner. First of all, when it pleaseth God to worke a chaunge in any, he doth it not first in one part, then in an other, as hee that repaires a decaied house by peece-meale: but the worke, both for the beginning, continuance, and accomplishment, is the whole man,

and euery part at once, specially in the minde and conscience, will and affection: as on the contrary, when Adam lost the image of God, he lost it in euery part. Secondly, the conuersion of a sinner is not wrought all at one instant, but in continuance of time, and that by certaine measures and degrees. And a man is in the first degree of his conuersiō, when the holy ghost by the means of the word, inspires him with some spirituall motions, and begins to regenerate and renewe the inward powers of the soule. And he may in this case very fitly be cōpared to the night in the first dawning of the day, in which though the darknesse remaine and be more in quantitie then the light, yet the Sunne hath alreadie cast some beames of light into the aire, whereupon we tearme it the breaking of the daie. Nowe then, the very point which I touch, is, that a man at this instant and in this very state (God as yet hauing but laid certaine beginnings of true conuersion in his heart) is the very child of God, and that not onely in the eternall purpose of God (as all the elect are) but indeede by actuall adoption: and this is plaine by a manifest reason. There bee foure speciall workes of grace in euery childe of God, his vnion with Christ, his adoption, iustification, and conuersion, and these foure are wrought all at one instant, so as for order of time, neither goes before nor after other: and yet in regard of order of nature, vnion with Christ, Iustification, and adoption, goe before the inward conuersion of a sinner, it beeing the fruite and effect of thē all, Vpon this it followeth necessarily, that a sinner in the very first act of his conuersion, is iustified, adopted, and incorporated into the [gap] ca[gap] body of Christ. In the parable of the prodigall sonne, the father with ioy receiues his wicked child, but when[gap] surely when he sawe him comming a farre off, and when as yet he had made no confession or humiliation to his father, but onely had conceiued with himselfe a purpose to returne and to say, Father I haue sinned against heauen and against thee, &c. And Paul saieth of many of the Corinthians, that he could not speake vnto them as spirituall men, but as carnall, euen babes in Christ. 1. Cor. 3.1.