II. 1. By some awful providence, or by his word applied with the demonstration of his Spirit, God touches the heart of him that lay asleep in darkness and in the shadow of death. He is terribly shaken out of his sleep, and awakes into a consciousness of his danger. Perhaps in a moment, perhaps by degrees, the eyes of his understanding are opened, and now first (the veil being in part removed) discern the real state he is in. Horrid light breaks in upon his soul; such light, as may be conceived to gleam from the bottomless pit, from the lowest deep, from a lake of fire, burning with brimstone. He at last sees the loving, the merciful God, is also _a consuming fire_; that he is a just God and a terrible, rendering to every man according to his works, entering into judgment with the ungodly for every idle word, yea, and for the imaginations of the heart. He now clearly perceives, that the great and holy God is _of purer eyes than to behold iniquity_: that he is an avenger of every one who rebelleth against him, and repayeth the wicked to his face; and that _it is a fearful thing, to fall into the hands of the living God_. ♦3. The inward, spiritual meaning of the law of God now begins to glare upon him. He perceives the _commandment is exceeding broad_, and _there is nothing hid from the light thereof_. He is convinced, that every part of it relates not barely to outward sin or obedience, but to what passes in the secret recesses of the soul, which no eye but God’s can penetrate. If he now hears, _Thou shalt not kill_, God speaks in thunder, _He that hateth his brother is a murtherer_. He that saith unto his brother, _Thou fool, is obnoxious to hell-fire_. If the law say, _Thou shalt not commit adultery_, the voice of the Lord sounds in his ears, _He that looketh on a woman, to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart_. And thus in every point, he feels the word of God _quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword_. It pierces even _to the dividing asunder of_ his _soul and spirit_, his _joints and marrow_. And so much the more, because he is conscious to _himself_ of having neglected so great salvation; of having _trodden under foot the Son of God_, who would have saved him from his sins, and _counted the blood of the covenant an unholy_, a common, unsanctifying _thing_.