Book 3

(Luke 1:17) To make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

Having dispatched the nature of application in general: the parts of it come to be considered in the next place.

These are two: 1. A preparation of the soul for Christ. 2. An implantation of the soul into Christ.

That so having the Son we may be sure to have life (1 John 5:12), possessing him who is the heir of all (Hebrews 1:2), we may be possessed of all both temporal and spiritual blessings with him: but before the soul can be engrafted into the true Vine Christ Jesus, it must be prepared and fitted for it by the powerful work of the Spirit of God upon it, being not fit to receive a Christ by nature, and unable to fit itself for it, by any liberty of will, or any sufficiency natural it has: when then these two works are imprinted upon the soul, the sinner comes to take full possession of a Savior, and to have all those spiritual good things which Christ has purchased, applied to him: and thus these two taking up the whole nature of application, it's manifest they must be the parts of application, as reason enforces.