more light, or more of an apprehension of truth than others. And
this light and conviction may be from the Spirit of God; the Spirit
convinces men of sin: but yet nature is much more concerned in it than
in the communication of that spiritual and divine light that is spoken
of in the doctrine; it is from the Spirit of God only as assisting
natural principles, and not as infusing any new principles. Common
grace differs from special, in that it influences only by assisting
of nature; and not by imparting grace, or bestowing anything above
nature. The light that is obtained is wholly natural, or of no
superior kind to what mere nature attains to, tho more of that kind be
obtained than would be obtained if men were left wholly to themselves:
or, in other words, common grace only assists the faculties of the
soul to do that more fully which they do by nature, as natural
conscience or reason will by mere nature, make a man sensible of
guilt, and will accuse and condemn him when he has done amiss.
Conscience is a principle natural to men; and the work that it doth
naturally, or of itself, is to give an apprehension of right and
wrong, and to suggest to the mind the relation that there is between
right and wrong and a retribution. The Spirit of God, in those
convictions which unregenerate men sometimes have, assist conscience
to do this work in a further degree than it would do if they were left
to themselves: He helps it against those things that tend to stupify
it, and obstruct its exercise. But in the renewing and sanctifying
work of the Holy Ghost, those things are wrought in the soul that are
above nature, and of which there is nothing of the like kind in the
soul by nature; and they are caused to exist in the soul habitually,
and according to such a stated constitution or law that lays such
a foundation of exercises in a continued course, as is called a
principal of nature. Not only are remaining principles assisted to do
their work more freely and fully, but those principles are restored