heart to embrace the gospel, if he would take proper pains in order to do it; and he might do this if he was so disposed; and he might be so disposed if he would try; and he could try if he had a mind for it. Yet, if after all, he has not a mind to try, to be disposed, to take any proper pains, to get a heart, to embrace the gospel, or do any thing that is good; he is still in as bad a situation as any body supposes him to be in. There is no more hope of his coming to good so long as this is the case with him, no more possibility of it; nor do we say any thing more in his favour, than if we had only said as the scripture does of the fool, "that there is a price in his hand to get wisdom, "but he has no heart to it." Pushing the sinner's moral depravity and impotence back in this manner, may get it out of sight of those who cannot see above two or three steps, but this is all the good it can do. There is still a defect in him somewhere; and such a one as will prove his everlasting ruin, unless removed by such grace as he has never yet experienced.

It must for ever hold true and certain, that if sinners do not come to Christ, it is either because they could not if they would; or else because, on the whole, they are not willing. And if, in the room of coming to Christ, we should substitute some lower and preliminary condition of grace and salvation, it would be just the same case. Suppose it were using means, praying and seeking in the most engaged manner the unregenerate sometimes do; all do not come up to this; and the reason certainly is, they are under a natural or else a moral inability of doing it. Either they could not seek in this manner, if they would, or else they are not inclined to do it, but on the contrary are disposed to employ their time and thoughts about other things. So that bringing down the conditions of the

gospel lower, in consideration of the depravity of men ; or supposing common grace, whereby all are enabled to come up higher than they could of themselves, removes no difficulties, at least not those designed to be removed, unless the way of life is supposed to be level to the inclinations of all men; or that all are, in fact, made willing, and are actually saved.

That

On the whole, I think the principle, that God can in justice require of his creatures, only what he gives them a moral, as well as natural power to do, must be given up. Otherwise we are reduced to a necessity of supposing all the blame, if any are lost, must lie entirely on God, and not on them. And as to those who are saved, they can have nothing to say in his praise, but only that he has been barely just to them. having given his Son to obey and die, to deliver them from his law, which was an infinitely unreasonable one, for fallen creatures to be under; and having given his Spirit to enable them to come up to the otherwise impossible terms of the gospel, he has on the whole, dealt not unrighteously by them. If, therefore, we think, there is any way to vindicate the righteousness of God in the damnation of any; or that any thing can fairly be said to the praise of the glory of his grace, in the salvation of them that are saved, we must suppose he is not obliged in justice to give all men both those kinds of ability that have been spoken of. And if we believe that any, in fact, do not obtain salvation, we must conclude they are not in both these senses, enabled to obtain it. Which was all I undertook to prove under the second head. The

3d. Thing proposed was, to consider the moral inability of sinners in this matter.

There is not so much need of labouring to confirm this, that unregenerate sinners have not such a heart

in them, as is necessary in order to a compliance with the gospel; because proving the preceding and subsequent proposition, will infer the truth of this. If there is certainly an incapacity either of the natural or moral kind, as has now been shown; and if there is certainly no natural incapacity, as I am to make appear under the next head; then certainly there must be a moral Besides, I have time to treat this head but very concisely, considering the importance of it.

one.

It may be proper to be observed here, that the disinclination of sinners, as to some things which are prerequisite to a compliance with the gospel, is different in different persons. Though even this difference, I suppose, is owing to divine grace, or to God's doing more for one than for another. In the openly vicious and immoral sinner, there is a prevailing inclination to persist in his dissolute and immoral practices. And there is reason to conclude, that none of this character would ever reform, and that all would be of this character, if left to their own heart's lusts, without any divine restraints.

In secure and unawakened sinners, there is no disposition to attend to the concerns of their souls, and seriously consider the state they are in, or to make any solicitous enquiry about the way of salvation. They "make light of these things, and go their way, one to his farm and another to his merchandize." And such

is their attachment to the vanities of time, and their aversion to attend to the things of another world, that there is no reason to think, any one of this character, would ever become serious, thoughtful, and engaged about his eternal well-being, if left entirely to himself.

In the awakened sinner, though earnest in his enquiries, there is still an utter want of an honest openness of mind, to admit a conviction of the truth. "He

that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh he to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." He whose "inward parts are very wickedness," will always hate to see, and, if he can possibly help it, never will believe what he really is. Hence awakened sinners very often, never do, and if left to themselves none of them ever would, "know the plague of their own hearts." While they think they are doing all in their power to increase their convictions, they are all the while inwardly striving with all their might, against conviction, and trying to find some plausible ground to think well of themselves, and to establish a righteousness of their own. Nor will they ever be sensible how "deceitful and desperately wicked" their hearts are, and how hopeless their case is, in themselves, till a conviction of it is forced upon them by the most overbearing and irresistible evidence.

And even in the convinced sinner, whose mouth is most effectually stopped, who is forced to see that sin is alive and has full dominion over him, and that he is indeed dead; in him who has the fullest conviction of every necessary truth, that ever any unrenewed sinner had; there is still, if nothing farther is done for him, no disposition heartily to approve of the law, or comply with the gospel; no disposition to repent truly of any of his transgressions, or to receive and be dependent on Christ alone for pardon and salvation; no genuine desire to be saved from sin, or to be saved from wrath in that way, in which God's justice can be vindicated, or his grace exalted. But after all his convictions, there remains still in his heart, a most fixed, inveterate, and unconquerable opposition to all these things. Nor will he ever be cordially reconciled to God, by the mere force of truth in his conscience, any

more than the wicked will be at the day of judgment, or the damned in hell.

That no light, or conviction of the understanding, which the natural man is capable of receiving, can be sufficient to draw, or drive him into a true compliance with the gospel, is very evident from what is said concerning the necessity of regeneration. When Nicodemus came to Christ, wanting information about the way of life, our Saviour soon let him know that mere instruction, even by a teacher come from God, was not all that was wanted. Yea, that a man could receive no instruction about the kingdom of heaven, to any saving purpose, unless something else was done for him first. See John iii. 3. "Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." And again, to explain the matter farther, ver. 5. "Except a man be born of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." The necessity of such a change as is meant by being born again, or born of the Spirit, turns upon the truth of man's being by nature, under a total moral depravity. Accordingly, our Saviour immediately adds, "That which is born of the flesh, is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit." That is, a man has nothing truly spiritual or holy in him by the first birth; but every thing of this kind comes by the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Agreeably to this, the spostle Paul says, Rom. vii, 18. " I know that in me (that is, in my flesh; in my nature as far as it is unrenewed, and as it was by the first birth) there dwelleth no good thing." And in Romans viii. he says, "The carnal mind," the mind we have as born of the flesh, "is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." He adds, "So then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God."

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