by the same motives. Even the elect, if we may suppose the case, if they were left to themselves, uninfluenced by the Holy Spirit, would continue to reject Christ, as others reject him, and finally perish. They would never choose Christ, if God did not make them willing. Their hearts are, by nature, as much opposed to Christ, as the hearts of any other sinners; and they will cherish this opposition, until, influenced by the powerful Spirit of Grace, they are made willing to submit at his feet.

2. That all men would persist in sin, and finally perish, if some were not made willing in the day of God's power, is evident from the experience, both of saints, and sinners.

Every true penitent deeply feels, that if God had not interposed in his behalf, he would have continued in sin, and ruined his soul. A conviction of this truth, keeps the most improved and sanctified saint bumble; and it is the distinguishing glory of the gospel, that the method of salvation which it developes, exalts God, and abases the creature. Those who have made the greatest progress in the divine life in this world, and are the most assimilated to what we have conceived will be the temper of heaven, have been the most profoundly sensible of their dependence on the rich and undeserved mercy of God; and with their hearts fixed upon the infinitely kind Author of their hopes, are ready, always, to exclaim" Our only refuge is thy grace."

We observed, that the experience of sinners, teaches the same thing with the experience of saints, on this subject.Sinners do not feel themselves compelled to reject the offers

of mercy, through Christ. When the Saviour is urged upon their acceptance, in the most tender, and persuasive manner, and they reject him, and know when they do so, that it is at the hazard of their souls, they do not seek out some solitary place, where they may go, and pour out their tears before God, because they are in such an unhappy state of bondage, that they feel themselves compelled, contrary to their wishes, to reject that blessed Saviour, who is the joy and song of saints and angels. Where is the sinner to be found, who, having rejected Christ, and treated the gospel with contempt, has gone away, and in the bitterness of his soul complained, that in direct contrariety to every feeling of his heart, and every purpose of his mind, he could not refrain from blas pheming the Saviour, and scandalizing the Cross? So far otherwise, is the lamentable state of facts, with the sinner, that if he were restrained from openly violating the laws of Christ's Kingdom, he would consider it an abridgment of privilege, and would vent the malignity of his soul, in secret places, against the God that made him. And what does this show, but, that the heart, unrestrained and unsanctified by the Holy Ghost, would persist in its enmity and rebellion against God, and his government, and render its final ruin certain?

Sinners, not unfrequently, manifest the bitterest hostility to the truth, when closely pressed with arguments, or when urged, by the terrours of the Lord, to embrace Christ, and fly from the wrath to come. They will sometimes treat their best friends with great unkindness, not to say cruelty,

H

when affectionately, and tenderly entreated by them, to attend to the all-important concerns of their souls. All this evinces, not only, that they are voluntary in sin, but also, that they are so tenacious of their privilege, to accept, or reject the Saviour of the world, as they please, that they will not unfrequently break friendship with those, who, they cannot but know, are influenced by the most sincere regard for their immortal welfare. Eternal ruin would be the common portion of the human family, if God, in mercy, did not choose some to everlasting life, and make them willing in the day of his power.

It has been observed, that God's making his people willing

accept of offered mercy, lays the foundation for the difference there is between them, and those of their impenitent fellow men, who have enjoyed the same external advantages, and yet continue to cherish feelings of hostility towards their Maker. By his making his people willing, cannot be meant, that he compels them to embrace the Saviour against their will. This would not be making them willing, but destroying their wills. There could, under such circumstances, be no virtue attached to their actings; for of what emotions of mind soever, we might suppose them capable, they would be merely mechanical emotions, and all foundation of praise, or blame, would be annihilated. The idea of forcing the will, as if it were capable of being acted upon by a physical energy, is unscriptural, unphilosophical and absurd, unless we are prepared to adopt the principle, that the whole moral, as well as natural universe is one vast

pre

system of machinery. The mind is a moral subject, and to sustain a relation of responsibility, to the great Author of being, can only be acted upon by a moral energy. I apprehend it is well said, that the will is always determined, by what appears, all the present, existing circumstances considered, to be the greatest good, or the most desirable object of choice. The will being thus determined by motives, and these always lying without the will, and not being under its control, that motive, to which God, by his invisible agency, gives the ponderating influence, determines the objects of choice. Let it be remembered, that moral liberty does not consist in a power in the will to originate its own motives to action, a thing both absurd and impossible, but in choosing, amid the variety of motives presented, such as appear to the mind, the most important, under the circumstances of the case. A higher liberty than this cannot be affirmed of men, nor angels. A higher liberty than this, is incompatible with the perfections and government of God. This liberty leaves every man to choose as he pleases, under the circumstances in which he is placed, by the Supreme Disposer of all events; and to desire to control these circumstances, so as to suit our own convenience, or caprice, is impiously to wish, to step into the throne of the Eternal, and settle the order of nature. If man has all the liberty that is possible to him as a dependenț being, then, to wish for a different degree, or kind of liberty, is certainly indicative of a spirit of insubordination to his Maker, that would unhesitatingly invade his almighty prerogative.

By what means soever it may be, that God makes his people willing, and thus distinguishes them from those sinners, who persist in rejecting Christ, he neither imparts to them, on the one hand, a higher liberty, as moral agents, than they had before, nor does he, on the other, impair their liberty.He operates upon them, on the same general principles, upon which he operates, and has ever operated upon all his accountable creatures. As he does not increase, nor impair the moral freedom of his people, by the influence which he exerts upon them, in making them willing, so neither does he destroy it. Making them willing, is not making them machines; making them willing, is not destroying their wills.What God does to make them willing, ensures, and renders certain, their free and unconstrained choice of salvation, through the Redeemer. He works in them, both to will, and to do. He so exhibits the beauty of holiness to the mind, and gives such effect to the exhibition, by his own invisible and efficient energy, that the elect sinner chooses it, as that, which appears most lovely, and the greatest, and most desirable good to his soul. He is as voluntary and free in doing this, as ever he was in any act of choice. 'Tis now the delight of his heart to choose Christ as his portion, as it was once his delight to go after the pleasures of the world; and he rejoices, and is happy, in that he can commit his eternal destiny into the hand of his mighty Redeemer. He is now under no more restraint, as it regards the feelings of his heart, and the objects of his choice, than he was, when under the influence of unmingled selfishness and sin. He acknow