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Now, fuch is the obedience thou must perform, if thou wouldst recover thyself in the way of the Law. But tho' thou shouldst thus obey, the Law ftakes thee down in the ftate of wrath, till another demand of it be fatisfied, viz.

SECONDLY, Thou must pay what thou oweft. It is undeniable thou art a finner; and whatever thou mayeft be in time to come, juftice must be fatisfied for thy fin already committed. The honour of the Law muft be maintained, by thy fuffering the denounced wrath. It may. be thou haft changed thy courfe of life, or art now refolved to do it, and fet about the keeping of the Commands of God; but what halt thou done, or what wilt thou do, with the old debt? Your obedience to God, tho' it were perfect, is a debt due to him, for the time wherein it is performed; and can no more fatisfy for former fins, than a tenant's paying the current year's rent can fatisfy the master for all bygones. Can the paying of new debts acquit a man from old accounts? Nay, deceive not yourselves, you will find thefe laid up in ftore with God, and, "Sealed up among his treasures," Deut. xxxii. 34. It remains then, that either thou must bear that wrath, to which, for thy fin, thou art liable, according to the Law or elfe, thou must acknowledge thou canst not bear it, and thereupon have recourfe to the Surety, the Lord Jefus Chrift. Let me now ask thee, art thou able to fatisfy the juftice of God? Canft thou pay thy own debt? Surely not: for, feeing he is an infinite God, whom thou haft offended, the punishment, being fuited to the quality of the offence, must be infinite. But fo it is, thy punishment or fu£ fering for fin cannot be infinite in value, feeing thou art a finite creature therefore they must be infinite ia duration or continuance; that is, they must be eternal. And fo all thy fufferings in this world, are but an earnest of what thou must suffer in the world to come.

Now, finner, if thou canst anfwer thefe demands, thou mayeft recover thyself in the way of the Law. But art thou not con fcious of thy inability to do any of these things, much more to do them all? Yet if thou do not all, thou doft nothing. Turn then to what courfe of life thou wilt, thou art still in a state of wrat. Screw up thy obedience to the greatest height thou craft; fuffer what God lays upon thee, yea add, if thou wilt, to the burden and walk under all, without the leaft impatience : yet all this will not fatisfy the demands of the law; and therefore thou art ftill a ruined creature. Alas! finner, what art thou doing, while thou ftriveft to help thyfelf; but doft not

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receive and unite with Jefus Chrift? Thou art labouring in the fire, wearying thyfelf' for very vanity; labouring to enter into heaven by the door, which Adam's fin fo bolted, as neither he, nor any of his loft pofterity, can ever enter by it. Dolt thou not fee the flaming Sword of Juftice keeping thee off from the Tree of Life? Doft thou not hear the Law denouncing a curfe on thee for all thou art doing, even for thy obedience, thy prayers, thy tears, thy reformation of life, &c. because, being under the Law's dominion, thy best works are not fo good as it requires them to be, under the pain of the curfe? Believe it, firs, if you live and die out of Chrift, without being actually united to him as the fecond Adam, a life-giving Spirit, and without coming under the covert of his atoning blood: though ye should do the utmost that any man on earth can do, in keeping the Commands of God, ye fhall never fee the face of God in peace. If you fhould, from this moment, bid an eternal farewel to this world's. joy, and all the affairs thereof; and henceforth bufy yourselves with nothing but the falvation of your fouls: if you fhould go into fome wildernefs, live upon the grafs of the field, and be companions to dragons and owls: if you fhould retire to fome dark cavern of the earth, and weep there for your fins, until ye have wept yourselves blind, yea wept out all the moisture of your body; if ye fhould confefs with your tongue, until it cleave to the roof of your mouth; pray, till your knees grow hard as horns; fast, till your body become like a skeleton; and after all this, give it to be burnt, the word is gone out of the Lord's mouth in righteoufnefs, and cannot return; you should perifh for ever, notwith ftanding of all this, as not being in Chrift, John xiv. 6. "No man cometh unto the Fathe⚫ but by me." Acts iv. 12. "Neither is there falvation in any other."? Mark. xvi. 16. 66 He that believeth not, fhall be damned."

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Object. But God is a merciful God, and he knows we are not able to answer his demands: we hope therefore to be sayed, if we do as well as we can, and keep the Commands as well as we are able. Anf. (1.) Though thou art able to do many things, thou art not able to do one thing aright: thou canst do nothing acceptable to God, being out of Chrift, John xv. 5. "Without me ye can do nothing." An unrenewed man, as thou art, can do nothing but fin; as we have already evinced. Thy best actions are fin, and fo they increafe thy debt to justice; how then can it be expected they should leffen it? (2.) If God fhould offer to lave men upon condition that they did all they could do, in obedience to his Commands; we have ground to

think that thefe who would betake themselves to that way, fhould never be faved. For where is the man, that does as well as he can? Who fees not many false steps he has made, which he might have evited? There are fo many things to be done, fo many temptations to carry us out of the road of duty, and our nature is fo very apt to be fet on fire of hell, that we would furely fail, even in fome point, that is within the compafs of our natural abilities. But (3.) Though thou Thouldeft do all thou art able to do, in vain dost thou hope to be faved in that way. What word of God is this hope of thine founded on? It is neither founded on Law nor Golpel, and therefore it is but a delufion. It is not founded on the Gospel, for the Gospel leads the foul out of itfelf, to Jefus Christ for all and it "eftablisheth the law," Rom. iii. 31. whereas this hope of yours cannot be established, but on the ruin of the Law, which God will " magnify and make honourable." And hence it appears, that it is not founded on the Law neither. When God fet Adam a-working for happiness to himself and his pofterity, perfect obedience was the condition required of him; and a Curfe was denounced in cafe of difobedience. The Law being broken by him, he and his pofterity were fubject to the penalty, for fin comm tted; and withal still bound to perfect obedience: for it is abfurd to think that man's finning and fuffering for his fin, fhould free him from his duty of obedience to his Creator. When Chrift came in the room of the elect, to purchase their falvation, the fame were the terms. Juftice had the elect under arreft: if he minds to deliver them, the terms are known. He· muft fatisfy for their fin, by fuffering the punishment due to it; he mu do what they cannot do, to wit, Obey the Law perfectly, and fo full all righteoufnefs. Accordingly, all this he did, and fo became "the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth," Rom. x. 4. And, now, doft thou think, God will abate of these terms to thee, when his own Son got no abatement of them? Expect is not, tho' thou shouldst beg it with tears of blood: for if they prevailed, they behoved to prevail against the truth, juftice and honour of God, Gal. iii 16. "Curfed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law, to do them." Verse 22. "And the Law is not of faith, but the man that doth them shall live in them." It is true, that God is merciful: he cannot but be merciful, unless he fave you in a way that is neither confiftent with his Law nor Gofpel. Hath not his goodness and mercy fufficiently appeared, in fending the Son of his love, to do

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"what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the feb "He has provided help for them that cannot help them felves: but thou, infenfible of thine own weaknefs, wilt needs think to recover thyfelf by thine own works; while thou art no more able to do it, than to remove mountains of brafs out of their place.

Wherefore I conclude thou art utterly unable to recover thyfelf, by the way of Works, or of the Law. O that thou wouldft conclude the fame concerning thyfelf

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II. Let us try next, what the finner can do to recover him. felf, in the way of the Gofpel: It is likely, thou thinkeft, that howbeit thou canst not do all, by thyfelf alone; yet Jefus Chrift offering thee help, thou canst of thyfelf embrace it, and ufe it to thy recovery. But, O finner, be convinced of thine abfolute need of the grace of Chrift, for truly there is help offered, but thou canst not accept of it: there is a rope call out to hale hip-wrecked finners to land: but, alas! they have no hands to catch hold of it. They are like infants expofed in the open field, that must starve, tho' their food be lying by them, unless one put it into their mouths. To convince natural men of this, let it be confidered;

FIRST, That although Chrift is offered in the Gofpel, yet they cannot believe in him, Saving faith is the faith of God's elect; the fpecial gift of God to them, wrought in them by his Spirit. Salvation is offered to them that will believe in Christ, but "how can ye believe?" John v. 44. It is offered to them that will look to him, as lifted up on the pole of the gofpel, Ifa. xiv. 22. But the natural man is fpiritually blind, Rev. iii. 17. And as to the things of the Spirit of God, he cannot know them, for they are fpiritually difcerned, 1 Cor. ii, 14. Nay, whofoever will, he is welcome: let him come, Rev. xxii. 17. But there must be a day of power on the finner, before the Will be willing, Pfal. cx. 3.

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SECONDLY, Man naturally has nothing, wherewithal to improve, to his recovery, the help brought in by the Gofpel. He is cat away in a state of wrath; but is bound hand and foot, fo that he cannot lay hold of the cords of love, thrown out to him in the Gospel. The mot kilful artificer cannot work without instruments; nor can the moft cunning mufician play well on an infirament that is out of tune. How can one believe, how can he repent, whofe understanding is darkness, Eph v. 8. whofe heart is a ftony heart, inflexible, infenfible, Ezek xxxvi. 26. whofe affections are wholly difordered and

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distempered; who is averfe to good, and bent to evil? The arms of natural abilities are too fhort to reach fupernatural help: hence those who most excel in them, are oft-times moft eftranged from fpiritual things, Math xi. 24. Thou haft hid thefe things from the wife and prudent."

THIRDLY, Man cannot work a faving change on himfelf: but fo changed he must be, elfe he can neither believe nor repent, nor ever fee heaven. No action can be without a fuitable principle. Believing, repenting, and the like, are the product of the new nature; and can never be produced by the old corrupt nature. Now, what can the natural man do in this matter? He must be regenerate, " begotten again into a lively hope but as the child cannot be active in his own generation; fo a man cannot be active, but paffive only, in his own regeneration. The heart is thut against Christ; man cannot open it, only God can do it by grace, Acts xvi. 14. He is dead in fin: he must be quickened, raised out of his grave: who can do this but God himfelf? Eph. ii. 1, 5. Nay, he must be "created in Chrift Jefus unto good works," Eph. ii. 10. These are works of omnipotency, and can be done by no less power.

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FOURTHLY, Man, in his depraved state, is under an utter inability to do any thing truly good, as was cleared before at large how then can he obey the Gofpel? His nature is the very reverse of the Gofpe!: how can he, of himfelf; fall in with, that device of falvation, and accept the offered remedy? The corruption of man's nature infallibly concludes his utter inabi lity to recover himself any manner of way: and whofo is convinced of the one, muft needs admit the other; for they stand and fall together. Were all the purchase of Chrift offered to the unregenerate man, for one good thought, be cannot command it, 2 Cor. iii. 5. "Not that we are fufficient of ourfelves to think any thing as of ourfelves." Were it offered on condition of a good word, yet, "how can ye, being evil, speak good things?" Matth. xii. 35. Nay, were it left to yourselves. to chufe what is eafi ft, Chrift himfelf tells you, John xv. 5. "Without me ye can do nothing."

LASTLY, The natural man cannot but refift the Lord, offering to help him: howbeit that refiftance is infallibly overcome in the elect, by converting grace. Can the ftony heart chufe but refift the ftroke? There is not only an inability, but an enmity and obftinacy in man's Will by nature. God knows, natural man, (whether thou knoweft it or not) that "thou

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