art obftinate and thy neck is an iron finew, and thy brow brass," Ifa. xlviii. 4. and cannot be overcome, but by him, who hath "broken the gates of brass, and cat the bars of iron in funder." Hence is there fuch hard work in converting a fioner. Sometimes he feems to be caught in the net of the Gospel; yet quickly he flips away again. The hook catcheth hold of him; but he struggles, till getting free of it, he makes away with a bleeding wound. When good hopes are conceived of him, by thefe that travel in birth, for the forming of Christ in him; there is oft-times nothing brought forth but wind. The deceitful heart makes many a fhift to avoid a Saviour, and to cheat the man of his eternal happiness. Thus the natural man lies fur in a fate of fin and wrath, utterly unable to recover himself. Object. (1.) If we be under an utter inability to do any good, how can God require us to do it? Anf. God making man upright, Ecclef. vii. 29. gave him a power to do everything. he should require of him: this power man loft by his own fault. We were bound to ferve God, and to do whatfoever he commanded us, as being his creatures; and alfo, we were under the fuperadded tye of a covenant, for that effect. Now, we having, by our own fault, difabled ourselves, fhall God lofe his right of requiring our task, because we have thrown away the ftrength he gave us, wherewithal to perform it? Has the creditor no right to require payment of his money, because the debitor has fquandered it away, and is not able to pay him? Truly, if God can require no more of us than we are able to do, we need no more to fave us from wrath, but to make our.. felves unable for every duty; and to incapacitate ourselves for ferving of God any manner of way; as profane men frequently. do and fo the deeper one is immerfed in fin, he will be the more fecure from wrath. for where God can require no duty of us, we do not fin in omitting it: and where there is no fin, there can be no wrath. (As to what may be urged by the unhumbled foul againft the putting of our flock in Adam's hand, the righteoufnefs of that difpenfation was cleared before.) But, moreover, the unrenewed man is daily throwing away the very remains of natural abilities; that light and ftrength which are to be found amongst the ruins of mankind. Nay, farther, he will not believe his own uter inability to help himfelf; fo that out of his own mouth he will be condemned. Even those who make their natural impotercy to good, a cover to their floch, do, with others, delay the work of turning to God from time to time; under convictions, make large promifes of reformation, : N 2. which which afterwards they never regard; and delay their repentance to a death- bed, as if they could help themselves.in a moment; which speaks, them to be far from a due fenfe of their natural inability, whatever they pretend. Now, if God can require of men the duty they are not able to do: he can, in justice, punith them for their not doing it, notwithstanding of their inability. If he have power to exact the debt of Obedience: he has alfo power to caft the infolvent debtor into his prifon, for his not paying it. Further, tho' anregenerate men have no gracious abilities, yet they want not natural abilities, which, nevertheless, they will not improve. There are many things they can do, which they do not they will not do them: and therefore their damnation wit be`juít. Nay, all their inability to good is voluntary; they will not come to Chrift, John v. 40. They will not repent, they will die, Ezek. xviii. 51. So they will be juftly condemned; because they will not turn to God, or come to Chrift; but love their chains better than their liberty, and darkness rather than light,~ John iii. 19. Object. (2.) Why do you then preach Chrift to us; call us to come to him; to believe, repent, and ufe the means of falva tion ? Anf. Because it is your duty fo to do. It is your duty to accept of Chriit as he is offered in the Gofpel; to repent of your ûn, and to be holy in all manner of converfation: thele things are commanded you of God; and his command, not your. ability, is the meafure of your duty. Moreover, these calls and exhortations, are the means that God is pleased to make ufe of, for converting his elect, and working grace in their hearts: to them, "faith cometh by hearing," Rom. x. 17. while they are as unable to help themselves as the rett of mankind are. Upon very good grounds may we, at the command of God," who raifeth the dead," go to their graves, and cry in his name, "Awake thou that fl-epeft; and rife from the dead, and Chrift thall give thee light," Eph. v. 14. And feeing the elect are not to be known and diftinguished from others, before converfion as the fun fhines on the blind man's face, and the rain falls on the rocks as well as on the fruitful plains; fo we preach Christ to all, and fhoot the arrow at a venture, which God himself directs as he fees meet. Moreover, thefe calls and exhortations are not altogether in vain, even to thofe that are not converted by them. Such perfons may be convinced, tho they be not converted: altho' they be not fanctified by thefe means, yet they may be restrained by them, from running into that that excess of wickednefs, which therwife they would arrive at. The means of grace ferve, as it were, to embalm many dead fouls which are never quickned by them; tho' they do not reftore them to life, yet they keep them from fmelling fo rank as otherwise they would do. Finally, tho' ye cannot recover yourfelves; nor take hold of the laving help offered to you in the Gofpel; yet, even by the power of nature, ye may use the outward and ordinary, means whereby Chrift communicates the benefits of redemption to ruined finners, who are utterly unable to recover themfelves out of the ftate of fin and wrath. Ye may, and can, if ye please, do many things,, that would fet you in a fair way for help from the Lord Jefus Chrift. Ye may go fo far on, as to be not far from the kingdom of God, as the difcreet fcribe had done, Mark xii. 34. tho' (it would feem) he was deftitute of fupernatural abilities. Tho' ye cannot cure yourf Ives, yet ye may come to the pool, where many fuch difeafed perfons as ye are, have been cured: ye have none to put you into it, yet ye may, ly, at the fide of it; and "who knows but the Lord may return, and leave a bleffing behind him," as in the cafe of the impotent man, recorded, John v 5, 6, 7, 8. I hope Satan does not chain you to your houses, nor stake you down in your fields on the Lord's day; but ye are at liberty, and can wait at the posts of wisdom's door, if ye will. And when ye come thither, he doth not beat drums at your ears, that ye cannot hear what is faid: there is no force upon you, obliging you to apply all you hear to others; ye may apply to yourselves what belongs to your state and condition: and when you go home, you are not fettered in your houses, where perhaps no religious difcourfe is to be heard; but ye may retire to fome feparate place, where ye can meditate, and pofe your confcience with pertinent quellions, upon what ye have heard. Ye are not poffeffed with a dumb devil, that ye cannot get your mouths opened in prayer to God. Ye are not fo driven out of your beds to your worldly business, and from your worldly bufinefs to your beds again; but ye might, if ye would, bestow fame prayers to God upon the cafe of your perifhing fouls. Ye may examine yourselves, as to the state of your fouls, in a folemn manner, as in the prefence of God; ye may difcern that ye have no grace, and that ye are loft and undone without it; and may cry unto God for it. Thefe things are within the compafs of natural abilities, and may be practifed where there is no grace. It muft aggravate your guilt, that you will not be at fo much pains about the ftate and N3 cafe cafe of your precious fouls. And if ye do not what you can do, ye will be condemned not only for your want of grace, but for your defpifing of it. Object. (3.) But all this is needlefs, fecing we are utterly unable to keep ourselves out of the ftate of fin and wrath. Anf. Give no place to that delufion, which puts afunder what God hath joined, namely, the ufe of means, and a fenfe of your own impotency. If ever the Spirit of God gracioufly influence your fouls, ye will become throughly fenfible of your abfolute inability, and yet enter upon a vigorous ufe of means. Ye will do for yourfelves, as if ye were to do all; and yet overlook all ye do, as if ye had done nothing. Will ye do nothing for yourfelves, because ye cannot do all? Lay down no fuch impious conclufion against your own fouls. Do what you can ; and it may be, while ye are doing what ye can for yourselves, God will do for you what ye cannot. "Understandeft chou what thou readeft? faid Philip to the Eunuch: "How can I, faid he, except fome man fhould guide me," A&ts viii. 30, 31. He could not understand the Scripture he read; yet he could read it he did what he could, he read and while he was reading, God fent him an interpreter. The. Ifraelites were in a great ftrait at the red fea: and how could they help themfelves, when upon the one hand were mountains, and on the other, the enemy's garrison: when Pharaoh and his hoft were behind them, and the red-fea before them? What could they do Speak unto the children of Ifrael," faith the Lord to Mofes," that they go forward," Exod. xiv. 15 For what end should they go forward? Can they make a paffage to themselves through the fea? No: but let them go forward, faith the Lord: tho' they cannot turn fea to dry land, yet they can go forward to the fhore: and fo they did. And when they did what they could, God did for them what they could not do. Queft. Has God promised to convert and fave them, who in the ufe of means, do what they can towards their own relief? Anf. We may not fpeak wickedly for God; natural men being ftrangers to the covenants of promife, Eph..ii. 12. have no fuch promife made to them. Nevertheless they do not act rationally unless they exert the powers they have and do what they can. For, (1.) It is poffible this courfe may fucceed with them. If ye do what ye can, it may be, God will do for you what you cannot do for yourfelves. This is fufficient to determine a man, in a matter of the utmoft importance, fuch as this is, Acts viii. 22. Pray God if perhaps the thoughts of thy heart may be forgiven thee." Joel ii. 14. "Who knoweth if he will return?" If fuccefs may be, the trial should be. If in a wreck at fea, all the failors and paffengers had betaken themfelves each to a broken board, for fafety; and one of them fhould fee all the reft perish, notwithstanding of their utmost endeavours to fave themselves: yet, the very poffibility of efcaping by that means, would determine that one still to do his best with his board. Why then do ye not reason with yourselves, as the four lepers did, who fat at the gates of Samaria, 2 Kings vii. 3, 4, Why do ye not fay, "If we fit ftill, not doing what we can, we die let us put it to a trial, if we be faved, we thall live; if not, we fhall but die." (2.) It is probable this courfe may succeed. God is good and merciful: he loves to furprise men with his grace, and is often " found of them that fought him not," Ifa. lxv. 1. If ye do thus, ye are fo far in the road of your duty: and ye are ufing the means which the Lord is wont to blefs for men's fpiritual recovery : ye lay yourselves in the way of the great Phyfician; and fo it is probable ye may be healed. Lydia went, and others, to the place "where prayer was wont to be made;" and "the Lord opened her heart," Acts xvi. 13, 14. Ye plow and fow, tho' no body can tell you for certain, that ye will get fo much as your feed again ye ufe means for the recovery of your health,. tho? ye are not fure they will fucceed. In thefe cafes,.proba bility determines you; and why not in this alfo? Importunity, we fee, does very much with men: therefore pray, meditate, defire help of God: be much at the throne of grace, fupplicating for grace; and do not faint. Tho' God regarded not you, who, in your prefent ftate, are but one mafs of fin; universally depraved, and vitiated in all the powers of your foul, yet regard his own ordinance. Tho' he regards not your prayers, your meditations, &c. yet he may regard prayer, meditation, and the like means of his own appointment, and fo bless them to you. Wherefore, if ye will not do what ye can, ye are not only dead, but you declare yourfelvès unworthy of eternal life. To conclude, Jet the faints admire the freedom and power of grace, which came to them in their helpless condition, made their chains fall off, the iron gate to open to them; raised the fallen creatures; and brought them out of the state of fin and wrath, wherein they would have lain and perished, had they not been mercifully vifited. Let the natural man be fenfible. of his utter inability to recover himself. Know thou art with he may Out |