excuses they may make, they perish for this only reason, that they wILL not come unto Christ that they might have life.

DISTINGUISHING GRACE.

"But the Lord knew that, left to themselves, none would be thus willing; and therefore he saw the whole human race as having, by breaking his law, become his enemies, and, by their universal disposition to despise and hate the gospel, (as the reception it has always met with abundantly manifests,) persisting in that enmity: and he did not judge himself in any way bound to do more for them. No one of them has any thing to urge why the law should not take its course, and sentence be executed.

"But though all might have been left to perish, consistently with perfect justice, a God of love will not be disappointed of the ineffable joy and glory of shewing mercy. Therefore, as sovereign, he determines, as it seems best to his infinite wisdom, without assigning his reasons to us, to have mercy on whom he will have mercy; and whom he will, among this justly lost and condemned race, he hardeneth. (Rom. ix, 18.)-Nothing is wanting to the salvation of any or every one but a willing mind: and they, who live and die persisting in their unwillingness to be saved in God's way, will never dare at God's tribunal to impeach his conduct for not saving them in their own way; or for not making them willing, when they were obstinately set against it.

66 But, though God does not esteem this a debt which he owes to any of his enemies, yet he judges that he may confer it as a rich favor on any one, or on any number that he pleases. And this he actually does: he regenerates one, and not another: one thus becomes willing, the other remains still unwilling.

"And indeed, if men be all of one nature, and if all do not go to one place: if at the general judgment some shall be found meet for the inheritance of the saints in light, as vessels of mercy afore prepared unto glory: and others shall be found justly deserving of everlasting punishment, and vessels of wrath fitted for destruction: and if, as the scripture declares, it is God that maketh one man to differ from another, in a way that is good; and if this difference be made by a work which the only wise God judges to be

properly denominated a new creation, regeneration, a resurrection from the dead: if some are made thus to differ from their former selves, as much as from others, and the rest remain as they were; and if all their future conduct which distinguishes them from the ungodly, as God's servants, and holy persons, springs from this original change of their hearts: then the view of things before given is evidently just, and eminently important-namely, that a righteous and merciful, a wise and sovereign God judged men in general, and every one of them, to be so inexcusable in their rebellion, and obstinate in their enmity, that, left to themselves, they would hate and despise his gospel, as universally as they had broken and quarrelled with his law; that therefore he should be not only fully justified, but greatly glorified in leaving any or all of them to perish in their rebellion; and, at the same time, that he had a full right to select whom he would as objects of his most free mercy, and monuments of the power of his grace, without any injury to the rest; and by a new creation to overcome their obstinacy, and make them willing to accept his gracious invitations.

ELECTION.

"And now, if in fact God does regenerate one, and leave another unregenerate, and thus makes one to differ from another, it is plain he does it intentionally; that is, he intended to do it before he actually performed it and if it be just and right in God actually to do this work for one and not for another, it could not be unjust or wrong to intend to do it-unless it can be wrong to intend to do right: and, if God might justly intend to make this difference half an hour before he made it, he might with equal justice, in his foreknowledge, intend to make it from before the foundation of the world: and this is all which I suppose the scriptures to mean by election. Nor can any thing be objected against this view of this obnoxious doctrine, which does not equally go to deny the justice of God in regenerating one and not another; that is to say, stripped of all its false colorings, to deny to God, the sovereign of the world, that right which each of his subjects claims to himself, to do what he will with his own. If any man suppose that God is indebted to him, let him make out his claim, and it shall assuredly be paid him but if God owes us nothing, but we

have ungratefully rebelled against him to whom we owe our all; and, when invited and intreated, refuse to be reconciled in his way, or unless he excuses us, and blames himself and his law, to humor our pride and self-love; what awful impiety is it to charge him with partiality and tyranny because he does what he will with his own, and has mercy on whom he will, and on them only!

"In short this (I trust scriptural) view of this much disputed, but little understood doctrine, stamps the deepest stigma on human nature, exhibiting men as universally, in their carnal minds, enmity against God to such a degree that nothing but Almighty power could make them willing to be reconciled: and therefore no wonder that man's proud self-admiring heart rages even to blasphemy against it. But at the same time it places the triumphant love and mercy of God in the most glorious and stupendous light; as foreseeing all these things, and yet determining to give his own Son to bleed and die for such enemies; and also by his efficacious grace to overcome the obstinacy of numberless millions, and, making them willing in the day of his power, to form them a people for himself to shew forth his praise."

WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

"Hitherto we have considered the love of God the Father in sending his only Son into the world, and the love of God the Son in giving himself for our redemption; but the love of God the Holy Ghost must also be manifested, and glorified in this great work. This then is his work of condescending, compassionate and generous love, -to apply to our poor, guilty, polluted souls, what the Son of God purchased on the cross; to pour new light into our darkened understandings; to implant a new capacity of perceiving and delighting in spiritual excellency; to remove those hindrances which Satan, by means of our pride, prejudices, and love of the world had thrown in the way; and thus to enable us to see things as they really are, or as God sees them; to judge of them as he judges; and thus to influence our wills to choose the good and refuse the evil; and so to give an entire new direction to our affections and consequently to our conduct.

"If we consider the divine majesty and purity of this glorious agent, and the infinite hatefulness of sin to him;

the meanness, guilt, and pollution of the sinner's heart, ' when he begins to work upon it; the opposition made by our proud carnal minds at the first; and the ingratitude, neglect, unteachableness, and perverseness with which he is still treated by us, even to the last; we shall scarcely, or not at all, less admire and adore the unwearied tender love of the divine Sanctifier, than that of the Redeemer; but shall most cordially join in that orthodox ascription of praise; Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.'"

6

DISCOVERY OF THAT WORK—ENTHUSIASM PRECLUDED.

"Things being thus planned in the counsels of God, and every needful preparation made, the gospel of salvation is preached to sinners; the suitableness, sufficiency, and tender love of the Saviour are represented to them, and the nature, excellency, and preciousness of the blessings he bestows laid open; and all is in Jehovah's name freely offered to men in general, and to every one in particular, who is willing to accept of it, and apply to Jesus Christ in believing prayer for it. Hearing these things thus set forth, some, having their hearts touched by the influences of the Holy Spirit, feel a willingness before unknown, to return to God in this appointed way, and a desire, before unfelt, after the salvation they have heard of; accompanied by a conviction of its absolute necessity and infinite importance, and a pressing anxious fear of failing of it.— These persons are generally ignorant of the origin of these new desires and apprehensions; seldom or never conceive themselves to be at this time regenerate;* and frequently are total strangers or enemies to the doctrine of regeneration yet they are disposed, and in some measure encouraged by what they hear, to attempt approaching to God, through Christ, by prayer, and thus seeking the blessings of salvation.

"Such persons derive not their encouragement from any impression, or new revelation informing them of God's everlasting love to them, that Christ died for them specially, and intends to save them; nor from confidently be

* Or "renewed in the spirit of their minds."

lieving, without evidence, that this is the case, and groundlessly ascribing this enthusiastical, presumptuous confidence to the Holy Ghost: (by which things Satan transformed into an angel of light, has done immense mischief to religion in this age :) but, in hearing the gospel preached, and reading the word of God, they are convinced, and do believe, that God loves sinners, that Christ died for sinners, that the gospel invites sinners, all sinners. All that will may come: the worst may come : therefore I, being now willing, however vile, may come; and coming aright (which I pray God that he would teach me to do,) I shall not be cast out; for him that cometh he will in no wise cast out!' This is their language. Thus the old revelation is abundantly sufficient to encourage those who believe it to come to and trust in Christ, for all the blessings which he is exalted to bestow; without our giving countenance to any pretended new revelations, or inventing a new sort of faith, consisting in the belief of a proposition* not contained in scripture, to the deforming and disgracing of religion, and deluding the souls of men by enthusiasm and counterfeit experience."

THE LAW MAGNIFIED BY THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

"I God has ever shown himself so determined to put honour on his law as we have seen, both in the destruction of fallen angels, and in the method which he has adopted of saving fallen men, will he lose sight of this his determination in the application of redemption? By no means. Still he will magnify the law and make it honourable......

1. CONVICTION OF SIN BY THE LAW.

"He has appointed the preaching of the law, in the strictness, extent, and spirituality of its demands, and in the severity of its sanction, and in the righteousness and excellency of both, as the general means of bringing sinners to see their guilt, and misery, and need of salvation.When the law of God is laid open and applied to the conscience, and it is proved, from the word of God, that it

*Namely, that Christ died for me, A. B., in a special sense, so that he will certainly save me.