could not do, if they were so disposed. As likewise, that there is a real occasion for using this and the like expressions in such a manner. There being, indeed, an absolute impossibility of a man's acting otherwise than agreeably to his own heart, as well as there is of his doing things which exceed his natural strength.

Secondly; I endeavoured to shew, that sinners, while they actually neglect the great salvation, are certainly unable, in one or other of these senses, to embrace it. That so long as they do not come to Christ, it must be true that they want, either such natural ability, or else such an heart as is necessary in order to their coming to him.

Thirdly; I considered the moral depravity of sinners; shewing that they have such an evil heart to depart from the living God, that until their natures are changed it is impossible they should come to Christ, or choose him and his salvation.

We come now, to the

4th and last head proposed; viz. To prove that sinners labour under no other impossibility of complying with the gospel, but only what arises from their disinclination to it; or from the badness of their hearts.

race.

I do not mean, however, nor would I be understood here, to assert this of every individual of the human There are undoubtedly great multitudes in the world, who are at present, not under external advantages to obtain that knowledge of God, and of the way of salvation through Jesus Christ, which is absolutely necessary in order to the exercise of faith in him. There are some who were born in heathenism, and never enjoyed the light of divine revelation; there are others who have not the use of natural reason; and there are others who have not, nor ever had, the sense of hearing. I am not now speaking concerning those who

are under these and such like circumstances. What I here undertake to evince, is only, that persons who have ordinary intellectual powers, and bodily senses, and are arrived to years of discretion, and live under the light of the gospel, labour under no natural inaabilty to obtain salvation: But that if they cannot comply with the revealed way of life, it must be owing entirely to their disinclination to it, or to the badness of their hearts.

There are multitudes that evidently do not view the matter in this light. It is needful therefore that this point be laboured a little particularly.

1st Argument I shall make use of for the confirmation of it is, that it is not God's way to require natural impossibilities of any of his creatures; and to condemn them for not doing what they could not do if they would.

God commands none of us to fly above the clouds, or to overturn the mountains by the roots; or to do any such kind of impossibilities. Yea, we are particularly told in his word, that "if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not." If a man has but little estate, it is not expected or required that he should give away a great deal to pious or charitable uses. If a poor widow casts in two mites, when it is all she has, it is as well accepted as if it were two millions. If a man has never so little strength of body or of mind, a willing exertion and good improvement of that little is all that is required of him. This is exceedingly evident from those summaries of the whole law, which we have both in the old testament and in the new.--Moses says, Deut. x. 12. “And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thec, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, D

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and to serve the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul?" And our Saviour, in answer to the question of the scribe, "which is the great commandment in the law?" says, Matt. xxii. 37-40, and Mark xii. 30. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

It is evident from these passages, that the whole law, in the highest perfection of it, is level to some kind of capacity which men still have in the present fallen state. We are not to suppose, indeed, it is their moral capacity; or that all the Lord our God requires of us, is only to love and fear and serve him, as much as we are disposed to do. This would be no law at all. It would be a dispensation from all law; a liberty for every one to walk in the way of his own heart, and treat the Deity just as his inclination leads him.We are not to suppose a perfect law can come down any lower, than to require a perfect heart, and a perfectly good improvement of all the talents and strength we have. And it is evident, neither Moses nor our Saviour understood the divine law as requiring more than this. To love and serve God with all the heart, soul, mind and strength, cannot mean more than to the utmost extent of our natural abilities, be they greater or less. Some men are not capable of so high a degree of love to God as others, though they are equally upright and well disposed; because their mental powers are not so great; or their advantages to get the knowledge of God have not been so good. In like manner some cannot do so much for God, for want of opportunity, &c. Now all proper allowances are made in the divine law for things of this nature. The more

any one has of intellectual or bodily strength, or outward advantages, the more is required of him; and the less any one has of these, the less is required. As to loving our neighbour as ourselves; this is undoubt edly equally in the power of the weak and of the strong, of him that is capable of higher and lower degrees of affection, provided he is equally upright, disinterested and impartial.

On the whole, I think it is exceedingly plain and evident, thatGod, in his holy and righteous law, requires no impossibilities of any of us,but what become so by reason of our present evil temper of mind, and unwillingness to exert the natural strength we have in the manner we ought. And now, if we have natural powers sufficient for understanding and doing our whole duty; and nothing hinders any of us from coming up to all that sinless perfection, which is required in God's perfect law, but only our own wicked hearts; I conclude few will think any thing else hinders sinners of ordinary capacity, who enjoy the outward means of grace, from repenting and complying with the gospel.

2d Arg. That sinners, who enjoy the external light of the gospel, are not under a natural impossibility of complying with, and obeying it, may be drawn from what the scriptures plainly teach, and what is generally believed, concerning the great difference that will be made betwixt such sinners, and those who never heard of a Saviour, as to their final condemnation and punishment.

Our Saviour let those cities, where he had chiefly preached and wrought his miracles, know that their final doom would be much the heavier for it; and that it would be more tolerable for even Sodom and Gomorrah, in the day of judgment, than for them. But this, and what is commonly said about the great guilt of gos

pel sinners above others, surely supposes that there is some difference between them and the heathen, as to a possibility of their understanding the way of life, and obtaining salvation. It supposes the former have a real price in their hands which the latter have not. But if the gospel sinner is under a natural inability to repent and believe in Christ, an inability arising from any thing else besides his own heart, this could not surely be the case. Why should one who is, and always has been, so weak or disordered in his intellect, as to be incapable of understanding the gospel, be thought a greater sinner for living in a christian land? We do not think this is the case as to ideots, or quite delirious persons. We do not think they will have more to answer for than the heathen will. But if we believe a natural impossibility is required of men in this case, because their natural capacity was impaired or lost by the fall, then for the same reason we might expect, that the heathen who never heard of the gospel, and natural fools who can understand nothing about it, would be punished for not embracing it, as much as any. For they would not have been under those disadvantages had it not been for the apostacy.

3d Arg. It is expressly attributed in scripture, to the evil hearts of men, as the sole cause of impenitence and unbelief under the gospel.

And it ought to be particularly observed, that this is done with professed design to set aside the plea of ignorance which sinners are so exceedingly apt to harp upon ; and to let them see that they are without excuse, "This is the condemnation," our Saviour says, "that light is come into the world; and men have loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil." In another place he says, "if ye were blind ye had not had sin; but now ye say we see, therefore your