but see that these proposals are most unreasonable and absurd.

One of these things must certainly be true; either, first, that you have naturally, whilst in an unrenewed state, a principle of holiness and love to God; or, secondly, that works flowing from an impure fountain, and from a principle of opposition and alienation to God, are yet pleasing to God, will serve to appease him, and will entitle you to his favour; or, thirdly, that you cannot, by any thing you do, have a claim to God's favour, until your nature is renewed, and you can act from a principle of holiness and love to God. I think every man's experience will confute the first of these, who gives any attention at all to the natural dispositions of his own soul; the second is altogether inconsistent, both with the nature of things and with the nature of an infinitely pure and holy God; and therefore the third is necessarily true. It will not at all help the case, to allege in bar of what is here said, that Christ Jesus has made an atonement for us. For what is that to you, while you remain without an interest in him? Did Christ purchase for you a capacity to make an atonement for yourself? Did he die, that God might be pleased with what is contrary to his own nature, and pacified with such duties as can be no better than impure streams from a corrupt fountain?

Let reason sit judge in the case before us, and you must allow your case to be as I have described it. And it is equally evident, that you have no power to change your own heart, and to produce in yourself a new principle of love to God and conformity to him, by any endeavours of your own. It is obvious, from what has been already said, that our hearts and affections must be renewed and sanctified, before either our

take

persons or services can be acceptable in the sight of God. And how can this be compassed? If y f you up resolutions, these will no longer stand you in stead than the principle of fear, from which they proceed, is kept in action. If you execute these resolutions in some external reformations, this is but lopping off the branches, while the stock and the root of the tree are still alive, the affections and dispositions of the soul being still the same. If by fear, or other selfish motives, you restrain in some degree the present more sensible exercise of your sinful appetites or passions, this is but damming up the stream, and forcing it into another channel; pull down the dam, and it will run where it did before. Certain it is, that every man naturally loves the world, and the things of the world, the objects of his sensual appetites, and loves his lusts and idols more than God; and it is equally certain, that whatever restraints he may sometimes put upon these dispositions, an omniscient eye beholds the same principle in him notwithstanding; and consequently he can never please God, till there be in this respect a real and thorough change wrought in all the powers of his soul; such a change as the scriptures describe by a translation from darkness unto light, from death to life, and from the power of Satan unto God. And to suppose that but He who first gave being to our souls, can give them a new being in all spiritual and moral respects; and make their dispositions, appetites, passions, contemplations, desires, and delights, not only differing from, but directly and lastingly contrary to what they were, is to ascribe to the creature what is the peculiar property and prerogative of the glorious God himself. Do you, sir, but make the trial, and you will find, after all your endeavours, that the violation of your promises and resolutions, the

any,

deadness and hypocrisy of your duties, the prevalence of your sins, and the continued estrangement of your affections from God and godliness, will give you more sensible conviction, than any methods of reasoning can do, that there is a greater power needful than your own, to make you a new creature.

It must therefore necessarily follow, that nothing you are able to do, can give you a claim to the renewing influences of the Holy Spirit. If any thing you can do can give you a claim to the renewing and sanctifying influences of the Divine grace, your claim must be either from merit or promise.-Not of merit ; when you cannot of yourself so much as leave off sinning, and thereby running further into debt to the justice of God; and this, even in and by the best of your duties. Your highest attainments, therefore, can merit nothing but the Divine displeasure. Not of promise; for where, I beseech you, has God promised to reward your insincerity with his saving mercy? And how vain are all pretences to serve God sincerely, where there is not one grain of true holiness in the heart! Whatever moral honesty men in a state of nature may boast of, it is all but spiritual hypocrisy in the sight of a heart-searching God; and can bring none under the promise, which is made to faith unfeigned, the only simplicity and godly sincerity in the account of the gospel.

But I return to consider your objection more distinctly. "The scriptures (you tell me) promise, that he who seeks shall find." But, sir, do not the scriptures also inform us, that many shall seek to enter in at the strait gate, and shall not be able; that some ask, and receive not, because they ask amiss; and that he who does not ask in faith, nothing wavering, must not think he shall receive any thing of the Lord?

H

There is indeed a promise to him who seeks in faith and sincerity: but what claim can he have to that promise, who has neither true faith nor sincerity ? Will mocking God, and flattering him with your lips, while your heart is estranged from him, entitle you to the promise?

But you say, "All our divines tell us that the most sinful and unworthy may have access to God through Christ, and this is the purport of all my reasoning with you." True, by faith in Christ they may; but God is a consuming fire to unbelievers. He that believeth not, is condemned already." What claim, therefore, can they have to the favour of God upon Christ's account, who have never received him by faith; and consequently have no interest in him, nor in any of his saving benefits? Can they claim the benefits of the covenant of grace, who are themselves under the covenant of works, which curses them, for their not continuing in all things written in the book of the law to do them? I entreat you, sir, to consider this case it is of vast importance to you. If you have not good evidence of an interest in Christ, how can you pretend to the privileges purchased with his precious blood? How can you pretend to access to God through him, and a claim to the blessed influences of his Holy Spirit? How can unbelievers have a claim to the favour of God by Christ, when he himself assures us that the wrath of God abideth on them?

But "will not God have compassion on his creatures, when they do what they can to serve him?" What answer would a prince make to a condemned rebel in his shackles and dungeon, that should make this plea for pardon? Would the criminal's doing what he can to serve his prince (which in his present

state is nothing at all to any good purpose) atone for his past rebellion ? Or would this qualify him for his princes' favour, while he yet retains the same enmity in his heart against him, and will not so much as submit to his sovereign good pleasure and mere mercy? The application is easy. And it belongs to you, sir, to consider seriously, whether a sinner, who is dead in trespasses and sins, who is in a state of rebellion against God, and therefore under the condemning sentence of the law, can any more atone for his sins, or make a reasonable plea for grace and pardon, than the traitor aforesaid? But were your reasoning ever so just, it would afford you no grounds of comfort. For there never was, nor ever shall be any man, that can fairly make this plea in his own favour, and truly say, he has done all he can, in the mortifying his lusts, and in his endeavours to serve God. There will, after all his attempts, remain enough neglected, even of the external part of his duty, that was most in his own power, to condemn both his person and his services.

You complain, that "the arguments in the book I sent you do not give you satisfaction." Well, I have here added some further evidence, to what was there offered; and would now call upon you to consider, whether all these things put together do not make it evident, that you lie at mercy, and convince you of those scripture truths, that "it is not in him that willeth, nor in him that runneth, but in God that showeth mercy." God giveth his saving grace, only because it hath so seemed good in his sight. Consider, whether you can atone for past sins by present duties, by duties that are so polluted by the principle from which they flow; and which have so much carnality, selfishness, hypocrisy, and sinful defects cleaving to