charged upon us as a fault, not fo much as upon the account of original fin.

But the want of this power is the confequent and juft punishment of our firft tranfgreffion. Be it fo: But if this impotency still remain in all those to whom' God doth not afford his irrefiftible grace, how comes the grace offered in the gofpel to aggravate the impenitency of men, and increase their condemnation ? For if it be no remedy against this impotency, how comes it to inflame the guilt of impenitency? Or how is it grace to offer mercy to thofe upon their repentance, who are out of a poffibility of repenting, and yet to punish them more feverely for their impenitency after this offer made to them, which they cannot accept without that grace which God is' refölved not to afford them? If this be the cafe, the greatest favour had been to have had no fuch offer made to them;" and it had been happier for mankind, that the grace of God had not appeared to all men, but only to thofe who thall irrefiitibly be made partakers of the benefit of it.

(2) Another doctrine grounded upon this metaphor of a new creation is, that we are merely paí-. five in the work of converfion and regeneration, and contribute nothing to it; that God does all, and we do nothing at all; and this follows from the former, efpecially if we allow the metaphor as far as it will carry us. For as the first creation of things was by an irresistible act of divine power, fo the things that were made were only paffive in their creation; and as they could make no refiftance, fo neither could they contribute any thing to their being what they are. And this doctrine is not only argued from the metaphor of a new creation, but from feveral other metaphors ufed in fcripture to defcribe our natural ftate; as namely, darkness, blindness, and our being dead in trefpaffes and fins; from whence it is inferred, that we contribute no more to our renovation; than darkness doth to the întroduction of light, than a blind man can do to the recovery of his- fight, or a dead man to his own refurrection, but are wholly paffive in this work. And to countenance this notion, they *

make great advantage of the character which is given in fcripture of the most degenerate Heathen, taking it for granted, that their condition is the true ftandard of a natural and unregenerate ftate. And to this pur pofe they infift particularly upon that defcription of the Gentile idolaters, Eph. iv. 18. 19. Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who being paft feeling, have given themfelves over unto lafcivioufnefs, to work= all uncleannefs with greediness: which is indeed a defcription of men in their natural ftate, but not of all, but of fuch as by the worst fort of vitious practices of the groffeft idolatry, and most abominable lewdnefs, were degenerated to the utmoft, fo that their condition feemed defperate, without a miraculous and an extraordinary grace of God, which was probably: afforded to many of thefe. In like manner they ar-gue the common condition of mankind, from the de- fcription which is given of the wickedness of men, before God brought the flood upon them: Gen. vi. 5. God faw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. This they make the character of all men in their natural ftate; whereas this is a defcription of an extraordinary degeneof men, fignifying that the world was then extremely bad, and depraved to the higheft degree; for God gives this as a reafon why he was refolved to drown the world, and to deftroy man from the face of the earth, because their wickedness was grown to fo great an height. But if this were a defcription of the natural ftate of mankind, this could be no particular reafon for bringing a flood upon the world at that time, there being the fame reafon for it for fifteen hundred years before, and ever will be the fame reafon to the end of the world, that is, that men are naturally corrupted and depraved. Surely they confider the fcripture very fuperficially that interpret it at this

racy.

rate.

It is too true, that the nature of men is fadly cor

rupted

rupted and depraved; but not fo bad as by vitious practices and habits it may be made. All men are not equally at the fame distance from the grace of God; fome are nearer to the kingdom of God than others, and lefs force and violence will ferve to rescue them from the power of Satan, and to transplant them into the kingdom of Chrift. The prevalency and dominion of fin makes an unregenerate ftate, as the prevalency of grace puts a man into a regenerate ftate. An unregenerate man is not neceffarily as bad as is poffible, no more than it is neceffary to a regenerate state, that a man be perfectly good; fo that it is a great miftake to argue the common condition of all mankind, from the defcriptions that are given in the fcripture of the worst of men; and therefore if it were granted that irrefiftible grace were neceffary for the conversion of such, it will not follow that the fame is neceffary to all.

All unregenerate men are not equally devoid of a fenfe of God, and fpiritual things: they have many convictions of what they ought to be and do, and under thofe convictions are very capable of perfua fion, which dead men are not. The grace of God is neceffary to the converfion of a finner, but it is not neceffary that he fhould be only paffive in this work. Experience tells us the contrary, that we can do fomething, that we can co-operate with the grace of God; and the fcripture tells us the fame, and makes it an argument and encouragement to us to work out our own falvation, because God works in us both to will and to do of his own goodness, Phil. ii. 12. 13. Befides, that it is the greatest and jufteft difcouragement in the world to all endeavours of repentance and reformation, to tell men that they can do nothing in it. He that is fure of this, that he can do nothing in this work, is a fool if he make any attempt to become better, becaufe he ftruggles with an impoffibility; and if the work will be done at all, it will be done without him, and he neither can, nor ought to have any hand in it. But will any metaphor bear men out against fo palpable an abfurdity as this?

And

And yet after all, there is no force in thefe metaphors, to prove what they aim at by them. For if to be dead in fin, fignifies an utter impotency to goodnefs, then to be dead to fin, must,

fignify an impoffibility of finning; for juft as the unthat is regenerate'

regenerate man is dead in fin, foto the contrary,

is faid in fcripture to be dead to fin. But yet the best of regenerate men; notwithstanding they are dead to fin, and alive to God, do offend in many things, and too frequently fall into fin. Why then fhould the metaphor be fo ftrong on the one fide, that a man who is faid to be dead in fin, should not be able fo much as to co-operate with the grace of God in the work of repentance and converfion?

In fhort, if this be true, that men in an unregenerate and unconverted state are perfectly dead, and have no more fenfe of fpiritual things than a dead man hath of natural objects, then all precepts and exhortations to repentance, and all promises and threa- · tenings to argue and perfuade men thereto, are vain,, and to no purpofe; and it would be every whit as proper and reasonable for us to preach in the churchyard, over the graves of dead men, as in the church to the unregenerate because they can no more act and move towards their own recovery out of a state of fin and death, than the dead bodies can rife out of their graves.

But it is faid, That the end of exhortations and promifes is not to declare to men their power, but their duty. But if they be infenfible, it is to as little pur-* pofe to declare to them their duty, as their power. Befides, it will be an hard thing to convince men, that any thing is their duty, which at the fame time We declare to them to be out of their power.

But this is Pelagianifm, to fay that of ourfelves we can repent and turn to God. And who fays we can of ourselves do this, befides the Pelagians? We affirm the neceffity of God's grace hereto, and withal the neceffity of our co-operating with the grace of God. We fay, that without the powerful excitation and aid of God's grace, no man can repent and turn' to God; but we fay likewife, that God cannot be pro

perly

1

a

perly faid to aid and affift those who do nothing themfelves.

But men can do more than they do, and therefore are juftly condemned. Not in the work of converfron fure, if they can do nothing at all. But they can do more by way of preparation towards it. Sup pofe they do all they can towards it, will this fave them, or will God upon this irrefiftibly work their converfion? No, they fay, notwithstanding any preparatory work that we can do, converfion may not follow. How then does this mend the matter?

But ftill they fay the fault is in mens want of will, and not of power: Ye will not come unto me, that ye might have life. But can they will to come? No, that they cannot neither. Why then it is ftill want of power that hinders them. The offer of life is a very gracious offer to them that are guilty, and liable to death, as we all are; but not if the condition be utterly impoffible to us, though the impoffibility, fprings from our own fault, as I will plainly fhew by a fair inftance. A prince offers a pardon to a traitor faft locked in chains, if he will come to him and fubmit himself: But if he be still detained in chains, and the prince do not fome way or other help him to his liberty, it is fo far from being a favour to offer him a pardon upon these terms, that it is a cruel derifion of his mifery to fay to him, You will not come to me that you may be pardoned; and this notwithstanding that his being caft into chains was the effect of his own crime and fault. The application is obvious. Ifhould now proceed to anfwer an objection or two, and then to give. a clear state of this matter, fo as is moft agreeable to fcripture, and the attributes and perfections of God; but this I fhall referve for an other difcourfe.

SER