—But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

THESE are words, which, by many, have not been pro­perly understood; but have been grossly misinterpreted and misapplied. But, the true and proper sense and meaning of them may, from the general tenor of St. Paul's reasoning in the chapter of the text, be clearly ascertained.

IN discoursing on them, I shall, in the FIRST place, explain them. And then, SECONDLY, draw some inference from them. IN the first place, I shall explain the words of the text.

BY the natural man receiving not the things of the spirit of God, we are to understand, that men in a state of nature, who will be persuaded to believe nothing but what is demonstrated by arguments of reason and philosophy, will not receive the things revealed by the spirit of God, the truth of which de­pends on a different kind of evidence, the demonstration of miracles, &c. Such men as these, who depend wholly on the discoveries of reason and philosophical demonstration, will not receive or believe the things revealed by the spirit of God. To them such revelations appear to be foolishness, or things not founded in truth. These are the persons whom the Apostle calls natural men, men in a state of nature. Such were the Greeks, to whom the gospel appeared to be foolish­ness, because it appeared not, in the wisdom of man, embell­ished with human learning, and founded on deductions of [Page 4] reason. They would not receive doctrines delivered in plain simple language, and resting on the testimony of miracles. Such men, depending on nature or the mere light of nature or reason as being fully sufficient, would not receive supernatural aid. Hence, they are called natural men who would not receive the things of the spirit of God. And, that St. Paul meant by natural men or the natural man, such persons as these, is evi­dent from the general tenor of his discourse in the chapter of which our text is a part. Says he, "And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wis­dom declaring unto you the testimony of God; for, I deter­mined not to know any thing but Jesus Christ and him cruci­fied: and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration and with pow­er, that, your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Now, we have not received the spirit of the world, but the spirit of God, that we might know the things which are freely given us of God; which things, also, we speak; not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual." And then are introduced the words of the text—"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God," &c. Here, it plainly appears, that the Apostle is speaking of revelation being rejected of men, who depended wholly on their worldly wisdom and deductions of reason as the only valuable knowledge. Such men, whom he denominates natural men, receive not the things of the spirit of God or the truths revealed by the spirit of God, and rest­ing on the evidence of miracles. A revelation, to such men, appeared to be foolishness, because of its simplicity, and be­cause it depended on a kind of evidence they did not admit as rational.

THE Apostle goes on—"Neither can he," the natural man, "know them,"; that is, the things of the spirit of God, "because they are spiritually discerned." His meaning is, that men who depend wholly on human reason and the light of nature, and who will not admit of revelation, cannot know the things of God, the things which God reveals. Natural reason can in no way discover them, because they are things originally known only to the spirit of God, and are beyond the reach of natural light. But, he that would know them, [Page 5] must receive them from the spirit of God by revelation. For, "who," says the apostle, "hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him."—That is, who is he that hath known the will of God in matters of mere revelation, 'till God hath revealed his will or made it known. The natural man, therefore, who admits of nothing but what he can find out by the light of mere reason, does not know the things of God, which can be known only by revelation.—Nor will he receive them, because they depend on a kind of evidence which he will not admit as sufficient to establish any truth. This is the sense of our text; and the proper sense of it, when examined by the sense of the whole chapter of which the text is a part. But, by the natural man here, is not meant all unregenerate or carnal men; but those men only are meant, who, through their attachment to wordly wisdom, will not attend to and admit a revelation. But, if by the natural man, was intended all unregenerated men, then, it would fol­low, that all such, till they were converted, must necessarily be entirely ignorant of the things of the spirit of God, or the things revealed by him. But, then, the gospel would be no benefit to such; for to them it would be foolishness. They could not have any knowledge of it, or receive it. And hence, it would be impossible they should be sanctified or sa­ved by it: For, how could they be sanctified by that of which they had no knowledge, and which they could not receive? But I would be a little particular on my remarks here.

IT has been supposed by some persons, that unregenerate men cannot have any proper understanding or knowledge of the holy scriptures, or such as may make them wise unto sal­vation: but that, before they can have such an understanding of the scriptures, they must have some new faculty conveyed to the mind which they had not before, to enable them to know and properly understand and receive things of a divine and spiritual nature. But this, no doubt, is a mistake; for, even to regenerated and sanctified persons, the spirit of God conveys no new faculty. The man has before and after re­generation all the same mental faculties. He has all the same powers of perception, reasoning, judging, recollecting, &c. both before and after regeneration. Before regeneration, he can obtain as good a speculative knowledge of the holy scrip­tures, and reason on them as pertinently, as afterwards. He [Page 6] can have as clear a perception of religious truth, and discourse on it as intelligibly before his conversion as after. And he can obtain, by the ordinary aids of God's spirit, sufficient knowledge of the way of salvation and the importance of it, to be stired up to conviction, and to cry, What shall I do to be saved. Knowledge must be before conviction and con­version.

A MAN before he is brought to Christ, must have some knowledge of him, or he can never come to or receive him. The gospel is able to make persons wise to salvation. But it is impossible for the gospel to make men wise, when they can have no knowledge of it. If unregenerate men cannot obtain by the ordinary aids of God's spirit sufficient knowledge and un­derstanding of the holy scriptures to obtain salvation, it must be either owing to their wanting some new faculty of perception or understanding, or to their standing in need of some extraordi­nary efflatus or revelation from the spirit of God. But it may be evident to common sense, that regenerated men have no faculty of discerning truths, which the unregenerate have not; for both the regenerate and unregenerate have, often, the same perception and understanding of the same truths: and therefore, the unregenerate have no need of any new faculty to understand the scriptures. Nor have they need of any ex­traordinary efflatus or revelation from God, to enable them to obtain right perceptions and understanding of the scriptures: for we are now compleat in Christ: nor is any new revelation to be expected. But if we need a new revelation to under­stand the first, we must have a third to enable us to understand the second. And then we must have revelation upon reve­lation without end, in order to understand any thing; which would prove that they were all so obscure, that we could under­stand nothing; and the very end of revelation would be defeated.

IT is a very dangerous thing for men to believe that extra­ordinary light or communications of truth from the spirit of God are necessary in order to their understanding the scrip­tures: for then they will make that extraordinary light their guide, because revelation is supposed to be insufficient in the scriptures. And then they besure must try the scriptures by the spirit—but will not try the spirits by the scriptures to know whether they are of God. But then the scriptures will not be their guide in faith; but they will be led by their own [Page 7] sancies, and will not be able to distinguish the spirit of God from a spirit of delusion. Thus they will be deprived en­tirely of the benefit of a written and standing revelation. The gospel of Christ is a plain intelligible revelation of the will and counsels of God. It is adapted to the capacities of mankind in general; but it is not a system of refined and ob­scure philosophy, requiring great abilities to understand it, so far as is necessary to salvation.—But, so far is it from being obscure in the most essential parts of it, that it is plain and simple in its meaning, so that he that runs may read: And it is addressed to mankind at large—to the wise and simple—to men sanctified, and to such as are not: and it is the power of God to salvation through faith; and was designed to enlighten and reform sinners, as well as to carry the just on to perfec­tion. But it would be absurd to suppose that God would ad­dress sinners by a revelation which they could not (in the great essentials) understand; or, that a revelation was design­ed to reform the vicious, without giving them any light or information. The Apostle Paul observes, that they, the Apostles, used in their preaching great plainness of speech, commending themselves to every man's conscience. But this could not be done, unless men could understand the truths they taught. That which is plain, must be understood.— And that which takes hold of a man's conscience must con­vey light and conviction. And, it is fact, that some have been in some good measure enlightened by, and have tasted the good word of God, and have felt the powers of the world to come, but yet have fallen away. So that we find, that men who are not real Christians, may understand the holy scrip­tures, so as to be in some measure convicted and reformed.— And no doubt, had it not been their own fault, they would have become converted and sanctified.

THE great and essential truths of religion are adapted to the conceptions and understandings of men in common, to those of sinners as well as saints. But then there are some things, it is true, hard to be understood; not because of any original obscurity of the language, but on account of the su­blime nature of the subjects they are upon, which it is im­possible finite understandings should fully comprehend—and also on account of our not being acquainted with those usages and customs to which they referred, and of which we now [Page 8] have not competent knowledge. Though some things may on these accounts be hard to be understood, yet enough can be known about every part of the scriptures, to lead us in the way of salvation. And those parts of the holy scripture, which, as to the mode of their existence, are hard to be un­derstood, are hard to be understood by saints as well as sin­ners.

A MAN's becoming a good man is not always necessarily attended with any enlargement of his speculative knowledge. A saint may be a babe in knowledge, and a sinner may have a very comprehensive knowledge of the holy scriptures. But, were we once to set it down as a fact, that the regenerate only could have a proper knowledge and understanding of the scriptures, we should make knowledge an evidence of grace. But St. Paul supposes a man may have all knowledge and un­derstand all mysteries, but yet be destitute of charity, be as sounding brass and a tinkling symbol. So you may see, that a man, according to St. Paul, may have a great knowledge of the holy scriptures, but not be a man of grace. But, if a true understanding of the scriptures was an evidence of grace, almost every man would claim it; for every man, in his own judgment, understands the sense of the holy scriptures rightly. And all those who are sincere in their opinions will conclude, that they are good men, because their ideas of the scriptures are just and proper. And, when this should be the case, men might suppose they might live in sin, but might get safe to heaven if they should be careful to understand the scriptures in their proper sense, which all men, no doubt, would suppose that they themselves did.—A dangerous doctrine this! which St. John in his Epistle severely condemns.

I AM sensible that some persons are ready to suppose that the gospel is a system of mysticism; and that there is in al­most every thing a mystical sense, different from that which is obvious or literal. And this has led some to explain almost every doctrine of the holy scriptures in a mystical sense, and to overlook the sense that is obvious or literal. But in this way of interpreting the scriptures, men may make the holy word of God speak any language they please. They may, in this way, explain away all truth; and thus exceedingly disserve the cause of truth and religion; for they are governed by their wild imaginations and fancies instead of being governed [Page 9] by the word of God. And, such men as these, put them­selves above refutation by arguments founded on the literal or plain sense of scripture, by pretending that they are spiritual, and can discern a spiritual meaning of the holy scriptures, which others cannot. Such a person will tell you, that ";he that is spiritual judgeth all things; yet he himself is judged of no man." Thus he places himself, with all his mysticism, above any attack or refutation, because he is spiritual and can judge all things; and, is so infallibly in the right, that no man can correct him, or prove that he is in the wrong. And thus, by receiving an error, he becomes confirmed in a delusion, and has nothing for his guide but the spirit within, and makes no use of the written word. But, I would observe, that such men misinterpret the passage I have quoted above. The meaning of the passage is this: He that is spiritual, or is taught of God by inspiration, or by his word, judgeth of the mind of God by his word revealed; but not by the wisdom of this world or by principles of worldly philosophy; yet he himself is judged of no man, as to the truth of what he be­lieves as revealed by God. That is, he is not judged by the worldly wisdom of any man, who argues from the light of mere reason or the light of nature.—That is, no man can, by the light of nature, prove that what he believes, as it relates to facts, is not true; because his faith is grounded on the testimony of God. But the man who is not spiritual, or taught of God by his word, cannot, by arguments of reason, disprove the validity of this divine testimony; but the man who rests his faith on this divine testimony will stand firm, notwithstanding all the attacks of men who reason from mere natural light. This is the true and proper sense of this pas­sage.

—But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

THOUGH men, who are spiritual or are taught of God by his word, cannot be refuted as to their judgment of the truth of facts resting on divine testimony, yet they may mistake the sense in which some parts of revelation ought to be understood; for God does not give his testimony to the truth of every sense in which any man may understand the scriptures: but the sense is to be found out by arguments of reason grounded on the scriptures, or by comparing (as the Apostle expresses it) spiritual things with spiritual, or one part of scripture with another. This being the case, men may misunderstand the scriptures as to their sense or meaning; yes, even men who are taught of God and believe his word; and they may be in this corrected and refuted: and men may, by scripture arguments, by comparing spiritual things with spiritual, convince such that they were wrong in their under­standing of this or that doctrine or passage of scripture. So that, though a man who is spiritual, or taught of God by re­velation, is, as to his judgment of facts resting on divine testimony, judged of no man, yet he may misunderstand the sense of some parts of scripture; and, in this, may be judged of men reasoning out of the scriptures—and may be confu­ted and convinced that he was in the wrong; and he may give up his former sense of this or that doctrine and embrace anoth­er. So that this passage we have explained will not warrant [Page 11] any man in presuming he is infallibly right in his understand­ing of all parts of the holy scriptures, on account of his be­ing spiritual or being taught of God; for the infallible sense in which all parts of revelation are to be understood, is not by God revealed to any man. Hence we may see, that those that are good men are not infallible in their understanding of the sense of the scripture, any more than men unconverted.— But then, I would observe, that though good men have no fac­ulty which vicious men have not, to enable them to perceive and know the truth, yet, they making a better use of their fac­ulties have the advantage of the sinner.

THE man who makes a good use of his perceptive and un­derstanding faculties, becomes better qualified to perceive, know and receive the truth, than a man who makes not such an use of them. And, when a man by this right use and ap­plication of these faculties, perceives and knows the truth, his moral taste becomes by the force of truth and the ordina­ry influences of God's spirit corrected. And, he then loves the truth; and consequently, his former prejudices and incli­nations which gave occasion to him to judge wrongly of the truths of God are mainly removed. When this is done, he, before, will judge more fairly, uprightly and impartially of truth than he would have done under the prevailing prejudi­ces of a wrong taste and distempered mind. But, though this be the case, yet he has no new faculty of mind. He now has none but what belong to the man as a rational and moral agent. But, he had all that were necessary to this before his change. His change from sin to holiness, does not include the addition of any new faculty to his nature, but only the re­gulation of those he had before, and their being brought to their proper use and exercise. So that the unregenerate man has all the same faculties to perceive and understand the truths of God that regenerated men have. But, the difference be­tween them in their advantages for knowing and receiving the truth, consists in the right use and application the good man makes of his faculties for knowing and doing the will of God, and the bad use the unregenerate man makes of his. And, hence it is, that we are taught, if any man will do the will of God, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God. That is, the man of an honest desire and endeavour to please God, will be able to discover in general truth from [Page 12] error, and will not fatally mistake. Such an one (loving the truth) will use his faculties in searching after it and judging of and receiving it. Such a man has a good moral taste or relish: and in a proper use of his faculties; becomes sanctified by the spirit. But in this sanctification, the spirit of God gives no new faculty; but only (by the means of grace) brings the common faculties of the man to their proper use and exercise. And then the man has a view of the importance of the truth that he had not before, and greatly delights to know and receive it. But yet, his speculative knowledge of it, may be the same as before; nor may, perhaps, his knowledge be in­creased. But what he knows, he knows more affectingly, and believes heartily, so that, by the truth he becomes sancti­fied. Hence it is evident, that sinners not knowing the things of God revealed in his word, is not owing to a want of fa­culty or ability, but to a misuse and abuse of the faculties God has given them. Therefore, it is possible for them in the proper use of their mental faculties, to know the will of God, revealed, as well as saints; yes, even the most incom­prehensible truths: for things incomprehensible, cannot be understood either by good men or bad. And, when men pretend to be able (because they are spiritual) to understand and explain every thing, and pretend that revelation is such a mystery that unregenerate men can have no proper under­standing of it, they have given themselves up to the most un­bounded enthusiasm and delusion. The gospel of Christ or the things revealed in it, are not, in the scripture sense, myste­ries. There are some things in it, it is true, hard to be un­derstood as to the manner of their existence; and which we cannot comprehend. But the facts or truths related, considered as facts, are not incomprehensible, or in other words there is no absurdity in the supposition of their existence; because, they are not contrary to reason, though reason would not discover them, and they are demonstrated by divine testimony. And be sure, there is no absurdity in that being true, which is grounded on divine testimony, or in our believing it to be true. So that the facts and truths related in the gospel are plain. And, that they exist, is not incomprehensible: for, it is demon­strated by the testimony of God that they do. And the belief of these truths or facts objectively, is necessary to salva­tion. But, that we must know and believe them in this or [Page 13] that sense, as one man or another shall explain them, may not be absolutely necessary to the salvation of this or that person, because God has not made it so; and, especially, when the mode of the existence of such truths or facts, is incomprehensible. But things in the manner of their existence incomprehensible, are incomprehensible to saints as well as sinners: but, things not so, may, by unconverted men, be understood, or they may have a speculative knowledge of them as well as saints can; and, therefore, those who pretend, that because they are converted men, they can understand every thing of the truths of revelation, and that sinners can know nothing, are deceiving and being deceived. And, that pretence, that the scripture cannot be understood by any but sanctified persons, because they are all or the greater part of them mysterious, is going on a false supposition.

AN Apostle observes, they, the Apostles, "used in their preaching great plainness of speech," which does not well [...] with the idea of their preaching mysteriously, and in general, unintelligibly. The doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, is asserted and proved; and we believe it, and can comprehend the truth of the fact. But we cannot comprehend the manner of it, which is quite a different thing. Nor is it necessary to salvation that we should. The resurrection of the dead, and the change of those (that shall be alive) in the twinkling of an eye, at the sounding the last trump, St. Paul calls a mystery; but he meant it was a mystery before, or a thing before it was revealed, unknown, whether the dead should be raised, or what would be done with those who should be alive when our Lord should come to judgment. But he did not mean this was a mystery after it was revealed; for he says, "I shew you a mystery." But, when a truth is shewn or known, it ceases to be a mystery. There are many things in the gospel, which were said to be mysterious, that is before they were revealed or made known, but not afterward; for when a truth is known, the mystery ceases. The word mys­tery refers to things not made known or revealed; but not to such as are.

BUT good men cannot know things not revealed any more than men of different characters. But things made known or revealed are not mysteries; and, therefore, they may be known and understood by men of all descriptions, if they will [Page 14] make a proper use of their faculties. But though there are some things in the gospel hard to be understood; or, as to the manner of their existence incomprehensible, yet, these are not the truths, when revealed, that are in the scripture stile called mysteries. But mysteries are things not revealed, and, while they so remain, cannot be believed or known. But after they are revealed and known, may and must be believed; and then they cease to be mysteries. So that those men who pretend because they are spiritual, that they can explain and know things mysterious which others cannot, are in a delusion. That which is revealed is not a mystery, and therefore, it may by others be known and understood. But that which is not revealed is a mystery: therefore, it can­not be known or understood. And hence, it is folly for any to pretend to know or explain the meaning of it, though he may be sanctified by the spirit of God. But a person's hav­ing the influences of the spirit of God, by which he becomes sanctified in the right use of his faculties or a good improve­ment of the means of grace, does not imply or include an ex­traordinary gift of the spirit to know the will of God. Or­dinary and extraordinary gifts do not involve each other. The man who is endowed with the one, may not necessarily be endowed with the other: but, they are distinct in their nature, and one may exist in a person who is destitute of the other. And therefore, it does not follow, that (because a man is regenerated) he has a faculty of discerning the will and coun­sels of God in instances wherein others have not.

EXTRAORDINARY gifts, and especially the gift of inspiration, by which persons become acquainted with the counsels and will of God, were not, in apostolic times, designed so much for the benefit of those to whom they were given, as for the benefit of others. They were given to enable persons to preach and spread the truths of the gospel to bring men to repentance, faith and holiness. And, such as were endowed with these spiritual gifts, were those who were denominated spiritual, knowing the mind of the spirit, and judging all things, and being judged of no man. It does not appear that, in apostolic times, the common graces of the spirit in­cluded a spirit of inspiration and prophecy. It appears that the apostle exhorted christians to covet to prophecy; and hence, it appears, they might be christians though they had not this [Page 15] extraordinary gift. The graces of the spirit, such as faith, love, joy, peace, long suffering, meekness, temperance, and patience are common to all christians in all ages. Nor can any be christians without them. These are conveyed to the mind by common and ordinary operations of the spirit, but not by extraordinary. Therefore persons may be christians without these extraordinary gifts, and without the extraordi­nary operation of the spirit. Therefore men may be chris­tians and possess all the ordinary graces of the spirit, but yet not be possessed of any extraordinary capacity on this account to know the mind of God, wherein it was not before revealed.

THE spirit of God does not in its ordinary operations in conversion, convey any new truths to the mind not revealed before—It only awakens the mind to attention to those al­ready revealed, and gives them a sanctifying effect upon the heart. But the spirit gives no new revelation, no new truth: therefore it is a delusion to pretend to know more of the mind of God, even after conversion, than we can learn from the holy scriptures.—Therefore unregenerated men may have as much speculative knowledge of the scriptures as others; if they are not grossly deficient in the use of their rational fac­ulties in respect to enquiry. Therefore the words of out text mean not that all unregenerate men are incapable of knowing the things of the spirit of God, or that they cannot, by the ordinary influences of the spirit, receive them. But the natural man, spoken of in the text, is the philosopher who depends on human wisdom and mere reason, and will not ad­mit revelation.—Such an one cannot know the things of God, his counsels and purposes; and will not receive them, because they cannot be discerned and known by mere human reason or natural light. But unregenerate men; who will enquire for truth, and are disposed to attend to and receive the word of God, may know it. They are possessed of a capacity to dis­tinguish between truth and error: and there is nothing to prevent their knowing the mind and will of God, but these misuse and misimprovement of their mental faculties.

BUT I shall now offer something to help our improvement of what has been said.

AND, from what has been said, we may see the inexcuse­ableness of all sinners in living in the practice of sin, and in rejecting the gospel of Christ.

[Page 16]IF it was a fact, that all mankind before their regeneration, were entirely incapable of knowing the will of God, or the things revealed by God, besure they would not have any re­ligious knowledge to abuse, or consequently any to answer for before God.—Therefore they could not justly be punish­ed for the misuse or abuse of any—Much less would they be liable to be punished with an aggravated punishment for rejecting the gospel of Christ; for they could not be obliged to know that which they could not know or understand; or to believe that which they could not obtain a knowledge of; or receive and conform to that rule of conduct in which they could have no belief. Therefore, was it impossible for sin­ners to know the will of God, or such a measure of it as is necessary to salvation, they surely could not be punished for their not accepting the offers of the gospel; for he only who knows his master's will, will be punished for not conforming to it: but he that has or might have a considerable knowledge of it, will be beaten with many stripes. Therefore, persons who know nothing, nor can know any thing of the will of God (in the day of judgment) will have nothing to answer for. But all sinners, who know much of his will, will be punished with great severity. But all sinners under gospel light, may know much of the will of God; for they who trample under foot the Son of God, will have great condem­nation, because great light has shone upon them. They lov­ed darkness better than light because their deeds were evil. But if they had not great light, they would not be great sin­ners. But for us to say that sinners cannot know or are not capable of knowing the things of God or his will, so as to lead them by proper improvement of their faculties to practise accordingly, is excluding sinners from guilt.—It is encourag­ing them in sin, and lulling them to sleep in a state of carnal security, which is the most certain road to perdition. A more dangerous doctrine than this could not be inculcated. It at once, defeats the great end of revelation, and the end for which man was made a rational creature. It is impeaching the Judge of the world with injustice, in inflicting punishment on those who know not his will, nor could know it.

BUT will not the Judge of all the earth do right? Will he punish those who could not know his will, in the same manner that he will those who do know it? Shall a man give an [Page 17] account for ten or even one talent, when he has received none? If so, there is an end of all trial of rational beings. Nor is there any rule in judgment. But this is not the case. There is no sinner under heaven, that will by God, be chargeable with guilt, who could not know what his duty was. Nor will there be a sinner in the day of judgment, that will be punish­ed with an aggravated condemnation, for rejecting the great salvation, who could not obtain by all the helps and grace of God a saving knowledge of it, or such a knowledge as would have terminated in salvation, had it been in the best manner improved. And this is a doctrine that is so evidently true from our ideas of the justice of God and the holy scriptures, that every honest and unprejudiced mind will assent to it. And we may talk what we will about sinners being justly damned, when God never enabled them to escape damnation, but laid them under a necessity of sinning, and remaining in sin, but all our reasonings upon it will be contrary to common sense, the justice of God, and the plain declarations of his word, which assert, that God delighteth not in the death of a sinner; that punishment is his strange work; and that Christ died for all; and that the sinner will not come to Christ that he might have life. Is this all consistent with God's damning the sinner, when he could never know savingly his will, and when God never by his grace enabled him to do his will or to accept the great salvation? No—it is impossible: and I should suppose that all who have any respect for God's character, would be very cau­tious of asserting any such thing. But surely all sinners are in great danger of the judgment of God, because God has enabled them more or less to know and do his will, and, es­pecially, to accept the great salvation.

LET not sinners, therefore, under gospel light, rest in a state of carnal security, by flattering themselves that they cannot know savingly the truths of God, or receive them or do any thing by striving for regeneration, till God has given them some new faculty to enable them to discern divine things, for a new faculty is not to be expected; but it is their business to strive to improve aright the faculties God has already given; and, in order to this, to improve the gospel revelation, to study to know and do the will of God, to believe in his Son affect­ingly, [Page 18] to repent of all sin, depending on Gods grace to help and sanctify them. Though they must receive strength from God, yet it must be expected only in their strivings; for he that buries his talent shall be cast into utter darkness: that is, he that strives not to make a proper use of his faculties in the good improvements of the gifts of God, especially the reve­lation of the gospel, shall be damned.

IT is a most dangerous doctrine to hold up to sinners, that they cannot possibly do any thing in order to becoming chris­tians, but that they must become so by the immediate and ex­traordinary operations of the spirit by an impulse they cannot resist; for this at once excuses the sinner from blame in not becoming a christian; and it is asscribing his impenitency and unbelief to God, who affords not sufficient grace for the sinner to become a christian.

THOUGH it might doubtless have been just in God to have left the man to perish, who had once sinned, yet since the gospel revelation has been given, and the grace of God hath appeared, it is not consistent with the declarations of God, to suppose that he will leave the sinner without afford­ing aid to enable him to embrace salvation or the gospel; for in case he does not, he is threatened with a greater punish­ment than he would have been worthy of had not the gospel revelation been given, or had he not rejected it.—But this could not be, unless the gospel was considered as a talent for him to improve; nor, unless he could have improved it, or believed in it, by the grace of God, and practised according to it.

LET not sinners, then, through pretended ignorance of the truths of God, or inability to receive them and practice sin­cerely according to them, encourage themselves in sin; for it is a delusion, which, if persisted in, will be fatal in its con­sequences. But let them realize, that if they strive not they will never enter into rest, or be interested in the great salva­tion. Let them rouse up from their slumbers—cry to God for help, trusting in him with all their heart, for grace and strength, and they will derive grace and strength from him. Their strength in striving depends on their trust in the grace and promises of God. Let them withdraw their trust in God's grace, and they will become weak and impotent. Let [Page 19] them put their trust in him for help and strength, and they will receive them; and this will give efficacy to all their striv­ings. Let them study and meditate on the word of God, and pray, and mourn for sin and be watchful against it, repent of, and forsake it. Let them resolve to devote themselves to Christ, and to make his gospel their guide in faith and practice: and in this way of striving and walking in the presence of God, and trusting in him to help them, they will be in the way to become new born and vessels of honour sanctified to every good work. To such God hath said, "ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you." Upon such the grace of God, will no doubt, be effectual to the salvation of the soul: for our blessed Saviour hath said, He "will not break the bruised reed, or quench the smoaking flax, but will send forth judgment unto victory."