infinite in value seeing thou art a finite creature: therefore, they must be infinite in duration or continuance; that is, they must be eternal. And so all thy sufferings in this world, are but an earnest of what thou must suffer in the world to come.

Now sinner, if thou canst answer these demands, thou mayest recover thyself in the way of the Law. But art thou not conscious of thy inability to do any of these things, much more to do them all? Yet if thou dost not all, thou dost nothing. Turn then to what course of life thou wilt, thou art still in a state of wrath. Screw up thy obedience to the greatest height thou canst; suffer what God lays upon thee, yea add, if thou wilt, to the burden, and walk under all without the least impatience: yet all this will not satisfy the demands of the law; and therefore thou art still a ruined creature. Alas! sinner, what art thou doing, while thou strivest to help thyself, but dost not receive and unite with Jesus Christ? Thou art labouring in the fire, wearying thyself for very vanity; labouring to enter into heaven by the door, which Adam's sin so bolted, as neither he, nor any of his lost posterity, can ever enter by it. Dost thou not see the flaming Sword of Justice keeping thee off from the Tree of Life? Dost thou not hear the Law denouncing a curse on thee for all thou art doing, even for thy obedience, thy prayers, thy tears, thy reformation of life, &c. because, being under the Law's dominion, thy best works, are not so good as it requires them to be, under the pain of the curse? Believe it, sirs, if ye live and die out of Christ, without being actually united to him as the second Adam, a life-giving Spirit, and without coming under the covert of his atoning blood: though ye should do the utmost that any man on earth can do, in keeping the Commands of God, ye shall never see the face of God in peace. If you should, from this moment, bid an eternal farewell to this world's joys, and all the affairs thereof, and henceforth busy yourselves with nothing but the salvation of your souls; if you should go into some wilderness, live upon the grass of the field, and be companions to dragons and owls; if you should retire to some dark cavern of the earth, and weep there for your sins, until ye have wept yourselves blind, yea wept out all the moisture of your body; if ye should confess with your tongue, until it clave unto the roof of your mouth; pray, till your knees grew hard as horns; fast, till your body became like a skeleton; and after all this, give it to be burnt, the word is gone out of the Lord's mouth in righteousness, and cannot return: you should perish for ever, notwithstanding

all this, as not being in Christ, John xiv. 6, "No man cometh unto the Father but by me." Acts iv. 12, "Neither is there salvation in any other." Mark xvi. 16, "He that believeth not, shall be damned.”

Object. But God is a merciful God, and he knows we are not able to answer these demands: we hope therefore to be saved, if we do as well as we can, and keep the Commands as well as we are able. Ans. (1.) Though thou art able to do many things, thou art not able to do one thing aright: thou canst do nothing acceptable to God, being out of Christ, John xv. 5. "Without me ye can do nothing." An unrenewed man, as thou art, can do nothing but sin, as we have already evinced. Thy best actions are sin, and so they increase thy debt to justice; how then can it be expected they should lessen it? (2.) If God should offer to save men upon condition that they did all they could do, in obedience to his Commands, we have ground to think that those who would betake themselves to that way, should never be saved. For where is the man that lives as well as he can? Who sees not many false steps he has made, which he might have evited? There are so many things to be done, so many temptations to carry us out of the road of duty, and our nature is so very apt to set on fire of hell, that we would surely fail, even in some point, that is within the compass of our natural abilities. But (3.) Though thou shouldst do all thou art able to do, in vain dost thou hope to be saved in that way. What word of God is this hope of thine founded on? It is neither founded on Law nor Gospel, and therefore it is but a delusion. It is not founded on the Gospel, for the Gospel leads the soul out of itself, to Jesus Christ for all: and it establisheth the law," Rom. iii. 31, whereas this hope of yours cannot be established, but on the ruins of the Law, which God will "magnify and make honourable." And hence it appears, that it is not founded on the Law neither. When God set Adam a working for happiness to himself and his posterity, perfect obedience was the condition required of him; and a curse was denounced in case of disobedience. The Law being broken by him, he and his posterity were subjected to the penalty, for sin committed; and withal still bound to perfect obedience: for it is absurd to think that man's sinning and suffering for his sin, should free him from his duty of obedience to his Creator. When Christ came in the room of the elect, to purchase their salvation, the same were the terms. Justice had the elect under arrest; if he minds to deliver them, the terms are known. He must satisfy for their sin, by suffering the punishment due to it, he must do

what they cannot do, to wit, obey the Law perfectly, and so fulfil all righteousness. Accordingly, all this he did, and so became "the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth," Rom. x. 4. And, now dost thou think God will abate of these terms to thee; when his own Son got no abatement of them? Expect it not, though thou shouldst beg it with tears of blood: for if they prevailed, they behooved to prevail against the truth, justice, and honour of God, Gal.iii.10, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law, to do them." Verse 12. "And the Law is not of faith, but the man that doth them shall live in them." It is true, that God is merciful: he cannot but be merciful, unless he save you in a way that is neither consistent with his Law nor Gospel. Hath not his goodness and mercy sufficiently appeared in sending the Son of his love to do "what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh?" He has provided help for them that cannot help themselves: but thou, insensible of thine own weakness, wilt needs think to recover thyself by thine own works: while thou art no more able to do it, than to remove mountains of brass out of their place.

Wherefore, I conclude thou art utterly unable to recover, thyself, by the way of Works, or of the Law. O that thou wouldst conclude the same concerning thyself!

II. Let us try next what can the sinner do to recover himself, in the way of the Gospel. It is likely, thou thinkest, that howbeit thou canst not do all, by thyself alone, yet Jesus Christ offering thee help, thou canst of thyself embrace it, and use it to thy recovery. But, O sinner, be convinced of thine absolute need of the grace of Christ, for truly there is help offered, but thou canst not accept of it: there is a rope cast out to hale ship-wrecked sinners to land: but alas! they have no hands to catch hold of it. They are like infants exposed in the open field, that must starve, though their food be lying by them, unless one put it into their mouths. convince natural men of this, let it be considered:

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FIRST, That although Christ is offered in the Gospel, yet they cannot believe in him. Saving faith is the faith of God's elect; the special gift of God to them, wrought in them by his Spirit. Salvation is offered to them that will believe in Christ, but "how can ye believe?" John v. 44. It is offered to these that will come to Christ; but "No man can come unto him, except the Father draw him." It is offered to them that will look to him, as lifted up on the pole of the gospel, Isa. xlv. 22. But the natural man is spiritually blind,

Rev. iii. 17. And as to the things of the Spirit of God, he cannot know them, for they are spiritually discerned, 1 Cor. ii. 14. Nay, whosoever will, he is welcome: let him come, Rev. xxii. 17. But there must be a day of power on the sinner, before he will be willing, Psal. cx. 3.

SECONDLY, Man naturally has nothing, werewithal to improve, to his recovery, the help brought in by the Gospel. He is cast away in a state of wrath; but is bound hand and foot, so that he cannot lay hold of the cords of love, thrown out to him in the Gospel. The most skilful artificer cannot work without instruments; nor can the most cunning musician play well on an instrument that is out of tune. How can one believe, how can he repent, whose understanding is darkness, Eph. v. 8, whose heart is a stony heart, inflexible, insensible, Ezek. xxxvi. 26, whose affections are wholly disordered and distempered; who is averse to good, and bent to evil? The arms of natural abilities are too short to reach supernatural help: hence those who most excel in them, are frequently most estranged from spiritual things, Matth. xi. 25. Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent.

THIRDLY, Man cannot work a saving change on himself: but so changed he must be, else he can neither believe, nor repent, nor ever see heaven. No action can be without a suitable principle. Believing, repenting, and the like, are the product of the new nature: and can never be produced by the old corrupt nature. Now, what can the natural man do in this matter? He must be regenerate, "begotten again unto a lively hope:" but as the child cannot be active in his own generation; so a man cannot be active, but passive only, in his own regeneration. The heart is shut against Christ; man cannot open it, only God can do it by his grace, Acts xvi.14. He is dead in sin: he must be quickened, raised out of his who can do this but God himself? Eph. ii. 1. 5. Nay, he must be "created in Christ Jesus unto good works," Eph. ii. 10. These are works of omnipotency, and can be done by no less power.

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FOURTHLY, Man, in his depraved state, is under an utter inability to do any thing truly good, as was cleared before at large: how then can he obey the Gospel? His nature is the very reverse of the Gospel: how can he, of himself, fall in with that device of salvation, and accept the offered remedy? The corruption of man's nature infallibly concludes his utter inability to recover himself any manner of way; and whoso is convinced of the one, must needs admit the other: for they stand and fall together. Were all the purchase of Christ of

fered to the unregenerate man, for one good thought, he cannot command it, 2 Cor. iii. 5. "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves," were it offered on condition of a good word, yet, "how can ye, being evil speak good things?" Matth. xii. 35. Nay, were it left to yourselves to chose what is easiest, Christ himself tells you, John xv. 5, "Without me ye can do nothing."

LASTLY, The natural man cannot but resist the Lord, offering to help him: howbeit that resistance is infallibly overcome in the elect, by converting grace. Can the stony heart choose but to resist the stroke? There is not only an inability, but an enmity and obstinacy in man's will by nature. God knows, natural man, (whether thou knowest it or not) that "thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass," Isa. xlviii. 4, and cannot be overcome, but by him who hath "broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder." Hence is there such hard work in converting a sinner. Sometimes he seems to be caught in the net of the Gospel; yet quickly he slips away again. The hook catcheth hold of him; but he struggles, till getting free from it, he makes away with a bleeding wound. When good hopes are conceived of him, by those that travail in birth, for the forming of Christ in him, there is frequently nothing brought forth but wind. The deceitful heart makes many a shift to avoid a Saviour, and to cheat the man of his eternal happiness. Thus the natural man lies sunk in a state of sin and wrath, utterly unable to recover himself.

Object. (1.) If we be under an utter inability to do any good, how can God require us to do it? Ans. God making man upright, Eccles. vií. 29, gave him a power to do every thing he should require of him: this power man lost by his own fault. We were bound to serve God, and to do whatsoever he commanded us, as being his creatures; and also, we were under the superadded tie of a covenant, for that effect. Now, we having, by our own fault, disabled ourselves, shall God lose his right of requiring our task, because we have thrown away the strength he gave us, wherewithal to perform it? Has the creditor no right to require payment of his money, because the debtor has squandered it away, and is not able to pay him? Truly, if God can require no more of us than we are able to do, we need no more to save us from wrath but to make ourselves unable for every duty; and to incapacitate ourselves for serving God any manner of way, as profane men frequently do: and so the deeper one is immersed in sin, he will be the more secure from wrath: for where God

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