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What reasonable man, who might be a glorified saint in heaven if he would, who has power to perform what God requires, and yet rejects the feast and damus his soul; I say, what ground has he to be offended with the Saviour for his free grace and mercy in sending a compulsion to his own elect, who are altogether helpless? Surely the Saviour is more justifiable in helping cripples that cannot help themselves, than he would be in lending his aid to men who are lords, who can make a new heart and a new spirit for themselves. The Saviour is called the Hope of Israel, and a Help that is mighty to save; but he will not lend his help to them that need it not. Uzzah was struck dead for lending unwarrantable help, 2 Sam. vi. 6. But the Saviour will not do so. He came to fulfil the promise. "I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment." He makes the proud helpers stoop under him, Job ix. 13. The man that can deck himself with majesty and excellency, is to be saved by his own arm. Job xl. 10-14. The Saviour eyes the blessing, and keeps under it. Blessed is he that respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies, Psal. xl. 4. God rewardeth the simple, and none else, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer, Psal. xxxi. 23; who can make his own heart, and create his own spirit; who stands

in no need of help. This our author affirms; for he says, Every man has power sufficient, if used, ' at one period or other of his life, to believe or

obey the gospel.' It will be hard to prove, that every man has heard the gospel, or that one part in ten have ever heard it; and they that have heard it, and perished under it, are more in number than those that were saved by it. Many be called, but few chosen. As for the heathens, I have no doubt but God will judge them with equity. They being without the law, are a law to themselves. For they have all acted as our author used to declare he had; that is, they have done those things that they ought not to have done, and left undone those things that they ought to have done; and there is no more health in them than there is in Mr. Skinner.

Our author tells us, 'The Saviour's yoke is easy, and his burden is light.' It really is so to the saints. Christ's yoke is a living faith; and that which makes the burden light is the love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost, which is easy enough to a man that can make a new heart and a new spirit. For if a man can make a spirit, he can easily produce faith and love; for they are only the fruits of it. God does not, he says, demand impossibilities; therefore he takes it for granted, that when God says, The man is become like one of us, that he means, that every man is a God. What an inconsistent being is this free-thinker, who stands fast in himself, and talks

of the Saviour's easy yoke and light burden, when he never felt either.

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The next thing he handles is universal light. But he never quotes this text, "Behold darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people," Isa. lx. 2. But he goes on. It is not asserted nor supposed that man naturally possesses this power,' though he declares, there is not a soul in 'hell but might have been a glorified saint in heaven.' Then he contradicts himself, and saith, But, on the contrary, that man is spiritually 'blind and dead.' If so, his light and free thoughts are little worth. For who can see that is blind? and who can think that is dead? But notwithstanding man's being blind and dead, he says, that ' experience proves that every man has some knowledge of sin; he feels the reproofs of con'science. Now these must proceed from human 'nature, Satan, or Deity. But they cannot spring 'from a soul totally blind and dead;' though before he said they were so. 'from Satan, for he blinds 'lievers.'

Nor do they spring the mind of unbe

To all which I answer, the eye of God upon the Egyptian host, that looked through the cloud, troubled the host, and destroyed them, was the eye of offended justice. And those that lift up their eyes in hell, being in torments, will see the

same.

This is divine light, but no more salvation annexed to it than there is to our author's free

thoughts, which are nothing but a confusion of darkness..

The accusers of the adulterous woman were convicted by the light of their own conscience, which is a ray from the law. And this will be seen, and felt too, even in hell. He will have light for reflection, though none to salvation. God, as a reconciled Father in covenant, can only be known by his own ray in the gospel, by which he brings life and immortality to light. "God who caused the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ." The scriptures inform us, that Satan is transformed. into an angel of light; therefore, it is no marvel if his ministers be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, 2 Cor. xi. 14, 15. If the devil can do this, he may enlighten some in our days, for aught I know. The Jewish Rabbies said, "Are we blind also?" whom the Saviour answers, "If ye were blind, ye should not have sin; but since you say, We see, therefore your sin remaineth." He tells them, they were of their father the devil, and cautions others to take heed, lest the light that be in you be darkness. If it be, how great is that darkness? Matth. vi. 23. Thus some see whose sin reinains; others have light that is nothing but darkness; others see in the rays of justice; others boast of the light of nature, or natural conscience; and others lift up their eyes in hell.

The Saviour doth enlighten every man that cometh into the world. He planted the eye and ear both; he created the seeing as well as the hearing. The light of reason, before man fell, was the candle of the Lord; but it is so dim now that it can only lead a sinner to erect an altar to an unknown God. But to the elect Christ brings life and immortality to light: he is the saints' everlasting light, their God, and their glory, and their sun shall no more go down, Isa. lx. 19, 20. And if our author was thus enlightened by Christ, he would repent of these his free thoughts in dust and ashes, and curse the day, as John Child did, that ever he sent them into the world, to darken counsel by words without knowledge.

Our author goes on to illustrate his argument by the parable of the talents, that 'the servant that hid it was pronounced wicked because he was slothful. It is sometimes objected, this was 'not grace; and by the same authority it may be 'asserted that the five talents were not grace.' To which I answer, if the one talent was grace, the man would not have been condemned for sloth; for God worketh in his people both to will and to do of his own good pleasure. Christ declares to his elect, that without him they can do nothing; and the church owns God hath wrought all her works in her.

If the one talent had been grace, it could not have been hid; for if such hold their peace the very stones would cry out. The more the Sa

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