will deny that, to be honest in heart, is their duty; for if we are not obliged to be upright towards God, we are obliged to nothing; and if obliged to nothing, we must be guiltless, and so stand in no need of salvation.

Further Aversion of heart is assigned as a reason why sinners do not believe. This truth is strongly expressed in that complaint of our Lord, in John v. 40: Ye will not, or YE ARE NOT WILLING, to come unto me, that ye might have life. Proudly attached to their own righteousness, when Jesus exhibited himself as the way, the truth, and the life, they were stumbled at it; and thousands, in the religious world, are the same to this day. They are willing to escape God's wrath, and to gain his favor-yea, and to relinquish many an outward vice in order to it; but to come to Jesus among the chief of sinners, and be indebted wholly to his sacrifice for life, they are not willing. Yet, can any man plead that this their unwillingness is innocent?

There is no inconsistency between this account of things, and that which is given elsewhere, that no man CAN come to Christ, except the Father draw him. John vi. 44. No man can choose that from which his heart is averse. It is com

mon, both in Scripture and in conversation, to speak of a person who is under the influence of an evil bias of heart, as unable to do that which is inconsistent with it. They have eyes full of adultery, and CANNOT cease from sin.-The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed CAN be. So then they that are in the flesh CANNOT please God. Rom. viii. 7, 8.

He

On account of this different phraseology, some writers have affirmed that men are under both a moral and a natural inability of coming to Christ; or that they neither will nor can come to him. But, if there be no other inability than what arises from aversion, this language is not accurate; for it conveys the idea, that, if all aversion of heart were removed, there would still be a natural and insurmountable bar in the way. But no such idea as this is conveyed by our Lord's words. The only bar to which he refers, lies in that reluctance or aversion which the drawing of the Father implies and removes. Nor will such an idea comport with what he elsewhere teaches. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? that is of God heareth God's words; ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. Why do ye not understand my speech? BECAUSE YE CANNOT HEAR MY WORD. These cutting interrogations proceed on the supposition that they could have received the doctrine of Christ, if it had been agreeable to their corrupt hearts; and its being otherwise was the ONLY reason why they could not understand and believe it. If sinners were naturally and absolutely unable to believe in Christ, they would be equally unable to disbelieve; for it requires the same powers to reject, as to embrace. And in this case there would be no room for an inability of another kind. A dead body is equally unable to do evil as to do good; and a man naturally and absolutely blind could not be guilty of shutting his eyes against the light. "It

is indwelling sin," as Dr. Owen says, "that both disenableth men unto, and hinders them from believing, and that alone. Blindness of mind, stubbornness of the will, sensuality of the affections, all concur to keep poor perishing souls at a distance from Christ. Men are made blind by sin, and cannot see his excellency; obstinate, and will not lay hold of his righteousness; senseless, and take no notice of their eternal concernments."

A voluntary and judicial blindness, obstinacy, and hardness of heart, are represented as the bar to conversion. Acts xxviii. 27. But if that spirit which is exercised in conversion were essentially different from any thing which the subjects of it, in any state, possessed, or ought to have possessed, it were absurd to ascribe the want of it to such causes.

Those who embraced the Gospel, and submitted to the government of the Messiah, were baptized with the baptism of John, and are said, in so doing, to have justified God. Their conduct was an acknowledgment of the justice of the law, and of the wisdom and love of the Gospel. On the other hand, those who did not thus submit, are said to have rejected the counsel of God against themselves. How, then, can this passage be understood, but by supposing that they ought to have repented of their sins, embraced the Messiah, and submitted to his ordinances?

Finally. Unbelief is expressly declared to be a sin, of which the Spirit of truth has to convince

* On Indwelling Sin, chap. xvi.

But unbelief cannot

the world. John xvi. 8, 9. be a sin, if faith were not a duty. I know of no answer to this argument, but what must be drawn from a distinction between believing the report of the Gospel, and saving faith; allowing the want of the one to be sinful, but not of the other. But it is not of gross unbelief only, or of an open rejection of Jesus as the Messiah, that the Holy Spirit has to convince the world; nor is it to a bare conviction of this truth, like what prevails in all Christian countries, that men are brought by his teaching. When he, the Spirit of truth, cometh, his operations are deeper than this amounts to. It is of an opposition of heart to the way of salvation that he convinces the sinner, and to a cordial acquiescence with it that he brings him. Those who are born in a Christian land, and who never were the subjects of gross infidelity, stand in no less need of being thus convinced than others. Nay, in some respects they need it more. Their unbelieving opposition to Christ is more subtile, refined, and out of sight, than that of open infidels. They are less apt, therefore, to suspect themselves of it, and, consequently, stand in greater need of the Holy Spirit to search them out, and show them to themselves. Amongst those who constantly sit under the Gospel, and who remain in an unconverted state, there are few who think themselves the enemies of Christ. On the contrary, they flatter themselves that they are willing, at any time, to be converted, if God would but convert them; considering themselves as lying at the pool for the moving of the waters. But when

he, the Spirit of truth, cometh, these coverings will be stripped from off the face, and these refuges of lies will fail.*

V. GOD HAS

THREATENED AND INFLICT ED THE MOST AWFUL PUNISHMENTS ON SINNERS, FOR THEIR NOT BELIEVING ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.

It is here taken for granted, that nothing but sin can be the cause of God's inflicting punishment; and nothing can be sin, which is not a breach of duty.

Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; BUT HE THAT BELIEVETH NOT, SHALL BE DAMNED. Mark xvi. 15, 16. This awful passage appears to be a kind of ultimatum, or last resolve. It is as if our Lord had said,

"This is your message. .. go and proclaim it

....

to all nations: whosoever receives it, and submits to my authority, assure him, from me, that eternal salvation awaits him; but whosoever rejects it, let him see to it . . . . damnation shall be his portion!" Believing and not believing, in this passage, serve to explain each other. It is saving faith, to which salvation is promised; and to the want of this it is, that damnation is threatened.

It has been alleged, that, “as it is not inferable, from that declaration, that the faith of believers is the procuring cause of their salvation,

*See Charnock's excellent discourse, on Unbelief the Greatest Sin, vol. ii. of his Works.