Comfort of an inward and intimate Acquaintance with confiderable Numbers of fuch as thofe whofe Characters I have defcribed. And if you, Sir, would feck out fuch for your chofen Companions, your Objections would die of themfelves; and the Argument I have infifted upon would appear in its proper Light and Strength.

I know not what more can be need fulto be added upon this Subject, but my hearty Prayers, that the Spirit of Truth would lead us both into all Truth; and that we may know, by fenfible Expe. rience, what is the Hope of Christ's Calling, and what the Riches of the Glory of his Inheritance in the Saints; which has been justly, though but weakly and very imperfectly reprefented, in thefe Letters, from,

SIR,

Yours, &c.

LETTER VII.

Wherein the Doc

trine of GOD's Sovereign Grace is vindicated; and fome Exceptions again it confidered and answered.

SIR,

You

OU can't imagine how much Comfort you have miniftred to me by your last. I greatly rejoice to hear, that "the more strictly you examine the Caufe, the greater Evidence you find "of the undoubted Truth and Certainty of the "Chriftian Religion:" But that "you are filled

with Confufion, to think how long you have "lived at a Distance from that bleffed Saviour, "who has wrought out fuch a glorious Redemption "for us." And I am not at all furprized, to hear

you

you complain, that " you cannot entertain clear "Apprehenfions of my Difcourfe of experimental "Religion:" That "though your laft Objections

66

are filenced, there are others which fill your "Mind with greater Difficulty, and are of much 66 greater Importance, if I have given you a juft "View of the Cafe." And that " you cannot tell "how you can ever be brought to a feeling Senfe "of the Doctrines of fovereign Grace, which I fo "much infist on, while they appear to you fo in"consistent with Truth, and so unreasonable ”I am not, I fay, furprised at this, for we are naturally prejudiced against thefe Doctrines, and are not easily brought to receive them, by reason of the ftrong Bias there is upon our Minds to the contrary Principles. I fhall therefore endeavour to confider your several Objections; and, how strong and plausible foever they may appear, I don't defpair of giving you Satisfaction.

You object, that "if we are of ourselves capable "of no qualifying Conditions of the divine Fa66 vour, or (to use my own Words) if we must "feel that we lie at Mercy, and that all our own "Refuges, and all our Endeavours in our own "Strength to relieve our distreffed Souls are fruit❝lefs and vain, you can't tell to what Purpofe any ❝of our Endeavours are, or what Good it will do ❝us to use any Means at all for our Salvation."

In order to a clear Solution of this Difficulty, it feems needful to convince you, that this loft, impotent, deplorable State, is the Cafe in Fact of every unrenewed Sinner, whatever Objections we may frame in our Minds against it; and therefore it is neceffary, that he fhould fenfibly perceive the Cafe to be as it truly is. And then, it will be proper to fhew you, that the Confequence you draw from this Doctrine is unjust, and even directly con

trary

trary to the Improvement you ought to make of it.

I begin with the first of these, and shall endeavour to convince you, that Man is indeed in such a loft and helpless State, that he lies at mere Mercy, and cannot bring himself into a Claim to the divine Favour, by any Power or Ability of his own.—I shall not run into the scholastic Contraverfies and subtile Distinctions, with which this Doctrine has been clouded by many of our wrangling Difputers; but shall endeavour to fet it in the most plain, eafy, and practical Light, that I am able.

I think you must readily grant, that you cannot make an Atonement for your Sins, by any Performances within your Power.-You are, Sir, to confider yourself as a Sinner, as a Criminal and Delinquent in the Sight of God.-Your Nature is corrupt and defiled.-Your actual Tranfgreffions of the Law of God have been very numerous, and perhaps fome of them attended with special Aggravations. All your Sins are directly repugnant to the Perfections of the divine Nature, and consequently offenfive to a pure and holy God.—And what greatly increases the Difficulty and Danger of your Cafe is, that you are still continuing to act contrary to God in all you do, while your Nature is unrenewed; and while you are without a Principle of Love to God. (I am fure you will pardon this Freedom, for it is neceffary you should know the Disease, in order to the Cure.)-Judge then yourself, whether it can be fuppofed, that an omnifcient, Heart-fearching God can be pleased with any, even the most devout of your overt Actions, when he knows that your Heart is estranged from him, and your Nature has no Conformity to him, but your Affections are glewed to your several Idols-How then can you be reconciled to God, by virtue of your own Performances and Attain

ments?

ments? Can you pay ten thousand Talents with lefs than nothing?Can you please God by offending him, as you do by the Obliquity of all your Duties, the Defects of your best Devotions, and the finful Affections from whence they all flow?

Or can you have thofe unworthy Thoughts of an infinite unchangeable God, as to hope you can make fuch Impreffions upon his Affections, by acknowledging your Offences, and imploring his Mercy, as to excite his Compaffion and Sympathy; and to make your impure and unholy Nature agreeable to his infinite Purity and Holinefs?-Can your infincere and hypocritical Duties (for fuch they are all at beft, while they proceed from an unfanctified Heart) bring the glorious God to take Complacency in what is directly contrary to his own Nature? You cannot but fee, that these Proposals are most unreasonable and abfurd. One of these Things must certainly be true; either first, that you have naturally, whilft in an unrenewed State, a Principle of Holiness and Love to God: Or fecondly, that Works flowing from an impure Fountain, and from a Principle of Oppofition and Alienation to God, are yet pleafing to God, will ferve to appease him, and will intitle you to his Favour: Or thirdly, that you cannot, by any Thing you do, have a Claim to God's Favour, until your Nature is renewed, and you can act from a Principle of Holinefs and Love to God. I think every Man's Experience will confute the first of thefe, who gives any Attention at all to the natural Difpofitions of his own Soul: The Second is altogether inconfiftent both with the Nature of Things, and with the Nature of an infinitely pure and holy God: And therefore the third is neceffarily true. It won't at all help the Cafe to alledge, in Bar of what is here faid, that Chrift Jefus has made an Atone

ment for us. For what is that to you, while you remain without an Intereft in him?— Did Christ purchase for you a Capacity to make an Atonement for yourself? Did he die, that God might be pleafed with what is contrary to his own Nature, and pacified with fuch Duties as can be no better than impure Streams from a corrupt Fountain ?

Let Reafon fit Judge in the Cafe before us, and you must allow your Cafe to be as I have described it. And it is equally evident, that you have no Power to change your own Heart, and to produce in yourself a new Principle of Love to God, and Conformity to him, by any Endeavours of your own It is vifible, from what has been already faid, that our Hearts and Affections must be renewed and fanctified, before either our Perfons or Services can be acceptable in the Sight of God: And which Way can this be compaffed? If you take up Refolutions, thefe will no longer stand you in Stead than the Principle of Fear, from which they proceed, is kept in Act.-If you execute thefe Refolutions in fome external Reformations, this is but lopping off the Branches, while the Stock and the Root of the Tree are still alive, the Affections and Difpofitions of the Soul being ftill the fame.If by Fear, or other selfish Motives, you fomething reftrain the prefent more sensible Exercife of your finful Appetites or Paffions, this is but damming up the Stream, and forcing it into another Channel; pull down the Dam, and it will run where it did before.. Certain it is, that every Man naturally loves the World, and the Things of the World, the Objects of his fenfual Appetites; and loves his Lufts and Idols more than God: And it is equally certain, that whatever Reftraints he may fometimes put upon these Dispositions, an om

nifcient