is that which makes all that hear the gospel, and obey it not, inexcusable. But shall all that use this capacity right be assured to have it filled with grace? Yes: the Spirit hath sealed their assurance: Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cast down yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. So then we have better abilities or opportunities to cast ourselves down, than to lift ourselves up; and the Lord hath a more special hand in lifting us up, than in casting us down. Our impotency to walk uprightly, our natural proneness to all manner of evil, and the weight of our actual sins, do much help, and in a manner impel us (so we would not be wilful) to cast ourselves down before the throne of grace, by whose power only we must be lifted up, without any help or endea222 vour of our own. Herein I must commend the anti

Lutheran's modesty, for not calling St. James's au-
thority in question, albeit his testimony in this point
makes more against him than it doth against the
Lutheran or other protestants in the point of justifi-
cation and it is good wisdom for him so to do, at
least it were bootless for him to do the contrary,
seeing our Saviour hath said no less-Come unto me,
all
ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Matt. xi. 28. The greater our labour is, the
heavier our load, or the more weary we grow under it,
the readier we are to run with better speed to Christ,
unto whom the feeble, blind, and lame were most
frequent and most earnest supplicants. And our com-
ing to him consists not either in strength or agility of
body, but in the frequency of supplications and depth
of groans. It was his saying, They that are whole
need not the physician, but they that are sick. We
must feel ourselves sick at the heart before this our

y Isaiah i. 16. James iv. 8, 10.

heavenly Physician will begin his cure, or use his skill by applying the medicine of saving grace.

16. Is it then impossible for the unregenerate man to feel his infirmity, to be morally persuaded of the soul's immortality, or to be somewhat affrighted with terror of conscience? or so affected, is it impossible to implore his heavenly Physician's help with as great care and diligence as he would an earthly physician's presence to save his body in a dangerous sickness?

It were rather impossible, that any, who is not an absolute atheist, (such as it is scarce possible for any man to be,) should be so slothful and careless in coming to Christ as the most part of men are, were they not (through our sloth or ignorance, or through our factious skill and industry that should instruct them) led on, as it were, in a drowsy dream, to imagine that God's mercy would either come unto them without seeking, or that it were impossible for them to do any thing, before it apprehend them, that might infallibly avail for the finding of it, or rather for being found and embraced by it. The natural man is not so unnatural to himself, as not to desire ease in true sense of actual pain, or exemption from danger which his soul doth dread; nor is he so brutish as to think himself not beholding to him that in these cases is able and willing to afford him comfort. It is the duty, and should be the care of us, whom that great heavenly Physician hath appointed to visit his patients, first, to work a sense and feeling of that natural infirmity, whereof the great naturalist was (without an instructor) very sensible; secondly, to confirin their belief of this article-That no present fee, or hope of praise amongst men, can make any earthly physician half

so ready to cure their bodies, as he that out of his free bounty made their souls is at all times to repair them, so they would but implore his omnipotent mercy with as true and hearty affections as they do the help of their bodily comforters in distress.

GOD'S JUST HARDENING OF PHARAOH, WHEN HE HAD
FILLED UP THE MEASURE OF HIS INIQUITY;

OR,

AN EXPOSITION OF ROMANS IX. 18—24.

Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? &c.

THE former part of this proposition, here inferred by way of conclusion, was avouched before by our apostle as an undoubted maxim ratified by God's own voice to Moses: for he said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion, Exodus xxxiii. 19: the true sense and meaning of which place I have before declared, in unfolding the sixteenth verse of this chapter, so that the latter part of this eighteenth verse, whom he will he hardeneth, must be the principal subject of my present discourse.

The antecedent inferring this part of this conclusion is God's speech to Pharaoh, Exod. ix. 16: Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I may shew my power in thee; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth. The inference is

plain, seeing God's power was to be manifested in hardening Pharaoh.

2. The points of inquiry (whose full discussion will open an easy passage to the difficulties concerning reprobation and election, and bring all the contentious controversies concerning the meaning of this chapter to a brief perspicuous issue) are especially four : 1. The manner how God doth harden.

2. The pertinency of that objection, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? and the validity of the apostle's answers.

3. The logical determination of this proposition— Whom he will he hardeneth: what is the proper object of God's will in hardening.

4. What manner of division this is-He will have compassion on whom he will have compassion, and whom he will he hardeneth.

For the right opening of all four difficulties, the explication of the single terms, with their divers acceptions, serves as a key.

The terms briefly to be explicated are three :

1. God's will.

2. Irresistible.

3. Induration, or hardening.

The principal difficulty or transcendent question is, In what sense God's will or induration may be said to be irresistible-whom he will he hardeneth.

3. Not to trouble you with any curious distinctions 224 concerning God's will (this is a string which in most God's will.

a

meditations we were enforced to touch); albeit God's will be most truly and indivisibly one, and in indivisible unity most truly infinite and immutable; yet

a See Attributes, part 1. chap. 15, [vol. v. p. 148.] and [vol. v. p. 308] part 2. chap. 18, &c.: in

what sense, or in respect of what
objects, God's will is said to be
irresistible.

is it immutably free, omnipotently able to produce plurality as well as unity, mutability as well as immutability, weakness as well as strength, in his creatures. By this one infinite immutable will, he ordains that some things shall be necessary, or that this shall be at this time and no other. And such particulars he is said, by an extrinsical denomination from the object, to will by his irresistible will. The meaning is, the production of the object so willed cannot be resisted, because it is God's will that it shall come to pass, notwithstanding any resistance that is or can be made against it. If any particular so willed should not come to pass, his will might be resisted, being set only on this.

By the same immutable and indivisible will, he ordained that other events should be mutable or contingent, viz., that of more particulars proposed, this may be as well as that, the affirmative as well as the negative. And of particulars so willed, no one can be said to be willed by his irresistible will. If the existence of any one so willed should be necessary, his will might be resisted; seeing his will is that they should not be necessary. Each particular of this kind, by the like denomination from the thing willed, he may be said to will by his resistible will. The whole avlvyía or list of several possibilities, or the indifference betwixt the particulars, he wills by his irresistible will.

The psalmist's oracle (psalm v.) is universally true of all persons in every age, of Adam specially before his fall: Non Deus volens iniquitatem tu es; " God doth not, he cannot will iniquity:" and yet we see the world is full of it. The apostle's speech again is as universally true: This is the will of God, even your sanctification: that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in honour, 1 Thess. iv. 3, 4. God