per which will make men resist the outward, will also dispose them to resist the inward means of grace. For the Holy Spirit teaches and urges the very same things that Moses and the prophets, and Christ and his apostles, teach and urge, and pursues the same end; and will, therefore, of consequence, meet with the same opposition and resistance, from the very same quarter. "This is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. He that doth evil hateth the light." John iii. 19, 20. That light which will discover men's evil deeds, and show them their fallen, sinful, guilty, helpless, undone condition, and so spoil all their worldly, carnal comforts, the very idols of their hearts, and also kill their legal, self-righteous hopes, which is all the awakened and concerned sinner has, to his own sense and apprehension to depend upon; that light which affects things which are so directly cross to the inward temper of the sinner's heart, he will naturally be disposed to hate, shut his eyes against, flee from, and resist with all his might; and that whether it comes from the external teachings of the word, or internal teachings of the spirit; yea, so long as there is the least remainder of corruption left in believers themselves, it will hate to die, and struggle with all its might to keep its ground; yea, and to recover its former dominion: Rom. vii. 23. " I see another law in my members, warring against the law in my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members." Yea, it implies a contradiction to suppose corruption can in any case be willing to die; for every temper in our hearts naturally loves to be gratified and pleased, and it is a contradiction to suppose it can, at the same time, be willing to be crossed and killed. Gal. v. 17. OBJ. But do not awakened sinners earnestly desire to repent of and be humble for their sins, and to mortify their corruptions, and to give up themselves to God, to love and live to him? And do they not earnestly pray for the divine spirit to assist them so to do? How can they then be disposed at the same time, to make such mighty resistance. Ans. (1.) Awakened sinners see themselves in great danger, and they therefore earnestly desire and seek after self-preservation; and this is plainly owing to nature, and not to any grace or goodness in their hearts. Psalm lxvi. 3. Through the greatness of thy power, thine enemies submit themselves unto thee; i. e. they feign a submission, but they are thine enemies. (2.) That which moves them to desire to repent, be humbled, &c. is, they hope by these means to make amends for their past sins, and ingratiate themselves into the favour of God. Rom. x. 3.; i. e. merely from self-love, with pure hypocrisy, they would impose upon God. For, (3.) after all their pretences, desires, and prayers, their nature and temper is just what it used to be; and were they but delivered from the fears of hell, and left at full liberty to follow their own inclinations, they would live as viciously as ever they did. (4.) Yet they pretend to love God, and would fain have him believe them sincere, and are ready to expect acceptance for what they do, and to think it hard if God should not accept them. Now, if it was the work of the spirit of God, to build up such a sinner in this hypocritical, self-righteous way, he might be disposed, while under his fears and terrors, to concur and fall in with the spirit's influence; and all merely from self-love and for self-ends. But if the spirit of God goes about to bring home the law in its strictness, and show such a sinner the very truth, that he does not love God, nor desire to; that his desires, and prayers, and tears, are all hypocritical; that he is still dead in sin, and an enemy to God; that he deserves to be damned as much as ever he did, that God is at liberty, all his duties notwithstanding, to reject him; that he lies absolutely at God's mercy; now he will hate the light, shut his eyes against it, quarrel at it, and resist it with all his might. It is exceedingly hard for the poor sinner when he begins to be awakened, to part with a vain life, and vain companions, his carnal ease and comfort, and all vicious courses, to make restitution to those he has wronged in name or estate, and give himself to reading, meditation, and prayer, and to a serious, mortifying way of living: he cannot bear the thought; would fain contrive an easier way, or else delay, for the present, so mournful and tedious a work. But when, by the dreadful fears of hell and eternal damnation, he has been brought, after much reluctance and unwillingness, to a forced consent to all this, hoping thereby to appease the divine wrath and procure the divine favour; now, to have all his self-righteous hopes dashed and confounded, by a sight of the badness of his heart, by seeing he has no love to God, no sorrow for sin, no inclination to be holy, but averse to God and all that is good, and that all his forced goodness has no virtue in it; that he is yet under the whole guilt of all his sin; under condemnation of the law and the wrath of God; dead in sın, an enemy to God, absolutely at God's mercy; this, this, I say, is dreadful indeed, and far more cross to the very grain of the sinner's heart, than all he ever met with before. Here, therefore, there will be the greatest struggle, and strongest resistance, before ever the sinner can, by the spirit of God, be brought clearly to see and give into these things; for all these things are directly cross to the sinner's disposition to love himself supremely, and live to hiself ultimately; directly cross to a spirit of self-supremacy and independence. The sinner cannot bear that God should be so great and so sovereign, and himself so vile; so little, so absolutely at his mercy: it is a killing thing. When the cominandinent came, sin revived, and I died. So that it is plain, that notwithstanding all the awakened sinner's selfish desires and prayers, yet, in the habitual temper of his heart, he stands disposed to resist the influences of the divine spirit with all his might. He is so far from being willing to repent of his sins, that he is utterly unwilling to see and own his sinfulness; so far from desiring to be humbled, that he is by no means willing to see the cause and reason he has to be humble; so far from desiring to be made spiritually alive, that he will not so much as own that he is spiritually dead; so far from desiring the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit to reconcile him to God, that he will not own that he is an enemy to God; but would fain think that he heartily desires to love God, and stands ready to hate and resist that light, which would discover the enmity of his heart. He that doth evil, hateth the light, and flees from it, lest his evil deeds be discovered; and, for the same reason, he that hath an evil heart, hates the light and resists it, lest the badness of his heart be discovered. 7. From all that has been said, we may learn that those influences of the spirit, which will be sufficient effectually to awaken, convince, and humble the sinner, and recover him to God, must be irresistible and supernatural. That the internal influences of the Holy Spirit are necessary to recover sinners to God, is so plainly held forth every where in the Bible, that the Arminians themselves do not deny it: but how much and what kind of influences are needful, is very much disputed. Now so much and such sort of influences are, beyond dispute, needful, as will be sufficient effectually to answer the end, and without which no sinner will ever be converted. This is selfevident. If sinners were so good-natured as to see, and feel, and own their sinfulness, and the justice of the sentence whereby they stand condemned, and die to themselves, the world and sin, and return home to God, through Jesus Christ; to love him, live to him, and delight in him for ever of their own accord, merely upon reading the Bible, and hearing the law and the gospel preached, then there would be no need of any inward influences of the spirit at all; or, if they were so good-natured as to be easily persuaded to do so, then some small degree of the inward influences of the spirit would do. But if, in the first place, they are altogether unwilling to see, and feel, and own their sin and guilt, and the justice of their condemnation according to law, and entirely disposed to hate and resist the light, as hath but just now been proved, then they must be brought to it by an all-conquering irresistible grace, or not all. And if, in the second place, the clearest sight and greatest sense a natural man can have of what God is, instead of making him appear infinitely glorious and amiable in the eyes of one whose heart is dead in sin, and diametrically opposite to the divine nature, will rather irritate corruption, and make the native enmity of the heart ferment and rage, and become but the more apparent and sensible, as has been heretofore proved, then there must be a supernatural, spiritual, and divine change wrought in the heart, by the immediate influences of the spirit of God, whereby it shall become natural to look upon God as infinitely glorious and amiable in being what he is, and so a foundation hereby laid for us to love him with all our hearts, and so sincerely to repent, return, and give up ourselves to him, to live to him, and delight in him for ever: I say, if these things be so, there must be such a change wrought by the spirit of God, or not one sinner in the world will ever be converted to God; and, therefore, that there is an absolute necessity of such influences of the spirit of God, in order to a saving conversion, is evident, to a demonstration, from the very reason and nature of things. God himself must take away the heart of stone, and give an heart of flesh, and write his law on our hearts; raise us from the dead; create us anew; open our eyes, &c. &c. according to the language of scripture. And these things God does do for all that are renewed, and therefore they are said to be born of God; to be born of the spirit; to be spiritual; to be made partakers of the divine nature, &c. and God is said to give faith, repentance, and every divine grace. Ezek. xxxvi. 26. Heb. viii. 10. Eph. ii.1-10. 1 Cor. iv. 6. John. i. 13. and iii. 6. Rom. viii. 6. 9. 2 Pet. i. 4. Acts v.31. James i. 17. 8. From what has been said, we may learn to understand the doctrine of divine sovereignty in the bestowment of special grace for the regeneration and conversion of sinners. The scripture represents God as choosing some before the foundation of the world, to be holy and to be his children, Eph. i. 4, 5."; and teaches us that whom he did predestinate, them he also calls, and whom he calls, them he also justifies, and whom he justifies, them he also glorifies, Rom. viii. 30; and plainly intimates that such as are given to Christ, and ordained to eternal life, believe, and none other. John vi. 37. 89. Acts xiii. 48. Rom. xi. 7. And the scriptures teach us that God has mercy on whom he will have mercy, and compassion on whom he will have compassion, Rom. ix. 18.; and that, for the most part, he passes by the rich, and great, and honourable, and chooses the meanest and most ignoble, that no flesh might glory in his presence. 1 Cor. i. 26-29. He hides the gospel from the wise and prudent, and reveals it to babes; and that because it pleases him so to do, and Christ rejoices in his sovereign pleasure herein, as displaying his infinite wisdom. Mat. xi. 25, 26. And now what has been said may show us the infinite reasonableness of such a procedure: for God, whose eyes run to and fro through all the earth, seeing all things as being what |