you,

away; behold all things are become new." This he explains, in the next words, to be God's making men willing to be saved. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ." In another place he says, "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision, but a new creature." Furthermore, he represents God as beginning and carrying on a work of grace, by a powerful operation on the minds of men. To the Philippians he says, "Being confident of this very thing, that he who hath begun a good work in will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." And in the next chapter he says again, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." And for this gracious and powerful operation on the hearts of believers, he prays in the thirteenth of Hebrews: "Now the God of peace make you perfect to his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight." According to these and many other passages of Scripture, God makes men willing to be saved by an act of his power. He not only addresses their eyes and ears, by external objects, and their understandings and consciences, by moral motives; but he actually operates upon their hearts, and there produces new feelings or affections, by the same almighty power, which he exerted in creating the world, and in raising Christ from the dead. Nothing short of this can be meant, by his raising men to spiritual life, making them new creatures, and working in them that which is well pleasing in his sight. To explain away such expressions, and make them mean moral suasion only, is to do violence to Scripture, and wrest it in such a manner, as to destroy at once both its meaning and usefulness.

3

4. The Scripture represents God as making men tvilling to be saved, by an act of his power, in distinction from all other ways of producing this effect. To this purpose, is that noted passage in the first of John. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Here the renovation of the heart is ascribed to a divine operation, in distinction from all other means or second causes. A like representation we find in the ninth of Romans. "For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy." The Apostle's words, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, are still more expressive and definitive on this point. "I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then, neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.” He adds, “Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building." The inspired writers all speak the same language upon this subject. They totally exclude men and means in the conversion of sinners; and ascribe the production of this effect to the immediate power of the Deity. I may add,

5. It appears from universal observation and experience, that nothing short of a divine operation upon the hearts of sinners, is sufficient to draw them to Christ. Some suppose, there are various ways, in which God can make sinners willing to be saved, without any immediate operation upon their hearts. But appears from fact, that this is the only way, in which

it

even Omnipotence can bring them to a cordial compliance with the gospel.

For in the first place, God cannot make them willing to be saved, by giving them a sense of guilt. He may awaken their consciences, and set their sins in order before them, and make them feel, that they justly deserve his wrath and curse, both in this life and in that which is to come. But will such a sense of criminality and ill desert, reconcile them to the way of salvation by Christ? There is no necessary connexion between conviction and conversion. Those under conviction have often expressed their sensible and violent opposition to God, to Christ, and even to heaven itself. Their sense of guilt, instead of diminishing, greatly increased the native enmity of their hearts against every thing holy and divine. It will be universally allowed, that the hearts of the damned grow worse and worse under conviction. And from this we may conclude, that should God give sinners, in this world, as great a sense of guilt as the damned actually feel, it would directly tend to harden, instead of softening their hearts. It does not appear possible, therefore, that God should change the hearts of sinners, by giving them a sense of guilt.

Nor does it appear possible, that he should make them willing to be saved, by giving them a sense of danger. He often does give them as great a sense of danger as of guilt. He often uncovers destruction before them, and makes them feel from day to day, that they are constantly exposed to drop into the bottomless pit. Though, in this situation, they anxiously desire to escape the damnation of hell; yet they have no disposition to repent and believe the gospel. But on the other hand, the more clearly God shews them, that he is able and disposed to punish them according to

their deserts, the more vigorously and sensibly they oppose his holy and amiable sovereignty. And surely God cannot destroy the enmity of their hearts, by that sense of danger, which directly tends to increase it.

Nor, in the last place, can he make them willing to be saved, by giving them a sense of the worth of their souls, and the importance of eternal happiness. He always gives them a sense of these things, when he awakens their consciences to feel their guilt, and opens their eyes to see their danger. Awakened and convinced sinners look upon the happiness of this life, as less than nothing and vanity, in comparison with future and eternal felicity. They view saints as the only happy persons, and would give all the world, if they had it in their power, to gain an interest in Christ, and be in the situation of those, who are rejoicing in the hopes of heaven. But these feelings have no tendency to destroy the enmity of their hearts against God, and prepare them for holy and heavenly enjoyments. Could the gates of heaven be set open, and could they be allowed to step in among the spirits of just men made perfect, they would choose to take up their everlasting residence among sinful, rather than among perfectly holy beings. Thus it appears to be out of the power of the Deity, to convert sinners by moral suasion. All, that he can do in this way, is, to give them a realizing sense of their guilt, of their danger, and of the worth of their souls; but the most lively sense of these things has no tendency to change their hearts. If God can, therefore, fulfil his promise to Christ, and make his people willing to be saved; he must be able to slay the enmity of their hearts, and reconcile them to the terms of life, by an act of his power,

IMPROVEMENT.

1. If God does, by an act of his power make men willing to be saved; then there is an essential distinction between common and special grace. Many imagine, there is only a gradual or circumstantial difference between one act of divine grace and another. They suppose regeneration or conversion is a gradual change, and effected entirely by clear and repeated exhibitions of divine truth to the view of sinners. Such moral suasion would indeed reconcile them to Christ, if all their opposition to him originated in the weakness or blindness of the understanding. The bare exhibition of divine truth is abundantly sufficient to remove natural ignorance and intellectual errors. But since sinners are unwilling to be saved, when they see their danger and feel their guilt, and when the way of salvation by Christ is clearly pointed out; no moral suasion or objective light can have the least tendency to make them willing. Though the gradual exhibition of objective light may gradually expel the darkness of their understanding; yet nothing can remove their perverse opposition to light itself, but the instantaneous and powerful operation of the divine Spirit upon their hearts. This divine operation, therefore, is special grace, and differs from common grace, in two respects.

In the first place, it makes men willing to be saved. Common grace never produces this effect. By common grace, God invites and commands men to accept of salvation, and makes them feel their obligation to submit to the terms of life. But by special grace, God actually inclines their hearts to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to them in the gospel. God usually exercises common grace toward sinners, long before he makes them the subjects of special grace. He often employs every mode of moral suasion, for a great