cordially approve? If so, he is unwilling to be a Christian. And he has been endeavouring to will against his will, and he need not be surprised that he has not succeeded. He has been endeavouring to give his whole heart to Christ, and at the same time to keep back a part of it. He has been endeavouring to do impossibilities. And yet such a sinner is excusing himself from duty on the ground of inability! But has a sinner endeavoured to give his whole heart to God, without attempting at the same time to keep back a part of it? If so, we say again, let him continue his endeavours. Let him never give over his exertions: for it may be that God designs that he should try a long while yet, in order to convince him of his helplessness and also of his stubborn unwillingness. His infinite wisdom may have adopted this as the most suitable and efficacious means of convincing him at last, that his own wicked heart has been the real and operative difficulty all the while. Or it may be that He will extend to him the necessary grace and strength at the next endeavour. But, after all, may not the sinner's endeavours have been rather to compromise the matter, and to bring down the terms of God to his own inclination and convenience, than to bring his own heart up to an honest compliance with those terms? This may account for their long strivings to repent and believe, of which some sinners speak. They will sometimes say, that for months and years they have been endeavouring to become Christians. But it is to be feared that for the most part they have rather been endeavouring to hold out against God, while labouring under the conviction of a guilty and uneasy conscience. For it is seldom the case that those who in good earnest and with the whole heart, set about the salvation of their souls, are long seeking without finding the desired blessing. God's ordinary mode of granting to sinners repentance unto life, is in answer to prayer, and as the result of sincere endeavours to obtain it. “Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the Lord." Jer. xxix. 12-14. "I said not unto the seed of Jacob, seek ye me in vain.” Isa. xlv. 19.

When Jacob sought to be reconciled to his brother Esau, whom he had offended, although he had no power over his brother's will or affections, yet he employed suitable means and made the necessary exertions, and said "I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; PERADVENTURE he will accept of me." Gen. xxxii. 20. Before the interview between these two brothers took place, Jacob encountered the Angel of the Covenant.

He had

not sufficient power to overcome such an antagonist. But he tried his strength. He made what effort he could. And even his usual strength was diminished by the Angel touching the hollow of his thigh, and putting it out of joint. But still he wrestled with Him, and would not let him go till he blessed him. Though weak in himself, yet he prevailed.

When Jonah preached to the inhabitants of Nineveh, the King laid his robes aside "and covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes, and caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout the city, that man and beast should be covered with sackcloth, and that the inhabitants should cry mightily unto God; yea, that they should turn, every one, from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands. For who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not. And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way: and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did it not." Jonah iii. 6—10. If the sinner will but try his strength, if he will but turn from his evil way, and cry mightily unto God, peradventure God will hear and bless him: for who can tell if God may not, while the sinner strives to go to Christ, draw him to the cross by his grace and power?

The various calls of God are frequent, long, and loud. Opportunities and means are afforded to the sinner, and God has not been wanting in suitable appeals to his hopes and fears. Line upon line, and precept upon precept, have been given him; and the tenderest solicitude for his eternal welfare, is manifested both by the providence of God and by the Gospel of his grace.

Those who will not try to do their duty, imagine many difficulties that have no existence in reality. "The slothful man saith there is a lion in the way, a lion is in the streets." Prov. xxvi. 13. Mark ye, this is the excuse of a slothful man for the neglect of his duty. Others again are disposed to magnify every little difficulty into an insuperable obstacle. "The sluggard will not plough by reason of cold, therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing." Prov. xx. 4. Mark ye, it is the sluggard who will not plough. And will such an one excuse himself by saying that this field cannot yield a crop? How does he know it cannot, till he makes a proper trial? It certainly will not, if he neglect the appropriate means of culture.

The sinner is required to love God supremely. It is evident that he cannot love him while he hates him. No sinner hates God or loves sin unwillingly. In the indulgence of either of these affections, he does no violence to his inclinations, or to his free agency. Why then should he attempt to excuse him

self on the ground of inability, so long as his will and inclination accord with it? As a sense of his helplessness is not the reason why he offends God, so neither is it a reason why he should continue to offend him. Will a sinner continue to rebel against God merely because he is helpless and entirely at his disposal? This should rather humble him in the dust, and lead him to submission and repentance at the foot of the cross, crying for mercy and grace to help him in his time of need. "Murmur not among yourselves; no man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me, draw him." John vì. 43-44.

VI. The Scriptures uniformly represent the sinner's unwillingness, as the operative reason of his refusal to repent and believe in Christ. "Ye WILL NOT come unto me that ye might have life." On this broad fact are based the invitations, exhortations, warnings, and threatenings of the Gospel. In these we find an invariable appeal to the sinner's will. God reasons with the sinner. Christ calls him, waits to be gracious, and knocks at the door of his heart, till his head is wet with the dew and his locks with the drops of the night. He asks with lamentation "why WILL ye die?" He wept over Jerusalem in view of the awful doom that awaited its perverse and blinded inhabitants; and bewailed the obduracy of their hearts. "How often would I have gathered you together as a hen gathereth her brood under her wings and ye WOULD NOT!" These appeals fasten conviction on the sinner's mind, that unwillingness keeps him from the Saviour.

It is the judgment of common sense, the conviction of conscience, and the doctrine of the Scriptures, that he who is unwilling to do his duty is blameworthy if he neglect it. If he will not do what is properly required of him, he is justly punishable. The mere fact of unwillingness, without regard to those influences which determine the will, is a just and sufficient ground of judgment in every case where it is concerned.

The reason assigned why the man with one talent did not improve it, was, not a sense of inability, but unwillingness. He is addressed "thou wicked and slothful servant." He was regardless and negligent of what was committed to his care, he made no effort, and manifested no desire to improve it. The sinner's talents are his natural faculties, his moral agency, his opportunities, the means of grace, together with the instructions and warnings which from time to time and in various ways, he receives. If these be misimproved he is guilty of wilful delinquency. But no one calls him slothful who does all he can towards his duty, whether he be able perfectly to perform it or not. No one calls him wicked who desires, and with corres

or not.

ponding effort, endeavours to do well, whether he be fully able If the man with one talent had shown a willingness to improve it, by making every suitable exertion to that end, he would never have been stigmatized as slothful and wicked, even though he had been unable to succeed.

Unwillingness on the part of the sinner, is, moreover, as real a barrier as inability: for they are in fact but different exhibitions of the same truth, and parts of the same depravity; and the one will as effectually keep him from Christ as the other. For it is as certain that he WILL NOT repent and believe in Christ, till made willing in the day of God's power, as that he CANNOT, till God works in him both to will and to do it. The truth is that, generally speaking, men are fully convinced neither of their inability nor their unwillingness. Hence some

will say they would repent if they could; thus supposing themselves willing, but pleading inability as the obstacle. Others say they purpose to repent at a more convenient season, and plead some other excuse for refusing to do it now; thus supposing themselves both willing and able to do it now, if it were a convenient season. They suppose themselves able to repent, otherwise they would not purpose to do it at a future time; and they suppose themselves willing to repent now, otherwise they would plead no other excuse for neglecting it now, but a want of will; whereas they imagine or feign other hinderances to the immediate performance of the duty.

Those who were bidden to the marriage feast, refused to come, not because they supposed that they could not, but because they would not. One indeed did say "I cannot come. But why could he not? he had married a wife. But did this make him unable to come? He had spoken the truth, if he had said, I have married a wife and will not come. The others who were invited, excused themselves, one on the ground that he had bought a piece of ground, and must needs go and see it. He would not come. The other had bought a yoke of oxen, and wished to prove them, and he would not come. They were wedded to the things of this world. They loved the world more than God. They were unwilling to leave all and follow Christ. This parable of the supper is designed to illustrate the Gospel offer, and the rejection of it by sinners. And it is worthy of remark, that their refusal to come to the feast, is referred to unwillingness, and not to conscious inability. The conscience of a sinner may at times urge upon him the duty of repenting and believing, but his heart and will draw back, and rebel. And he may mistake the counsel of his inward monitor, for the inclination of his will. The sinner in rejecting Christ, is sensibly influenced by considerations which

appeal to his will. He objects to the terms of salvation as too rigid and self-denying. He is unwilling to give up the world, or to part with some favourite sin, which must be abjured in coming to Christ. Such considerations decide his preference to remain as he is. Yet they are but motives presented to his will, and by which it is influenced; and do not arise from any conscious inability. No sinner, therefore, can say with truth "I would be saved, but God will not save me.' For this is what Christ says of the sinner, "How often WOULD I have gathered you together as a hen gathereth her brood under her wings, but YE WOULD NOT." Sinners are sometimes disposed to cast the blame upon God. The man with one talent attempted this by saying to his Lord, "I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strewed." But his Lord cast back upon him, the guilt of misimprovement, and stigmatized him as a wicked and slothful servant.

It is a mournful fact, and one strikingly illustrative of the point in hand, that sinners are contented with their inability. They are satisfied that it should be so. They are willingly what they are in this respect, "my people love to have it so.' This inability excites within them no anxiety about eternity. It alarms no slumbering fears. It begets no dread despair. It extorts no piercing cry for help. It wrings from their eyes no tears of bitter penitence. Instead of mourning over it as their sin, they offer it as an apology for sin. Instead of being humbled in the dust and led to cry for mercy, some rely upon it as a license to continue in rebellion, and thus glory in their shame. Do you say that you cannot be holy? you prefer to be unholy. Do you say that you cannot forsake your sins? you love and enjoy them. Do you say that you cannot come to Christ? you choose to stay away. Sinners will not frame their doings to turn unto the Lord." Hosea v. 4. They will not stir themselves up to lay hold on God. They will not attempt to stretch forth their withered hands at his bidding.

Jer.

If the sinner supposes himself to be willing to repent and believe, we may address to him the language of Jeremiah, "How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee." iv. 14. It is a willingness based upon inadmissible terms, and upon reservations irreconcilable with gospel sincerity. God is willing to give his blessing to all who are willing to receive it. If the sinner be willing, why is he not reconciled and blessed? Is it because adequate ability to repent is withheld? Then the substance of the sinner's excuse is a charge against God, "Why hast thou made me thus ?" Rom. ix. 20. If the sinner is willing to be reconciled and yet continues to live at enmity with