the cause and reason he has to be humbled-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 inAuences 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 infiuences 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 self-evident. 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 forever, 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

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to it by an all-conquering, irresistible grace, or not at 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 forever;-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—I. Cor. iv. 6-John i. 13, and iii. 6—Rom. viii. 6, 9—II. 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, 39-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 honorable, and chooses the meanest and most ignoble, that no flesh might glory in his presence....I. 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 they are, plainly beholds and views the state and temper of this apostate world; and let men pretend what they will, he knows their hearts-he knows they do not love him, nor care for him -he sees all their hypocrisy, and their inward contrariety to him and his law, and how much they are settled in their temper....so far from repentance, that they will not so much as see their sin, but stand to justify themselves, insensible of their guilt, and insensible of their desert, hating the light: He sees they hate to perceive their sin, and guilt, and desert, and to be humbled, and lie down at his foot, and be absolutely beholden to him; and that they would make the utmost resistance if he should take them in hand, and go about thoroughly to convince them, by his spirit, how things really are: Thus he views his apostate, rebellious creatures, and sees how sinful....how dead in sin....how contrary to all good, and how irreclaimable they are, and, upon the whole, how much they deserve eternal damnation. In the days of eternity, he saw just how things would be, beforehand; and now, in time, he sees just how things actually are: In the days of eternity, therefore, he saw that there would not be any thing in them to move him to have mercy on

any; and now, in time, he finds it to be the case: and yet he was pleased, then, of his mere sovereign pleasure, to determine not to cast off all, but to save some-so, now, he is pleased to put his sovereign pleasure in execution; and he has mercy on whom he will have mercy, and compassion on whom he will have compassion, and many times takes the meanest and vilest, that the sovereignty of his grace might be the more illustrious, and the pride of all flesh might be brought low, and the Lord alone be exalted: And surely such a conduct infinitely well becomes the supreme Governor of the whole world.

Indeed, if any of Adam's race were so well disposed, as, of their own accord, merely upon reading the Bible, hearing the gospel preached, and enjoying the common means of grace, to believe and repent, and to return home to God through Jesus Christ, they might be accepted, pardoned, and saved; nor would there be any room for, or need of sovereign grace: But God, who knows the hearts of all, sees that all the pretences of sinners, that way, are but mere hypocrisy, and that, at heart, they are his enemies, and utterly opposed to a return. Or if there was any virtue to be found among any of the fallen race of Adam, antecedent to God's grace, this might move him to have mercy upon one, rather than another: But he sees that all are entirely destitute of love to him, and entirely at enmity against him, wholly void of real goodness, and dead in sin, and that the only reason why some are not so outwardly extravagant and vicious as others, is, because he has, by one means and another, restrained them, and not because they are really better. And while God thus beholds all alike dead in sin, and, in the temper of their hearts, by nature, equally averse to a return to him, and views all as guilty and hell-deserving, there is nothing....there can be nothing, to move him to determine to show mercy to one, rather than another, but his own good pleasure; and therefore he has mercy on whom he will have mercy: he awakens, convinces, humbles, converts whom he pleases, and leaves the rest to follow their own inclinations, and take their own course, enduring, with much long-suffering, the vessels of wrath.

Let it be here noted, that many of those warm disputes about the doctrine of divine sovereignty, which have filled the christian world, turn very much upon this point. All are agreed, that whosoever believes, repents, and returns to God, through Jesus Christ, shall be saved: All will, therefore, yield that if mankind, in general, were so well disposed as to return to God, through Jesus Christ, of their own accord, upon the calls and invitations of the gospel, and only by the influence and help of those advantages which are common, then all might be saved; nor would there be any need of, or room for, this sovereign, distinguishing grace: But if mankind have none of this disposition, but are every way diametrically opposite thereto-if all the calls of the gospel, and common means and methods of grace will have no effectual influence upon them--if nothing but an almighty, all-conquering grace can stop them in their course of rebellion, subdue their lusts, and recover them to God ;—if this be the case of all mankind, then it is plain that nothing but the mere mercy of God can interpose and prevent an universal ruin: And it is plain that the sovereign Governor of the whole world is, in the nature of things, at most perfect liberty to shew this mercy to none, or to some few, or to all, just as it seems good in his sight: And since, from eternity, he foresaw just how things would be, from eternity he might determine what to do: So that the great question is, Whether mankind are naturally so entirely averse to a true conversion? For if they are, the reasonableness of the divine sovereignty must be admitted in this case; and if they are not, none will any longer plead for it: And what the natural opposition of mankind to conversion is, may be easily seen, if we consider what the true nature of conversion is, and compare their temper herewith: And what the true nature of conversion is, may be easily known by considering the true nature of the moral law :-In a word, if the law does only require what the Arminians and Pelagians suppose, and religion be just such a thing, it is a plain case that mankind are not so bad, nor do they need such an irresistible grace: But if the law requires quite another sort of holiness,