and altered, is but sand; and that the fabric built upon it will not stand. If the law had required us to love ourselves supremely, and live to ourselves ultimately, and to have endeavored to love God and our neighbors only to answer our own endsthen this sort of religion would have been right.-Did I say right? No; it would not be right, being unalterably contrary to the very reason and nature of things; nor could such a law have been possibly made by a God, who loves righteousness, and hates iniquity: But if this was right-if this was religion, it is plain mankind have the root of the matter in them; for they are all naturally inclined to love themselves supremely, and live to themselves ultimately; and so would not need to be born again, to have a new nature—the old nature would be sufficient; they would only need to be convinced that it is for their interest to endeavor to love God and do their duty, and merely self-love would make them religious, in order to answer their own ends; But if the law never has been thus abated and altered, then this religion is really no religion at all-nothing but mere hypocrisy, and of a nature diametrically opposite to true holiness. Only let it be clearly determined what the nature of the moral law is, and there will be a final end put to a hundred controversies.

Here is a man, he reforms his life a little, and joins with the church he prays in his family, and sometimes in his closetand, for the most part, it may be, he is honest in his dealings, and civil and sober in his behavior; and this is his conversion ....this is his religion: And now he pleads that conversion is a gradual thing, because his was such-and that a man cannot know when he was converted, because that is the case with him. -that there is no need of irresistible grace, because he knows that it is a pretty easy thing to convert as he has done-and he hates the doctrine of divine sovereignty, because he never felt any need of a sovereign grace to save him-and he holds falling from grace, because his religion is as easily lost as gotten : But does he know that he has any grace, after all? No, no, that is a thing (says he) none can know: He believes the holy spirit assists him; but he is not sensible of his influences, or of any

help from him, any more than if he had none: He believes he loves God, and is a true saint at heart; but he does not feel any more love to God, or grace in his heart, than if there was none there-and the reason is, because there is none: But being secure in sin, and it being for his wordly interest to make a profession of religion, he now sets up for a good man: For with out the law sin is dead, and so he is alive without the law..... Rom. vii. 8, 9. And now those doctrines and that preaching which are calculated to detect his hypocrisy, and awaken him out of his security, he hates and cries out against: And if any seem to experience any thing further in religion than he has, for that very reason he condemns it all for delusion: But he pretends nightily to plead up for morality and good works, though, in truth, he is an enemy to all real holiness. This is the course of many; but some are more sincere, and strict, and conscientious in their way.

But let men be ever so sincere, strict, and conscientious in their religion, if all results merely from self-love, the slavish fears of hell, and mercenary hopes of heaven, there is not, in all their religion, the least real, genuine conformity to the moral law; it is all but an hypocritical, feigned show of love and obedience; it is not the thing which the law requires, but something of a quite different nature; unless we lay aside God's old and everlasting law, and invent a new, abated, altered law, which shall declare that to be right, which, in the nature of things, is unalterably wrong; and by such a law, such a religion will pass for genuine : But it is sad, when we are driven to invent a new law, to vindicate our religion and our hopes of heaven, since, at the day of judgment, we shall find the old law to be in full force.

I am sensible that old objection will be always rising-" But "it is not just that God should require of us more than we can "do, and then threaten to damn us for not doing of it:" Just as if God may not require us to love him with all our hearts, merely because we are not suited with him; and just as if we were not to blame for being of such a bad temper and disposition, merely because we are thoroughly settled in it, and have

no heart to be otherwise; just as if the worse any one is, the less he is to blame-than which nothing can be more absunl.— Truly, I cannot but think, that, by this, we are so far from being excused, that, even merely for this, we deserve eternal damnation: For what can be much worse than be so thoroughly settled and fixed in such a bad temper of mind?-But, notwithstanding all that I have offered to clear this point heretofore, I will add, that if it is not just for God to require any more of us than we can do, i. e. any more than we have, not only a natural, but a moral power to perform*-then these things will necessarily follow:

[It has been questioned by some whether the Author has expressed himself on this part of his subject with his usual perspicuity and correctness. If, by requiring "more than we have natural or moral power to perform," he meant only that more was required, or was necessary, to procure the divine favor, than we have natural strength or moral dispositions to perform, and that God might justly suspend his favor until this was in some way accomplished, his reasoning may perhaps be correct: But if he meant, as his words seem to import, that God might justly require of us, as a condition of his favor, what we have neither natural nor moral pow er to perform, and, by requiring this, lay us under an obligation to performa a natural impossibility, then his reasoning is evidently unsound and inconclusive: For must not God's law be founded in the reason and nature of things, and his demands, in every instance, be proportioned, not indeed to the moral, but to the natural power and capacity of his creatures? The Author is himself a strenuous advocate for this principle, throughout the greater part of this.work. In page 95th, he remarks that "all the perfec tion which God requires of any of his creatures, angels or men, is a "measure of knowledge and love bearing an exact proportion to their nat "ural powers?"-But why in exact proportion to their natural powers, if, in the nature of the case, it was not impossible that their obligations should ever transcend these powers?

The Author appears to have been led into this mistake by supposing that whatever was necessary to our salvation, God might justly propose to us, and require of us, as a condition of our salvation: But is not this wholly to overlook the circumstances of the case? Could an offer of salvation, upon any conditions, have been made to fallen man, without the intervention of a Savior? The language which God must necessarily have held to him, in these circumstances, was that of a righteous Judge, condemning him to everlasting death. A law which could give life, or even propose life, was not admissible; and it was not admissible for this plain reason, that no terms could be named which would be proper for God to accept, and which, at the same time, the sinner was naturally able to perform. It is believed, therefore, that we should need both a Redeemer and Sanctifier, although it were not just for God to require of us more than we have natural power to fulfil.-We should need a Redeemer to make an atonement for us ;-a work which we could never accomplish, nor be required to accomplish ourselves: We should need a Sanctifier, to renew our hearts, and restore us to the image of God-not indeed because we have no natural power to perform this work; for we have this power, and God requires us to exercise

1. That there was not the least need of Christ's dying for us as our Redeemer: For, did we need him to make any atonement or satisfacion for our sins?...Surely no: for God could not justly require of us more satisfaction for our sins than we were able to make; for that would be to require more than we can do. -Did we need him to purchase the divine favor and eternal life for us?...Surely no: for God could not justly require any more of us, as a condition of his favor and eternal life, than we ourselves were able to do.-Did we need him to purchase an abatement of the law ?...Surely no: for God could not, in his law, justly require of us more than we could do; and we did not need to have the law brought down lower than this: Well, therefore, might St. Paul tell the Galatians that if righteousness came by the law, then Christ is dead in vain....Gal. ii. 21: For if our doing as well as we can, in the sense before explained, is all that righteousness that God can justly require, this alone most certainly would be every way sufficient for our salvation: nor did we need a Savior any more than the angels in heaven; for we have just as much power to do as as well as we can, as they have to do as well as they can: To say the contrary, is a contradiction in express terms.

2. Nor was there the least need that the holy spirit should be sent into the world, to grant any inward assistance, to enable us to do our duty: For we had a full and perfect power to do all our duty, without any such assistance: for God could not justly require of us any more than we could do; and every one is able to do what he can, without any assistance.

So that, if this principle be true that God cannot justly require of us any more than we can do, it is plain we neither needed a Redeemer nor a Sanctifier: so that all the infinite pains which God has taken for our redemption and salvation, has been unnecessary and fruitless. To do as well as we could, was all

it-but because we are totally depraved, and shall never employ our natural faculties in returning unto God, until moved to it by the operations of his holy spirit.

It will be seen that the exceptions taken against the Author's reasoning in this place, apply so far only as the question of natural power is concerned.]

that would have been needful; and this is still as much required as ever: So that we are just where we should have been, if nothing had ever been done for us: So that this notion entirely undermines and subverts the whole christian religion, in supposing that all the extraordinary and wonderful provision therein made for the salvation of sinners was needless; for if all was needless, then the whole is perfectly incredible-for it is incredible to suppose that God would do so much, and such great things, when there was no need of it: so that this notion leads directly to infidelity Yea, if this principle be true, we may be certain that the gospel is full of deceit; for the gospel every where supposes sinners to have been in a helpless, undone state, and that they might justly have been left so, and perished forever: and it every where represents it as owing entirely to the free grace and infinitely great goodness of God, that he sent his Son into the world to be a Savior, and the holy spirit to be a Sanctifier; all which, upon this principle, is notoriously false for we were not in a helpless, undone condition; being able, of ourselves, to do all that God could justly require of us, in order to eternal life. Nor did we need to be beholden to God for his grace and goodness, his Son or his spirit; being able, of ourselves, to do all that which he could justly require at our hands: Yea, upon this principle, the gospel offers the highest affront to human nature, in that it supposes us to be such vile, helpless, undone, guilty wretches, when, indeed, and in truth, we are not: And, therefore, so long as men really believe this notion, they cannot possibly but hate the doctrines of the gos pel, and oppose them: and so, in fact, it has always been.

To conclude, therefore, since it is so evident from the law, and so evident from the gospel, that we are sinful, guilty, helpless, undone creatures, had not we better give in to it, and come down, and lie in the dust, before the Lord, who knows what we are, whether we will own it or no? Had we not better own his law to be holy, just, and good, and acknowledge that we lie at his sovereign mercy, and be willing to be beholden to free grace, through Jesus Christ, for our salvation; since we must

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