they not to blame for this bad temper, and for all their bad feelings, and bad carriage towards Christ, thence arising? Yes, surely, if ever any men were to blame for any thing. And now, if God the Father had been in the same circumstances as God the Son was then in, he would not have been loved a jot more, or treated a whit better, than he was. Indeed, it was that image and resemblance of the infinitely glorious and blessed God, which was to be seen in their prophets, in Christ and his apostles, which was the very thing they hated him for. Therefore Christ says, "He that hateth me hateth my Father also. But now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father." And Christ attributes it entirely to their want of a right temper, and to the bad disposition of their hearts, that they did not love him, and love his doctrines. "If God were your Father, you would love me." "He that is of God," of a godlike temper, "heareth God's words: ye, therefore, hear them not, because ye are not of God." In truth, the bottom of all your enmity is, that "you are of your father, the devil," that is, of just such a temper as he. And now, what think you, when Christ comes in flaming fire, to take vengeance on an ungodly world? Will he blame the Scribes and Pharisees for not loving him with all their hearts, or no? Or will he excuse the matter, and say, on their behalf, "They could see no form nor comeliness in me. I appeared very odious to them; they could not love me; they could not but hate me, and no man is to blame for not doing more than he can ?"

From the whole, it is plain that mankind are to blame, wholly to blame, and perfectly inexcusable, for their not having right apprehensions of God, and for their not having a sense of his glory in being what he is, and for their not loving him with all their heart; because all is owing merely to their want of a right temper, and to the bad disposition of their hearts.

Indeed, if we were altogether of such a temper, frame, and disposition of heart as we ought to be, it would be altogether as easy and natural to love God with all our hearts, as it is for the most dutiful child to love a tender and valuable parent. For God is really infinitely amiable; and were we of such a temper, he would appear so in our eyes; and did he appear so in our eyes, we could not but love him with all our hearts, and delight in him with all our souls; and it would be most easy and natural so to do; for no man ever found any difficulty in loving that which appears very amiable in his eyes; for the proof of which I appeal to the experience of all mankind.

And now, why does not God appear infinitely amiable in our eyes? Is it because he has not clearly revealed what he is, in his works and in his word? Surely no; for the revelation is plain enough. Is it because he is not infinitely amiable in being what he is? Surely no; for all heaven are ravished with his infinite beauty. What is it, then, that makes us blind to the infinite excellency of the divine nature? Why, it can be owing to nothing but a bad temper of mind in us, and to our not being of such a temper as we ought to be. For I appeal to the experience of all mankind, whether those persons and things which suit the temper of their hearts, do not naturally appear amiable in their eyes? And certainly, if God does not suit the temper of our hearts, it is not owing to any fault in him, but the fault must be wholly in ourselves. If the temper and disposition of God—that is, his moral perfections be not agreeable to our temper and disposition, most certainly our temper and disposition are very wrong. "If God were your father, ye would love me; but ye are of your father the devil; therefore ye hate me; " that is, if you were of a temper like God, you would love me; but being of a contrary temper, hence you hate me. If you were of a right temper, I should appear amiable unto you; and it is wholly owing to your bad temper, that I appear otherwise. "If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham."

Obj. But be it so, yet I cannot help being of such a temper as I am of: how, therefore am I wholly to blame?

Ans. You have as much power to help being of such a temper as the Scribes and Pharisees had; but Christ judged them to be wholly to blame, and altogether inexcusable. They could not like Christ or his doctrine: ye cannot hear my word, says Christ; but their cannot, their inability, was no excuse to them in Christ's account, because all their inability, he plainly saw, arose from their bad temper, and their want of a good disposition. And although they had no more power to help being of such a temper than you have, yet he judged them wholly to blame, and altogether inexcusable. (John viii. 33-47; xv. 22-25.) And now we know that his judgment is according to truth. But in order to help you to see into the reason of the thing, I desire you seriously and impartially to consider,

1. That sinners are free and voluntary in their bad temper. A wicked world have discovered a very strong disposition to hate God, even from the beginning. And the Jewish nation, God's own peculiar people, of whom, if of any, we might hope for better things, were so averse to God and his ways, that

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they hated and murdered the messengers which he sent to reclaim them, and, at last, even murdered God's own Son. And now, whence was all this? Why, from the exceeding bad and wicked temper of their hearts. "They have hated me without a cause." But did any body force them to be of such a bad temper? Surely no; they were hearty in it. Were they of such a bad temper against their wills? Surely no; their wills, their hearts were in it. Yea, they loved their bad temper, and loved to gratify it, and hence were mightily pleased with their false prophets, because they always prophesied in their favor, and suited and gratified their disposition and they hated whatsoever was disagreeable to their bad temper, and tended to cross it; and hence were they so enraged at the preaching and the persons of their prophets, of Christ and his apostles; so that they were manifestly voluntary and hearty in their bad temper. "We have loved strangers, and after them we will go." "But as for the word which thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee." "And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwellingplace; but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets." And so all wicked men are as voluntary in their bad temper as they were. The temper of the mind is nothing but the habitual inclination of the heart; but an involuntary inclination of the heart is a contradiction. And the stronger any inclination is, the more full and free the heart and soul is in the thing. Hence the bad temper, or the habitual bad inclination of the devil, is at the farthest distance from any compulsion; he is most perfectly free and hearty in it. And all sinful creatures being thus voluntary, free, and hearty in the bad temper of their minds,or, in other words, the bad temper of the mind being nothing but the habitual inclination of the heart,—hence all must be to blame in a degree equal to the strength of their bad inclination. In a word, if we were continually forced to be of such a bad temper entirely against our wills, then we should not be to blame; for it would not be at all the temper of our hearts but so long as our bad temper is nothing else but the habitual frame, disposition, and inclination of our own hearts, without any manner of compulsion, we are perfectly without excuse, and that whether we can help being of such a temper, For,

or no.

2. If a sinful creature's not being able to help his being of a bad temper does in the least free him from blame, then the more

vile and sinful any creature grows, the less to blame will he be : because the more vile and sinful any creature grows, the less able is he to help his being of so bad a frame of heart. Thus, if a man feels a bad spirit towards one of his neighbors creeping into his heart, perhaps, if he immediately resists it, he may be able easily to overcome and suppress it; but if he gives way to it, and suffers it to take strong hold of his heart, if he cherishes it until it grows up into a settled enmity, and keeps it in his heart for twenty years, seeking all opportunities to gratify it by backbiting, defaming, etc., it will now, perhaps, be clean out of his power to get rid of it, and effectually root it out of his heart. It will at least be a very difficult thing. Now, the man is talked to and blamed for backbiting and defaming his neighbor, time after time, and is urged to love his neighbor as himself; but he says he cannot love him. But why cannot you? For other men love him. "Why, he appears in my eyes the most odious and hateful man in the world." Yes, but that is owing to your own bad temper. "Well, but I cannot help my temper, and therefore I am not to blame." Now, it is plain, in this case, how weak the man's plea is; and even common sense will teach all mankind to judge him the more vile and blameworthy, by how much the more his grudge is settled and rooted. And yet the more settled and rooted it is, the more unable is he to get rid of it. And just so it is here. Suppose a creature loved God with all his heart, but after a while begins to feel his love abate, and an aversion to God secretly creeping into his soul; now, perhaps, he might easily suppress and overcome it but if he gives way to it, until he loses all sense of God's glory, and settles into a state of enmity against him, it may be quite impossible ever to recover himself. And yet he is not the less, but the more vile, and so the more blameworthy. If, then, we are so averse to God that we cannot love him, and if our bad temper is so strong, so settled, and rooted, that we cannot get rid of it, this is so far from being matter of excuse for us, that it renders us so much the more vile, guilty, and helldeserving; for to suppose that our inability, in this case, extenuates our fault our inability which increases in proportion to our badness is to suppose that the worse any sinner grows, the less to blame he is; than which nothing can be more absurd.

Obj. But I was brought into this state by Adam's fall.

Ans. Let it be by Adam's fall, or how it will, yet if you are an enemy to the infinitely glorious God, your Maker, and that voluntarily, you are infinitely to blame, and without

excuse; for nothing can make it right for a creature to be a voluntary enemy to his glorious Creator, or possibly excuse such a crime. It is, in its own nature, infinitely wrong; there is nothing, therefore, to be said; you stand guilty before God. It is in vain to make this or any other pleas, so long as we are what we are, not by compulsion, but voluntarily. And it is in vain to pretend that we are not voluntary in our corruptions, when they are nothing else but the free, spontaneous inclinations of our own hearts. Since this is the case, every mouth will be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God, sooner or later.

Thus we see, that, as to a natural capacity, all mankind are capable of a perfect conformity to God's law, which requires us only to love God with all our hearts: and that all our inability arises merely from the bad temper of our hearts, and our want of a good disposition; and that, therefore, we are wholly to blame and altogether inexcusable. Our impotency,

in one word, is not natural, but moral, and, therefore, instead of extenuating, does magnify and enhance our fault. The more unable to love God we are, the more are we to blame. Even as it was with the Jews; the greater contrariety there was in their hearts to their prophets, to Christ and his apostles, the more vile and blameworthy were they.* And in this light do the Scriptures constantly view the case. There is not one tittle in the Old Testament or in the New, in the law or in the gospel, that gives the least intimation of any deficiency in our natural faculties. The law requires no more than all our hearts, and never blames us for not having larger natural capacities. The gospel aims to recover us to

Obj. But, says a secure sinner, surely there is no contrariety in my heart to God; I never hated God in my life; I always loved him.

Ans. The Scribes and Pharisees verily thought that they loved God, and that, if they had lived in the days of their fathers, they would not have put the prophets to death. They were altogether insensible of the perfect contrariety of their hearts to the divine nature. And whence was it? Why, they had wrong notions of the divine Being, and they loved that false image which they had framed in their own fancies; and so they had wrong notions of the prophets which their fathers hated and murdered, and hence imagined that they should have loved them. But they saw a little what a temper and disposition Christ was of, and him they hated with a perfect hatred. So there are multitudes of secure sinners and self-deceived hypocrites, who verily think they love God; nevertheless, as soon as ever they open their eyes in eternity, and see just what God is, their love will vanish, and their enmity break out and exert itself to perfection. So that the reason sinners see not their contrariety to the divine nature, is their not seeing what God is. It must be so; for a sinful nature and a holy nature are diametrically opposite. So much as there is of a sinful disposition in the heart, so much of contrariety is there to the divine nature. If, therefore, we are not sensible of this contrariety, it can be owing to nothing but our ignorance of God, or not believing him to be what he really is. (Rom.

8.9.)