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vouchsafe to save us from the unsettled mind, and from the divided heart. Whilst to such as have already received this deciding grace from above, the thought of man's native disinclination to the cross, and the retrospect of past indecision which probably now returns upon the eye, should awaken the proportion of praise which the Lord demands ; so likewise should we each be vigilant, ever watching against the native propensity of the heart to start aside, and striving to maintain an unquestionable evidence of an entire surrender of body, soul, and spirit to the Lord.

THE HEART'S DECISION.

ROMANS vii. 18.

We

WE have now to enter into a view of the heart of man which is calculated to awaken more pleasurable feeling than our late investigation has afforded, if only we are privileged by the blessed witness of the Spirit, to discover that our own affections are in this view placed before us. pass from the wretched object of a divided heart, and turn to what in some blessed instances succeeds, fixed principle, or upright determination on the Lord's side. We We must however connect the whole, as belonging to different stages of experience in a sinner's state, and remember how we last considered the forcible appeal made by judgment, conscience, and feeling to the faculty of the will; and also the subtlety in which corrupt affections continue to keep this faculty in bondage, putting it upon deceitful devices, to satisfy the infatuated soul with something short of the saving profession of Christ: and now consider the effectual address by which the will is made a captive to the voice of truth.

In the first place we must determine what the will is, endeavouring to understand its true nature

and use; for on this just views in religion much depend.

The will is a faculty of the soul of man belonging to his original constitution as God's creature, and bestowed upon him in order to empower him to choose or reject, and so to act in all things as a free agent. This necessarily belongs to a just idea of a rational being. Man is not as the brutes without intelligence, or as a stone or clod of the earth without power of action, but can deliberate, judge, determine for himself. Neither can we have just views of the divine requirement but as we take into consideration this faculty of man, for God does not call for an irrational, forced, or reluctant obedience, but for rational, voluntary, and cheerful compliance with his voice.

We must consequently always consider man's will to be free, that is, that it does not act from any violence laid upon it so as to drag it into what it disapproves; otherwise it ceases to be his will; for a man that is constrained to do any act against his own inclination can never be said to do it with his will.

During man's state of innocency when his affections were the Lord's, of course the will was holy, and in perfect agreement with God's mind: it was directed by holy desires, and would determine on the side of good, freely serving a heavenly Father.

Since man's state of apostacy the will is corrupt, and in allegiance with Satan; it is directed by

depraved affections, and determines on the side of evil, freely serving the powers of darkness and death.

The nature of this faculty is not changed; this is impossible; wherefore whatever a man freely does he does with his will, whether serving Christ, or corruption. As the Apostle clearly argues, "Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness." Rom. vi. 16.

When man is the subject of grace and created anew, the will is not changed as to its free character. The Lord does not force his people as slaves, but sweetly constrains them by love; so that this faculty is brought under the direction of new affections; and the creature is thus restored to its rightful allegiance, loving what is good and determining in its favour.

According to this explanation of the will, it is to be observed how this faculty is always addressed, whether the sinner be solicited by temptation to sin, or urged by gospel overtures to obedience. Thus Joshua exhorted the people on the ground of their responsibility as rational creatures having a will," Choose ye this day whom ye will serve." Josh. xxiv. 15. So again the prophet, "If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat the good of the land. But if ye refuse and rebel ye shall be devoured." Isaiah i. 19. And our Lord represents himself as standing at the door, that if any man

be found willing to open the door he may enter in. Rev. iii. 20. And when testifying of the gospel of salvation to sinners, causing it to be proclaimed from age to age, Whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely. Rev. xxii.

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This mode of address corresponds with the character of man as an intelligent being; and it reminds us of this fact, that whatever may be the degree of excitement prevailing upon the other faculties of his soul, nothing is really obtained in favour of the faith until this determining power is gained; for it is the strong hold and main seat of government whether of Satan or of Christ. And by consulting the Scriptures we shall be further convinced, that as it respects the sinner's rejection of the gospel, or his continuance in sin, the defect lies in this faculty. Thus it is declared by our Lord, "Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life." A truth, which no doubt he intended to convey in respect of spiritual interests, when he so remarkably addressed the impotent man, saying, "Wilt thou be made whole?" John v. 6. There could be no doubt of his readiness to receive the bodily cure, but Jesus designed something more than this; and probably the man afterwards understood the force of this inquiry. In a similar strain the Holy Spirit addresses Israel, "Wilt thou not be made clean?" Jer. xiii. 27. "Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me?" Jer. iii. 4.

Addresses of this description, however, whilst

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