"These are feelings, which," as the learned Dr. Owen well remarks, "belong not to the precept "of the law, but to its curse; they are no part of "what it requires, but of what it inflicts."

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Moral inability is comparable with a rule of action; it is not that which bears no relation to praise or blame. consists in the total depravity of the carnal heart. It consists in an insuperable aversion to holiness. conceive of a man's possessing a given degree of aversion to holiness. You can see that the difficulty of his becoming holy will rise in proportion to his aversion to holiness. If his aversion to holiness be inconsiderable, the difficulty of becoming holy will be inconsiderable. If his aversion to holiness be great, the difficulty of becoming holy will be great. Now the aversion of the natural man to holiness is not inconsiderable; it is not merely great; it is complete and entire; it pervades every thought, every affection, every design. By the arm of flesh it is invincible. It is open to no successful attack. Light, motives, means of whatever character, are in themselves of no avail to remove it.

Here is an inability; here is a serious inability. It is an inability which belongs to every man that is dead in trespasses and sins. But it is a moral and not a natural inability. It is an inability that is capable of being compared with law; and therefore bears relation to praise and blame. It consists wholly in a deeply rooted aversion to all that is good. Take away this, and where is the obstacle in the way of the sinner's becoming holy? What becomes of his natural inability? Let those who affirm that there is an inability in the sinner to become holy, aside from this mere moral inability, go into their closets and ask themselves these two questions :-

In the mind of a convinced sinner, the sense of personal sinfulness is also connected with the sense of ill desert. When a man has a clear view of his own sinfulness, he not only sees that he is exposed

What other inability is there in the sinner to become holy, than his invincible aversion to holiness?

What is the point of difference between the natural powers of the saint and the sinner?

When they have given fair, logical answers to these questions, they need not be disappointed, if they find themselves driven to the result, that the inability of the sinner to become holy, is no other than a moral inability. By the work of Regeneration, the saint receives no new natural faculty. The passing from death unto life is a moral, and not a physical change. The only point of difference between the power of the saint and the sinner is, that the saint has moral ability to be holy; the sinner has not. The sinner cherishes a moral inability to become holy; the saint does not.

"But after all, an inability is an inability, whether it be mo"ral or natural! You deny the sinner a self-determining << power. You grant that he has no ability that can produce "holiness, by an act of the will that is antecedent to the ex"ercise of holiness." Neither can saints. "You grant "that he cannot become holy without the special operations "of the holy Spirit." Neither would saints ever have another holy feeling without the special operations of the Holy Spirit. "Still, an inability is an inability; and what profit is there in your boasted distinction?" Much every way: Chiefly, because without it, we cannot have just views of the character of God, and the guilt of the sinner.

Of the character of God: God invites sinners to be holy.

to the wrath of God, but that he is justly exposed to the wrath of God. He sees that he deserves the displeasure of the Almighty throughout interminable ages. He is stripped of all his thin

He expostulates with them-he entreats them—he commands them to be holy. He threatens them with eternal death, and executes the threatening to the uttermost, if they persist in the refusal to yield to his requisitions. Now if they are naturally unable to yield, they must lie down in everlasting sorrow for not doing that which in its own nature cannot be done. But, is this the God that reigns in heaven! Has He commanded men to perform impossibilities, and does He damn them because they cannot obey! Does He for ever abandon them to darkness and despair, for not becoming holy, while He has withheld the faculties that are necessary to the exercise of holiness! No, IT CANNOT BE. Will not the Judge of all the earth do right? What if God had suspended the eternal destiny of your immortal soul upon your going from New-York to Rome in a day? What if he had commanded you to create a world? You would not hesitate to say, it is unjust. But He has required you to become holy. And you say, that you have no more, and no other power to become holy, than you have to go from New-York to Rome in a day, or to create a world. What then should make the one unjust and not the other? But such is not the character of the Holy God. The doctrine of man's natural inability is a libel on his righteousness. On the other hand, if all the inability of the sinner consists in his aversion to holiness; if he is under no natural inability; if he has as much power to become holy as saints; and all his inability arises from invincible perverseness; then God will

excuses, and is sensible that his sins are wholly unjustifiable. As he has before been constrained to acknowledge the reasonableness of the precept of the Divine Law, now he is constrained to admit

be glorious in sending him to hell. He ought to go there; and all Heaven will say, Amen! Alleluia! while the smoke of his torments is ascending for ever and ever. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Are not my ways equal? are not your ways unequal? There would be no ground for these expostulations, upon the principle of man's natural inability.

Neither can we have just views of the guilt of the sinner, without recognizing the distinction between natural and moral inability. It is one thing to feel wretched, another to feel guilty; one thing to feel that you are lost and ruined, another to feel that you have destroyed yourself; one thing to claim pity, another to deserve blame. Mere calamity is one thing, and moral turpitude is another. Speak of man's inability without making it his crime, and his conscience will love the opiate. Speak of it as consisting in the free, voluntary exercises of his corrupt heart, and you leave him without excuse. He will feel that if he dies eternally, he is the voluntary author of his own destruction. He will never feel to blame for not performing impossibilities.

Bring this question then before the Judgment seat of Christ. Annihilate the natural ability of the sinner to repent and believe the Gospel; and if you make God glorious in banishing the impenitent to hell, and the impenitent deserving of their doom; the controversy is at an end. Until then, we must be suffered to speak on God's behalf; we must ascribe righteousness to our Maker.

the justice of its penalty. He has voluntarily and perseveringly disobeyed a law that is perfectly holy in itself, and clothed with the authority of the Holy God; and he knows that it would be just, if the penalty should be executed upon him to the uttermost. He knows that the Holy God, whose character he regards with enmity; whose law he transgresses with impenitence; whose Gospel he rejects with disdain; can be under no obligation to save a wretch like him. And you will ask again, is there no religion in this? Again I answer, and the reply is bottomed upon the word of Eternal Truth-NOT A WHIT. Is this no evidence that I have passed from death unto life? I answer, it is not conclusive evidence; and if this is all that you have experienced, it is none at all. If you are not sensible that you are so vile as to deserve the everlasting displeasure of God, you are not even a convinced sinner; but if you are sensible of this, you may not be a converted sinner. Vital religion does not consist in the approbation of the conscience to the condemning sentence of the law. Does not the conscience of every sinner, whether renewed or unrenewed, tell him that God would be just in abandoning him to misery without measure and without end? Do not the damned in hell feel that they are justly