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high, we may boldly affirm, that the whole of it will be found nothing better than the will-worship, reprobated in the Scriptures, which has not an atom of holy sincerity in it, and amounts but to some faint and faithless ebullitions of the carnal mind, that mind of the flesh, which, being at enmity with God, can neither seek him really, nor have a true delight in the knowledge of his ways. And therefore, on the other hand, we must observe, that it is necessary in the first instance to live in order to act, and that the question is not, whether righteousness or true holiness should be practised upon earth, for this not even a heathen will deny; but whence men shall obtain the power to perform it. Whoever is in Christ, will and must endeavour to be like him. The Holy Spirit always does, naturally and necessarily, lead to this purpose. And, therefore, if any man have not

the

the Spirit of Christ (and he can only prove it, by having the mind of Christ, and by following the example of Christ), he is none of his. This surely is enough to guard and to secure the interests of holiness: And, if this cannot work that effect, all other methods will prove their own falsehood upon the experiment, by deceiving and leaving the soul deserted, at a time, when it hath the greatest possible need of clear and certain truth and divine assistance. To this I beg to add, that I should be sorry to say one word, which might tend to discourage any broken-hearted person from praying for the grace and assistance of the Holy Spirit. Such, above all others, are most prepared for the business; for, He himself hath already begun with them; or the desire to pray could not have entered truly into their Nor did he

minds.

desire to disappoint it.

ever give that

But bold and

presumptuous

presumptuous people, who think they can ask when they please, and are confident in their own powers to ask aright these are the people, who are to be told, that, thus coming, they do not and cannot ask at all. Their own self-righteous spirit, in conjunc tion with their supposed free-will, lies at the bottom of a hardened and unknowing heart and these principles of pride and presumption are so averse to the gate, which is too straight for human corruption to enter, and to the way, which is too narrow for the swellings of man's conceit to proceed in, that it is no wonder, if carnal ingenuity be always upon the stretch to find out passages more open and more agreeable to its own views and inclinations. Such professors follow the example which the Apostle condemns in the Israelites of his day; they follow, or pretend to follow, after the law of righteousness, but do not, and

cannot,

cannot, attain to the law of righteousness: Wherefore? Because they seek it, not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law; for they stumble at that stumbling stone.-It may also be noted that one error is ill supplied by another. Arminianism is but poorly calculated to extirpate Anti-arminianism. And, though self-righteousness is better for the world than unrighteousness, yet both are averse to the Spirit of the Gospel, both are enemies in principle and practice to the redemption of Christ and to the holy office of the Divine Spirit, and consequently both pernicious to the souls of men. The Pharisee and the Publican are each reprobated in the revelation of God, with some additional stigma, not much in favour of the former. There are Antinomian Antinomian hypocrites, doubtless but for one Antinomian professor, who is and must be odious. from the very circumstances which

are

are inseparably connected with sin, there are multitudes of Arminian false and ignorant professors of religion, who, because of their specious ap-pearance and declarations before men, receive the applause of the world, and become puffed up with all the confidence and presumption of an unbroken heart, or (as the Apostle calls it) with their " fleshly mind."

§ 58. The fact is; all carnal professors, whose spirits have not been subdued, or brought into the mould of the Gospel, cannot really love that which strips them, which exposes their weakness and worthlessness in point of goodness, and which places them in the condition of condemned objects for mere mercy, because objects of mere wrath and abhorrence. Like the Israelites of old, who despised the manna, which was called Angels' food from heaven, because it typified heavenly things; so, many showy,

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