lVlan unable to recover himfelf. I State IT, they cannot believe in him. Saving faith is the faith of God's elert; the fpecial gift of God to them, wrought in them by his Spirit. Salvation is offered to ti1em that wiil believe in ChriJl; but how can ye beiieve? 'John v. 44• It is offer~d to thefe that will come to Chrifi; but no man caJt come 1mto hin!, except the F;ther draw him. It is offered to them that will look to him as lifted up on the pole Qf the gofpel, lfa. xlv. 22. but the natural man is fpiritually blind, Rev . iii , I 7. and as to the thingJ of the' Spirit of God he cannot knqw them, Jor they are fpiritua!ly difcerned, I Cor, ii. I 4· Nay~ whofoever will, be is welcome; Jet him come, Rev. xxii, •7· But there mull be a day of power oo the fin11er, before he will be willing, Pfal, ex. 3· Secondly, Man naturally has nothing wherewithal to im· prove, ,to his recovery, the ·help brought in by the gofpel. He is cafl: away in a fiate of wrath ~ but is bound hand and foot, fo tbat he cannot lay hold of the cords of love thrown tJUt to him in the gofpel. The moH ikilful artificer cannot work without infhurnents, nor can the mofi cunning mu!i– cian play wtll on an infhument t.bat is out of tune. How €an one believe, how can he repent, whofe underfianding is dat·knefs, Eph. v. 8. whofe heart is a j1ony heart, inflex· ible, iofe.nfible, Ezek. xxxvi. · :26. whofe affetliops are wholly difordered and diflempered; who is averfe to good, 2od bent to evil ? The arms of na•tural abilities are too fuort to reach, fupernatural help: hence thofe who mon: excell in them, are oft-times mofi en ranged ft om fpiritu– ar things, Matth. xi. 25. 7'hou hafi hid theft things from the ru•ife and prudent. · . . 'Thirdly, Man cannot work a faving change on himfelf: but fo changed he .muU be, elfe he can neither believe nor repent, nor ever fee l~eaven. No ,aCt: ion can be without a . fuitable principle. Believing, repenting, and the like, are the produtt of the new nature; and can never be .Produced by the old corrupt nature. NoVI, what can the natural man do in this matter ? He mufr be reger.erate, begotten again unto a lively hope: but as the child cannot be aClive in his own generation ; fo a man cannot be acri ve, but paffive on– ly, in his own regeneration. The heart is !hut againfl: Chrifr: man cannot open' it, only God can open it by his grace, ./J.flJ xvi. 14· He is dead in fin: he muft be .9uidnetl
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