°hc Gontlrfiery q2 D're& y. great wilful tranfgreffion ofall mankind in the loins of Adam. Inability to pay debt, excufeth, net a debt- or that hath lavifhed away his eftate : neither Both drun.k.enneff excufe the mad a1ings of a drunkard, but rather aggravates his fin. And our impotency confifteth not in a mere want of executive power, but in the want of a willing mind, to praEtife true Io1ineff and rirhteouftefs. 'Naturally we love it not, we like it not, hut luf againft it, Gil. v. 17. and hate the light, John iii, 20. If men in a natural f a e had a hearty love, and liking to true holinefs, anda defire and ferions endeavour to praaife it out of hearty love,` aed yet failed In the event, then they might, under forme pretence, plead for their excufe (as fore de, for them) .hat they were compelled to fin by' an inevitable fate. But none have juft caufe to plead anyfuch thing fir tleir'excvfe ;` becaefe none endeavour to pradife :rue holinets'out of hear- ty love to it, until the good work be begun in their fouls; and, when G:.d hash le4un, he will'perfret it, Phil. i. 6 and will, in theman time, accept their ready mind, though they fal ? fin rt in performance, 2 Cor. viii. r2, "How abcmiin ble, then, and fiithp is man, that drinkech iniquity as water," Job xv. rb. that cannot prafiife hoinefs,becauíe hewill not? This iä their juft condemnation, ' that they live e darknefs rather than light." They deferve to be partakers with the devils in torments, as they par,. take with them in evil tufts; and their inability tb do good, will no mode excufe them, than it excuf= eth the devils. Erghtly, Neither will this affertion make it a vain thing to preach the gofpel to `natural people, and to exhort them to true repentance, and faith in Clrili, for their converfìon and falvation. ` For the defign of our preaching is not, to bring them to holinefs in their natural Rate, but to raife there above it, and to prefent themperfea in Chrift, in the performance el thofe duties, Col. i. 2$. And though they can,
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