trial; the ability of the servants was that which they had when they receiv ed the talents, or in other words, when entered on their probation. But the ability of man, now, is very different from what it was then. The present ability of man, 1 propose to make the subject of a few remarks. I am well aware that it is attended with some difficulties, and that it has given rise to various and conflicting opinions. Until we have right views of our own strength, we will not be prepared to make a proper application to God for what is wanting. In remarking on this subject, I design,

1. TO EXPLAIN THE NATURE OF ABILITY, AS APPLIED TO MAN'S

OBEDIENCE.

II. TO SHOW HOW FAR THIS ABILITY EXTENDS,

Ability has long been divided into NATURAL and MORAL ability. This division, deserves respect for its antiquity, and the high character of those by whom it has been adopted, if it does not for its own correctness.

1. Natural ability, has relation to the capacities or the faculties of the mind. This may be illustrated by the body. Our bodies are adapted, in their make, to the performance of certain actions; we have limbs suited to the exercise of walking; hands to write and perform other offices. These faculties or members may be used for different and even opposite purposes. One walks to church, another to the theatre, and a third to a dram-shop. The same remarks are applicable to the mind. We have certain faculties of mind which may be applied to different things; such as, memory, judgement, reason, &c. These may be employed in searching the Scriptures to ascertain the truth, and our duty; or, they may be employed, to prop up some infidel system. Thus when we have the faculties necessary to the performance of a certain action, we are naturally able to perform that act.

2. Moral ability presupposes, natural, and includes also the concurrence of the will. This kind of ability depends on the motive presented to the mind. We are not able, in this sense, to do that, for which we have no motives, or where the motives to an opposite course is stronger. Thus, the guest invited to the supper, said, "I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come." Here it is evident, if a motive had been present, sufficiently strong to have influenced the will, he could have gone to the supper. This kind of inability, as completely prevents the performance of an action, as natural or physical inability; we can no more do what we have no will to do, than that for which we have not the requisite faculties. But while these different species of inability are equally effectual in preventing actions, they are evidently of a very different nature; and there is, perhaps, a degree of obscurity arises from the application of the term inability, to both these kinds. It would be, perhaps, a more correct use of terms, to call moral inability, an unwillingness, than to call it inability of any kind. It is true that this application of the term has the sanction of common usage, and that too in the common concerns of life, we frequently say we cannot do that which every body knows we could do if we would; and there is rarely a mistake arises from this use of the term in such cases. But in theology the case is very different. In the concerns of this life, we are so well ac-. quainted with our powers, that we are not easily led into mistakes. When a person, in health, says he cannot pay a visit to friend, when invited, his friend well knows that he is under the influence of some opposing motive, and not the want of power. But our powers, in spiritual things, in relation to our duty to God, are not so well understood. Hence, when we use the

term cannot, where there is nothing wanting but the will, our meaning may be very readily misunderstood or perverted to an improper use. Hence I would rather say, we are able to do that, from which there is nothing prevents us, but the want of will, and our not doing it is because we will not. But we are unable to do that for which our faculties do not qualify us. This is the distinction which I would make between will not and cannot. This division of ability and inability, will not perhaps explain all the phenomena of the human character. There will be found a kind of inability, which will not properly come under either of the above divisions. But this will appear more clearly in the discussion of the second particular, to which we will now proceed.

II. Show the extent of man's ability to obey the requirements of God.

1

Adam was made, with ability to obey all the requirements of God. This is evident from the simple fact that God created him. God having made him, He was the author of all his faculties. His abilities and inabilities, were all regulated by God himself. But He made him, with the design of placing him under a law and requiring obedience to that law. This being God's design in making him, He would of course adapt his faculties to the circumstances in which he was to be placed. He would give to man power to do what he was about to require him to do. The same truth appeared from the facts recorded in the case. Man was made with the law written on his heart. That is, the temper and disposition of his heart, was precisely what the law required. He chose to do what the law required him to do. Hence, all his pleasure was found in obedience to the laws. The positive requirement made of him was single and easy; merely to abstain from a single tree. With this requisition, he could evidently comply. Thus Adam was qualified, and therefore able to perform all that God required of him.

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But we are in a far different situation now. The fall has ruined us-deranged our faculties-and paralyzed all our powers. The change was visible in Adam immediately after the fall. An aversion to God is soon discovered. He hides himself from the presence of the Lord, among the trees of the garden, thus, he shows that the heart was alienated from the object of its former love. Thus it appears that sin poisoned the whole soul, and made an important change in the operation of the mind. This effect of the fall, extended to all his posterity. By one man's disobedience many were made sinners." Rom. 5:19. Thus, we find ourselves in the same situation into which the fall brought Adam. Hence, we are destitute of the image of God, the heart is alienated from him and his service, and in the language of the prophet, "The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint." Isaiah 1:5. But with all this ruin, we are still able to do some things, which, as to their matter are required of us. That is, we have the faculties necessary, and could perform them if we had the will. I wish not to be understood, as saying that we can do any thing as God requires it to be done; but merely so far, as the matter of the act is concerned. First: Man can refrain from many overt acts of transgression; the murderer can lay down the weapon of death, and let his brother live; the Sabbath-breaker can rest during sacred hours; the profane lips may be closed, and prevent the impiety of the heart from bringing forth the blasphemous oath. In these cases, there is no power wanting; that is, nothing but what consists in the want of will. It is true, the force of custom is often pleaded as an apology for profanity; but this is only an apology, Place the most profane person, in certain circum

stances, and not an oath will be heard escaping his lips. From these and many other sins, we have power to abstain.

Secondly. We can, before regeneration, meditate on divine things those things which concern the interests of the soul. We can, in a measure, at least, comply with the injunction, "Ponder the path of thy feet." The mind is endowed with the capacity of continual thought; it is always employed on a subject of one kind or another. But it requires no more mental power, to think of God, and divine things, than of those that are earthly and sensual. The former things afford a much wider field of thought, and are more congenial to the original powers of the mind than those things of an earthly kind, on which we are apt to spend our mental powers. We have power, then, to contemplate the glorious perfections of God; to meditate on our relation to him, and our accountability; on the duties he requires; on the glorious immortality he has prepared for those that love him; on the wrath he has treasured up for his enemies; and the way to escape the one, and obtain the other.

Thirdly. We can attend to the external means of grace. We can read the Scriptures. It requires no more power to read the Scriptures than to read novels, if we leave out of view the temper of the heart. We can go to the house of God, and mingle with his worshipers. This requires no more power than to go to a ball or other place of amusement or vanity. We can also attend, at least, to the form of prayer. It requires no more power to pray than to curse. Hence the profane swearer could retire to his closet, and pray to God for the salvation of his soul. I say nothing now of the kind of prayer he could make, or the manner in which he could attend to any of the duties mentioned. These things God requires of us on the best authority, and has a right to punish for their neglect. That we do not, in some way, perform these duties is because we will not. In an unrenewed state, we have no pleasure in these duties. We pay more regard to our own pleasure, than to the authority of God, and the dreadful sanc tions of his law. Hence, we choose, and pursue the ways of pleasure and sin, in contempt of the authority of God, and at the hazard of his awful frown. Here, it may be remarked, that this unwillingness, or moral inability, as it is called, will secure the destruction of the soul, without the special operation of the Spirit of God, and that too, if there was nothing else in the way. Hence, Christ says, "Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life." John 5:40.; and again, "It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do." Phil. 2:13. The soul that will not come to Christ, will as certainly perish as the soul that cannot come. This, then, is as certain an obstacle to salvation, as any thing can be, even an entire natural inability. The soul never will be saved while it chooses the ways of death. It may be said, God can change the will. This is true, and he can as easily remove any other obstacle that can impede the sinner's salvation.

The ability of which we have been speaking is entirely ineffectual, and is not properly employed, until called into exercise by the Spirit of God. Hence if we had all the ability that is necessary to secure our salvation, we would be as dependent on God for this salvation as though we had no ability whatever; because we could never employ our powers. A man might have abundance of wholesome provision; yet if he had such a disrelish to it, that he would not receive it, but would partake of some poisonous substance, he would as certainly die, as the man who had not a morsel of food: and the person who should remove this disrelish, and restore the natural appetite, would as certainly save the man's life, as if he had furnished the destitute with wholesome provisions. Hence the folly of boasting of human ability,

merely because we possess certain faculties, which we have no will to put into exercise in the service of God. But again: This inability is not charge able merely on the will. The fault lies much deeper. It is evident that the will is governed by the state of the heart. It chooses earthly things because the heart is in love with these things; it rejects the service of God, because this service is disagreeable to the heart. The heart, then, is the seat of this inability; it is there the evil is found, which governs the will, and through the will guides all our actions. Before we will choose the service of God, the heart must be changed, or the necessity of a change in our course must be felt so strongly as to overcome the feelings of the heart. The change of the heart from hatred to love is also the peculiar work of the Spirit of God. This is so plain we need not wait to prove it. Hence it is evident that this moral inability or unwillingness to come to Christ, for which the sinner is guilty, will destroy the soul, unless it is removed, and there is no power can remove it but the power of God.

But there is another kind of inability, which mankind labor under. This kind of inability has not, so far as I know, received an appropriate name. It does not properly belong to natural inability; and it is distinct from and goes far beyond that moral inability of which we have been speaking. Per haps, no name could be more appropriate and expressive than that which the Scriptures apply to it. It is there called "death." "You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sin.” Eph. 2:1. "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." 1 John 3:14. "Yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead." Rom. 6:13. Thus the term "death" is used as expressive of the state of man by nature. This has been properly called a “ spiritual death," because we are thus dead, only in spiritual things, while we are alive and active in other things. This spiritual death neutralizes all our natural ability, and renders it entirely inefficient, and thus places in an entirely helpless state. This death is objected to, because we have all the mental faculties, which Adam had before the fall, and all the Christian has after regeneration. But a right understanding of the nature of this death, would remove the grounds of this objection. We can easily suppose a body, possessing all the members of a living body, composed of bones, flesh, sinews, and skin, having all the muscles and organs necessary for life, and yet des. titute of life. Thus it was with the body of Adam, before God breathed in him the breath of life, and he became a living soul. So also it was with the bodies in Ezekiel's valley of vision, the bodies were perfectly formed, but there was no life in them. Why not, then, a parallel casc, as it respects the mind? A soul possessing all the faculties necessary to qualify it for the service of God, yet wanting a principle of life to put these faculties into operation. There is no more absurdity in the one than in the other. It is true, we can more easily form an idea of the one than of the other, because we are more conversant about body than about spirit. This appears to be the real state of the case, as it is presented to our view in the word of God; this is the grand difference between our present and the primitive state of Adam, or the state after regeneration. Whatever explanation may be given of this inability, or whatever its precise nature may be, one thing is certain, it renders us entirely unable to render an acceptable obedience to any of the commands of God. With all our boasted natural ability, and natural faculties, we can do nothing acceptable to a holy God. Thus it appears, that while we can avoid many external sins; attend to the external means of grace; yet there are many things which we cannot do; things, too, which God requires of us, and which are necessary to our salvation.

Some

"No man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him." "Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given him of my Father." John 6:44.65. Thus we are dead, in a spiritual sense. Without life, imparted from above, we will act the part of the unprofitable servant, we will hide our Lord's money. may now be disposed to say, our case is hopeless. We must perish, and that" without remedy." In answer, I would say, for any thing that we are able to do, to change our state, our case is as hopeless as we can well conceive. After all that God has done in Christ, the rich provision He has there made for sinners, and the free offer that is made, still a further work of grace is necessary, or all that has been done will fail to save the soul. But many just such as we are have been saved. All that happy throng, which the apostle saw in vision before the throne, were once dead in sin. They labored under the same inability which now holds the sinner in chains of death; yet they were redeemed; they were raised from the dead; their chains were broken; and now they are singing endless anthems to that grace which saved them. Many more will yet be saved. Christ has not yet seen all his seed; large promises to him remain yet to be fulfilled; He will see of the travail of his soul "until he is satisfied." "All that the Father giveth to me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out." None need despair because their malady is deep. Christ is able to save to the uttermost. Look to him, then, as the dying Israelites to the brazen serpent; the sight will inspire hope in the dying soul, and you will be made willing to come. Here we are met with another objection. It is said, that God cannot justly require what man is unable to perform. In this objection an important circumstance appears to be overlooked, the fall of man and its consequences. The prostration of our powers, appears to be forgotten. God can justly require whatever man was able to perform in his primitive state. The change which we have made in our own powers makes no change in God's right over us; his claims to our services remain valid, after we have destroyed in ourselves the power of meeting these claims.

[We do not find room to insert the "different particulars" of illustration, and conclude the discourse with two inferences-ED.]

From the discussion of this subject, it may be inferred,

1. That the sinner is not excusable for his moral inability or unwillingness to obey God. That for his voluntary indulgence of it, he is not only guilty, but thereby increases it, and, by his own acts, mitates and sanctions the disobedience of Adam.

2. We see that he can still exercise his natural faculties in their present. state, in abstaining from sin-in the use of means-in crying for deliverance from a state of spiritual death. And they that will not, must expect to perish eternally.