SERMON XV.

The Qualifications neceffary to receive the Terms of Salvation.

REV. ii. 29.

He that hath an Ear, let him hear, what the Spirit faith unto the Churches.

I

N difcourfing upon thefeS ER M. words of our Saviour, I have XV.

proposed to deduce from from them the four following Doctrinal Obfervations. 1ft, Ist, That God, the Great Creator, and righteous Governor, and merciful Judge of the whole Earth, offers to all men the graci

ous

SERM.OUS Terms and Poffibilities of Salvation: XV. Let him hear; (let every man hear,) what the Spirit faith unto the Churches. 2dly, That This Offer, tho' graciously made to All, yet in Event becomes effectual to Thofe only, who are qualified and capable to receive it: He that hath an Ear, let him bear. 3dly, That they who want an Ear; they who want the difpofitions necessary ceffary to their receiving and embracing this gracious Offer of Salvation, or are prevented by any of the Hindrances which render it ineffectual; are always very severely reproved in Scripture, plainly denoting it to be their own Fault, that they have not Ears to hear. 4thly and Laftly; That hence confequently All those Paffages of Scripture, wherein God is at any time reprefented as blinding men's Eyes, or closing their Ears, or hardning their Hearts, or taking away their UnderStanding from them; muft of neceffity be understood to be figurative Expreffions only; not denoting literally What God actually effects by his Power, but what by his Providence he juftly and wifely per

mits.

THE First of thefe, I have already SER M. gone through; that God offers to All XV. n men the gracious Terms and Poffibilities of Salvation: Let him hear, (let every man hear,) what the Spirit faith unto the Churches. I proceed Now to the Second General Head:

The

II. THAT this Offer of Salvation, though graciously made to All, yet in Event becomes effectual to Thofe only, who are qualified and capable to receive it: He that hath an Ear, let him hear. Light introduced upon Any Object, fupposes always that there be Eyes to view, and to difcern it by That Light. Sound of a Voice, or the Ufe of Speech, supposes always that men have Ears to hear, what the Speaker uttereth. Truth and Right, Reafon and Argument, These likewise suppose always that men have Senfe and Understanding, to judge of what is offered to their confideration. And, in matters of Religion; God's offering to men certain Terms or Conditions of Salvation, supposes in like manner a certain moral Difpofition in the Mind, which caufes it to have a Regard to things of

SERM. That nature, to have a Senfe and Relish XV. of things relating to Morality: Other

wife Men would, in their Nature, be no more capable of Religion, than Beasts. Sweetness is No Sweetness to a person whose Palate has no Tafte: Light is No Light, to him who has put out his own Eyes And Religion, or the Preaching of the Gospel, is as Nothing to That Man, whose Mind has no Regard to, nor Gare to make any Diftinction between, what in the nature of things is moral and immoral. St Paul sets This obfervation in a very clear light, 1 Cor. ii. 14; The natural man (fays he) receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are Foolishness unto him, neither can be know them, because they are spiritually difcerned. The words are not rightly rendred, The Natural man; as if God had made men, naturally, incapable of Religion. Which is the very fame thing, as it would be to find Fault, with a Man for not Seeing, when he was Born Blind. But the True meaning of the Apoftle, is, The Senfual man; He who, by habitual Debauchery, by a course of any Any vitious or corrupt Practice,

A