ponding effort, endeavours to do well, whether he be fully able or not. If the man with one talent had shown a willingness to improve it, by making every suitable exertion to that end, he would never have been stigmatized as slothful and wicked, even though he had been unable to succeed. Unwillingness on the part of the sinner, is, moreover, as real a barrier as inability: for they are in fact but different exhibitions of the same truth, and parts of the same depravity; and the one will as effectually keep him from Christ as the other. For it is as certain that he WILL NOT repent and believe in Christ, till made willing in the day of God's power, as that he CANNOT, till God works in him both to will and to do it. The truth is that, generally speaking, men are fully convinced neither of their inability nor their unwillingness. Hence some will say they would repent if they could; thus supposing themselves willing, but pleading inability as the obstacle. Others say they purpose to repent at a more convenient season, and plead some other excuse for refusing to do it now; thus supposing themselves both willing and able to do it now, if it were a convenient season. They suppose themselves able to repent, otherwise they would not purpose to do it at a future time; and they suppose themselves willing to repent now, otherwise they would plead no other excuse for neglecting it now, but a want of will; whereas they imagine or feign other hinderances to the immediate performance of the duty. Those who were bidden to the marriage feast, refused to come, not because they supposed that they could not, but because they would not. One indeed did say "I cannot come." But why could he not? he had married a wife. But did this make him unable to come? He had spoken the truth, if he had said, I have married a wife and will not come. The others who were invited, excused themselves, one on the ground that he had bought a piece of ground, and must needs go and see it. He would not come. The other had bought a yoke of oxen, and wished to prove them, and he would not come. They were wedded to the things of this world. They loved the world more than God. They were unwilling to leave all and follow Christ. This parable of the supper is designed to illustrate the Gospel offer, and the rejection of it by sinners. And it is worthy of remark, that their refusal to come to the feast, is referred to unwillingness, and not to conscious inability. The conscience of a sinner may at times urge upon him the duty of repenting and believing, but his heart and will draw back, and rebel. And he may mistake the counsel of his inward monitor, for the inclination of his will. The sinner in rejecting Christ, is sensibly influenced by considerations which appeal to his will. He objects to the terms of salvation as too rigid and self-denying. He is unwilling to give up the world, or to part with some favourite sin, which must be abjured in coming to Christ. Such considerations decide his preference to remain as he is. Yet they are but motives presented to his will, and by which it is influenced; and.do not arise from any conscious inability. No sinner, therefore, can say with truth "I would be saved, but God will not save me." For this is what Christ says of the sinner, "How often wOULD I have gathered you together as a hen gathereth her brood under her wings, but YE WOULD NOT." Sinners are sometimes disposed to cast the blame upon God. The man with one talent attempted this by saying to his Lord, "I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strewed." But his Lord cast back upon him, the guilt of misimprovement, and stigmatized him as a wicked and slothful servant. It is a mournful fact, and one strikingly illustrative of the point in hand, that sinners are contented with their inability. They are satisfied that it should be so. They are willingly what they are in this respect," my people love to have it so." This inability excites within them no anxiety about eternity. It alarms no slumbering fears. It begets no dread despair. It extorts no piercing cry for help. It wrings from their eyes no tears of bitter penitence. Instead of mourning over it as their sin, they offer it as an apology for sin. Instead of being humbled in the dust and led to cry for mercy, some rely upon it as a license to continue in rebellion, and thus glory in their shame. Do you say that you cannot be holy? you prefer to be unholy. Do you say that you cannot forsake your sins? you love and enjoy them. Do you say that you cannot come to Christ? you choose to stay away. Sinners will not frame their doings to turn unto the Lord." Hosea v. 4. They will not stir themselves up to lay hold on God. They will not attempt to stretch forth their withered hands at his bidding. If the sinner supposes himself to be willing to repent and believe, we may address to him the language of Jeremiah, "How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee." Jer. iv. 14. It is a willingness based upon inadmissible terms, and upon reservations irreconcilable with gospel sincerity. God is willing to give his blessing to all who are willing to receive it. If the sinner be willing, why is he not reconciled and blessed? Is it because adequate ability to repent is withheld? Then the substance of the sinner's excuse is a charge against God, "Why hast thou made me thus ?" Rom. ix. 20. If the sinner is willing to be reconciled and yet continues to live at enmity with God, it must be because God is unwilling; if so, the language of that sinner's heart is "why doth he yet find fault?" "Nay, but O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus ?" Sinners are apt to confound a willingness to escape hell, with a willingness to come to Christ; and a desire to be happy, with a desire to be holy. But these things are widely different, the one from the other. This confusion of distinguishable desires, arises out of imperfect and erroneous views of the nature of heaven, and of its happiness and employments. It is said of sinners that they "hate knowledge and do not CHOOSE the fear of the Lord." Prov. i. 29. Indeed when a sinner is made willing to come to Christ, he is not able of himself to follow him, and to hold on his way of faith. After he has received Christ Jesus the Lord, he needs continued help and grace, to walk in him. The spirit may be willing, but the flesh weak. Paul declared that to will was present with him, but how to perform that which is good, he found not. Rom. vii. 18. For the good he would, he dia not, and the evil which he would not, that he did; verse 19. This he attributed to sin that still dwelt in him; verse 20. Hence he complains of a warfare between the law of his members, and the law of his (now renewed) mind; verse 23. "So that it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." Rom. ix. 16. The apostle calls his inability his sin. Rom. vii. 20. And yet it was an inability which he could not remove: for he cries out "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" verse 24. He did not suppose that he could deliver himself, on the contrary he attributes to God his ability to serve Him with his mind. "I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord;" verse 25. This indwelling sin which hindered him from doing the good he would, was not laid to Paul's charge for his condemnation, because he consented not to it, but delighted in the law of God after the inward man; verse 22. But in the case of an impenitent sinner, who serves God neither with his mind nor flesh, this inability is regarded as a sufficient ground of condemnation; and cannot, therefore, be named as his excuse for impenitency. Besides, it ought to be borne in mind, that sinners plead their inability as their infirmity, and not as their sin. They overlook the fact that their inability is their sin. Viewing inability in this light, they are not fully convinced of its existence; for a sinner is described in the third chapter of Revelation, verse 17, as saying "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing," and yet as Knowing not that he is wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked." To plead inability as an infirmity, is to be ignorant of its criminality, and is only equalled in perverseness and folly by the plea of a murderer, who relies, for an escape from punishment, upon the excuse that his aversion to the man he has slain was unconquerable, and his inclination to take his life, was irresistible; a circumstance which enhances his guilt rather than extenuates his offence. The design of this discussion has been to show that there is in the doctrine of human helplessness and dependence, no impeachment of the divine character and justice. David confesses and bewails his wilful transgressions, and his native depravity, in which latter this inability consists, in order that God might be justified when he speaks, and clear when he judges. Ps. li. 1-5. It was the further design of this discussion, thus to wrest from the sinner's hand the feeble and unballowed weapon with which he would contend against God and his government; and in love to the sinner, to tear away from beneath him the sandy foundation on which he stands, in self-justification, and in the wilful indulgence of vain, delusive, and destructive hopes of ultimate acquittal at the bar of God; and thus arouse him from the dream of a false security, before it be forever too late, and bring him, if possible, to the foot of the cross, without excuse, convicted and self-condemned, to look upon Him whom he had pierced, and mourn. THE END. |