SERMON XXXIV.

WHAT AILETH THEE?

GEN. XXI. 17.

What aileth thee?

This pointed question I wish to put to those who, while they wholly neglect religion, complain of the doctrines of the Gospel as blocking up their way to heaven.. Though God has wrought miracles of mercy for our guilty race; though he has sent his Son to die for us, and has offered salvation to all on the easiest possible terms, nay has followed men with the most tender entreaties; yet murmurs are raised through all the world against him and against the way of life which he has opened, as though he had done nothing but oppress a miserable race.And what is more astonishing, these murmurs come chiefly from those who wholly neglect their own salvation and the means which God has appointed. With all the inconsistency of the slothful servant, they bury their talent in a napkin, and then comVOL. II.

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plain of God as a hard master, "reaping where” he hath "not sown and gathering where" he hath "not strowed." Their grand objection is, that their salvation depends on God, who holds the decision of their fate in his own hands, and of course "hath -mercy on whom he will have mercy." They are not willing that this doctrine should be true, or if true that it should be preached. They wish to have the decision of their fate in their own hands, and yet are not willing to do that which would decide it favorably. If pressed to become religious, they excuse themselves with the plea that they are not able. They strenuously maintain that they cannot change their own hearts, and that the decision of their fate rests with God. They show a zeal in the argument which discovers that they are not to be beaten, that they will not suffer their fate to be in their own hands; because then they would have a disagreeable task to perform; they would have to set about working out their own salvation; they would have to engage in family and closet prayer, in religious conversation, in meetings for devotion. They would have to renounce the world and take their heart from idols. They would have to spend their days in meditating upon God, in humbling themselves for sin, in renouncing their own righteousness and depending on a Saviour, in watching and wrestling against their own corruptions. All this they are unwilling to do, and therefore are anxious to make out that they cannot. They throw their fate out of their hands and will not have it there, lest it should impose on them disagreeable duties.

But when you take the other side of the question, and insist that their fate does depend on the sovereign will and decree of God; though this is the necessary inference from their former plea, they object and complain again. It is hard that they cannot have a voice in the decision of their own fate, -that God should create so many who he knew would fall, and whom he was determined not to renew, that they should be required to do impossibilities, that their salvation should be suspended on conditions which they are unable to fulfil,-that do what they will they cannot change the purpose of God nor promote their own salvation. Some of these men, at the moment that they are covering themselves with the plea of inability, (which certainly leaves their salvation to the election of God,) deny the doctrine of election. To excuse their neglects they plead that they cannot; and though this inevitably casts their salvation on the will and election of God, they deny that election. And why? Because they cannot bear to have the decision of their fate in the hands of God. They will have it neither one way nor the other. Other sinners who admit the decree of election, murmur against it as taking away their power, as being partial and unjust, as being full of discouragement, and object to its being preached. Some of this class, while they admit their dependance, deny their obligation; and as soon as they are forced to admit their obligation, complain of their dependance and want of power. They are not willing to be both dependant and under obligation; nor are they willing to have the

power in their own hands, for that would impose duties which they are unwilling to perform. They love to excuse themselves with the plea that they are not able, and yet they complain of the want of power. They love to put the business out of their hands to get rid of the obligation, and yet they murmur that it is in the hands of God. Let me come at the conscience of these men and demand of them one by one, "What aileth thee?" What do you want? What alteration would you have? What would satisfy you? "We have piped unto you and ye have not danced; we have mourned unto you and ye have not lamented." If we say you have power, you will not have it so because that would lay you under obligations; if we say you are dependant, you resist because that puts your fate out of your own hands. How then would you have it? Do you know your own minds? The fact is, that you wish your destiny in your own hands, and yet would excuse yourselves from obligations.

Poor sinner, here you are in God's world, guilty, condemned, and going on to judgment. In what way do you hope to escape from the dreadful condition into which you have plunged yourself by sin? A Saviour is provided and offered to you; in what way do you expect to obtain a part in him? Take any ground you please, only keep to it. What ground then will you take? One thing you must distinctly understand. You cannot support the plea of inability and at the same time deny the doctrine of election. One ground or the other must be given up. If you cannot change your own

heart, then God must change it if it is changed; and as he is immutable, he must have eternally determined whether to change it or not: and then he must have eternally determined, (for all men by nature are in the same condition,) whose hearts he would change and whose he would not. And this is election. If on the other hand you can, (in every sense of the word,) change your own heart, -or more properly speaking, if the heart does in fact change without the special interposition of God, then the doctrine of election is false; but you must never again plead your inability. Take which ground you please, but do not attempt to hold both.

If you say that you can change your own heart in every sense of the word,-that the doctrine of election is false and ought not to be preached; it is all very well: only prove it false by actually changing your own heart. What ministers preach on this subject cannot harm you. It cannot lessen your power. They say indeed that your heart is so opposed to God that it never will love him of its own accord. If they are mistaken in this matter, you need not be disturbed by what they say: their preaching leaves you where you were before. It ' is only for you to prove their errors by turning your heart yourself. If you will set about this matter, no minister will attempt to hinder you; they will all rejoice in your success. Come then, change your own heart, and begin at once to love your Maker. You are under infinite obligations to love him. He is love itself. His holiness and justice are only modifications of love. His moral govern