Human nature in its fourfold state ... In several practical discourses

Now, if God can require of men, the duty they are not able to do; he can, in justice, punish them for their not doing it, notwithstanding of their inability. If he have power to exact the debt of obedience, he has also power to cast the insolvent debtor in his prison, for his not paying it. Further, tho' unregenerate men have no gracious abilities; yet they want not natural abilities, which nevertheless they will not improve. There are many things they can do, which they do not, they will not do them; and therefore, their damnation will be just, Nay, all their inability to good is voluntary; they will not come to Christ, John v. 40. They will not repent, they will die, Ezek. xviii. 51. So they will be justly condemned: because they will not turn to God, nor come to Christ; but love their chains better than their liberty, and darkness rather than light, John iii. 10.

Object. (2.) Why do you then preach Christ to us; call us to come to him, to believe, repent, and use the means of salvation? Ans Because it is your duty so to do. It is your duty to accept of Christ as he is offered in the gospel; to repent of your sins, and to be holy in all manner of conversation: these things are commanded you of God; and his command, not your ability, is the measure of your duty. Moreover, these calls and exhortations, are the means that God is pleased to make use of, for converting his elect, and working grace in their hearts: to them, faith cometh by hearing, Rom. x. 17. while they ⟨p. 126⟩are as unable to help themselves as the rest of mankind are. Upon very good grounds may we, at the command of God, who raiseth the dead, go to their graves, and cry in his name, awake thou that sleepest, and rise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light, Eph. v. 14. And seeing the elect are not to be known, and distinguished from others before conversion: as the sun shines on the blind man's face, and the rain falls on the rocks as well as on the fruitful plains; so we preach Christ to all, and shoot the arrow at a venture, which God himself directs as he sees meet. Moreover these calls and exhortations are not altogether in vain, even to those that are not converted by them. Such persons may be convinced, tho' they be not converted: although' they be not sanctified by these means; yet they may be restrained by them, from running into that excess of wickedness, which otherwise they would arrive at. The means of grace serve, as it were, to embalm many dead souls, which are never quickened by them; tho' they do not restore them to life; yet they keep them from smelling so rank as otherwise they would do. Finally, Tho' ye cannot recover yourselves; nor take hold of the saving help offered to you in the gospel: yet even by the power of nature, ye may use the outward and ordinary means, whereby Christ communicates the benefits of redemption to ruined sinners, who are utterly unable to recover themselves out of the state of sin and wrath. Ye may, and can, if ye please, do many things, that would set you in a fair way for help from the Lord Jesus Christ. Ye may go so far on, as to be not far from the kingdom of God, as the discreet scribe had done,