2. If you would be willing if you could, that is no excuse, unless your willingness to be willing be sincere. That which is hypocritical, and does not come from the heart, but is merely forced, ought wholly to be set aside, as worthy of no consideration; and that because common sense teaches, that that which is not hearty but hypocritical is indeed nothing, being only a show of what is not; but that which is good for nothing, ought to go for nothing. But if you set aside all that is not free, and call nothing a willingness, but a free, hearty willingness, then see how the case stands, and whether or no you have not lost all your excuse for standing out against the calls of the gospel. You say you would make yourself willing to accept if you could; but it is not from any good principle that you are willing for that; it is not from any free inclination, or true respect ⟨p. 60⟩to Christ, or any love to your duty, or any spirit of obedience, or from the influence of any manner of real respect, or tendency in your heart, towards any thing that is good, or from any other principle than such as is in the hearts of devils, and would make them have the same sort of willingness in the same circumstances. It is therefore evident, that there can be no goodness in that woulding to be willing to come to Christ: And that which has no goodness, cannot be an excuse for any badness. If there be no good in it, then it signifies nothing, and weighs nothing, when put into the scales to counterbalance that which is bad.
2. If you would be willing if you could, that is no excuse, unless your willingness to be willing be sincere. That which is hypocritical, and does not come from the heart, but is merely forced, ought wholly to be set aside, as worthy of no consideration; and that because common sense teaches, that that which is not hearty but hypocritical is indeed nothing, being only a shew of what is not; but that which is good for nothing, ought to go for nothing. But if you set aside all that is not free, and call nothing a willingness, but a free, hearty willingness, then see how the case stands, and whether or no you have not lost all your excuse for standing out against the calls of the gospel. You say you would make yourself willing to accept if you could; but it is not from any good principle that you are willing for that; it is not from any free inclination, or true respect ⟨p. 60⟩to Christ, or any love to your duty, or any spirit of obedience, or from the influence of any manner of real respect, or tendency in your heart, towards any thing that is good, or from any other principle than such as is in the hearts of devils, and would make them have the same sort of willingness in the same circumstances. It is therefore evident, that there can be no goodness in that woulding to be willing to come to Christ: And that which has no goodness, cannot be an excuse for any badness. If there be no good in it, then it signifies nothing, and weighs nothing, when put into the scales to counterbalance that which is bad.
