is good, was with Adam in a ftate of innocence; this was loft by the fall: Hence man in a state of corruption and unregeneracy, is deftitute of it; in the regenerate ftate it is implanted in the will by the Spirit and grace of God, and in the ftate of glorification will be in its full perfection: So that the controverfy ought to be not about the natural but moral liberty of the will, and not so much about free-will it felf, as the ftrength and power of it; which leads me to the confideration of the next enquiry; which is,

II. What is the strength and power of man's free-will; or what it is that the will of man it felf can will, or nill, chufe or refufe, effect and perform?

1. It will be allow'd, that the human will has a power and liberty of acting in things natural, or in things refpecting the natural and animal life; fuch as eating, drinking, fitting, standing, rifing, walking, &c. The external parts, actions and motions of the body, generally speaking, are subject to, and controulable by the will, though the internal parts, motions and actions of it are not fo; fuch as digeftion of food, fecretion. of it to various purposes and ufes, nutrition and accretion of the feveral parts of the body, circulation of the blood, &c. all which are perform'd without the confent of the will,

are turned from fin and fatan to him, are deliver'd from the power of darkness, and tranflated into the kingdom of his dear fon. Regeneration, or a being born again, is exprefly denied to be of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, and is ascribed to God himself. All men have not faith in Chrift; and fuch who have it, have it not of themselves; 'tis the gift of God, the operation of his Spirit, the fruit and effect of electing and efficacious grace. Evangelical repentance, which is unto life, is not in the power of man; man, in a ftate of nature, has no true sense of his fins; nor will any means of themselves bring him to repentance for them, without the efficacious of God. True evangelical repentance grace

is God's free-grace gift.

5. That there is no power naturally in the will of man, to will, chufe and effect things fpiritually good, does not only appear from all experience of human nature; but alfo from all thofe fcriptures which represent man as polluted, wholly carnal, given up to fin, flaves unto it, and dead in it; and not only impotent unto, but under an impoffibility to do that which is good; and from all those scriptures which declare the understanding, judgment and affections to be corrupt, by which the will is greatly influenced and directed; and from all fuch fcriptures which intimate that every good

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which should befal the people of Israel, according to their civil behaviour and conduct. That people were under the immediate government of God; he was their political king and head. Mofes, from him, gave a fyftem of laws to them, as a body politic; according to their obedience, to which laws, they and their feed were to live. and dwell in, and enjoy all the temporal bleffings of the land of Canaan, as appears from ver. 16, 20. but if they disobey'd, they were to expect curfing and death, captivity and the fword, and not prolong their days in the land they were going to poffefs; as is evident from ver. 17, 18. Therefore Mofes advises them to chufe life, that is, to behave according to thofe laws given them as a commonwealth; that fo they, under the happy government they were, might comfortably live, and they and their pofterity enjoy all the bleffings of a civil life in the land of promife. What comes nearest to fuch a cafe, and may ferve to illuftrate it, is, as if a person should reprefent the wholefome conftitution and laws of Great-Britain, preferved under the government of his majesty king George, with all the confequent bleffings and happiness thereof, and alfo the fad and miferable condition it would be in under a popish Pretender; and then obferve, that it would be most desireable, adviseable, and eligible, peaceably to con

tinue