“Some writers, as hath been already observed, have allowed that sinners are the subjects of an inability which arises from their depravity; but they still contend that this is not _all_; but that they are both _naturally_ and _morally_ unable to believe in Christ; and this they think agreeable to the scriptures, which represent them as both _unable_ and _unwilling_ to come to him for life. But these two kinds of inability cannot consist with each other, so as both to exist in the same subject, and towards the same thing. A moral inability supposes a natural ability. He who never in any state was possessed of the power of seeing, cannot be said to _shut his eyes_ against the light. If the Jews had not been possessed of natural powers, equal to the knowledge of Christ’s doctrine, there had been no justice in that cutting question and answer, _Why do ye not understand my speech? Because ye_ CANNOT _hear my word_. A total physical inability must of necessity supersede a moral one. To suppose, therefore, that the phrase, _No man_ CAN _come to me_, is meant to describe the former; and, YE WILL NOT _come to me that ye may have life_, the latter; is to suppose that our Saviour taught what is self-contradictory. “Some have supposed that in ascribing physical or natural power to men, we deny their _natural depravity_. Through the poverty of language, words are obliged to be used in different senses. When we speak of men as _by nature_ depraved, we do not mean to convey the idea of sin being an essential part of human nature, or of the constitution of man as man: our meaning is, that it is not a mere effect of education and example; but is from his very birth so interwoven through all his powers, so ingrained, as it were, in his very soul, as to grow up with him, and become natural to him. “On the other hand, when the term _natural_ is used as opposed to _moral_, and applied to the powers of the soul, it is designed to express those faculties which are strictly a part of our nature as men, and which are necessary to our being accountable creatures. By confounding these ideas we may be always disputing, and bring nothing to an issue. “Finally, It is sometimes suggested, that to ascribe natural ability to sinners to perform things spiritually good, is to nourish their self-sufficiency; and that to represent their inability as only _moral_, is to suppose that it is not insuperable, but may after all be overcome by efforts of their own. But surely it is not necessary, in order to destroy a spirit of self-sufficiency, to deny that we are men, and accountable creatures; which is all that natural ability supposes. If any person imagine it possible, of his own accord to chuse that to which he is utterly averse, let him make the trial.