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and work together with him and dread above all things your being too late-" now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation." But it is said again—“We are by nature altogether averse from that which is good-We are dead in sin, and are no more able to effect any thing for ourselves than a corpse is to raise itself to life." This is another lamentable misapplication of sacred writ. The wretched state of the Gentile world, previous to the promulgation of the gospel, is represented by the strong figures of the natural man being sunk into a deep sleep, and even into a state of death, in trespasses and sins. But if this had been any thing more than figurative, and it had really not been in the power of men to shake off this death-like torpor, would that exhortation have been addressed to them- Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light!" My brethren, we are, if we think proper so to consider ourselves, in this awakened state- God who is rich in mercy hath quickened us together with Christ, by whose resurrection we are raised from the death of sin to the life of righteousness." It is a dangerous self-deception to be waiting for farther, and what are supposed to be effectual calls, while God is every moment at work with us in the precepts of his word, in the strong motives of hope and fear which are there set before us, in the remonstrances of conscience, and by the sense of good and evil which he hath implanted within us. The light, which we profess to be expecting, is all the while gloriously shining, and we will not open our eyes to behold it, but are wasting the precious moments in idle dreams-let us beware lest while we thus sleep the enemy be sowing tares-lest

while we are vainly waiting for some extraordinary call from above to give us evidence of our election, evil habits be gaining unperceived strength; our moral liberty, the distinguishing glory of our nature, be lost; and we become the vile and degraded slaves of passion, pride and prejudice. Let us beware, lest while under these delusions, we fall into that deplorable state when, in the language of scripture, the spirit of God ceases to strive with man and is taken away from him; when the heart is hardened, the eyes blinded, and the ears deafened. This is sometimes represented as God's doing, because the effect is exactly the same as if he did it. But never did God harden any man's heart till he had first hardened it himself-never did he take away his spirit, that is (as we have now been led to understand it) his natural sense of good and evil, nor the advantages, whatever they were, for his reformation and improvement, till the man himself had become totally insensible to every thing that is good, and sold himself to his lusts and passions. I know not in what light the doctrines of total depravity and inability in man, and of arbitrary election on the part of God, may affect the minds of others, but to me they appear directly calculated to counteract the very design of revelation, and to produce and confirm all those evils which the gospel was intended to cure. If they be true, I see not how man can be considered as accountable for his actions. If they met the common sense and concurrence of mankind, they might with propriety be pleaded at the bar of earthly justice, as an excuse for the vilest crimes. But who ever heard of such a plea being admitted? or who shall dare to tell his eternal Judge to his face (as on such a sup

position he might), "my condemnation lies at thy door-that I am not saved is thy fault and not mine?” Finally

There is exactly the same propriety in prayers for divine assistance as in those for our daily bread. While we know, that without our own honest and faithful endeavours, it is in vain to expect it, the sincere desire and humble dependance, expressed by the act of prayer, at once animate the endeavour to procure, and prepare the heart to receive the blessing. The sustenance of our bodies by the use of food, and the improvement of our minds by the application of the means of grace, are equally the gift of God; but if we pray for either the one or the other without any exertion of our own powers, our prayers will not be answered. For earnest prayer for increase in Christian virtue, and strength to resist temptation, implies a resolution to acquire the one, and caution against the other; it is, in fact, a solemn appeal to the Searcher of hearts for the sincerity of our desire to do those things which are well-pleasing in his sight, and every thing short of this is nothing better than formality, if it be not hypocrisy. And what softer appellation would our conduct deserve, if, when we have been praying-Lead us not into temptation," we should wilfully rush upon it, or take no care to avoid it. It is the earnest endeavour after, and attention to the thing desired, that can alone procure success; and in this respect, what our Lord said to his apostles, is not inapplicable to our case "Every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and unto him that knocketh it shall be opened." If, in the sense I have now suggested, we pray, as we frequently do in terms, for the spirit

of God, and for the aids of his spirit, nothing can be more proper and useful. But I think a little caution on this head is necessary. If we examine with attention several expressions which are frequently borrowed from scripture on these occasions, we shall probably find that they are referable rather to the then existing state of the Christian church, than to that of the present day. Such an error might tend to damp our own endeavours on which so much depends, if not lead to the fatal one of looking for those supernatural influences which have long ago ceased, and which no man, since then, ever pretended to experience, without justly subjecting himself to the charge of enthusiasm or of imposture. In one important particular however, we find both the extraordinary and the ordinary acceptation of the term spirit coinciding, namely in the moral effects produced on the mind, and to which we shall do well closely to attend, if we mean to support the true Christian character. In the epistle to the Galatians, contrasting the works of the flesh, i. e. of their Gentile state, with those of their conversion to Christianity, Paul tells them, "the fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance." So also to the Ephesians, "Ye were formerly darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord-walk as children of light; for the fruit of light (or the spirit) is in all goodness and righteousness and truth." Such, my brethren, is the spirit of Christianity; let us then ever bear in mind that if any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his; that the promises of God, though all yea and amen in Christ Jesus, are a dead letter

with respect to us, without a fulfilment of conditions on our part. Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of us should appear to come short of it.

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