to co-operate with us in curing these defects, to overcome this universal love of ease, to subdue this indisposition to spiritual subjects, to quench or correct this impatience of interruption in our more congenial pursuits; and to give us the will to make, and diligence to persevere in that steady and conscientious inquiry into the revelation of God, without which we can hope to establish no rational or solid belief either in ourselves or others.

2. But the Spirit, even where the will happens to be present, is, in many instances, necessary to give us the power of instituting such an inquiry into the evidences of revealed or natural religion as may be sufficient to place the security of our faith beyond the reach of danger. Those who, by accident or circumstances, have been deprived of the advantages of a liberal education; whose line of life has thrown them out of the habit of scientific investigation; whose reasoning faculty has been choaked by the weeds of prejudice, or degenerated into barrenness from neglect; or, lastly, to whom it has pleased God in his wisdom to grant but a small proportion of intellectual talent-such persons, if left to the agency of their own unassisted endeavours, must ever want either the power or the opportunity of establishing in themselves a faith which may resist the

temptations of the world and the ingenuities of sophistry. For though the broad and leading and general arguments in favour of the Gospel are so plain in their nature, as to be easily comprehended by the weakest capacities, and so forcible in their effects as to be convincing to the most learned, and irresistible to all, when fairly considered; yet the wickedness and perverted reasonings of the enemies of Christianity have contrived to raise so many and such plausible objections; to array them in such strength, and clothe them with such elegance, that those who have not been taught in the sophistry of man's wisdom, and who are not compétently acquainted with the history of past ages, and deeply imbued in many of the various and abstruser species of human learning, cannot possibly detect the trivial and fallacious nature of the arguments advanced by infidels-cannot possibly frame for themselves a satisfactory answer to all their cavils.

Except the Spirit of God, therefore, came to aid the weakness of the ignorant and. confirm their belief, by enlightening their understanding and establishing the conclusions they had already drawn-that belief would stand upon a very slippery and uncertain foundation. The poor and uneducated, without the assistance derived from the Deity through the influence of the Holy

Spirit, would, in their profession of Christianity, be fleeting as a shadow, and unstable as water. The goodly fabric of their hope in Jesus, if raised only upon the treacherous sand of human reason, would be liable to be destroyed by every storm; to be blown about by every wind of doctrine, and then, finally, overwhelmed in the torrent of infidelity. Next to God and to his Christ, and his Spirit, Satan is universally represented to us in Scripture as the most powerful of spiritual beings, -an enemy as much superior to the human race in wisdom, as he is inferior to the Deity himself. And, consequently, if we would effectually resist the artifices of this active and intelligent being, who is ever on the wing seeking whom he may devour-never wearied in the ways of deceit, and departing from us only to renew the attack with tenfold vigour, we must not trust wholly to our own weakness, but to the co-operation of him who is the source and fountain of all strength. We must be bold and confident only in the Lord.

But, 3rdly, Where men from nature, habit, or education, have been blessed with good desires, and gifted by God with the power of bringing their desires to good effect-where men possess the faculty of fulfilling their inclinations, by making a serious inquiry into the evidences of

revelation, and thus establishing their faith upon the rock of reason-even here, too, no man can say that Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy Ghost. The result of the inquiry still depends upon the Holy Spirit working in and with the understanding.-It is true, indeed, that it is the province of reason to give a decision upon the force of the various arguments advanced in defence of, or in opposition to, any fact or any proposition. It is equally true, also, that reason when left to herself, when seeing clearly and fully, and impartially, will, in every instance, decide rightly. When unbiassed in her judgment, her judgments will always be true. But does reason in the present state of the world, and the miserable corruption of man, ever see clearly, fully, or impartially? Is she ever, in fact, left to herself, or unbiassed in the judgment she pronounces? Before the fall of our first parents, she might be so. Whilst the image of God remained unsullied and unsubdued, in the mind; whilst the heart of man was right with God, his understanding might speak the language of truth; but it certainly cannot now be said to be in that happy situation.-" The heart of man (it is the unerring word and not the fallible minister of God, who is making the declaration) is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." And this deceitfulness and wickedness of the heart

must necessarily influence the decisions of the head. We see also but in part, says St. Paul, therefore, not fully. We see as through a glass darkly; therefore, not clearly. We are subject also to a variety of passions, every one of which is strictly forbidden in the Gospel; and we are therefore interested in denying the truth of the Gospel, so long as we have the slightest desire of indulging those passions.-For he that hath in him any principle contrary to the Christian doctrines and precepts, cannot possibly by his own unassisted powers attain unto the sincere profession of the Christian faith.-He must overcome and resign the principle, before he can expect to believe; because that principle, by making him prejudiced in his judgment of the proofs of revelation, will necessarily destroy his impartiality, and, through that, his capability of drawing just conclusions. The terrors of conscience spring from the dread of future punishment. The Gospel denounces that punishment against every kind and degree of iniquity. It permits not a virtue to be omitted, or a sin to be practised with impunity.-It requires us to love God above every thing, and our neighbour as ourselves. It declares, that neither fornicators, nor unjust, nor covetous, nor idolaters can by any means enter the kingdom of Heaven.-Whoever, therefore, is destitute of piety or of charity