ftands with respect to faith. Without faith it is impoffible to pleafe God. By faith a man is Lord Jefus Chrift, and thou fhalt be faved (c). But do the Scriptures defcribe faith as an attainment within the grafp of hu ran ability? What is the language of the Son of God? No man can come to me, except the Father who hath sent me draw him(d). What faith St. Luke? Apollos helped them much, which had believed through grace. The Lord opened the heart of Lydia, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul, and was baptized (e). How fpeaks St. Paul? Faith is the fruit of the Spirit. No man can fay that Jefus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghoft. To you, O Philippians, it is given to believe on Chrift (f). Then with respect to practical holinefs. Are Chriftian tempers and good works the produce of your own exertions? Do you learn fuch imaginations from the Scriptures? It is God that worketh in both to you will and to do. It is God who maketh you perfect in every good work, to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleafing in his fight. Let us have grace whereby we may ferve God acceptably. Righteousness, truth, love, longfuffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, tempe (c) Heb. xi. 6. (d) John, vi. 44. Rom. iii. 28. Gal. ii. 16. A&s, xvi. 31. (e) Acts, xviii. 27. xvi. 14. (ƒ) Gal. V. 22. 1 Cor. xii. 2. Philipp. i. 19. rance, rance, are the fruits of the Spirit (g). It is thus that an examination into the natural state of the human heart, and an enquiry into the method by which the different graces of the Chriftian character are wrought in man, conftrain us to ascribe every thing in us which is good, to God, the Author of every good and perfect gift. They constrain us to acknowledge, that as St. Paul, depreffed and impeded by his thorn in the flesh, could be enabled to preach the gospel with fuccefs only by the grace of Chrift: fo by that grace only can man, labouring under his natural corruption, be enabled to attain eternal life. They constrain us to acknowledge as indifpenfably neceffary to falvation that total change, which the Scriptures delineate under a variety of figurative expreffions, effentially of the fame meaning, and calculated, partly to exemplify its magnitude and effect, partly to denote its fupreme inportance: a change which the word of God attributes exclufively to the fanctifying influence of the Holy Ghoft purchased for us by the facrifice of Jefus Chrift. They conftrain us to confefs, that except a man be born of water and of the Spirit; emblematically of water by baptifm, and substantially of the Spirit by the renovation of his corrupt nature unto holiness; he cannot enter into the kingdom (g) Philipp. ii. 13. Heb. xiii. 21. xii. 28. Gal. v. 22, 23. Eph. v. 9. of of God (b). They conftrain us to confess, that we must become new creatures (i); that we must be transformed by the renewing of our minds; that we must put off the old man, which is corrupt, and be renewed in the fpirit of our minds; that we must put on the new man, which after God is created in righteoufnefs and true holiness (k). They constrain us to confefs, that if we are to be faved, we are to be faved by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghoft (1). We are to be faved by receiving from the Spirit of God, not those extraordinary and now no longer needed powers, which were requifite to enable the first preachers of Chriftanity to confirm the truth of the new religion by the evidence of miraculous atteftations: but that influence which in every age is no lefs neceffary to the falvation of every Christian, than it was in primitive times to the falvation of the apoftles; that influence which alone can enlighten the understanding, rectify the will, difpofe us to repentance, establish us in faith, renew the heart unto godliness, fupply ftrength to withstand temptation, inspire holy refolutions and ability to fulfil them, and finally feal the ftedfaft fervants of Chrift through continuance in faith, and in good works the fruits of faith, to eternal life. (i) 2 Cor. v. 17: Gal. vi. 15. Eph. iv. 23, 24. (1) Tit. iii. 5. (b) John, iii. 3. 5. (k) Rom. xii. 2. II. The grace of Chrift, as neceffary to falvation, is placed within the reach of every man. Does this affertion, fo full of confolation and encouragement to the terrified finner, ftand firm on Scriptural authority? On that authority it ftands immovable. God hath no pleafure that the wicked fhould die; but that he fhould return from his ways and live. God our Saviour will have all men to be faved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gofpel to every creaHe that fpared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all; how shall be not ture. with him alfo freely give us all things: all things needful to falvation, and as of all things the most needful, his grace? If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more fhall your heavenly Father give the holy Spirit to them that ask him (m)! rope, But of what avail is the which you hold forth to the shipwrecked mariner; if his eye is too dim to difcern it, his hand too feeble to grafp it? Although it is apparent that God freely offers his grace to every man; is it also clear that every man has the power of accepting it? May there not be a natural or a moral impoffibility, which difable the perishing may 1 Tim. ii. 3, 4. Mark, xvi. 15. (m) Ezek. xviii. 23. Rom. viii. 32. Luke, xi. 13. X finner from deriving benefit from the means of deliverance when placed before him? Among the numerous doubts and fufpicions which have difquieted the breafts of Chriftians, that which is here prefented, if one of the most diftreffing, is alfo one of the most extraordinary. Do you afcribe to the Moft High delufive offers? To the God of truth, do you afcribe fhifts, and pretences, and evafions, which in the common tranfactions of life would difclaim yourfelf, which you you would condemn in any one of your fellowcreatures? Is it thus that you difhonour the Father of mercies, and render nugatory his gracious propofal of universal falvation? God is no respecter of perfons. If he has demolished the wall of partition between Jew and Gentile; has he reared an infuperable barrier between members of the fame covenant, between Christian and Chriftian? The offer which he makes to every man, he enables every man, by a measure of preventing grace beftowed upon him for the fake of Chrift, to accept. No man ever committed any fin, but the grace of God was ready to have qualified him to withstand it. No man ever committed any fin, but he might have obtained the grace of God neceffary for effectual resistance, had he antecedently chofen to apply for it in propor |