nothing effectual to render ourselves acceptable in the eyes of the righteous Governor of the world, who is pleased to dispense mercy only to those who, hearing the Gospel of Christ, make application to Him, and through Him draw nigh to the Father.

2. Without him we can do nothing effectual to the purification of our corrupt natures.-What, though we sometimes resolve to serve God? How soon are our resolutions broken! How slight a temptation has power to efface them from our remembrance! What, though we sometimes pray? Yet, how imperfect are our prayers, how unworthy in themselves to be offered up to the pure and holy majesty of God! What, though we sometimes endeavour to flee from the wrath to come? Yet this fear of punishment may be consistent with the love of sin, may be wholly a selfish passion, without any mixture of the love of God. What, though we attempt to obey God? Do we not perceive how desultory, how defective, how corrupted our obedience is? Are we not convinced, from our own experience, that we need a better principle, that we want the aid of superior power to enable us to offer up our bodies and souls as a spiritual sacrifice holy and acceptable to God? Are we not persuaded that we are poor and frail creatures, who can do nothing effectually, but as we are quickened and enlivened by the Spirit of God?

Should you still question this important truth, let me appeal to the principles which seem to be natural to man, which appear in his earliest infancy, and are congenial to his very frame; principles which from youth to manhood are continually acquiring additional strength-which the customs of the world tend to rivet upon the mind-which become the general springs of action, the sources of all the business, hurry, spendour, and pleasure of the world. Examine well your hearts, and observe how much they are governed by the desire of praise, or the love of money, or the gratification of pride and vanity, the desire of ease, or fleshly indul

gence. Not to know the power of these passions is not to know yourself. But if you have learnt the influence of a corrupt nature, fortified by inveterate habits and supported by the customs of the world, you will need no other knowledge to convince you, that the assistance of God is necessary, to enable you to engage with activity in his service. And is not this a difficult work? Does it not appear to be almost impossible? By what principles will you accomplish it? Those which you possess will not be sufficient; and those which would avail, you have yet to obtain. A gradual alteration may, I grant, be made in the outward system of our lives, from experience of past inconveniences or misfortunes: but this is only a different direction given to the same principles. Selfishness has assumed a different shape, which although perhaps less distant from true righteousness, is still very remote from it. The fear of God, and the love of God, can only be implanted in the heart by God himself.

But are you still unconvinced? What say you then, to the levity and fickleness of your heart? Are you not alarmed to perceive how soon, how very soon, you have forgotten the strongest resolutions, and lost the liveliest emotions of love to God? Do you not find in yourself, a constant proneness to relapse into insensibility and sin, while, on the other hand the return to God is difficult, is forced, is extraordinary-I had almost said, is unnatural? With such dispositions to impede your progress, consider also how much you must attain. To be a real Christian is to resemble Christ. It is to act from pure motives, to walk in holiness of heart and life, to renounce the world with all its pomps and vanities, and the flesh with all its sinful affections. It is to be heavenly minded, to possess holy affections, to be an heir of God through Christ Jesus.

Consider, then, the difficulties you have to encounter. You have enemies whom you see not. Besides the custom of the world, which like a mighty tide bears every thing before it, you will be assaulted by foes whose VOL. II.

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attacks you cannot foresee. You have to wrestle "not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." How then shall you be able to prevail against such powers? Where are your resources? Look within, and you discover only a weak and wavering resolution, a corrupt nature, and a treacherous heart. How then will you fight such a battle, and persevere in it to the end?

In fact, the trial has been sufficiently made. We are not now to learn what the powers of nature could do, and what would be the effect of the arguments which reason could adduce. Philosophy long opposed her barrier to the passions of men. She pointed out the inconveniences of vice to ourselves and to society. She made eulogiums upon the excellence of reason, and in many respects well explained the folly of transgression. But after all her efforts, twelve illiterate men were able, through the power of Christ, to promote the reformation of the world, in a far higher degree than all the various sects of philosophers, with all their united labours. What instantaneous effects did the preaching of the Apostles produce! With what power was the heart arrested by it! Nature and habits were changed at once: the debauched and sensual became pure and holy, and devoted their whole lives to the service of God. What an index is this; pointing out to us the unseen power of the Spirit of God, imparting his strength to the weak and his holiness to the impure!

II. Without me ye can do nothing.-This expression intimates, that with Christ we may be able to do all things necessary to salvation: and, taken in connexion with the discourse of which it is a part, it shews us the power of our gracious Redeemer employed in helping and saving those who come to him by faith.

Jesus Christ is the "Alpha and Omega" of the Christian religion. Herein it is essentially distinguished

from every other religious system. It has a Mediator, an Atonement, a Saviour. It does not merely inculcate the practice of moral duties; it points out one “able to save, even to the uttermost, all that come unto God by him." This Divine Saviour sends his Spirit into the hearts of Christians, and thus, by his abiding influence, may be said to dwell or to abide in them. Hence the Apostle uses such terms as these: "I live," "yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." "I laboured more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." And he thus

warns the Corinthians: "Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" St. John encourages the disciples in similar language: "Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world." And our Saviour promises, "If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him."

All these scriptural declarations, when stripped of their figurative language, must surely amount at least to this, that Christ will influence the hearts of those that believe on him; that he will assist them in their obedience, and impart to them a degree of peace and· comfort which they could only obtain from his peculiar favour.

And is it indeed one of the principal articles of the Christian faith, that there is a Saviour by whose strength our weakness is to be supported? Then it is evident that a new direction must be given to our endeavours: they must not be less earnest, but they must be in some measure turned into a different channel. It must be our principal object to be made partakers of Christ, to receive strength from him, to glorify and praise him for all the grace we enjoy, to exercise dependence upon him, and to rejoice in his mercy and power. Behold here the principle, by which we may understand all the strong expressions of love and grati.ude

which the Apostle felt: "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." "That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length, and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." "The love of Christ constraineth us." Such language evinces something more than the reverence due to the character of a Teacher; it argues a mind labouring to express the warmest feelings of gratitude to the Highest of benefactors. It exhibits the feelings of a heart which contemplated God, as the Guide and Supporter of man, as a Redeemer and an Intercessor.

Let us apply, then, the doctrine which has been delivered.

1. Let it awaken those who excuse their slothfulness, or their love of sin, under the plea of their own inability. Be persuaded either that you mistake the Gospel, or that you pervert it. You may wait, as you think, for the grace of God, and in the mean time hope you are excusable, though you gain not the victory over sin; or you may go still farther, and satisfy yourself with occasional prayers for the mercy and grace of God: but be assured, that at the great day of judgment these excuses will not justify you in his sight. Place yourselves in imagination at that solemn bar, before which you must one day stand. Will you dare, then, to plead as an excuse for your sins, that you could not convert yourself? Would such a plea be admitted by that righteous Judge? Your consciences will answer that question. Man is a responsible creature, and the doctrines of the Gospel must not be so interpreted as to destroy his reponsibility. Be assured that our guilt will not be removed, nor the awful sentence of condemnation suspended by a metaphysical subtlety. Arise,