Firft, That man, although endued with the capacity of receiving information, yet by his own unaffisted efforts, is totally unable to acquire the knowledge of those truths with which it chiefly imports him to be acquainted.

Secondly, That upon his being enlightened with the true knowledge of God and of his duty, he muft neceffarily be impreffed with a deep fenfe of his own depravity and guilt.

I now proceed to the illuftration of the third propofition mentioned in order to fhew the peculiar aptitude of the gospel dispenfation to the state and circumftances of man, viz.

That he has a confcioufnefs of moral obligation, and ideas of moral excellence, which experience

perience tells him he cannot by his own efforts fulfil and realife.

That man cannot attain to that excellence of character of which his mind naturally forms the idea, is evident from fact and univerfal experience. Moral and religious fyftems formed under the light of nature alone, we have already confidered, and found them to be moft defective and erroneous. The moral feelings of men, it is true, muft correfpond with their ideas of duty and moral obligation. Yet limited and imperfect as were thofe of the ancients, we find many of the best and wifeft among them, acknowledging the infufficiency of their own powers, and the abfolute neceffity of divine affiftance, to carry them to the heights of even that virtue of which they had formed the conception. Nay, it is well known to have been a maxim univerfally received among the Heathens, that without the afflatus, or infpiration of the Divinity, nothing great in fentiment or action was ever attained by man*. Such is the natural inftinctive fenfe of the human mind, of its own

Hymn of Cleanthes, tranflated by Gilbert Weft, Efq
For nor in earth, nor earth-encircling floods,
Nor yon ethereal pole, the seat of gods,
Is ought perform'd without thy aid divine;

Strength, wifdom, virtue, mighty Jove, are thine.
WEST's Works, Vol. II. p. 48.

The heroes of Homer and Virgil, it is well known, accomplished almoft nothing without the interpofition

of fome deity.

weakness,

weakness and conftant dependence upon God! But if fuch were the convictions of men whose ideas of moral obligation were so exceedingly imperfect, what must be thole which the knowledge of the grand and perfect fyftem of duty enjoined by the gospel cannot but excite? A fyftem which, taking its rife from God, in cludes every relation in which man is placed, and every duty which thefe relations infer; which extends even to the regulation of the fecret movements of the heart.

Upon taking a ferious view of this great plan of duty, and then comparing it with his own powers and capacities, who will prefume to fay that he is able to realife it in practice? Folly alone can give birth to fo abfurd and prefumptuous an expectation. Every man of candour will feel and acknowledge the decla ration of the Apostle Paul, to be far more confonant to his own experience. I see a law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of fin; fo that when I would do good, evil is prefent with me *. "My reafon fees and ap

proves that which is good, and which the "gofpel hath enjoined, but I feel its autho"rity infinitely too weak to enforce its own "decifions. Paffion and temptation lead me "aftray, and I yield obedience to the law of "fin, at the very time that my confcience dictates unlimited compliance with the law

* Ram. vii. 23

sε of

"of God. In oppofition to my better judg"ment, I reject my lawful Sovereign, and o"bey a tyrant and an ufurper.. Though an "admirer of virtue, I am a pitiful flave to "vice, and in every step of my conduct my "own mind witneffeth against me. Wretch "ed man that I am, who or what can deliver "me from fo deplorable a fituation ?" Nothing, fays the voice of his experience, nothing fay the convictions of his understanding, but the power of that God who originally gave him existence.

But however much the natural feelings of its neceffity may dictate a wifh for fuch aid, where, fave in the gospel of Chrift, is there a fhadow of hope, far lefs fecurity, that it will be afforded? With what infinite fatisfaction, then, will the serious mind liften to the gra cious declarations of the Son of God: "That. "he was manifefted not merely to expiate "the guilt of fin, but to destroy its dominion "in the foul; not only to procure for man a "title to the divine favour, but to qualify him "for its enjoyment. He came to destroy the "work of the devil," to undo the unhappy effects of the original apoftacy; to remove that depravity of human nature which it introduced; to restore to the foul thofe moral excellencies which conftituted the image of its Maker; and to train up the man in a progreffive course of improving virtue, to a fitnefs for admiffion into a state of felicity congenial to his rational and moral capacities.

The

The immediate agent, by whom these grand and noble objects are accomplished, we are taught by the gofpel, is the third of the facred Three who bear record in heaven; that bleffed Spirit of grace, whom, under the character of the Comforter, Chrift promifed, to fupply the want of his perfonal prefence, to convince of fin, of righteousness, and judgment, and to lead men to the knowledge, love, and obedience of the truth. It is the general affertion of our Lord, that " except a man be "born of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the "kingdom of God." It is by the fecret but effectual energy of this divine Agent, that an entire change is produced upon the natural difpofition, and a new character formed, of which the particular features are exhibited in the gofpel, and often described by its minifters in the detail.

In general, the great work of the Spirit is, to enlighten the understanding to discern, and incline the will to confent, to the pure and spi ritual fyftem of the gofpel: to give to the decifions of the judgment authority and force, and to fubject the affections and paffions to its controul: to preferve the powers of the mind in their due rank and fubordination, and direct them into the proper channel for promoting the great ends for which they were given, the glory of God, and the eternal happiness of the foul. For this purpose we

• John iii. S.