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now proceed to open the application of grace to the sinner which is here given as a process teaching, or discipline, working two effects; which are, First, the " denying of ungodly and worldly lusts, and the living soberly, and righteously, and godly, in this present world;" Secondly, the "looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus i Christ." The same two-fold division of the work of grace I find in another part of Scripture: 1 Thess. i. 9, 10: How ye turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven." Now, with respect to the power by which either, or both, of these Divine effects is wrought in us, there can be no doubt that it is the power of God, and the peculiar office of the Holy Ghost. For, first, that we have n power to produce the whole, or any part, of this grace in ourselves, is manifest from our Lord's own declaration; "Without me ye can do n thing" and that we cannot fetch ourselves t him, or link our dead affections to his living power, is manifest from that other saying of his, "No man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him." And that it is the work of God to do this, which in and of our selves we cannot do. is manifest from the passage of this Epistle already quoted; "Ye are saved by grace, through faith; and that not of yourselves. it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast: for we are his workmanship, created unto good works (or fashioned upon good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” And again, in another Epistle: It is God that worketh in us to will and to de

of his good pleasure." Now that it is the proper office of the Holy Ghost, the third Person in the Divine Substance, to produce all faith, to teach all truth, and to work all goodness in the souls of dead men, is manifest from our Lord's definition of his office in various parts of his last discourse: as, for example; (John xiv. 26) "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." Again (John xvi. 13): "Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you." And, again, the Apostle John, in his first Epistle (1 John ii. 20, 27) traceth all saving knowledge and good fruits, and permanency therein, to the same Almighty Teacher, in these words: "But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things." "But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you: and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him." And the whole doctrine of the work of the Spirit in enlightening and informing the natural darkness of the soul is stated, yea, and the measure and the dimensions of the putting forth thereof in the regeneration of the sinner, is given, in this very chapter, to be no less than that which was put forth in the resurrection of Jesus Christ: "And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according

to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead." (vers.19, 20). How incongruous were it, to use such language as this, if the conversion of a sinner unto God, and his building up in holiness and righteousness, were a work to which he himself could lend a hand; in which he might go hand in hand with God; or, as our unchristened divines, the disgrace of our churches, say, take the lead of God? I utterly repudiate all such damnable doctrine; and anathematize all the preachers of it, as the defacers and defamers of God's grace, and the enemies of the cross of Christ. For herein grace is grace, that it is free and undeserved, yea, that it is something beyond and above our deserving. This is the essence of grace even in a man; but in God the essence of it is, that it passeth infinitely beyond, and riseth infinitely above, our deservings, which are the depth of hell, whence this grace of His doth exalt us to the height of heaven. How infinitely, then, do they disparage that boundless ocean of the Divine mercy and forgiveness, and grace and goodness, who entreat of it as something which we earn and deserve, and which is never bestowed upon any who have not laboured for it by the self-denials, penances, devotions, beliefs, and hopes of their life! Thou blind leader of the blind, hast thou not eyes to read the holy page, where it is written, that the grace of God schooleth us like children to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, to which we are as much inclined and devoted as children are to neglect their lesson and to run wild after folly and idleness? Or knowest thou not that word of thy Saviour, "This is the work of God, that ye

should believe in him whom he hath sent?" or that other word, "Ye must be born again, of water and the Spirit, before ye can see the kingdom of God?" And knowest thou not that word, "You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins?" Now, take to thy logic, and resolve me, if he that creates the seed is not the same who is the creator of the tree that grows out of it; if he that quickens the life of the child is not the creator of the man into whom the child waxeth; if he that raiseth the dead is not the resurrection and the life of him whom he hath raised? Or is my child to disallow me as his father, because he chews and digests the meat which I provide for him, and wears the clothes which I furnish him? And is the child of the resurrection of the Holy Ghost, to cast off the obligation to God, and insist for a share of the work, because he is made to grow up into full stature by the continuance of that Almighty Power which produced him out of nothing? O thou Atheist! then, after Adam, the seed of man; and after the first formed animal, the seed of all future creatures; and after the first created plants, the seed of all vegetables, had been formed in six days; going on ever since until this hour procreating and producing and increasing and multiplying, according to the law and provision which God had appointed to them, they become sharers, co-operators, fellowcreators with God; having a part in their own origination, and beholden unto themselves as well as unto him-yea, to him for six days' work only; to themselves for six thousand years' work, and whatever ages are yet to run? Oh but thou art an equal distributor and apportioner between God

and the creatures! a rare logician to boot! and a most famous Atheist!-But, to return to the subject of the application and appropriation of grace.

Its first operation is in faith; and that not the faith of so many written books, but faith in the person and the work of Jesus Christ, in whom, as the great object, all grace is manifested. You may as well expect to have knowledge without a thing to know, as faith without an object to believe upon. The object of all faith, is "Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." As to the written book, it is but the description of his person, and the unfolding of his work, to lead us to a knowledge of him; but there is no faith until we know him and receive him as the only Son of God, and Saviour of sinners-the manifestation of the grace of the Father, and the fountain from which the power of the Holy Ghost floweth into our souls. And this faith is not to be produced in us by any reading or conning of the pages of a book, or hearing the subjects of it preached upon, or any outward ordinance or mean; which are at best but the fountains that contain the water, shewing us where the water of life is to be found: but the water of life itself is not in us, nor any where in the world, that it should be found out; nor in the hands of any priesthood, that it should be purchased; nor of any men, that it should be dispensed; but with God is the pure fountain of his grace, and from Christ only can it be received, by an act of faith upon him, through the channels by which he ordinarily communicates it, and, when he pleaseth, directly flowing into the soul without

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