inftrument by which the influence of the Holy Spirit is to be drawn down from heaven: and that a reverent and edifying application of grace already received is an indifpenfable condition, not of its encreafe only, but of its continuance.

Perhaps then you may be doubtful, for there is fcarcely any measure of felf-deception too large to find admiffion into the human heart, whether you may not already be under the effectual guidance of the Spirit of God. You may be of opinion that there are not any unequivocal marks, by which his prefence may be ascertained; nor any tokens, which are infallible indications of his abfence. I perceive that I have again failed to specify the causes of your difregard. What is the language of those downcast looks, but an acknowledgement that the fplendor of noon and the blackness of midnight are not removed, each from the other, by a distance. more wide, by characters more ftriking, than those which feparate and difcriminate the works of the flesh from the fruits of the Spirit? What is their language but an acknowledgement that you detect within your bofom proofs too plain to be controverted that it is the habitation of worldly lufts, not the Tem

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ple of the Holy Ghoft; that you have not the Spirit of Chrift, and are therefore none of his?'

It is poffible, however, that you may diftruft the fufficiency of the grace of Chrift, You may have become perfuaded, that to a being by nature fo unholy, by tranfgreffion fo depraved, as yourself; to fuch a being encompaffed by the fnares, and affailed by the malignity, of the powers of darkness, the divine affiftance is granted in vain. I fee that you ftart back from this fuppofition. You "believe in the Holy Ghoft, the Lord and "Giver of life." You believe in the omnipotence of God. You do not exalt Satan to the fovereignty of the universe. You are convinced that he whom God bleffeth is bleffed; that he whom God affifteth must be victorious: that he who taketh to himself the whole armour of God, the breast-plate of righteousness, the fhield of faith, the sword of the Spirit, will be able to withstand all the wiles of the devil, to quench all his fiery darts, and to lay hold in the ftrength of divine grace on the crown of everlafting falvation, What then am I to conclude? For what cause difregardest or despisest thou the riches of the grace of Chrift? If thou art unable or unwilling to answer the queftion; I read the true

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reply in the word of God: After thy hardness and impenitent heart thou treasureft up unto thyfelf wrath against the day of wrath. Thy neglect, thy contempt, of divine grace fprings from hardness of heart, from ftubborn reluctance to repent. Hence thou art infenfible to danger, careless as to confequences. The God of this world has blinded thy mind. In the centre of the fulness of the light of the gospel, thou haft hitherto lived in wilful darkness. Surrounded with all the bleffings of Christian inftruction, all the benefits and encouragements of Chriftian communion; thou haft hitherto displayed the ignorance or the indifference of a heathen. Stationed on the verge of a boundless eternity, into which thou must shortly pass; elevated on an eminence, whence thou mayeft behold the regions of everlasting blifs, and the abodes of never-ending woe; thou haft conducted thyfelf as though the profpect were an airy vifion, as though death were a perpetual fleep. Year after year the Spirit of God has ftretched forth his hand to pluck thee as a brand out of the burning; but thine hand thou haft obftinately withdrawn. His hand is ftretched out ftill. Doft thou ftill withdraw thine? Repentance is not yet too late even for thee. Doft thou ftill refufe the grace of repentance? From the throne

throne of heaven God calls thee to himself. To-day, if thou wilt hear his voice, harden not thy heart. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost invite thee to pardon, redemption, fanctification. They invite thee to falvation : they pledge the promise of the unchangeable Godhead to give thee ftrength, if even yet thou wilt accept ftrength, to attain falvation. To prefer perdition is within thy choice. Doft thou choose hell or heaven?

You

2. To thofe among you who have laboured to obtain the grace of Christ, and to apply to its proper object the ftrength which is granted from above, meditations on the nature and the efficacy of the promised gift of the Spirit of God are perhaps not lefs important than to the careless or the hardened finner. may not need, like the careless and the hardened, continually to be reminded that the guidance and support of the Holy Ghoft, purchased by the atoning facrifice of the Lord Jefus, are effential to falvation, are freely offered to all men, are placed within the grasp of every man: for you have fought them, you still feek them, as neceffary to you, as propofed to you, as attainable by you. You may not equally with the inconfiderate and the scorner require to be admonished that divine grace is

to be drawn down by prayer; to be discerned by its fruits; to be cherished as all-fufficient : for to prayer you have trufted for the acquifition of it; its fruits are, in a measure more or less ample, visible in your lives; its fufficiency to prefent peace and final falvation is the sheet-anchor of your fouls. But are not you the children of Adam? Are not you compaffed with infirmity? Are not you affailed, day after day, by inherent corruption? Are not you perpetually under the eye of that adverfary, who goeth about like a roaring lion feeking whom he may devour? Do not omiffions of known duty, do not tranfgreffions of acknowledged commandments, unceasingly arife before your confcience; covering you with fhame, teaching you that of yourself you are nothing, conftraining you to admire the long-suffering of God? Do not you read in the word of truth: When the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity; in his fin that he bath finned he shall die (b)? Do not you hear the voice of your Lord: The branch cannot bear fruit except it abide in the vine: no more can ye, except ye abide in me. If a man abide not in me, he is caft forth as a branch that is withered; as a

(b) Ezek. xviii, 24. See alfo 26; and xxxiii, 12, 13. 18. branch