upon earth?-All these things thou preacheft to others; and though, as was observed before, thou canst not arrive at perfection in any of these things, yet if thou doft not make a confcientious endeavour to form thy heart after the pattern, which thou thus preachest to others, thou must surely feel the diftrefs of self-conviction-and haft paffed a fentence upon thyself, which will furely, one day, appear against thee.

So much for thyself; and as to thy hearers, it will be difficult to imprefs them with any thing that does not come from thy heart. It will be cold, and languid, and uttered without that energy, which a confcious love of truth infpires.

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XVIII.

The manifeftation of the fpirit is given to every man to profit withal.-1 Cor. xii. 7.

N the chapter, from which this verse is taken, the various gifts of the fpirit are enumerated, which were difperfed in an extraordinary manner at the first promulgation of the gospel. With thefe, at prefent, we are not concerned. But the text feems as applicable to the ordinary, as the extraordinary, effufions of God's spirit: and to these I mean to confine myself-thofs effufions of the fpirit which are still given to every man to profit withal. I fhall endeavour therefore to explain to you the fcripture doctrine of the illumination of the spirit; and of its progress, and decay in the heart of man.

My first propofition is, that all mankind, univerfally, good and bad without exception, are infpired by the holy Spirit of God. The fcriptures every where, I think, talk this language. What is meant by God's ftriving with man; and man's refifting the holy Spirit of God, but

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that

that the holy spirit not only dwells with good men; but with those alfo, who refift, and oppofe it?-Thus then we fuppofe, that with regard to the holy spirit of God, all mankind are on an equality. The whole depends on the use they make of it.

My next propofition is, that what conftitutes a good man, is his liftening to the fuggeftions of the holy Spirit of God. How the spirit of God informs our confciences-or how our confciences differ from the fpirit of God-we know not. But as we are affured in fcripture,—that nothing good can arife from ourselves, every good thought and good action, must be fuggefted to us by the holy fpirit of God. Our goodness therefore confifts merely in listening to its fuggeftions, and following them. But ftill this is not fuppofed to make a man capable of earning his own falvation, if I may fo speak. Of himself he is nothing. There dwells in him no good thing. His attending however to the fuggeftions of the holy spirit of God; and leading in confequence a holy life; are graciously accepted by God, as the means of qualifying him, in the fight of God, for the falvation of fered him through Chrift in the Gospel.

My laft propofition is, that what constitutes a

bad

bad man, is his refufing to listen to the fuggef tions of the holy Spirit of God. So far as we do not listen to them, we are under the guidance of those wicked propenfities, which we inherited from our forefather. What little goodness the bad man may have, as few men are without fome good qualities, he entirely obtains, by listening to the holy spirit of God. But as he generally liftens to the world, and its temptations, the voice of God's spirit within him, grows weaker, and weaker; till at length it will be hardly heard. And yet we cannot fuppofe, that even in the most abandoned men the fpirit of God is wholly extinguifhed. There muft ftill remain fome latent spark: otherwise (as in himself there can be no good thing) there could not, one should fuppofe, be any repentance.

Thus the spirit of God is given to every man to profit withal; and it is every man's own fault, if he do not profit by it.

XIX.

Work out your own falvation with fear, and trembling; for it is God, which worketh in both to will, and to do, of his good pleafure.-Philippians, ii. 12.

you,

IN this paffage there are feveral things, which want explaining. ',

Let us first confider what is meant by work g out, our own falvation. This text at first fight. implies, what the apoftle certainly never meant it fhould imply, that we have the power to work out our own falvation, ourselves. If that had been the cafe, the chriftian atonement had been ufelefs. Chrift had died in vain.

every

The falvation of man is where repre fented in fcripture as depending on two thinga -his own endeavours; and the merits of Christ. Neither will fave him without the other. It is very plain therefore, that when the apostle bids us work out our own falvation, he is not explaining to us the whole mode of our falvation, but is only enjoining us to do that part, which belongs to ourselves.

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