repentance, and holiness, from the promulgation of the Gospel to the present time. The same things may therefore be reasonably expected to produce the same consequences hereafter.

III. I shall now endeavour to explain the influence of these means upon mankind.

Before I begin this explanation, I wish to remark, that although I should fail of giving a satisfactory account of this subject, the failure would in no degree affect the truth of the doctrine. If the evidence alleged has been sufficient, and the conclusions have been fairly drawn; then the doctrine is true. Nor will my ignorance, or that of any other persons, concerning the manner in which the event referred to is accomplished, and the doctrine true, make any difference with respect to the principal point. We know perfectly the existence of many facts; while of the manner in which they are accomplished, we are unable to form any adequate conception.

The influence of the means of grace upon mankind may, if I mistake not, be explained under the two general heads of instruction, and impression.

These I shall now consider in the order already specified. 1. The means of grace become such by instruction.

It will be universally acknowledged, that men, according to St. Paul's declaration, cannot believe on him, of whom they have not heard; nor call on him, in whom they have not believed.' If God, the Father, or the Son, be unknown; it is plain, that he can neither be trusted, invoked, nor obeyed, There can be no known relation in this case between the creature and the Creator; and therefore, on the part of the creature, no known or possible duty to the Creator. Where there is no law, there is no transgression;' and where there is no knowledge, either actual or possible, of a law, there is, in the fullest sense, no law. The knowledge of God therefore, his law, and our obligation to obey it, is indispensable even to our possible obedience, or disobedience.

When mankind had fallen, and Christ had made an expiation for their sins; it was equally and absolutely necessary, in order to their acceptance of Christ, which then became their duty, that they should know this glorious Person, in such a sense as to enable them to exercise faith in him as their Re

deemer. Without such knowledge, it is naturally impossible for us to believe in him at all. The same things are equally true of every religious duty, and subject. We cannot perform any duty, however well disposed, unless it be known to us; nor be required to perform it, unless such knowledge be attainable.

Thus it is evident, that the Gospel is indispensable to the very existence of Christianity in the mind of man: and, as the Gospel cannot be of any possible use to man, unless known by him; so the knowledge of the Gospel is indispensable to the existence of faith, repentance, and holiness.

It is indeed perfectly obvious, that God can, with infinite ease, reveal the fundamental truths, and all other truths of the Gospel to any man immediately, as he did to St. Paul. This, however, is not to be expected; as it is certainly no part of his ordinary providence. In the usual course of that providence, men are taught the Gospel by preaching, reading, and other modes of instruction. These, or some of these, are therefore indispensable, in the usual course of things, to the existence of Christianity in the minds of men. Hence, in one respect, the Gospel is said to be the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth' and hence, in the same respect, it is said, that, when the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.'

In the same manner religious education, meditation, correspondence with religious men, and the reading of religious books, become thus far means of salvation to mankind. In all these ways the word of God is made known to mankind; and all of them have, and were designed by God to have, their peculiar advantages.

Among the things most necessary to be known by us in order to our salvation, our own hearts, or moral characters, hold a primary place. I know of no manner in which he who feels himself to be whole, can realize that he needs a physician. To the existence even of a wish for deliverance, the sense of danger or distress is absolutely necessary. If we are now conscious of being holy, or of being safe, we certainly can never desire renovation, forgiveness, or expiation; nor seek for a deliverer to save us. While such a consciousness continues, no reason can be perceived by the man who experi

ences it, why he should look for salvation from Christ, any more than why an angel who has never fallen should look for salvation from the same source. But sin, and the moral distress and danger occasioned by it, have their seat in the heart. If then the heart be unknown, these will also be unknown; and the mind will never seek nor wish for deliverance from them. Of course, it cannot and will not expect its salvation from the Redeemer.

The knowledge of the heart is extensively communicated by the Scriptures: so extensively, that without them mankind will never understand their true moral character in any such manner as to produce any evangelical benefit. But all the Scriptural communications of this nature will be useless to us, unless we apply them to ourselves. This application can never

be made to any purpose, unless we commune with our own hearts.' Self-examination is the direct, and in many respects the only mode in which we apply the scriptural accounts of our moral nature to ourselves. Without such examination we may indeed admit the scriptural accounts concerning human nature, generally; and believe that other men are sinners, in the manner and degree there cxhibited. But we shall never realize that these accounts, in their whole extent, are applicable also to ourselves. Particularly, we shall form no just apprehensions of our odiousness in the sight of God, of the extent of our condemnation by his law, or our exposure to final perdition. The necessity of such examination is therefore absolute.

Farther: When we have in fact become convinced of our sin and our danger, we are still equally unconvinced of our indisposition to return to God by evangelical repentance and faith. All mankind appear originally to believe their conversion to God to be so absolutely in their power, as that, whenever they shall make serious and earnest attempts to accomplish it, they shall accomplish it of course, and without any peculiar divine assistance. Whatever opinions they may imagine themselves to form concerning this subject, they still believe, and if they ever become penitents, will find themselves to have believed, that whenever they shall resolve upon the exercise of faith and repentance, as necessary to their moral character and true well-being, they shall certainly repent and believe. In this way they feel in a great measure secure

of salvation. It is a secret, which probably no professed believer in the doctrines of free grace ever discovers, before he has made attempts of this nature, that, with all his apprehended orthodoxy, he still places his ultimate reliance on himself; and realizes no necessity for any peculiar assistance from God. Among the things which he feels to be thus absolutely in his power, prayer, that is, evangelical and acceptable prayer, is always one. Nothing in the ordinary course of things, not even his own speculative belief to the contrary, will ever persuade him, that he will find any difficulty in praying to God, until after he has seriously made the trial. His own efforts to pray will usually be the first and the only means of changing this opinion, and of convincing him that he has essentially mistaken his real character.

Actual attempts at prayer, at exercising faith and repentance, and at forming efficacious resolutions of obedience, furnish in this case a kind of instruction, not easily supplied by any thing else. Conviction of the practicability or impracticability of any measures, of the insufficiency of our own powers, and of the certain failure of our efforts, is wrought only by the trial of these measures, powers, and efforts. A loose, general, uninfluential belief may be otherwise entertained. But a conviction which will be felt, will be gained only in this manner. I know not whether, in all ordinary cases, this conviction is not indispensable to the attainment of holiness.

In the conduct and character of religious men, the actual existence of religion is often, perhaps usually, first seen and believed. In the same manner is the dignity and beauty, and the excellence of religion usually first discerned and acknowledged. The truth also, and especially the importance of many primary doctrines of the Gospel, and the chief part of what is commonly intended by experimental religion, are all principally learned and realized by means of their conversation.

These may serve as specimens, sufficient for the present purpose, of the instruction acquired in the use of the means of grace.

2. Means of grace become such by the impressions which they make on the heart.

To a person at all versed in human nature it is perfectly evident, that in every case where men are to be moved to any

serious exertion, mere conviction will often be inefficacious. The intellect is not the motive faculty of the mind. The will, in which term I include all the affections, gives birth to every effort which the mind makes concerning the objects of the present or the future world. But the mere conviction of the intellect is of itself rarely sufficient to move the will, or engage the affections. Something further is in a particular manner necessary to engage man in the serious pursuit of spiritual and eternal objects, or to make him realize any serious interest in these objects. The mere proof, that a doctrine is true, is usually but one step towards persuading us to exertion of any kind. In addition to this, it is commonly necessary for the same end, that our imagination be roused, and our affections awakened and engaged.

In accordance with these observations, mankind, in their customary language, regularly express the different states of the mind, when it is merely convinced, and when it feels the truth of which it is convinced. To see a truth, and to feel it, are familiar expressions in our language, which denote ideas widely different from each other. So different are they, that we commonly see, without feeling at all; and therefore without being moved to exertion by what we see. All men use, all men understand, this language; and thus prove that there is a solid foundation in the nature of things for the distinction which it expresses.

In accordance with this scheme, eloquence, both in speak ing and writing, has ever been directed to the imagination, and to the passions, as well as to the intellect: and that kind of eloquence which has been employed in moving the heart, has been considered as possessing a higher and more influential nature, than that which is addressed merely to the understanding. Hence, eloquence itself is commonly considered, rather as the power of persuasion, than the power of conviction.

That we are capable of being moved to a sense of spiritual objects, altogether different from a cold, unimpassioned conviction, as truly as to such a sense of temporal objects, cannot admit of a rational doubt. Every minister of the Gospel, every moralist, and every other man, who labours to amend the human character, even those who deny the doctrine for which I am contending, prove that they adopt this opinion,