tain of our salvation; and what enemies can be too strong for us, when we are fighting under his banners? Did not the Son of God come down from the bosom of his Father, and pitch his tabernacle amongst the sons of men, that he might recover and propagate the divine life, and restore the image of God in their souls? All the mighty works which he performed; all the afflictions which he sustained, had this for their scope and design; for this, did he labour and toil; for this, did he bleed and die: "He was with child; he was in pain, and hath he brought forth nothing but wind? Hath he wrought no deliverance in the earth? Shall he not see the travail of his soul?”† Certainly it is impossible, that this great contrivance of Heaven should prove abortive; that such a mighty undertaking should fail and miscarry. It has already been effectual for the salvation of many thousands, who were once as far from the kingdom of heaven, as we can suppose ourselves to be; and our 66 High Priest continueth for ever, and is able to save them to the uttermost, that come unto God by him." He is tender and compassionate; he knows our infirmities, and had experience of our temptations: "A bruised reed will he not break, and smoking flax will he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory."§ He has sent out his Holy Spirit, whose sweet, but powerful breathings are still moving up and down in the world, to quicken and revive the souls of men, and awaken them unto the sense and feeling ; of those divine things for which they were made which is ready to assist such weak and languishing creatures as we are, in our essays towards holiness and felicity; and which, when once it hath taken hold of a soul, and kindled in it the smallest spark of divine love, will be sure to preserve and cherish, and bring it forth into a flame, which many waters shall not quench, neither shall the floods be able to drown it. * Whenever this day begins to dawn, and this "day-star to arise in the heart †," it will easily dispel the powers of darkness, and make ignorance and folly, and all the corrupt and selfish affections of men, flee away before it, as fast, as the shades of night when the sun cometh out of his chambers for "the path of the just is as the shining light, which shineth, more and more, unto the perfect day." - "They shall go on from strength to strength, till every one of them appear before God in Zion." § Why should we think it impossible, that true goodness and universal love should ever come to sway and prevail in our souls? Is not this their primitive state and condition; their native and genuine constitution, as they came first from the hands of their Maker? Sin and corruption are but usurpers; and, though they have long kept the possession, yet" from the beginning it was not so." That inordinate self-love, which one would think were rooted in our very being, and interwoven with the constitution of our nature, is, neverthless, Cant. viii. 7. † 2 Pet. i. 19. of foreign extraction, and had no place at all in have still so much Our understandings ought to be wholly the state of integrity. We reason left, as to condemn it. are easily convinced, that we devoted to Him, from whom we have our being; and to love him, infinitely more than ourselves, who is infinitely better than we; and our wills would readily comply with this, if they were not disordered and put out of tune. And is not he who made our souls, able to rectify and mend them again? Shall we not be able, by his assistance, to vanquish and expel those violent intruders, "and turn unto flight the armies of the aliens ? No sooner shall we take up arms in this holy war, but we shall have all the saints on earth, and all the angels in heaven, engaged on our party. The holy church throughout the world, is daily interceding with God, for the success of all such endeavours; and, doubtless, those heavenly hosts above, are nearly concerned in the interests of religion, and infinitely desirous to see the divine life thriving and prevailing in this inferior world; and the will of God done by us on earth, as it is done by themselves in heaven: may we not then encourage ourselves, as the prophet did his servant, when he showed him the horses and chariots of fire: "Fear not, for they that be with us, are more than they that be against us?" + WE MUST DO WHAT WE CAN, AND DEPEND ON THE DIVINE ASSISTANCE. Away, then, with all perplexing fears and desponding thoughts. To undertake vigorously, and *Heb. xi. 34. 2 Kings, vi. 16, 17. "* rely confidently on the divine assistance, is more than half the conquest: "Let us arise and be doing, and the Lord will be with us.' It is true, religion in the souls of men, is the immediate work of God; and all our natural endeavours can neither produce it alone, nor merit those supernatural aids by which it must be wrought: the Holy Ghost must come upon us, and the power of the Highest must overshadow us, before that holy thing can be begotten, and Christ formed within us. But yet, we must not expect that this whole work shall be done, without any concurring endeavours of our own: we must not lie loitering in the ditch, and wait till Omnipotence pulls us from thence. No, no; we must bestir ourselves, and actuate those powers which we have already received: we must put forth ourselves to our uttermost capacities, and then we may hope that ". our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord." + All the art and industry of man cannot form the smallest herb, or make a stalk of corn to grow in the field: it is the energy of nature, and the influences of heaven, which produce this effect; it is God "who causeth the grass to grow, and herb for the service of man : and yet nobody will say, that the labours of the husbandman are useless or unnecessary. So, likewise, the human soul is immediately created by God; it is he who both forms and enlivens the child: and yet he has appointed the marriage-bed, as the ordinary means for the propagation of mankind. Though there must intervene a * 1 Chron. xxii. 16. + 1 Cor. xv. 58. Psalm civ. 14. stroke of Omnipotence to effect this mighty change in our souls, yet ought we to do what we can to fit and prepare ourselves. For we must break up our fallow ground, and root out the weeds, and pull up the thorns*, that so we may be more ready to receive the seeds of grace, and the dew of heaven. It is true, God has been found of some, who sought him not; he has cast himself in their way, who were quite out of his; he has laid hold upon them, and stopped their course on a sudden: thus was Saint Paul converted, in his journey to Damascus. But, certainly, this is not God's ordinary method of dealing with men. Though he has not tied himself to means, yet he has tied us to the use of them; and we have never more reason to expect the divine assistance, than when we are doing our utmost endeavours. It shall, therefore, be my next work, to show what course we ought to take, for attaining that blessed temper which I have been hitherto describing. But here, if, in delivering my own thoughts, I shall chance to differ from what is, or may be, said by others in this matter, I would not be thought to contradict and oppose them, more than physicians do, when they prescribe several remedies for the same disease, which, perhaps, are all useful and good. Every one may propose the method he judges most proper and convenient; but he does not thereby pretend that the cure can never be effected, unless that method be exactly observed. I doubt, it has occasioned much unnecessary disquietude to some holy persons, that they have not * Jer. iv. 3. |