foolishness in their view, but its spirituality. No men taught more zealously the moral principles of truth, justice, and temperance, than the ancient sages of Greece. With this part of Christianity there was no difficulty. But they stumbled at those mysterious but heaven-attested doctrines, in union with which only can the morality of fallen sinners be exalted to the dignified station of religion. It was the stupendous doctrine of God made sin, that man might be made the righteousness of GOD in him, with all that flows from this doctrine, of our lost and undone condition, and of our need of renewing grace that offended their selfrighteous estimation of their own worth. It was the incarnation of GOD the Son-the sacrifice of the cross-the virtue of the atonement thereby made for sin, and the unqualified necessity of faith in this crucified JESUS, as GoD manifest in the fleshdying for our sins-rising for our justification-ascended into heaven for our assurance of immortality-glorified and reigning for salvation to the ends of the earth, and constituted the judge of quick and dead-these were the high discoveries which overthrew the systems of their fanciful mythology. It was at these stumbling truths that their pride revolted. It was by these mysterious doctrines that their wisdom was confounded; and as they received not the love of truth that they might be saved, they incurred the delusion of believing a lie that they might be damned. And is there nothing in this warning, my friends, which knocks awfully at the hearts of those who stand in the like danger by incurring the like guilt? Is there nothing to alarm the fears of those who exalt the meagre and vapid reasonings of infidel science against GoD and the word of his grace? Is there nothing to show the wise, and the mighty, and the noble of this Christian land, why the gospel is not the power of God unto salvation to them? Is there nothing in this delineation of the first principles of religion, to enable all present to determine whether they are natural or spiritual men? Above all, is there nothing to show them that better way which GoD has marked out and promised to bless all who walk in it? O, beware, my dear brethren and hearers, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit-after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after CHRIST. And

O, beware that ye stop not short of that renewal of the SPIRIT OF GOD in you, which alone can prepare a fallen, spiritually dead creature for life and glory eternal !

III. Thirdly, I am to inquire why these particular things are counted foolishness.

To say that this is occasioned by the want of senses exercised to discern the application and efficacy of the discoveries of the gospel, would be leaving the subject where we found it, and leaving those, also, who are in this deplorable state, without the help and counsel provided for them. It is, therefore, to the neglect of obvious duty on the part of those who are favoured with divine revelation, that this state of indifference and deadness to the interests of hereafter, is to be ascribed. That such multitudes, Gallio-like, care for none of those things, and the activity of rational natures, made, and formed, and furnished to glorify God and enjoy him for ever, are content to famish on the husks and garbage of a perishing world, are content to remain in the darkness and hopelessness of the things that are seen, even amid the bright shining of the light of life.

Of this, the true cause of the evil and the just answer to this inquiry, the proof, I trust, will be evident from the following considerations:

First, if God hath spoken to us, and we are in possession of his will and directions, the undeniable duty of every rational being, is, to acquaint himself with that will and to follow those directions.

Secondly, it is on the performance of this duty that GoD hath limited his blessing in the growth and increase of spiritual help and power.

The first consideration is so self-evidently true as to meet the unqualified assent of all who hear it: and it follows, undeniably, in an equal degree, that whoever does not carefully consider and follow out the will of GoD, either denies the fact of a revelation or despises the revealer; and, consequently, cannot expect any of the spiritual benefits promised to faith and obedience. O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end. How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation.

The second consideration is equally capable of proof, and of a proof not only derived from authority, but from the reason of the thing. God hath no need of the sinful man, therefore it is by grace that we are saved.

GOD so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. The mercies of redemption and the means of grace, therefore, are the talents, in their various extent, committed to our trust on the declared condition of improvement. To him that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but from him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which he hath.

With this equitable rule, all that the Saviour of the world hath taught and promised is in perfect agreement. I came not to destroy men's lives but to save them. I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. He that believeth on me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters; he that believeth not shall be damned.

From all which, and much more that might be produced, it must be evident that the blessing of spiritual illumination, so essential to a fallen creature, is limited on the previous condition of our faith in and submission to the revealed will of GOD; nor can it be conceived in what other way religion, as a reasonable and possible duty, can be addressed to moral creatures in a state of reprieve and probation for eternity. All doubt on this point, however, is happily done away by the standing declaration of the gospel-Ask and ye shall receive; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you. For, says our blessed LORD, and happy experience confirms the truth, every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.

Hence it must be evident, and I pray GoD that it may be the effectual conviction of every soul that now hears me, that if we are natural men in the sense here used by the apostle; if we are indifferent to the high discoveries of the gospel; if we are careless of the manifestation of GoD, therein made to the faith and observance of his creatures; if the course and occupation

of our lives, or the open or secret tenour of our thoughts, show louder than words, that they are foolishness unto us; it must be our fault, it cannot be our infirmity; it must be our condemnation, it cannot be our excuse. GOD hath done all that is necessary to remove our natural disability for spiritual things; he hath set before us whatever can confirm faith, excite hope, or alarm fear in rational creatures: but if we will none of his ways, if we will be wiser than GoD in the things of God, and risk our immortal souls on the unreasonable venture, what remains, but that having chosen darkness rather than light, the way of life shall be hid from us for ever. For if any man have not the SPIRIT OF CHRIST, he is none of his; neither is their salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved only the name of JESUS CHRIST of Nazareth.

I have now to conclude with some remarks on the conseseqences which must follow to those who remain in this condition.

And first, it must, I think, be evident that were those consequences confined to the present life, they are worth an exertion to be avoided; for either all serious thought must be excluded or thought must be painful. The natural man differs but little from the brute, and that difference is against the man. In the day of prosperity and enjoyment, the natural man, like the ox in a fat pasture, may give himself up to every delight of the carnal mind, and drown and extinguish the voice of reason and reflection in the festivities of wantonness, or occupy his faculties exclusively in the acquisitions of time; but in the day of adversity where is his resource? The brute has no anticipationsthe man has. As his prosperity was without GOD, so is his adversity without one ray of comfort. Thought is his enemy and reflection his torment, because he perverts his distinguishing character as a rational being, and will not point it to God. But more than this; it is a sense of GOD, of his undeserved goodness, of the wonders of his love in the gift of JESUS CHRIST for the redemption of sinners, which gives to the various mercies of his providence their proper character; this the natural man deprives himself of. The most prosperous and happy condition

terminates with the short uncertainty of time; the natural man cannot look beyond it, further than conjecture; but it is not so with adversity. GOD, in aid of his truth, hath planted an impression in every heart, that adversity ends not with this life to the sinner. A certain fearful looking for of judgment, which he cannot shake off though he can resist it, for he is a moral being and not a machine, haunts the natural man, with the fear which hath torment; his prosperity, therefore, is unblessed— his adversity is without comfort. If more than this is the portion of the natural man, of the man who hath no discernment or desire of the things of the SPIRIT OF GOD, it can only be what he has in common with the beasts that perish.

But, secondly, when this world and all its delusions come to close, when the inevitable sentence to which all must submit makes the truth of GOD victorious over all the vain reasonings of an infidel philosophy, when the pride of opinion can no longer bear up against the realities which this hour brings forwardwhat then, my hearers, are the consequences to the natural man, to the man for whom CHRIST has died in vain, with whom the HOLY SPIRIT has striven in vain, and God put forth the whole extent of his love, for salvation, without effect? Shall I attempt to speak of them? No, imagination is exhausted and expression overwhelmed under the awful contemplation. To your hearts, to your consciences, then, I refer you for what cannot be uttered, and may God in mercy seal his truth to your soul's health.