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the truths of the gofpel; but they alfo may be com prehended under the denomination, who receive the gofpel-truths, believing in the veracity, and submiting to the authority of the spirit which revealed them.

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John xv. 5. Without me ye can do nothing. This fingle claufe of a long fentence, being separated from its connexion with what goes before it, is produced as a proof that man is not able to do the will of God acceptably, without the immediate assistance, operation, of special grace upon him through Christ. But, if we look into our Lord's difcourfe, we find him exhorting his difciples to adhere steadfastly to him and his doctrine, that they might bring forth much fruit. He reminds them, that they had already gained much fpiritual improvement by his inftructions, v. 3. Now ye are clean through the wordwhich I have /poken unto you. He intimates that, if they abandoned him and his doctrine, they would deprive themselves of the means of fruitfulness. He is not speaking then of the natural powers of man, but of the importance of the doctrines which he taught to render men fruitful in good works; but this feems neceffarily to fuppofe a capacity in man to understand and improve his doctrines to these purposes.

It seems to be treating Chrift and his words with great irreverence, to apply them to other purposes than those for which he used them. We all readily agree that (in our Lord's fenfe of the expreffion) without him we can do nothing. i. e. If we abandon

him and the gospel, we cannot be fruitful in holiness. or good works; and are very thankful for the provifion he hath made, and the affiftances he hath afforded us by his word, that we may bring forth much fruit.

Philip. ii. 13. For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

In this paffage ne apostle exhorts the Philippians to work out their own falvation with fear and trembling, from a grateful fenfe of the goodness of God in granting them, for that purpose, the inftructions and. motives of the gospel, by which fuch convictions had already been awakened in them, as had excited them both to choose and perform what God required. The energy, or operation of God here spoken of, feems to be the energy of inftruction and persuasion. No doubt it is a very reasonable and powerful motive to us all to work out our falvation, that God, in unfpeakable love and good-will, is continually working in us, by the truths and motives of the gofpel, to choose and perform what he hath required of us.

1 Cor. xv. 10. But by the grace of God I am what I am.

Let any one carefully attend to the whole cafe of Paul's converfion, from being a perfecutor to become a preacher and an apoftle of Jefus Christ, and then fay whether it is reafonable to draw general conclufions refpecting all men from fuch a cafe. However we will all readily adopt his words, and fay, through

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the grace of God, and his favours freely bestowed upon us by the gospel, we are what we are.

Eph. ii. 8. For by grace are ye faved through faith; and that not of yourfelves: it is the gift of God.

The word that doth not refer to faith, as is evident from the original, but to the preceding clause of the fentence. That ye are faved by grace through faith, this is not of yourfelves: it is the gift of God. He is the fole author of this method of falvation.

Ezekiel xxxvi. 25, 26, 27. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the ftony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my ftatutes, and ye fhall keep my judgments and do them.

Look into the prophet himself, and I think it will appear, that this is a prediction of the restoration of the people of the jews to their own country at the end of the babylonifh captivity, and that afterwards they fhould no more return to the practice of idolatry, to which their fathers had been fo prone. Now, the hiftory of that people informs us that this prediction was verified in fact. When God promifes to give. them a new heart, and to put a new fpirit within them, it relates to the particular fubject spoken of, viz. idolatry: and, in reality, there was a wonderful

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change wrought in the difpofitions and practice of that people in this refpect. This was effected by the deep impreffions made upon them by the righteous judgments of God for the idolatries of their forefathers and of themselves. But the new heart and new spirit muft not be understood of an univerfal, or general change from evil to good, becaufe the whole fubfequent hiftory of the jews, and particularly in the gofpel-times, contradicts it. It may, however, refer to fome greater change to be produced in the moral character of the jewish nation, on their return from their prefent difperfion, produced by the confideration of the hand of God in it, as the just punishment of their former vices. But it feems a ftrange perversior, to make this particular prediction to the returning captives, a general promife to mankind, at least to christians, of producing in them a thorough change of heart and life by the immediate operation of the fpirit of God. This may be called accommodating fcripture-paffages, but it feems taking very bold liberties of making what we pleafe out of them, very inconfiftent with a fincere belief in them, as containing the word of God.

Pfalm li. 10. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

We ought not to interpret the figurative expreffions of Hebrew poetry too literally, or to expect in it the rigid accuracy of expreffion of our weftern profe. The pfalmift feems to mean no more by create, than produce, or caufe; which does not ex

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clude the inftrumentality of ordinary means, any more than the word renew. Nay, the pfalmist feems to expect that the clean heart must be created and the right fpirit renewed, not by an immediate operation of fovereign and almighty grace, but by the inftrumentality of those ordinary and ufual means of grace which he had long enjoyed, and experienced the good effects of; and therefore he adds in the following words, v. II. Caft me not away from thy presence, i. e. deprive me not of the ordinances of thy worship in the tabernacle, where thou manifefteft thy prefence in a glorious manner, and take not thy holy Spirit from me, i. e. that holy fpirit with the illuminations of which he had, as a prophet, been fo often favoured, and from which he had reaped great spiritual improvement.

Luke xxiii. 43. To-day fhalt thou be with me in Paradife.

Although certain writers and teachers of religion profess not to mention the cafe of the penitent thief to encourage prefumption and carelessness in any one, yet they mention it fo often, and infift on it fo much, as an inftance of a great and fudden change taking place at the laft hour of a poor finner's life, at the fame time infinuating that the fame change may take place in others (for the Lord's hand is not foortened, that it cannot fave, neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear) that I fear they do, in fact, unhappily encourage prefumption

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