fcriptures have pofitively afferted, and reafon confirms the affertion. Even the facrifices that were duly offered up under the Jewish law, and had the fanction of divine authority, did only fanctify to the purifying of the Alefh from legal defilements, but never could purge the confcience from dead works, nor take away the pe nal confequences of moral guilt. Indeed it was impoffible that they could; for what proportion is there betwixt the momentary fufferings of a brute animal, and thofe everlasting fufferings which are due to the tranfgreffions of reasonable beings?

Whither fhall we go next? Shall we fly to repentance as an adequate atonement for fin? Repent, indeed, we muft, or perish for ever. But a partial and temporary reformation can have no efficacy in the fight of God; and a thorough change is beyond the reach of our power. Suppofing, however, that fuch a perfect repentance as the law of God requires were attainable by our own efforts; yet this would not be fufficient to fecure us against the confequences of paft tranfgreffions, or to remove the painful apprehenfions of confcious guilt. Every hour's obedience, being indifpenfibly due by an original and antecedent obligation, can answer for itfelf only, but can have no retrospective efficacy in making atonement for paft tranfgreffions. Here then nature is at a stand. We have neither power to relieve ourfelves from the penalty of the law, nor can we discover any fatisfactory scheme by which it may be effected; and therefore, unlefs he who made us fhall interpose, we must inevitably perish.

Again,

Again, is it neceffary, in order to eternal life, that the human mind be rescued from the bondage of darknefs, and enlightened with the knowledge of true religion? To whom, in this cafe, fhall we go for inftruction? Shall we refign ourselves to the guidance of natural reafon? This is the advice of the enemies of revelation. But alas! the powers of nature are not more incapable of relieving us from guilt, than the light of reason is infufficient to inftruct us in religious knowledge. Can we poffibly entertain a doubt of this, when we confider the deplorable ignorance, the grofs idolatry and fuperftition, with all their confequent train of abominations, which fo univerfally prevailed over the Gentile world, antecedent to the coming of Chrift, and which ftill prevail in thefe modern nations, into which the light of the gospel hath not yet penetrated. To difperfe this dark, malignant cloud, was a tafk, to which the boafted light of philofophy, which is accounted the perfection of human reafon, felt and acknowledged itself unequal. Indeed the intellectual and moral attainments of the heathen philofophers, circumftanced as they were, muft excite our admiration; and we willingly beftow that praife which is due to their laudable efforts. But ftill it must be acknowledged, that the writings of thefe eminent fages, however much and juftly applauded, are ftanding monuments of the infufficiency of human reafon, in its moft improved ftate, to inftruct the world in the knowledge of true religion. In afcertaining and explaining the. fundamental doctrines of religion, they difcovered the

groffeft

groffeft ignorance, and fell into the most dangerous errors. Their fyftems of morality were exceedingly defective, their example to a high degree imperfect, their authority of little weight, their inftructions conveyed in obfcure language, and generally confined to a few of the higher rank, while no effectual method was taken to render them permanent and extenfively useful. So that the light of philofophy fhone but with a feeble force, and rather dazzled and perplexed than enlightened the understandings of men. Accordingly we find the wifeft among them plainly intimating the neceffity of a divine teacher, You may ever give over, fays one, all hopes of reforming men's manners, unless God fhall be pleafed to fend fome other perfon to infruct you; for, says another, nothing can be fet right in the prefent ill ftate of the world, but by the interpofition of the Deity himself,

To what caufe, then, muft we afcribe their ignorance and deficiencies in religious knowledge? Was it owing to the neglect of exercising and improving the powers of reafon? This cannot be alledged. Knowledge of every kind was carried to a high pitch of perfection among the heathens. The wifdom of their laws, the excellency of their civil establishments, their philosophy, oratory, poetry, and the various arts of life, are the wonder and delight of modern times. Or was religion the only fubject to which they did not turn their attention? This cannot be affirmed. The writings of the philofophers are a clear proof of the contrary. Or perhaps it may be faid, that reafon had

not

not got fufficient time for trying its ftrength. But look into those parts of the world which the religion of Jefus hath not yet vifited, and fay what further progrefs reafon hath made in religious knowledge during the last seventeen hundred years. Are they not still bound faft in the chains of darkness, idolatry and superstition, and as far from the knowledge of the true God and his worship as ever. May we not conclude, then, that the truths of religion are too fublime to be investigated and afcertained by the human mind in its present weak and imperfect state; and that reason, without the affif tance of a divine revelation, could never have communicated to us the words of eternal life?

In fine, is it an established principle in the divine government, founded in reason and the nature of things, that without holinefs no man fhall fee the Lord? Then to whom fhall we apply for affiftance in the attainment of this fo neceffary qualification? Shall we depend upon the efficacy of our own natural powers? Alas! the fame debility is apparent in the executive as in the directing faculties of man. We are as incapable of purifying ourselves from the pollutions of fin, and of yielding an acceptable obedience to the law of God, as of discovering the principles and rules by which we are bound to act. Who will venture to say, I can make my heart clean, I can purify myself from fin? Can the lifeless carcafe, that lies mouldering in the dust, brace the relaxed finews, knit the parted joints, and set the heart and blood in motion? No more can the foul, that is dead in trespasses and fins, shake off its spiritual · flumbers,

flumbers, give ftrength and activity to its torpid powers, and exert them in perfect conformity to the divine will. Should any man be fo ignorant, or so selfconceited, as to alledge the poffibility of this, let him try the experiment upon himself; and if he fails, as fail he muft, let him fearch the annals of every age, and point out, if he can, an instance of fuccefs: and if he cannot, let the truth, humiliating as it is, be confeffed, that man, by the mere exertion of his own abilities, cannot rescue himself from the thraldom of fin, nor restore his nature to that degree of moral rectitude which is necessary to qualify him for the enjoyment of God.

Human nature being thus ruined and undone, without any resources in itself, and having no hope of relief from the efforts of created wifdom and power, the Son of God was manifefted in the flesh, and offered himself to the world as the Saviour of finners. And this brings us to the

Third Ground or reafon, by which the Chriftian is determined to embrace and adhere to the religion of Jefus, namely, its intrinfick excellence, as a mean for extricating us from guilt and wretchedness, and bringing us to eternal life.

In order to be convinced of the wifdom, the fuitable nefs, and the efficacy of the Chriftain fcheme of falvation, we need only to apply it to the prefent condition and circumstances of human nature, and obferve how it provides for all our wants and neceffities. Is man a

finner,