For since all that is good and evil, is only so to them, because it lives in their heart; they may easily be taught, that no virtue, whether it be humility, or charity, has any goodness in it, but as it springs in, and from the heart, nor any vice, whether it be pride, or wrath, is any farther renounced, than as its power, and place in the heart is destroyed. And thus the insignificancy and vanity of an outward formality of a virtuous behaviour, and every thing short of a new heart, and new spirit in, and through the power of Christ, dwelling in them, may be fully shewn to be self-delusion, and self-destruction.
Your next great point, as a preacher, should be to bring men to an entire faith in, and absolute dependance upon, the continual power and operation of the Spirit of God in them.
All churches, even down to the Socinians, are forced, in obedience to the letter of scripture, to hold _something_ of this doctrine.
But as all churches, for many ages, have had as much recourse to learning, art, and science to qualify ministers for the preaching of the gospel, as if it was _merely_ a work of man’s wisdom, so ecclesiastics, for the most part, come forth in the power of human qualifications, and more or less trust to their own ability, according as they are more or less proficients in science and literature, languages and rhetoric.
To this, more than to any other cause, is the _great apostasy_ of all Christendom to be attributed. This was the door, at which the _whole spirit_ of the world entered into possession of the Christian church.
Worldly desires and interests, vanity, pride, envy, contention, bitterness, and ambition, the death of all that is good in the soul, have now, and always had their chief nourishment and support, from a sense of the merit, and sufficiency of literal accomplishments.
Humility, meekness, patience, faith, hope, contempt of the world and heavenly affections (the very life of Jesus in the soul) are by few people less desired, or more hard to be practised, than by great _wits_, _classical critics_, _linguists_, _historians_ and _orators_ in holy orders.
Now to bring a man to a full dependance upon, and faith in the continual operation of the Holy Spirit, as the only raiser and preserver of the life of God in their hearts, it is not enough, you sometimes, or _often_ preach upon the subject, but every thing that you inculcate, should be directed _constantly_ to it, and all that you exhort men to, should be required, only as a means of obtaining, and concurring with, that Holy Spirit, which is, and only can be, the _life_ and _truth_ of goodness. And all that you turn them from, should be as from something that resists, and grieves that blessed Spirit of God, which always wills to remove all evil out of our souls, and make us again partakers of the divine nature.
For as they only are Christians, who are born of the Spirit, so nothing should be taught Christians, but as a _work_ of the Spirit; nor any _thing_ sought, but by the _power_ of the Spirit, as well in hearing as teaching. It is owing to the want of this, that there is so much preaching and hearing, and so little benefit either of the preacher or hearer.
The labour of the preacher is, for the most part, to display logic, argument, and eloquence, upon religious subjects; and so he is just as much united to God by his own religious discourses, as the pleader at the bar is, by his law and oratory upon right and wrong.
And the hearers, by their regarding such accomplishments, go away just as much helped, to be new men in Christ Jesus, as by hearing a cause of great equity well pleaded at the bar.
Now in both these cases, with regard to preacher and people, the error is, trusting to a power in themselves; the one in an ability, to persuade powerfully; the other in an ability, to act according to that which they hear.
And so the natural man goes on preaching, and the natural man goes on hearing the things of God, in a fruitless course. And thus it must be, so long as either preacher or hearers, seek any thing else but to edify, and be edified in, and through the immediate power and essential presence of the Holy Spirit, working in them.
*The way therefore to be a faithful, and fruitful labourer in the vineyard of Christ, is to stand yourself in a full dependance on the Spirit of God, as having no power, but as his instrument, and by his influence, in all that you do; and to call others, not to their own strength or rational powers, but to a full hope and faith of having all that they want, from God alone; calling them to himself, to a birth of essential, inherent goodness, wisdom and holiness from his own eternal word and Holy Spirit, living and dwelling in them. For as God is all that the fallen soul wants, so nothing but God alone, can communicate himself to it; all therefore is lost labour, but the total conversion of the soul, to the _immediate, essential_ operation of God in it.