to come and reason with him, and shews them a better way of pleading for themselves.
It is by his ministers that he now condescends to reason with mankind. We therefore propose to you on this occasion in God's stead, and will argue with you upon, the two most important of all points, the necessity and the efficacy of a religious life :
I. The necessity of a religious life — The common reasonings of men on this subject are extremely futile and erroneous —
[We are too apt to "confer with flesh and blood," and to be misled by the suggestions of our own evil hearts. The world around us, and our own corrupt nature, unite in asserting, that a life of devotedness to God is not necessary, not desirable, not practicable. ' How can it be imagined,' say these objectors, ' that God should require all persons to live in such a holy self-deny- ing way as the first Christians did ? It might be proper for them in the infancy of Christianity to set such an example ; but it cannot he necessary for us in these times to follow it. And to suppose that all who do not give up themselves to God as they did, are doomed to eternal misery, would be to make God a cruel tyrant, and to rob him of his noblest attributes of good- ness and mercy. Nor is it to he wished, that religion should operate now as it did then : for how could the affairs of nations be conducted, or the common offices of life be performed ? There would be an end to trade, and to all the refinements of civilized society ; and men must be brought back again to the
simplicity and vacuity of the Patriarchal age In short,
it cannot he ejfected now. A few visionaries and enthusiasts may experience something, and pretend to a great deal more : but to eradicate from the breast the love of sin, and to raise the soul above all the things of time and sense, and to bring it into a state of habitual communion with God, is impossible ; unless we were all to be set apart to the work of religion, just
as the Apostles were, and had nothing else to attend to '
Such are the reasonings of flesh and blood. But here is little else than mere unfounded assertion, which is contracUcted by every page of the Holy Scriptures, and by the actual expe- rience of thousands.]
Let us now, in God's name, reason with you on the same subject —
[7/(25 not God done enough to merit all the services thai you can possibly render him ? Think of what he has done lor you in creation and providence, and, above all, in the work of redemption, and then say, whether there "be any thing which