from the general malady, they only prove the more strongly the universality of this truth. Under these two figures may be comprehended all the necessities of our fallen nature : for as a person who has from his birth been destitute of sight and hear- ing can possess no intellectual attainments, so those who are by nature cut off from all means of spiritual discernment must be destitute of spiritual good. Yet is there no spiritual good which the Gospel will not impart to those who seek it, because it will give both the blessing itself, and the faculty whereby it is to be enjoyed.
It were well if this matter were more generally considered ; for it would cut off many sources of despondency, by which the people of God are discouraged. Nothing is more common than to consider a want of natural talent as an almost insur- mountable obstacle to the attainment of divine knowledge ; and more especially to regard long-contracted guilt as a ground for apprehending an utter exclusion from the hopes of the Gospel. But the Gospel meets the ignorant and the guilty with the same free offers of mercy as are presented to the possessors of learning and morality ; and it takes occasion from their very discou- ragements to press on them in particular the acceptance of its benefits : " When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst (a more desperate case can scarcely be painted); I the Lord will hear them; and will open for them rivers of waters in high places (the very reverse of what might naturally be expected), and fountains in the midst of the valleys : I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water1." Whatever then be any man's necessities, let him turn the greatness of those necessities into a plea, as David did ; " Be merciful unto my sin, O God, for it is great ! " and let him know, that the greater his necessities are, the more will God glorify himself in the supply of them.]
2. As sufficient for their necessities —
[Nothing is wanting to make the Gospel of Christ effec- tual. Human wisdom can add nothing to the teaching of God's Spirit. Man's righteousness can add nothing to the righteous- ness of Christ : nor can his strength add any thing to the strength communicated from on high. On the contrary, the least reliance on any thing human will invalidate every thing that is divine : for God will do all, and have all the glory, or leave man to his own inadequate and unassisted efforts. Of itself, it is " quick and powerful, and sharper than any two- edged sword ;" and " mighty through God to the pulling down all the strong holds" of sin and Satan. If only it come in
1 Isai. xli. 17, 18.