the words which I have delivered have carried con- viction along with them. And if any doubt remain on the mind of a single individual, I call upon him to study well the state of his own soul before God. If any one of you think himself not so fallen as I have represented, let him examine well the Scrip- tures, and compare them with the whole of his past life. Or, if he think he can restore himself to God's image by any power of his own, let it be seen that he can do so, and let him prove it by an actual appeal to fact. Or if, in the failure of these endea- vours, he is disposed to maintain that he has no need of such a transformation of soul as I have spoken of, then let him inquire diligently, and see, whether there be not on God's part an insurmountable obstacle to his admission into heaven in an unrenewed state; and also, whether, if admitted into those blissful mansions, there would not be on his part an insuper- able impediment to his enjoyment of them ; and whether that be not true, which our Lord declared to the obstinate and unbelieving Jews, " Whither I go, ye cannot comea."
But none of you will ever be able to satisfy your- selves on any one of these points. If you could establish any one of them, you would set aside the authority of the inspired volume, and disprove at once the whole of Christianity. But if you acknowledge, as you must, the truth of our preceding statement, then set yourselves immediately to make a due im- provement of all that you have heard. Beg of God, especially, that you may be impressed with a deep sense of your exceeding sinfulness, and of your need of the Holy Spirit's influence to renovate your souls. And do not rest in a mere outward acknowledgment of your guilt and helplessness, but cry mightily to God, and " give him no restb" till he bestow his Holy Spirit upon you. Nor harbour a thought of delaying this work to " a more convenient season0:" for, who can tell whether that more convenient season shall
a John viii. 21. b Isai. lxii. 7. c Acts xxiv. 25.