8 Isai. xxix. 11, 12. h 1 Cor. ii. 14.
j 2 Pet. i. 16. and Ezek. xx. 49. * Luke xxiv. 4 1, 45.
1 Acts xvi. 14.
for™, and assisting him in offering the petitions"." If he be insufficient for this work, it may be hoped ^ he is able to do something. But our Lord tells us, that, without the special aid of his grace, he " can do nothing0." Can he not then speak what is good ? No ; " How can ye, being evil, speak good things5 V says our Lord : and St. Paul says, " No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost q." Still may he not zvill, or at least think, what is good ? We must answer this also in the negative : " It is God alone who worketh in us both to will and to do, of his good pleasure1." Nor had St. Paul himself, no, not even after his conversion, an ability, of him- self, to " think any thing good ; his sufficiency was of God, and of God alone8." Our impotence cannot be more fitly expressed by any words whatever, than by that expression of the Apostle, " Ye are dead in trespasses and sins1 :" for, till God quicken us from the dead, we are as incapable of all the exercises of the spiritual life, as a breathless corpse is of all the functions of the animal life.
There is yet a third thing implied in this exhor- tation, namely, that there is a sufficiency for us in Christ; for otherwise the Apostle would not have urged us in this manner to be strong in him.
Well does the Apostle speak of Christ's " mighty power ;" for indeed he is almighty, " he has all power committed to him both in heaven and in earth u." We may judge of his all-sufficiency by what he wrought when he was on earth : the most inveterate diseases vanished at his touch, at his word, at a mere act of volition, when he was at a distance from the patient. The fishes of the sea were constrained to minister unto him : yea, the devils themselves yielded to his authority, and were instantly forced to liberate their captives at his command : they could not even enter into the swine without his permission. The very elements also were obedient to his word ; the
m Rom. viii. 26. » Jude, ver. 20. Zech. xii. 10, ° John xv. 5.
v Matt. xii. 34. n 1 Cor. xii. 3. r Phil. ii. 13.
s 2 Cor. iii. 5. ' Eph. ii. 1. " Matt, xxviii. 18.