abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost given unto us. Thus we shall remain ignorant of the Father's love, and uninterested in the mediation of the Son ; yea, we shall continue dead in trespasses and sins, if the Holy Ghost do not work effectually in us. Not- withstanding all that the Father and the Son have done for us, we must eternally perish, if we be not renewed and sanctified by the influences of the Blessed Spirit. No resolutions or endeavours of our own will effect the work : nothing less than a divine power is sufficient for it : we must therefore expe- rience the agency of the Holy Ghost on our own hearts, or remain for ever destitute of the salvation provided for us.
Under the law, whatever good appeared in the saints of God, was wrought in them by the Holy Spirit. But they received the Spirit in so small a measure, in comparison of what is vouchsafed to us under the Christian dispensation, that He can scarcely be said to have been given at all till after our Lord's ascension. The Evangelist says, that "the Holy* Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus v/as not yet glorified :" but from the time of that first effusion of the Holy Ghost, even to this present day, the Holy Ghost has been poured out abundantly, or richly, as the original word means, upon the Christian Church : so that not a few only may expect to feel his in- fluences, but all ; even all that will ask for them in Jesus' name.
IV. We come now, in the last place, to speak of the final cause of our redemption —
The final cause is the end ; and, after having seen how the Sacred Three are engaged, we are naturally led to inquire. What is the end proposed ? What is it which these Divine Persons intend to accomphsh ? The text furnishes us with a full and sufficient answer. It tells us, that the final cause for which such wonder- ful provision has been made, is, that man may be saved ; or, in the express words of the text, " that, being justified by faith, we may be made heirs according to