fered to grow out of the stock itself, they will all follow the nature of the stock, and if they bring forth any fruit at all, it will be sour and stiptic. But the fruit that groweth from the graft will be pleasant to the taste, because it followeth the nature of the graft. We read of λoyos eμputos, an ingrafted word. Our carnal hearts are the old stock; which, before the word of God be grafted in it, cannot bring forth any spiritual fruit acceptable to God: but when, by the powerful operation of his Holy Spirit, the word which we hear with our outward ears is inwardly grafted therein, it then bringeth forth the fruit of good living. So that all the bad fruits that appear in our lives come from the old stock, the flesh and if there be any good fruit of the Spirit in us, it is from the virtue of that word of grace that is grafted in us."

What modern philosopher or divine can rival this great prelate? His Prælectiones rank him with Aristotle; his piety, with the chief of the apostles.

SECTION XII.

Bishop Smalridge on the absolute Necessity of Grace.

"He who is not convinced of the absolute necessity of God's grace to invigorate his obedience to the divine laws, must be a perfect stranger to himself, as well as to the word of God; and must have

been as careless an observer of what passes within his own breast, as of what is written in the Holy Scriptures. When one gives himself leisure to take a survey of his own faculties, and observes how darksighted he is in the perception of divine truths; with what reluctance he sometimes chooses what his understanding plainly represents to him as good, and refuses what his own conscience directly pronounces to be evil; how apt his affections are to rebel against the dictates of his reason, and to hurry him another way than he knows he should, and, in his sober mind, very fain would go; when he sets before his thoughts the great variety of duties commanded, and of sins forbidden, and the perverseness of his own depraved nature, which gives him an antipathy to those duties and a strong inclination to those sins; when he reflects on the power and cunning of his spiritual enemies, always alluring him to sin, and seducing him from the practice of virtue; when he weighs with himself the necessity of practising every duty, and forsaking every kind of wickedness, in order to secure a good title to the promises of the gospel; when he takes a view of those particular obstacles which hinder him in the exercise of several graces, and of the strong temptations which prompt him to the commission of several sins; when he considers the aptness of human nature to grow weary of performing the same things, though in themselves never so pleasant, and its still greater disposition to grow faint, when the actions continually to be repeated are burdensome to flesh and blood; when he compares the necessity of perseverance with the difficulty of it, the prevalence of things present and sensible with the weakness wherewith those objects

affect us that are absent and spiritual; when, I say, a considering man puts all these things together, he cannot but be convinced, that narrow is the path that leads unto everlasting life,' and that without illumination from the Spirit of God, he shall not be able rightly to discern it; that'strait is the gate' which opens an entry into heaven; and that he cannot by the force of his own natural strength, without new power given him from above, and the secret influences of God's Holy Spirit, adding force and energy to his own endeavours, force his way through it. Conscious, therefore, of his own weakness, he will acknowledge the necessity of God's grace; and being ready to sink through his own natural weight, unless supported by foreign help, he will cry out with St. Peter, 'Save me, Lord, or else I perish.'

"Some philosophers of old, flattered the pride and vanity of men, by teaching them that they wanted nothing to make them virtuous, but only a firm and steady resolution of being so; that this resolution they themselves were masters of, and might exert at their own pleasure. They confidently boasted that their happiness was a thing wholly in their own power; that they need not ask of the gods to be virtuous, nor consequently to be happy, since they could be so without their aid or concurrence, or even in despite of them. The Pelagians afterwards raised their heresies upon the principles which these heathen philosophers had first broached; they engaged in the quarrel of depraved nature against divine grace: all our disorders they would have to be the effects not of sin but of nature; all our evil inclinations seemed to them capable of being subdued by our own unas

sisted reason; and they did not think the succour of any supernatural grace necessary either for the combating of vice, or the maintenance of their integrity and virtue. But the sober Christian hath learned from the Scriptures to speak and to think more humbly of himself, and more becomingly and magnificently of God; we are there taught that 'we are not sufficient of ourselves to think,' much less to do, any thing as of ourselves, but that our sufficiency is of God;' that it is God, which worketh within us both to will and to do of his good pleasure;' that it is by the Spirit' we must 'mortify the deeds of the body,' if we would live; that it is God who, by his Spirit, 'makes us perfect in every good work to do his will, working in us that which is well-pleasing in his sight.' The humble and devout Christian being thus satisfied of the necessity of God's grace, both from his own experience, and from the Scriptures, and being assured of the vital influences of this Spirit from the promises made to him in the gospel, will not be over-curious to inquire into the secret and inconceivable manner of its operation. He will choose rather to feel these influences, than to understand or explain them, and will not doubt of that power, which, though he cannot give an account of as to the manner of its working, he plainly perceives to be great and marvellous from its mighty and wonderful effects: for when, in reading the Holy Scriptures, he finds the veil of darkness removed from before his understanding; when those clouds of ignorance that had overcast his mind, are presently dispersed ; when the doubts under which he had for some time laboured, are on a sudden cleared; when such pious thoughts as were wont to pass transiently are

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long dwelt upon, so as to leave behind them deep and lasting impressions; when these are suggested to him, without his seeking, and are urged and pressed upon him so importunately, that he cannot choose but listen unto them; when, from a calm and serious consideration of the state of his own soul, the odiousness and danger of sin, the beauty and necessity of holiness, he is led to make good and pious resolutions of serving God with greater purity for the time to come; when he finds a sudden impulse upon his spirits, rousing him up to the performance of some important duty which he had before neglected; or an unexpected check, stopping him in the midst of his course, when he is rushing on blindly and impetuously to the commission of some heinous sin; when in his devotions he finds his attention fixed, his affections inflamed, and his heart melted within him; when, while the voice of God's minister preaching the saving truths of the gospel sounds in his ears, he is sensible of an inward voice speaking with greater force and efficacy to his soul, to his understanding, and to his heart; when, under the pressure of any grievous affliction, he feels unexpected joy and comfort; when light rises up in the midst of darkness;' when there is 'given unto him beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;' upon all these and the like occasions he is sensible of the presence and aid of God's Holy Spirit, whose grace alone is sufficient to all these purposes, and whose strength is thus made perfect

in his weakness.

"How the operation of God's Holy Spirit is consistent with the freedom of our own wills: how far we are passive, and how far active in those good