to them for ever.-As they had no language but their own, without the gift of tongues they could not have preached the gospel except in Judea;—and as they had no authority of their own, without the fupernatural one of figns and wonders,-they could not vouch for the truth of it beyond the limits where it was firft tranfacted.-In this work, doubtless, all their fufficiency and power of acting was immediately from God;-his holy spirit as he had promised them, fo it gave them a mouth and wifdom which all their adverfaries were not able to gainfay or refift.-So that without him, without thefe extraordinary gifts, in the most literal fenfe of the words, they could do nothing. But befides this plain application of the text to those particular perfons and times, when God's spirit was poured down in that signal manner held facred to this day,— there is fomething in them to be extended further, which christians of all ages,-and, I hope, of all denominations, have still a claim and truft in, and that is, the ordinary affistance and influences of the fpirit of God in our hearts, for moral and virtuous improvements;--thefe,

both in their natures as well as intentions, being altogether different from the others above mentioned conferred upon the disciples of our Lord. The one were miraculous gifts,—in which the endowed perfon contributed nothing, which advanced human nature above itself, and raised all its projectile springs above their fountains; enabling them to speak and act fuch things, and in fuch manner, as was impoffible for men not infpired and preternaturally upheld.-In the other cafe, the helps spoken of were the influences of God's spirit, which upheld us from falling below the dignity of our nature:— that divine affiftance which gracioufly kept us from falling, and enabled us to perform the holy profeffions of our religion. Though these are equally called fpiritual gifts, they are not, as in the firft case, the entire works of the fpirit,—but the calm co-operations of it with our own endeavours; and are ordinarily what every fincere and well-difpofed christian has reafon to pray for, and expect from the fame fountain of ftrength, who has promised to give his holy fpirit to them that ask it.

From this point, which is the true doctrine of our church, the two parties begin to divide both from it and each other;-each of them equally mifapplying thefe paffages of Scripture, and wrefting them to extremes equally pernicious.—

To begin with the first; of whom, fhould you enquire the explanation and meaning of this or of other texts,-wherein the affistance of God's grace and holy fpirit is implied as neceffary to fanctify our nature, and enable us to ferve and pleafe God?-They will answer, ―That no doubt all our parts and abilities are the gifts of God,-who is the original author of our nature,-and, of confequence, of all that belongs thereto. That as by him we live, and move, and have our being,-we must in courfe depend upon him for all our actions whatsoever,-fince we must depend upon him even for our life, and for every moment of its continuance.—That from this view of our state and natural dependence, it is certain they will fay, We can do nothing without his help. But then they will add,—that it concerns us no farther as chriftians, than as we

are men ;-the fanctity of our lives, the religious habits and improvements of our heart, in no other fenfe depending upon God, than the most indifferent of our actions, or the natural exercise of any of the other powers he has given us.-Agreeably with this, that the fpiritual gifts spoken of in Scripture, are to be understood by way of accommodation, to fignify the natural or acquired gifts of a man's mind; fuch as memory, fancy, wit and eloquence; which, in a strict and philofophical fenfe, may be called fpiritual;-because they tranfcend the mechanical powers of matter, -and proceed more or less from the rational foul, which is a spiritual fubftance.

Whether thefe ought, in propriety, to be called fpiritual gifts, I fhall not contend, as it feems a mere dispute about words ;—but it is enough that the interpretation cuts the knot, instead of untying it; and, befides, explains away all kind of meaning in the above promifes. And the error of them feems to arife, in the first place, from not diftinguishing that these spiritual gifts,—if they must be called so, --such as memory, fancy and wit, and other

endowments of the mind, which are known by the name of natural parts, belong merely to us as men; and whether the different degrees, by which we excel each other in them, arife from a natural difference of our fouls,or a happier difpofition of the organical parts of us.-They are fuch, however, as God originally beftows upon us, and with which, in a great measure, we are fent into the world. But the moral gifts of the Holy Ghost,-which are more commonly called the fruits of the fpirit, cannot be confined within this defcription. We come not into the world equipt with virtues, as we do with talents;-if we did, we should come into the world with that which robbed virtue of its beft title both to prefent commendation and future reward.-The gift of continency depends not, as these affirm, upon a mere coldnefs of the conftitution-or patience and humility from an insensibility of it;-but they are virtues infenfibly wrought in us by the endeavours of our own wills and concurrent influences of a gracious agent ;and the religious improvements arifing from thence, are so far from being the effects of na

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