choly, as sickness, affliction, evening, autumn, &c. it is a natural effect. Also, the anxious feelings of the sinner which follow in view of truth, appear to be as much a natural effect, (allowing the truth to be first set home,) as the sensation produced by the touch of fire. But,

(2.) After natural causes have spent their force, the attention is by no means sufficiently roused, nor the truth sufficiently apprehended, to answer the purpose. There is occasion for the interposition of supernatural power. It was not the voice of Ezekiel but the power of God which organized the bodies in the valley; and it is the office work of the Holy Spirit to "convince the world of sin."* This supernatural influence answers three ends: First, to bring truth into view without the direct aid of means. Awakening thoughts are often shot into the mind in a way not to be accounted for on the principle of association, nor from any of the known laws of nature. Secondly, to disclose the sinner's heart to his own view, and thus induce a self-application of the truths which come in from the word. But the principal end is, thirdly, to counteract that unbelief which blinds the mind and prevents a realizing sense of truth. This particular act of God, to which I intend to confine my attention, brings no truth before the mind, but only causes what is already there to be realized. How this is done we can by no means explain. How a truth which already lies before the understanding is made to be more deeply realized, by an influence which makes no alteration in the temper of the heart, we can no more conceive than how unimbodied spirits communicate their thoughts to each other. But it appears to be something entirely different from merely fixing the attention. The attention is often closely fixed while

* John xvi. 8.

no realizing sense of truth is obtained. All we can say is, it is an operation which counteracts the blindness of unbelief and increases the liveliness of speculative faith. Were it not for this influence, in its more imperceptible operations, unbelief would probably so blind the mind as to produce a total neglect of the means of grace, and truth would not be sufficiently realized to turn the attention to divine subjects, and give opportunity for the natural causes which have been mentioned to operate. Unbelief would so strongly guard the avenues to the soul, that ordinances, dispensations of providence, and human eloquence, (which can now send in divine truth by a natural process,) would have no effect. And should this divine influence, combined with natural causes, produce as much belief and attention as can be found in the most decent of the unawakened, and go no further, the man would die grossly ignorant of many things important to be known before regeneration.

This operation which causes truth to be realized, is wholly the work of God, to which no means or human exertions from without can reach a helping hand. And that his agency may be the more manifest, he does not always cause the mind to realize what is laid before it, even when its attention is highly excited. Still,

(3.) This operation is so far stated as to accommodate itself to the nature of man and encourage human exertions. When motives are presented and pressed upon the mind by ministers and Christians, that is the time which the Spirit ordinarily takes to carry them home to the conscience. Millions of instances, amounting to general experience, and producing an ordinary calculation, attest this. Such an order seems established, not only that by encouraging human instrumentality the best affections of the heart may be called forth; not only that the light

which comes from God accompanied with effects so glorious, may disclose its source by being conveyed to the mind through visible conductors; but that men as moral agents may be wrought upon in a way conformable to their nature,-in a way as nearly coincident as possible with the natural order. And it does in fact very nearly coincide with that. When truths, naturally adapted to interest the existing feelings of the heart, are urged by others, it is a law of nature that the feelings should be interested by them. In the present case unbelief keeps them out, and prevents what otherwise would be a natural effect. It is only necessary that divine power should counteract this unbelief, and then the word and ordinances and dispensations of God and the appeals of sacred eloquence will naturally move the soul. God really carries sinners through the whole course of conviction by the power of motives, as in every instance of moral suasion, except that he counteracts that unbelief, and so lets the motives in full upon their minds, leaving them then to produce their natural effect. But it is moral suasion still. It is God speaking inwardly to the mind. Not leaving the motives where they dropt from the lips of human eloquence, he carries them in and lays them before the eye of the soul, and becomes himself the preacher to a new sense. It is still nothing but truth addressed to the mind, as in every instance of moral suasion. The only difference is, that in one case he gives efficacy to truth by the natural operations of his power, in a way altogether stated; in the other, by the supernatural, and in a less stated manner. But even in that which is less stated he acts very much in a line with nature, entering the mind by the ordinary avenues, and pressing natural causes into cooperation, so that to an observer the whole appears often like a natural effect. Thus when the mind is softened by affliction, or put in a

frame for serious reflection by causes operating on the body, or by a view of danger, that is the time when it is most likely to come under those impressions which but for unbelief would have been a natural effect. It is upon the same principle that the operations of grace after conversion are regulated so much by the peculiarities of different constitutions. Grace sets the man in motion as nature made him, only in pursuit of a new object. Ardent men make ardent Christians, and timid men make fearful Christians.

Upon the same principle the particular kinds of address which would be best calculated to impress the mind were there no unbelief, and therefore no need of supernatural interposition, is now best calculated to impress it. God more generally causes the impression which depends on his agency to bear much the same proportion to the natural power of means as though it were a natural effect. Thus a pungent exhortation is likely to make deeper impressions than a frigid exposition. The manner best calculated to persuade a reasonable man to do you a favour, is best calculated to prevail on him to be a Christian. When the parent sits down in earnest to press the conscience of his child, and feels that he cannot let him go, he is very likely to succeed. These things are so ordered, among other reasons, to encourage us to put every wheel of nature in motion for the salvation of men which would promise to be successful if that salvation were a natural effect. Were we not encouraged to make these exertions, we could make none at all, except merely by prayer; for all our other means and all our powers lie within the boundaries of nature. We cannot reach beyond, nor move a step but by her laws. Yet all these means and efforts prove unavailing in instances enough to convince us of our absolute dependance on supernatural power.

Thus far I have applied the principle to the exertions of men for the conviction of others; but the coincidence of the supernatural with the natural order will more clearly appear from the use that is made of the sinner's own agency. God carries on the work of conviction, (so far as he is pleased to advance it,) through the sinner's own attention, pouring light through the eye of the mind as it is eagerly held towards the truth, and making the effect to depend on that attention as really as in any other case. To go back to the beginning: the mind of the stupid sinner always has an eye open, however vacantly it may gaze, and truth in the first instance is brought and laid before it by divine or human agency without any effort of its own. At that moment God gives, or fails to give, a realizing view. If the view is not sufficiently distinct to fix the attention, and the mind turns its eye away, or fails to adjust it to the object, the view will be gone, or continue very indistinct and only for a short time. All the efforts from without, whether of God or man, do no more than present objects of attention, and urge motives to stimulate attention, and cause realizing views to accompany attention. But if the attention is not fixed the effect ceases. The mind must see for itself, or it will not perceive; and it cannot see the object while the eye is turned another way. The sinner must attend to what in the first instance is laid before him, and under the excitement of that motive must put himself in the way to see more, and as new truth is presented must fix his eye eagerly on that, and stimulated by the new motives thus discovered, must bend a still more earnest attention to the subject, and so on in a series of increasing efforts, or according to God's ordinary mode of operation he will never be convicted.

All this time the hand of God is behind him, effectually urging him forward by a clear display of