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quenched his popular spirit, and reduced his vigorous faculties to the gloomy receffes of filent folitude. Retirement beft fuited the melancholy frame of his mind; he abandoned all company, and chofe to wander in the most dreary paths, as judging himself unfit for fociety. In one of his folitary walks he was infenfibly brought into a gloomy vale, where he was led in a vifion to fee the true state of his foul in the fight of God. This valley can only be seen in a vision:-The band of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and fet me down in the midft of the valley which was full of dry bones, and caufed me to pass by them round about; and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. And be faid unto me, Son of man, can thefe bones live? Ezek. xxxvii. 1, 2, 3. In this valley he faw his awful ftate; it was impreffed upon his mind that the valley reprefented the fall of man, or the finner's low eftate. Pfalm cxxxvi. 23. The bones reprefented death, the trophies of fin and Satan, Rom. v. 12; and their being very dry, exhibited the barren and fruitlefs ftate of a foul in the fight of God, which is compared here to dry bones, and by the prophet Ifaiah to dry ground, Ifa. xliv. 3, which reprefents the foul to be dead, without any affection to God, and without any motion toward him.

Abimaaz. Indeed that is the true ftate of a finner before he be quickened by the Holy Ghoft; he

is under the fentence of the law, and under the fentence of his own confcience; as John declares, He that believes not is condemned already. John iii. 18. He is fubverted, and finneth, being condemned of bimself. Tit. iii. 11. And with respect to life or motion toward God, he hath none; as the Apoftle witneffeth, You bath be quickened who were dead in trefpaffes and fins, Eph. ii. 1; and I believe the Saviour meant this when he faid to one of his dif ciples, Let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God; certainly he meant, let those that are dead in trefpaffes and fins bury thofe that departed this life in their fins, or in an unpardoned ftate.'

Cufbi. What you have faid is true; man, fallen man, is dead in law, and under the fentence of it, and fpiritually dead to God, deftitute of all good, either feeling, affection, or motion; and as he daily heaps up fin upon fin, so treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath. The fcriptures represent him as buried in his own trangreffions. Then be faid unto me, Son of man, thefe bones are the whole boufe of Ifrael; behold, they Jay, Our bones are dried, and our hope is loft: we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophefy, and fay unto them, Thus faith the Lord God, Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and caufe you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Ifrael. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,

graves, and shall put my fpirit in you, and ye shall live, and I fhall place you in your own land; then fhall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, faith the Lord. Ezek. xxxvii. 11-14. Thus, my dear brother, you see the low eftate of man, represented by this valley; his spiritual death by the bones; his fpiritual death, I fay, for these men were not literally dead; the barrennefs of his foul, while in an hopeless ftate, is reprefented by the dryness of the bones; and the tranfgreffions that his foul is involved in, by the graves; and his fpiritual refurrection is by the power of GodI will bring you up out of your graves; and the quickening of his dead foul is done by the SpiritI fhall put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live.

Abimaaz. I blefs God that ever I met with thee. The Lord has given thee a bleffed talent for opening the fcriptures. matter very plain to me. of his will and power as that vifion reprefents man deftitute of both; and a foul dead to God, and buried in his own tranf

You have made this Let the free-willer boast much as he will, God in

greffions, can do no more toward his own spiritual refurrection than a dead corpfe can do toward the refurrection of the body. God fays he brings them out of their graves, and he puts his fpirit in them; no call for this if a man hath will and power fufficient of his own. To the power of God, and the fpirit of his grace, is afcribed the quickening and converfion of every faint in the Bible; but not one inspired penman in all God's book ever boasted

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of his natural will or power, or ever attributed any thing that accompanies falvation to either, but to the fovereign will and omnipotent power of God only.

Cufbi. Why you begin to talk like an orthodox divine; that is a found Speech that cannot be condemned. Tit. ii. 8.,

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A free willer can no more raife himself up, and go to the Saviour by his own power, than a dead corpfe can raise itself out of the grave and the judgment feat. It requires more power to quicken and raife up a dead foul to fpiritual life, than it does to raise up a dead body. The mouldered duft will make no more refiftance than the paffive earth did while God formed Adam; but the rebellious foul will refift to the laft; like a defperate criminal under fentence, it will kill or be killed.

No fooner does the eye of justice dart a ray on the guilty confcience, but, like the Egyptians, he flies. The Lord looked upon the boft of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire, fo that the Egyptians faid, Let us flee. Exod. xiv. 24, 25. Thus the finner rebels against the light. Job xxiv. 13. He that doeth evil bateth the light, neither cometh he to the light, left his deeds fhould be reproved. John iii. 20. Here is the ftrong oppofition from the enmity of the mind; the poor fleeping duft of the body will never make this refiftance. When the Lord fpeaketh, Earth, difclofe your blood, and no more cover your flain, Ifa. xxvi. 21, it is done; they shall move out of

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their boles like worms of the earth. Micah vii. 17. Here is no more refiftance than what the power of the worm reprefents. But when God comes to raise a dead foul, not only the understanding fkulks from the light, but every faculty is engaged in the oppofition. Let God give a pofitive command, and he receives an answer pregnant with the utmost refentment. Son, go work to-day in my vineyard. He anfwered, and faid, I will not. Matt. xxi. 28, 29. Let a minifter reprefent the excellency and fuitablenefs of a Saviour, and the answer is, He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we fee him, there is no beauty that we should defire him. Ifa. liii. 2. the carnal understanding fhuns the rays of light, the mind difcovers its enmity, the will expreffes the utmost resentment, and the affections are altogether alienated from God, and fixed upon one idol or other; fome dote on pleasure, others on wealth, others upon honour, others upon human learning, and all upon fin. Not one thought for God, until an almighty power take it prisoner, and by love make it a willing captive. Our weapons are not carnal, but mighty, through God, to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. 2 Cor. iv. 5.

Abimaaz. Why, this is God's teftimony of human frailty, and what every eminent faint in the bible has confeffed and confirmed, by the long catalogue of their own finful weakneffes. But is it not amazing that men will daringly give the teftimony

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