Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Works of the Reverend and Learned Isaac Watts, D.D, Vol. 1 of 6: Containing, Besides His Sermons, and Essays on Miscellaneous Subjects, Several Additional Pieces, From His Manuscripts
IV. Another prejudice against the gospel is this; some persons charge it with much of enthusiasm; and that the doctrine of the Operations of the Spirit, and the expectation of his divine assistance to instruct us in truth, to mortify sin in us, and' to enable us to perform holy duties, has too much of a visionary and fanciful turn of mind, and does not become men that profess reason.
But if such objectors were better acquainted with themselves, and knew the weakness of their own reason in the search after truth, and the various and plau sible errors that attend their enquiries on every side; if they were better acquainted with the strength of temptation, the power of their own sinful appetites, and the weakness of their will to resist sin, and to fulfil the rules of righteousness: surely they would not think it a ridiculous thing to lift up a prayer to the great God to guide them into truth, and to assist them to walk steadily in the paths of religion and virtue. If they had but a deep and lively sense of their own insufficiency for every thing that is good, and of the many dangers and enemies that beset them, they would rather see infinite reason to bless their Creator, that has given them any promise or hope of the aids of his grace.
Nor is it at all fantastical or irrational to suppose, that the great and blessed God, who made these spirits of ours, should kindly act upon them, and in?uence them by secret and divine methods to their duty and their happiness; that he should send his own Spirit to help them onward in their proper business, which is to serve him here; and assist them in the pursuit of their true blessedness, which is, to enjoy him hereafter.
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