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$tfn ano Uniform (Edition. 
 
 THE CONGREGATIONAL LECTURE, 
 
 FOURTEENTH SERIES 
 
 THE WOBK OF THE SPIEIT. 
 
 BY WILLIAM HENDRY STOWELL, D.D 
 
 XIV. 
 
LONDON 
 
 BESD AXD PAEDOX, PELNTKRS, 
 
 PATEENOSTEK HOW 
 
ON THE 
 
 WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 WILLIAM HENDRY STOWELL, D.D. 
 
 O vo/xos rod IINEYMAT02 rrjs fays eV XPISTni IH20Y. 
 
 ScconU Ottton, «btsrt. 
 
 LONDON- 
 JACKSON AND YfALEOED, 
 
 IS, st. paul's chuiichyahd. 
 mdcccliv. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The theme expressed in the title of this volume is one 
 of which it can scarcely be said, with truth, that it has 
 been neglected in any age of the Christian era. A history 
 of the doctrines taught concerning the Holy Spirit would 
 be interesting, as illustrating the workings of the human 
 mind ; it is occasionally adduced in the following pages, 
 for the purpose of showing into what extremes good men 
 have been led by speculation. 
 
 It is presumed that my readers are not strangers to the 
 principal works relating to the Spirit which have appeared 
 in our language. Of Dr Owen's volume, Bishop Heber 
 has observed, it " is held in high estimation ; and in default 
 of others, has been often recommended to the perusal, not 
 of Dissenters only, but of the younger clergy themselves. 
 But in Owen, though his learning and piety were doubt- 
 less great, and though few have excelled him in the 
 enviable talent of expressing and exciting devotional feel- 
 ings, yet have his peculiar sentiments and political situa- 
 tion communicated a tinge to the general character of his 
 volume, unfavourable alike to rational belief and to reli- 
 gious charity. His arrangement is lucid ; his language 
 not inelegant; and his manner of treating the subject is 
 at least sufficiently copious But, as he has most of the 
 merits, so has he all the imperfections, characteristic of his 
 age and party ; a deep and various, but ill-digested read- 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 ing ; a tediousness of argument, unhappily not incom- 
 patible with a frequent precipitancy of conclusion ; a 
 querulous and censorious tone in speaking of all who differ 
 from him in opinion ; while his attempt to reconcile the 
 Calvinistic doctrine of irresistible grace with the condi- 
 tional promises of the Gospel, may be placed, perhaps, 
 among the most unfortunate specimens of reasoning which 
 have ever found readers or admirers." * 
 
 I confess, it appears to me that the writer's acquaintance 
 with Owen's Pneumatologia was derived, not so much from 
 the independent study of that great work, as from the 
 discourse of Clagett, written in opposition to it, and on 
 which he remarks, not unjustly, — "With much of natural 
 acuteness and a style which, though unpolished, is seldom 
 wearisome, Clagett had too little learning to be ever pro- 
 found, and too much rashness to be always orthodox. 
 Where he exposes the inconsistency of the Puritan argu- 
 ments, his work is not without a certain share of useful- 
 ness ; but for the purposes of general edification, we may 
 search his pages in vain ; nor would he have preserved so 
 long the share of reputation which he holds, if it had not 
 been for the circumstance that he was Owen's principal 
 antagonist." 
 
 Of the Bishop's own Lectures, it has /been said by one 
 who knew him well, and who lovingly reveres his memory, 
 " His treatise, however, on the Holy Spirit, as developed 
 in his Bampton Lectures, seems to me to be an elaborate 
 attempt to urge a hypothesis which is totally groundless 
 
 and mistaken His work is an example of the 
 
 errors wherein theologians have so frequently involved 
 
 * Ileber's Bampton Lectures. Second edition. Lect. I. pp. 11, 12. 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 themselves, by a practice, which in other departments 
 of knowledge would be accounted unwarrantable and per- 
 verse, of picking out a few sentences from the Bible with 
 little, if any, regard to the context, and then spinning a 
 theory out of them by divers logical processes."* 
 
 The plan on which these Congregational Lectures are 
 drawn up has been gradually formed during a pastoral 
 ministry of thirty years, and amid the engagements which 
 have employed me through a large portion of the latter 
 half of that period as a teacher of theology. Nothing has 
 seemed to me to be more natural than to begin our in- 
 quiries on this subject by examining the report of human 
 consciousness, then proceeding to the investigation of 
 the Scriptures, and afterwards to the history of human 
 opinions. I should have been glad if the nature of these 
 preelections, and the limits prescribed for them, had 
 allowed of a distinct and critical handling of all the por- 
 tions of Scripture which relate to the Holy Spirit. As it 
 is, I have contented myself with classifying those portions 
 of Scripture, and giving the results of an inquiry which 
 has been neither brief nor superficial. 
 
 It has been expected, perhaps, that I should go into a 
 full discussion of certain opinions which have excited 
 some controversy within the last few years, in America 
 and in Scotland. I have not done so. The following are 
 my reasons. First, — I am so fully convinced of the right, 
 the duty, and the advantages of free inquiry in every 
 department of human study, as to be jealous of every 
 attempt, on the part of the holders of opinions generally 
 
 * The Mission of the Comforter. Py Julius Charles Hare, M.A., Arch- 
 deacon of Surrey. Second volume, pp. 473, 474. 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 entertained by any party in the church, to bear down 
 innovators by the charge of heterodoxy, even when that 
 charge is sustained by honoured names and by established 
 prejudices. Whether the advocates of any particular in- 
 terpretation of the Scriptures have sound or unsound 
 reasons for adopting it, it does not appear to me that the 
 adherents of a different interpretation are sure to serve 
 the truth by perpetual controversy. Without shrinking 
 from the explicit declaration of what commends itself to 
 my judgment as true, I do not feel that I am called upon 
 to argue the matter with every man who thinks I am in 
 error. It may be the special duty of persons peculiarly 
 situated to discuss the polemical questions of their day; 
 but not being of opinion that I am in a situation which 
 imposes such a duty on me, I content myself with the 
 calm discussion of great principles, — leaving to those who 
 are better qualified, and whose taste inclines that way, the 
 treatment of local and temporary controversies. Secondly, 
 — The controversies to which I here refer are already in 
 good hands ; and I am not aware that I can add any force 
 to the arguments and illustrations that have been used by 
 writers of great experience who have preceded me. The 
 Letters of Sandeman — the Writings of Abraham Booth, 
 Andrew Fuller, and Thomas Scott — the Essays on Equity 
 and Sovereignty, by Dr. Edward Williams, whose chair it 
 is my honour to occupy — Mr. W. Bennet's Gospel Dis- 
 pensation — Mr. Hinton's Treatise on the Work of the 
 Holy Spirit in Conversion — the late Dr. Payne's Lectures 
 on Begeneration, with the copious notes appended to 
 the third edition — the Correspondence of the Glasgow 
 Churches — the Essays reprinted at New York from the 
 Princeton Review — the second edition of Dr. Jenkyn's 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 interesting Treatise on the Union of the Holy Spirit and 
 the Church — and Mr. Gibson's volume on Natural and 
 Moral Inability — all of which I have read with much care, 
 and with no small advantage, contain the several opinions 
 and arguments of wise and good men upon these ques- 
 tions. Thirdly, — The discussion of these questions has 
 brought out the opposing mental tendencies of which a 
 decided opinion on one side or the other, may be taken 
 as a fair exponent. In their extremes, these tendencies 
 produce the denial of any work of the Spirit in the salva- 
 tion of man, beyond that of inspiring the sacred writers ; 
 or, the assertion of some miraculous work on the mind 
 and will of every one who is saved ; but, with the excep- 
 tion of the case of Sandeman, I do not know that either 
 of these extremes has been professedly avowed by any of 
 the writers I have named. Fourthly, — It will appear in 
 these Lectures, that, according to my judgment, the mode 
 in which the free agency of the Spirit is related to the free 
 agency of man in the work of human salvation is a mystery, 
 which I make no pretensions to explain, and of which I 
 know not any satisfactory explanation that has ever been 
 offered. 
 
 It has been my endeavour to write a book which should 
 be adapted to the present state of psychical and theological 
 speculations, by showing that neither church traditions, 
 philosophical theories, nor mystical imaginations, are in 
 accordance with what the Spirit of God has taught res- 
 pecting His own work, but that Christian Spiritualism is 
 the harmony of Divine llevelation with the consciousness 
 of man. 
 
 I owe some expression of gratitude to the Committee of 
 the Congregational Lecture, for their courteous permission 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 to deliver in the Spring of this year the discourses which 
 were engaged for last Autumn. Though that postpone- 
 ment was made in consequence of my being laid aside 
 by severe affliction for several months, I am thankful to 
 God for restoring my health to publish the volume almost 
 as early as has been usual. 
 
 The labour of transcription for the press has been 
 cheerfully performed by gentlemen with whom it is my 
 happiness to be associated in the Theological studies of 
 this College, and who will allow me, I trust, in this 
 manner to record my sense of their kind consideration. 
 
 W. H. STOWELL. 
 
 Protestant Dissenters' College 
 at Eotherham, Yorkshire, 
 May 1, 1849. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 I have made but slight alterations in these Lectures in 
 preparing them for a second edition. Many topics of a 
 practical bearing, which occurred at the time of composi- 
 tion, have since been wrought out, with the view of a 
 separate publication on The Spiritual Life, which I hope, 
 ere long, to produce. 
 
 W H. STOWELL. 
 
 Cheshunt College, 
 Herts, Maij, 1854. 
 

 HEOL 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTUEE I. 
 
 THE CAPACITIES, CONDITION, AND WANTS OF MAN, ASA SPIRITUAL BEING. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Subject stated — Standard of appeal not books, but consciousness — 
 Spirituality of man a fact assumed — I. Inquiry respecting the 
 capacities of man — Language and outward signs the expression 
 of the inward spirit — Particular forms of speech implying the ex- 
 istence of spiritual capacities — Peculiarity of Scripture phraseology 
 on this subject — The fundamental fact in relation to the human 
 spiri; is CONSCIOUSNESS — Christianity, though having an outward 
 history and a form, is, itself, an affair of consciousness — Man con- 
 scious of intelligence — Conscious that his capacities are adapted to 
 know the true, to admire the beautiful, to choose the right, and to 
 enjoy the good — Facts involved in that moral constitution of which 
 man is conscious — 1st. Free or voluntary action — 2nd. Desires 
 and affections prompting to action — 3rd. Regarding some actions as 
 wise and good because they are right — 4th. Judging himself and 
 his own free acts — 5th. Of good or evil, happiness or misery, of 
 seeking the one and avoiding the other. II. Inquiry respecting the 
 present state of the spirit of man in relation to God — The judgment 
 each man forms of himself — Of other men — The mode in which 
 man has dealt with religion illustrative of his present state — He 
 prefers the material to the spiritual; he chooses the false rather 
 than the true; the speculative rather than the practical; the senti- 
 mental rather than the moral ; the human rather than the Divine. 
 III. Inquiry relating to the wants of the human spirit — While 
 adapted to the right, the wrong is chosen — Must arise either from 
 weakness in the human spirit, or from an irresistible motive from 
 without, or from an inward spontaneous predisposition which issues 
 in a wrong choice — The first takes away the ground of responsibility 
 — The second does not account for numberless instances of wrong 
 choice in opposition to instruction, example, and conscience — The 
 third accounts for the wrong choice, and for every wrong choice — 
 The want of man is, a disposition to choose the right, the pure, and 
 the good. IV. Inquiry relating to the way in which this want is to 
 
Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 be supplied — A question beset with difficulty — Must be a work 
 which does no violence to man's free and active nature — Nor to the 
 principle of moral government, %, e., man bearing the praise or blame 
 of his own acts — Nor be conceived of as arising out of the relations 
 established in God's moral government of man — While mysterious, 
 not more mysterious than other Divine acts — And must be clearly 
 taught in Scripture — The temper of mind in which the Scriptures 
 should be consulted on this subject 1 
 
 LECTUKE II. 
 
 THE GENERAL DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE RELATING TO THE SPIRIT 
 OF GOD. 
 
 We can form a conception of God as a Spirit, from what we know of 
 our own spiritual nature — We know what is meant by spiritual acts 
 — If a work of the Spirit in man is needed, the Scriptures alone 
 must teach what that work is — We are taught that there is a work 
 of God in man which secures his salvation — This the work of the 
 Holy Spirit — Some preliminary inquiries respecting the Holy 
 Spirit — What we understand by the phrases " The Spirit," " Holy 
 Spirit" — Sometimes denote the general fact of Divine agency — 
 Employed also to describe an intelligent, energetic agent distinct 
 from the Father and from the Son — Scripture statements involve 
 this distinction — Union and distinction in the Godhead a mystery, 
 yet a revealed fact — Human opinions respecting this fact not to be 
 received as Divine teaching — Statements of Scripture respecting the 
 distinct relative agency of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — 
 (Questions arising out of the fact of unity and distinction in the 
 Godhead, which neither consciousness nor experience enables us to 
 solve. II. Preliminary inquiry. Works of the Spirit which do not 
 renew and save men — The revealer of things connected with the 
 origin, grandeur, and design of the works of God, which man could 
 not discover — His work in relation to the Man Christ Jesus — ■ 
 The giving of extraordinary power to particular men for special 
 purposes — Direct impartation of knowledge, and the ability to attest 
 the truth — Prophecy, its subjects, range, and all-pervading design 
 — Mission of the apostles, its sanctions, and results — Scripture 
 statements respecting the supernatural endowments of some who 
 were not saved — Effects produced by the belief of the truth ascribed 
 to the Spirit — Exposition of Gen. vi. 3 — Views suggested by this, 
 and kindred passages — Importance of the truth respecting this de- 
 partment of the work of the Spirit ...... 49 
 
 LECTUKE III. 
 
 THE WORK OF THE HOLT SPIRIT IN THE SALVATION OF MAN. 
 
 I. Testimonies of Scripture respecting this work. Found in prayers, 
 promises, doctrinal statements and allusions, and facts narrated in 
 
CONTENTS. Xlll 
 
 PAGE 
 
 relation to this work. II. Views suggested by these testimonies — 
 There is the abiding presence of the Spirit in the spirit of man — 
 This fact accounts for the effects produced — The cause of the differ- 
 ence between the believer and him who does not believe — This view 
 iu harmony with consciousness — The character of the believer, which 
 is the effect of the indwelling Spirit, is the pledge of endless blessed- 
 ness — The believer prepared by the Spirit for a state of purity and 
 glory. III. Harmony of these truths with other truths known by 
 consciousness or revelation — Does no violence to the freedom and 
 activity of man's spiritual nature — The mind conscious only of its 
 own acts and states — Resistibleness of divine grace considered — 
 This work does not oppose any principle of the moral government 
 of God — Does not destroy the responsibility of man — Feeling of 
 responsibility exists previous to this work — Exists after — Conse- 
 quences of actions attach to the agents after this work has been 
 experienced — Connexion of this principle with other principles — 
 Grace — Mediation — Harmony of the work of the Spirit with the 
 doctrine of grace — Supremacy, compassion, and righteousness of 
 God displayed — Aspect of the Gospel towards the whole human 
 race — Cause of the acceptance of the blessings of the Gospel — Each 
 illustrates the righteousness and grace of God — Harmony of these 
 truths with other truths regarded as mysterious — Some undoubted 
 facts mysterious — Divine existence, creation, miracles — This 
 mysterious fact harmonizes with other facts — The hope that what 
 is now mysterious will be understood in the light of immortality. 
 IV. Facts illustrative of these truths — 1st. Men of ancient times 
 acknowledged the need of some such work — Socrates, Xenophon, 
 Plato — Extracts from the dialogues of Plato, from Seneca, and from 
 Marcus Antoninus — 2nd. Current strain of Christian literature from 
 the earliest times — Diversity on other points, agreement on this — 3rd. 
 There have been pretenders to inspiration, and peculiar sanctity — 
 4th. This is the distinctive characteristic of Christianity . . 98 
 
 LECTUKE IY. 
 
 CHURCH NOTIONS RELATING TO TIIE HOLT SPIRIT. 
 
 Distinction beween the teaching of Scripture respecting spiritual fac's, 
 and theological modes of representing them — State of mind requisite 
 for the study of this subject — Gradual departure from the spirituality 
 of the Gospel in the early ages of the church — Causes — Conse- 
 quences — Impediments to spirituality chiefly within — General ec- 
 clesiastical notion on the work of the Spirit — Modifications of this 
 notion held by nearly all branches of the church — This notion seen 
 in the belief that the grace of regeneration is imparted through the 
 ministrations of the church, especially in baptism — In the supposed 
 right to possess and impart spiritual blessings, arising out of a federal 
 relation to God — In the peculiar sacredness attached to certain per- 
 sons and usages — In the power of the rulers of the church to control 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 the actions of its members — In the relation that was believed to 
 exist between the spiritual church, and the civil polity of men, in- 
 volving spiritual supremacy, legal establishment of churches — Ten- 
 dency to secularize the institutions of the Gospel — Facts opposed to 
 these traditional notions — Pervaded by one fundamental error — Not 
 based on maris spiritual nature, nor en those parts of Scripture which 
 fully teach the truth respecting the work of the SriniT — Founded 
 on usage, supported by tradition — Insufficiency of the authority of 
 the Fathers — Testimony of Clement of Rome — Prevailing bias of 
 the writings of the Fathers — Effects of these notions on society — 
 The source of mischievous controversies — They retard the progress 
 of the Gospel — Grounds of hope for the future — Increased spiritu- 
 ality necessary to a proper appreciation of the excellence of Christ- 
 ianity .149 
 
 LECTUEE V. 
 
 MYSTICISM. 
 
 Tendency of extremes to generate their opposites — Formalism — 
 Mysticism — Mysticism defined. I. Speculative mysticism — Its 
 views of the intellectual nature of man — Of the will of God — Of 
 the nature of God — Antiquity and general belief of the doctrine 
 of emanation in the East — Influence of Oriental speculation on the 
 philosophy of the Greeks, and the early Christian writers — Charac- 
 teristics of the Mystics of the middle ages — Mystics subsequent to 
 the revival of letters — Paracelsus, Boehm, Antoinette Bourignon — ■ 
 Her labours, influence, works — Pierre Poiret, the logical expounder 
 of the principles of mysticism — Modern German mysticism — Cole- 
 ridge, his mental character, opinions, influence — Summary of his 
 views of Christianity, and the Christian life — Root of mysticism, its 
 views of the spirit of man, the Supreme Spirit, and their relation to 
 each other. II. Contemplative mysticism — Quietists — Madame 
 Guion — Principles of the Quietists — Lord Herbert of Cherbury — 
 His prayer in reference to the publication of his " De Veritate " — 
 Application of the phraseology of Scripture. III. Imaginative 
 mysticism — Explained — Mystical interpretation of the Scriptures — ■ 
 Philo the Jew — Christian writers — Pretensions to new revelations 
 — Emanuel Swedenborg — His learning and talents — Importance of 
 discrimination — Sincerity of some pretenders to revelation — Causes 
 of this delusion. IV. Practical mysticism — Explained — Different 
 modes of manifestation — Peasant war in Germany — Mi'mzer — 
 Ignatius Loyola — Common error attaching to all these forms of 
 mysticism — Mysticism often associated with exalted genius and piety 193 
 
 LECTUEE VI. 
 
 THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE IN HARMONY WITH DIVINE 
 REVELATION. 
 
 Different modes and manifestations of life — The cause of spiritual life 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 PAGE 
 
 not known by reasoning or consciousness — Necessity of revelation. 
 I. Testimony of consciousness — The believer conscious of regarding 
 the Gospel as spoken to him by the Spirit — Conscious of thinking 
 rightly — Effect on the emotional part of the nature of the believer 
 — Humility, contrition, gratitude, confidence, patience, love, joy — 
 Conscious of acting rightly — Reason for it found in the Gospel — 
 Conscious of finding encouragement from the Gospel in difficulties 
 arising from his own imperfection — The differing opinions of men 
 — The consciousness of unholy feelings — The Gospel becomes the 
 promise of supernatural aid, which is fulfilled in actual experience 
 — Conscious that from the Gospel he learns to pray — Conscious of 
 finding scope for active sympathy — Conscious that his good disposi- 
 tions and habits increase in strength. II. Testimony of Scripture 
 — An inward active life — Originating in a distinct act of God — An 
 act of grace — Wrought by the Spirit — This spiritual life has a rela- 
 tion to the Son of God — Various modes of describing this relation 
 — Christ's relation to his people — Their substitute — Language of 
 Scripture — Christ and His people contrasted with Adam and his pos- 
 terity — Truths relating to the spiritual life revealed in the Gospel 
 to be apprehended and enjoyed — Experience of the spiritual life, 
 the working of the truth which the mind has believed. III. Theo- 
 ries respecting the spiritual life — 1st. Ecclesiastical — Its tendency 
 — Results — 2nd. Enthusiastical — Its groundless pretensions — Un- 
 necessary — 3rd. Philosophical — Seeming simplicity of this theory 
 — Proceeds on wrong assumptions — Peculiarity of the case of the 
 sinner — Reasoning urged in support of this theory — This theory 
 defective — Fails to account for that without which the Gospel is not 
 believed — Falls short of the simple and forcible statements of Scrip- 
 ture—Involves the subject in confusion and increases rather than 
 relieves the difficulty — The spiritual life, something which has yet 
 to receive a full explanation 230 
 
 LECTURE VII. 
 
 THE MORAL ENERGY OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 Distinction between the work of the Spirit and the duty of the believer 
 — Submission to church authority substituted for spiritual religion 
 — Pelagius — Exchange of one extreme for another — -The fallacy of 
 Pelagianism consists in adopting the theory of human nature as it 
 ought to be, for human nature as it is — Augustine — Connexion of 
 Evangelical principles with sound morality. I. The work of the 
 Spirit in renewing the sinner, not essential to the responsibility of 
 man — God the author of good — Calvinian theory of grace supposed 
 to be inconsistent with the strong assertion of the love of God to 
 all mankind, and with the moral judgments of men — Examination 
 of the doctrine of ''common grace" — Various manifestations of 
 grace to men which increase the amount of responsibility — Vague- 
 ness of the notion of common grace — Texts of Scripture adduced 
 
XYi CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 in support of this notion examined. IT. The spiritual life the 
 source of the purest morality— It is so in principle— It is so in 
 fact— The design for which the Holy Ghost works in man includes 
 all that can be included in a moral system— This work adapted to 
 the condition of man as a thinking, sell-judging agent— The charac- 
 ter to be secured by the Christian system— Importance of the dis- 
 tinctive truths of the Gospel— The high moral tone of apostolical 
 instructions. III. This spiritual life secures results which trans- 
 cend the aims of ethical philosophy, or of conventional morality — 
 That wrought in man, which leads to a right choice, and to right 
 conduct— Man's obligations confirmed by Christianity— Practical 
 and holv tendency of the principles of the Gospel— Christian per- 
 fection considered— Views in which all Evangelical Christians agree 
 
 The real question to be determined — Exposition of 1 John iii. 9 ; 
 
 v. 18 Progress in holiness — Mistakes in reference to the method of 
 
 attaining perfect holiness— Views of Scripture. IV. The sum of 
 the whole argument is, the energy of the spiritual life displays the 
 harmonious working of the Spirit of God, and of the spirit of 
 man— Summary of the topics discussed, and the convictions arrived 
 at — Concluding observations 269 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 A. Scripture terms for Soul and Spirit ... 29 7 
 
 B. Ancient Distinction between Soul and Spirit 293 
 
 C. Freedom of Human Agency 298 
 
 D. Scriptures referred to in Lecture II 2 " 
 
 E. Apparent verbal contradictions in language respecting God . . 302 
 
 F. Modern Infidelity 305 
 
 G. On the terms Resistible and Irresistible, in application to the work 
 
 of the Spirit 310 
 
 H. On the Laws of Nature 312 
 
 I. Plato — Aristotle — Seneca — Marcus Antoninus 314 
 
 K. Early Christian Literature 316 
 
 L. Clemens Romanus 325 
 
 M. Ignatius — Neander 32 6 
 
 N. Promises of Scripture referred to in p. 241 326 
 
 0. Extract from Henderson on the Minor Prophets 330 
 
 P. Extract from Milton 330 
 
 Q. On Romans vii , 333 
 
 R. Expositions from Liicke, on 1 John iii. 7 — 9; v. 16 — IS . . . 344 
 S. "Note on Mysticism 3 ^2 
 
THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 LECTUKE I. 
 
 THE CAPACITIES, CONDITION, AND WANTS OF MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL 
 BEING. 
 
 It is generally acknowledged by Christians that there is 
 a work of the Spirit of God in the salvation of man. We 
 propose to examine what the Scriptures have taught respect- 
 ing this work. The whole of that teaching assumes, most 
 obviously, that man possesses a spiritual nature ; — that 
 this his spiritual nature is disordered and depraved ; — and 
 that the work of the Spirit of God in him is designed to 
 rectify this depravity, and thus to restore his spiritual 
 nature to that condition which is well-pleasing to God. 
 
 Our examination of this Christian doctrine, then, be- 
 gins with those facts to which the doctrine itself refers. 
 We are thus thrown back on the elements of truth. Before 
 reasoning on remote mysteries, we are concerned with our 
 most intimate convictions, our clearest personal know- 
 ledge. Having duly pondered man's testimony to his own 
 spiritual nature, and to the present condition of that 
 nature, it will be easy to infer from this testimony what it 
 is which must be done in him if he is to be restored to 
 righteousness ; and we shall be prepared to receive with 
 meek intelligence the lessons which God himself has 
 given, on the way in which this great want of man is to be 
 supplied. 
 
 XIV. b 
 
2 MAN, AS A SrJRITUAL BEING. 
 
 Our appeal, in this stage of the inquiry, does not lie to 
 books, but to thoughts ; not to opinions that may be 
 derived from others, but to the calm, independent judg- 
 ment of each man's separate self. 
 
 There is no avoiding the belief that our nature is 
 spiritual : every form in which it has been denied implies 
 that it is true. It is involved in every statement which 
 any man can make upon the subject. It is that truth, 
 indeed, which lies under every other truth which we can 
 apprehend. Each of us knows this for himself. By com- 
 municating with others, and observing that they act as we 
 do ourselves, we ascribe — we cannot help ascribing — to 
 them a nature similar to that of which we are conscious. 
 All intercourse, instruction, sympathy, appeal, reasoning, 
 and persuasion, are grounded on our indestructible con- 
 viction of the spirituality of our common nature. On 
 this conviction all religion is founded; for it is with the 
 spiritual in man that religion has to do. In man's spirit 
 the Spirit of God works to accomplish his salvation. 
 Assuming, then, this fundamental fact, we proceed to 
 inquire : — 
 
 First:— What are those spiritual capacities and 
 
 TOWERS WHICH MAN, AS MAN, POSSESSES ? 
 
 Secondly :— In what statu do we now find the spirits oe 
 
 MEN IN THEIR RELATION TO GOD ? 
 
 Thirdly :— What are the wants of the human spirit,, 
 
 ARISING FROM ITS BEING IN THIS STATE ? 
 
 Fourthly:— Is what way are we taught that those wants 
 
 ARE TO P.E SUPPLIED ? 
 
 FmsT : — What are the capacities and towers which man 
 SSE s? — " The spirit of man, which is in him." 
 
 As we are obliged to use language in the expression of our 
 judgment, it is not irrelevant to consider, how far the faculty 
 of language may be justly regarded as a testimony to the 
 working and the power of the human spirit. Language is 
 a system of signs, a vehicle of communication, the stimulus 
 
MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 3 
 
 by which one human spirit excites another human spirit to 
 action of its own. The organs of speech and of hearing 
 are, it is true, material ; hut then they are nothing more 
 than organs : they are used by powers which are not mate- 
 rial, and not organic. The same is true of the use of every 
 other medium of communication between man and man. 
 Such, as it seems, is the law of our present condition. We 
 do not now profess to know, positively, of any direct com- 
 munication of one human spirit with another. There may 
 be a sympathy, an intuition, a reciprocation of affection, 
 lying too deep for language, and too subtile and spiritual 
 for expression by material signs. There is nothing absurd 
 in such a supposition. It cannot be shown to be impos- 
 sible; yet we pretend not to be in possession of indu- 
 bitable facts, in sufficient number, to warrant us in saying 
 that such a direct spiritual communication exists. Our 
 definition of language might comprise whatever means are 
 used to address or move the inward man through the out- 
 ward senses ; yet it is to articulated speech, to the written 
 signs of thought, and to the conventional symbols of 
 science, that we refer as illustrating the unseen workings 
 of the spirit. When we use language, in this comprehen- 
 sive application of the term, we are conscious of processes 
 totally different from the processes of speech, or of writing; 
 and when we hear or see the words of others, we have an 
 irresistible persuasion that, in like manner, they are going 
 through a spiritual process which our own consciousness 
 enables us to understand. Thus, this world of outward sig- 
 nals becomes the manifold organ of another world of inward 
 activity : filled with the shadows of the unseen, the utter- 
 ances of the inaudible, the material signs of the spiritual. 
 In the higher forms of language, the indications of 
 spiritual activity become more delicate ; and from this very 
 delicacy they become stronger, because they are removed 
 farther from familiar association with the external causes 
 of bodily sensation. 
 
4 MAN, AS A SPIRLTUAL BEING. 
 
 The entire language relating to thought, emotion, ab- 
 stract truth, moral judgments, and spiritual conditions, is 
 a proof that the inward spirit is capable of doing that to 
 which what is not spiritual bears no resemblance, and of 
 which the most purified terms and phrases are felt to be 
 but imperfect and inadequate exponents. Every man does 
 this ; and he does it the more as he rises from infancy to 
 manhood, or from the rudeness of the savage to the culture 
 of civilization. To beings unconscious of thought, emotion, 
 choice, ratiocination, and spiritual activity, the language 
 used for these purposes would be utterly unintelligible. Be- 
 cause we are conscious of them, such language has been in- 
 vented, and is used: and by this consciousness we are able 
 to understand it — that is, we are brought to think the 
 thoughts of which such language's the signification. 
 
 Allow me, for one moment, to advert to the words most 
 common in our language as the signs of human per- 
 sonality. There is the simple pronoun " I," with its ob- 
 jective "me." What is meant by this? You at once 
 understand it. You know that you think, feel, act ; that 
 these things are done by yourself. You express this when 
 you say, I think, I feel, I act. It is the sign of one's own 
 conscious self; that which is peculiar to each — that which 
 is the person — the man. "When a man speaks of his eye, 
 his ear, his hand, he feels that not any of these is his own 
 self, but that they belong to him, and that they are used 
 by him, just as he uses a telescope, or a trumpet. We 
 speak of the mind. The mind is the man thinking, 
 attending, remembering, imagining, judging, reasoning. 
 "We speak of the soul. The soul is the man living, feeling, 
 tying, grieving. We speak of the spirit. The spirit is 
 the man acting freely and from choice ; the principle of 
 action ; the habitual tone ; the predominant character. 
 Such words are commonly understood. Their meaning is 
 well denned. They can be used interchangeably ; or they 
 can be used with distinctive applications. They signify 
 
MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEIXG. 5 
 
 that which every man knows. They relate to " the things 
 of a man " which can be known only by the "spirit of man 
 which is in him."* 
 
 There was, in ancient times, a distinction made be- 
 tween the soul and the spirit ; and to this distinction there 
 are allusions in the language of the apostle Paul. In 
 1 Thess. v. 23, he says, " And the very God of peace sanctify 
 you wholly ; avid I pray God your whole spirit and soul 
 and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ." We observe a similar distinction in 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews. " For the word of God is 
 quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged 
 sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul 
 and spirit." (iv. 12.) It is well known that this mode of 
 distinguishing the spirit from the soul in man was com- 
 mon to several of the Grecian schools ; it might, therefore, 
 be the ordinary mode of thinking on this subject among 
 the Thessalonians, at the time when the apostle wrote to 
 them. It was likewise adopted, in all probability, by the 
 Rabbins ; if so, it would be familiar to the Hebrews. It is 
 not surprising that there should be traces of the same dis- 
 tinction among the early writers of the Christian church. f 
 So far as we can comprehend this distinction, it would 
 appear to represent the soul as the subject of those sensa- 
 tions, emotions, appetites, and passions, which are occa- 
 sioned and acted on by the condition of the body ; and 
 the spirit, as the rational, free, and active principle, in 
 which consists the image of God. It is probable that little, 
 if anything, more was meant by these distinctions than 
 what is meant, in modern times, when we speak of the 
 affections as distinguishable from the reason, the will, and 
 the conscience. 
 
 Another distinction, peculiar to the New Testament, is 
 made between the " natural man," and the " spiritual 
 man." The natural man, as we understand the apostle, 
 * Appendix, Note A. + See Note V,. 
 
MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 
 
 foxi/As uvOpGiiros, is simply man without the Spirit of 
 God, as the Eevealer of truth ; while the spiritual man, 
 vvevfxariKos, is he who, like the apostles and other inspired 
 teachers, was endowed with the Holy Spirit for the pur- 
 pose of apprehending and teaching the doctrines which, 
 without that endowment, could not be known. 
 
 I. The great fundamental fact in relation to the human 
 mind, soul, or sjririt, is consciousness. 
 
 Each man knows " the things " of himself, by his " own 
 spirit which is in him." Whether we speak in popular 
 language, or aim at philosophical precision, this is the 
 account we have to render. It is a fact. It is direct and 
 spontaneous knowledge. It is universal. "We cannot 
 conceive of ourselves, or of men, as being without it. It 
 is our very nature. Men may differ in their power of 
 attending to this fact. But no man can doubt that so it 
 is. No man can escape from this conviction. It is not so 
 much a faculty or power in man as the essential element 
 in which what we speak of as a faculty or a power is. To 
 know, is to be conscious of knowing; to think, is to be 
 conscious of thinking ; to feel, is to be conscious of feel- 
 ing ; to act, is to be conscious of acting. So to be con- 
 scious is a spiritual attribute. It is not anything that can 
 be weighed or measured. It is not a combination of parts. 
 Neither is it a mere word for expressing an abstract 
 notion. It is not the result of any process, the conclusion 
 from any premises. It is that which we know of ourselves, 
 which we always know, which we cannot but know, yet of 
 which we cannot explain how it is that wc do know it, 
 otherwise than by saying, so it is. We cannot go deeper. 
 We cannot reach anything more simple, or more obvious. 
 Our belief of it is clear, unquestioning, irresistible. He 
 who would say in words, " I am not conscious, I do not 
 know that I have any knowledge, or any feeling, or any 
 capacity for action," would be using terms which really 
 prove what he seemingly denies. He who would affect to 
 
MAX, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 7 
 
 doubt whether his consciousness be true, would be trifling 
 with consciousness, with truth, with language, with him- 
 self, with man, and with God. To attempt to prove, or 
 disprove, anything of which a man is conscious, is a bare 
 absurdity; for all proving must rest on consciousness ; it 
 is itself the basis, the principle, the beginning of all know- 
 ledge. 
 
 We have said that men may differ in their power of 
 attending to consciousness. It is easier for many persons 
 to think of the world without them, than of the man within. 
 It is the habit of the greater part of mankind to be more 
 conversant with things than with thoughts ; with the 
 objects which engage their minds, than with their minds 
 themselves ; and the prevalence of this habit is one of the 
 many reasons why even Christianity has come to be con- 
 sidered rather as a history, or a creed, or an external insti- 
 tution, than as that inward life of which the Christian is 
 assured by his own consciousness. Christianity, indeed, has 
 its history, its doctrines, and its formal institutions. That 
 history is full of interest, and its monuments are glorious ; 
 those doctrines are plainly revealed, and the belief of them 
 is built on the clearest reasons ; those institutions are 
 simple, authoritative, and of the highest practical import- 
 ance ; but Christianity itself is an affair of consciousness. It 
 belongs to the domain of the spiritual. It is a hidden life. 
 It is that which a man is ; and which, therefore, is the 
 ground and reason of his thinking and acting as he does. 
 Men may compare the human spirit to a mirror, to a 
 musical chord, to a machine, or to anything by which they 
 fancy they can shadow forth its workings ; yet it is neither 
 a machine, nor a musical chord, nor a mirror ; it is a spirit, 
 a conscious being. — This spirit is related to what is not 
 spiritual. We know that it is so related ; but we cannot 
 explain the relation. The fact that the " spirit of man 
 which is in him " acts upon the things which are not in 
 him, and is acted upon by them, is plain ; how this takes 
 
8 MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 
 
 place is not plain. We are conscious of seeing, and we 
 are conscious of muscular motion. We can have no doubt 
 that we see, or that we move, the things that are not within 
 us. Though it is merely of our own acts, or our own 
 feelings, that we are conscious, our consciousness of such 
 acts and feelings is accompanied by an inevitable belief that 
 what we see or move is something separate from ourselves, 
 and independent of our feelings or our action : so that it 
 is a simple record of a fact to say, I hear a sound, I see a 
 hand, I feel a motion. As we are conscious of hearing, 
 seeing, and feeling, so are we conscious of giving signs of 
 what we think or feel, and of receiving signs of similar 
 thoughts and feelings from beings like ourselves. As sure 
 as we are that we express our own meaning, so sure are 
 we that others express their meaning in like manner. 
 We can have no doubt that we thus hold communion with 
 beings like ourselves. Thus, indeed, we commune with 
 the " Father of spirits." We see Him with the spirit's 
 eye, while with the body's eye we look upon His works, 
 and think ichose works they are, and wherefore he has 
 made them We hear Him with our spirit's ear, while 
 with the body's ear we listen to His words, remembering 
 whose words they are, and duly pondering wherefore He 
 has uttered or recorded them. Whether there is a higher 
 communion than that of mediate signs between one 
 human being and another — a deep, unutterable sympathy 
 — we leave to each man's consciousness. That there can 
 be, may be, and often is, direct and ineflable communion 
 between a Christian and his God, we see no reason, and 
 we have no desire, to doubt. " What man knoweth the 
 things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?" 
 
 II. We are conscious of Intelligence — of the capacity 
 of knowiner; of the desire to know; and of knowledge 
 actually acquired. 
 
 The sphere of our possible knowledge has no bounds 
 that we can assign. We feel capable of knowing every- 
 
MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 9 
 
 thing. We desire to know whatever it is possible for us 
 to know. The acquisition of knowledge in different 
 persons, or in the same person at different times, may be 
 steady, or it may be interrupted; it may be rapid, or it 
 may be slow ; it may be vigorous, or it may be languid ; 
 it may be in harmony with our other spiritual capacities, 
 or it may violate that harmony by relative defect, or relative 
 excess, or by a direction which is unwise and evil ; — but 
 on the whole, our entire life is spent in actually acquiring 
 knowledge, in perceiving and comparing things, in building 
 up what is, or seems to be, a world within, corresponding 
 with the world without. 
 
 Of this intelligence we are conscious ; we know that we 
 are doing that which is in its nature spiritual. It belongs 
 to this spiritual attribute to concern itself with what is true, 
 or beautiful, or good, or right. To think that which is true, 
 and to enjoy it as true, is one of the manifest ends of our 
 being as we are ; as manifest as it is that the eye was made 
 for light, or the hand for motion. 
 
 We have the foundations of all truth in the infallible 
 certainties of our own consciousness ; and it is by building 
 on these foundations — following the guidance of these 
 indubitable principles — that we turn to account all ob- 
 servation, testimony, and reasoning, in our progress 
 towards all the truth which we shall ever grasp. 
 
 Men fall into error by speculating when they ought to 
 observe ; by believing when they ought to judge ; by 
 imagining when they ought to reason ; and by reasoning 
 when they ought to believe. But there is no law of our 
 nature which compels us to err in any of these matters ; on 
 the contrary, we can err only by violating the law by which 
 our Creator teaches us that we should be ruled. 
 
 III. As we are formed for thinking or knowing the true, 
 so are we formed for admiring and enjoying the beautiful. 
 
 This is one of the modifications of intelligence, accom- 
 panied by a sense of special gratification. As men err in 
 
10 MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 
 
 the pursuit of the true, so likewise do they err in their 
 admiration of the beautiful, by perverted tastes, by in- 
 accurate judgments, and by false standards ; but all such 
 errors are violations of the one law which requires that our 
 inward apprehensions should conform to reality, to the 
 truth of things as they are, and as they are regarded by 
 the perfect mind of God. The material universe is filled 
 with beautiful forms, colours, tastes, sounds, odours, 
 movements, and combinations ; to perceive and to enjoy 
 these beauties severally, and in harmony, to remember 
 them, to arrange them in new and diverse combinations, 
 and to trace in them the developments of that creating 
 Spirit which is the standard and the fountain of all beauty, 
 are amongst the highest and most delightful attributes of 
 our spiritual nature. And the dominion of the beautiful 
 extends beyond the sphere of the senses ; for there is 
 sprightliness of thought — ingenuity of contrivance — sin- 
 fulness of reasoning — sublimity of purj^ose — delicacy of 
 sentiment — elegance of expression — grandeur of imagin- 
 ation — dignity of action — all of which appeal to our per- 
 ception and admiration of the beautiful in mind. 
 
 IV. Not less arc we formed for apprehending, approving, 
 and choosing that which is right. 
 
 We are as conscious of our moral, as we are of our in- 
 tellectual, constitution. The distinction between the right 
 and the wrong is as fundamental as the distinction be- 
 tween the true and the false. The will of Him who made 
 us, must be right for us ; otherwise, it would not be His 
 will. We know that it must be right, since He wills it. 
 We owe it, then, to Him, whose we are, and whom we 
 serve, to do that which is right. This right-doing is our 
 own doing, that which we freely choose, and heartily 
 approve, and which we do because we have freely chosen, 
 and heartily approved it. We know His will in this matter 
 from the constitution of our own nature. It is as natural 
 for man — as man — to distinguish the right from the wrong, 
 
MAX, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 1 1 
 
 to approve the right and condemn the wrong, as it is to 
 discriminate the true from the false, to adopt the true, and 
 reject the false. When we say that this is natural to man, 
 as man — we mean, that this is the manifest design of the 
 moral constitution with which his Creator has endowed 
 him ; and that the opposite, that is, the neglect of dis- 
 criminating the right from the wrong, or the doing of what 
 he cannot hut inwardly disapprove as wrong, is a violation 
 of his nature ; that is to say, it is unnatural, disorderly, 
 sinful ; and, therefore, hateful to God. We shall have 
 occasion, hereafter, to deal with the fact that there is such 
 disorder; and to show that this disorder is a violation of 
 human nature, exhibiting that nature in a depraved state ; 
 but all that we are at present concerned with is, to appeal 
 to man's consciousness of being so made as to show the 
 end for which he was made, — and so made, also, that lie 
 cannot secure that end but by obeying the law of his 
 nature, which is that he should choose, and do, only what 
 is right. That men make mistakes as to what particular 
 action is right, that they set up false standards, act from 
 various evil motives, and commit sin, is universally 
 acknowledged ; but, surely, no thoughtful man will say, 
 that human nature has been intentionally constituted with a 
 view to such results as these. If, then, human nature has 
 not been intentionally constituted so as to produce results 
 which are wrong, we are supported by all reasoning from 
 the wisdom and goodness of God, by all the analogies of 
 our corporeal and intellectual nature, by our inward con- 
 sciousness, and by appeals — both to the history of man, 
 and to the word of God — in affirming that he who acts 
 according to the moral constitution of his nature acts as 
 his Maker intended he should act, and therefore he is 
 right. 
 
 Then what is that moral constitution of which we are 
 conscious ? For a satisfactory answer to this question, 
 we must advert, first of all, to some particular facts of 
 
19 MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 
 
 which we were separately conscious at different times ; 
 and then, we must so combine these facts as to bring out 
 the general truth of which we may be said to be conscious 
 at all times. 
 
 (1.) We are conscious of free and voluntary action. 
 There are many things which we do, simply because we 
 choose to do them ; and we choose to do them because 
 the doing of them is agreeable to us, or seems to be 
 directly or remotely for our own advantage, or for the 
 pleasure and advantage of others. These, and only these, 
 are our own acts. We are not compelled to them by any 
 cause external to ourselves, not by any irresistible neces- 
 sity or fatality. It is as much our nature thus to act, as it 
 is our nature to know or to judge. But we act with intel- 
 ligence. Our intelligent action is according to the views 
 which our disposition, our spirit, our prevailing habit of 
 thought and feeling, prepares us to take of each particular 
 voluntary act. # 
 
 (2.) We are conscious of particular desires or affections 
 prompting us to act. These are motives. They are in- 
 citements to act, not action. They are the occasions, not 
 the necessary causes, of our action. We act, and are not 
 merely acted upon. The free mind acts according to its 
 own nature, its entire nature, and not according to any- 
 thing less than the whole. It is not the freedom of 
 chance, nor of caprice, but of deliberation and of order. 
 Whatever impulses there may be in the appetites or 
 passions, the acts of the free mind are guided by its own 
 reason, and by its own sense of what is wise and good. 
 
 (3.) We are conscious of regarding some actions as 
 wise and good, because they are right. Whatever our 
 standard of right may be, from whencesoever our notions 
 of right may be derived, and whatever degree of attention 
 we pay, whether more or less, to such a mode of looking 
 at our actions, we are conscious that it belongs to our 
 * Sec Note C. 
 
MIS, AS A SPIRITUAL BELNG. 13 
 
 nature to have a standard of right, and to judge of our 
 actions according to that standard. It is natural to us to 
 make the will of a superior our standard, the will of a 
 parent, a teacher, a magistrate, a community, and, ulti- 
 mately and supremely, the will of our Creator, in whatever 
 way that will may be expressed. 
 
 (4.) We are conscious of judging ourselves — inevitably 
 and authoritatively judging ourselves for our own acts. 
 We approve when they are right ; we condemn when they 
 are wrong. When we thus approve, we look on our own 
 actions with a special kind of pleasure, or complacency. 
 When we thus condemn, we look on our own actions with 
 shame and self-reproach. Such judgments are ascribed 
 to Conscience. The feelings consequent upon them are 
 called Moral Feelings. It is possible for men to act 
 without heeding the judgments of conscience, and thus to 
 escape the bitterness of self-reproach; even the wilful 
 habit of so doing is but too easily formed, and too 
 generally maintained. But it must be clear to every 
 person of serious reflection, that so to act at all — still 
 more, so to act habitually, is to act against the highest 
 law of our spiritual nature, and consequently, against the 
 will of Him who created us. He who thinks, for but one 
 calm moment, on his own course, finds that within him 
 which condemns him for so doing, and which covers him 
 with shame in his own 'sight, as well as in the sight of God. 
 
 From these separate facts, we derive the general truth, 
 that we are conscious of having a moral constitution — a 
 constitution which makes us accountable to God for the 
 moral character, the right or the wrong, of every action of 
 our lives ; a constitution by which we are self-condemned, 
 and also condemned by the supreme Judge, for even- 
 wrong we do. To act according to this constitution is so 
 to act as to keep every impulse in subordination to the 
 conscience ; and so to think of right and wrong as to have 
 the conscience regulated by the known will of God. 
 
14 MAX, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 
 
 It is a question of speculation, for the most part, whether 
 the will of God respecting our free actions can be gathered 
 from the moral constitution of which we are conscious ; 
 the truth is, that we are so familiar with the specific de- 
 clarations of the will of God in his revelation, that it must 
 be difficult in all cases, and it may in some cases be im- 
 possible, to discern the sources, to analyze the rudiments, 
 and to trace the natural history of our moral judgments. 
 But as a practical question, bearing more widely than most 
 other questions on the character and prospects of human 
 beings, we are not at liberty to shrink from avowing our 
 conviction, together with the reason why we hold it. Our 
 conviction is — that every man may know what is right, by 
 reflecting on his own conscious moral nature. No man 
 can conclude from what he knows, or may know of his own 
 nature, that it is a matter of indifference to him whether 
 he does right or wrong; or that it is right to follow the 
 impulse of every appetite or affection. 
 
 Every man must conclude that his nature lays him 
 under an obligation to follow the judgments of his con- 
 science. No man's conscience sanctions his doing that 
 which he would condemn if done by another, nor his 
 inflicting what he knows to be an injury, either on him- 
 self, or on any of his fellow-creatures, nor his acting in any 
 way which is unworthy of an intelligent, rational, and 
 moral agent. All men, invariably, acknowledge that right 
 ought to be done. All men, so far as we know, approve, 
 naturally, of what they regard as truth, temperance, bene- 
 volence, justice, and obedience to the supreme authority. 
 Now " where there is no hue there is no transgression." Where 
 there is transgression, therefore, there is a law. Either 
 men are not sinners, any further than they have an out- 
 ward law; or, independently of an outward law, "every 
 man is a law unto himself." To commit sin is to violate a 
 known law. All men are charged with sin ; and the charge 
 appeals to the personal conscience of each man. Every 
 
MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 15 
 
 man's conscience, therefore, is appealed to for the fact that 
 man has done what he knew to be wrong — wrong, because 
 in so doing he transgressed what he knew to be a law to 
 him. If this holds good of any man, it holds good of every 
 man. Whether or not man is acquainted with an outward 
 law, given by immediate revelation, or by a revelation com- 
 mitted to either oral or written tradition, he is placed 
 under the clear and intelligible law of his own moral con- 
 stitution, and he is bound by that law. The revealed law 
 appeals to the primeval and natural law ; founds upon it ; 
 harmonizes with it ; adding clearness to its requirements, 
 and solemnity to its sanctions. 
 
 The law of our moral constitution, it is most certain, 
 can give no information of the way of deliverance from the 
 consequences of violating its requirements ; neither does 
 the revealed law : though the writing which contains the 
 revealed law contains also the promise of redemption, 
 instructs us in the duties arising out of the new relations to 
 God and to each other in which the redemption places us, 
 and unfolds an entirely new class of motives to obedience. 
 
 There could scarcely be a grosser error than to maintain 
 that the moral constitution of man suffices to teach us all 
 that is right, now that we are placed under a redeeming 
 economy. To maintain such a notion, is to deny the fact 
 that man has sinned ; to reject the salvation which Divine 
 grace has revealed; to live in woful ignorance of all that 
 most nearly concerns us, in our present fallen state, to 
 know ; and perversely to neglect all that is required of us 
 to be or to do for the recovery of the happiness we have 
 forfeited and lost by sin. But our sin is, in the first 
 instance, the violation of the law of our own moral con- 
 stitution, whether our knowledge of that law comes from 
 reflecting on our consciousness within, or from the revela- 
 tion of the will of God without. 
 
 V. We are conscious of good or evil, of well-being or 
 ill-being : and it is our nature to seek the one and to 
 
16 HAM, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 
 
 avoid the other. The mental desires occasioned by the 
 corporeal appetites have their appropriate objects ; the 
 gratification of such desires is, in itself, good ; and the 
 disappointment of such desires is, in itself, evil. But, 
 according to the constitution of human nature, these lower 
 gratifications are intended to subserve our enjoyment of 
 higher good ; and we are endowed with reason and with 
 conscience for the express purpose of maintaining the 
 mastery of the higher propensions. In pursuing truth, we 
 are required to forego some of the pleasures connected with 
 the senses ; and in the fulfilment of moral duty we are, in 
 like manner and equally, required to give up some of the 
 gratifications of the intellectual tastes. As the satisfaction 
 we errjoy in perceiving the true and the beautiful is of a 
 higher order than any kind of sensual indulgence ; so the 
 self-approbation of doing what is right, the blessedness of 
 pleasing God, is higher still, and must be chosen rather 
 than merely intellectual delight ; so that the path of self- 
 control and self-denial is the only path on earth that leads 
 to the highest felicity. To the sensualist, it is misery to 
 be thwarted in the gratification of the appetites. To the 
 intellectual, it is misery to be hindered in the pursuit of 
 knowledge. To the moral, it is misery to neglect the 
 doing of what is right. The merely sensual have no con- 
 ception of the habitudes of the intellectual. The merely 
 intellectual have no conception of the habitudes of the 
 moral. The moral are they who rise above the intel- 
 lectual, as the intellectual are they who rise above the 
 sensual. He who seeks his well-being according to the 
 laws of his nature is not without the lower appetites; but 
 he keeps them in their place by the guidance of his reason. 
 Neither is he without the intellectual tendencies ; but 
 those, too, are kept in their place by the authority of his 
 conscience. From this height, where he fulfils the noblest 
 : ions of his nature, he may rise to unmeasured degrees 
 of the sublimest q - ood. He loves himself. He loves his 
 
MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 17 
 
 neighbour. He loves God above all. Then his own de- 
 light in the consciousness of fulfilling the law of his nature 
 is enlarged by the sympathy of all virtuous beings ; and 
 the love of God, which is unutterable, fills him full of joy. 
 
 Such is our Spiritual Nature. These are the " things of 
 a man " which are known by the " spirit of a man which 
 is in him." These are his capacities. They belong to 
 every man. Were the law of this nature obeyed freely, 
 heartily, constantly, and universally, where would be the 
 darkness of ignorance ? Where would be the perversion 
 of taste ? Where would be the bondage of sin ? Where 
 would be the wail of misery ? In such a nature we see the 
 likeness of God. Who could be its author, but He who 
 knows all things, who is the Original of all Beauty, whose 
 Goodness is perfect, and whose Blessedness is for ever- 
 more ? Why should he create such a being as man knows 
 himself to be, but that he might be a partaker of the Di- 
 vine felicity, to irradiate the universe with his Creator's 
 glory ? 
 
 Our Second Inquiry is, — In what state do we now find 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF MAN, IN HIS RELATION TO GOD ? 
 
 The appeal here lies still to consciousness, to each man's 
 ow r n self. The facts of which we are conscious lead us to 
 form a similar judgment of other men, when their outward 
 life resembles the outw r ard life resulting from that of which 
 w r e are conscious in ourselves. It is to this separate and 
 collective consciousness — not to the Divine Omniscience 
 alone — that the inspired teachers make their appeal, when 
 they challenge each man, and denounce all men, as guilty 
 of sin in the presence of the heart-searching God. 
 
 We need no elaborate inquiry for coming to a just ap- 
 prehension of the spiritual condition of man, as we now 
 find him, and as all history and tradition show him to have 
 been in time past. It is not, however, as a theological 
 dogma — it is as a historical summation of facts, that we are 
 now to treat this question. First of all, then, it is put to 
 
18 MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 
 
 each man's consciousness, whether he is, or has ever been, 
 all that he knows he ought to have been, in thought, in 
 motive, in speech, in act, in every social relation ; and 
 whether, in the entire course of his spiritual recollections, 
 he has aimed uniformly, undeviatingly, cheerfully, entirely, 
 at pleasing God, always giving up his own way to what he 
 knew to be the will of Him who made him ? He whose 
 heart cannot calmly and truly say, Yes, to such searching 
 questions, is a witness for God against himself; and he 
 knows that, so far as he is personally concerned, the chal- 
 lenge of inspiration is well founded, and God's condemna- 
 tion of him is beyond all doubt. Then, secondly, what is 
 the judgment which men form of other men — not in the 
 heat of passion, or in the gloom of theological dogmatism, 
 or the exaggerations of poetry and eloquence, but in those 
 cool and serene moments when, if ever, the mind is guided 
 by evidence, and reposes only on truth? It is for each 
 thoughtful person — none else are invited to this inquiry, or 
 are, indeed, capable of pursuing it — to ponder on the view 
 which his experience of mankind, his practical observations, 
 his reading, his knowledge of human nature — however ac- 
 quired — has led him to form of the actual condition of his 
 fellow-creatures as they are related, in the same way in 
 which he is himself related, to the Supreme Being. We 
 need not now repair to the haunts of vice, or the homes of 
 misery; to the outcasts from civilization and virtuous 
 society ; to the innumerable registers of woe which are 
 written in tears and blood on broken hearts ; to the strifes 
 and frauds of social competition ; to the monuments of 
 political rancour; to the fields of war; to the chains and 
 brands of slavery; to the den of the robber, or the mur- 
 derer's cell : though these frightful scenes, it will be re- 
 membered, exhibit too large a proportion of the actual 
 doings of men to be omitted by one who would look on 
 human nature as it positively is, and as it has really been. 
 All this is sufficiently plain to any one who honestly con- 
 
MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 1 9 
 
 aiders what his own inward spirit must be, were his out- 
 ward life such as he has reason to believe to have been, 
 and still to be, the outward life of innumerable men. He 
 cannot but conclude that there is a fearful amount of hu- 
 man wrong-doing to be dealt with in the righteous judg- 
 ments of the future world. 
 
 But beyond the relations of man to his fellow- man, 
 which are of course included in the comprehensive relation 
 of each man to his Creator — we are considering, more 
 specially, that first, closest, most constant of all relations, 
 the sacred and endless relation which each human spirit 
 bears to God, and to God alone. What has Man's Eeligion 
 been ? And how has he dealt with that religion ? There 
 are some views of the history of Man's Eeligion, and of his 
 mode of dealing with religion, or rather with God, the 
 Being with whom religion has to do, which will at once 
 illustrate the pertinency of this question to our present 
 inquiry, and guide us to its true solution. 
 
 1. Man has chosen the Material in Eeligion eathee 
 than the Spiritual. The spiritual nature of man is as 
 clear a proof of the spirituality of God, as any fact or series 
 of facts can be of the wisdom and power of God. It is to- 
 none other than to a God who is conscious, intelligent, 
 free, good, and blessed, that we are led, either by the most 
 vulgar conclusions from what we see around us, by the 
 careful inductions of scientific observation, or by the most 
 abstruse metaphysical reasonings. It is the spiritual in 
 ourselves that plans contrivances, forms designs, and con- 
 ceives of the beautiful, the wise, the beneficent, in action ; 
 and it is by our spirit's power, its knowledge, and its will, 
 that we produce the material results that are visible in our 
 works. To reverence that which is inferior, infinitely in- 
 ferior, to ourselves; to rely on it; to seek our good in it ; 
 to think of it as at all capable, in itself, of helping us, or in 
 any sense or in any degree fit to receive religious regard, 
 divine adoration and honour, is to revolt the most primi- 
 
20 MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 
 
 tive, abiding, and universal consciousness of our intel- 
 lectual and moral nature : so to revolt it, that if it were put 
 to us to say, whether it be possible for man, in the pos- 
 session of the spiritual faculties which we feel to be essen- 
 tial to man, to think and act in a way so grossly absurd, 
 we should all say, It is not possible : and possible it is 
 not, so long as man makes that use of his spiritual faculties 
 to which they are adapted and proportioned, and for the 
 sake of which he has been endowed with them. But how 
 does the fact stand ? Has not idolatry in its grossest 
 forms — not symbolism merely, but real idolatry, in the 
 broadest and plainest sense of the word — been the stain 
 and reproach of every family of the human race ? And for 
 one spiritual worshipper of Him who " is a Spirit," who 
 would venture to calculate how many idolaters are, this 
 day, bowing down to the work of men's hands, in the be- 
 lief, and with the feeling, that these things are gods ? And 
 leaving the dark range of idolatry, what means the ever- 
 recurring symbolism, the parent of idolatry, and its sur- 
 vivor, to which men cling, even after they have read the 
 Bible? How is it to be accounted for, that men are not 
 content with the spiritual in religion ? — that they will have 
 the senses touched, and the imagination regaled, in tem- 
 ples ? — that they are so eager to embody the spiritual, to 
 paint the unseen, to enshrine the Infinite ? — that they are 
 so prone to make religion to consist in gestures, proces- 
 sions, music, incense, vestments, lights, and shadows ; in 
 fastings, alms, and prayers; in grand organizations; in 
 visible gauds and pomps ? Account for all this as we may, 
 there it has been always, and there it is, wherever man is, 
 at this hour. Religion is reverence of man's spirit for 
 God ; his love to Him ; his communion with Him ; and 
 whatever be the value of temples, and of bodily services, he 
 who has not the spiritual affections of which outward ser- 
 vice seems to be the token, may have been amused, may 
 have been delighted, and may be flattered into ima<rinin<? 
 
MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL LEING. 21 
 
 that he has worshipped God ; but he — that is the man, the 
 conscious, intelligent, spiritual being — has not been doing 
 anything that even in the least degree resembles worship. 
 This preference of the material to the spiritual is a degra- 
 dation of man ; it does dishonour to his nature ; it violates 
 the law of his being ; it proves him to be in love with dis- 
 order, and, therefore, depraved in that which relates to his 
 highest powers and his noblest occupation. 
 
 2. Man has chosen the false in religion rather than the 
 true. It never was true, never can be true, that the innu- 
 merable objects of man's worship are capable of receiving, 
 or worthy of receiving, the adoration which he presents to 
 them. He has " changed the truth concerning God into 
 a lie." Not only has he thus dealt with the knowledge of 
 God which he might have drawn from without, and from 
 within, but, after a revelation was addressed to him from 
 heaven, and avowedly received by him and acknowledged 
 as Divine, he " abode not in the truth." The revelation 
 itself has been mimicked and superseded by false and 
 spurious revelations. Pretended miracles, false prophets, 
 teachers of lies, doctrines the most absurd, and usages 
 the most impure and inhuman, have swayed the thoughts 
 and formed the characters of unnumbered millions. And 
 the religions of the world have been popular and com- 
 manding very much in proportion, not to the truth, but to 
 the falsehood, which they embody. Consult the Pagan 
 histories, or the Jewish, or the Mohammedan, or the 
 Christian, and you have the sad conviction forced upon 
 you that, with one consent, the human race have "loved 
 darkness rather than light," have followed "lying wonders," 
 have not " received the love of the truth that they might 
 be saved," have " believed a lie," and " believed not the 
 truth." This inveterate love of the false in religion has not 
 been occasioned by ignorance, but by a dislike to retain 
 knowledge. It has been displayed by the enlightened few 
 as well as by the unlettered many; nay, it has been per- 
 
22 MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 
 
 petuated among the many by the authority and influence of 
 the few. It is less the companion of rudeness than the 
 child of ingenuity. It is not the wisdom of the foolish so 
 much as it is the folly of the wise. Religious truth has 
 had to struggle and to fight. Her champions have been 
 confessors and martyrs. She has found her enemies in 
 philosophies and in priesthoods, in the palaces of kings, 
 and in the halls of parliaments ; in the gardens of pleasure, 
 and in the marts of trade; 'among the crouching slaves of 
 despotism, and among the brave and proud and free ; in 
 the lonely thinker of the cloister, and in the giddy crowd ; 
 under the bright sky of youth, and under the wintry clouds 
 of age ; in the mighty throb of life, and in the cold silence 
 of approaching death; in every age; in every land; in 
 eveiw grade of existence ; under every form of government; 
 in all varieties of temperament ; in every known aspect of 
 humanity: while falsehood, religious falsehood, on the 
 other hand, in the very same conditions of the same hu- 
 manity, finds willing disciples, and gathers whole genera- 
 tions into her train: — " The light shined in darkness, and 
 the darkness comprehended it not." Of the world, we may 
 say, as the prophet was commissioned to say of the holy 
 city, " Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, 
 and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places 
 thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that seeketh 
 the truth ; and I will pardon it. Truth is perished, and 
 cut off from their mouth." To mankind indiscriminately, 
 while doing according to their own cherished desires, we 
 may apply the strong language of the New Testament, 
 "they do not obey the truth," " they are destitute of the 
 truth;" "concerning the truth they have erred ;" "they 
 walk in darkness, and do not the truth ; the truth is not in 
 them." They deliberately adopt what is new, or what is 
 old ; what is familiar, or what is fashionable ; what is re- 
 spectable, or profitable ; what is agreeable, or easy; what is 
 commended to them by the zeal of advocates, or imposed 
 
MAX, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 23 
 
 on them by the authority of teachers or rulers ; but where 
 is he whose entire soul is bent on knowing, and on holding 
 fast, at all hazards, that which is true ? Now when we 
 look calmly at this universal choice of the false rather 
 than the true in religion, we shall have a strong conviction 
 that God did not intend, man for this ; did not make him 
 for this ; that the condition in which we thus find man to 
 be is the very reverse of that which it was designed that he 
 should be ; and that, consequently, it is a derangement, a 
 disturbance, a depravation, a voluntary, that is, a chosen 
 depravation of man's spiritual nature. 
 
 3. Man chooses the speculative in religion, rather than 
 the practical. The entire constitution of our spiritual 
 faculties proves to us that we are made for action, for right 
 action, for acting rightly towards God; and that our ability 
 to distinguish things that differ, so as to reason from one 
 truth to another truth, has been given to us for the pur- 
 pose of guiding us in such a practical course of living as 
 shall fulfil the end of our creation. But it has come to 
 pass that men have treated religion as a theme rather than 
 as a life ; as something to be looked at, rather than as the 
 one thing to he clone ; as an affair of reasoning and disputa- 
 tion, not as an affair of personal and uniform obedience to 
 a wise and good and authoritative law. It is to this specu- 
 lating tendency that an inspired apostle traces, in part, the 
 origin of idolatry, and of all the corruptions which have 
 marred the beauty, and destroyed the power, of true 
 religion. " For these invisible things, even His eternal 
 power and Godhead, since the creation of the world are 
 clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; 
 so that they are inexcusable, because though they knew 
 God, they did not glorify Him as God, neither gave Him 
 thanks ; but became foolish by their own reasonings ; and 
 their inconsiderate heart was darkened. Professing them- 
 selves to be wise, they became fools." * 
 * Rom. i. 20—22. 
 
24 MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 
 
 Against this tendency he sounds the earnest warning, 
 " Beware lest any man spoil you through an empty and 
 deceitful philosophy, after the traditions of men, after the 
 rudiments of the world, and not after Christ ; intruding 
 into things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his 
 fleshly mind."* It was against this pride and self-suffi- 
 ciency and speculative vanity in man that the ambassadors 
 of Christ were sent with the artillery of divine truth — 
 " For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, 
 and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. 
 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the 
 disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the 
 wisdom of this world ?"f "For the weapons of our warfare 
 are not carnal, but mighty in God for the overturning of 
 strong holds, overturning reasonings (Xoyiaiiovs) and every 
 high thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and 
 leading captive every thought to the obedience of Christ." + 
 In a high strain of practical earnestness an apostle con- 
 demns ' k vain jangling, profane and old wives' fables — not 
 consenting to wholesome words ; the ignorant pride which 
 dotes on questions and strifes of words; the perverse 
 disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the 
 truth, supposing that gain is godliness ; vain babblings ; 
 and oppositions of science falsely so called ; striving 
 about words to no profit, to the subverting of the hearers ; 
 foolish and unlearned questions which do gender strife ; 
 ever learning and never coming to a knowledge of the 
 truth, deceiving and being deceived ; having itching ears; 
 turned from the truth to fables ; unruly and vain talkers, 
 Avhose mouths must be stopped; commandments of men, 
 that turn from the truth." The propensity thus uniformly 
 denounced may be detected more or less by every one who 
 fairly examines his own spirit, and honestly recalls to mind 
 the frequent instances in which opinions have had more 
 charm than duties, and obedience has been forgotten in 
 
 * Col. ii. 8—18. + 1 Cor. i. 18 — Q-^. J 2 Cor. x. 4, 5. 
 
MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 25 
 
 the heat of disputation. The exaggeration of this temper 
 is bigotry. Its rage is persecution. Its personal charac- 
 teristics are conceit and narrow-mindedness. Its social 
 form is seen in the sectary of every name, in the combat- 
 ant of every church. Unhappily the speculative is not 
 merely preferred to the practical. The one is often directly 
 and purposely opposed to the other. Not seldom is specu- 
 lation made to occupy the place of the practical ; the merely 
 intellectual mode of looking at religion is substituted, per- 
 haps mistaken, for religion itself. Under the veil of 
 concern for truth how often has justice been trampled in 
 the mire, and charity torn to pieces ! Men have made 
 laws for human thought, and forged chains for the free 
 spirit. A cold monotony of opinion has been sacrilegiously 
 baptized with the name of faith : while love has been 
 driven from her own temple. Mechanism is expected to 
 perform the functions of life. Instead of the devotion of a 
 purified and happy spirit, offering itself as a living sacrifice 
 to God, the scared and trembling dupe of an unexamined 
 creed is dragged to an altar which it loathes, by men whose 
 only bond of union and whose only principle of action is a 
 shadow and a name. On the other hand, we see the 
 licentiousness of endless questioning. The verities of 
 religion are abstracted from their vital association with 
 conscience, and character, and happiness ; and mooted as 
 questions of vulgar strife, on the arena of sceptical debate. 
 He assumes to have the clearest intellect who has the least 
 religious belief. Evidence, divine authority, practical 
 worth, are set at nought by the pedantry which arrogates 
 to itself the name of learning, or by a logic which proudly 
 struts before us in the mantle of philosophy. All positive 
 judgments concerning religion are rejected as alike un- 
 founded, or tolerated as equally indifferent. So it is that 
 one extreme generates another. The bigot and the sceptic, 
 the persecutor and the latitudinarian, start in opposite 
 directions from the same centre ; and the cause of their 
 
-0 MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 
 
 perpetual quarrel lies in the one element which is common 
 to them all, — the preference of the speculative to the prac- 
 tical. Is it necessary to say that such a preference does 
 violence to the fundamental laws of human nature; that it 
 is destructive of religion ; that it dishonours God ; that it 
 is a deadly evil ? It is itself a proof that man has gone 
 astray from the right path, that he has lost the simplicity 
 of innocence, the habit of obedience, the love of doing that 
 for which his spiritual nature has been fitted, and in which 
 alone he can find his dignity or his happiness. 
 
 4. Man chooses the sentimental in eeligiox rather than 
 the moral. Eeligion is the right condition and the right 
 action of our spiritual nature. It embraces the whole man. 
 It lights up the intellect with truth. It adorns the ima- 
 gination with beauty. It enthrones the conscience. It 
 raises and purines the affections. It consecrates the life 
 to God. The moral in religion is the ultimate ; for to the 
 formation of a perfect character, all thought, feeling, and 
 action are subordinate. Sentiment can be religious no 
 farther than as it is guided by divine truth, and not other- 
 wise than as it prompts to holy living. Now, as there is a 
 large amount of speculative thinking concerning religion, 
 which is liked better than religion itself, and is often made 
 to usurp the place of religion, so, too, there is a large 
 amount of feeling usually suggested by religion, and ac- 
 companying religion, which is liked better than religion 
 itself, and which is also made to usurp the place of reli- 
 gion. We are not required to separate religion from its 
 appropriate external signs; but we are to take heed that 
 the external signs are not so exclusively or so prominently 
 regarded as to neglect the spiritual principle. We need 
 not discourage thought, discrimination, reasoning, settled 
 judgment, and belief, respecting religious truth ; though 
 Ave are warned against confounding bare speculation with 
 religion, and allowing it to take the place of practice. In 
 the same way, and for the same reason, while we cannot 
 
MAX, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. '27 
 
 conceive of religion otherwise than as affecting the sensi- 
 bilities of our nature, we must denounce the religion which 
 is confined to the feelings as utterly spurious ; and we 
 must describe that religion in which the affections are cul- 
 tivated, to the neglect of the conscience, as seriously de- 
 fective. There is much in the sentimental capacities of 
 our nature which can be easily gratified ; and there is a 
 passive kind of indulgence in such gratification which is 
 among the most bewitching pleasures of human existence. 
 Such gratifications, it is well known, are enjoyed in occu- 
 pations which no man pretends to regard as religious. 
 Exactly the same kinds of gratification are enjoyed in 
 occupations which are regarded by the common consent of 
 mankind as religious occupations. The danger lies, then, 
 in supposing that all the emotions which are connected 
 with services professedly religious, are religious emotions; 
 and in considering the experience of such emotions as 
 evidences of a religious mind, without pausing to remem- 
 ber what has moved the feelings, or waiting to observe the 
 fruit of such feelings in a man's practical life. If the 
 feelings are moved by causes which are no part of religion, 
 and if, consequently, they produce no religious improve- 
 ment in the character, then, whatever they are, strong or 
 weak, good or bad, painful or pleasing, most assuredly 
 they are not religious feelings. Even when the thoughts 
 that move the mind are sacred, and the effects secured by 
 them are holy, the bare excitement of such emotions may 
 come to be liked for its own sake, rather than for the sake of 
 that elevation and strength of the spiritual life which they 
 may promote : in this case, though we cannot condemn 
 them as spurious, people must be placed upon their guard 
 against preferring the passing emotion to the permanent 
 improvement, and thus sliding into the delusive senti- 
 mentality which neither comes from heaven, nor prepares 
 men for it. 
 
 We need not wander far, nor long, for proofs that the 
 
23 MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING, 
 
 sentimental in religion is chosen in preference to the 
 moral. The materialism of false religions has its whole 
 power in the fact that such preference is congenial to the 
 present state of human nature. The sculpture which 
 entranced or awed ; the mystic sounds and shadows ; the 
 rites that filled the heart with terror or with hope ; the 
 grove, the fane, the altar, the festival, the sacrifice, the 
 procession; while they subdued or stimulated the outward 
 sense, wrought through the imagination on the deepest 
 feelings of mankind, and made them the slaves of priests 
 or rulers. The patriotism of the Hebrew, as he mounted 
 the beautiful hills, or threaded the peaceful valleys, of 
 Judea to the city guarded by the everlasting mountains, 
 and adorned with the wondrous palace of the King of 
 kings, would kindle into fervour; loudly would he lift up 
 his voice with harp and cymbal, and the sound of cornets, 
 as his nation's anthem rose to heaven. Yet he might do 
 this — many a Hebrew did this — without believing what 
 prophets taught, without confessing his sins to God, with- 
 out seeking forgiveness and imploring grace ; without 
 hearty purposes of spiritual amendment, and, therefore, 
 without returning home a wiser, a better, a happier 
 man. It is remarkable that the joyful celebrations of that 
 peculiar people, though appointed by God himself, are 
 sometimes spoken of by inspired ministers of religion in a 
 strain which has led some modern speculators to conclude, 
 rashly and groundlessly enough, that such observances 
 were not, indeed, required at their hands. What the 
 prophets condemn, however, is not the observances 
 themselves, but the absence from the hearts of the people 
 of the humility, the penitence, the practical faith, the 
 moral obedience, of which such observances were designed 
 to be the expression. There was nothing religious in being 
 a Hebrew, in being circumcised, in approaching the 
 temple, in remembering with joy the wonderful events of 
 their history, in being proud of their fathers, and proud 
 
MAN. AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 29 
 
 of their country ; and, therefore, if they did not humble 
 themselves before God, and cease to do evil, and learn to 
 do well, all their services, and all their feelings, of what- 
 ever kind, with which they rendered them, went for nothing 
 in religion. 
 
 The enthusiasm of the professed Christian may be 
 aroused by sympathy, by imagination, or by art : eloquence 
 may inspire it ; music may inspire it ; impressive forms 
 may inspire it ; but this enthusiasm is not religion, how- 
 ever it may be mistaken for it, or in whatever degree it 
 may be found in association with that which is religion. 
 Yet so it is, that all this is liked, cherished, delighted in, 
 by those on whose mind religion sheds no light, in whose 
 conscience religion sways no authority, whose temper and 
 whose conduct are not better than they would be if no 
 religion had ever been revealed. Why should this play of 
 sentiment be better liked than the performance of duty ? 
 Why should the moving of the feelings be preferred to the 
 doing of what is right ? Why should indulgence take the 
 place of obedience ? Surely there is something wrong — 
 essentially wrong — in the spiritual condition in which such 
 perversion is so common. And it is common. This it is 
 which presents itself to us as human nature dealing with 
 religion, mocking God, and deceiving its own self. 
 
 5. Man chooses the human in religion rather than the 
 Divine. There must be the human in religion, for it is 
 man's conduct towards God to which we give that name. 
 But the conduct of man towards God requires that his re- 
 ligion should have a supreme regard to God as its motive, 
 a humble reliance on Divine guidance for its methods, a 
 grateful and earnest desire to please God, and to honour 
 him above all creatures, as its end and aim. If a man is 
 moved to what he calls religion merely by a regard for 
 himself, or for any created being; if he follows only the 
 suggestions of his own mind, or of any other created mind ; 
 if he assumes authority in his own person, or submits to 
 
30 MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL EKING. 
 
 the authority of any other person or persons, to prescribe 
 the terms or the modes of his religious service ; if his aim 
 is no higher than to gratify himself, or to please his fellow- 
 man ; it is a perilous confounding of things essentially 
 different to call this religion. It begins and ends with man. 
 It has nothing to do with God. It is of the earth — earthy. 
 It is human, altogether human ; and is in no respect, in no 
 degree, divine. Yet what better, what higher, what other 
 religion than this, has man ever chosen, before that work 
 of God within him which Christianity teaches among its 
 elemental truths, and on which our attention is to be fixed, 
 throughout the present inquiry ? 
 
 We shall henceforth proceed on the assumption that we 
 have here given a true report of mans spiritual condition. 
 That this is substantially the account which is given in the 
 Scriptures will be readily granted ; that it accords with the 
 testimony of conscience, and that it is borne out by what 
 is known of man's history, will scarcely be denied. The 
 unbribed confessions of it might be extracted from the 
 monuments of all nations, in every age. The vouchers for 
 its truth are in every land, in every house, in every heart. 
 Sad indeed it is, and mournful, to behold such a nature in 
 such a state. With the darkest sorrow do we look on the 
 desolation, and sigh over a ruin such as this. Far from us 
 be the withering disdain with which the philosopher or the 
 misanthropist looks down on human nature ; the sagacity 
 with which the practised worldling tears the veil from such 
 hearts as he has had to cope with; or the self-complacency 
 with which the mere theologian rejoices in making good 
 his arguments by texts and instances. Our own wayward- 
 ness and folly are to be confessed to Him who knows us 
 altogether, with a broken heart and a contrite spirit; no 
 true penitent would wish to obtrude them on the view of 
 any fellow-mortal. And surely it is with a kind of sym- 
 pathetic contrition, with humiliation and grief, that we see 
 the sinfulness to which our own hearts bear witness be- 
 
MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 31 
 
 trayed by our brethren, by all our brethren, as well as by 
 ourselves ! The very sinfulness of man is a proof of the 
 grandeur and perfection of that moral constitution, of the 
 sublimity and loveliness of that spiritual nature, which sin 
 has disturbed, injured, and degraded. 
 
 Yet while we grieve for man, we are not to forget our 
 loyalty to God. All sin is against Him. We cannot think 
 of the dishonour done to Him by sin without resentment, 
 without that sorrow which has reference to God* We are 
 not upbraiding man for the sake of vindicating a religious 
 creed. Our creed respecting man is man's own creed. 
 W T e learn it in the world. We feel it with bitter anguish 
 to be true. We study it that our minds may be justly 
 affected by it. We urge the study on others that they, too, 
 may be justly affected by it. We press it the more, because 
 we look on man neither with apathy nor with despondency, 
 but with the anxiety pf mingled hope and fear. We know 
 that for this evil, all this evil, there is a remedy, one 
 remedy, and only one — the remedy which is revealed in the 
 Gospel. We have fears irrepressible, and beyond all utte- 
 rance, for those who slight the evil, and refuse the remedy. 
 For those who feel how deeply they have fallen, from what 
 a height, and how inexcusably, the hope is strong within 
 us that, turning away from such as would " slightly heal 
 their hurt," they will repair to the wise and good Physi- 
 cian, who probes the wound that he may apply the " saving 
 health,'' which is the only balm for the pierced and out- 
 raged nature of " the spirit of man which is within him." 
 
 Thirdly: — What are the wants of the human BPimx? 
 In other words, What ought man to be which he is not, in 
 
 ORDER TO HIS RESTORATION TO Goi) '.' 
 
 Let our attention for the present be confined to such an 
 answer to this question as we may draw from our own con- 
 sciousness, and by fair and legitimate reasonings from this 
 consciousness. We are satisfied, on grounds which have 
 
 * Kara 6ecv \6vn, 2 Cor. vii. 10. 
 
3"2 MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 
 
 been stated, that our spiritual constitution is adapted to 
 the perception of the true, to the doing of the right, to the 
 enjoyment of the good; while our consciousness assures 
 us that, in point of fact, the false is chosen instead of the 
 true, the wrong instead of the right, the evil instead of the 
 good. We need be at no loss, then, to understand that, 
 whatever may be the cause of this wrong choice, that cause 
 must be removed, and an opposite cause or principle must 
 be brought into action. Now, we can conceive of the cause - 
 of this wrong choice in no other way than, — either as an 
 unavoidable weakness in the moral perceptions of the hu- 
 man spirit ; an irresistible motive from without ; or an in- 
 ward and spontaneous predisposition, which, when unfet- 
 tered and unchecked, issues in a wrong choice. Let each 
 of these views be examined separately. 
 
 1. We can conceive of the human spirit being so feeble 
 in its perceptions, so erroneous in itsjudgments, so inade- 
 quate in its ability to reason soundly on its own actions, 
 that it cannot avoid choosing to act in that way which we 
 condemn as wrong. But are we to conceive of so imperfect 
 and controlled a being as accountable, or as capable of 
 being accountable, for its actions? If language expresses 
 thought, one would suppose that it is simply not congruous 
 with the idea of such a being, and with the idea of account- 
 ableness, to think of such a being as accountable. The 
 very notion of accountableness involves that of capacity of 
 discrimination, which, however, by the very terms, is denied 
 to the kind of being we have described. The one affirm- 
 ation that man is such a being — man in general, or any 
 particular man — and the other affirmation that man is ac- 
 countable — man in general, or the particular man in ques- 
 tion — are two affirmations that cannot stand together. 
 They are contradictory, and mutually destructive. If the 
 first be true, the second must be false ; if the second be 
 admitted, the first must be abandoned. The present ques- 
 tion relates to the first of these affirmations. Is it true 
 
MAX, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 03 
 
 that man has not the capacity of knowing what he ought to he, 
 and what he ought to do f We have appealed already to the 
 human consciousness. "We appeal to it again. We may 
 ask each person — do you not know what you ought to be, 
 and what you ought to do ? We appeal to the language of 
 men, to their expectations from each other, and to their 
 judgments of each other. We appeal to the style and tone 
 in which men are addressed, and in which they are de- 
 scribed, in the book of God. It is acknowledged that there 
 are great varieties in the degrees of human intelligence as 
 bearing on moral actions. But in each degree the range 
 of obligation is limited by the intelligence ; and it is uithin 
 the range of that intelligence and obligation that we place 
 every man's capacity of knowing what is right. We may 
 be reminded that men are often untaught, or, what is 
 worse, taught wrongly ; and that, therefore, their habits of 
 thought respecting their own actions are not such as to 
 bring their intelligence into free and healthy play. Yet 
 this implies that they have the intelligence, the ability to 
 know what is right, that ability which is supposed to be 
 damaged by causes beyond themselves — a supposition 
 which we shall consider presently. Confining our view, 
 just now, to what man is in himself, that is, in possession 
 and in the free use of all his natural powers, we see no 
 reason for laying the blame of his wrong choice — the 
 matter immediately before us — on the imperfection of his 
 capacity for knowing how he ought to choose. And, as for 
 the means of knowledge, there is the dictate of his moral 
 nature ; there is the law of social life ; there is the tradition 
 of successive ages; there is the written law of God. To 
 suppose a being who has no knowledge of moral dis- 
 tinctions, no conscience, no perception of religious obli- 
 gation, no sense of responsibility, is to suppose a case in 
 which moral choice is not possible ; but such is not the 
 case with which we are now dealing ; we are seeking to 
 account for a fact for the acknowledged fact, of a wrong 
 xiv. d 
 
31 MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 
 
 choice being made instead of a right choice. Even though 
 it were admitted that some isolated cases, or whole groups 
 of cases, might be accounted for by the limitation of 
 natural faculties, we could leave these out of our present 
 estimate ; but then what are we to make of the cases, 
 known to be innumerable, in which the wrong choice is 
 made, with the most explicit knowledge that it is wrong; 
 made against the dictates of the clearest reason ; against 
 the remonstrances of conscience ; made by persons prac- 
 tised in moral distinctions, and even by experienced ex- 
 pounders of the law ? In each instance of this description 
 we must seek for some other cause for the wrong choice 
 than inability to discern the right. 
 
 2. We can suppose the human spirit to be overborne by 
 an irresistible motive from without. Let it be said that 
 our judgments of every kind, and our moral judgments in 
 particular, are swayed by the judgments of our teachers, or 
 of our associates ; and that the contagion of example may 
 be too strong and too active, too near and too constantly 
 present, to be resisted ; that the object of men's desires 
 may be presented to the senses or the imagination with a 
 force which bears down all the authority of reason and 
 conscience ; that habits insensibly, because slowly, formed, 
 may acquire the entire mastery of the spiritual nature ; 
 and that any of these singly, still more all of them in com- 
 bination, may suffice to account for a wrong choice being 
 made. We are free to concede that in such circumstances 
 there would be no free choice at all, and, consequently, no 
 wrong choice. But let it be considered, at the same time, 
 that no teaching can annihilate the power of conscience, 
 any more than it can annihilate the senses, the memory, 
 or the judgment; that example has no force when opposed 
 to the dictates of the conscience ; that men have a power 
 to oppose, to neglect, and, by intelligent and moral re- 
 flection, to neutralize the sensitive and imaginative allure- 
 ments ; and that all the moral habits which men form 
 
MAX, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 35 
 
 result from a series of voluntary actions, in every one of 
 which a distinct and separate choice is made. Besides 
 this, the cases are infinitely numerous in which the wrong 
 choice is made, when the force of example, whatever that 
 may he, is on the side of right ; when the outward motives 
 are few, and would be feeble to a mind otherwise disposed ; 
 and when there is either no previous habit in relation to 
 the particular action, or a habit leading in the contrary 
 direction. From all this it follows, that the case supposed 
 is not the ordinary state in which a wrong choice is made, 
 and therefore cannot exhibit the ordinary cause of a wrong 
 choice ; and, moreover, it follows that, where the case sup- 
 posed does arise, it is not one in which the wrong choice, 
 for which we are seeking the cause, has been made. 
 
 3. We can conceive of an inward and spontaneous pre- 
 disposition which, unfettered and unchecked, issues in a 
 wrong choice. We may attempt to analyze this predis- 
 position ; but the finest analysis results in the ultimate 
 fact of a man's consciousness that he has an inclination, a 
 liking, a spirit which is his own, which he cherishes, which 
 he seeks to gratify, and which is the reason why he takes 
 that view of external objects, or of his own act in relation 
 to such objects, which becomes the motive for his choice. 
 To deny that there is such an ultimate fact as this, is to 
 deny that of which our consciousness makes us sure ; and 
 to overlook this fact is to substitute for the actual free 
 choice of the human spirit a merely metaphysical abstraction, 
 which has no relation to human nature, as human nature 
 is. It is on this actuality of man's spiritual nature, and 
 on this alone, that we can found the notions of personal 
 responsibility, of moral obligation, and of religious 
 duty; so that, besides the indestructible evidence of 
 consciousness, as to the fact itself, we have the addi- 
 tional evidence afforded by the sense of responsibility, of 
 moral obligation, and of religious duty, that we are right 
 in affirming that the cause, the sole cause, in every in- 
 
oO MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 
 
 stance, of a wrong choice, in a moral action, is — a mans 
 own spirit. Our way to the simple truth, therefore, lies 
 plain before us. That which man ought to be, but is not, 
 is this — inwardly and spontaneously propense to the right, 
 the morally good, the truly religious, in harmony with the 
 nature and with the will of God. The opposite propen- 
 sion must be removed; and this right principle must come 
 into action, or he still remains an alien from God, and — 
 being such — incapable of pleasing God, and unfit to enjoy 
 His presence. Man needs much instruction for his mental 
 development, careful training, incessant corrections in his 
 actual views of things to be clone ; but all this falls short of 
 being "renewed in the spirit of his mind." He needs, un- 
 doubtedly he needs, some ground of acceptance with God 
 which is not in himself; and, according to the Gospel, 
 that ground is laid by the grace of God in the propitiation 
 of Jesus Christ, which is revealed to him that, by be- 
 lieving, he may be saved ; but it is not in the spirit of man 
 to believe in this propitiation, so as to accept the free gift 
 of Divine love, until he becomes one of the sons of God, 
 who are " born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, 
 nor of the will of man, but of God." 
 
 Fourthly: — We are thus prepared for receiving with 
 intelligence and meekness the lessons which God himself 
 
 HAS GIV'EX US, AS TO THE WAY IN WHICH THIS, THE GREATEST 
 WANT OF MAN, IS TO BE SUPPLIED. 
 
 We are now no longer to appeal to the consciousness of 
 man. He has unveiled his nature to our spiritual sight. 
 He has told us that his acts are not according to that 
 nature. We see that he must be changed, or he must be 
 hopelessly unhappy through the entire duration of his 
 being. — We discover nothing in man to effect his own 
 change. His disposition being what it is, and has always 
 been, we must conceive of it remaining as it is, unless it 
 be changed from without. — We are not conscious of any 
 power in us to change the disposition of our brother man. 
 
MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 37 
 
 To his understanding we may exhibit truth ; to his con- 
 science we may address appeals ; and in both we may 
 succeed, and often do succeed : we secure his assent to 
 truth ; we lodge conviction in his soul ; but nothing that 
 we present to him becomes an actual motive, however 
 clearly its truth may be perceived, however seriously its 
 reason and right and authority may be responded to, until 
 his spirit is changed ; and this we cannot touch : it is the 
 secret domain, the inaccessible spring, the pith and centre 
 of his being — the spirit of the man, his individuality, — his 
 very self. 
 
 What man does not, will not do, has not done for him- 
 self, and what one man has not the power to do for 
 another, must either remain undone, or God must do it. 
 Whether God can do it or not, may be either a very 
 simple, or a most complicated question. Take it in its 
 simplicity, and it admits of only one reply : " with God 
 all things arc poss'ille." Take the question as it really 
 stands, that is, as it is complicated with other questions, 
 and you find yourself surrounded with some of the stoutest 
 difficulties that have ever tested the thinking powers of 
 man ; for you have to draw the line between the psychical 
 and the moral, between the voluntary and the not volun- 
 tary, between the human and the Divine, in spiritual 
 agency; you are to show what we are to conceive of God 
 as doing without deviating from that in His nature which 
 is the foundation of all moral government; you are to 
 exhibit the discordance, or the harmony, which there may 
 be, between the passive and the active, in a being who 
 is the subject of a moral government; you are to sound 
 the depths of man ; and you are to feel how unfathomable 
 are the depths of God. Should there be any person to 
 whom these questions are new, or by whom they have not 
 been pondered, with the calm, earnest, and prolonged 
 attention which they require and deserve, he may hastily 
 decide them one way or other, according to his modes of 
 
33 MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 
 
 thinking ; or, overlooking them, he may take that which is 
 not evidence as a reason for believing ; or, presuming that his 
 mode of interpreting Scripture is entitled to the authority 
 which belongs only to an inspired teacher, he may fear- 
 lessly, and without hesitation, affirm that it is, or it is not, 
 congruous with man's nature, and with God's nature, that 
 God should do this work. 
 
 Whatever conclusion men are led to adopt, there are 
 some limits within which that conclusion must be found, 
 or it cannot be true. 
 
 I. Any work which we ascribe to God in changing the 
 spirit of man must be conceived of as doing no violence to 
 the conscious freedom and activity of mans nature. The end 
 to be secured by the change which we perceive to be neces- 
 sary, is — the doing by man of what is right. The right 
 thing to be done is to be — the man's own act. It cannot 
 be his own act, if it is not that which he chooses to do ; he 
 cannot be said to do it of his own choice, if it is done in 
 him and upon him by another. We know that there is an 
 infinite difference between an instrument, unconscious, 
 passive, or even unwilling, and a free agent. We can con- 
 ceive of man being the instrument of any purpose of God ; 
 but in so far as he is such an instrument we cannot con- 
 ceive of him as an agent; he is not in that respect an 
 agent ; to think of him as such is a confusion of thought ; 
 to speak of him as such is a misuse of language. The 
 thing required, in the case now before us, however, is not 
 instrumentality— it is agency. Any work which God is 
 supposed to do in man, must be supposed as done in 
 perfect harmony with that constitution — the whole of that 
 constitution — which He has made to be essential to man. 
 Whether we conceive of the act of God as miraculous, in 
 the received sense of miracles, or as the natural and ordi- 
 nary mode of Divine action on disordered spiritual natures, 
 we cannot rationally conceive of it as rendering the subse- 
 quent acts of man less free, less his own chosen acts, than 
 
MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 39 
 
 those acts which he performed before the change took 
 place. We are not now raising any question of the 
 abstract possibility of the act of God being different from 
 that which the present argument contemplates; nor of the 
 desirableness of His doing that, whatever it may be, with- 
 out which there is no hope for man ; nor of the wisdom, 
 or the righteousness, or the goodness of God, in so inter- 
 fering as to accomplish the designs of his love to man : 
 without, at present, affirming or denying anything relating 
 to these points, we are concerned to make it clear that — 
 the case being what it is — it is not in our power to conceive 
 of God substituting a good for an evil principle of action 
 in the human spirit, otherwise than in perfect conformity 
 with what our consciousness reveals to us as essential to 
 tire very nature of voluntary — that is, free activity in man. 
 If no constraint is put on the constitution of human 
 nature, if the idea of Divine power doing that which man 
 is required himself to do, is to be rejected, there remain, 
 so far as we can see, only two things which we can con- 
 ceive of being done : either the work is one purely of moral 
 suasion, of considerations addressed to the mind, as reasons 
 and objective motives, such as are addressed to all men in 
 the ordinary course of Divine government ; or the work is 
 altogether of a different nature, — not indeed opposed to 
 moral suasion, not accomplishing its end independently of 
 it, — yet so acting on that in man which we have called his 
 disposition, that freely, of his own choice, he yields to the 
 suasion, and acts according to the will of God. If we have 
 stated the case aright, the cause of the wrong choice is that 
 which makes all objective motives weak or powerful ac- 
 cording as they are agreeable or disagreeable to it ; but 
 Divine moral suasion goes no further than offering con- 
 siderations which are wise and good and right ; so that, in 
 fact, it appeals to one who does not like the thing which is 
 right ; and it is because the case is thus, and not otherwise, 
 that we are driven to the conclusion that " the spirit of 
 
40 MAN, AS A Sl'IMTUAL BEING. 
 
 man " must be changed, or his free actions towards God 
 will not he what truth and justice demand, what the nature 
 of man and the will of God require that they should be. 
 Now it is the failure of moral suasion to induce man to do 
 what he is free to do or not to do, according to his choice, 
 that constitutes the exigency ; therefore the exigency cannot 
 be relieved, the difficulty is not solved, the change con- 
 templated will not be effected, by the most perfect moral 
 suasion of which it is possible to conceive. Moral suasion 
 has its functions, its limits ; else how come we to distin- 
 guish it from force? But if, all the functions of moral 
 suasion being exhausted, and its limits touched, man still 
 sins against God — and this, remember, is our case — some- 
 thing else, if anything else there be, must be relied on for 
 doing that which moral suasion has not done, and, as it 
 would seem, cannot do. 
 
 Can we, then, conceive of a work of God in relation to 
 the " spirit of a man " which, without being incompatible 
 with moral suasion, or independent of it in bringing out 
 its human results, is yet different from it, so different 
 from it as to go deeper into man's nature, and to secure 
 to moral suasion those moral consequences which, without 
 such a work of God, it fails to produce ? If we feel sure 
 that there could be no such work without a Divine force 
 overpowering the human freedom, thus making the conse- 
 quent actions Divine actions, and not human, then it is not 
 on such a work that we could rely for securing what we 
 seek — the free and healthy action of man's own nature in hi* 
 ■relation to God. But, if we do not feel sure of this, if we 
 can conceive of the possibility of such a work not over- 
 powering the human freedom — if the Scriptures teach us 
 that such a work is done, and at the same time that man's 
 freedom is unimpaired, then that is the work on which we 
 are to rely for the beginning of man's spiritual recovery 
 and salvation. 
 
 II. Any work which we ascribe to God in changing the 
 
MAN, AS A SP1EITUAL BEING. 41 
 
 spirit of man must be conceived of as doing no violence to 
 the principle of Divine government. By the principle of the 
 Divine government, it is presumed, you understand that 
 of attributing to man his own proper acts, and dealing 
 with him righteously according to those acts. That which 
 God does is not done by man ; that which man does is not 
 done by God. The agencies are as really distinct as the 
 personalities ; not more, not less, but equally distinct. 
 Since man is not God, but God's creature, so man's acts 
 are not the Creator s acts, but the creature's acts ; and 
 it is because those acts are freely and properly, in the 
 fullest sense in which such words can apply to a creature, 
 his own, entirely his own, exclusively his own, that man is 
 held responsible, is praised or blamed, fares well or ill, 
 according to his doings. The principle of Divine govern- 
 ment is, in truth, the Divine nature, in its moral relation 
 to such a creature as man : that nature cannot be any 
 other than it is ; and, therefore, we may not attribute to 
 God any work which is not consistent with it. We cannot 
 justly conceive of God but as doing that which is not only 
 far from being wrong, but as doing that which is right, so 
 far as the qualities of right and wrong may be qualities of 
 which the supposed act is susceptible. 
 
 It does not seem to us to be consistent with right 
 government, as such, to do anything for a subject of that 
 government which will exempt him from the natural and 
 moral consequences of his own acts ; and we cannot see 
 how it is possible, on the principle of moral government 
 solely, for a sinner against God to receive pardon of a 
 past transgression, whatever change might appear in his 
 subsequent life : the transgression is not expiated by the 
 performance of subsequent duty : so that unless there be 
 some real and adequate expiation for the former trans- 
 gression, such an expiation as offers a just reason for 
 pardon, we see no way in which it can be right for the 
 Just One to pardon the sinner. If there be such an 
 
4*2 MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 
 
 expiation as shall make it right to pardon the sinner, then, 
 on the ground of the same expiation, it is right to bestow- 
 on him any kind of benefit, and any degree of happiness 
 which may be included in the designs of infinite intelli- 
 gence and goodness. 
 
 III. Any work which we may ascribe to God in changing 
 the spirit of man must be conceived of as not necessarily 
 arising out of the relations iihich His moral government of 
 man has established. By a work necessarily arising out of 
 such relations is meant a work without which man could 
 not be righteously held to be responsible, and dealt with 
 in a way of moral government. If it were supposed that 
 man is not responsible to God until he becomes the 
 subject of such a change as we are now contemplating, it 
 would follow, inevitably, that man, as he is — the unrenewed 
 man — is not a sinner, a sinner in that sense, and to that 
 extent, which requires that he shall be changed in order to 
 his becoming right and happy. 
 
 In the case supposed, a spiritual change in a sinner is 
 not the matter that we should be discussing ; it would 
 then be the endowment of a sinless creature, hitherto 
 incapable of moral government and responsibility, and of 
 right or wrong in his actions, with a new faculty — capaci- 
 tating him to be what he has not been. This is not the 
 thing with which we have now to do. We have to do with 
 a sinner against God, with the change of his spirit from 
 evil to good, so that his free action towards God shall 
 henceforward be right and not wrong. We have to do with 
 one who is naturally possessed of a moral constitution, 
 intelligence, conscience, the power of self-government, and 
 the sense of responsibility ; and who, possessing all these 
 advantages, has freely acted towards God as he knows he 
 ought not to have acted. It is not essential to our concep- 
 tion of the right government of God that He should, as the 
 Head of that government, as the Judge of man's secret 
 thoughts, as the Awarder of man's eternal deserts, afford 
 
MAX, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 43 
 
 him more than the capacity, the opportunity, and the 
 rational motives for knowing and doing what is right. If 
 man sins against God, in violation of his own conviction, 
 in opposition to the motives by which he ought to have 
 been led (and, had he not chosen otherwise, would have 
 been led) to obedience, what can we conceive of as fairly 
 arising out of his moral relation to God, but that be shall 
 be condemned? We acknowledge that it is right that the 
 man who sins should be condemned : his own heart 
 acknowledges that it is right. It ought, therefore, to be 
 clearly apprehended by us, and as constantly remembered, 
 that a change in a sinners spirit towards God is not neces- 
 sary as an element of responsibility, or as a ground of moral 
 government : for, on the contrary, his sin as one who is 
 responsible and who, being responsible and offending, is 
 condemned by God's moral government, constitutes the 
 ground of our certainty that he needs a change, and of our 
 inquiry, whether he can be changed. Unless there be that 
 in the Supreme Being which is not his Moral Authority, 
 and bv virtue of which we can conceive of his doiriGf a work 
 which we cannot conceive of His doing as the Supreme 
 Governor, we see no ground for hoping that man — the 
 sinner — can be changed into man — the sinless. There 
 may be — indeed, it is probable on various grounds that 
 there is— a mode of viewing God which, without being 
 inconsistent with the principle of His government, lays 
 hold of another principle, coessential and coeternal with 
 it ; though, in the order of development it may be either 
 antecedent to it, or contingent on it; and if we can convert 
 that probability into a certainty, if we can be sure that it is 
 so, then, but not till then, do we see intelligible and safe 
 reasons for attributing to God that spiritual change without 
 which, though the man may be governed, the sinner cannot 
 be blessed. 
 
 IV. Any work which we ascribe to God in changing the 
 spirit of a sinner, must be conceived of as mysterious, but not 
 
44 MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 
 
 more mysterious, nor otherwise mysterious, than some other 
 works which we ascribe to God. 
 
 Mystery is relative to our present state of knowledge, to 
 our means of knowing, or our capacity of knowing. We 
 know that God is, while a thousand questions arise re- 
 specting how He is, what is the mode of His being, which 
 we cannot solve, because they relate to a subject which 
 bears no analogy to our consciousness. In like manner, 
 we may know that God acts; and for the same simple 
 reason we do not know how he acts. "Whatever work, there- 
 fore, we ascribe to Him, is a work whic is mysterious to 
 us, beyond the analogy of our consciousness, above the 
 range of our experience. But, as there is an acknowledged 
 class of Divine works which we call natural, ordinary, har- 
 monious, on which we build the doctrines of natural philo- 
 sophy, and of natural theology, so there is a class of Divine 
 works not included in this series, such as Creation, Inspi- 
 ration, and the entire course of miracles, on which we 
 build our belief of a Divine revelation, and which, though 
 not more mysterious in themselves, (for, indeed, nothing is 
 in itself mysterious,) are felt to be more remote from our 
 apprehension. We know, from evidence, that such works 
 have been ; we also know that, in some respects, they differ 
 from the Divine works with which we are familiar ; but we 
 do not know how these things have been done. Now the 
 work which wc ascribe to God in changing " the spirit of 
 a man" is not like any other work which we are conscious 
 of doing ourselves ; it is, therefore, more mysterious to us 
 than our own conscious acts can be. And the work which 
 we thus ascribe to God may, or may not, belong to those 
 Divine operations which we speak of as ordinary and 
 natural. If it is regarded as belonging to them, then it 
 cannot be more mysterious than any other Divine work of 
 the same class. The renewing of a sinner, thus viewed, 
 cannot be more mysterious than the moral government of 
 responsible agents, or the psychical government of intel- 
 
MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 45 
 
 lectual beings, or the physical administration of material 
 forces. But if the work of God in " the spirit of a man" 
 presents aspects which men do not perceive to be analo- 
 gous to any department of His government, we are not 
 helped in our contemplation of such aspects of this work 
 by what we find elsewhere. As the laws of cohesion, of 
 attraction and repulsion, of antagonist forces, and of 
 chemical changes, are not resolved into the law of gravita- 
 tion, so the laws of vegetable and of animal life are not 
 resolved into any of the foregoing laws. In like manner, 
 the laws of Thought are not mere modifications of physio- 
 logical laws ; neither are the laws of moral agency the 
 same as the laws of intellectual apprehension. It may 
 be that what is done in renewing the human spirit diners 
 in some respects from that which is done according to 
 the laws of moral agency : if so, the laws of moral ag< ncy 
 alone cannot explain it; and no appeal to those laws 
 will lie against any explanation of it which is drawn 
 from other sources : this particular work of God, so 
 regarded, belongs to another department more remote from 
 ordinary experience, and, in that sense, more mysterious. 
 Even if a man were to regard it as belonging to the depart- 
 ment to which Creation, Inspiration, and Miracle belong, 
 it cannot be more mysterious than any other work belonging 
 to the same department. Whether the Divine work now 
 in question does belong to that department or not, it is not 
 our present business to determine. It is not easy, we do 
 not say it is impossible, to fix the limits of that department: 
 it requires more knowledge, more comprehensiveness of 
 intellectual grasp, more patient and varied examination of 
 deep analogies, than fall to the lot of most men. For 
 anything that we know to have been proved to the con- 
 trary, this whole department of the Divine working may be 
 to Him, and indeed may be to some of His creatures, nay, 
 to ourselves hereafter, as natural, as ordinary, as harmo- 
 nious, as the more familiar co arses of events which such 
 
40 MAN, A8 A SPIRITUAL BEING. 
 
 language is used to describe ; and miracle, as well as 
 mystery, may be nothing else than a sign of our present 
 limited experience, and imperfect apprehension. 
 
 But supposing that there are reasons for not placing the 
 work of God in renewing the human spirit in the same 
 category with the miraculous, there is nothing absurd in 
 believing that, without being properly miraculous, this 
 work of God performed in given conditions, and according 
 to a settled and understood method, may occupy a depart- 
 ment in the manifold workings of omnipotence, to which 
 science knows no parallel, and for which language has no 
 name. What we know of this particular work may be all 
 we know of such Divine operations, without its being all 
 that is knowable ; we may be but on the verge of a firmament 
 — a vast expanse of systems in which, as in other firma- 
 ments, the more we know, the more we perceive to lie 
 beyond us : and where the light that dazzles us at first may 
 lead us afterwards to scenes of more majestic order than 
 our heart could have conceived. The spiritual world is 
 infinitely grander than the material. Shall we marvel if 
 its laws are more diversified ? Nature is a large word, 
 standing for a large reality, and among her many laws, the 
 many ordinary procedures by which Thought, Nature's 
 Lord, comes forth in action, who shall say there is not 
 one peculiar law of nature, by which He brings wandering 
 spirits to Himself? 
 
 Y. Any work which we ascribe to God in changing the 
 spirit of a sinner must be clearly taught in the inspired 
 Scriptures, and gathered, like other scriptural doctrines, 
 from a full consideration and fair comparison of all the 
 facts, statements, prayers, reasonings, and exhortations 
 bearing on this subject, which they contain. The revela- 
 tion of God is given to make us " wise unto salvation." As 
 each successive portion of revelation implies the truth, and 
 supposes the knowledge, of the portions previously re- 
 vealed, so the revelation as a whole implies the truth, and 
 
MAN, AS A SPIRITUAL BEING. 47 
 
 supposes the knowledge, of all that may be known of man, 
 and of God, without the revelation. For this reason we 
 have hitherto confined ourselves to such appeals, and such 
 reasonings, as are within our natural competency, not 
 enforcing them by the authority of holy Scripture. But 
 when we come to say that God does anything to change 
 the spiritual condition of man, and to affirm what He does, 
 we enter upon new and holy ground. We must consult 
 the oracle. We understand the questions; we must receive 
 the answers to them from God himself. Our only reason 
 for making any affirmation must be — " thus it is written ;" 
 our only ground of certainty — "all Scripture is given by 
 inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for re- 
 proof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness ; that 
 the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto 
 all good works." * 
 
 Then to the Scriptures we will go. Let us go to them 
 w T ith the consciousness, with the principles, with the know- 
 ledge of man, and the knowledge of God, on which the 
 Scriptures ground their appeals to us. — Let us go to them 
 with a clear mind ; clear from prejudice, from doubt, from 
 one-sidedness, from love of human system, from the slavery 
 of human tradition on the one hand, and from the extrava- 
 gance of intellectual license on the other. — Let us go to 
 them for that which is true, not for the confirmation of 
 what we wish to appear true. — Let us go to them with a 
 humble heart ; with calmness ; with confidence in our 
 infallible Teacher ; with meek docility. — Let us go to them 
 in love : the temple of inspiration is profaned, its sanctity is 
 defiled, by the grossness of human passion ; its tranquillity 
 is disturbed by the clamour of dispute and strife ; the 
 heart that loves not, brings back no response, but a terrible 
 rebuke. — Let us go to them with prayer. Prayer becomes 
 us, for we are weak. Prayer becomes us, for we know 
 nothing of God, but as we are taught. Prayer becomes us, 
 * 1 Tim. iii. 16, 17. 
 
48 MAN, AS A SP1H1TUAL BEING. 
 
 for we have sinned ; and we can be neither good nor happy 
 unless God have mercy onus. — Let us go to them with the 
 purpose of following their guidance. "Whatever opinion 
 they tell us to resign, let it be resigned. Whatever sacri- 
 fice they bid us lay upon the altar, let it be cheerfully and 
 reverently offered as the first cluster of the vintage, or the 
 first sheaf of harvest. Whatever they require that we 
 should do, let us do it at once, and always. Whatever 
 hope they kindle, let us feed the fire, and fan the flame, 
 till the things we hope for are among the things within us, 
 which our own spirit knows, and with which " a stranger 
 doth not intermeddle." 
 
LECTUKE II. 
 
 THE GENERAL DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE RELATING TO 
 THE SPIRIT OF GOD. 
 
 <: The things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." — 1 Con. ii. 11. 
 
 Our consciousness enables us to comprehend what is 
 meant by a spirit. The earliest and simplest of analogies 
 assures us, that outward acts resembling our own are the 
 manifestations of a spirit resembling our own. This same 
 consciousness prepares us to understand what is meant 
 when we are told that " God is a Spirit." Such a descrip- 
 tion of God appeals to our knowledge of ourselves, and of 
 our own attributes. We conceive of Him as That of which 
 each of our own spirits is at once the production and the 
 likeness. Omitting from our conception of Him all that 
 is limited in our own consciousness, we conceive of Him as 
 being, as knowing, and as doing; as being, without the 
 conditions of finite time, and of finite space ; as knowing, 
 without inquiry, or reasoning ; as doing, what He pleases, 
 when he pleases, and as He pleases. We conceive of Him 
 as worthy of all admiration, confidence, and love ; as good, 
 and therefore right; as right, and therefore just; as perfect, 
 and therefore incapable of change. By the consciousness 
 of our own spiritual power, we understand what is meant 
 by " the power of God;" and by the effects which our own 
 power produces, we understand what is said of the effects 
 produced by His power. Indeed, our very imperfection 
 suggests, by contrast, an intelligent apprehension of an 
 agency which cannot be imperfect. 
 
 xiv. v. 
 
50 THE GENERAL DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE 
 
 So that we are not using words without meaning when 
 we speak of that which God may be conceived to do in 
 restoring the depraved spirit of man to the condition which 
 develops the healthy working of his original nature. We 
 can distinctly understand the thing to be done — the result 
 to be secured. Whether we can understand the Divine act 
 itself, is another matter. So far as it is analogous to acts of 
 our own, or acts which we can rationally conceive of our- 
 selves as doing, we do understand it ; so far as it is not 
 analogous to acts of our own, or to acts which we can con- 
 ceive of ourselves as doing, we do not understand it : it is, 
 then, beyond our range; it differs from our agency in kind, 
 not merely in degree; and, consequently, it transcends our 
 comprehension. Whatever God is supposed to do through 
 any medium, as by instruction, suasion, sympathy, or 
 example, we clearly understand ; for this is the kind of 
 work which each of us is doing to others, or having done 
 to him by others, every day. But if God is supposed to do 
 anything for the renovation of a depraved human spirit 
 without any medium — which is neither instruction, nor 
 moral suasion, — that which He is thus supposed to do, we 
 understand not : it is above our comprehension, because 
 it is not like anything within the range of our own con- 
 scious agency. It is sufficiently clear, however, that this 
 incomprehensibleness of a supposed act of God, is neither 
 a reason for, nor a reason against, believing that such an 
 act may be, or actually is, performed ; yet, in relation to a 
 purpose which has not been accomplished by what we do 
 understand, but it is said or thought to be accomplished 
 in a way which we do not understand, the proof of the 
 thing being done would be a proof of a mode of spiritual 
 agency in God which has no analogy with any mode of 
 spiritual agency by man. 
 
 In such a case, the act ascribed to God would be intelli- 
 gently ascribed to Him, for the clearest and strongest of all 
 reasons ; and at the same time the way in which He has 
 
RELATING TO THE SPIIUT OF GOD. 5 L 
 
 done it would be among the mysteries of light which are 
 too dazzling and too high for us to look upon. — The appeal 
 to human consciousness assures us that a work which is 
 not of man, but of God, is needed to renew us after the 
 image of God. We have offered this as a fair conclusion 
 from what every man knows of himself, and from what 
 each man may know from observation, from testimony, 
 and from just analogy, of all other men. Whether 
 there be such a work of God, and, if there be, what it 
 is — we must gather, not from man, but from God. With 
 this conviction, and for this purpose, we now come reve- 
 rently, devoutly; and calmly, to ask the great Spirit whom 
 we worship, whether it be true or not that He works in a 
 man, for his salvation ; and, if He does so work, how far it 
 is a work which we can understand, in order that we may 
 set about understanding it, and wait or act according to that 
 understanding ; and how far it is a work which we can not 
 understand, in order that, so regarding Him, we may bow 
 down with awful adoration at His footstool. 
 
 This course of Lectures ought not to have been under- 
 taken by a man who had not arrived at definite results, at 
 positive judgments. Our positive judgment — the definite 
 result of our studies, is — that there is a work of God in man 
 which secures his salvation ; that this work is spiritual ; that 
 in accomplishing this spiritual work, there is nothing 
 opposed to the moral nature of man, nothing incompatible 
 with the principle of Divine government, nothing that is 
 more mysterious than other works which we unhesitatingly 
 ascribe to God ; that in securing the moral results of this 
 work, the Divine agency is of a nature which we readily 
 understand, because it is analogous to those works which 
 are daily exemplified in human agency ; that in beginning, 
 carrying on, and completing this Divine work, there is, 
 also, a Divine agency of a spiritual nature which we do not 
 understand, because it transcends all the analogies which 
 are supplied by our own consciousness. The convictions 
 
52 THE GENERAL DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE 
 
 which we thus avow result from a patient and, we trust, 
 devout examination of what, we believe, God himself has 
 taught us in His own word. 
 
 That teaching is our present theme. 
 
 First : — The Scriptures teach us that there is a work 
 of God in man, which secures his salvation. 
 
 It will be conceded by most persons that such is the ap- 
 parent meaning of all those passages of the New Testament 
 which may be arranged under the following heads of classi- 
 fication. 
 
 I. Those passages which describe God as beginning and 
 performing a work in those who are called "believers," 
 "holy persons," "the saved."* 
 
 II. Those passages in which certain persons are spoken 
 of as begotten and born of God.-j- 
 
 III. Those passages in which salvation is ascribed to 
 the " calling," "power," " grace," or " gift of God." \ 
 
 Secondly: — The Scriptures teach us that there is a 
 
 WORK OF " THE SPIRIT OF God" IN MAN WHICH SECURES' HIS 
 SALVATION. 
 
 Before treating this department of inspired instruction 
 on the subject now before us, we shall have to deal with 
 some preliminary inquiries; and this will exhaust the 
 remaining space devoted to the present Lecture. 
 
 I. What are we to understand by The Spirit — The 
 Holy Ghost — The Spirit of God ? 
 
 By these phrases in the New Testament we are to 
 understand either — a peculiar mode of describing God as 
 acting ; or the agency of a being who is created by God ; 
 or one who, — though personally and officially distinct from 
 the Father, as the Father; and from the Son, as Son ; — is 
 yet, with the Father and the Son, one God. 
 
 (1.) That the general fact of Divine agency is expressed 
 in a peculiar mode when the Spirit of God is spoken of, it 
 is impossible to doubt. As the "spirit of man" means 
 
 * See Note D. + Hid. J Ibid. 
 
RELATING TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD. 53 
 
 man in action, so b) r analogy, " the Spirit of God" is easily 
 understood to mean God in action. Thus when we read 
 in the Old Testament that " the Spirit of God moved upon 
 the face of the waters ;" * " by his Spirit he hath garnished 
 the heavens;"! "thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are 
 created; and thou renewest the face of the earth;" J "the 
 Spirit of God hath made me ; and the breath of the 
 Almighty hath given me life ;" § " but the Spirit of God 
 came upon him ;" || "not by might, nor by power, but by 
 my Spirit, saith the Lord;" IF "whither shall I go from thy 
 Spirit, whither shall I flee from thy presence?"-* — we 
 can have no doubt that the presence or agency here referred 
 to is the presence or agency of God; and that it is expressed 
 in a peculiar manner, for which it would not be difficult to 
 assign apparently sufficient reasons, grounded in the 
 idioms of the Hebrew language. And even in the New 
 Testament, there are numerous passages which obviously 
 belong to the same class, and exhibit the same idiom. 
 Thus when our Lord says, " If I cast out devils by the 
 Spirit of God;"f f and another evangelist represents him as 
 saying, "If I with the finger of God cast out devils ;" \ \ we 
 see that the phrases "finger of God," and " Spirit of God," 
 are equivalent. In like manner, when it was said to the 
 virgin spouse of Joseph, " The Holy Ghost shall come upon 
 thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee," 
 the phrase " Holy Ghost" appears to mean the same mys- 
 terious agency as "the power of the Highest:" though we 
 cannot fail to perceive that the " Holy Ghost," is a peculiar 
 mode of expressing " the power of the Highest." In the 
 same way, when the apostle says, "Whatman knoweth the 
 things of a man, save the spirit of a man which is in him ? 
 even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of 
 God," — we can scarcely avoid understanding that, as " the 
 
 * Gen. i. 3. + Job xxvi. 13. ♦ Tsa. civ. 30. 
 
 § Job xxxiii. 4. || Judges iii. 10; vi. 31. % Zecb. iv. 6. 
 
 ** I'sa. cxxxix. 7. + + Matt. xii. 28. J+ Luk exi. 20. 
 
54 THE GENERAL DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE 
 
 spirit of man" means man himself, u the Spirit of God" 
 means God himself. Guided by these simple and obvious 
 passages of Scripture, we can detect no source of error in 
 admitting, nay, in devoutly and earnestly maintaining, that 
 "the Spirit of God," " the Spirit," " the Holy Ghost," are 
 sacred expressions which denote God in action. Whatever 
 work, then, is ascribed by the inspired teachers to the 
 Holy Ghost, is by them ascribed to God; because the acts 
 so ascribed cannot be other than the acts of God ; because 
 the same acts are positively, and in the plainest words, 
 ascribed to God; and because, as we have seen, "the 
 Spirit," "the Spirit of God," "the Holy Spirit," is God 
 Himself. 
 
 (2.) This explanation, you at once perceive, does not 
 apply to numerous passages of the Scriptures in which the 
 agency of the Holy Spirit is recorded, or referred to, as 
 that of a conscious, intelligent, and energetic agent, distinct 
 in personality from " the Father," and from "the Son, "and 
 subordinate in His mission, and in His acts, to the Father, 
 and to the Son. We cannot read the Scriptures with 
 serious attention, and not be deeply impressed with the 
 marked peculiarity of language with which the Spirit is 
 represented, in prayers, in promises, in narratives, and in 
 argumentative or hortatory appeals to men, and especially 
 to holy men. " Take not thy Holy Spirit from me" * is a 
 prayer which we should do well to compare with the ac- 
 knowledgment, "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?"! 
 Examine such declarations as these in the Old Testament: 
 '• And now the Lord Jehovah and his Spirit hath sentme;"* 
 11 when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of 
 the Lord will lift up a standard against him ;"§ " but they 
 rebelled and vexed his Holy Spirit ;" "where is He that 
 put His Holy Spirit within him? " || " thou gavest them tin- 
 good Spirit to instruct them ;" t: "thou testifiest against 
 
 * Pea. li. 12. + Psa. roods. 7. + Isa. xlviii. 16. 
 
 § Isjulix. 1!). || [Ba.inii. 10,11. «[ Nebon. ixj 30. 
 
RELATING TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD. 55 
 
 them, by thy Spirit, through thy prophets;"* "the words 
 which Jehovah of hosts sent, by His Spirit, through the 
 former prophets."! 
 
 What can be meant by Jehovah taking His Holy Spirit 
 from a man; — putting His Spirit in the midst of men; — 
 giving His Spirit; — testifying by His Spirit; — sending words 
 by His Spirit? There is surely a distinction of some kind 
 between Him who takes, and Him who is taken away ; 
 between Him who puts, and Him who is put; between 
 Him who gives, and Him who is given ; between Him 
 who sends, and Him Ly whom He sends. Does God abso- 
 lutely take away Himself ? give Himself? send Himself? 
 Assuming, as we are warranted to assume, that "the Spirit 
 of God " means God in action, we may ask, Is any candid 
 reader of the Hebrew Scriptures satisfied with saying, that 
 such passages are nothing more than peculiar modes of 
 expressing the fact of Divine agency? Is not the agency 
 itself peculiar ? Does not this peculiar agency suggest, 
 nay, does it not require, the belief of a peculiarity in the na- 
 ture of God, which no mode of eayression in human language 
 can set forth without involving an apparent contradiction?^ 
 
 The same kind of distinction, we presume, was present 
 to the mind of Jesus when he uttered those awful words : 
 " I say unto you, that all manner of sin and blasphemy 
 shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the 
 Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And who- 
 soever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall 
 be forgiven him ; but whosoever shall speak against the 
 Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this 
 world, nor in the world to come."§ Pin is against a being 
 —a person ; blasphemy is against a person ; God is the 
 Being sinned against — blasphemed, in ordinary sin and 
 blasphemy. " The Son of man " is a distinct person, the 
 object of special speaking against. Is not the Holy Spirit, 
 
 * Nehem. be. 30. + Zeeh. vii. T<2. + Sec Note E. 
 
 § Matt. xii. 81, 32. 
 
56 THE GENERAL DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE 
 
 then, one person, who can be blasphemed, spoken against ? 
 And is not speaking against Him, blaspheming Him, as 
 distinct from sin and blasphemy against God, as it is dis- 
 tinct from speaking against " the Son of man ?" And what 
 can this distinction be, on the admission, which cannot be 
 avoided, that "the Holy Spirit" is God himself? Whatever 
 this distinction is, we find it expressly affirmed in those 
 remarkable and gracious assurances with which Jesus con- 
 soled the hearts of his sorrowing disciples in his discourse 
 addressed to them before his death, where he promises to 
 "pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, 
 that he may abide with you for ever ; even the Spirit of 
 truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth it 
 not, neither knoweth it; but ye know it, for it abideth with 
 you, and shall be in you."* "The Comforter, the Holy 
 Spirit, which the Father will send in my name — He shall 
 teach you all things, and shall bring to your remembrance 
 all that I have said unto you."f " When the Comforter is 
 come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, the 
 Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, He shall 
 testify concerning me." J " Except I depart, the Comforter 
 will not come unto you ; but if I go away, I will send Him 
 unto you. And when He is come, He will convict the 
 world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment." "When 
 He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all 
 the truth, for He will not speak from Himself ; but what- 
 soever things He shall hear, He will speak ; and He will 
 declare to you things to come. He will glorify me, for 
 He will receive of mine, and will declare it unto you." § In 
 these passages Jesus speaks of the Spirit in the use of 
 neuter pronouns, to agree with the neuter gender of the 
 word Uvcvfia, translated "spirit;" hut when he speaks of 
 the Spirit as teaching, testifying, being sent by himself, con- 
 victing, guiding, speaking, declaring, glorifying, Jesus, he 
 
 * John xiv. 10, 17. + John xiv. 26. 
 
 I John xv. 20. § John xvi. 7, 8, 13. ] 1. 
 
RELATING TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD. 57 
 
 makes a distinct and express use of the masculine personal 
 pronouns He, Him, Himself. Is it possible to avoid the 
 conclusion, that the Spirit is a conscious, intelligent, ener- 
 getic agent, who is not the Father, nor the Son ? As Jesus 
 himself had thus clearly expressed the distinct personal 
 agency of the Divine Spirit, we are not surprised that the 
 same Spirit should afterwards be spoken of as saying to 
 Philip, "Go forwards and join that chariot;"* — to Peter, 
 "Arise, therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, 
 nothing doubting, fori have sent them;"f — to the prophets 
 and teachers at Antioch, " Separate to me Barnabas and 
 Saul for the work whereunto I have called them."{ It is 
 in perfect keeping with this actual distinctiveness of per- 
 sonal agency, that Barnabas and Saul are said to have been 
 "sent forth by the Holy Ghost." Exactly on the same 
 principle we read afterwards that when Paul and Silas had 
 " gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and 
 were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in 
 Asia, after they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go 
 into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them not."§ 
 
 (3.) Do we err in believing that He who thus directed 
 the steps of evangelists, apostles, prophets, and teachers — 
 the Holy Spirit — the Spirit of Jesus, is personally an 
 agent, distinct from the Father, as the Father, and distinct 
 from the Son, as the Son, and yet, with the Father and the 
 Son one God ? When, further, we read of the Spirit making 
 men bishops ; — of signs and wonders being wrought by the 
 power of the Holy Ghost; — the Spirit giving men utter- 
 ance ; — testifying to Paul that bonds and afflictions awaited 
 him ; — witnessing ; — being given to them that obey God ; 
 
 * Acts viii. 20. + Acts x. 20. 
 
 J Acts xiii. 2. See Acts xv. 28 ; xxi. 11. 
 
 § Acts xvi. fi, 7. After nvevfia many copies have \nooZ, the reading approved 
 by Beza, Mill, Griesbach, Knapp, Vater, Scholtz, and followed by the Syriac, 
 the Vulgate, and the Ethiopic versions. It is quoted by Cyril (Epist. ad Joan. 
 Episcopum Antiochte. Thesaur. c. 12;) and by Jerome (contra Pelag. 
 l,2,c. 6.) 
 
58 THE GENERAL DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE 
 
 — being sent down from heaven ; — being lied unto ;— 
 tempted ; — helping men's infirmities ; — renewing, sanctify- 
 ing, leading, strengthening, and making intercession for 
 them ; — sealing men ; — being grieved ; searching ; — re- 
 pealing; — the Spirit which is from God; — giving the word 
 of wisdom, of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, the work- 
 ing of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, languages, 
 and interpretations of languages ; — distributing to every 
 one severally as he wiUeth; — where are the forms of lan- 
 guage that could more strongly mark the distinct attributes 
 and energies of a personal agent? To these clear testimo- 
 nies may be added those passages in the New Testament 
 in which Christians are addressed as the temples of the 
 Holy Ghost ; — in which it is prayed that the " communion 
 of the Holy Ghost," with the grace of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and the love of God, may be with them ; — in which 
 the Name into which the nations are to be baptized is "the 
 name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;" 
 — and in which both Jews and Gentiles are described as 
 having access through Jesus Christ "by one Spirit unto 
 the Father." We are in no way concerned to deny that 
 there is an apparent verbal contradiction in saying that the 
 Spirit of God is God himself, and that the Spirit of God is 
 not the Father, as He is not the Son ; for we do not know 
 of any language in which the Holy Spirit can be spoken of 
 which shall be entirely free from this apparent verbal con- 
 tradiction. Still, whatever the apparent verbal contradic- 
 tion may be, from what source soever it arises, on what 
 principle soever it may be solved, — or left alone as being 
 incapable of being solved by any language received among 
 men, — here it is on the surface of the Scriptures ; and it 
 presses on us with increasing force in proportion to the 
 seriousness and diligence with which we study these Scrip- 
 tures separately, and then compare them together. 
 
 (4.) It is said, indeed, that " the Spirit" is a term em- 
 ployed either to denote the sublime abstraction of Divine 
 
RELATING TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD. 59 
 
 agency, or to describe the effects of that agency. We are 
 not disposed to question either of these applications of the 
 term. They are not less consistent with the acknowledg- 
 ment, than they are with the denial, of a Divine personal 
 agency, which is not the personal agency of the Father, 
 nor the personal agency of the Son, but the personal agency 
 of the Spirit. Suppose it could be admitted, for the sake 
 of argument merely, that the Scriptures do present to our 
 minds such a distinct personal agency of the Holy Spirit, 
 it would be quite as natural to call that agency in the 
 abstract, or the effects of that agency, the Spirit, as it con- 
 fessedly is to represent by the same term any abstract 
 conception, or any known effects, of the power of God. 
 Whatever solution of the apparent verbal contradiction 
 would thus' be furnished in the latter case, would serve as 
 easily and as perfectly for the solution of apparent verbal 
 contradiction in the former case. If " the Spirit" ever 
 means Divine power generically apprehended, it may mean the 
 power of the Spirit as a distinct agent genericalhj apprehended. 
 If "the Spirit" ever means the effects of Divine power, or 
 agency, it may mean the effects of that power, or agency, 
 which we ascribe to the Spirit as acting in distinction from 
 the Father and from the Son, quite as exactly and as fully 
 as it can mean the effects of the power, or agency, which 
 we ascribe to the Father, as acting in distinction from the 
 Son and from the Spirit. The question with us is not 
 whether " the Spirit" is a term ever applied, according to a 
 well-known usage of language, to the abstract notion of 
 Divine power, or to the effects of that power ; but it is this 
 — is the term always so applied ? Would the explanation 
 of all that is said in Scripture respecting the Holy Spirit be 
 satisfactorily secured by this principle ? We hope we are 
 not less anxious, — certainly we are not less bound, — than 
 other students of Scripture, to avoid grafting our own 
 opinions on the language which we find in these holy 
 writings. We profess to be as ready as others profess 
 
60 THE GENERAL DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE 
 
 themselves to adopt only legitimate grammatical principles 
 in interpreting the language of the Scriptures. Now on 
 what grammatical principles could we deny the personality 
 of Him who is described as possessing knowledge, power, 
 goodness, will, authority, a mission ; who is spoken of in 
 association with "the Father" and with "the Son," but 
 who is not, and cannot be conceived of as being "the 
 Father," or "the Son ?" What is the use of language, with 
 its divisions and its laws, if the express use of masculine 
 pronouns, in grave didactic discourse, is not intended to 
 represent the distinct personality of Him to whom they 
 refer? Granting that it involves a contradiction in words, 
 to speak of this distinct Divine person as one with " the 
 Father" and with " the Son," at the same time that we 
 speak of Him as personally distinct from " the Father" 
 and from " the Son," it may be well to remember that 
 these words are words of Scripture: that they are the words 
 selected by the Divine Teacher for the instruction of men 
 in " the things of God," which " no man knoweth but the 
 Spirit of God;" and that the contradiction which is to us 
 apparent in the words, is not necessarily real in " the 
 things" which it is not possible for any human language to 
 express. We believe that there is one God, but in our 
 conception of that God whom we believe to be One, neither 
 is the Father God without the Son and the Spirit ; nor is 
 the Son God without the Father and the Spirit; nor is the 
 Spirit God without the Father and the Son : the Father, 
 the Son, the Holy Spirit, — this is the One God. 
 
 (5.) The unity of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit is 
 indeed a mystery — a fact clearly revealed, yet suggesting 
 questions which no analogy of consciousness, no walk of 
 human experience, enables us to solve. "Doth this offend" 
 us ? Shall we deny the fact ? Shall w T e, in our pride of 
 intellect, assume that the one God must be as one man — 
 His unity shall be as one of our unities — that He cannot 
 contain, in His own essential nature, the element of love, 
 
RELATING TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD. Gl 
 
 the object of love, and the manifestation of love ; that the 
 human definition of God must be the true definition ; that 
 if the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost be God, there 
 must be three Gods, and not one, even though the Scrip- 
 tures teach us that God, as revealed in the Scriptures — 
 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — is " the only living and true 
 God?" Bather let us acknowledge, for assuredly it well 
 becomes us, that as " no man knoweth the things of a man 
 but the spirit of man which is in him, even so the things of 
 God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." 
 
 (6.) As the oneness of the Father, and the Son, and the 
 Spirit, is a mystery, so likewise is the distinction between 
 the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit. The Father is 
 not the Son. The Spirit is neither the Father nor the 
 Son. By too literal an application of words which, like all 
 other words, are borrowed from the earthly and the human, 
 not a few divines — especially such as used the wonderfully 
 flexible language of the Greeks — sought to explain these 
 distinctions; thus "the Generation" of the Son by the 
 Father, and the "Spiration," "Procession," or "Promana- 
 tion" of the Spirit from the Father (or from the Father and 
 the Son) are phrases occupying no mean place in the the- 
 ology of the early ages. Now we humbly submit — whatever 
 reverence may be due to holy synods, and to learned men 
 — that such explanations are founded on an erroneous 
 principle ; for they are analyses of human thoughts or worth, 
 not developements of Divine realities. Neither, on the 
 other hand, is anything gained by the apparent simplicity of 
 regarding the distinctions actually set before us in Scrip- 
 ture between the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit, as 
 merely variations of our way of thinking of the one God, 
 resulting from his varied actions or offices, in effecting 
 man's salvation. The distinctions between the Father, and 
 the Son, and the Spirit, are so plain, they are so manifestly 
 personal, they so clearly involve mutual relations, and 
 affections, that no modification of human thought can work 
 
02 THE GENERAL DOCTRINE OF SCBIPTURE 
 
 them out from the conception of one being, such as each 
 man is conscious that he is himself. When we are asked, 
 then, whether we believe that there are, in the one God, 
 three distinct Beings, minds, conscious agents, independ- 
 ent existences, — we can only reply, that one part of the 
 question relates to one class of beings, of which there are 
 many, while the other relates to Him who is one. We do 
 not read the New Testament as teaching that the Father is 
 distinct from the Son and from the Spirit, in the same way 
 in which one man is distinct from another man : we do not 
 perceive any analogy whatever between the creatures and 
 the Creator, in this respect: and, therefore, we are in no 
 wise perplexed by a question which assumes such analogy. 
 The question may please some minds by its smartness ; it 
 may displease others by its flippancy ; we waive it, simply, 
 as irrelevant. 
 
 Leaving, then, all discussions which belong to the mcta- 
 phijsic rather than to the theologic, we find no difficulty in 
 tracing the broad practical distinction between that which 
 is done by the Father, and that which is done by the Son, 
 and that which is done by the Spirit, in the salvation of 
 men ; and, however conscious we may be of our inability 
 to determine matters lying far away from the present sphere 
 of the human mind, we have no misgiving in our faith that 
 it is God, and God alone, who saves us. We read that the 
 Father sends, gives, pours out, the Spirit ; and that the 
 Son sends the Spirit; and that the Spirit " proceedeth 
 from the Father;'' but we do not read that the Father pro- 
 ceedeth from the Spirit, or that the Spirit gave his Son. 
 We read that through the Son we have access by one Spirit 
 unto the Father; but we do not read through the Spirit we 
 have access by the Father to the Son ; neither do we read 
 that through the Father we have access by the Son to the 
 Spirit. We read of being pardoned for the sake of Christ. 
 We do not read of being pardoned by the Son, for the sake 
 of the Father, or for the sake of the Spirit. The same 
 
on. 
 
 tical distinction, it is well known, pervades th< 
 anient 
 
 it is. thai •• God" is spoken of in dis from 
 
 lli^ Son, and in distinction from His Spirit; bul when 
 "God"istho! sufficient)/ clear that the 
 
 distinction, whatever it may be, is the same distinction 
 whid I in other passages, between "th< 'and 
 
 Son, and and the Spirit, I 
 
 also true that, in numerous passages, God is spoken of 
 
 is made to the Son 
 
 i the Spirit : our belief is, that as the titles, attributes, 
 
 ks, and honours, of God are rendered in Scripture to 
 
 the Son, and to the Spirit, in the same terms in which they 
 
 are rendered to the Father, we cannot exclude the Son or 
 
 the Spirit from the full meaning of such pas it is. 
 
 true that, of all those passages of the Nes 
 
 Testament which we have adduced ;* x p ore that th< re is :i 
 
 k of God in man. there is not in one of them 
 expn ion of the Spirit of God. But if the "'Spirit 
 
 .':. Scriptures teach us that 
 
 • this, the work wl ich wo have seen 
 
 to God, is ascribed, as we shall hereafter show, to 
 
 God, they not only harmonise with the pas- 
 
 ibe the work to God, but at the same 
 
 time explain them. As the distinction, 1\\ virtue > n which 
 
 cannot call the Spirit either the Father or th< ■ 
 
 nds our conception, though it i^ plainly 
 .i t^ lv a fact, so the same actual distinctions 
 \. nts our ascribing to the Father, or to the Son, that 
 h is done by the Spirit, warrants us to say, thai 
 I - not the work of the 1 as the Father, 
 
 not the work of the Son as the Son. because it is the 
 work of the Spirit- as the Spirit. 
 
 A Second Preliminary Question relates ; 
 
 - trtl which 4o n • i <i vm>i. 
 
64 THE GENERAL DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE 
 
 I. There are works ascribed to the Holy Spirit which 
 have no direct bearing on the salvation of man, but of 
 which it is desirable to take some notice here, if it were 
 only to impress us more fully with the grandeur and majesty 
 of that Spiritual Agency of which we shall have occasion 
 to speak hereafter. We have quoted for another purpose 
 the passages of the Old Testament in which the Spirit of 
 God is spoken of as " moving on the face of the waters," 
 " garnishing the heavens," " renewing the face of the 
 earth," "making a man," and "giving him life." We 
 grant that these passages are capable of being explained 
 without referring to that distinct personal agency which we 
 find elsewhere ascribed to the Holy Spirit, as the Holy 
 Spirit; but even then, it would appear to us to argue a 
 superficial rather than a profound, reverential, or well-fur- 
 nished mind, to make no account of the peculiar phrase- 
 ology, which, though it might not of itself suggest the idea 
 of a distinct personal agency, yet harmonizes most remark- 
 ably with that idea when suggested by the language of 
 subsequent revelations. No love of philosophical sim- 
 plicity can excuse the neglect of inspired teaching. Truth 
 is the only philosophy. At the basis of all theology we find 
 such truths as these : the creation is the work of God ; — 
 all the things that are, are what they naturally are, because 
 He so willed it; — they are preserved in being by Him ; — 
 all their separate processes, and all their combined opera- 
 tions, are the filling up of plans formed by His wisdom, 
 and are the results of His power. The manifestation of 
 His infinite perfections to intelligent beings is one of the 
 apparent designs which the enlightened observer can trace 
 in all the works of God, and can trace the more exactly in 
 proportion as he is endowed with a penetrating, capacious, 
 disciplined, and devout habit of thinking on what he sees : 
 the more we know of God, and the more religiously and 
 practically we meditate on what we know of Him, the more 
 desirous, and the better prepared, we are for knowing 
 
RELATING TO THE SPJI11T OF GOD. 65 
 
 more. The Scriptures can scarcely be said to reveal these 
 principles of natural theology. They rather build upon 
 them. The fact that they do build upon them is one of 
 the avowed reasons with the most thoughtful classes of men, 
 (nay, even with the least thoughtful classes of men, who 
 think with any seriousness on subjects so deserving of all 
 thought, it is a stronger reason than they perhaps would 
 admit) why the Scriptures are received as " given by inspi- 
 ration of God." He is heard speaking in His word, as we 
 see Him moving in His works. Now since it is a fact that 
 highly-gifted men — Newton for example — have attained to 
 more sublime conceptions than other men have reached, of 
 the plan on which the material world is governed, shall we 
 be surprised when inspired teachers tell us what, without 
 them, we did not know, could not know, of the origin of 
 these yet uncounted and unmeasured systems ? Does it 
 mortify an ingenious mind to learn something respecting 
 the beginning of things, which science has not demonstrated, 
 which observation has not recorded, which analogy has not 
 suggested, which even hypothesis, in the wildest and most 
 vigorous flights of the human imagination, has not pic- 
 tured? The letter of the Scriptures does contain revelations 
 of this description. It not only tells that " the Spirit of 
 God " is actively and personally at work in perfecting the 
 fair productions of Divine power; it also says of "the 
 Word" who "was made flesh and dwelt among us," that 
 "all things were brought into being by Him, and without 
 Him not one thing that has been brought into being, was 
 brought into being ;" that " in him was life ; and the life 
 was the light of men;"* "by whom also He made the 
 worlds;" "who is the Image of the Invisible God, the 
 First-born of the whole creation, for by Him were all 
 things, those in the heavens, and those in the earth, the 
 visible and the invisible, whether thrones, or lordships, or 
 governments, or powers ; all things have been created 
 
 * John i. 3, I. 
 XIV. v 
 
C6 THE GENERAL DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE 
 
 through Him and for Kim : and He is before all things, 
 and by Him all things consist."* According to our con- 
 ceptions of the One God, and of the distinction between 
 the Father and the Son and the Spirit, there is a majesty 
 in these descriptions that corresponds at once with the 
 ineffable glory of the Creator, and with the mysterious 
 sublimity of that work in which the Maker of man has 
 become his Saviour. 
 
 We put it calmly to every reader of the Scriptures, 
 whether the attribution of creation to the Son of God, and 
 to the Spirit, is not as literal, and as plainly expressed, as 
 the attribution of creation to God. It is so written. Then, 
 how are we to understand the writing? Shall we reject it, 
 explain it away, hold just the same belief as we should 
 hold if it were not so written ? What is this else than 
 refusing to be taught anything respecting creation beyond 
 that which we know without a revelation ? But if we are to 
 learn nothing of God by revelation beyond what we already 
 know without revelation, what was there to reveal, what 
 need of revelation, of what use can revelation be ? We judge 
 that it is better to draw our theology from revelation than 
 to pare down revelation to our preconceived theology. We 
 humbly aver that this is a procedure more becoming the 
 true dignity of the human intellect, more really philoso- 
 phical, as well as more reverential and more devout, than 
 that of fixing the extent of the knowledge we have without 
 the Bible, as the boundary of the knowledge which we are 
 willing to receive from the Bible. — If this principle of fol- 
 lowing what we believe to be the teaching of God Himself 
 in His own word be ridiculed as the worshipping of a Booh; 
 we are not careful to rebut such ridicule ; only we might 
 say to those who are disposed to play with these light but 
 dangerous missiles, How can you escape the charge of 
 worsliipjunrf the works of God? We hold the revelation 
 contained in the Scriptures to be as really a work of God 
 
 * Col. i. 15—17. 
 
RELATING TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD. 07 
 
 as the creation, or the government of the universe; and we 
 understand that it is one of the purposes of revelation to 
 teach us some truths concerning that creation, and that 
 government, which men have never learned by pure deduc- 
 tion from abstract principles, or by naked inference from 
 scientific judgments. And, if these truths respecting the 
 elements and laws of nature are found to harmonize with 
 those higher (and to us more practically momentous) truths, 
 which relate to our spiritual well-being, and our eternal 
 prospects, we are the more confirmed in the belief of all 
 these truths : each of these classes of truths has its own 
 value, rests on its own evidence ; and the comparison of 
 each separate class illustrates the meaning, and establishes 
 the authority, of the other. 
 
 II. There was a work of the Holy Spirit wrought in 
 " the one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ 
 Jesus." It is not possible to read the inimitable narratives 
 of the life of Jesus in the New Testament, without pausing 
 to consider some strong and peculiar expressions which 
 occur in these sacred compositions. Were it not for that 
 undue love of the visible, the material, the external,, which 
 we have seen to be one of the characteristics of man's 
 religion, one might wonder how so superficial and inade- 
 quate a reading of such a life could have occurred. Yet we 
 cannot understand the life of Jesus by reading it in this 
 unreflecting manner. We must read all that is written 
 there in the holy books of the Evangelists ; and as we 
 read, we must think of what the words we read are intended 
 to suggest to us in reading them. The connexion of one 
 part of the life of Jesus with another part is so important, 
 so necessary to the right understanding of minute particu- 
 lars, as well as to the fall comprehension of the whole, that 
 we must be allowed earnestly to request you to read the 
 Gospels for yourselves. Ecad them for the purpose of 
 seeing in them all that there is in them respecting Jesus. 
 Head them, in connexion with the prophecies, of which 
 
OS THE GENERAL DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE 
 
 they show you the fulfilment. Read them, too, in the 
 light which beams upon them from the history of the Acts; 
 from the statements, the reasonings, the allusions, the 
 appeals, the exhortations of the Epistles ; and from the 
 glorious visions of the Apocalypse. Not to read them thus, 
 is to read them out of place ; it is to attempt to read them in 
 the dark ; it is to read them so as not to reach their meaning. 
 Let us now lay before you those passages in the life of 
 Jesus which are most likely to have been overlooked, for 
 the express purpose of showing how entirely that life 
 became what it was through the power of the Spirit of 
 God resting on the Son of man. Long ere His advent 
 it had been foretold of Him, " There shall come forth 
 a shoot out of the stem of Jesse, and a fruitful sprout 
 shall grow out of his roots; the Spirit of Jehovah shall 
 rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and discernment, the 
 spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of 
 the fear of the Lord, so that he shall be of quick perception 
 in the fear of the Lord."* "The Spirit of the Lord 
 Jehovah is upon me; for Jehovah hath anointed me to 
 publish glad tidings to the afflicted ; He hath sent me to 
 bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the 
 captives, and to those that are bound complete deliverance ; 
 to proclaim the acceptable year of Jehovah, and the day of 
 vengeance of our God ; to comfort all that mourn ; to make 
 glad the mourners in Zion ; to give them beauty instead of 
 ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment 
 of praise instead of a desponding spirit; and they shall be 
 called the trees of righteousness, the plantation of Jehovah, 
 that He maybe glorified."! Before his birth the angel 
 said to his mother, " The Holy Ghost shall come upon 
 thee, and the power of the Holy Ghost shall overshadow 
 thee ; therefore also that Holy Offspring which shall be 
 born of thee shall be called the Son of God"% When he 
 had been baptized, "the heavens were opened unto him, 
 * Isa. xi. 1—3. + Isa. lxi. 1—3. J Luke i. 35. 
 
RELATING TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD. , 69 
 
 and he saw the Spirit of God descending in a bodily shape 
 like a dove, and lighting upon him." After his baptism, 
 the same Spirit abiding in him, and he being full of the 
 Holy Ghost, he was led up by the Spirit into the wilder- 
 ness to be tempted of the devil.- After the temptation in 
 the wilderness, Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit 
 into Galilee. f In the synagogue of Nazareth, he read " the 
 place where it is written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon 
 me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to 
 the poor ; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to 
 preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight 
 to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to 
 preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed 
 the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and he sat 
 down. And the eyes of all them that were in the syna- 
 gogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto 
 them, This day is the Scripture fulfilled in your ears. And 
 all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words 
 which proceeded out of his mouth." J 
 
 Of his miracles he himself said, "If I cast out demons 
 by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto 
 you." Of his ministry it was said by John, "He whom 
 God hath sent, speaketh the words of God ; for God giveth 
 not the Spirit by measure unto him. The Father loveth 
 the Son, and hath given all things into his hand." Of 
 his presentation of his sacrifice it is said, " who through the 
 Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God." Of 
 his resurrection it is said, he " was declared to be the Son 
 of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by 
 the resurrection from the dead," and that he was "put to 
 death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit ; by which 
 also he had gone and preached unto the spirits which were 
 in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once 
 the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah." It 
 
 * Matt. iv. 1 ; Mark i. 12; Luke iv. 1. 
 
 + Luke iv. 14. J Luke iv. 17, 22. 
 
70 THE GENERAL DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE 
 
 is said to the Roman Christians — "If the Spirit of Him that 
 raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised 
 up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal 
 bodies by His Spirit which dwelleth in you." * The apostle 
 Paul likewise prays for the Ephesians, that "the God of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto 
 you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation . . . according 
 to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in 
 Christ when He raised Him from the dead." It is part of 
 the great "mystery of godliness," in which God was mani- 
 fest in the flesh, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, 
 believed on in the world, received up into glory, — that he 
 was "justified" — vindicated from the charge of blasphemy 
 in claiming to be the Son of God — "through the Spirit." 
 When the disciples received Peter and John from their 
 examination by the council, they addressed God in their 
 prayer, saying, — " Of a truth against thy holy Son Jesus, 
 whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, 
 with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered 
 together:" — and Peter explains this " anointing," when he 
 says to Cornelius and his friends, " God anointed Jesus of 
 Nazareth with the Holy Ghost, and with power, who went 
 about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of 
 the devil : for God was with him. "I 
 
 This history of Jesus of Nazareth, you observe, is more 
 than a delineation of a perfect and beautiful inward human 
 nature displaying itself in these outward actions. He was 
 " Holy" as well as "harmless and undefiled, separate from 
 sinners." His conception was a holy mystery. His bap- 
 tism was a spiritual anointing. His works, the manner of 
 them, as well as the power of them, were a manifestation in 
 Him of the Sjririt of God. His life was wisdom, energy, 
 goodness, love; Divine wisdom speaking with human lips; 
 
 * Matt. xii. 28; Luke xi. 20; John iii. 84, 85; Heb. 'a. 14; Rom. i. 4; 
 1 Peter iii. 18—20 ; Rom. viii. 11. 
 
 + Epbjes. i. 17, 20 ; 1 Tim. iii. lfi ; Acts iv. 27 ; x. 31 
 
DELATING TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD. 71 
 
 Divine energy working with human hands; Divine good- 
 ness animating a human character ; Divine love pouring 
 forth its tenderness and its fulness, its sympathy and its 
 grandeur, in human self-sacrifice and tears, and agony and 
 death. What a manifestation! What a man! He was 
 what he was — leaving all other men at awful distance — 
 hecause the Holy Ghost abode upon him, guided him, 
 sustained him, quickened him. We do not affect to 
 measure by human thoughts, to define in human words, 
 the Divine Humanity. For here we are not sitting as 
 speculators in a school of disputation, but kneeling as 
 worshippers in. the temple of the Eternal. 
 
 III. There are various works of the Spirit of God in 
 man, w r hich do not renew, purify, and save them. 
 
 (1.) Extraordinary 'power for the accomplisliment of extra- 
 ordinary undertakings, has been vouchsafed to men ; and 
 this extraordinary power is attributed in Scripture to the 
 Spirit of God. " And the Lord spake unto Moses, say- 
 ing, See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, 
 the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah ; and I have filled 
 him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understand- 
 ing, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship 
 to devise cunning works, to work in silver and in gold and 
 in brass, and in cutting of stones, to set them, and in 
 carving of timber, to work in all manner of workman- 
 ship."- — When Moses was overwhelmed with the burden 
 of " all this people," and complained in the bitterness of 
 his soul to God, " the Lord said unto Moses, Gather unto 
 me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou know- 
 est to be the elders of the people, and officers over them, 
 and bring them into the tabernacle of the congregation, 
 that they may stand there with thee. And I will come down 
 and talk with thee there : and I will take of the Spirit that is 
 upon thee, and I will put it vpon tJievi, and they shall bear 
 
 * Exod. nod. 1 — •">. 
 
72 THE GENERAL DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE 
 
 the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not 
 thyself alone." * 
 
 It is said of Saul, " when he had turned his back to 
 go from Samuel, God gave him another heart, and all 
 those signs came to pass that day; and when they came 
 thither to the hill, behold, a company of prophets met 
 him, and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he pro- 
 phesied among them." " The Spirit of Jehovah came 
 upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, and Ahiezer was 
 gathered after him." " Then the Spirit of the Lord came 
 upon Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh." 
 " The Spirit of the Lord came mightily on Samson. f" 
 
 If, in these passages, express mention had not been 
 made of " the Spirit of God," we might have spoken of 
 the natural or acquired ability, the genius, or the valour of 
 these persons, as fitting them, respectively, for the con- 
 struction of the tabernacle, and for the government of the 
 people. The ability or genius of these chosen persons is 
 here ascribed, however, to " the Spirit of God." You may 
 resolve this phraseology, if you please, into what is called a 
 Hebraism. The facts are Hebraisms as well as the words. It 
 was the habit of the Hebrews to speak of the Divine agency 
 in a manner which has become obsolete — except some- 
 times in poetry, in prayers, and in sermons — because it 
 was an essential part of the history of the Hebrews to be 
 familiar with modes of Divine agency which have accom- 
 plished their purpose, but which not a few in modern 
 times disbelieve and even ridicule, because they have 
 ceased to be exhibited. The ascription of the skill of 
 Bezaleel to the Spirit of God, and of the magisterial apti- 
 tude of the seventy elders, to " The Spirit that was put 
 upon them," is no more a hare form of speech, than the 
 ascription of the plagues of Egypt, the passage of the 
 Ked h'ea, and the supply of food and water in the wil- 
 
 * Numb. xi. 16, 17. 
 
 + 1 Sam. x. 9, 10, Judges vi. 31 ; xi. 2!) : xiv 6 ; xv. 14. 
 
RELATING TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD. 7o 
 
 derness, to the peculiar manifestations of the power of 
 God. The superhuman is as clear in the one set of in- 
 stances as in the other ; so clear, indeed, that the same 
 interpreters who profess to explain the agency of the Spirit 
 here spoken of by the native talent of the men, attempt 
 to explain the miracles in all the other cases by the ordi- 
 nary course of nature. Such expounders of the Scriptures 
 betray but a slight perception of the only design which is 
 worthy of a revelation ; they shew little sympathy with the 
 religious tone of these sacred writings ; less discernment 
 of the extraordinary occasions for which extraordinary 
 powers were needed ; and less still of the comprehensive 
 and devout judgment which sees the profound analogies 
 and the exquisite proprieties which distinguish all the 
 -works of God: retiring within themselves and their own 
 experience, they imagine that there is no truth, no God, 
 beyond the narrow orbit which their intelligence illu- 
 mines ; and they, forsooth, are theologians, the interpret- 
 ers of the oracles of God ! 
 
 (•2.) Divine knowledge, and special modes of attesting 
 Divine truth, have been imparted to men, and such en- 
 dowments are expressly ascribed to the Holy Spirit. 
 
 It is with a becoming sense of dependence and obliga- 
 tion that we ascribe all the endowments of the human 
 intellect, its treasures of knowledge and wisdom, to the 
 benignity of God. This is the course of nature. We 
 owe it to the good pleasure of God that we are men, in 
 distinction from the inferior races of creatures ; by the 
 same good pleasure, one man is raised above another in 
 his capacities, in his propensity to mental culture, and 
 in the opportunities and inducements by which his facul- 
 ties are brought out and improved. " Every good gift and 
 every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the 
 Father of lights, with whom is no variableness nor shadow 
 of turning."--- Shall we ascribe to Him the lights of the 
 
 * James i. 17. 
 
74 THE GENERAL DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE 
 
 firmament, the clews, the showers, the fruits of the earth, 
 the fulness of the deep, "the chief things of the ancient 
 mountains, and the precious things of the lasting hills" 
 — and shall we not also acknowledge as from Him the 
 piercing intellect, the capacious memory, the strong judg- 
 ment, the clear and tranquil reason, the bright imagina- 
 tion, the courage, the wisdom, or the eloquence, by which 
 men are raised like the stars of the morning above the 
 horizon, gilding with their glory the memory of successive 
 ages ? 
 
 Who will say that Plato and Leibnitz, Newton and Mil- 
 ton, were not made to differ from the millions of forgotten 
 men, by the living Spirit whose " inspiration giveth un- 
 derstanding unto all men?" And yet there is nothing 
 supernatural in these, 
 
 " the great of old, 
 The dead, but sceptred sovereigns, who still rule 
 Our spirits from their urns." 
 
 They were neither prodigies nor miracles ; they were 
 men ; men whom God enriched with rare perfections for 
 the benefit of others, not as deities to be adored, but as 
 priests — lowly ministers amid their fellow-worshippers at 
 the footstool of our common Father. 
 
 We read in Scripture of gifts beyond the course of 
 nature, whereby men have been marked out as the spe- 
 cial messengers of God in the revelation of His truth. 
 It has been attempted to generalize these gifts, so as to 
 include them in the same class with those which are na- 
 tural. Instead of denying the inspiration of apostles and 
 prophets, it has become the fashion of a modern school 
 to assert that wisdom, goodness, truth, religion, are com- 
 mon to man ; that the prophets are * men of religious 
 genius;" that every man in his degree is inspired ; that 
 Minos and Moses were inspired to make laws, David and 
 Pindar to write poetry : that Newton and Isaiah, Leibnitz 
 and Paul, Phidias and Mozart, " receive into them various 
 
RELATING TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD. I D 
 
 forms of the one spirit from God most high ;" that " Hab- 
 akkuk speaks in his way, and Hugo de St. Victor in his ;" 
 that Elisha, Bohme, and Bunyan were alike " filled with 
 a soul wide as yesterday, to-day, and for ever;" that John 
 the Baptist, Socrates, Jeans, and Justin, and John Huss, 
 are " among millions of hearts stout as theirs — as full of 
 God." This, we are told, is " the only kind of inspiration 
 possible." It is described as co-extensive with the faithful 
 use of man's natural powers. Men may call it miraculous, 
 but nothing, we are assured, is more natural ; or they may 
 say it is entirely human, for it is the result of man's use 
 of his faculties; "it is the belief of all primitive nations 
 that God inspires the wise, the good, the holy ; that this 
 inspiration is limited to no sect, age, or nation. It is wide 
 as the world, and common as God. — It is not given to a 
 few men, in the infancy of mankind, to monopolize inspira- 
 tion, and to bar God out of the soul. — You and I are not 
 born in the dotage of the world. Now, as in the days of 
 Adam, Moses, Jesus, he that is faithful to reason, con- 
 science, and religion, will, through them, receive inspira- 
 tion to guard him through all his pilgrimage."* 
 
 In this mode of representing the matter there is an ap- 
 parent charm of simplicity. We have no objection to ac- 
 knowledge that it contains a portion of truth. Inasmuch 
 as it traces all genius, knowledge, and goodness ultimately 
 to God, and exhibits His providence in the ordering of the 
 spiritual, not less than the material, world, we can have no 
 quarrel with such opinions, or with those who propagate 
 them. But, seriously, — is it put forth as a truth to be re- 
 ceived by religious men, that Minos and Moses were on 
 the same level ; that David and Pindar enjoyed the same 
 inspiration, Pindar as really as David, David not more 
 really than Pindar; that the reasonings of Newton are 
 
 * A Discourse on Hatters pertaining to Religion, by Theodore Parker. 
 Book III. c. 8. — Emerson's Orations, Lectures, and Addresses. See Appen- 
 dix, Note F. 
 
76 THE GENERAL DOCTRINE OF SC1UTTURE 
 
 analogous to the messages of Isaiah ; that Leibnitz and 
 Paul were instructed after the same fashion; that the 
 ancient seer of the Hebrews, and the contemplatist of 
 the middle ages, derived their visions from the same 
 source ; that the prophet of Judaea, the fanatic of Ger- 
 many, and our own Bunyan, were alike taught of God ; 
 that " millions of souls have been as full of God " as Jesus? 
 Is it an ascertained and proved truth that the faithful use 
 of man's natural faculties is the only inspiration possible/ 
 To affirm the impossibility of any inspiration beyond 
 the natural reach of the human faculties, is to presume 
 that he who makes the affirmation has meted out the 
 immeasurable power of God. To say that no higher 
 inspiration has ever been afforded, is to reject the most 
 authentic history in our possession, and to overlook the 
 sublime discoveries, the accomplished series of prophecies, 
 the recorded miracles, the authoritative power, of the only 
 documents in religious literature which have stood the 
 tests of criticism in all time. 
 
 When we study the sacred documents, we observe that 
 in their descriptions of God there is an awful sublimity, a 
 reverent familiarity, an instrinsic truthfulness, for which 
 we look in vain to other writings, excepting as those other 
 writings have been borrowed from the Scriptures. The 
 delineations of man in these writings have anticipated the 
 universal testimonies of ages in every land. The spiritu- 
 ality of mind, the purity of heart, the humility, the bene- 
 volence, the devotion, the peace, the superiority to the 
 power of temptation and to the fear of death, which have 
 ever accompanied the practical belief of the Bible, arc 
 never found among men who are destitute of such belief. 
 
 Then there are some singularities inwrought into the very 
 texture of these writings, which cannot fail to strike the 
 careful and candid student of them, as placing them in a 
 rank which stands alone, above comparison with our 
 merely human productions. — The first of these singu- 
 
RELATING TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD. 77 
 
 larities is, the early, long-continued, and gradually de- 
 veloped scheme of prophecy which is embodied in the 
 Scriptures. Not forgetting the larger sense in which the 
 term prophecy is used throughout the Old and New Tes- 
 tament as including every kind of instruction directly 
 conveyed from God to man, we now use it in its restricted 
 application to the foretelling of future events, events neither 
 involved by necessity in known physical causes, nor ren- 
 dered morally certain — that is, in the highest degree pro- 
 bable — by frequent and familiar analogies. The distinct 
 foreknowledge of the general course of things ; of the 
 history of separate, combined, or successive nations ; of 
 the circumstances of particular families ; of the actions of 
 free agents ; of the birth, character, history, and death of 
 One Man ; of the exact condition of cities and countries in 
 remote ages : — this is as inconceivable in relation to man, 
 as it is consistent with our notion of God. Yet the Scrip- 
 tures abound with the most accurate proofs of this know- 
 ledge beforehand. Some of the prophecies, regarded by 
 themselves, are said to be obscure in their reference ; but 
 the symbols in which they are clothed can be understood 
 by long, careful, and well-directed study : others are as 
 explicit and direct as any passages in history. Some pro- 
 phecies, relating to the same times, persons, and events, 
 are given separately and successively, by different prophets. 
 Some referred to events close at hand; and, by receiving 
 their accomplishment, they proved the prophets inspira- 
 tion in a very brief time ; while others pointed to the dis- 
 tant future, awaiting their fulfilment through the slow 
 march of many changes in the affairs of mankind. We 
 need no very profound search into the depths of Hebrew 
 prophecies to see that, while distinct portions of them re- 
 lated to various minor ends, those ends themselves, like 
 the actual course of Providence on which their light was 
 flashing, were all subservient to a higher, an ultimate ob- 
 ject — the very object that was announced in the earliest of 
 
78 THE GENERAL DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE 
 
 them all : " the seed of the woman shall hruise the ser- 
 pent's head." While the immediate design of one predic- 
 tion is to animate Hope, of another to awaken Fear ; while 
 the sweetest strains of consolation are poured on trem- 
 bling spirits, guarded by burning words of wrath against 
 idolatry and sin ; while some relate to temporal things, 
 and others to those which are eternal : all conspire in 
 making known to man the Secret Things of God, bring- 
 ing Him near to our thoughts, touching us with a mingled 
 sense of the majesty of His government, and of the ten- 
 derness of His compassion ; and the wonder of the whole 
 is, that all the parts of this system, scattered as they are, 
 and incoherent as they may appear to the superficial, are 
 harmonized into plan and unity by their reference to One 
 Person. That One Person was to be the Seed of the 
 woman, of Abraham, of Judah, of David; the rejected of 
 his own people ; the lawgiver of nations ; the conqueror 
 of the world ; and, though dying in poverty and weakness 
 and shame, the founder of an unchanging monarchy. 
 
 That the oldest Hebrews themselves regarded this One 
 Person — the Anointed One — as the scope and centre of 
 their prophecies, is well understood ; and it is equally well 
 understood that the New Testament writers follow out 
 their Divine Master's sanction of this view, by uniformly 
 representing all prophecy as fulfilled in the character, the 
 death, and the victories of Jesus of Nazareth. The extent 
 of time to which the course of prophecy is thus shown to 
 refer, the slow but steady rising of this " light shining in 
 a dark place," the magnificence of Him in whom every- 
 thing meets, and the sublimity and permanence of the pur- 
 pose to be accomplished, were beyond the range of the 
 human faculties ; and, according to our conception, they 
 agree with nothing else than with the belief that Prophecy 
 was the inspiration of Omniscience. 
 
 The second of these singularities is — that this vast 
 scheme of prophecy is inlaid upon the tablet of Hebrew 
 
RELATING TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD. 79 
 
 history and institutions. This indisputable fact made the 
 events of that history the vouchers for the prophetic inspi- 
 rations. It also made the singular and complex institu- 
 tions of that people the symbols of a coming order of 
 things, which, besides being too spiritual for a mere man 
 to have invented, was too comprehensive for a Hebrew to 
 have admitted. Amid a secluded people of narrow views, 
 of imperfect morals, and scanty literature, whose social 
 and religious polity was of a specially local character, 
 there arose a succession of men who unfolded prospects 
 interesting the entire human race, irradiating all time 
 with visions of the highest virtues, and the noblest 
 triumphs. What was there in the Hebrew institutions 
 to promise the realizing of such visions ? Was there not 
 everything in the national feelings and in the religious 
 prejudices of the people to prevent it ? Surely there is here 
 something beyond "religious genius," higher than phi- 
 losophy, of a totally different character from merely human 
 poetry. An unbelieving reader may see no more in the 
 Bible than the fool, or the speculative atheist, sees in the 
 material universe. But as, to the thoughtful observer, the 
 heavens and the earth are full of the glory of creating 
 power, so, to the devout reader, the Bible is full of the 
 glory of eternal wisdom. 
 
 The third of these singularities is — that the scheme of 
 instruction unfolded in these documents is accompanied 
 by a series of works which attest that the teachers of reli- 
 gion were superhumanly endowed and miraculously sent 
 forth, by God. The evidence of this is plain. It is as 
 really historical as that on which we rest our belief that 
 the Persians were driven by the Greeks from Marathon, 
 or that Caesar conquered Gaul. No theory of Myths can 
 destroy the positive testimony in the one set of cases, 
 more than in the other. There is no rational accounting 
 for the institutions of the Hebrews without acknowledging 
 the Divine mission of Moses. There is no feasible ex- 
 
80 THE GENERAL DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE 
 
 planation of the origin of Christianity without acknowledg- 
 ing t!x> Divine mission of Jesus. No intelligent and con- 
 sistent account can be given of the ascertained reception 
 of the Gospels among millions of men in the second century, 
 which is not built on the acknowledgment that their his- 
 torical truth had been proved by a sufficient number of 
 competent witnesses in the first century. Taking these 
 writings, then, for what they profess, and have been shown 
 to be — historical documents — it is worthy of your attention 
 to observe that you cannot separate the human from the 
 superhuman, the ordinary from the miraculous, without 
 denying facts which stand on the same kind of evidence — 
 only more full, more exact, more thoroughly sifted — with 
 all that is received and acted on, by intelligent and practi- 
 cal men, as authentic history. Belying, for the present, 
 on the well-considered grounds on which these observations 
 are made, we may assume, merely as historically true, that 
 Moses led the Israelites from Egypt through the Red Sea, 
 and that he gave them laws, and governed them in the 
 Arabian desert for forty years. Could he have done these 
 things by the mere force of human genius ? Assuming, in 
 like manner, the historical truth of the transactions re- 
 corded of Elijah, — the ordinary transactions we mean, — 
 could he have succeeded as he did, if he had had nothing 
 to sustain him beyond the power of his own mind? 
 Assuming, also, the historical truth of the life and death 
 of Jesus, without — if that be possible — thinking of the 
 miracles ascribed to him, — could he have said what he said, 
 could he have founded that system of belief and worship 
 which neither the superstition nor the presumption of man 
 has been able to destroy ? Could lie, a Jewish peasant, 
 have so eclipsed the wisdom of the wisest, and defied the 
 power of the mightiest, enlightening the darkest, and 
 raising the most debased of human kind, if God had not 
 been with him, as he never was with any other man ? As- 
 sume the historical truth, that Paul and Peter and other 
 
RELATING TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD. 81 
 
 men preached the gospel, and planted churches in Judea, 
 Galilee, and Samaria, in Syria, in the various countries of 
 Asia Minor, in Greece, in some of the iEgean islands, in 
 Italy, in Spain, within less than thirty years after their 
 Master's death. Would they have done this, if they had not 
 been convinced that what they said of him was true, and if 
 they had not known that He had given them their commis- 
 sion after his death and after his resurrection ? Could they 
 have persuaded sensible men, brought up in bitter preju- 
 dice against all they taught, to believe that what they said 
 was true, if they had not been able to say things, and to 
 do things, beyond the Teach of human intelligence and 
 human power? Are such things so common — such men, 
 such teaching, such mental and moral revolutions — in the 
 world, that you can coolly place them beside the produc- 
 tions of genius, and the triumphs of heart ? Is there not 
 a difference — a felt difference — between these works and all 
 other works, between these histories and all other histories, 
 whether ancient or modern, whether true or false ? Has 
 the literature of the world displayed even the imagination 
 of a man that can, for a moment, be compared with Jesus 
 Christ? 
 
 Now let us examine the report which these extra- 
 ordinary men give of their visible superiority to other 
 men. 
 
 What does Jesus say of himself? — "And they said unto 
 him, Who art thou ? And Jesus said unto them, Even the 
 same that I said unto you from the beginning. I have 
 many things to say and judge of you ; but He that sent 
 me is true ; and I speak to the world those things which I 
 have heard of Him. They understood not that he spake 
 unto them of the Father. Then said Jesus unto them, 
 When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye 
 know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but 
 as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And 
 
 XIV. G 
 
S3 THE GEKEBAL DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE 
 
 lie that sent me is with me : the Father hath not left mc 
 alone ; for I do always those things which please Him."* 
 
 On a later occasion, he says — " I have not spoken of 
 myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a com- 
 mandment what I should say and what I should speak. 
 And I know that His commandment is life everlasting ; 
 whatsoever I speak, therefore, even as the Father said unto 
 me, so I speak. "f 
 
 To Philip, who said to him, " Lord, show us the Father, 
 and it sufficeth us," he answered, " Believest thou not that 
 I am in the Father, and the Father in me ? the words that 
 I speak unto you, I speak not of myself, but the Father 
 that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works."! To his Father 
 he appealed in his solemn prayer, when he took leave of the 
 disciples, " I have given unto them the words which thou 
 gavest unto me, and they have received them, and have 
 known assuredly that I came out from thee, and they have 
 believed that thou didst send me ; I have given them thy 
 word.'§ 
 
 What do the disciples say of Jesus ? " No man hath 
 seen God at any time ; the only begotten Son, who is in 
 the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him."|| What 
 was the acknowledgment of Nicodemus, evidently speaking 
 us the representative of a class ? " We know that thou art 
 a teacher come from God, for no man can do these 
 miracles that thou doest except God be with him."^[ And 
 what is the truth which he avows to Nicodemus ? "Verily, 
 verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and 
 testify that which we have seen, and ye receive not our 
 witness. If I have told you of earthly things, and ye 
 believe not, how shall yejbelieve if I tell you of heavenly 
 things ? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he 
 that came down from heaven, the Son of man which is in 
 heaven."** 
 
 * John viii. 25—30. + John xii. 19. J John xiv. 10. § John xiv. 14. 
 I] John i. 18. If John iii. 2. ** John iii. 11—13. 
 
RELATING TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD. 83 
 
 What is the record of John ? " He that cometh from 
 heaven is ahove all, and what he hath seen and heard, that 
 he testifieth ; and no man receiveth his testimony. Ho 
 that hath received this testimony hath set to his seal that 
 God is true ; for he whom God hath sent speaketh the 
 words of God ; for God giveth not the Spirit by measure 
 unto him.'* 
 
 How is he spoken of by that apostle who builds the 
 truths of the Gospel on the foundations of the ancient 
 church? "God, who at sundry times and in divers 
 manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the 
 prophets, hath in these last times spoken unto us by his 
 Son."f 
 
 Attend to the manner in which the Son of God assures 
 his disciples that they should be fitted for the mission on 
 which they were to be sent : " The Holy Ghost shall 
 teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say."j " The 
 Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father 
 shall send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and 
 bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have 
 said unto you. The Spirit of truth, which proceedeth 
 from the Father, He shall testify of me. He will guide 
 you into all the truth. He will shew you things to come. 
 He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." 
 " Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost." " Ye shall 
 receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon 
 you."§ 
 
 These things are to be kept in remembrance when we 
 read in the New Testament such declarations as the 
 following : — " They were filled with the Holy Ghost, they 
 began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them 
 utterance." "My speech and my preaching was not with 
 enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of 
 the Spirit, and of power; that your faith should not 
 
 * John iii. 31—34. + Heb. i. 1. J LuU xii. 12, 
 
 § John xiv. 2G ; xv. 2J ; ivi. 13, 14 ; Acts i. 5, 3. 
 
84 THE GENERAL DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE 
 
 stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." 
 " God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit, for the 
 Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." 
 "Now we have received not the spirit that is of the world, 
 but the Spirit which is of God: which things also we 
 speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but 
 which the Holy Ghost teacheth."* " Now there are di- 
 versities of gifts, but the same Spirit. The manifestation 
 of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with. All 
 these worketh one and the self-same Spirit." " How shall 
 not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious ? " "I 
 will come to visions and revelations of the Lord." " I 
 certify you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached 
 of me, is not after man ; for I neither received it 
 of man, neither was I taught, but by the revelation of 
 Jesus Christ." " By revelation he made known unto me 
 the mystery." "Ye received it not as the word of man, 
 but (as it is in truth) the word of God." " He therefore 
 that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also 
 given unto us his Holy Spirit." " The things that are now 
 reported unto you by them that have preached the Gospel 
 unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." 
 " The word of the Lord endure th for ever ; and this is the 
 word which by the Gospel is preached unto you." " I was 
 in the Spirit on the Lord's day." "He that hath an ear, 
 let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches, "f 
 
 From these clear attestations of the supernatural 
 endowments of Jesus, and of his apostles, we may under- 
 stand the meaning, and perceive the authority, of what is 
 said by them, of the writings of the Old Testament. 
 " How doth David by the Spirit call him Lord? " " If he 
 call them gods, unto whom the word of God came." 
 " Which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy 
 
 * ALCtsii.4; 1 Cor. ii. 4, 5, 10, 13. 
 
 + 1 Cor. xii. 4, 7, 11; 2 Cor. iii. 8; \\\. 1 ; Gal. i. 11, 12; Eph. iii. 3; 
 1 Tkess. ii. 1H ;. iv. 8 ; 1 Tet. i. 12, 20 ; Rev. i. 1<>; ii. 7. 
 
RELATING TO THE SPIHIT OF GOD. $5 
 
 prophets since the world began." " Who by the mouth of 
 his servant David hath said." " Well spake the Holy 
 Ghost by Isaiah the prophet unto our fathers." " To them 
 were committed the oracles of God." * Now the Spirit 
 speaketh expressly that in the latter times some should 
 depart from the faith." " Of which salvation the prophets 
 have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of 
 the grace that should come unto you ; searching what, or 
 what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in 
 them did signify." "For the prophecy came not in old 
 time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as 
 they were moved by the Holy Ghost."- The same style 
 of language was used in the Old Testament itself. We 
 read of " men of God," " holy men of God." They came 
 with the declaration, " Thus saith the Lord." Their 
 messages are, " The word of the Lord," " The Spirit spake 
 by them." 
 
 Will men of fair mind examine these singularities in 
 the structure of our Sacred Writings, and in the history of 
 the original teachers of our religion, and say that nothing 
 but an antiquated prejudice could prompt us to maintain 
 that these teachers had endowments for their work which 
 were totally different from those of human genius or industry, 
 and which we find attributed in the Holy Scriptures to the 
 Holy Ghost ? We do not say, nor believe, that these ex- 
 traordinary endowments renewed the minds, purified the 
 characters, or saved the souls, of the men who possessed 
 them. They were not given for this purpose. They were 
 not of a nature to effect this purpose. Though it may be 
 true, in general, that the men who received such unusual 
 powers for the doing of an unusual work were, also, par- 
 takers of personal holiness and salvation, we have clear 
 and ample proof that there might have been, and probably 
 
 * Matt. xxii. 43; John x. 35 ; Acts iii. 21 ; iv. 23 ; xxviii. 25 ; Rom. iii. 2 ; 
 1 Tim. iv. 1 ; 1 Peter i. 10, 11 ; 2 Peter i. 21. 
 
86 THE GENERAL DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE 
 
 were, numerous exceptions. The examination of these 
 exceptions is not the least part of our object in the present 
 argument ; for they place before us in the simplest and 
 strongest manner the distinction which we must observe, 
 the real and essential distinction, between being super- 
 humanly endowed for a particular work, and being a par- 
 taker of " the renewing of the Holy Ghost." 
 
 Observe the plain and forcible language of Jesus, in 
 which the distinction Ave are now concerned to hold is 
 pointed out : — " Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, 
 Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that 
 doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." " Many 
 will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not 
 prophesied in thy name ; and in thy name have cast out 
 devils ; and in thy name have done many wonderful works '.' 
 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you ; 
 depart from me, ye that work iniquity." 1 " We see plainly 
 that a man might prophesy, cast out daemons, and do 
 wonderful works, in the name of Jesus, and yet be a 
 worker of iniquity — one whom Jesus never approved, 
 never loved. 
 
 The same distinction is made by the apostle Paul, when 
 he says, " Though I speak with the tongues of men and of 
 angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding 
 brass, a tinkling cymbal : and though I have the gift of 
 prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all know- 
 ledge ; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove 
 mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.'*! A man, 
 therefore, might be endowed with all those spiritual gifts 
 (xaptV/xara) by which the Spirit of God testified of Christ, 
 and glorified Him, and yet not be a Christian. 
 
 The most patient and often repeated examination of the 
 
 language of the sixth chapter of the epistle to the 
 
 Hebrews, has convinced us that it is on the same principle 
 
 that we are to explain the following verses : — " For it is 
 
 * Matt. vii. 21—23. + 1 Cor. xiii. 1,2. 
 
RELATING TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD. 87 
 
 impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have 
 tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the 
 Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and 
 the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to 
 renew them again to repentance."* We are certain that 
 such persons will not be saved. The apostle contrasts 
 them with those of whom he is " persuaded better things," 
 — better than being enlightened, better than having tasted 
 of the heavenly gift, better than being " partakers of the 
 Holy Ghost," better than tasting of the good word of God, 
 and the powers of the world to come, — even "things 
 which accompany salvation." They are the gifts which 
 our Lord showed that men might have, and yet be 
 "workers of iniquity," never known by him; the same 
 things which the apostle taught the Corinthians that a 
 man might have, and yet be "nothing." The Hebrews 
 addressed in this epistle were familiar with the cases of 
 persons who possessed these endowments. The apostle 
 employs terms corresponding to the terms here employed, 
 for the purpose of designating such persons — prophesying, 
 understanding all knowledge, and all mysteries, receiving 
 the Holy Ghost, speaking with the tongues of men or of 
 angels, having the faith which removes mountains. The 
 peculiar advantages possessed by such gifted persons for 
 being assured of the truth and divinity of the gospel, 
 shows how it would be "impossible" for any means to 
 succeed in bringing them to repentance, if they once cast 
 away the profession and belief of the gospel as true. And 
 yet their possession of these endowments was, in itself, 
 no security for their possessing " better things," and being 
 " not of them that draw back unto perdition, but of them 
 that believe unto the saving of the soul." 
 
 (3.) Men are addressed by divine truth as the means of 
 moral suasion ; and the effects which that truth produces 
 on their minds are attributed to the Holy Spirit. Whatever 
 
 ♦ Hcb. vi. I— (5. 
 
bb THE GENERAL DOCTRINE OF SCKIPTURE 
 
 effects are produced by any truth, may properly and 
 rationally be ascribed to the person who presents the 
 truth, and still more properly and rationally to Him from 
 whom it originally proceeds. All truth believed becomes 
 the view icliich he who believes it tidies of the objects 
 which that truth respects. Until a man believes a truth, 
 views things according to that truth, he either takes no 
 view at all, thinks not of such things, or he takes other 
 views, believes something else. Now a large portion of 
 the truth taught in Scripture is taught in the way of appeal 
 to recognised convictions. There is great power in the 
 mode of presenting these things in Scripture, in the evi- 
 dence which the Scripture gives of their reality, and m the 
 associations by which they are made to act on men's 
 natural hopes and fears, to quicken their attention to 
 them. The conscience of man, his reason, his affections, 
 his dread of dishonour and of punishment, his desire of 
 glory and happiness, his benevolent propensities, his cal- 
 culations of interest, his perceptions of the true, the beau- 
 tiful, the right, and the good, may be wrought upon so as 
 to produce deep and lasting effects upon his mind, and 
 upon his character. Multitudes who believe little more of 
 Christianity than the moral truths which it recognises, 
 but which are not its peculiar and characteristic discoveries. 
 are trained up in the exemplification of all the personal 
 and social virtues which adorn and sweeten human inter- 
 course. 
 
 Hence it is that the awful allusions to the Divine 
 omniscience and justice, to death, judgment, and eternity, 
 which pervade the Scriptures, and which are simply and 
 earnestly exhibited in good popular preaching, in stirring 
 treatises and tracts, or in the private remonstrances of re- 
 ligious persons, have great power over the minds of all 
 who believe, or who even fear, without fixedly believing, 
 that these things are true. They trouble many con- 
 sciences. They darken many hearts. They weaken the 
 
RELATING TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD. 89 
 
 force of many temptations. They correct the tone, and 
 purify the tastes, of society. They foster morals. They 
 secure a habit of attending to what is believed to be 
 religion. They bring persons into a state of mind, which 
 often, though not always, issues in the " renewing of the 
 Holy Ghost." You can scarcely suppose a person re- 
 ceiving as true the descriptions of Divine goodness and 
 compassion, and especially the simple narrations of the 
 life and death of Jesus, without being moved by them. 
 They awaken our admiration. They win our confidence. 
 They keep men from despair. In other words, he who 
 regards these descriptions and narrations as true, is moved 
 in a ivay in which he would not be moved, if he did not think 
 of them as true. In like manner, the higher doctrines of 
 Christianity respecting sin, the Saviour, the way in which 
 pardon may be obtained, and heaven secured, cannot be- 
 come a man's own views, without producing convictions of 
 unworthiness, a sense of the need of forgiveness, an 
 acknowledgment of the Saviour's dignity and love, and a 
 desire to partake of eternal life. It is because of the 
 power which there is in the gospel to excite such thoughts 
 and such desires that it has been revealed. 
 
 For these purposes it is preached. We know of no 
 other means of producing the same effects. He who tells 
 a man the truths of the gospel, produces these effects on 
 his mind, whenever he succeeds in gaining that man's 
 attention to them as true. But inasmuch as they are 
 truths which were originally taught by the Holy Spirit, it 
 is as right to ascribe these effects on the human mind to 
 the Holy Spirit, as it is to ascribe any other benefits 
 bestowed on us by our fellow-creatures to the providence 
 of God. The truth of the gospel is from the " Spirit of 
 truth." The power of the gospel is " the power of the 
 Holy Ghost." Whether a man's mind is enlightened and 
 moved by direct inspiration, or by the words of men in- 
 spired, it is the Spirit of God that enlightens him. Thar 
 
90 THE GENERAL DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE 
 
 men have been, and are now, thus enlightened, is a matter 
 of familiar and undoubted experience. 
 
 With this particular view of the work of the Holy Spirit 
 as the Teacher of divine truth, we can have no difficulty 
 in perceiving the force and the application of several 
 passages of Scripture which appear to have been grossly 
 misunderstood, and somewhat warped for the unhappy 
 purposes of sectarian controversy. We read in Genesis 
 (vi. 3), "And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always 
 strive with man, for that he also is flesh ; yet his days 
 shall be an hundred and twenty years." We may pass by 
 the rabbinical interpretations of this remarkable passage. 
 of which some explain the word "spirit," as the human 
 spirit which God had put into man, and which he threatens 
 to withdraw by death, and others as God's Spirit within 
 himself, no longer hesitating between judgment and 
 mercy. Taking the words "my spirit" to mean "the 
 Spirit of God," as we have been accustomed to understand 
 that designation, the question is, what is that which the 
 Spirit of God had been doing, and which it is here 
 threatened he will cease to do ? The answer to this 
 question depends, partly, on the meaning of the Hebrew 
 word which is translated " strive," and partly on the 
 references to this portion of the sacred history which we 
 find in other parts of Scripture. 
 
 1. The word here translated " strive " does not suggest, 
 in its radical signification, or in the modifications with 
 which it occurs in Scripture, the class of ideas suggested 
 by the word " strive." These ideas relate to a struggle, an 
 effort against some opposing force or contrary effort. That 
 the Spirit of God strives with men in this obvious ami 
 commonly received sense of the word, may or may not 
 be true ; but a competent Hebrew scholar, we believe, 
 would scarcely affirm that any work of that kind is 
 described in this particular passage. The word jft 
 means to judge, plead, control ; and in this place it would 
 
RELATING TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD. 91 
 
 seem to signify — " My Spirit shall not always judge man, 
 control him, warn him, condemn him, and plead with 
 him." 
 
 2. The word which in other parts of the Old Testament 
 is translated " strive " is a totally different word, (an). 
 
 3. There are several passages of Scripture in which the 
 Spirit of God is represented, on the one hand, as testi- 
 fying against the sins of men, and men, on the other 
 hand, are represented as rejecting, resisting, rebelling, and 
 striving against the testimony of the Holy Spirit in the 
 ministry of his inspired messengers. 
 
 The reader of the Old Testament is familiar with the 
 strong and cutting reproaches addressed to the Hebrew 
 people by Moses, by the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, 
 Ezekiel, and Zechariah, and Ezra, as a stiff-necked people, 
 stiff-hearted, refusing to hear the words of God. How 
 many of the discourses of Jesus are burdened with up- 
 braidings of their obstinacy! How fearfully does the 
 martyr Stephen press the same accusation on the con- 
 sciences of the enraged crowd that stoned him to death ! * 
 
 " They refused to hear him, and pulled away the 
 shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not 
 hear! Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, 
 lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord 
 of hosts hath sent in his Spirit by the former prophets." 
 " Yet many years didst thou forbear them, and testifiedst 
 against them by thy Spirit, in thy prophets ; yet would 
 they not give ear : therefore gavest thou them into the 
 hand of the people of the lands." " Ye stiff-necked and 
 
 * Josephus, their own historian, says of them, referring to the time in 
 which they were favoured with the ministry of the Messiah, and of some of 
 lus apostles: " I think that had the Romans delayed to come against these 
 wretches, the city would have been swallowed up by an earthquake, or over- 
 whelmed by a deluge, or experienced the same doom as Sodom ; for it bore a 
 more impious generation than those which suffered such things. Nor was 
 there ever, from the beginning of the world, a generation more prolific in 
 wickedness." — De Bel. Jud. lib. v. c. xiii. sect. C, c. x. sect. 5. 
 
92 THE GENERAL DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE 
 
 uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the 
 Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye."* 
 
 4. The antediluvian age, to which the passage under 
 consideration belongs, is referred to as being " con- 
 demned " by Noah, who was a " preacher of righteous- 
 ness."! 
 
 5. "By the Spirit, Jesus went and preached unto the 
 spirits in prison, which sometime were disobedient, when 
 once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, 
 while the ark w r as a preparing."! 
 
 By first studying each of these particulars, and then 
 comparing them together, we arrive at the true solution of 
 the question now before us. The Spirit of God, in the 
 ministry of Noah, preached righteousness, testified against 
 evil, warned men of the consequences of their wicked 
 courses : and it is here distinctly threatened that this dis- 
 pensation of truth and forbearance shall cease. It did cease. 
 That generation was destroyed. So it has ever been. So 
 will it be until " the mystery of God is finished." 
 Wherever the inspired teacher lifted up his voice, 
 wherever the written or uttered words of such teachers 
 are addressed to men, there the Spirit of God is, fulfilling 
 His sacred mission as a teacher. Remembering, as we 
 ought, that we cannot flee from the Spirit now, the guilt 
 of slighting or rejecting His instructions is aggravated, 
 doubly aggravated, by the majesty, condescension, and 
 grace with which He stoops to teach us, and by the 
 Presence in which that grace is outraged. 
 
 The entire history of revelation, and of its treatment by 
 mankind, illustrates the character of this appeal of the 
 Spirit of God to human minds. It is the manifestation of 
 truth. It is a declaration of authority. It is the display 
 of mercy and long-suffering. It treats men as rational 
 beings, endowed with conscience, and capable of being 
 
 * Zecli. vii. 11, 12; Nehera. ix. 30; Acts vii. 51. 
 
 + Heb. xi. 7; 2 Pet. ii. 0. +1 Feter iii. 18—20. 
 
RELATING TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD. 93 
 
 swayed by considerations addressed to them as reasonable 
 motives. When men plunge so deeply into the world, be- 
 come so absorbed in the visible, the present, the transient 
 things of this life, as to have neither leisure nor incli- 
 nation to attend to " what the Spirit saith," no excuse can 
 screen them from the charge of doing " despite unto the 
 Spirit of grace." He spake ; but they would not hear. 
 He taught ; but they w T ould not learn. He warned them ; 
 but they heeded not. He reasoned with them, expostu- 
 lated with them, brought before them the treasures of 
 infinite love, and encompassed them with the light of 
 heaven ; but they went on their way — the way of business, 
 of ambition, of pleasure — leaning to their own under- 
 standing, and blindly imagining that they were strong 
 enough, or good enough, to find eternal happiness : — 
 victims of their own wilfulness — they perish. 
 
 Thus we become disentangled from the distressing 
 questions — " Is the Spirit of God resisted ? Is the grace 
 of God received in vain ? " There is but one plain un- 
 sophisticated answer to these questions. The Spirit of 
 God is resisted. The grace of God — his favour and be- 
 nignity embodied in the gospel which " bringeth sal- 
 vation " — is received in vain. But innumerable instances 
 are continually occurring in which it cannot be truly said 
 that the Spirit of God, as an objective teacher, is entirely 
 resisted, that no good effects are produced by His 
 teaching. In our Lord's deep and pregnant parable of the 
 sower there were not only those who are compared to the 
 falling of seed by the wayside which is picked up or 
 trodden down, but also those who are like the falling of 
 seed in stony places, where there is "not much earth," 
 " no deepness of earth," who " receive the word with joy," 
 but having no root in themselves endure for awhile ; 
 and those, too, who are as the seed falling among 
 thorns, which " spring up and choke them," being ren- 
 dered unfruitful by " the cares of this world, and the 
 
94 THE GENERAL DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE 
 
 deceitfulness of riches;" and then, again, there are 
 those who are like the falling of seed into good ground, 
 inasmuch as they hear the word and understand it, and, 
 receiving it into an honest and good heart, bring forth 
 fruit with patience. 
 
 In like manner, the teaching of the Holy Spirit by the 
 word of God is not entirely neglected, and lost, by all to 
 whom it comes. Multitudes are awakened and moved by 
 it. Like Herod who heard John gladly, and did many 
 things, or like Felix who " trembled," or like Agrippa who 
 was " almost persuaded to be a Christian," they acknow- 
 ledge and feel the living power of the truth ; they avoid 
 many sins, practise many moral virtues ; and they display 
 much earnest regard for religious doctrines and customs, 
 though they are not " renewed in the spirit of their 
 minds," are not " children of God by faith in Christ 
 Jesus." That such persons should " fall away," — " believe 
 for a season " — sin wilfully after they have " escaped the 
 pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord 
 and Saviour Jesus Christ," — be " again entangled therein, 
 and overcome, and the latter end be worse with them than 
 the beginning ; " that, not being " partakers of the Divine 
 nature," they should lack the things which make men to 
 be " neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ," and be " blind, and unable to see afar 
 off, and forget that they were purged from their old sins : " 
 — all this is, indeed, mournful as well as criminal, per- 
 plexing as well as monitory ; but it is, in all respects, con- 
 sistent with the freedom of human agency ; and the blame 
 of it rests, not on the feebleness of the work of the Spirit, 
 but on the obstinacy and perversity of man. 
 
 Let us not forget, however, that there are those who 
 heartily receive the truth which the Holy Spirit teaches. 
 They believe it; they love it ; they cling to it ; they follow 
 its light, enjoy its consolations, bring forth its precious 
 fruits in a holy, spiritual, and useful life ; and they die in 
 
RELATING TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD. 95 
 
 the full assurance of its hopes. To such persons the 
 Holy Spirit is really and practically an external Guide and 
 Comforter. They acknowledge Him as such. They 
 " mind the things of the Spirit," and to them this is 4i life 
 and peace." They know Him and love Him. Between 
 such persons and all other persons, there is a real 
 difference, broad, palpable, infinite. We do not know that 
 there is anything in man's consciousness that would of 
 itself explain the cause of this difference. We are not 
 able to affirm, or to perceive, that the human conscious- 
 ness goes out beyond its own states and its own acts to 
 recognise the causes of those states and acts. So far as 
 we can gather, the human mind is not conscious, strictly 
 speaking, of any other agency than its own. But when he 
 who believes what the Spirit says, does what the Spirit by 
 the word requires to be done, and rejoices in the fulfilment 
 of the promises which the Spirit has given, contrasts his 
 present with his former self, and compares his own 
 spiritual condition with that of others to whom the Spirit 
 had addressed precisely the same teaching, it is not likely 
 that either his reason or his conscience, either his 
 humility or his gratitude, will allow him to ascribe this 
 sublime and blessed difference to causes lying wholly in 
 himself. We presume that, independently of any express 
 revelation on the subject, his judgment and his feeling 
 would prompt him to ascribe it to some mysterious and 
 gracious working of that Spirit with whom he knows that 
 lie is brought into wonderful and glorious communion. 
 We conceive that a law of life so powerful and so happy 
 brings with it the conviction of its Divine origination, 
 springing up, not from corrupt and fallen nature, but from 
 the eternal Fountain of good. 
 
 We shall proceed, in the next lecture, to examine what 
 the Spirit Himself has taught in relation to this particular 
 question of the beginning of the spiritual life in man. 
 We are now merely illustrating the position — that the in- 
 
98 THE GENERAL DOCTRINE OF SCRIPTURE 
 
 tellectual perceptions, the moral processes, and the bene- 
 ficial practical results, which flow from Christian teaching, 
 are due essentially to the work of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 To deny this, is to deny one of the plainest doctrines of 
 the Scriptures. Nor can it be denied on any principle 
 which does not carry in it the denial of a Divine agency 
 in any part of the universe. It is a portion of the work 
 which the Spirit came into the world to do, and which He 
 has been doing ever since He came. — We cannot but 
 lament that a truth so plain, so important, carrying with it 
 appeals so commanding, and so touching to all the springs 
 of human feeling, and all the principles of man's activity, 
 should at any time appear but faintly on the surface of our 
 popular theology. And we do lament, not less poignantly, 
 that in the more intellectual and scholastic modes of 
 treating questions of theology, so many powerful and 
 accomplished thinkers have exhausted their precious toil 
 on the human and inferior elements employed in the 
 propagation of the truth. It may be well that the skill 
 and earnestness and faithfulness of ministers and other 
 teachers should be acknowledged. It may be well that 
 the language of Moses and the prophets, of the evangelists 
 and apostles, should be examined and expounded with 
 whatever resources the most exact and elaborate learning 
 can command. It may be well that the intrinsic truth- 
 fulness, the rationalness, the harmony with physical 
 science and sound metaphysical deductions, of the truths 
 revealed in Scripture, should be soberly and strongly 
 demonstrated. But, assuredly, it is not well for men to 
 forget, or even seem to forget, that all the value, authority, 
 and power, of scriptural teaching are owing to the fact 
 that here pre-eminently, and after a fashion which is 
 unique, the Holy Spirit is the teacher. 
 
 We acknowledge that even the most vivid remembrance 
 of this fact — namely, that the Spirit of God is the founda- 
 tion of all religious truth — does not of itself secure that 
 
RELATING TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD. f J ( 
 
 "holiness without which no man shall see the Lord." 
 Nevertheless it is a truth. It is a truth of deep and sacred 
 meaning. It is one of many truths respecting the Spirit 
 of God. It is clearly revealed. It is an article of the 
 Christian faith. It is fruitful in results. So long as we 
 hold fast this truth, we are safe from manifold aggressions 
 on the stability of our religious convictions. It clothes 
 our thoughts with awe and seriousness. It hushes the 
 sound of levity. It rebukes the sin of unbelief. It 
 surrounds the Gospel with the majesty of the Godhead. 
 It raises the teachings and the promises of Scripture to a 
 level which is as far above all human teaching and all 
 human assurances as heaven is higher than the earth. 
 
 It is the peculiarity of Christianity. Not the faithfulness 
 of the evangelist, — not the genius, and wisdom, and experi- 
 ence of the apostle, — not the poetry and eloquence of the 
 prophet, — precious and undying as these characteristics 
 are to the enlightened reader — not any nor all of these 
 have given to our sacred records the stamp which separates 
 them from every other production of the pen of man, but 
 *' the Spirit" who guided them into all the truth, and thus 
 filled them with His own presence, that they might be- 
 come the unerring teachers of salvation to every people. 
 
 x:v. 
 
LECTURE III. 
 
 THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE SALVATION OF MAN. 
 " The renewing of the Holy Ghost."— Titus iii. 4, 5. 
 
 We now proceed to examine what the Scriptures teach 
 concerning the work of the Holy Spirit of God in actually 
 saving man. 
 
 We shall, First: — Collect and classify the pbincipal 
 testimonies of Scripture respecting the work of the 
 Spirit. 
 
 Secondly : — Gather from these scriptures a connected 
 view of the truths they directly teach, or obviously 
 
 IMPLY. 
 
 Thirdly: — Show the harmony of the truths so taught 
 
 WITH SOME OTHER TRUTHS OF HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS, OR OF 
 DIVINE REVELATION. 
 
 Fourthly : — Advert to some facts, illustrative of these 
 
 TRUTHS, FROM THE HISTORY OF MAN IN GENERAL, AND OF THE 
 CHURCH IN PARTICULAR. 
 
 First: — We shall collect and classify the principal testi- 
 monies of Scripture, respecting the work of the Spirit. 
 It may he convenient to arrange these testimonies in the 
 following order : — 
 
 I. There are prayers and other expressions of devo- 
 tional sentiment relating to this work. — " Create in me 
 a clean heart, God ; and renew a right spirit within me. 
 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy 
 Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy 
 
THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, ETC. 99 
 
 salvation, and uphold me with thy free Spirit."* The 
 same Psalmist says again, " Teach me to do thy will ; for 
 thou art my God : thy Spirit is good ; lead me into the 
 land of uprightness. Quicken me, Lord, for thy name's 
 sake."f 
 
 The apostle Paul thus prays for the.Eomans: — "Now 
 the God of peace fill you with all joy and peace in believ- 
 ing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of 
 the Holy Ghost." J 
 
 He prays also for the Corinthians : — •" The grace of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the com- 
 munion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen."§ 
 
 And for the Ephesians he thus prays : — " Wherefore I 
 also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and 
 love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, 
 making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you 
 the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of 
 Him ; the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, 
 that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what 
 the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and 
 what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward 
 who believe." || 
 
 And again, for the same people : — " For this cause I bow 
 my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of 
 whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that 
 He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, 
 to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner 
 man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that 
 ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to 
 comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and 
 length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of 
 Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled 
 with all the fulness of God. Now unto Him that is able 
 
 * Tsa. li. 10—13. + Psa. oxliii. 10, 11. \ Eoiu. xiv. 13. 
 
 § 1 Cor. xiii. 14. |j Eph. i. 10—19. 
 
100 THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, 
 according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be 
 glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, 
 world without end. Amen."* 
 
 II. There are promises relating to this work. — There 
 are promises in the old covenant, which look forward to 
 the new covenant. " Until the Spirit be poured upon us 
 from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and 
 the fruitful field be counted for a forest. Then judgment 
 shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in 
 the fruitful field. And the work of righteousness shall be 
 peace ; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and 
 assurance for ever." "Yet now hear, Jacob, my servant, 
 and Israel, whom I have chosen ; thus saith the Lord that 
 made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will 
 help thee : Fear not, Jacob, my servant, and thou 
 Jesurun, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water on 
 him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground; I 
 will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon 
 thine offspring; and they shall spring up as among the 
 grass, as willows by the watercourses. One shall say, I 
 am the Lord's ; and another shall call himself by the 
 name of Jacob ; and another shall subscribe with his hand 
 unto the Lord, and surname himself with the name of 
 Israel." " As for me, this is my covenant with them, 
 saith the Lord : my Spirit that is upon thee, and my 
 words Avhich I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart 
 out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor 
 out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from 
 henceforth and for ever." "And I will give them one 
 heart, and I will put a new spirit within you ; and I will 
 take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give 
 them an heart of flesh; that they may walk in my statutes, 
 
 * Eph. iii. U— 33. 
 
IN' THE SALVATION' OF 1 MAX. 10] 
 
 and keep mine ordinances, and do them, and they shall be 
 my people, and I will be their God." # 
 
 11 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye 
 shall be clean ; from all your filthiness, and from all 
 your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I 
 give you, and a new spirit will I put within you ; and I will 
 take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give 
 you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within 
 yon, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall 
 keep my judgments and do them." — "And it shall come to 
 pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all 
 flesh." — " And I will pour upon the house of David, and 
 upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and 
 of supplication ; and they shall look upon me whom they 
 have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourn- 
 eth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as 
 one that is in bitterness for his first-born. "f 
 
 The testimony of John involves the promise : " I in- 
 deed baptize you with water unto repentance ; but he that 
 cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not 
 worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy 
 Ghost." I — Hear the words of Jesus to the crowd, assem- 
 bled to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles at Jerusalem : 
 " In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood 
 and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto 
 me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture 
 hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living 
 water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that 
 believe on him should receive ; for the Holy Ghost was 
 not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified." 
 Hear how he expostulates with his disciples : " If ye, tin n, 
 being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children ; 
 how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy 
 
 • [sa. xxxii. 15—17; xliv. 1—5 ; lix. 21 ; E/.ek. xi. IV, 30, 
 
 t Kzek. xxxvi. 25, 27; Joel ii. SfrJ Zech. xii. 10. 
 
 J Matt. iii. 2. § John viu 37, W. 
 
102 THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 Spirit to them that ask him!"- — Observe how he ad- 
 dresses his sorrowing followers, when the time of his de- 
 parture from them was drawing nigh : f "If ye love me, 
 keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, 
 and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may 
 abide with you for ever ; even the Spirit of truth, whom 
 the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither 
 knoweth hirn : but ye know him : for he dwelleth with 
 you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless. 
 I will come to you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy 
 Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall 
 teach you all things, and bring all things to your remem- 
 brance, whatsoever I have said to you. But when the 
 Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the 
 Father, He shall testify of me. Nevertheless I tell you 
 the truth. It is expedient for you that I go away; for if 
 I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; but 
 if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when He is 
 come, He will reprove (convict) the world of sin, and 
 of righteousness, and of judgment : of sin, because they 
 believe not on me ; of righteousness, because I go to my 
 Father, and ye see me no more; of judgment, because the 
 prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to 
 say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, 
 when He the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you 
 into all (the) truth; for He shall not speak of Himself; 
 but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak, and He 
 will show you things to come. He shall glorify me; for 
 He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All 
 things that the Father hath are mine ; therefore said I that 
 He shall take of mine, and show it unto you."* — See how 
 the apostle Peter expounds the great promise of the Spirit, 
 and the wonders of the day of Pentecost : " Repent, and 
 
 * Luke xi. 13. 
 
 + Of course there is a special, though, prohahly, not exclusive reference, to 
 the peculiar work of these disciples. + John xiv. ; xy. ; xvi. 
 
IN THE SALVATION OF MAN. ll)3 
 
 be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, 
 for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of 
 the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your 
 children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the 
 Lord our God shall call."* 
 
 III. There are doctrinal statements, and practical 
 
 EXHORTATIONS AND ALLUSIONS, RELATING TO THIS WORK. 
 
 In his discourse with Nicodemus, Jesus answered, 
 " Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of 
 water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom 
 of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; and 
 that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that 
 I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind blow- 
 eth where it listeth, and thou nearest the sound thereof, 
 but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth ; 
 so is every one that is born of the Spirit"! 
 
 Hear how he addresses the mixed multitude at Jeru- 
 salem : " No man can come to me, except the Father 
 which hath sent me draw him ; and I will raise him up at 
 the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall 
 be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath 
 heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me."; 
 
 How copious and varied is the testimony of Paul in his 
 Epistle to the Eomans : " The love of God is shed abroad 
 in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.'§ 
 " There is therefore now no condemnation to them that 
 are in ChrwLt Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after 
 the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ 
 Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death ; 
 . . . that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled 
 in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 
 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the 
 flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the 
 Spirit. For the minding of the flesh is death ; but the 
 
 * Acts ii. 38, 39. + John iii. 0—8. J John vi. 44, 45. § Rom. v. 5. 
 
104 THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 minding of the Spirit is life and peace. Because the carnal 
 mind (the minding of the flesh) is enmity against God ; for 
 it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can he : 
 so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But 
 ye are not in the flesh, hut in the Spirit, if so be that the 
 Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the 
 Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in 
 you, the body is dead because of sin ; but the Spirit is life 
 because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that 
 raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised 
 up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal 
 bodies by (or because of) His Spirit that dwelleth in you. 
 [For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die ; but if ye, through 
 the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 
 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the 
 sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bond- 
 age again to fear ; but ye have received the Spirit of adop- 
 tion, whereby ye cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself 
 heareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of 
 God. . . . Ourselves, also, which have the first-fruits of 
 the Spirit, grown within ourselves. . . . Likewise the 
 Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not 
 what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself 
 make th intercession for us with groanings which cannot 
 he uttered. And He that searcheth the hearts know- 
 eth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh 
 intercession for the saints, according to the will of God." 
 " For the kingdom of God is not meat an^ drink, but 
 righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.' 
 " That the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, 
 being sanctified by the Holy Ghost." "Now I beseech 
 you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the 
 love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your 
 prayers to God forme."* 
 
 See how the same apostle reasons with the Corinthians : 
 *• Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the 
 * Eom.tiii. 1—27; adv. 17; xv. 16, 30. 
 
IN THE SALVATION OK MAS'. 105 
 
 Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that 
 are freely given to us of God. But the natural man re- 
 ceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : for they are 
 foolishness unto him ; neither can he know thorn, because 
 they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual 
 judgeth (discerneth) all things; yet he himself is judged 
 (discerned) of no man." " Know ye not that ye are the 
 temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in 
 you ?" " What ! know ye not that your body is the temple 
 of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of 
 God?" " But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye 
 are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the 
 Spirit of our God." " Now He which stablisheth us with 
 you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; who hath 
 also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our 
 hearts." " Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, known 
 and read of all men ; manifestly declared to be the epistle 
 of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with 
 the Spirit of the living God, not on tables of stone, but in 
 fleshy tables of the heart." "How shall not the ministra- 
 tion of the Spirit be rather glorious ?" " Now the Lord is 
 that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord (is) there (is) 
 liberty. But we all with open face beholding as in a glass 
 the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image 
 from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 
 " Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is 
 God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the 
 Spirit."* 
 
 The same apostle thus teaches the Galatians : — " Re- 
 ceived ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the 
 hearing of faith?" "That we might receive the promise 
 of the Spirit through faith." " And because ye are sons, 
 God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, 
 crying, Abba, Father." "But as then he that was born 
 after the flesh persecuted him that was born of the Spirit, 
 
 * l Cor. ii. 12, U, 15; iii. 16; vi. 10, 2 Cor. i. 21, 22; iii. 2, 3, 8, 17, 18; 
 v. 5. 
 
10G THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 even so it is now." " For we, through the Spirit, wait for 
 the hope of righteousness by faith." "This I say then, 
 Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the 
 flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the 
 Spirit against the flesh : and these are contrary the one to 
 the other : so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 
 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. 
 .... The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffer- 
 ing, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance ; 
 against such there is no law. If we live in the Spirit, let 
 us also walk in the Spirit." " He that soweth to his flesh 
 shall of the flesh reap corruption ; but he that soweth to 
 the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."* 
 
 Observe the strain of his epistle to the Ephesians : "In 
 whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that 
 Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inherit- 
 ance, until the redemption of the purchased possession, 
 unto the praise of His glory." "For through Him we 
 both have access by one Spirit unto the Father." " In 
 whom ye also are builded together, for an habitation of 
 God through the Spirit." " Endeavouring to keep the 
 unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." " Grieve not 
 the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day 
 of redemption." "The fruit of the Spirit is in all good- 
 ness, and righteousness, and truth." " Be filled with the 
 Spirit."! 
 
 To the Philippians he says : " I know that this shall 
 turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply 
 of the Spirit of Jesus Christ." " If there be, therefore, 
 any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any 
 fellowship of the Spirit, fulfil ye my joy." "We are the 
 circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice 
 in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. "J 
 He recognizes this work in writing to the Colossians, 
 
 * Gal. iii. 2, U ; iv. 6, 29; v. 5, 16—25 ; vi. 8. 
 
 f Eph. i. 13, U; ii. 18, 22; iv. 3, 30; v. 9, 18. J PMl. i. 19; ii. 1; iii. 3. 
 
IN THE SALVATION OF MAN. 107 
 
 when he says: "Who also declared unto us your love in 
 the Spirit."* He reminds the Thessalonians of their 
 blessed privilege: "Ye became followers of us and of the 
 Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with 
 joy of the Holy Ghost." " He thtf despiseth, despiseth 
 not man, but God, who hath also given unto us His Holy 
 Spirit." " God hath from the beginning chosen you to 
 salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of 
 the truth."! 
 
 The same doctrine is taught by Peter : " Elect accord- 
 ing to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanc- 
 tification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of 
 the blood of Jesus Christ." " Seeing ye have purified 
 your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto 
 unfeigned love of the brethren, love one another with a 
 pure heart fervently." " That they might be judged accord- 
 ing to men in the flesh, and live according to God in the 
 Spirit." " The Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon 
 
 you.": 
 
 This doctrine respecting the Spirit is reiterated by 
 John : " But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and 
 ye know all things." " Hereby we know that He abideth 
 in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us." " Hereby 
 we know that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He 
 hath given us of His Spirit. "§ The same truth is insisted 
 on by Jude : " These be they who separate themselves, 
 sensual, not having the Spirit. But ye, beloved, building 
 up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy 
 Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the 
 mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, unto eternal life."j| 
 
 IV. There are facts narrated in relation to this 
 
 WORK, IN THE PLANTING OF THE FIRST CHURCHES BY THE 
 
 * Col. i. 8. +1 Thess. i. 6 ; iv. 8 ; 2 Thess. ii. 13. 
 
 t 1 Pet. i. 1, 22 ; iv. 6, 24. § I John ii. 20 ; iii. 24 ; iv. 13. 
 || Jude 19—21. 
 
108 THE WORK OF THE HOLT SPIRIT 
 
 apostles. — After the descent of the Spirit at Jerusalem, on 
 the day of Pentecost, it is said : " The Lord added to the 
 church daily such as should be (or were) saved." "And 
 believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes, 
 both men and women|f' — Peter declares to the council at 
 Jerusalem : ' ; We are witnesses of these things, and also 
 the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that believe." 
 — After Saul's conversion we are told : " Then had the 
 churches rest throughout all Juclea, and Galilee, and Sa- 
 maria, and were edified ; and walking in the fear of the 
 Lord, and in the conifort of the Holy Ghost, were multi- 
 plied." — Of the preachers from Cyprus and Cyrene, at 
 Antioch, it is recorded : " The hand of the Lord was with 
 them, and a great number believed and turned unto the 
 Lord, and," it is added, " Barnabas saw the grace of God." 
 — " Long time therefore abode they (Paul and Barnabas) 
 in Iconium, speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testi- 
 mony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and 
 wonders to be done by their hands." — Of the first convert 
 in Europe it is said : " And a certain woman named Lydia, 
 a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped 
 God, heard us : whose heart the Lord opened, that she 
 attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul."* 
 
 Secondly : — From these testimonies of Holy Scrip- 
 ture, LET US GATHER A CORRECT VIEW OF THE TRUTHS WHICH 
 THEY DIRECTLY TEACH, OR OBVIOUSLY IMPLY. 
 
 I. These Scriptures teach us the abiding presence of tJic 
 Spirit of God with the spirit of man : not His presence in 
 that sense in which He is everywhere, as the sustainer and 
 ruler of either the physical world, or the moral system : 
 nor in that sense in which we may affirm that wherever 
 the word of God is, there is the Spirit, who inspired that 
 word; nor in that sense in which by sympathy and by 
 active imagination, one man's spirit may be said to be 
 * Acts ii. 47; x. 11; v. 32 ; is. 31 ; xL 21, 23; xiv. 3 ; xvi. 14 
 
IN THE SALVATION OF MAN. 100 
 
 present with another man's spirit : — it is His presence 
 peculiar to this particular case ; by virtue of which it is true 
 of the believer of the Gospel, as it is not of any other man, 
 or any other being, that he has the Spirit, — that the Spirit 
 is in him, — abides in him, — dwells in him, — works in 
 him, — is shed abundantly upon him, that he may be renewed 
 and saved. The presence of the Spirit is not, cannot be, 
 recognized otherwise than by the effects which he produces : 
 it is only by producing effects that the presence of God 
 manifests itself in any department of his mysterious agency. 
 The Shechinah in the temple, the glory dwelling between the 
 cherubim, is thought to have been not a visible splendour, 
 but an unseen presence manifested by sound rather than by 
 sight.* Most assuredly it comports neither with the attri- 
 butes ascribed to the Holy Spirit, nor with what we know 
 of the spirit of man, to imagine that there can be any in- 
 tuition, perception, feeling, or consciousness of His pre- 
 sence, apart from those holy and gracious results which 
 we are taught in the Scriptures to ascribe to that pre- 
 sence. 
 
 II. The ever-present Spirit of God produces in the spirit of 
 man those happy effects which, taken together, may be expressed 
 by the one word — salvation. By an agency which does not, 
 cannot, destroy the freedom, the spontaneous and natural 
 acting, of the human spirit, the Spirit of God becomes, in 
 that spirit, the author of a new and spiritual life, — the 
 source of strength, of knowledge, wisdom, spiritual percep- 
 tion, and discernment; of practical attention to the Gospel, 
 of obedience, growth in grace, and conformity to the image 
 of the Lord ; of contrition ; of peace and joy in believing; 
 of quietness, and assurance of Divine love ; of attraction to 
 the Saviour; of unity and affection among Christians; of 
 tenderness and purity ; of devotion and usefulness ; of 
 
 * See Heber's Bampton Lectures, Lect. ir. p. 346, and Note <i. at p. 276- 
 262. 
 
] 10 THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 goodness, truth, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, and 
 self-government. 
 
 III. This abiding presence producing these gracious results, 
 constitutes the personal difference between him who is saved, 
 and them who are condemned. They in whom the Spirit of 
 God is belong to Christ. They, and none else, are the 
 children of God. They, and none but they, are believers, 
 holy persons, Christians. They, and they only, are 
 "saved" by "the mercy of God," "are justified by His 
 grace," and " made heirs, according to the hope of eternal 
 life." We are not to seek the marks of salvation in any 
 outward standing by which we may be thought to be related 
 to the church, nor in any speculative opinions. They are 
 not to be found in inward impulses or impressions. They 
 lie in the personal character, in the spiritual character. 
 They must be traced in that image of God which His 
 Spirit renews in us — " knowledge, righteousness, and true 
 holiness." We " must be born again." " If any man be 
 in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed 
 away, behold, all things are become new." "We know- 
 that we have passed from death unto life, because we love 
 the brethren." This is Christian spiritualism. It is not 
 secured by intellectual refinement, or by moral culture, by 
 abstractions, imaginations, or formularies, but by the Spirit 
 of the living God abiding in us, to guide us in the path of 
 self-denial, holiness, and love. It is life. It is growth. 
 It is power. It is liberty. It is conflict, ending in victory. 
 It is God, manifested in man. It is grace, enabling humi- 
 lity to abase pride ; conscience to subdue lust ; faith in the 
 unseen to overcome the visible ; the future to control the 
 present; and the spirit of man to triumph over the flesh: 
 raising a man from the debasement and bondage of sin to 
 real dignity and true freedom ; and fitting the child of 
 earth to be a partaker of the joys of heaven. 
 
 Without discarding the aids of philosophy, of education, 
 of mental discipline, and moral training, for their appro- 
 
IN THE SALVATION OF MAN. 1 1 1 
 
 priate uses, its roots are deeper, its branches are wider, its 
 fruit is more precious and enduring than the highest aims 
 of any of them, or of them all. Far from discouraging 
 watchfulness, it is that alone which ensures it, and makes 
 it successful. Instead of quenching the desires, or check- 
 ing the utterances, of prayer, it is the very element of 
 prayer, prompts it, explains it, justifies it, answers it. 
 Never raising us above the use of those means by which 
 piety is nourished, and faith made strong, it is the vital 
 principle which absorbs and assimilates every truth into 
 the spiritual system, and stamps on every habit the seal of 
 immortality. It is in a high and sacred sense The Life 
 of Jesus made manifest in our mortal flesh. It is the like- 
 ness of the Son of God, not portrayed by human limner, 
 or carved by earthly sculptor; but drawn by his own Spirit 
 in the living organism of a spiritual man. 
 
 By the coming together of separate spiritual men, the 
 church is builded, a living temple, a " habitation of God 
 through the Spirit." The Church of God is not a human 
 corporation, a visible institution, or a kingdom of this 
 world : it is a spiritual organization, the handywork of the 
 Holy Ghost ; only the spiritual can belong to it ; only the 
 spiritual can discern it ; only the spiritual can obey its 
 laws, enjoy its immunities, or discharge its functions. 
 From within itself, by the power of the indwelling Spirit, 
 guiding each member " according to the effectual working 
 in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body, 
 to the building up of itself in love : "* it " grows up into a 
 holy temple in the Lord;" "a spiritual house; a holy 
 priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to 
 God by Jesus Christ. "f 
 
 By the laws of his intelligent nature, a man may ac- 
 knowledge the force of evidence. He may admire much 
 of what is lovely in Christianity, by reason of his moral 
 sympathies. He may conform to many of the outward 
 * Eph. ii. 20—2-2; iv. 7—10. t 1 Pet ii. ~o. 
 
112 THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 usages of Christians from the law of habit, or from errone- 
 ous or superstitious motives. By all that he perceives of 
 the intellectual splendour, the moral purity, the senti- 
 mental elevation or tenderness of the religion of Christ, he 
 may be deeply interested, or even filled with delight. He 
 may be an able and successful teacher of what he thus 
 perceives and feels. But it is the Spirit of Christ in a mans 
 own spirit that makes him a Christian ; and, having made 
 him, keeps him so. The power which makes and keeps 
 men Christians, is the only power that can increase the 
 church. It was so at the beginning. So it must continue 
 till the end. As we dare not ascribe to human reasonings 
 the authority of divine truth, neither can we expect from 
 human agencies the results of divine grace. Men may 
 exalt their own capacities and prerogatives according to 
 their fancy; they may dignify their functions by sacred 
 names ; they may wield what influence these assumptions 
 have given them over the prejudices of the ignorant, the 
 infirmities of the weak, the fears of the timid, or the am- 
 bition of the strong: but names are not things; preten- 
 sion is not truth ; opinion is not faith ; the system of man 
 is not the religion of God. We repair to Christ's own 
 testimony as given, according to His promise, by His Holy 
 Spirit, to learn what Christianity is. In that testimony 
 we learn that it is the life of God in the spirit of man : a 
 life as distinct from the moral life, as the moral life is dis- 
 tinct from the intellectual, or the intellectual life from the 
 animal : that life of which Christ is the normal type, and 
 of which the Spirit of Christ is the author and the sus- 
 tainer. It is not vouchsafed according to moral laws, 
 which are known and appreciated ; but according to a 
 higher law of grace, which has not been revealed to man — 
 " the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus." It belongs 
 not to the department of governing men, but to the de- 
 partment of saving them. It is a divine agency which we 
 cannot understand, because it bears no analogy to any other 
 
IN THE SALVATION OF MAN. 113 
 
 agency with which we are familiar. It is revealed as fully, 
 as explicitly, as any other truth respecting God. It is a 
 truth believed. The reason for believing it is God's own 
 testimony. " Our faith stands not in the wisdom of men, 
 but in the power of God."* 
 
 By the results produced, the presence of the ever-work- 
 ing Spirit of God is made known. Thus the facts of 
 spiritual experience confirm the truth of divine teaching; 
 and we find the doctrine or revelation to be in harmony 
 with the consciousness of man. A believer knows that he 
 believes. The child of God knows that he calls God — 
 Father ! He has in himself the witness of his faith. His 
 humble penitence ; his lively trust in Christ ; his love ; his 
 resignation ; his spiritual desires and affections ; his 
 struggle against temptation ; his abhorrence of sin ; his 
 devotion to his Saviour ; his delight in heavenly things ; 
 his self-denial ; his watchfulness ; his aspirations after 
 higher purity ; his preparations for celestial blessedness ; — 
 all these vital pulsations, and healthy movements of his 
 spiritual nature, agree with the doctrines which he be- 
 lieves. He cannot ascribe them to himself; for he knows 
 that by nature he is one of " the children of disobedience, 
 even as others." He is taught that he is " saved by the 
 renewing of the Holy Ghost." The testimony in the divine 
 book accords with the testimony in the divine work. The 
 witnesses are distinct, yet they agree. What the Holy 
 Spirit says, in the word, respecting His own work in the 
 spirit of man, is realized in the actual history and progress 
 of the spiritual man. From his own consciousness, the 
 Christian learns to infer the consciousness of others, who, 
 like himself, are " partakers of the Divine Nature." To 
 such persons the writers of the New Testament appeal, as 
 we have seen, in the general tenour of their spiritual in- 
 structions. And to such persons, it must be very clear, 
 such appeals as abound in the Evangelical Epistles have a 
 
 * 1 Cor. ii. 5. 
 XIV. I 
 
114 THE WORK OF TOE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 meaning and a power; while to other men, even the " wise 
 and prudent," they are but foolishness and weakness. We 
 need not marvel that only Christians can understand and 
 appreciate Christianity. It is not strange surely, that, as 
 in all the practical affairs of life, the affairs of religion 
 should exhibit much of what, to the uninitiated and inex- 
 perienced, is inexplicable, and what their ignorance may 
 reject as worthless, or ridicule as absurd. " Other systems 
 are easiest in theory. The mind, in speculation, runs 
 smoothly over their different parts, they fit into each other 
 elaborately, and the whole work appears highly finished. 
 But bring them into practice, and the charm is immedi- 
 ately dissolved. There all their difficulties begin ; and 
 there the difficulties of Christianity all end. Whatever diffi- 
 culties have been suggested with regard to Christianity, 
 thev are entirely speculative ; they were made by men who 
 had no mind to practise the religion they opposed. But 
 none who with intelligence have brought Christianity to 
 bear on life, have ever complained that they found any 
 blank in its action, or any of their wants unfurnished. If 
 acting, they were abundantly supplied with strength ; and 
 if suffering, with consolation."* 
 
 IV. The 'possession of this distinctive ■personal character is 
 to those who do p>osse$s it the pledge of endless Itchiness and 
 glory. In the language of our Saviour's promise, " ever- 
 lasting life" is the portion " of the believer."! " All that 
 the Father giveth me shall come to me ; and him that 
 comcth to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down 
 from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of Him 
 that sent me. And this is the Father*s will which hath 
 sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose 
 nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And 
 this is the will of Him that sent me, that every one which 
 sceth the Son, and believcth on Him, may have everlasting 
 
 * The Truths of Beligion. By James Douglas, Esq. Second edition, 
 « 299, + John iii. 16; v. 24. 
 
IN !EHE SALVATION OF MAN. I 1 5 
 
 life : and I will raise him up at the last day." " My sh< 
 hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And 
 I give unto them eternal life ; and they shall never perish, 
 neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My 
 Father, which gave them me, is greater than all : and no 
 man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and 
 my Father are one."* 
 
 The apostles express themselves in accordance with the 
 connexion affirmed by their Divine Master. " We believe,'' 
 says Peter, " that through the grace of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ we shall be saved." And Paul thus testifies in all 
 his epistles. To the Romans : " Hope maketh not ashamed, 
 because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by 
 the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." " Being now 
 justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath 
 through Him. For if when we were enemies, we were 
 reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, 
 being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life, "f To the 
 Corinthians : " God hath also sealed us, and given the 
 earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." "We have the first?* 
 fruits of the Spirit." To the Galatians : "We, through 
 the Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness by faith." 
 "He that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap 
 life everlasting." To the Ephesians : " God hath blessed 
 us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ ; 
 according as He hath chosen us in Him before the founda- 
 tion of the world, that we should be holy and without 
 blame before Him in love, having predestinated us unto 
 the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, accord- 
 ing to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the 
 glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in 
 the beloved." To the Philippians : " Being confident of 
 this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work In 
 you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." " Jn 
 nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an 
 
 * John vi. 37—10; x. 27—30. + Acts xv. 1 1 ; Rom. v. 5, H, 10. 
 
116 THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and 
 that of God : for unto you it is given, in the behalf of 
 Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for 
 His sake."* To the Colossians : " Giving thanks unto the 
 Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the 
 inheritance of the saints in light; who hath delivered us 
 from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into 
 the kingdom of His dear Son." " Ye are dead, and your 
 life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our 
 life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in 
 glory." To the Thessalonians : " What is our hope, or 
 joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye, in the pre- 
 sence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? For ye 
 are our glory and joy." li God hath not appointed us to 
 wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should 
 live together with Him." " Now our Lord Jesus Christ 
 himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, 
 and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope 
 through grace, comfort your hearts, and stablish you in 
 every good word and work." " The Lord is faithful, who 
 shall stablish you, and keep you from evil."| 
 
 To Timothy : " God hath not given us the spirit of fear, 
 but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." " I know 
 whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able 
 to keep that which I have committed unto him against 
 that day." " I have fought a good fight, I have finished 
 my course, I have kept the faith : henceforth there is laid 
 up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the 
 righteous Judge, shall give me at that day : and not to me 
 only, but unto all them also that love His appearing." 
 "And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and 
 
 * 2 Cor. i. 22; Rom. viii. 23; Gal. v. 5 ; vi. 8; Eph. i. 3—6; Phil. i. 6, 
 28, 29. 
 
 + Col. i. 12, 13; iii. 3, 4; lJTkess. ii. 19, 20; v. 9, 10; 2 Thess. ii. 16, 
 17; iii. 3. 
 
IN THE SALVATION OF MAN. 1 ] 7 
 
 will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom." To Titus : 
 " Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, 
 according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledg- 
 ing of the truth which is after godliness ; in hope of eternal 
 life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world 
 began." " Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious 
 appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." 
 " That being justified by his grace, we should be made 
 heirs according to the hope of eternal life." To the He- 
 brews : " Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the 
 evidence of things not seen." " These all died in faith, 
 not having received the promises, but having seen them 
 afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, 
 and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on 
 the earth. For they that say such things, declare plainly 
 that they seek a country . . . But now they desire a 
 better country, that is a heavenly : wherefore God is not 
 ashamed to be called their God; for He hath prepared 
 for them a city."* 
 
 Thus James likewise teaches : " Of his own will begat 
 He us, with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of 
 first-fruits of His creatures." " He that converteth the 
 sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from 
 death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." Observe how 
 amply this truth is unfolded by Peter : " Blessed be the 
 God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which accord- 
 ing to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a 
 lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the 
 dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and 
 that facleth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are 
 kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, 
 ready to be revealed in the last time." " Being born 
 again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the 
 word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." " Be- 
 
 * 2 Tim. i. 7, 12; iv. 7, 8, 18 ; Tit. i. 1, 2; ii. 1;} ; iii. 7; Heb. xi. 1, 13, 
 14, 15. 
 
118 THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 joice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings ; 
 that when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also 
 with exceeding joy." " If these things be in you and 
 abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor 
 unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . 
 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make 
 your calling and election sure : for if ye do these things ye 
 shall never fall ; for so an entrance shall be ministered to 
 you abundantly, into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord 
 and Saviour Jesus Christ." " We, according to His pro- 
 mise, look for a new heaven and a new earth, wherein 
 dwelleth righteousness."* 
 
 See how largely and with what richness of language it 
 is taught by John : " Beloved, now are we the sons of God, 
 and it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; but we know 
 that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we 
 shall see Him as He is." "Whosoever is born of God 
 doth not commit sin ; for his seed remaineth in him ; and 
 he cannot sin, because he is born of God." " And hereby 
 we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our 
 hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us, God is 
 greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if 
 our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward 
 God. And he that keepeth His commandments dwelleth 
 in Him, and He in him. And hereby we know that He 
 abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us." 
 " And we have known and believed the love that God hath 
 to us." "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, 
 dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love 
 made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of 
 judgment ; because as he is, so are we in this world. 
 There is no fear in love ; but perfect love casteth out fear: 
 because fear hath torment." " This is the record, that 
 God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his 
 Son. He that hath the Son hath life : and he that hath 
 
 * James i. 18; v. 20; 1 Pet. i. 3—5, 23 ; iv. 13; 2 Pet. i. e— 11; iii. 13. 
 
IN THE SALVATION' OF MAN. 119 
 
 not the Son of God, hath not life. These things have I 
 written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of 
 God ; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that 
 ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." "We 
 know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not ; but he 
 that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked 
 one toucheth him not. And we know that we are of God, 
 and the whole world lieth in wickedness. And we know 
 that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an under- 
 standing, that we may know Him that is true, even in His 
 Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal 
 life."* 
 
 The happiness and glory which God has prepared and 
 promised are represented, in these passages of the New 
 Testament, as the gift of His grace in Christ to all those hi 
 whom the Holy Spirit dwells and works. Such is the end 
 in which His work receives its consummation. Now the 
 consciousness of possessing the character which is the 
 effect of the Spirit's working, brings with it the assurance 
 of eternal bliss. Provision is thus made against despond- 
 ency on one side, and against presumption on the other. 
 For who can despond, when the Divine Comforter is 
 present with him. — that Comforter who is at once the 
 Witness of his adoption, — the Seal of his acceptance, — 
 the Earnest of his redemption, — the Eiest-fruits of the 
 glorious liberty of the sons of God? And who that 
 studies these oracles of God, will dare, — without the 
 Comforter — the Witness — the Seal — the Earnest — the 
 Eirst-fruits, — to presume that he shall be a partaker of 
 the felicity which is to come? Indeed we cannot study 
 these numerous and concurrent testimonies of inspiration 
 without observing, that the happiness secured to the spi- 
 ritual children of God is not a happiness reserved for that 
 state of being which is yet future. It is a hope, yet ;l 
 fruition. It is that which shall be hereafter, yet that which 
 
 * 1 Jolin iii. -J, !», 19— U ; iv. IT, 18 ; v. 11—13. Is — ^.>. 
 
120 THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIBIT 
 
 is already. The spiritual life, and joy, and honour, which 
 are to be continued and perfected in the world to come, are 
 imparted in the present world. The germ is given when 
 men are " born of the Spirit." It is the lt seed which re- 
 maineth" — the " Spirit that abideth in us." 
 
 The progressive attainment of spiritual intelligence, 
 purity, strength, and gladness, technically called sanctifi- 
 cation, is a discipline which prepares for the heavenly 
 state ; yet it is that state itself: elementary and imperfect 
 indeed, but the same in principle and in kind, which is to 
 be developed in a fulness and maturity to which we can 
 assign no limits, since they shall continue to advance for 
 ever. The fact that this preparation is known by personal 
 consciousness to be going on, agrees with the teachings of 
 the infallible word; expounds their meaning; and, sus- 
 tained by that word, carries in itself the confidence that 
 the work will not be abandoned by Him who has begun 
 it. It is of the very nature of this spiritual process that 
 its reality should be manifest in proportion to its vivacity 
 and depth; so that he who has now the strongest symp- 
 toms of that life which is to be perpetuated in heaven, 
 enjoys the brightest, as well as the sweetest, hope that 
 heaven will be his home. — It is also of the nature of this 
 work to increase the humble reliance of the Christian on 
 the work of Christ, as the only basis of his safety, the only 
 warrant for his confidence. The farther he recedes from 
 that sinful state from which the Spirit of God has raised 
 him, the clearer is his perception, and the deeper his 
 sense, of the grand evangelical truth that he is "justified 
 freely by the grace of God, through the redemption that is 
 in Christ Jesus." The more truly holy he becomes, the 
 more simply and earnestly does he renounce all depend- 
 ence on himself, either for righteousness or for strength : 
 this is not merely a conviction of the judgment ; it be- 
 comes a sentiment of the heart. The whole work is one 
 of progress. Knowledge of spiritual things increases. 
 
IN THE SALVATrON OF MAX. 121 
 
 Delight in spiritual things becomes purer. The energy of 
 the inner man grows stronger. All the means of spiritual 
 self-culture and improvement arc used more sedulously, 
 and with more success. Prayer, — meditation, — the study 
 of Divine truth, — fellowship with other spiritual minds, — 
 activity in diffusing the knowledge, and exemplifying the 
 power, of the gospel, — have less in them of the constraint 
 of duty, less of the inconstancy of weakness ; and they 
 acquire the vigour and endurance of established habits. 
 The whole tendency of the whole man towards God be- 
 comes more decided, more orderly, and, not unlike the 
 gravitation of bodies towards their centre, — more rapid. 
 There is more and more of that serene and spontaneous 
 conformity to the laws impressed upon our being, which 
 alone deserves the name of happiness. 
 
 Two things only are needed to secure the perfection of 
 this happiness — the removal of the spiritual man from 
 earth to a more congenial state, and the renovation of his 
 corporeal nature by the promised resurrection. 
 
 The entire history of the Christian illustrates the scrip- 
 tural statements which warn him against the vanities of 
 earth, the seductions of the flesh, the many temptations to 
 evil which always beset, and often harass, him, while here ; 
 and all the longings of his renewed spiritual nature vibrate 
 to the assurance of a higher condition of existence. To 
 that condition he is introduced by death. His spirit joins 
 "the spirits of just men made perfect," is "absent from 
 the body, present with the Lord," departs to be " with 
 Christ, which is far better." Freed from the thraldom of the 
 flesh, and from all the holdings of " the present evil world,*' 
 his companions are spirits like himself; his works such as 
 only spirits do; his joys such as none but spirits know. 
 
 The final consummation is yet future. There shall 
 come to pass the full meaning of the sayings : " If the 
 Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He 
 that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken your 
 
12"2 THE WORK OF THE HOLY SHIUT 
 
 mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you;" and 
 this also, "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spi- 
 ritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a 
 spiritual body; and so it is written, The first man Adam 
 was made a living soul ; the last Adam (is) a quickening 
 spirit. "* We know by experience what is meant by a 
 nmtural body. We do not know by experience what is 
 meant by a spiritual body. By describing incorruption, 
 glory, and power, as the attributes of the spiritual body, 
 the apostle suggests all that it is possible for us, in our 
 present state, to conceive on the subject. The " earthly 
 mortal body, which is, as it were, only the seed-corn that is 
 laid in the earth, is subject to corruption, to dishonour, to 
 weakness ; the body of those raised up, on the other hand, 
 shall be endued with immortality, glory, and power. All 
 these points of contrast are ultimately brought together in 
 the words, ' It is sown a natural body ; it is raised a spi- 
 ritual body.' What is subjected to earthly death, is only 
 the soul-body, the principle of natural life : at the coming 
 of Christ, however, it will be raised a spirit-body. Of this 
 latter, Paul gives only, as it were, a negative representa- 
 tion : he furnishes no positive conception of it, but contents 
 himself with indicating that it is of a higher nature than 
 the physical or natural body."f The natural (or psychical) 
 body, is a body animated by the vital principle which men 
 have in common with the lower animals, furnished with 
 organs of perception, and sustained by elements from 
 without. The spiritual body would therefore seem, by the 
 contrast which the apostle suggests, to be a body adapted 
 to the higher action of spiritual natures, unsuited to the 
 region of earth, and, unlike the psychical body, not de- 
 pendent on outward elements for its support.]; 
 
 This spiritual body, made like unto our Lord's glorious 
 lody, and animated by the enlightened, purified, and per- 
 
 * Rom. viii. 11 ; 1 Cor. xv. 41, 45. + Billroth on 1 Corinthians, in loco. 
 } Sec Kosenmuller, Scholia in Nov. Test., in loco. 
 
IN THE SALVATION OF MAN. 123 
 
 fected spirit, which has been made what it becomes by the 
 indwelling Spirit of God, will, we humbly presume, be for 
 ever the temple of the Holy Ghost. Thus the union of 
 the believer with Christ is completed : he is "joined to the 
 Lord," and is " one spirit" with Him; the Spirit in Christ 
 is, at the same time, the Spirit in the believer: Christ and 
 the believer are spiritually one. When that believer re- 
 ceives the " spiritual body," the union is made visible ; it 
 is " the manifestation of the sons of God ;" the body of the 
 redeemed will be, in all things, like the body of the Ee- 
 deemer. That will be the "building of God, the house 
 not made with hands, eternal in the heavens : for in this 
 we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our 
 house which is from heaven, if so be that, being clothed, 
 we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this 
 tabernacle do groan, being burdened; not for that we 
 would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might 
 be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for 
 the self-same thing is God, who also hath given unto us the 
 earnest of His Spirit."* 
 
 Beyond this our faith proceeds not. It is a theme too 
 high for uninspired imagination. Our reverence forbids 
 our speculating. "It doth not yet appear what we shall 
 be." But our likeness to our Lord in spirit now, assures 
 us that we shall be like Him in body hereafter. The spi- 
 ritual likeness is a matter of consciousness now. The 
 bodily likeness, together with the spiritual likeness, will be 
 a matter of consciousness hereafter, and without end. 
 
 We have endeavoured to compress within these narrow 
 limits the principal aspects of that truth which the Scrip- 
 tures uniformly reveal to us respecting the "renewing of 
 the Holy Ghost," as accomplishing the salvation of man; 
 and we have, also, endeavoured to show how far the truth 
 thus revealed is reflected in the mirror-like consciousness 
 
 * 2 Cor. v. 1—5. 
 
124 THE W0KK OF THE HOLY SPIE1T 
 
 of Christians as they are described, and dealt with, in the 
 New Testament. — It is in no slavish or unreasoning mood 
 that, in these endeavours, we appeal, first of all, to every 
 intelligent reader of the Scriptures, and say, " Is it not thus 
 written?" To this inspired standard we bring every 
 human judgment. From this divine fountain we have 
 drawn, or at least sought to draw, whatever we hold as 
 truth upon this subject. If the Scriptures are not of final 
 authority in this matter ; if we have unwittingly misappre- 
 hended their plain grammatical meaning ; or if we have 
 deduced from them more or less than they contain, then it 
 is our infelicity to be teaching error : in that case, blessed 
 be he who, in the spirit of love, and faithfulness, and wis- 
 dom, shall convince us of the error, and lead us to the 
 truth. But if it be admitted — as in our belief, there are 
 solid and irrefragable reasons for admitting — that the pro- 
 phets and apostles, and above all, their great Master and 
 their theme, were superhumanly endowed with the Spirit 
 of God; and if, notwithstanding our ignorance and' imper- 
 fection, we have honestly, and in the main, correctly 
 exhibited what they were inspired to teach, then have we 
 found what we felt to be needed, and what we have been 
 engaged in seeking, — God's testimony to His own work in 
 the salvation of men. 
 
 Assuming that there is no essential error in the repre- 
 sentation of this work which we have deduced from Scrip- 
 ture, to what can we appeal for its subjective truth, but to 
 the consciousness of spiritual men, the inward apprehen- 
 sion and experience of those who, in this respect, are like 
 the Christians to whom the apostle wrote ? It is for them 
 to say, whether the effects which we ascribe to the Holy 
 Spirit are such as correspond with their own spiritual his- 
 tory. By their principles, affections, and habits, they are 
 witnesses for the Holy Spirit, even as the Spirit, in the 
 declarations of His word, is a witness for them. They are 
 God's "workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good 
 
IN THE SALVATION OF MAN 125 
 
 works."* Their good works, connected with the principle 
 and the power by which they are wrought, are the signs of 
 the presence of the Holy Spirit, " hearing witness with their 
 spirit" that they " are the children of God." 
 
 Thirdly : — Let us exhibit the harmony of these truths 
 
 RESPECTING THE HOLY SPIRIT WITH OTHER TRUTHS MADE 
 KNOWN BY HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS, OR BY DIVINE REVELATION. 
 
 We have purposely laid the foundation of these Lectures 
 in the consciousness of man : not merely from a conviction 
 that such is the only method of procedure by which we 
 can arrive at truth in relation to the spiritual nature and 
 the spiritual history of man, but also because this is the 
 method sanctioned by Him who is at once our Creator and 
 our Teacher, in His holy word. Truth relating to spiritual 
 things can be apprehended only by beings who have a 
 spiritual capacity ; and by them it is apprehended only in 
 that degree in which they withdraw their attention from 
 the material and outward, to the inward and spiritual. 
 Whether this has been done, and, if done at all, to what 
 extent, by the founders and the followers of prevailing 
 theological systems, is no part of our present business to 
 determine. It can scarcely be unperceived by educated 
 and thoughtful persons, that the greater part of theological 
 systems are based on received metaphysical principles ; 
 and even those which appear to be guided merely by the 
 letter of the Sacred Books, faithfully interpreted by ap- 
 proved philological methods, are •evermore influenced, — 
 we will not say biased, — in their interpretation, by fore- 
 gone conclusions on the subjects to which the several con- 
 tents of the Sacred Books refer, especially that large class 
 of subjects which relate, more or less directly, to the attri- 
 butes and workings of the mind of man. Nor, indeed, do 
 we see how this could be avoided, the human mind being 
 what it is. It seems to be a law of that mind, — a mode of 
 * Eph. ii. 10. * 
 
1QG THE WORK OF THE HOLT SPIRIT 
 
 acting we mean, which, being natural, is inevitable, — to 
 throw the shadow of its own thoughts, its own convictions, 
 its own avowed or undetected system, on all that it con- 
 templates ; to regard everything, and every view of things, 
 in their relation to itself; and, most emphatically, to judge 
 of all that is spiritual by what it knows of its own states, 
 and its own powers. How can it be otherwise with regard 
 to that department of divine truth which professedly treats 
 of the spiritual powers and the spiritual states of man ? 
 
 I. The work which we believe to be ascribed in Scrip- 
 ture to the Holy Spirit does no violence to the conscious 
 freedom and activity of mans spiritual state. The Scripture 
 nowhere represents the Spirit of God as forcing the spirit 
 of man. Such an idea could not be entertained by a mind 
 that reflects on the settled meaning of these words: a 
 spirit cannot be forced ; the terms are contradictory. The 
 animal powers of man may be overborne by power of the 
 same kind superior to itself. His intellectual power may 
 be shut up to a given conclusion, by the strength of a 
 clearer or more robust understanding. His affections 
 may be irresistibly moved in a direction, and to a degree, 
 which are determined by another. But the spirit is essen- 
 tially free. Take away the freedom, and you take away 
 the spirit. To speak of spontaneous action which is 
 forced, of choice which is, from without, necessitated, is 
 to use words which have no meaning. What the Spirit of 
 God does in man. He does in accordance with man's 
 nature.- Is it unnatural for man to believe the true ? to 
 love the right? to choose the good? to worship Him who 
 made him? to accept the highest benefits? to seek the 
 purest happiness ? to desire, and prepare for, immortal 
 honour and felicity ? If not, how can it violate his nature, 
 his freedom, his activity, if the Spirit of God does that — 
 call it by what name you will — which results in his doing 
 these tilings .' That this work can be done, is the teaching 
 
 * See Howe's Living Temple, part. ii. c. ii. 
 
IN THE SALVATION OF MAN. 127 
 
 of the Scriptures, and also that it has been done by the 
 Holy Spirit. That it is still done, that the results are con- 
 tinually produced, is testified by the consciousness of 
 every Christian. We compare the Divine teaching with 
 the human consciousness, and we find that they agree. So 
 simply spontaneous are the faith and love and practice of 
 the Christian, that he has no conception of even the possi- 
 bility of its being otherwise than spontaneous. His wonder 
 is, his pain, his grief, is, that he ever thought, felt, or acted 
 differently, in relation to his spiritual duties and interests. 
 It is his amazement and his disappointment, that he should 
 fail to persuade others to think, feel, and act, as he now 
 thinks, feels, and acts himself. He is taught, indeed, that 
 a "good work" has been "begun" within him; but he 
 does not know by his own experience, or by his own 
 reasonings, what that work is, or how it is ; he knows only 
 that what the Gospel declares to be the effects of that 
 work, arc the things which constitute his own experience. 
 We acknowledge that speculative reasoning has given 
 another aspect to this question. Our answer, however, to 
 such reasoning is, that its premises are abstract notions ; 
 they are not facts. — Arguments founded on the supposed 
 analogies of external nature contravene our conclusion. 
 We meet such arguments by denying that there is any 
 analogy between the physical and the spiritual. They are 
 not analogues; they are opposites. What is true of the 
 one, is not true of the other. Vital energies, it is well 
 known, counteract chemical tendencies ; spiritual energies 
 overcome physical forces. — We are not unmindful of modes 
 of stating ordinary or extraordinary facts in the spiritual 
 history of man, which have the appearance of inconsistency 
 with the perfect freeness of spiritual agency. Too well we 
 know that — the whole man considered — there is a state 
 which is felt to be thraldom; that in the mysterious tran- 
 sition from that state to one of perfect spiritual freedom, 
 there is a struggle to be maintained ; and that this struggle 
 
128 THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 is maintained by eminent Christians to the very end of 
 life ; but the work of the Spirit of God consists in eman- 
 cipating the spirit of man from that thraldom : the struggle 
 is maintained by " the spirit against the flesh," and " by the 
 flesh against the spirit : " and it is only when the Spirit of 
 God has conquered " the flesh," and given perfect freedom 
 to " the spirit of a man which is in him," that this gracious 
 work in him is accomplished. The imperfect comprehen- 
 sion, and the inadequate language, of men respecting the 
 great change that passes over them, in their conversion to 
 God, are not to be taken as accurate representations of 
 that which they really experience. Just conceptions of 
 man's spiritual nature are not essential to conversion, or 
 to any of its antecedents or results ; though they are requi- 
 site in describing them. We are not surprised that the 
 notorious Earl of Rochester, for example, should speak of 
 feeling " an inward force upon him, which so enlightened 
 his mind, and convinced him, that he could resist no 
 longer : for the words (of the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah) 
 had an authority which did shoot like rays or beams in his 
 mind, so that he was not only convinced by the reasonings 
 he had about it, which satisfied his understanding, but by 
 a power which did so effectually constrain him, that he did 
 ever after as firmly believe in his Saviour as if He had 
 been seen in the clouds."* 
 
 Here was the struggle of the unbelieving mind against 
 truth, overcome by that clear evidence which alone could 
 naturally overcome it ; and, like everything in that well- 
 known narrative, this exhibits the internal proof of truth- 
 fulness, in its exact agreement with the laws and conditions 
 of the human mind. 
 
 When Christians have spoken or written of feeling a 
 power, which they ascribe to the Holy Spirit, while we do 
 not question the reality of that which is to them a fact of 
 
 * Some passages in the life and death of John, Earl of Rochester, by 
 Bishop Burnet. 
 
IN THE SALVATION OF MAX 1*29 
 
 consciousness, we may question the correctness of the lan- 
 guage they employ for the purpose of recording that fact. 
 Consciousness, from its distinctive nature, can relate only 
 to the mind's own states and acts. All beyond is either 
 intuitive perception, conjecture, argument from some pre- 
 mises, or faith in some testimony. In recording the facts 
 of their consciousness, few men, perhaps none, confine 
 themselves to the bare statement of that which their con- 
 sciousness infallibly attests, and against which there can 
 be no valid reasoning : they blend with the fact their judg- 
 ment, or their belief, of the external cause, against which 
 judgment or belief there may be valid reasoning. They 
 express themselves, not infrequently, in the language of 
 Scripture, which, being the language of a Divine revelation, 
 expresses more than can be known by the mere conscious- 
 ness of man. 
 
 We do not pretend to give such a representation of the 
 work of the Spirit of God in man as shall, in all respects, 
 conform to the known laws of human consciousness. This 
 would be beside the question now before us, beyond our 
 province, and above our power. Of the Spirit's agency, 
 man cannot be directly conscious. Of our own percep- 
 tions, affections, and acts, we are conscious. The percep- 
 tions, affections, and acts, which are held forth in Scripture 
 as the consequences of the Spirit's working, are known to 
 be as free, spontaneous, and agreeable to the laws of our 
 active spiritual nature, as if no such working had taken 
 place. 
 
 Theological writers of different schools have disputed 
 whether this grace, or work of the Holy Spirit, is irresistible. 
 In this dispute much needless confusion of thought has 
 arisen from not observing the precise sense in which this 
 scholastic term is intended. That which is irresistible is 
 superior to all oj^osition : opposition is, by the nature of 
 the case, excluded. When the intellectual faculties of 
 man are addressed by truths and reasons, those truths 
 xlv. k 
 
130 THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 and reasons may be resisted or opposed by false judgment 
 and by inclination. "When his moral powers, his con- 
 science, and his will, are addressed by objective motives, 
 those motives may be opposed by pre-existent dispositions 
 and habits. Whatever the Spirit of God does by either of 
 these methods, by the instructions, exhortations, and com- 
 mands of revealed truth, has been thus opposed, as we 
 learn both from Scripture and from experience ; and the 
 pertinacity of that opposition is a fearful aggravation of 
 the guilt of sin. But when the Spirit of God quickens, 
 renews, regenerates, and produces the results which are 
 described in Scripture as sanctification, the change pro- 
 duced in man is one deeper than his consciousness ; it is 
 beyond the range of opposition : it is the removal of that 
 in him which is the source of all opposition to the truth and 
 love of God. So, at least, we understand the language of 
 the Scriptures ; and to this understanding of the Scrip- 
 tures, we find nothing contradictory in the consciousness 
 of those who are the subjects of renewing grace. We be- 
 lieve that, in relation to this particular work of the Holy 
 Spirit, the notion of resistance is as inapplicable as it 
 would be to the beginning of animal life, or of intellectual 
 consciousness.* That the work is done, and that it is not 
 resisted, we are plainly taught in Scripture ; and what 
 Scripture teaches is confirmed by the consciousness of 
 every Christian. 
 
 II. It is further to be shown that the work of the Holy 
 Spirit does not oppose any principle, or law, of the govern- 
 ment of God. The only principles, or laws, of the Divine 
 government with which the work of the Spirit, as we have 
 been representing it, can be supposed to be at variance, 
 are these two : first, that each man endowed with the ca- 
 pacities and furnished with the means of moral agency is 
 responsible to God for his voluntary actions ; and, secondly, 
 
 * See Appendix, G. 
 
IN THE SALVATION OF MAN. 131 
 
 that the consequences (whether rewards or punishments) of 
 moral actions shall attach to the agent. 
 
 (1 .) That the work of the Spirit, as we have viewed it, 
 does not oppose the first of these laws or principles, the 
 following considerations may suffice to show. 
 
 The responsibility of man is involved in that view of his 
 state which has become the occasion of the Spirit's interfer- 
 ence. If he were not a sinner, he would not need to be 
 renewed in the spirit of his mind ; if he were not, by the 
 perversion of his nature, so thoroughly and habitually ad- 
 dicted to sin that there is no hope of his abandoning it, 
 while he is left to himself, he would not need to be re- 
 newed by the Spirit of God. Before the Spirit of God 
 renews him, then, he is responsible. After the Spirit of 
 God has renewed him, his responsibility for his own 
 voluntary acts continues. He is as amenable as he was 
 before, to the judgment of his own conscience, and also to 
 the just judgment of God. To imagine that a sinner is 
 not responsible until the Spirit of God renews him, is to 
 imagine something which is contradictory alike to the con- 
 stitution of man,. his consciousness, his judgment of him- 
 self and of other men, and to the express assertions and 
 the constant implications of Scripture. The injudicious 
 language sometimes used to describe the weakness and 
 wretchedness of fallen man, the unscriptural straining of 
 scriptural metaphors, and the rhetorical exaggerations 
 which push grave truths beyond their just limits, have 
 too successfully nurtured the vicious indolence of men, 
 and encouraged the dreamy notion that, even though they 
 would, they cannot do the things which they know they 
 ought to do, and which God has commanded them to do. 
 A not less deplorable consequence of this erroneous judg- 
 ment and bad taste, embodied in a false theology, is — 
 that men of too much discernment, and too much rever- 
 ence for moral principles and requirements, to be led 
 away by the error we have now exposed, have confounded 
 
J 32 THE WOEK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 the false theology with the true, by applying to the true 
 the objections which have no bearing but upon the false. 
 Yet we ask candid and thoughtful men to consider, calmly, 
 whether they can detect any contradiction to what we agree 
 with them in holding as a fundamental principle of man's 
 relation to God — namely, his responsibility — in the doc- 
 trine of the Scriptures respecting the work of the Holy 
 Spirit, or in the exposition of that doctrine which is now 
 before them. The responsibility of man is true, irrespec- 
 tively of any doctrines of revelation ; and in those doctrines 
 it is constantly assumed. It appears to us to be specially 
 assumed in the doctrine respecting the Holy Spirit's work 
 in man's salvation : for we know of no position plainer than 
 this, that the offences of man against the God to whom he 
 must give account are so voluntary, and so habitual, that 
 he never ceases to commit those offences till the Spirit 
 of God renews his spirit ; but this plain position could 
 not be true, if man were not responsible to God. To ima- 
 gine that a man is no longer responsible to God, because 
 the Spirit of God has renewed him, is in like manner to 
 imagine that the Spirit of God has transformed a man 
 into a creature of a totally different, and manifestly inferior, 
 genus : for it is below, not above, the level of man, that 
 we find the ranges of beings that are not responsible to 
 God. The Christian, surely, has a conscience. He is, 
 certainly, as much the doer of his own deeds as any other 
 man can be. Instead of being less, he rs more, attentive 
 to his sense of responsibility than he was before he became 
 a Christian. He is addressed in Scripture as included in 
 these universal declarations : " Every one of us shall give 
 account of himself to God:" "for we must all appear 
 before the judgment-seat of Christ; that every one may 
 receive the things done in his body, according to that he 
 hath done, whether it be good or bad.''* 
 
 The whole current of the hortatory and monitory parts 
 * Bom. xiv. I'. : '.' Cor. v. 10. 
 
IN THE SALVATION OF MAN. 1 33 
 
 of the New Testament bears witness to the peimanent re- 
 sponsibility of man, even when enjoying the consolation 
 supplied by the assurances of grace, and sustained by the 
 strong hope of everlasting life. And all Christian experi- 
 ence accords with the testimony of Scripture. — There is 
 more than the absence of contradiction between the doc- 
 trine of the Spirit and the doctrine of responsibility, and 
 between the fact of spiritual experience and the habit of 
 looking forward to a day of account : they are harmonious 
 truths, mutually corroborated, each illustrating the other. 
 It is because God has bestowed on a man a gift so precious 
 as His own Spirit, that the highest motives are added to 
 the natural and the moral, for daily seeking to please Him ; 
 and it is because the sense of responsibility is quickened by 
 the power of the Holy. Spirit, and the strength to do the 
 will of God comes from Him, that obedience is expected 
 from a Christian, and is, in fact, rendered by him. — The 
 responsibility of man, then, or his sense of that responsi- 
 bility, is no more the creation of the renewing Spirit than 
 is his memory or his eyesight: neither is that responsi- 
 bility, or the sense of it, lessened by the Spirit. The laws 
 of moral being, like those of the intellectual and the phy- 
 sical condition of that being, are inseparable from our 
 nature; therefore, as it is in man that the Spirit works, 
 and as the aim and issue of His work is the perfecting of 
 humanity, it is impossible that personal responsibility 
 should either begin or end with the renewing of the Holy 
 Ghost. 
 
 (2.) Is the work which we ascribe to the Holy Spirit in- 
 compatible with the great principle of moral government, 
 that the consequences of moral actions (whether reward or 
 punishment) shall attach to the agent ? 
 
 It will require peculiar calmness and thoughtfulness 
 to perceive the manifold bearings of this question : and 
 until its bearings — the most important, at least — are dis- 
 tinctly perceived, the answer, whatever it may be, is of 
 
134 THE WORK OF THE HOLY SriRlT 
 
 little moment. All persons who have reflected on their 
 own moral nature, and have observed the course of provi- 
 dence, as witnessed by themselves, or recorded in the 
 history of man, will have seen that the doctrine of the 
 Scripture respecting man and the consequences of his 
 voluntary actions agrees precisely with this nature, and 
 with that providence. Such persons entertain no doubt 
 that every man deserves the good or the evil which natu- 
 rally flows from his spontaneous acting, and that this good 
 and this evil, far from being confined to this world, are so 
 exhibited here as to become the sure signs and tokens of 
 the retributions of a future life. But do w r e not see that 
 in the physical world there is an infinite variety of reme- 
 dies, or reliefs, against some of the natural consequences 
 of our folly and sin ? Do we not also see that, in the 
 social relations of man as we now behold him, " the sym- 
 pathy and help of fellow-creatures afford men assistance 
 w T hich they would have had no occasion for had it not been 
 for their misconduct ; but which, in the disadvantageous 
 condition they have reduced themselves to, is absolutely 
 necessary to their recovery and retrieving their affairs?"* 
 
 These analogies, furnished by the actual workings of 
 Divine providence in this world, entirely harmonize with 
 the doctrines of Scripture which assure us that, in a way 
 which fully maintains the sanctity of the Divine govern- 
 ment, the punishment deserved by men for their sins may 
 be avoided in the life to come. The principles, then, 
 which arc here recognized as common to the affairs of this 
 life, and those of the life to come, are these : first of all, 
 there is the principle of undeserved compassion ; and 
 secondly, there is the principle of mediation, "an interpo- 
 sition to prevent the destruction of human kind, whatever 
 that destruction unprevented would have been ; an inter- 
 position in such a manner as was necessary and effectual 
 to prevent that execution of justice upon sinners which 
 
 * Butler's Analogy, p. ii. c. v. 
 
IN THE SALVATION OF MAN. 135 
 
 God had appointed should otherwise have been executed 
 upon them ; or in such a manner as to prevent that 
 punishment from following, which, according to the ge- 
 neral laws of Divine government, must have followed the 
 sins of the world, had it not been for such interposition. "* 
 Christianity, as a doctrine, consists pre-eminently in the 
 revelation of grace, and in the appointment of a mediator, 
 through whom that grace is vouchsafed to man in such a 
 way as to illustrate, instead of obscuring, the glory of the 
 Divine government. One part of this mediatory plan is 
 accomplished in the obedience and sacrifice of the Son of 
 God : for by that obedience and sacrifice God displays his 
 justice as w T ell as His grace, in saving them that believe 
 on the name of His only begotten Son. The other part 
 of the plan is accomplished in the work of the Holy Spirit : 
 for by Him the sinner is led to believe, and then to pre- 
 pare for the blessedness of the future by a life of holy 
 obedience to the will of God. It is in the grace of God 
 towards the sinner that we find the reason and origin of the 
 work which is performed by the Holy Spirit. It is for the 
 sake of Christ the Mediator that the Spirit is given. When 
 the Spirit is given, He produces in the sinner's mind a 
 contrite acknowledgment of his offences, of Gods right to 
 punish him, of the justice which shines so awfully in the 
 sufferings and death of Christ, and of the exceeding grace 
 which, for Christ's sake, saves him. The repenting man 
 is bound by authoritative law, as well as encouraged by re- 
 vealed mercy, to rest his hope of salvation on the Mediator 
 whom God has appointed for this purpose ; and the results 
 which flow from the grace of the regenerating Spirit, both 
 in this world and in the world to come, are in most exact 
 conformity with the aims and requirements of moral go- 
 vernment. In the work of the Holy Spirit, therefore, we 
 see the completest harmony with the administrations of 
 the supreme law. Apart from this work, we should have 
 
 * Lutlcr. 
 
13G THE WORK OF THE HOLT SPIRIT 
 
 beheld and experienced the awful, unquestionable, and 
 irresistible power of right : in this work — connected as it 
 is indissolubly with the mediation of the Son of God — we 
 behold, and if we are believers, we experience, that right 
 vindicated by grace. 
 
 The principle of grace, dimly shadowed in the ordinary 
 course of providence, but clearly enunciated in the inspired 
 writings, is unfolded with great power and grandeur in the 
 spiritual work of which we are here treating; so essential, 
 indeed, is this characteristic of the work, that it is ordi- 
 narily expressed in the Scriptures by the simple term — 
 grace. We are thus led, in pursuance of our present de- 
 sign, to show, 
 
 III. The harmony of the work which we here attribute 
 to the Holy Spirit, with the revealed doctrine respecting Divine 
 grace. 
 
 The Scriptures ascribe to God the absolute dominion of 
 the universe : the whole scheme of created things being 
 what it is, according to this supreme pleasure. Besides 
 the express assertion of this supremacy in distinct pas- 
 sages,* it is implied in the numerous references made to 
 the times, order, and variety of creation, and to those laws 
 of nature, traced by physical science, which, in the higher 
 and more comprehensive science of theology, are modes of 
 the acts of God.f That department of the work of God 
 which we speak of as His moral government, is, like every 
 other department, a manifestation of His supreme good 
 pleasure : it exists, because He pleases ; and it is what He 
 pleases. Because of the infinite and eternal perfection of 
 His nature, His government is essentially right, immutably 
 good. Now it is, as we have seen, a principle of this go- 
 vernment, to hold man responsible, and to deal with him 
 according to his doings. But we have also seen that these 
 principles of responsibility and retribution are not acted 
 
 * See Gen. xiv. 19, 22 J Rot. iv. 11 ; Job xxxiii. 18; Dan. iv. 35; Rom. 
 
 xi. 30; Kph. i. 2. + See Appendix, Note II. 
 
IK THE SALVATION OF MAN. 137 
 
 on so rigidly and uniformly as to exclude all compassionate 
 intervention for the relief of human misery. Such an in- 
 tervention it is the special object of revelation to make 
 known. In contemplating the mode of Divine acting re- 
 vealed by the Gospel, our thoughts are raised above the 
 plane of moral government : the same supreme right on 
 which the moral government itself is founded, upholds 
 another manifestation of the same good pleasure, in avert- 
 ing the evils which would have come upon man, if moral 
 government had been the only or the highest display of 
 infinite perfection. While the demands of moral govern- 
 ment are fully met, — first, by the mediation of the Son of 
 God ; and secondly, by the results of the Spirit's agency ; 
 — these arrangements of Divine wisdom are undoubtedly 
 made in subserviency to a purpose which no principle of 
 moral government could of itself have ensured : that pur- 
 pose is, to unfold the plenitude of God's benignity towards 
 those whom His law condemns, and whose misery His 
 procedure as a Moral Governor secures, as the deserved 
 and natural consequence of the sin for which they are con- 
 demned. This special aspect of Divine benignity is the 
 xapts — the grace, of the New Testament. It is such a 
 manifestation of Divine love as is not ordinarily given, 
 either in the natural course of providence, or in the admi- 
 nistrations of moral government. It repeals no law, phy- 
 sical or moral. It abrogates no sanction of government. 
 It recognizes no claim of right on the part of those on 
 whose behalf it is displayed. It is that which God does, 
 because it is congruous with His nature, and with His 
 authority, with His wisdom, and with His love, to do it. 
 
 He has to deal, in this case, only with those who are 
 already righteously condemned for sin. For such persons 
 the Holy Spirit is shed forth. In them He does the work 
 which we have been describing. The remission of their 
 sins, and the renovation of their spiritual nature, are alike 
 acts [of grace ; and they are alike vouchsafed for the sake 
 
J 38 THE WOEK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 of the mediation of Jesus Christ. Unless we could 
 absurdly suppose that the work of the Holy Spirit is super- 
 fluous, we must allow that none of the results of His work 
 would have appeared, if He had not done what He has 
 done. What He has done is, in the simplest sense of 
 terms, at once necessary and gratuitous : necessary, in 
 order to the accomplishment of an end, which could not 
 be secured without it ; gratuitous, because those in whom 
 He accomplishes the end, had no claim of right to its 
 being done in them. There is, therefore, no semblance of 
 contrariety between the work which we ascribe to the Holy 
 Spirit, and the doctrines of the Scripture respecting the 
 grace of God. If none of the condemned had been saved, 
 we should have been ignorant of that which we now con- 
 ceive to be the highest attribute of the Highest Being : if 
 all the creatures of God had been saved equally and alike, 
 — either from sinning, or, having sinned, from its conse- 
 quences, — there might have been no trace, in the bound- 
 less Future, of a moral government of God over men. We 
 cannot conceive of any act of God as being otherwise than 
 right, wise, good, and in all respects worthy of His ador- 
 able perfection ; and, for this reason, we cannot associate 
 with His grace any ideas but those of rectitude, wisdom, 
 and goodness. We cannot think of His manifestation of 
 Himself as gracious in any way that could warrant the 
 application of terms involving notions that belong to mere 
 dominion, or to the arbitrary show of power. All such 
 terms, and all the associations which occasion them, be- 
 long to the imperfection of man, and can have no just or 
 safe use when we are speaking of God. We are far from 
 forgetting, indeed, that the compassion of God towards us 
 is represented as being moved towards the entire human 
 race, including even those who, through their neglect or 
 contempt of the Divine compassion, are miserably lost. 
 The whole Gospel, when it testifies, proclaims, exhorts, 
 invites, is addressed to the whole family of man. The love 
 
IN THE SALVATION OF MAN. 
 
 139 
 
 of God in giving His only begotten Son, is love to the 
 world. The propitiation is " for the sins of the whole 
 world." Yet the blessings of salvation which are thus 
 freely presented to all men are actually obtained only by 
 those who humbly, penitently, and gratefully receive them, 
 according to the terms of the Gospel, as the gifts of God 
 for the sake of Jesus Christ. There is nothing in the 
 Gospel, there can be nothing in God, to prevent any man 
 to whom the Gospel comes from thus accepting its bless- 
 ings. Still men are free to reject them : they are not 
 forced on any. 
 
 Now, let the number of those who receive the blessings 
 of salvation be regarded as ever so small, or ever so large, 
 our attention is called to this great truth of Scripture, that 
 each man's acceptance of them is distinctly ascribed to the 
 "grace of God." The grace of God is, therefore, repre- 
 sented as doing something for man, without which he 
 would not have accepted the blessings of salvation ; and 
 from this it is inferred that the difference between a man's 
 spiritual condition before he accepted the blessings of the 
 Gospel, and his state of mind when he does accept them, 
 is owing to that something which grace has done. That some- 
 thing is what we mean by the quickening, the renewing, 
 the regenerating of a man by the Holy Ghost. It is not 
 merely an offer of doing, but actual working : not a tendency 
 to be developed under certain conditions, but the Power 
 which secures a result. The harmony of this view with all 
 the truths of Scripture respecting the boundless compas- 
 sion of God towards man lies here : the Spirit of God 
 accomplishes, so far as they are accomplished, the designs 
 of the Divine compassion. We have seen, in a former 
 Lecture, that the grace of the Holy Spirit which exhibits 
 salvation to the understanding, and urges it by whatever is 
 majestic, tender, and earnest in the invitations or remon- 
 strances of love, on the free choice of men, is often exhi- 
 bited in vain. We [know, however, that this grace is not 
 
140 THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 always exhibited in vain ; and it is in the " renewing of the 
 Holy Ghost" that we find the solution of the difference, 
 wherever it is found, between those who are not saved, and 
 those who are saved by the grace of God. 
 
 Here, we must repeat, is a clear line of distinction be- 
 tween that system of truths, motives, and appeals, by 
 which the Spirit of God addresses men in the Gospel, and 
 that inward work by which He actually renews the spirit 
 of man. The external system is one fact ; the inward 
 operation is another fact. In the one case, the Spirit 
 addresses all to whom the Gospel comes ; in the other, 
 He regenerates those by whom, in consequence of that 
 regeneration, the Gospel is received. The external system 
 is of such a nature, that so long as man is free to act 
 according to his cherished dispositions, it can be, and it is, 
 resisted ; the inward operation is of such a nature, that it 
 is not, cannot be, resisted; because it is Divine Power, 
 and, therefore, superior to all resistance. The external 
 system is included within the range of moral government : 
 the inward working belongs to the higher department of 
 saving grace. The external system maintains the glory of 
 Divine righteousness and Divine mercy, and leaves the 
 unrepenting, unbelieving sinner under the heavy charge of 
 wrong, embittered by ingratitude, and aggravated with in- 
 sult ; the inward working maintains the benignity of Divine 
 energy, enabling and disposing the repentant and sancti- 
 fied believer to ascribe all he is, all he enjoys, and all he 
 hopes for, to the grace of God, to that grace entirely, and 
 to that grace alone. 
 
 IV. It remains that we exhibit the harmony of these 
 truths respecting the Holy Spirit with other truths which 
 are, confessedly, mysterious. The strongest thinkers are 
 those who soonest reach their limits. By grasping, with 
 comparative case, whatever comes within the domain of 
 the human understanding, in our present state, they find 
 their inquiries bounded, their powers exhausted, and their 
 
IN THE SALVATION OF MAN. Ml 
 
 knowledge at an end. To them there is a mystery, an 
 impenetrated secret, in every path of contemplation. Their 
 own consciousness is, with them, an ultimate fact ; they 
 know that so it is ; but they can give no other explanation. 
 Their mental perception of things which are not in their 
 minds, are to them utterly inexplicable : yet, however in- 
 geniously they may reason, as Bishop Berkley did, and as 
 the profoundest reasoners in Europe have done more 
 recently, in the line of philosophic speculation, — they have 
 no doubt of the fact, that they mentally perceive the ob- 
 jects presented to their bodily organs of sensation. To 
 them it is inconceivable how anything can begin to be ; 
 yet they are fully persuaded that it is inconsistent with 
 what they know, to imagine that the things they see are 
 without a beginning; and their reason reposes on the 
 sublime fact— that one Being is self-sufficient and eternal, 
 and is — Himself uncaused — the Cause of all things else. 
 To them a miracle is rendered improbable by all their con- 
 victions of Divine wisdom and immutableness, founded on 
 an enlarged observation of the course of nature ; yet the 
 evidence that miracles have been wrought, — the impossibility 
 of holding many unquestionable truths of fact, without also 
 believing the honest witnesses of miracles, — the congruity 
 of attested miracles with the mysterious inspiration in- 
 volved in the very idea of a revelation, — arfd the manifest 
 differences between the miracles recorded in the Scriptures 
 and the pretended miracles which have been exploded by 
 the tests of critical examination, — all these reasons satisfy 
 them that what would otherwise be improbable is, in fact, 
 certain. The work of the Holy Spirit in renewing sinful 
 man is like the other facts now referred to in this one re- 
 spect — it also is mysterious. It may be contrary to irrefra- 
 gable [abstract reasonings from assumed premises; it may 
 be unlike some other facts made known by ordinary obser- 
 vation and experience ; yet it is, itself, a fact, revealed in 
 Scripture, and so revealed as to harmonize with every 
 
142 THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 other fact. We believe that it is even so, as the Scriptures 
 teach. But if men ask — How does the Spirit of God renew 
 the spirit of man ? the only answer is— " the things of God 
 knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." " The wind 
 bloweth where it listeth, and thou nearest the sound 
 thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither 
 it goeth : so is every one that is born of the Spirit." 
 
 We are not here affirming that the renewing work of the 
 Spirit is miraculous : it wants the external and visible cha- 
 racter of miracles. But we are affirming that the mysteri- 
 ousness of this work, instead of being an objection, is a 
 confirmation of its reality ; mysteriousness is no reason for 
 rejecting the doctrine of Scripture, any more than mysteri- 
 ousness is a reason — which it cannot be — for rejecting the 
 evidence of miracles, the doctrine of creation, or the funda- 
 mental and unproved beliefs on which all human know- 
 ledge rests. There may be some settled law of operation 
 according to which whatever is now mysterious to us, pro- 
 ceeds : w T e can scarcely conceive how it can be otherwise : 
 and it is possible that, in the ever-growing intelligence of 
 a future world, the whole scheme of God in his ways to- 
 wards men may be gradually unfolded, to enkindle our 
 love, and to deepen our adoration of the Perfect One ; and 
 in the light which eternity will cast on the mysteries of 
 time, it may be that we shall fully know not only what the 
 mystery w, but why it was so long a mystery, and how its 
 beino* a mystery so long was one of the manifold displays of 
 that wise and holy love to which all our happiness will be 
 joyfully ascribed. Meanwhile, let us seek repose from all 
 our perplexities, in " that most delicious repast, and richest 
 cordial of our soul, the nearest resemblance, the sweetest 
 foretaste of paradise .... by which we are united and 
 incorporated into Christ himself, being made living mem- 
 bers of his body, partaking a common life and sense with 
 him ; compacted into the same spiritual edifice, dedicated 
 to the worship and inhabitation of God, our bodies and 
 
IN THE SALVATION OF MAN. 143 
 
 souls made temples of His divinity, thrones of His ma- 
 jesty, orbs of His celestial light, paradises of His blissful 
 presence."* 
 
 Fourthly : — We shall now offer some facts, illustra- 
 tive OF THESE TRUTHS, FROM THE HISTORY OF MAN IN GENERAL, 
 AND OF THE CHURCH IS PARTICULAR. 
 
 I. The most serious and meditative men whose views 
 are recorded for our instruction in the writings of ancient 
 times, have so expressed themselves as to impress us with 
 the belief that they sometimes perceived the need of some 
 such work as that which we ascribe to the Holy Spirit.f 
 Among the Greeks and Eomans there was a universal 
 belief of the direct influence of the Deity on man. Among 
 the most thoughtful of the Greeks we may select Socrates, 
 and his eminent disciples, Xenophon and Plato. As for 
 Socrates, he not only held this general notion, but, as is 
 well known, he ascribed what was right and good in his 
 own conduct to the guidance of an unseen power.j Xeno- 
 phon attributes to Cyrus a sentiment, which, whether 
 really entertained by the Persian king, or expressing only 
 the views of the writer, or those of his master in philo- 
 sophy, is equally applicable to our present purpose — for 
 he ascribes it, with much fervour, to the favour of the gods, 
 that he had been sensible of their care, and that in his suc- 
 cesses he had never thought himself more than a man.§ 
 Plato represents Socrates as insisting to Alcibiades on the 
 supreme importance of knowing the state of the soul. He 
 shows that happiness consists in virtue, and that vice is 
 slavery : then, having led his disciple to confess that vice 
 ought to be avoided, as being suited only to slaves, he 
 
 * Barrow's Whit-Sunday Sermon, on the Gift of the Holy Ghost. 
 + See Appendix, Note I. 
 
 X See Life of Socrates, by Wiggers, for a compendious view of opinions 
 respecting the Dremon of Socrates. 
 § Xen. Cyr. L. viii. c. vii. s. 1. 
 
144 THE WOF.K OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 touches him to the quick with this piercing appeal : " Well, 
 then, my dear Alcibiades, do you not perceive in what con- 
 dition you are ? Are you in this noble disposition of mind, 
 so suitable to a man of your birth ? — or " — "Ah ! Socrates, 
 I well perceive I am in the condition ycu speak of." "But 
 know you not how to deliver yourself out of this condition, 
 which I dare not name, when I speak to a man of your 
 standing?" "Yes, I do." "Well, how can you deliver 
 yourself?" "I can deliver myself, if Socrates please." 
 •' You do not say well, Alcibiades." " What then should I 
 say?" " You should say, If God pleases."* 
 
 In the second Alcibiades, which is a dialogue on prayer, 
 Socrates tells Alcibiades, " It is altogether necessary you 
 should wait for some person to teach you how you ought 
 to behave yourself, both toward God and man." " And 
 when will that time be, Socrates, and who is he that shall 
 instruct me? with what pleasure should I look upon 
 him!" "He will do it, who takes a true care of you. 
 But methinks, as we read in Homer that Minerva dissi- 
 pated the mist that covered Diomede's eyes, and hindered 
 him from distinguishing God from man, so it is necessary 
 we should, in the first place, scatter the darkness that 
 covers your soul, and afterwards give you those remedies 
 that are necessary to put you in a condition of discerning 
 good and evil : for, at present, you know not how to make 
 a difference between them.''f 
 
 It would seem to be in allusion to this sentiment ascribed 
 to Socrates, that Plato himself says: J "But whosoever, 
 elated with confidence, and inflamed in his soul at once 
 with youth, ignorance, and pride, thinks he needs neither 
 ruler nor guide, but is fit to guide others, is left destitute 
 by God : thus abandoned, he goes on stumbling, and 
 seems, to many, to be somebody ; yet, in no long time, he 
 is overtaken by a punishment unquestionable in its justice, 
 
 * Plato's Dialogues. Alcibia + Plato. Alcib. II. 
 
 t De Legibus, lib. iv. (Ed. Steph.) 
 
IX THE SALVATION OF MAX. 145 
 
 and brings complete ruin on himself, his family, and his 
 country." In the Sixth Book, Be Republic®, he says, "If 
 any man escape the temptations of life, and behave himself 
 as becomes a worthy member of society, he has reason to 
 own that it is God who saves him."* 
 
 Of the Roman writers it is almost superfluous to quote 
 the familiar words of Cicero, " No man was ever great 
 without a Divine afflatus." In the Epistles of Seneca to 
 Lucilius we meet with some striking passages which are 
 the more remarkable from the darkness and uncertainty 
 with which they are connected. " This I say, Lucilius, a 
 holy spirit dwelleth within us, of our good and evil works 
 the observer and the guardian. As we treat him, so he 
 treateth us : and no man is good except God be with him. 
 Can any rise above external fortunes, unless by his aid ? 
 He it is from whom every good man receiveth both honour- 
 able and upright purposes."! The philosophical Emperor 
 Marcus Antoninus, reviewing his past life, and the favour- 
 able circumstances of his education, says, " So far as it 
 depended on the gods, on the suggestions, helps, and in- 
 spirations proceeding thence, I might already have attained 
 to a life agreeable to nature, if I had not been myself to 
 blame, in neglecting to follow the admonitions and the 
 almost express injunctions of the gods. "J 
 
 These sentiments are not adduced for the purpose of 
 showing that the philosophers of Greece and Home were 
 acquainted with that work which the Scriptures ascribe to 
 the Holy Spirit ; or that they were the subjects of such a 
 work ; still less, that their opinions, whatever they were, 
 from whatever source derived, are of any authority in de- 
 termining ours ; but because they seem to betray a sense, 
 more or less profound and accurate, of their fearful want 
 of something different from their reasoning faculties, and 
 
 * Lib. vi. p. 077. + Sen. Ep. 42. 
 
 t M. Ant. De Suis. Lib. i. 6, 17. See Appendix, Note I. 
 XIV. 
 
1-40 THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 
 
 beyond their moral powers, to raise them to the perfection 
 of human nature. 
 
 II. The course of Christian literature from the beginning 
 opens to us a rich vein of theological reading, in the ex- 
 press or indirect acknowledgment of the truths we have 
 been discussing. It is this that brightens the fragments 
 of the earlier ecclesiastical writers. We cannot read their 
 epistles, their homilies, their expositions of Scripture, their 
 records of facts, without perceiving that the work of the 
 Holy Spirit in renewing the moral nature of man was a 
 matter of belief, and devout contemplation, in the churches 
 of the first ages. We might fill volumes with well-known 
 quotations to this effect. We need only refer, in general 
 terms, to the most pious writers of the middle age, and 
 also to the works of the Continental and the British Re- 
 formers ; to the writings of the Puritans and Nonconform- 
 ists of England and Scotland ; to some of the most distin- 
 guished ornaments of both the established churches in this 
 island ; and to not a few of the most cherished names in 
 other churches both of this country, of America, and of the 
 territories won by modern missions to the kingdom of our 
 Lord. It is not unimportant to observe that while differ- 
 ing on many particulars of greater or less importance, 
 there is in all ages, countries, and churches, a manifest 
 agreement respecting this vital principle of the Christian 
 faith and character. Nor is it less worthy of remembrance, 
 that this agreement is found, not only in formal statements 
 of doctrine, but in practical exhortations — in narratives 
 of fact— in liturgies and hymns for public worship — and 
 in those numberless incidental occasions on which the 
 inward sentiment breaks through the expressions of a 
 writer. 
 
 We refer to these writings, let it be marked, not as autho- 
 rities for rcJUjious belief, but as testimonies to this important 
 f ac t — that the doctrine which we believe to be taught in 
 the Scriptures is incorporated with nearly all that is dis- 
 
IN THE SALVATION OF MAN. 147 
 
 tinctive, with whatever has been sublime, holy, mighty, 
 and consoling, in the living history of Christianity.* 
 
 III. Pretenders to peculiar sanctity have, for the most 
 part, sheltered their impostures, or hallucinations, under 
 the assumption of a Divine spiritual agency, causing them 
 to differ from other men. For this very reason, superficial 
 and hasty persons have not been wanting to reject the 
 whole notion of Divine agency on the human spirit as 
 illusory and enthusiastic. But, would such pretensions 
 have been made, still more, would they have been accepted 
 by others, if it had been known that real Christian sanc- 
 tity had been produced without the Spirit of God ; or if 
 there had been no solid proofs of unquestionable Divine 
 agency in cases previously known? 
 
 IV. We hold it to be true, that attachment to whatever 
 truths are essential to the doctrinal integrity of Chris- 
 tianity, and to the practical control of this religion over 
 the depravity and wretchedness of man, has uniformly 
 kept pace with the decided maintenance, and the devo- 
 tional acknowledgment, of the grace of the Holy Spirit in 
 the salvation of man. We see how it must be so, in con- 
 sistency of theory, on the admission that this is the true 
 doctrine of Scripture : for the facts of the case we must 
 be satisfied, at present, with citing, as our witnesses, 
 the most earnestly religious men that have lived in past 
 times, or are living now. There ought to be a wide differ- 
 ence somewhere, between a religion excogitated by man, and 
 a religion revealed by God. That difference, be it what it 
 may, is the essential characteristic of Christianity, worthy 
 of the preparations which were made for it — of the inspira- 
 tion which conveyed it — of the miracles which sealed it — 
 of the martyrdoms which have enshrined it — of the con- 
 quests it has already gained — of the commanding position 
 in which it now stands — of the enterprises it has prompted 
 and sustained — and of the triumph which every man that 
 
 * See Appendix, Note K. 
 
148 THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, ETC. 
 
 watches it must see it is steadily proceeding to celebrate, 
 in the coming events that cast their shadows before them 
 on all the systems and all the institutions of our world. 
 Our deliberate belief is, that the essential characteristic of 
 Christianity is — grace, through a Mediator, renewing man by 
 the Holy Ghost. So we read The Book. And it is among 
 men who so read it, that we see Christianity standing out 
 as a distinct power, a living reality, subduing, yet exalting ; 
 piercing, yet comforting; humbling man as nothing before 
 God, yet making him mighty against all evil, first within 
 his own bosom, and then in the wide world around him. 
 
LECTUEE IV. 
 
 CHURCH NOTIONS RELATING TO THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 " It is the Spirit that quickeneth the words that I speak unto you, 
 
 (they) are spirit, and (they) are life."— John vi. 63. 
 
 We can make no progress in the study of such questions 
 as belong to the subject now before us without a clear and 
 constantly recognized distinction between the teaching of 
 Scripture respecting spiritual facts, and the human modes 
 of representing them embodied in religious doctrines. 
 Some of these human modes fall short of the revealed 
 fact : others of them go beyond it, into the regions of spe- 
 culation. The mode in which one man conceives of the 
 work of the Spirit may be derived so entirely from sources 
 neither spiritual nor scriptural, that our reverent belief of 
 Scripture, or our personal consciousness, or both, may 
 require us to reject it as positive error; while the mode in 
 which another man regards the same work may so mani- 
 festly accord with personal consciousness, and so naturally 
 agree with the plain scope of Scripture on the whole sub- 
 ject, that his way of thinking will commend itself to us as 
 substantially sound, sufficiently correct in theory, and un- 
 questionably safe in practice. There must be a tone of 
 mind peculiarly germane to inquiries of this kind ; and if 
 you reflect that we are now dealing with the work of God's 
 grace in saving man, you will see that men are not in sym- 
 pathy with the subject, nor with the teacher, unless they are 
 alive to the dangers which lie, not around us, but within us, 
 
150 CHURCH NOTIONS RELATING TO 
 
 dangers the less likely to be avoided, or even suspected, 
 because of their being so deeply enfolded in our most spon- 
 taneous feelings. It is necessary here— yet not enough — 
 that we bow before the majesty of Supreme Wisdom with a 
 humble recollection of our darkness and feebleness : besides 
 this, we are to recollect that our moral state is fearfully disor- 
 dered ; that the pride of man is such that it will give to error 
 the aspect of truth, and pervert truth to the purposes of 
 error; and that, for these reasons, we approach the true only 
 in proportion as our moral estimate of ourselves is one 
 which lays us silent in the dust. But then this humbleness 
 of heart must not be superstitious. It must be the effect, 
 not of terror, but of conviction. It is not the abasement 
 of any one man in the presence of any other man ; but of 
 both, and of both alike, before God. We have to be on 
 our guard against the pride of other hearts as well as 
 against the pride of our own. We are to be careful lest 
 any creature should stand for us in the place of God. 
 Those who have so read the New Testament as to fill 
 their minds with what is there revealed concerning man, 
 need not be taught that it is in human nature for one man 
 to make any assumption which another man's inaptitude, 
 or fear, may allow ; nor need they be told with what in- 
 genuity, how plausibly, in what various forms of sanctity, 
 and with how many proofs even of sincerity and good in- 
 tention, their fellow-men will thrust themselves in between 
 God and their souls, pleading the authority of His awful 
 Name for excluding His Spirit from His own work. Those 
 who have added to the devout reading of the New Testa- 
 ment an intelligent study of Christian history, will remem- 
 ber the insidious process by winch the human in religion 
 has stealthily encroached on the Divine. According to 
 the teaching of Christ and the apostles, every man is war- 
 ranted by the Gospel to believe ; every believer is himself 
 a priest, offering his own spiritual sacrifice, and receiving 
 for himself spiritual blessings; the whole company of 
 
THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 101 
 
 believers on earth constitutes in itself a church, a clergy, a 
 priesthood ; the spiritual life which each receives from 
 Christ by the Spirit dwelling in him, is the common pri- 
 vilege, the uniting principle, of all ; and it is by the super- 
 natural gifts of the Spirit, or by the natural qualities 
 quickened and consecrated by His Power, that the mem- 
 bers of the church, severally, aid in the outward manifesta- 
 tions of that Power by which the church was created and 
 is sustained. But this Divine spiritual life has had to 
 work its way among men whose hearts were not freed 
 from the tendencies of human nature, whose habits of 
 thought and action in religious matters had been moulded 
 by their national ideas, their old religious systems, their 
 philosophies, their social condition, their political experi- 
 ence, and the training of the separate positions from which 
 they had been called. These tendencies account for much 
 of what we find in the actual progress of the Christian 
 institutions. 
 
 After the apostles, the earliest teachers of the Gospel 
 were simple and earnest believers of the great facts, the 
 fundamental doctrines, of the apostolic testimony. These 
 were succeeded by rhetoricians, advocates, scholars, philo- 
 sophers, who were prompted by their intellectual tastes, 
 and by their previous associations, to adorn and to explain 
 what had hitherto been received as true, because it was 
 taught by the accredited ambassadors of Christ. After 
 them arose a long line of men, fitted for the guidance of 
 the afflicted church, through struggles with persecution 
 from without, and conflicts of opposing opinions and in- 
 terests from within. Now, in these transitions, the minds 
 of the Christian people were led by insensible degrees to 
 lose, in the mere adjuncts of religion, much of the indi- 
 viduality, the spiritual life, the inward fellowship, enjoyed 
 by the church at the beginning. The church assumed the 
 visible organization of human institutions. The doctrines 
 of the Gospel received the tincture of men's opinions 
 
152 CHURCH NOTIONS RELATING TO 
 
 The teachers of Christianity became a class ; and the 
 unity of the church was imagined to consist chiefly, if not 
 wholly, in the ministry and subordination of her rulers. 
 The sacred caste which, though an element in all other 
 forms of religion, is foreign to the genius, and opposed to 
 the positive ordinances of Christianity, thus became — and 
 has continued to this day — the most prominent feature in 
 that outward form which Europe has revered as Chris- 
 tianity. The sacerdotal caste absorbed the functions 
 which, at the beginning, were common to the entire 
 church, or to such members of the church as had mani- 
 festly received spiritual fitness for spiritual work. The 
 whole mode of thinking suggested by particular terms 
 which had been used in the New Testament was laid aside ; 
 and a mode of thinking suggested by the use which later 
 writers made of the same terms, and of others added to 
 them, came up in its place. Thus " the free and free- 
 making spirit of the Gospel"* having ceased to operate as 
 at first, the church system became rather a hinderance than 
 a developement of the spiritual religion of the Son of God. 
 In consequence of so wide a departure from the inworking 
 Christianity taught b} r the apostles, we find less and less 
 importance attached to that personal spirituality which so 
 pervaded the first churches as to constitute their character; 
 while, on the contrary, we find more and more of that de- 
 ference to human judgment, and that dependence on human 
 mediation, which reached their climax in the ecclesiastical 
 despotism of the mediaeval church. Most happily, the spi- 
 ritual life of men was still preserved — it always had been, 
 as it ever must be — by the " Spirit of grace" himself : and 
 not a few movements of this life may be traced, with various 
 degrees of power, at different times, and in sundry places. 
 To one such movement history has given the name of the 
 Eeformation : for, though the capital controversy of the 
 reformers with their opponents turned on the vital question 
 * Keander. 
 
THE AVORK OF THE SPIRIT. 153 
 
 of justification by faith without works, that question itself 
 was carried by the spiritual consciousness of men, before it 
 was determined by the arguments of theologians. The 
 Reformation achieved for man his spiritual freedom only 
 partially ; nevertheless, it did assert, in Switzerland espe- 
 cially, with a power which even Christians perhaps have not 
 yet fully appreciated, that intellectual freedom which only 
 awaits a strong manifestation of the spiritual life to destroy 
 for ever every kind of thraldom to which man has submitted. 
 
 How far Ave are, at this day, from such a consummation, 
 may be soberly thought of by those who look at the present 
 aspect of Christian affairs. Not the least humiliating of 
 the reflections forced upon the most anxious observers is, 
 that nearly all men agree in looking without, for the im- 
 pediments to the spiritual life. All the impediments, how- 
 ever, are within. They are in the church as a visible, 
 catholic body. They are in particular churches ; in every 
 church. They are in man, — wrought in the frame-work of 
 his ideas of what the church is, of what the church does, 
 and of the way in which the church works. All this comes 
 from confounding the teaching of the Scriptures respect- 
 ing facts, with the human modes of conceiving of those 
 facts which are embodied in church systems. We shall be 
 well employed in the present Lecture, if we can present 
 this confusion in a form in which it may be handled. This 
 Ave cannot do unless Ave proceed in the spirit of disciples 
 — the disciples, not of the church, but of the Spirit. We 
 have seen in the New Testament, what the Holy Spirit 
 teaches respecting man. We are now to see, in church docu- 
 ments of sundry hinds, what man has been teaching respecting 
 the Spirit. 
 
 Admitting that the spiritual life is not of man, but of God, 
 and that it is begun and maintained by the Holy Spirit, 
 the general ecclesiastical theory in relation to this great 
 truth is this, — that what the Spirit of God does in this 
 matter, is done bg or through the ordinances of the church 
 
1 5 4 CHURCH NOTIONS RELATING TO 
 
 administered in that way which the church has determined 
 to be properly authorized. As this theory is presented in 
 the Roman catholic church, it is abjured by Protestants. 
 As it appears in other churches, it is abjured, to some ex- 
 tent, by all persons not belonging to these churches. Our 
 present object is not, from our Protestant standing, to 
 assail the form in which the church of Rome requires men 
 to hold her doctrine of spiritual grace ; nor, as men iden- 
 tified with a church holding its own form of doctrine on 
 this subject, to assail the form of doctrine held by any 
 other church. Special reasons may arise for making such 
 assaults. It is perhaps not possible to go through the 
 present discussion without saying much that will, at least, 
 have the appearance of doing so. Certainly we do not 
 aim at this, but rather, at a dispassionate examination of a 
 theory which, so far as we know, is applicable to the con- 
 stitution of every church in Christendom. Every church 
 has doctrines, ordinances, formularies of worship, a min- 
 istry, an order, all of which it regards as duly authorized. 
 Churches may differ from each other in the views they 
 take of what is duly authorized ; while each church pro- 
 ceeds on the belief that its own order is the right one. 
 Leaving every man to judge which of these churches of 
 Christendom is right, in the points wherein they differ, — 
 let us confine our attention to that which, in any church, 
 is settled as being, in the judgment of its members, pre- 
 cisely what it ought to be. 
 
 First. — It is very extensively believed, — that the Spirit 
 of God imparts the grace of regeneration through the 
 ministration of the church. 
 
 The ministrations of the church thus honoured are, by 
 some, confined to the case of sacraments, particularly bap- 
 tism ; others include, along with baptism, the preaching of 
 the word ; and, by others again, the sacraments are omitted, 
 and the preaching of the word and ministerial prayer are 
 
THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 155 
 
 regarded as the means of spiritual regeneration. In each 
 case, you perceive, still, the ministration of the church is 
 regarded, in some respect, as the medium through which 
 the Spirit regenerates. 
 
 The complete development of this doctrine must be 
 traced in the ecclesiastical writers of successive ages : for 
 it is a vulgar error which supposes it to be peculiar to the 
 church of Rome : indications of it abound in some of the 
 earliest remains of antiquity. The tendency which was 
 remarked in our first Lecture, to prefer the material to the 
 spiritual, and the human to the Divine, has been at work 
 in all times : so that we find the most spiritual teachers of 
 the church using expressions relating to the outward 
 ministrations of religion which show that, in their imagi- 
 nations, these were often confounded with the inward and 
 spiritual. It probably was their deliberate conviction, that 
 the work of man in administering outward forms was 
 entirely distinct from the work of God, in imparting spi- 
 ritual grace ; yet it is manifest that they regarded the one 
 as, in some sort, indissolubly united with the other; and 
 they applied to the doings of the church an apparently- 
 intrinsic efficacy which, though derived from the real or 
 supposed presence of the Spirit, was made so prominent 
 and exclusive, as to draw men's thoughts from the invisible 
 agency of the Spirit to the visible ministry of the church. 
 If such men as Justin Martyr, Irenseus, Tertullian, and 
 Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Cyprian, could think 
 of church-services in such a way as their language leads us 
 to infer, it is easy to see how such thoughts, so expressed, 
 would be received by their converts and disciples, bring- 
 ing with them, as those converts did, to the church of 
 Christ the sensuousness of their ancient religious ideas. 
 The luxuriance of oriental fancy, and the warmth of Afri- 
 can passions, were rather fostered than checked by the 
 speculations of the prevalent philosophies, and by the deep 
 significance which the Roman genius gave to official forms. 
 
150 CHURCH NOTIONS RELATING TO 
 
 Nothing was easier than to associate the awfulness of 
 Grecian mysteries, or the terrible solemnity of the military 
 sacramentum, with the outward observances of the new reli- 
 gion. In the progress of time the suggestions of imagina- 
 tion acquired the preciseness of definition, taking their 
 place in the grave discussions of Basil the Great, of both 
 the Gregories, and of Augustine, among the essential 
 truths of the Christian creed. The subtle and thoroughly 
 drilled intellect of the Scholastics was suitably employed 
 in inventing such refinements as might reconcile these 
 crude notions of tradition with the spiritual nature of 
 Christianity. At length it was determined by the authority 
 of councils, that the guilt of original sin is remitted by the 
 grace of our Lord Jesus Christ bestowed in baptism ; that 
 this sacrament contains and imparts, as well as signifies, 
 the grace ; so that all who are not regenerated by the grace 
 of baptism are born to eternal misery and everlasting de- 
 struction.* The reformers perceived — not very decidedly 
 at first — the evil tendency to extemalism, which had thus 
 assumed such portentous prominence. Most of them 
 retained the notion that by these outward ministrations 
 the Spirit was given : though they differed from the Ro- 
 man hierarchy, in making their efficacy depend on the 
 faith of the recipient, instead of the office and intention of 
 the priest, and in taking less stringent views of the de- 
 pendence of the spiritual gift on human ministration. At 
 the same time, they were far from attaining to what we 
 conceive to have been, even as they themselves afterwards 
 conceived, the simplicity and spirituality of the pure doc- 
 trine of the New Testament. 
 
 True it is that, from the earliest times, through the 
 entire series of ecclesiastical writings, many passages 
 might be selected for the purpose of proving that the 
 Spirit of God was not thought to be confined to the ordi- 
 nances of the church. Men were taught that they .might 
 * Con. TiiJ. Ebma, 1 ■ :. 
 
THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 157. 
 
 be members of the outward church without being partakers 
 of saving grace ; and it was conceded that the reception of 
 converts into the church might take place long after their 
 spiritual conversion to God, and that there might be ex- 
 amples of conversion, instances of salvation, beyond the 
 sphere of the church. Nevertheless, there was a constant 
 tendency towards magnifying the church, investing her 
 ministers with official sanctity, and extolling her outward 
 services, as on the whole indispensable to man's salvation. 
 This tendency is inherent in human nature ; but it is not 
 easy to detect it unless it operates on a large scale, and is 
 developed through a long course of time. 
 
 The history of the church during several centuries, and 
 under every conceivable variety of circumstances, is the 
 register of human ignorance, weakness, and ambition, con- 
 trolled, indeed, by Divine grace, yet not destroyed : and 
 we must forget all we know to be true of human nature, 
 thus exemplified, before we can allow reverence for che- 
 rished names and holy men to hinder our pronouncing an 
 independent judgment on what they did and said. No- 
 thing lies more open to the well-informed in such matters, 
 than the inveterate habit, among the early Christians, of 
 applying to the outward church which was organized by 
 man, the descriptions and the promises that belonged to 
 that inward government which was carried on by the 
 Spirit of God ; and, in later times, when there was less of 
 that vital power which did so much to neutralize the bad 
 effects of such a habit, we are not surprised at finding its 
 strength increased. When, through a long period, the 
 associations of men's minds had become fashioned by cus- 
 tom, and determined by authority, we may easily judge 
 how inevitable it was that the Christian people should 
 think as they were taught to think ; that much of their 
 religious belief should be implicit, and that any impeach- 
 ment of the sacredness of the church, any freedom in criti- 
 cising the productions or the acts of the teachers, should 
 
158 CHURCH NOTIONS RELATING TO 
 
 be generally resented as an impiety, not far from blas- 
 phemy. It was not in this particular direction that the 
 reformers of the sixteenth century laboured for a return to 
 the normal Christianity of the apostolic age. They did 
 protest against the abuses of church power; against the 
 corruption of morals in high places ; against the supersti- 
 tions which deluded and debased the people ; against the 
 perversions of fundamental Christian doctrine ; but they 
 were not, themselves, fully awakened from that dream of a 
 visible institution as the dwelling-place of God on earth, 
 which had so long beguiled the fancy of a slumbering 
 church, and which the prejudices, the passions, the imagi- 
 nations, and the interests, of so many had combined to 
 represent as essential to the very being of Christianity. 
 For this reason it was that, to the best men in an age 
 adorned with the highest specimens of redeemed humanity, 
 — there seemed nothing incongruous with the Christian 
 religion in determining doctrinal truths by royal authority, 
 or enforcing spiritual discipline by civil terrors. After 
 whatever form they deemed it right to model their ecclesi- 
 astical institutions, they never abandoned the idea, that a 
 large measure of power, (potestas Soy/zan^ — potestas 
 SiaraKTiKr), — and potestas SiciKpiTiKr),) resides in the church, 
 as an external institution ; and that the exercise of this 
 power is vested in the rulers of the church. Nor was this 
 idea abandoned by the puritans of England; nor even by 
 the nonconformist clergy. It is always spoken of as spi- 
 ritual power ; and everything within the entire sphere in 
 which this power is exercised is regarded as sacred to 
 things spiritual. 
 
 We see the activity of this principle — this notion of 
 spiritual power belonging to an outward institution — in 
 several of the facts which stand in relief on the surface of 
 church history. 
 
 I. There is ascribed to the visible church a federal relation 
 to God which involves the j ossession of exclusive spiritual 
 
THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 159 
 
 blessings. The student of Scripture is familiar with the 
 language on which this notion has been founded. The 
 special modes in which God dealt with Abraham ; with 
 the Hebrews as a distinct people, having a peculiar polity; 
 and with David, as the father of a royal house ; are repre- 
 sented under the image of a covenant, or solemn mutual 
 agreement, resembling, in one or two respects, such a 
 covenant as one man makes with ano.ther. In accordance 
 with the imagery which the language of the Old Testament 
 had thus made familiar to the Jews, the relation of Christ 
 to his redeemed people is also spoken of as the new cove- 
 nant — the better covenant — the everlasting covenant, — be- 
 cause the blessings of salvation through His sacrifice were 
 ensured to believers by the promises of God. Because 
 the sign of circumcision is spoken of cursorily by the 
 apostle Paul,* as " a seal of the righteousness of the faith 
 which Abraham had before his circumcision," certain out- 
 ward observances of the Christian church are, in like man- 
 ner, regarded as seeds of the new covenant. Without now 
 staying to question, or to affirm, the analogy by which this 
 transfer of ideas from the old covenant to the new covenant 
 is thought to be sustained, we must not forget that the 
 grand characteristic of the new covenant is its spirituality. 
 It is a covenant with believing men, bestowing on them 
 spiritual blessings, through the mediation of Christ, and 
 by the power of the Spirit. To them, the outward acts by 
 which they express their faith, are of such a nature as to 
 remind them with peculiar emphasis of the Divine pro- 
 mise ; and they are also the occasions on which they 
 receive from Him in whom they believe a large supply of 
 grace ; for these reasons, it is natural for them to prize 
 such special outward acts of worship, and to mark this 
 estimation by singular terms, such as ordinances, sacra- 
 ments, signs, seals of the covenant. But all this has been 
 borrowed from descriptions appropriate to the spiritually 
 
 * Horn. it. 
 
]60 CHURCH NOTIONS RELATING TO 
 
 regenerate, who are known to God, and applied to the 
 outward organizations which are visible to man. All the 
 partakers in certain outward signs arc represented as being, 
 on that ground, in a peculiar federal relation to God, from 
 which those who are not partakers in such outward signs 
 are excluded. Since all the circumcised descendants of 
 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were, as such, entitled to what- 
 ever privileges were included in the covenant of circum- 
 cision, all the persons regularly acknowledged as members 
 of the visible church are said to be entitled, as such, to 
 whatever privileges are included in the covenant of grace. 
 Instead of perceiving that the difference between the old 
 covenant and the new covenant lies in the outwardness of 
 the former, and the inwardness of the latter, the shadowy 
 and obsolete relation proper to the old and evanescent 
 state is thus improperly transferred to that which is new 
 and substantial. In consequence of this illogical, unscrip- 
 tural transfer, mans church is forthwith invested, imagina- 
 tivelv, with the dignities, powers, and felicities which 
 Divine grace has bestowed on the spiritually redeemed : 
 official rulers of the visible church are recognized as having 
 a capacity, a function, and an authority, involving the 
 gravest consequences, it is supposed, not in the present 
 world only, but also in the future. Whatever may be the 
 theory of church government, the order of clergy, the 
 number of sacraments, or the formularies of worship, 
 there is a prevailing belief that the members of the church, 
 so constituted, and observing such institutions, are living 
 in a relation to God in which they who are not members 
 of the church are not living. From such a belief, it na- 
 turally follows, not that these outward things were designed 
 to proceed, as manifestations from a spiritual life which is 
 prior to them, and independent of them, but that they be- 
 come the vehicles through which the spiritual life is itself 
 conveyed, or the ordinary conditions apart from which that 
 spiritual life is not bestowed. The official organs of the 
 
THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 161 
 
 visible church thus become either substitutes for the 
 Spirit, or agents of the Spirit, or fellow-workers with the 
 Spirit. Men's minds, so hard to raise to the unseen and 
 spiritual, soon settle down in the filings brought home to 
 their senses ; and, in direct contradiction to the essence 
 of Christianity, in entire opposition to the express prin- 
 ciples and laws of the New Covenant, a body of men living 
 on earth, imperfect, erring, sinful, and themselves, in too 
 many acknowledged instances, not having the Spirit, are 
 looked on as the administrators of that Covenant in which 
 Jesus Christ is the only Mediator, and His Spirit is the 
 only source of power. The error of such notions consists, 
 not in denying the work of the Spirit, but in virtually 
 superseding it, — not in regarding the blessings of salvation 
 as given by covenant from God, but in translating the idea 
 of the Divine covenant to the human institution and the 
 outward forms ; — not in having organizations, and officers, 
 and formularies, but in regarding them as something else 
 than that which, so far as they are scriptural, they were 
 designed to be. Now a visible church is not spiritual, 
 unless its members are renewed in the spirit of their 
 minds. The acts of a visible church cannot be correctly 
 spoken of, or thought of, as spiritual acts, unless they 
 proceed from spiritual motives. The officers of a visible 
 church are not, for that reason merely, spiritual persons. 
 The relation of the members of such a church to each 
 other, and to their rulers, is not necessarily, nor always in 
 fact, a spiritual relation. 
 
 It is one of the unhappy results of the confusion of 
 thought on this subject, and of the consequent techni- 
 calities in language, which have been the growth of ages, 
 and which prevail where they are least suspected, that 
 what we are here saying will be regarded by not a few, 
 whose understanding we respect, as little else than subtlety 
 and excessive refinement. We cannot help it. We know 
 the meaning and the value of our words. We have studied 
 
 XIV. M 
 
] 62 CHURCH NOTIONS RELATING TO 
 
 them, and weighed them. We are not speaking at random. 
 We see clearly our grounds for thinking, and our reasons 
 for saying, these things. It is our object to bring forward 
 a plain fact, never hidden from as many as look below the 
 surface, — that images employed in Scripture to suggest spirit- 
 ual truths have been mistaken for descriptions of outward 
 facts: and that such imaginary descriptions have been 
 applied to things with which these spiritual truths have no 
 connexion. 
 
 Where, but in such mistakes, not always innocently 
 made, and seldom encouraged from purely religious 
 motives, — clo we find the mysterious and terrible power 
 which, in one shape or other, has been wielded in the 
 name of the Church, not over the prostrate multitude 
 merely, but over the sceptred monarch, and the lettered 
 philosopher ; over conquerors and statesmen ; over the 
 lords and masters of mankind? Only believe that the 
 church which men behold is not the temple of the Holy 
 Ghost; tear from your mind the veil which hides the 
 spiritual covenant of God with regenerate believers, and 
 for you the church has lost her terrors, her authority, her 
 power. You are not dazzled by magnificent assumptions. 
 You lay hold of the truth. In the light of that truth, the 
 image which the nations have worshipped for a thousand 
 years melts away like palaces of ice before the sunbeams. 
 Y'ou see through the illusion. Y T ou are master of the 
 secret. Carry that master secret with you through every 
 form of the visible church ; and whether at Borne, or 
 Geneva, or Lambeth, or anywhere, you will acknowledge 
 no covenant power in any outward badge; you will find 
 the church only in the humble hearts wherein the Spirit 
 dwells as the bond of union among all the sanctified in 
 heaven and on earth. 
 
 II. We mark the same outward tendency in attributing 
 peculiar spiritualness to certain persons, and lo particular 
 •usages. 
 
THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 103 
 
 All persons are spiritual in whom the Spirit dwells. 
 Every act of such persons, especially acts of Divine wor- 
 ship, being performed under the guidance of the Spirit, is 
 a spiritual act. We may believe that, at all times, the most 
 spiritual persons are found employed in those services 
 which aim at the benefit of the church, and that in such 
 employments they are guided by the Spirit. But, taking 
 the most candid estimate that Christianity would suggest 
 of the number of spiritual persons, and of the amount of 
 spirituality to be found in their religious ministrations, 
 this is not the same thing as looking on them and on their 
 services as spiritual, wholly, or even in part, because of the 
 offices they hold, and because of the connexion of their 
 official services with the outward administration of religion. 
 To this latter mode of regarding such persons, and such 
 performances, our attention is now pointed. Keeping in 
 view the natural tendency of men to confound the outward 
 manifestation with the inward being of spirituality, and to 
 mistake, or substitute, the former for the latter, we learn 
 how it came to pass that, when notions appropriate to the 
 spiritual church were applied to the visible organization, 
 the spiritual attributes of personal character and religious 
 dispositions should be imagined to belong to certain 
 offices filled by such persons, and to the actions usually 
 performed by them, without any proof that the officers 
 were spiritually qualified, or that the actions w T ere accom- 
 panied by the spiritual dispositions which alone could give 
 them worth or meaning. Nor is it difficult to understand 
 how soon, how widely, and through what a long course of 
 time, this substitution of outward accidents for inward 
 realities was encouraged by the ambition of the few, and 
 perpetuated by the superstition of the many. We are far 
 from charging all religious teachers with that personal 
 arrogance of which some have been guilty and others 
 innocent; we are merely tracing a process which has deve- 
 loped the natural tendencies of man in connexion with 
 
10i CHURCH NOTIONS RELATING TO 
 
 that religion which is nothing if it be not spiritual, and 
 which cannot be spiritual, unless it be animated by the 
 Spirit of God in the hearts of evangelical believers. Let 
 us not leave it to the contending sects, and to the rancour 
 of polemical hostility, to detect an evil which is inherent 
 in our corrupted nature. It is our wisdom to be on our 
 guard against its working in our own minds and against 
 its enthralling power when fostered by systems, sanctioned 
 by authorities, and identified with human communities 
 assuming, or receiving, the name of churches. It were 
 strange, indeed, if that same human nature which is the 
 root of all perversions in religion, should be conquered by 
 the doctrines or the formularies of any institution which 
 man administers. We should, rather, fear that the notion 
 we are now considering entwines itself around the purest 
 truths, embodies itself in the simplest as well as most 
 complicated forms ; rendering the maintenance of the 
 Divine life a struggle against that which is within us at all 
 times, and under every mode of professing Christianity. 
 The more spiritual our religion is, the less will our attach- 
 ment be to any of its mere outward accompaniments. 
 While there may be much evidence of the presence of the 
 Spirit with men whom taste inclines, or education pre- 
 disposes, or habit reconciles, to imposing hierarchies and 
 gorgeous rituals, such facts cannot be pleaded with those 
 who admit them, as answering their objections to the 
 principle and to the natural tendency of outward show in 
 connexion with religion. 
 
 On the other hand, they who offer no sign of spiritual 
 religion beyond the negative one of rejecting, disliking, or 
 despising outward show, may, all the while, be attaching 
 an undue kind of importance to the humbler offices, and 
 the plainer observances, of their chosen party. That 
 which has been, may be. It docs not become any of us 
 to be so confident of our spirituality as to imagine that 
 while we see the mote in our brother's eye, the Searcher of 
 
TPIE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 1G5 
 
 hearts discovers no beam in our own eye. The question of 
 what manner of conducting religious services by spiritual 
 believers is most accordant with the w T ill of Christ, will 
 not be difficult to determine, when Christians meekly 
 consult the oracles of the new covenant, and consult them 
 not apart as rivals, but together as brethren. Be the right 
 manner of conducting religious services what any Christian 
 conceives it to be, it must be that which is most in ac- 
 cordance with the spiritualness of Christian doctrines, and 
 of the hidden life which those doctrines direct and 
 nourish; and its worth must lie, not in that which is 
 visible to the world, but in that which is apprehended by 
 the church. So long as the church is weak in her conflict 
 with the world, and with the flesh, much of what is 
 ascribed to the church belongs really to the world; and 
 not a few of the things which are conventionally spoken of 
 as spiritual are those which an apostle would denounce as 
 carnal. Would that the ministers of every church might 
 be entreated, with the humility of love, to labour after the 
 highest attainments in spiritual discernment, purity, and 
 energy; and that the members of every church might, in 
 the same temper, be reminded, that ministers, liturgies, ' 
 and outward ordinances of every kind, whatever be their 
 authority, are not in themselves sacred persons, and sacred 
 things ; that they are not necessarily, not exclusively, the 
 accompaniments of grace; that they are not vehicles of 
 spiritual power; that human phraseology respecting them 
 may be conventional without being correct, ecclesiastical 
 rather than scriptural, and savouring less of religion than 
 of superstition. 
 
 With the views now expounded we cannot look without 
 jealousy on a large portion of popular language and of 
 prevalent usage among all classes of professing Christians. 
 There is a danger, common to us all, of supposing minis- 
 ters of religion to occupy a position between God and the 
 people which is inconsistent with the universality of the 
 
iGG CHUECH NOTIONS RELATING TO 
 
 Christian priesthood, and of looking on the services in 
 which they are engaged as having some power besides that 
 of vividly presenting truth, earnestly appealing to the man 
 within the breast, and helping the devotion of their fellow- 
 worshippers by cultivated intelligence, and cherished fer- 
 vour. Men may lose the sense of dependence on the 
 Spirit, and the enjoyment of his promised succours, by 
 looking to the human official when they ought to be sup- 
 plicating the Divine Comforter. There is a good, at least 
 an innocent, construction of such an expression as the 
 " means of grace ; " and we might seem to be too much 
 concerned for merely verbal accuracy if we were strongly 
 to avow our objection to it; but we do fear that beneath 
 this consecrated phraseology there often lurks a mode of 
 thinking which is not scriptural, and which is not safe. 
 We know what that mode of thinking is among those who 
 entertain lofty opinions of sacerdotal prerogatives, and of 
 sacramental virtue : we trace it in creeds, in catechisms, in 
 forms of worship, and in the current language of eccle- 
 siastical writers ; and in quarters where men renounce 
 adherence to well-known systems, we often meet with 
 proofs that, though with a change of form and circum- 
 stances, the error still lingers in their hearts. If by 
 " means of grace" no more be meant than states of mind 
 in which the Spirit gives us grace, and the connexion of 
 such states of mind with the instructions of teachers, and 
 with offices of devotion believingly attended to, we should 
 be only fastidious in taking exceptions to such language ; 
 but if it be the old church notion of media gratia:. — the 
 notion that through these means, as channels and instru- 
 ments, the Holy Ghost works invisibly within men — 
 against that notion, by whatever words conveyed, we must 
 gravely and conscientiously protest. Neither the Scrip- 
 tures, nor the Christian's experience, permit us to doubt 
 that prayer for what God has promised, offered with faith 
 in his promise, is followed by the blessing prayed for ; and 
 
THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 107 
 
 the history of Christianity abounds with proofs of some 
 established connexion between the preaching of the Gospel 
 and the salvation of men's souls. But who that ponders 
 the meaning of words can believe that either prayer or 
 preaching is the means through which the actual gift of 
 salvation is conveyed? It can be no disparagement of so 
 vital an exercise as prayer, to conceive of it as being, what 
 it really is, the address of the devout heart to God, but not 
 the channel of God's grace to man. 
 
 Neither can it be any disparagement of the preaching of 
 the Gospel to regard it as being, what it really is, the 
 truth of God addressed to man, — but not the vehicle of the 
 Spirit by which man is prepared to receive the message 
 with the faith whereby we are saved. Let whatever we 
 are required to do be done with assiduity and faithfulness, 
 whether it be to pray, to preach, or to wait on God in any 
 service of our spirits ; and let all reverence be felt and 
 shown by those by whom such service is conducted ; but 
 let Christians take heed lest they lose their way in cloudy 
 notions which, though they may not identify the work of 
 man with the work of God, or make the greater dependent 
 on the less, approach nearer to the opus operatum of the 
 Romanists than to the simple truth of the apostles. 
 Prayer has its proper place. Preaching has its charac- 
 teristic function. Symbolic ordinances have their appro- 
 priate use. In all these respects man has his appointed 
 sphere. But the Spirit does his own work. He does it 
 " as He listeth." However stated or ordinary the con- 
 nexion of His work with ours may be, we cannot be too 
 watchful against the " tradition from our fathers," that 
 would commingle agencies so essentially distinct. — We 
 know how delicate a task it is to mark the boundary 
 between the human and the divine, in many of the works 
 wherein the one and the other are alike concerned. The 
 bearing of this difficulty on the general subject now before 
 us, and the principles which guide to a true solution, will 
 
108 CHURCH NOTIONS RELATING TO 
 
 afford enough scope for a separate Lecture. We are at 
 present grappling with a positive though not very sharply 
 denned opinion, which, in its extreme expression, is con- 
 demned by all who repudiate the authority of the Triden- 
 tine Fathers; and which, even in its gentlest form, we 
 ascribe, not to the teaching of the Scriptures, but to the 
 written or unwritten creeds of churches. 
 
 III. We observe the same outward tendency in the 
 assumption of a certain right in the rulers of the church to 
 dictate, to control, or to supersede, the spiritual actions of its 
 members. According to the theory of the Christian church 
 revealed by divine wisdom in the New Testament, " the 
 whole body, fitly joined together and compacted by that 
 which every joint supplieth, according to the inworking of 
 each one part, maketh increase of the body to the building 
 up of itself in love."* 
 
 Whatever the work of bishops, pastors, and teachers, 
 may be, that work cannot be incompatible with the free 
 working of living spiritualism by which the church is 
 increased and built up in love. There must, then, be 
 some deep error at work, a fearful absence of spiritual 
 vitality, where the members of the church are not using 
 the gifts bestowed on them for the increase of the church. 
 If the gifts freely bestowed on Christians to be freely used 
 by them for this purpose, are superseded by supposed 
 official power in the rulers of the church, there is an 
 infringement of the liberty which Christ has given, not 
 less opposed to the spirit of the Gospel, and to the right 
 of every believer to do his own duty, than that coercion 
 from without against which the rulers of the church have 
 ever been the first and loudest justly to declaim. We 
 believe that in the visible congregation of Christians there 
 must be order and distinctions of office; and we are 
 
 * Eph. iv. 10. I have translated thi-; passage literally. It is curious that 
 in the quarto English Bible, printed bj Eyre and Strahan, the king's printers, 
 London, 1818, there is the word " holy " instead of " whole " at the beginning 
 of this verse. 
 
THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 169 
 
 willing to admit that the order of any given church is that 
 which the Lord intended it should he; still it cannot be 
 His intention that there should be no spontaneous signs of 
 spiritual energy among the members to whom no office 
 has been committed. 
 
 The same line of historical review which shows the 
 tendency of mankind to confound the visible form with 
 the inward belief of Christianity, — thus preparing the way 
 for substituting the one for the other, — will also show the 
 process by which the vital activity of the whole church 
 was regarded, first as represented by official transactions, 
 then as controlled by them, and afterwards as absorbed in 
 them : scattering the seeds of the notion which we find 
 still widely prevalent, that it is for the officials of the 
 church only to labour for the increase of the church, 
 because it is supposed that their ministrations are " an 
 appointed channel," "vehicles" for spiritual blessings. 
 This notion relates to something beside the instructions, 
 exhortations, and other functions more especially relating 
 to order which, in every church, is committed to the 
 charge of its appointed ministers : it relates to right, to 
 prerogative, to a peculiar connexion with the Spirit's work 
 which is held to belong exclusively, by divine ordination, 
 to the ministers of the Gospel. By those who cling to 
 this notion in its most uncompromising assumptions, no 
 Christian, however qualified by gifts, by knowledge, by 
 grace, or by opportunities, would be allowed to follow the 
 judgment of his mind, the prompting of his conscience, 
 the impulse of his most spiritual and devout affections, 
 or to hope that the Spirit will give success to his under- 
 takings. He might, it is true, seek admission into the 
 sacred order; or he might act under the authoritative 
 guidance of a spiritual superior ; but any one person, even 
 all the persons constituting the body of the church, would 
 be frowned on, interfered with, rebuked, and excommuni- 
 cated, for venturing to ascend from the level of the people 
 
170 CHURCH NOTIONS RELATING TO 
 
 to the higher platform of the clergy. So far is this notion 
 carried in some quarters, that unless Christians are com- 
 missioned by authorities presumed to be successors of the 
 apostles in the government of the church, all their efforts 
 to increase the church by spreading the Gospel are set 
 down as unauthorized methods, on which the blessing of 
 God cannot be expected, and to which no promise is given, 
 either of perpetuity or of success. 
 
 Even when this theory of church government is abjured, 
 the same notion, though in a mitigated form, is still found 
 to work. The persons bearing rule in the church may be 
 distinguished by other titles; their bearing may be more 
 humble ; and they may act more in the spirit of felt and 
 acknowledged equality with their Christian brethren ; yet 
 there is in men's minds an opinion, either that the Spirit 
 of God sustains so much closer a relation to their services 
 than to those of ordinary believers, that the increase of 
 the church is to be looked for almost exclusively from 
 their official labours ; or, that no other labours can be 
 considered as undertaken in a right spirit, or with a rea- 
 sonable prospect of success, without their sanction and 
 their guidance. Wherever this means no more (as we 
 know it does, in numerous cases) than a wise regard to 
 the harmonious acting of the church, it comes not within 
 the purpose of our observations. But in many cases, pro- 
 bably throughout the general body of professing Chris- 
 tians, the notion is seen to prevail, that spiritual work 
 belongs to those who, being placed in ecclesiastical offices, 
 are therefore looked up to as spiritual men. Besides the 
 power for doing good which ministers possess in their 
 knowledge of the Gospel, their faith as believers, their 
 love to their fellow-men, their devotion to their Saviour, 
 their Christian deportment, their earnestness in prayer, 
 and their ability and diligence in teaching, it seems to be 
 thought that they are endowed with an additional power, 
 not possessed by their equals, or even their superiors, in 
 
THE WOKE OF THE SPIRIT. 171 
 
 all other respects, which rests upon them as the ministers 
 of Christ, and of His church. How many "talents" of 
 which an account will be demanded, this mode of thinking 
 has " hidden in the earth," the day of judgment will reveal. 
 In the anticipation of that day Ave may be allowed to con- 
 fess uneasy apprehensions. We would urge on our fellow- 
 Christians the need there is for the sifting of their thoughts 
 on this subject. They ought to have good and examined 
 grounds for believing that they are right, before they yield 
 to an opinion which seems so nearly to approach one of 
 the most pernicious forms of anti-Christian error, and 
 which produces on the church an effect which resembles 
 lethargy, where all ought to be instinct with the activity of 
 spiritual life. Were it not for the narcotic power of the 
 notion on which we have been animadverting, the people 
 of a country where a spiritual religion is professed would 
 not be found exhibiting that reliance on the prayers of 
 ministers for them, rather than with them, which is usually 
 accompanied with a grievous unwillingness to receive 
 instruction in that Gospel which it is the business of 
 ministers to preach. How is this deeply-seated popular 
 delusion to be banished from the national mind, if Chris- 
 tians themselves, not a few ministers even — are practically 
 influenced by a notion which we deliberately believe to be 
 fundamentally the same? 
 
 IV. Our theme embraces the notions which have been 
 held on the relation of the spiritual church to the civil polity 
 of men, and the connexion of religion with the world. 
 
 That body of believing worshippers which is animated 
 and guided. by the presence of the Holy Spirit, was, from 
 the first, called out from the unbelieving world. It was 
 separate from the world, — " not of the world." It is one 
 of the permanent functions of this living organization to 
 bear testimony by teaching, by practice, and by suffering, 
 against antiquated error, and against every kind of earthly- 
 mindedness and sin, and to seek the pouring out of the 
 
1 <"2 CHTJBCH NOTIONS RELATING TO 
 
 Spirit to give effect to the labours of its members for 
 bringing others to unite with them. The peculiar consti- 
 tution of the church, and the special character of her ordi- 
 nances, mark her out as set apart for this mission. The 
 failure of professed Christians to accomplish this purpose 
 is the consequence of that tendency of the visible to sup- 
 plant the spiritual which we have been endeavouring to 
 detect. By departing from the model and from the spirit 
 of the apostolic age, men have wandered into the regions 
 of fog and vapour, and have mistaken the torches of their 
 own kindling for the pillar of fire from heaven. 
 
 (1.) At the head of church notions on this subject we 
 may place — Spiritual supremacy. Because the regenerate 
 are under a higher law than that of this world, and their 
 spiritual affairs are infinitely superior to all others, no 
 sooner was the whole range of ideas and of words appro- 
 priate to the regenerate transferred to outward institu- 
 tions, than a right was claimed by the rulers of the visible 
 church to superintend the temporal concerns of all its 
 members. Hence came the arrogant demands on the 
 part of the clergy which shook all Europe to its centre for 
 many centuries of dark intrigue and desolating war. We 
 see the same pretensions substantially incorporated in 
 nearly every form of European government. We see, on 
 the one hand, large immunities, splendid honours, lucra- 
 tive civil appointments, and vast political powers, assigned 
 to men who are revered as the spiritual rulers of the 
 church ; and, on the other hand, we see what are called 
 spiritual functions assumed by princes, magistrates, nobles, 
 and legislators. The privileges of citizenship are bounded 
 by ecclesiastical arrangements, and forfeited by ecclesiasti- 
 cal offences Men have lost sight of the antagonism be- 
 tween the church and the world. The governments of the 
 world are founded on the pressing wants of man's earthly 
 life. They relate to the things of the world, the defence of 
 persons, property, and character. They are ruled by the 
 
THE WOUK OF THE BPIBIT. 1713 
 
 common sense, the interests, the judgments, the experi- 
 ence, the prejudices, the ambitions of men, in relation to 
 their worldly interests. They have changed, sometimes 
 for the better, sometimes for the worse. Their power is 
 seen and felt in this world. They are " temporal." On 
 the contrary, the church of Christ is founded on the truth 
 and the grace which come from another world. It lives 
 by the Spirit of God. It is ruled by principles and mo- 
 tives which are Divine. Its laws are fixed. Its hopes and 
 fears reach into eternity. Its bond is love. It belongs to 
 heaven more than to earth ; and not to earth at all but as 
 a school of discipline, a field of conflict, or as a foreign 
 land, through which pilgrims travel to their home. 
 
 (2.) Next in order, we place those notions which maintain 
 the national incorporation, or legal establishment, of churches. 
 As it is the duty of every man who knows the Gospel to be 
 a Christian, so every nation ought to be religious. Eeligion 
 should consecrate every act of life ; and, therefore, legis- 
 lators and rulers of every degree should discharge their 
 official duties in a religious spirit. The safety and 
 prosperity of commonwealths are maintained by estab- 
 lishing Christian truth and piety in the convictions and 
 habits of every mind. This establishment cannot be en- 
 sured by practices which are not themselves Christian. 
 We have gone through the elaborate pages in which Hooker- 
 treats of the church and the nation as one body. We have 
 examined the theory in which Warburton describes the 
 state as sanctioning the church in return for the political 
 benefits which religion bestows on the community. We 
 have tested the analogies which are drawn from the civil 
 government of the Hebrews to the civil government of 
 Christians. We have duly weighed the utilitarian philoso- 
 phy of Paley : and the commercial arguments relating to 
 supply and demand, applied to Christianity by Chalmers. 
 We have studied, with deep sorrow, the "Christian Politics" 
 * Eceles. Pol. Book VIII. 
 
1 74 CHURCH NOTIONS RELATING TO 
 
 of Mr. Sewell. We have canvassed the reasons by which 
 it is sought to prove that to promote religion is a necessary 
 and sacred object of government, especially as administered 
 by Christians. We have patiently investigated tho claims 
 advanced for the religious establishment which now exists 
 in England, as the nation's surest defence from popery and 
 from anarchy, from rebellion on one side, and from tyranny 
 on the other. In every one of these explanations and de- 
 fences of a plan for linking Christianity to the institutions 
 of this world, we trace the workings of a spirit which, we 
 are persuaded, is quite alien from that of the inspired 
 apostles. It is not the spirit of the church raising the 
 world, but the spirit of the world bringing down the church. 
 It is a logical consequence of a primary error. It results 
 from the practical confounding of spiritual with carnal 
 things. It is an outward compression of elements that will 
 not freely coalesce. It is a manufacture, not a growth. It 
 is mechanism, mistaken for organization. It is the handi- 
 work of man, standing in the place of the creation of God. 
 It is the product of ingenuity, not the fruit of faith. It is 
 policy, not religion. It is of the flesh, not of the Spirit. 
 
 (3.) To the same class belongs every notion, whatever it 
 may be, that goes to secularize the institutions of the Gospel. 
 The church of Christ is not a society, nor a confederation 
 of societies, in which the "will of man" has force. Divine 
 worship is not the display of human tastes ; the preaching 
 of the Gospel is not an effect of genius. The triumphs of 
 religion arc not gained by worldly influence. Whatever 
 latitude may be given to the consecration of rank, or wealth, 
 or intellect, or imagination, or of anything that man can 
 be, or that man can hold, to the service of God in this 
 world, it should be kept in perpetual remembrance by 
 Christians that nothing outward is religious, unless it be 
 the manifestation of the inner life which is nourished by 
 the Holy Spirit. We know how costly and how attractive 
 the embodiment of men's ideas of religion have been. We 
 
THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 175 
 
 dare not say that architecture, and music, and high elo- 
 quence, and solemn ceremonials, have always been — or 
 that they have never been — the outworkings of a truly 
 spiritual devotion. Nor dare we say that meagreness, 
 and deformity, and meanness, and bad taste, are either 
 proofs of superior spiritualism, or signs of stinted 
 service, or of defective reverence. It were well for all 
 men to watch the drift and tendency of modes of think- 
 ing on those subjects. That is a far reaching exhortation 
 that warns us " not to be conformed to this world, but 
 transformed by the renewing of our mind, that we may 
 prove what is that good and acceptable will of God ; pre- 
 senting our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to 
 God, which is our reasonable worship."* 
 
 We leave to the pastoral department of Christian teach- 
 ing, and to the mutual admonitions of the Christian 
 brotherhood, the stirring up of believers to their personal 
 conflict with the spirit of the world. Our present object, 
 perfectly consistent with that, is to characterize opinions 
 relating to church matters, which are apt to escape the 
 vigilance of all but the most thoughtful, and which, in 
 them, it requires peculiar delicacy as well as unshrinking 
 faithfulness to point out. Let us look fairly at our situa- 
 tion. The spiritual worship of the church is beset with 
 secular dangers on every hand. They come from the 
 lower portions of society as well as from the higher; from 
 the side of liberty as well as from the side of tyranny; 
 from the restlessness of the many as well as from the 
 ambition of the few. Ignorance and obscurity, weakness 
 and inexperience, are not less worldly than the shining 
 qualities which have won the admiration of ages. Vulgar 
 rudeness is not more religious than polished amenity. 
 The will of men acting in masses may be not less opposed 
 to the authority of Christ, than the will of one man acting 
 by himself. Mere numbers do not determine the true and 
 
 * Horn. r.ii. 1 , 2. 
 
170 CHURCH NOTIONS RELATING TO 
 
 the right. Religion can be popular without being spiritual. 
 Many an evangelical institution enjoys the confidence of 
 wise or able men who have no sympathy with its spiritual 
 motives. Now it is of the very essence of Christianity to 
 raise and dignify man as man, to place the poor and the 
 feeble on an equal footing with the rich and the mighty, 
 by disposing all alike to believe the Gospel, and to live 
 after the Spirit; and the highest honour a Christian can 
 receive among men is, in lowliness and kindness, to serve 
 his brethren with all the gifts which God has granted to 
 him. 
 
 The strength with which the Spirit sustains the church 
 is chiefly shown in the free play of every part, the health- 
 ful working of " every joint." The movement of the spirit- 
 ual is, in this respect, foreshadowed by the natural. Each 
 planet rolls in silence around its centre. The seasons 
 follow^ the sun's apparent path along the zodiac. The 
 tides obey the moon. Fires within, and the waters on the 
 surface, have given to earth her mountains, her valleys, 
 her plains, her springs and streams, her continents and 
 islands, her minerals and soils. The seed sends up its 
 tiny stem, and, by inward power assimilating the- outward 
 elements, works its unconscious purpose, till the flowers 
 come forth to breathe the air of spring, and to drink the 
 dews of heaven, leaving behind them, when they fade, the 
 seeds of after years. The insect and the winged fowl 
 sport in the free air; the fishes in their native waters; 
 while creeping tilings and four-footed beasts move, accord- 
 ing to their several instincts, on the earth. Man comes 
 forth free as other living creatures, but with a higher free- 
 dom of his own, endowed with power to observe, to under- 
 stand, and to use, the things around him, as pledges and 
 types of his unseen inheritance. But he cannot read the 
 lessons which the heavens and the earth and all that they 
 contain are teaching him, until he sees the methods and 
 the laws of their development; nor can he use them 
 
THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 177 
 
 otherwise than in accordance with those methods, and in 
 obedience to those laws. Man can move his brother man 
 only by acting towards him on the principles of their com- 
 mon nature, on the thoughts, the passions, and the habits, 
 whereby the curious web of our humanity is self-woven. 
 Man can act only on that which is; and he can act on that 
 only in the observance of established laws. He cannot 
 produce the spiritual life ; nor, when it is produced, can 
 he either perpetuate or guide it He may, indeed, set up 
 a mimicry of spiritual functions ; and that which he sets 
 up may last so long during ages when names are put for 
 things, that he may come at last to imagine that human 
 traditions are divine truths, that shadows are substances, 
 that the things which can be seen are spiritual. 
 
 The Spirit of Christ is the life of the church. By study- 
 ing " the law of the Spirit" as it is revealed in Scripture, 
 and worked out in the spiritual life, we may apprehend all 
 that can be apprehended by us of the methods of His 
 acting : and, otherwise than by obedience to that law, it is 
 impossible to sustain and enlarge the church. 
 
 The sacred study to which we have now made reference 
 might be called, — though we have no fondness for such 
 terms, — the spiritual philosophy : while obedience to the 
 law w r ith which this high and rare philosophy is conversant 
 might be called, the application of spiritual truths to the 
 practical concerns of life. The one is theology, the other 
 is — religion. A man may be a theologian without religion: 
 he may be religious without theology, as thus explained ; 
 but he who would theorize wisely, or act with safety in 
 relation to the church, must needs be — both. 
 
 Secondly: — To all these traditional notions in rela- 
 tion to the Spirit, let us now oppose some principles 
 drawn from scripture, and from christian consciousness. 
 
 If we look at these notions separately, and analyze them, 
 we discover that they are pervaded by one fundamental 
 error : not one of them is based on man's spiritual nature, 
 
 XIV. N 
 
]73 CHURCH NOTIONS RELATING TO 
 
 nor on those portions of Scripture which expressly and 
 fully set forth the truth respecting the Holy Spirit. So 
 far, indeed, are they from being based on either the one 
 or the other, that they will be seen, on comparison, to be 
 contradictory to both. This will be made to appear from 
 the facts and reasonings which follow. 
 
 I. The church notions relating to the Spirit are founded on 
 usage, and supported by tradition. The origin of the usage 
 lies in the habits of thought which the early teachers of 
 Christianity brought with them into the church, and then 
 embodied with their doctrines. The New Testament 
 supplies no foundation for assuming that the teachers of 
 Christianity are a permanent corporation ; a separate and 
 graduated order; a priesthood; a clergy; a church; the 
 select and consecrated vehicles of spiritual blessings ; the 
 medium of communication between the Holy Spirit and 
 the Christian people. Under the guidance of apostles, 
 and agreeably with their instructions, as many as were 
 by the Holy Spirit qualified to teach, were employed as 
 teachers, according to their several abilities. The church 
 was the organized body of believers, as a whole. Every 
 Christian was a priest offering his own spiritual sacrifices. 
 Instead of appealing to the most ancient documents, 
 and the only authoritative standards of Christian truth, the 
 advocates for church notions are evermore appealing to the 
 Fathers. Those who are taught by the Spirit may well 
 demur to that authority, and refuse to have such questions 
 so determined. They may admit that the writers styled 
 Fathers are competent witnesses of facts coming under 
 their own observation. They can listen attentively to 
 these believers of a former time while they tell what they 
 did, and they may confidently rely on their testimony. 
 But when these witnesses are appealed to in support of 
 opinions, judgments, and interpretations of the New 
 Testament, we are under the necessity of examining 
 whether they themselves put forth such a claim ; or 
 
THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 170 
 
 whether they possessed the spiritual qualifications which 
 alone could entitle them to occupy so conspicuous a place, 
 involving so much dread responsibility. On the par- 
 ticular question now before us, their testimony, their 
 opinions, and their practice, may be briefly stated. 
 
 (1.) Clement of Rome shows that, in his day, the ap- 
 pointment of the overseers of the church was made with 
 the consent of the whole church. 
 
 " The apostles preached the Gospel to us from our Lord 
 Jesus Christ: — -Jesus Christ, from God. Christ, there- 
 fore, was sent by God ; and the apostles by Christ ; so 
 both were, in proper order, sent by the will of God. 
 Having received their mandates, therefore, fully assured 
 by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and tho- 
 roughly persuaded by the word of God, they went forth, 
 filled with confidence hy the Holy Spirit, and proclaimed 
 that the kingdom of God drew nigh. As they preached 
 the word through regions and cities, they appointed their 
 first converts, whom they had proved by the Spirit, as the 
 overseers and ministers of those who should believe.*' 
 " Our apostles knew, by our Lord Jesus Christ, that there 
 would be strife for the name (or dignity) of the oversight 
 (of the church). For this cause, therefore, having perfect 
 foresight, they appointed the persons before mentioned ; 
 and afterwards they gave directions how, when these 
 should die, other thoroughly approved men should suc- 
 ceed to their ministry. Those therefore who were ap- 
 pointed by apostles, or afterwards by other excellent 
 persons — the ichole church consenting — and who have 
 blamelessly served the flock of Christ, with humbleness 
 of mind, peacefully and disinterestedly, and for a long 
 time well reported of by all men, such men we do not 
 think can be righteously cast out of their ministry : for it 
 will be no light sin in us if we cast out of their oversight 
 (bishopric) those who have worthily and blamelessly 
 fulfilled its duties. Happy those elders who, having 
 
180 church notions relating to 
 
 finished their course, have obtained a peaceful and perfect 
 dissolution ; for they have no fear lest any remove them 
 from their allotted place."* 
 
 The whole epistle is a meek and brotherly entreaty 
 to the Corinthians to subdue the passion and emulation 
 which occasioned disturbances in the church, and threat- 
 ened the removal of their ministers. It is, for the most 
 part, such an epistle as might now be addressed to any 
 church whose ministers were chosen by their brethren ; 
 and its tone and temper are widely different from such 
 epistles as have since been addressed by authorized rulers 
 to an insubordinate congregation. 
 
 (2.) Remarkable is the contrast of this epistle of Cle- 
 ment with those of Ignatius : in six out of seven epistles 
 said to have been written to several churches by Ignatius 
 during his progress from Antioch to suffer martyrdom at 
 Rome, the claims of the clergy to the submission of the 
 churches are advanced with a boldness and even arrogance 
 which more than warrant the suspicions cast by critics on 
 the genuineness of the text.f The unity of the church is 
 spoken of as consisting in such submission as he claims : 
 the laity are called on not to think for themselves, but to 
 follow the directions of the clergy. For claims like these 
 he pleads, not the authority of the apostolic writings, but 
 tradition, and the assumed analogy of the Jewish priest- 
 hood. Tertullian, and those who follow, press the de- 
 mands of the clergy on similar grounds. In all of them, 
 the authority advanced is not that of the written traditions 
 of the evangelists and apostles in the canonical books, but 
 of uninspired men, and of a supposed analogy which the 
 inspired writers had not sanctioned. 
 
 (3.) Throughout the whole patristic compositions we 
 detect the hierarchical bias which the apostles foresaw, and 
 against which they forewarned the churches. The direct 
 
 * Clem, ad Cov. c. xlii. — xliv Ed. Cot. See Note L. 
 + Appendix, Note M. 
 
THE WORK OF THE SPrEIT. 181 
 
 consequence of these sacerdotal assumptions was, to 
 inflate the clergy with a species of self-importance, little 
 compatible with the humility of Christians; and to pre- 
 pare the laity for spiritual bondage ; while, indirectly, it 
 fomented the strifes and heresies which distracted and 
 weakened the churches in the earliest times following those 
 of the apostles. 
 
 II. To appeal to the traditions and usages of these Fathers 
 in the present day is a, much more comprehensive evil, fraught 
 with deeper mischief to the spirituality of the church, than 
 is, perhaps, fully appreciated even by those icho object most 
 strongly to the practice. It withdraws the mind from the 
 Spirit as a teacher, by putting the judgments and practices 
 of fallible men in the place of His truth. As a conse- 
 quence of this transfer of reverent attention from the 
 Divine to the human, that which is true is displaced by 
 that which is false; and men are led away from the unseen 
 and spiritual in religion, to its visible, material symbols. 
 The venerable authority which — in other, but totally dif- 
 ferent, respects — belongs, of right, to ancient names, the 
 length of time through which the error has continued, 
 and the number, station, piety, genius, or literary ac- 
 quirements, of the persons who have been misled by it, 
 cannot turn what was originally false into the truth. It 
 continues to be false, by whomsoever it is believed. The 
 attempt to revive such a falsehood may call into exercise 
 great ingenuity and much learning : it may wear the sem- 
 blance of humility or of piety; it may be made with 
 sincere and upright intentions; or it may serve as a 
 disguise for interested and party purposes ; but no labour 
 can destroy its original defect — the want of truth. They 
 who, by the Spirit of God, are taught " the truth which 
 was from the beginning," are expressly guarded against 
 such illusions ; they are required to bring them to the 
 test ; and, having proved that they are not the lessons of 
 the Holy Spirit, they are to reject them. 
 
182 CHURCH NOTIONS RELATING TO 
 
 III. The social effect of such notions is now what it ever 
 was. They inflame the ambition of men. They create a 
 distinction -which is panted for by those who " have not 
 the Spirit." They bring the high sanctities of religion 
 down to the arena of worldly strife. While one set of 
 notions checks the evils that would arise from another set, 
 — ecclesiastical supremacy, for example, checking political 
 establishments, or political establishments controlling 
 ecclesiastical supremacy, or opinions which embody the 
 strong will of national independence resisting both, — the 
 notions themselves, all of them, are hinderances to the 
 free activity of spiritual religion. They perpetuate mis- 
 takes. They stereotype false doctrines. They encourage 
 the usurpation by men of an authority which belongs to 
 Christ alone. They ascribe to human associations a 
 power which resides exclusively in the Holy Spirit. They 
 deprive redeemed men of rights secured for them by their 
 Saviour; and they discourage, or deter, them from the 
 discharge of duties which they owe to their Supreme Lord. 
 Under the belief, or the pretext, of sanctifying the powers 
 of the world, whether those powers are called temporal 
 or spiritual, whether they are monarchical or democratic 
 powers, religion is reduced to a form, a shadow, or a 
 name ; and men's natural aversion to the religion that is 
 spiritual is so apparently confirmed by arrangements which 
 they have been habituated to revere as sacred and author- 
 itative, that there is less hope of their becoming Chris- 
 tians than there would have been if they had not learned 
 to speak of themselves as accepted worshippers of God 
 already. — We are not so thoughtless as to forget, nor so 
 uncandid as to conceal the fact, that the notions which we 
 denounce as erroneous and mischievous are often held 
 side by side with pure and spiritual doctrines of the 
 Gospel. But the belief of such pure and spiritual doc- 
 trines is not secured by the prevalence of any of these 
 notions ; on the contrary, the strength of the one is 
 
THE W0I1K OF THE SPIRIT. 183 
 
 usually found in inverse proportion to the strength of the 
 other. Even the believers and teachers of other doctrines 
 of the Gospel who do not, also, believe and teach the 
 doctrines of the Gospel in relation to the church, are apt to 
 sympathize and co-operate with those holding the same 
 church notions, though they differ from them in their 
 views of the Gospel in other respects, rather than with 
 those who, besides holding the same doctrines respecting 
 personal salvation, have found in the Gospel, as they 
 believe, the true doctrine of social fellowship, and of com- 
 mon service in the church. Thus the bond of union 
 among men called Christians is error ; a human notion 
 instead of a divine principle ; the spirit of the world in 
 opposition to the Spirit of God. 
 
 IV. The maintenance of these church notions has occa- 
 sioned many controversies among Christians which have been 
 dishonourable and hurtful to each of the contending parties. 
 There have always been acute and conscientious minds to 
 lay bare the contrariety of some one or other of these 
 notions to the letter of the Gospel, and its incongruous- 
 ness with the spirit of Christianity. But how could even 
 the humblest or the meekest mode of pointing out such 
 an error escape the charge of presumption — of meddling 
 with settled truths — of disturbing the peace of the church 
 — of insubordination to established authority — of over- 
 weening confidence in private judgment — and, in not a 
 few instances, of sedition against lawful government? Or, 
 if the mode of pointing out the error has been arrogant, 
 and angry, and contemptuous, who does not perceive the- 
 oretically, nay, who has not witnessed practically, the 
 mischiefs engendered by the assault no less than by the 
 defence? As long as it is held that spiritual functions 
 belong of right to a separate class of men, and that these 
 functions so discharged by them are the channels of the 
 saving grace of God, and so long as these claims are 
 upheld by powerful organizations, whether ecclesiastical 
 
184 CHURCH NOTIONS RELATING TO 
 
 or political, whether oligarchical or popular, so long the 
 human spirit of adherence to institutions, and the equally 
 human spirit of resistance to usurpations, must be brought 
 into collision ; the meditations of piety, the songs of praise, 
 and the " unity of the Spirit," will be disturbed and out- 
 raged by the Avar of party; and the fierceness of the con- 
 flict will be proportioned to the earnestness of the op- 
 ponents. But suppose it were agreed on all hands that 
 every one of these notions is alike inconsistent with just 
 apprehensions of the work of the Divine Spirit, we thoulcl 
 behold, not indeed the conquest of one party by another, 
 but of both by truth. It <loes not become Christians to 
 forget that " hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, divi- 
 sions, heresies, and envyings" are branded by an inspired 
 apostle as "the works of the flesh which are manifest;" 
 while "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long- 
 suffering, gentleness, goodness, fidelity, meekness, self- 
 restraint.'"* Neither does it become a Christian to cling- 
 to the opinion that the particular church tradition which 
 he has been taught, or has adopted, is certainly so much 
 superior to some different tradition which his fellow-Chris- 
 tian has learned, that all the works of the flesh are on the 
 other side, and the fruit of the Spirit entirely on his own. 
 But Ave do not know of any Christian that would " grieve 
 the Holy Spirit" by giving up the characteristic traditions 
 of any church whatever, to join his brethern in " earnestly 
 labouring ((nrov8a£ovTes) to keep the unity of the Spirit in 
 the bond of peace. "f It is by each believer perceiving — 
 not that another man's ecclesiastical traditions are some- 
 thing added to the Gospel, but — that his ow r n may include 
 something which the Gospel does not teach, that we may 
 hope to realize that which experience has shown to be, 
 otherwise, impossible — an enlightened, free, hearty, and 
 impressive manifestation of the oneness of the church. Is 
 it vain to hope for this? Will believers of the Gospel 
 * Gal. vi. 10—23. + Eph. iv. 3. 
 
THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 185 
 
 never " quit themselves like men," never be " children in 
 malice, but men in understanding?" We have another 
 judgment in this matter. We are disposed to believe that, 
 in every church, there is an increasing number of persons 
 whose spiritual wants and sympathies prompt them to rely 
 on the teaching of the Comforter in all things relating to 
 their social well-being, their privileges, their obligations, 
 and their common interests as Christians ; that by secret 
 experiences, rather than by visible associations, it will pro- 
 bably be given to them to harmonize judgment with cha- 
 rity, freedom with union, comprehensive principles with 
 conscientious convictions ; and that their humility and 
 love will thus work out the problem which both tyranny 
 and controversy have presented to the world as hopeless — 
 each Christian thinking for himself, and all thinking alike 
 — " perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the 
 same judgment.'** 
 
 Of one thing we are sure ; the hinderances to such aeon- 
 summation do not lie in the intellectual or moral idiosyn- 
 cracies of individuals, nor in the obscureness or vagueness 
 of apostolic teaching, but in the effects of erroneous train- 
 ing, stimulated by the zeal of party, and added to the 
 doctrines of the Gospel by the traditions of the several 
 churches. Since the Spirit of God has produced the kind 
 and measure of agreement already felt by Christian people, 
 and certainly increased by that unfettered intercourse to 
 which providence affords so many openings, who that is 
 wise, who that has hope for man, or faith in God, will 
 say that such a consummation, so " devoutly to be wished," 
 is never to be witnessed among the substantial facts of 
 this world's history? We would not be so " slow of heart 
 to believe all that the prophets have spoken." We would 
 rather say in the language, if not precisely with the same 
 reference, of the ancient seer,* — "Is the Spirit of Jehovah 
 straitened ?" 
 
 * 1 Cor. i. 10. + See Note 0. 
 
180 CHURCH NOTIONS RELATING TO 
 
 V. The notions of the churches on the subject now before us 
 have retarded the spread of the Gospel. Before the last of the 
 apostles died, the Gospel had been preached through the 
 whole Eoman empire, and even beyond its limits. The 
 language of our Lord, the narratives in the Acts of the 
 Apostles, and many allusions in the epistles, convince us 
 that the unlimited diffusion of the truth was uniformly 
 regarded as the concern of the whole church, and that the 
 Spirit was with all those who laboured for this object. 
 From the imperfect records embodied in the early church 
 historians, we gather that, during the first three centuries 
 after the apostolic era, the same spirit prevailed among 
 Christians : churches were planted in the chief centre- 
 points of Roman civilization, and along the confines of 
 barbarian territories. When the decrepit empire was 
 broken up by the fierce warriors from the north and from 
 the east, the throb of spiritual life was felt amid the 
 ruins. From Iona, and the neighbouring isles, went forth 
 Columban, and Willibrord, and Boniface, and other earnest 
 men, to sow the seeds of truth and righteousness in the 
 hearts of the fathers of the modern European nations. 
 
 In every part of Christendom the necessities of govern- 
 ment, the spread of commerce, and the progress of coloniza- 
 tion, aided the efforts of the church in the extension of her 
 institutions. That the means employed for this end were 
 not always such as became a spiritual, free, and merciful 
 religion, is too well known. We fear that the enlargement 
 of the church, as a visible and active seat of power over 
 mankind, has been, for many centuries, a stronger motive 
 than loyalty to Christ, or love to souls. We hold the 
 opinion that an incalculable amount of evil was spread 
 over the face of Europe, in Asia, and in the young Ameri- 
 can settlements, by the direct agency of the Nominal 
 Church. We believe, as the result of some research and 
 meditation, that the superstitions of the new settlers along 
 the Danube, and the Rhine, and the Elbe, were but more 
 
THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 187 
 
 deeply rooted by having engrafted on them the names and 
 forms of Christianity ; that the civilization of Europe, 
 amid which the institutions of the church are so conspicu- 
 ous, belongs more to this world than to the world to come; 
 and, highly though we prize that civilization, as men, for 
 what it is, and, as Christians, for containing the germs of 
 good hereafter to be ripened, we are not willing to accept 
 it as the pure fruit of Christianity, to regard it as religion, 
 to ascribe it to spiritual causes, or to refer to it with gratu- 
 lation as the triumph of the Gospel, and the fulfilment of 
 the prophecy announced by the seventh angel's trumpet, 
 when " there were great voices in heaven saying, The 
 kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our 
 Lord and of his Christ."* 
 
 By perpetuating the opinions of mankind which are 
 independent of Christianity, and by accommodating to 
 those opinions the framework of ecclesiastical doctrines 
 and observances, much has been spread which is not the 
 Gospel, but which, being mistaken for the Gospel, darkens 
 instead of enlightening, and ruins men under the pretence 
 of saving them. The realms of kings, and the heritage of 
 nobles, have indeed been secured, enriched, and adorned 
 by modern civilization : a goodly appearance of sanctity 
 is given to society by the temples, orders, and ceremonies, 
 by the lordly dignities, and the rich lands, which attest the 
 obedience of whole nations to the church. But the freedom 
 which has been conquered from the ascendant church in 
 England, in Scotland, in Germany, and in France, in 
 Switzerland, and in America, is a more precious element 
 of civilization than royal prerogatives, or baronial immu- 
 nities. The safety of the cottage, and the peaceful in- 
 dustry of the plough, the anvil, the mine, of the loom and 
 the ship, the wharf and the workshop, aiv grander things. 
 we judge, than the glitter of courts, or "tke pride, pomp, 
 and circumstance of glorious war." It is the mark and gauge 
 
 * IW. v. 15, 
 
1 88 CHUKCH NOTIONS RELATING TO 
 
 of modern civilization to reverse the mode of thinking on 
 such objects. Now there is a mode of thinking on other 
 and higher subjects, which, however slowly, is under- 
 going a not less sure, but infinitely more beneficial, 
 change; and as that change advances, we can chronicle the 
 achievements of Messiah's kingdom, and gather "the fruit 
 of the Spirit " into the eternal garner. The visible hier- 
 archies, of every name, have their root in the earth; and 
 they contain within themselves the principles of their own 
 corruption. While they nourish, the Gospel languishes. 
 As the Gospel flourishes, they fade, and pass away silently 
 into the shadowy region of forgotten things. Civilization 
 is promoted by the Gospel; and it has, again and again, 
 been introduced by preachers among barbarous people, too 
 fierce, or too insignificant, for worldly conquest; while 
 civilization, in its turn, prepares the nations for the Gospel, 
 by the quietude, order, and freedom, in which men assert 
 their personal right to believe what they perceive to be 
 true, and to do what their consciences acknowledge as 
 just. Our sympathies are with all truth, and with all 
 right doing. We have so read the history of England, and 
 of other modern nations, as to watch the progress of 
 intellectual and social freedom with an interest deeper 
 than even that which rejoices the heart of every wise and 
 good man in the more striking signs of national improve- 
 ment and political security : while, on the one hand, 
 we have mourned over the apathy, the lifelessness, the 
 cumbrous formality, the narrow views, and interested pre- 
 judices, upheld by the imperfect institutions which men 
 in neighbouring latitudes, or in successive stages, have 
 been reverencing as the church of their respective fathers, 
 — we have lifted up our hearts with gladness as, on the 
 other hand, we saw the traditions of a thousand years 
 overtaken and scattered by older truths, even as the mists 
 of a long night are overtaken and scattered by the returning 
 brightness of the morning. Holding fast the principles, 
 
THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 189 
 
 — the active beliefs, — with which the apostles and evangelists 
 went from Jerusalem and Antioch to claim the homage 
 of the nations in the name of their ascended Lord, we hail 
 the abandonment of every substitute for these beliefs, and 
 of every addition to them : for we are well persuaded that 
 until these human notions are abandoned by the mass of 
 Christians, the church of Christ will never show her power 
 to emancipate the world. — It is no slight proof of the 
 vitality and energy which the Spirit has maintained in 
 "the church of the living God." that, notwithstanding 
 all the clouds and phantasies of human error, and all 
 the hinderances of human weakness, her testimony, her 
 sufferings, and her labours have never wholly ceased. 
 Where the ancient truths of the Gospel are so believed 
 that they are dearer to the heart than wealth, and honour, 
 and home, and life, there the Spirit of God is : in that 
 conquest of his own heart, the Christian has a pledge of 
 the conquest of the world by the same power. 
 
 Vie go back, then, to the distinction with which we 
 started at the beginning of this Lecture, between the teaching 
 of Scripture respecting spiritual facts and the human modes 
 of presenting them embodied in religious doctrines. The 
 notions we have been analyzing, and against which we 
 have been reasoning, are not drawn from the Scriptures, 
 but added to them. They are the noxious but unsuspected 
 growth of ages. They spring from human fashions in 
 thinking. They owe their authority to local and temporary 
 combinations. They appeal to prejudices, not to reason; 
 they are supported by interest more than by conviction ; 
 and they nourish superstition instead of strengthening 
 faith. They have given to what men call the church the 
 extension and the power appropriate to worldly insti- 
 tutions; but with the fearful sacrifice of the Divine truth, 
 and the living energy, without which the church is nothing 
 but a name. 
 
 It would betray unpardonable ignorance or vanity in 
 
190 CHURCH NOTIONS RELATING TO 
 
 any man to hope that he could uproot the errors thus 
 produced and fostered in the world, by even the most 
 luminous arguments addressed to any of the questions in 
 which they are respectively involved. We may, however, 
 hope for something better. Innumerable reasons are ever 
 at hand, to press on Christians the important truth — that 
 no doctrine is religious, if it be not taught by the Holy 
 Spirit; and that this teaching is to be sought in the 
 writings of the New Covenant. The " words " of Jesus 
 and of his apostles " are life : " — " it is the Spirit that 
 quickeneth." Amid the conflicting opinions of churches, 
 drawn from their separate usages, and propped up by their 
 one-sided traditions, it is our blessed privilege to go up to 
 the well-head. Not to appreciate this privilege is a sign 
 of wretched apathy : to neglect it, is to sink into languor 
 and thraldom : to abuse it, by perverting the holy oracle 
 to our party meanings, and conventional applications, is 
 the most dangerous of all trifling with sacred things. 
 Let the Holy Spirit be recognized as the teacher of the 
 church ; let the minds of men receive His instructions 
 with the docility of learners, with the humble trust of 
 disciples ; let His lessons be followed out into every walk 
 and every relation of the spiritual life ; let the active will, 
 all the practical powers of human nature, be yielded to 
 His inspirations, and moulded by his guidance ; then will 
 men feel how infinite must be the difference between that 
 which He appoints, and that which man invents. " Whoso 
 looketh to the perfect law of liberty, and continueth 
 therein, he not being a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the 
 word, this man shall be blessed in his deed.'"* "His 
 deed " is the deed of an enlightened mind, of a free mind, 
 of a mind regulated by supreme and unerring wisdom, 
 and gladly acting according to the suggestions that 
 come to it from heaven. Whatever the church, as a 
 whole, or any particular portions of the church, may have 
 * James i. 25. 
 
THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. J 01 
 
 done, or failed to do, the Scriptures are the common 
 inheritance of all, — a field without a fence, a garden of 
 knowledge and of life at whose gates no naming sword 
 forbids an entrance. The free study of the Scriptures by- 
 devout minds seeking wisdom from the Spirit, is our only 
 shield from the mistakes of erring mortals. Without 
 despising any help which superior knowledge or deeper 
 experience can afford us in the study of the Scriptures, 
 and without a harsh judgment or an uncharitable feeling 
 toward such as differ from us, we are to gather the heavenly 
 manna ivith our own hands; and, as we find it, so we are to 
 take it, that we may be " nourished up in the words of 
 faith and of good doctrine. "* 
 
 The time is not far off, we trust, when a better age will 
 see the church of Christ set free from every " yoke of 
 bondage." In the days of trial which are coming on, men 
 will have to show the authority of their church in the 
 Bible, instead of receiving the Bible according to the 
 authorized interpretation of their church. The errors of 
 mankind have been the natural consequence of departure 
 from the Scriptures ; there is no remedy but in returning 
 to the Scriptures. There is One " whose fan is in his hand, 
 and he will throughly purge his floor.' 5 ! — " What is the 
 chaff to the wheat, saith the Lord ?"J 
 
 Let the "chaff" be winnowed from "the wheat;" then 
 the world will see its worthlessness. When wearisome 
 centuries of ignorance and strife shall have shown i- what 
 the boisterous and contradictional hand of a temporal, 
 earthly, and corporeal spirituality can avail to the edifying 
 of Christ's holy church ; "§ the real spirituality of the 
 church will be felt within; and it will be proved by out- 
 ward demonstration. No longer walking in the mists 
 where appearances are taken for realities, Christians will 
 acknowledge that the "Free Spirit" of God does not con- 
 
 * 1 Tim. iv. G. + Matt. iii. [2, 
 
 J Jer. xxiii. 28. § See Note 1'. 
 
192 CHURCH NOTIONS ON THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 fine His grace within human channels, but works accord- 
 ing to His own will with all to whom He grants His gifts. 
 Acting in the power of this acknowledged truth, they will 
 trample out the last embers of many a fiery controversy ; 
 and with one heart, and with one soul, they will spread 
 the Gospel from the rising to the setting sun. The union 
 of the free, the dignity of the humble, the power of the 
 weak, — " strengthened with might by His Spirit in the 
 inner man,"* — will celebrate the victories of truth over 
 error ; of good over evil ; and of the church over the 
 world. 
 
 * Enb. iii. lo. 
 
LECTUEE V. 
 
 MYSTICISM. 
 
 " And hereby we know that he abideth in ns, by the Spirit which he hath 
 given us." — 1 John iii. 24. 
 
 The tendency of any extreme to generate its opposite, 
 is one of the most familiar laws of our social nature. 
 There must at all times have been persons who saw the 
 illusion which made religion to consist mainly in outward 
 forms, who struggled against the prevailing bias, and who 
 used whatever liberty they had to make their dissatisfaction 
 known. The men who reflected on the mysterious powers 
 of their souls, were sure that religion was a mere pretence 
 if it did not evidence its working there. Those who had 
 access to the Scriptures, or to the writings of the devout in 
 former periods, knew that the grace of which they read 
 could neither be given, nor represented, by any ceremony. 
 The experience of the truly regenerate taught them that, 
 as in the natural life, so in the spiritual, the inward pro- 
 cess must precede the outward indication, and that there 
 must be vitality or there could be no action. According to 
 the various temperaments of individuals, the colour of 
 their thoughts would tinge their language. Hence, in every 
 stage of the social development of Christianity, there has 
 been either a tranquil protest or a violent rebound against 
 the domination of formalism. In these protests and re- 
 bounds, rather than in the continuous succession of events, 
 we read the history of the church. 
 
 xiv. o 
 
194 MYSTICISM. 
 
 If the activity of the human intellect was forced to its 
 highest exertions by the subtle speculations which opposed 
 received doctrines on the inscrutable secrets of the Divine 
 Being, it was not unlikely that a similar activity would be 
 called forth by doctrines that related to the personal 
 experience of mankind. On questions of this latter sort 
 there could be no wide departure from the truth taught 
 in Scripture without contradicting, to the same extent, the 
 consciousness of Christian people ; so that other motives, 
 added to the love of clearly denned doctrines, induced fer- 
 vent believers to make a stand against this twofold evil. 
 But combinations for opposing error, or usurpation, have 
 seldom been free from other elements of error, and other 
 principles of usurpation, though in a contrary direction. 
 Thus has it been with the conflicts of religion. The false 
 doctrine has not been replaced by the exactly true, nor the 
 vitiated institute of man by the simple ordinance of God. 
 Progress has been made, but not in all respects. Though 
 the gain, on the whole, has been on the side of the true 
 and the Divine, there has usually been some loss of that 
 which ought to have been retained ; while new thoughts 
 have been admitted, or new habits acquired, which were 
 not suspected, until they had worked their appropriate 
 mischief, to be destroyed by future reformations. As the 
 tendency towards outward manifestation, when perverted 
 or excessive, produced formalism, so the tendency to fall 
 back on the spiritual inwardness of Christianity, when dis- 
 ordered or exclusive, produced mysticism. 
 
 If we were required to define mysticism, we should call 
 it — the setting up of personal thoughts and feelings as the 
 standard of truth, or as the rule of action. By mystical 
 views of the spiritual life, we understand such views of that 
 life as are adjusted by this standard, or ordered by this 
 rule. The relation of such views to our present theme 
 will be found in the fact, that men ascribe this inward 
 standard of truth, and rule of action, to the direct inspi- 
 
MYSTICISM. 195 
 
 ration of the Holy Spirit. The mystical views with which 
 we are about to deal may be regarded under different 
 aspects, as speculative — contemplative' — imaginative — or 
 practical. Speculative mysticism has found its place in the 
 schools of philosophy and of morals. Contemplative mys- 
 ticism has been the resource of the meditative, the tranquil, 
 or the enthusiastic. Imaginative mysticism deludes the 
 visionary. Practical mysticism misleads the fanatic. We 
 shall now delineate these characteristics, without intending 
 to represent them as the exact types of separate classes of 
 persons. 
 
 I. Speculative Mysticism has found its place in the 
 schools of intellectual and ethical philosophy. While some 
 have thought to explain the intellectual attributes of man 
 entirely or chiefly on physiological grounds, and others 
 have renounced the physiological grounds to confine them- 
 selves to the unfolding of the mind's own ideas, under the 
 notion that these ideas include all that it is possible for 
 mind to apprehend ; while one school has united the sensa- 
 tions occasioned by outward objects with the mind's reflec- 
 tions on those sensations, and another has striven to involve 
 the sources of human knowledge in uncertainty and doubt; 
 the mystics have risen up amid the disputants, and con- 
 tended that the truth on all these questions is immediately 
 revealed, without any speculative reasonings, to the inward 
 man. So, likewise, with reference to the rule of action. 
 The greater part of moralists affirm that the rule of human 
 action is the will of God. That will is intimated, either in 
 the eternal fitness of certain actions to produce given 
 results — in the moral constitution of human nature — in 
 the laws of the understanding — in the social sympathies, 
 in the practical utility of acting according to truth and 
 nature — or in the express precepts of the Divine revelation. 
 To all these moralists the mystic says, the will of God is 
 communicated immediately to all men, and our rule is 
 written by His unseen finger, or whispered by His small, 
 
196 MYSTICISM. 
 
 still voice, within us. This inward standard of truth, this 
 inward rule of action, is ascribed by the theological mystic 
 to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. By some this inspi- 
 ration of the Spirit is believed to be common to the human 
 race ; while by others it is believed to be restricted to par- 
 ticular persons. 
 
 The fundamental doctrine on which speculative mysticism 
 rests, is older than the beginnings of philosophy. We find 
 it in the earliest traditions of the East. 
 
 It would lead us away from our present purpose to touch 
 the interesting inquiry, whether the first teachers of philo- 
 sophy derived the rudiments of their speculations from the 
 East. Notwithstanding the strong reasons which have been 
 urged on the other side, we cannot follow the migrations 
 from the countries east of Greece, or trace the radical unity 
 of the earliest forms of philosophy with the oriental tra- 
 ditions, without acknowledging the oriental origin of some 
 of the principles which received new forms and combina- 
 tions from the peculiar tendencies of the Grecian mind ; 
 and we are the more persuaded of the soundness of this 
 opinion, when w r e find the same principles pervading the 
 philosophy of the Druids, and the mystical Initiations of 
 Orpheus. Thales, the founder of the Ionian school, taught 
 that God is the mind of the world. Plato taught that the 
 soul partaking of mind, reasoning, and harmony, is not the 
 mere work of God, but a part of God, not existing by Him, 
 but of Him. In the spirit of this philosophy we find 
 Marcus Antoninus speaking of himself as a partaker of the 
 divine mind, and saying, " Let him who would live with 
 the gods, do whatever that divine genius (djemon) which 
 Jupiter has given him for a guide, as a particle of himself : 
 this is the mind and reason of each man." Indeed this 
 was the prevailing doctrine of the ancient philosophers. 
 
 "When the Christian preachers began to spread the 
 Gospel, this philosophical doctrine was held by some of 
 their opponents as a reason for rejecting the Gospel, 
 
MYSTICISM. 19.7 
 
 while by those of the philosophers who embraced the 
 Gospel it was blended with the Christian doctrine. 
 
 Justin Martyr is not known to have sustained any office 
 in the church. He was a philosopher, who had studied the 
 writings of Plato and imbibed some of his principles. 
 We trace such principles in his frequent reference to 
 "the Spermatic Word," which he represents as having 
 been given to men before the coming of " the Word In- 
 carnate," and also in the expression that " the soul is 
 incorruptible, being a portion and implantation of God."* 
 Clemens of Alexandria appears to have thought that " by 
 the continual contemplation of God, man enters into the 
 Divine essence and becomes God (deovfievov)."\ Basil 
 the Great held that every holy man is God. J Cyril of 
 Alexandria, in his treatise against Anthropomorphites, 
 maintains that the breath of life which God breathed 
 into Adam was not the soul of man, nor of any creature, 
 but the Holy Spirit, which is lost by sin, but recovered 
 through Jesus Christ; and in his commentary on John's 
 Gospel he represents " the Word "as " the grace given to 
 every man, but rejected by those who, neglecting to go 
 forward, bury the illumination, and make their measure 
 of grace, in some respects, to languish." 
 
 The same principle formed one element of the fantastic 
 opinions of the Gnostics. In the controversies which dis- 
 tracted the Eastern church, we detect, both on one side 
 and on the other, the subtle working of the same tendency. 
 It was embodied in the monastic institutions. The moral 
 and devotional treatises of nearly every age, both in the 
 East and in the West, betray, sometimes unconsciously, 
 the same tendency. When the scholastic theology had 
 given so scientific and logical a form to Christianity as to 
 
 • *H juev ^/v\rj farrl H(p6apTO<: pipo? ovaa tov Otov Hal itx<piat]^t.a. iiag. (le 
 
 Resur. ii. 
 ■[ Stromata, lib. iv. 
 
 t ©to? earl 3«i rovro tKuarot iwv uytwv. Adv. Ennon. lib. V. Opp. tom. ii- 
 UO, Ed. Par. 
 
198 MYSTICISM. 
 
 make it entirely an affair of the intellect, and while the 
 popular superstition was at the same time degraded by 
 the substitution of ceremonies for spiritual worship, there 
 arose a large and interesting series of writers who with 
 more or less pretensions to system, as they were more or 
 less imbued with the scholastic habits of mind, turned 
 away alike from the notions of the schools, and from 
 the gross materialism of the vulgar, to find the saving 
 truths of the Gospel in the hidden operations of the 
 soul. 
 
 In the mystic writers of the fourteenth century there 
 is often a subtlety of speculation peculiar to the age in 
 which they lived ; and there is sometimes a vagueness of 
 thought, a dreaminess of emotion, or a wildness of fancy, 
 peculiar to the personal temperament or the secluded life 
 of the particular writer, which can now be interesting only 
 as illustrating the history of the human mind ; yet in 
 many of them we discover a fervour, a childlike simplicity, 
 a spiritual freshness, which remind us of earlier times, 
 and which no Christian can study even now without 
 eminent advantage. Bernard is known only to the 
 learned. Echart was condemned by a pope. Tauler is 
 forgotten, excepting by a few. The memory of Suso has 
 been revived in Germany. Kuysbrock's " Little Book on 
 German Theology " was published by Luther, who highly 
 prized it, and it has been praised by a modern German 
 critic* as " a sound and energetic treatise, full of spirit 
 and life." Hamerken of Kempen (Thomas a Kempis) is 
 known to pious readers throughout Europe by his precious 
 treatise on " The Imitation of Christ." Nearly at the 
 same time with Thomas a Kempis, Marsiglio Ficino, of 
 Florence, the translator of Plato, addressed an epistle to 
 Lorenzo de Medici on the Christian Faith and Piety ; and 
 not long after, his fellow-citizen Savonarola published 
 his Triumph of the Cross ; and by his powerful preaching 
 * De Wette. 
 
MYSTICISM. 199 
 
 excited that strong spirit of devotion which spread the 
 doctrine of justification by faith among the Florentine 
 patriots of Venice, and, through them, over a great part of 
 Italy. Valdesso, Valer, Egidius, and other eminent asso- 
 ciates, laboured in various ways, amid overwhelming diffi- 
 culties, to diffuse a similar spirit in Spain. 
 
 The revival of letters in Europe brought out the mys- 
 ticism of the middle ages, in connexion with every depart- 
 ment of knowledge, and more especially in connexion with 
 religion. The empiricism of Hohenheim, who, in the Gre- 
 cising fashion of the age, translated his German name into 
 Paracelsus, heaped up a mass of incoherent fancies which 
 his followers digested into a kind of spiritual theory — that 
 true philosophy is learned from God alone by the inward 
 light of the invisible man. This philosophy taught that 
 life, intellect, will, action, and even vegetation, are pro- 
 duced by a luminous fire proceeding from the Holy Spirit 
 who is the soul of the world. From this supposed Divine 
 and essentially central light, our countryman Robert Fludd 
 professed to explain the mysteries of man, and of the 
 universe. Following the same notion, Jacob Boehm, the 
 philosophical shoemaker of Gorlitz, turned away from the 
 controversies of the Crypto-Calvinists of Saxony, to solitary 
 prayer and silent meditation, in which he believed that he 
 enjoyed the intuition of God. His philosophy, which is a 
 mixture of the scholastic notions of the age, and the 
 opinions of Paracelsus, with the dreams of a strongly fer- 
 tile and imaginative genius, he attributed entirely to the 
 inspiration of " that Spirit which dwells in God, and per- 
 vades all nature." 
 
 To this theosophy John Baptist Helmont of Brussels 
 was attracted by a dream which warned him to resign the 
 studies in which his youth had been spent with extraor- 
 dinary success, yet without attaining the certitude for 
 which he longed. Out of his dreams and ecstacies he 
 brought forth an unintelligible jumble of contradictions, 
 
200 MYSTICISM. 
 
 to which his son added new absurdities from the Cabala 
 of the Kabbins. 
 
 Antoinette Bourignon of Lille in Flanders, whose sin- 
 gular adventures are so full of romantic interest, had fed 
 her thoughts from early childhood with such mystic writ- 
 ings as fell in her way ; and, observing how different the 
 lives of Christians were from their professions, she sought 
 for herself the intimate communings with God of which 
 she had read, by fleeing from the society of men to the 
 loneliness of the desert.* Encouraged by Fenelon, the 
 pious Archbishop of Cambray, she passed some years of 
 solitude in Flanders, from whence she returned to her 
 patrimony at Lille ; where, assuming the order and habit 
 of St. Augustine, she presided over a hospital. There she 
 was accused of sorcery ; but she escaped to Ghent. She 
 had not been long in that city, when she gave it out that 
 God had disclosed many sacred mysteries to her. She 
 published, at Amsterdam, a book entitled " The Light of 
 the World." In that city she became a centre of attraction 
 to imaginary prophets and prophetesses, and she began to 
 hope that the reformation at which she aimed was about to 
 be firmly established. Labadie and his mystic disciples 
 sought to form a union with her at Noordstrandt ; but she 
 affirmed that their sentiments were not the same as hers, 
 that they were ruled by their own spirit rather than by the 
 tranquil inspirations by which she was Divinely guided. 
 By means of a private printing press which she set up in 
 Holstein, she diffused her writings, which were exceedingly 
 
 * " Stop only at the things which move your heart to the love of God, 
 without going further till you have found the means of practising it. This 
 I did in my younger years ; when I first saw the New Testament, and when I 
 understood thereby what a Gospel life was, I closed the book for twenty 
 years, and exercised myself in the practice of what is herein contained, and 
 so I found the light of the Holy Spirit without using books to instruct me." 
 — Letter IX. of the Treatise on Solid Virtue, in twenty-four letters to a young 
 man who sought after the perfection of his soul. Dated from Holstein, near 
 Goltorp Castle, May 5, 1G72. St. Vet. 
 
MYSTICISM. 201 
 
 numerous, and composed with incredible rapidity, over 
 Germany, Flanders, and France. After being forced by 
 persecution to lead a wandering life, she at length died at 
 Franeker in Friesland, at the age of sixty-four. — Of a harsh 
 and melancholy temper, violent in her self-will, highly 
 imaginative, ardent, and endued with unbounded powers 
 of language, she believed herself to be inspired from 
 heaven to rekindle the extinguished fire of spiritual reli- 
 gion, by calling men away from the services of the church 
 to immediate intercourse with God. Though she seems at 
 her death not to have left a single follower in the country 
 where she had lived, her writings were eagerly devoured.* 
 
 * Her " Light of the World " was translated and published by some of her 
 Scottish followers, in English, with a long preface, claiming for her the 
 character of an extraordinary prophetess. Her admirable " Treatise on Solid 
 Virtue," and her " Innovation of the Gospel Spirit," are not unknown to the 
 curious in these matters. " The Snake in the Grass " was published by 
 Charles Lesley, the eccentric non-juror, who seems to have been the first 
 English writer who combated the mysticism of Antoinette Bourignon. 
 
 She seems, at one time, to have had a great many followers in Scotland; 
 and the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in the year 1701, con- 
 demned her wx-itings as " freighted with impious, pernicious, and damnable 
 doctrines." Dr. George Garden, a minister of the church in Aberdeen, pub- 
 lished an Apology for her opinions, which the assembly also adjudged "to 
 contain a mass of dangerous, impious, blasphemous, and damnable errors." 
 Dr. Garden was deposed from his rank as a minister, and "prohibited from 
 exercising the same in all time coming, under pain of the highest censures 
 of the church." — Acts of Assembly. 1701. 
 
 Previously, however, to this movement in the General Assembly a work 
 had appeared, entitled " The Delusions and Errors of Antonia Bourignon, 
 and her growing Sect Detected. In Two Narratives. By John Cockburn- 
 D.D. London: Printed for Wm. Kebblewhite, at the White Swan, in St. 
 Paul's Churchyard, &c. mdcxcviii." Dr. Cockburn was, I believe, a Pres- 
 byterian minister, who on account of ill health had to leave his country, and 
 take up his abode at Rotterdam. The first of the two narratives was written 
 and published before he left England. Replies to it were issued before he 
 had time to bring out the second. These replies were chiefly written by 
 foreigners. In a letter to a friend in London, Dr. Cockburn apologizes for 
 the delay of his second narrative, and states that his object in the first had 
 been to prove, that the judgments of M. Bourignon's advocates were not in- 
 fallible, and far from being competent evidence in matters 60 important as 
 those which she pretended to reveal. 
 
202 MYSTICISM. 
 
 It is to the writings of Pierre Poire t that we owe the 
 exact and logical exhibition of the mystical theology, in 
 two works of remarkable acuteness and elegance — " Ra- 
 tional Thoughts concerning God; the Soul, and God;" 
 and " The Divine Economy." In this latter work, his 
 object is to reduce the opinions of the mystics into a sys- 
 tem, and to explain them according to the principles which 
 they involved. As the foundation of the whole, he main- 
 tains that there is in man a certain inward and saving light 
 which consists in sensible, rather than ideal, knowledge. 
 He thus separates the human faculties : — the faculty of 
 passively receiving the Divine light, — boundless desire, — 
 and boundless acquiescence. He represents the 2^ a ssive- 
 ness of the intellect as the only entrance to true wisdom 
 and illumination ; and the activity of the intellect he repu- 
 diates as forming nothing but ideal knowledge, and as 
 injurious to the solid acquisition of truth. Starting from 
 these principles, he teaches that if a man will turn from 
 
 The second narrative sets forth " The Pretences of Antonia Bourignon," 
 and contains a well- written refutation of them. By extracts from her own 
 writings Dr. Cockburn shows that she arrogated to herself a degree of 
 sanctity surpassing all others ; a knowledge of all things natural and Divine 
 greater than that possessed even by prophets and apostles ; an acquaintance 
 with things the most secret, and with matters of fact at the greatest distance, 
 attained without reading, study, or any human means. Dr. C. shows that she 
 pretended sometimes to inspiration guiding her in both the matter of her 
 communications and the language in which she conveyed them ; and some- 
 times only in their substance and matter ; that she asserted a kind of union 
 with God ; that she was sent with new and full light to convert the world ; to 
 renew and perfect the churches as the last grace which men were to expect ; 
 that Christ was a type of herself; that she was the mother of all who shall 
 be converted ; and that she travailed as in birth when any were converted by 
 her means. 
 
 Dr. Cockburn, after refuting these pretensions, shows that " it is usual 
 with impostors and deluded persons to ape ridiculously what they read in 
 Scripture," but that "such pretences are too high to be rashly admitted ; " 
 and that " Antonia Bourignon had no credentials to justify her claims." 
 
 From the end of the second narrative it appears that the author had de- 
 signed a third ; but whether it ever was published I have not been able to 
 learn. 
 
MYSTICISM. 
 
 203 
 
 all creatures to the truth shilling in the centre of his mind, 
 he will be led to God and to salvation, and become a true 
 Christian, though he be ignorant of the letter of the Gos- 
 pel; and that this light shining in men's hearts is the 
 Spirit of Jesus Christ himself, by whose efficacy Christ is 
 born within him. According to his triple division of the 
 human faculties, he distinguishes these three kinds, de- 
 grees, or aspects, of saving faith; — the faith of desire, 
 which is the fountain of conversion, — the faith of light, 
 which is the cause of purification, — and the faith of acqui- 
 escence, by which justification is secured. He represents 
 regeneration as arising from the simultaneous operations 
 of these three faiths.* 
 
 Poiret was endowed with a singularly perspicacious 
 intellect ; and he had been thoroughly disciplined in litera- 
 ture, theology, and the Cartesian philosophy. He sought 
 to supply the deficiencies of his metaphysical specula- 
 tions ; and, convinced by the writings of Tauler, Thomas 
 a Kempis, and others belonging to the same class, of the 
 necessity of acquiring mental purity, he produced his first 
 work, which sought to harmonize, on Cartesian principles, 
 the jarring opinions of contending sects. But the study of 
 the writings of Antoinette Bourignon shook his confidence 
 in his principles ; he exchanged the philosophy of Descartes 
 for the doctrines of the mystics, and abandoned himself to 
 the indulgence of his reveries, and the publication of his 
 writings, at Eheinburg. 
 
 The modern mysticism of Germany is chiefly remark- 
 able for its excessive ir religiousness, and its close alliance 
 with a congeries of metaphysical clouds, misnamed philo- 
 sophy, which by essaying to pass beyond the limits of the 
 human faculties, turns day dreams into logical systems, 
 and resolves all truth and all religion into the discovery 
 that there is no God, or that God is but a name for the 
 universe. The infidelity which in England took the form of 
 * (Econ. Div. torn. i. lib. iii. c. vii. sect. 12. Torn. ii. lib. v. c. is. 
 
204 MYSTICISM. 
 
 natural religion, and in France that of ribaldry and ridi- 
 cule, assumed in Germany the garb of speculation, and of 
 sentimental feeling. 
 
 " The Society for Light and Illumination " held their 
 secret meetings of philosophers and preachers at Berlin, 
 and in their writings they substituted living reasonably 
 for the Scripture doctrine of the work of the Spirit; 
 the purpose of leading a new life for regeneration ; and 
 reformation for sanctification.* 
 
 To the speculations of Kant, of Fichte, and of Schelling, 
 as well as to the claims of Divine revelation, Friedrich 
 Henry Jacobi, in his work on " Divine Things," opposed 
 that intuitive and immediate knowledge of Divine things 
 which he denominated Faith, Mental Feeling, or Pieason, 
 and which has acquired for his philosophy the name of 
 Mysticism. It is a revival of the reveries of Boehm, of 
 the Gnostics, and of the Orientals. Passing through such 
 modifications as it could receive from the learned piety 
 of Schleiermacher, the critical acumen of De Wette, the 
 poetry of Novalis, and the picturesque genius of Carlyle, 
 we now find it exciting to something like vitality the 
 negative theology of Unitarianism, in America and in 
 England. 
 
 Instead of receiving the authentic revelations of the 
 Gospel, men are taught to look within themselves for the 
 inspiration of God; to regard "wisdom, righteousness, 
 and love, as the Spirit of God in the soul of man — the 
 income of God to the soul in the form of truth, through 
 
 o 
 
 the reason ; of right through the conscience ; of love and 
 faith through the affections and religious sentiments." 
 To become thus " partakers of the Divine nature, as the 
 Platonists, Christians, and Mystics call' it," we are assured 
 
 * The works in which these deistical notions appeared, hore characteristic 
 titles, such as, " The Worth of the Feelings in Religion ;" — " The Religion 
 of the Children of Light;" — "Christ and Reason;" — "Religion within the 
 limits of Pure Reason." 
 
MYSTICISM. 205 
 
 that " the soul of all flows into the man ; that which is 
 private, personal, peculiar, ebbs off before that mighty 
 influx from on high."* 
 
 We could not complete even this slight outline without 
 some notice of the opinions of Coleridge, who is said to 
 have " talked like an angel," and whose influence, for good 
 or evil, on the theology of our countrymen, it is of no 
 slight importance to appreciate, especially from their rela- 
 tion to the systems which are slowly working their way 
 among us from " the region of German theology." 
 
 The mental attributes of Coleridge w r ere of a high order, 
 strangely blended, and luxuriantly cultivated. To a 
 subtlety which would have acquired distinction in the 
 scholastic age, he added a compass and breadth of thought 
 which seemed as though it could grasp at once the rudi- 
 ments of all truth. His poetical imagination seemed to 
 aid his intellect by giving body, form, and colouring, to the 
 most profound abstractions. His principal prose writings 
 indicate the congeniality of his mental temperament with 
 the German philosophy, and not less congeniality with the 
 theology of those writers who, in every age, have risen 
 above the formalism of logic to the contemplations of spi- 
 ritual piety. Laden with the stores of the principal lite- 
 ratures of Europe in all ages, he was in the habit of look- 
 ing at .the modern theology of England with aversion and 
 with fear; and he devoted the ripest years of his life to the 
 training of educated youth, especially the younger Eng- 
 lish clergy, to a profound view of the capacities of human 
 nature, and, by the application of metaphysical principles, 
 to present the orthodox theology as the expression of the 
 highest reason, and as the fitting aliment of a truly 
 spiritual life. His admiration of the most devotional 
 compositions of Hooker, of Jeremy Taylor, of TV Donne, 
 of Baxter, and especially of Archbishop Leighton, is 
 
 * Parker's Discourse of Matters Pertaining to Religion. Bk. ii. c. viii. 
 pp. 160—174. 
 
206 MYSTICISM. 
 
 expressed in terms which prove that he was not merely a 
 literary reader, but a religious student, of those immortal 
 productions. In his endeavour to harmonize the dictates 
 of pure reason with the most sacred mysteries of Chris- 
 tianity, he familiarizes himself, and his readers, with forms 
 of expression which convey no meaning to those who have 
 not reached the same standing-place ; and, even by them, 
 they will often be found to correspond with their feelings 
 rather than with their ideas of truth, or their conceptions 
 of things, and thus to conduct them beyond the limits of 
 speculation and reasoning to the domains of mysticism. 
 Following the Father of the so-called Critical Philosophy 
 in his distinction between the understanding — or judging 
 according to sense and nature, — and the reason — or the 
 faculty of perceiving the spiritual, the infinite, the eternal, 
 he condemns the restriction of moral and theological 
 truths within the boundaries of the understanding, and 
 claims them as belonging to the higher department of 
 Faith, which he represents as the blending of the reason 
 with the will, deriving from the reason its illumination, 
 and from the will its energy. He never professes to dis- 
 cover any new doctrine; neither does he lower the doc- 
 trines of the Gospel after the manner of the rationalists, 
 to adjust them to the preconceptions of the human mind. 
 He affirms that there is a power in men, as such, to 
 behold by direct intuition the spiritual beings, and the 
 spiritual states, which the Gospel has revealed ; but this 
 power he says is not mere speculative reason ; it is prac- 
 tical faith : and this faith is quickened and guided by the 
 Spirit of God. Though Coleridge often speaks of " my 
 system," he is the least systematic of writers. Instead of 
 either assuming or vindicating a set of established pre- 
 mises, and building on them a regular scheme of doc- 
 trine, he aims at turning men's minds to the contem- 
 plation of the permanent laws of intellectual, moral, and 
 religious truth which are within them ; and it is by those 
 
MYSTICISM. 207 
 
 only who have become habituated to self-reflection that 
 his meaning will be understood, and the soundness, or 
 unsoundness, of his particular views appreciated. His 
 distinguishing and noble principle is that " Christianity- 
 is not a theory, or a speculation, but a life, and a living 
 process."* 
 
 In accordance with this principle, he affirms that " the 
 Gospel is not a system of theology, nor a syntagma of 
 theoretical propositions and conclusions for the enlarge- 
 ment of speculative knowledge, ethical or metaphysical. 
 But it is a history, a series of facts and events selected or 
 announced. These do, indeed, involve, or rather they at 
 the same time are most important doctrinal truths ; but 
 still facts and declarations of facts. "t 
 
 In the admirable commentary of Leighton on the First 
 Epistle of Peter, it is remarked that " faith elevates the 
 soul, not merely above sense and sensible things, but 
 above reason itself. As reason corrects the errors that 
 sense might occasion, so supernatural faith corrects the 
 errors of natural reason judging according to sense. Paul 
 and all that are enlightened by the same Spirit, know by 
 faith, which is Divine reason, that the excellency of Jesus 
 Christ far surpasses the worth of the whole earth, and all 
 
 things earthly Firmly to believe that there is Divine 
 
 truth in all these things, and to have a persuasion of it 
 stronger than of the very things we see with our eyes, such 
 an assent as this is the peculiar work of the Spirit of God, 
 and is certainly saving faith. Faith is the proper seeing 
 faculty of the soul, in relation to Christ; that inward light 
 must be infused from above to make Christ visible to us ; 
 without it, though He is beautiful, yet we are blind, and 
 therefore cannot love him for that beauty."} 
 
 * Aids to Reflection, p. 146. 4th Ed. 1839. 
 
 + Ibid. pp. 118, 149. 
 
 X It could not have escaped so sagacious a mind as Coleridge's, that 
 Leighton's explanation of " reason judging according to sense " is word for 
 word the definition given by the Founder of the Critical Philosophy of the 
 
208 MYSTICISM. 
 
 In professed harmony with these expositions by Leigh- 
 ton, Coleridge maintains " that the Christian Faith is the 
 perfection of human intelligence ; "* and in pursuance of 
 this object he labours to " substantiate and set forth the 
 momentous distinction between reason and understanding." 
 His " Prudential Aphorisms," and his " Moral and Re- 
 ligious Aphorisms," are only introductory to his higher 
 object in the " Aphorisms on that which is indeed Spi- 
 ritual Eeligion." By " Reason," Coleridge means, with 
 Hooker, "a direct aspect of truth, an inward beholding, 
 having a similar relation to the intelligible or spiritual, as 
 sense has to the natural or phenomenal." His application 
 of this to the spiritual life will be seen by comparing his 
 summary of the characteristic and peculiar doctrines of 
 Christianity with his account of the process of regeneration. 
 
 " Reason is the power of universal and necessary con- 
 victions, the source and substance of truth above sense, 
 and having their evidence in themselves. Its presence is 
 always marked by the necessity of the position affirmed. 
 This necessity being conditional when a truth of reason 
 is applied to facts of experience, or to the rules and 
 maxims of the understanding; but absolute, when the 
 subject-matter is itself the growth or offspring of reason. 
 Hence arises a distinction in the reason itself, arising 
 from the different modes of applying it, and from the 
 objects to which it is directed; accordingly as we consider 
 one and the same gift, now as the ground of formal prin- 
 ciples, and now as the origin of ideas. Contemplated 
 distinctively in reference to formal (or abstract) truth, it 
 is the speculative reason ; but in reference to actual (or 
 
 Understanding, namely, " the faculty of judging according to sense." Com. 
 on 1 Pet. i. 8 ; ii. 7. 
 
 It should be observed that Coleridge substitutes his own definition of 
 "Reason " for that of Leighton ; but he applies to understanding what the 
 Archbishop says of natural reason ; and he attributes to reason, as defined by 
 himself, what Leighton attributes to the enlightening of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 * Aids to Iieflection. Preface. 
 
MYSTICISM. 209 
 
 moral) truth, as the fountain of ideas, and the light of 
 the conscience, we name it the practical reason. Whe7i~ 
 ever, by self-subjection to this universal light, the will of the 
 individual, the particular will, has become a will of reason, 
 the man is regenerate ; and reason is then the spirit of the 
 regenerated man, whereby the person is capable of a quickening 
 inter communing with the Divine Spirit: and herein consists 
 the mystery of redemption, that this has been rendered 
 possible for us. 'And so it is written, The first man 
 Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam a quickening 
 spirit.'* We need only compare the passages in the 
 writings of the apostles Paul and John concerning the 
 Spirit and spiritual gifts with those in the Proverbs and 
 in the Wisdom of Solomon respecting reason, to be con- 
 vinced that the terms are synonymous. In this at once 
 most comprehensive and most appropriate acceptation of 
 the word, reason is pre-eminently spiritual ; and a spirit, 
 even our spirit, though an effluence of the same grace by 
 which we are privileged to say Our Father."! 
 
 The distinction between understanding and reason 
 which Coleridge represents as so " momentous," and 
 which, indeed, lies at the basis of all modern German 
 philosophies, may be regarded as a question rather of 
 words than of things, or at best but a new arrangement 
 of what has never been doubted by the great philosophers 
 and theologians of our country. Its tendency is the same 
 with that which pervades alike all speculation of the same 
 class — to confound the terms which stand for the abstract 
 notions of the mind, with the names of substances ex- 
 isting without the mind, and to mistake the personifica- 
 tions of poetry for the apprehension of exact truth. The 
 understanding^ the mind; the reason is the mind; the 
 will is the mind; — the understanding mind reasons and 
 wills; the reasoning and active mind understands; the 
 
 * 1 Cor. xv. 45. 
 
 + Aids to Reflection, pp. 157, 158. 
 XIV. p 
 
2 LO MYSTICISM. 
 
 understanding and reasoning mind wills. By represent- 
 ing reason as wisdom, and as synonymous with " the 
 Spirit," and " spiritual gifts," Coleridge has taught pre- 
 cisely the same thing — the same inward light — which we 
 have seen to be characteristic of the mystical writers by 
 whom he was preceded. Coleridge himself, we know, 
 would have demurred to this classification, for he says, 
 " When a man refers to inward feelings and experiences of 
 which mankind at large are not conscious, as evidences of 
 the truth of any opinion, he is a mystic;" 5 - whereas we 
 are proceeding in this Lecture on that wider view of mys- 
 ticism, in which his definition is included; yet even his 
 own definition of mysticism applies to his description of 
 " the natural man," who " possesses no higher intuitions 
 than those of the pure sense, which are the subjects of 
 mathematical science," and who, therefore, is "not con- 
 scious of the inward feelings — the knowledge of spiritual 
 truth, which is of necessity immediate and intuitive;" for, 
 in the eyes of " the natural man, the world, mankind at 
 large," what but a mystic, according to Coleridge's defi- 
 nition, can he be, who appeals for the truth of his opinion 
 to that immediate and intuitive knowledge of spiritual truth 
 which he enjoys, but which mankind at large do not enjoy. 
 Coleridge's view of the religious life is scattered through 
 various passages in his writings. Its most definite state- 
 ments will be found in his Biographia Literaria, chap, ix., 
 where he speaks with affectionate reverence of Boehm, 
 Fox, and others ; in his essay on the Prometheus of 
 jEschylus ; and in the third Book of his " Aids to Be- 
 flection." 
 
 The love of the abstruse, of the obscure, and of the 
 antique, seduced this acute and comprehensive thinker to 
 adopt every notion that accorded with his mental habi- 
 tudes ; and, in the zeal with which he opposed the spirit- 
 less formality of others, he overlooked, perhaps could not 
 * Aids to Reflection, p. 290. 
 
MYSTICISM. 211 
 
 perceive, the fallacies and the evil tendencies of the mys- 
 ticism to which he lent the sanction of his learning and 
 his genius.* 
 
 The whole of this speculative mysticism may be ana- 
 lyzed into many separate elements, some of which Ave 
 shall be required to consider more fully as we proceed; 
 at present it is enough to bear in mind that its primary 
 root is to be found in a particular mode of viewing the 
 faculties of the human spirit, the attributes of the Supreme 
 Spirit, and the relation of the one to the other. In the 
 Oriental philosophy it produced pantheism, or emanation ; 
 in the Platonic plfilosophy, a poetical idealism; in the 
 mystics of the Christian church, a highly imaginative 
 conception of the nature of the intercourse between man 
 and God. It is, probably, still the tendency of some spe- 
 culative minds, dissatisfied with the coldness, formality 
 heartlessness, and miserable inconsistencies, of the Chris- 
 tianity which may at any time be taught in pulpits, or 
 professed in the world ; and when combined, as assuredly 
 it often is, with large intellectual capacity, or with great 
 fervour of devotion, or with both, the emotions awakened 
 
 * I may be allowed to quote, with unfeigned admiration, a note on 
 Hooker's great sermon on the Certainty and Perpetuity of Faith in the 
 Elect: — "I can remember no other discourse that sinks into and draws up 
 comfort from the depths of our being below our distinct consciousness, with 
 the clearness and godly loving-kindness of this truly evangelical, God-to-be- 
 tbanked-for sermon. But how large, how important a part of our spiritual life 
 goes on like the circulation, absorptions, and secretions of our bodily life, 
 unrepresented by any specific sensation, and yet the ground and condition of 
 our total scale of existence ! " — Remains, vol. iii. p. 519. 
 
 To which let me add one sentence from his Nightly Prayer, (1831,) where 
 he sums up the gifts for which he " offers up (bis) nightly sacrifice of pr,aise 
 and thanksgiving in humble trust that the fragrance of my Saviour's righte- 
 ousness may remove from it the taint of my mortal corruption, above all for 
 the heavenly Friend, the crucified Saviour, the glorified Mediator, Christ 
 Jesus, and for the heavenly Comforter, source of all abiding comforts, thy 
 Holy Spirit; grant me the aid of thy Spirit, that I may with a deep faith, 
 a more enkindled love, bless thee, who, through thy on, hast privileged me 
 to call thee Abba, Father." 
 
2J2 MYSTICISM. 
 
 by a man's own conscience, or modified by his natural 
 affections, may be honestly mistaken for the direct sugges- 
 tions of the Spirit of God. 
 
 II. Contemplative Mysticism proceeds on the assump- 
 tion of that view of man and of God which, so far as we 
 know, was first propounded systematically in connexion 
 with Christian doctrines by Poiret. Instead of speculating 
 and reasoning, the contemplative mystic takes for granted 
 that the truth lies with those speculative reasoners who 
 represent the spiritual life after a manner which agrees with 
 the temperament of their own minds, and which seems to 
 be confirmed by the experience of the^r own internal his- 
 tory. Their doctrine is, that in order to the enjoyment of 
 God we must resign ourselves to passive contemplation, 
 and thus attain to such a state of perfect quietude as shall 
 raise us above the intrusion of the senses, and even of the 
 intellect. 
 
 The title of Quietists was applied to such persons, and 
 their opinions were denominated Quietism.* It was revived 
 in the seventeenth century by the writings of Molinos, a 
 Spanish ecclesiastic, who established himself at Eome, in 
 
 * " So long as the attainment of God is proposed as a process of spiritual- 
 izatiou, it is perfectly natural, that, in minds of an enthusiastic or melan- 
 choly temperament, a violent effort should be made to realize at once, or 
 approach as nearly as possible, the ultimate end of the aspirant soul. The 
 lore of God becomes the sole, exclusive principle of action, not as it is the 
 bond of peace or of all virtues, but as it is in itself the most intense expres- 
 sion of the soul's effort — the condensation of all affections and desires into 
 one divine ardour. The frenzied self-devotion of those saints of the East, 
 who passed their lives on pillars or in caverns, and the Quietism of Fenelon, 
 [the hpepia- of the intellect, according to Plato and Aristotle. So Duns 
 Scotus, Sent. iii. dist. xxviii. fol. 50,] were only various instances of the 
 same principle carried to its full extent under different modifications of per- 
 sonal character and circumstances. 
 
 "Licet ergo solum infinitum bonum quietet voluntatem; et hoc in quan- 
 tum infinitum bonum : non tamen oportet quodlibet bonum finitum, secun- 
 dum gradum suum in bonitate, magis et minus quietare: quia isti gradus 
 sunt accidentales per comparationem ad extrinsecum quietandum." — Dr. 
 Hampden's Bampton Lectures, p. 282, 3. 
 
MYSTICISM. 213 
 
 the year 1627, and who for twenty years drew after him so 
 numerous a body of followers that he was brought before 
 the Holy Inquisition, on a charge of heresy, and condemned 
 to habitual imprisonment, by Pope Innocent XI. His 
 Guida, and some other books, were publicly burned, and 
 the writer was forced to recant his errors before the Sacred 
 College, in the church of the Dominicans. — The doctrine 
 of Molinos might have been forgotten, if it had not been 
 taken up in the famous quarrel between the Jesuits and 
 the Jansenists in France, and supported on the one hand, 
 and opposed on the other, by the most brilliant ornaments 
 of the brilliant court of Louis XIV. Madame Bouvieres 
 de la Motte, a native of Montargis, became the wife of a 
 son of Guion, the superintendent of the canal of Briare. 
 In her youth she became a widow ; when, renouncing the 
 society which her fortune, her beauty, and her imagination, 
 might have adorned, she resigned herself to the direction 
 of La Combe, a Barnabite, from Geneva. Under his 
 guidance, she soon became fired with the ambition of re- 
 sembling the Spanish mystic Saint Theresa. Accompany- 
 ing her confessor to the vicinity of the titular Bishop of 
 Geneva's country seat, she gained many proselytes by the 
 profusion of her alms, and by the frequency of her spiritual 
 conferences. The bishop drove them both from the neigh- 
 bourhood. They retired to Grenoble, where Madame 
 Guion published two books, " The New Converts," and 
 " The Torrents." The lady and her confessor were soon 
 obliged to leave Grenoble for Paris. Their teaching in 
 that capital excited so much attention that the archbishop 
 procured an order from the king to imprison La Combe as 
 a seducteur, and to shut up Madame Guion in a convent. 
 
 Madame Guion enjoyed the favour of Madame Main- 
 tenon, the private wife of Louis XIV., a lady distinguished 
 for the interest she took in religious disputations, as well 
 as for her munificence in the foundation of a school for 
 the girls of poor noble families at St. Cyr. In this way 
 
214 MYSTICISM. 
 
 Madame Guion became known to Fenelon, at that time 
 the tutor of the royal children. The taste and sensibility 
 of Fenelon preferred the sublime and tender to the darker 
 and severer departments of Theology. In Madame Guion 
 he found a congenial spirit ; and she, emboldened by his 
 protection, was soon actively engaged in diffusing her 
 opinions at St. Cyr. The bishop of Chartres complained, 
 and the archbishop of Paris threatened to renew his prose- 
 cution. Madame Maintenon withdrew her countenance. 
 The Abbe de Fenelon advised his friend to submit her 
 writings to the judgment of Bossuet, the bishop of Meaux. 
 Fenelon was now promoted to the archbishopric of Cam- 
 bray. Bossuet, who is represented as having become jealous 
 of the high reputation of his former disciple, urged the 
 archbishop to join with him in condemning Madame 
 Guion. The archbishop would neither belie his convic- 
 tions nor betray his friend ; but when he proceeded to his 
 new diocese, he published at Paris his "Maxims of the 
 Saints on the Inward Life," in which he vindicated Madame 
 Guion and the orthodoxy of the Quietists. Bossuet and 
 his friends denounced the archbishop's book to the king. 
 Madame Guion was sent, first of all, to a prison at Yin- 
 cennes, where she solaced herself by writing mystic poetry; 
 and from thence she was transferred to the Bastile. Bossuet 
 wrote against Fenelon ; and so great a stir was made at 
 court, and in the city, that both writers sent their works to 
 await the decision of Pope Innocent XII. Le Pere de la 
 Chaise, the royal confessor, dared not advocate Fenelon's 
 cause before the king ; and Madame Maintenon aban- 
 doned him. The king himself wrote a letter to the pope 
 informing him that the book of the archbishop of Cambray 
 had been presented to him as a pernicious work ; but that 
 he referred it to the judgment of his holiness. 
 
 The examiners appointed by the pope held thirty-seven 
 conferences on thirty-seven propositions in the " Maxims 
 of the Saints," and the majority judged them to be errone- 
 
MYSTICISM. 215 
 
 ous. The pope, assisted by a congregation of cardinals, 
 issued his brief of condemnation. Fenelon submitted: he 
 even condemned his own book publicly, in the pulpit of 
 his cathedral. In the same year Madame Guion was per- 
 mitted to remove to Blois, where she died twelve years 
 after still breathing the sentiments for which she had 
 laboured and suffered. 
 
 According to the most eminent French writers, the 
 Quietists of that age and country regarded true happiness 
 as consisting in a total vacancy of mind. " In the three- 
 fold silence," says Bruyere, " of words, of thoughts, and 
 of desires, they find a spiritual dream, a mystic intoxication, 
 or rather a mystic death ; all their suspended powers are 
 called from the circumference to the centre. God, who is 
 the centre, makes himself known to the soul by Divine 
 touches, by tastes, by gentle illapses, and ineffable sweet- 
 nesses. Their affections being thus moved, the soul sinks 
 into a delicious repose which rises above all delights, all 
 ecstacies, all notions, all divine speculations : a state in 
 which she knows neither what she feels, nor what she is."* 
 
 It is to be recollected that La Bruyere was a protege of 
 Bossuet, and that his object in his dialogues on mysticism, 
 was to ridicule the notions of his patron's rival. Yet the 
 proofs which he furnished are sufficient to show that, after 
 making due allowance for the colouring of the writer's wit 
 and fancy, the outlines and some essential features of 
 Quietism in France are given.f 
 
 But a candid study of the writings of the mystic Quiet- 
 ists will show that the repose which they prized so highly, 
 was not so much that negative absorption which their ene- 
 mies derided, as a transcendent state of the devout affec- 
 
 * La Bruyere, Dialogue II. Sur la Quietisme, p. 33. These dialogues 
 were not published by La Bruyere, but after his death by L. E. Dupin. 
 
 + There is a lung aud ably written paper of the Chevalier de Jancourt on 
 this subject in the Encyclopedic, torn. XIII. p. 709. The History of Quie- 
 tism has been written in France by Philippeaux, and others. 
 
216 MYSTICISM. 
 
 tions towards God, which, as they thought, was kindled 
 while contemplating His perfections, by the immediate 
 energy of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Somewhat earlier than the appearance of the conti- 
 nental mystic writings which we have been noticing, Lord 
 Edward Herbert, baron of Cherbury, brother of George 
 Herbert, the well-known poet, published his "Tractatus de 
 Veritate, prout distinguitur a revelatione, a verisimili, a 
 possibili, et a falso." In this remarkable work there are 
 some philosophical speculations which afterwards re- 
 appeared in the idealism of Kant, and in the mysticism 
 of Jacobi ; but we now refer to it as containing mystical 
 notions of the spiritual life, and especially for the purpose 
 of introducing one fact in connection with the publication 
 of the work, showing how nearly his lordship, while re- 
 jecting the Christian revelation, agreed with other mystics 
 of the same and of the following times, in ascribing his 
 religious knowledge to an inward light from heaven. 
 Though his treatise De Veritate had received the appro- 
 bation of Grotius and of other eminently learned men, he 
 hesitated to give it to the world, because of the opposition 
 he expected it would provoke. "Being thus doubtful," 
 he says, " in my chamber, one fair day in the summer, my 
 casement being open towards the south, the sun shining 
 clear, and no wind stirring, I took my book De Veritate in 
 my hands, and kneeling on my knees, devoutly said these 
 words : ' thou eternal God, author of this light which 
 now shines upon me, and giver of all inward illuminations ; 
 I do beseech thee of thine infinite goodness to pardon 
 a greater request than a sinner ought to make ; I am 
 not satisfied enough whether I should publish this book ; 
 if it be for thy glory, I beseech thee give me some sign 
 from heaven ; if not, I shall suppress it.' I had no sooner 
 spoken these words, but a loud, though yet gentle, noise, 
 came forth from the heavens (for it was like nothing on 
 earth), which did so cheer and comfort me, that I took my 
 
MYSTICISM. 2 1 7 
 
 petition as granted, and that I had the sign which I 
 demanded ; whereupon also I resolved to print my book. 
 This, how strange soever it may seem, I protest before 
 the eternal God is true : neither am I any way super- 
 stitiously deceived herein : since I did not only clearly 
 hear the noise, but in the serenest sky that ever I saw, 
 being without all cloud, did, to my thinking, see the place 
 from whence it came."* 
 
 As in all times of peculiar religious excitement, so, in 
 the middle of the seventeenth century, the renunciation of 
 external forms and acknowledged creeds was accompanied 
 by a vigorous manifestation of the mysticism of which we 
 are treating. The ancient notion that the human soul is 
 an emanation of God had been gradually exchanged for 
 the belief that a direct revelation of divine truth was made to 
 every man. Men were told that by following this inward 
 light, and quietly waiting upon God, they would be illu- 
 mined, purified, and redeemed ; and the language of the 
 Scriptures was largely quoted in support of the opinion, 
 and in vindication of the practices which it encouraged, f 
 
 * Memoirs of Himself, by Lord Herbert, printed at Horace Walpole's 
 private press, Strawberry Hill, 1764. Leland's view of Deistical Writers. 
 Letter second — postscript. Hallam's History of Literature in Europe. Vol. 
 ii. p. 381. Baxter wrote some animadversions on this treatise, which are 
 contained in the xxi. vol. of his collected works. 
 
 + This inward light was spoken of as " the eternal word ;" " the divine 
 grace," "the seed of God," "the Bible written in the heart," "the talent," 
 " the little leaven," " the Gospel preached to every creature," by which 
 " God strives with every man in order to save him," " the foundation of 
 Christianity," " a spiritual, heavenly, and invisible principle, in which 
 God, as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, dwells, a measure of which divina 
 and glorious life is in all men," — " a real spiritual substance, which comes 
 upon all at certain times and seasons, when it works powerfully upon the 
 soul, mightily tenders and breaks it, at which time, if man resist it not, but 
 closes with it, he comes to know salvation by it" — " the word of the king, 
 dom," " the implanted or engrafted word," " the power of God unto salva- 
 tion," "the inward manifestation of the knowledge of God," "light and 
 grace in the heart, from whence the new creation proceeds," "the letter and 
 incorruptible seed in every man and woman's heart," in which "the king- 
 
218 MYSTICISM. 
 
 III. Imaginative Mysticism is not so much a distinct 
 form, as the common element, of mysticism, in whatever 
 form it may appear. It is less the invention of what is 
 new and false than the perversion of what is old and true. 
 It ascribes to immediate revelation the thoughts and 
 emotions which are natural, in given circumstances, to the 
 human mind. It results from the preponderance of the 
 imagination over the judgment, catching at resemblances, 
 but blind to differences ; mistaking feeling for evidence, 
 and clothing the creations of the fancy with the authority 
 of truth. — In religious affairs, we observe the working of 
 imaginative mysticism in two memorable departments ; in 
 the allegorical interpretation of the Scriptures, and in the 
 pretence, or the belief, of new revelations. 
 
 (J.) The mystical interpretation of the Scriptures is as 
 old as the history of Christianity; and while it maybe 
 chargeable, in great part, on the mental peculiarities of 
 certain interpreters, and on the ambition which led others 
 to display their ingenuity in discovering something new 
 and wonderful in the sacred writings, there is little 
 difficulty in ascribing a large portion of it to the general 
 characteristics of the oriental mind, and to exaggerated 
 inferences from the typical design of the Hebrew worship, 
 from the symbolic poetry of the ancient prophecies, and 
 from the occasional allegories of the New Testament. It 
 is usual to ascribe the system of interpreting the Scrip- 
 tures in a mystical sense to Phiio the Jew, who applied 
 the eastern theosophy, and the philosophy of the later 
 Platonists, to the explanation of the books of Moses. 
 Holding the notion which we have seen to be held in 
 common by all mystics — that God reveals Himself imme- 
 diately to those who have purified their minds by the 
 
 contemplation of His essence — and anxious to hold a 
 
 dom of Jesus Christ, yea, Jesus Christ himself, is ready to be brought forth, 
 as it is cherished and received in the love of it." — Barclay's Apology for the 
 true Christian Divinity. Sixth edition, in English, 1736. 
 
MYSTICISM. 
 
 219 
 
 middle course between contemplative spiritualists and 
 adherents to the literal meaning of every part of the 
 Pentateuch, he grafted on the literal sense of the inspired 
 writings a higher and a "spiritual" meaning. The 
 Christian interpreters, deeply imbued with feelings which 
 belong to the very life of Christianity, were carried over 
 the boundaries of their judgment, and, as in many other 
 cases of human infirmity, they pushed the principle of 
 allegorical exposition far beyond the range in which it 
 had been sanctioned by the inspired apostles. — We can 
 refer now only in general terms to the epistle ascribed 
 to Barnabas ;— the Pastor of Hermes ;— the spiritualizing 
 of Eahab's scarlet thread, which occurs in so many of the 
 fathers ;— the familiar allegories of Justin, and the other 
 Greek apologists ; — the mystic power of the gnosis, or 
 principle by which the more advanced Christians were 
 to explain the mysteries of the Scripture, advocated by 
 Clemens of Alexandria ; — Origen's adaptation of the Scrip- 
 tures to the threefold division of men into body, soul, 
 and spirit;— Gregory of Nyssa's " Spiritual Homilies" on 
 the Canticles ;— the fanciful Commentaries of Hilary ; — 
 the extravagant puerilities of Ambrose; — the occasional 
 incoherences of Jerome; — the scientific allegories of 
 Augustine ; — the minute and jejune conceits of the Alex- 
 andrian Cyril ; — the obscure imaginings of Gregory the 
 Great; — the pleasant gleanings of Bede; — the poetical 
 elevations of Maurus ; the ingenuities of the Dominican 
 Hugo de St. Caro;— the dark sayings of Bonaventura, 
 the seraphic doctor; — the mystic pertinacity of Paulus 
 Burgensis ;— the Cabalistic "forms" of Reuchlin ;— the 
 ingenious spiritualizing of Bunyan on Solomon's temple ; 
 — M'Ewen's detailed explanation of Types ; — Brown's 
 parallels of Old Testament facts with the History of the 
 Jews ;— Gill's Rabbinical lore applied to the Biblical text ; 
 and numberless imitators, of meaner name, who, for a 
 time, have drawn towards themselves a large share of 
 
220 MYSTICISM. 
 
 popular admiration as peculiarly deep and " spiritual " 
 teachers. 
 
 (2.) In the above class of mystics, we should be dis- 
 posed to assign a somewhat conspicuous place to Emma- 
 nuel Swedenborg, if we regarded him merely as an expo- 
 sitor of the Scriptures; but as he ascribes his spiritual 
 interpretations to a special source, he will probably occupy 
 a more distinct and appropriate place, if we now advert to 
 him as believing and teaching that God had made him 
 the vehicle of new revelations. He received his education 
 from his father, a bishop of the Swedish church, at Stock- 
 holm. His youthful genius and assiduity were signalized 
 by publishing, in his twentieth year, a volume of miscel- 
 laneous poetry in Latin. After he had travelled for four 
 or five years in England, France, Holland, and Germany, 
 he devoted himself, under the patronage of King Charles 
 the Twelfth, to the study of mathematics and the physical 
 sciences, in which he made such progress that his name 
 was enrolled with honours in the Academy of St. Peters- 
 burg, as well as in those of his own country ; and his 
 friendship and correspondence were sought by some of 
 the most eminent philosophers of Europe. Ten years 
 after he had reached the zenith of his scientific fame, (by 
 the publication of his " Opera Philosophica et Mineralia," 
 in three folio volumes,) he believed that the Lord himself 
 was manifested to him in a personal appearance; and that 
 he opened to him "the Spiritual" world, enabling him to 
 converse with spirits and angels, and revealing to him the 
 sacred things of heaven and hell, the states of the dead, 
 the spiritual sense of Scripture, and many other secrets 
 relating to the worship of God, to true wisdom, and to 
 human salvation. His view of the spiritual life is slowly 
 and formally developed in a series of propositions spread 
 over a large quarto volume.* 
 
 * True Christian Religion, containing the Universal Theology of the 
 New Church. Third Edition. London, 1795. 
 
MYSTICISM. 221 
 
 Each of these propositions is argued at length, from 
 passages of Scripture, "spiritually" interpreted, and co- 
 pious natural analogies, "spiritually" explained. The 
 source whence Swedenborg professed to derive both his 
 philosophy and his theology was a species of illumination 
 by which he imagined himself to be admitted into the 
 spiritual world. Some of his "arcana" which he gives 
 in a series of " Memorable Relations, " are more enter- 
 taining than any other part of his writings ; they abound 
 with beautiful scenes and bappy metaphors; but they are 
 remarkable for their contrast, both in matter and in 
 manner, with the "visions and revelations of the Lord" 
 which are contained in the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 It is a curious question in psychology, — how came it to 
 pass that a man so intelligent and so virtuous as Sweden- 
 borg should indulge in such vagaries ? The very close- 
 ness of his studies, the extent of his knowledge of nature, 
 the consciousness of rare mental activity, and the specu- 
 lative imagination with which he came to the study of the 
 Scriptures, may have produced only their natural fruit in 
 the peculiar turn given to his enthusiasm as the founder 
 of a " New Church." 
 
 Imaginative mystics in general, the dreamers of dreams, 
 and the seers of visions, have usually been either followed, 
 or ridiculed : the zeal of one party, and the derision of the 
 other, have operated with almost equal and antagonist 
 force to preserve their celebrity. There is another way, 
 however, of looking at these deviations from the even 
 tenour of men's lives. Few persons are so enthusiastic as 
 to attempt such an impossibility as that of following every 
 mystic light that startles this benighted world; and the 
 wittiest scorner would scarcely fling his sarcasms with the 
 same confidence of success on the entire visionary host. 
 Moreover there is some danger — formerly, at least, there 
 has been — of assailing through the feeble impostures, or 
 hallucinations, of modern times, the most sacred persons 
 
222 MYSTICISM. 
 
 and the most awful truths. Both the lovers of the mar- 
 vellous, and those whose dread of the ludicrous is most 
 sensitive, would do well to consider how many ways there 
 are in which the fever of the imagination may be mistaken 
 for the suggestions of Heaven, and calmly to distinguish 
 the simplicity, dignity, and practical good sense of the 
 original Christian witnesses, from the wildness, folly, or 
 uselessness of even those pretended revelations which are 
 not condemned by their contradiction to the Scriptures, 
 or their incompatibility with our moral judgments. We 
 need not here exhibit the natural history of dreams, of 
 insanity, and of those delicate shadings which fill uj) the 
 undefined space between the healthiest and the most dis- 
 ordered condition of the mental functions. It is enough 
 to know that abnormal states of the mind are nearly as 
 common as distempers of the body ; that they are not un- 
 frequently due to material disturbances; and that there 
 is no law of our nature to prevent their assuming the 
 character of religious enthusiasm as easily as any other 
 character which sane observers know to be illusive. It 
 may be that our science has not yet laid bare all the causes 
 of such mental aberrations ; yet the experience of mankind 
 has not been acquired without affording ample means for 
 testing the soundness of men's minds. 
 
 The sobriety displayed by imaginative persons on all 
 subjects but one, is so far from being singular, that it 
 may almost be laid down as a general characteristic. In- 
 telligence concerning matters not belonging to the case in 
 hand, is no proof whatever that a person's own conscious- 
 ness should be accepted as a sufficient evidence of his 
 supernatural illumination ; for the question is not, — 
 whether he really feels in the particular way which he 
 professes, but, simply, whether he reasons soundly in 
 believing that such feelings come to him from heaven, and 
 whether other persons are wise in agreeing with him in 
 this conclusion. Not a step is taken in support of a man's 
 
MYSTICISM. 223 
 
 claim to immediate divine teaching, when testimonies are 
 given to the goodness of his personal character ; for very- 
 good men have been overborne by affliction in all its 
 mysterious shapes, and some of them have suuk beneath 
 the heaviest of them all — the total derangement of the 
 intellectual faculties. Let it be added, that the copious 
 information, the powerful reasoning, or the august truths, 
 which have so often been enunciated in the noblest words 
 by persons who believed themselves to be inspired, are no 
 proofs of their being inspired, whenever it can be shown 
 that these attainments were not beyond the reach of their 
 natural powers excited by causes acting either from within, 
 or from without. The only point with which we have to 
 do, at present, is the well-known fact, — that among the 
 strange freaks which the imagination has been known to 
 play when she gains the ascendant, a man may come to 
 persuade himself that his imaginings are real facts external 
 to his mind ; and it is only by the inference of an already- 
 deluded judgment that he concludes this imagined reality 
 to have been shown to him from heaven. We leave out of 
 this inquiry all cases of imposture ; but we should have 
 only an exceedingly imperfect apprehension of the subject, 
 were we to omit all reference to the moral preparations for 
 self-delusion which many a visionary has been making, by- 
 overweening reliance on himself; by the vanity which any- 
 kind of admiration is so apt to inflate ; by indulging in the 
 habit of mental creations ; by brooding over obscure yet 
 stimulating themes; by indulging in morbid dissatisfac- 
 tion with the state of things around him ; by impatience 
 at the slow procedures of the unseen Ruler ; or by the 
 strong desire — like other desires, evil only in its perver- 
 sion or excess — to say or do some great thing to bring this 
 world into a state which shall be worthy of the gaze of 
 angels, and welcomed by the smile of God. 
 
 When such sentiments become habitual to a man whose 
 temperament is sensitive, and whose imagination is strong 
 
224 MYSTICISM. 
 
 in proportion to his other mental aptitudes, it would be 
 more difficult to show what could prevent his being a 
 religious visionary, than to explain how he becomes one. 
 
 IV. Practical Mysticism is displayed by all those who 
 act from impulses which they ascribe to the motions of the 
 Holy Spirit. As speculation seduces the imagination, so 
 does imagination touch the feelings : and the feelings thus 
 produced by the ordinary laws of our mental nature are 
 easily misapprehended by the ignorant, the vain, or the 
 superstitious, for the direct impulse of the Spirit of God. 
 It would require much longer time than we have now at our 
 disposal to exhibit the workings of this delusion among the 
 fakirs of the east ; in the anchorites of the early church ; 
 in the moody fancies of the cloister, throughout the middle 
 ages ; in the gorgeous exploits of the Crusades ; in the 
 various missions wherein, from early times, the passionate 
 energy of individuals, or the sympathetic enthusiasm of 
 brotherhoods, have performed their marvellous deeds ; and 
 in the calm yet terrible fanaticism of the Holy Inquisition. 
 We wish to come to more distinct examples. 
 
 (1.) History has told, for the warning of all coming ages, 
 the lessons of the Peasants' War in Germany. Originat- 
 ing in the fierce passions which oppression wakens in the 
 heart of an excited people, this social discontent included 
 among its grievances not a few of the gigantic evils against 
 which the reformers were contending ; but the crimes of the 
 insurgents, their spirit, and their whole proceedings, were 
 so entirely at variance with the principles and objects of 
 Luther, that he left his Patmos, as he called the Castle 
 of Wartburg, to quench, if possible, the first sparks ; by 
 speech, by writing, and by every kind of influence at his com- 
 mand, to dissuade them ; and, failing in that, to overwhelm 
 them by main force, In the course of that wide-spreading 
 enthusiasm a religious fanatic became the ruling spirit. So 
 long ago as the thirteenth century, the Beghards had be- 
 gun in Germany the austerities revived in the fifteenth 
 
MYSTICISM. 225 
 
 century by the Flagellants, who substituted the voluntary 
 lashing of their own flesh for the sacraments of the church, 
 and the flames of purgatory. The memory of these en- 
 thusiasts still lingered amid the mountains of the Hartz, 
 and the forests of Thuringia, when Miinzer headed a band 
 of new apostles who harangued the populace at Zwickhau 
 in the Ertzgebirge, as the inspired messengers of God, 
 assuming to themselves the title of " Celestial Prophets." 
 Miinzer preached against the doctrines of Luther as not 
 being sufficiently " spiritual," as being no better than " a 
 fabulous gospel ;" and on the hills of Meissen and 
 Thuringia he boldly declared that ungodly rulers, espe- 
 cially priests and monks, should be put to death. He 
 stirred up the people to found large cannon, and to storm 
 the convents, castles, and farm-houses, of the whole coun- 
 try. To the miners of Mansfield he said: " Give no heed 
 to the wailings of the ungodly ; let not the blood cool on 
 your swords ; lay Nimrod on the anvil, and let it ring 
 lustily with your blows ; cast his strong tower to the earth 
 while it is yet day."* 
 
 When the princes brought out their forces against this 
 armed mass of peasants at Frankenhausen, the first dis- 
 charge of their artillery was answered by the hymn " Veni 
 Spiritus;" but the singers were ill-provided with human 
 means of defence: most of them were slain; the remainder 
 fled in consternation, spreading terror in their flight. 
 Miinzer was beheaded in the camp before the town of 
 Mulhausen, where he had sat in court deciding causes by 
 pretended revelation. In the hour of death, and while in 
 the pangs of torture before his execution, he was upbraided 
 
 * " In this fanatic the mystical notions of former ages were blended with 
 the tendencies toward ecclesiastical and temporal reform which had just 
 arisen : out of this combination he formed a set of opinions which addressed 
 themselves immediately to the common people ; incited them to rise and 
 annihilate the whole order of things ; and prepared the way for the absolute 
 sway of a prophet." — Kanke's Histoiy of the Information, vol. ii. p. 211. 
 Second Edit. 
 
226 MYSTICISM. 
 
 with the crime of drawing such a multitude of ignorant 
 followers to destruction ; he broke into a savage laugh and 
 said : " They would have it so." 
 
 (2.) Let us turn to a fanatic of the same time, in another 
 land, whose personal doings were of a different order, and 
 whose genius has survived, through all the convulsions of 
 modern Europe, to this day. 
 
 The chivalrous spirit of the Spaniards was not, like that 
 of other nations, exhausted by the wars of the cross in 
 Palestine. It was inflamed by their splendid conquests in 
 Mexico and Peru, and by their triumphant struggles with 
 the Moors. The old national romaunt of Amadis de Gaula 
 was revived, and fed the fancies of the young and brave 
 Castilians, whose thoughts were all of love and tourna- 
 ments, of brilliant arms, and prancing steeds, and martial 
 glory. These inspirations were felt by none more strongly 
 than by a young poet of high birth and breeding in the 
 court of Ferdinand. While suffering from wounds received 
 in the defence of Pampeluna against the attack of Francis I. 
 of France, he cheered his solitary anguish by meditating 
 on the Amadis and on tales of Paladins. To these he 
 added the reading of the life of Christ ; and to that the 
 legends of St. Francis and St. Dominic, and similar heroes 
 of the church. His incurable lameness unfitted him for 
 going on in the career which he bad begun. His mind fell 
 a prey to his own fantasies. Pictures of spiritual grandeur 
 were painted on the clouds that darkened his military 
 prospects ; he now looked to Christ as a champion, to Je- 
 rusalem as a camp ; and his soul was consumed by a pas- 
 sion to surpass all the saints and warriors he read of, in 
 the severity of their penances, or in the lustre of their 
 exploits. Fired with thoughts like these, he was no sooner 
 strong enough to leave his couch, than he forsook his 
 home" for a hermitage in the rocks of Montserrat, where he 
 suspended his lance and his shield before the image of the 
 Virgin, and imitated the vigil of Amadis by offering his vows 
 
MYSTICISM. 257 
 
 and prayers as he leaned on a pilgrim's staff. Exchanging 
 the accoutrements of a knight for the rough garb of one of 
 the hermits of St. Benedict, he shut himself up in a cell of 
 the Dominican convent at Mauresa. There he wasted his 
 frame by midnight watchings, by long prayers, and by self- 
 inflicted tortures thrice a day. He made long, repeated, 
 and minute, confessions of all the sins he could force up 
 from the depths of his memory. In these dark hours of 
 misery, neither confessions, nor penances, nor absolutions, 
 nor prayers, nor psalms, could allay the agonies of con- 
 science which turned every remembrance of life into a sting 
 of death. The dreams of his imagination were chased 
 away by the stern realities of self-knowledge. He was 
 sorely tempted to cast himself from the window of his cell. 
 At one time, he had thoughts of returning to the pleasures 
 of the world; but at another, he resolved to efface his 
 haunting recollections by some strong effort of his will. 
 Then a new change came over him. While in the depth 
 of his inward torment, an aged woman had told him that 
 Christ would appear to him. For a while he had no vision; 
 but at length as he stood one day on the steps of the con- 
 vent and wept aloud, he believed that Christ was revealed 
 to his mortal eyes ; that he saw the dread mysteries of the 
 Trinity, of the Creation, and of the Word Incarnate — in 
 mystic symbols. Soon after this, he sat on the banks of 
 the Lobregat, gazing intently on its deep and flowing 
 waters, when he suddenly beheld, as he said, the mystery 
 of Faith. From this time he became another man, the 
 author of the " Spiritual Exercises," and the founder of the 
 order of the Jesuits. It was Ignatius Loyola. 
 
 It is worthy of remark that not only the general tendency 
 out of which Mysticism arose, but even most of the speci- 
 fic forms which it assumed, in the seventeenth century, on 
 the European continent and in England, may be traced in 
 the long-forgotten works of ancient monks. The inward 
 light — the special revelations — the spiritual objection to 
 
228 MYSTICISM. 
 
 outward sacraments and to music — the instantaneous en- 
 joyment of perfection, and many other peculiarities of 
 modern sects, may be found in the Monumenta Ecclesire 
 GraBcise. The reader who has not access to that noble 
 collection may consult, with much advantage, Neander's 
 General History of the Christian Eeligion and Church, 
 vol. iii. sec. 3. 
 
 In reviewing the phases of mysticism which have passed 
 thus rapidly before us, it will be seen that the workings of 
 the mind of man, — his thoughts, his feelings, and his fan- 
 c i es> — have been taken for revelations from God. Whether 
 in the speculations of the thoughtful, in the raptures of 
 the contemplative, in the visions of the imaginative, or in 
 the movements of the fanatical, this is the common error, 
 acting in various ways according to the temperament of 
 individuals, the tendencies of national character, and the 
 opinions and the spirit of distinctly marked eras in the 
 progress of society. We see, in nearly all of them, that it 
 is not always in the weak-minded, nor in the worthless, 
 that such illusions find their natural element, however 
 much the followers of the original enthusiasts may be open 
 to such a charge. The modern Mystics, like those of 
 earlier times, have, for the most part, been persons of con- 
 siderable genius; some, giving the most solid proofs of 
 sincere devotion : not a few, indeed, with the advantages 
 of high discipline and varied learning. The misrepresenta- 
 tions of their enemies have been too credulously accepted. 
 The writings of Madame Bourignon discover large ac- 
 quaintance with the world, and a deep insight into the 
 workings of human motives ; her language is singularly 
 forcible and clear; and her denunciations of the hollow- 
 ness of the religion everywhere professed around her, are 
 often just, and always full of power. 
 
 The works of Poiret have scarcely ever been excelled, in 
 logical exactitude. Jacob Boehm was a philosopher, a 
 poet, a rhetorician, wanting the elegance which a better 
 
MYSTICISM. 229 
 
 education might have given him; and a man of gentle 
 spirit and of blameless life. Of Fenelon we need not 
 speak. Madame Guion was devoted to God, with a soul 
 of extraordinary sensibility, soaring on the wings of an ex- 
 tatic imagination, and pouring forth, whether in poetry or 
 in prose, torrents of overbearing eloquence. Barclay was 
 a gentleman, a scholar, a Christian, a man as eminent for 
 his integrity and intelligence as for his elaborate defence 
 of the persecuted people with whom he threw in his lot. 
 Of the later German mysticism, properly so called, we dare 
 not speak otherwise than as one of the modern forms of infi- 
 delity ; yet the better aspects of even this dark sentiment- 
 alism may not have been without their influence on Spener, 
 and Arndt, and Fran eke, and the Pietists, whose earnest 
 faith still lives to rebuke the arrogance and the irreligious- 
 ness both of critics and of philosophers, with more specu- 
 lative intelligence, perhaps, — as was needed, — than the 
 preachers and writers of the evangelical school who have 
 guided the devotions and the enterprises of our own ener- 
 getic people, for the last hundred years. But between the 
 Mystics on the one hand, and the Pietists on the other, 
 there have always been these two capital distinctions, — the 
 former sought within their own minds, what the latter have 
 found in the Gospel ; and the Mystics embraced a theory 
 which encouraged men's dependence on themselves in that 
 particular wherein the Pietists have been taught to rely, 
 simply and entirely, on the grace of God. It is not the 
 worth of feeling, or even of imagination in religion which 
 is discarded by what we hold to be the Christianity of the 
 new covenant, but — reliance on feeling as the standard of 
 truth, or as the rule of life.* 
 
 * See Note S. 
 
LECTUKE VI. 
 
 THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE IN HARMONY WITH 
 DIVINE REVELATION. 
 
 "Seeing ye have purified yourselves in obeying the truth through the 
 Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, love one another with a 
 pure heart fervently: being born again, not of corruptible seed, but 
 of incorruptible, by the -word of God, which liveth and abideth for 
 ever."— 1 Pet. i. 22, 23. 
 
 Great is the mystery of Life. It is beyond the reach of 
 man's philosophy. No one has yet explained the principle 
 which distinguishes the lowest species of moss from every 
 form of unorganized matter. As we pass from the crea- 
 tions of the vegetable kingdom, that which moves the 
 animalcule, the insect, the breathing and self-acting occu- 
 pants of the air, the water, or the earth, is of a higher 
 order. 
 
 The reasoning choice which ennobles man is higher 
 than them all. In contemplating man's spiritual life, 
 therefore, we are prepared to expect, as in truth we find, 
 that in whatever way his restoration to God begins, its 
 earliest proofs must appear in the orderly action of those 
 mental functions which have been perverted by sin. How- 
 ever it might be with some imaginary being, we can con- 
 ceive of man only as intelligent and active : intelligent that 
 he may act ; and acting according to the direction and the 
 degree of his intelligence. 
 
THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. 231 
 
 We do not reason out, in theory, the origin of spiritual 
 life. Neither do we detect the cause of spiritual life by our 
 own consciousness. What we know on this subject is 
 neither more nor less than that which God has taught us 
 in those passages of His word which have been brought 
 forward in a previous Lecture. But when a man begins 
 to live to God, he is conscious of that which is new in the 
 tendency of his voluntary thoughts, in his emotions, in his 
 practical purposes, in the whole interior of that world 
 which no eye can see except his own, and that eye to 
 which all things are laid open. The testimony of the 
 human consciousness is the testimony of one of these wit- 
 nesses : the testimony of the word of God is the testimony 
 of the other; and in this respect, as in every other, the 
 witnesses agree. 
 
 The -error of mysticism lies in making a use of the 
 human consciousness for which it is incompetent, for 
 which it is not intended, and to which it is utterly inappli- 
 cable. The mind is not its own standard of religious 
 believing ; nor its own rule of religious living. Excepting 
 in those cases which have borne indisputable signs of ex- 
 traordinary illumination — such signs as those which, as we 
 have already proved, separated the prophets and apostles 
 of the Bible from all other men — it has always been to an 
 outward revelation that men have been directed for the 
 knowledge of what is true, and for the knowledge of what 
 is right, in connexion with salvation. That the mind of 
 man may arrive without an external revelation at some 
 knowledge of his relation to God, some recognition of his 
 social and religious duties, is a truth which admits not, as 
 we conceive, of any reasonable doubt ; and indeed we can- 
 not understand, on any other principle, the reasonings of 
 the apostle Paul in the beginning of his Epistle to the 
 Romans.* 
 
 * See Wardlaw's Essay on the Responsibility of the Heathen : and Letters 
 to the Society of Friends. 
 
232 THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 
 
 On the same ground, we are assured, a man may be con- 
 victed of sinfulness, and self-condemned, independently of 
 any knowledge of the Gospel. We are warranted to go 
 even further, and to say — that the history of man, on its 
 smallest, and on its largest, scale, abounds with so many 
 proofs of divine forbearance towards sinners, that the self- 
 condemned man cannot look seriously on his own experi- 
 ence, and on the general experience of mankind, without 
 catching some glimpses of the great truth — that God is 
 gracious as well as just. But the granting of a revelation 
 implies that without a knowledge of the particular truths 
 revealed, man must be in the dark on that which is to him 
 the most weighty and the most pressing of all questions — 
 How can I be pardoned and renewed by Him who has con- 
 demned me? To remove this darkness — not to gratify 
 intellectual speculation, nor merely to enforce the demands 
 of moral government — is the specific design of the truths 
 concerning man, and God, and the salvation of man by 
 God, which constitute the Gospel. In revealing these 
 truths, the Holy Spirit, as we have formerly shown, is our 
 religious teacher. — The case of those whom His teaching 
 in the Gospel has not reached, has been treated variously ; 
 at present, we are not concerned with it any further than 
 to say — that the limited propagation of the Gospel cannot 
 be an argument against its divinity, unless the limitation 
 of good, in other respects, is a proof that God is not 
 benevolent ; and that in connexion with this fact we fear 
 there will be terrible disclosures in the day of judgment, 
 on which it were well for Christians to meditate with 
 thoughtfulness, and contrition, and with such purposes as 
 will be most congenial with their religion, and most 
 honourable to their own profession of that religion. — The 
 case of infants we can cheerfully leave to God. — What we 
 have now to do is — to observe what a man is conscious of 
 doing in his mind, when he believes and obeys the Gospel, 
 and to show the harmony of this consciousness with what 
 
IN HARMONY WITH DIVINE REVELATION. 233 
 
 the Spirit has taught us in the Gospel, respecting these 
 doings of the mind of man. 
 
 We here propose to examine : — First, the testimony of 
 human consciousness to the mental actions of the spiritual 
 life : — Secondly, the declarations of Scripture on the same 
 subject: — and Thirdly, the principal explanations which 
 theologians have given of this matter. 
 
 I. We shall report as faithfully and accurately as we 
 are able, the testimony of human consciousness to the 
 
 MENTAL ACTINGS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 (1.) He who receives the Gospel as God's message of 
 salvation is conscious of regarding what the Gospel thus 
 makes known, as said to him by the Holy Spirit. He 
 knows, indeed, that the narratives of the Saviour's life, 
 death, resurrection, and ascension, are given to him in the 
 form of authentic human history ; that the general truths, 
 or doctrines, which expound the meaning of those facts 
 as they bear on our salvation, are addressed to him in the 
 recorded discourses of preachers, and in the epistles of 
 five of the apostles ; but he also knows, as the Saviour 
 had promised, and as the apostles proved, that the evan- 
 gelical histories, discourses, and instructions, of the New 
 Testament are given by inspiration, and that the human 
 authors are, herein, the ministers of the Holy Spirit. For 
 this reason, it has not been unusual among the elder 
 theologians to call the faith of a Christian a Divine faith, 
 inasmuch as it is not faith in man only, but faith in God. 
 — The natural aptitude for truth which belongs to the 
 constitution of man is met by a great variety of sources, 
 indications, or means of truth ; and the native energy of 
 the mind is shown in the promptitude, vigour, and con- 
 stancy, with which it lays hold of truth, from whatever 
 quarter it may come, in whatever way it is attained. The 
 fundamental truths of all are in our consciousness itself, 
 in the universal tendencies and laws of our intellectual 
 nature. Our knowledge of the facts which surround us 
 
234 THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 
 
 is gained through the senses ; but our knowledge of the 
 relation of these facts to one another — the exact knowledge 
 which has emphatically received the name of science 
 — is acquired by reasoning, according to the inevitable 
 laws of our being, from the facts which we observe. 
 Our knowledge of facts beyond the sphere of our ob- 
 servation is derived from the knowledge of those who 
 have observed them, or from the inevitable propensity to 
 analogy, which observation has hitherto either corrected 
 or confirmed. Our confidence in the testimony of others 
 is one example of the law of analogy, relying on their 
 observation, and on their veracity in reporting what they 
 know. On such testimony, tried and approved, the most 
 enlightened Christians partly rest their belief of the 
 historical truth of the Christian narratives : partly, not 
 wholly ; for their chief reliance is on the truthfulness of 
 the narratives themselves, on the character of the facts 
 which they record, and on the correspondence of those 
 facts with all that they themselves know to be true, and 
 with all that they find, in themselves, or in others, of the 
 effects of so believing. But, having settled it in their 
 minds that the Gospel is of God, their Christian faith 
 begins in regarding the Gospel as true because it is 
 divine. They have reasons for this. Some are able to 
 state these reasons clearly, logically, and with force ; while 
 others, whose faith is not less intelligent, and rational, 
 and vital, are not so able to expound to others their rea- 
 sons for believing. No Christian believes anything — sim- 
 ply as a Christian, on matters pertaining to his salvation — 
 for which the best possible reason cannot be rendered, if 
 not by himself, yet by some of his fellow-Christians. There 
 is no law of the human intellect violated, or even strained, 
 by any portion of the belief of which every Christian is 
 conscious. What he believes is that which he thinks of as 
 true; holds as true; values as true; uses as true; enjoys 
 as true ; and his reason for thinking thus is — that God 
 
IN HARMONY WITH DIVINE REVELATION. 235 
 
 himself hath so taught him in that word to which he can 
 appeal, at all times, and in the face of all gainsayers. With 
 him divine truth is no speculation — no conclusion from 
 formal reasoning — no authoritative article in a creed com- 
 posed hy fellow-men — no fancied private revelation ; but 
 the open, public, and attested declaration of the living 
 God. His mind may, indeed, have gathered many accre- 
 tions round this central and divine truth; and he may 
 have been so educated as to confound the one with the 
 other; but this is the imperfection of his humanity, not 
 the essential irrationality of his belief. 
 
 There is in him a light which in the unbeliever there is 
 not ; and this light he knows, from his own consciousness, 
 has not been discovered : it is revealed ; it is not his own 
 conjecture, but the truth which has come to him from 
 heaven. It is the light that shows him " things not seen," 
 that brings the distant near; that gives to the future the 
 value of the present ; that enables him to set the realities 
 of eternity against the vanities of time, and to see how 
 dim the brightest things of earth become when contrasted 
 with the glories of heaven. In proportion to the vivacity 
 of his power of picturing to himself the objects with which 
 his senses are not familiar, his views of God, of salvation, 
 of immortality, acquire that vividness and power with 
 which Moses lived "as seeing him who is invisible;" the 
 things of which he has no knowledge but by his faith in 
 God become to him as substantial, and his regard for 
 them becomes as confident, as the perceptions of his 
 senses, or as the routine of his daily life. It is as though 
 he looked into a mirror which reflects from afar the higher 
 beauties and richer treasures of the universe ; or as though, 
 on the shore of mortality, some sacred rock reverberated 
 to his ear the sounds that come over the deep abyss be- 
 tween him and the immortal. He breathes, it is true, the 
 air of earth, lives on its fruits, smiles in its sunshine, 
 and shudders in its storms ; but his faith in God assures 
 
236 THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 
 
 him of a higher sphere, where the vintage never fails, and 
 where all is peace and gladness. 
 
 He knows that he is an offender against the Supreme 
 Majesty, that he has no excuse to offer, no plea to urge; 
 but his faith in God assures him of the grace of pardon 
 through that Mediator who is at once his Brother and his 
 Lord. He dares not think of being present — consciously, 
 as well as actually, present — in the assembly of the right- 
 eous and the holy before God in His own temple, with a 
 heart so unclean, so earthly, as he knows his own to be ; 
 but his faith in God assures him of a power to take his 
 uncleanness all away, and to transform him into a perfect 
 saint. All this the believer of the Gospel thinks. He 
 thinks all this because he believes the things which the 
 Spirit of God has taught him. 
 
 (2.) It is an ancient saying, " As a man thinketh, so is 
 he." The man makes the thought. The thought shows 
 the man. The spiritual thinking which we call believing, 
 produces, as all serious and earnest thinking is sure to do, 
 its corresponding effects on the emotions of our nature. 
 Though it be true that our emotions are not the sources of 
 religious belief, nor the guides of religious life, it is not 
 less true that, when the revealed truth of God has become 
 the mind's law in all the thoughts which relate to our sal- 
 vation, there is no apathy. Whatever allowance Christian 
 candour is required to make for varieties in human temper- 
 ament, for the effects produced by the training of early 
 life, or for the hardening processes of worldly experience, 
 we cannot well conceive of a human mind with no suscep- 
 tibility of emotion : in that degree in which the suscepti- 
 bility exists, it is the mind's own thought that touches it. 
 
 The Christian belief is not a creed carved with steel on 
 marble. It is not the fossil of a former age laid up in a 
 museum. It is not the galvanic shock of a dead nerve. It 
 is a living belief, the present believing of one who is now 
 alive to God. It is believing in Christ. — Christ was no 
 
IN HARMONY WITH DIVINE REVELATION. 237 
 
 stranger to human emotion. He was himself a man of 
 tenderness, of condescension, of love, of sorrow, of sym- 
 pathy. You see it in His looks ; you hear it in His words ; 
 you feel it as you read the brief but suggestive story of 
 His childhood— of His manhood — and of His death ! He 
 shows it to you, if you only go along with Him in the 
 vigils of the night, and in* the labours of the day. His 
 miracles attest it ; so do His tears ; so do His prayers ; so 
 does His cross. Jesus felt because He thought — thought 
 those thoughts with which our Christian believing has to 
 do. Jesus felt strongly, because He thought deeply. This is 
 vital Christianity. The ignorant and the shallow feel 
 because others feel : it is but a copy — an echo. The 
 believer whose mind is full of the truth which the Spirit 
 teaches in the Gospel will feel most intensely when he is 
 by himself, because he is apt to think most intensely 
 then. The deep river moves with power. The solitary 
 star gives splendour to the heavens. To believe God is to 
 think Divine thoughts. To believe Christ is to think 
 Christian thoughts. To believe the Holy Ghost is to think 
 spiritual thoughts. Now it is our nature's law, that 
 thoughts which are Divine, Christian, and spiritual, should 
 awaken appropriate emotions. And so we find it. The 
 believer's mind is humble; because he thinks of himself, 
 not according to the vanity of his own bosom, or the flat- 
 tery of a deceitful world, but according to the truth of God. 
 He is contrite; for how can he look with an unbroken heart 
 on the love he has injured? He is grateful; for he owes 
 "his own soul" to mercy. He is confiding; for the arm 
 that never tires is held out to him on purpose that he may 
 lean upon it, and find how strong it is, when he is at the 
 weakest. He is patient; for he knows, with an assured 
 faith, that the promises on which he is resting cannot fail. 
 He is loving ; because he is loved. He is joyful; because 
 he remembers that God is his portion, and a mansion in 
 the heavenly house is his inheritance. Let a man be only 
 
238 THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 
 
 a believer of what the Spirit of God says — not a speculator 
 — not a formalist — not a mystic — but a believer of what 
 the Spirit says, plainly and with authority, in the Gospel — 
 and it is as natural for him to feel all this as it is for him 
 who believes in the polarity of the magnet to follow its 
 guidance on the trackless waters. 
 
 (3.) The believer is conscious of finding in the Gospel 
 the reasons which induce him to act in a way which is different 
 from the way of unbelievers. He has his peculiarities. 
 These are not whims. They are not traditionary customs. 
 So far from being eccentricities, they radiate from the pro- 
 per centre of humanity. He has for each of these a reason. 
 That reason is a Divine reason ; it is the reason of God 
 acting in man. In setting his affections on things above, 
 in preferring the interests which are spiritual and eternal 
 to those which are carnal and transient, in cultivating the 
 desire to benefit others in those respects which he knows 
 to be the most momentous, and in separating himself 
 from the maxims and associations of the age in which he 
 lives, he is acting according to the dictates of truth as they 
 are taught by the authority of the Spirit of Wisdom. 
 
 (4.) The believer is conscious of receiving from the Gos- 
 pel his encouragements to persevere in his peculiar course, 
 through all the difficulties which perplex and hinder him. 
 The difficulties which every man has to encounter in his 
 progress through life are as diversified as the characters of 
 individuals : yet they admit of being so classed, that their 
 varieties may be grouped together on some obvious princi- 
 ple of general agreement. The difficulties with which he 
 has to cope who is a vital and practical believer of the 
 Gospel include, of course, not a few of the difficulties 
 which surround persons of similar temperament, placed in 
 similar circumstances, who are not believers; but, in his 
 case, even these acquire a special character in consequence 
 of the difference which his believing makes between him 
 and others. 
 
IN HAEMONY WITH DIVINE REVELATION. 239 
 
 Some of the difficulties of the spiritual life have their 
 origin in the imperfection of the believer's mental facul- 
 ties : the scantiness of his knowledge ; the obscurity which 
 rests on objects which he tries to understand; the feeble- 
 ness, dulness, or inconstancy, of his judgment in dis- 
 criminating things that differ; or the interference of his 
 imagination, his affections, and his prejudices, with the 
 calm functions of the intellect in apprehending and appre- 
 ciating truth. 
 
 Some difficulties originate in the contradictory opinions 
 which he discovers in the minds of other men; in the 
 oppositions of speculation ; in the strife of controversy ; in 
 the conflicts of schools and sects ; in the rivalry of com- 
 peting interests. In proportion as he is modest, candid, 
 well-informed, and devoted to truth, he is afraid, equally 
 of overweening confidence in his private opinion, and of 
 servile adherence, or ignorant and bigoted hostility, to the 
 judgment of men who are, for aught he knows, as sincere, 
 as intelligent, and as free to think according to the natural 
 laws of mind, as he feels himself to be. Knowing as he 
 does that contradictions may both be false, though they 
 cannot both be true ; and seeing, as he does, that, on both 
 sides of disputed questions, there is a large array of know- 
 ledge, argument, and moral worth, he finds it difficult to 
 escape from the feebleness of scepticism on the one hand, 
 and, on the other, from the rashness and the falseness of 
 an erroneous positive conclusion. 
 
 Not seldom are all the difficulties of a believing mind 
 increased and aggravated by his consciousness of unholy 
 feelings. He is aware of the workings in his own bosom 
 of intellectual and spiritual pride. He is painfully re- 
 minded that with desires which are spiritual, other desires 
 are blended which have their excitement and their gratifi- 
 cation only in the perishing objects of concupiscence. He 
 has detected in himself an undue estimate of the favourable 
 regards of his fellow-men. He finds his spirit not free 
 
24.0 THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SPIETTUAL LIFE 
 
 from the ambition of ruling and influencing those around 
 him. He has not always been proof against the social 
 fascinations of human life. He cannot assure himself that 
 his mind is perfectly subdued to the mind of God, either 
 in His revelation, or in His government of the world. His de- 
 voutness is not always pure, calm, and heavenly. In all these 
 particulars — which act in a way not unlike the disturbing 
 forces that enter into the complicated calculations of astro- 
 nomy — the self-examining believer learns that the path of 
 his mind around the centre of truth and goodness is so far 
 from being continuous in the right direction, that he has 
 fears lest it should be often, if not always, altogether wrong. 
 
 There are difficulties in the spiritual life, as we regard 
 it, which are not fully explained by any of the causes 
 which have now been stated. Both thoughts and feelings 
 which run counter to their natural or their ordinary asso- 
 ciations, and to their cherished principles, have been felt 
 by holy men, of which — to say the least — the solutions 
 offered by philosophy have not given us entire satisfaction. 
 Such states of mind may, possibly, arise from undetected 
 causes in the mind itself. There may be unhealthy action. 
 That unhealthy action may be occasioned by disordered 
 bodily functions ; it maybe the result of a perverse mental 
 association ; or it may be the natural consequence of a 
 latent moral evil. But, unless it could be proved that man 
 is the only fallen spirit in creation, there may be added to 
 all these the malignant temptation of an unseen enemy. 
 However it is to be accounted for, the consciousness of 
 believers attests the fact, though the explanation of it is 
 beyond their reach. 
 
 Notwithstanding all these difficulties, the believing man 
 is encouraged to persevere, without yielding, or fainting, 
 in his spiritual course : and his primary encouragement he 
 draws from the teaching of the Spirit in the Gospel. There 
 he finds a promise of supernatural aid, expressed in terms 
 so general and comprehensive as to include all the perplex- 
 
IN HARMONY WITH DIVINE REVELATION. 241 
 
 ing variations of his inward life, and breathing so hearty 
 an interest in his well-being, such a continued presence 
 and sympathy with him in his struggles, such an earnest 
 assurance of final conquest, as to animate his faith, and 
 invigorate his constancy. His encouragement is consciously 
 derived from the words of promise. The promise itself 
 relates to more than words : it is fulfilled in the actual im- 
 partation of that divine strength of which we can know 
 no more than that it is promised, and that it becomes a 
 matter of consciousness in its effects. 
 
 This large and full promise of divine grace is, many 
 times, presented in such specific forms, and in such close 
 connexion with the spiritual history of particular persons, 
 that the believer can have no hesitation in applying it to 
 himself, whenever his own experience is similar to that of 
 ancient saints, who " obtained promises " by faith.* Thus 
 it is that the Gospel becomes to the practical believer a 
 perpetual cordial. To him it is like the flashing of the 
 Urim from the gem of Aaron's breastplate ; or as the voice 
 that spake in Eden, on Sinai, or at the mount of transfi 
 guration. It tells him not to fear, but to be of good cou- 
 rage. It shows him that almighty grace is nigh. It whis- 
 pers hope in the deepest chamber of his soul. Whatever 
 consolation may come to him from the memory of " secret 
 refreshings " in former times; from the trusty records that 
 embalm the memories of saints departed; or from the 
 devout breathings to which poetry has consecrated her 
 divinest lays, and music her sweetest notes ; it is to "the 
 Holy Ghost the Comforter " that all these auxiliaries direct 
 his faith : and it is from the words of Him who speaks to 
 us by prophets and apostles, that he takes heart and goes 
 onward in his rough and steep ascent to rest. 
 
 (5.) In the same Gospel the believer is conscious of 
 finding the checks that are needful for that discipline by 
 
 * Some of these promises will be found in the Appendix to this volume, 
 Note N. 
 
 XIV. R 
 
24$ THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 
 
 which his heart is to be purified from the dross of.error 
 and sin, and by which the spiritual life is to gain strength 
 within him. 
 
 The law of Christ, given with a perfect knowledge of 
 "what is in man," and expressing as much love as the 
 gentlest words he ever uttered, is a law which cannot be 
 repealed, and a law from which a believer of the Gospel 
 cannot, as a believer, desire to be exempt. " Then said 
 Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let 
 him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."* 
 Here is a law that demands the abandonment of every 
 opinion that opposes the truth which Jesus teaches by 
 His Spirit; the entire renunciation of a man's own obe- 
 dience to any law of God as his reason for hoping that he 
 will be accepted by Him ; the giving up of all reliance on 
 one's own strength in the pursuit of Christian holiness ; 
 and the sacrifice of every gratification which is not found 
 on that path on which our great Exemplar walked. To 
 believe the Gospel is to come under this law. To observe 
 this law is to give substantial proof that the Gospel is 
 believed. In the spirit of this holy requirement the apos- 
 tles exhort and teach their disciples. 
 
 In such admonitions the believer knows the voice of the 
 Spirit. Listening to Him, he looks within, and around, 
 with a continual sense of danger. His loneliest moments 
 are not without their peculiar peril. Be he where he may, 
 whatever his natural temper, whatever his associations 
 with other men in the world, he remembers that his worst 
 enemy is within ; the whole Gospel is continually saying 
 to him, " Keep thy heart with all diligence ; for out of it are 
 the issues of life."\ 
 
 (6.) From the Gospel the believer is conscious that he 
 
 learns to pray. There he has been taught that prayer is 
 
 not a form, but the outpouring of the heart's desires to 
 
 God. liaising these desires above the grossness of earth 
 
 * Matt. xvi. 24. + Prov. iv. 23. 
 
IN HARMONY WITH DIVINE REVELATION. 243 
 
 to the favour of God, the purification of his thoughts and 
 affections, and his fitness for immortal felicity, the Gospel 
 has revealed to him the Great Propitiation, and the inter- 
 cession of the one High Priest, as his only and sufficient 
 plea. It has encouraged him to approach " the throne of 
 grace" with calmness and hope, with humility and fearless 
 confidence, even as a son may speak unto his father. It 
 has given him to know that at all times, and from every 
 place, his prayer may pass within the veil. It assures him 
 that he is heard ; and, as he believes, he reads the answer 
 in the word of God. 
 
 (7.) The believer is conscious of deriving from the Gos- 
 pel his spiritual peace, his sense of present safety, and his 
 assurance of future blessedness. Whatever interruption 
 he may suffer from the weakness of his mental perceptions, 
 and the many infirmities of heart and inconsistencies of 
 character that cleave to him, he finds that so long as his 
 regards are turned from himself to the work of the Saviour 
 and the promises of grace, his apprehensions are allayed ; 
 his doubts vanish ; " the peace of God, which passeth all 
 understanding, keeps his heart and mind through Christ 
 Jesus;" and his prospect of the life to come is serene and 
 comforting. 
 
 (8.) The believer of the Gospel, as he imbibes its holy 
 lessons, is conscious of finding scope for his purest social 
 yearnings in the Church. The spiritual household has its 
 united consciousness. A real inward sympathy responds 
 to the "new commandment, That ye love one another."* 
 
 Many of the evils flowing from the imperfection of 
 humanity are, unhappily, increased by the unnatural posi- 
 tion in which Christians are mutually placed, from undue 
 attachment to the opinions or forms wherein their educa- 
 tion or their circumstances have made them differ, and from 
 too faint a remembrance that their bond of union is spi- 
 ritual rather than intellectual, more in heartiness of senti- 
 
 * John xiii. 34. 
 
244 THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 
 
 ment than in verbal formularies or outward usages. But 
 these evils have their remedy in the simplicity with which 
 each believer of the Gospel is warranted by the Gospel to 
 draw his own religious views, and to leave his brethren to 
 draw theirs, fresh from the fount of inspiration. 
 
 (9.) The believer is conscious that, as he perseveres in 
 his faith, his prayer, his hope, and his love, these spiritual 
 habitudes gain strength. His early difficulties give way 
 before the practical energy of an earnest mind ; and the 
 efforts which were at one time needed become concen- 
 trated in a power that gives to his highest principles, and 
 to his holiest aspirations, the vigour and steadiness of law. 
 It is of the nature of mind that it should be so. His per- 
 sonal consciousness is as really a part of the divine con- 
 stitution of things as any of the ascertained arrangements 
 which display the laws of material nature. He " grows in 
 grace," and he also grows in " the knowledge of our Lord 
 and Saviour Jesus Christ." "The grace " is not without 
 " the knowledge," nor is the knowledge without the grace : 
 the harmony of the one with the other may perplex the 
 speculative ; but they do work, and work together, in the 
 experience of the practical believer of the Gospel. 
 
 (10.) The spiritual believer may, or he may not, be care- 
 ful to discriminate the working of his own mind from the 
 working of the Spirit. Whether he be or not, he makes no 
 progress in that kind of inquiry by attending only to his 
 direct consciousness. His own dispositions, thoughts, 
 affections, and purposes are all of which he can be con- 
 scious. If he argues on the subject, the testimony of his 
 consciousness can be but one element in the reasoning; 
 the other he must gather from without. From what he 
 knows of his spiritual history — as a whole — compared with 
 what he has good grounds for taking to be the true spi- 
 ritual history of others, he will not rationally conclude that 
 the new life within him is merely the development of what 
 he was before that life began. Neither will he rationally 
 
IN HARMONY WITH DIVINE REVELATION. 245 
 
 conclude, from the same facts, that he has been entirely 
 passive, that his spirituality has had nothing to do with 
 the activity of his mental nature. The Gospel appeals to 
 his knowledge of what he thinks, desires, and chooses; 
 but it also reveals to him that which, apart from its revela- 
 tions, he could not know, — namely, that " it is God which 
 worketh in him both to will and to do of His good plea- 
 sure."* 
 
 Secondly. We may now examine the testimony of the 
 Spirit, in the Scriptures, to this portion of a believer's 
 personal consciousness. The testimony of Scripture on 
 the general subject has been presented in the second and 
 third Lectures. We now refer, particularly, to those de- 
 clarations which bear upon the consciousness of the spi- 
 ritual life in such a way as to account for its being as 
 it is. 
 
 (1.) The Scriptures expressly show that the religion 
 which is required and promoted by the Gospel is an in- 
 ward, spiritual, and active life. The believer is described 
 as one who " hath passed from death unto life," who " hath 
 life," "justification of life," the "light of life," and the 
 " life of God ;" " Christ living in him ;" to whom " to live 
 is Christ," and " Christ is life;" whose "life is hid with 
 Christ in God;" and whose portion is "life and peace. "f 
 
 (2.) The Scriptures expressly affirm that this inward, 
 spiritual, and active life has its cause, its beginning, in 
 some distinct act of God. The passages containing such 
 affirmations are, on the one hand, those in which God is 
 said to have " begun a good work," by "the working of His 
 mighty power," making each of them " a new creature," 
 " quickening" them, "working in them," "of his own will 
 begetting them ; " and, on the other hand, those in which 
 
 * Phil. ii. 13. 
 
 + John v. 24 ; 1 John v. 12; Eom. v. IS; John viii. 1Q; Gal. ii. 19, 20; 
 Eph. iv. 18; Phil. i. 21 ; Col. iii. 3, 4. 
 
246 THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 
 
 they are said to be "born again," " converted," " called,'' 
 " saved," "made holy."* 
 
 (3.) This causation, or beginning, of life from God 
 is set forth in Scripture as a manifestation of His 
 grace, or His special and undeserved favour towards as 
 many as become conscious of this life. They are " the 
 called according to His purpose;" "beloved of God, called 
 to be holy persons ; " — " a chosen generation ; " — " a pecu- 
 liar (appropriated) people ; " — " called by His grace ; " 
 — being what they are "by the grace of God."f 
 
 (4.) According to the Scriptures, spiritual life in man is 
 wrought by the Spirit of God. " Take not thy Holy 
 Spirit from me." — " That which is born of the Spirit is 
 spirit." — "I will put my Spirit within you." — " The law of 
 the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from 
 the law of sin and death." — " If any man have not the 
 Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." — " The Spirit is 
 life." % 
 
 (5.) The life which the Spirit of God graciously begins 
 in man has a relation to Christ the Son of God which is 
 peculiar, spiritual, and indissoluble. Jesus Christ is "the 
 life " of the universe. He has given to the human race 
 at large the promise of " eternal life to every one that 
 believeth on Him." At the same time, every one that 
 "believeth in Him " is related to Him in a way in which 
 " he that believeth not " is not related to Him. 
 
 What that relation is — what it imports when fully 
 understood — can be learned only from the inspired 
 teachers. By them it is brought forward prominently. 
 We find it sublimely intimated in those discourses and 
 prayers of our Lord which bear most directly on the essen- 
 tials of the spiritual life. The apostles currently allude to 
 
 • Phil. i. 6; Eph. i. 19; 2 Cor. v. 17; Phil. ii. 13; James i. 18; John iii. 
 3 ; Acts iii. 19 ; Rom. i. 7; Eph. ii. 5—8. 
 
 + Rom. viii. 28; i. 7; I Pet. ii. 9; Tit. ii. U; Gal. i. 15 ; 1 Cor. xv. 10. 
 t Ps. Ii. 11 ; John iii. G; Ezek. xxxvi. 27; Rom. viii. 9, 10. 
 
IN HARMONY WITH DIVINE REVELATION. 247 
 
 this relation, both in their doctrinal instructions and in 
 their practical exhortations, in such a way as to show that 
 to their minds, so wondrously enlightened by the Spirit 
 whom their Lord had promised to give them, this peculiar 
 relation between Christ and believers was always present ; 
 and in such a way, too, as to convince us that we cannot 
 understand what they say in such passages, without much 
 of that habit of meditation which is accompanied and 
 strengthened by prayer. 
 
 1. This relation is sometimes expressed in the most 
 brief and simple language : " Abide in me, and I in you." 
 — " Christ in you the hope of glory." " Them that are in 
 Christ Jesus." — " We are in Him that is true, even in 
 His Son Jesus Christ." — "Christ liveth in me." — " As the 
 children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself 
 likewise took part of the same." — " We are made partakers 
 of Christ."* The love of Christ to believers is recipro- 
 cated by the love of believers to Him. " He that is joined 
 unto the Lord is one Spirit." 
 
 2. This relation is illustrated by partial resemblances 
 in the natural or social relations with which men are 
 familiar. 
 
 (a.) Jesus speaks of it in that remarkable discourse in 
 which he compares himself to the manna with which .the 
 tribes of Israel were fed in the desert. " I am the living 
 bread which came down from heaven : if any man eat of 
 this bread, he shall live for ever : and the bread that I will 
 give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." 
 — " Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh 
 of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life 
 in you." f 
 
 (b.) The same close relation is compared also by Jesus 
 to that of the vine and the branches. " I am the vine, ye 
 
 * John sv. 4 ; Col i. 27 ; Rom. viii. 1 ; 1 John v. 20 ; Gal. ii. 20 ; Heb. ii. 
 14 ; iii. 14. 
 
 + John vi. 51 , 58. 
 
248 THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 
 
 are the branches : He that abideth in me, and I in him, 
 the same bringeth forth much fruit : for without (apart 
 from) me ye can do nothing."* Alluding to this mode of 
 illustration, the apostle Paul describes the " newness of 
 life," in which believers are to walk; and as our being 
 " planted together in the likeness of His death, and of 
 His resurrection." f 
 
 (c.) One of the apostles illustrates the peculiar relation 
 between Christ and His church, by that of the head and 
 the several members of the body : that " speaking the 
 truth in love, ye may grow up into Him, which is the 
 head, even Christ;" — "from which all the body by 
 joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and 
 knit together, increaseth with the increase of God." J 
 
 (d.) The same relation is compared to that of a hus- 
 band and his wife : — " The husband is the head of the 
 wife, even as Christ is the head of the [church." — " We 
 are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones ; 
 
 This is a great mystery : but I speak concerning 
 
 Christ and His church." § 
 
 (e.) This relation is referred to by our Lord as shadow- 
 ing forth, in some respect, the ineffable relation between 
 the Father and Himself. " As the Father hath loved me, 
 so have I loved you. If ye keep my commandments, ye 
 shall abide in my love ; even as 1 have kept my Fathers 
 commandments, and abide in His love." — " Neither pray 
 I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on 
 me through their word ; that they all may be one, as thou, 
 Father, art in me, and I in thee." || 
 
 These analogies are not fanciful but real. Though real, 
 they are only partial. Each of them bears on some 
 aspect of the relation of Christ to His church. Each is 
 designed to impart a distinct conception of the fact — that 
 there is such a relation ; to enable us to apprehend that it 
 
 * John xv. 5. + Eom. vi. 0. + Eph. iv. 15 ; Col. ii. 19. 
 
 § Eph. v. 23—32. || John xv. 9, 10; xvii. 20, 21. 
 
IN HARMONY WITH DIVINE REVELATION. 249 
 
 is peculiar ; to show us that it is spiritual ; and to assure 
 us that it is never to be dissolved. There is a high and 
 sacred sense in which it may be affirmed that the relation 
 of Christ as a Saviour to each member of his church as a 
 believer, is a relation wholly natural : that is to say, it is as 
 truly of the nature of a Saviour, and of the nature of a 
 believer in that Saviour, that they should be so related in 
 the matter of salvation, as it is of the nature of food to nour- 
 ish the animal life — of a vine to sustain its branches — of 
 a head to guide the body — and of a husband to " be joined 
 to his wife."* 
 
 Our consciousness has to do with only one side of this 
 relation, namely, our relation to Christ. Our belief that 
 so it is — with all the affections which flow from believing 
 that it is so — will more than warrant the strength and 
 warmth of our devotional interest in One to whom we are 
 so closely related. But this relation has another side, 
 namely — Christ's relation to us. This is not known by us 
 otherwise than through the revelation which we believe. 
 A principal object of that relation, and therefore, of our 
 believing, is the work undertaken by the Son of God, and 
 by Him accomplished in our flesh. 
 
 There is a large number of passages in the New Testa- 
 ment which show the Gospel, the Saviour, the " grace " or 
 "love " manifest through the Saviour, and made known in 
 the Gospel, in their aspect towards all mankind indis- 
 criminately. The "tidings" are "for all people," — that 
 " all men through Him might believe." " I will draw all 
 men to me." " God will have all men to be saved, and is. 
 not willing that any should perish." " Christ gave Him- 
 self a ransom for all." "He is the Saviour of all men " — 
 "the Saviour of the world;" " the light of the world," 
 " the life of the world." — " The grace which bringeth 
 salvation hath appeared unto all men." — Jesus tasted 
 11 death for every man," — " died for all," — as " the Lamb of 
 
 * Eph. v. 31. 
 
250 THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 
 
 God that taketh away the sin of the world." — " God was in 
 Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself;" — Christ "is 
 the propitiation for the sins of the whole world ; " — " God 
 so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son."* 
 
 It is not maintained by any class of expositors that 
 these passages assure any man of salvation without believ- 
 ing, repenting, and becoming spiritually " alive unto 
 God."t Neither has any class of expositors gone into the 
 opposite extreme of affirming, in the face of such passages, 
 that any man is forbidden to believe, repent, and live to 
 God ; or that any man who believes, and repents, will, 
 for any reason whatever, be excluded from salvation ; for 
 such a man's being what he is here supposed to be, is 
 itself a proof that he is, already, saved. We must there- 
 fore conclude that, avoiding both of the extremes which 
 are possible, we are warranted by the Gospel to call on 
 every man to believe ; and to promise every man in the 
 name of God, that, as a believer, he may be saved. In 
 this same New Testament we meet with a further number 
 of passages which show the Gospel, the Saviour, the 
 "grace "or "love" of God, in their aspect towards that 
 portion of mankind which includes all, and none but, the 
 finally saved. These are "the redeemed from among 
 men; " — "the peculiar people; " — "the church ; " — " the 
 beloved ; " — " the separated ; " — " the spiritual ; " — those 
 that are " born of God ; " — " the children of God ; " — " the 
 flock of Christ ; " — " many sons brought to glory ; " — those 
 that were " given to Christ." \ 
 
 No class of expositors has imagined that the persons 
 who are thus described are — all mankind : it is universally 
 
 * Luke ii. 10 ; John i. 7, 20 ; iii. 14—16 ; sii. 32 ; Eom. v. 10 ; 1 Cor. xv. 
 22; 2 Cor. v. 14 ; 1 Tim. ii. 4; iv. 10; Titus ii. 11, 12; Heb. ii. 9 ; 2 Pet. 
 iii. 9. 
 
 + Eom. vi. 11. 
 
 t Eev. xiv. 3, 4; Titus ii. 14; Eom. viii. 31, 33 ; John s. 15, 29; xi. 52; 
 xvii. 2, 6, 9, 11, 12,24; Eph,T.25, 
 
IN HARMONY WITH DIVINE REVELATION. 251 
 
 acknowledged that these latter descriptions apply only to 
 the believing, the holy, the saved. There is no confusion 
 in these representations. Neither is there any contradic- 
 tion of the one to the other. They are concentric circles. 
 Other circles, more than we can comprehend, have similar, 
 though more distant, relations to the same divine centre ; 
 we have at least a glance of some segments of them in 
 sundry parts of the Scriptures which tell of " spiritual 
 creatures" who are not men; and likewise, in other por- 
 tions, we trace the connexion even of things which are not 
 spiritual with those which are, and especially with God, 
 whose glorious attributes the whole creation is intended to 
 display. But we confine our thoughts, at present, to the 
 relation between the Saviour and ourselves as shown in 
 the passages of Scripture which are before us. In the 
 former passages which we have cited, we see the aspect of 
 the Gospel towards all human sinners as needing to be 
 saved, and welcome to salvation in the way revealed ; in 
 the latter passages we see the aspect of the Gospel towards 
 as many sinners of our race as are, or shall be, saved. 
 
 Now it is of these latter that we have been speaking — 
 of their consciousness. It is their special relation to 
 Christ that we have just been considering. — We proceed 
 to view this relation on its other side, so that we may 
 learn from the New Testament how Christ is related to 
 " His people." 
 
 3. Christ is so related to His people that what He does 
 in that relation is substantially the same as if it were done 
 personally by them. We are not strangers, either as citi- 
 zens, or as Christians, to representative systems. There 
 is nothing to shock our reason, or to contradict our expe- 
 rience, in the principle of one becoming, in some sort, a 
 substitute for another. Now the relation which Christ 
 bears to his redeemed church is so manifestly of this 
 character, that men must altogether overlook the place 
 filled by the Mediator in the writings of the New Testa- 
 
252 THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 
 
 merit, or they must substitute "another Gospel" for that 
 which the apostles preached, before they can imagine a 
 Christianity without "Christ crucified" as the life of be- 
 lieving offenders, in their penitent return to God. Taking 
 the plain, glowing, and constantly reiterated affirmations 
 of our inspired teachers, in their addresses to intelligent 
 and spiritual converts, as meaning what philology, argu- 
 ment, and the practical history of our religion, concur in 
 proving that they meant — a real and proper substitution 
 of Jesus Christ for those who are redeemed by His life and 
 death, we can scarcely approach with the cautiousness of 
 inquiry a theme so sacred, and so touching in its associa- 
 tion with our deepest emotions, and our dearest interests. 
 We read that " He loved us and gave himself for us;" 
 — "died in our stead;" — " suffered the just instead of the 
 unjust;" that He hath borne our griefs;" that " He, who 
 knew no sin, was made sin for us " — " made a curse for us;" 
 that " He rose for our justification ;" — " by Himself purged 
 our sins:" — was "made like unto His brethren, that He 
 might be a merciful and faithful high priest, in things per- 
 taining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the 
 people ;" that He " became the author of eternal salvation 
 unto all them that obey him;" that "within the veil" "the 
 forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus;" that "by His 
 own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having 
 obtained eternal redemption for us;" that by " one offering 
 He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified;" that 
 He is " the author and finisher of our faith, who,' for the 
 joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising 
 the shame;" that we " are of God in Christ Jesus, who of 
 God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanc- 
 tification, and redemption ;" — and that we are "made the 
 righteousness of God in Him." # 
 
 What can we be taught by such clear words as these, if 
 
 * Eph. v. 2; 1 Tet. iii. IS; Isa. liii. 4 ; Rom. iv. 25; Heb. i. 3; ii. 17; 
 v. 9; vi. 20; ix. 12; x. 14; xii. 2; 1 Cor. i. 30; 2 Cor. v. 21. 
 
IN HARMONY WITH DIVINE REVELATION. 253 
 
 they do not teach us that, although analogies may par- 
 tially illustrate our relation to Christ, and the things which 
 one man can do for another may dimly shadow forth what 
 Christ has done for us, yet His relation to us is not one 
 which can find its parallel in any other: for it transcends 
 them all, and " passeth knowledge." As we meditate de- 
 voutly — it were profanity to approach in any other frame 
 the transactions of his amazing and attractive history — we 
 behold in His birth, ours ; in His rising, ours ; in His 
 ascension, ours ; in His glory, ours. In like manner we 
 are warranted to think of Christ as viewing "His people''' 
 with reciprocal regards. When they are " born again," 
 He " sees of the travail of His soul." As they die to sin, 
 He makes them know " the fellowship of his sufferings, 
 being made conformable unto his death." In the struggles 
 of their faith with old prejudices and false reliances, He 
 beholds them " crucified together with Him." Under 
 trials of hope and patience, He is " touched with the feeling 
 of their infirmity." It will be His "joy" to " present them 
 faultless before his Father." Through every scene he 
 appears to be claiming us as His, that He may embolden 
 us to claim Him as ours. Behold " the riches of the glory 
 of this mystery," " Christ in us," that we maybe presented 
 " perfect in Him." He is the fountain and the ocean of 
 our spiritual life : its very heart. He lives in us : and so 
 we live in Him.* 
 
 4. Christ is so related to those whose " life " which they 
 " now live in the flesh" they " live by the faith of the Son 
 of God," that what is done towards them is done towards 
 Him. Are they " quickened ?" It is " together with Him." 
 Are they forgiven? It is "for Christ's sake." Are they 
 approved ? It is " in Christ." Are they accepted ? It is 
 "in the Beloved." Are their prayers heard? They offer 
 them " in His name." . Are they made to " sit together in 
 
 * Matt. i. 21 ; 1 Pet. i. 23 ; Isa. liii. 11 ; Pliil. iii. 10; Gal. v. 24; Heb. iv. 
 15; Jude24; Col. i. 27, 28. 
 
254 THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 
 
 heavenly places?" It is "in Christ Jesus." If " one of 
 the least of His brethren" is ministered unto in sickness, 
 or in prison, in hunger, thirst, or nakedness, He will say to 
 those who did it, "Yehavedoneituntome." To his martyred 
 servant, Stephen, he appears in the opened heavens " stand- 
 ing at the right hand of God." To Saul, persecuting those 
 who "called on His name," he says, "Why persecutest 
 thou me?" The Spirit is sent in His name — given by Him, 
 that they to whom He is given may be conformed to His 
 likeness, and that He may be " the First-born among many 
 brethren." As the heart's core of spiritual humanity, He 
 vibrates at every touch that benefits or injures them. His 
 love to them is quick, jealous. No property is so carefully 
 hoarded as His interest in them. They are His crown; 
 nor will He suffer one leaf to fade, or one gem to lose its 
 lustre : for He is to be " glorified in His saints, and ad- 
 mired in all them that believe." As " in Him dwelleth all 
 the fulness of the Godhead bodily" — as "God giveth not 
 the Spirit by measure unto him," and as " the Father 
 loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand," 
 giving Him " power over all flesh, that He should give 
 eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him," so " He 
 baptizeth them with the Holy Ghost," fills them " with all 
 the fulness of God," that they may be " full of the Holy 
 Ghost" — "filled with the Spirit" — "sanctified and made 
 meet, and prepared for the Master's use" — " made meet to 
 be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." 
 The main reason why the Spirit is given to men is ex- 
 pressed by Christ himself in His gracious promise to His 
 disciples: "He shall testify of me: He shall glorify me: 
 for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." 
 " All things that the Father bath are mine : therefore said I, 
 that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you."* 
 
 * Gal. ii. 20; Col. ii. 13; Eph. iv. 32 ; Rom. xvi. 10; Eph. i. 16; ii. G ; 
 Matt. xxv. 40 ; Acts vii. 56 ; ix. 4 ; Rom. viii. 29 ; 2 Thess. i. 10 ; Col. ii. 9 ; 
 John iii. 34 ; xvii. 2 ; i. 33 ; Eph. iii. 19 ; Acts xi. 24 ; Eph. v. 18 ; 2 Tim. ii. 
 21; Col. i. 12; John xv. 26; xvi. 14, 15. 
 
IK HAEMONY WITH DIVINE EEVELATION. 255 
 
 Christianity is this manifestation of Christ in His people. 
 Men become Christians by having the Spirit of Christ in 
 them. They know themselves to be Christians, as they 
 are conscious of being like Christ. They prove that they 
 are Christians "by living as Christ lived. " As He was, so 
 are we in this world."* 
 
 5. The relation between Christ and His people is con- 
 trasted, in the New Testament, with the parallel relation 
 between Adam and his posterity. This contrast is briefly 
 touched, at one point, in the apostle Paul's argument on 
 the resurrection, in his First Epistle to the Corinthians. 
 " For since by (a) man (came) death, by (a) man (came) 
 also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, 
 even so in Christ shall all be made alive. The first man 
 Adam was made a living soul : the last Adam (was made) 
 a quickening spirit — the first man is of the earth, earthy; 
 the second man is the Lord from heaven." 
 
 The same contrast is carried out to greater length in the 
 Epistle to the Romans, f 
 
 The analogy assumed in these passages is between the 
 relation of Adam to his seed, and the relation of Christ to 
 His seed : in this respect Adam was a " type of Him that 
 was to come;" — Adam the first man: Christ the second 
 Adam. The contrast of these analogous relations lies 
 between the Divine principles which they display, and 
 between the persons, — their several seeds, — and the oppo- 
 site effects which result from their respective modes of 
 acting. Adam was " of the earth;" Jesus is "the Lord 
 from heaven." Adam's relation to his posterity was a dis- 
 play of Divine righteousness ; Christ's relation to His 
 people is a manifestation of Divine grace. Adam stood in 
 a special relation to his natural posterity ; Christ stands in 
 a special relation to His redeemed people. Adam, in his 
 relation to his posterity, transgressed ; Christ, in His rela- 
 tion to His people, was obedient. By Adam's offence his 
 race has been condemned; by Christ's obedience, His 
 * 1 John t. 17. f Rom. v. 10—19. 
 
256 THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 
 
 people are justified. Adam's disobedience brought his 
 children to the grave; Christ's obedience brings to His peo- 
 ple a glorious resurrection, and an everlasting life. 
 
 6. The things which relate to our spiritual life are 
 revealed to us in the Gospel that, by believing what it 
 reveals, we may apprehend and enjoy them. 
 
 As consciousness is the only source of our knowledge of 
 the human, revelation is the only source of our knowledge 
 of the Divine. We know nothing of the Holy Spirit but what 
 He has communicated to us by His inspired servants. The 
 things revealed to us by Him through them are the things 
 which relate to our spiritual life. The facts and the princi- 
 ples or truths thus made known are not intended either to 
 excite or to gratify our speculative curiosity. They are " our 
 life," — " words whereby we shall be saved." These words 
 are to be understood — not in all their possible bearings, 
 but in their one bearing on our personal salvation. They 
 are to be believed, held as true to us. He who holds them 
 as true to him, cannot act as though these true things were 
 not known by him, or as though they were not held by 
 him as true. By believing the truth, he comes to think 
 truly, to feel truly, and to act truly, according to the Divine 
 model. Men can no more contravene the laws of their 
 spiritual nature, than they can contravene the laws of their 
 material nature. To be " spiritually minded," is to " mind 
 the things of the Sjnrit;" and this is "life and peace." To 
 " mind the things of the Spirit," is to believe them, intel- 
 ligently, earnestly, habitually, and practically, even as the 
 mariner minds his chart, his compass, his sextant, and the 
 stars of heaven, for the purpose of being guided by them 
 in a course where, without them, no sagacity, no experi- 
 ence, no good intentions or feelings of his own, could 
 enable him to find his way. 
 
 So important, so necessary is it to have the truths with- 
 out believing which we have no spiritual life clearly and 
 vividly presented to us, that every mode of awaking atten- 
 
IN HARMONY WITH DIVINE REVELATION. 257 
 
 tion to them has been graciously employed for this purpose. 
 With what a variety and fulness of gifts have "men of 
 God " been enriched, that they might be fitted for so high 
 a service ! What a perpetual miracle is that collection of 
 Holy Writings which by the common consent of Christen- 
 dom is called The Book !* 
 
 According to the teaching of The Book, the truths which 
 it contains are to be preached by believing, holy, and loving 
 men ; and all such men are to regard it as one of the great 
 aims of their lives to adorn these truths in their own cha- 
 racter, and to spread them far and wide, until they have 
 reached every mind on earth. We know of no conversions, 
 
 * ' : Tlie connexion in which a book may stand to the intellectual and spi- 
 ritual life of men," has been shown with great originality and beauty, in the 
 Hulsean Lectures for 1845 and 1846. By Bichard Chevenix Trench, M.A., 
 Professor of Divinity, King's College, London. Second edition, Cambridge. 
 " It is only by recurrence to such witnesses as are thus secured for the form 
 in which the truth was at first delivered, that any great restoration or refor- 
 mation can proceed; only so, can that which is grown old renew its youth, 
 and cast off the slough of age. Without this, all that is once let go would bo 
 irrecoverably gone ; all once lost, would be lost forever. Without this, all that 
 did not interest at the moment, all which was laid deep for the uses of a re- 
 mote posterity, of which they were first to discover the price and the value, 
 would, long before it reached them, have inevitably perished. And when the 
 church of the apostolic age, with that directly following, is pointed to as an 
 exception to this general rule, — as a church existing without a Scripture, — 
 oven as, no doubt, for some while, the church did exist with a canon not fully 
 formed, but forming, and for a little while, without any Scriptures peculiarly 
 its own, it is left out of sight that the question is not, whether a church could 
 to exist, — but whether it could subsist, — not whether it could be, but whether 
 it could continue to be. That for a while, under rare combinations of favour- 
 aide circumstances, with living witnesses, and fresh memories of the Lord's 
 Jife and deatli in the midst of it, a Christian church, without any actual writ, 
 ings of its New Covenant, could have existed, is one thing; and another, 
 whether it could so have survived through long ages; whether without them 
 it could have kept ever before its eyes any clear and distinct image of Him 
 that was its Founder, or stamped any lively impress of Him mi the hearts of 
 its children. No; it is assuredly no happy accident of the church that it 
 possesses a Scripture ; but, if the wonder of the church's first b scorning were 
 not to repeat themselves continually— if it was at all to know a natural evolu- 
 tion in the world; then, as far as we can see, this was a necessary condition 
 ol its very subsistence." 
 
 XIV. s 
 
258 THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 
 
 in the scriptural meaning of the word, which have been 
 effected otherwise than by believing the truths revealed by 
 the Spirit in the Scriptures. Neither do we know of any 
 mind believing these truths, apart from the signs of a spi- 
 ritual life. Our Lord has said — " The words that I speak 
 unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." Of the apos- 
 tles' ministry it is narrated — " Now, when they heard 
 Peter's preaching, they were pricked in their hearts;" — 
 "they that gladly received his word were baptized : and the 
 same day there were added unto them three thousand 
 souls ;" — " all that believed were together; " he " shall tell 
 thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved; " 
 the Lord " opened- Lydia's heart, that she attended unto 
 the things which were spoken of Paul." In the epistles of 
 the New Testament it is affirmed that the " Gospel of 
 Christ is the power of God unto salvation to every one 
 that believeth ; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek; for 
 therein is the righteousness of God revealed;" — that they 
 who had been " the servants of sin," " obeyed from the 
 heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to them;'" 
 and that " it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching 
 to save them that believe." The apostle Paul says to the 
 Corinthian believers: "Though ye have ten thousand 
 instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers : for in 
 Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel." 
 And in his Epistle to Philemon, he says of Onesimus, — 
 " whom I have begotten in my bonds." To the Thessal- 
 onians the same apostle says, — "when ye received the word 
 of God, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the 
 word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which 
 effectually worketh also in you that believe." In the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews we read, — " the word of God is quick and 
 powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing 
 even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the 
 joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and 
 intents of the heart." The apostle James declares to the 
 
IN HARMONY WITH DIVINE REVELATION. ^.jO 
 
 twelve tribes scattered abroad, — "of His own will begat He 
 us with the word of truth;" and he speaks of "the en- 
 grafted word which is able to save your souls." The apos- 
 tle Peter says " to the strangers scattered," " seeing ye 
 have purified your souls in obeying the truth, through the 
 Spirit, unto unfeigned love of the brethren, love one ano- 
 ther with a pure heart fervently: being born again, not of 
 corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, 
 which liveth and abideth for ever. "* 
 
 A critical examination of the words in each of these 
 passages appears to warrant the conclusion — that by the 
 preaching of the Gospel, men are brought to know the 
 truth, to believe it, and to bring forth its fruit, in a holy, 
 spiritual life. 
 
 We have thus sought to bring closely together the whole 
 of what is taught in the New Testament respecting that 
 spiritual life of which Christians are conscious. We have 
 seen that this spiritual life is the peculiar life of Christians ; 
 —that it is from God ; — that it is a manifestation of the 
 "grace " or "love " of God ; — that it is wrought by the Holy 
 Spirit ; — that it has a singular and indissoluble relation to 
 Christ; — and that it is the effectual working of the truth 
 which is revealed in the Gospel. To the extent in which 
 it is possible to compare this teaching of the New Testa- 
 ment with the consciousness of Christians, the one is the 
 exact counterpart of the other. In those respects in which 
 the limits of the human mind forbid our making such a 
 comparison, we believe, on the authority of Him by whom 
 the apostles were inspired, that their testimony in this 
 matter is true. Such is our Christian belief. 
 
 Thirdly. We shall now briefly examine some explana- 
 tions of the spiritual life which have been given by the< 
 logians. It can scarcely be necessary, though it m in- 
 advisable, to introduce our examination by say in < 
 
 * John vi. H.°) ; Acts ii. -11 , 1 « ; xi. 14 ; KV 1 ! : Rom. i. 10; \ i. 
 i. 21; iv. 15; 1 Thess. ii. 18; iv. IS; Jm ' '3,2V; 1 Tot. i. 22, 
 
2G0 THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 
 
 whatever there may be of comparative truth in these ex- 
 planations of men, we are to distinguish them from the 
 positive truth revealed to us by God. So far as the explan- 
 ations relate to things which are revealed, they may be of 
 service to us in many ways : they may show the manner 
 in which the truth has been apprehended by various minds; 
 and they may correct our own apprehensions on points 
 respecting which ignorance, erroneous teaching, or too 
 superficial thought, may have led us into mistakes. If we 
 candidly compare them, we may learn to distrust our own 
 judgment in matters wherein wise, holy, and studious 
 Christians have greatly differed from each other. If we 
 give due consideration to the opinion intended to be ex- 
 pressed in the language used for the purpose of expressing 
 it, and to the reasons offered for holding that opinion, we 
 may be convicted of unfairness in having suffered preju- 
 dice to pervert our understanding of the sense of terms, 
 our judgment of the truth of propositions, or our percep- 
 tion of the force of arguments. We may be led to the 
 conclusion, that what many have been contending for as 
 divine truth has been no more than a human explanation, 
 possibly an inaccurate explanation, of that truth. — So far 
 as these or other explanations relate to things which are 
 not revealed, we must regard them as purely speculative. 
 They may be ingenious, interesting, probable, or even 
 demonstrable on some acknowledged principles ; still, in- 
 asmuch as they relate to what is not revealed by the Spirit 
 of God, we are not permitted to place them on a level with 
 the things which the Spirit has revealed. 
 
 1. The first explanation of the Spiritual life which we 
 shall notice is the traditional explanation. This is involved 
 in the church notions which have been unfolded in our 
 fourth Lecture. We now object to it — that it originates 
 in an obsolete and erroneous philosophy ; that it confounds 
 the material with the spiritual, the human with the divine; 
 that it is part of a system of sacerdotal pretensions, which 
 
IN HARMONY WITH DIVINE REVELATION. 201 
 
 is so far from being founded on the New Testament 
 as to be opposed alike to its letter and to its spirit; that 
 its tendency is to prevent spiritual religion by drawing the 
 mind away from God to man. Blinding the intellect, and 
 prostrating the conscience, it substitutes for the humble, 
 heartfelt, and manly, devotion of Christians, the coldness 
 of form, the illusions of fancy, or the morbid fervour of 
 enthusiasm. It exalts the clergy by depressing the church. 
 It covers with a veil the majestic grandeur of our Saviour's 
 meditation. It nurses many hearts in superstition. It 
 deceives and hardens other hearts into infidelity* It 
 nullifies the New Testament, and supersedes the faith of 
 the Gospel. It destroys the true character of the Chris- 
 tian ministry as an office for the instruction of mankind in 
 the truths which God has revealed. We find its emblem 
 at the forsaken sepulchre, in the linen grave-clothes which 
 the risen Lord has left behind Him. 
 
 2. Another explanation of spiritual life is — enthusiastical. 
 
 The enthusiast regards himself or his teacher as inspired, 
 receiving revelations of truth, and intimations of duty, 
 direct from God: as seeing God; hearing God; feeling- 
 God. In nearly every age of the church, professions have 
 been made of private illumination by the Spirit — that 
 supernatural kind of illumination which was given to 
 " men of God," before the completion of the sacred canon. 
 The extraordinary gifts of the first age were bestowed on 
 the apostles as the witnesses of our Lord's resurrection, 
 and on those on whom they laid their hands, with prayer 
 for this specific gift. These gifts proved the Divine com- 
 mission of the apostles; fitted them to declare infallibly 
 the "counsel of God;" and ensured the continuance of 
 their testimony by written oracles until the end of the world. 
 
 We find no Divine arrangement mentioned in the New 
 Testament for a constant succession, nor any promise 
 held out of the reappearance, of these extraordinary en- 
 dowments ; on the contrary, there is much to imply that, 
 
202 THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 
 
 after the first generation of Christians, they would cease. 
 What pretensions to such illuminations have arisen, they 
 hare always failed hefore the application of the tests which 
 proved the reality of the apostolic powers. Christians are 
 cautioned by inspired apostles against delusions of that 
 kind. The instruction and comfort of the church have 
 been promoted, for many ages, by the rational and devout 
 application of the truth revealed in Scripture, and believed 
 by Christians. We may add, that doctrines contrary to 
 each other, and manifestly inconsistent with the Scriptures, 
 have been propagated under the guise of spiritual illumin- 
 ation, and that wisdom, piety, humility, and reverence for 
 the Holy Spirit, unite in urging us to reject them alto- 
 gether. Far, very far indeed, are we from denying that 
 the reader or hearer of the Gospel will understand it 
 better in proportion as he prays to be enlightened by the 
 Spirit. But the most enlightened believer cannot impart 
 his views to others on his personal authority as one who is 
 peculiarly instructed; he can commend those views to 
 others only by appropriate reasons. It is not the fact of 
 his illumination, but the fruits it produces in his wise and 
 consistent exposition of what the Spirit has revealed in 
 Scripture, that affords a satisfactory and spiritual ground 
 of agreement with him. Where that ground is not offered, 
 his private illumination, how real soever, and beyond all 
 price to him, invests him with no power to command the 
 acquiescence of a single mind. The unquestionably good 
 effects ascribed by enthusiasts to the direct illumination 
 of the Spirit are either such as are really due to the sug- 
 gestions of natural reason and conscience, or such as ordi- 
 narily follow from the practical belief of revealed truth. 
 
 3. The last explanation we notice may be called the 
 philosophical. 
 
 The most active efforts of the human intellect have been 
 directed, for a long time, to the study of the laws of nature. 
 These studies have been successful to a remarkable extent. 
 
IN HARMONY WITH DIVINE REVELATION. 268 
 
 Many supposed occult powers have been exploded. By the 
 knowledge of mechanical forces, of chemical affinities, of 
 electric and molecular attractions and repulsions, of the 
 structure of animal tissues, and of the analysis of nutritive 
 and vital processes, many confused notions, and not a 
 little unmeaning phraseology, have been rendered obsolete. 
 The advantages thus gained for physical science, for prac- 
 tical life, and for natural theology, are such as none but 
 the ignorant would for a moment depreciate. — It scarcely 
 seemed presumptuous to hope that methods of inquiry 
 which have solved so many difficulties might suffice for the 
 solution of many more. That which is known invariably 
 to precede a given fact in the operations of nature, is pre- 
 sumed to be its cause. From this presumption, — which is 
 only a part of the truth, — it is promptly inferred that, in 
 the operations of man's spiritual life, the cause of every 
 movement is, in like manner, that which is known imme- 
 diately to precede it. Yet prompt and seemingly philo- 
 sophical as this inference may be, it begins with the fallacy 
 of assuming that spiritual actions resemble physical phe- 
 nomena : overlooking the testimony of consciousness to 
 the truth that between these two things thus compre- 
 hended in one class — the physical and the spiritual — there 
 is no likeness at all. Besides assuming this, the specu- 
 lator takes for granted that he is familiar with all the 
 conditions both of natural causes and of spiritual life. 
 But we do not know that philosophy has accounted for the 
 beginning of anything in the multiform series of complex 
 natural causes with which science deals : there is alwavs 
 some agency, power, principle, or law, which still remains 
 to be explained. As to our spiritual nature, philosophers 
 of no mean name in ancient Greece, and in modem 
 England, Germany, and France, have lost their way by 
 going beyond the range of consciousness into metaphy- 
 sical abstractions, or by mistaking the analysis of notions, 
 and the dissection of terms, for the exposition of facts. 
 
2G4 THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 
 
 Whatever classification of mental states may be adopted, 
 and by whatever names it may be thought expedient to 
 call such mental states, the true philosophy of the human 
 mind consists only in a correct induction of the facts of con- 
 sciousness, and in an exposition of the laics according to which 
 these facts are known to be developed. The peculiarity of 
 those mental acts with which Christianity is more specially 
 concerned lies in their spontaneity, in the responsibility of 
 him who performs these acts, and in the condemned and 
 unhappy state of those who, of their own accord, have 
 sinned. It is with men so regarded that Christianity has 
 to do. It is to their case that the explanation we are 
 considering is to be applied. The explanation is this : — 
 that the reception of truth by the mind is the cause of 
 whatever change is known to follow that reception of the 
 truth, in the same way in which an effect in material 
 nature is accounted for. In whatever sense it is under- 
 stood that the truth received by sinful men is revealed by 
 the Spirit, in that sense the explanation admits that the 
 Spirit is the cause of the change ; but the means, or 
 proximate cause, is held to be — the truth received into the 
 mind. — In support of this theory it has been ably argued 
 that such terms as conversion, repentance, regeneration, 
 sanctification, mean nothing else than the effects produced 
 by believing the truths which God has revealed ; — that there 
 is no conceivable principle of religion but that of a fixed 
 mode of thinking on religious subjects; — that the moral 
 depravity of man can be rectified only by such moral 
 means as those which are supplied in the truths and 
 motives of the Gospel ; — that nothing in religion can be a 
 matter of personal consciousness, which is not the effect of 
 truth believed ; — that faith is the principle of holy action ; 
 — that this view is analogous to all the other operations of 
 Divine agency in nature and in providence ; — that the 
 representations of inspired writers agree with the expe- 
 rience of men in showing that the effects attributed to the 
 
IN HARMONY WITH DIVINE REVELATION. 265 
 
 Spirit are produced by the truth ; — and that the rejection 
 of this view involves a notion of physical impulses, which 
 is contrary alike to the moral constitution of man, and to 
 the genius of true religion.* 
 
 Some of these considerations, partial and one-sided 
 though they be, commend themselves as having no small 
 force against the mysticism which expects men to he saved 
 without believing the Gospel. 
 
 In the second Lecture, we have proved that the Spirit is 
 the permanent Teacher of Divine truth; and in the third 
 Lecture we have proved that the Spirit also does that 
 which is not teaching, but which results in a man heartily 
 receiving the truth, and bringing forth the fruits of faith. 
 In the present Lecture it has been our aim to evince the 
 harmony of consciousness with revelation in both these 
 views of the Spirit's work — saving men. The explanation 
 now under review, according to our best judgment, often 
 and anxiously revised, appears to be defective. We are not 
 satisfied with being told that by conversion, repentance, 
 regeneration, sanctification, and the strong figurative lan- 
 guage used in illustration of them, nothing more is meant 
 than the effects produced by believing the Gospel. They 
 do indeed describe the effects produced by believing the 
 Gospel; yet, as it appears to us, they describe further, 
 that — we presume not to define it — without the doing of 
 which the Gospel is not so believed as to produce these 
 effects ; and this is what we understand to be meant by 
 the large class of passages in the New Testament in which 
 the saving work of the Spirit is promised, prayed for, or 
 described, as characterizing the spiritual history of re- 
 deemed sinners. 
 
 Is any work wrought in a sinner by the Spirit of God 
 
 in order to that humble reception of the truth which we 
 
 agree in speaking of as faith ? As we understand the 
 
 explanation we are examining, it answers — No. Our own 
 
 * Bennett's Gospi I Dispensation. — Glasgow Correspondence. 
 
20G THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE 
 
 answer to the question is — Yes. To us the Scriptures 
 seem to yield this answer. Far as we are from supposing 
 that the work which we consider as pervading all that is 
 understood, in ordinary language, as the beginning and 
 the progress of spiritual life, is one of which a man can be 
 directly conscious, we are equally far from believing that 
 human consciousness alone is to be consulted in the matter, 
 or that the lack of consciousness is to be supplied by even 
 the soberest speculations on the possible and the neces- 
 sary: for our religious faith is founded neither on the 
 facts of consciousness, nor on the demonstrations of 
 reason, but simply on the word of God which is contained 
 in Holy Scripture. As we turn away from ecclesiastical 
 assumptions, and from the coloured clouds of mysticism, 
 so also do we rise above the clearest lights of philosophy, 
 to the authoritative teachings of the Holy Spirit respecting 
 His own work in saving us. 
 
 It may be asked, with all propriety, — since you reject the 
 explanations of tradition, of enthusiasm, and of philosophy, 
 — what better explanation do you propose ? In all seri- 
 ousness and good faith, it is replied : — We have no expla- 
 nation which we could propose with confidence, as solving 
 the entire problem of that spiritual life which is the con- 
 sciousness of a Christian, and which the Holy Spirit 
 claims in the New Testament, as His peculiar work in 
 all them that are saved ; nor do we know of any human 
 explanation to which we could subscribe. But why have 
 any ? Can we unfold what is spoken of in Scripture as a 
 mystery ? Who has explained the life of a plant — of an 
 animal — of a mind? We firmly hold all that has been 
 said, by whomsoever, of the indispensable connexion of 
 the believing of the Gospel, with salvation, — of the effica- 
 cious working of the Gospel in them that believe, — of the 
 freedom of man from all outward constraint or impulse in 
 believing the Gospel, and in living as he does, because he 
 believes it. And we hold, not more nor less firmly, all 
 
IN HARMONY WITH DIVINE REVELATION. 2 07 
 
 that has been said, by whomsoever, of the indisputable 
 connexion of believing " to the saving of the soul " with 
 being " born again," with " having the Spirit," with being 
 " made partakers of the Divine nature," with being " in 
 Christ," with being " chosen of God." These are " things 
 which are surely believed " by us. We have no hope of 
 converting men, guiding them in action, or comforting 
 them in sorrow and in death, if they will not believe the 
 Gospel. Neither do we expect any man to believe the 
 Gospel — as we are persuaded he could, if he would, and as 
 we are sure he ought — until he is born of "the Spirit." 
 But when we are required to believe that the Spirit of God 
 do^s something to the truth after it is revealed, which 
 neither adds to its quantity, nor changes its quality, we 
 confess that we are puzzled. We find no relief from our 
 perplexity in being told that the truth has some new or 
 additional power when the Spirit wields it as a man might 
 wield a "hammer " or a " sword ; " for we cannot discover 
 the appropriateness of the sacred imagery, when so applied. 
 There is a coarseness, as well as a want of accuracy, in 
 such applications, which revolts the taste which we have 
 cultivated, however imperfectly, by the study of the pro- 
 phets and apostles. — It may seem superficial to avoid 
 explaining how it is that the spiritual life of man is pro- 
 duced and sustained by the Spirit of God, and at the same 
 time connected with man's own believing of the truth. 
 Be it so. A full explanation of this whole matter has not 
 yet been given, so far as we are acquainted with theological 
 literature. We make no pretensions of ability to supply 
 the defect. No words of man have brought out all " the 
 mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ," * 
 neither t}o any words of man that we have read, bring out 
 all the truth of our Lord's memorable declaration : " that 
 which is born of the flesh is flesh ; and that which is born 
 of the Spirit is spirit." -j- 
 
 * Col. ii. 'Z. + John iii. 0. 
 
268 THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE, ETC. 
 
 We may not be able to show, to the satisfaction of all 
 men, how these things are ; but the believer of the Gospel 
 has in himself the witness that they really are as the 
 Gospel, which he believes, has represented them to be. 
 
LECTUKE VII. 
 
 THE MORAL ENERGY OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 " If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall 
 live." — Eom. viii. 13. 
 
 While the inspired writers distinctly teach that there is 
 a work of the Spirit in man, they never confound that with 
 the proper work of man himself. It is that man may do 
 his proper work, acting according to the principles of his 
 nature as it comes from God, that the work of the Spirit is 
 wrought in him. So we understand their doctrines and 
 admonitions. 
 
 In those parts of the New Testament where the Spirit 
 is most fully and emphatically set forth, the consequence 
 to result from what he does is at the same time most 
 earnestly enjoined. Christians are required to "walk 
 after the Spirit," to " sow to the Spirit," to bring forth 
 " the fruit of the Spirit." They who are " sanctified hy 
 the Holy Ghost " are called on to " cleanse themselves 
 from all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit," and to " per- 
 fect holiness in the fear of God." 
 
 It is probable that believers, both among the Jews and 
 among the Greeks, would receive with the same reverence 
 the revealed truth and the Divine exhortation which alike 
 came to them from God, not perplexing themselves with 
 curious questions as to the speculative consistency of the 
 things which they were thus taught. As soon, however, as 
 the notions acquired independently of the Gospel began 
 
270 THE MORAL ENEEGI OF 
 
 to tincture men's thoughts, and to modify their language, 
 on the themes of their religious belief, we discover two 
 conflicting intellectual tendencies: the one to fatalism, the 
 other to a rigid assertion of the freedom of man. Along 
 with these intellectual tendencies we perceive the gradual 
 progress of that ecclesiastical encroachment which not 
 only proscribed the right of private judgment on the mean- 
 ing of the Gospel, but also abridged the liberty of personal 
 action according to the dictates of each man's conscience. 
 The Church became the mistress, as well as the teacher, of 
 the Christian people. So long as there was no vigorous 
 assertion of individual freedom either in thought or in 
 action, and men silently submitted to the doctrines and 
 the rules of the hierarchy, they might enjoy the reputation, 
 with all its real or supposed advantages, of being the obe- 
 dient children of the church. 
 
 It was not likely that this artificial limiting of Chris- 
 tianity would produce such living results as those by which, 
 at the first, the Gospel had proved itself to be the power 
 of God. It was but natural for those who judged of what 
 is right by proxy to leave the practice as well as the study 
 of spiritual religion to their acknowledged superiors, con- 
 tenting themselves with an implicit faith in what they were 
 taught to believe, and an outward conformity with the 
 regulations which they were required, as Christians, to 
 observe. While there was scarcely any living faith result- 
 ing from personal conviction of the grand truths of the 
 Gospel, and while, at the same time, the principles of 
 natural morality were generally weakened, and even super- 
 seded, by the mere habits of obedience to spiritual rulers. 
 it was not to be expected that there could be more than 
 exceptional instances of the high morality which the belief 
 of the Gospel invariably produces. 
 
 Such was the condition of affairs in Western Christen- 
 dom, when Pelagius and his disciples Julian and Ccelestius 
 began to propagate the doctrines which oppose the scho- 
 
THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. '271 
 
 lastic and ascendent theology, by asserting the moral 
 powers of human nature. It might not be difficult to 
 show that there was much in the state of opinion and of 
 morals at the time to excuse, though it did not fully 
 justify, the stand which was made by the Pelagians. As 
 opposed to the technical scholasticism which prevailed in 
 the high places of the church, and to the loose morality 
 which threatened the destruction of the Christian religion, 
 their aim appears to well-informed persons to have been 
 praiseworthy ; and the most candid, of every party, have 
 confessed that their reasonings from Scripture, and their 
 appeals to conscience, were by no means destitute of 
 force.* But, as usually fares in disputes, one extreme was 
 exchanged for another, not less distant from the truth, and 
 equally fraught with mischiefs, though different in kind. 
 The fallacy of Pelagianism lies in substituting the theory 
 of human nature as it ought to be, for the history of 
 human nature as it is ; and, while zealous for morality, in 
 overlooking the truths of the Gospel which, besides cm- 
 bracing objects higher than human morality, constitute 
 the only spring from which a pure morality has ever 
 flowed. In opposing Pelagianism, Augustine may have 
 been greatly influenced by an apprehension of its practical 
 consequences in drawing men away from their attendance 
 on the offices of the church ; but we cannot study the 
 writings of that great defender of the orthodox faith, and 
 not perceive that he was also moved by loyalty to Christ, 
 and by zeal on behalf of those doctrines which embody the 
 
 * Versuch einer pragmatischen Darstellung des Augustinismus und Pela- 
 gianismus nach ihrer geschichtlichen Entwickelung. Von Gustav Friedrich 
 Wingers. 1833. The first volume of Dr. Wiggers' Essay was translated, 
 with an instructive preface, by Mr. E. Emerson, Professor of Church History 
 in the Theological Seminary at Andover, Mass. This translation is now 
 out of print. I have both the [volumes of the original, and have derived 
 much advantage from the study of them. In Dr. W.'s candour, impartiality, 
 and vigorous apprehension of principles and arguments, one cannot bul re- 
 joice, even though one does not take precisely the same views. 
 
2 / 'A THE MORAL ENERGY OF 
 
 principles peculiar to Christianity, so largely exhibited in 
 
 the writings of the apostle of the nations. * The re- 
 assertion of these doctrines in their breadth and power 
 was the strength of the Reformation. It was the pith of 
 Puritanism. It has won for their successors in the re- 
 formed churches of the Continent, and among the Cal- 
 vinists of England, Scotland, and America, the honour 
 or the stigma of Evangelicalism. Without refusing this 
 title to those Christians who do not understand, or, under- 
 standing, do not adopt, the metaphysical doctrines of 
 Calvinism, and without affirming that those metaphysical 
 doctrines are, in all respects, a just representation of the 
 truths concerning Divine grace which are revealed in the 
 New Testament, we know that the followers of Augustine 
 in the ancient times, and of Calvin in the modern times, 
 have been the most distinguished for the maintenance of 
 the power and grace of Cod in man's salvation. 
 
 The moral arguments against these doctrines, whether 
 urged by their earlier or their later opponents, are, we be- 
 lieve, substantially the same with those which are answered 
 in the Epistle to the Romans. We need not shrink from 
 comparing the preaching of these doctrines with that of 
 their opponents, in the moral effects produced by each 
 respectively. The direct and exclusive preaching of mo- 
 rality has been tried in this country, along with such 
 Christian doctrines as were suggested by the grand festi- 
 vals of the church, aided by the advantages of learning, 
 capacity, and every kind of social respectability ; and the 
 fruit has been seen, long since, in the almost total banish- 
 ment of religion and morality from the habits of the 
 English people; w r hile, on the contrary, the lively exhi- 
 bition of the truths which are essential, as well as peculiar, 
 to Christianity, whether with or without the metaphysical 
 
 * Dr. Hampden, in Ins r.ampton Lectures, seems to me to be swayed by 
 his theory of the difference between the distinctive tendencies of the Eastern 
 and Western churches. Dr. Neander has folly exhibited the whole matte* 
 
 with his own peculiar ability. 
 
THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 27,3 
 
 points on which evangelical believers are divided, has 
 been uniformly followed by the turning of the sinner 
 from the evil of his ways, and the steady practice of 
 the virtues by which man is dignified, and society 
 adorned. 
 
 This practical development of the spiritual life exhibits 
 the manifestation of the Spirit of God in the restoration 
 of man to the Divine image. Whatever mystery belongs 
 to the mode of the Spirit's agency in effecting this resto- 
 ration, — however delicate and hard to be perceived the dis- 
 tinction of what the Spirit does, from what the renewed 
 man does in consequence of the Spirit's work, we are 
 forbidden by the Scriptures to deny the one, and we are 
 forbidden by our consciousness to deny the other : we 
 believe both. Because we receive the Scriptures as the 
 word of God, and because we regard the human mind as 
 the work of God, we are persuaded that these independent 
 testimonies to separate aspects of the same process are not 
 contradictory, but harmonious. 
 
 In now attempting to illustrate the moral energy of the 
 spiritual life in man, we propose to discuss these four 
 positions : — 
 
 First : The work of the Spirit in renewing the sinner is 
 not essential to the responsibility and obligation of the 
 man. 
 
 Secondly: The spiritual life which we ascribe to the 
 work of the Holy Ghost in man produces, as its natural 
 fruit, whatever can be included in the highest and most 
 refined morality. 
 
 Thirdly : This spiritual life secures results which trans- 
 cend the aims of ethical philosophy, or of conventional 
 morality. 
 
 Fourthly : As the conclusion of our entire argument, — 
 the practical energy of the spiritual life displays the dis- 
 tinct yet harmonious workings of the spirit of man, and 
 of the Spirit of God. 
 
 XIV. T 
 
274 THE MORAL ENERGY OF 
 
 I. The work of the Holy Spirit in renewing the sin- 
 ner is not essential to the responsibility and obligation 
 of the man. 
 
 We have acknowledged, in a former Lecture, that, in a 
 large and just sense of the words, all that is noble and 
 excellent in man's capacities is the work of the creating 
 Spirit. We are equally ready to acknowledge that whatever 
 goodness there is in man may be truly attributed to that 
 Spirit's grace. We are hard to believe that good thoughts, 
 desires, or purposes have any other origin than the foun- 
 tain of all good, which is God. Consistently, as we believe, 
 with these acknowledgments, it is, nevertheless, our judg- 
 ment that the renewing power of the Spirit of God is set 
 forth in the New Testament as a power which always 
 accomplishes its purpose, and, consequently, that it works 
 only in those who are eventually saved. 
 
 It is beside our present design to enter now on any of 
 the questions naturally suggested by this avowal. Chris- 
 tians know that numerous passages of Scripture have often 
 been alleged on behalf of what is called the Calvinian 
 doctrine of grace, by those who are not less concerned to 
 maintain the theoretical integrity and the practical exem- 
 plification of all personal and social virtues : — and Chris- 
 tians know, likewise, that numerous passages of Scripture 
 have been alleged on behalf of what is called the Arminian 
 system, by persons who are not less concerned to ascribe 
 the salvation of a sinner to the grace of God. Whilst, in 
 the main, adhering to the Calvinian doctrine,- for the rea- 
 sons usually assigned by those who hold it, we are not 
 forgetful of that which appears to weigh most with intelli- 
 gent and conscientious believers in preferring the opposite 
 doctrine. In their apprehension, the Calvinian theory of 
 grace is inconsistent with the strong language in which the 
 Scriptures declare the love of God in Christ to all mankind, 
 with the equitable administration of the Divine govern- 
 ment, and with the moral judgments of mankind. Others 
 
THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 275 
 
 are convinced that these things are not really inconsistent; 
 and, were this the fitting occasion for so doing, it might be 
 shown in argument, that the principles involved in the 
 statements of Scripture respecting grace, as understood by 
 Calvinists, axe fundamentally the same as those involved in 
 the statements of Scripture respecting the Divine govern- 
 ment, and in the moral judgment of mankind, as inter- 
 preted by Arminians. But the position now before us 
 requires that we should deal with a question which, to a 
 certain extent, has been regarded in the same light by 
 eminent theologians, as well as by ordinary Christians, of 
 both these schools, and by others who would not generally 
 be included in either the one or the other. The question 
 is this : — Does the Spirit of God incline all men by that 
 which is called " common grace "to receive the Gospel, or — 
 with or without the Gospel — to love God? The belief that 
 the Spirit of God does so incline men has been widely 
 spread. The distinction between the Calvinist and the 
 Arminian, alike holding this doctrine, is, that the Arminian 
 looks to the ' free-will of man, and the Calvinist to the 
 special grace of God, for the difference between him who 
 resists, and him who obeys, these motions of the Spirit in 
 the soul. It is not to the distinction between these parties 
 that our attention will now be given, but, rather, to the 
 doctrine in which they agree. 
 
 That there are "previous workings" corresponding with 
 the gratia praveniens of Augustine and the schoolmen, and 
 that these are " operations of common grace," we may 
 freely admit ; only the sense which we attach to such terms 
 and phrases is that which we have ascribed, in the second 
 Lecture, to the work of the Spirit as a Teacher. Believing, 
 as we do, that the goodness of God is exhibited to every 
 man in the world to lead him to repentance, and that the 
 exhibition of that goodness may without impropriety be 
 attributed to the Spirit, we, nevertheless, do not consider 
 this as the same work with that which is referred to in the 
 
07 THE 310KAL ENERGY OF 
 
 New Testament, where men are said to be " born of the 
 Spirit " or " renewed by the Holy Ghost." — Man's respon- 
 sibility to God is undoubtedly increased by every gift which 
 God vouchsafes to him, whatever that gift may be, and 
 more specially by the intellectual and moral capacities 
 without which, in some degree, he could not be responsible 
 at all. It were mere stupidity to deny that our responsi- 
 bility to God is heightened by the means of knowledge 
 and of persuasion which are furnished by the written 
 Scriptures, by the oral ministry of the Gospel, and by all 
 the exemplifications of holy life which, at any time, are 
 presented to the world by the church. It is altogether a 
 different matter, however, to ascribe these elements of 
 responsibility to the direct and inward operations of the 
 rjrace of the Spirit on the human heart ; and this latter is 
 the view which is now under consideration. Nothing 
 seems to us to be more plain and obvious than the simple 
 position — that sin implies previous responsibility, and that 
 the condemnation of sin is right. But whatever is done 
 by the Spirit of God to turn a man from sin is done, not 
 as a matter of right to constitute the man responsible, but 
 as a matter of grace to deliver him from the consequences 
 of the sin for which he is righteously condemned. To 
 speak of such a work of the Spirit as necessary to make 
 a man responsible to God is, in our judgment, to confound 
 prace with right, and thus to involve a contradiction. It 
 may be a display of Divine favour towards a creature to 
 endow him with the capacities for the use of which he is 
 held responsible : — and it is owing to the exuberance of the 
 Divine favour that the helps afforded for knowing what is 
 right, and the reasons for doing what is right, are so 
 varied, so abundant, and so continually pressed upon our 
 minds ; but to represent such manifestations of Divine 
 goodness as being the same thing with that which the 
 Scriptures set before us as " the power that worketh in 
 us " for our salvation, is, according to our apprehension, to 
 
THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 277 
 
 overlook one of the clearest of the manifold distinctions 
 which abound in the writings of the apostles. — Whether 
 or not there be such preparatory, tentative, conditional, 
 and resistible, actings of the Spirit of God directly on the 
 spirit of man, is a question which men will be apt to 
 determine according to the theological school in which 
 their minds have been trained, or according to the creed 
 by which, so far as they are concerned, inquiry may have 
 been superseded by the submission which is substituted 
 for conviction : we are free to say that we have never been 
 able to gather an affirmative answer to this question from 
 the unfettered study of the Holy Scriptures : in other 
 words, we do not believe that such a doctrine is taught in 
 the Scriptures. 
 
 The doctrine of which we are speaking is, for the most 
 part, implied in the assertion of other doctrines, rather 
 than independently laid down ; and even when it is 
 asserted, it is not expressed in such definite terms as 
 a controvertist would wish to handle, but in vague and 
 general phrases. It is said to be a Divine influence 
 soliciting the sinner, striving with him, producing all the 
 mental convictions and emotions which are the antece- 
 dents of conversion, but not resulting in conversion until 
 the sinner, thus solicited and striven with, complies with 
 the solicitations, and of his own free-will gives up the 
 strife. It appears to be held that without these visitations 
 of grace a sinner cannot repent, or believe the Gospel, or 
 perform good works ; that they often come unsought and 
 suddenly ; that men are passive in becoming the subjects 
 of them ; that they are sometimes irresistible ; that they 
 may be improved, or made of none effect.* 
 
 It is not taught, so far as we have learned, that this 
 grace is equally bestowed on all men; but the inequality 
 
 * See Clarke's Posthumous Sermons, vol. ii.p. 265. Tillotson's Sermons, 
 vol. ii. p. 280. Jortin's Six Dissertations. Edwards, Ludlam, Wesley, and 
 Watson. 
 
278 THE MORAL ENERGY OF 
 
 is thought to be compensated by the principle of moral 
 government which requires little where little has been 
 given. 
 
 The passages of Scripture adduced in support of this 
 doctrine include all those which have been referred to in 
 a former Lecture of this series as proving that the Spirit 
 of God condemns men by His truth, and that they resist 
 Him. Besides such passages, there are those in which 
 the Spirit is said to be " given to every man to profit 
 withal ; " those in which the Spirit is spoken of as 
 " quenched " and " grieved ; " and those in which men 
 are described as " doing despite unto the Spirit of grace." 
 To these declarations of Scripture are added the descrip- 
 tions of Herod hearing John gladly, of Felix trembling 
 when Paul reasoned, and of Agrippa being almost per- 
 suaded, by the same reasoner, to become a Christian. 
 Now we do not discover, in any of these parts of Scrip- 
 ture, the assertion of that direct acting on the hearts of 
 men — distinct from the operations of truth and conscience 
 — which we understand to be asserted in the doctrine 
 we are considering. There appears to us to be a plain and 
 wide difference between the language of all these passages 
 and the language which is used in the New Testament to 
 express the grace of the Spirit by which men are renewed, 
 purified, and saved. In most of the instances to which the 
 reference is made, there is either the express or the implied 
 mention of the truth of God presented to the minds of men; 
 and, since that truth is revealed by the Holy Spirit, we hold 
 it to be scriptural to ascribe all these operations, — in that 
 sense, not in any other, — to the grace of the Spirit. No 
 thoughtful student of the New Testament can fail to observe 
 that the " grieving of the Spirit ' ; is an offence against which 
 those are warned who are said — in the same passage — to 
 be " sealed by the Spirit unto the day of redemption ; " 
 and that the grieving of the Spirit against which they are 
 thus warned consists in the corrupt communications, and 
 
THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 279 
 
 in the unkind spirit to which the example of those around 
 might mislead, or the faults they see in one another might 
 provoke, them.* 
 
 The " quenching of the Spirit " was understood by all 
 the ancient commentators whose works remain, as re- 
 lating to the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit : and the 
 exhortation was explained by some as directed against the 
 suppression of the exercise of these gifts in their brethren; 
 while by others it was explained as directed against the 
 neglect or perversion of them by the persons on whom they 
 were bestowed. 
 
 The declaration that " the manifestation of the Spirit is 
 given to every man to profit withal," belongs to the same 
 subject, as must be clear to any one who reads the con- 
 nexion.! — Let it be assumed, indeed, on whatever grounds, 
 that there is such a work of the Spirit in all men as that 
 which is generally understood by such phrases as " uni- 
 versal " or " common grace," and no great ingenuity would 
 then be needed to express that notion in the words of Scrip- 
 ture ; but this is not Biblical interpretation, and, therefore, 
 not Christian theology. — It is mortifying to have occasion 
 to refer, in such a discussion, to the irrelevant and decep- 
 tive illustration of the " common " grace of the Spirit 
 by the miracle wrought on the " man which had his hand 
 withered." What resemblance is there between a "with- 
 ered hand," and an unrenewed heart; between a man 
 anxious for bodily healing, and a soul unwilling to repent; 
 or between a restoration which precedes the stretching 
 forth of the hand, and a restoration which follows the 
 assent of the mind ? Even if there were any resemblance, 
 how could a single case illustrate a doctrine which has to 
 do with many cases in which the results are opposite ? 
 Were there any men with withered hands, who received 
 power from Jesus to stretch them forth but did not stretch 
 them forth ? 
 
 * See Ephes. iv. 17 to end. f See 1 Cor. xii. 1 — 11. 
 
280 THE MORAL ENERGY OF 
 
 It would not be fair to infer from these reasonings and 
 expositions that we are denying that God has access to the 
 hearts of all men ; that He ever visits men in a mysterious 
 way to move them to what is right and good ; or that He 
 is to be devoutly contemplated, addressed in prayer, and 
 acknowledged in praise, as the author of all good thoughts, 
 desires, and purposes. We have aimed at showing no 
 more than this, — namely, that such actings of ineffable 
 grace cannot be justly regarded as necessary to the re- 
 sponsibility of man for his own deeds ; and that, whether 
 it be true or not that such grace is universally bestowed, 
 the doctrine which maintains the affirmative does not 
 appear to us to be taught in those parts of Scripture on 
 which its advocates have relied for proving it.* 
 
 II. The spiritual life which we ascribe to the work 
 of the Holt Ghost t in man produces, as its natural 
 fruit, whatever can be included in the highest and most 
 refined morality. 
 
 What we mean by " spiritual life " is the right dispo- 
 sition of man towards God. As our relation to Him 
 includes all our moral relations, it is manifest that in 
 proportion as this central and all-comprehending relation 
 is religiously borne, the duties of inferior and subordinate 
 relations will be conscientiously regarded, and punctually 
 discharged. These minor duties have been apprehended, 
 though rudely and imperfectly, by the least cultivated of 
 mankind. They have been described with much beauty 
 by ancient writers, urged with dignity by didactic moral 
 
 * This doctrine was stated with much clearness and succinctness by the 
 late Mr. J. J. Gurney, in his observations on the distinguishing views and 
 practices of the Society of Friends. In 1S3G, Dr. Wardlaw published his 
 Friendly Letters to the Society of Friends, in which he set forth what he 
 conceived to he the Scriptural objections to some of their distinguished 
 principles. Six years after. Mr. Gurney republished his observations; but 
 ] cannot trace, in any part of the volume, the slightest reference to Dr. 
 Wardlaw's lucid, calm, and gentle letters. How is this? Is the bondage of 
 reading only on one side a part of Christian freedom ? 
 
THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 281 
 
 teachers, and illustrated more or less by the historians, 
 poets, and biographers, of nearly every language. It will 
 scarcely be denied, nevertheless, that the purest morals 
 have been taught by Christian writers; and it could be 
 shown that they have been practised with more consistency 
 by believers of what are called Evangelical doctrines than 
 by any other men. We are not questioning that much of 
 what the world justly admires as moral excellence is pro- 
 duced by motives which are not peculiar to the Gospel, 
 not the effects of its characteristic principles. Neither do 
 we question that even such examples of virtue are often, if 
 not always, the results of mental operations which our 
 argument does not prevent our attributing to the Spirit of 
 God. We see no reason for supposing either that the 
 grace revealed in the Gospel for the salvation of sinners is 
 injured by acknowledging every proved instance of social 
 excellence in men, or that the Divine government is shorn 
 of any portion of its authority by admitting the popular 
 Christian belief that God is the author of all good. 
 Principles of truth are ever harmonious with each other. 
 The principles peculiar to the Gospel harmonize with 
 whatever true principles are derived from other sources. 
 Inspired teachers uniformly proceed on the assumption 
 and recognition of this fundamental harmony. The false 
 in morals cannot be true in theology. The false in theo- 
 logy cannot be true in morals. 
 
 In the further elucidation of this position, let it be 
 observed : — 
 
 (1.) That the design for which the renewing power of 
 the Holy Spirit works in man, includes everything that 
 can be included in a moral system. 
 
 In looking at the design of Christianity, as it is unfolded 
 in its own documents, we perceive how widely it differs 
 from nearly all human systems in the perfect accuracy 
 with which it recognizes the laws of our natural consti- 
 tution. It aims not at the merely outward reformation of 
 
282 THE MORAL ENERGY OF 
 
 man in those aspects which constitute his character, as 
 witnessed by his fellow-men, nor at the creation of any 
 capacities, whether physical or moral, in addition to those 
 which are essential to the completeness of his constitution 
 as man. Nor does it deal with him as an abstraction, but 
 as he is felt and known to be— a thinking, self-judging, 
 and accountable agent, living in the actual world, and pre- 
 paring for the real consequences of his present living, in 
 that unseen state which is yet before him. 
 
 Again: it is not with man in masses, nor with those 
 relations which subsist between one man and another, 
 that Christianity is, primarily, concerned ; but with each 
 person, separately by himself, as he is related to God and 
 to eternity. What Christianity proposes is, the restoration 
 of each man to the normal type of humanity, to the Divine 
 idea embodied in the model which is presented by " the 
 man Christ Jesus." Nothing can be more just in our 
 estimate of Christianity than the belief that it leads man's 
 thoughts, his reliance, and his hopes, away from himself, 
 by presenting to him an outward expiation as the one 
 ground of his approval on the part of God, and, at the 
 same time, presenting to him a power which is not his, as 
 the source of all the spiritual strength in which he is to 
 rely on the Saviour's mediation, and to fulfil in his life 
 the requirements of righteousness and the purposes of 
 grace. And yet, on the surface of the Christian doctrines 
 there lies the truth which pervades them with the order 
 and uniformity of a principle — that a man is himself to 
 repent of his sins, to believe the Gospel for his personal 
 salvation, and of his own accord to do the things which are 
 pleasing to God because they are the things which ought 
 to be done by him. Whatever, therefore, can be compre- 
 hended within the theoretical requirements of a moral 
 system, is doctrinally included among the designs of 
 Christianity ; and the elevation and goodness which are 
 approved by the most enlightened and cultivated con- 
 
THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 283 
 
 science will be found among the appropriate fruits of the 
 Spirit in the character of the renovated man. Picture to 
 yourself everything, that philosophy has truly predicted of 
 the perfect man, robed in the graces which poetry has 
 fancied, and practically bearing the several tests which the 
 experience of a disappointed world applies to the exami- 
 nation of a human being, and you have not imagined 
 anything grander, lovelier, or of more substantial worth, 
 than the character which it is the aim of Christianity, as 
 the work of the Holy Spirit, to produce. It is a doctrinal 
 error to conceive otherwise of the instruction which has 
 been perpetuated in the writings of inspired men : for, 
 however largely the apostles insist on the fact of the 
 Atonement, and on the fact of the Spirit dwelling in 
 believers, it may be fairly said that they do not insist less 
 fully, or less earnestly, on the necessity of practical con- 
 version from all evil to all good, in the lives of their 
 disciples. 
 
 There may be some advantage in the scholastic dis- 
 tinction between doctrines and precepts; but when we 
 think without the fetters of human systems, and utter 
 freely what we think, neither fearing men nor seeking 
 their favour, we speak with the accuracy of Scripture in 
 saying, that every doctrine taught is a precept, and every 
 precept enforced is a doctrine. We have no reverence, 
 indeed, for the narrow and superficial ethics which are 
 set up against the characteristic principles of the Gospel ; 
 nor have we any liking for the barren intellectualism 
 which overlooks the broad adaptation of Christianity to 
 the entire man. — It will not be gravely contended by those 
 who reverence the authority on which we believe the 
 Gospel, that men need not be careful either to hold fast, 
 or to defend, the principles which constitute that Gospel, 
 so long as their deeds are such as no man blames. Strong 
 arguments have, w r e confess, been offered, on behalf of 
 such a style of thinking : we are neither ignorant, nor 
 
284 THE MORAL ENERGY OF 
 
 forgetful — nor disdainful — of such arguments ; but the 
 principle assumed in all of them is one which would 
 reduce Christianity to nothing; would destroy it at the 
 root: turning its august annunciations, sublime mysteries, 
 stupendous facts, and awful sanctions, into the mere 
 burlesque of a fantastic superstition. If it be not true 
 that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, graciously taking 
 human flesh upon him, as the substitute for guilty man, 
 then what mean the long line of heralds proclaiming his 
 advent in the symbols of foregoing ages, and the mar- 
 vellous history, and complicated worship, of the people 
 among whom He was to arise ? 
 
 What, in that case ; is the rationale of the strange 
 tragedy which includes such tears as man had never 
 wept, such words as ears had never heard, virtues such as 
 the creation has witnessed in none other, and moral suffer- 
 ing which no imagination is strong enough to paint ? What 
 worth is there in the miracles of His life, or in the clearly 
 and strongly attested report of His rising from the dead, 
 and of His ascent, in human form, to heaven ? What did 
 the first preachers of the Gospel mean by preaching 
 " Christ crucified," as "the wisdom " and "the power of 
 God ? " If it be admitted that these are the historical 
 truths of our religion, then is it wise, we ask, is it philo- 
 sophical, is it religious, right, or safe, to teach morality 
 without them, or in their stead ? 
 
 While we thus repudiate so shallow a mode of treating 
 apostolic Christianity, we have renounced all sympathy, 
 on the other hand, with those who conceive of that 
 Christianity apart from the results which prove the 
 grandeur of its facts, and the power of its principles. 
 Our fixed relations — and our mutable relations as well — 
 involve the notion that there are certain things which we 
 are to do while holding those relations. This is true, 
 independently of the Gospel. The Gospel is also proved 
 to be true. But apart from the truth respecting our 
 relations and duties — and of another truth, too, not less 
 
THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. £S5 
 
 evident, namely, that we have forfeited our well-being by 
 not doing what the relation we sustain required of us, — 
 we are not conscious of any mental conceptions which the 
 language of the Gospel can intelligibly express. 
 
 Let us state the plainest of all evangelical truths in the 
 plainest words : — a sinner who repents is pardoned by 
 Divine grace, and renewed by the Holy Ghost, for the 
 sake of Jesus Christ, in whom he believes that he may be 
 saved. Why should he repent, but because he had no 
 right to sin ? Why should he be pardoned, but in order 
 to his being renewed ? Why is he renewed, but that he 
 may "walk in newness of life?" 
 
 (2.) Conformably with this manifest design of Chris- 
 tianity, the inspired teachers never shrank from using the 
 highest moral tone in every part of their instructions. They 
 were the servants of God, mysteriously clothed with a de- 
 legated authority from him ; and by that authority they 
 commanded men to repent, to believe in Christ, to forsake 
 sin, to do justice, to be merciful, to be ever on their guard 
 against temptation, to hold a firm restraint on all the ten- 
 dencies to evil which had displayed their apostate condi- 
 tion, and which had been strengthened by the habits that 
 formed their early character. These authoritative require- 
 ments, in which the original laws of our moral nature are 
 sanctioned by a miraculous revelation, are still in force. 
 No immoral man can be a Christian. No departure from 
 the strictest requirements of rectitude and purity can be 
 justly attributed to the work of the Holy Spirit. Holiness, 
 as portrayed in the New Testament, is, indeed, a higher 
 quality of the spiritual nature than morality ; but it is 
 so far from being inconsistent with morality, that every 
 requirement of the former expressly implies the inculca- 
 tion of the latter. 
 
 III. This spiritual life secures results which trans- 
 cend THE AIMS OF ETHICAL PHILOSOPHY, OR OF CONVENTIONAL 
 MORALITY. 
 
 The reader of the New Testament is familiar with the 
 
^30 THE MORAL ENERGY OF 
 
 language in which the Saviour and His apostles insist on 
 the necessity of holiness, and expound the principles and 
 the power by which the holiness of Christians is secured. 
 As the wisdom and goodness of God are made manifest in 
 the visible creation, His government of man is the develop- 
 ment of His eternal rectitude, that rectitude which requires 
 in man the highest moral perfectness which a creature 
 with such facilities, and surrounded by so rich a field of 
 objective motives, can attain. Apart from this moral per- 
 fectness, loved and aimed at, and progressively acquired, 
 there can be no religion. "When the Spirit of God does 
 that which results in what our Lord describes as being 
 " born of the Spirit," and what His apostles describe as 
 11 the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the 
 Holy Ghost," the immediate production is not a holy life, 
 nor a holy choice, but that without which a holy choice is 
 never made, nor a holy life ever seen. The life is the 
 renewed man's life, the manifestation of the inward prin- 
 ciple from which he acts. The choice, in its very nature, 
 as choice, is the renewed man's own ; free, not neces- 
 sitated ; original, not the effect of any cause which is 
 external to himself. 
 
 In accordance with these principles, there are two series 
 of communications in the evangelical writings, sometimes 
 distinct in form, sometimes blended, sometimes impli- 
 cative the one of the other, never contradictory, but always 
 harmonious. There are declarations to the effect that 
 men are made holy by the Spirit of God — " through the 
 truth," "by the washing of water by the word,"- — " in the 
 name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."* 
 There are, also, calls to personal holiness, prohibitions of 
 all sin, numerous instances in which private or social 
 faults are condemned, and the practice of every human 
 virtue is made the theme of earnest remonstrance, admoni- 
 tion, entreaty, or commendation. 
 
 * John xvii. 17 ; Eph. v. 2 >; 1 Cur. vi. 11. 
 
THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 287 
 
 Assuming, as plain principles of the New Testament, 
 that, while the obligation to these moral excellences lies 
 on every man, whether he be a Christian or not, — that 
 Christianity, instead of annulling, confirms the original 
 obligation, — and that the obligation is not fulfilled by 
 any but those who become Christians, and continue to 
 be Christians, by the power of the Spirit — we must 
 not overlook the fact that the moral inculcation accom- 
 panies the revelation of the characteristic truths of the 
 Gospel, pleads the same authority, and is comprehended 
 in the Gospel with the same clearness, with which its 
 peculiar principles are expressed. If man had no con- 
 science, Christianity would be neither intelligible, nor 
 necessary, nor possible. To resolve its holy princi- 
 ples — they are all pre-eminently holy — into merely specu- 
 lative propositions, is to do that which the apostles never 
 did, and which our reverence for the intellectual giants 
 who have drawn up creeds, or defended them, must 
 not prevent our saying, we believe no Christian can do 
 without running into error, and, as we fear, falling into 
 sin. The New Testament is not a book of propositions. He 
 who tears its words from their connexion to support what 
 lie believes to be a correct definition of its doctrines, has 
 already done more mischief by the method, than he can 
 do good by the arguments, of his orthodoxy. Let logic be 
 applied in the refutation of the errors which are propagated 
 by its perversion : but the logic of the schools is not an 
 element in the divinely-appointed method of teaching 
 Christianity " as the truth is in Jesus." 
 
 Many theories have been formed for the purpose of 
 explaining the nature of Christian holiness, and many 
 practical treatises have been written to enforce the detail 
 of personal habits by which it has been supposed that it 
 might be secured. Questions have been raised, and some- 
 times hotly disputed, whether or not the perfection of 
 holiness is attainable ; whether it has ever been actually 
 
288 THE MORAL ENERGY OF 
 
 reached by Christians on earth; and whether the attain- 
 ment, if made at all, has been reached by the slow pro- 
 gress of self-denial and prayer, or bestowed at once by 
 some sudden manifestation of the Spirit's power. These 
 are, of ail questions, perhaps, those which demand the 
 largest amount of calm thought, and of meek temper, in 
 endeavouring to consider them. None can be more full of 
 interest for a good man. 
 
 It will be readily acknowledged that the holiness which 
 is required in man is perfect ; that if this perfect holiness 
 were not attainable, it would not be required ; that where 
 it is not attained, the fault is in man ; that if it be attained, 
 it is by the grace of the Holy Spirit; and that, whether it 
 be attained or not in this life, it wili be the common 
 character of all the redeemed hereafter, for they are "just 
 men made perfect," — "saints in light." 
 
 Not less readily will it be acknowledged that there are 
 many passages in the New Testament in which certain 
 Christian believers are spoken of as " perfect." In some 
 of these passages, however, it will be generally affirmed 
 by as many as have seriously examined the Hebrew and 
 Greek Scriptures — that entire sinlessness is not the idea 
 expressed by the words translated "perfect." In one of 
 them, "the perfect" are "men," as distinguished from 
 children ; in another, they are persons more advanced 
 than others in knowledge and discernment; in a third. 
 they arc the pre-eminently holy, as compared with others.* 
 Keeping these acknowledgments and affirmations in view, 
 it remains to consider whether the perfection of Christian 
 sanctity, that is to say, entire freedom from sin, is repre- 
 sented in the Scriptures a- a momentary, sudden, or con- 
 scious charge in believers of the Gospel. They who hold 
 the opinion that entire freedom from sin is so represented 
 in the Scriptures, appear to ground this conviction on the 
 
 * 1 Cor. xiv. 20; ii. 6 ; IMiil. iii. 15; Heb. v. U; vi. 1; Jas.iiLS, 
 Deat xviii. 13; '2 Kin 
 
THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 289 
 
 alleged consciousness of particular persons, and on the 
 violence which, as they conceive, would be done to those 
 passages of Scripture in which holiness is described, and 
 especially to the promises of all needful grace in answer 
 to believing prayer. To the consciousness of particular 
 persons, we are neither disposed, nor able, to offer any 
 contradiction : at the same time, all persons are liable to 
 err in their interpretation of the Scriptures, and in their 
 judgment of the agreement of their consciousness with 
 the word of God. 
 
 We are unable to perceive the force of the reasonings 
 on behalf of the doctrine of entire sanctification, in the 
 present life, which are grounded on the requirements and 
 promises of Scripture. That he who never fails to keep 
 the commandments of God, and whose faith in His pro- 
 mises is unwavering, becomes perfect at that point at which 
 this begins to be true, there can be no doubt ; but the 
 question is, where is he of whom these things can be 
 infallibly asserted? We are not saying that this is impos- 
 sible. We do not object to the attainment of all that any 
 Christian mind can mean by holiness, nor would we dis- 
 courage any Christian from seeking by prayer the grace 
 which alone can make men perfect. We have no plea to 
 urge on behalf of any imperfection in the thoughts, affec- 
 tions, or outward life of any man. We do not imagine 
 that there is any uncontrollable necessity for sin in any 
 being in the universe. We are, to say the least, doubtful 
 of the wisdom or the safety of the casuistry that would 
 nicely adjust the limits that separate the sinless from the 
 sinful, the natural from the moral, the infirmity from the 
 transgression: — though such distinctions, we are per- 
 suaded, there must be, and actually are. 
 
 Whatever be the case described by St. Paul in the seventh 
 chapter of the Epistle to the Eomans — whether it be, as 
 we think it is, the record of his own experience, or the per- 
 sonation of another — whether the description applies to 
 xiv. u 
 
290 Till: MORAL ENERGY OF 
 
 one who lias not yet become a Christian, or, as we think it 
 does, to the conflict between "the old man " and " the new 
 man," in the regenerate — we do not see how it can deter- 
 mine the question of fact which we are at present consider- 
 ing.* That fact, like every other, must be considered in 
 connexion with the evidence offered for its reality. — There 
 is, however, one passage in which it is plainly and posi- 
 tively asserted, "whosoever is born of God doth not commit 
 sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, be- 
 cause he is born of God;" and again, "we know that 
 whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is 
 begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one 
 toucheth him not."f 
 
 It is manifest that the apostle means more than the 
 obligation under which the regenerate are placed to abstain 
 from sin ; for the same obligation applies to every man. 
 whether he be regenerate or not. The apostle does not 
 assert the absolute impossibility of sin in the regenerate, 
 but the certainty that the regenerate will not, and do not, 
 sin. It will scarcely be considered as legitimate interpret- 
 ation to say — these words mean that it is more difficult for 
 the regenerate than for the unregenerat.e to sin; or that, 
 into whatsoever sin he may fall by forgetting his depend- 
 ence on grace, or by neglecting the duty of Christian vigi- 
 lance, a son of God is not, and cannot be conceived of as 
 being, a wilful and habitual sinner. The language of the 
 apostle is too clear and strong to admit of our being satis- 
 fied with such an exposition of their meaning. But, on 
 the other hand, there is no foundation in the apostle's 
 language for the opinion that, because all men ought to 
 keep themselves from sin, and because the grace of God 
 is ever at hand to help those who will diligently avail them- 
 selves of His aid, while it may be the privilege of all, it is 
 the actual experience of only some/Jbelievers to live entirely 
 without sin : for what the apostle here says, as distinctly 
 
 * See Note Q. + 1 John iii. 9; v. 18. 
 
THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 291 
 
 and strongly as he says anything- else in this epistle, is said 
 of none but those who are bom of God, and of every one that 
 is bom of God. We need not be at a loss to understand 
 what is meant by being born of God. What then is meant 
 by the assertion, "his seed remaineth in him," and by giving 
 that fact as the reason why he in whom this " seed remain- 
 eth " " doth not commit sin," — " cannot sin," — " keepeth 
 himself?" 
 
 The comparison of the word of God to seed — the figure 
 being sometimes botanical,* and sometimes physiological f 
 — has led expositors, both ancient and modern, to under- 
 stand the figurative language of this passage as, in like 
 manner, denoting the word of God. But the idea thus 
 produced, would not agree, in form, with the style of John 
 as a writer. Not the " word of God," but " the Spirit of 
 God," is the phrase used by him in describing the power 
 or the principle of spiritual life in those who are " born of 
 God." The term " seed " has a reference to being "born 
 (or begotten) of God," and it is a figure of the same kind.* 
 
 We consider this expression of the apostle as asserting 
 the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the rege- 
 nerate, and as assigning that as the reason why he says, 
 " whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin," — " can- 
 not sin," — " sinneth not," — "keepeth himself." — Then 
 how are we to understand the declarations, " whosoever is 
 born of God doth not commit sin," — " sinneth not," — 
 " keepeth himself?" Whatever we understand by them, it 
 is not true of any but of those who are born of God, and 
 it is alike and equally true of every one who is born of God. 
 W r e do not understand these words as affirming that no 
 regenerate person sins, or can siu, in the most obvious 
 sense in which the word sin is most generally meant as 
 any transgression of the Divine law. — A difficulty presses 
 on all the interpretations of these passages with which we 
 
 * As in Matt. xiii. 3—32. + As in 1 Pet. i. 23. 
 
 | Compare the Gospel of John iii. 5 — 8. See in the Appendix, Note E. 
 
292 THE MORAL ENERGY OF 
 
 are acquainted. The choice appears to lie between the 
 two which shall now be mentioned. 
 
 (1.) It has been thought that the apostle means, by the 
 expressions now before us, that freedom from sin is 
 secured to every one of the regenerate who " keepeth 
 himself," that is, who cherishes a devout sense of the 
 Spirit's presence with him, confidently relies on that 
 Spirit's power, and in the strength thus imparted to him 
 watches, and prays, and resists all temptation, whether 
 from within, or from without. We cannot question that 
 this is true. Yet it is not the full meaning of the apostle's 
 words. He mentions no conditions of any kind ; on the 
 contrary, there is an authoritative and unqualified affirma- 
 tion respecting every one who is horn of God. 
 
 (2.) Both the apostle and those to whom his epistle 
 •was primarily addressed, may have understood these words 
 as meaning not sin in general, or indiscriminately any 
 sin whatever, of any kind or degree, but one particular sin, 
 of which he speaks especially towards the close of the 
 epistle. That he does not refer to sin generally, or 
 indiscriminately to any sin whatever, of any kind or 
 degree, might be gathered from the current strain, and 
 from special expressions, of the epistle. When he speaks 
 of himself and his brethren whom he addresses as "born 
 of God," he refers to such acknowledgments of sin, 
 forgiveness of sin, and motives for avoiding sin, as relate 
 both to his own experience and to that of his fellow- 
 believers, lie tells them, with exquisite simplicity and 
 tenderness, — " My little children, these things I write 
 unto you that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have 
 an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous 
 one ; and lie is the propitiation for our sins : and not for 
 ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Whoso 
 keepeth His word, in him verily is the love of God 
 perfected : hereby know we that we are in Him. He that 
 saith he abideth in Him ought himself also to walk even 
 
THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 2P<3 
 
 as He walked." We do not suppose that the apostle, by 
 what he says in the passage we are now examining, contra- 
 dicted what he had said before. Moreover, the context of 
 the fifth chapter shows that there was "a sin unto death," 
 which the apostle distinguishes from " a sin not unto 
 death." The simplest solution, therefore, of the difficulty 
 arising from a seeming contradiction, appears in this dis- 
 tinction made by the apostle himself. — According to our 
 apprehension, the first epistle of John plainly teaches, 
 that all sin is a transgression of law; that those who are 
 born of God are especially bound to avoid all sin ; that if, 
 notwithstanding, they do sin, they are to confess their 
 sins ; that the confession of sins by those who are born of 
 God is made with faith in the propitiation of the Sinless 
 One ; that they obtain forgiveness ; that the design of this 
 epistle, as of all Scripture, is to condemn sin, and to 
 prevent it; and that by whomsoever the " sin unto death" 
 may be committed, it is not, cannot be, and will not be, 
 committed by one who is born of God, because in him the 
 Sjiirit of God abides. 
 
 The "perfection " to which it is the duty of all men to 
 aspire, and which is the object of hope, struggle, and 
 believing prayer, to the regenerate, is gradually approached 
 by true Christians; and it will be fully attained — in 
 heaven. 
 
 The mode of striving after this blessed state of sinless - 
 ness has varied according to the views which have been 
 entertained of the nature of holiness. Not a few have 
 been misled by a false philosophy, and by ascetic notions, 
 examples, and habits, to seek it by vigils, fasts, and 
 penances. Others have relied, mainly, on their power of 
 habitual self-government, under the guidance of inspired 
 precepts, and with vague ideas of the aid of the Holy 
 Spirit. Others again have regarded their progress in 
 holiness as the passive result of the Spirit's grace, with a 
 partial, if not total, oversight of the essentially active 
 
\>CU THE MORAL ENERGY OF 
 
 character in which that progress is continually set forth in 
 Scripture. He who takes a calm view of the entire case 
 will see that to make progress in holiness is to be "sancti- 
 fied by the Holy Ghost"— " through the belief of the 
 truth"— "by faith that is in" Jesus; and that all who are 
 thus " sanctified " are conscious of the connexion of their 
 spiritual progress with the simplicity of their reliance on 
 the mediation of Christ, with the sincerity of their prayers 
 for grace, and with the earnestness and constancy with 
 which they resist temptation, and cultivate the tempers 
 and habitudes so plainly enjoined on them by Divine 
 authority, and exemplified with perfect majesty, grace, and 
 symmetry, in the character of Him whose name they 
 bear.* 
 
 * Out of many treatises on Christian perfection, I have renewed the exa- 
 mination of those hy Macarius, Bates, and Law, as well as the interesting 
 sermons of the Rev. John Wesley. Macarius is highly evangelical, with the 
 ascetic tinge of an Egyptian anchoret. Bates is richly imbued with the tone 
 which pervades the writings of Saint Paul, hut not without the " dogmatic " 
 element of the English Puritans. Law is ethical, rather than spiritual. Wes- 
 ley writes like a holy man, a respectable scholar, and acute logician, as he 
 was ; yet he is occasionally indiscriminate, as it appears to me, in the citation 
 of Scripture passages to support his doctrine: he also laboured under the 
 great disadvantage of being involved in controversies which 1 should hope no 
 wise and holy man in any church would wish to revive. 
 
 Let me here recommend the judicious and evangelical treatise entitled 
 The Spirit of Holiness; and Sanctification through the Truth. By James 
 Harington Evans, minister of John Street chapel. Fourth edition, revised. 
 1848. I have read it with eminent advantage ; and I know of few composi- 
 tions which exhibit, in so small a compass, and in such a truly Christian 
 spirit, the scriptural doctrine of personal holiness. 
 
 1 would take this opportunity of also recommending Mr. Philip's (i Com- 
 forter," and The Enquirer directed to an Experimental and Practical View of 
 the Work of the Holy Spirit. By Oetavius Winslow, M.A. Fifth edition, 
 enlarged. 184!>. To the same class belong the attractive writings of Dr. 
 Vinet, of Lausanne, of which several have been translated by Mr. Tumbull, 
 of Boston (New England), ami pnblished by Mr. Collins, Glasgow. Dr. 
 Dewar's work, entitled The Holy Spirit, is a valuable and luminous exposition 
 of "sound doctrine." Dr. Morison's Christianity in its Power is too well 
 known by those who are likely to read this note to require such commenda- 
 tion as it deserves. Happy will it be for the churches of England and 
 America when they respond to the stirring appeals of Dr. Jenkyn, in his 
 
THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 295 
 
 Fourthly. — The sum of our entire argument is, that the 
 
 PRACTICAL ENERGY OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE DISPLAYS THE 
 DISTINCT, YET HARMONIOUS, WORKINGS OF THE SPIRIT OF MAN, 
 AND OF THE SPIRIT OF GoD. 
 
 It has been the purpose of the Lectures, now concluded, 
 to take a comprehensive survey of doctrines respecting the 
 work of the Holy Spirit in the salvation of man. This 
 purpose has led to an examination of man himself, in that 
 respect in which he is the subject of the work in question; 
 then to an exhibition of what the Scriptures teach re- 
 specting the work of the Holy Spirit generally, and es- 
 pecially of His work in actually saving man. In contrast 
 with the Scriptures I have presented the notions of 
 churches, and the dreams of mystics. I have compared 
 the consciousness of Christians with the word of God. I 
 have pursued the results of the Spirit's work as they are 
 developed in the practical operation of moral principles, 
 and in the spiritual power of Christian holiness.— Fearful 
 of omitting, or misrepresenting, the explanations of the 
 harmony between the spiritual life and revealed truth 
 which thoughtful and religious writers have given, I have 
 used such diligence as I could command in reading what 
 they had written, that I might be instructed by them. I 
 have compared these human writings with the word of 
 God. — Let me, in conclusion, declare, with simplicity and 
 plainness, the issue of these studies. 
 
 I have no doubt that when men turn to God there is a 
 direct work of the Holy Spirit in their hearts ; that there 
 is, also, a consequent operation of the truth believed by the 
 converted to induce them to turn to God, and to excite 
 
 Union of the Spirit and the Church in the Conversion of the World. The 
 Rev. Gilbert Wardlaw, also, has just published a volume entitled Experimental 
 Evidence a ground for Assurance that Christianity is Divine. The third, 
 fourth, and fifth chapters are well worthy of attention as bearing on some of 
 the topics handled in these Lectures; and the entire work is one which treats 
 with discrimination, and in a chaste and elegant style, a subject on which it 
 is remarkable that so little has been written. 
 
29G THE MORAL ENERGY OF THE SPIEITUAL LIFE. 
 
 and encourage them to the attainment of perfect holiness ; 
 that it is the Holy Spirit's power within them that renders 
 them willing to attend to that which the same Spirit 
 teaches them in His word; that in attending to that 
 teaching, and in following it, they act with the entire 
 freedom of their intellectual and moral constitution ; that 
 the operations of material nature are not analogous to the 
 agency of spiritual being, and that philosophy has not 
 yet explained either the one or the other; that I am not 
 warranted to say, the truth is the means of beginning the 
 spiritual life, though I am unable to conceive of that life 
 in man being developed otherwise than by his free, practi- 
 cal, and devout belief of the truth which the Holy Spirit 
 has revealed. 
 
 Short of this I cannot stop. Beyond this I do not go. 
 I honour the gifts, and appreciate the motives, of the 
 men — whether dead or living — from whom my deliberate 
 judgment leads me to dissent. But to me the work of the 
 Holv Spirit is, at this hour, what it has ever been — a 
 mystery. I receive the declarations of Scripture on this 
 subject with reverent faith: I have laboured to expound 
 them, here and elsewhere, according to the measure of 
 ability for which I feel that I must render an account unto 
 God, and with whatever light of knowledge He has 
 enabled me to acquire. In them I read, what is to me 
 a plain revelation of the fact that the Spirit of God works 
 ■immediately in the spirit of man for the salvation of his 
 soul, and for the redemption of his body; and, also, the 
 fact, — to which consciousness bears witness, — that he in 
 wdiose spirit the Divine work begins, gives proof that it 
 has so begun in him, by believing the Gospel, and by 
 leading a life of watchfulness and prayer, of humble trust 
 in Christ, of reliance on the promises of grace, and of 
 patient preparation for that world where his holiness will 
 be complete, and where his blessedness will last for ever. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 A. (page 5.) 
 
 The sacred writers have applied to the immortal constitution of 
 man the following terms : — 
 
 KC£S 3 nvi, nntt}?. lb, WuXV) n^eO/ia, Nods, Aidvoia, KdpSia ^3 is 
 
 applied to an odour, "breath, life, appetite, mind or affections, a living 
 being, one's self. 
 
 rm is applied to breath, wind, life, mind, disposition, will, 
 purpose. 
 
 rvovi is applied to breath, passion, soul. 
 
 2b, is applied to the scat or principle of bodily life ; to mental 
 emotions ; to motive or principle of action ; will ; puipose ; the 
 faculty of thinking ; wisdom ; prudence. 
 
 ■*"i»Xr/, is applied primarily to breath ; life ; to that which lives ; 
 man, (plural, men,) that which thinks. 
 
 Uvcvua, is applied to wind, or air in motion ; the vital breath ; 
 invisible agents ; the essence of man ; the separate or combined 
 faculties which think, reason, choose, in opposition to what is 
 material ; the internal character of religion as opposed to the letter ; 
 intention ; sentiment ; mode of thinking ; to God ; specially to the 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
 Novs, is applied to the mind with all its faculties ; understanding, 
 judgment, knowledge : the act of thinking ; will; purpose. 
 
 Aidvota, is applied to intellect; sound reason; thought; agitation 
 of mind ; a perverse mode of thinking and feeling. 
 
 KdpSta, is applied to the interior of anything ; to the faculties, 
 thoughts, and affections of the mind, intellect, will, desire, intention, 
 memory, conscience, thoughts. See, for the Hebrew words, Con- 
 cordantia) Fiirstii. Lipsise, 1840 ; and Lexicon Manualc Heb. et 
 Chald. Gesenii, Lipsise, 1833. For the Greek words, see Schleus- 
 ncri Nov. Lex. Nov. Test. ed. quart. 1818. 
 
298 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 B. (page 5.) 
 
 According to the Pythagoreans, the soul of man consists of two 
 parts, one endowed with reason, and one without reason, tyvx'ds 8e, 
 rb jfxkv t\v ixov \6yov To8e ovk ix ov - Protrept. pp. 34, 35. 
 
 The same philosophy is ascribed to the Platonists. Antoninus 
 speaks of crcotxa, ■tyvxh, an d- vovs. Irenams says, Perfectus homo con- 
 stat carne, animo, et spiritu.* Clemens of Alexandria says, 'Oi fxkv 
 rpus aap£ Se Kal tyvxh nal Uuev/j.a.f Origen says — 'O avdpconos 
 (Tuuearr-nKev, eic au^aros, Kal tyvxys, Kal Ui/ev/xaros. Philocal. p. 8. — 
 Consult Whitby on the New Testament, vol. ii. (4to.), pp. 334, 335. 
 
 The psychology of Schubert in his " History of the Soul," gives 
 great prominence to this distinction. "The soul is the inferior part 
 of our intellectual nature — that which shows itself most distinctly 
 in the phenomena of our dreams — the power of which also is situ- 
 ated in the material constitution of the brain. The spirit, on the 
 contrary, is that part of our nature which tends to the purely rational, 
 the lofty, the divine. The doctrine of the natural and the spiritual 
 man, which we find in the writings of St. Paul, may perhaps have 
 formed the basis upon which Schubert founded this system of mental 
 dualism. Whatever may have been its origin, however, it forms a very 
 prominent feature in his metaphysical analysis, and affords an expla- 
 nation of many facts, which is by no means unreasonable or worth- 
 less. The feelings, as may be anticipated, play a very considerable 
 part in Schubert's psychology. Feeling, in reference to the sotd, is 
 the great impulse of all our outward actions, more especially when, 
 by a ray from heaven, it acquires a moral character, and impels us 
 to what is good and virtuous. Peeling, however, with reference to 
 the spirit, is of a far higher character, and appears to us in the form 
 of faith — faith which conquers sense, and sight, and the power of 
 death — faith which enables us to realize the Divine, and which gives 
 us at once the longing after, and the full conviction of an immortal life 
 beyond the tomb." — J. D. Morell's Historical and Critical Review of 
 the Speculative Philosophy of Europe in the Nineteenth Century. 
 Vol. ii. p. 450. Second Edition. 
 
 C. (page 12.) 
 
 Our only appeal, in a question of human consciousness, is to that 
 
 consciousness itself, and to the proofs of consciousness which are 
 
 given in the language and in the conduct of men. As to persona 1 
 
 * Lib. v. c. ix. t Strom. 3, p. 454. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 299 
 
 consciousness, I feel that I have power to begin operations which, 
 but for my beginning them, would never be ; I feel that this begin- 
 ning of operations is my act, the act of my mind ; I, therefore, 
 regard my own mind as the efficient cause of the operations resulting 
 from this act. 
 
 Then, as to the proofs that the consciousness of other men is in 
 this respect like my own : I refer to the general language of man- 
 kind, which gives names of an active signification to the first of all 
 those operations which originate with the human mind, — as speak- 
 ing, writing, choosing, preferring, attending, — and which, indeed, is 
 constructed on the obvious distinction between such beginnings of ope- 
 rations, and the mere continuance of operations already begun. Even 
 when, from supposed analogy, men speak of the activity of matter, 
 as the activity of fire, of medicine, of steam, of gunpowder, they can 
 easily distinguish this metaphorical activity, which is the mere conti- 
 nuance of the effects of some remote efficient catise, from the real, sim- 
 ple, direct activity of the human mind. All men feel that there is an es- 
 sential difference between doing what they could, and doing what they 
 could' not, have left undone. A man who, in falling, pushes down 
 another person, is conscious that this is altogether a different affair from 
 his deliberately knocking that other person down. On this universal 
 conscious7iess , then, we rest our conviction that whatever difficulties 
 philosophers may have found, or made, (and the latter are much 
 more numerous than the former,) in explaining the phenomena of 
 the human mind, that mind is an originating principle, an active 
 power. 
 
 As these pages are passing through the press I have received a 
 copy of Dr. Harris' " Man Primeval." In the first part, chapter 
 third, section sixth, that able "writer has discussed at considerable 
 length, and in a lucid and happy style, the real question of man's 
 voluntary agency. 
 
 D. (page 52.) 
 1st. Those passages which describe God as beginning and per- 
 forming a work in those who are called "believers," "holy persons," 
 "the saved." " Being confident of this very thing, that he which 
 hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus 
 Christ." "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not 
 as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work 
 out your own salvation with fear and trembling : for it is God which 
 worketh in you, both to will and to do, of his good pleasure." " For 
 
300 APPENDIX. 
 
 in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircum- 
 cision, but a new creature." " For this cause also thank we God 
 without ceasing, because when ye received the word of God which 
 ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in 
 truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that 
 believe." "And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to 
 us- ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power." 
 " And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." 
 "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all 
 that Ave ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." 
 " Wherefore we pray always for you, that our God would count you 
 worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his good- 
 ness, and the work of faith with power." * 
 
 2nd. Those passages in which certain persons are spoken of as 
 begotten and born of God. " But as many as received him, to them 
 gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on 
 his name. "Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, 
 nor of the will of man, but of God." " Except a man be born again, 
 he cannot see the kingdom of God." " Of his own will begat he us 
 with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of bis 
 creatures." "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto 
 a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 
 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, 
 by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." " "Whoso- 
 ever is born of God doth not commit sin ; for his seed remaineth in 
 him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." "Beloved, 
 let us love one another : for love is of God ; and every one that 
 1 >veth is born of God, and knoweth God." "Whosoever believeth 
 that Jesus is the Christ is born of God : and every one that loveth him 
 that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we 
 know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep 
 his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his 
 commandments ; and his commandments are not grievous. For 
 whatsoever is born of God ovcrcometh the world ; and this is the 
 victory that ovcrcometh the world, even our faith. "We know that 
 whosoever is born of God sinncth not ; but he that is begotten of 
 God kecpeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not." f 
 
 « Philippians i. 6; ii. 12, 1"; Gal. vi. 15 ; 1 Thess. ii. IS; Eph. i. 19; ii. ! : iii. 20 ; 
 STheas. 1. 11. 
 
 + John i. 12, 13 ; iii. 3; James i. IS ; 1 Pet. i. 3, 23; 1 John iii. 9; It. 7 ; v. 1— 
 4. IS. 
 
APPENDIX. 301 
 
 3rd. Those passages in which salvation is ascribed to the " call- 
 ing," "power," "grace," or "gift of God." " Among whom are 
 ye also the called of Jesus Christ : To all that be in Home, beloved 
 of God, called to be saints." " And we know that all things work 
 together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called 
 according to Ms purpose." "Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus 
 Christ, through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, unto 
 the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified 
 in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call 
 upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours ; God 
 is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son 
 Jesus Christ our Lord. But unto them which are called, both Jews 
 and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." 
 "But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called 
 every one, so let him walk." " But when it pleased God, who 
 separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace." 
 " But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, 
 a peculiar people ; that ye should show forth the praises of him 
 who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light." 
 " According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that 
 pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that 
 hath called us to glory and virtue." " Who hath saved us, and called 
 us with an holy calling, and not according to our works, but accord- 
 ing to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ 
 Jesus before the world began." "And for this cause he is the 
 mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the re- 
 demption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, 
 they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inherit- 
 ance." " But by the grace of God I am what I am; and his grace 
 which was bestoxced upon me was not in vain, but I laboured more 
 abundantly than they all : yet not I, but the grace of God which 
 was with me." "For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our 
 conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly 
 wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation 
 in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward." " That the name 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, 
 according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." 
 " But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency 
 of the power may be of God, and not of us." " And what is the ex- 
 ceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to 
 the working of his mighty power." "Whereof I was made a minister 
 according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effec- 
 
302 APFENDIX. 
 
 tual working of his power." " For the preaching of the cross is to 
 them that perish foolishness ; but unto us which are saved it is the 
 power of God." " Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and 
 in the power of his might." "For our gospel came not unto you 
 in word only, but also in power." " And now, brethren, I com- 
 mend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to 
 build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which 
 are sanctified." " Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of 
 James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved 
 in Jesus Christ, and called." "For this is the covenant that I will 
 make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord, I 
 will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts ; and 
 I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people." " And 
 he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, 
 except it were given unto him of my Father." " For unto you it 
 is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but 
 also to suffer for his sake." " So then neither is he that planteth 
 anything, neither he that watereth : but God that giveth the in- 
 crease."* 
 
 E. (page 55.) 
 
 The apparent verbal contradictions in the language employed to 
 express the personal distinctiveness, and the Divine unity, of the 
 Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, arise from the i?iapplicableness 
 of words denoting human thoughts, to that which transcends all 
 human thought. There is nothing in man's perceptions, conscious- 
 ness, or formal logical definitions, to supply him with intelligible 
 terms that can ever be more than an approximation towards the exact 
 and full truth of the unity of God. For this reason, theology can- 
 not become a strictly logical science ; language is too imperfect, too 
 low a vehicle, to become the exponent of its higher truths. I can- 
 not speak for others, but for my own part, I can truly say that the 
 study of the Sum ma Theologies of Aquinas has convinced me that 
 those whose minds have not been disciplined in Aristotelian and 
 scholastic forms of thought, are nearly sure to be misled by the lan- 
 guage — the particular terms I mean — of those intellectual Titans. 
 The same philosophy was used in common by the orthodox, and by 
 
 * Rom. i. 6, 7; viii. 28; 1 Cor. i. 1, 2,9,2-J; vii. 17; Gal. 1. 15; 1 Pet. ii. 9; 2 Pet. 
 ». 3; 2 Tim. i. 9; Heb. ix. 15; 1 Cor. xv. 10; 2 Cor. i. 12; 2 Thess. i. 12 ; 2 Cor. iv. 
 7; Eph. i. 19; iii. 7; 1 Cor. i. 18; Eph. vi. 10; 1 Thess. i. 5; Acts xx. 32; Jude 1 : 
 Heb. viii. 10; John vi. C5 ; Phil. i. 29; 1 Cor. iii. 7. 
 
APPENDIX. 303 
 
 their opponents : they attached the same meaning to the same terms ; 
 the former contended for what was well understood hy both parties 
 lit the terms, unio physica, and unio logica ; their opponents separated 
 those two : the Sabellians adhering to the unio physica only ; and the 
 Arians to the icnio logica only. The notions were expressed in the 
 Greek terms irepixupricris, ohaia, 5fj.oovcri6Tr]s, or dfioovaia. In like 
 manner the distinctions between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, 
 were represented by the term viroo-racns, of which there are three in 
 the ovrria, ofMoovcrta, or -KGpixupW-S' These terms are but imperfectly 
 represented by the Latin words substantia and persona, and still more 
 by our English words substance and person. 
 
 Augustine strongly felt, as he has majestically expressed, the in- 
 effableness of this great mystery : " Cum ergo quseritur quid tria, vel 
 quid tres, conferimus nos ad inveniendum aliquod speciale vel gene- 
 rale nomen, quo complectamur hsec tria, neque occurrit animo, 
 quia excedit, supereminentia divinitatis usitati eloquii facultatem. 
 Verms enim cogitatur Deus quam dicitur, et verius est quam 
 cogitatur." * 
 
 "The word j>erson (persona)," says Dr. Wallis, "is originally a 
 Latin word, and doth not properly signify a man ; (so that another 
 person must needs imply another man,) for then the word homo would 
 have served, and they need not to have taken the word persona ; 
 but rather, one so circumstantiated. And the same man, if consi- 
 dered in other circumstances, (considerably different,) is reputed 
 another person. And that this is the true notion of the word person 
 appears by those noted phrases, personam induere, personam deponere, 
 personam agere, and many the like, in approved Latin authors. Thus 
 the same man may at once sustain the person of a king and a 
 father, if he be invested both with regal and paternal authority. Now 
 because the king and the father are for the most part not only 
 different persons, but different men also, (and the like in other cases,) 
 hence it comes to pass that another person is supposed to imply 
 another man, but not always, nor is that the proper sense of the word. 
 It is Englished in our dictionaries by the state, quality, or condition 
 w/terein one man differs from another; and so as the condition alters, the 
 person alters, though the man be the same. 
 
 " The hinge of the controversy is — that notion concerning the three 
 somewhats, which the Fathers (who first used it) did intend to design 
 by the name person ; so that we arc not from the word person to 
 determine what was that notion ; but from the notion which they 
 
 * De Trinitate, Lib. vii. 
 
804: APPENDIX. 
 
 would express, to determine in what sense the word person is here 
 used." * 
 
 Dr. Wallis' views of the Trinit}-, like those of Dr. South, border 
 on Sabellianism. 
 
 " Concerning this most excellent and holy Trinity, ire cannot find 
 any suitable words in which we might speak of it, and yet Ave must 
 express this supernatural, incomprehensible Trinity in words. If 
 we therefore attempt to speak bf it, it is as impossible to do it pro- 
 perly as to reach the sky with one's head. For all that we can say 
 or think of it is a thousand times less proportionate to it than the 
 point of a needle is to heaven and earth, yea a hundred thousand 
 times less. "We might talk to a wonderful amount, and yet we could 
 neither express nor understand how the distinction of the persons 
 can exist in the supernatural unity. It is better to meditate on 
 these things than to speak of them ; for it is not very pleasant either 
 to say much about this matter, or to hear of it, especially when 
 words have been introduced (from without), and because we are 
 altogether unequal to the task. For the whole subject is at an infi- 
 nite distance from us, and wholly foreign to us, nor is it revealed to 
 us, for it even surpasses the apprehension of angels. We therefore 
 leave it to our great prelates and learned men ; they must have some- 
 thing to say, in order to defend the catholic faith ; but we will 
 simply believe." f 
 
 Tauler's sermons were greatly admired and much studied by 
 Luther. In a letter to Spaladin the Reformer says : "If you delight 
 in reading pure, solid, and ancient-like theology, poured out in the 
 German tongue, you can procure the sermons of John Tauler, a 
 preacher by profession. Neither in Lathi, nor in our own tongue, 
 have I met with theology more sound and more in harmony with the 
 Evangelists." 
 
 At another time he says : "I know, indeed, that this doctor is 
 unknown to the schools of theologians, and for that reason, perhaps, 
 is contemptible ; but I have found in him (though all his writings 
 are in the vernacular German) more solid and pure theology than is 
 found, or ever can be found, in all the scholastic doctors of all the 
 Universities." J 
 
 The following extract will probably be new to many of the readers 
 of this note. "In his (Dr. Samuel Clarke's) celebrated work, The 
 
 * Wallia* Letters on the Trinity. See on the same subject— Burton's Bampton 
 Lectures; and Hampden's Bampton Lectures. 
 
 + J. Tauleri Prcdigten. 4 vols. Berlin. 1841. pp.172. 
 
 I Lutheri op. Tom. I. Epis. 23 ad Spal. 151(3. p. 32. Id. p. 3C. 
 
APPENDIX. 305 
 
 Scripttire Doctrine of the Trinity, he propounded his system with 
 great clearness, and supported it with considerable strength and 
 subtlety of argument. He met a powerful opponent in Doctor 
 Hawarden, a celebrated clergyman of the Roman Catholic church. 
 By the desire of Queen Caroline, the consort of George I., a confe- 
 rence was held by them in the presence of her Majesty, of Mrs. Mid- 
 dleton, a Roman Catholic lady, much in her confidence, and the 
 celebrated Doctor Courayer. 
 
 " When they met, Dr. Clarke, at some length, in very guarded 
 terms, and with great apparent perspicuity, exposed his system. After 
 he had finished, a pause of some length ensued : Doctor Hawarden 
 then said, that ' he had listened, with the greatest attention, to what 
 had been said by Doctor Clarke ; and he believed he apprehended 
 rightly the whole of his system ; that the only reply which he should 
 make to it, was, asking a single question:' that, 'if the question 
 should be thought to contain any ambiguity, he wished it to be 
 cleared of its ambiguity before an answer to it should be given ;' 
 but he desired that, ' when the answer to it should be given, it 
 should be expressed either by the affirmative or negative monosyl- 
 lable.' To this proposition Dr. Clarke assented. ' Then,' said Doctor 
 Hawarden, 'I ask, can God the Father annihilate the Son and the Holy 
 Ghost? 'Answer me, Yes or No.' Dr. Clarke continued for some time 
 in deep thought, and then said, ' It was a question which he had 
 never considered.' Here the conference ended. A searching ques- 
 tion it certainly was ; and the reader will readily perceive its bear- 
 ings. If Doctor Clarke answered — Yes, he admitted the Son and 
 the Holy Ghost to be mere creatures ; if he answered — No, he ad- 
 mitted them to be absolutely Gods. The writer of these pages has 
 frequently heard the conference thus related, particularly by the 
 late Mr. Alban Butler, the president of the English College at St. 
 Omers, and Mr. "Winstanly, the professor of Philosophy at the Eng- 
 lish College at Doway. It gave rise to Dr. Hawarden's Ansiccr to 
 Dr. Clarke and Mr. Whiston, concerning the Divinity of the So?i of 
 God, and of the Holy Spirit ; tcith a Summary Account of the Writers 
 of the Three First Ages. An Historical and Literary account of the 
 Formularies, Confessions of Faith, or Symbolic Books of the Roman 
 Catholic, Greek, and principal Protestant Churches. By the Author 
 of the Horse Biblicre. pp. 65, 06. 
 
 F. (page 75.) 
 
 The writings of Mr. Thomas Carlyle are too well known to re- 
 XIV. X 
 
306 APPENDIX. 
 
 quire that I should here point out certain tendencies in some of them 
 to follow a modern school of Germany in generalizing the doctrine of 
 Inspiration, The same tendency is likewise apparent in the writings 
 of Mr. Waldo Emerson, to which greater attention has been awakened 
 here, since his recent visit to this country as a public lecturer. Fre- 
 quent references are made, in more private circles, to the work of 
 Mr. Theodore Parker, from which some expressions have been cited 
 in the Lecture to which this note is appended. The theory implied 
 rather than enounced, by these able and interesting writers, has long 
 been familiar in Germany as one part of the Anti-Supranaturalism 
 which has so extensively prevailed among speculative theologians of 
 that country. 
 
 The English reader finds the root of this system in Toland's 
 "Amyntor;" in Tindal's "Christianity as old as the Creation," 
 1730, translated into German, and published at Frankfort and Leipzic 
 in 1741; and in Antony Collins' " Discourse of Free Thinking;" 
 while answers to the theory are given in Simon Brown's, Coney- 
 beare's, and Clarke's "Defences of Revealed Religion ;" Arthur 
 Young's " Historical Dissertations," and in Clarke's Tract, "Some 
 Reflexions;" Stephen Nye's "Historical Account of the Contents 
 of the New Testament ;" Richardson's " Cause of the New Testa- 
 ment vindicated;" Jones on the Canon; and Lardner's "Credi- 
 bility." It is presumed that the professed theologians of England 
 are likewise familiar with the examinations published by the Swiss 
 divines — Francis Turretin and Stapfer. 
 
 Stripped of the poetry and mysticism with which modern German, 
 English, and American writers have clothed it, this system is neither 
 more nor less than Infidelity thinly veiled under the name and form of 
 Christianity. It is the denial of that which Christians, as Chris- 
 tians, believe — the denial of the facts which are peculiar to Chris- 
 tianity, and on which its speculative doctrines, its moral require- 
 ments, its permanent institutions, and its sublime hopes, are 
 grounded. "The historical basis of popular doctrine, such as 
 depravity, redemption, resurrection, the incarnation, is it formed 
 of facts or no facts ? Who shall tell us r Do not the wise men look 
 after these things ? One must needs blush for the patience of man- 
 kind. But has religion only the bubble of tradition to rest on ; no 
 other sanction than authority ; no substance but belief? They know 
 little of the matter who say it. Did religion begin with what we call 
 Christianity ? "Were there no saints before Peter ? Religion is the 
 first thing man learned ; the last thing he will abandon. There is 
 but one religion, as one ocean, though we call it faithin our church, 
 
APPENDIX. 307 
 
 and infidelity out of our church." * " If one were to look at the 
 evidence in favour of the Christian miracles, and proceed -with the 
 caution of a true inquirer, he must come to the conclusion, I think, 
 that they cannot be admitted as facts. The resurrection, a miracle 
 alleged to be wrought upon Jesus, and not by him — has more evi- 
 dence than any other, for it is attested by the epistles, as well as by 
 the gospels, and was one corner-stone of the Christian church. But 
 here — is the testimony sufficient to show that a man thoroughly 
 dead as Abraham and Isaac were, came back to life, passed through 
 closed doors, and ascended into the sky ? I cannot speak for others, 
 but most certainly, I cannot believe sicch facts, on such evidence." f 
 
 Unhappily it is no new thing for able and accomplished men to 
 avow, as Mr. Parker does, that they do not believe the Gospel ; but it 
 is comparatively a new thing for men professedly teaching the 
 Christian religion, to employ their knowledge, their genius, and 
 their influence, for the undermining of our faith in the Gospel. Of 
 such it may be said in the language of Augustine, " quaerunt non ut 
 fidem, sed ut infidelitatem, inveniant." 
 
 The Anti-Supranatural theory has been revived in Germany by 
 the disciples of Kant's and of Hegel's ideal philosophy. Instead of 
 totally rejecting the Biblical narratives, some bring a meaning to 
 them, explaining them, not by the laws of historical and philological 
 criticism, but according to their preconceived philosophy ; others 
 represent them as accommodations to prevalent notions ; others 
 again treat them as the mythical costume of abstract ideas. 
 
 By such processes, men have naturally been prepared entirely to 
 reject every statement of fact in the Scriptures which is miraculous 
 or inexplicable by the known laws of nature. Men of at least equal 
 learning and acuteness, however, have vindicated the historical 
 truthfulness of the whole Bible, and have contended — successfully, 
 as Ave think — for the sufficiency of the evidence on which Christians 
 rest their belief in miracles and in inspiration. 
 
 A similar course is likely enough to be repeated in England. If, 
 on the one hand, there are those who eagerly catch at this new form 
 of attack on our religion, and are carried away by its specious ex- 
 planations, others are not wanting who can meet them, and, by 
 opposing the principles of history, of language, and of human ex- 
 perience, to the subtleties of logic or the ingenuities of imagination, 
 can lay bare their sophistry and hollo wness. 
 
 The remedy is not far to seek. Let the New Testament be can- 
 
 * Theodore Parker's Discourse on Pceligion. Introduction, nn<je C. 
 •t Idem, p. 20S. 
 
30S APPENDIX. 
 
 didly examined, as embodying the popular preaching of eye-witnesses, 
 who sacrificed every worldly advantage, and life itself, as the pledge 
 of their honesty ; let it be considered whether they betray any signs 
 of incompetency to judge of plain matters of fact ; let it be explained 
 how it came to pass that they prevailed on others to believe them, 
 and that thus was introduced to the world the only religion that has 
 ever honoured God, or met the wants of man ; let the harmony of 
 the facts, the miraculous facts, with the doctrines, and of the doc- 
 trines with the ethics, of the New Testament be well considered ; 
 and then it may be left to sound reasoners to judge whether that 
 philosophy is worth anything which can be built up only on the 
 ruins of Christianity. It is only they who are not well grounded in 
 the mental laws by which men distinguish history from fiction, or 
 who have some motive, conscious or undetected, different from the 
 love of truth established by appropriate evidence, that are likely to 
 be seduced by the writings to which I have now referred. It is 
 greatly to be wished, for their sakes, that some of our English 
 writers, well versed in the theological literature both of Germany 
 and of England, would lucidly explain, and calmly discuss, all the 
 questions relating to the real worth of historical Christianity, its 
 proofs, and its connexion with doctrinal truths, and with the prac- 
 tical fruits of true religion. 
 
 "Were it not invidious, perhaps presumptuous, I could mention 
 the names of writers by whom such a work could be done, and done 
 well : these suggestions are now made in the hope of calling their 
 attention to it. "Every particle of the German infidelity must be 
 scattered to the winds, when it is proved that Jesus rose from the 
 dead. AVe fail, or delay to convince ourselves on this capital point ; 
 because the men who will neither ingenuously deny it, nor candidl)' 
 admit it, are able to entertain us with a thousand felicitous elucida- 
 tions of the evangelical records, such as we had not dreamed of." * 
 
 The author here cited, has treated this topic in his own admirable 
 style, in the first of his " Four Lectures on Spiritual Christianity." 
 The expansion of the lucid arguments and beautiful illustrations of 
 that Lecture, or something of the same character, embodying the 
 results of much reading and thought in popular language, and in a 
 devout spirit, may not improperly be added to the very long list of 
 desiderata in our English religious literature. 
 
 Since the above Note was written, I have read Mr. Morell's 
 volume on The Philosophy of Religion. His chapter on Inspira- 
 tion is of a totally different character from that of the works above 
 * Saturday Evening, Chap. vii. p. 126. 
 
APPENDIX. 309 
 
 referred to. He regards "Inspiration" as " that special influence 
 wrought upon the faculties, (of a man,) by virtue of which he is 
 able to grasp their realities in th'eir perfect fulness and integrity," 
 as "indicating the elevation of the religious consciousness, and with 
 it, of course, the power of spiritual vision, to an intensity peculiar 
 to the individual thus highly favoured by God," — as " being in no 
 sense mechanical, but purely dynamical : involving, not a novel and 
 supernatural faculty, but a faculty already enjoyed, elevated super - 
 naturalhj to an extraordinary power and susceptibility ; indicating, 
 in fact, an inward nature so perfectly harmonized to the Divine, so 
 freed from the distorting influences of prejudice, passion, and sin, so 
 simply recipient of the Divine ideas circumambient, around it, so 
 responsive in all its strings to the breath of heaven, that truth leaves 
 an impress upon it which perfectly answers to its reality objective." 
 In the development of the theory which he holds on the nature of 
 inspiration, he dwells on numerous facts which are not to be denied, 
 and which must be kept in view by all who would reason soundly 
 on this interesting question. It would be a gross misrepresentation 
 of Mr. Morell's views to say, that he loses sight of " the heavenly 
 origin" of the inspiration enjoyed by prophets and apostles, or of 
 " the supernatural agency " by which it was produced. Whether 
 he is correct or not in his philosophy of inspiration, is a question to 
 which my present theme does not require me to advert : yet I may 
 be allowed to suggest to any persons who may be startled by its 
 novelty to them, that they are scarcely competent to form an in- 
 dependent judgment on that subject until they have compared it 
 with earlier discussions, and until they have fully mastered the 
 distinction between the supernatural and the natural, both of which 
 elements are assumed, alike, by the writers whom Mr. Morell 
 follows, and by those from whom he dissents. 
 
 On the general contents of Mr. Morell's book, the bearing of 
 considerable portions of his argument, and indeed of his whole pur- 
 pose, on the subject of these Lectures, seems to require from me 
 more than this passing reference to the particular question of in- 
 spiration. 
 
 I may, therefore, be allowed to say here, that I would earnestly 
 commend the "Philosophy of Religion" to the candid and dis- 
 criminating study of all those persons — not few, I hope — who de- 
 sire to understand the Avay in which religion is viewed by some of 
 the most thoughtful and religious minds in the present day. 
 
 At all times there have been those who entertained substantially 
 all the views so lucidly and temperately advocated by this writer ; and 
 
olO APPENDIX. 
 
 I am thoroughly persuaded that a strong exhibition of the vital and 
 spiritual Christianity which it is so manifestly his aim to call forth, 
 is felt by the most thoughtful believers of the Gospel among our- 
 selves in England here, as well as by the holiest men in Germany, 
 to be the very chief of the many wants of the age in which we are 
 living. 
 
 If it were correct to understand Mr. Morell as meaning that the 
 Spiritual life is already in every man, and needs only to be developed 
 by the truths of the Gospel, and by the fellowship of the church, 
 it will be seen that my view differs from his ; inasmuch as I believe 
 that the inspired writers teach us to look to another power, not 
 naturally in ourselves, for the original production, and the constant 
 quickening of that life which, when so produced and quickened, 
 unfolds itself in the manner which is so beautifully elucidated in 
 his pages. But I am far from affirming that Mr. Morell, if 
 he were discussing the questions which I have handled, would 
 bring out results essentially different from those which I have ex- 
 pounded. 
 
 G. (page 130.) 
 
 The following passages may set this doctrine in a light which 
 not a few honest men on opposite sides have probably not fully con- 
 sidered. 
 
 Licet autem voces resistibilitas et irresistibilitas gratioe et barbarse 
 sunt, et minus aptae ad id quod quseritur explicandum : ipsis enim 
 resistibile dicitur quod potest impediri ; cum tamen aliud sit resis- 
 tere, aliud superare. Cogimur iis uti ad hominem. — Inst. Theo. F. 
 Turretini. P. II. Loc. xv. Qusest. vi. sect. 3. 
 
 Observandum hie primo : Male explicari Reformatorum sentcn- 
 tiam de rcsistibilitatc vel irresistibilitatc gratis de ejus efficavia vel 
 inefficacia quando ipsis tribuitur ; (a) Negare eos gratia? rcsistibili- 
 tatem respectu nature corruptee et camis Deo immicse qua?, quan- 
 tum in se est omnino resistit ; vel respectu gratia: esterase vocantis 
 et prsevenientis, cui homines resistere quotidiana testantur exempla ; 
 vel denique, ratione gratia 1 internee et clficacis cui ab initio natura 
 resistit, ultimo tamen et finaliter a gratia superatur, et caro a Spiritu 
 vincitur. (b) Falso etiam lleformatis a nonnullis tribuitur — ipsos 
 per insuperabilem gratis efficaciam motionem violentem ac coactant 
 intelligere, qualis trunci vel lapidis est. — Inst. Theol. Polem. T. F. 
 Stapferi. Tom. v. c. xx. sect. 108. 
 
APPEND iX. oil 
 
 " The great point of controversy really is, what is it that deter- 
 mines, disposes, and decides the matter — whether there shall be 
 saving virtue in the heart or not — and, much more properly, whether 
 the grace of God in the affair he determining grace, than whether it 
 be irresistible." — Remarks on Important Theological Controversies, 
 by President Edwards. Chap. iv. sect. 47. 
 
 " It may be allowed that God acts as a Sovereign in convincing 
 some souls of sin, arresting them in their mad career by his resist- 
 less power. It seems, also, that, at the moment of our conversion, 
 he acts irresistibly." — On the Sovereignty of God. — Wesley's Works, 
 (1830) vol. 10. 
 
 "©otote tie SBegrunbung be8 J&cttt in ber $evfcn beS (SttoferS nicljt jaukvtfd;, 
 fonbera, intent fie fid; junficf>8t tev Scfire unb beS Sengniffefl bcttcnt, in ©emaf^eit 
 tea menfd;lid;en ®runbs«$3ltnijfe3 aerffifytt, toctd^ci tic 5reif)cit in fid; ftijlkft : fo 
 mitfj tic 2lneignnng beS §eit3 gtetctyfatfe jufovberjl tavauf nrirfen, tats tie fvcte 
 <5mpfdna.Ud;feit te3 SSenftyen angetegt otev Ijeraorgetufen toerbe. SDtefe SSetmit* 
 thing tec ©natemmrfung turd; SOBort, JUrcfte unb Sacrament, fcfiliejjt ba$ SBebur* 
 fittp etnes unmittclbaren SBeifcs OotteS am mcnfcbltcfycn -§etjen nicfrt au3, unb ter 
 Slnfang ber SDliebergeBitct auS tern ©eift, too er nnvfUd; jiatt gefunben, fitntcvt nictyt, 
 bap cS cine immcrtoft^renbe Bfortfetjung beffctocn bi3 ju einem @nbe acbe, toelcficS 
 in tern gegctttoftrtigen 3uftauk ter 2)ienfd;6cit ntematS abuifeften ift. JDiefem 
 ireifad;cn 33evBa(tniffe entfyrcctyen tic tvei Sclnftucf e won ter SBemfung tc» @unbcr3 
 iuxd) l\v$ ©oangelium, tton ter SEBteberge&urt auSbem ®eifi, unbsonber ■fcefftgung 
 te» mcnfcijhcben ScfccnS." — System der Christlichen Lehre von Dr. Carl 
 ImmanuelNitzsch.* (4th Edit. 1839.) See 141. 
 
 " As the grounding of salvation in the lledeemer's person does 
 not destroy the freedom of human agency, the experience of salva- 
 tion, in like manner, calls that free agency forth. This mediate 
 work of grace through the word, the church, and the sacraments, 
 does not supersede the necessity of an immediate work of God on 
 the human heart ; and the beginning of the new birth by the Spirit, 
 where it actually takes place, is of such a nature as to admit of 
 the incessant operation of the same power for the attainment of 
 an end which is never realized in the present condition of man- 
 kind. To this threefold relation there is a correspondence in the 
 three distinct doctrines — of the calling of the sinner by the Gos- 
 pel, — of the new birth by the Spirit, — and of the holiness of the 
 human life." 
 
 " Observation, f It always appears to us that the attempt to give 
 psychological analysis of the work of grace fails to secure the end 
 
 * There is an interesting account of Dr. Nitzsch in the Biblical Review for April, 1819 . 
 i See also Sec. 145. 
 
3J2 appp:ndix. 
 
 in view ; on the one hand, the Divine act, and on the other, the sub- 
 jective change, is too strongly distinguished. Even if this were 
 admissible, the phraseology of the Bible has little correspondence 
 with such a distinction. And how can we, by this method, either 
 avoid the false theory of the Synergists, or place in the true light the 
 essential and free self-agency of man ?" 
 
 II. (page 136.) 
 
 . . . . "How came matter to have such properties and laws r 
 Are these also to be considered as things of selection and institu- 
 tion ? And if so, can we trace the reasons why the laws were estab- 
 lished in their present form ; why the properties which matter 
 actually possesses were established and bestowed upon it ? We 
 have already attempted, in a previous part of this work, to point out 
 some of the advantages which are secured by the existing laws of 
 heat, light, and moisture ; can we, in the same manner, point out 
 the benefits which arise from the present constitution of those laws 
 of matter which are mainly concerned in the production of cosmical 
 phenomena ? 
 
 It will readily be perceived that the discussion of this point 
 must necessarily require some effort of abstract thought. The laws 
 and properties of which we have here to speak — the laws of motion 
 and the universal properties of matter — are so closely interwoven 
 with our conceptions of the external world, that we have great 
 difficulty in conceiving them not to exist, or to exist other than they 
 are. When we press or lift a stone, we can hardly imagine that it 
 could, by possibility, do otherwise than resist our effort by its hardness 
 and by its heaviness, qualities so familiar to us ; when we throw it, 
 it seems inevitable that its motion should depend on the impulse we 
 give, just as we find that it invariably does. 
 
 Nor is it easy to say how far it is really possible to suppose the 
 fundamental attributes of matter to be different from what they are. 
 If we, in our thoughts, attempt to divest matter of its powers of 
 resisting and moving, it ceases to be matter, according to our con- 
 ceptions, and we can no longer reason upon it with any distinctness. 
 And yet it is certain that we can conceive the laws of hardness and 
 weight and motion to be quite different from what they arc, and can 
 point out some of the consequences which would result from such 
 difference. The properties of matter, even the most fundamental 
 and universal ones, do not obtain by an absolute necessity, rcsem- 
 
APPENDIX. 313 
 
 bling that which belongs to the properties of geometry. A line 
 touching a circle is necessarily perpendicular to a line drawn to the 
 centre through the point touched ; for it may be shown that the 
 contrary involves a contradiction ; but there is no contradiction in 
 supposing that a body's motion should naturally diminish, or that 
 its weight should increase in removing further from the earth's 
 centre. 
 
 Thus the properties of matter and the laws of motion are what we 
 find them, not by virtue of any internal necessity which we can 
 understand. The studies of such laws and properties may, there- 
 fore, disclose to us the character of that external agency by which 
 we conceive them to have been determined to be what they are ; 
 and this must be the same agency by which all other parts of the 
 constitution of the universe were appointed and ordered. 
 
 But we can hardly expect, with regard to such subjects, that we 
 shall be able to obtain any complete or adequate view of the reasons 
 why these general laws are so selected and so established. These 
 laws are the universal basis of all operations which go on, at any 
 moment, in every part of space, with regard to every particle of 
 matter, organic and inorganic. All other laws and properties must 
 have a reference to these, and must be influenced by them, both 
 such as men have already discovered, and the far greater number 
 which remain still unknown. The general economy and mutual 
 relations of all parts of the universe, must be subordinate to the 
 laws of motion and matter of which we here speak. We can easily 
 suppose that the various processes of nature, and the dependences 
 of various creatures, are affected in the most comprehensive manner 
 by these laws ; — are simplified by their simplicity, made consistent 
 by their universality ; rendered regular by their symmetry. We can 
 easily suppose that in this way there may be the most profound and 
 admirable reasons for the existence of the present universal pro- 
 perties ol matter, which we cannot apprehend in consequence of the 
 limited nature of our knowledge and of our faculties. For, though 
 our knowledge on certain subjects, and to a certain extent, is posi- 
 tive and clear ; compared with the whole extent of the universe, the 
 whole aggregate of things, and relations, and connexions which 
 exist, it is most narrow and partial, most shallow and superficial. 
 We cannot suppose, therefore, that the reasons which we dis- 
 cover for the present form of the laws of nature go nearly to the 
 full extent, or to the bottom of the reasons, which a more complete 
 and profound insight would enable us to perceive. To do justice to 
 such reasons, would require nothing less than a perfect acquain- 
 
ol4 APPENDIX. 
 
 tance with the whole constitution of every part of creation ; a know- 
 ledge which man has not, and, so far as we can conceive, never can 
 have. 
 
 We are certain, therefore, that our views, with regard to this part 
 of our subject, must be imperfect and limited. Yet still man has 
 some knowledge with regard to various portions of nature ; and with 
 regard to those most general and comparatively simple facts to 
 which we now refer, his knowledge is more comprehensive, and goes 
 deeper than it does in any other province. "We conceive, therefore, 
 that we shall not be engaged in any rash or presumptuous attempt, 
 i we endeavour to point out some of the advantages which are 
 secured by the present constitution of some of the general mecha- 
 nical laws of nature ; and to suggest the persuasion of that pur- 
 pose and wise design, which the selection of such laws will thus 
 appear to imply." — Whewell's Eridgewater Treatise, on Astronomy 
 and General Physics. Book II. chap. ix. Mechanical Laws. 
 
 I. (pages 192—195.) 
 
 212. AltrBdvei t)e vvv ttcos e^e is ; e\evBepo7rpe7rcos fj ov ; 
 
 AA. Aokco poc Kal pd\a acfiodpa aiaddvecrdai. 
 
 2Q. OiaBa ovv ttcos dnocpev^ei tovto to irepl ere vvv ; iva pi) vvopd£co- 
 
 pev avro eVi kciXco dvdpi. 
 A A. "Eycoye. 
 20. Has; 
 
 AA. 'Eciv fiovXi] crv, at SooKparer. 
 20. Ov KaXcos Xeyeis, a> 'AX/a/3tac>7. 
 AA. 'AXXa ttcos XPI Xeyeiv ; 
 20. "On edv 6ebs edeXrj. 
 
 Plato Alcib. i. vol. vi. p. 134, 5. 
 
 Hv Tolvvv eBepev tov (pikoa6cj)nv (pvcriv, civ pev, olpai, paSijcrecos 
 npoarjKovarjs T\>Xlh f ' s Trdtrav dpeTj)v uvdyKt] al^avcpevqv dcpiKvelaOai, 
 edv he pi) iv 7Tpoar]Kovar] cnrapeiod re Kal <pvTev6eio~a TpecprjTai, els 
 rrdv ra rdvavria civ, edv pf) tis avrr (io-qB^aas Qecov riffl. 
 
 Plato Polit. vol. vii. p. 14. 
 
 20 dvciyKoiov ovv eori nepipeveiv ecos av tis pd6i] cos del 
 
 irpos Beovs Kal npos dvOpconovs hiaKeiadai. 
 
 AA. no're ovv TiapeaTai 6 %p6vns ovtos, at ^coKpares ; Kal tis 6 irai- 
 bevcrcov ; rjhiaTa yap civ poi hoKco thelv tovtov tov diOpconov tis eoTiv. 
 
APPENDIX, 315 
 
 2i2. Ottos' ecriv to peXei irepi crov' dXXd boKel pot, a><r irep red 
 AioprjSet (prjal rrjv. ^Adrjvdv^OptjposdTrb toov v(P$aX^cov drpeXelv rrpj 
 
 o(pp ev yiyvccxTKOi t]pev Bebv r;Se kcl\ avdpa, 
 
 ovtco Kcii vol Suv utto ttjs yjsvxrjs npcornv tt)v dxXvv dcpeXuvra, rj vvv 
 
 TTapjvaa rvyx^vei, to rrjVLKavT tj8i] irpocrcpepeiv 6Y ojv peXXeis yvco- 
 
 (jeaQai rjpev kcikuv j';Se Kai eaQXcv. vvv pev yap ovk av pot ftoiceh 
 
 dvvrjBrjvai. 
 
 AA. 'Arpatpeiro), e'lre /SouAerai rrjv ayAvv e'ire aXpo tl- cos eyco 
 TTapecTKevacrpai p-qbev dv cpvyelv tcov vtt iicelvov TrpoararTopevcoVy os tis 
 ttot earlv 6 dvdpamos, ei ye peXXotpi fieXrieov yeveadai. 
 
 2J2. 'AXXa prjv kukzIvos 6avpaari]v (Jcrrjv irepl ere TrpoOvplav e\ei. 
 Piato Alcib ii. vol iii. p. 124, 5. 
 
 . . . . 6 de tls e^apOels virb ^eyaKavxio-s ?} xP''"ll Jia0 ~ lv eiraipojxevos v) 
 Tiucus v) Kai aoojxaTO^ ev/j.6pcpia, a/ia veo-rrjTt Kai avoia, cpAeyerai ti)v 
 4"JXV U M e ^' v/3peu>s, ojs our 'dpxovros ov re tivos iiyejxovos Se6/j.evos aWa 
 Kai aWois luavbs &v iiye7o~9at, KaraXeiirerai ep7]/xos deov, icara\ei'p6els Se 
 Kai tri aWovs tolovtovs irpos Xafiwv uKipra rapdrrccv irdvd' d/xa, teal iroA- 
 Ao?s tijIv e'oo|ej/ elval tls, /xera Se XP® V0V ou "^oXvv vttoctx^' 1 ' Tificvpiav 
 ov jit <.uttt}v rfj diKy eavriv re Kai oJkov Kai tt6Kiv apS-qv avdcTTarov eVonjcre. 
 
 Plato Leg. vol. viii. p. 113. 
 
 "The object of inquiry is, what is the principle of motion in the 
 soul. It is plain then that as God is in the universe, so everything 
 is in Him ; for the divinity within us in a manner moves all things. 
 But the principle of reason is not reason, but something superior. 
 "What then can one say is superior even to science, but God ? for 
 virtue is an instrument of the intellect. On this account also the 
 ancients said : they are called fortunate who have an impulse to 
 succeed, being themselves without reason ; and willing is not ex- 
 pedient for them ; for they have a principle of a nature superior to 
 intellect and will. But there are some that have reason, and not 
 this : and these are enthusiasms ; but these have not the power of 
 
 this : for as being unreasonable they fail It is evident 
 
 then that there are two kinds of good fortune : one divine, whence 
 also the fortunate seems to succeed through God ; this is the 
 character that is apt .to do right through impulse : the other one 
 who does right against impulse." 
 
 Aristot. Eth. Eudem. lib. vii. c. 14, torn. ii. p. 289, Du Yale 
 Quoted by Dr. Hampden, Bishop of Hereford, in Note C. to the 
 sixth lecture on the Scholastic Philosophy. 3rd edition. 1848. 
 
316 APPENDIX. 
 
 Facis rem optimam, et tibi salutarcm, si, ut scribis, perseveras 
 ire ad bonam mentem ; quam stultum est optare, cum possis a te 
 impetrare. Non sunt ad coclum elevanda? manus, nee exorandus 
 eedituus, ut nos ad aures simulacri, quasi magis exaudiri possimus, 
 admittat : prope est a te Deus, tecum est, intus est. Ita dico, Lucili, 
 sacer intra nos spiritus sedet malorum bonorumque nostrorum 
 observator et custos ; hie prout a nobis tractatus est, ita nos ipse 
 tractat. Bonus vir sine Deo nemo est. An potest aliquis supra 
 fortunam, nisi ab illo adjutus, exsurgere : ilia dat consilia magnifica, 
 et erecta. In uno quoque virorum bonorum (quis Deus incertum 
 est) habitat Deus. 
 
 L. Anncci Senecae Philosophi. Tom. Sec. Ep. 41. 
 
 .... ware ocrov iir) rols 6eo7s, Kal reus sKtlQev SmSotrecn nal crv\- 
 \7)ipeaL, icai iirivotais, /xridev kuXvslv jjdrj Kara <pvmv £r\v /j.e, v) airo\e'nre(r8ai 
 en tovtov irapa ttjv i/j.7]v alriav, Kal irapa. rb /jlyj SiaT7]pe?v ras in ruv 
 6eu>u vttoi-iV7)(T€is, nal jxovovovxL 8i8a<TKa\ias. 
 
 Marci Antonini De Rebus Suis. Lib. i. sec. 17. 
 Ed. Gatakeri, 1697. 
 
 K. (page 197.) 
 
 Besides referring in general terms to the constant maintenance of 
 this -vital doctrine in all ages, let me request the studious reader to 
 consult the original Church Histories ; Cave's Historia Literaria ; — 
 Dupin's Neio Ecclesiastical History ; — Tillemont's Memoires, and the 
 modern writers, such as Guerike, Gieseler, and especially Neander. 
 
 In addition to Church Histories, it will be advantageous to 
 examine some of the more recent Histories of Doctrine, such as 
 Bretschneider, Hase, or Hagenbach. 
 
 The ancient liturgies will be found in the best English libraries : 
 there is a fine collection, which I have seen, at St. Mary's College, 
 Oscott, near Birmingham. 
 
 The following specimens of prayers and hymns exhibit the current 
 sentiments of the devout from an early period. 
 
 AD SPI1UTUM SANCTUM. 
 
 Divini amor numinis, Patris Omnipotentis, prolisque beatissima? 
 sancta communicatio, Omnipotens paraclete Spiritus, merentium 
 Consolator elementissime, jam cordis mei penetralibus potcnti 
 illabere virtutc, et tenebrosa quieque laris neglecti latibula, corusci 
 luminis fulgorc pius habitator laHifica, tuique roris abundantia longo 
 
APPENDIX. 317 
 
 ariditatis marcentia squalore visitando fcecunda. Saucia intcrioris 
 hominis arcana, tui amoris jaculo, et torpentis medullas jecoris 
 nammis salutaribus penetrando succende, sanctique fervoris igne 
 illustrando iiitima mentis, et corporis universa depasce. Pota me 
 torrente voluptatis tua?, ut nihil jam mundanorum degustare libeat, 
 venenate dulcedinis. Judica me Domine et discerne causam meam, 
 de gente non sancta, doce me facere voluntatem tuam, quia Deus 
 meus es tu. Credo ergo, quod quemcunque inliabitaveris, Patris ac 
 pariter Filii domicilium condis. Beatus qui te merebitur hospitari, 
 quoniam per te, Pater et Filius apud eum faciunt mansionem. Veni 
 jam veni benignissime dolentis animal consolator, protegens in 
 opportunitatibus, in tribulatione adjutor. Veni mundator scelerum, 
 curator vulnerum. Veni fortitudo fragilium, revelator labentium. 
 Veni liumilium doctor, superborum destructor. Veni orphanorum 
 pius Pater, viduarum dulcis judex. Veni spes pauperum, refocillator 
 deficientium. Veni navigantium sidus, naufragii portus. Veni 
 omnium viventium singulare decus, morientium unica salus. Veni 
 sanctissime Spiritus, veni et miserere mei, apta me tibi, et condes- 
 cende propitius mibi, ut mea tuse magnitudini exiguitas, roborique 
 tuo mea imbecillitas, secundum multitudinem tuarum complaceat 
 miserationum, per Jesum Christum Salvatorem meum, qui cum 
 Patre in tua imitate vivit, et regnat in secula seculorum. Amen. 
 
 AUGUST. SOLILOQ. CAP. 33. 
 
 Cognovi te Deum, et unum Spiritum S. Patris et Filii, ab utroque 
 pariter procedentem, consubstantialem et coaeternum Patri et Filio, 
 Paracletum et advocatum nostrum, qui super eundem Deum Domi- 
 num nostrum Jesum Christum in columba? specie descendisti, et 
 super Apostolos in linguis igneis apparuisti, qui et omnes sanctos 
 et electos Dei a principio tua? gratia? munere docuisti, et ora Prophet- 
 arum, ut enarrent mirabilia regni tui aperuisti, quia ab omnibus 
 Sanctis Dei, cum Patre et Filio, simul adoraris et glorificaris, inter 
 quos et ego filius ancilla? tua?, toto corde meo glorifico nomen tuum, 
 quoniam, illuminasti me. Tu enim es vera lux, lumen vcridicum, 
 ignis Dei, et Magister Spirituum, qui unctione tua doces nos omncm 
 veritatem, Spiritus veritatis, sine quo impossibile est placere Deo, 
 quoniam tu ipse Deus es ex Deo, et lux de luce, procedens a. patre 
 luminum et a suo Filio Domino nostro Jesu Christo, quibus con- 
 substantialis, et coocqualis, et coa?ternus existens, in unius Trinitatis 
 essentia supercssentialiter congloriaris, et conregnas in secula secu- 
 lorum. Amen. 
 
318 APPENDIX. 
 
 ECCLESIA. 
 
 Domine Spiritu? Sancte Deus, qui coa?qualis, consubstantialis, ct 
 coseternus Patri, Filioque existens, ab cis inefFabiliter procedens, 
 ouique super eundem Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum in 
 columbce specie apparuisti, et super sanctos discipulos in Unguis 
 igneis descendisti, tibi gratias ago, te adoro, telaudo, teque benedieo 
 et glorifico, rcpelle a me quoeso tenebras totius iniquitatis et periidia?, 
 ac accende in me lumen misericordia? tua?, et ignem sanctissimi 
 amoris tui, qui vivis et regnas Deus, per omnia secula seculorum 
 Amen. 
 
 HYMKUS. 
 
 Sancti Spiritus adsit nobis gratia. 
 
 Qua? corda nostra sibi faciat babitaculum. 
 
 Expulsis inde cunctis vitiis spiritualibus. 
 
 Spiritus almc illustrator bominum, 
 
 Horridas nostra? mentis purga tenebras. 
 
 Amator sancte sensatorum, semper cogitatuum, 
 
 Infunde unctionem tuam clemens nostris sensibus. 
 
 Tu purificator omnium flagitiorum Spiritus, 
 
 Purinca nostri oculum interioris hominis 
 
 Ut videri supremus genitor possit a nobis ; 
 
 Mundi cordis, quern soli cernere possunt oculi. 
 
 Prophetis tu inspirasti, ut prseconia Christi praccinuissent inclyta. 
 
 Apostolos confortasti, ut trophccum Christi per totum mundum 
 veherent. 
 
 Quando machinam per verbum suum fecit Deus cceli, terras 
 marium. 
 
 Tu super aquas solutus eas, nomen tuum expandisti Spiritus. 
 
 Tu animabus vivificandis aquas fcecundas. 
 
 Tu aspirando das spirituales esse homines. 
 
 Tu divisum per linguas mundum et ritus, adunasti Domine. 
 
 Idolatras ad cultum Dei revocas magistrorum optime, 
 
 Ergo nos supplicantcs tibi exaudi Sancte Spiritus. 
 
 Sine quo prcccs omnes cassse creduntur, et indignee auribus. 
 
 Tu qui omnium sceulorum sanctos tui nominis docuisti instinctu 
 amplectcndo Spiritus. 
 
 Ipse hodie Apostolos Christi donans munere insolito, et cunctis 
 inaudito scculis. 
 
 Hunc diem gloriosum focisti. 
 
 UVMNUS. 
 
 Vcni sancte Spiritus, et eniitte coclitus lucis tua? radium. 
 
APPENDIX. 310 
 
 Veni Pater pauperum, veni dator munerum, veni lumen cordium. 
 
 Coiisolator optime, dulcis hospes animse, dulce refirigerium. 
 
 In labore requies, in cestu temperies, in fietu solatium. 
 
 O lux beatissima, reple cordis intima tuorum fidelium. 
 
 Sine tuo numine nihil est in homine, nihil est innoxium. 
 
 Lava quod est sordidum, riga quod est aridum, sana quod est 
 saucium. 
 
 Fleete quod est rigidum, fove quod est aridum, rege quod est 
 devium. 
 
 Da tuis fidelibus, in te eonfidentibus, sacrum septenarium. 
 
 Da virtutis prcemium da salutis exitum, da perenne gaudium. 
 
 Yeni, Creator Spiritus, 
 Mentes tuorum visita, 
 Imple superna gratia 
 Quse tu creasti pectora. 
 Qui paracletus diceris, 
 Donum Dei altissimi 
 Pons vivus, ignis, charitas, 
 Et spiritalis unctio. 
 
 Tu septiformis munere, 
 D extra? Dei tu digitus, 
 Tu rite promissum Patris, 
 Sermone ditans guttura. 
 
 Accende lumen sensibu?, 
 Infunde amorem cordibus, 
 Infirma nostri corporis 
 Virtute firmans perpetim. 
 
 Hostem repellas longius, 
 Pacemque clones protinus, 
 Ductore sic te praevio, 
 Vitemus omne noxium. 
 
 Per te sciamus da Patrem, 
 Noscamus atque Filium, 
 Te utriusque Spiritum, 
 Credanvus omni tempore. 
 
 Sit laus Patri cum Filio, 
 Sancto simul Paraclcto, 
 Nobisque mittat Filius, 
 
 Charisma Sancti Spiritus. 
 
320 APPENDIX. 
 
 ORATIO. 
 
 Concede quae sumus omnipotens Deus, ut qui solemnitatem doni 
 Spiritus Sancti colimus, ccelesti desiderio accensi fontem vitoe 
 sitiamus. 
 
 ALT A. 
 
 Praesta quaesumus omnipotens Deus, ut claritatis tuse super nos 
 splendor effulgeat, et lux tuse lucis corda eorum, qui per gratiam 
 tuam renati sunt, Sancti Spiritus illustratione confirmet, Per eundem. 
 
 ALIA. 
 
 Deus, qui hodierna die corda fidelium, sancti Spiritus illustra- 
 tione docuisti, da nobis in eodem spiritu recta sapere, et de ejus 
 semper consolatione gaudere, Per eundem Dominum, &c. 
 
 ALIA. 
 
 Deus qui Apostolis tuis sanctum dedisti Spiritum, concede plebi 
 tuae piae petitionis efTectum, ut quibus dedisti fidem, largiaris et 
 pacum, Per, &c. 
 
 ALIA. 
 
 Assit nobis, quaesumus Domine, virtus sancti Spiritus, qui et 
 corda nostra clementer expurget, et ab omnibus tueatur adversis, 
 Per eundem, &c. 
 
 ALIA. 
 
 Mentes nostras quaesumus, paracletus, qui a, te procedit, illuminet, 
 et inducat in omnem sicut tuus promisit Filius veritatem. Qui te in 
 ejusdem, &c. 
 
 ALIA. 
 
 Praesta quaesumus omnipotens et misericors Deus, ut Spiritus 
 Sanctus adveniens tcmplum nos glorice suae dignanter in liabitando 
 perficiat, Per eundem, &c. 
 
 ALIA. 
 
 Da quaesumus Ecclesia tune misericors Deus, ut Spiritus Sanctus 
 congregata, hostili nullatenus incursione turbetur, Per, &c. 
 
 Precationes ex vetcribus orthodoxes doctoribus, ex ecclesia) 
 hymnis et canticis, ex Psalmis demquc Davidis : collectae, recognita?, 
 et aucta?, per Andream Musculum. D. Anno MDCX. 
 
 Translation of the tweceding extracts from the Collection of Musculits . 
 
 TO THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 Love of the Divine Majesty, the Holy Communication of the 
 
APPENDIX* 321 
 
 Almighty Father, and of the most blessed Offspring, Omnipotent 
 Spirit the Paraclete, the most merciful Comforter of the deserving, 
 enter now into the depths of my heart by thy powerful virtue ; and 
 also, as the rightful inhabitant, gladden the gloomy recesses of the 
 neglected dwelling by the effulgence of thy gleaming light ; and the 
 places withering through drought, in long continued barrenness, 
 make fruitful by visiting them with the abundance of thine own dew. 
 Wound the hidden parts of the inner man by the dart of thy love, 
 and enkindle the inmost depths of my sluggish heart, by penetrating 
 them with thy healthful flames ; and cause the inmost parts of the 
 mind and the whole of the body to be eaten up by enlightening with 
 the fire of holy fervour. Drench me with a torrent of thine own 
 pleasure, so that to indulge in worldly things, in the poison of their 
 sweetness, may no longer be pleasing to me. Judge me, O God, and 
 decide my cause concerning an unholy nation ; teach me to do thy 
 will, for thou art my God. For I believe, that in whomsoever thou 
 dost dwell, thou dost make a habitation equally for the Father and 
 the Son. Blessed is he who shall be thought worthy to entertain 
 thee, because through thee, the Father and the Son make their abode 
 with him. Come now, O come, thou most benignant consoler of the 
 sorrowing spirit, the protector in times of necessity, the supporter in 
 tribulation. Come, cleanser of impurities — healer of wounds. Come, 
 strength of the weak — revealer of passing events. Come, teacher of 
 the humble — destroyer of the proud. Come, righteous father of 
 orphans — kind judge of widows. Coine, hope of the poor — reviver 
 of the disheartened. Come, star of mariners — the refuge from ship- 
 wreck. Come, matchless grace of all living — the only safety of the 
 dying. Come, O Most Holy. Spirit, come and pity me ; unite me to 
 thyself, and condescend to be merciful to me, that my littleness may 
 be pleasing to thy greatness, and my weakness to thy strength, 
 according to the multitude of thy mercies, through Jesus Christ my 
 Saviour, who with the Father in thy unity, liveth and reigneth 
 through everlasting ages, Amen. 
 
 SOLILOQUY OF AT7GTTSTINE. 
 
 Chapter xxxiii. 
 
 I know thee, God, and one Holy Spirit, proceeding equally from 
 both the Father and the Son, consubstantial and coeternal with the 
 
 Father and the Son, our Paraclete and Advocate, who didst descend 
 in the form of a dove upon the same God, our Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 didst appear upon the apostles in tongues of fire, and hast taught all 
 the holy and elect of God from the beginning by the gift of thy grace, 
 Xiv. V 
 
32'2 APPENDIX. 
 
 and hast opened the mouths of prophets, that they should explain 
 the wonders of thy kingdom, for which thou art adored and glorified 
 by all the saints of God equally with the Father and the Son, with 
 whom, I also the son of thine handmaid will glorify thy name with 
 all my heart, since thou hast enlightened me. For thou art the true 
 light, the truth-speaking luminary, the fire of God, and spiritual 
 instructor, who dost teach us all truth by thine unction, the Spirit 
 of truth, without whom it is impossible to please God, since thou 
 thyself art God from God, and light from light, proceeding from the 
 Father of lights, and from his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, with whom 
 thou dost exist consubstantial, and co-equal, and co-eternal, and art 
 together praised superessentially in the essence of one Trinity, and 
 co-reignest throughout all ages, Amen. 
 
 THE CONGREGATION. 
 
 O Lord God, the Holy Spirit, who dost exist co-equal, consubstan- 
 tial, and co-eternal with the Father and the Son, proceeding ineffably 
 from them, who didst appear upon our Lord Jesus Christ in the form 
 of a dove, and who didst descend upon the holy disciples in tongues 
 of fire, I render thanks to thee, I adore thee, I praise, and I bless and 
 glorify thee. Remove from me, I pray, the darkness of all iniquity 
 and faithlessness, and enkindle in me the light of thy mercy, and the 
 fire of thy most holy love, who livest and reigncst God, through all 
 eternity, Amen. 
 
 A HYMN. 
 
 May the grace of the Holy Spirit be with us, 
 
 Who makes our hearts his habitation, 
 
 All spiritual evils being thence expelled. 
 
 Beneficent Spirit ! Enlightener of men, 
 
 Remove the dreadful darkness of our mind. 
 
 Holy lover of the intelligent, of the ever thoughtful, 
 
 Mercifully pour thine unction into our understandings. 
 
 O thou Spirit, cleanser of all impurities, 
 
 Purify the eye of our inner man, 
 
 That the Supreme Father may be seen by us ; 
 
 Whom the eves of a pure heart alone can see. 
 
 Thou didst inspire the prophets that they should foretell the cele- 
 brated announcements of Christ. 
 
 Thou didst strengthen the apostles that they should cany through 
 all the world the victory of Christ. 
 
 When God by his word made the fabric of the heaven, the earth, 
 and the seas, 
 
APPENDIX. 323 
 
 Thou over the unbounded waters didst spread out thy name. 
 
 Thou raakest the waters fruitful with life-endowed souls. 
 
 Thou, by breathing upon men, makest them to be spiritual. 
 
 Thou, O Lord, unitest the world, divided by language and customs. 
 
 Thou, best of teachers, recallest idolaters to the worship of God. 
 
 Therefore, O Holy Spirit, hear us, as we supplicate thee, 
 
 Without whom all our prayers are believed to be useless, and not 
 
 worthy to be heard. 
 Thou Spirit who hast taught the saints of all ages, by laying hold of 
 
 them with the impulse of thy name. 
 Thou thyself until now bestowing upon the apostles of Christ a gift, 
 
 strange and unheard of throughout all ages. 
 Thou hast made this day glorious. 
 
 A HYMN". 
 
 Come, Holy Spirit, and send forth from heaven a ray of thy light. 
 
 Come, Father of the poor ; come, Bestower of gifts ; come, Light of 
 hearts. 
 
 Best Comforter, sweet guest of the soul, sweet consolation, 
 
 Rest in labour, temperateness in heat, solace in weeping, 
 
 O most blessed light, fill the inmost depths of the heart of thy faith- 
 ful ones. 
 
 Without thy power there is nothing in man, nothing is innocent. 
 
 Cleanse that which is filthy ; moisten that which is dry ; heal that 
 which is wounded ; 
 
 Bend that which is rigid ; cherish that which is parched ; direct that 
 which is deviating. 
 
 O Holy Seven ! give thyself to thy faithful ones, who trust in thee ; 
 
 Give the reward of virtue ; give the fulfilment of salvation ; give 
 perennial joy. 
 
 A HYMN. 
 
 Come, Creator, Spirit, 
 Visit the minds of thine own, 
 Fill with celestial grace 
 The souls which thou hast created. 
 
 Who art called the Paraclete, 
 Gift of the most High God, 
 Living fountain, fire, love, 
 And spiritual unction. 
 
 Thou sevenfold in office, 
 Thou, the finger of God's right hand, 
 Thou, in due form, the promise of the Father, 
 
324 APPENDIX. 
 
 Enriching voices with, speech. 
 
 Enkindle light in our understandings, 
 Pour love into our hearts, 
 The weaknesses of our body 
 Strengthen continually by thy virtue. 
 
 Drive far from us the enemy, 
 And speedily give us peace ; 
 So that, Thou going before us as our Leader, 
 We may avoid every hurtful thing. 
 
 Grant that through thee we may know the Father, 
 And also know the Son, 
 And the Spirit of both, 
 That at all times we may have confidence. 
 
 Praise be to the Eather with the Son, 
 Together with the Holy Paraclete : 
 And may the Son send upon us 
 The grace of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 A PRAYER. 
 
 Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that we who observe the 
 celebration of the gift of the Holy Spirit, being fired with heavenly 
 longing, may thirst after the fountain of life. 
 
 ANOTHER. 
 
 Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that the refulgence of thy 
 brightness may shine upon us, and that the light of thy light may 
 strengthen the hearts of those who have been renewed by thy grace, 
 through the enlightening of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 ANOTHER. 
 
 O God, who hast taught unto this day the hearts of the faithful, 
 by the enlightening of the Holy Spirit ; give us to understand what 
 is right by the same Spirit, and ever to rejoice in the same consolation. 
 
 ANOTHER. 
 
 O God, who didst give thy Holy Spirit to thine apostles, grant to 
 thy people the accomplishment of their devout petition, that to whom 
 thou hast given faith, thou wouldest also impart peace. 
 
 a not 
 
 O Lord, we pray thee, let the power of thy Holy Spirit be with 
 us, and that He may mercifully cleanse our hearts, and protect us 
 from all our adversaries. 
 
APPENDIX. 825 
 
 ANOTHER. 
 
 We pray that the Paraclete, who proceeds from thee, may enlighten 
 our minds and lead us into all truth, as thy Son has promised. 
 
 Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty and merciful God, that the Holy 
 Spirit may come and perfect us as the temple of his glory, by worthily 
 dwelling in us. 
 
 ANOTHER. 
 
 Grant to thy church, we beseech thee, O merciful God, O Holy 
 Spirit, that, being assembled together, she may by no means be 
 disturbed by hostile invasion. 
 
 L. (page 180.) 
 Ot arvoGTokoi r)p7v evrjyyeXiG~drjcrav drro tov Kvplov Irjaov Xpicr- 
 tgv, Irjcrovs 6 Xpicrros cltto tov Qeov. E^eirepcpBrj 6 Xpio~Tos ovv 
 drro tov Qeov, Kal ol aTToaToXot cxtto tov XptcrTov' eyevovTO ovv dpepo- 
 Tepa evTaKTas eK 6eXr)paTcs Qeov. TLapayyeXlas ovv XaftovTes, Kal 
 7rXr)pocpoprj6evTes Siot ttjs dvao-Tacreas tov Kvplov fjpcov 'irjcrov Xpicr- 
 tov, kcu TnaTcoOevTes ev T(p Xoyco tov Qeov, peTa rrXrjpocpoplas Uvev- 
 paTos 'Aylov, e^rjXSov evayyeXi£6pevoi tt)v (3ao-iXelav tov Qeov peX- 
 Xeiv ep^eadai. Kara -^wpas ovv Kal 7roXeis Krjpvao-ovTes, Ka8eo~Tavov 
 tcis drrapxeis dvTdv, boKcpdo-avTss tu> HvevpaTi, els Ittio-kotvovs kcu 
 
 SlCLKCVOVS TCOV peXXoVTCCV 7TlCTTeveiV. 
 
 S. dementis Epis. ad Corin. i. sec. 42. 
 
 Kqi ot aTToaTokot r)pa>v eyi><x>crav oia tov Kvplov rjpcov 'irjorov Xpccr- 
 tov, otl epis eo-Tai etrl tov ovopaTOs ttjs eiricrK07;r)s. Aiu tovti]v ovv 
 tx\v a'nlav 7rp6yvo£>o~iv elXrjCpoTes TeXelav, KaTeo~TT)crav tovs TTpoeiprjpt 
 vovs, Kal peTa^v e7rivopr)v debooKacLV, enroas edv Koipr]6ajcnv, didde^oov- 
 Tai eTepoi bcBoKLpacrpevoi avSpes tijv XeiTovpylav avTCOv. Tovs ovv 
 KaTuaTaBiVTas wr eKelvav, r) peTa^v vcp y erepoiv eXXoylpoov dvSpcov, 
 o-vvev§oKT]o~do-r)s tt)s eKKXrjcrlas Trdarjs, Kal XeiTovpyfjaavTas dpep7TT<os 
 TcpTTotpvUd tov XptcrTov peTa Ta7Teivocppc,o-vvrjs, i)crvxa>s kcu d(3avavo~a>s, 
 pepapTvp-qpevovs re ttoXXoIs xpovois vtto ttuvtozv, tovtovs ov diKalcos 
 vopl^opev d—o(3aXecr6ai ttjs XeiTovpytas. ApapTia yap ov piKpa. 
 rjpiv ecrTai, eav tovs dpeprrTcos Kal 6ai.cos irpoacveyKovTas ret 8a>pa, 
 
326 APPEND J X. 
 
 rrjs emaKOTrrjS dnofiakoipev. NciKcipioi ol 7rpooSonropr)(ravTes npea- 
 fivrepoij drives 'dyKaptvov Kai re\eiav ecrx ov T h v dvakvaiv' ov yap 
 evXafiovvTai fir] tls avTOVS p,€TaaTr)(rri citto rov ISpvpevoi avrois 
 
 T07T0V. 
 
 S. Clementis Epis. ad Corin. i. sec. -14. 
 
 M. (page ISO.) 
 
 " This epistle, although genuine in the main, is still not exempt 
 from important interpolations. We detect a palpable contradiction, 
 when for example, we observe, gleaming through the surface of the 
 whole epistle, the simple relations of the oldest constitution of the 
 Christian Church, where bishops and presbyters were placed wholly 
 on a level, and then in one passage, sec. 40 and onward, find the 
 whole system of the Jewish priesthood transferred to the Christian 
 Church. The epistle which passes under the name of the second, is 
 manifestly nothing but the fragment of a homily." 
 
 ♦'Ignatius, bishop of the church at Antioch, is said, in the reign 
 of Trajan, to have been conveyed as a prisoner to Rome, where he 
 was expecting to be thrown to the wild beasts. On the way, he is 
 said to have written seven epistles ; six to the churches of Asia 
 Minor, and one to Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna. These letters, it 
 must be allowed, contain passages which at least bear throughout 
 the stamp of antiquity. Such especially are the passages directed 
 against Judaism, and against Docetism ; but even the briefer revision, 
 which is the one most entitled to confidence, has been very much 
 interpolated. As the account of the martyrdom of Ignatius may be 
 justly suspected, so too the letters which presuppose the correctness 
 of this suspicious legend, do not wear at all a stamp of a distinct 
 individuality of character, and of a man of these times addressing his 
 last words to the churches. A hierarchical purpose is not to be 
 mistaken. 
 
 "The letter to Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, wears very much the 
 appearance of an idle compilation. That to the Roman Church 
 possesses more decided marks of originality than the others." — 
 Neander's General History of the Christian Religion, and Church. 
 Vol. ii. pp. 441—413. 
 
 N. (page 241.) 
 
 mOMISES OF DIVINE SUCCOUR TO BELIEVERS. 
 GENERAL PROMISES. 
 
 "The Lord will also be a refuge for the oppressed; a refuge in 
 
APPENDIX. oil 
 
 time of trouble." "The meek will he guide in judgment, and the 
 meek will he teach his way." "Wait on the Lord; be of good 
 courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart." " I will instruct 
 thee, and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go : I will guide 
 thee with mine eye." " They that seek the Lord shall not want any 
 good thing : many are the afflictions of the righteous ; but the Lord 
 delivereth him out of them all." "The steps of a good man are 
 
 ordered by the Lord though he fall, he shall not be utterly 
 
 cast down : for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. But the 
 salvation of the righteous is of the Lord ; He is their strength in the 
 time of trouble. And the Lord shall help them, and deliver them ; 
 He shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them." " God is 
 our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. God is in 
 the midst of her ; she shall not be moved : God shall help her, and 
 that right early." " Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall 
 sustain thee : he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.'' 
 " For the Lord God is a sun and shield : the Lord will give grace 
 and glory : no good thing will he withhold from them that walk 
 uprightly." " He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High 
 
 shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty He shall 
 
 cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust : 
 his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Because he hath set his 
 love upon me, therefore will 1 deliver him, and I will answer him : 
 I will be with him in trouble ; I will deliver him, and honour him." 
 " The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree, he shall grow like 
 a cedar in Lebanon." " He preserveth the souls of his saints ; he 
 delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for 
 the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart." " He will 
 not suffer thy foot to be moved : he that kcepeth thee will not slum- 
 ber. The Lord is thy keeper ; the Lord is thy shade upon thy right 
 hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. 
 The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil : he shall preserve thy 
 soul." " As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord 
 is round about his people from henceforth even for ever." " Though 
 I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me ; thou shalt 
 stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy 
 right hand shall save me. The Lord will perfect that which con- 
 cerneth me." " The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all 
 that be bowed down." " Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of 
 the desolation of the wicked when it cometh : for the Lord shall be 
 thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken." " In all 
 thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." " Say 
 
U 28 APPENDIX. 
 
 ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him, for they shall eat 
 the fruit of their doings." " He that waiketh righteously, and 
 speaketh uprightly .... he shall dwell on high : his place of 
 defence shall be the munitions of rocks." " lie giveth power to the 
 faint : and to them that have no might, he increaseth strength .... 
 They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength ; they shall 
 mount up with wings as eagles ; they shall run and not be weary, 
 and walk and not faint." " lie shall feed his flock like a shepherd ; 
 he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, 
 and shall gently lead those that are with young." " Fear thcu not, 
 for I am with thee ; be not dismayed ; for I am thy God ; I will 
 strengthen thee ; yea, I will help thee : yea, I will uphold thee with 
 the right hand of my righteousness." " I the Lord thy God will 
 hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not : I will help thee." 
 " I will bring the blind by a way that they know not ; I will lead 
 them in paths that they have not known ; I will make darkness light 
 before them, and crooked places straight." " When thou passest 
 through the waters, I will be with thee ; and through the rivers, they 
 shall not overflew thee : when thou walkest through the fire, thou 
 shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." 
 ". And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord ; and great shall 
 be the peace of thy children.' In righteousness shalt thou be esta- 
 blished : thou shalt be far from oppression : for thou shalt not fear : 
 and from terror ; for it shall not come near thee." "He will keep 
 the feet of his saints .... for by strength shall no man prevail." 
 " Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will 
 give you rest." " But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, 
 and keep you from evil." " If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask 
 of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not ; and it 
 shall be given him." " "Who also shall confirm you to the end." 
 " God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that 
 ye arc able ; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, 
 that ye may be able to bear it." " If any man will do his will, he 
 shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God." " But my God 
 shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ 
 Jesus." * 
 
 * Psa. ix. 9 ; xxv. 9; xxvii. 14; xxxii. 8; xxxiw 10, 19; xxxvii. 23, 39, 40 ; 
 xliv. 1, C; lv. 22; Ixxxiv. 11 ; xci. 1, 4, 14; xcii. 12; xcvii. 10; exxi. 3, 5—7; 
 cxxv,2; exxxviii. 7, S; cxlv. 14; Prov. iii. 2.";, 20; iii. 6 ; Isa. iii. 10: xxxiii. 1G, 
 17; xl. 29, 31; xl. 1 1 ; xli. 10, 13; xlii.10; xliii. 2 ; liv. 13 ; ISam.ii.!'; Matt. xi. 
 28; 2 Thess. iii. 3; James i. 5 ; 1 Cor. i. S; x. 13; Jolmvii.17; Phil.iv.19. 
 
APPENDIX. 329 
 
 SPECIAL PROMISES TO INDIVIDUALS AND NATIONS. 
 
 To Abraham: — "Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield, and thy 
 exceeding great reward." To Jacob : — " And behold. I am with thee, 
 and -will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and. will bring 
 thee again into this land ; for I will not leave thee, until I have done 
 that which I have spoken to thee of." To Moses : — " Now therefore 
 go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say 
 .... And I will be with thy mouth, and his mouth, and will teach 
 you what ye shall do." "And he said, My presence shall go with 
 thee, and I will give thee rest." To Joshua: — " There shall not any 
 man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life ; as I was 
 with Moses, so I Will be with thee, I will not fail thee, nor forsake 
 thee. Be strong and of a good courage ; be not afraid, neither be 
 thou dismayed : for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever 
 thou goest." To Solomon: — "Wisdom and knowledge is granted 
 unto thee : and I will give thee riches and wealth and honour, such 
 as none of the kings have had that have been before thee, neither 
 shall there any after thee have the like." To Jeremiah : — " And they 
 shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee ; for 
 I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee." To Zerubbabel: — 
 " Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, and be strong, O Joshua, the 
 son of Josedech, the high priest ; and be strong, all ye people of the 
 land, and work ; for I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts." To 
 the tribe of Benjamin: — " And of Benjamin he said, The beloved of 
 the Lord, shall dwell in safety by him ; and the Lord shall cover him 
 all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders." To the 
 Jews : — " Be strong and of a good courage, fear not nor be afraid of 
 them ; for the Lord thy God he it is that doth go with thee ; he will 
 not fail thee, or forsake thee. And the Lord he it is that doth go 
 before thee ; he will be with thee ; he will not fail thee, neither for- 
 sake thee ; fear not, neither be dismayed." "And I will give them 
 an heart to know me, that I am the Lord ; and they shall be my 
 people, and I will be their God, for they shall return unto me with 
 their whole heart." "And I will make an everlasting covenant 
 with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good ; 
 but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from 
 me." " And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit 
 ■within you ; and. I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and I 
 will give them a heart of flesh ; that they may walk in my statutes, 
 and keep mine ordinances, and do them." "For I, saith the Lord, 
 will be unto her (Jerusalem) a wall of fire round about, and will be 
 
330 APPENDIX. 
 
 the glory in the midst of her." To the Apostles: — "When they 
 deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak : for it 
 shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak." " For 
 the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to 
 say." " I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adver- 
 saries shall not be able to gainsay or resist. There shall not a 
 hair of your head perish." To Paul: — "Then spake the Lord to 
 Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not 
 thy peace ; for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt 
 thee." " For there stood by me this night the angel of God, . . . 
 saying, Fear not, Paul, thou must be brought before Caesar : and, lo, 
 God hath given thee all them that sail with thee." "And he said 
 unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee ; for my strength is made 
 perfect in weakness." " And the Lord shall deliver me from every 
 evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom." * 
 
 O. (page 185.) 
 "As nn "X3p short of breath or spirit, is contrasted with &&& -r>\ 
 long suffering, Prov. xiv. 29, and is obviously equivalent to c N E« "i!?n, 
 ver. 17, (comp. nn "ii s p, Exocl. vi. 9,) most of the moderns render in 
 the present instance, Is Jehovah prone to anger f but prophecy being 
 the subject to which reference had just been made, it is more natural 
 to understand rrirp nn, the Sp)irit of Jehovah, in its appropriated mean- 
 ing, as designating the Divine author of prophetic communications ; 
 and to take the verb in the sense of weakness or inability. Comp. 
 \tS^i short of hand, Isa. xxxvii. 27." — Dr. Henderson on the Minor 
 Prophets, 
 
 P. (page 191.) 
 "Amidst those deep and retired thoughts, which, with every man 
 Christianly instructed, ought to be most frequent of God, and of his 
 miraculous ways and works, to be performed to him ; after the story 
 of our Saviour Christ, suffering to the lowest bent of weakness in 
 the flesh, and presently triumphing to the highest pitch of glory in 
 
 * Gen. xv. 1 ; xxviii. 15; Exod. iv. 12, 15 ; xxxiii. 14; Josh. i. 5, 9 ; 2Chror..i.l2; 
 Jer. i. 19; Hag. ii. 4; Deut. xxxiii. 12 ; Deut. xxxi. 6, 8 ; Jer. xxiv. 7; xxxii. 40 j 
 Ezek. xi. 19, 20; Zech.ii.5j Matt. X. 9; Luke xii. 12; xxi. 15, IS; Acts xviii. 0, 
 10 : t xxvii. 24; 2 Cor. xii. 9 ; 2 Tim. iv. IS. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 331 
 
 the Spirit, which drew up his body also ; till we in both be united 
 to him in the revelation of his kingdom, — I do not know of anything 
 more worthy to take up the whole passion of pity on the one side, 
 and joy on the other, than to consider first the foul and sudden cor- 
 ruption, and then, after many a tedious age, the deferred, but much 
 more wonderful and happy reformation of the church in these latter 
 days. Sad it is to think how that doctrine of the Gospel, planted by 
 teachers divinely inspired, and by them winnowed and sifted from 
 the chaff of overdated ceremonies, and refined to such a spiritual 
 height and temper of purity, and knowledge of the Creator, that the 
 body, with all the circumstances of time and place, were purified by 
 the affections of the regenerate soul, and nothing left impure but sin ; 
 faith needing not the weak and fallible office of the senses, to be 
 either the ushers or interpreters of heavenly mysteries, save where 
 our Lord himself in his sacraments ordained ; that such a doctrine 
 should, through the grossness and blindness of her professors, and 
 the fraud of deceivable traditions, drag so downwards, as to backslide 
 into the Jewish beggary of old cast rudiments, and stumble forward 
 another way into the new vomited paganism of sensual idolatry, 
 attributing purity or impurity to things indifferent, that they might 
 bring the inward acts of the Spirit to the outward and customary 
 eye-service of the body, as if they could make God earthly and 
 fleshly, because they could not make themselves heavenly and spi- 
 ritual ; they began to draw down all the Divine intercourse betwixt 
 God and the soul, yea, the very shape of God himself, into an ex- 
 terior and bodily form, urgently pretending a necessity and oblige- 
 ment of joining the body in a formal reverence and worship circum- 
 scribed ; they hallowed it, they fumed it, they sprinkled it, they 
 bedecked it, not in the robes of pure innocency, but of pure linen, 
 with other deformed and fantastic dresses, in palls and mitres, gold, 
 and gewgaws fetched from Aaron's old wardrobe, or the flamen's 
 vestry ; then was the priest set to con his motions and his postures, 
 his liturgies, and his lurries, till the soul by this means of overbody- 
 ing herself, given up justly to fleshly delights, bated her wing apace 
 downward ; and finding the ease she had from her visible and sen- 
 suous colleague, the body, in performance of religious duties, her 
 pinions now broken, and flagging, shifted off from herself the labour 
 of high soaring any more, forgot her heavenly flight, and left the dull 
 and droiling carcase to plod on in the old road, and drudging trade 
 of outward conformity. And here out of question from her perverse 
 conceiting of God and holy things, she had fallen to believe no God 
 at all, had not custom and the worm of conscience nipped her incre- 
 
832 APPENDIX. 
 
 dulity ; hence to all the duties of evangelical grace, instead of the 
 adoptive and cheerful boldness which our new alliance with God 
 requires, came servile and thrall-like fear ; for in very deed, the 
 superstitious man by his good- will is an atheist ; but being scared 
 from thence by the pangs and gripes of a boiling conscience, all in a 
 pudder shuffles up to himself such a God and such a worship as is 
 most agreeable to remedy his fear ; which fear of his, as also is his 
 hope, fixed only upon the flesh, renders likewise the whole faculty 
 of his apprehension carnal ; and all the inward acts of worship, 
 issuing from the native strength of the soul, run out lavishly to the 
 upper skin, and these harden into a crust of formality. Hence men 
 came to scan the Scriptures by the letter, and, in the covenant of our 
 redemption, magnified the external signs more than the quickening 
 power of the Spirit ; and yet looking on them through their own 
 guiltiness with a servile fear, and finding as little comfort, or rather 
 terror, from them again, they knew not how to hide their slavish 
 approach to God's behests, by them not understood, not worthily 
 received, but by cloaking their servile crouching to all religious pre- 
 sentments, sometimes lawful, sometimes idolatrous, under the name 
 of humility, and terming the piebald frippery and ostentation of 
 ceremonies, decency. 
 
 Then was baptism changed into a kind of exorcism ; and water, 
 sanctified by Christ's institute, thought little enough to wash off the 
 original spot, without the scratch or cross impression of a priest's 
 forefinger : and that feast of free grace and adoption to which Christ 
 invited his disciples to sit as brethren, and co-heirs of the happy 
 covenant, which at that table was to be sealed to them, even that 
 feast of love and heavenly-admitted fellowship, the seal of filial 
 grace, became the subject of horror, and gloating adoration, pagcanted 
 about like a dreadful idol, which sometimes deceives well-meaning 
 men, and beguiles them of their reward, by their voluntary humility ; 
 which indeed is fleshly pride, preferring a foolish sacrifice, and the 
 rudiments of the world, as St. Paul to the Colossians explaineth, before 
 a savoury obedience to Christ's example. Such was Peter's unsea- 
 sonable humility, as then his knowledge was small, when Christ 
 came to wash his feet ; who at an impertinent time would needs 
 strain courtesy with his Master, and falling troublesomely upon the 
 lowly, all-wise, and unexaminable intention of Christ, in what he 
 went with resolution to do, so provoked by his interruption the meek 
 Lord, that he threatened to exclude him from his heavenly portion, 
 unless he could be content to be less arrogant and stiffnecked in his 
 humility. 
 
APPENDIX, 333 
 
 But to dwell no longer in characterizing the depravities of the 
 church, and how they sprung, and how they took increase ; when I 
 recall to mind at last, after so many dark ages, wherein the huge 
 overshadowing train of error had almost swept all the stars out of 
 the firmament of the church ; how the bright and blissful lleforma- 
 tion (by Divine power) struck through the black and settled night of 
 ignorance and anti-christian tyranny, methinks a sovereign and re- 
 viving joy must needs rush into the bosom of him that reads or 
 hears ; and the sweet odour of the returning Gospel imbathe his soul 
 with the fragrancy of heaven. Then was the sacred Bible sought 
 out of the dusty corners where profane falsehood and neglect had 
 thrown it, the schools opened, Divine and human learning raked out 
 of the embers of forgotten tongues, the princes and cities trooping 
 apace to the new-erected banner of salvation ; the martyrs, with the 
 unresistible might of weakness, shaking the powers of darkness, and 
 scorning the fiery rage of the old red dragon." — Of Reformation in 
 England. By John Milton, 1641. 
 
 Q. (page 290.) 
 "Before, however, we advance to the explanation of particulars, 
 we must here take up a question, the answer to which has an influ- 
 ence upon the comprehension of the whole following section. The 
 question is this, whether is the usual condition of a person standing 
 under the law, or of one under grace, here described ? The different 
 views taken of this subject deeply affect doctrine and morals, and 
 the pastoral care. If, indeed, the least notice is paid to the con- 
 nexion of this section of the seventh chapter, with that which pre- 
 cedes and that which follows, it is not possible to explain it of any 
 other than of a person standing under the law. There is much 
 truth in what Adam Clarke says in his commentary : ' If the con- 
 trary could be proved, the argument of the opponent would go to 
 demonstrate the insufficiency of the Gospel as well as the law.' We 
 must, however, point the attention to the grounds of our opinion. 
 The thesis of this second portion of the chapter stands in verse 5th, 
 where the condition of the legalist is described as one altogether 
 sinful. In like maimer the thesis of chapter viii. is in verse Gth, 
 where the condition of the believer is described, as one of relative 
 freedom from sin. Now, as Paul has undertaken the task of point- 
 ing out the holiness of the law as such, and what is the true ground 
 of sin, it is manifest that he here paints the state of the legalist. The 
 
334 APFENDIX. 
 
 seventh and eighth chapters, too, are as decidedly counterparts to 
 each other, as are the fifth and sixth verses of the former. At the 
 close of that chapter, we read under the formula &pa ovv, the com- 
 pressed result of the section under review. It states that to be 
 insuperable discord. On the other hand, at the commencement of 
 the eighth chapter, under the same formula, we read the result of 
 something previously stated with respect to the condition of the be- 
 liever, and that is the doing away of condemnation, and a walk after 
 the Spirit. The vvu in this 1st verse corresponds entirely with the 
 vvv in chapter vii. 6. Just again, as in this manner the vii. and viii. 
 chapters are throughout opposed the one to the other, so likewise 
 several particulars. The complaint, verse 24th, answers to the 
 thanksgiving, verse 5th. Whilst the subject of the description 
 speaks of himself, ver. 23, as taken captive under the law of sin, the 
 subject of the description in chap. viii. declares himself, at ver. 2, to 
 be delivered from the law of sin. AVhile, chap. vii. 14, an invincible 
 Strife is maintained between the spiritual law and the carnal mind, 
 and the person in ver. 18 cannot find how to perform that which is 
 good, the believer, according to chapter viii. 4, fulfils the righteous- 
 ness of the law by walking after the Spirit. In fine, while, chap, 
 vii. 5, we read ore tffxev ip (rapid, we read, chap. viii. 9, "i>e?s ovk iare 
 ip aapxi. Many of these points, along with the connexion, have been 
 admirably developed by Turretin. Accordingly, the mere considera- 
 tion of the substance and connexion of the two chapters, were there 
 nothing else, furnishes a definite result. Besides this, however, the 
 dignity and the spirit of Christianity would forbid us to suppose that 
 all it can accomplish is to waken a sense of the inward discord, 
 without being able to do it away. That sense many teachers of 
 the ancient world knew how to -waken, although certainly not so 
 thoroughly as Christianity ; but actually to secure the ascendancy 
 for the principle, which ought to be predominant in man, was what 
 no philosophy could effect. Adam Clarke : • This opinion has most 
 pitifully and shamefully not only lowered the standard of Christianity, 
 but destroyed its influence, and disgraced its character.' 
 
 Let us now survey the history of the exposition of this section. 
 The more ancient teachers of the church had unanimously explained 
 it of the man who has not as yet become a Christian, nor is upheld 
 in his struggle by the Spirit of Christ. So Origen, Tertullian, Chry- 
 sostom, and Thcodoret. At an earlier period, Augustine also fol- 
 lowed this view. (Prop. 41, in Ep. ad Horn., Confes. 1. vii. c. 21 ; 
 1. viii. c. 5 ; Ad. Simpl. 1. i.) In the dispute with the Pelagians, 
 however, the two declarations, verse 17, and verse 22, raised his 
 
APPENDIX, 335 
 
 scruples. These, he thought, could not be put into the mouth of a 
 man prior to regeneration, for then they would assign him too lofty 
 a degree of personal goodness, (Aug. Cont. duas Epp. Pelag. 1. i. c. 
 12. Retract. 1. i. c. 23 ; 1. ii. c. 1.) In determining the question, 
 all depends upon the conception we form of regeneration. Under 
 that word, the fathers frequently comprise two different moral states ; 
 one, the state of inward dissension, in which the person has before 
 his mind's eye his own and the Divine will, and struggles which of 
 the two he ought to follow ; the other, the state of living Kara, irvzdfxa, 
 in which the inclinations and dispositions of man are in unison with 
 the Divine will, and love prompts him spontaneously to obey it. By 
 a person regenerated they understand generally, one who has at heart 
 the fulfilment of the will of God. Is regeneration conceived in this 
 comprehensive sense, then is the tmregenerate one without law, one 
 in whom no sense at all of inward discord has as yet been called 
 forth. It was just of such reckless sinners, and, indeed, more par- 
 ticularly of Jews, who entertained more or less the persuasion of the 
 bindingness of the law, that the fathers of the church understood 
 these declarations of Paul. Now certainly, in declaring himself for 
 the contrary, Augustine had sufficient ground ; for in persons of this 
 description no such lively discord as the apostle here paints is dis- 
 coverable. Calvin justly observes : ' Homo suog natune relictus, 
 totus sine repugnantia in cupiditates fertur. Quanquam enim impii 
 stimulis conscientice lanciuntur, non possis tamen inde colligere aut 
 malum ab illis odio haberi, aut amari bonum.' If, then, we call the 
 person here described an unregenerate man, we understand by the 
 name a legalist ; one who is seriously concerned about his sanctifi- 
 cation, zealously strives after purity of heart, and who falls short of 
 the mark, only because he does not set out from that love which first 
 loved him, but thinks by his own to deserve the love of God, because 
 the redemption of Christ is not the fountain from which his holiness 
 emanates free and lively as a stream. For just as art with its toil- 
 some and piecemeal labours stands related to nature, with her free 
 and wholesale creations, so also is the law, as a schoolmaster of holi- 
 ness, related to free grace as an affectionate mother. Now, although 
 on this ground we certainly cannot, according to the Gospel, regard 
 such a legal state of concern, as amounting to regeneration, it still is 
 nevertheless a work of the Spirit of God ; so that the Qt\w rb ayaObv 
 and the (rwy8o/j.ai t<£ vSjxco rod vo6s fiov, are unquestionably to be 
 regarded as a divine operation (gratia pricveniens). 
 
 Among later expositors, by far the greater number acquiesced en- 
 tirely either with Augustine or with the Greek fathers. The former 
 
330 APPENDIX. 
 
 was followed by Anselm, Thom. Aquinas, Corn, a Lapide, and 
 many others ; the latter by Erasmus, Faustus Socinus (who wrote a 
 very complete treatise, Da Loco in Ep. ad Rom. c. vii. Disp. ed. 2, 
 Racov. 1612. Defensio disputationis illius, Rac. 1618,) by Raphe- 
 lius, Arminius, Episcopius in a letter to Arminius, but of no very 
 great weight, Epp. Ecclesiastical, Amst. 1684, Ep. 131, p. 22S, by 
 Limb or ch, Turretin, Clericus, Herrmann, and many more. 
 
 A different view, however, gained ground among those protestants 
 who had apprehended more deeply the nature of the Christian doc- 
 trine as unfolded by Paul. They discriminated distinctly betwixt 
 the lawless, the legal, and the spiritual or regenerate state. One 
 class, to which Luther, Melancthon, Calvin, Spener, Buddeus, and 
 many others belong, supposed that chapters vii. and viii., taken toge- 
 ther, present us with a description of the regenerate man ; so as that 
 chapter vii. delineates one aspect of his inward life, in virtue of which 
 he does not as yet belong to Christ ; while chapter viii. especially de- 
 lineates the other side of evangelical consolation, which lies in the 
 certainty of the objective redemption. A second class, however, to 
 which Bucer, Schomer, A. H. Franke, Gottfr. Arnold, Bengel, and 
 others (Spener also in his Theol. Bedenk, Th. 1, sect. 23,) belong, 
 separate between the vii. and viii. chapters, as descriptive of two 
 different periods, the former the condition of the legalist, who is 
 indeed in earnest in the business, but does not found his sanctifi- 
 cation upon grace, and who consequently is unable to triumph over 
 sin ; the latter, the state of the justified man, who seeks to kindle 
 his own love at the love of God. To this explanation we likewise 
 fully assent, appealing in proof of it to the explication given above of 
 the connection. With respect to the two opposite views, those who 
 suppose a person totally without law to be meant, lay a stress upon 
 two points. The expressions, say they, in verses 15 and 22, 0eAw, fxiau, 
 (xvy-ndouizi, do not necessarily denote an actual inclination of the heart 
 to that which is good ; they may designate merely the approval of 
 the understanding. (See the exposition of these verses.) In like 
 manner, according to the phraseology of Paul, vovs and eo-w &vdpa>iros 
 do not stand directly for Tlvev/xa tow Osov. On that supposition it 
 might be remarked, that Paul contemplated the state of the lawless 
 man, from the state in which he himself stands, and which has been 
 matured into self-consciousness, and transfers into it his present feel- 
 ings. In point of fact, personal feelings may have a share in the 
 exclamations of Paul at verse 24. It is impossible to think, how- 
 ever, that the apostle, merely from his after sensations, describes a 
 
APPENDIX. 837 
 
 strife as taking place where it does not actually exist ; and yet follow- 
 ing the cxegetical feeling, one is inclined, both to suppose in general, 
 that here such a strife is described, and also to regard 0eAo>, /jlktw, 
 aw^ofiai as denoting it. Generally, however, the condition of a 
 person without law is delineated in the 9th verse, and, in fact, how 
 different is it as there described from the condition of the legalist ! 
 The first class we mentioned of evangelical expositors, give the sense 
 and connection of the section as follows : up to verse 14, Paul sneaks 
 in the preterite tense, and hence describes the early contention of the 
 legalist with the law, in which (verse 11) he is overthrown. Onward 
 from verse 14, he desires still more fundamentally to show the di- 
 vinity of the law, and hence represents it in conflict with the man 
 regenerate, on which account we have then the present. True that 
 even in the case of the latter, sin has the ascendancy, still it no longer 
 meets with the inward consent. There is a war waged, but along with 
 that, there is the inward peace, such as is described viii. 1. This 
 view of Augustine's is also recommended by a great truth which 
 should not be overlooked, viz. that somewhat of the legal state ever 
 manifests itself anew in the redeemed, and times without number 
 occur in life, in which he can apply to himself what Paul here says. 
 (And hence it is with truth that Beza observes : Nam certe ita est, 
 et qui hoc non novit, nondum seipsum novit. Compare Spener Theol. 
 Bed. B. 1, s. 1G7, where he makes similar remarks in defence of the 
 view of Augustine. Arndt has some peculiarly excellent expressions 
 to the same effect. Yom wahren Christenthum, B. 1, c. 16.) Hence 
 it is that Bugenhagen observes : — Quantum in nobis peccati et vete- 
 ris Ache, tantum adhuc habet imperii lex, which may be thus un- 
 derstood ; — as long as the love of sin remains alive within us, so long 
 will this inveterate discord likewise be manifested. It must, how- 
 ever, be observed, in opposition, that the love of sin is gradually ex- 
 tinguished in the Christian, in respect, first, of sins of a gross, and 
 afterwards of those of a more refined, description ; so that thus, as 
 Augustine early expresses himself, the Christian is then no more sub 
 lege, but cum lege. Moreover, even though the love of sin do stir up 
 within him the discord which is here portrayed, the Christian need 
 not permit himself to be overcome in the struggle. He has the ob- 
 jective announcement of his redemption, and so when by a believing 
 direction of the mind, he acquiesces therein, the power of the x«r iy 
 is realized subjectively in his faith. It is true, this is not always the 
 cas ; frequently does the <rdp£ triumph over the -jryev/xa. At any 
 rate, however, these occasions are to be considered abnormal in the 
 XIV. z 
 
038 APPENDIX. 
 
 Christian life, as they do not occur in it in so far as it is, but only in 
 so far as it has not yet become, Christian. They must hence be there 
 only as something evanescent. 
 
 Respecting the subdivision, again, which these interpreters make at 
 verse 14, there is no ground for it at all, inasmuch as what follows, 
 from that verse, and onwards, with respect to the contest with the 
 law, is just what was already said in the previous context ; nor con- 
 sidering the lively manner of describing which St. Paul loves, is 
 the circumstance that thenceforward verbs present are used, by any 
 means extraordinary. 
 
 Having thus answered the important question, whether in this 
 section the legalist or the justified man is spoken of, we have now 
 Still to inquire, whether Paul throughout the whole of it, where he 
 speaks in the first person, speaks of himself and his own circumstances, 
 or whether he transfers to himself the circumstances of others. 
 Augustine is of the former opinion, and many go along with him. 
 On that supposition, however, it is still more incredible, that the 
 apostle, in the words of the chapter, should paint that state of his 
 as lasting. Supposing it again only momentarily such as he de- 
 scribes it, he had no occasion, as we have remarked, to represent these 
 transient, exceptional states of inward life as peculiarly Christian. 
 Even Origen felt that such an acknowledgment, when considered 
 as applicable to the present, did not become St. Paul : Et caetera 
 in quibus confltetur a lege, quae in membris suis est, et repugnat 
 legi mentis sua?, captivum duci se lege peccati, quomodo apostolica? 
 convenient dignitati et Paulo praecipue, in quo Chris tus et vivit ct 
 loquitur. Hence even in the ancient church, among Origen, Chry- 
 sostom, Theodore t, Jerome, and Pelagius, the opinion was more 
 general, that Paul transfers to himself the state of others. Cases 
 of the same kind, called in his own language ix<=Tao-xW"Ti<ry.6s, 1 
 Cor. iv. 6, are frequently to be met with in St. Paul's writings, 
 1 Cor. vi. 12 ; x. 23, 29, 30 ; xiii. 11, 12 ; Gal. ii. IS. Hence like- 
 wise we find by turns, chap. vii. 14, and viii. 1, the plural used, 
 which goes through the whole of the viii. chapter. With regard 
 to the person whose state he takes to himself, Chrysostom, Grotius, 
 Clericus, and indeed most others, look upon the Jews before and 
 under the law as intended ; Erasmus maintains a contraposition of the 
 Gentile without, and the Jew under the law. Theodoret, at verse 9 and 
 10, imagines that there is no less than an assumption of the person 
 of Adam. But Pelagius and Photius, even in their day, hit upon 
 the truth, the one supposing generally a transference of the circum- 
 stances of a person about to be, and of a person that already is, 
 
APPENDIX. 039 
 
 converted, i. e., he thinks that state of man to be meant, in which 
 the individual has not yet been brought to a knowledge of the 
 obligation of the law, and that wherein the law presents itself to 
 him as obligatory. Phot, tovto ovk els iavrbv 6 UavKos iiprjKev, a.X\a 
 rb Trp6(r<j}Trov rrjs av6pwirivi]s oIk.ziovij.zvos <pvo~ecos.* Ambrose : Sub 
 sua persona quasi generalem causam agit. It certainly cannot well 
 be denied, as the occasional substitution of the plural shows, that 
 the apostle depicts generally the relation of the law and afterwards 
 that of grace to man, and in so far makes use of the jxzraayjn^aTKT^s. 
 But then, Paul had himself passed through the states which he 
 describes ; he had himself experienced hi his own person the in- 
 sufficiency of a religious law, imposing mere outward commands 
 and obligations. And hence what more natural than that he should 
 at the same time speak on the subject from personal experience, in 
 such a way as that it might be hard to sever what is fMerao-xv^T^^s, 
 and what delineation of his own feelings. We require always to 
 keep in view, that Paul compresses individual experiences into 
 general propositions and results. That what he says does emanate 
 from his own inward life and experience, is particularly apparent 
 from verse 25. 
 
 The apostle accordingly designs, in the first place, to show that 
 the law, in virtue of its own inward nature, does not produce the 
 a/xapria. He means to declare what use it answers. Its great use 
 is, that it teaches us to recognize sin as sin. OEcumenius : "Clare 
 ov rod iroielv, a\Ka rov diayivdxrueiv rfyp afxapriav 6 v6;xos &irios. 
 Pelagius : Excusationem ignorantiao abstulit, gravius enim facit 
 quam ante peccare. 
 
 To this he appends a confirmation. rv,v re yap iirtGu/xiav, &e. "We 
 may co-ordinate this with the preceding clause, and regard the 
 iiTiQuixiz as a particular afiaprlci, " I myself, e. g., had not know sin, 
 except," &c. The proposition, however, becomes far weightier, 
 when by emBuixia Ave understand the hi ward sinful propensity. " I 
 knew not sin in general, because I had not been made attentive 
 to its inward root." After iTnOu/x-qo-eis, we have to supply, " and 
 so on," Ex. xx. 14 ; Deut. v. 18. — Tholuck on the Romans, chap, 
 vii. 7, 8. 
 
 After recapitulating the judgments of Dr. Tholuck, lluchert, De 
 Wette, and Meyer, Dr. Olshausen adds the following valuable 
 observations: "These learned men, nevertheless, quite rightly ac- 
 knowledge, that the Augustinian representation has also something 
 true in it, since that in the life of the regenerate, moments occur in 
 
 * Paul does not say this of himself, but appropriating the person of human nature. 
 
340 AFPEND]X. 
 
 •which they must speak entirely as Paul expresses himself here ; and, 
 moreover, as it is only hy degrees that the transforming power of 
 the Gospel penetrates the different tendencies of the inward life, 
 congenial phenomena extend through the whole life of the believer ; 
 and this leads to the thought, that the two views might admit of 
 being united in a higher one. For it is little probable beforehand, 
 that men like Augustine and the reformers should have entire!)/ erred 
 in the conception of so important a passage. It may perhaps be- 
 come perceptible from the following mode of laying out the context, 
 how such a difference of views could be formed in the interpreta- 
 tion of the passage, and what in such difference is right and what 
 erroneous. 
 
 First of all, it is evident that the apostle's purpose is, to sketch 
 a description of the inward process of development from its first 
 beginnings to the highest perfection. He sets out, vii. 9, from the 
 state in which the man is living entirely without law, and closes 
 viii. 11, with the glorification of the bodily substance. The ques- 
 tion occurs here, how many stages of development are properly dis- 
 tinguished? Four clearly present themselves. First, a life with- 
 out law, in which sin is dead ; next, a life under the law, in which 
 ■sin becomes alive and has dominion ; further, a state in which, by 
 the power of Christ, the Spirit has dominion, and sin is mastered ; 
 finally, the state of the entire separation of sin by the glorification of 
 the bodily substance. If by regeneration all is to be understood 
 from the first stirrings of grace, the whole of the apostle's descrip- 
 tion may then be applied to the regenerate, because the very need- 
 fulness of the law is called forth by grace. But it is surely more 
 ■correct and scriptural to call regeneration that inward process only, 
 by which after the need of redemption is awakened, the power 
 of Christ becomes mighty in the mind ; so that a new spiritual man 
 enters into being, and exercises his ruling power. According to this 
 acceptation, the state under the law cannot co-exist with regenera- 
 tion; and without question therefore, as vii. 24 is to express the 
 awakened need of redemption, and ver. 25 the experience of re- 
 demption itself, verses 14 — 24 are to be referred to a position before 
 regeneration, and to be understood as a description of the conflict 
 within an awakened person. As, however, the apostle makes use of 
 the present for this section, while before and afterwards he applies 
 the aorist, we arc led to the idea, that he does not intend to have 
 this state of conflict regarded as concluded with the experience of 
 redemption. In the description, verses 14 — 24, itself too, as will 
 afterwards be more particularly shown, an advance in the conflict 
 
APPENDIX. 341 
 
 with sin is clearly observable, the better I stands out in the man 
 more and more, and the pleasure in God's law grows gradually in 
 him. To this, ver. 17, speaks especially the vw\ 8e oI>k en, and 
 ver. 20, ovk en, which indicates a bygone state. In a far higher 
 degree, as ver. 25 expresses, is this the case after the experience of 
 the redeeming power of Christ, where the conflict with sin is des- 
 cribed as for the most part victorious on the side of the better part 
 in man. But a conflict remains still, even after the experience of 
 regeneration ; and that even the regenerate man does not always 
 hold it victoriously, that even for him times of temptation, of very 
 hard temptation, come on, the Scripture sanctions in express declara- 
 tions (comp. at 1 John ii. 1) and in communications upon the life of 
 the apostles, even as the experience of all saints of all times sanctions 
 it. If we add to this consideration, that in proportion with the true 
 advance in the life of faith, the spiritual glance into the stirrings of 
 sin, sharpens the conscience, refines and censures strictly even the 
 smaller deviations, which had else on lower standards remained 
 unnoticed ; it is clearly right that Augustine and the great doctors 
 of the church who followed him, should have declared, that even 
 the regenerate man can and must say of himself, all that the apostle, 
 verses 1-4 — 24, utters. The best manner, therefore, in which we 
 can express ourselves upon the question, whether Paul is here 
 treating of the regenerate, is, that in the passage, verses 14 — 24, he 
 immediately describes the state of the man before regeneration, since 
 his purpose is, to set forth coherently the whole course of develop- 
 ment ; in the consciousness, however, that phenomena entirely 
 similar present themselves within the regenerate man, he makes the 
 description applicable to the regenerate also. The opinion, there- 
 fore, on the one side, that the apostle immediately and directly intends 
 the regenerate, is as absolutely wrong, as on the other side the 
 assertion, that in the regenerate man nothing like what is described, 
 verses 14 — 24, can or ought to be found. The distinction between 
 the conflict and the fall of the unrcgenerate and the conflict and 
 fall of the regenerate remains, notwithstanding the subjective feeling 
 of their near affinity, objectively so great (as at vii. 24, 25 will be 
 proved) that the anxiety, lest by the view proposed regeneration 
 should be robbed of its essential character, must appear to be quite 
 unfounded. * If Ave now look back again to the first question, of 
 
 * Reiche has strikingly failed in his acceptation of this passage ; he holds that the 
 Jewish humanity, comprehended in the apostle's person, is speaking here. The one- 
 sided reference of the vo^o? merely to the Jewish ceremonial law, is the immediate 
 
343 APPENDIX. 
 
 ■which, period of his life the apostle could say such things as he 
 utters, verses 14 — 24, it is clear that he cannot be immediately des- 
 cribing the state of his soul after the Lord's appearing to him by 
 Damascus, but that he is speaking of his inward conflicts under the 
 yoke of the law ; but the transition into the present certainly in- 
 dicates, that even m his state, at the time he wrote, sensations were 
 still sounding, which made him exclaim with perfect truth, although 
 with incomparably finer application to more delicate circumstances 
 than in his former state (comp. at vii. 2-1, 25) : What I would I do 
 not, and what I would not, that I do ; wretched man that I am, who 
 shall deliver me from the body of this death ! (comp. at 2 Cor. xii. 
 7, &c.) — Olshausen on the Romans, pp. 237 — 240. 
 
 " In the passage here referred to, from the seventh chapter to the 
 Romans, St. Paul is by many understood to speak not in his own 
 person, but in the assumed character of a carnal or unconverted 
 man. The apostle appears to me to have guarded his language 
 against that construction by the introduction of the words, avros 
 iyu, in the last clause of it ; in addition to which the following 
 statements, which occur in the course of his argument, seem to be 
 quite inconsistent with that hypothesis. ' To will that which is 
 good, is present with me. I would do good. I delight in the law 
 of God in the inward man. With the mind I serve the law of God.' 
 This is not the language of an unconverted man ; and the profession 
 throughout is of the same character, being that of a man who knew 
 what was right, and strove to follow it, but found a countervailing 
 principle in that corrupt nature which he in common with all of us 
 inherited from Adam, and which continually thwarted those better 
 inclinations which were implanted in hi:n by the grace of God. 
 Hence he constantly speaks of himself, not only here, but in other 
 epistles, as maintaining a warfare, following after what he had not 
 yet attained, and attributing all his successes to Christ dwelling in 
 him, just as he here attributes his failure to sin dwelling in him, till 
 at last, when he could say : ' I have finished my course,' he was 
 enabled to say also, • I have fought a good fight.' It may be objected 
 to this exposition, that he himself says at the beginning of the 
 passage — ' I am carnal,' — an assertion which may be thought as in- 
 compatible with, a state of grace, as those which I have before 
 quoted are with a state of unconverted nature. But the purest Chris- 
 tian is still carnal in part ; every human being is one who has been 
 sold, -rrevpaixeyos, under sin : and the apostle limits his confession to 
 
 cause of this clearly false acceptation ; that one-sided reference itself, however, is 
 founded in the dogmatic principles of this learned man. 
 
APPENDIX. 343 
 
 the depraved appetites of his original nature, >as contradistinguished 
 from those in which he served the law of God, by the parenthetical 
 phrase, ' In me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing.' In 
 fact, though he felt the motions of the flesh, warring in his members 
 against the law of his mind, yet this latter was the law which he 
 deliberately followed ; and, therefore, with whatever impediments 
 from within he still walked, he still determined his course, and 
 made progress in it, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." — The 
 Christian Doctrine of Sanctification. B amp ton Lecture, pp. 283, 
 284. 1848. By the Rev. E. G. Marsh. 
 
 To these expositions I have great pleasure in adding the following 
 reply to a letter which I addressed not long since to one of the most 
 experienced Biblical critics in Europe : — 
 
 " So far as I can find my way through Olshausen's mysticism, I 
 think he inclines, on the whole, to the view that Paul exhibits his 
 own experience as a type of all regenerate persons. 
 
 The conclusions at which I have arrived on the subject, are, that, 
 notwithstanding the strong language employed by the apostle in 
 reference to carnality, it does appear that, in order to put anything 
 like a construction upon his argument, we must maintain that it is 
 the experience of a renewed soul which he sets forth from ver. 14, 
 onward, and that this gracious and renewed soul was none other 
 than himself. In support of this construction, I would humbly 
 submit the following reasons : — 
 
 1. The apostle employs the personal pronouns I, me, and my, not 
 fewer than forty times within the compass of twelve verses, without 
 the least intimation of a transition at ver. 14 from the experience of 
 one person to that of another. He even employs the emphatic com- 
 pound ' I myself,' which ought to remove all dubiety. 
 
 2. The ardour of feeling which he throws into his language pro- 
 duces a powerful conviction in favour of this view of the subject. He 
 writes like one who was at the time painfully sensible of what he 
 describes, and not like one who is merely describing what is felt by 
 anothcr. 
 
 3. There are several terms and phrases occurring in the passage 
 which scarcely, if at all, admit of application to any but believers. 
 Such as ' the inward man' (comp. 2 Cor. iv. 16), ' the law of the 
 mind,' ' delighting in and serving the law of God with the mind,' 
 ' not alio whig that which is evil,' and thanking God for victory 
 through the Saviour : while all the expressions which seem to mili- 
 tate against a state of grace are easily accounted for on the principle 
 of indwelling sin. 
 
344 APPENDIX. 
 
 4. The -writer employs in part the identical phraseology, Gal. v. 
 17. The two passages are perfectly parallel. It is the same conflict 
 both describe, the conflict of believers with the evil principles of their 
 corrupt nature." 
 
 Pv. (page 291.) 
 
 Y. 7. "Against the seductive, loose ethics of half Christianity, 
 which engenders love of the -world in the mind, from which all Kpiais 
 and all moral ideals are absent, St. John opposes the strict genuine 
 Christian proposition : that beside the perfect SiKaioavyr) as it was in 
 Christ, no true SiKaiocrvvi) exists. We should ever bear in mind that 
 St. John here everywhere speaks, not of the different degrees of per- 
 fection which struggling Christians have reached ; but of the ideal 
 and absolute difference between Christian virtue and piety, and sin 
 in general. And in a similar sense we also read, in 
 
 V. 8. Whosoever does sin is, in as far as he sins, of the devil, 
 the devil's child. — cfr. Gospel viii. 44. Since God is light, and there 
 is no darkness in him, but whosoever is good, whosoever walketh in 
 the light is born of God, and whosoever is born of God cannot sin, 
 cfr. v. 9, St. John concludes that sinning, and all that is sinful, is of 
 the devil. With reference to the ethical Kpicis, there is, according 
 to St. John, no medium between God and the filial relation to God, 
 on the one side, and the communion with the devil on the other. 
 But why is every one who sins, of the devil? St. John answers, 
 because from the beginning, not since the devil's, but since the fall 
 of man, Gen. ii. cfr. ; John viii. 44,*) the devil sins, (ever continues 
 sinning, a^aprdvei,) i. e. because the devil, since he brought sin into 
 the world, never has ceased, as &px®v toG k6<t^ov, to seduce man to 
 sin, so that all man's sin comes from him, he being the author of sin. 
 Ets tovto icpav, is again connected with verse o, and forms the tran- 
 sition to the subsequent passage, but at the same time contains this 
 idea, that because Christ has destroyed the devil's power, every one 
 who believes in Christ has the i^ovaia to become God's child, cfr. 
 Gospel i. 12. By Zpya t. 5ta/3. the seductive activity and energy — 
 the power of the devil, is to be understood. But the devil's power 
 and activity Christ has destroyed, (\vei, cfr. Gospel ii. 19,) by his 
 work of redemption and atonement, cfr. ver. 5, Gosp.xii. 31 ; xvi. 11. 
 
 2rT€p/j.a avTov (tov 0eoD), ver. 9, is by Clem. Alex., Augustine, Gro- 
 tius, and otners, understood as meaning the seed of God's word. In 
 support of this opinion are quoted, Matt. xiii. 23 ; 1 Pet. i. 23 ; James 
 * See the Author's Commentary ou this passage of the Gospel. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 345 
 
 i. IS. But these passages prove nothing ; their figurative context is 
 quite different. The figurative expression would, in this case, be 
 indirect, and lacking motive ; being obscure, without an illustrative 
 opposition, it would hardly be excusable with an author whose figures 
 generally are perspicuous and pleasing. Moreover, the idea thus 
 produced, would, in respect of form, not be Johaneic. 
 
 Not \6yos t. 0eou, the word of God ; but Trusvfxa r. deou is, accord- 
 ing to St. John, the generating principle of God's children, cfr. Gos- 
 pel St. John iii. 6, sqq. Yet, clearly, cnrep/xa has a reference to 
 *yevvr\Qr\vai e/e rod 0eov, and must be considered as an amplification of 
 this figurative expression ; it is the Divine power, by which the chil- 
 dren of God are, as it were, generated, and, by this word, St. John 
 expresses either the innate godly principle in man, e/c toD 0eoD elvai, 
 in sensic latiori ; or, since he is here speaking of regeneration and the 
 filial relation to God through Christ, he denotes by it, the irvev[j.a 
 ayiov, by which man is born anew of God, cfr. Gospel iii. 6, sqq., 
 through which he, as St. Paul says, calls God Father, in short, the 
 irvevfia vioOealas.* The Scholion in Matthai says, very correctly, 
 that here is meant to irvevixariKhv xdp"TV- a , '6 /xeuov iv rjfup aveniSeKTov 
 a/xaprias rbv vovu iroizi. As St. John takes the birth of God, and the 
 filial relation to God, in its fullest and most ideal sense, the senti- 
 ment contained in vcr. 9 is easily understood. If man is, quite and 
 entirely, and in the most perfect manner, born again of God, the 
 Divine <nr€pp.a or in/evfia must necessarily remain in him. Every 
 diminution, every loss of this seed, is a proof that the birth of God 
 was not perfect. St. John, however, far from wishing to instil the 
 doctrine of the irresistibility of the Divine grace, says no more than 
 this : that in God, and in godly life, absolutely considered, there is 
 nothing imperfect, nothing weak, no half-and-half of light and dark- 
 ness. Neither is there any difficulty in the last proposition of the 
 verse, Kal ob Svuarai aixapr., we only must bear in mind, that St. 
 John's point of view here is, that of the ideal and absolute Divine 
 Kpiais. In such a context as that of our passage, it is literally true, 
 that as little as sin and evil can be imagined in God, as little can he, 
 who is really born of God, as long as he is, and continues such, com- 
 mit sin, in that sense of the word which was laid down in verse 8.f 
 
 * Lange takes oitipua in the same sense as the Hebrew y^i giving to it the signi- 
 fication of offspring; lie refers both ainov and lv avru> to God, and translates thus : 
 " for his (God's) children remain in him, (continue faithful to him)." But the paral- 
 lel conclusion of the proposition, as well as the whole context of the figure and the 
 ideas, is adverse to this. 
 
 t Jovianus seems to have understood our passage in the same manner, when, 
 taking it and verse IS for his warrant, and following Jerome, he maintained : eos, qui 
 
340 APPENDIX. 
 
 Ov dvvarai must, accordingly, not be softened or modified by the sub- 
 stitution of any other notion implying ov 0e\ei, but it is to be taken 
 quite strictly, and, of course, in a moral sense.* "On, likewise, here 
 in both places, St. John uses in the acceptation of because, cfr. verse 
 14. What St. Jerome observes against Jovian, and Calovius ap- 
 proves, that on here is equivalent to quamdiu, quatenus, quousque, 
 very much tends to render the idea more perspicuous from another 
 point of view than that of St. John. 
 
 The parsenetic import of ver. 7 — 9, seems to be this : As betwixt 
 the true life which is of God, according to this pattern given by 
 Christ, and the devil's servitude, there can exist for man no third or 
 intermediate thing, and moral man, accordingly, in ideal respect, 
 must either entirely belong to God, or entirely to the devil : — the 
 motive for abandoning all moral half-measures and irresolution is 
 very urgent. He, then, who has rightly appreciated the character, 
 the force and the power of God's children, and well considered what, 
 as a child of God, he ought to do, and what, by means of the Divine 
 seed which he has received, he can do, will the more decidedly 
 renounce the world, and endeavour to acquire the divine ayv6rrjs 
 dtKaiocrvvT), as it was in Christ, since he only, by that means, can 
 participate in the communion with God, and in the glory of God's 
 children, (ver. 2, 3.) 
 
 Because the world neither knows nor appreciates the difference 
 between God's children, and those who are not God's children ; St. 
 John adds, with great emphasis, in ver. 10, 'Ev tovtw <pavepd £<m ra 
 riava rod deov koX ra t£kvo. rod diafioKov. This distinction is manifest 
 only in the light of the Divine Kplais. The uncritical world con- 
 founds and mingles together good and evil, God and devil. As to 
 the Hebrew phrase re/o/a rod 8ia&6\ov, — cfr. John viii. 44, it expresses 
 a mere ethical relation. "f — pp. 196— -200. 
 
 "An essential department of Christianity, in the apostolic age, 
 was the intercessive prayer, more specially for the eternal welfare of 
 the brethren, cfr. 1 Thess. v. 25; Phil. i. 4; Heb. xiii. 18, 19; 
 James v. 14 — 20. St. John passes from Christian prayer in general, 
 
 plena fide in baptismate renati sunt, a diabolo non posse subverti. Quicunque tcntati 
 fuerint, ostendi eos aqua tantum et non spiritu baptizatos. Jovianus had adopted an 
 ideal point of view, similar to that of St. John ; and the principal object of his reform- 
 ing moral-critical endeavours, which were directed against the hypocrisy, outside fair- 
 ness, and lukewarmness of Christian life in his age, was to re-establish the funda- 
 mental principles and ideals of the Gospel in their full clearness, precision, and truth. 
 * CEcumeniiis says : Of; Kara (pvotK)\v ubvv<xp.iav touto Xt-jei, uX,V< Katu irpoaipe- 
 TiKi/i/ Ttj< afiaprUii tip-, i civ. 
 
 t Schbttgen. Hor. Heb. on this passage. 
 
APPENDIX. 347 
 
 to Christian intercession, specially for sinful brethren. And as he 
 has shown, ver. 14, 15, that only prayer full of confidence, and 
 prayer according to God's "will, is fulfilled, he here intimates that 
 the Christian should intercede with God, only for that which is capable 
 of being accomplished, accordingly not irepl apaprias irpbs 6dvarov, but 
 only irepl aixaprlas ou irpbs ddvarov. 
 
 A.lrr,(rei, ver. 16, is here to be taken imperatively, or rather opta- 
 tively. It is dotibtful whether Saxrei refers to the same subject as 
 alrrjoei, or whether, (since the giver of life is God, and Swrrei-^co/jj/ 
 can be said only indirectly of the intercede*,) 6 debs is the subject to 
 be supplied,* from the obvious reference of at-Hjcrei to God. But the 
 parallel, James v. 20, seems to decide in favour of the former. Since 
 fji-q irpbs B&varGV — ap.apra.veiv is the main condition of Saxrei-fayv, and 
 avrcp by the universality of the precept obtains a collective applica- 
 tion to all similar cases : St. John adds emphatically, ro7s afxaprdvovcri 
 fj.^1 irpbs 6q.vo.tov. Here, too, the regular use of fxij and ou should 
 also be observed. In a conditional ideal sense and context, ver. 10, 
 St. John says : p.)) irpbs ddvarov. But in verse 17, where the notion 
 of " sin not unto death," is taken quite objectively, he says, ou irpbs 
 ddvarov. "iva epuiriio-n refers regressively to idv tis 'i(ir) in the begin- 
 ning of the verse ; Clemens, Origen, and some ilSS. also read r iva tis 
 e/JWTTjc?;, or ipa)T7)CT7i tls. 
 
 In order to determine more precisely the notion cf apapria irpbs 
 ddvaro.v and dfiapria ou irpbs 6dvarov, which is peculiar to St. John, 
 we must establish the following maxims : — First, that here by "sin 
 xuito death" is to be understood no single sin in particular ; but an 
 entire class or species of sins.f (In the former case, the sin would 
 have been mentioned more precisely, and even by name ;) but, 
 secondly, that idv tls k»; rbv aSeXcpbv aurod shows that here must be 
 meant a species of sins which can occur among Christians, and not 
 among those who are not Christians ; in the third place, that the dif- 
 ference betwixt mortal sin, and sin not unto death, must be exter- 
 nally perceptible, and not unknown to the readers, J (otherwise the 
 precept would be without an object, nay, dangerous : the difference 
 would also have been stated more precisely) ; and, fourth, that as 
 here only moral relations are spoken of, and as, according to the usus 
 loquendi and the fundamental ideas of the epistle, by jja^j can be 
 meant only spiritual life, fai] aluvios, cfr. iv. 9 ; the expression irpbs 
 
 * Accordingly Tertullian, the Syriac, Vulg., and some other versions, read and 
 supply thus : et dabit ei Dominus. 
 t See Calvin on this passage. 
 J Calvin on this passage. 
 
348 APPENDIX. 
 
 Qiuarou too, cannot by any means have a reference to bodily, but, as 
 in iii. 14, only and exclusively to spiritual death. 
 
 If these general propositions are right, it follows that Stroth's ex- 
 planation,* (according to which it is supposed that St. John allows 
 an interceding prayer for the conversion and amendment of non- 
 christian unbelievers, when they are docile, but that he forbids it 
 when they are obstinate and malicious) is utterly untenable. It also 
 follows, that both sense and context is entirely misunderstood by 
 those who, by "sins unto death," understand such sins, as God 
 punishes, either with mortal disease,f (morbis Q^Koltols,) or with 
 bodily death, % according to the language and legislation of the Old 
 Testament and of the synagogues. 
 
 Still less can such sins be meant as were deemed to be capital 
 crimes by the civil authority, and, accordingly, punished with death 
 or visited with other severe penalties. § St. John would hardly have 
 based his precept respecting intercession, on a notion so vague as 
 that of morbi Q€T]Xdroi of his age. Even what the Lord said of him 
 who was born blind, John ix. 3, must have prevented him. Further, 
 as his readers chiefly were converted heathens, living under entirely 
 different laws, St. John could not well allude to any Jewish ecclesi- 
 astical distinction betwixt sins unto death, and not unto death. His 
 address would have been either entirely unintelligible, or it must 
 have been misunderstood by uninformed readers. Least of all can 
 this passage have any reference whatever to the heathen laws of the 
 apostle's age, these being, in some respects, so repugnant to the 
 Christian principle. Even the strict contrast between the fraternal 
 community of Christians and the heathen kosmos, on which our 
 epistle is founded, rendered such a reference impossible. In a word, 
 the distinction betwixt sin unto death, and not unto death, must be 
 one that is ■peculiarly Christian. 
 
 In the ancient church it was not unusual, by a/xaprla irpbs Qa.va.Tov 
 to understand blasphemy, or the sin against the Holy Ghost, efr. 
 Matt. xii. 21. || Beza, Calvin, H Flaccius, Calovius, "Wolf, Herrmann, 
 
 "" * In Eichhorn's Repertor. for Oriental and Bibl. Literat. vol. xii. pp. 60, 61, 72, 
 sqq. 
 
 + Zachariii, Michaelis, and others. 
 
 I Werenfel's Sylloge Dissert. Theol. p. 470, sqq. 
 
 § See Morusand Lange. 
 
 I! Augustine de Sermone Domini In monte, see Matt. xxii. sec. 73. Here, however, 
 we find this view somewhat tin defied, of which more hereafter. The Schol. Matthai, 
 p. 230, ufi. 7rpo9 tidv. htei. vr\v <p)\oi, ii)v eu to irvtvfxa, /3\aff<^rjju«av, Tirol cif rijv 
 0e6ir\Ta, cfr. p. 147. 
 
 U But Calvin is doubtful. 
 
APPENDIX. 349 
 
 and others, arc of the same opinion. Undoubtedly the sin against 
 the Holy Ghost belongs to the species of afxapr. irpbs Qdvarov. But 
 if St. John meant that sin, why should he not have expressed him- 
 self more distinctly ; why should he not have called it by the same 
 name as Christ had called it ? As the sin against the Holy Ghost, at 
 all events, is an individual sin in the class of mortal sins, their highest, 
 their scarcely imaginable culmination — as it is nowhere else mentioned 
 by the apostles, nay more, as its possibility in the Christian world is, 
 at least, doubtful, and its frequent occurrence in the apostolical com- 
 munities certainly impossible ; and, since it cannot be, by human 
 means, determined whether an evil of such magnitude is really 
 present in a given case ; this particular sin cannot at all be meant 
 here. 
 
 Another interpretation of the ancients is, that mortal sin, with 
 St. John, denotes ruthless sin, which, as such, is deserving of eternal 
 death, orav ris a/xapribv ai/aca97)Tcos e'x?7 Ttpbs fx.€Toivoiav.* But this 
 definition, referring to the /xerdvoia, has no satisfactory basis in the 
 context of our passage or our epistle. But Grotius is entirely in 
 error when he declares those to be mortal sinners ; qui cum pecca- 
 verint, moniti peccare pergunt, aut certe disciplines, quae in ecclesia 
 instituta est, se subjicere nolunt. No vestige of the penitential 
 discipline of the church is to be found in our passage ; it is also 
 difficult to conceive, why intercession in prayer could not be made 
 for such sinners, cfr. 2 Tim. ii. 25, 26. 
 
 It is plain that St. John, by a/xapr. irpbs Qdvarov can have meant, in 
 general, only such sins of which spiritual death is the inevitable 
 consequence, i. e., sins by which, according to the laws of the Pao-iKeta 
 too Oeov, or of the Koivcovia /xera rod irarpbs tea] fizra rod vlov aurov 
 'lr\(rov Xpiarov, the capability for the Christian £«}) is necessarily 
 abolished, and the Christian salvation lost.f As, according to St. 
 John, the Christian (cot] is acquired, or the fierdfiaais e'/c rod Bavdrov 
 els t?> (oorjv effected by the faith in Jesus Christ, and entirely ac- 
 complished by perfect and genuine brotherly-love (which is the root 
 of Christian life), cfr. iii. 14 ; John v. 24 ; hi. 36 ; so also by infi- 
 delity, worldly heresy and Cain-like leant of love, the Christian fay is 
 
 * Schol. Matthiii, p. HG, and p. 230. (Ecumenius has also adopted this opinion, and 
 he also (as the Schol. of Cod. H. and D. in Matthiii,) refers to Judas' example. 
 
 t The notion is relative, according to the more or less spiritual or ethical sense in 
 which ddvoLTot is taken. Thus aixapria el? Odvarov in the Test. xii. Patrum Isaschar 
 sec. vii. is, according to the context, either (sec. vi.) ruthless sin, or which on account 
 of what follows is more prohable, a gross transgression of the law, by which man is 
 rendered subject to the dominion Gf the evil spirit, and by which he loses God's favour. 
 
350 APPENDIX. 
 
 again lost, and man repasses, as it were, from life into death, e/c rr,s 
 fa?is els Tbv Bdvarov, i. e., spiritual not eternal death, is the necessary 
 consequence of such, cardinal sins, — cfr. ii. 17, 25; iii. 11 — 15. 
 This, according to the context of our epistle, is the ajxapr. -rrpbs 
 davzsrov, and it would be easily recognized by St. John's readers, 
 from that which the apostle had said in the preceding part of this 
 epistle. The culmination of this aixapria is the complete passing 
 over into the icoo-fios of darkness and of spiritual death, i. e. the 
 apostasy from Christianity, cfr. Heb. x. 26, or idolatry. And thus, 
 if this is the right explanation of St. John's idea, the context from 
 verse 16 to verse 21 is easily construed.* 
 
 St. John distinguishes between an internal and an external com- 
 munity of Christians ; only the former consists of God's true chil- 
 dren, the latter contains a medley of perfection and imperfection. 
 He can, accordingly, without contradicting himself, iii. 6—9, and 
 here, 18, quite well suppose the possibility of the existence of 
 mortal sin within the Christian community. St. John does not 
 declare, whether a mortal sinner can be converted or not, and he 
 prohibits the Christian communities to intercede for the a/xapTavovTes 
 irpbs Qavarov from no other motive than this, that otherwise the 
 essential distinction betwixt good and evil, betwixt light and dark- 
 ness, betwixt the communion with God and the communion with 
 the world, would be weakened and obfuscated in the Christian's 
 conscience. If, according to God's eternal law and judgment, the 
 loss of eternal life in Christ (spiritual death,) is inseparably com- 
 bined with the sins of infidelity, worldliness, and uncharitableness, 
 because they directly abolish the Christian principle ; the true (the 
 critical) Christian cannot, and may not implore God to give life to 
 those who commit mortal sin. He would be asking what cannot 
 be granted ; he would be praying for that which is repugnant to 
 God's will ; he would confound light with darkness, in God who is 
 holy and just, and thus suppose a repugnance in God. The Christian 
 may ask (o^ of God, only for such as do not sin unto death, and, 
 consequently, do not annihilate the faty in themselves ; for in that 
 
 * I find a vestige of this interpretation in St. Augustine, in the place above men- 
 tioned : Peceatum fratris ad mortem puto esse, cum post agnitionem dei per gratiam 
 domini nostri JesuChristi quisque oppugnat fraternitatem et adversus ipsam gratiam, 
 qua reconciliatus est Deo, invidentiae facibus agitatur; (subsequently be added, si in 
 hac perversitate finierit banc vitam.) Peceatum autem non ad mortem est si quis- 
 quam non amorem a fratre alienaverit, sed oillcia fratcrnitatis debita per aliquam 
 itifirmitalcm anlmi non exhibuerit. Opp. August, torn. iii. sec. ii. p. 19", cfr. pp. 
 1G3, 1C4. 
 
APPENDIX. 351 
 
 case only his eur^a is Kara to OeXrifxa rod deod, and can be granted, 
 verse 14, 15. 
 
 It will appear from verse 17 and 18, that this is the right interpreta- 
 tion of the passage. For, as it might seem that the distinction be- 
 twixt the auapr. OauariK^, and /xt? QavariKy) (as (Ecurnenius calls it,) 
 were repugnant to the above established absolute antithesis (iii. 7 — 9), 
 betwixt sinning and not sinning : St. John shows, verse 17, that 
 indeed every aSiKia (every action, and every intention which is con- 
 trary to the Divine law, every infringement on the ZiKcuoo-vvn) is in 
 its essence si?i (ap.apria the common Christian notion), but that still 
 there exists a difference as to the degree of intensity and effect of sin, 
 betwixt the a/xapr. irpbs davarov and ob irpbs Odyaroy. The true 
 Christian can, as such, according to St. John, not sin unto death ; 
 he is subject to the sins not unto death, as long as he walketh in 
 the flesh, cfr. ii. 1. St. John, therefore, adds this consolation, ver. 
 18 ; But we (also) know, that every one who is born of God, does 
 not sin, cfr. iii. 9, (in this sense — afxapr. irpbs Qauarov,) but that (on 
 is to be supplied,) he who is born of God (being ever intent on 
 sanctifying himself,) keepeth himself from so sinning {r-qpsl eavrby, 
 i. e., kyvbv airb tou koo-^ov, cfr. James i. 27 ; 1 Tim. v. 22 ; "SYisd. x. 
 5,) and thus is unassailable to the evil one (6 irovtipbs ovx airrerai 
 aurov,* cfr. Wisd. xviii. 20,) the prince of this world, who main- 
 tains the sway of darkness and death over his own, cfr. Col. i. 15 ; 
 Eph. vi. 12, sqq. 
 
 Verse 19. The devil then has no power over us — over us who 
 know that we are of God, and not of the world ; the world only, 
 ay, the whole of it, is in his power, /cal 6 k6o-/j.os oAos (as contrasted 
 with God's children — the entire non-Christian and anti- Christian 
 Koc-fjio?, — no man, who in any respect whatever belongs to the world, 
 excepted) ip r<p iroyrjpcd, (i. e., in the &pxw tov Koo-fxav) KeTrai, is in his 
 power, under has sway, and subjected to him, cfr. 2 Mace. iv. 33, 
 and other places, f — A Commentary on the epistles of St. John, 
 by Dr. Eriedrich Liicke. Translated from the -German, with addi- 
 tional notes, by Thorleif Gudmundson Repp, pp. 279 — 287. Edin- 
 burgh : Thomas Clark, 1837. (Biblical Cabinet, No. xv.) 
 
 * A similar sense of umerai. we also find in the Classics. V. Eisner Observ., and 
 Raphel. Annot. ex Polybio, on this passage, 
 t See more particularly Raphel. Annot. loco citato. 
 
352 APPENDIX. 
 
 S. (Note to Lecture V., p. 229.) 
 
 11 What are dreams," says one of our fine old writers, most deeply 
 learned in all mystic lore, " but the imaginations and perceptions of 
 one asleep, which notwithstanding steal upon the soul, or rise out of 
 her, without any consent of hers : as is most manifest in such as 
 torment us and put us to extreme pain till we awake out of them. 
 And the like obreptions or unavoidable importunities of thoughts, 
 which offer or force themselves upon the mind, may be observed 
 even in the daytime, according to the nature or complexion of our 
 bodies ; though how the body doth engage the mind in the thoughts 
 and imaginations is most manifest in sleep. For according as choler, 
 sanguine, phlegm, or melancholy, are predominant, will the scene 
 of our dreams be, and that without any check or eurb of dubitation 
 concerning the truth and existence of the things that then appear : of 
 which we can conceive no other reason than this— that the inmost seat 
 of the sense is very fully and vigorously affected, as it is by objects 
 in the day, of whose real existence the ordinary assurance is, that 
 they so strongly strike or affect our sensitive faculty which resides 
 not in the external organs, no more than the artificer's skill is in his 
 instruments, and therefore, the true and real seat of sense being 
 affected in our sleep, as well as when we are awake, 'tis the less mar- 
 vel the soul conceits her dreams, while she is dreaming, to be no 
 dreams, but real transactions. Imagination is then far stronger than 
 any motion or agitation from without, which to them that are awake 
 dims and obscures their inward imagination, as the light of the sun 
 doth the light of a candle in a room ; and yet, in this case, also, 
 according to Aristotle, fancy is a kind of sense, though weak. But 
 if it were so strong as to bear itself against all the occursions and 
 impulses of outward objects, so as not to be broken, but to keep 
 itself entire and in equal splendour and vigour with what is repre- 
 sented from without, and this not arbitrariously, but necessarily and 
 unavoidably, as has been already intimated, the party thus affected 
 would not fail to take his own imagination for a real object of sense 
 
 as in mad or melancholy men, who have confidently affirmed that 
 
 they have met with the devil, or conversed with angels, when it has 
 been nothing but an encounter with their own fancy : and if it be 
 so strong as to assure us of the presence of some external object 
 which yet is not there, why may it not be as effectual in the beget- 
 ting of the belief of some more internal apprehensions, such as have 
 been reported of mad and fanatical men who have so firmly and in> 
 
APPENDIX. 353 
 
 mutably fancied themselves to be God the Father, the Messias, the 
 Holy Ghost, the angel Gabriel, the last and chiefest prophet that God 
 would send into the world, and the like ? For their conceptions are 
 not so pure or immaterial, nor solid or rational, but that these words 
 to them are always accompanied with some strong phantom or full 
 imagination, the fulness and clearness whereof, as in the case imme- 
 diately before named, does naturally bear down the soul into a belief 
 of the truth and existence of what she thus vigorously apprehends ; 
 and being so wholly and entirely immersed in this conceit, and so 
 vehemently touched therewith, she has either not the patience to 
 consider anything alleged against it, or if she do consider, and find 
 herself entangled, she will look upon it as a piece of human sophis 
 try, and prefer her own infallibility or the fallibility of the Spirit 
 before all carnal reasoning whatsoever. As those whose fancies are 
 fortified by long use and education in any absurd point of a false 
 religion — though wise enough in other things — will firmly hold the 
 conclusion notwithstanding the clearest demonstration to the con- 
 trary. Now what custom and education doth by degrees, distem- 
 pered fancies may do in a shorter time. But the case in both is 
 much like that in dreams, where that which is represented is neces- 
 sarily taken for true, because nothing stronger enervates the percep- 
 tion. For as the ligations of the outward organ of sense keep off 
 such fluctuations or undulations of motion from without as might 
 break or obscure these representations in sleep, so prejudice, and 
 confidence in a conceit when a man is awake, keeps his fond imagi- 
 nation vigorous, and entire from all the assaults of reason that would 
 cause any dubitation." 
 
 The same masculine writer says again: — " It is very well known 
 that this complexion is the most religious complexion that is, and 
 will be as naturally tampering with Divine matters, (though in no 
 better light than their own,) as apes and monkeys will be aping 
 the actions and manners of men. Neither is there any true spiritual 
 grace from God, but this mere natural constitution — according to 
 the several tempers and workings of it — will not only resemble, but 
 sometimes seem to outstrip, by reason of the fury and excess of 
 it ; and that, not only in actions, but very ordinarily in eloquence 
 and expression : as if here alone were to be had that live sense and 
 understanding of all holy things, or at least, as if there were no other 
 state to be paralleled to it. The event of which must be — if a very 
 great measure of the true grace of God does not intervene — that 
 such a person as this must be very highly puffed up, and not 
 only fancy himself inspired, but believe himself such a special 
 XIV. A A 
 
354 APPENDIX. 
 
 piece of light and holiness that God has sent into the world, that 
 he will take upon him to reform, or rather annul, the very law and 
 religion he is born under, and make himself not at all inferior to 
 either Moses or Christ, though he have neither very sound reason 
 nor visible miracle to extort belief." 
 
 Referring to mystical interpretations of the Scriptures, and visions, 
 the same writer says : — " As for the first, we have shown that melan- 
 choly as well as wine, makes a man rhetorical or poetical, and that 
 genius — how fanciful it is, and full of allusions, and metaphors, and 
 fine resemblances, every one knows. And what greater matter is 
 there in applying moral and spiritual meaning to the history of the 
 Bible, than to the history of nature ? and there is no rhetorician, 
 nor poet, but does that perpetually ; or how much easier is it to make 
 a story to set out a moral meaning, than to apply a moral sense to 
 such stories as are already a plot ! And for the former, iEsop was, 
 of old, excellent at it, without any suspicion of inspiration : and the 
 latter, Sir Francis Bacon has admirably well performed in his Sapi- 
 entia Veterum, without any such peculiar or extraordinary illapses 
 a Divine spirit in him — a business, I dare say, he never dreamed of, 
 and any man that understands him will willingly be his compur- 
 gator. In both these, there being a ligation of the outward senses, 
 whatever is then represented to the mind is of the nature of a dream. 
 ; 'Lut these fits being not so ordinary as our natural sleep, these 
 dreams the precipitant and unskilful are forward to conceit to be 
 representations extraordinary and supernatural, which they call 
 revelations or visions, of which there can be no certainty at all, no 
 more than of a dream. 
 
 " The mention of dreams puts me in mind of another melancholy 
 symptom, which physicians call, ecstasy. . . . The causes whereof 
 arc none other than those of natural sleep, but more intense and ex- 
 cessive ; the effect is the deliration of the party after he awakes ; for 
 he takes his dreams for true histories, and real transactions. The 
 reason whereof I conceive is, the extraordinary clearness and ful- 
 ness of the representations in his sleep, arising from a more perfect 
 privation of all communion with this outward world ; and so, there 
 being no intcrferings or cross-strokes of motions from his be 
 deeply overwhelmed and bedeaded frith sleep — what the imagination 
 then puts forth of herself is as clear as noon-day, and the perception 
 of the soul is at least as strong and vigorous as it is at any time in 
 beholding things awake ; and, therefore, memory as thoroughly 
 sealed therewith as from the sense of any external object. The 
 vigour and clearness of these visions differ from those in ordinary 
 
APPENDIX. &$5 
 
 sleep as much as the liveliness of the images let into a room arti- 
 ficially darkened, from those in one carelessly made dark, (when) 
 some chinks and crevices let in light where'they should not. But 
 strength of perception is no sure ground of truth : and such visions 
 as these, let them he never so clear, yet they are still in the nature 
 of dreams ; and he that regardeth dreams is like him that catcheth 
 at a shadow, or followeth after the wind, as Syracides speaks." 
 
 After prescribing some remedies for these disorders of enthusiasm, 
 the writer proceeds, with profound wisdom, and with exquisite 
 beauty of thought and expression : — " By humility, I mean an entire 
 submission to the will of God in all things, a deadness to all self- 
 excellence and pre-eminency before others : a perfect privation of all 
 desire of singularity, or attracting of the eyes of men upon a man's 
 own person : as little to relish a man's own praise or glory in the 
 world, as if he had never been born into it ; but to be wholly con- 
 tented with this one thing — that his will is a subduing to the will of 
 God, and that with thankfulness and reverence he doth receive what- 
 ever Divine Providence brings upon him, be it sweet or sour, with 
 the hair or against it ; it is all one to him ; for what he cannot avoid, 
 is the gift of God to the world in order to a greater good. But here 
 I must confess that he that is thus affected, as he seeks no know- 
 ledge to please himself, so he cannot avoid being the most knowing 
 man that is : for he is surrounded with the beams of Divine wisdom, 
 as the low depressed earth with the rays of the stars ; his deeply and 
 profoundly humbled soul being as it were the centre of all heavenly 
 illuminations, as this little globe of the earth is one of those 
 celestial influences. I profess I stand amazed while I consider the 
 ineffable advantages of a mind thus submitted to the Divine will, 
 how calm, how quiet, and sensible she is, how free, how saga- 
 cious, of how tender a touch and judgment she is in all things ; 
 whereas pride and strong desire ruffle the mind into uneven 
 waves, and boisterous fluctuations, that the eternal light of reason 
 concerning either nature or life cannot imprint its perfect and 
 distinct image or character there, nor can so subtle and delicate 
 motions and impressions be sensible to the understanding disturbed 
 and agitated, in so violent a storm. That man, therefore, who has 
 got this humble frame of spirit, which is of such mighty concernment 
 for acquiring all manner of wisdom, as well natural as divine, can- 
 not possibly be so foolish as to be mistaken in that which is the 
 genuine result of a contrary temper : and such is that of enthusiasm 
 that puffs up men into an opinion that they have a more than ordinary 
 influence from God that acts upon their spirits, and that he designs 
 
356 APPENDIX. 
 
 them by special appointment to be new prophets, new lawgivers, new 
 Davids, new Messiahs, and what not ? When it is but the working 
 of the old man in them in a fanatical manner." * 
 
 * Enthusiasmus Triumphatus, or a Discourse of the Nature, Causes, Kinds, and 
 Cure of Enthusiasm. By Henry More. London, 165C. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abiding presence of the Spirit 
 of God with the spirit of man, 
 108 ; cause of the difference 
 between the saved and the lost, 
 110. 
 
 Adam and Christ, analogy be- 
 tween, 255. 
 
 Analogies suggested by mate- 
 rial nature inappropriate as 
 grounds of reasoning on spirit- 
 ual agency, 127. 
 
 Apostolical instructions, high 
 moral tone of, 295. 
 
 Augustine, 271. 
 
 Belief of the Gospel, effects of, on 
 the emotions, 23 G. 
 
 Believer, the, conscious of regard- 
 ing the Gospel as spoken to 
 him by the Spirit, 233 ; of find- 
 ing there the reasons why he 
 acts differently from others, 
 238 ; of receiving from the 
 Gospel encouragements to per- 
 severe, 238 ; of finding in the 
 Gospel needful checks, 241; of 
 deriving from the Gospel peace 
 and hope, 243 ; of finding scope 
 for the sympathies of his social 
 nature, 243 ; not able to dis- 
 tinguish the workings of his 
 own mind from the working of 
 the Spirit of God, 244. 
 
 Bible, characteristics of, 76 ; its 
 prophecies, 77 ; unity, 78 ; 
 scope, 78 ; miracles, 79 ; ac- 
 counts of the ministry of Christ 
 and the apostles, 81 ; proofs of 
 its inspiration, 80. 
 
 Boehm, 199. 
 
 Bourignon, Antoinette, 200. 
 
 Christian character, peculiarity 
 of, 112 ; the pledge of endless 
 happiness, 114. 
 
 Christianity, illustrative of the 
 Divine government, 135 ; de- 
 sign of, adapted to the nature 
 and circumstances of man, 282 ; 
 mischievous mode of dealing 
 with, 287. 
 
 Church of Christ, character of, 
 150 ; its relation to the civil 
 polity of men, 171; descriptions 
 of its imcard government ap- 
 plied to the outicard organiza- 
 tion, 157. 
 
 Church notions on the work of 
 the Spirit — the source of hurt- 
 ful controversies, 183 ; a hind- 
 er ance to the spread of the 
 Gospel, 186. 
 
 Clement of Rome, on the appoint- 
 ment of church officers, 179. 
 
 Coleridge, 205 ; his principles, 
 207 ; his distinction between 
 the understanding and the rea- 
 son, 209. 
 
 " Common grace," 275 ; defined, 
 277 ; inappropriateness of the 
 passages of Scripture quoted 
 in support of, 278. 
 
 Consciousness, fundamental fact 
 in relation to the human spirit. 
 6 ; Christianity an affair of, 7 ; 
 testimony of, to the workings 
 of the spiritual life, 233 ; har- 
 mony of the truths of, with the 
 
358 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 statements of Scripture on the 
 work of the Spirit, 125 ; relates 
 only to the mind's own states 
 and acts, 129. 
 Covenants, old and new, distinc- 
 tion between, 160 ; spirituality 
 of the new, 161. 
 Distinctions and mutual relations 
 
 in the Godhead, 61. 
 Divine government, principle of, 
 not violated by the work of God 
 in the spirit of man, 41, 133. 
 Divine knowledge, and special 
 modes of attesting truth as- 
 cribed to the Spirit, 73. 
 Doctrine of Scripture on the work 
 of the Spirit, in harmony with 
 human consciousness, 113. 
 Ecclesiastical theory on the work 
 of the Spirit, 153 ; modifications 
 of this theory, 170. 
 Enthusiastical explanation of the 
 
 spiritual life, 261. 
 Ethical philosophy, the spiritual 
 life secures results which trans- 
 cend the aims of, 285. 
 Evangelicalism, 272 ; practical 
 
 power of, 272. 
 Facts illustrative of the truth re- 
 specting the work of the Spirit 
 in man, 143. 
 False, the, in religion, preferred 
 
 by man to the true, 21. 
 Fathers, the, hierarchical bias of 
 their writings, 180 ; mischiev- 
 ous effects of appealing to the 
 traditions and usages of, 181. 
 Fenelon, his vindication of 
 
 Madame Guion, 214. 
 Formalism, opposition to, gene- 
 rates mysticism, 193. 
 Genesis vi. 3, exposition of, 90. 
 German mysticism, 203. 
 Gospel, its aspect of grace to all 
 men, 249; design of the preach- 
 ing of, 257 ; the simplicity of, 
 gradual departure from, 151. 
 Grace, 136 ; cause of the change 
 in the spiritual condition of 
 man, 139 ; harmony of the 
 
 truths respecting, with the 
 work of the Spirit, 136. 
 Guion, Madame, 213. 
 Happiness, man conscious of the 
 
 desire of, 16. 
 Hebrews vi. 4 — 6, exposition of, 
 
 87. 
 Herbert, Lord Edward, of Cher- 
 bury, 216. 
 
 "Holy Ghost," &c, meaning of 
 the phrase, 53 ; personality 
 and agency of, 54 ; with the 
 Father and the Son, one God, 
 58 ; works of, which do not 
 renew and save men, 63, 71 ; 
 His work in relation to the 
 Mediator, 67 ; effects of the 
 truth on the mind ascribed to 
 Him, 87 ; harmony of the 
 truths respecting, with other 
 mysterious truths, 140. 
 
 Human, the, in religion preferred 
 by man to the Divine, 29. 
 
 Ignatius Loyola, 226. 
 
 Illumination, private, authority 
 of, 262. 
 
 Images of Scripture mistaken 
 for descriptions of outward 
 facts, 162. 
 
 Inspiration, unscriptural view of, 
 74. 
 
 Intelligence, man conscious of, S. 
 
 Institutions of the Gospel, ten- 
 dency to secularize, 174. 
 
 Irresistibleness of Divine grace, 
 129. 
 
 Jacobi, 204. 
 
 1 John iii. 9 ; v. IS, exposition 
 of, 290. 
 
 Language, testimony of, to the 
 workings of the human spirit, 2. 
 
 Law of spiritual action, 177. 
 
 Life, a mystery, 230. 
 
 Literature, Christian, current 
 strain of, 146. 
 
 Marcus Antoninus, 145. 
 
 Material, the, in religion preferred 
 by man to the spiritual, 19. 
 
 " Maxims of the Saints" con- 
 demned by the Pope, 214. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 359 
 
 •' Means of grace," the allow- 
 able, and the mischievous uses 
 of the phrase, 166. 
 
 Molinos, 212. 
 
 Moral constitution, man con- 
 scious of, 13. 
 
 Moral government, the work of 
 God in man does not neces- 
 sarily arise out of the relations 
 of, 42. 
 
 Morality, the purest, the natural 
 fruit of the spiritual life, 280. 
 
 Munzer, 225. 
 
 Mystery, a, the work of God in 
 man, 43. 
 
 Mysticism, definition of, 194 ; con- 
 sidered as speculative, 195 ; as 
 contemplative, 212; as imagi- 
 native, 218 ; as practical, 224. 
 
 Natural body, the, and the spirit- 
 ual body, 122. 
 
 Peasants' war in Germany, 224. 
 
 Pelagianism, fallacy of, 271. 
 
 Perfection, Christian, 287. 
 
 Pietists and mystics, distinction 
 between, 229. 
 
 Plato, views of, on Divine influ- 
 ence, 143. 
 
 Poiret, Pierre, 202. 
 
 Pretenders to special sanctity and 
 inspiration, 147. 
 
 Promises relating to the work of 
 the Spirit in man, 100. 
 
 Quietists, 212. 
 
 Regeneration, the grace of, sup- 
 posed to be imparted through 
 the ministrations of the church, 
 154. 
 
 Religion, man's mode of dealing 
 with, 19 ; her champions — her 
 enemies, 22. 
 
 Responsibility unchanged by the 
 work of the Spirit, 131, 274. 
 
 Revelation, practical design of, 
 in relation to the spiritual life, 
 256. 
 
 Right, man conscious of the sense 
 of, 12. 
 
 Right of the church to impart 
 spiritual blessings supposed to 
 
 arise from a covenant relation 
 to God, 158. 
 
 Salvation, wrought by the Spirit 
 of God in the spirit of man, 
 109. 
 
 Sanctification, progress of, 120, 
 293 ; results, 121. 
 
 Scriptures, the spirit in which 
 they are to be consulted, 47 ; 
 their teaching respecting the 
 work of God in man, 52 ; mys- 
 tical interpretation of, 218. 
 
 Seneca, 145. 
 
 Sentimental, the, in religion, pre- 
 ferred by man to the moral, 26. 
 
 Soul and spirit, distinction be- 
 tween, 5. 
 
 Speculative, the, in religion, pre- 
 ferred by man to the practical, 
 23. 
 
 Spirit of man, its present state in 
 relation to God, 17. 
 
 Spirituality of God, the idea of, 
 from man's spiritual nature, 49. 
 
 Spirituality of man's nature, 2. 
 
 Spiritual life, teaching of Scrip- 
 ture respecting, 245 ; originates 
 in a distinct act of God, 245 ; 
 has a relation to Christ, 246 ; 
 produces the highest and most 
 refined morality, 280 ; tradi- 
 tional explanations of, 260 ; 
 ent/msiastical, 261 ; philosophi- 
 cal, 262 ; transcends explana- 
 tion, 266 ; nature and sources 
 of the difficulties connected 
 with, 238. 
 
 Substitution, Christ for his peo- 
 ple, 251. 
 
 Swedenborg, Emmanuel, 220. 
 
 Tradition, church notions re- 
 specting the work of the Spirit, 
 supported by, 178. 
 
 Traditional explanation of the 
 spiritual life, 260. 
 
 Truth, effects of, on the mind as- 
 cribed to the Spirit, 87. 
 
 Truths respecting God and man, 
 specific design of, 232. 
 
 Unity of the Father and the Son 
 
\G0 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 and the Spirit, a mystery, yet 
 a fact, 60. 
 
 Usage, church notions respecting 
 the work of the Spirit founded 
 on, 178. 
 
 Voluntary action, man conscious 
 of, 12. 
 
 Wants of the human spirit, 31 ; 
 way in which they are to be 
 supplied, 36. 
 
 Work of God in man does no 
 violence to the conscious free- 
 dom of man, 38, 126 ; myste- 
 
 rious, 43 ; must he clearly re- 
 vealed in the Scriptures, 46 ; 
 testimony of the Scriptures 
 respecting, 98, 107 ; does not 
 oppose any principle of the 
 government of God, 130 ; not 
 miraculous, 142 ; distinction 
 between this work and man's 
 proper work, 270 ; not essen- 
 tial to the responsibility of 
 man, 274. i 
 
 Wrong choice in man, cause of, 
 35. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 LONDON: RKKD AND PARDON, PRINTERS, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Libran 
 
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