tural ground that I propose to proceed: about any other term that may be used, I am not solicitous.

First, then, I lay down this position : that the influence of the Holy Spirit on the souls of men, in effecting the work of salvation, is a scriptural fact. That many have abused this sacred truth, by wild and fanciful imaginations, is readily conceded ;-as what point of Christian doctrine, indeed, has not been abused. But this, we contend, is no argument against the reality of the thing.

Let us endeavour to enter into this matter. And I begin with observing, that a persuasion of the necessity of an influence from the Divine Spirit, is a proper preparative for the more ready admission of that fact. Does this necessity then appear to exist? Let the Scriptures of truth testify. "Without me, (said Jesus,) —or severed from me-ye can do nothing," John xv. 5. With this Paul accords, 2 Cor. ii. 5. "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God:" and to this the consciousness of every quickened soul responds. "Turn thou me, (is the language of all such,) and I shall be turned," Jer. xxx. 18. We might here enter into a view of that depravity of human nature, as represented in the Scriptures, which appears to render it necessary that we should be visited with supernatural operations; but it is not deemed requisite to our present purpose. Suffice it to say, that our carnal minds are at enmity against God, and therefore need the changing efficacy of a divine influence,--that we are naturally weak; and therefore have need to pray, "Strengthen thou me according to thy word." To what has been advanced, to show the necessity of which we speak, I add the Apostle's declaration, Rom. viii. 9, "If any one have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."

We shall now come nearer to those evidences in favour of the point in hand, which are of a more direct nature. And in doing so, I shall be careful to distinguish between such passages of Scripture as refer to miraculous operations, and such as regard those graces of the Spirit which we need as much as any in the time of primitive Christianity could need them.

Many of the prayers of the inspired writers, (as Mr. Scott has justly remarked,) obviously imply the truth of our present position. David prays, "Take not thy Holy Spirit from me," Psalm li. 11. Surely he considered himself favoured by the influences of that Spirit. "Restore unto me, (he adds,) the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free Spirit." He certainly believed a divine energy to be necessary to his support. Paul prayed for the Ephesian brethren to this effect: "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,

(or for the acknowledgement of him ;) the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling," &c. Eph. i. 17. 18.-These are the blessings of salvation-not miraculous gifts. And again, "That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might, (or mightily strengthened,) by his Spirit in the inward man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith," &c. chap. iii. 16. 17. These are the things that accompany salvation: they are such as we all need; and any argument brought to prove that they were peculiar to the season of miracles, would go as effectually to prove that so likewise were faith, and hope, and love, and every Christian grace peculiar to that season; and thus the very essence of Christianity might be banished from the world! To the same effect is the Apostle's prayer for the Colossians, i. 9, 10, 11. “ That ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding," &c.— Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power," &c.-and so for the Romans, xv. 13. "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing; that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Spirit." Other instances of the same sort might be adduced, but these are sufficient.

66

To the evidence arising from the prayers of the inspired writers, let us add some direct declarations ;-still cautiously regarding the difference between miraculous gifts and sanctifying operations. A few out of many must suffice :-" The love of God, (says Paul to the Romans,) is shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us," Rom. v. Now, whether "the love of God" be taken here to mean a sense of God's love to us, or the exercise of our love to God--(for the phrase is ambiguous, and the better in this case for being so)--it will be allowed to be requisite that we possess it; and the Holy Spirit, as given to us, is the agent to which it is ascribed. Again, chap. viii. 9. "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit; if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you; or, because the Spirit of God dwells in you." This, verse 10, is termed "Christ in you;" and verse 11, it appears to be that Spirit which raised up Christ from the dead, and which is also to quicken the bodies of the saints. It must, therefore, be not merely a holy spirit or temper in us; but truly and properly the Spirit of God. In verse 10, he affirms that "the Spirit itself beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God." I shall not stop here to discuss the question, How the Spirit bears witness; whether directly and immediately, by suggesting a sense of our adoption; or mediately and indirectly, by producing that temper of heart which corresponds with the word of God, and enabling us thence to infer our adoption; or whether we ought not to admit both these views it is enough, to our present purpose, that it is "the

Spirit itself," as distinguished from our spirits, and from every other object. To the Galatians the same Apostle says, chap. iv. 6. "God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." Allowing the Spirit of his Son here to mean a Spirit wrought in us, namely, the Spirit of adoption; still it is expressly said to be sent forth from God, and of course must be the production of the Holy Spirit. The Ephesian brethren are represented as a part of that building, that "holy temple in the Lord," which is designed "for a habitation of God through the Spirit," Ephes. ii. 21, 22. We here remark that God dwells in his Church in a manner in which he does not in the world; and that this inhabitation is through the Spirit; and this Spirit is said, Rom. viii. 26. "to help our infirmities," and "to make intercessions for us with groanings which cannot be uttered,” or by inarticulate groanings.

These quotations appear to have reference to the case of believers ;—to their needs and their supplies. If believers must have the Divine Spirit to enable them to bring forth the fruits of righteousness, and prepare them for ultimate glory, then well might we opine that the unregenerate need the influences of that Spirit to bring them into a gracious state; and this accordingly we find to be the fact. Christ assures Nicodemus, John iii. 7. that men "must be born again ;" and this new birth is said, verse 8, to be " of the Spirit." The Spirit, then, of course, is necessary to the production of that change, without which there is no salvation. The Ephesians, in reference to their unbelieving, unregenerate state, are represented as having been "dead in trespasses and sins;" Eph. ii. 1.-In ver. 5 the Apostle includes himself as in the same condition, and in both places ascribes to God the quickening (or life-giving influence) which they had experienced. In ver. 10 the figure is changed, but the same idea is presented of a divine energy in their conversion to God: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works." I am aware, indeed, that the figures employed to express this important change, have often been abused, and that divine truth has thus been misrepresented by an extravagant zeal to establish some particular system; but surely there is an analogy which justifies the use of such figures;-there is a strong meaning intended to be conveyed ;-a meaning which goes obviously to show our natural alienation from God-our destitution of the principle of holiness-and the necessity of an influence from the Divine Spirit to restore us to a meetness for the heavenly inheritance. Let one more particular reference suffice. In Titus iii. 5. salvation is ascribed, not to works of righteousness performed by us, but to divine mercy, "by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit." Comment here seems unnecessary, as I cannot conceive how language could more ex

plicitly represent the agency of the Divine Spirit in the work of

conversion.

:

I have mentioned above our natural alienation from God, and our destitution of the principle of holiness and here I take occasion to repeat what I have before said—that this state of human nature, (which is so plainly held out in various parts of the sacred writings) appears to be the ground of that necessity which exists, for a supernatural, regenerating influence from the Holy Spirit. But here it may possibly be objected that, allowing such to be the state of the man, the Holy Spirit has so fitted the word of truth to our condition,-has so adapted the means to the end, that no farther divine agency than what was employed in producing this word of truth, should be requisite in effecting the desired end. To such an argument I would reply, first, that a fair construction of the passages quoted, and others that might be quoted, will not allow of such an idea: and secondly, that the fitness of the word to the condition of man, is no argument that regeneration and sanctification will follow, without a divine influence accompanying the truth :-no more, I say, a valid argument, in this case, than it would be to contend, that because seeds are adapted to vegetation, we may therefore expect a crop without the influence of sun or rain. That there is a happy, a beautiful adaptation of the word of truth to the condition of man, I readily admit: indeed it is one of my favourite ideas: this, however, does by no means supersede the necessity of a divine, spiritual influence, to give effect to the truth revealed.

But possibly it may be farther suggested, that the same effects are, in many cases, ascribed to the word which are also ascribed to the Spirit. This, too, is admitted; and I may add, the same effects are, in some instances, ascribed to the preacher, as the dispenser of the word. Thus, we are enlightened by the Spirit --" Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law;" and we are enlightened by the word-" The entrance of thy word giveth light." We are born again of the Spirit" So is every one that is born of the Spirit ;" and we are born again by the word-" Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God," &c. We are sanctified by the Spirit-" But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified," &c., " by the Spirit of our God;" and we are sanctified by the word " Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." It belongs to God to open the eyes and to turn the sinner-and Paul was sent to the Gentiles" to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light." These instances are sufficient to illustrate the fact which has been admitted :-that the same effects are, in some instances, ascribed to the Holy Spirit-to the word of truth-and to the preacher or pub

lisher of the Gospel. It remains for us to see how this matter is to be understood.

Briefly, I remark, that the same things are ascribed to different objects, pretty much in the way in which the same effect is ascribed to the agent and to the instrument. My pen, the instrument, being adapted to the purpose of writing, forms these letters, and I, the agent, giving my pen direction, form these letters. The seed and the earth produce vegetation: the sun and the rain produce vegetation and, in a certain sense, the man who sows the seeds and cultivates the earth may be said to produce vegetation. I know, indeed, that such figures cannot adequately represent spiritual and moral objects. They are introduced only by way of illustration; and I do by no means intend, by the use of them, to reduce men to mere machines, or the operations of the Divine Spirit to mere physical energy. When Paul says to the Corinthians," Ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the Living God," there is a beautiful analogy which justifies the use of the figure; and we see in it the agency of Christ, the instrumentality of the preacher, and the influence of the Spirit. But he who should undertake to disprove the moral agency of man, would, it is presumed, pervert the truth by the abuse of a metaphor. If, however, on the other hand, one should be disposed to attribute to the efficiency of the instrument what belongs to the efficiency of the agent, the Apostle would certainly correct his error, by saying, "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So, then, neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase." I Cor. iii. 5, 6, 7.

The sum of these remarks on the effects ascribed to the Spirit and the word, is this, that the word of truth is God's great instrument in effecting our salvation. By this, or with this, his spirit operates to the renewing and sanctifying of the soul; while under its influence, the soul itself becomes active in holy exercises; and thus, with Peter, we may say to believers, have purified your souls, in obeying the truth, through the Spirit." How God may otherwise work I know not, though I would by no means "limit the Holy One of Israel," as to his designs or operations, in any respect.

"Ye

I now dismiss the first position-the reality of divine influence on the souls of men in effecting the work of salvation. This was my leading object in the present undertaking. The other two points proposed will probably be treated on with more brevity : they must be reserved, however, for another number.

PAULINUS.