to me that these sensations can be conveyed in any other way. I believe, however, that I shall hear sounds when the organs of my ears are destroyed; I believe, that I shall perceive objects when the light of my eyes is extinguished; I believe that I shall think, and in a manner more close and sublime when my brain shall exist no more. I believe that my soul shall perform all these operations when my body shall be cold, pale, immovable, and devoured of worms in the tomb: I believe it;-but why? Because this Jesus to whom I have commended my spirit, has said to the penitent thief, and in him to every true Christian, Verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in paradise. Luke xxiii. 43. I have no idea of this awful mystery whereby a God, a God essentially One, associates in his own essence a Father, a Son, and a Holy Ghost; that as the distinction with regard to Paternity, Filiation, and Spiration, is as real as the union with regard to the Godhead. These mysteries have no connection with my knowledge; yet I believe them, and why? Because I have changed my ideas, because this Jesus to whom I have yielded up my spirit, this Jesus, after preaching the doctrine of the unity of God, has decided that the Father is God, that the Son is God, that the Holy Ghost is God: and he has said to his apostles, Go, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. [The rest of this posthumous sermon is not in the original: the loss is without remedy. The second sermon on the necessity of regeneration is founded on three classes of arguments: first, on the genius of the Christian religion; secondly, on the wants of man; and thirdly, on the perfections of God. But the arguments have been very much anticipated in other sermons in these eight volumes. The reader will form an adequate idea of our author's views of regeneration from the doctrine of grace in his third sermon.] The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. In My brethren, it is not in our power to discuss the subject on which we now enter, without deploring the contests it has excited in the Christian world. our preceding discourses you have seen the nature, and the necessity of regeneration we now proceed to address you on its Author; and to call your attention to this part of Jesus Christ's conversation with Nicodemus; The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. How often has this subject armed Christian against Christian, and communion against communion? How often has it banished from the church that peace which it seems so much calculated to cherish? No sooner had the apostles entered on their ministry, than they magnified the doctrines of grace; but in magnifying them they seemed sent to set the world on fire. The Jews and the philosophers, prepossessed in favour of human sufficiency, revolted at a doctrine so opposed to their pride: they presumed on making a progress in virtue, that they owed the praise to virtue itself. of No one is ignorant of the noise which the doctrine grace excited in the ages which followed; of the schism of Pelagius, and of the immense volumes which the ancient fathers heaped on this heretic.— The doctrines of grace have been agitated in the church of Rome: they excited in its bosom two powerful parties which have given each other alternate blows, and alike accused each other of overturnring Christianity. No sooner had our reformers raised the standard, than the disputes concerning the doctrines of grace were on the point of destroying the work they had begun with so much honour and success ; and one saw in the communion they had just formed, the same spirit of division, which must have existed in the communion they had left. The doctrines of grace have caused in this republic as much confusion as in any other part of the Christian world: and what is more deplorable is, that after so many questions discussed, so many battles fought, so many volumes written; so many anathemas launched, the public mind is not yet conciliated, and the doctrines of grace often remain enveloped in the cloud they endeavoured to dissipate; and so much so, that the efforts they made to illustrate so interesting a subject, served merely to confuse and envelope it the more. But how knotty soever this subject may be, it is not my design to disturb the embers, and revive your : disputes. I would endeavour, not to divide, but to conciliate and unite your minds and during the whole of this discourse, in which the Holy Spirit is about to discover himself to you under the emblem of a wind, I shall keep in view the revelation with which a prophet was once honoured: God said to Elijah, Go forth, and stand on the mountain before the LORD. And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind, an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake, a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire, a still small voice: [a sound coy and subtle.] Then Elijah, awed with reverence at the divine presence, wrapped his face in his mantle, and recognised the token of JEHOVAH'S presence. The first emblems of this vision have been but too much realized in the controversies of the Christian church but when shall the latter be realized? Long enough; yea too long have we seen the great and strong wind which rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks. Long enough; yea too long has the earthquake shook the pillars of the church: but the Lord was not in the wind; the Lord was not in the earthquake. Yet at this very day the Vatican* kindles the fire, and with thunder-bolts in its hand, 8 * The Vatican is a most magnificent palace at Rome; the residence of the Popes, and celebrated for its library. Varro says it took its name from the answers or oracles, (called by the Latins vaticinia) which the Roman people received there from a god of the same name, who was said to be the author of the first sounds of infants, which is va, from vagire, to cry. J. S. it presumes to determine, or rather to take away the laws of grace but the Lord was not in the fire. May this still small voice, the precursor of the Divinity, and the symbol of his presence, be heard to-day in the midst of this assembly! Excite thy hallowing accents, in these tabernacles we have built for thy glory, and in which we assemble in thy name, O Holy Spirit, Spirit of peace: may thy peace rest on the lips and heart of the preacher; may it animate all those that compose this assembly, that discord may for ever be banished from our churches, and be confined to the abyss of hell from whence it came, and that charity may succeed. Amen. We must now illustrate the doctrine of the text, and state at large the ideas of the gospel respecting the aids of the Spirit of God, to which regeneration is here ascribed by Jesus Christ, and without which we might justly exclaim with Nicodemus at our Saviour's assertion, How can these things be! With that view, I shall propose certain maxims which shall be as so many precautions one should take when entering on this discussion, and which will serve to guide in a road that controversies have rendered so thorny and difficult. We shall afterwards include in six propositions all which seems to us a Christian ought to know, and all he ought to do on this subject. This is all that remains for me to say. Maxim 1. In the selection of passages on which you establish the doctrine of the aids of the Holy Spirit, be more cautious to choose those that are pertinent, than to amass a multitude that are inconclusive.— The rule prescribed in the beginning of this discourse, |