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we may be quite sure that he is deluding himself. God would never leave any doubt, or any reasonable ground for doubt, on the mind of any one to whom He might think fit to impart a revelation; He doubtless never did, nor ever will, communicate any one of the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, without attesting, to the person or persons concerned, its reality, by the stamp of some sensible miracle.

St. Paul, accordingly, we find enabled to distinguish, and careful to distinguish, the fullest convictions of his own understanding, from divine revelations. During his last journey to Jerusalem that is recorded in the Acts, he was strongly impressed with the expectation that he should there close his career by a violent death. He took leave of the Elders of Ephesus with an assurance of his complete conviction that they should see his face no more; but he knew that this his conjecture (which, all things considered, was a very probable one, though the event did not agree with it) was merely a conjecture, and not a revelation. He had received a divine admonition to take this journey, together with a warning of approaching persecutions; but the ultimate event was as yet

hidden from him: "Behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there; save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city that bonds and afflictions abide me."

Inspirations, however, and other miraculous gifts, we have (as has been already observed) no reason to expect in these days. Not, however, that we are authorized to assert confidently that nothing of the kind ever will recur; but thus far we may be confident, that if it does, it will be accompanied by sufficient evidence to distinguish clearly a miraculous interposition, from imposture or delusion.

§ 7. The signs then by which the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit were announced, constitute (as well as those gifts themselves) a point of difference between the early Christians and their successors: there is a resemblance, and, as we have every reason to conclude, an equality, between the condition of the infant Church and our own, in

P That is, I imagine, knowing by the revelation of the Divine Spirit, that he was to be bound.

respect of that far more important point, the ordinary grace of the Holy Spirit operating in the sanctification of the heart. What then is the sign of this gift?--the token by which we may be assured of "God's working in us, both to will and to do, of his good pleasure?" This operation of the Spirit, there is every reason to believe, not only is, but always was, imperceptible, and undistinguishable, except by its fruits, from the ordinary workings of the human mind. For if it was suggested to the mind of one of the first Christians, that he ought to do this or that, and suggested in such a manner (which sometimes was the case) as to afford him a satisfactory assurance of an immediate command from the Holy Ghost, this would clearly be a case of revelation, and, consequently, would belong to the other class of spiritual gifts ;---not to that which we are now considering. But we may be sure that they were not, even the most highly gifted of them, thus guided by immediate revelation in all the actions of their lives; but were left to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling ; though still encouraged to do this by the assurance that God wrought in them. They were

accordingly not uniformly infallible; for we find a dissension arising between Paul and Barnabas ; nor was this settled by any miraculous interposition, or authoritative declaration of the Spirit, to either of them. withstanding and censuring St. Peter; but at the same time using arguments to convince him of his error; not charging him with having wilfully rebelled against any express immediate revelation respecting the particular act in question.

And again, we find St. Paul

In fact, the early Christians could hardly have been moral agents, if they had not been left watchfully to regulate their own conduct according to the best of their judgment, but had in every case recognized the immediate dictates of the Holy Spirit forbidding or enjoining each action of their lives. And yet they were taught that in all their conduct the assistance of God's Spirit was requisite, and was promised to them; our Lord Himself told them that without Him they "could do nothing;" and St. Paul's encouragement to them to work out their own salvation, is, "it is God that worketh in you."

But how then were they, and how are we, to know what are these suggestions of the

sanctifying Spirit? Our Lord Himself seems to instruct us that we are to judge by the effects, when He says, " the wind (vevua) bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth; so is every one that is born (TOû TVеúμаTOS) of the Spirit." He here seems to have in view the ordinary and universal operations of the Holy Spirit,--those which extend to "every one that is born of the Spirit," without which, “no one can enter into the kingdom of Heaven." And as we judge of the direction of any wind that blows (though itself invisible) by its effects,--by the direction in which it impels the bodies moved by it,--so we must decide whether we are in each instance influenced by God's Holy Spirit, or by our own corrupt desires and the spirit of the Evil one, by observing the direction in which we are impelled; whether to holiness or to sin,--towards a conformity or an opposition to the example of our great Master,---the word of his inspired servants, and the moral law which is written on our conscience, though the characters be so far obscured as not to be traced without diligent study. St. Paul, in like manner, when

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