same, that is, with a view to the same application, the passage stands in Matthew and Luke. I consider it, therefore, to be distinctly asserted, that this is the rule with regard to spiritual knowledge. And I think the analogy conclusive with regard to other spiritual gifts. In all which there is nothing arbitrary.

Nor, thirdly, is it arbitrary in its final success. "Grieve not the Spirit of God :" therefore he may be grieved. And hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace."* Therefore he may be despised. Both these are leading texts upon the subject. And so is the following" And his grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain" therefore it might have been in vain. The influence, therefore, of the Spirit, may not prevail, even as the admonitions of a friend, the warnings, of a parent, may not prevail, may not be successful, may not be attended to, may be rejected, may be resisted, may be despised, may be lost: so that both in its gift, in its degree, operation and progress, and, above all, in its final effect, it is connected with our own endeavours, it is not arbitrary. Throughout the whole, it does not supersede, but co-operates with, ourselves.

But another objection is advanced, and from an opposite quarter. It is said, that if the influence of the Spirit depend, after all, upon our endeavours, the doctrine is nugatory: it comes to the same thing, as if salvation was put upon ourselves and our own endeavours alone, exclusive of every farther consideration, and without referring us to any influence or assistance whatever. I aner, that this is by no means true; that it is not me thing either in reality, or in opinion, or onsequences of that opinion.

redly it is not the same thing in reality. same thing, whether we perform a work own strength, or by obtaining the assistand co-operation of another? or does it 1 Cor. xv. 19.

Heb. 1. 29.

make it the same thing, that this assistance is to be obtained by means which it is in our own choice to use or not? or because, when the assistance is obtained, we may or may not avail ourselves of it; or because we may, by neglecting, lose it? After all, they are two different things, performing a work by ourselves, and performing it by means of help.

Again; It is not the same thing in the opinions and sentiments, and dispositions which accompa ny it. A person, who knows or believes himself to be beholden to another for the progress and success of an undertaking, though still carried on by his own endeavours, acknowledges his friend and his benefactor; feels his dependancy and his obligation; turns to him for help and aid in his difficulties; is humble under the want and need, which he finds he has, of assistance; and, above all things, is solicitous not to lose the benefit of that assistance. This is a different turn of mind, and a different way of thinking, from his, who is sensible of no such want, who relies entirely upon his own strength who, of course, can hardly avoid being proud of his success, or feeling the confidence, the presumption, the self-commendation and the pretensions, which, however they might suit with a being, who achieves his work by his own powers, by no means, and in no wise, suit with a frail constitution, which must ask and obtain the friendly aid and help of a kind and gracious benefactor, before he can proceed in the business set out for him, and which it is of unspeakable consequence to him to execute some how or other.

It is thus in religion. A sense of spiritual weak. ness and of spiritual wants; a belief that divine aid and help are to be had; are principles which carry the soul to God; make us think of him, and think of him in earnest; convert, in a word, morality into religion; bring us round to holiness of life, by the road of piety and devotion; render us humble in ourselves, and grateful towards God,

idness may be made more or less, that force may be increased or diminished, and both by the influence of a spiritual agent, without any distinct sensation of such agency being felt at the time. Was the case otherwise, was the order, according to which thoughts and motives rise up in our minds, fixed, and being fixed, known; then I do admit, the order could not be altered or violated, nor a foreign agent interfere to alter or violate it, without our being immediately sensible of what was passing. As also, if the causes, upon which the power and strength of either good or bad motives depend were ascertained, then it would likewise be ascertained when this force was ever increased or diminished by external influence and operation: then it might be true, that external influence could not act upon us without being perceived. But in the ignorance under which we are concerning the thoughts and motives of our minds, when left to themselves, we must, naturally speaking, be, at the time, both ignorant and insensible of the presence of an interfering power; one ignorance will correspond with the other: whilst, nevertheless, the assistance and benefit, derived from that power, may, in reality, be exceedingly great. In this instance philosophy, in my opinion, comes in aid of religion. In the ordinary state of the mind, both the presence and the power of the motives, which act upon it, proceed from causes, of which we know nothing. This philosophy confesses, and indeed teaches. From whence it foles, that when these causes are interrupted or enced, that interruption and that influence be equally unknown to us. Just reasoning s this proposition to be a consequence of the er. From whence it follows again, that imately and at the time perceiving the operaof the Holy Spirit is not only not necessary to reality of these operations, but that it is not nsonant to the frame of the human mind that it hould be so. I repeat again, that we take not upon as to assert that it is never so. Undoubtedly

God can, if he please, give that tact and quality to his communications, that they shall be perceived to be divine communications at the time. And this probably was very frequently the case with the prophets, with the apostles, and with inspired men of old. But it is not the case naturally; by which I mean, that it is not the case according to the constitution of the human soul. It does not appear, by experience, to be the case usually. What would be the effect of the influence of the divine Spirit being always or generally accompanied with a distinct notice, it is difficult even to conjecture. One thing may be said of it, that it would be putting us under a quite different dispensation. It would be putting us under a miraculous dispensation; for the agency of the Spirit in our souls distinctly perceived is, properly speaking, a miracle. Now miracles are instruments in the hand of God of signal and extraordinary effects, produced upon signal and extraordinary occasions. Neither internally nor externally do they form the ordinary course of his proceeding with his reasonable creatures.

And in this there is a close analogy with the course of nature, as carried on under the divine government. We have every reason, which Scripture can give us, for believing, that God frequently interposes to turn and guide the order of events in the world, so as to make them execute his purpose: yet we do not so perceive these interpositions, as, either always or generally, to distinguish them from the natural progress of things. His providence is real, but unseen. We distinguish not between the acts of God and the course of nature. It is so with the Spirit. When, therefore, we teach that good men may be led, or bad men converted, by the Spirit of God, and yet they themselves not distinguish his holy influence; we teach no more than what is conformable, as, I think, has been shewn to the frame of the human mind, or rather to our degree of acquaintance with that frame; and also analogous to the exer

cise of divine power in other things; and also necessary to be so; unless it should have pleased God to put us under a quite different dispensation, that is, under a dispensation of constant miracles. I do not apprehend that the doctrine of spiritual influence carries the agency of the Deity much farther than the doctrine of providence carries it: or, however, than the doctrine of prayer carries it. For all prayer supposes the Deity to be intimate with our minds.

But if we do not know the influence of the Spirit by a distinguishing perception at the time, by what means do we know any thing of it at all? I answer by its effects, and by those alone. And this I conceive to be that, which our Savicur said to 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:" that is, thou perceivest an effect, but the cause, which produces that effect, operates in its own way, without thy knowing its rule or manner of operation. With regard to the cause, " thou canst not tell, whence it cometh or whither it goeth." A change or improvement in thy religious state is necessary. The agency and help of the Spirit in working that change or promoting that improvement, are like. wise necessary. "Except a man be born of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." But according to what particular manner, or according to what rule the Spirit acts, is as unknown to us, as the causes are, which regulate the blowing of the wind, the most incalculable and unknown thing in the world; its origin is unknown; its mode is unknown; but still it is known in its effects and so it is with the Spirit. If the change have taken place; if the improvement be produeed and be proceeding; if our religious affairs go well, then have we ground for trust, that the bling, assisting Spirit of God is with us; ugh we have no other knowledge or percep of the matter than what this affords.