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FO AHI Pao ‘ , ie ei Bis * THE DOCTRINE OF ELE EOE Yor cal Olah Philosophy of the Divine Operation In the Wedemption of Man: BEING VOLUME SECOND oF ‘‘ THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE PLAN OB SALVATION.” BY JAMES B. WALKER, Author of “The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation,” and ‘‘ God Revealed in Creation and in Christ.” HENRY A. SUMNER, CHICAGO. SMITH & ENGLISH, PHILADELPHIA, Le 705 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, BY CHURCH AND GOODMAN, In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Northern District of Dlinois. ae ae ‘ion ‘abienat fegpritey | Ee uaie 2 Ne : ati nh Phy ves i . bi ait ha hn od sh richie, Ii oe Ma. WR ry re A tay aa ive ah Vee, en bali ath hs ie up era 7 ry Sts et te ou ae aes. J D hing *% Pe ‘J i Fe") To JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE, D.D. My Dear Sir,— With great respect for your candor as a writer on theological subjects, permit me to commend to your attention this treatise on the Doctrine of the Spirit. James B. WALKER INTRODUCTION, Wir this closing treatise, the series of books on the Divine Wisdom, manifested in the processes of Creation and Redemption, is complete. This last book we think the most important of all; and in connection with the preceding volumes, we hope enough has been done to establish the conviction in the minds of thoughtful readers, that the Work of Creation and Redemption is a unity —one chain of Creative Progress, begun when “ The Spirit of God brooded upon the face of the waters,” creating formative tendencies in material things, and beget- ting the first life-germs in the primal universal sea, — completed when humanity was crowned by the birth of Christ, and the Divine image was begotten again in believing souls. It has been pleasant for the author to follow the processes of the Divine Thought, as they have man- ifested themselves in Nature and Revelation; and to seek in the progressive development of the whole Vlil. INTRODUCTION. sublime scheme, a true apprehension of the plan and purpose of the Creator. In this last book we endeavor to give an exposi- tion of the ultimate form and force of the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit. This doctrine is received in some sense by all Christian sects; yet by many, it is very apparent that the truth is held in form rather than in faith; while none of us have had a sufficiently clear and influential conviction of the dependence of man on the vital operation of the Spirit of God. The Friends or Quakers have, perhaps, had the most scriptural apprehension of the doctrine in its cardinal principles. But even with them sectarian peculiarities have marred the manifestation of the Divine Life. More good would have been done, if reform without needless peculiarities had character- ized the life and teaching of the Friends and other reformers of the martyr-period in England. If, instead of discarding music, and other social recre- ations and enjoyments, the early reformers had aimed to reduce them to happy and_ beneficent uses, then the doctrine which they made promi- nent, that the influence of the Spirit is essential to all true worship, would have been more generally accepted by sincere Christians, and there would INTRODUCTION. be have been less of fallacy to restrain the Divine Operation, as the central power in the kingdom of God. It is obviously the interest of the Gospel that the inward life of the Spirit should be manifested by a loving opposition to whatever injures man, but not by opposition to that which is adapted to promote innocent enjoyment. In this treatise we have endeavored to set forth the rational and scriptural exposition of inspired teaching concerning the Comforter, and to exhibit the place of the Divine Spirit in the Godhead, and in the work of Gospel progress. We do not assume to have presented the subject in such form that other minds may not add or sub- tract from the matters herein stated. We have done what God enabled us to do: and, grateful for the knowledge that our preceding books have been the means of good to many persons in many lands, we here close our labors on the whole subject, with the hope that this volume may add strength and completeness to the impression of the others, and that each reader may gain a clearer apprehen- sion of the Divine Character and the Divine Operation. TO THE READER. Tue first portion of the following treatise may seem to some metaphysical rather than scriptural. This impression will pass away as the reader advances. The views presented are designed to establish the doctrine of the Father, Son and Spirit on a rational and scriptural basis. While they exhibit the subject in a different light, in some respects, from that in which many have been accustomed to view it, the scriptural integrity of the doctrine is maintained, and maintained, we think, in such form that the reason does not reluctate against it, as it does against the phrase- ology in which the doctrine of the Trinity has sometimes been expressed in the formulas of the churches. The treatise presents, we are sure, a true exposi- tion of this doctrine; and especially of the Work of the Spirit in the process of sanctification. We Xl. TO THE READER. offer it as a contribution designed to promote intelligent faith, and unity of faith among the various denominations of believing people. We do not hope that the views here presented will be at once recognized by every reader as the true exposition of the doctrine of the Spirit; but after mature discussion of the principles herein propounded, we have no doubt that these pages will aid in accomplishing the end for which they have been written—to glorify the true God, manifested in Christ and revealed through Christ, by the Holy Spirit. In judging of the views upon which he is about to enter, the reader is solicitously desired to refer the adjudication of any doubt that may arise in his mind to the arbitrament of the Word of God, and to “search the seriptures whether these things be so.” SECT. 1. 4 5. 6 oe 10. $33 12. 13. CHAPTER I, PAGE, THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. The mystery of life 17 2. The doctrine of the Spirit, a peculiarity of the Bible 19 3. The doctrine as developed in the Mosaic dispensation 20 CHAPTER II. THE RELATIVE PLACE OF THE SPIRIT AND THE WORD IN THE ECONOMY OF THE DIVINE MIND. . All mind generically the same 24 Self consciousness of the mental constitution 27 . The Scripture view of the Logos, or Son of the Divine Mind 31 . Views of some of the best Christan thinkers i in har- mony with this exposition 33 . Mind manifested only by its Logos, or ott birth - ov . God becomes imminently and effectively ayer only in Christ 39 The Holy Spirit uses the personality of Christ j in the work of Redemption : : 41 CHAPTER III. THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE PERSONALITY OF CHRIST. The humanity of Christ was by the Holy Spirit 44 The advent of the Spirit upon Christ at His Bap- tism, and its abiding unity with His humanity 45 The Holy Spirit, abiding in Christ, leads him into and through the temptation : ‘ 46 CONTENTS, XIV. CONTENTS. PAGE, 14, The ministry of Christ, and the manifestation of God in Christ by the Holy Spirit : 47 15. The sacrifice and resurrection of Christ by the Holy Spirits : < : : - : 49 CHAPTER IV. THE ENDOWMENT AND SUPERVISION OF THE APOSTLES BY THE HOLY SPIRIT. 16. The disciples in the Old Testament state, until after the outpouring of the Spirit : ; . 54 17. Peter’s precipitancy and error in acting before the time ; : : . 56 18. Christ’s choice of the epostles o) ue 19. Promise of Christ’s special presence by the Spirit in answer to their supplication . 60 20. All essential truth spoken by Christ to be Oreeered by the suggestion of the Spirit . : eM a 21. The spiritual sense promised to the apostles . 63 22. Further exposition of the promise that greater light and power would be given by the Spirit after Christ’s ascension . . 66 28. The endowment of the apostle ay special powers and prerogatives. rG nL 24. The apostles affirm their consciousness of special endowment ; 75 25. The Providence of God aeaean Cua with the Spirit in furthering the gospel by the instru- mentality of the apostles . ; : = are CHAPTER V. THE UNION OF THE WORD AND SPIRIT IN THE PROCESS OF SANCTIFICATION. 26. Does an increase of light imply an increase of spirit- ual power? . “4 85 27. Of the Living Word as a tule of duty ° - 86 28, 29. 30. Ol. 32. 33. 34, 35. 36. CONTENTS. XV. PAGE, Necessity in reason for a perfect rule of human du ty 88 A perfect rule of life the only principle of moral progress ; © 92 The truth being fen in the life and precept of Christ, the second necessary thing is the work of the Spirit . ‘ 94 Rationale of the Spirit’s Gneration in coinennon with the truth . : : 96 The preceding views illustrated i eepecence . 100 The sum of preceding deductions : ; 101 The union of the Word and Spirit necessary in the process of conviction and sanctification . . 103 The preceding views accord with the relations of the Word and Spirit, as they exist in both the finite and the Infinite mind : . 105 The preceding views confirmed by the toneiiing of the Scriptures . ° : ° . 106 CHAPTER VI. THE WORK OF CHRIST BY THE DIVINE SPIRIT IN THE 37. 38. 359. 40. 41, 42. 43. 44. MINDS OF BELIEVERS. The two fold office-work of the Spirit . een Bo | The experimental import of the statement that the Spirit shall not speak of Himself ‘ 115 By exhibiting Christ the Spirit likewise exhibits the Father to the soul : « 117 The Spirit witnesses to the truth of Divine: Revela- tion . : - aeel9 The nature of the Snivies lah . é 123 The influence of the Spirit upon the faculties of the mind separately considered é . 125 The duty of prayer annexed to the doctrine of the Spirit . : 181 The conditions upon Rien the icone of the Holy Spirit is granted : : : . 133 XV. CONTENTS. PAGE. 45. Availing prayer is offered to God in the name of Gene Christ . 4 ‘ : : : 139 _-~ 46, The sum of preceding sections f . 142 CHAPTER VII. . THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT WITH THE MINDS OF THE IMPENITENT. 47. Specific work of the Spirit in impenitent minds . 146 48, The promised convictions of the Spirit experienced by those who hear the gospel under spiritual im- pression : : : : : . 153 49, The awakening of the lost sinner, and his return to God, as illustrated by the Lord Jesus. a 15F 50. The son’s lifeat home . . : ° 161 APPENDIX . " : : _ ‘ 3 167 EEE? PHI LOS®O REY OF THE DIVEENEE WO BILAL ON. CHAPTER I. Tue Hoxry Sprrit In THE OLD TESTAMENT. § 1.—The mystery of life. THERE is mystery connected with spiritual existence which the human mind can not fathom. This is not only true of spiritual life, but it is true of all life in all its manifestations, and in all the kingdoms of nature. No finite mind can ever know where life begins, or how the life- germ assimilates to itself a material body. We may speculate about questions of this character —we may examine the lowest manifestation of life as it connects itself with the lowest organ- ized being,—still the nature of life, and the 18 THE PHILOSOPHY OF manner of its union with materiality, no one may know. To know where the inertia of matter ends and the motion of life begins is, and will be for ever, beyond the limit prescribed to the human intellect. Knowing, then, nothing of the nature of life, and judging of its attributes only by its manifestations, we would approach with becom- ing reverence the inquiry concerning the attri- butes and manifestations of the Spirit of God. A consciousness of the limitation of the human understanding should incline the reason to humility, and to examine Revelation with grati- tude, hoping that she may there find aid to dis- cern and appreciate the doctrine of the Divine Life. It is an important fact, inviting to such examination, that when reason has been aided by revelation to perceive a truth, the accordance of that truth with her own most profound deductions is, to her, a clear testimony, not only of its validity, but likewise of the value of inspired instruction. THE DIVINE OPERATION. 19 § 2.—The doctrine of the Spirit, a peculiarity of the Bible. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit is one of the distinguishing peculiarities of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. The view given in the Bible of the creative energies of the Spirit of God, and of its place in the scheme of redemp- tion, is diverse from any other form of thought known to the human mind. No religious sys- tem, ancient or modern, gives a view in any wise similar to this doctrine, as revealed in the Scriptures. We do not say that a man, by his spirit, did such an act, or that a man’s spirit did it. Nor have pagan nations ever talked thus of their gods.* The peculiarity of the phraseology, and the consistency of its development through- out the whole scheme of revelation, will be, to thoughtful minds, a strong testimony for divine guidance in the doctrinal teachings of Moses and of Christ. In the opening of the eldest Scripture, the * The form of the idea, and the form of phrase, used by Plato and others in speaking of the ‘‘ Soul of the world,” are quite diverse. 20 THE PHILOSOPHY OF Holy Spirit is spoken of personally. (We do not say as a person; but personally.) The pos- sessive form of expression in regard to the Father. and the Spirit is used; and the life- giving attribute of the Spirit is introduced with the introduction of life. “The Spirit of God brooded upon the face of the waters,” beget- ting formative tendencies in things, and initia- ting life-germs by which the first organic forms were produced in the primeeval sea.* Thence- forward, through all the dispensations, the idea of the life-giving Spirit of God is always recog- nized. § 8.—The doctrine further developed m the Mosaic dispensation. Under the Patriarchal Dispensation, when God was known only as Creator, the Spirit is spoken of only in its initial, life-giving energy. Under the dispensation of Moses, an advanced development of the doctrine may be recognized. The agency of the Spirit is here more especially connected with the moral life of men, and its * See Appendix A,—MosEs AND GEOLOGY. THE DIVINE OPERATION. 21 attributes are revealed to the human conscious- ness, as beneficially related to man’s weakness and his sin. {In the middle and later periods of the Old Testament Church, the faith and experience of devout minds, in regard to the Holy Spirit, approximates more nearly to what is known and taught under the New and Perfect Dispen- sation. The Divine Presence and the Divine Spirit are spoken of interchangeably.* The holiness of the Spirit, its renewing and purify- ing influence, the impartations of joy, strength, and courage derived from its presence in the soul, were clearly appreciated by the Psalmists. The identity of a believer’s experience under both dispensations is striking and instructive. When David had grossly sinned, so that pardon seemed almost impossible, he prays (Psa. li.), ‘Create in me a clean heart, O 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 salvation; and uphold me with thy Free * Psalm cxxxix. 7. ‘‘ Whither shall I go frem thy Spirit ? or whither shall I flee from thy presence ?” 22, THE PHILOSOPHY OF Spirit. Then will I teach trangressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.” The consciousness of every believer, penitent for some past offence, is almost a repro- duction of the state of mind delineated in these passages. The prophets of the Old Dispensation were conscious of the influence of the Holy Spirit, and that all advance in the kingdom of God was gained by its operation. Isa. lxi. 1,—‘* The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the cap- tives, and the opening of the prison to those in bonds.” In their apprehension, moral progress came not by human devices, nor by merely human appliances; Zech. iv. 6,—“Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.” Thus the germ-thoughts of the doctrine of the Spirit lie embedded in the Old Testament. A life-giving agent under the Dispensation of Creation, or the Patriarchal,—a renewing and purifying power under the Legal or Mosaic Dis- THE DIVINE OPERATION. oo pensation. But still, in both, whether under the dispensation of creation, or the more ad- vanced dispensation of law, there is found the peculiar personal phraseology which distinguishes the doctrine throughout the whole Scriptures. As light increases throughout the three dis- pensations, this germ-truth is further developed —tfrom the blade (the sprout) into the ear, and under the New Testament to the full corn in the ear, Yet in all, and through all, there is the same Spirit of God, which vivified the first organic germs, energizing in all modifications of life, and finally renewing, purifying, and guiding those who by faith become obedient to Christ, as “God manifest in the flesh.” CHAPTER II. THE RELATIVE PLACE OF THE SPIRIT AND THE Worp IN THE ECONOMY OF THE Divine MInD. Our views in regard to the work of the Divine Spirit will become more clear and dis- criminating, if we apprehend, in the outset, as fully as we may, the first truths which underlie our subject, both in the economy of mind and in the revealments of the Scriptures. § 4.— All mind generically the same. All mind, finite or infinite, must be the same in its elementary characteristics, so far as known to us.* Reason, Conscience, Will, in all beings are homogeneous—the same in their nature, whether finite and fallible, or infinite and per- fect. Reason, so far as she sees, accords with * We do not discuss the question whether God may not have attributes which have no finite analogues in the human soul. The inquiry would be fruitless, and our argument does not require it. 7 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE DIVINE OPERATION. 25 the nature of things physical and moral. Her axioms are universal. We know that two and two must be four with God, as they are with men, because the physical universe is con- structed upon the principle of mathematical proportion. Right and wrong enter into moral relations as mathematical proportion enters into physical relations. There can be no response in the human soul to the moral administration of God, unless the primary moral convictions of man coincide with conscience or moral judg- ment in the Divine mind. If moral truth be not the same, when discovered, to all moral beings, then the moral universe is founded upon the principle of discord. Benevolence, or con- formity to the law of love, must be the same in its nature in God and in man, else man in becoming benevolent, by faith in Christ, would not come into conformity with the character of God. Knowledge of the Divine mind, there- fore, so far as the Infinite Mind can be comprehended by the finite, must be obtained through the anal- ogy existing between the human and the divine minds, and the divine love must be apprehended through the human susceptibility. Man can 2 i 26 THE PHILOSOPHY OF not obey a law unless he understands it. He can not know what love is unless he feels it. Tle can have no sense of the moral duty due to God, unless the obligation of right and wrong is appreciated,* alike by the divine and the human mind. To make statements concerning the Divine Mind or the Divine Character that can not be appropriated in consciousness, nor appreciated by the reason, is to talk in words that can have no more import to the hearer than a description of colors to a man born blind. If it be not irreverent, therefore, we may say, that if God would create a being to know and appreciate His character, it would, from the nature of things, be necessary that that being should be created with rational and moral powers, the same in kind as those which constitute the Divine Perfections. Lower, it may be, than the * Just as the movements of the physical universe furnish an exhibition of phenomena to which the human mind may apply its perception of proportion, and thus progressively deduce the laws of nature ; so the work of God in nature and revelation being given, the human mind can deduce from the first the natural attributes, and from the second the moral character, of God. THE DIVINE OPERATION. of angels — limited in some directions, immature in others—and imperfect in all; yet still a creature created in the moral image of God alone can know and glorify him.* We may assume the deduction then as a pre- mise, that an insight into the capacities and forces of the human mind will teach us some- thing of the economy of the Godhead. And if the views thus educed are sanctioned by a clear exposition of the Scriptures, we shall be sure that we have gained knowledge that will aid us to become acquainted with God, and to be at peace with Him. § 5.—Self-consciousness of the mental constitution. That mind has, in some sense, a tri-partite constitution, is, to self-knowing men, beyond question. Few are able to introvert the eye, * See Appendix B,— ANTHROPOLOGY. + Tri-partite,—if we adopt the prevalent philosophy of an “unknowable” substance or essence in which person- ality and attribute inhere. If we suppose the I” to be that personality or substance, the view given in the text is somewhat modified, but the phraseology is still valid. Con- science and Love are states of the “I.” Thought is a gen- 28 THE PHILOSOPHY OF and scan with clear-seeing discrimination what is revealed in their own consciousness; and mental science has been so perplexed by the treatises of scholars to whom God has given no original insight, that knowledge of mind has been obscured and hindered, rather than cleared and furthered, by a multitude of well-meaning writers. Holding all these in abeyance, we will look at this subject in common phraseology and in scriptural definitions: assuming as sufficient for our exposition the common view that there is a substratum or substance of mind known to us only by its manifestations. We shall gain the assent of the thoughtful when we say, that in this unknowable substance of mind there are two things which stand out clearly in the field of consciousness — diverse in one sense and indi- visible in another, yet both inhering in the Father-substanee of the soul. These two hypos- tases, personalities, or manifestations (call them what you will) are spirit and thought. There is something in the mind apart from thought eration or outbirth of the “*I.” Will is an act of the “I”— The character of thought and will accords with the state of the Ego. THE DIVINE OPERATION. 29 which is conscious of producing thought; which sees and judges of the character and fitness of the thought produced; which modifies, arran- ges, and uses thought (or the word) to effect its purposes. It is not any of the laws of mind; it is more than a faculty of mind. It is some- thing that perceives thought, feeling, and faculty, In consciousness, as features and action are seen in a glass. If we may not call it the substance of mind, we must regard it as a knowing entity, or personality, a thought-producing and thought- using agent. Different in one sense from the conceived logos, or word, as the agent is from the object — standing in relation to thought as the observer to the observed —sometimes as the agent to the instrument. Now this entity, or “I”? of the mind, is designated distinctly by the word “ spirit” in the Scriptures ; and the testimony of consciousness, concerning the relations of spirit and word in the human mind, is’set Sorth as true both of the human and the Divine mind. The place of the knowing spirit and the known word is thus stated by the apostle (1 Cor. ii. 10), “The spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things. of God. For what man knoweth the 30 THE PHILOSOPHY OF things of a man, save the spirit of man which 1s in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” But while consciousness and the Scriptures give us this ultimate analysis, all know that the inspired writers do not often speak analy- tically in regard to the place of the Spirit and Word in the Divine Mind. They speak of the Father, Son, and Spirit interchangeably, giving Divine atributes to each of them: and in the baptismal formule, the one Name contains the three personalities, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. It should be observed, also, that the Scriptures not only speak of the Word and Spirit inter- changeably, but the Spirit in its efficient quali- ties is spoken of sometimes as the Spirit of the Father, and at other times as the Spirit of the Son.* ; Accepting then the testimony of conscious- * Isa. lxi. 1,—‘* The Spirit of Jehovah is upon me; he hath anointed me to preach glad tidings unto the meek,” etc. 1 Pet. i. 11,—‘‘ The prophets searched what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify,” etc. Gal. iv. 6,—‘‘ God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts,” etc. THE DIVINE OPERATION. 31 ness and the teaching of the Scriptures, as to the personality of the Spirit and the Word, and their place in the economy of mind; and accept- ing the same authority for deriving a knowledge of the Infinite by analogies drawn from the human mind, we are prepared to inquire fur- ther concerning the relations of the Spirit and the Word to each other and their related place and power in the economy of redemption. § 6.— The Scripture view of the Logos, or Son of the Divine Mind. The Evangelist John gives the lineage of the Son of God, as Matthew does that of the Son of Man. In-Scripture illustration, the Logos, or conceived Word, is born of the Divine Mind, as light is born of the sun. Heb. i. 2, 8,—** God hath spoken to us in these last days by his Son, who is the out-shining of his Father’s glory, and the real expression of his nature or person.” As we know of the existence and nature of the sun only through the medium of its light, so we can know the moral character of God only by the Mediator, Christ Jesus. This analogy is expressly warranted in 2 Cor. iv. 6, “ God, who ’ 32 THE PHILOSOPHY OF commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”* The Evangelist John gives the fact divested of its figurative form. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” ‘The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” And it is only by this manifestation in the person of his Son that God is known to men. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” And in Matt. xi. 27, ‘All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the * Those who have read the leading theological writers of the past and present centuries, may have noticed that, for the most part, they are so constrained by their theological systems, that they fear to use the inspired analogies com- mon to the apostles and the earliest fathers, on this subject. THE DIVINE OPERATION. 33 Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” That is, the Father does not reveal the Son, but the Son reveals the Father; and no man knows the Father but by revelation through the Son. The conceived Word is as old as the Divine Mind —“ He was in the beginning with God.” (The eternally begotten Son of orthodox theo- logy.) But the revealed or manifested Word, in his relations to man, is no older than the time when the Divine Mind was manifested by its Logos in creation; subsequently, in the gui- dance and culture of the Jewish church,* and finally and perfectly by the incarnation in “the Mediator, the man Christ Jesus.” § 7.— Views of some of the best Christian think- ers in harmony with this exposition. It is difficult to separate selfishness from sys- tem and forms. The man who devises the system, and the man who adopts it as his system, * 1 Cor. x. 4,—‘‘ They drank of that spiritual Rock that went with them: and that Rock was Christ.” x. 9;— “‘ Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.” 2* 34 THE PHILOSOPHY OF have both a personal feeling and indentification with it; hence they will press their peculiarities until the truth is restrained and constrained by their dogmatic formularies. It often, therefore, comes to pass that the setting forth of scriptural truth concerning the genesis of the son of God, in the phrase and manner of the Scriptures themselves, is feared, by well-meaning persons as an impeachment of the sectarian forms in which their theology is cast. To relieve this habitude of mind, in regard to the present topic, we annote the thoughts of some of the most eminent and pious theologians, ancient and modern. Matthew Henry —the best-read in the Bible of all the commentators —has given the in- spired conception in his note on the first pas- sage in the Gospel by John. He says: “The Evangelist in the close of his discourse (v. 18) plainly tells us why he calls Christ the Word of God :—because He is the only begot- ten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, and has declared him. ‘“Worp is two-fold; word conceived, and word uttered. THE DIVINE OPERATION. 35 ““(1.) There is the word conceived, that is, thought, which is the only immediate product of the soul—all the operations of which are performed by thought, and it is one with the soul. Thus the second person in the Trinity is fitly called the Word, for he is the first begot- ten of the Father, that eternal Wisdom which Jehovah possessed, as the soul doth its thought, ‘in the beginning of His way,’ (Prov. viii. 22). There is nothing we are more sure of than that we think, yet there is nothing we are more in the dark about than how we think. Who can declare the generation of thought in the soul? Surely then the generations and births of the Eternal Mind may well be allowed to be great mysteries of godliness, which we can not fathom, while yet we may adore the depth. “(2.) There is word uttered, and that is speech. Thus Christ is the Word, for by Him, ‘God hath spoken in these last times unto us,’ (Ifeb. i. 2), and has directed us to hear him. (Matt. xvii. 5). He has made known God’s mind unto us, as a man’s word or speech makes known his thought, as far as he pleases, and no further.” 36 THE PHILOSOPHY OF The devout Bazier finds in both the human and the Divine Mind a Trinity of “ essentiali- ties,’ which he calls life-action, understanding, and will—(Potentia-aetus, Intellectus, Volun- tas). He does not affirm that these principles are all there is of the Trinity, or the Divine Personality; yet they are in his opinion the ground of a three-fold, eternal self-action in the Godhead, and likewise the ground of the Divine Manifestation in three persons. See Meth. vi. c. 2, and Prac. Works 19, 21. Some passages from the Fathers will indicate the mode of expression not, uncommon in the earlier ages of the Christian Church. Clement of Alexandria writes, in his exhorta- tion to the Greeks: ‘The Divine Logos, the Christ, was the cause of our being, and well- being also, for He was in God. And now this Logos Himself appears to men, the only being that ever partook of both natures, as well that of God as of man, to be the cause of all good to us.” Tertullian says: ‘The Greeks denominate that Logos which we translate Word, and thus our people, for brevity’s sake, say —‘In the THE DIVINE OPERATION. 37 beginning the Word was with God;’ though it would be more proper to say — Reason, since God was not speaking from the begin- ning, although rational. * * * Consider- ing, therefore, and disposing by His reason, He effected His will by His word, which thou mayest easily understand by what passes in thyself.” irs cdlPraxikes ve Justin the Martyr —the first of the apologists, who stood in immediate connection with the apostles, says: ‘It is not allowable to think otherwise of the Sprrit and Power which is in God than that it is the Logos, which also is the first-born of God.”— Ap, il. § 8.-- Mind manifested only by its Logos, or out-birth. We can know the character of a spirit only by its words and acts—its logos revealed in word and action. Man may embody his word impersonally, in written language, and send it to all nations who understand the written character. Why then might not the Word of God be made flesh? Why might not God send His Son—the Word, or out-birth of the 38 THE PHILOSOPHY OF Divine Mind—to become personal in a human nature, so that the true God might be revealed through the flesh to those in the flesh? ‘ Thus God in these last days has spoken to us by his Son.” From the nature of the case such a mani- festation was necessary, or man could never know God.* The Scriptures affirm the form of this manifestation in language that is easily understood. ‘God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.” Jesus produces recon- ciliation by revealing the Divine character in ways adapted to our nature and our wants. Ife said, “Iam the way, the truth, and the life ; no man can come unto the Father but by me.” He is the Mediator —the Way. God and man meet together in His person. God -comes in on the side of! His divinity, and man comes in and meets God through the side of His humanity. He is the truth—the Divine charac- ter and will are manifested through Him. ‘ No man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” He * See ‘God revealed,” etr.. B, ii..c. 5. THE DIVINE OPERATION. 39 is the Life—the Spirit of Life was in Him; and He was a life-giving Spirit. We shall see more distinctly as we go on that it is the character, the nature of God, thus revealed in Christ, which becomes the element of saving power in the soul. The teaching, the life, and the death of Christ, is a true, and full, and final revelation of the Divine thought, and will, and heart, in regard to man: and by faith, which gives this manifestation effect upon the soul, “Christ Jesus, of God, is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.’’* § 9.— God becomes imminently and effectively personal only in Christ. Man is so constituted as a moral being, that obedience and gratitude can be exercised only toward a personal being —a being who consciously and voluntarily does us good. The idea of theol- ogizing skeptics, that man can be grateful to the laws of nature, or to the bread that satisfies his hunger, is preposterous. Man can feel no sense of responsibility or gratitude to something err Ore 17 30, 40 THE PHILOSOPHY OF that is “neither personal nor impersonal” * in any comprehensible sense. Obligation, obedi- ence, gratitude, are possible only when founded upon the character and voluntary acts of a personal being. Now it is by the work of Christ that God becomes imminently personal to the soul. The human mind can have an idea of the per- sonality of an invisible spirit only in connection with its history, its life-action.t My life-work gives character to my personality, in the minds of others, after I leave the world. All that other spirits can know or judge of me as a separate person they must get from the will, intellect, and love manifested in my life. So we can know God as a personal being only by his manifestation in the angelic or human nature — a manifestation of heart and will —feel- ing and action — which the soul may accept by faith as a revelation of the divine nature. The idea of a God every where present at the same * See Parker’s ‘* Discourses of Religion.” t Hence the Anthropomorphism of all ages and all religions, from the beginning to the end of the world. THE DIVINE OPERATION. 41 time, over and in nature, may be true, but it is wmpersonal, and hence it is abstract and without life to the human soul. In the presence of such an idea of God, man can neither exercise obedience, gratitude, or worship. § 10.— The Holy Spirit uses the personality of Christ in the work of Redemption. Hence we are taught that the Holy Spirit, when He comes to the soul, does not speak of Himself— of His own personality—but He takes of the things that belong to Christ, and shows them to the believer.* When the soul is conscious of the Divine presence, it docs not recognize two personalities; because the Spirit comes clothed in the personality of Jesus, and its life is bestowed through the manifestations which God makes of Himself in His Son. The Holy Spirit gives to the soul by influx through the susceptibility, a newer and higher consciousness of the Divine Nature, which is love. But He is not arevealer of new truths, nor an exhibitor of His own personality. When *” Jon xVie Ts, 42 THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE DIVINE OPERATION. He visits the pious mind, He does not lead that mind to think of Himself, but of Jesus. He takes of the manifestations of the Divine charac- ter, made by Christ, and gives them efficacy, by power and. love, in the human soul. He comes to us through the Son, baptized in His humanities, as a ray of light takes the hue of the medium through which it passes; and thus He becomes to the soul the spirit of both the divine and the human, as it was in Christ Jesus. The Son of God manifests the Divine Mind; the Spirit of God uses that manifestation to sanctify and save us. Hence Christ and the Spirit are one to the soul, and one in the Church to the end of the dispensation; as Ile said, “Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world.’’* * The ideas of some of the elder divines, as well as the moderns, are strangely confused in regard to the work of the Spirit, and the relation of the Word and Spirit in the work of redemption. For evidence of this, see text and notes in Archdeacon Hare’s ‘‘ Mission of the Comforter. CHAPTER III. Tue Hoty Sprrit IN THE PERSONALITY OF CHRIST. Tuat there was a special connection between the Holy Spirit and the human nature of Christ is plainly and frequently taught in ‘the New Testament. The inspired teaching on this subject can not be easily misunderstood. The creeds of sects have in some instances blinded its expression, but still the true import of Scrip- ture is generally accepted in the churches. In all the parts, and in all the accomplishments of Christ’s mission, the Holy Spirit is spoken of as the developing power. When the plain Bible statement is received as authority, the several passages on this subject scarcely need an exposition. We shall therefore give pas- sages, with only such remarks as seem neces- sary for their historical connection. 44 THE PHILOSOPHY OF § 11.— The humanity of Christ was by the Holy Spirit. In his humanity, Christ was the “second Adam; the second human nature created immediately by the Divine. Power.* The humanity of Christ, being originated by the life-giving energy of the Holy Ghost, was hence without the taint of transmitted debility or depravity. Therefore it was declared that the Holy Being born of the Virgin should be called the Son of God. In this pure humanity “‘dwelled the fullness of the Godhead bodily,” as the Shekinah dwelled in the tabernacle in the wilderness. John i. 14,—‘ The Word was made flesh, and tabernacled among us.” John il. 19— 21,—‘“ Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” ‘He spake of the temple of his body.” Thus the Son of God by eternal generation became united with the Son of Man, or the Son of God by earthly gen- eration, and men “ beheld his glory; the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Be * See Appendix C= raed SCIENTIFIC FORMULA OF * THE BIRTH OF CHRIST. | THE DIVINE OPERATION. 45 § 12.— The advent of the Spirit upon Christ at His baptism, and its abiding unity with His humanity. ‘‘ Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor both with God and man; “when he began to be about thirty years of ? and age, he came from Galilee to Jordan to be baptized of John;” and being baptized, “ the heavens were opened, and the HOLY GHOST DESCEND- ED UPON HIM IN BODILY SHAPE, AS A DOVE.” The Holy Spirit being now personally in Christ, a voice from heayen proclaimed, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” This descent of the Spirit of God upon Christ, the second Adam, and its abiding in him, was the appointed witness to John of the Messiahship of the Redeemer. Before this manifestation the Baptizer had known Christ as a holy teacher, but not as the Messiah, till God in his presence “anointed him with the Holy Ghost and with power.”* ‘He that sent me to baptize with water,” said John, “the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Holy Spirit descending, md REMAINING, the same * Actsix. 35. 46 THE PHILOSOPHY OF is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw and bare witness that this is the Son of God.’’* § 13.— The Holy Spirit abiding in Christ, leads Him into and through the temptation. After the baptism Luke makes record that Jesus, “ being full of the Holy Ghost,” returned from Jordan, and “was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.” The Scriptures teach (James i. 13), that God, inere- ate and separate from sense, “can not be temp- ted ;” wherefore, in the order of reason and mercy, “it behoved Christ in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to suc * John i. 33, 34. [Words and quotations that are capital or emphatic in the chain of exposition, are often so marked in the text. The reader is desired to mark quoted and emphasized words. ] THE DIVINE OPERATION. 4T cor them that are tempted.”* Hence “a body was prepared ” for the Redeemer, that he might be touched through its sympathies with a feel- ing of our infirmities. By the incarnation, God came into sensitive sympathy with human- ity, and invites humanity to come into sym- pathy with divinity. Thus the Holy Spirit led Christ through a human experience, ‘“ he being tempted in all respects as we are, yet without sll.” § 14.— The ministry of Christ, and the manifest- ation of God in Christ, by the Holy Spirit. The apostle (1 Peter i. 11) says of the . prophets, that they “searched what, and what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.” And this Spirit of Christ which was in them (not “bodily” and “ with- out measure,” but inspiringly) spake of the whole ministry of Christ as being developed by the Holy Ghost. In prophetic transport, Isaiah exclaims (Ixi. 1), “The Spirit of the * Hebi. t7,. 18. 48 THE PHILOSOPHY OF Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach glad tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken- hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” In various forms of language. the inspired writers of the New Testament, also, instruct us that Christ’s ministry — His miracles — His sacritice — His resurrection, and the subsequent endowment of the apostles, were by the Divine Spirit. After God had “anointed him with the Holy Ghost and with power” at His baptism, He returned from His temptation in the wilderness (into which He had been led by the Spirit) “i the power of the Spirit into Galilee.”* To the sense of men— His disciples, as well as others — He was personally present as a human being, but His claims to the Messiahship, as the Son of God, he predicated upon the statement (John xiv. 10) —‘‘The Father that dwelleth in me,” He “speaketh the words,” and ‘“doeth the works.” 7 | * Luke iv. 14. THE DIVINE OPERATION. 49 Hence He says (Matt. xii. 28), —“If I cast onc devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.” So, likewise, He tought that sin against the Son of Man, con- ceived of by the presence of His human person (in which even Tis disciples did not clearly dis- ¢ern the indwelling divinity, John xiv. 9), was pardonable; but those who with malignant mind should sin against the Holy Ghost, manifested by greater light yet to be given, as well as by miracles of mercy and power, of which they were witnesses, “had no forgiveness, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come.” § 15.—The sacrifice and resurrection of Christ by the Holy Spirit. The power and the presence of the Holy Spirit is recognized in the chief act of reconcil- iation — the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross. Hence it is said (Heb. ix. 14), that “the blood of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot unto God, shall purge your consciences from dead works to serve the livin g God.” t Matt. xii. 22-32. 50 THE PIIILOSOPHY OF This purifying effect of Christ’s sacrifice is the conscious secret of a true faith, which none of the formal worshipers of this day understand. The love of Christ, by the life of the Spirit, is imparted to those who believe in his sufferings for their good. This quickens their conscience, purifies their heart, and gives love-motive to the will, so that formal worship and selfish works cease: their “conscience is purified from dead works,” and thenceforth their works are living works, that is, works produced by love to God and men. After His sacrifice, Christ was “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by his resurrection from the dead.”* ‘Whom the Jews slew, God by his Spirit raised up.” And the Apostle Peter, in pregnant sentences, such as he always wrote, teaches us (1 Pet. iii. 18) that Christ has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened, or brought to life, by the Spirit. Thus “the God of peace brought again our * Rom. i. 4. THE DIVINE OPERATION. 51 Lord Jesus Christ from the dead,”’* and after His resurrection, being assembled together with His disciples, He breathed on them, and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” And “for about the space of forty days, he continued, before his ascension, until he, by the Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen.” Thus, in all the vicissitudes of the Redeem- er’s life, in His death, and in His resurrection, THE SCRIPTURES REQUIRE US TO BE- LIEVE that His mission and ministry was executed by the power of the fioly Ghost. In this sense, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.” “In him was Lire, and that Lire was the light of men.” “The first Adam was made a living soul; the second a life-giving Spirit,”— the one transmitting animal life—the other spiritual, eternal life. And the work of Christ, which in the days of His flesh was thus actuated by the Holy Ghost, is still administered, and will be to the end of the world, by the same Spirit, and for the accomplishment of the same * Heb. xiii. 20. ToACts 15.35 52 THE PHILOSOPHY, ETC. ends. Since the resurrection, as we shall see, even more efficiently than before, ‘Christ of God is made unto men wisdom, and righteous- ness, and sanctification, and redemption.” CHAPTER IV. Tur ENDOWMENT AND SUPERVISION OF THE APOSTLES BY THE Hoty Sptrit.* Curist having accomplished His personal work in the world, the next step in the process was to endow with the Spirit, and send forth those apostles whom He had chosen, disciplined, and furnished with the truth of the new dispen- sation. They were to go forth “as sheep among wolves ;” but “ endued with a spirit and wisdom which their enemies could neither gainsay nor resist.” Thus endowed, and trusting in Him who had promised to be with them, they went forth joyfully to a life of labor and suffering — but to a labor sustained by the hope, which by faith had become a reality, that they would estab- lish the kingdom of God upon earth, and initiate * Vide — Preliminary Essay to McKnight on the Epistles. 54 THE PHILOSOPHY OF an order and worship against which the powers of evil could never prevail. § 16.—The disciples in the Old Testament state, until after the outpouring of the Spirit. With some little advance in spiritual insight, the disciples were in the Old Testament state until after Christ’s resurrection. Jesus did not design to remove, even in their ¢ase, the forms of Old Testament worship, nor the sense of Old Testament obligation, until after His ascension. All the sanctions of duty were drawn from the Old Testament, until the New was inaugu- rated. The disciples asked nothing in the name of Christ before His sacrifice in the sense that they did afterwards. They had a purified heart, and an obedient will;* but they had not the spiritual consciousness of the New Dispensation until after the outpouring of the promised Spirit. As they went to Emmaus, their'words to the risen Redeemer not only indicated that they had not apprehended the import and the necessity of His * John xv. 3,—‘ Now ye are pure through the word which I have spoken into you,” etc. THE DIVINE OPERATION. 55 death (a truth which He had plainly indicated to them), but they disclosed very distinctly the secu- lar views which they entertained of His mission, even after the fact of His crucifixion. Luke xxii. 14 — 21, —“ We had trusted,” said they, “that it had been he who should have redeemed Israel.” The prophets did not fully understand the spiritual nature of Christ’s sacrifice nor the spir- itual character of that glory which was to fol- low,* and the disciples appear to have remained with like imperfect conceptions of the character and mission of the Redeemer, until they were “endued with power from on high.” They said, when they assembled with Him after the resurrection, and before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, “Lord, wilt thou, at this time, restore the kingdom to Israel?’+ The answer of Jesus (as though an exposition at that time would be of but little value to them) gave no solution of their inquiry, but referred them to the outpouring of the Spirit, for which they were to wait at Jerusalem. ‘ Ye shall receive,” said he, “the power of the Holy Ghost coming my Pet. 1.10 — 12. ¢ Acts i. 6. o6 THE PHILOSOPHY OF upon you:* and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Sama- ria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these words, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud re- ceived him out of their sight.” They then returned to Jerusalem to wait, as Christ had commanded them, for “the promise of the Father,” which, said He, “ ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.” § 17.—Peter’s precipitancy and error in acting before the time. Peter was by nature impetuous. He had the temperament of Luther—a temperament which fits a man for great achievements when chasten- ed by great grace. His precipitancy before his 2) ‘‘conversion,” or spiritual illumination, often led him into mistakes, and sometimes into sin. * The ‘‘ dower of the Holy Ghost came upon the disci- ples.” Upon Jesus the Holy Spirit descended and remained in a Personal form. tf Acts i. 8, 9, and 4, 5. THE DIVINE OPERATION. 57 An error of this kind, as we suppose, occurred while the disciples “waited” at Jerusalem for the advent of the “ promised Spirit.” The plain intimation in the instruction of Christ is, that nothing was to be done until they should be “baptized with the Holy Ghost and with power.” But the sanguine impulses of Peter prompted him, and he prompted the other disciples, to elect a twelfth apostle before the time. They were instructed to await the influence and guid- ance of the Spirit before they began their work; yet, under the motion of Peter, they elected Matthias to the apostleship. This election with- out the Spirit did not receive the Divine sanc- tion. Matthias was no doubt a faithful disciple, but Christ, personally, chose his own apostles; and subsequently to this election he chose and endowed Paul, as the twelfth member of the sacred college. Ie was called miraculously by the voice of Jesus Himself, and received a spe- cial commission to “bear the name of Christ before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel ;” and the badge of suffering was annexed as in the case of the other apostles. Acts ix. 3° 58 THE PHILOSOPHY OF 16,—* I will show him how great things he shall suffer for my sake.’’* Before noticing the work of the apostles, and their spiritual consciousnes, we will now return a moment, and notice their call and appoint- ment, and the promises of enlightenment and guidance given them in the last instructions of the Redeemer. We shall see the whole subject more clearly by noticing the import of specific passages. Some repetition will occur by this method, but it will serve to bring out the appli- cation of the same thought in different relations. § 18.—Christ’s choiee of the aposiles. John xv. 16,—‘ Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he may give it you.” The choice of the apostles and their appoint- ment to their vocation are here stated. Jesus had communicated to them the truth, which He tells them in the context, He had “received of * See Appendix D,—PauL, Nor MATTHIAS, THE TWELFTH APOSTLE. TUE HOLY SPIRIT. 59 the Father.” Ver. 15,—* All things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” Hence from the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit, they were endowed for their holy office. As in ver. 26, 27,—“ When the Comforter is come, whom I shall send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: and ye shall bear witness because ye have been with me from the beginning.” In their subsequent work the apostles understood and affirmed their commission as witnesses con- Jointly with the Holy Spirit. They said, (Acts 5, 82) we are witnesses, and so is also the Holy Ghost, which God hath given to them that obey them. Thus by the instruction of Christ and the endowment of the Spirit they were qualified for their mission. They were to be the seed-men of the dispensation, the fruit of whose lives was to be permanent spiritual instruction in the churches, and for all mankind. In accordance with this appointment, their fruit remains in the inspired writings, and in church organiza- tions; and this truth will ever continue the cle- 60 THE DOCTRINE OF ment of enlightenment and of sanctification to us and to all future generations of men. § 19.— Promise of Christ’s special presence by the Spirit, in answer to thetr supplication. In conjunction with the appointment of the apostles, and with the promise that their labors should remain as an abiding blessing to man- kind, there is assurance given them that their prayers should be answered. They would need constraint, aid, and guidance in their work, and this was granted according to the same princi- ple that governs other cases, that is, on condi- tion of faith and obedience. But, as their work was to be permanent and special, so correspond- ing plenary communications were furnished. The promised answer to their prayer had, no doubt, reference, in an especial sense, to the gift of the Holy Spirit, that should live inter- nally in their consciousness, and work externally in the providences that surrounded them. John xiv. 14 —18,—“If ye ask any thing in my name, I will do it. If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that THE HOLY SPIRIT. 61 may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world can not receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him:* but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” And then, indentifying Him- self with the Holy Spirit, and his second coming with the coming of the Spirit, He says, “J win not leave you comfortless, | WILL come unto you.” That is, in the Comforter, Jesus would return as a spiritual Saviour —to comfort them, to be with them, and in them.+ § 20.—All essential truth spoken by Christ to be preserved by the suggestion of the Spirit. John xiv. 20,—* But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in * The world can have no spiritual consciousness of Christ as a Divine Saviour. They can know Him histori- cally, as to his humanity; but it is the Spirit that gives the divine to the idea of His personality. The Son of Man they may know, but not the Son of God. They may know Christ in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but not in John. ‘No man can call Jesus Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” Christ in the spirit is by faith; Christ in the letter is by intellect. + Norr.—That the Spirit comes in Christ’s personality ‘s here distinctly and authoritatively affirmed. 62, THE DOCTRINE OF my name,* he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatso- ever I have said unto you.” This is a divine guarantee that the communi- cation of truth by the apostles should be perfect. They were to be guided into all truth necessary to the ends of their mission — truth adequate to the enlightenment and sanctification of men. And if, through the imperfection of memory, any necessary words had been forgotten; or if, through the imperfection of apprehension, any words had been wrongly construed, the Spirit would suggest the idea in such form and con- nection that it would be expressed in its true import; albeit in the phraseology peculiar to the character and culture of the apostolic wit- ness. Many volumes may have been spoken by the Saviour in order to convey to the apostles the required ideas, yet nothing necessary for human good in all his teachings was to be lost. The Comforter, by quickening conception, guiding in the law of suggestion, and giving * «Name ” is used in the New Testament synonymously with character, nafure, or personality. THE HOLY SPIRIT. 63 spiritual unction to the soul, would « guide them into all truth.” § 21.—- The spiritual sense promised to the apostles. The apostles, as we have noticed, were in the Old Testament state until after the outpouring of the Spirit. The human person of Christ, too, being before their eyes, shut out, ina sense, “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God,” as it subsequently “shone in the face of the Redeemer.” * Jesus recognized their want of spiritual strength and spiritual insight, and promised them more light and better apprecia- tion after his ascension. And because the spiritual import of his teachings required asense to which they could not then attain, He often spake to them in parables that might be spiritu- ally construed at the full time. The exposition of these parables He sometimes gave, yet they continued to construe them in the Old Testa- ment sense. Even when they supposed that * 2 Cor. v. 16,—“ Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now, henceforth, know we him Cin this sense) no more.” 64 THE DOCTRINE OF they understood their teacher, as in J ohn xvi. 29, 30, still they did not perceive; and the import of Christ’s replies indicates their continued dull- ness, and refers them to coming events, that would be evidence to themselves of their mis- apprehension. ‘Do ye now believe?” — ye think ye do; but when I shall have been erucl- fied, as I have said, instead of understanding the true state of the case, ye will all be scat- tered, every man to his own, as if my mission had failed. But notwithstanding their dull- ness in the presence of His humanity, He promised them in the future eyes to see the spiritual sense, and ears to hear the words now epoken to them as the words of God. “ These things,” said He (John xvi. 25), “ have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in prov- erbs, but shall show you plainly of the Father.” That is, they did not now perceive the full im- port of the words which spoke of Ilis Divinity ; but the time was approaching when the Father’s character, revealed by Him, would be revealed in their consciousness by the influx of the Holy Spirit. ‘At that day,” he said, “ye shall know THE HOLY SPIRIT. 65 that [am in the Father, and yein me, and I in you.” This knowledge, which they were to possess after their spiritual illumination, would be through a manifestation of Himself by the Holy Spirit, and in this manifestation all the attributes of the Father would be revealed to them through Him. John xvi. 14, 15,— The Holy Spirit, when He is come, “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 receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.” Hence, the Saviour said to His disciples in this connection — ye ought to “rejoice that I go to the Father, because the Father is greater than I.” That is, the Father sends the Word and is revealed by it. When I depart in the flesh the Spirit will come and give divinity and power to my personality, and thus all the attributes of the Father will be manifested unto you more clearly than ye can now perceive them. This revelation of the Godhead of the Father through the Son would be more full and clear after the advent of the Spirit; not only because the Spirit was veiled and localized in a 66 THE DOCTRINE OF sense in Christ’s humanity,* but because when the Word returned to the bosom of the Father, having revealed by the crucifixion the perfect love of the Godhead, then by the Spirit, in the personality of Christ, the Father would be revealed in love both by Word and Spirit to the human soul. § 22.— Further exposition of the promise that greater light and power would be given by the Spirit after Christ's ascension. There are plain passagest in which Christ teaches that the Spirit could not be given to the world in its plenitude and perfection, until He had finished His work on earth and ascended to heaven. Guided by the Scriptures we can see reasons for the statements which promise this increase of spiritual power. The great sacrifice was not yet offered. This was a revelation of Divine love more perfect than had before been manifested on earth; the Spirit, therefore, who was not to speak of Himself, but to use the * See Hare’s ** Mission of the Comforter.” Notes. + Luke xxiv. 49; John xiv. 12, 16; and xvi. 7, 13- THE HOLY SPIRIT. 67 spiritual material furnished by the Redeemer, had truth in more plenitude, and could make clearer manifestations of Divine love after than before the crucifixion. Besides this, the resurrection and ascension of Christ were evidences that His work had been accepted of the Father. When there was evidence that the Father raised Jesus from the dead, then in the minds of all those who believed the fact, the rejection of Christ would produce a sense of sin against God. The resurrection of Christ from the dead was absolute evidence that God approved and authorized his work; hence the Spirit, by the resurrection, would not only reveal greater love by the sacrifice of Christ to those who received Him,* but greater guilt in those who had rejected Him. In view of this, Jesus said, When the Comforter shall come, “he will convince the world of righteousness, because I go to the Father.’ My teaching, having received visibly the sanction of the Father, will become the rule of righteousness by which men will be convicted of sin. These manifestations, to be used by the Spirit *1 Peter i. 3. 68 THE DOCTRINE OF thenceforward, were powers existing after the fact that did not exist before, except imperfectly in typeandshadow. Hence greater spiritual power was promised to attend, and did accordingly attend the preaching of the apostles after the advent of the Spirit, than had accompanied the preaching of Christ before. John xiv. 12,— “ Verily, verily, [say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” The apostles likewise, after they were “ con- verted,” as Peter needed to be, into the spirit- ual dispensation,* taught that the promises of Christ, in regard to the plenitude of life by the Spirit, did not refer to the days of His flesh, but to the greater work, in a spiritual sense, which would be accomplished after His ascension. John vii. 87 —39,—* 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 Scrip- ture hath said, out of his heart shall flow rivers * Are not many men of our day still partly in the Old "testament state ? THE HOLY SPIRIT. 69 of living water.” But this did not have its full import that day, nor did it find its true verifica- tion until the advent of the Spirit. The apostle therefore adds, as an exposition of the words, ‘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.” , When we add to these thoughts the fact already alluded to, that Christ, as the Son of Man, could be personally present in one place only at the same time, but the Spirit would, after its advent, be an everywhere-present revealer of Christ,—then the greater glory to be manifested after the days of Christ’s ministry is clearly apparent. The words of Christ then became “spirit and life” to those who believed, and all the efficacy contained in a perfect rev- elation of the Divine character which had been given by the mission of Christ, was used to quicken and sanctify the human soul. ‘It was expedient,” therefore, after the truth had been perfectly revealed, and the material of sanctificaticn fully provided, that Christ, in His humanity, “should go away,” in order that 70 THE DOCTRINE OF by His spiritual presence He might be every where present with each disciple, and with His churches, until the end of the world. After the ascension, therefore, the presence of the Spirit is spoken of as Christ’s own presence. ‘ Where- ever two or three are gathered together in my name, there Iam in the midst of them;” and “Lo! Iam with you always, until the end of the world.” According to the foregoing exposition, while the physical power of miracles* was manifested, perhaps, in a less degree after the ascension of Christ than before, the spiritual power of truth * It can not be questioned that miracles were necessary to moral progress in the time of Christ. No truth, as from God, could have been receiyed without them. All men believed that their divinities granted power to their votaries to work miracles. Either the new religion must be intro- duced by miracles, or God must, by miracle, destroy the conviction in all minds that miracles could be wrought. In that age a miracle was the only means of connecting the authority of God with truth. I must believe the facts stated as miracles, but how the effects were produced, whether sub- jectively in the minds of the witnesses,— whether in accor- dance with, or by control of natural laws, is not important. Lhe EFFECT of the miracle, not the form, was the necesstty. [Sec Phil. of Plan of Salvation, Chapter iii.] THE HOLY SPIRIT. “1 in the souls of men was in all senses greatly increased. At the advent of the Spirit, on the day of Pentecost, a mighty work of love and power began in the world, the energy and glory of which will not end until the “ kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever.” § 23.— Theendowmentof the apostles with special powers and prerogatives. After the Redeemer had, “ by the Holy Ghost, gwen commandments to his apostles,” immediately previous to His ascension, He gave them their commission, accompanied by the promise of His presence and supervision in the great endeavor to bring the world to believe in Him as the manifestation of the true God,—*“ Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them into the [one] name* of the Father, the Son, * The ‘‘ ove name” including all the attributes and quali- ties of the three personalities, Father, Son, Holy Ghost. By one conception of our finite minds we can not compass God in all His relations to us. God is what the ¢kree con- ceptions — Father --Son — Holy Spirit, united, reveal Him to be. 72 TIE DOCTRINE OF and the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo! I am with you always, even unto the end of the dispensation.” At the appointed time and place, the promise that they should be endowed for their work by a supernatural manifestation of the Holy Spirit was fulfilled. Acts ii. 1—4,— “ When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” When thus “ baptized with the Holy Ghost,” they were at once endowed with impulse, cour- age, and spiritual insight, which they did not possess before; and it may be that the tongues that sat upon them gave their thoughts articula- tion on this special occasion, so that the stran- gers from foreign cities present in Jerusalem, each heard the speaker’s thoughts enunciated THE HOLY SPIRIT. 13 in his own language. Hence immediate and immense impression was produced. The work of the world’s regeneration was begun. Many priests and people of Jerusalem, together with a multitude from foreign cities, became subject to the faith. The supreme council of the nation was agitated and divided, and there was neither policy nor power that could suppress the pro- gress of the new life. The apostles, before dull and literal in their sense, had now a clear apprehension of the spiritual nature of Christ’s mission, and of the approaching dissolution of the local and imper- fect* ritual of Moses. For declaring the abro- gation of the Mosaic economy, Stephen was put to death, as his Master had been before, by the malice of the rulers. The witnesses suborned against him said (Acts vi. 18, 14), “This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law: for we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall des- * “Imperfect,” not in its adaptation to its place and work as an introductory dispensation, but imperfect in light, love, and righteousness. ‘Grace and truth are by Jesus Christ.” 4 74 TILE DOCTRINE OF troy this place, and change the rites which Moses delivered us.”’ The apostles were thus evidently endowed not only with an understanding of the spiritual mission of Christ, but likewise with a know- ledge in some respects of the future purposes of God, although they may not have known the form nor the precise time in which those pur- poses would be accomplished. When, there- fore, the Gospel had been preached, “ first at Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria,” the disciples were, by persecution, “ scattered abroad,” in order that the truth they taught might be carried “to the ends of the earth.” Saul of Tarsus, who had held the clothes of those who stoned Stephen, was converted. The college of apostles was complete. The partition wall between the Jews and Gentiles, as indica- ted to Peter in a vision, was broken down, and the streams of Gospel light and life flowed out to the Gentiles. THE HOLY SPIRIT. 75 § 24.— The apostles affirm their consciousness of special endowment. The apostles constantly claimed that God by His Spirit was present in their endeavors, fence the sin of Ananias and Sapphira was declared to be sin against the Spirit of God. They “preached the Gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; and claimed distinetly to speak by inspiration of the Spirit. 1 Cor. ii. 12, 18,—“‘ Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit that is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth ; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” They under- stood, likewise, the doctrine propounded in the preceding sections. The Holy Spirit in their minds was the same as Christ in them, “ pleased Gfod,” says Paul (Gal. i. 16), “to reveal fis Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles.”* To those whom they ordained, * A revelation of Christ in the soul by the Spirit was necessary in the early period in order to preach the Gospel; should it not be so in all periods of the church? 76 . THE DOCTRINE OF they said, (2 Tim. i. 14), “That good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.” By the laying on of hands,* by those who possessed the Spirit, they claimed that the Spirit was com- municated to others. And in addressing the epistles to the seven churches of Asia, and through them to the churches in later ages, it is written, “Tear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” Thus, the internal consciousness of the apostles was true to the external manifestation. “The Holy Ghost was witness for them ;” while they accomplished their work “by signs and wonders, and divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his will.”’f § 25.— The Providence of God working together * The doctrine of the laying on of hands will be better understood hereafter. When the power of the Holy Spirit energizes in the souls of administrators its communication to others will be more apparent than it ordinarily is in the present age. Apostolic succession is by the Holy Spirit. Laying on of hands in this sense is a cardinal doctrine, (Heb. vi. 2). . + Heb. ii. 4. THE HOLY SPIRIT. fis with the Spirit in furthering the gospel by the instru- mentality of the apostles. It has been shown, we think beyond doubt, in the preceding chapters of this series of books, that the Divine energy, operating through all ages and dispensations, wrought to an end fore- seen from the beginning; that God is accom- plishing a plan in the earth, established upon fixed principles and developed by fixed laws; a plan which unites the kingdoms of nature with each other—the physical with the moral ; aplan which extends itself from the form and propor- tions of the original atoms of matter, onward to the moral creation in man; and onward still until it shall ultimate in a perfect physical and moral condition beyond the present.* Jesus said, “*My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” I came “to finish the work which the Father hath given me to do ”—i. é., to fulfill the ritual of Moses, put an end to its burdens, and develop its limited economy into the final spiritual dispensation of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. * See ‘God revealed in the Process of Creation, and by the Manifestation of Christ.”—Boox I. 78 THE DOCTRINE OF Hence the Divine Providence and the Divine Spirit were co-workers in the spread of the gospel.* Events so transpired, by divine over- sight, that the knowledge of truth was advanced, whether the providence, in a temporal sense, - was propitious or otherwise. The apostles became witnesses at Jerusalem, at Samaria, and to the Gentiles. When their work was done at Jerusalem they were, by the providence of God, dispersed throughout Judea and Asia Minor. Saul aided to banish and scatter the witnesses, and thus, as a persecutor, his agency.was over- ruled to accomplish the same object which he afterwards voluntarily accomplished as an apos- tle. When the work was mostly done with the Jews, the case of Cornelius, and other like inci- dents, introduced thoughtful Gentiles into the gospel kingdom. Even the honest difference of Paul and Barnabas — who, by the dictation of the Spirit, had been sent out as missionaries from * When Jesus commissionec his Disciples and sent them forth to preach the gospel, he said, “ All power in Heaven and on earth is given unto me.” And those who have eyes to see can discern the providence of God working with the truth of the gospel in producing the moral progress of the race, THE HOLY SPIRIT. 79 the Church at Antioch — was made a means of disseminating more widely the truth among both Jews and Gentiles in Europe and Asia. The public trials of the apostles before magis- trates, and their providential deliverances, tended to the same end. In such cases provi- sion was made for their special guidance; and they were instructed to depend on the interpo- sition by the Spirit in their minds. Mark xiii. 11,—‘“ Take no thought beforehand, neither premeditate :* but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not you that speak, but the Holy Ghost.” Wence by natural and connected incidents, in which the blind could see no providence, Paul was brought before the rulers at Jerusalem, at Ceesarea, in the Islands of the Sea, at Rome; all in accordance with the pre-statement in his commission, in regard to the class before which he should testify, and the manner in which, during his ministry, he should glorify God. * The law of suggestion is so compact in men of cold temperament and wary mind, —thought is so collated by caution and premeditation, that there seems often no room for even the Holy Spirit to interpose a suggestion. 80 THE DOCTRINE OF Tn the imprisonments of the apostle, too, the design of God was especially propitious, The most precious treatises, inspired and uninspired, which the Church possesses, have been written in prison. We could not do without the Epistle to the Philippians, nor that to Timothy. Nor could we well spare the “ Pilgrim’s Progress,” nor the prison thoughts of Penn, Baxter, and other holy men of the modern age. The devil, by casting saints into prison,* has aided to cast himself out of the Church of God. Evil is made subservient to ultimate good. But not only in regard to the general move- ments of the apostles in the cities and nations of the Old World, but likewise in the time and direction of their travels, and in their personal efforts for the conversion of individuals, the providence and Spirit of Christ combined to guide their agency. If they devised plans con- trary to the Divine plan, they were prevented from fulfilling them. Acts xvi. 6,—“ When * Rev. II. : 10, 11. —‘¢ Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold the devil shall cast some of you into prison, and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life.” THE HOLY SPIRIT. 81 Paul and Timothy had gone throughout Phry- gia 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 essayed to go into Bythinia: but the Holy Spirit suffered them not.” The gospel had been offered and urged in Asia so far as the preparation of the people and the justice and mercy of God at that time required; hence they were directed by a vision to go over into Europe, and help the few who labored to promote gospel interests in Mace- donia. It was the Spirit (Acts xi. 12) that bade Peter visit the Roman officer at Ceesarea; and in order that the gospel might be carried into Ethiopia, “the Spirit said unto Philip” (Acts viii. 29), “Go near to the chariot of the Eunuch,” who, as he traveled, read in the prophecies of Isaiah (lili. 7, 8)—a passage fore- shadowing the sacrifice of Christ. The disciple thus sent by the Spirit was invited into the conveyance. The Eunuch was instructed and baptized, and carried the gospel in his heart into the midst of Ethiopia. The appointed work of the deacon being thus done, “ the 4* 82 THE DOCTRINE OF Spirit caught away Philip, who was found at Azotus; and passing through, he preached in all the cities until he came to Ceesarea.”’ Thus “ filled with the Spirit,” and guided by providence, the apostles of Christ fulfilled their mission;— preaching the gospel of the kingdom in “demonstration of the Spirit, and with power;” gathering churches; ‘or- daining elders in every city;” and writing letters to guide the life and perfect the work of righteousness in the minds of believers. The summing up of their life-labor, as it stood related to God and men, is striking and instruc- tive. 2 Cor. vi. 4—10,—“ In all things approv- ing ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in dis- tresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings ; — by pure- ness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kind- ness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report ; —as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as TILE HOLY SPIRIT. 83 dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing ; as poor, yet making many rich: as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.” Behold how the commissioned apostles of Jesus Christ “fought the good fight of faith ” until they “finished their course,” sealed their testimony with their blood, and departed to be with Christ. They rest from their labors, but their fruit remaineth. “Being dead, they yet speak,” and their words are still rendered efli- cacious by the power of the Holy Ghost to enlighten and sanctify the souls of men; and those who have ears to hear still hear them preaching ‘‘ CHRIST CRUCIFIED; THE POWER OF GoD, AND THE WISDOM OF GOD, TO THE SALVATION OF EVERY ONE THAT BELIEVETH.” CHAPTER V. THE UNION OF THE WORD AND SPIRIT IN THE PROCESS OF SANCTIFICATION. WE have seen that Christ revealed the rule of human duty, both in precept and example, and that no rule of life for men can be perfect with- out both of these.* And having given the rule and manifested perfectly the Divine character, in closing His mission, He promised that after His ascension “the Holy Spirit, which pro- ceedeth from the Father,” would be given, through Him, to lead the chosen witnesses into all truth, and to endow them with spiritual insight, and power from on high. And in this the great promise was fulfilled, that He would be with them until the end of the world, to supervise and to sustain them in their work. We have seen these promises accomplished in the * See Philosophy of Plan of Salvation, chap. x. THE HOLY SPIRIT. 85 conscious experience of the apostles, and by the providence and the spiritual power connected with their mission. They went every where ‘“‘preaching the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.” We come now to inquire concerning the relations of the Word and Spirit in the work of human salvation. § 26.— Does an increase of light imply an increase of spiritual power ? Man, in order to eternal life, needs two things, — Truth and Love, — Light and Life, — Word and Spirit. Christ came a light into the world, revealing a standard of life which was above the natural; and to which therefore the natural mind was apathetic and averse.* Per- haps this “ higher law” implied an advanced dispensation of the Spirit, in order that man might be able to appreciate and obey it. Hence in order to conformity to the new standard of duty, man is to be “born again from above.” He becomes “ a new creature in Christ Jesus,” who is the head of a new species of humanity. * «¢That which is born of the flesh, is flesh ”—** is of the earth, earthy.” 86 THE DOCTRINE OF The germs of all new species are by Divine interposition. Hence the income of the Word and the Spirit would be in the order of the divine working, ‘and according to the law of progressive development. However this may be best stated, it is an admitted truth, that with the increased light of the Word, which required a higher attainment in moral excellency, there came, at the same time, increased life and strength by the Holy Spirit. Let us look then at the related offices of the Word and Spirit as revealed in the Scriptures. We will consider them first separately, that we may the better understand their relations to each other, and the necessity of their union in the work of redemption. § 27.—Of the Living Word as a rule of duty. We assume again, what has been elsewhere shown,* that precept and example combined is the only perfect form of instruction; and that example, in order to be a rule of duty adapted to human beings, must be a human example ; * Philosophy of Plan of Salvation, chap. x. THE HOLY SPIRIT. 87 because men could not follow the example of an angel, nor of any nature different from their own. eats Now the apostles understood the necessity of the incarnation in this respect. Christ’s char- acter, manifested by His life, was the model into which they sought to mould humanity. He was “the mark of the prize of the high calling” to which they struggled to attain, while they invited others to the same endeavor. Jesus said (John xvii. 18, 19), ‘‘ As the Father hath sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanc- tified, through the truth.” And referring, no doubt, to this principle—perhaps to this expres- sion—the author of the letter to the Hebrews says (ii. 10, 11), “ For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffer- ing. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.” That is, Christ assumed a sanctified humanity in - 88 - THE DOCTRINE OF order that His followers might be sanctified by conformity to His image. Hence He was “ not ashamed to call them brethren.” They were, by assimilation to His life and spirit, raised from the sphere of the earthly, mortal, Adamic species, into the sphere of a new spiritual life, of which Christ was Himself the head and elder brother. § 28.— Necessity in reason for a perfect rule of human duty. There is a reason in the nature of man requir- ing the revelation of a perfect rule of duty. It is not only true that man had lost the knowledge of both the true God and the true man, and could therefore settle no rule of duty for himself in regard to either; but it is further true, that in the absence of a perfect rule of righteousness, and often in its presence, there is that in man which leads him to establish for himself an im- perfect standard of life. Man, by an impulse of his nature, always measures himself by some standard of character, and judges himself thereby, and the main difficulty which hinders moral progress is, that men are prone to TIE HOLY SPIRIT. 89 measure themselves by standards that will pro- duce within them a sense of self-complacency rather than of conviction of sin. Even malefac- tors, who live in communities, have a standard of character among themselves by which they seek and obtain honor one of another. And from the outlaw up to the moral citizen of good natural qualities, each one has some ideal stand- ard by which he judges of himself. The mor- alist usually compares himself with some pro- fessor of religion, whose character he deems to be no better, or even worse, than his own. This comparison gives him a feeling of ease and self-complacency. Instead of stimulating, it prevents moral progress. Hence the more moral the character of any one may be, who does not receive Christ as the standard by which he judges himself, the more difficult it will be for him to have a sense of sin and of personal unworthiness. His measurement of himself by the life of other imperfect persons produces a spirit just the opposite of that which he should possess, and which he would possess if he measured himself by the divine standard of human character. Ifhe measured his char- 90 THE DOCTRINE OF acter, and judged his motives by the unselfish life of Jesus, he would see his sinfulness and feel contrite and penitent; but measuring him- self by false and imperfect standards, he de- ceives himself, and must remain unhumbled and self-justified. Men are often unconscious of the fact; but the disposition ‘‘ to measure themselves by themselves” is natural to every human mind. And every one who thus esti- mates his own moral character by a compari- son with others, will remain self- justified and self-deceived until he dies. And not only the unprofessing world, but the professed followers of Christ, by ‘ measuring themselves among themselves, and comparing themselves by themselves, are not wise.” They satisfy themselves with the forms of piety, while they possess neither gospel faith nor gos- pel practice. They justify their own sin by the sin of some other, and thus accumulate the sins of many others in their own character. This is unwise and wicked. A false standard of judgment necessarily causes men to form a false estimate of themselves. Paul said he dare not be of the number who thus deceived them- THE HOLY SPIRIT. 91 selves; nor would he compare himself with any standard except ‘“ the measure of the rule which Christ had extended to him.” Now in Christ a true rule of duty is provided, by which if any man measure himself, he will see his character as it really is in the sight of God. Ifa carpenter were to measure his work by a false rule, when a true one was offered and urged upon him, he would be at the same time a fool and a sinner; and in the end both he and his work would be condemned. So all individ- uals who measure themselves and judge of themselves by a false moral standard, in the presence of the true one, must be condemned when the true rule of judgment is applied to the work of their life. To meet this appetency of the mind, the divine standard in the example and precept of Christ is provided, and, whether we are willing to judge ourselves by it or not, God will judge us by it. A government does not judge men by their own factitious stand- ards, but always by its own published rule of duty. So God will judge the world by Jesus Christ.* ‘The words which he has spoken unto us will judge us at the last day.” * Acts xvii. 31. t John xii. 48. 92 THE DOCTRINE OF § 29.—A perfect rule of life the only principle of moral progress. A perfect standard of life and motive, in the light of which men may see their moral delin- quencies, is a necessity in moral government. It is one of the essential requisites by which alone moral progress can be promoted among men, A sense of present imperfection is an absolute pre-requisite to moral advancement. A man can have no impulse from his conscience or his reason to go forward to higher moral attainments unless he sees and feels present deficiencies in himself; and this he can see only in the light of a standard that is above his present character, and by which his present condition is condemned; while he is at the sume time invited and encouraged to rise to a ligher sphere of life. And, furthermore, in order to the perfection of moral beings, this standard must be such a one, that while it approves and stimulates the upward effort, yet it is not attained at any point short of moral completeness of human charac- ter. Whenever the soul reaches a point that THE HOLY SPIRIT. 93 there is no standard to convict it of imperfec-- tion, its further attainment is impossible, because conscience and reason, instead of prompting it forward, would require its quiescence in its present moral condition.* Hence, until men are “holy as God is holy,” the character of Christ will furnish a standard that will convict . them of sin, and thus give impulse to moral progress. Upon this “mark of the prize of the high ealling of God in Christ Jesus” the Christian fixes his eye; and as he advances he finds Christ ever before him. In the‘light of a per fect example he sees his defects in motive, in practice, and in spirit; and yet the infinite love of the Divine Guide strengthens and encourages * Thus Pagan nations, as China and India, have made no progress for a thousand years. They can not rise above their standards. Christian nations will make constant pro- gress, because their standard in Christ Jesus is always above them. Some churches have been anchored back in the shadows of the dark ages by creeds written in past periods. And even inthe present age, there were those in the enlightened council which assembled in Boston, in June, 1865, who desired to repudiate the principle of John Robinson, that knowledge of Holy Scripture is progressive. 94 THE DOCTRINE OF those who follow Him in labor for the temporal and spiritual good of men. As an artist aim- ing to copy a perfect picture—the excellence of the model elevates his aim at the same time that it inspires his endeavors. And if the patron of the artist bestows his highest reward for the best exertion of the disciple, then, what- soever degree of perfection he may attain, while he will be humbled by comparing his work with that of the master, yet his labor will be happy in its progress, and happy in its completion. So the Christian has hope and favor by the way; and while he is humbled by a sense of his imperfection, yet he knows that “ his labors for conformity to the image of Christ are not in vain in the Lord.” § 30.—The truth being given in the life and pre- cept of Christ, the second necessary thing is the work of the Spirit. A perfect rule of duty may be given, but to know the truth is not to love it, nor to do it. Approbation of the law does not always produce obedience to the law, nor love to the law-giver. Knowledge increases guilt, THE HOLY SPIRIT. 95 if the truth be not obeyed: hence the most intelligent men are sometimes the most base and selfish. Man is a being of moral as well as of intel- lectual powers. He not only has intelligence to know the truth, but he has conscience and affections; and it is the life and impulse of these that give the truth power with the will. Men may, by an effort of intellect, enlighten each other. They may change each other’s Opinions in regard to the truth of the Christian religion. But in all merely intellectual changes, the heart or disposition remains the same. Correct opinions are in order to correct morals, but a man’s opinions may be right, while his heart and life are wrong. Colton wrote more moral precepts than any man of his time, and violated them all. We can put truth into the mind of our fellow-man no farther than the understanding. We can not reach the moral nature by light alone. When one man changes the opinions of another on moral subjects, something is accomplished ; but to give a disposition to love and obey truth is a different thing. The Holy Spirit alone sinks 96 THE DOCTRINE OF the truth through the intelligence into the con- science and the affections. Truth is light, but it is not life. Alone it is like the sun in winter, it shines but to enlighten a dead, cold earth. With the Spirit it is like the sun in summer. It shines with life in its light, vivifying nature and producing blade, flower, and fruitage. So the light of divine truth shines in the darkness of the natural mind, and the darkness appreciates it not, until by the Spirit it becomes “spirit and life” to the soul. ‘In Him was irs, and that life was the light of men.” Christ, as the sun of righteousness, shines into believing hearts with life in his light, § 31.—Rationale of the Spirit’s operation in con- nection with the truth. Truth never gives life to the heart and con- science so that they are empowered to govern the will, unless there be a sense of God in it. This fact is verified in all history, as well as in the experience of individual men. The sages of antiquity perceived and announced many moral truths of the highest value,—some of THE HOLY SPIRIT. 97 them synonymous with those of the New Testa- ment. But what care men for moral truth when it is uttered only by -one whom they esteem as a fellow-mortal equal with them- selves; one who has no authority to prescribe duty, or to command obedience? Of what avail, in a moral estimate, was the wisdom of Plato, or the morals of Socrates, Seneca, or | Tully! The moral precepts of Seneca were given to the Romans at the same time with those of Christ; in an age when the highest intelligence co-existed in the empire with the greatest profligacy. Seneca’s morals had no more influence upon the character of those who received and believed them, than they had upon the statues in the Pantheon. Seneca himself was accused of profligacy ; and he was both the instructor and the victim of the worst of the Romans. The people believed his pre- cepts and grew worse, while those who believed the teachings of the gospel in the same age grew better. The cause of this difference is the vital point. All experience teaches that truth, separate from a sense of the authority of God, does not become life in man’s moral nature. 5 98 THE DOCTRINE OF It has no efficacy to quicken the conscience or to purify the heart. There is no moral efficacy even in inspired truth, unless the soul recog- nizes in it the will and heart of God in regard toman. The words of Jesus had not the same efficacy before the advent of the Spirit as after- wards. Jesus taught, as we have noticed, why this was so. The God-sense was not connected with Iis teaching in the mind of others until after His resurrection and the advent of the Spirit; but when the Holy Ghost came “ He con- vinced men of sin, righteousness, and judgment,” because He attached the authority and will of God to the life and teaching of Jesus. While they viewed Christ as a man like themselves they felt less sense of obligation; but when God became connected with His mission by the miraculous resurrection, and by the advent of the Spirit, then the gospel which He had pro- claimed became, to every one that believed, the hope of salvation, and the rule of duty and of judgment. We are anxious that the reader should appre- hend this point in the discussion. But we may not repeat further what we have written in TIE HOLY SPIRIT. 99 other connections. We re-affirm the principle that God has so constituted the soul that con- science will enforce no moral duty unless it sees God init. The conscience is made to respond to the voice of God, as moral Ruler, and it will answer to no other. A false faith may pervert the conscience to enforce a false rule, because faith has the same effect upon our moral powers as knowledge; but this only proves that a sense of God by faith is the natural life of the conscience, and that there is no other power to enforce truth, but conscience. It proves also that revealed truth, or truth that carries the authority of God with it, is an absolute neces- sity in order to the regeneration of men. Truth, by human -authority alone, can not accomplish the end. Hence the advent of the Spirit was the great promise, because it gave the God-sense to Christ’s life and teaching. The apostles did not move from their place until it descended upon them: then, illumined and empowered, they went forth (Eph. iii, 9) ‘‘to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the 100 THE DOCTRINE OF world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.” § 32.—The preceding views illustrated by expe- VIENCE. The preceding views will be recognized as verified in the experience of most persons. “A man may hear the truth without impression at one time, and yet, at another time, by ¢he same truth, presented, it may be, in @ more feeble manner, he will be made conscious that he is a sinner in the sight of God. In such cases if he will examine his exercises he will see that it 1s the sense of God’s authority in connection with truth, which gives it its efficacy. It is the same mind and the same truth, and it may be the same instrumentality; but in one case it produces no effect, except an intellectual im- pression, in the other it produces prayer, peni- tence, and reformation of life. Experience thus verifies the testimony of the Bible, that the spiritual sense is necessary to the efficacy of Divine Truth. THE HOLY SPIRIT. 101 § 33.—The sum of preceding deductions. The conscience being quickened by the truth through the Spirit, the soul is awakened; the heart being affected by the love of Christ, as His life and death is exhibited by the Spirit, the soul is converted; and the moral and emo- tional nature thus vitalized, act upon the will, and produce obedience by influencing it into harmony with the will of Christ. When con- science and the heart thus unite their power, ° they determine the will potentially. Con- science enforces the rule of righteousness as duty to God —the heart induces obedience by love to the person whose will isobeyed. Hence, as the rule of righteousness and the personal will of Christ are one, the Redeemer becomes “the way, the truth, and the life to every one that believeth.” This revelation of the law by the personal example and will of Christ is necessary to sat- isfy the wants, as well as to meet the nature of the soul; obedience to an abstract law, without the recognition of a personal will in that law, can - never satisfy the heart. It is absurd to talk, as 102 THE DOCTRINE OF the skeptics do, of love and obedience to the laws of nature, or to anything impersonal.* A ffectionate obedience, as we have noticed, can be exercised only towards a personal being who has voluntarily, and in view of our wants, exercised himself in goodness towards us. The man who talks abouta “religion of nature” for man has surely not studied the necessities of man’s moral nature. There can be no affec- tionate obedience to a superior being, except in view of the character and action of that being as personally related to us. As man is made, the motive to obedience must be an apprehen- sion of the character and qualities of the law- giver. Hence the Spirit comes to us in the name of Christ, exhibiting the Father in the person of the Son, and exhibiting His law and IIis love together as attributes of His person. Thus the soul finds motive in Christ for affec- tionate obedience to Him as Lord and Saviour. Oh, the length, and the breadth, and the depth, and the height of that Divine Wisdom which has given the rule of duty in connection with a * See note on Parker, Emerson and Transcendent- alism in Appendix. THE HOLY SPIRIT. 103 revelation of love, and in the one person of Christ; so that the conscience and affections unite in producing love to the Law-giver! § 34.—The union of the Word and Spirit neces- sary in the process of conviction and sanctification. In one sense truth gives direction without moral impulse, and the Spirit gives moral impulse without direction. There are multi- tudes who sometimes see the light and desire to obey, but “are not able.” To use a phrase- ology common with such, ‘they have no heart.”” On the contrary, in times of special religious interest in any community, many apparently become willing to obey who have no right apprehension of the example of Christ as the rule of duty. The truth in regard to the evil of sin in the sight of God is felt by them. The conscience awakes, the man in a sense repents, but he is like a blind man _ run- ning from the flames,—he runs to stumble, and to stop he knows not where. The heart of the man dispossessed of evil demons* was swept and garnished,—he had in one sense repented * Matt. xii. 44. 104 THE DOCTRINE OF from sin, but his mind, although “ swept and garnished,” remained unoccupied. He had not enthroned Christ as Lord and Saviour; hence the evil returned with greater power. It is only when faith connects the precept with the person of Christ—His law with His love—that both direction and impulse are given to the will. There is often, likewise, in the minds of sin- cere persons, an imperfect apprehension of truth. The character of Christ may be per- ceived truly in one regard, and imperfectly in another. The devotee may have faith in a dying Christ, but little apprehension of the hiving Christ as the rule of life; the will stir his emotions, and produce love to God without labor for men. The Reformer may have faith in the life of Christ; this will move to good works, but such works do not flow from that Jove which purifies the heart. The Sectarian may believe in a ereed rather than in Christ; this will make him compass sea and land to make proselytes to a sect rather than to the Saviour. Hence faith in the living example und dying love of Christ are both necessary. A THE HOLY SPIRIT. 105 living conscience and heart are the only true motive-power in the service of God. These are awakened by a sense of God in truth, and by Christ’s suffering in the flesh for us. Good works for the temporal and spiritual good of man are the only true life,—these are pro- duced by conformity of the human will by love to the will of Christ. Thus faith in Christ’s life and death combined gives both impulse and direction to the religious life. And unless our motives to action are thus drawn from Christ, the impulse and end of our life must be in our- selves,— our works will be ‘ dead works,” and assimilation to the Divine image can not be the result of our activity. § 35.—The preceding views accord with the rela- lations of the Word and Spirit, as they exist in both the finite and the Infinite mind. In the human mind, and in the Divine mind, as presented in preceding pages, the Word, or Logos, is the intelligence—the conceived and uttered thought or outbirth of the soul. The Spirit is back of the Word. It knows* the * 1 Cor. ii. 11.—‘‘ For what man knoweth the things of 5* 106 THE DOCTRINE OF Word, and uses it to reveal its own character to other minds, so far as it designs its personal character and will to be known. It is thus in the process of human redemption from ignorance and sin: the operation of the Divine mind, and the relation and manifestation of Word and Spirit, are revealed as acting in accordance with this constitutional method of mental develop- ment. The Spirit uses the word—takes of its manifestation —and thus through the Word, and by the Word, as Messiah or Mediator, reveals God, and redeems those who believe. Men are thus “sanctified by the Spirit through the Truth,” as it was lived, spoken, and suffered by the Son of God. § 86.— The preceding views confirmed: by the leaching of the Scriptures. It will not be necessary to recite in this section all the various passages in which the Word and Spirit are spoken of in their related efficacy. In Scripture the Word is “the sword of the Spirit.” Men are said to be “sanctified by a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” THE HOLY SPIRIT. 107 the truth through the Spirit.” The apostles announce the relation frequently and clearly ; showing that in their own minds the subject was distinctly apprehended. Peter, in exhort- ing believers to the exercise of Christian love, says (1 Peter i. 22), “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the SPIRIT unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fer- vently.”’ This is the import of the whole mat- ter, — by the Word and Spirit affectionate obe- dience is produced toward God, and fraternal love toward men. So the same general view, that truth in the mind is a pre-requisite to the permanent and perfect work of the Spirit, is set forth by the Saviour Himself in the parable of the sower. Matt. xiii.— “He that heareth the word and comprehendeth it not, straightway the evil one cometh and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. But he that receiveth seed into good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” 108 THE DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. A reception of the revealed word into an understanding mind is necessary in order to the fruit of obedience. All fanaticism grows out of a disseverance of the Spirit and the revealed Word. All erring enthusiasts are per- suaded that the Spirit teaches them separate from, or beyond, what is written. They do not “understand” that the Spirit does not come to reveal new truth, but to use the truth which Christ has already revealed. Men can be purified only by “ obeying the truth through the Spirit.” The man who understands the truth and does not obey is a sinner. The man who professes to be influenced by the Spirit, while he does not obey Christ by a life of labor for human good, is an enthusiast.* But if we “abide in Christ” by faith, ‘‘and his word abide in us” by understanding, we shall then have both the impulse of the Spirit and the guidance of the Word. Prayer will be an- swered; and we ‘shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” * See Appendix E,—CausE oF FANATICISM. CHAPTER VI. THE WORK OF CHRIST BY THE DIVINE SPIRIT IN THE MINDS OF BELIEVERS. “ T will not leave you comfortless: I will come unto you.”* The promise of Christ in this lan- guage and in other phraseology, to come again after His ascension to the Father, is often spoken of by the sacred writers, There are three events to which the promise in some of its phrases is applicable. The first, and the most important in its spiritual significance, 1s the coming of Christ, by the Holy Spirit, to guide, comfort, and sanctify believers, and to convince the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. To His disciples He said, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come unto you.” This was His coming in the Com- * John xiv. 18. 110 THE DOCTRINE OF forter. John xiv. 19,—‘*The world seeth me no more; but ye shall see me; because I live, ye shall live also.” In Him was life, and that life would be light and love in them. They would be conscious of His indwelling presence, when He should reveal Himself to them as He did not to the world. This was His first com- ing. He came again by His providence, to destroy the city and the temple, and with these the ritual dispensation of Moses. The gospel being engrafted upon the Old Dispensation, it was fit, in the order of progress, that the imperfect should pass away, so that the perfect might supervene.* He will come again in person, at the end of the Christian Dispensa- tion, to judge mankind, to destroy the wicked and the world together,f and to inaugurate ‘the new heavens and the new earth, in which shall dwell the righteous,’”’ who possess eternal life by their union with Him. But Christ’s coming by His Spirit is the great * Heb. xii. 27,—“‘ Signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which can not be shaken may remain.” 422° Pet." iii. THE HOLY SPIRIT. 111 event of the New Dispensation. The apostles themselves did not apprehend, until after the fulfillment of the promise, the plenitude and the power of the blessing which the words indicated.* § 37.—The twofold office-work of the Spirit. The work of the Spirit is twofold, in the Church and in the world,—i the minds of those who are reconciled to God, and with the minds of the disobedient. Whether the Holy Spirit ever influences the disobedient, unless it be dispensed through the Church — through the minds of believers, as a medium, is a question that should receive thoughtful consideration. It is one of great practical importance; and, believing that the Divine procedure ordinarily is, that the Spirit is dispensed to believing and obedient minds, and through these to the unregenerate, we will speak of His work in this order. “The promise of the Father” was given first to the disciples. To them the Spirit came, * See Appendix, — PRIMITIVE VIEWS IN REGARD TO CHRIST’S SECOND ADVENT. 112 THE DOCTRINE OF in power, on the day of Pentecost. They immediately began their mission, and preached Christ crucified as Lord and Saviour. The Divine Spirit and Divine providence co-ope- rated with their effort. Men were “ pricked in their hearts,” and inquired what they should do. They were instructed to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; and thus believing with their heart, they were baptized and added to the churches. The necessity of the Spirit’s work, and His separate office with the obedient and disobe- dient mind, are stated with great distinct- ness by the Saviour in His last conversation with the disciples. We will quote the whole passage in this place, in order that we may mark the order and the significance of the words. The instruction which they contain will form for the most part the subject matter of succeeding pages. John xvi. 7—16,—“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 convince the THE HOLY SPIRIT. ATS world of sin, of righteousness, and of judg- ment: ‘“‘Of sin, because they believe not on me; “Of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye see me no more: “And of judgment, because the Prince of this world is judged. “IT have yet many things to say unto you, but ye can not bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of Truth, is come, he will lead you unto all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever things he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. ‘“‘ We 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 shall show it unto you. “A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.” It is not necessary in this connection to speak of the miraculous manifestations of the Spirit in the apostolic age. The foregoing pas- 114 THE DOCTRINE OF sage, which specifies the work of the promised Comforter, does not include these. Miracles were for a sign. They were the divine creden- tials confirming the mission of those who estab- lished the New Dispensation. As such, they were necessary, in view of the state of the human mind, in the beginning of all the dis- pensations. The burden of the promise in the New Testament is, conviction of sin TO THE WORLD, and sanctification TO BELIEVERS, through the truth of Christ, empowered by the Holy Ghost. The spiritual import of the. subject is of the highest moment. It speaks of the con- nection where the Divine unites itself with the human, in working out the salvation of the soul. We will consider it in the several aspects presented in the foregoing words of Christ, and endeavor to apprehend distinctly the pro- cess of the Spirit, working by the Truth mm the believing, and upon the unbelieving, mind. First in the believing mind. THE HOLY SPIRIT. 115 § 388.—The experimental import of the statement that the Spirit shall not speak of Himself. We have referred to this statement in pre- ceding pages,—let us now endeavor to gain an appreciation of the experimental meaning of the words, “ The Spirit shall not speak of ETimself.”’ When the soul is influenced by the Divine Messenger, the believer is not led to think of the Spirit itself, nor to utter praise in view of ' . the person and work of the Spirit; but the person and work of Christ is brought before the mind. The Comforter takes of the things that belong to Jesus, and shows them to the soul. The self-denial of the Redeemer, the lowliness and loveliness of His character, His mercy to the sinful, His suffering as a ran- som—some view of His character or work, as it relates to the human soul, is presented; “and while the Christian muses the fire burns.” A glow of devotion is awakened in his emotions that purifies and empowers. 2 Oor. iii. 18,— He ‘‘sees as in a glass the glory of God, and 116 THE DOCTRINE OF is changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” There is an affluence supplied By faith in Christ the crucified, Through all the being rife ; It is the power that makes us whole— A saving unction in the soul— It ts the Spirit's life. The specialty of the statement ought to be particularly noted. It is not in accordance with the aim and effect of ordinary spiritual intercourse. The impression of one spirit upon another usually attracts the attention of the one addressed to the personality of the one which communicates the thought. But the Spirit of God does not exhibit Himself, but He exhibits the personality of Christ to the mind. He awakens the soul to introduce the Saviour. The personality which the soul sees is that of Jesus; and the truth which the Spwit uses is limited and bounded by the Redeemer’s work. The believer experiences the fulfillment of the promise, ‘“ He shall take of the things that belong to me and show them unto you.” THE HOLY SPIRIT. 117 § 39.— By exhibiting Christ the Spirit likewise exhibits the Father to the soul. The Scriptures teach, as we have seen, that all the attributes of the Father that are know- able by man are revealed in the Son. The Son, or Word, is the “outshining of the Father’s glory, and the perfect image of His person- ality.” Thus the Father in Christ, and Christ by the Spirit, is revealed to the obedient mind. ‘All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, he [the Spirit] shall take of mine, and show it unto you.” It was promised to the apostles that the Spirit should form a conscious spiritual union between their souls and Christ, and through Christ with the Father.. John xiv. 20, 23,— «¢ At that day ye shall know that Iam in the Father, and ye in me, and lin you.” “Ifa man love me he will keep my commandments: and my Father will love him, and wes [Father and Son] will come and make our abode with him.” So in 1 John ii. 24,—‘“ Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things, and if that which ye have heard from 118 THE DOCTRINE OF the beginning remain in you, ye shall continue in the Son and in the Father.” ‘J in them and thou in Me; that they may be made perfect in one.” These mystic words are true in the consciousness of believers; and the form of this spiritual union is verified in the nature of mind. By the Holy Spirit the Father is in Christ, and Christ in believers: one consciousness of life and love flowing from the one God through all individual holy minds in the universe.—“ Glory be to the Father, and and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning —is now, and ever shall be — world without end.” How clear, yet how profound and beneficent, is the Divine Manifestation! Believers are made “ partakers of the Divine Nature.” The nature of the Father through the Son is made known unto them—and (to repeat an illustra- tion) as the rays of light which pass through a colored medium take the hues of the medium through which they come, so the Spirit of God, coming to us through Christ incarnate, is bap- tized in the humanities of His person, and hence becomes the dispenser of the Divine THE HOLY SPIRIT. 119 mercy, as that mercy was revealed in the flesh. So that (Rom. viil. 8, 4), “What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh [had no sympathetic power to touch the emo- tional nature], God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, con- demned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law [which requires love but can not produce it] might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but the Spirit.” § 40.—The Spirit witnesses to the truth of Divine Revelation. “‘ He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself’ (1 John v. 10) that the record which God has given of His Son is true. The form of this testimony is obvious. The mental exercises,— the hopes, fears, inter- ests, states of mind, which those possessed who believed the truth in the age of the apostles, are given in the New Testament. These were produced by belief of the truth as then: revealed. By the Holy Spirit the same truth begets the same state of mind in believers now that is promised in the record, and that was 120 THE DOCTRINE OF possessed by believers of the age when it was spoken. The Christian knows therefore that it is the same Spirit and the same truth that existed in the days of the apostles, because the same effects are produced in him, by the same cause, which were produced in them. The promise of light, comfort, strength, by the Spirit is ful- filled; and he can no more doubt the truth of the Christian religion, than he could doubt the word of a traveler, who told him of a spring by the way-side after he had himself found it as described, and tasted the qualities of the water, which refreshed and strengthened him, as it had others. : This is the assurance of Paul, when he says, ‘¢The Holy Ghost also is witness for us.”* He predicated his statement, as the passage shows, upon the promise given in the Old Testament, that in the time of Christ the “law should be written in the heart.” This was fultilled in him by the Spirit, and therefore he knew, by the highest of all evidence, that both the Old Testament promises and the New Testament * Heb. x. 15. THE HOLY SPIRIT. 121 experience were from God. The one was the counterpart of the other. Many persons, not apprehending the nature of the infallible evidence for spiritual religion, ask, Why does not God give us now the same miraculous testimony to the truth of revelation that He gave to His ancient people? We have better testimony than this: — The presence of Christ by His Spirit is better evidence than was His presence by the pillar of cloud and fire. The one was better adapted to the age of infancy and discipline—the other is adapted to the age of manhood and reason. In the one Christ was present to the sense—in the other He is present to the soul. The Shekinah which shone through the veil of Moses, now shines unveiled into the hearts of believers, giving them the “light of the knowledge of God in the face of Christ Jesus.” The conscious testimony of the Holy Spirit is the only satisfactory evidence of faith in Christ.* The external evidence of the truth of Christianity may convince the intelligence of some men that the system has historical valid- * See Appendix G,— Bishop TayLor’s TESTIMONY. 122 THE DOCTRINE OF ity. The use of such evidence is proper in its place; and in the hands of those who under- stand its place and its comparative value it may be used with profit to others. But some have written on the evidences of Christianity that knew nothing themselves of the higher testi- mony. And many have believed the history of “God manifest in the flesh,’ who never possessed the inward testimony produced by the “faith which works by love and purifies the heart.”* Such men may discuss, with much learning and intellectual acumen, the dogma of theological systems: but it is written (1 Cor. xii. 8), and will be true for ever, that ‘*no man can say Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy Ghost.” This view of the place and comparative value of miraculous and spiritual testimony is * The Spirit was not promised to testify of the canon of the Old Testament, or the Hagiography, or histories of Old Testament times. It testifies of the Old Testament system as introductory, and hence immature both in pre- cept and example. Its promised “conviction of sin” is in view of Christ, and it ‘takes of the things that belong to Christ and shows them to the believer,” and to the believer only. THE HOLY SPIRIT. 1238 recognized by the Saviour. Before the advent of the Spirit, and while Jesus was yet with them, He urged His disciples, and likewise the Jews, to believe that the Father was in Him, and He in the Father, for the works’ sake which He did. Before the day of Pentecost, miracles were the best evidence that men had of the divinity of Christ. And down to this day, with unregenerate minds, and Christians in the Old Testament or John Baptist state, miracles are still the best testimony which such possess. But at the same time that Christ appealed to His miracles as evidence of His commission from Heaven, He promised to His disciples more satisfactory testimony —a. testi- mony which the world did not and could not receive. John xiv. 11— 26, —“ He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” “At that day ye shall know that I am in the Lather, and ye in me, and I in you.” § 41.— The nature of the Spirit’s witness. The visitations of the Spirit are with the inner life of the soul. They beget a sense of 124 THE DOCTRINE OF sonship in the believing mind. The renewed man is willing to obey and be treated as a servant, but he is received and endowed with the spirit and privileges of a son. In regener- ation the mind passes, as the Church has done, through the legal into the spiritual dispensa- tion. All the demands of conscience are obeyed better than before, but the impulse to will and to do is born in the heart. The Old Testament servant becomes a New Testament son. ‘Our Father” is the proper designation of God under the new dispensation. But it is a designation specially appropriate to those in whose minds the law of love is fulfilled. “They that are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” Hence Paul, in speak- ing of the obedience he once offered, and that which he then enjoyed, says (Rom. viii. 15, 16), “For we have not received the spirit of bond- age again to fear; but we have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father, — the Spirit itself bearing witness with our spirit, that we are the sons of God.” Of this condition of sonship, as of all other Christian graces and glories, Jesus Christ Him- THE HOLY SPIRIT. 125 self is the example and the type. From Him, by the Spirit, believers receive into their hearts the Christian virtues—‘“ grace for grace.” Each lineament of His character is impressed upon them in proportion to their faith. So that the devout, tender, and submissive spirit manifested by Christ toward the Father, is reproduced in believers “by the Spirit of Christ which dwelleth in them.” Gal. iv. 6,— “For God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son _ into their hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” — § 42.— The influence of the Spirit upon the Faculties of the mind separately considered. The Spirit of Christ does not work in con- travention of the normal exercise of the mental powers. On the contrary, it works in harmony with all the laws of mind. Its influence is to exhilarate and exercise the mental faculties joyfully and energetically. The things which Christ had spoken were brought to the memory of the disciples, but this was done evidently according to the law of suggestion. The dif- ferent evangelists in communicating the same truth connect it sometimes with one incident, 126 THE DOCTRINE OF and sometimes with another; each recording the event as suggested by the circumstance which most affected him, and each presenting it in language in keeping with his natural tem- perament, and with the degree of his mental culture.* One evangelist associates events topically, another logically, and another spirit- ually; but still in all the memory furnishes the same truth, characterized by the diverse advan- tages and mental peculiarities of the writers. A spiritual mind is one awakened to life and interest in spiritual things. To the Christian preacher especially, this heart-interest in the gospel is an essential qualification. The affec- * When Bible orators speak of the excellence of Revela- tion, as consisting in the wonderful sublimity of language and wonderful excellence of precept found in the Old and New Testament, they no doubt ought to be commended . for their well-meant efforts. But it is certain that literary style in any other sense than as a specimen of the usus loqguendi of the age, was not designed to be an evidence of inspiration. If literary excellence were the criterion of judgment, it would be difficult for well-informed Chris- tians to undertake the proof of Divine inspiration. Even if the precepts of the Bible were its chief excellence the evidence would be different from what it really is. The example and precepts of Christ are perfect and ultimate. THE HOLY SPIRIT. 127 tions, awakened by faith, will start the law of suggestion, and thus give parallel texts to the memory, and freshness of illustration to impress the thought. Every true minister uuderstands and appreciates this fact, and every audience, without knowing why, feels it. As a man pleading for his child will find words, and be impressive in tone and gesture, so a believing mind will be aided, and will communicate of its animus to those who hear. EKarnestness, love, and other qualities of thought which characterize true gospel ser- vices, are mere affectation in some pulpits. Men are conscious of what their profession requires, and perhaps from a laudable but heartless sense ‘Thou shalt love God with all thy heart and all thy might, and thy neighbor as thyself.” There can be noth- ing purer nor higher than this. Any thing else would be wrong. If God were to give another religion it would necessarily be a worse one, because it could not be better. But the POWER of the gosfel is its glory. The strength imparted by the Spirit through the conscience and the heart to obey Christ as a personal Saviour, is its vital excellence. The disposition to do the good that we know is the great want of the soul. Ths want ts supplied by Jaith in Christ. The precept enlightens. THe Spirit GIVES LIFE. 128 THE DOCTRINE OF of propriety assume the adapted manner. But such preachers do not “ speak as of the ability that God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified.”* They speak as of themselves; and the false fire upon the altar is a proper emblem of their service. ‘Out of the abund- ance of the heart the mouth speaketh;” and when atrue minister has carefully and prayer- fully prepared a discourse, forgetting himself and shaping it under the motive to do good, if the manuscript be not so closed as to prevent it, he will get from the impulse within him aids and suggestions which will greatly add to the impression of his teaching.+ It may be that the mind that is naturally impulsive and sanguine, as it is, in itself, more liable to mistakes, is likewise, from its temper- ament, more susceptible of aid than others. Such were the minds of Peter, Luther, Whit- field, and Finney. There are some men who are so careful lest they should do evil that they never do much good — so careful to avoid error * a Petstvis1rt t See on this general subject the excellent book of W. Arthur, M.A., entitled “ The Tongue of Fire.” THE HOLY SPIRIT. 129 that they fail to exhibit truth. Some prepare a sermon with the selfish thought in their minds, What effect will this presentation have upon ME ™ the estimation of the audience? Some close a manuscript in such form that there is no place for the Holy Spirit to put in a suggestion. Hence a fervent, sincere, believing mind will most frequently be aided; and even the blun- ders to which it is liable will often be overruled for good;— for good, both to humble the speaker and to benefit the hearer. It is diffi- cult, however, to discriminate between the line of selfish caution and sinful presumption. God alone, not man, is judge. The promise to the apostles that they would be aided without forethought related only to exigencies, and ought not to be claimed for the formal, routine preaching of our age. But, in every age, spiritual aid to prepare and to speak is, without doubt, granted to all evangelists who have a true faith, and who seek to accom- plish the end for which the Holy Spirit gives strength to the soul:—the great end of all Christian effort,—to glorify God by doing good to men. 6* 130 TUE DOCTRINE OF But while the Spirit thus operates in accord- ance with the conformation of the mind, there are exceptional cases where abnormal confor- mation interferes with symmetrical religious development. There are minds in which cer- tain powers or susceptibilities are dwarfed or perverted. The susceptibility of hope, for instance, may be over-active, or it may be almost wanting. In such cases, without a miracle, a full and perfect development of reli- gious life is not possible. A phlegmatic tem- perament will not be likely to express itself in sanguine appeals. Grace may compensate for want in one direction by strength in another, but it will not equalize the development. But notwithstanding these diversities, there are two qualities, or powers, to which faith will always give vitality and position. In all cases, however defective may be some of the intellectual powers, the conscience will be enthroned and the affections will receive new life; and these moral powers, raised by faith to headship in the soul,* will determine the * See Chalmers’ Bridgewater Treatise on the Supremacy _ of Conscience. THE HOLY SPIRIT 131 strength of the motive,* and give impulse to the will. Righteousness and the love of God will be in the ascendant. There will be dif- ferent phases of manifestation; and fruits will be matured in different degrees of abundance, and of different qualities —still in the life of the true Christian conscience and love will rule; and the fruits of the Spirit, borne on all the branches united to Christ, will be ‘love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, good- ness, faith, meekness, temperance.” These the soul will taste in its own susceptibility, and will thus be made to partake of the fruit of the “Tree of Life, which groweth in the midst of the Paradise of God.” § 43.— The duty of prayer annexed to the doc- trine of the Spirit. The gift of the Spirit of Truth, as we have noticed, is the promise of the Father—the promise of Christ—the great promise of the New Testament Dispensation. The believer is not only invited to ask for this offered bless- * The power of motive-truth depends upon the state of mind upon which it operates, 132 THE DOCTRINE OF ing, but he is apparently entreatea by the author of all mercies to seek for that spiritual presence of Christ which is, in itself, an answer to all prayer. ‘Seek, and ye shall find ;” ‘“‘ Ask, and it shall be given unto you.” We are taught that the Divine Father is more will- ing to give the Holy Spirit to His children who ask Him than earthly parents are to give good gifts to their offspring. And annexed to this promise there is the assurance that the blessing granted shall not be such as to mock the sup- pliant; but that it will be a satisfactory supply of his spiritual wants. ‘Ifa child ask bread, will a parent give him a stone?” something that will mock, but: not satisfy his want! Even so, the Father in Heaven will grant a satisfying supply for the spiritual wants of those who ask Him. ; Such is the plentitude of the promise to the children of God. And they are encouraged to seek spiritual blessings, not only for them- selves, but in answer to their persevering sup- plication, blessings are promised To THEM, for others, and they are constituted the mediums through which spiritual mercies are communi- THE HOLY SPIRIT. fos cated to those who have not tasted of the bread of life,* and for whom they make sup- plication. § 44.— The condition upon which the influence of the Holy Spirit ts granted. It is not every form of prayer that is answered by a blessing. It is (James v. 16), ‘““The effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man that availeth much.” Some things are required in the character of the suppliant, and some things in the quality of the prayer. The sum of these requirements, as to character, is that the suppliant should live up to his know- ledge of duty. We must not refuse to use the light and strength which we possess, while we pray for more light-and aid from above. The golden rule is a deduction of the reason, as well as a precept of revelation.f We know by experience what we desire others should or should not do to us, hence we know what we ; * See Luke xi. 5 — 13. ¢ Confucius announced this rule in ‘words the import of which is precisely the same as that Nbc S in the lan- ovaee of ae 134 THE DOCTRINE OF ought to do to them. In Matthew vii. 11, 12, the Saviour’s promise of the Spirit is imme- diately conjoined with this rule of righteous- ness. He says, “If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good gifts to them that ask Him?” ‘“ Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them.”” The Christian, therefore, who labors to practice this rule, comes accept- ably to the Father for the aid of the promised Spirit. The Apostle Paul gives the same truth and the same connection in another form of words (Phil. iii. 14, 15),— “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. ‘Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God will reveal even this unto you.” That is, if in the discharge of Christian duty you use all the strength at present granted, God will aid you in regard to other things which you may desire. And this promise of increase, when the measure of THE HOLY SPIRIT. 139 ability is complied with, relates not only to duty but to doctrine. John vii. 17, —“If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doc- trine whether it be of God.” The Apostle John gives the specific sense (1 John iii. 21, 22),—‘* Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask we receive of Him, BECAUSE WE KEEP His COMMANDMENTS, AND DO THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE PLEASING IN Hits staut.” That is, in order to receive an answer to prayer for promised blessings, we must be living, so far as we have ability, in the discharge of all duties that we know are pleas- ing to God. It is mockery to pray, as some do, for guidance and strength, while they are not obedient so far as they have knowledge and ability. It is the same thing as refusing to use the ability granted us, while yet we ask for more. If the Scriptures make any thing plain, it is that good works, as of the ability that God giveth, are required in order that prayer may be answered. In the parable of Jesus, he who had the one talent committed to him was a servant who 136 THE DOCTRINE OF professed to fear and obey his master. - He was not one of the rebellious citizens who hated their Lord and opposed His government. And while thus refusing to exercise his ability in the use of the talent committed to him, he not only failed of a present blessing by an increase of his talent arising from the use of it, but he secured for himself merited penalty. His soul was not slain as the rebellious citizen, but it was darkened, and possessed with regret- ful exercises.* * See Luke xix. 11—27.—A penalty is affixed to the non-use of our faculties and abilities, both in nature and grace. The man who, like the Fakir in India, refuses ‘o use his arm, will lose ability to use it. The man who refuses to use his moral faculties in the service of God, will lose moral strength in the faculty which is not exer- cised. All our faculties gain strength by exercise, and lose strength by non-use. The unprofitable servant in the parable professed to know the character, and to fear the frown, of his master. He knew his master had power to do as he pleased, and did not need his service; and seeing he was so sovereign, he did not himself know what to do with the talent intrusted to him. So he kept it very care- fully (had very careful habits, and did not abuse _ his moral powers in any way), and returned it in good condi- tion to Him who gave it. Such a professed servant of THE HOLY SPIRIT. 137 Suppose that God should grant the Holy Spirit in answer to prayer, without the condi- tion that the servant should use the ability already possessed; the answer would, in such case, mislead the suppliant and tend to licen- tiousness. The fact that God had given peace and love where there was pride and prejudice and disobedience (if such a thing were possi- ble — which it is not), would lead the suppliant to believe that God was pleased with him while he possessed a wrong state of heart, and was not letting the light he already possessed shine, according to the commandment. Thus man would be deceived and injured, and God would be dishonored. The best Christians sometimes feel the weakness of their strength and of their Christ, we are taught, will hereafter be cast out into moral darkness, where he will be filled with compunction in view of his indolence and folly. The enemies of Christ who refuse to have Him reign over them, are brought out and slain before Him. The unprofitable servant suffers loss, exclusion, and remorse. The rebels are destroyed. Let unprofitable servants, whose names are legion, notice the specific difference between the reward of the profitable servant, the doom of the unprofitable, and the destruction of the rebellious citizen. 138 THE DOCTRINE OF faith, but they know the will of God and can obey with a prayerful, dependent, and perse- vering spirit; and while doing the work of a servant, if they do it for Christ’s sake, God will recognize them as a son. When compar- ing themselves with Christ, all Christians will see imperfection in their obedience — but they ~ will be conscious of an obedient spirit, and trust in Christ’s mercy, and this is the true Christian consciousness in light or darkness. To the young convert whose heart is puri- fied, and whose knowledge is yet limited, the privilege of the newly born may be given. The Good Shepherd may take the lamb in His arms, and bear it for a time in his bosom; but He will set it down in order that it may gain strength by exercise. So the young Christian must learn to’ talk, and walk, and work. He may lean on Christ’s strength, but he must exercise his faculties in active service; and refusing to do this he will fail in fruitfulness, and fail of the favor of God in answer to prayer. The requirement of reason and of Scripture, in regard to the instructed Christian in order to THE HOLY SPIRIT. 139 communion with God, is that he should live so that his conscience does not condemn him for neglecting known duty. 1 John iii. 19— 22,— ‘“‘ Hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our conscience condemn us, God is greater than our conscience, and knoweth all things. Be- loved, if our conscience condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatso- ever we ask, we receive of him, BECAUSE WE KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS, AND DO THE THINGS THAT ARE PLEASING IN HIS sigut.” This is explicit. No one but ane formal worshiper can fail to understand. ; § 45.—Availing prayer is offered to G'od in the name of Christ. The Redeemer, in His last words with His disciples, speaking of His departure from them, and the new views which would be attained, and the new duties which would supervene after Ifis ascension, says (John xvi. 23, 24), “In that day [after I shall have fully revealed the Father and ascended to His bosom] ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, What- 140 THE DOCTRINE OF soever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name: ask, and receive, that your joy may be full.” When we ask for spiritual blessings, viewing the Father’s character as revealed in Christ, “the Father is glorified in the Son.” This is the import of this and other parallel passages.* To ask the Father in the name of Christ, is to ask Him in the character which the work of Christ has given Him. He is thus glorified in the name, or in the character, which He has revealed in Christ. If God’s character were not viewed through Christ, we would not be regarding His moral excellences and his rela- tions to ourselves as they really exist under the New Testament dispensation. God is as good as the sacrifice of Christ reveals Him to be. To know Him, therefore, as He is, to worship in the light of His true character, we must ask in the name of Jesus; that is, adoring the Divine Being as revealed in the Mediator. Before the crucifixion and the advent of the Spirit the disciples had made supplication in * See Philosophy of Plan of Salvation, chap. xvii. THE HOLY SPIRIT. 141 the name of Jehovah —the name by which the attributes of God were imperfectly revealed in the Old Testament dispensation ; but when the Spirit led them to see the Father in Christ, then, and not till then, Christ’s name was asso- ciated in all their addresses to the Supreme Being.* Heb. xiii. 20, 21,—“ Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting cove- nant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” * A true faith in Christ implies both the impulse of love and the guidance of truth, Many have faith in Christ as a Saviour, who misapprehend, or are ignorant of, His will in regard to duty. They pray not in submission, but for strength to do what is contrary to the will of God. They have zeal without knowledge. To hear their prayer would be to grant them strength to misdirect their efforts. Their prayer may be answered; but not in the manner they desire. But those who “wddde ix Christ by faith, and in whom 4s words abide as guidance, may ask what they will, and it shall be done unto them.”—John xv. 4. 142 THE DOCTRINE OF § 46.—The sum of preceding sections. The sum of preceding thoughts on this sub- ject is, that prayer for the blessing of the Spirit, when we are not living up to our light, nor making an effort to do so, is mockery. Suppli- cation for the Spirit’s guidance, when we are at the same time unwilling to be made the hum- ble, obedient, self-denying Christians which we know the Spirit would make us, is hypocrisy. But to those who receive the words of Christ and are obedient to them in heart—to such as endeavor, according to their ability, to exem- plify the Spirit and follow the example of the Great Teacher, the Comforter is promised, and the promise will never fail while the truth and mercy of God endure. And when the Comforter comes, He not only brings a blessing to the soul of the suppliant, but He endues him with a blessing for the sub- jects of his prayers. Not that impenitent men will be converted when the believer makes per- sistent supplication for them; but, if they have not sinned beyond recovery, the Divine Spirit will visit those for whom such supplication is offered, and by some fact of providence, or of revelation, such minds will be impressed and THE HOLY SPIRIT. 143 invited to consider subjects connected with their spiritual condition here, and their spiritual well- being hereafter. Thus the company of obedient Christians are made “partakers of the Divine nature,” and become the living mediums by which the mercy of Heaven is conveyed through the earth. They are appointed “ a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God, through Jesus Christ.” Under the Old Testa- ment the company of priests made intercession, “with sacrifice, day by day, which could not make them which did the service perfect as por- taining to the conscience.” Under the new and perfect dispensation, every believer is appointed an intercessor. For them the sacrifice of Christ is always offered—“ offered once for all by the Kternal Spirit.” Whoever believes and obeys Christ receives the Spirit; his work for the good of men will then be availing, and his prayers will be answered,—for He is constituted “Ca king and priest unto God, and he shall reign in the new heavens and new earth, in which dwelleth righteousness.”* * Rev. v. 10.—See Appendix H,—CoNNECTION BETWEEN TRUTH, PROVIDENCE, AND PRAYER. CHAPTER VII. THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT WITH THE MINDS OF THE IMPENITENT. Tur Holy Spirit being given to believers, as in the preceding chapter, and they exercising themselves as laborers and intercessors for the sinful and the needy, then the Divine influence will follow their thought, or will otherwise reach the minds of those for whom they make supplication; and such minds will (unless unu- sual obstacles prevent) be led to think of God, of sin, and of duty. Wherever there is effort and prayer for the glory of God in the good of men, such supplication and effort produce effect in some direction, and upon some person or persons; usually, as we have said, upon those for whom the supplication is offered. Such per- sons may not always be converted; they may resist unto death. It may not be known to THE DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY Spirit. 145 others that their minds are exercised at all upon the subject of their sinfulness; they may not know it themselves. Their thought will seem to them natural; and they will attribute it to no unusual cause. The Spirit works in harmony with the laws of mind. Yet all this does not militate against the fact that the prayer of the obedient believer does produce results. . When spiritual power is in the soul of the sup- pliant, and his prayer is perseveringly offered for the glory of God, it is as certainly efficient as any of the forces of nature. Prayer is pro- bably one of the moral forces of the spiritual world.* The result of prayer may sometimes be judg- ment mingled with mercies. The spiritual good may begin in some affliction or temporal calamity falling upon a person or a family; some providence needful to produce reflection, or to abate the power of the prince of this world over the soul; but however it begins or advances, where the true Church prays, the Spirit does a work of judgment and mercy, by providence and by truth. The believer will be * See Appendix I —Is pRAYER A MORAL FORCE? 146 | THE DOCTRINE OF strengthened, the impenitent awakened, and God will be glorified. If those who are, in such circumstances, enlightened by truth, and “made partakers of the heavenly gift,” yield their heart and life to Christ, they will become sons of God, and will receive the guidance through life of the Pastor and Bishop of the soul. But if, ‘ being enlightened, they wickedly resist, occur- rences will take place in the seeming natural course of events which will induce scepticism, or in some other way render it more difficult for them ever after to become reconciled to God.* § 47.—Specific work of the Spirit in impenitent minds. We come now to notice the work of the Holy Spirit upon the unrenewed mind. The follow- ing is the succinct scriptural statement. John xvi. 8—11,—“* When the Comforter is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, be- cause I go to the Father, and ye see me no * Heb. vi. 4—. ar : THE HOLY SPIRIT. 147 more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.” The teaching of this passage, it will be seen, is in precise accordance with what has been shown elsewhere to be the only process by which man can advance from lower to higher degrees of moral culture and moral character. In order to unity, we will, in this place recapitulate briefly the statement of those mental necessities* which are met by the Spirit and the truth, as set forth in the above passage. (1.) ‘He will convict the world of sin.” It has been shown that there must be a sense of man’s guilt and danger existing in the mind before there can be gratitude and love to the being who removes. the guilt and rescues from the danger. It has likewise been shown that conviction of sin is a necessary prerequisite to repentance. A man can not conscientiously turn from evil until he sees and feels that it is evil. To suppose that any one will for unsel- * To the thoughtful there is the highest evidence of the divinity of the New Testament, seen in the harmony of its principles and methods with the laws and necessities of the human mind. 148 THE DOCTRINE OF : fish reasons turn from a course of life which he does not first feel to be wrong, is to suppose an ubsurdity. Hence the necessity of the Spirit’s first impression, as stated in the words of Christ, ‘“‘ He will convict the world of sin.” But the same truth would not be adapted to convince all classes of men that they were sin- ners. Some men are least guilty of sins which are the greatest in the case of others. In order therefore to convince any particular class of men of their sinfulness, those facts must be alleged which are adapted to awaken in the soul a sense of personal guilt. In the days of the apostles the Gentiles could not be convicted of sin for rejecting and crucifying Christ; but in the case of the Jews their views in regard to the Messiah were such, that nothing in the whole catalogue of crime would be adapted to convict them of sin so deeply as the thought that Jesus, whom they had crucified, was the Messiah. On the contrary, the heathen, upon whom there was no guilt in regard to the rejection of Christ, would be convicted of sin by such reve- lations of the holiness of God, and the obliga- THE HOLY SPIRIT. — 149 tion of the moral law, as would condemn their idolatries, impurities, and crimes. But in all cases, it was truth as taught by Christ, and judg- ment as administered by Christ,* which the apos- tles presented in order to convince the world of sin. We need not cite instances to show that this was the general order of apostolic proceeding. That quality of truth was used which was adapted to the circumstances and moral attain- ment of those whom they addressed. The Jews were charged with sin in rejecting Christ. The Gentiles were instructed concerning the true God, the true duty, and the folly and sin of their idolatries; while every where Christ cru- cified was presented to the penitent sinner as the object of faith, the source of pardon, and the hope of glory. (2.) “He shall convince the world of right- eousness, because I go to the Father, and ye see me no more.” But it requires something more than truth ; something more even than acknowledged and * Acts Xvii. 31. 150 THE DOCTRINE OF adapted truth, to make men feel that they are sinners in the sight of God. The Maker, as we have noticed,-has so constituted the conscience that it will enforce no truth upon the will unless there is a sense of God’s authority in it. Jesus himself taught that His truth would not have full spiritual efficacy until after His resurrection. By His resurrection and the advent of the Spirit, as we have shown, the evidence of divine authority would be given to His teaching. Then it would be empowered to affect the moral nature of man; to become light to the souls of the dark-minded, and life in the souls of those who believe. Hence the second im- pression of the Spirit by the truth,—‘ He shall convince the world of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye see me no more.” Commentators have blundered even more in regard to the import of this passage than they usually do in regard to the spiritual import of John’s gospel. There is no doubt but that it was designed to give the simple rationale of the process by which the authority of God was attached to the life and death of Christ. When Christ was raised from the dead and taken to THE HOLY SPIRIT. 151 heaven, then the divine sanction was aflixed to His character and instruction, which henceforth became the standard of righteousness. When under the preaching of the apostles, impressed by the Holy Spirit, men came to believe in the ascension of Christ, as Saviour and Judge of men — then the righteousness of Christ became to them the righteousness that God required, and wanting which they would feel condemned as sinners against God, Hence, men were con- vinced of righteousness because God established Christ’s rule of righteousness by the resurrec- tion from the dead.* (3.) “He shall convict the world of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.” Another co-existing conviction promised by the Spirit through the truth was that of judg- ment or condemnation of the selfish forms and deceptions of a worldly life. Men would see, so soon as they believed that Christ’s life was the life that God approved — that the prevail- ing spirit of the world was condemned by His loving and self-denying example. The selfish- * See Appendix L,—OLp AND NEW TESTAMENT MORALITY. 152 THE DOCTRINE OF ness which dictated the factitious manners, and the low and base aims of worldly minds, would be revealed and condemned by the standard of living and the motive of action which Christ had established. This the apostles understood ; they taught that the gospel both revealed sin and condemned it. It led men both to see and to feel the evil of the world. Eph. v. 18,—“All things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.’’* * About the time that Paul wrote the passage from which this quotation is taken, describing the moral cor- ruption which prevailed in the city of Ephesus, Pliny, one of the wisest and most refined men of his age, speaks of the same city as ‘‘one of the luminaries of Asia.” The one considered her as full of light, the other looked upon her as full of darkness. Both views were true, according to the standard by which the writers formed their judg- ment. Pliny saw her as the seat of the highest civilization that a people without revelation had attained. But in Paul’s mind their impure and immoral deeds were made manifest,— the false external of this world was judged. Underneath the glare of vainglory he saw moral corrup- tion. She was ‘a whited sepulchre, full of dead men’s bones.” The description, we fear, is not inapplicable in 3 moral sense to Paris, New York, New Orleans, Chicago, and some other cities both of the old and the new world. If an angel were to visit the resorts of fashion and wealth, THE HOLY SPIRIT. 153 In the light of the gospel the evil was seen, and by the impression of the Spirit the evil was felt. Thus, in the minds of the sanctified, the ruling spirit of the world was condemned, “ the prince of this world was judged.” § 48.—The promised convictions of the Spirit experienced by those who hear the gospel under spiritual impression. It has been, in every age since the gospel was first proclaimed, verified in the experience of tens of thousands, that the subjective effects which Christ promised by his Spirit have been produced. Setting aside instances of sympa- thetic emotion, which do not arise from a sense of heart-guiltiness, and looking charitably upon other movements which may have been pro- duced by sectarian rather than sacred zeal; apart from all such cases, there are multitudes of persons that have felt the convicting power of truth, when that truth has been presented in the presence of Christians whose minds were he would frequently see, under the tinsel which opulence furnishes, the corrupt, sensuous, and selfish motives which renders the soul a *‘ cage of unclean birds.” “ks 154 THE DOCTRINE OF exercised by faith and prayer. Many have in such circumstances been awakened to see the evil of sin, and to realize the claims of God upon them, with a degree of interest that they never felt before.* The three co-existing im- pressions — sin, righteousness, and judgment,— promised as the work of the Spirit through the truth, have been produced in their minds, If we converse with friends who are spiritually interested in religious truth, in some respects we may find their exercises different. Some do not feel that in any one particular they have been great transgressors. Many are troubled that they do not feel more the guilt of their sins. But notwithstanding diversity of views in regard to their own difficulties and deserts, there is always ¢he same consciousness of the three- fold impression, — SIN, RIGHTEOUSNESS, JUDG- MENT. * The writer has seen in two instances respectable busi- ness men, from New York city, rise, exercised by a deep sense of sin, to ask the prayers of a congregation in a dis- tant town, after hearing a single sermon, where they knew no one present, and no one knew them until subsequent inquiry. No word was said, and no prayer uttered except the ordinary service of the Sabbath. THE HOLY SPIRIT. 155 Ask any one of them if they feel that their heart is hard and sinful? Oh yes, they will say, they sce that, but they do not feel it as they ought. Ask them if they have seen their thoughts to be selfish and evil in the sight of God? Oh yes, they have seen that; and have tried to control their thoughts, and make them- selves better, but have failed. They know they will often tell you, that their heart is in a wrong state, and that they do not feel willing to do the will of Christ. By such statements concerning their exercises it will be apparent to enlightened minds, although it may not be to themselves, that they are convinced of sin; some more deeply than others; but still the consciousness, in kind, is the same. They cee the evil of sin, and feel it to some extent. The “T” of the mind, which sees the thought, is convicted and is opposing selfish exercises and wrong propensities. Like Paul, in the Phari- see state, such persons ‘consent unto the law that it is good; but when they would do good evil is present with them.” The second impression also, a sense of right- eousness, is found in their mind. It is the 156 THE DOCTRINE OF perception “ that the law is good” that enables them to feel the evil of their heart. They consent to the law, and yet find in themselves a want of conformity to it. They have begun to read the Scriptures and to study righteous- ness as it is revealed there; and they approve it. They may have had speculative ideas of sin before, and compunction for wrong doing towards others; this all persons who possess a natural conscience will sometimes experience. But now they feel—as did David —that they have “ sinned against G'od, and done the evil in His sight.’* Their conscience accuses them of in- gratitude and disobedience toward their Divine Benefactor. The truth of Scripture has now for them a sense of God in it; and in its light they judge of their past life and their present duty. And, finally, an awakened mind feels, in a sense difficult to express, that the forms and professions of the world are hollow and selfish. And at this point the issue between Christ and Belial for ascendancy in the soul is usually made. The ties of companionship and the * Ps, li. 4. THE HOLY SPIRIT. 157 power of worldly habits and associations are strong — so strong, that many who see the dan- ger, and desire a better life, have not sufficient of principle and purpose to emancipate them- selves from a service which their awakened conscience condemns. Some look up, and under the impulse of the Spirit, struggle to enter in at the strait gate; while others of more feeble purpose, and less moral principle, “‘ desire — seek to enter in, but are not able.” Thus the three-fold conviction of the Spirit is distinct, notwithstanding the varied exercises caused by different temperaments, histories, degrees of knowledge and degrees of sin. In the case of all adult persons who have lived a selfish life antecedent to conversion, there will be found in their minds the three co-existing impressions —sin, righteousness, judgment — in the sense above described. § 49.—The awakening of the lost sinner, and his return to God, as illustrated by the Lord Jesus. The parable of the prodigal son is a beauti- ful, affectionate, and striking illustration of the convicted consciousness, and the state of mind 158 THE DOCTRINE OF in which a lost sinner returns to God. ‘Fhat the parallel may be more distinct, we will pre- sent the figure and its fact in opposite columns. The prodigal takes his portion of goods and leaves home to follow his own will and seek his own happiness in a far off country. The wandering son, hav- ing wasted his substance, is sent to feed swine, and is willing to live on swine’s food. No man gave the prodigal, even of the husks he desired. He found no satisfying good in any earthly source; husks would not satisfy the appe- tite. Finally, through the effect of his experience, and by reflection upon his desti- So the son of the Divine Father takes the talents com- mitted to him, and, if nota believer, at the age of respon- sibility he departs and seeks his own will and his happi- ness in the world. The wandering sinner, having wasted his energies selfish schemes, seeks to satisfy his in sensual and soul with earthly and animal good. So the sinner tries but fails to make himself happy. He turns from one man to another, and from one thing to another, but nothing tem- poral will satisfy spiritual wants. It is as husks to the appetite. So the sinner ‘‘ comes to himself.” scious of his present unsat- He becomes con- THE HOLY SPIRIT. tute condition, the prodigal “*comes to himself,” begins to reflect—to realize the danger and want of his pres- He thinks of his father, and of the supplies distant ent state. and peace in his home, The prodigal, after serious thought, says to himself, I will arise—go home, and confess myself a sinner in the sight of God and my father, and say that I am unworthy to be called a son. The prodigal, in view of his past sin and his unwor- thiness, is willing to return and labor and be treated as a hired servant, feeling that his father will do right if he Thus he re- turns to obey without mak- obeys his will. ing any conditions. 159 isfied and sinful condition. He thinks of his heaveniy Father, and begins seriously to meditate upon his spirit- ual wants, and the supplies offered in the gospel. So the sinner purposes to arise and return to the home He feels that he has sinned against heaven and in the sight of God, and that he is unworthy to be of the soul. called a son, and often in heart-prayer confesses his sin. So the awakened sinner; after purposing to arise and go to his . Father, finally DOES ARISE anc goes towards home. He goes feeling he is unworthy, and asking to be made asa hired servant —not demanding the joy and privileges of a son, but willing to obey, as a humble penitent, and trust his Fa- ther without conditions. 160 The father sees the prodi- gal coming at a great dis- tance, and goes out to meet him. The distance is at first great, so that they are some time approaching each oth- er; but they meet, and the father receives the penitent as a son that ‘‘was lost but is found.” There was rejoicing in the presence of the father, and among the other servants, when the prodigal returned. His soiled garments were exchanged for clean robes, and a feast of social enjoy- ment was held to celebrate his arrival at home. The reason why the father of the prodigal rejoiced was, that his ‘‘son who was dead is alive again; he was lost but is found.” THE DOCTRINE OF So God sees the sinner at a great distance when he first begins to think of his sin and his duty. He goes out to meet him by his prov- And he who is returning, willing idence and his Spirit. to obey as a servant, is met and received as a son. So when the penitent sin- ner returns, ‘“‘There is joy in the presence of the angels of God.” the Divine Master on earth There is social joy in the Church; and the heart of the wan- The servants of likewise rejoice. derer is now purified by faith that works by love, and he puts on the garments of righteousness. So there is joy in heaven — because a soul dead in sin lives now to God, a soul lost to happiness and useful- ness, lives to glorify God and benefit men. THE HOLY SPIRIT. 161 Thus has the great promise of the Redeemer been verified —in the history of the Church, in the experience of men, and in harmony with the specific illustrations of the Great Teacher himself. From the day of Pentecost to the present hour, that promise has been fulfilled in the sanctification of saints, and in the convic- tion and conversion of sinners; and the work will go on increasing in prevalence, purity, and power, until the end of the dispensation. Men may hate the truth and reject the witness, but still “the counsel of God stands sure;” and wherever the truth is preached, men’s destiny for mercy or for judgment is connected with the disposition they manifest towards Christ, who comes to them in the influence of the Divine Spirit. 1 John v. 10,—“ He that be- lieveth on the Son hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God, hath made him a liar: because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.” § 50.— The son’s life at home. A sense of his lost condition and faith in his father’s mercy brought the wanderer home. 162 THE DOCTRINE OF When he has returned, faith and obedience are the impulse and the law of a happy home life. But some Christians err by supposing that the life of faith is a constant flow of joyful emotion. Sometimes joy is sought with a selfish motive, which opens the mind to deception, or which hinders the peace granted upon unconditional submission to the willof God. Men are so con- stituted that strong emotion can not be lasting; reaction must follow. ‘ Peace’’* is the prom- ise of the Saviour; and to the Christian a per- manent peace, hallowed by love, may be enjoyed. This is the believer’s privilege in circumstances where there can be no peace to those unreconciled to God. The things of the world with him are subservient to higher inter- ests, and whether circumstances be propitious or adverse, he is still grateful, because he believes that “all things work together for good to those who love God.” The eldest son in the parable had always been at home—had obeyed from his youth; and although it is affirmed that all that the * John xiv. 27,—‘‘ Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.” THE HOLY SPIRIT. 163 father had was his, yet he could not experience the extreme joy of the returned prodigal, be- cause the sudden change from death to life was no part of his experience. Yet he had the father’s favor, and he was the father’s heir. So those who from childhood obey God. But the prodigal son returns to obey the will of his father. The will of God, and not his own will, is the law of life with the believer. But while the law is obeyed as a rule of duty, that law is likewise an expression of the will and heart of his Divine Benefactor. Christian life is not, therefore, the service of duty under the impulse of conscience alone; the impulse of love is united with the element of conscience. Thus love to men, as the object of effort, and love to Christ, as the author of effort, distin- guishes the son from the servant in the life of faith. But still the will of Christ is supreme law with the believer. He passes from the techni- cal righteousness of the formalist, and the imputed righteousness of the dogmatist, to the actual righteousness of the obedient in heart. He can not do any thing deliberately that he 164 THE DOCTRINE OF knows Christ will disapprove. At home and abroad, in private and in public, a true Chris- tian will do right—right in testimony and right in action. Righteousness is not a tech- nical but a cardinal principle of the gospel. John Huss, John Knox, John Bunyan, Jeremy Taylor, William Penn, the Wesleys, would neither one of them have violated his con- science for the gift of a kingdom. Christ’s righteousness made them righteous, not only in name but in fact. In all things the Christian has faith in God. He believes God hears prayer. He sees the divine hand in all the providences that come to pass, small and great. He knows this is a state of probation, and that in a world of im- perfection, where the good and the evil are mingled, the same external providence often befalls both classes. But he is sure nothing will befall him without some wise design, either to discipline him for some evil, or to remove from him some temptation; and he relies with perfect assurance on the promise that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called accord- THE HOLY SPIRIT. 165 ing to his purpose.” The believer’s faith trans- mutes adverse providences into spiritual good. The providence that renders the unreconciled more selfish, sanctifies the believing mind. Thus the truth he believes, the discipline he receives, and the duties he discharges, all com- bine to fit the Christian for the ‘inheritance of the saints in light.” And when the end comes, his sense of immortality is produced by the presence of the Holy Spirit in his soul, and his hope of heaven is not by reason, but by faith in Christ, from whom he consciously draws eternal life, as the branch lives by its union with the vine. Having “fought the good fight and finished his course,” he departs to receive the “crown of life, which God, the righteous Judge, will give him at that day, and not to him only, but to all them also that love his appearing.” / _ ’ 4 4 nt i . } ot ~ : ; ek oe rag’ sy seuats eg Ss a: I ; ‘ : Py . Pon, eaves, 18 seers ftp vedieaiaalar Avert $28 atari ensquinmety, peen tte a f * ; Duper"; non tabt Ee ss gt pitt Og oe ; y Lat a hres Bite mice & aot eee -iulbhing: oO : ui hil ead pe LR exvuiled fib Lite one vith, ante “yap Hie Ma predeed och Seep, GEE - ber ‘ aan” ‘ . Giesssisas nie 2" mi Kips aiatedn®) eh whoa > . Lies ithe gailer disease . Tae ie Sri a Ha - Su bad Ri PPA faa tobe bia! Sse jd a ae hates ia sd et oti gid boule Am. a ual iti hen, Meet ett ‘ened a eh) eg pat ty cago r e”: . a a 7 ‘ 4) angus pun Ooh aaa aine aor ties IT | SAP ig Bue cas ree oe aotad fi ae ie ent ae Readis is pide ondy hfe QF a pakh “ihe we tigiedille fydfart & ih eld iui F 2th sabi ial, ee earls 45th Lesiapl tT ; testa. isttuh. ogg Ai yeni 8 rik tad Bea enpal) Sls, Maa Da ae ar eae i Wee NEP ewe: Si ae 7 ne “ep 2% AEN: : APPENDIX. iy : F % = Sa’ a ‘ ¢ Ise (1 eee ee sf: HARMONY BETWEEN GENESIS AND GEOLOGY. Ir the visional theory of reconciling the Mosaic and Geological Cosmogonies is to be accepted, some modifications in the views of harmonists, as usually propounded, ought to be admitted. We will propose a modification which we think is more in accordance with the text, and with the requirements of geological facts, than the usual exposition. The elements of a vision must be composed of the material of preceding thought — of’ ideas previously in the mind. Hence no idea that had not been conceived of in a waking state by the seer, could enter into the composition of his vision. Now, the multitudinous life in the primeval sea is implied in the statement that the life giving Spirit “brooded over the waters.” It is 170 THE DOCTRINE OF likewise implied in the statement that “ there was light” before the first day. This life in the waters, however —in twilight, or mingled light and dark —had no connection with the future man. And as it was not an object of vision, no idea of it could exist in a human mind, and hence it would form no part of the panorama which passed before the mind of the seer. The whole paleozoic life-period, there- fore, ought to be excluded from the vision, and from the first day-period of the Creation. Then, in the first chapter of Genesis, the first day begins, not at the beginning of the second verse, but in the middle of the fourth. This division, as we shall see, both the phraseology and the sense of the text require. Then the brooding of the life-begetting Spirit and the creation of light, in the paleozoic age, will be excluded from the day-periods, and thrown back to a point indefinitely anterior to the first day. Life in the vision will then properly begin with the first visible life, that is, with the vegetation which formed the prominent aspect of the carboniferous series, the first product THE HOLY SPIRIT, 171 of creation that is economically connected with man. Upon a reconsideration of the subject, I think the learned will accept this construction. There are plain reasons for beginning the first day- period at the middle of the fourth verse: among others the following: 1. The preceding words, “ God saw the hight that it was good,” indicate in the usual way the end of a period; a period signalized by the creation of light, before the division of light and darkness —a division by which the jirst day was produced, and before which day did not exist. 2. The day-periods are composed of evening and morning, or a division of light and dark- ness, which, however, did not exist until after the process which begins at the middle of the fourth verse. And when the division had been made — not before —the light is called *‘ day.” To extend the first day-period, therefore, fur- ther back than the middle of the fourth verse, would Le to give it a place before the act of God, which constituted it, had been put forth. 3. By this arrangement, which a correct 172 THE DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. apprehension of the visional theory and of the text both require, a better harmony is produced than a reasoning Christian or an unreasonable sceptic would expect. All life, animal and vegetable, indicated by the brooding of the Spirit, and the existence of light in the paleo- zoic age, is placed anterior to the first day — where the date of Moses begins. This dim past furnishes a field without well-defined limits, where the transcendental reason may revel amid the first obscure indication that there is a God. And the development of creative energy through the subsequent revealed periods of the earth’s progress comes into such harmony with the deductions of science as will be more satis- factory — perhaps a little surprising — to the merely scientific inquirer, A harmony which can be accounted for in no way if the divine guidance in the vision of Moses is rejected, except by supposing that accurate geological knowledge not only existed in Egypt, but that it was developed by the same induction of facts which forms the basis of the science in our own time. B. (Chap. II. p. 27.) ANTHROPOPATHISM. Neranper (Dr. Aug.) assumes this conclusion, although the process by which he reaches it is not given. He says (Church Hist. chap. i.),— ‘Philo was perfectly right in combating the sensuous anthropopathism of certain Jewish Rabbis. But here, as it often happens, in avoiding one error he fell into another of an opposite character, by mistaking and overlook- ing the objective and real truths which were at the ground-work of that anthropopathical form in which they were delivered —a form neces- sary not only to the multitude in early ages, but to man, as man, WHO CAN ONLY CONTEMPLATE THE DIVINE, UNDER THE ANALOGY, DEFINED IN- DEED AND ENNOBLED, BUT STILL THE ANALOGY OF THE HUMAN.” 174 THE DOCTRINE OF In accordance with the necessities of our limited human mind was the manifestation of God in the flesh. In the future, when philoso- phy shall have escaped from the shadows in which she has been enveloped by the tran- scendentalists, or dogmatic intuitionists (we do not speak invidiously) there will come a man who will demonstrate better than we have done, that by a manifestation in humanity alone can the divine be revealed to the human. Anthro- pology, as the only method of divine manifesta- tion, has its laws, which are all fulfilled by the incarnation of the Logos. : So Cousin, in Lecture Sixteen, on the True, Beautiful, and Good, says, ‘‘ God is the type of the moral personality that we carry in us. Man is a moral personality; that is to say, he is endowed with reason and liberty. He is capable of virtue, and virtue has, in him, two principal forms, regard for others and love for others —justice and charity.” Can there be among the attributes possessed by the creature something essential not pos- sessed by the Creator? Whence does the effeot draw its reality and its being, except from its THE HOLY SPIRIT. 175 cause? What it possesses it borrows and re- ceives. The cause, at least, contains all that is essential in the effect. What particularly be- longs to the effect is inferiority —a lack — an imperfection. From the fact alone that it is dependent and derived, it bears in itself the signs and conditions of dependence. If, then, we can not legitimately conclude from the im- perfection of the effect, that of the cause, we can and must conclude from the excellence of the effect in the perfection of the cause, other- wise there would be something prominent in the effect, which would be without cause. “Such is the principle of our theodicea. It is neither new nor subtle; but it has not yet been thoroughly disengaged and elucidated, and it is, to our eyes, firm against every test. Ji is by the aid of this principle that we can, up to a certain point, penetrate into the true nature of God.” (Chap. III. p. 44.) THE SCIENTIFIC FORMULA OF THE BIRTH OF CHRIST. SCEPTICAL minds have imagined more diffi- culties than really exist in connection with the manner of Christ’s birth. Difficulties may easily be alleged, and yet if a Christ were born at all, whose nature was in advance of the pres- ent human species (as that of a Christ must necessarily be), the analogies of science would determine that his conception and birth would be in accordance with the statement of the Scriptures. . Almost all naturalists who have studied the fossil species as they succeed each other in the geological history of our globe, have supposed that the introduction of each new species was an immediate act of creation. Whether the new form with its faculties were produced by THE DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 177 gestation in a lower species, or in some other way, it is generally agreed that the life-power of the new form was introduced by the imme- diate agency of the Creator. So it is in regard to the two moral species, the Adamic and the Christian, (1 Cor. xv. 45—48), “The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam a life-giving Spirit. Howbeit [in the process of development] “that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and after- ward that which is spiritual.” ‘The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.” That is, Adam is the head of an inferior spe- cies, whose supreme motive and supreme end | lie in the earth. Christ, the second Adam, is the head of a superior species, whose motives aud end are spiritual, above the earth. Hence “that which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which 1s born of the Spirit is spirit.” Christ, as the Son of Man, was a new species of the human genus, and the type and head of His species. The germ of the new creature is 8* 178 THE DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. imparted by regeneration, and developed out of the old Adamic nature; and in.the resurrec- tion, the corporeity of those in whom is the image of Christ will be developed into “the likeness of Christ’s glorified body. sSeWie shall awake in his likeness.” Hence the birth of Christ, as the first of a superior species of the genus homo; and the promises, to those who have spiritually “‘ put on the new man in Christ Jesus,” are in accordance with the order of the Divine working in nature, and with the law of progress which has ruled in the processes of ereative energy from the beginning. (Chap. IV. p. 58.) PAUL, NOT MATTHIAS, THE TWELFTH APOSTLE. Tue Apostle Paul was by education and natural endowment especially qualified for the work of teaching the gospel to the powerful and the learned. The other eleven were men from the masses, and fitted to gain sympathy and feel sympathy with them. Paul (one in twelve) was learned in Jewish and Grecian literature; and he was called to his work after the foundations had been laid at the bottom of society by the other apostles. Reformations always begin near the bottom of society and work upwards. The highest and the lowest are the most depraved circles, excepting always the criminals, who are enemies of all society. Hence it follows that spiritual religion gener- ally reaches the upper circles in Church and 180 THE DOCTRINE OF State last of all. But still some rich and noble are called up to the meekness of the gospel, and Paul was the man to call such to repent- ance. He was a man of means, of character, and of culture; and hence his agency was needed to bring the truth before the educated classes of his time. He was a sincere Jew, according to Moses, having passed in his expe- rience from a state of natural religion, or the patriarchal, to a state of conviction by the law —to the Pharisee state, in which he sought for salvation, as many do now, by ritual observ- ances—the state which Luther had reached when he found the Bible at Erfurth. Paul’s religious propensions, his sincerity, his culture, fitted him, when endued with the Spirit, for an extraordinary place in the company of the apostles. To fill this place Jesus personally chose him to the apostleship. Forgiven, be- cause he had ignorantly persecuted believers, supposing that he was doing God service — called from the midst of the shekinah by the voice of Christ; when a suitable time had passed for the tumult of thought to subside, and prayer and reflection to supervene, he was THE HOLY SPIRIT. 181 instructed and converted, and then, without “consulting flesh and blood,” he began the great labor of his life,—a labor by which, “ be- ing dead, he yet speaketh.” As before stated, his special commission is declared, and his commission given; Acts ix. 15, 16,—‘‘ He is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel; and I will show him how great things he shall suffer for my sake.” He, too, “had seen Christ, as one born out of due time,” and was chosen, Acts xxii. 15, “to be a witness to all men of what he had seen and heard.” Paul claimed to be an apostle in the same sense in which the other eleven were apostles. Some, it seems, had doubted his apostolic authority; hence to the Corinthians he says, (1 Cor. ix. 2), “If I be not an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of mine apostleship are ye in the Lord.” And again (2 Cor. xi. 5), ‘For I suppose that I am nothing behind the very chiefest of the apostles.” He administered discipline in the name, and by the authority, of an apostle. 1 Cor. v. 3—5, 182 THE DOCTRINE OF —‘“For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have determined already, as though | were present, concerning him that hath done this deed, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruc- tion of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” He likewise ordained pastors or bishops in the churches, and imparted the Holy Spirit by the laying on of his hands. Another special mark of apostleship, prom- ised by the Saviour, was, that they should “ go forth, and bear fruit, and that their fruit should remain.” Paul’s epistles are numerous and spiritual. They “remain,” a permanent fruit of his life, in the churches. They were recog- nized as Scripture by the apostles themselves (2 Pet. iii. 15, 16), and they will be received as Holy Scripture till the end of the world. Finally, God, by His Spirit and His provi- dence, recognized Paul as an apostle, enduing him with apostolic gifts and graces, delivering him from enemies, and working in him and through him for the detachment of the new dispensation from the old, to which believing THE HOLY SPIRIT. 183 Jews then adhered, as many modern Christians still do, with the utmost tenacity. Several things may be learned from the haste of Peter in acting without the promised Spirit, and the subsequent call of Paul by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Ordination, where there is no Holy Spirit, is not scriptural ordination. The laying on of hands by men who do not possess the spirit of Christ themselves, is not consecration. Hence, offices and interests imparted by men or churches whose spirit is merely formal and secular, have no divine validity. The men appointed under such circumstances may be good and useful, as many of them are. Com- munications of grace from above may be granted them. But the seal of God is not in the act of ordination. And Paul, called of God, with only the right hand of fellowship given him by the apostles, does the work of God better than Matthias, ordained by non- spiritual administrators, (Chap. V. p. 108.) THE SOURCE OF FANATICISM. THE want of a clear perception of the doc- trine that the Holy Spirit does not speak of Himself — does not teach any new thing — has been a fruitful source of disorder and fanaticism in all ages. Some who have claimed to be led by the Spirit have forgotten that the Spirit leads only by the truth which Christ revealed in the New Testament. The Spirit brings truth to remembrance, but it is by the law of suggestion —and it is “all things whatsoever Christ said ’’— not new truth or revelation to individuals. The Spirit can not bring to remembrance truth that was never in the mind, hence instruction in truth is in order to the ‘work of the Spirit. Moreover, persons who THE DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 185 claim to be moved by the Holy Spirit, ought not to forget that “the spirit of the prophets is subject unto the prophets.” Paul could speak with tongues more than all others, yet he would not do it, and seems to censure those who did. The sure point of fanaticism is when an individual claims that his mind is passively controlled by Divine influence. If the Spirit controls the will of the subject in worship or duty, it is not the free responsible subject worshiping God, but God worshiping and obeying Himself. The precepts of the New Testament in regard to the Spirit are all addressed to the human agent. “ Walk in the Spirit.” “Be filled with the Spirit.” “Grieve not the Spirit.” These imply the self-control of the being who receives the command,—-self- control in regard to, and under the influence of, the spirit of God, The word and example of Christ are the guides,— the Spirit is power prompting to speak and to do. It gives the impulse of life and love in the heart or sensibility, and through the emotions of conscience and love the will is 186 THE DOCTRINE OF influenced to obey Christ. Any one that claims to be wise above what is written, or to have received any new revelation from the Spirit, or to be filled with a spirit that produces any other impulse than doing good to men,*—such claim in itself is evidence that the impression does not come from the Spirit of Christ. This fanaticism of impulse, apart from revealed truth, has been the bane by which Satan has abated the strength and impeded the progress of all great moral reformations, It marred and arrested the progress of the Lutheran Reformation on the Continent. The Wesleys labored wisely and earnestly to dis- eriminate the vital doctrine of the Spirit from the delusive and emotional experiences which manifested themselves in some departments of their work. Jonathan Edwards wrote a treatise on the same subject; many of the Friends or Quakers erred in the same direction. It is the point where the holiest minds are sometimes tempted. This is exemplified in the temptation of the Saviour. When Christ overcame the * See ‘God Revealed in Creation and in Christ.” Book II. chap. 6. THE HOLY SPIRIT. 187 temptations of the devil by trust in God, the next temptation was to lead the mind too far in the direction where it had experienced Divine favor; hence the temptation was to pass from rust to presumption. Christ, as man’s exam- ple, maintained His integrity by walking in the path of duty, guided by a true application of Seripture, which he quoted and applied to His circumstances. William Penn saw the liability to error at this point, and frequently in his larger treatises, as in the lesser exposition of the Quaker tenets, states the correct doctrine of the Word and Spirit. In the tract called “Gospel Truths” he gives “a brief account of those things which are chiefly received and professed among us, the people called Quakers, according to the testimony of the Scriptures of truth, and the illumination of the Holy Ghost, which are the double and agreeing record of true religion.” In the ‘General Epistle to the People of God” he says, “ His word of light, grace, and truth in the heart, will cleanse the young man’s ways, and guide the old man in the path he should walk to peace. I found that from the 188 THE DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. revelation of this word in the soul springs the true conviction and knowledge of God, and a man’s self, and by nothing else can a man be convicted and born again.” In the tract, “‘ Fiction Found Out,” he briefly enunciates his confession of faith. The first item is, ‘That the grace of God within me, and the Scriptures without me, are the foundation and declaration of my faith and religion, and let any man get better if he can.” (Chap. VI. p. 111.) . VIEWS OF THE FIRST CHRISTIANS CONCERNING THE SECOND APPEARANCE OF CHRIST. Ir is doubtful whether the apostles ever understood, as we may now, the relations of the promise in regard to Christ’s second appear- ing.* The time of His appearing to destroy the temple, and with it the old dispensation, they did not definitely know, although they had intimations by which they might discern its approach, and prepare for the event (Heb. x. 25). But of the period of Christ’s appearing to judge the world they had no knowledge, and the Saviour refused to give them even an inti- *It was best, in many views of the subject, that this and some other non-essentials should not be fnlly developed in the first period. 190 THE DOCTRINE OF mation upon the subject, except that the papal apostacy would first rise and fall. Christ’s coming and the end of the world were always associated in the minds of the disciples. When T{e had spoken to them of the certain destruc- tion of the city and of the temple, affirming (Matt. xxiv. 2), “there shall not be one stone left upon another,” the disciples inquire con- cerning two things specifically; (1) ‘Tell us when shall these things (the destruction of the temple) be; and (2), ** What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?” To these two questions Jesus answers. His answers are clear, although commentators gen- erally confuse the sense. To the first, the destruction of the city, he answers, Matt. xxiv. from the 4th'to the 29th verse, giving intima- tion of the approaching fall of Jerusalem, and indicating in the last verse of the passage that the city, which would be destroyed within the lifetime of some then living, would be over- thrown by the Roman army. From the 29th to the 31st verse He speaks of the general diffusion of the gospel through the known world by His disciples, who would THE HOLY SPIRIT. ee! be preserved in the fall of the city, and dis- persed at the destruction of the Jewish state. The sun and stars are, throughout the Bible, the proper symbols for the ruling powers of a state. By the desolation and fall of these the disciples are taught that the Jewish state and rulers would be thrown down at the destruction ‘of Jerusalem. The power of the old dispensa- tion would cease ;— then the power of the new dispensation would appear in progress—a progress to be accomplished by the dispersion of the Christians, who had been admonished to flee from Jerusalem, and probably from Judea, and who carried the gospel whithersoever they went. Then, from the 82nd to the 35th verses, He tells them when they should see the natural indication of such events as those of which He had spoken; then, to be assured that the end of the Jewish state and dispensation was at hand, and to flee speedily from the coming destruction. But in regard to the second question (or the second and third, if any choose to construe it in that sense) He answers with the same 192 THE DOCTRINE OF explicitness. They ask, 2ndly, “And what will be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world ?” To this, after answering the first, He replies from the 36th to the 46th verses, ‘ Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” He tells them that the latter period would come unexpectedly. That the duty in regard to that event was to watch and to work as a servant. That character, not outward circum- stances, would be the criterion of safety (ver. 40, 41). He then, in the 25th chapter, gives the Parable of the Virgins, indicating an absence longer than was anticipated, and that, on account of the apparent delay, spirituality and watchfulness would abate in true Chris- tians, and be lost by formalists. The Parable of the Talents follows, to show that the period was distant, but at the same time it was as near in one sense as the close of each man’s probation. When.each had used his talent in the absence of his Lord, then an account must be given, and judgment passed in view of the use of the talents intrusted to each individual. The THE HOLY SPIRIT, 193 passage closes with the final scene of the jude- ment, predicated on probation, in which He represents Himself as the representative of the suffering and the needy, and assures them that at His final advent men will be judged in view of the good they had done in His name to their fellow-men; and that He will receive good done to others as being done to Himself; and that their future destiny will depend upon a life-time of loving labor for the ignorant and the needy. He makes no event to intervene between probation and judgment. There are different dispositions of the several verses by different evangelists, which may perplex the expositor, but the outline and impression of the whole are the same. (1.) The place of the Jewish dispensation and state was to be destroyed in that generation. (2.) The dispersed Christians to preach, in time of dis- tress, the gospel throughout the world. (3.) The time of the judgment at the end of the world unknown. (4.) Christ would be absent in person. A probation under the gospel would ensue, but during the long delay Christians would cease to watch, and sleep together with 9 194 THE DOCTRINE OF formal professors. But unexpectedly, at the end of personal probation, or at death, the Lord would come to reward the faithful, punish the unprofitable, and destroy those who rebelled against the reign of justice and love. It was therefore not only inexpedient, but it was merciful, in view of the circumstances of the early disciples, that the long period which was to intervene in time between the first and sec- ond personal advent should not be made known to them. It is difficult, in our present state, to connect the end of life and the end of the world together in the same motive; and yet, in both a practical and a spiritual sense, they are the same, albeit one be distant in time and the other near in eternity. All the actions upon which judgment. is predicated close at death. As ina dream the sleepers are proba- bly conscious of activity, of locality, of Joy, while yet they may have no sense of time. Hence death and judgment, although tempor- arily distant, may be spiritually near. All we can do in probation is limited by the end of life; and the motive to watch and to work is the same in both forms. Yet the THE HOLY SPIRIT. 195 kingdom of Christ, and Christ’s personal com- ing at hand, have more of the spirit of faith and of immortality in them than the idea that the end of life is near. Hence it was no part of Christ’s mission to reveal the judgment- period in any form. It was not revealed to the Son of man, nor to the angels, but was known to the Father only. Therefore said Jesus to His inquiring disciples, even after His resurrec- tion, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in His own power.” The true and the operative idea is to believe Christ’s coming at hand. “After death the judgment.” But even after the outpouring of the Spirit, the question continued to be agitated. The first converts knew there were admonitions concerning watchfulness, flight, life, death, and judgment; and they did not discriminate between the end of the old dispensation, and that of the new. Scoffers,— probably apos- tates,— began to urge objections, and in some of the first churches there was anxiety in the minds of believers on the question of Christ’s personal appearance. The people being thus 196 THE DOCTRINE OF interested and anxious, the apostles reply to the scoffers, present and prospective, on one hand, and to sincere inquirers on the other. They tell all they know in regard to the matter, and all that was necessary for the guidance of Chris- tians in order to their sanctification. To those who scoffed and said (2 Pet. iu.), ‘‘Where is the promise of his coming, for since the Father fell asleep all things have con- tinued as they were from the beginning of the creation?” the apostle answers in a form appli- cable to the past and present. The same class of scoffers exist now, as then. God, they say, instituted the laws of nature at the creation, He then withdrew. All things take place by law since the beginning, and therefore no divine interposition is possible. Peter replies, affirming that geological changes have taken place in the past, even to the destruction of the earth; and hence they may occur again. He affirms that the delay is in order to probation, that God desires to save some out of a selfish race; that the time, although long to us, is not long to God; but that the-end will come; the judgment will sit, THE HOLY SPIRIT. 197 and God will destroy the wicked and the world together, and after the change there will ensue ‘“‘new heavens and a new earth, in which shall dwell the righteous.” Then, lest the notion of Christ at hand might lose force by his exposi- tion, he closes his epistles by the faithful words, ‘““Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led astray by the error of the wicked [that Christ will not come], fall from your own stedfastness.* But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. Amen.” The Apostle Paul answers to those believers at, Thessalonica, who were anxious in regard to this subject. In his first letter he had spoken of the final judgment (chap. iv. 18—18), and had described the hopes connected with the , momentous event asa consolation to believers whose friends had deceased. He tells them to _comfort themselves by these words; but imme- * Thus Christ’s personal advent at hand was, as Gibbon alleges, made a motive to induce stedfastness in the apos- tolic age, as it has been at various periods down to our _ own time. 198 THE DOCTRINE OF diately adds,—‘ But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them.” These are the words of Christ repeated in the language of Paul. But this church, probably by erroneous preaching and false spirits, was led to miscon- ceive this language of the apostle in his first letter. He hears of this, and corrects their wrong impressions in his second. He tells them of further intimations which Christ had left with His apostles in regard to the same subject. He says there must come a great apos- tasy before the second coming of Christ. He then, in 2 Thess. iii., describes the Papal Apos- tasy in its most striking features, and says it must rise and reign and be destroyed before the second advent of the Redeemer, and closes, as the Apostle Peter has done, with an exhorta- tion to stedfastness.* The apostasy spoken *Eph. vi. 6— Heb. iv. 12. THE HOLY SPIRIT. 199 of has risen and reigned. In the Reformation, the judgment turned against it. Now God by His providence and His truth is “ consuming and destroying it unto the end.” All anti- Christian powers are in their decadence. Judgment, even to the seventh vial, is being inflicted upon every nation, state and church that refuses to make moral progress. The end is at hand. “Even so come Lord Jesus.” (Chap. VI. p. 121.) BISHOP JEREMY TAYLOR ON THE EVIDENCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, Tue progress of spiritual religion has been but little furthered by the publication of many treatises on the evidences of Christianity; especially treatises on the external evidence, ac- cording to the manner of the eminent Dr. Chalmers. Such external evidences have their place, but if, is not the place usually assigned them. They may aid the intellect in regard to an historical question; but it may be doubted whether they turn the attention of those most enlightened by them in a right direction. There is such a thing as ‘the faith of men stand- ing “in the wisdom of man and not in the power of God.” Paul sought to avoid such a result in connection with his teaching. Treat- THE DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 201 ises such as those of Erskine, Jenys, and others, showing that gospel principles are true in themselves, and in their adaptation to man’s | nature and wants, are of spiritual value, because they relate not to the letter but to the principles — the spirit and practice of the gospel, Yet, after all, there is a witness to the gospel accompanying the truth, and offered to all men who are willing to obey Christ. That witness is infallible. It is the « Spirit of Christ that is witness for us.” The following passages, on the subject of the true evidence of the Divine in our holy religion, are taken from the excellent treatise of Dr. Knox — “ Christian Philosophy.” Opinions of Bishop Taylor respecting the Evidence of the Holy Spirit ; “showing,” as he expresses it, “how the scholars of the Universities shall become most learned and most useful.”? ‘“‘We have examined all ways, in our inqui- ries after religious truth, but one; all but God’s way.* Let us, having missed in all the other, try this. Let us go to God for truth; for truth * See Bishop Taylor’s Via Intelligentiz, 9* 202 THE DOCTRINE OF comes from God only. If we miss the truth, it is because we will not find it; for certain it is, that all the truth which God hath made neces- sary, he hath also made legible and plain; and if we will open our eyes we shall see the sun, and if ‘we will walk in the light, we shall re- joice in the light.? Only let us withdraw the curtains, let us remove the impediments, and the sin that doth so easily beset us. That is God’s way. Every man must, in his station, do that portion of duty which God requires of him and then he shall be taught of God all that is fit for him to learn; there is no other way for him but this. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom ; and a good understand- ing have all they that do thereafter. And so said David of himself: ‘I have more under- standing than my teachers; because I keep thy commandments.’ And this is the only way which Christ has taught us. If you ask, ‘ What is truth? you must not do as Pilate did, ask the question, and then go away from Him that only can give you an answer; for as God is the Author of truth, so He is the Teacher of it, and the way to learn is this; for «0 saith our THE HOLY SPIRIT. 203 blessed Lord; ‘If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or no.’ “This text is simple as truth itself, but greatly comprehensive, and contains a truth that alone will enable you to understand. all mysteries, and to expouna all prophecies, and to interpret all Scriptures, and to search into all secrets, all, I mean, which concern our happi- ness and our duty. It is plainly to be resolved into this proposition : ‘The way to judge of religion is by doing our duty; and theology is rather a divine life than a divine knowledge. ‘“‘In heaven indeed we shall first see and then love; but here on earth we must first love, and love will open our eyes as well as our hearts, and we shall then see and perceive and understand. ‘very man understands more of religion by his affections than by his reason. It is not the wit of the man, but the spirit of the man ; not so much his head as-his heart that learns’ the divine philosophy. ‘There is in every righteous man a new vital 204 THE DOCTRINE OF principle. The spirit of grace is the spirit of wisdom, and teaches us by secret inspirations, by proper arguments, by actual persuasions, by personal applications, by effects and energies; and as the soul of man is the cause of all his vital operations, so is the Spirit of God the life of that life, and the cause of all actions and productions spiritual; and the consequence of this is what St. John tells us of: ‘ Ye have re- ceived the unction from above, and _ that anointing teacheth you all things,’ —all things of some one kind; that is, certainly all things that pertain to life and godliness: all that by which a man is wise and happy. Unless the soul have a new life put into it, unless there be a vital principle within, unless the Spirit of life be the informer of the spirit of the man, the word of God will be as dead in the opera- tion as the body in its powers and possibilities. “God’s Spirit does not destroy reason, but heightens it. God opens the heart and creates a new one, and without this creation, this new principle of life, we may hear the word of God, but we can never understand it; we hear the sound, but are never the better. Unless there THE HOLY SPIRIT. 205 be in our hearts a secret conviction by the Spirit of God, the gospel itself is a dead letter. “Do we not see this by daily experience? Even those things which a good man and an evil man know, they do not know both alike. An evil man knows that God is lovely, and that sin is of an evil and destructive nature, and when he is reproved he is convinced; and when he is observed he is ashamed; and when he has done he is unsatisfied; and when he pursues his sin, he does it in the dark. Tell him he shall die, and he sighs deeply, but he knows it as well as you. Proceed, and say that after death comes judgment, and the poor man believes and trembles; and yet, after all this, he runs to commit his sin with as certain an event and resolution as if he knew no argu- ment against it. ‘¢ Now since, at the same time, we see other persons, not so learned, it may be, not so much versed in the Scriptures, yet they say a thing is good and lay hold of it. They believe glorious things of heaven, and they live accordingly, as men that believe themselves. What is the reason of this difference? They both read the 2.06 THE DOCTRINE OF Scriptures; they read and hear the same ser- mons; they have capable understandings; they both believe what they hear and what they read; and yet the event is vastly different. The reason is that which I am now speaking of: the one understands by one principle, the other by another; the one understands by nature, the other by grace, the one by human learning, the other by divine; the one reads the Scrip- tures without, and the other within; the one understands as a son of man, the other as a son of God; the one perceives by the proportions of the world, the other by the measures of the Spirit; the one understands by reason, the other by love; and therefore he does not only understand the sermons of the Spirit and per- ceive their meaning, but he pierces deeper, and knows the meaning of that meaning; that is, the secret of the Spirit, that which is spiritually discerned, that which gives life to the proposi- tion and activity to the soul. And the reason is, that he hath a divine principle within him and a new understanding; that is, plainly, he hath love, and that is more than knowledge, as was rarely well observed by St. Paul: ‘ Know- THE HOLY SPIRIT. 207 ledge puffeth up; but charity* edifieth ;’ that is, charity maketh the best scholars. No ser- mons can build you up a holy building to God unless the love of God be in your hearts, and purify your souls from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. “A good life is the best way to understand wisdom and religion, because, by the experi- ences and relishes of religion, there is conveyed to them a sweetness to which all wicked men are strangers. There is in the things of God, to those who practice them, a deliciousness that makes us love them, and that love admits us into God’s cabinet, and strangely clarifies the understanding by the purification of the heart. For when our reason is raised up by the Spirit of Christ, itis turned quickly into experience; when our faith relies upon the principles of Christ it is changed into vision; and so long as we know God only in the ways of men, by contentious learning, by arguing and dispute, we see nothing but the shadow of Him, and in that shadow we meet with many dark appear ances, little certainty, and much conjecture; * Ayann,—‘“‘ Love of God.” 208 THE DOCTRINE OF but when. we know Him in the Spirit, and see him with the eyes of holiness and the instruction of gracious experiences, with a quiet spirit and the peace of enjoyment, then we shall hear what we never heard, and see what our eyes never saw; then the mysteries of godliness shall be open unto us, and clear as the windows of the morning; and this is rarely well expressed by the apostle: ‘If we stand up from the dead and awake from sleep, then Christ shall give us light.’ “For the Scriptures themselves are written by the Spirit of God, yet they are written within and without; and besides the light that shines upon the face of them, unless there be a light shining within our hearts, unfolding the leaves, and interpreting the mysterious sense of the Spirit, convincing our consciences and preaching to our hearts, to look for Christ in the leaves of the gospel is to look for the living among the dead. There isa life in them; but that life is, according to St. Paul’s expression, ‘hid with Christ in God,’ and unless the Spirit of God draw it forth, we shall not be able. ‘“‘ Human learning brings excellent ministries THE HOLY SPIRIT. 209 towards this; it is admirably useful for the reproof of heresies, for the detection of falla- cies, for the letter of the Scriptures, for collateral’ testimonies, for exterior advantages ; but there is something beyond this, that human learning without the addition of divine can never reach. “A good man, though unlearned in secular knowledge, is like the windows of the temple, narrow without and broad within ; he sees not so much of what profits not abroad, but what- soever is within, and concerns religion and the glorifications of God, that he sees with a broad inspection; but all human learning with God is but blindness and folly. One man discourses of the sacrament, another receives Christ; one discourses for or against transubstantiation ; but the good man feels himself to be changed, and so joined to Christ, that he only under- stands the true sense of transubstantiation, while he becomes to Christ bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh, and of the same spirit with his Lord. “From holiness we have the best instruction. For that which we are taught by the Ioly 210 THE DOCTRINE OF Spirit of God, this new nature, this vital princi- ple within us, it is that which is worth our learning: not vain and empty, idle and insig- nificant notions, in which, when you have labored till your eyes are fixed in their orbs, and your flesh unfixed from its bones, you are no better and no wiser. If the Spirit of God be your teacher, He will teach you such truths as will make you know and love God, and become like to Him, and enjoy Him for ever, by passing from similitude to union and eternal fruition. ‘“‘ ‘Too many scholars have lived upon air and empty notions for many ages past, and troubled themselves with tying and untying knots, like hypochondriacs in a fit of melancholy, thinking of nothings, and troubling themselves with nothings, and falling out about nothings, and being very wise and very learned in things that are not, and work not, and were never planted in Paradise by the finger of God. If the Spirit of God be our teacher, we shall learn to avoid evil and to do good, to be wise and to be holy, and to be profitable and careful; and they that walk in this way shall find more peace in THE HOLY SPIRIT. 211 their consciences, more skill in the Scriptures, more satisfaction in their doubts, than can be obtained by all the polemical and impertinent disputations of the world. The man that is wise, he that is conducted by the Spirit of God, knows better in what Christ’s kingdom doth consist, than to throw away his time and inter- est, his peace and safety,—for what? for religion? no; for the body of religion? not so much; for the garment of the body of religion ? no, not for so much; but for the fringes of the garment of the body of religion; for such, and no better, are many religious disputes; things, or rather circumstances and manners of things, in which the soul and spirit are not at all con- cerned. The knowledge which comes from godliness is desorepov ri naons anoderzews, something more certain and divine than all demonstration and human learning. “And now to conclude:—to you I speak, fathers and brethren, you who are, or intend to be, of the clergy; you see here the best com- pendium of your studies, the best alleviation of your labors, the truest method of wisdom. It is not by reading multitudes of books, but 212 THE DOCTRINE OF by studying the truth of God; it is not by laborious commentaries of the doctors that you can finish your work, but the exposition of the Spirit of God; it is not by the rules of meta- physics, but by the. proportions of holiness; and when all books are read, and all arguments examined, and all authorities alleged, nothing can be found to be true that is unholy. The learning of the Fathers was more owing to their piety than their skill, more to God than to themselves. Those were the men that pre- vailed against error, because they lived accord- ing to truth. If ye walk in light, and live in the Spirit, your doctrines will be true, and that truth will prevail. ‘ 4 >) ‘ 4 ¢ Tas ek ‘4 } } ' ‘ ; : - ‘eu aoe is . ba s . ie roe & o be » ure, * ij if ; AMA 4 d ia « * od . a Q ‘28 v4 ree eo ‘ f “ ‘w oy aye : 4 Le | i mS r s «% ~ 2 * ‘ te ws, ely, ty rye Pas) oR pire Far) 7s Ay ee | rapt pe ae , ‘ , ae ane. AP sis i LPP WIE os - i rk ene ‘ t . a ey yee Lan ao 'prws ’ oi % 3e ty Sig a! TRG: ¥) eds oi ‘a | i "ised ey Sey al Waves ih Sate seh . an eae vi t il Lys Cain ist ate AP te ¥ ‘ s rich hen ' ss ate ova ui ( \ATALOGUE ‘OF PUBLISHED BY ot i) be || Ba | enry A. Summer, Bae to CuurcH & GOODMAN, 110 Dearborn Street, CHICAGO, ILL. THE CHICAGO BAPTIST BOOK HOUSE, No. 110 DEARBORN STREET, CHICAGO, ILL. 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The above Tracts, from 50 to 100 pages each, by mail, single copies, roc; 15 copies, $1.00; 50 copies, $3.00; 100 copies, $5.00. Lhe Great Caverns of Kentucky. By G. S. Battey. 16mo. Limp cloth, - 0 Ue Die ieee je - ° 2. kh ee 30 Declaration of Faith oF Baptist Churches. toc. Per 100, $8.00 Church Fellowship. By Rey. ASA PrEscoTT, - - - - 05 Future Punishment demonstrated by Reason and Revelation. By JAMEs Dixon, D.D. 10c. Perhundred, - ot ay a= - $5.00 Baptist Tracts. By Rev. G.S. Battty, D.D. 500pp., - .50 Facts ON BapTISM. Facts oN COMMUNION. Facts CONCERNING THE CHURCH, A CALL TO THE MINISTRY. Fenny and Her Mother ; and other Stories. By Mrs. M. L. Raynr. Fancy cloth, illustrated =) «2. he oe, igs ee 0 ee ee 75 Two Hundred Stories for Children. Illustrated. 18mo. Fancy. Glothy) o<.4 nse fim) wen k= ewe 2 80 Walks About Chicago; and Army and Miscellaneous Sketches. By F B. WILkte, (Poliuto,) Associate Editor of the Chicago Times. 12m0., 307 pp., 75 lb. Tinted Paper, Old Style Long Primer Type, superbly illustrated, - . - . . “ 3 : A = e - $2.00 NEARLY READY— NOTES ON MATTHEw, By Rev. George W. Clark, Author of the “ New Harmony on the Gospels.” One volume, 12mo. Price $1.75. To be followed by Notes on the other Gospels. Dr. Conant says; ‘I have long been familiar with Dr. Clark’s habits of study, and regard him as admirably fitted for tle work he has undertaken. His notes are written with conscientious regard to the wants of those for whom they are intended, and are thorough and exhaustive, without being wearisome. I heartily commend his work as far better than any now before the public, having asimilar object. It combines the fraits of the patient, plodding attention to details of the German mind, with the practical tact of the American mind.” JUST PUBLISIIED! Valuable Book to Pastors, Sunday School Teachers AND BIBLE STUDENTS. A NEW HARMONY OF THE (GOSPELS, In English, according to the common version, BY REV. GEO, W, CLARK, AUTHOR OF *‘ NOTES ON MATTHEW;” WITH AN INWTRODUVUCTION BY DR. CONANT. One volume, 12mo., 377 pp. To place it within the reach of alt, it ts put at the low price of $1.50. The Harmony is the fullest and best before the public, con sisting of two hundred and two sections of the Gospel text. arranged in parallel columns, with an avalys7s before each section; valuable notes on the time, place and order of the events and discourses connected with the life of Christ, and on supposed discrepancies in the Gospels, containing the dJatest results of investigation in this department of Biblical study; explanations and descriptions of words, names and customs; skefches of prom- inent Harmonies, both ancient and modern; comparison of Harmonies best known in this country; valuable tables, and fud/ indexes of subjects and texts of scripture treated in the work. It is specially adapted to Sunday School use, either with or without a question book. very teacher and school studying lessons on the LIFE OF CHRIST, should have this volume. We give our usual liberal discount to ministers. Mailed to any address on receipt of the retail price by the publisher, HENRY A, SUMNER, 110 DEARBORN STREET, CHICACO. > + & i ‘ a - | _ ioe ap, fo j ee Z * ‘ ' i ‘ a . f , - - 1.8 r b a: y, f . ] : | ree eet. naa ; -- ¥ e ‘ y i a 7h arate J , ; ‘ mA < 3 by eo ©) Bim of , ~ spe d § ae bs eae , ert 2. m “he a+ y f ' * ¥ Kay, Ms Ne vi j * At | *~ é | rie ee. iS ey y hae Pag aa %5 ais a ey 7 f uae Race gir coat oe ‘ada i Pee ay \ a o ) IES i On ete Toe ee + J a get * a we = pS eae bs, aa ane ee 4 Poh Se ua &s ’ . z ‘ 5 bl | es fi (As en! ’ : revs : : ; BY ara eS nN, Te eet aL De ee ae = Lien "5 ati - az 7 r , : Md Bet ho 4 er: y? toe ta} iy tei e > aa? 4 ay aoe lS i “ a aoe - Laye Ake a - oe , 7 ’ f es oe a 7 : 7 ee Y r ; 4 ~ : t 4 _. 9 ‘i Ty 4 ; ’ =A = ee are Tae Pe Oe ee ee, ht Se A ol! er Fal * are - ce Me ha oe Be Ray en > on ee A) or a" y A é io > ts a re al ‘ ? < cong Pe ° 7 P "yb ae pom ati ha” bel he ~\ “al. a é SF ee “ff ea adi tn OM eet a * et Arata s “EL A sed 8 ar et «ali ; - a Aa eis — o (3s P ' 3 = , ST ih ng RES Rb ake Ob 2S Opal Us ROSES (Say mire Ba / hina, ; ~ ee ¥ } 18 ; : a re PS. 7 i lal - ° eet. ue yee : Ji ' at ae a “ a <5 sh i . ‘ - ¥ - ev = ae * - 9 eh > ea Ag Was plat 48 Wis ra rk Ay ey Pos) aa ie Cee; a 4 a b a. 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