not as a recompense which they have earned, but as the gift of God. through him. "The wages of sin is death; but eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord."* In this manner the blessings which that divine Person who interposed for the salvation of mankind is able to bestow, imply a complete deliverance from the evils of sin. "As through one man's offence, death reigned by one, so they who receive abundance of grace, and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ."t Hitherto we have confined our attention to the interposition of that Person, who appeared upon earth to save his people from their sins. But we are introduced in the gospel to the knowledge of a third Person, who concurs in the salvation of mankind; who proceedeth from the Father, who is sent by the Son as his Spirit, whose power is spoken of in exalted terms,§ to whom the highest reverence is challenged, and who in all the variety of his operations, is one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every one severally as he will. One God and Father of all is known by the works of nature: the Son of God is made known by revelation, because the world which he had made stood in need of his interposition to redeem it: and the Spirit is made known by the same revelation, because the benefits of this redemption are applied through his agency. Our knowledge in this way grows with our necessities. We learn how inadequate our faculties are to comprehend the divine nature, when we see such important discoveries superinduced upon the investigations of the most enlightened reason. And we learn also that the measures of knowledge, which the Father of Spirits sees meet to communicate, are not intended to amuse our minds with speculation, and to gratify curiosity, but are immediately connected with the grounds of our comfort and hope. They comprehend all that is necessary for us in our present circumstances. But they may be far from exhausting the subject revealed and from the very great addition which the revelation of the gospel has made to our knowledge, it is natural for us to infer that creatures in another situation, or we ourselves in a more advanced state of being, may see distinctly many things, which we now in vain attempt to penetrate. The mode in which the Son and the Spirit subsist, and the nature of their connexion with the Father, however much they have been the subject of human speculation, are nowhere revealed in Scripture. But the offices of these persons, being of infinite importance to us, are revealed with such hints only of their nature, as may satisfy us that they are qualified for these offices. We have seen the office of the Son in the redemption of the world, the right which he acquired by his perfect obedience and suffering to dispense the blessings of his purchase. It is in the dispensation of these blessings that the office of the Spirit appears. This office commenced from the earliest times: "For he spake by the mouth of all the holy prophets, who prophesied, since the world began, of the * Rom. vi. 23. † Rom. v. 17. John xv. 26. sufferings of Christ, and of the glory that should follow."* To his agency the miraculous conception of the Son of man is ascribed.† He descended upon Jesus at his baptism: he was given to him without measure during his ministry ;§ and after his ascension he was manifested in the variety and fulness of those gifts which distinguished the first preachers of Christianity.|| But all these branches of the office of the Spirit, so necessary for confirming the truth, and for diffusing the knowledge of the Christian religion, were only the pledges of those ordinary influences, by which the same Divine Person continues in all ages to apply the blessings which are thus revealed. The ordinary influences of the Spirit are represented in Scripture as opposed to all those circumstances in the present condition of human nature, which indispose men for receiving such a religion as the gospel. Thus you read, that "the natural man receiveth not the things of God; they are foolishness to him, because they are spiritually discerned." But the spirit of wisdom and revelation is given to Christians, that "the eyes of their understanding being enlightened, they may know what is the hope of their calling."** You read, that "the carnal mind is enmity against God, and cannot be subject to his law but they that are led by the Spirit, mind the things of the Spirit." You read of a complacency in their own righteousness, which prevents many from submitting themselves to the righteousness of God. But the Spirit casts down every high thought which exalteth itself.§§ In all this there is nothing contrary to the reasonable nature of We have daily experience of the influence which one mind has over another, by presenting objects in the light best fitted to command assent and conviction, by suggesting forcible motives, by overruling objections, by addressing every generous principle, and exciting every latent spark of good affection. You sometimes see or hear of persons formed for commanding others, not by force, but by an acknowledged eminence of talents and virtues: and you often see men conducted by a skilful exposition to the clear apprehension of truths which seemed to be above their capacity, and irresistibly, yet freely, led, by well-adapted persuasion, to exertions which they considered as beyond their power. All this is a very faint image indeed, but it may assist you in forming some conception of the action of the Spirit of God upon the mind of man. He, who knows every spring of that heart which he formed, every method of approach, every secret wish, every reluctant thought, and whose power over mind is as entire as that which he exercises over matter, can in various ways illuminate the darkest understanding, and bend the most stubborn will, without destroying that freedom which is the essential character of the being upon whom he acts. The influence is efficacious, and the purpose of him from whom it proceeds cannot be defeated. Yet the being who is thus moved has as little feeling of constraint, acts as much from choice and deliberation, as if the views and motives had occurred to 1 Pet. i. 11. † Luke i. 35. + Luke iii. 22. § John iii. 34. ¶ 1 Cor. ii. 14. Ephes. i. 17, 18. tt Rom. viii. 5, 7. ## Rom. x. 3. §§ 2 Cor. x. 5. * his own mind without a guide, or had been suggested to him by any of his neighbours. Hence, although this influence of the Spirit is expressed in Scripture by a new creation, and the quickening of those who were dead,† although our Lord hath said, "Except a man be born again of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God," i. e. become a Christian; and again, "No man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him," yet the persons thus created, quickened, and drawn, are said to be "willing in a day of power." "Where the Spirit of the Lord is," says the apostle, "there is liberty," the liberty which belongs to those whose understandings know the truth, whose affections are orderly, and who are not the servants of sin. The gospel is styled "the perfect law of liberty." A Christian is significantly called "the Lord's freeman."** And Jesus said to those who believed on him, " If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."++ Such is the nature of that influence which the Scriptures represent the Spirit of God as exerting upon every true Christian. The immediate effect of that influence is called in Scripture faith; a word which, according to its etymology, oris, denotes a firm persuasion of truth, but which, in the Scripture sense of the word, comprehends all the sentiments and affections which naturally arise from a firm persuasion of the truth of Christianity; a cordial acquiescence in the doctrines of the gospel, a thankful acceptance of the method of salvation from sin there offered, a reliance upon the promises of God, and a submission to his will. Although an acquaintance with the historical evidences of the truth of Christianity be the natural foundation of a persuasion of its truth, yet a person may have studied these evidences with care, and may be able to answer the objections that have been urged against them, who, at the same time, from some wrongness of mind, does not attain to the sentiments and dispositions implied under faith. The Scriptures hold forth examples of this in the enemies of our Lord during his life, who had clearer evidences of his divine mission before their eyes than we are able to attain with all our investigation, and in many of those, who, by teaching and doing wonderful works in his name, had that evidence within themselves, yet are for ever separated from him by his own declaration.‡‡ And these examples will not appear strange to any person who has bestowed a philosophical attention upon the inconsistencies in the human mind, and the small influence which deductions of the understanding often appear to have upon the heart. On the other hand, both the Scriptures and our own experience afford many examples of persons, who, with limited information and narrow powers of reasoning, yet by a tractable disposition, a love of the truth, and a fairness of mind, have attained to what the Scriptures call faith, and become the disciples of Christ indeed. To this purpose Jesus says, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight." And again, "Except 2 Cor. v. 17. † Ephes. ii. 1. + John iii. 3, 5; vi. 44. ** 1 Cor. vii. 22. §§ Matt. xi. 25, 26. Ś Psalm cx. 3. tt John viii. 36. ye become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven;" i. e. Except ye receive the truth with that freedom from prejudice, that desire of learning, and that simplicity of intention, which are all implied in the character of children, ye cannot become Christians. In another place our Lord says, "If any man will do the will of God, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God;" and he explains the good soil, in which the seed fell that produced an hundred fold, by a good and honest heart, in which they keep the word, who bring forth fruit with patience. All these expressions imply not merely that faith is an exercise of understanding, but that a certain preparation of heart is requisite for it; and hence you will perceive that, although faith be a reasonable act proceeding upon evidence, there is room for the influence of the Spirit in disposing the mind to attend to the evidence, and to see its force, in overcoming prejudice, and carrying home the truth with power to the heart. Accordingly the apostle Paul says expressly, that faith is "the gift of God;"§ and this declaration is only expressing, in one sentence, the uniform doctrine of Scripture upon this subject. Faith, which is thus produced by the influence of the Spirit of God upon the mind of man, is the character with which a participation of the blessings of the gospel is always connected in Scripture. These blessings were acquired, and are dispensed by the Lord Jesus. But they are applied by his Spirit only to them who believe. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish." "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned." "This is the word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." We are said to be "justified by faith;" and the only direction which Paul gave to the jailer, when he cried out, "What must I do to be saved?" was this, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."|| Declarations of this kind abound in Scripture. But there are two mistakes which such declarations are apt to occasion; and both are so opposite to the Scripture system, that they require to be mentioned in this short account of it. The first mistake, into which you may be led by the Scripture declarations concerning faith, is to imagine that faith is the procuring cause of our salvation; that because Christ says, "this is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent," any person who does the work receives the blessings of the gospel as the wages which he has earned. But such an opinion contradicts all the views which we have hitherto deduced from Scripture. For the gospel being a salvation from sin, those who are to be saved are considered as sinners, until they partake of the salvation. The investiture with a certain character is indeed a present, and in some sense an immediate effect of the salvation, and is so inseparably connected with it, as to be the Scripture mark, that a person has "passed from death unto life." But being an effect, it cannot in the nature of things be a † John vii. 17. + Luke viii. 15. * Matt. xviii. 3. § Ephes. ii. 8. | John iii. 16. Mark xvi. 16. Rom. x. 8, 9; v. i. Acts xvi. 30, 31. cause of that from which it proceeds; and therefore the Scriptures speak in perfect consistency with themselves, when they declare, "God hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus." "When we were dead in sins, he quickened us together with Christ, for by grace ye are saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."t Faith is the instrument by which the Spirit of God applies to us the blessings which Christ hath acquired the right of dispensing. But there is no merit in the instrument. Since all had sinned and come short of the glory of God, "we are justified freely by the grace of God, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus;" and he is "the Lord our right eousness." The second mistake into which you may be led by the Scripture declaration concerning faith is, that faith is the only thing which is required of a Christian. If all that Paul said to the jailer was, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," it seems to follow that, if he believed, it mattered not how far he disregarded every other precept of the gospel. But the Scriptures, by all their descriptions of faith, mean to teach us that it cannot be alone. It is the principle of a divine life, by which we are united to Christ and derive from him grace and strength for the discharge of every duty. It works by love, and purifies the heart, and overcomes the world. So we read in Scripture of a life of faith, of the obedience of faith, of faith being dead, because it is without works. "Do we make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law."+ Here then you will mark the place which good works hold in the Christian system. They are not the ground of our acceptance with God, for the whole world, according to this system, being guilty before God, we must have remained for ever excluded from his favour had good works been the condition upon which our being received into it was suspended. "Therefore," the apostle Paul says, "by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God." Neither are those the good works of a Christian, which, although fit in themselves, and profitable to those who do them, and to others, are done merely upon considerations of reason, honour, and conscience, which ought to actuate the mind in every situation. But the good works required in the gospel flow from faith, i. e. they are performed in the spirit of a Christian, from the motives suggested by a firm persuasion of the truth of the gospel. Good works, therefore, are stated in Scripture as the fruits and evidences of faith, the necessary effect of the operation of the Spirit of God. "For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them;"§ and there thus appears to be the most perfect consistency between the doctrine of Paul and that of James. Paul says that we are not justified by any thing that we can do ourselves, but freely by grace, through faith in the blood of Christ. James says, Show me thy faith by thy works; 2 Tim. i. 9. † Ephes. ii. 1, 8. Gal. v. 6; ii. 20. Acts xv. 9. 1 John v. 4. Rom. i. 5: iii. 31. James ii. 12. § Ephes, ii. 10. |