interposition should now be displayed; but clearly, if this be ever the case, it cannot be left questionable it must be in every instance either miraculously proved, or else it must be false.

Is there then, I may be asked, no interposition of God's Holy Spirit, suggesting good and repelling evil; rescuing men from the influence of sin, and guiding them to repentance and holiness of life? Are there no longer any miracles of grace? I do not say this: but, that no sensible evidence accompanies such divine agency, so that we can distinguish it from the workings of our own minds. It should be observed too, (although it is a mere verbal question,) that the spiritual interposition itself, being now the result of an established law of Providence, is no longer properly a miracle; but if we choose to consider it as such, on the ground that it is an alteration of man's original condition; it is, at all events, no perceptible miracle. It never was, as far as we know, a perceptible miracle. Sensible proof was granted, in the first establishment of Christianity, to assure the Church of this spiritual assistance; and the reality of this being once so proved, and impressed generally on the Church, there was

no need that the proof shall be continued and perpetually renewed. We are still however compelled to believe, on that same evidence, in the interposition of the Holy Ghost, and to act on the ground of really receiving the benefit of it.

It is much to be feared, however, that many, disgusted at the claims which are made to sensible interposition, do practically discard all view of a real divine interference; that is, allow it little or no consideration in their plan of conduct. Now to acknowledge the Holy Spirit's assistance in general terms, and yet to allow this belief no influence on any particular actions, is virtually to renounce it, as far as it is a practical principle". If it be the sensible evidence and perception of spiritual assistance that are withdrawn and not the agency itself, are we not failing to exercise that lively faith, that habitual confidence in divine power, which is declared in Scripture to be requisite, for the ordinary no less than for the extraordinary divine agency to be accomplished in us? This is no abstract question of

P See Whately's Ninth Essay on the Difficulties of St. Paul, where many of the topics belonging to this section will be found more fully discussed.

curious and refined theology. It is a question about our daily and hourly wants-our ability to do good and to abstain from evil-our being present with or absent from the Lord-our discipleship to him. Do we regard our discipleship to him now as a mere figure of language? Are we content to think that he is no Immanuel to us-that he has risen from the grave, and gone whither we cannot follow him? Must disciple after disciple still be heard to say, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe?" O no! Hear the answer which he makes us, "Be not faithless, but believing" "blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." Never let us wait to have the rebuke of Thomas repeated to each one of us separately and it may be when it is too late for us to profit by it; let us at once exclaim, "My Lord and my God!"

One point more requires to be noticed. The above statements may seem to some to need being reconciled with our Lord's own account of

the Holy Spirit, and its operation on our hearts. He illustrates it by the unseen wind, which we recognise by its effects on the smoke, and other objects that yield to it; and hence it may be inferred, that we are to regard "the fruits of the Spirit," (as the apostle terms the conduct influenced by the Spirit,) the appropriate evidence of divine interposition. It is plain, however, that in whatever way good conduct is a test of divine influence, it cannot be intended as a test of the same sort as the testimonial miracles of speaking a foreign language, healing, and the like; for then there would have been no need to superadd these. The lives of the disciples would have been the evidence to which appeal would have been made. The moral and religious fruits of a holy life undoubtedly are a test of "God working within us," and a very important one; but it is distinguished from the other in two respects. I. Miracles were exhibited to prove, not the successful use of spiritual help, but the grant of it by God; whereas the test arising from good moral conduct, supposes the grant of assistance to be proved and known, and only applies to the

successful use of it. II. Again, miracles are to be employed as positive proof of the existence of spiritual influence; but the only certain application of good conduct in evidence of the existence of spiritual influence, is as a negative proof. In the absence of good works, we are sure that the Spirit has not operated on our hearts; but a correct outward behaviour does not at once imply, that it has proceeded from this spiritual assistance which the Christian enjoys by covenant. Its application as a test, therefore, is plainly of a very different kind, and for a different purpose, from the use we make of testimonial miracles; which are, therefore, the appropriate and the only evidence, to us as well as to the Apostolic Church, of the covenanted interposition of the Holy Spirit, for our sanctification, and moral strength and comfort.

§. 2. Proofs requisite for establishing an inspiration of Scripture.

THE writing of Scripture is only one of the many kinds of agency for which the servants of the Most High have at different periods been