The true adopted child of Grace, in other words, of the Heavenly Father's love and bounty, stands nearly in the same state of dependance, in which the outward creation is placed with regard to the immediate care of Divine Providence. No man, by his natural powers, can command the sun to shine, or the rain to fall, upon the earth. His reason indeed enables him to provide imperfectly in their absence, and he may have many contrivances and substitutes: for he may have artificial light and heat, as well as artificial cisterns, for temporary use. But these will all be partial and inefficient: and, for the growth of his seed, to complete the joy of harvest, he must wait the Lord's time, both for the quickening ray, and for the refreshing dew.

In like manner, no human being, with all the powers of the most expanded intellect, can, by reasoning, procure the influence of a single ray of divine light upon the soul. Man has provided himself, notwithstanding, with many substitutes-with secondary and inferior helps-in his own will and wisdom. But attempts to reach heaven in this way are as futile now, as was the tower of Babel formerly.

Now, if the righteous, or they, who, in simplicity and sincerity, endeavour to perform their duties, cannot always command this influence; how is it possible that those who build upon the success of their own reasonings and inquiries for an advancement in true Religion, can hope to secure the blessing? Will these argue that they can do without it?

Admitting that there is such an influence; it must come in its own way: speculative Reason cannot bring it. If they deny such an influence, then Reason must be their God or the power in which their confidence is placed; and no argument from Scripture can make an impression. If they admit such an influence, yet bring themselves to believe and act as though they can do without it; then they set up an authority for themselves, while God hath established an authority for others; and flatter themselves that their own is what preserves the world from error, and that insisted upon in Revelation, is what deceives the multitude, and leads its simple-hearted votaries into nothing but Enthusiasm.

If God is pleased, in order to try the faith and love of his children, to withdraw his light even from them for a season, and to leave them as in the darkness and shadow of Death, can we conceive that he will impart it to the proud, and to those who in the confidence of their own sufficiency will admit nothing else but human wisdom for their guide and counsellor? But it is to be observed, that although the memory, what if I say the intellect, may be stored with traditional truths from the fountain of revelation itself, which some may plead as their sufficient help; yet these truths, excellent as they are, must imbue the mind with their own spirit, and impregnate it with their own virtue, before they can nourish the pure seed of God in the soul, and produce the fruits of the Holy Spirit in life and conduct. The history of mankind

from the beginning of the world, as recorded in Scripture, is nothing but the history of the Lord's dealings with them by his Spirit. These dealings therefore existed before the era of Scripture; and it cannot be rationally supposed that, since the first date of these Sacred Writings, no spiritual operations have taken place but what are transmitted to us in them.

We prove from Scripture that the holy spirit is not only occasionally withdrawn from the good, but that it ceases to strive with the wicked. The righteous of all ages, whether Patriarchs, Prophets, or Apostles, could only exercise their spiritual gifts in prophecies or in miracles, as they were immediately influenced by its power. That which proved like their daily bread, was the object of their daily petition: and their holy inspiration did not prevent their faith from being sometimes low. Of this David was an illustrious example; and Paul himself, though endowed with the gift of healing, did not exert this gift for his own interest or convenience, when he saw meet to leave his sick friend and companion behind him. It was through instant watching and prayer that divine influence was renewed, and divine ability received to work the works of God.

The momentary lapse of faith in Moses, the guilt and contrition of David, the humiliation of Isaiah, the incredulity of Jonah, the bitter complaints of Jeremiah, the deep baptisms of Ezekiel, the defection of Peter, the unbelief of Thomas, and the many spi

* 2 Tim. 4. 20.

ritual trials of Paul, prove to what a state of temporary desertion, these holy men seemed at times to be reduced.

On the other hand, the Almighty declared that his Spirit should not always strive with man; and many of the Lord's servants testified that the heart might be hardened against the feeling of good, and the conscience seared as with a hot iron.

It is hence fair to conclude that the measure of the Divine spirit in the soul, is not like a faculty or instrument of the mind, to be played with, whenever the creature is pleased to use it. The memory may be exercised, the fancy may be exercised, and the judgment may be exercised, at all times, with more or less vigour, according to the natural humour and tone of the animal spirits-except indeed in idiots and the insane. But if any man can exercise his spiritual faculties, so as to command a morsel of daily bread to restore his hungry soul, or a drop of heavenly rain to allay his thirst, or the feeblest ray of divine light to illuminate his darkness, he has attained to a height and excellence in spiritual growth, which no servant of the Lord, however dignified, that we read of, ever experienced. Who then can say that these things are attainable by the use of any faculties, which, in his own way and time, and at his own will and pleasure, man has the power to exercise? And surely no one will say that, if there be a God, and man an accountable being, these things can be dispensed with. But these positions being

taken for granted, the conclusion follows of course, that Divine assistance is as necessary to man as his Providence is to the outward creation: and, moreover, this assistance never was, and-unless the moral scheme be changed-never can be, afforded, but through the medium of his Spirit.

SECT. V.

Of Wisdom, Divine and Human, Faith, Enthusiasm, Revelation, &c.

Proposition IV.

As the rational faculties, or natural powers of the understanding are always more or less at the command and under the controul of man; and the ratio of increase in the seed of Divine grace, is not in proportion to the speculative knowledge of Divine Truth, but in proportion to heartfelt obedience and living operative Faith; it follows demonstratively that the discursive or argumentative faculty is not the source, discoverer, and framer, by any intellectual process, synthetic or analytic, of Divine Truth in the soul.

We are now prepared to consider the fourth Scripture Truth, which indeed is partly implied in the two last propositions, and follows as a natural conclusion. But for the sake of more clearness, at the expense of some repetition, I shall comprise in this section a few observations, nearly relating to the subject, on Human