their sources. It is by such a method of reasoning, the true minister resists the attacks of prejudiced philosophers, solicitous to make it appear, that the sanctifying and consoling operations of the Holy Spirit are as conformable to reason, as they are correspondent to our urgent necessities.

But, if it still be urged by the enemies of inspiration, that we have no distinct idea of the manner, in which any knowledge is conveyed to the soul, except by means of our reason or our senses; and that to speak of things, which will admit of no clear explanation, is running into the wildest enthusiasm. No, returns the faithful pastor: it is not usual to esteem that man an enthusiast, who is employed in bestowing alms upon the poor, though he can neither explain to us, how his gold was produced in the mine, how his will actuates his hand, or how the feelings of charity are excited in his bosom. If nature operates every thing in a mysterious manner, it is unreasonable to expect, that the operations of grace should be conducted in a less mysterious way. This is one of the arguments proposed by our Lord to Nicodemus. 66 Except a man be born of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God." But, it may be, you have no comprehension of spiritual things: "marvel not," however, at this; since there are many things above thy comprehension in the natural world. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell, whence it cometh and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit" they prove the operations of that Spirit by incontestable effects, though they are unacquainted with many things, respecting the manner in which those effects are produced.

We may here very properly apply what professor Vernet has said, concerning the manner in which God has frequently manifested the truth to his Prophets. "It is easy to conceive," says this judicious divine, "that He who created the soul as well as the body, and who for that reason is called the Father of Spirits, can never be at a loss for adequate means of communicating to us, when he judges it necessary, ideas and discoveries wholly different from those which we are able to acquire, either by our own powers, or through the assistance of other persons. If the most ignorant classes of men are acquainted with the art of reciprocally communicating their thoughts to each other; how much more may we imagine, that God is able to act upon the soul, both externally and internally; he, who has already placed within us some confused notions of primitive truth; he, who holds second causes in his hand, and animates all nature."

But if it be asked, are not Prophets properly so called, the only persons whom God is pleased to privilege with such impressions as are formed by the seal of his Spirit? It might with equal propriety be enquired, whether the Apostles alone were privileged with that evangelical faith, which respects invisible and incomprehensible things? "A soul," says the illustrious Crousaz, "upon which the Spirit of God has moved, muses upon her Creator with ineffable delight, and contemplates her Redeemer with a mixture of gratitude, admiration, and transport. O my God! such a soul is incessantly crying out, when shall I see thy face? When shall thy light illuminate me without any darkening cloud? To approach Thee is my only happiness. Happy they who praise thee without ceasing."

"I acknowledge," continues this christian philosopher, " that these may be the natural effects of that attention with which the Spirit of VOL. II.

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God has graciously fixed our minds upon those objects, which revelation presents to our view, and upon which it directs us to occupy our thoughts. But I am not afraid of going beyond the truth, when I add, that the Spirit of God by his own immediate agency, may inspire the soul with this sacred taste and these exalted sentiments. Corporeal objects act upon the organs of scuse by a power which they undoubtedly receive from God. This may, in some measure, be understood: but in what manner their action passes from thence upon the soul, is a mystery too obscure to admit of an explanation. Christian philosophers have conceived, that the will of God, and some established order of his appointment, are the only causes of those internal sentiments, of which these impressions upon the outward organs are but the occasion, This being the case, under what pretext can we refuse to believe, that the Spirit of God may give rise to such sentiments in the soul, as are abundantly more conformable to the nature of their holy cause, than those ordinary sentiments, which are, nevertheless, referred to the will of God, as their first and true cause? Such are those sentiments, which St. Paul so earnestly solicited for his followers at Ephesus, and for the increase of which he implored upon them the influence of the Holy Spirit."

Such also are those impressions, motions, and aids of the Holy Spirit, both mediate and immediate, for which we offer up so many ardent supplications in different parts of our public service. Every christian liturgy is filled with petitions of this nature; petitions, which are conformable to the principles of christianity, the voice of season, and the necessities of sinful men, though they usually appear to the children of this world, as the mere unintelligible jargon of enthusiasm. The minister, who strictly follows the example of St. Paul in this respect, will most probably be regarded as a visionary by the ignorant and the profane: but, while he breathes out these ardent prayers, in humble faith, accompanying them with those discourses and that conduct, which are correspondent to such requests; he has, at least, a satisfactory consciousness, that he has never practised the arts of an impostor with the liturgy in his hand, nor played the part of a comedian in a christian pulpit.

As to the real advantages, which would flow from our doctrine of the dispensations, though they have been adverted to in various passages of this work, yet it appears not unnecessary to take a transient review of them in this place.

1. By an accurate acquaintance with these dispensations, every evangelical preacher may become "an approved workman, rightly dividing the word of truth;" and a "faithful servant," distributing to every domestic of his Master's household, that peculiar portion of spiritual food, which is suited to their several circumstances.

2. By exactly dividing the dispensations of grace, we are enabled to mark out the boundaries of those particular states, which believers of different classes are observed to enjoy. We ascertain that degree of spiritual life, to which we ourselves have attained: we distinguish the various graces bestowed upon us: we discover whatever great promise is still before us, and solicit, without ceasing, the complete accomplishment of that promise. He, who preaches the Gospel without tracing out the lines which separate the three dispensations of grace, may be said to exhibit a sun-dial, upon which the hours are unmarked, and from which little else than confusion, if not dangerous mistakes, can be expected to flow.

3. By the light of this doctrine, true worshippers of every class, may be taught to acknowledge and esteem one another, according to their different degrees of faith. Nothing is more common in a christian country, than to see the rigidly orthodox, uncharitably treating as hopeless outcasts, not only those virtuous deists, who are yet unacquainted with the Son, but even those pious socinians, who are resting satisfied with that inglorious state, in which the first disciples of our Lord were so long detained; and who are unable to acknowledge any more than his humanity. Let these orthodox professors become acquainted with the various dispensations of grace, and, ceasing to offend, either virtuous deists or pious socinians, with their furious anathemas; they will treat the former with all the benevolence which St. Peter once expressed toward Cornelius, and the latter with that brotherly kindness, which Aquila manifested in his carriage toward Apollos. On the other hand, if those christians who are yet carnal, had any proper idea of these different dispensations; if they could but believe, that the same Jesus who was once outwardly manifested among the Jews, still continues to manifest himself in the Spirit, through every part of the world, to those who are anxiously pressing into the Kingdom of God; if they could admit, but in theory, this eminent dispensation of grace, they would no longer argue against those, as enthusiasts, who speak of the influence of the Spirit in scriptural terms.

So long as this glorious light shall continue in obscurity, so long we may expect to observe among christians the most unfriendly disputes: and though they never again may kindle blazing piles for their mutual destruction, yet bitter words interchanged among them, like so many invenomed shafts, will still continue to declare, that war is in their hearts. Those who imagine themselves in possession of the purest christian faith, will treat others, who indulge different sentiments, as infidels and heretics; while these in return, will stigmatize their uncharitable brethren with the opprobrious epithets of enthusiast and fanatic. But when every minister of the Gospel, enlightened with truth and glowing with charity, shall faithfully conduct the flock of Christ from grace to grace, and from strength to strength, then the foremost of that flock shall manifest their religious superiority, by giving proofs of the most unfeigned affection toward the meanest and most infirm of the spiritual companions. Copying the humble courtesy of St. Paul, these unpresuming elders will cry out, among their younger brethren; "Let us, as many as be like-minded, forgetting those things that are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, press" earnestly" toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded," that perfect charity which hopeth all things, engages us to believe, that "God shall reveal even this unto you. Never theless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same things."

It may not be amiss to conclude these remarks upon the three grand dispensations of grace, by observing, how imperfect worshippers deceive themselves, while they refuse to proceed from faith to faith. It is the opinion of many sincere deists, who are zealous for the dispensation of the Father, that were they to embrace the dispensation of the Son, they must necessarily detract from the honour due to the incomprehensible God. This prejudice, however, evidently flows from the want of spiritual discernment; since the holy Scriptures instruct

us, that, when" at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess, that he is Lord of Heaven and earth," such religious adoration shall be considered as ultimately heightening" the glory of God the Father." Now if the Father leads us to the Son, by the dawnings of his grace, as we are taught by the following passages— "No man can come unto me, except the Father draw him. Simon Peter said, Thou art Christ the Son of the living God: Jesus answered him, Blessed art thou Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven:" it is equally certain that, when we come to Christ, he teaches us both to know and worship the Father. Observe the language of our Lord, with respect to this point. "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. Father, glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify Thee. This it life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Righteous Father, the world hath not known thee; but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me," to make an open display of thy glory upon earth. "I have declared unto them thy name, and I will declare it," yet more perfectly. From these passages it evidently appears, that the faith of the Son can never possibly take away from that profound veneration which is due to the Father. And what is here observed relative to the faith of the Son, is no less true with regard to the faith of the Holy Spirit. For if, under the dispensation of Jesus, we learn to address our Father, who is in Heaven, with a degree of humble confidence, it is only under the dispensation of the Spirit, that we are enabled to make those addresses with all that filial reverence and that lively fervour which the Gospel requires. This spirit of adoption, by witnessing with our spirit, that we are the children of God, assists us to bow before our celestial Parent, with that ineffable veneration and love, which are due to the Supreme Being. If philosophers would duly reflect upon these important truths, they would no longer tremble under the vain apprehension of becoming idolaters and tritheists, by admitting the doctrines of the Gospel. On the contrary, we might indulge a hope, that these proud reasoners would one day be seen, in company with humble believers, approaching the God of their Fathers, through the intercession of the Son, and with the energy of the Holy Spirit; crying out, with St. Paul: "There is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus; and through him we have access, by one Spirit, unto the Father."

There is another class of worshippers who are zealous for the dispensation of the Son, and who, wholly taken up with the word manifested in the flesh, imagine that his dispensation is rendered contemptible, if it be represented merely as the commencement of christianity, while the perfection of the Gospel is declared to consist in the dispensation of the Holy Spirit. To the consideration of such, we would propose the following expression of St. Paul: "Henceforth, know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet henceforth know we him no more," after this manner. And though our Lord is acknowledged to have spoken on this wise, “whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day: for my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed," yet it must likewise be confessed that he immediately added, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing."

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The following observations, it is hoped, will entirely dissipate the fears of these pious persons. "When the Spirit of truth is come,” saith our Lord, he will guide you into all truth;" and especially into those truths which respect faith toward me, repentance toward my Father "He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew unto you," the merits of my righteousness, the efficacy of my death, and the power of my Gospel. "The Father shall give "for you another Comforter, whom ye" already "know", in part; he dwelleth with you,' even now in my bodily presence: but, hereafter, He "shall be in you," when I shall have baptized you with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven "I will not leave you comfortless I will come unto you. The world seeth me no more; but ye❞ shall "see me," in the effects of my indwelling power: and "because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I," by my spirit, "in you." This spiritual abode of Christ in the souls of his people, is the most glorious mystery of the Gospel; and "if any man have not the Spirit of Christ," he is at best, but a disciple either of Moses or of John the Baptist; he is not in a spiritual, but in a carnal state.

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Christ is our life. The "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. mystery, which hath been hid from ages, is Christ in you the hope of glory. My little children, of whom I travail in birth, until Christ be formed in you." These, with a thousand other scriptural expressions, must be utterly incomprehensible to those who, resting contented with a literal knowledge of the incarnate word, admit not the internal manifestation of Christ, by his spirit of revelation, wisdom, and power. "The deep things of God are revealed unto us by his Spirit:" and, without this Spirit, we must continue strangers to the most exalted truths of the Gospel, and be cut off from the purest springs of religious consolation. "This is he," saith St. John, "that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ: not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth." As though the Apostle should say: Christ, indeed, in the first part of his ministry, proclaimed that repentance toward God, which his own disciples, as well as John the Baptist, were accustomed And to this sacred ceremony he himto seal with a baptism of water. self condescendingly submitted. But, after this, he proceeded further, when, as a visible Saviour, he sealed his own dispensation of grace Moreover, it is the Spirit the cross. with a baptism of blood upon that gives testimony to the unsearchable truths of the Gospel, by his still more excellent baptism; deepening our repentance toward God, and adding a full assurance to our faith in Jesus Christ. Let no man then suspect, that the manifestation of the Spirit must necessarily obscure the glory of the Son; especially since it is expressly declared, "that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost."

Before we close this section, we have to lament that this important part of the Gospel is so rarely published among professing christians. The greater part of the clergy are to be ranked with the most violent opposers of spiritual religion. They insult its followers, they condemn its advocates unheard, and presumptuously "speak evil of those things which they know not." As there was a time, in which the Jewish church overlooked the most important promise under the dispensation of the Father; so it was intimated that a time would come in which the