Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

It seems strange thus to speak of the Christian being completed by an atheistical process, seeing to be a Christian means to be in close fellowship with God. But I am speaking of a supposed condition of things, different from the existing one, that the Bible had held within itself the virtue, when properly used, to renew the soul in the Christian image. In that case, I reason, we should take on the alteration, and give the glory to that which had the power of producing it. We might occasionally remember the Author of the book with feelings of admiration and of gratitude; but we would hang the great credit upon ourselves for possessing and improving by such a work. A mathematician gives little of the credit to Euclid or Newton, his teachers; but takes it to himself, and by reflection from himself idolizes the science in the abstract, by which he stands distinguished. Now just as the mathematician glories in mathematics, and upholds the works of mathematicians, thinking not of God who established these mathematical relations in the world, and made the mind of man capable to perceive and communicate the same; so if religion, by the study of a volume or volumes, could be wrought in the soul, those who had taken pains to have it wrought in themselves, would adore religion in the abstract, and the book which taught it, all forgetful, as the man of science, of God who dictated the book, and formed the soul to profit by its means.

It is man's nature to forget God, however much God may do for him; to adore creation, and not

the Creator; to adore the fulness of the earth, not God, who maketh her horn to bud forth pleasantly; and even so if the word of God were enriching us with spiritual graces, we were apt to forget him who gave it, and adore the gift which he had given, and compliment ourselves for possessing and improving it. To prevent such an abstraction of the soul from himself, God hath revealed, that whatever fruits of righteousness his word produceth are due to his Spirit, and that the glory of them should be rendered unto his grace.

This is a revelation of God, not discoverable by human consciousness, and therefore it is apt to be rejected. Men are not conscious of a Divine influence resident within the temple of their soul. They feel no will but their own will, no strength but their own strength. A few Christians do profess an internal commotion, and exhibit an external agony or triumph. But this, even though granted to be genuine, is only at conversion the first stage of their spiritual life, which goes on thereafter without any foreign influence perceptible to themselves. So that all which we are conscious of is the presence of the words and truths of revelation, dwelt upon frequently, believed on implicitly, remembered seasonably, and obeyed in the face of our pleasure, our ease, and all our interests. The influence of the Word, therefore, is the thing which we feel and are conscious of; the influence of the Spirit is the thing which we are not conscious of, but which we are yet desired to believe.

But because it is not known to us by our intimate perceptions, we ought not the less to account it worthy of belief. Heaven is not seen by us, nor the pit of Hell disclosed before us, yet the one enters into our hopes, the other into our fears. God is not visible to us, nor his presence sensible around us, yet do we believe that in him we live and move and have our being. Christ's dwellingplace none of us hath known, nor his voice have we heard, yet at this moment we believe he intercedes for us at the right hand of power. Angelic messengers we believe in, though we cannot behold them cleaving the air in the discharge of their celestial heraldry. The devil's roving commission against the sons of men we believe, and his frequent success against ourselves we believe likewise, though of his voice, enticing to evil, we were never conscious.

If you give up the doctrine of the Spirit's influence upon the heart because you perceive it not, I see not but that you should give up the doctrine of Jesus Christ's being the Son of God, which rests upon no foundation of sense or feeling, but upon revelation alone. The doctrine, likewise, that God is reconciled to men by the death of his Son, which no man believes from having seen God smile upon him, or heard God speak him kind, but from having it revealed by the same blessed Personages who have likewise revealed that the Spirit helpeth our infirmities, and showeth the things of Christ unto our souls.

No one having the name of Christian, not even

Unitarians themselves, who would steal the fire from off the altar of our heavenly temple, and leave it a cold, unhallowed desolation; yet not even they refuse to acknowledge that God rules in the earth, raising up and pulling down; that he hath the times and seasons of human life in his hand; that he feeds our prosperity, makes our adversity bare; gives and takes away, and is to be acknowledged with reverence in all our lot. This presence of God, through providence, Christians of every name believe. Now, may I ask how they come by this belief. Have they seen God going to and fro upon the earth? have they seen his bared arm, or heard his uplifted voice? What evidence of sense have they, nor evidence of internal feeling-for they do not feel a God touching their hearts with joynor infusing the poison of sorrow. When the devil smites the four corners of their house, as he did Job's, or their camels, or their sheep and oxen, how come they to know that it is God who trieth them for their good, except by revelation early instilled into their minds, and therefore almost instinctively believed.

If, then, the truth of God's presence and presidency in our worldly affairs find for itself univer sal belief amongst Christians, though resting upon revelation alone, and having no foundation either in sight or perception; upon what plea will they reject the doctrine of the Spirit's presence and presidency in the great world of grace, if it be found revealed with the same distinctness? There

[ocr errors]

ought therefore to be no preliminary objection taken to it upon the grounds of its not being perceptible, but the Scriptures should be searched whether it be so or not.

Rather, upon the other hand, because it is not perceptibie, we should entertain it as more akin to the other operations of the invisible God. For, exalting your thoughts a little, conceive the ways of God; look abroad over the world, and what do you behold?-Noiseless nature putting forth her buds, and drinking the milk of her existence from the distant sun? Where is God? he is not seen, he is not heard-where is the sound of his footsteps-where the rushing of his chariot wheels-where is his storehouse for this inhabited earth-where are the germs of future plants, the juices of future fruits-and where is the hand dividing its portion to every living thing, and filling their hearts with life and joy? Lift your thoughts a little higher; behold the sun, doth he, when preparing to run his race, shake himself like a strong man after sleep, and make a rustling noise, and lift up his voice to God for a renewal of his exhausted strength? Doth the pale-faced and modest moon, which cometh forth in the season of the night, make music in the still silence to her Maker's praise? Do the stars in their several spheres tell to mortal sense the wondrous stories of their births? Again turn your thoughts inward upon yourselves, and say if your manly strength did grow out of infant helplessness with busy preparations and noisy workmanship, as the chiseled

« ForrigeFortsæt »