forever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee." "Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth." "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it." "Our Lord Jesus Christ shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord."

:

14. This influence is necessary to enable us to pray acceptably. "Likewise, the Spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.” How can this confidence or accordance with the divine will be secured, without divine influence? The petition of the poor distressed man who brought his lunatic son to Christ, and who said with tears, "Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief," perfectly accords with the general teaching of the Bible concerning the necessity of divine influence to enable us to pray successfully.†

"As

15. This influence is necessary to give us evidence of piety and filial relationship to God. many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the

* John 16: 7, 13, 14. 2 Thes. 3:3, 4, 5. 1 Chron. 29: 17, 18. John 17: 17. 1 Thes. 5: 23, 24. 1 Cor. 1:8, 9.

+ Rom, 8; 26, 27, 1 John 5; 14, 15, Mark 9:24.

sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." "He that believeth on the Son of God, hath the witness in himself." "The love of God is said to be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost ;" that is, its existence there is owing to divine influence. Hence, that influence is indispensable to such an evidence of piety as the following: "We know that we are passed from death unto life; because we love the brethren."*

16. The actual existence of this influence in the heart in purifying and controlling its affections, is a pledge of future glory. The effects which it produces are denominated the first-fruits, which bring with them an assurance of the approaching harvest.

"But ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." They are an earnest of our inheritance in heaven, just as the sum advanced to seal a bargain, is an assurance that all its conditions will be complied with.. "Now he which establishes us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us, and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." "In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory."t

Such are some of the elements of the doctrine of divine influence as it is stated in the Scriptures. Doubtless many more passages might be found to bear upon the subject, some with equal, and others with less directness than the above; yet, we have * Rom. 8: 14, 15, 16. 1 John 15: 10. 3: 14 + Rom. 8:23. 1 Cor. 1; 22, 23. Eph. 1: 13.

perhaps gone far enough to make plain our idea of carrying out particular topics in a plan of classification. We have confined ourselves to a dry statement of the several features in which the Scriptures paint this doctrine, not to intimate however that such should be the general mode of procedure, but because our limits do not admit of amplification.*

*

Each of the foregoing elements is not only susceptible of being wrought into the most engaging and attractive forms, but contains also the most ample scope for practical effect. The gloomy facts of human nature involved in our necessity of divine influence to induce in us the choice of what is good,—its power of counteracting the tendency of these facts and thus disposing the mind to receive the truth,— its surprising effects upon our moral nature in raising us from death to life, the regeneration or new being which it imparts,-the mysterious manner in which it operates to produce this new being, the subordinate agencies which it calls into requisition, the connection of antecedent and consequent subsisting between the eternal purposes of God and the work which this influence accomplishes upon man,-its dependence on the Holy Spirit as the immediate agent in its production, the resemblance of its work to the creation of light and to other illustrious exhibitions of divine power in nature, its perfect coincidence and accordance with every element of moral action, -the duty and encouragement of praying for this influence, the importance which it derives from the fact that its remarkable developments under the gospel were a subject of glowing anticipation with the ancient prophets,-its necessity to the sanctification of believers, our dependence upon it for availing de

The reader will find in our Philosophy of Benevolence, page 153 to 294 a more perfect idea of what we conceive to be the true mode of carrying out the matter of Scripture on a given point, from the reasoning which we have there instituted on its basis in reference to the duty of systematic beneficence.

sires in prayer, the impossibility of having evidence of piety without it, the pledge of future glory which is furnished by its indwelling in our hearts,together with other and perhaps equally important elements ascribed to this influence in the Scriptures -would each constitute a theme rich in the materials of reflection, and powerful as a means of assailing the conscience and controlling the moral destinies of mankind.

Now, let all christians treat the Bible as a book of ultimate facts to be judged of exclusively by the sense of its language, and thus separate from it all extraneous materials; and then let them proceed to examine, compare, and otherwise wield these facts the same as in other departments of inquiry, and where would be the possibility of those belligerent organizations, or those protracted and wide spread dissensions, which at present do so much discredit to the christian name? It is true, that another person might differ from us in arranging the materials, which the Bible supplies upon the doctrine of divine influence; or he might think that the laws of correct exegesis would show that we have referred passages to this subject which do not belong to it; or he might differ from us in our definition of the respective elements of this doctrine; or he might add other elements still of whose applicability we might not be so perfectly clear; but still, would either of these alternatives, or any other that might be supposed to arise from such a mode of treating the Scriptures, contribute to such dissections of the social state as we witness in the existing denominations?

Differences weightier even than the above, might perhaps always arise from the imperfection of the human powers. One, for instance, might construe the materials bearing on the point into the permanent obligation of washing the saints' feet as a christian ordinance, and another might construe them differ

ently; one might feel himself bound to observe the Lord's Supper every Sabbath, and another might think himself at liberty to observe it only once a month or once a quarter; one might pray from a book and another breathe to heaven his extemporaneous effusions; one might perform his devotions in a kneeling, another in a sitting, and another still in a standing posture; and there might be differences of judgment, as in the other sciences, about the import of a given amount of doctrinal or other facts of a more radical character. We must be allowed to doubt, however, whether, if our thinking were completely disentangled from irrelevant materials and present modes of investigation, it would be possible to have among us differences great even as the above. At all events, we should find in the genius of christianity, and especially those features of it which are supplied by the apostolic advice in reference to meats, times and seasons, a sufficient antidote against all unhappy consequences.

But the usual course with all parties, is to fix upon some principle at the outset, or to have certain points in view which they must be cautious not to violate; and then they proceed to shape their materials accordingly. As in the instance given, the man who begins his investigation into the doctrine of divine influence with the determination to find nothing to infringe his idea of it as an ordinary appeal merely to the reason and conscience of mankind, contrives to make the Holy Ghost a bare principle, regeneration a common purpose of amendment in a man that has done wrong, and thus all the legitimate materials bearing on the point, are thrown into the most distorted and unnatural forms. In his hands, every element of the distinctive sense which the language bearing upon the subject is adapted to convey, evaporates, the matter of the revelation is reduced to what every man might better have known without, than with it, and the