formity of the works of nature and the seduction of physical causes, can still fix its eye upon those remote but imperishable truths, the real value of which those only can duly appreciate, who by the blessed aid of the Divine Spirit, have overcome the world.

CHAPTER XXII.

Recapitulation of some of the foregoing Observations-The 'scrip tural Doctrine of the Divinity of the Holy Spirit.

THE doctrines of Christianity, then, differ from the conclusions of mere natural religion in its best and purest form, in the fact that they occupy a more extensive range in their explanation of the mysteries of God's moral government than can be attempted by our unassisted reason; and that whilst the latter is obliged to stop short in the midst of its inquiries, in consequence of the accumulating perplexities and seeming anomalies which crowd in upon it from every quarter, the former, by the adoption of the two great collateral truths of the atonement and of assisting grace, is enabled to advance a step further, and to reconcile, so far as to our limited understanding such high topics can be reconciled, the strange phenomena of human nature with the unsullied attributes of the Almighty. That these two momentous positions are not gratuitous and superstitious superadditions to the religion of nature, but, on the contrary, that the exclusion of them would render every reasonable view of religion incomplete, because irrelevant to our acknowledged spiritual wants, must, we conceive, be evident to all those who will take the trouble of considering this intricate question in all its bearings. It is true, indeed that the force of the conclusion will be felt only by such persons as have

impartially explored their way, step by step, through the several stages of previous inquiry. To a mere careless observer, we readily admit that pure and unmixed Deism may, at first glance appear quite sufficient to answer all the purposes which a large portion of even the educated classes of mankind are disposed to require from their religion. But still it is only the careless observer who will be thus satisfied, because he alone is ignorant of the inexplicable difficulties which surround natural religion, considered as a complete system in itself, and when unaided by revelation. It is impossible to take a comprehensive view around us, without coming to the conviction that an arrangement, far more complex than the simple principles afforded by the light of nature, is absolutely necessary for meeting all the consequences which such an inquiry suggests. It is accordingly, on this account, we conceive, that probably not one single instance can be quoted of a really painstaking inquirer into the truths of Christianity having closed his studies with a mind unconvinced by the force of the evidence on which they rest. The further men proceed in such an investigation, the more are they struck by the discovery of coincidences, which completely escape the notice of the less attentive observer. As they trace, link by link, the chain of inferences, one fact leads to, and implies the existence of, another; the detection of an inveterate moral disease within themselves, of which they were not previously aware, necessarily suggests a solicitude after its cure; and thus the inefficacy of the simple expedients which they once deemed sufficient for the purpose becomes more palpably evident, in proportion as they are more deeply impressed with a conviction of their danger. Human reason, accordingly, as she advances with conscience for her guide, through the lengthening series of connected consequences, gradually approximates to, though undoubtedly she could never originally

discover, by her own light, those very results which revelation so broadly announces. She travels in the right direction, but the barrier which interrupts her course, and obstructs her view forward to more remote truths, is removeable by inspiration only. It is true that new and unforseen difficulties continue to present themselves during the entire course of her progress, but as a compensation, those more early ones, which originally appeared to her as perfectly insuperable, satisfactorily adjust themselves, and by the new position which they occupy, cease, as formerly, to startle by their seeming anomaly. It is, however, as has been already remarked, the necessary character of all experimental induction, to remove one source of embarrassment only by the substitution of another, leaving always a residue of mystery as perplexing to our apprehension as that which first stimulated our inquiry. And this must more particularly be the case in theological pursuits than in any other branch of science. The real proof that we have made an actual progress is, not that no difficulty lies before us, but that those which we have already passed are thus far explained, and, being explained, cohere, by a natural accordance, the one with the other. Thus it is in the instance now under discussion. Nothing, surely, can be more satisfactory, as a practical vindication of the mercy and wisdom of our Maker, in placing us in our present singular position in this life, than the certainty of the great truths connected with the process of our redemption. So completely do they appear to solve the most prominent enigmas which present themselves at the very threshold of inquiry, and to ratify the most reasonable postulates of natural religion, that they may be said to carry their own proofs along with them. Still, however, we must recollect, that we have no right or authority to avail ourselves retrospectively of the solution afforded to the difficulties of natural theology by the revealed

facts of Scripture, and to decline, at the same time, to admit prospectively the legitimate inferences from those facts, be their character what they may. It is the besetting error of all loose reasoners and half. formed believers in the doctrines of Christianity, to forget that the system of revelation is a consistent and entire whole, and must be accepted by us as such. We make this remark on the present occasion for the purpose of observing, that if we once admit the dogmas of justification and sanctification as the two fundamental positions of the Gospel covenant we are bound not to stop at this point, but to advance forward to the strictly inferential but less obvious truths inseparably connected with them. Thus the doctrine of the divinity of Christ, as has been already shown, would appear to follow from the conclusions of reason alone, independently of what we find directly asserted by Scripture to the same effect, if we assent to that of his infinite atonement for sin. In like manner the concurrent doctrine of assisting grace would lead us, by analogy, to the same inference respecting the divine and per sonal nature of the Holy Spirit, even were revelation silent on that subject: we cannot, therefore, be surprised upon finding the express language of the inspired writings conveying the same impression. It is true, indeed, that we cannot, without gross presumption, assert that these two inferences might actually have been arrived at by the natural powers of the understanding tracing the succession of connected consequences: all we mean to argue, therefore, is, that when revelation has once announced them as facts, we can see retrospectively sufficient grounds for admitting them as intrinsically probable. Thus far only we conceive that any reasoning from internal probability can be legitimately carried. On these high and transcendental questions all à priori arguments, whether affirmative or negative, are obviously irrelevant, unless made strictly

subservient to the written declarations of the inspired word of God. Points which are confessedly above the reach of human reason, we should recollect, not only may not, but in strictness cannot be contrary to it. We possess no standard within our own minds by which to measure their truth or falsehood, and therefore as it is impossible, by mere argument, to prove their accordance with probability, it is equally so to demonstrate their discordance.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Of the Holy Trinity.

If, however, we admit that the personality and divinity both of the Redeemer and of the Sanctifier of mankind are positively asserted by Scripture, and admit it we must, unless we would shut our eyes to the general tendency of revelation, and the obvious purport of common language, then the great Christian doctrine of the Trinity would appear to follow, not so much in the form of an inferential consequence derivable from those premises, as in that of an identical proposition. So far from being an excrescence unnecessarily superadded, by human invention, to the more simple scheme of Christianity, and equally repugnant, as has been alleged, to sound reason and the declarations of Holy Writ, this final and momentous truth appears, so far as we may, with all due humility, venture to surmise, to suggest nothing at all repugnant with the former, and to be explicitly established by the latter. It stands, in fact, as the crowning point in which all the converging parts of God's revealed arrangements would seem to terminate, and which once removed, would cause the beautiful symmetry of that dispensation which Providence had been, for the space of four thousand years, foster