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of uneclipsed splendour. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, will be our heritage! The kings of the earth, as they assemble to contemplate us and pass by together, will marvel and be troubled and haste away. But all the intelligent, the high-minded, and the free, from every kingdom, shall come and walk about our nation, and go round about her, and tell the towers thereof, mark well her bulwarks, consider her palaces, that they may tell it to the generation following.

ARTICLE III.

DOCTRINE OF THE SPIRIT'S INFLUENCES.

By Rev. MILES P. SQUIER, Geneva, New-York.

"See the end of the whic r

THE doctrine of the Holy Spirit is fundamental in the system of Christian truth; it is the central pillar of the edifice of grace, and should be intelligently regarded by all who serve at the altar, or labour for the coming of the kingdom of God.

The subject has intrinsic value, and a reference to it is especially appropriate now, when, though living under the promised dispensation of the Spirit, and near, as marked in prophecy, to the expected glories of the latter day, we mourn, as with one consent, his absence, and the declensions of Zion. Want of discrimination in respect to the doctrine of the Spirit, may in part have contributed to the evil complained of, and be among the impediments to a brighter day.

The work of the Holy Ghost in redemption is usually summed up under the heads of inspiration, miraculous gifts, and the spiritual renovation of the hearts of men. Dismissing the first two, as aside from the object of this article, we confine ourselves to the last. The children of the kingdom ' are born of water and of the Spirit'-' the love of God is shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost'-' we are saved by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.'

Our aim, in the ensuing pages, is to trace some of the characteristics of this work of the Spirit, as seen in the light of reason and the Bible.

1. This work is not for the supply of defective faculties of mind; it is not in place of any that are disparaged or wanting since the apostacy of man, or to amend deficiencies in the constitutional elements of his intelligent nature. He has all the faculties now which he had before the fall, or will ever have, and all that are needed and appropriate to his sphere of existence and responsibilities. He has all the susceptibilities which he had at the creation, and is inherently capable of all that lies within the range of his designed being; of becoming an angel or a devil, and that too in the way of the intelligent and conscious formation of character, under the responsibilities of law. We conceive these to be as truly the attributes of man now, as of any other responsible being. The claims of a perfect law are as appropriately applicable to him now, as when in the garden of Eden, or to the fallen or unfallen spirits of other worlds. Character in him rises from the use of the same faculties as in them. His lapse, recovery, and confirmed holiness, are according to the same laws of mind. To give up the integrity of man's mental constitution, is to surrender the testimony of consciousness, and with it, both the sense of amenability to law, and the fact of its intelligent application to us. It is to blot out moral philosophy from the list of the sciences, and reduce man to the condition of idiocy or the brute. Every blow aimed at the elements of the intelligent nature of man, strikes equally at the doctrine of his accountability, and the position of our race in the moral universe.

2. The Spirit's work in conversion is not to render the mind capable of responding to truth. This capability is innate. The mind is constitutionally adapted to the apprehension of truth, and truth adapted to influence mind. The element of reason in man, embracing in the term all that in him which is the subjective ground of responsibility, is like reason in an angel, or in God himself. It is his image in man. It is of God's creating, and after his own likeness.

To it he reveals himself, as to that in man which can understand and appreciate bis communications, and apprehend the true relations and fitness of things. Reason is essentially unique in the universe of moral beings, and alike in its legitimate intimations, whether situated in the divine Being, in angels, or in men. If not, there is no correspondence in the parts of the divine economy in this respect, and no “nov σ7@" for the inception of a moral system. If reason is one thing in God, and another in angels, and still another in man, what foundation for intellectual intercourse can there be between the parties? What common reference to the same rule of right, the one same bond of relationship? The reason of man must be the counterpart of the reason of God, if God puts man in intellectual correspondence with himself,-extends over man his institutes of moral government, and holds him to the responsibility of acting according to the mind and will of God. In one moral universe, the elements of mind, finite or infinite, must be in kind the same, and hold the relationship of common elements of reason and moral being, and this is man's intellectual relation to the universe of existent beings and truths. It is of the nature of his intelligence to apprehend truth and its relations, and to approve them. To this attribute of reason God appeals in all his communications, as the counterpart of his own intelligence, and which gives off intimations in accordance with his truth and will. He has but one standard of right and wrong, but one law for angels and men, and holds all to the responsibility of understanding it alike, and understanding it aright. One economy of legislation answers for a universe of minds. God treats all as though the element of reason were alike in all, and, according to the fitness of things, like his own. Such is the verdict of human legislation. One law and one penalty are equally for the millions of the state or nation; a common responsibility attaches, where truth is known, and reason not dethroned. We exact the boon of right intentions from all to whom our intercourse extends, and plead it for ourselves. We commit our cause to the arbitration of posterity and the world, on the one principle of the

THIRD SERIES, VOL. II. NO. IV.

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generic character of mind; of the essential accordance of reason with the nature of things and the reason of God. We anticipate the same for it in the future world, as we rise up in knowledge and holiness to the measure of the stature of perfect ones in Christ. On this legitimacy of reason, and its likeness to the God of reason and the Bible, do we fix as the subjective ground of the exhortations of that book, and ask submission to its dictates. Otherwise we may as fitly preach truth to the brute as to man; as well discourse on the high concerns of judgment and mercy to "the spirit of a beast that goeth downward to the earth," as to "the spirit of man that goeth upward;" as well urge obligation and destiny on the worm in his slime, as on him to whom " the inspiration of the Almighty hath given understanding."

We speak here of the element of reason as created and constituent in man; of its essential oneness of nature in the universe as the basis of thought-the percipient of moral truth -the source of authority, or the subject of command, the responsible author of all mental and moral acts;-that to which God has revealed himself, and with which he condescends to reason, before which he submits the rectitude of his own conduct, and from which he challenges results, in accordance with the reason that framed the universe and governs it; and it is to this characteristic of mind that we refer in asserting for it the inherent power of responding to truth, and which we regard as the basis of all our moral relations to God and duty, to probation and destiny. Hence,

3. The work of the Spirit under consideration, is not to make men responsible for the issue of truth communicated to them. Responsibility is inherently appropriate to man; it is the natural result of beings constituted as we are; it is an element-a law of our moral being. We consciously form character under the light of truth, and hold ourselves and each other responsible for right or wrong action, under considerations addressed to the mind. Increased light, means, privileges, and helps, enhance the measure of responsibility, but they do not lay the foundation for it, as an element of our

being. It springs legitimately from our own attributes and relationship to God as creatures. Responsibility to obedience does not depend on the presence of the Spirit of God. Of ourselves, and without his functions, we are fitly held answerable for all the truth that meets our eye, for all the considerations to right action. which cross our path. Truth is obligatory without the Spirit. Men are bound to obey the Gospel, even if the Spirit be withheld from them; they would have been, if the doctrine of the Spirit had never been revealed, or if this element of mercy had never entered into the economy of the divine dispensations to man. Consciousness gives off this intimation of responsibleness in respect to all our states and acts of mind which are related to law. The vilest of men reveal it in the excuses they invent for their wickedness. If it be not inherently resultant of our moral and intelligent nature, the impenitent man is free from the obligation to obe-. dience, and the "finally lost" will find apology for the sad issue of the means of grace in respect to them. And hence,

4. The work of the Spirit in conversion is not to create a conscience. This faculty also is a constitutional element of our being, allied to and conjunct with reason, and its existence, as such, is evinced in considerations already adduced. We no more, evidently, have intellect to investigate and understand the relations of truth, than we have an inherent provision in our being, or a moral sense, to feel amenability to law, obligation to right action, and compunction for wrong. All that can or need be said about the matter is, that God has so made us, and that it is manifestly appropriate to the design of our being, that we should be so constituted.

A conscience is inseparable from us every where, and through every stage of our being. Early childhood evinces it; its scorpion sting extorts confessions from men steeped in crime; and its province in a future world we discover in the anguish of the worm that never dies.

Conscience may be stifled, for a time, but cannot be destroyed. It may be misinformed. The light that is in the understanding may be defective, and the conscience be poorly

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