Are we, therefore, to forbear, as if any mention of the Spirit's influence should seem like an approximation to enthusiasm? By no means. Let our

statements of the doctrine be made with the utmost caution. Let our descriptions of it be such as shall exactly tally with the scriptural representations of it; but let us not slight it; much less should we reject it altogether. There is nothing, however excellent it may be, either in itself or in its consequences, but has in all ages been perverted. Base coin always supposes genuine. Because one is an epicure, and another drinks to excess, are we, therefore, neither to eat nor to drink? So neither are we to discard the divine influence, because some, pretending to be the subjects of it, may misrepresent it. Nay, if it be so, our duty becomes imperative, namely, clearly and frequently to state and defend it. The best way, said a late writer to pull down error, is by establishing the truth. "To the law

and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."5

There is a fear, however, in the minds of some lest, in maintaining the influences of the Spirit, we should intrench upon the freedom of the will, and in consequence interfere with the individual accountability of man. With those whose statements, perhaps, involve the objection alleged, the writer has nothing to do. They must vindicate their own views. But if intelligence be essential to the freedom of the will, and the will (no physical cause, of course, preventing it) invariably acts according to the disposition of the agent, then is it intuitively certain that the Spirit, by enlightening the understanding, and by altering the disposition, neither intrenches upon the freedom of the will, nor interferes with the accountability of man; but, on the contrary, most effectually promotes both. the one and the other. Nor does this

Isa. viii. 20.

view favour the scheme of absolute necessity, since if the will be always influenced by motives then is it necessarily free. "We have seen that, in the term disposition, there is implied no more than that unknown and incomprehensible structure of the will, by which it yields to the influence of particular motives; and that the virtue of the agent depends not upon the manner in which that effect is produced, but upon the nature of the disposition itself. Strange, therefore, to object that our actions are less virtuous, because our tempers are made better by the efficacy of God's Holy Spirit. If our dispositions be changed, there must be some reason for the change. Yet all the objections on this head are grounded on the imaginary supposition that the necessary agency of the divine Being in rectifying our dispositions is inconsistent with the true nature of morality."6

Still, it is urged, that in proportion to our maintaining the necessity of divine

Milner's Essay on Human Liberty, p. 92-3.

influence, in the same proportion we supersede the necessity of human efforts. But till it can be shown that the mind of man is acted upon in the same manner as a machine, or is as the marble beneath the hand of the sculptor, this objection, like the former, is purely imaginary. For, surely the very terms used to express this influence, as enlightening the understanding, being born of the Spirit, teaching, drawing, &c. &c. clearly imply a medium, the word, for instance, by which it is exerted, and which is therefore to be read and studied by us, can never be construed into a total neglect on our part. The means and the end are inseparably connected. The perfect propriety of using means upon all occasions appears from this single reflection, that they are absolutely necessary for procuring the ends;-the most cogent argument that can be conceived.”7

"We find, by experience, the Author of our nature does not so much as pre

7 Milner's Essay, p.76.

serve our lives exclusively of our own care and attention, to provide ourselves with, and to make use of, that sustenance, by which he has appointed our lives shall be preserved and without which he has appointed, they shall not be preserved at all."8

The

The husbandman sows his fields, though he knows that the concurrence of the rain, of the sun, and of the seasons, &c. are indispensably necessary to cause the seed to germinate and to ripen the corn. Greeks elegantly expressed this connexion by representing a figure holding a plough with one hand, while the other was lifted. up to heaven.

Nor can the fact be otherwise satisfactorily accounted for, that what is promised to be given in one part of scripture, is, in reference to this very influence, also commanded in other parts, and is, therefore, our duty to seek, and without seeking, whatever it may please the great and sovereign Agent to do in some instances, 8 Bp. Butler's Anal. of Nat. and Reveal. Relig. c.ii. p. 46.