But fhall difficulties caufe difbelief? Are there then no difficulties in the world of nature, as well as in the world of grace? I cannot step into the garden or the meadow; I cannot caft my eyes to the horizon, without encountering difficulties. Yet I believe the existence of the things I fee there, and I am led from the obfervation of general good, mixed with partial evil, to conclude, that verily there is a God. I conclude in the fame manner, from what I do understand and know to be good in the gospel, that verily Jefus is the Chrift; and that the parts of the gofpel which I do not comprehend, are good, because those which I am able to understand are fo beyond all doubt and comparifon.

All that is neceffary to my happiness in the gofpel is fufficiently clear. I learn there that the HOLY GHOST is vouchfafed to me and to all men, now and till time fhall be no more. This I confider as the LIVING GOSPEL. This fupplies all defects, if any there fhould be, in the written word; and the dark and unintelligible parts of the gospel, furrounded by celeftial radiance, become like spots in the fun, which neither deform its beauty, nor diminish its luftre. I am not therefore offended by them; I bow to them with reverence, as to facred things upon the altar, covered with a veil from the eyes of mortal or profane intrusion. It is enough that I have learned, in the gospel, many moral truths; and this ONE GREAT TRUTH, that God Almighty, at this moment, pours an EMANATION of himself into the fouls of all who feek the glorious gift by fervent prayer, and endeavour to retain it by obedience to his will. It is enough: why need I perplex my understanding with fearching into thofe fecret things which belong unto the Lord; or acquire a minute, cavilling habit, which never can'

difcover

difcover any thing on this fubject of more importance than that which I already know; but which, if indulged prefumptuously, may lead me to fcepticifm, and terminate in infidelity *? Some parts of the holy volume are fealed: I fhall in vain attempt to burst them open: but I will not condemn what I cannot understand. I will wait with patience and humility for God's good time. In the interval I will rejoice; and my flefh fhall reft in hope; because I have been admitted to infpect the book, and have learned that the SPIRIT ftill attends the written word, miniftering at this hour, and illuminating, with the lamp of Heaven, whatever darkness overshadows the path of life.

This perfuafion adds new glory to the written gofpelt. It throws a heavenly luftre over the page. The HOLY BOOK is not left alone to effect the great purpose of man's recovery; fo that, whatever difficulties or defects it may be allowed to retain, by the wife providence of GOD, the difficulties will be removed, and the defects fupplied, fo far as to accomplish the great end, by the operation of the Holy Ghoft, which accompanies it in its progress down the stream of time, like the pillar of fire, attending the children of Ifrael ‡Į.

* Titubabit fides, fi vacillet Scripturarum divinarum au&toritas. Faith will totter, if the authority of the divine Scriptures is fhaken. Aug. de Chrift. Doct. Lib. I. c. 37. The written Gofpel, like the apoftles, may plant and water, but it is God that giveth the increase.

- Όσοι υιοι είσι του φωτος και της διακονίας της καινης διαθήκης εν τω πνευματι αγίω, ΘΕΟΔΙΔΑΚΤΟΙ ΕΙΣΙΝ· αυτη γαρ η χαρις επιγραφεί εν ταίς καρδίαις αυτων τους νόμους του πνευματος ουκ οφείλουσιν ουν εις τας γραφας μενον τας δια μέλανος γεγραμμένος πληροφορείθαι, αλλα και εις τας πλάκας της καρδίας η χαρις του Θεου εγγράφει τους νομους του πνευμαίος και τα επουράνια μυςηρία. As many as are the fons of the light, and of the miniftration of the New Teftament in the Holy Spirit, are taught of God; for grace itself infcribes upon their hearts the laws of the Spirit. They are not therefore indebted to the SCRIPTURES ONLY, to the word written with INK, for their Chriftian perfection;

but

SECTION XXVIII.

The OMNIPRESENCE of God a Doctrine univerfally allowed; but how is God every where prefent but by his Spirit, which is the HOLY GHOST?

Ουδεν Θεων κενεν

Nothing is without Deity.

MARC ANTONIN.

HEY who maintain, if there be any fuch, that God having, about eighteen hundred years ago, fignified his will to mankind, has ever fince that time withdrawn his agency from the human mind, do, in effect, deny the omniprefence, and with it the omnifcience, providence, and goodness of the Deity. But what say the scriptures? HE

IS NOT FAR FROM EVERY ONE OF US; FOR IN HIM WE LIVE, AND MOVE, AND HAVE OUR BEING *.

But is it to be believed, that when he is thus intimately prefent with us, he either cannot, or will not, influence our fentiments? Why is he thus prefent? or why should he confine his agency over us to a LITTLE BOOK, in a foreign and dead

but the grace of God writes upon the tablet of their hearts the laws of the Spirit, and the mysteries of Heaven.

MACARIUS in Homil. 15. "How doth the Holy Ghoft reveal unto us the truth of the Scrip "<tures? I answer, by removing those impediments that hindered,

and by bestowing those graces that make us capable of this know"ledge. There is in us a two-fold impediment; firft, Ignorance, "by which our eyes are closed that we cannot fee the light; fecondly,

Corruption, by which, though we fee the light, yet we cannot but "naturally hate it and turn from it. The Holy Spirit cures both "by a double remedy; firit, of illumination, reftoring our under"flanding to fome part of its primitive perfection; secondly, of "fanctification, infufing into our defires and affections fome degrees ❝of their primitive holiness and purity."

* A&ts, xvii. 27.

PEMBLE.

language,

language, which many never fee at all, which more cannot read, which none can perfectly understand; and concerning the literal meaning of the most important DOCTRINAL parts of which, the most learned and judicious are to this hour divided in opinion?

*

The heathens had more enlarged and worthier ideas of the divine nature. They indeed believed in fupernatural agency on the mind of man; though they difgraced their belief by the absurdities of polytheifm. Every part of the universe was peopled by them with fupernatural agents, and the most diftinguished among them believed their virtuous fentiments infpired, and their good actions directed by a tutelar deity. I dwell not upon the inftance of Socrates's Demon +; and I only mention the topic,

Ipfe Deus HUMANO GENERI miniftrat; ubique et omnibus præfto eft.-God himself adminifters to the human race; he is prefent every where, and to every man. SENECA EPIST.

Quocunque te flexeris, ibi illum videlis occurrentem tibi. Nihil ab illo vacat. Opus fuum ipfe implet.Whichever way you turn, you will meet God. Nothing is without him. He fills his own work completely. SENEC. DE BENEFIC. Lib. 4. Cap. 8.

It is worth while, however, to infert the following fine paffage from Plato, in which Socrates afferts the neceffity of fupernatural agency, in removing a dark CLOUD from the human mind, previously to its being able to learn how to regulate conduct, either towards gods or men. Reafon, till this dark cloud fhould be removed by Divine Providence, he thought incapable of discovering either moral or divine truth with certainty.

S. ̓Αναγκαῖον ἦν ἐςι περιμένειν ἕως ἂν τις μάθη ὡς δεῖ πρὸς θεὸς πρὸς άνθρωπος διακείσθαι. Α. Πότε ἦν παρέσαι ὁ χρόνω τα, Σώκρατες; καὶ τίς ὁ παιδέυσων;-S. Οὗτός έσιν ω μέλει περὶ σε. ἀλλὰ δοκεί μοι, ὥσπερ τῷ Διομήδει φησὶ τὴν Αθηνῶν Ὅμηρ©· ἀπὸ τῶν οφθαλμῶν ἀφελεῖν τὴν ̓ΑΚΛΥΝ,

Ὀρ ̓ ἔν γιγνώσκοι ἢ μὲν θεὸν ἠδὲ καὶ ἄνδρα,

τω καὶ σε δεῖν ἀπὸ τῆς ψυχῆς πρῶτον ἀφελολα τὴν ̓ΑΚΛΥΝ, ἡ νῦν παρέσα τυγχάνει, τηληνικαῦτ ̓ ἤδη προσφέρειν δὲ ὧν μέλλεις γνώσεσθαι ἱ μὲν κακιν ηδὲ καὶ ἐσθλὸνο” νῦν μὲν γὰρ εκ εν μοι δοκῆς δυνηθεῖναι. Platonis Alcibiades II. prope Finem.(Socrates and Alcibiades difcourse.) S. It is neceffary then to wait till one is informed how one ought to behave, both in religious and focial duties, to God and to

men

topic, to prove that the doctrine is not likely to be very UNREASONABLE, fince it was maintained by men who are acknowledged to have been fingularly endowed with the rational faculty.

The omnipotence, omniprefence, and omnifcience of God were strenuously maintained, not only by the wifeft of the heathens, but the most learned and rational of Chriftian divines, among whom was Dr. Samuel Clarke, a man by conftitution and ftudies as far removed from enthufiafm, as it is poffible to conceive. But the omniprefence of God being allowed as a true doctrine, it will not be difficult to believe his agency on the human mind by fupernatural impreffion. The difficulty would be to believe that the divine Spirit could be PRESENT always and every where with us, and yet never act upon us, but leave the moral world, after the writing of the New Teftament, to depend on the fidelity of translations, the interpretations of fallible men, the preaching and teaching of scholars, deriving all they know of antient tongues and antient opinions from dictionaries, and differing continually even on fuch doctrines as conftitute the very corner-ftones of the whole Chriftian fabric.

*

men.-A. O Socrates, when will that time come, and who shall teach me ?-S. EVEN HE WHO CARETH FOR YOU; but it appears to me, as Homer represents Minerva removing a dark cloud from the eyes of Diomed that he might diftinguish gods from men in the battle, fo he who CARETH FOR YOU must first remove the dark cloud from your mind, which now hangs over it, and then you will ufe thofe means by which you may know "the good from ill," which, in your prefent ftate, you seem to me unable to distinguish. The philofopher feems to me to have seen the neceffity of divine revelation, and to have predicted the evangelical illumination of the Spirit of God.

If the fidelity of men may be depended upon, their accuracy cannot; fince Dr. MILL, a celebrated editor of the Greek Teftament, has collected THIRTY THOUSAND variations in the copies of that little book.

The