not made for them alone, but "for them also "which should believe on Him through their "word," whether oral or written. With this the whole tenour of our liturgy, articles, and homilies concurs. And if due care be used in distinguishing between the ordinary and extraordinary operations of the Spirit, the danger of enthusiasm, in the bad sense of the word, will be prevented. In its true etymological meaning, it is essential to the existence of Godliness. For "be"sides many other evils that came by the fall of "man, the high power of man's reason and free"dom of will were wounded and corrupted, and "all men thereby brought into such blindness and infirmity, that they cannot eschew sin, except they be illuminated and made free by an espe"cial grace, that is to say, by a supernatural help " and working of the Holy Ghost."*

An acquaintance with the fundamental doctrines of the gospel is of immense importance, for it is one of those things which "accompany "salvation." No peace of conscience can be enjoyed, unless the only foundation on which it can be built be discerned and understood. No holiness of heart can be attained without a perception of those motives by which alone it can be produced. A rectified judgment respecting the truth as it is in Jesus is a prerequisite to all Divine experience, and is one of those characteristics which distinguish the sober and devoted Christian from the wild fanatic. But a rectified judgment can only be derived from Divine teaching. For, though the means of knowledge are afforded us in the Scriptures, the Bible is a sealed book until the reader is illuminated from above. Nicodemus

*Necessary Erudition for a Christian Man, written by Archbishop Cranmer and the Assembly of Divines,

and Saul of Tarsus had the Bible in their hands and read it before their conversion, but they understood it not till they were taught of God. And many in our own days, who are well informed on subjects of human science, are ignorant of the first principles of the oracles of God, because they seek not instruction from Him whose prerogative it is to give man "a right judgment" in all spiritual matters. "Never let it be supposed that "Christians can serve God without the grace of "God, because some have been so weak as to "surfeit the wise with the presumption and folly "of their spiritual pretensions. The life of de"votion is still the gift of God; and it must be "insisted upon with our church that there is not " in man one good thought, one holy desire, but "from the continual inspiration of the Divine

Spirit in all things directing and ruling our "hearts. Without this doctrine we may be scho"lars, and critics, and men of taste; we may be "monitors and moralists of civil society; but we "are no longer to be considered as Christian Di"vines, neither will our labours be attended with any saving effect."* And may it not be added that without inspiration from above no man is a Christian believer, since "faith" is "of the ope"ration of God?" And the reason why Divine instruction is not sought is, that no want of it is felt, and that it is even dreaded. A conviction of sin, of ignorance, and of imbecility, is the certain effect of Divine illumination in its least degree, and a necessary preparative to greater degrees of it. Without this conviction, men will be "wise in their own conceits," and prefer "darkness to light because their deeds are evil."

* Bishop Horne's Charge to the Clergy of Norwich.

An attempt to enumerate all those things in which "a right judgment" is desirable, or even essential, would be vain. There are, however, three cardinal points of Divinity of vast comprehension and consequence. And as a single clew will conduct through many intricacies, or as a right motion of the heart causes the blood to circulate through an immense number of arteries and veins, so an acquaintance with these fundamental articles will lead us into all necessary truth. These three momentous points are specified by our Lord, when He is speaking of the Spirit's work, (John xvi. 8, &c.) "When He is comé, "He will reprove (or convince) the world of sin, " of righteousness, and of judgment."*

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The doctrine of the fall is the first of these ticulars, viz. that we are guilty, polluted, and helpless creatures. By Adam's transgression we are constituted " children of wrath," and by hereditary corruption are disqualified for heaven. Our actual transgressions are innumerable; and "the wages of sin is death." Now this is a lesson in Divinity which can be learned only in the school of Christ. Thousands, with the Bible in their hands and the prayer-book on their lips, deny it; and far more assent to it without feeling any interest in it. Divine illumination is necessary to such a conviction of sin as produces alarm, humiliation, and a submission to the doctrine of salvation by grace.

* It has been supposed that these three branches of Di vine instruction are distinctly described by Elihu, Job xxxiii. 13-30. The 29th and 30th verses may he rendered, "Lo all these things worketh God in three gradations with "man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened "with the light of the living." Gr, schol. Aia rgIWY THTWY τρόπων.

This salvation by grace is the second point in which "a right judgment" is indispensably necessary. The righteousness of the Son of God is the only foundation of human hope. We must know that "there is no other name under heaven "given among men by which we must be saved,” before we shall trust in the only Saviour of sinners. That His blood cleanseth from all sin, and that His righteousness justifieth the ungodly, is knowledge that is essential to the peace of the awakened conscience and the comfort of the troubled heart. This head of doctrine includes the dignity of the Mediator's person, the vicarious object of His atonement and obedience, and the nature and office of faith. Now it is the office of the Holy Ghost to "take of the things that are "Christ's and to shew them unto us."

Sanctification, resulting from faith in the Lord Jesus, is a third point of immense consequence. For if "without holiness no man shall see the "Lord," and if we are naturally unholy and unable to sanctify ourselves, who can duly appreciate the value of "a right judgment" in this particular? The necessity and nature of holiness, our total want of it and inability to implant it in ourselves, are subjects on which we are sure to err without Divine instruction. By many the doctrine of regeneration is treated with ridicule, and holiness is confounded with morality.

2. The second petition in our collect implores further grace with a view to the application of that knowledge which the Spirit communicates, to the purpose of spiritual consolation. The Holy Ghost is styled by our Lord "THE COMFORTER, because the communication of comfort to the souls of the redeemed is, next to the glory of God,

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the grand end of His mission, and that to which the other branches of His office are subservient.

The application of those truths, which are learned from the word of God through a Divine influence accompanying it, is a distinct branch of the Spirit's office, and a work that is exclusively His own. The Bible contains the ground of comfort, and ministers, according to the commission which they have received, (Is. xl. 1) proclaim that Gospel from which comfort is to be derived. But it is God who comforteth them that are cast "down." The Holy Ghost "healeth the broken "in heart and bindeth up their wounds." This He doth as the Author of faith, without which the consolatory truths of Scripture afford no more relief to the conscious mind, than the chearing cordial can yield to the diseased and fainting body while it remains in its phial. When Nathan said to David, after the confession which he made of his heinous guilt, "the Lord hath put away thy "sin, thou shalt not die," a basis for consolation was laid. But the criminal could not take it to himself without the aid of the Holy Ghost, as we learn from his earnest intercession in the 51st Psalm. If he could, by the mere exertion of his natural powers, have made a full use of the blessing of pardon which had been graciously vouchsafed to him, he needed not to have addressed the mercy-seat with those importunate supplications which he has recorded for the use of succeeding penitents. His petitions will illustrate the corresponding petition of our collect, "Purge me with hysop and I shall be clean, wash me and I shall "be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Cast me not away from thy pre"sence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.

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