it irrational or incomprehensible, shall we therefore reject it?

This view of the subject calls us to action, to vigilance, and to prayer. Whatever is wrong within us, whatever is not based on Christian principles, whatever is not pure and spiritual, it calls upon us to forsake. It presents the motives and assurances of the Gospel, and invites us to receive them, and be governed by them. Nay, it declares that we cannot see the kingdom of God-cannot be happy-unless we do. Do you cry out with the converted multitude, men and brethren, what shall we do.' Do as they did; do what Christ commands; do what John bade;-' Reform, reform, if you would be brought near to the kingdom of heaven.' If you would experience the 'new birth,' correct your errors, govern your passions, be kind, and gentle, and forgiving. Give to him that asketh of thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if be thirst, give him drink. In short, be a Christian,— a Christian in feeling, and a Christian in life.

II. We shall now proceed to state our objections to the popular belief on this subject; and in so doing we hope to make our own views better understood. And what is the popular belief. Briefly stated, it is this: That the Holy Spirit regenerates the mind by an immediate agency 'wholly exclusive of the instrumentality of moral means;' that the mind, destitute in its natural state of all holiness and inclined only to evil, can be brought to the love of God and effectual obedience only by a special operation of the Spirit' upon it; and that previous to this operation no moral

motives can influence it-all its exercises being certainly [necessarily] sinful.' We are aware that some divines of the dominant sect have, of late, dissented from this view of the doctrine; and we record the fact with much joy. To them, of course, most of the objections which follow have no relevancy.

We object to the doctrine of the 'special agency of the Spirit in regeneration,' as explained by its ad

vocates

1. That it has not sufficient expansiveness. It is too limited. It is like putting the mouth to a single aperture and saying, we must breathe through this or not breathe at all, when the whole atmosphere is surcharged with life-giving influences. It does not throw open the soul to the divine spirit' in the thousand sources whence it proceeds. It makes the displays of the Divinity in Creation and Providence and Revelation of none effect in the work. Nothing but a special visitation of one of the persons in the Godhead can avail to our regeneration. We repeat, those magnificent works of God which have drawn forth the admiration and inflamed the devotion of so many holy men; that righteous and benignant Providence which upholds and governs the universe and so forcibly impresses us with a sense of God's glory and majesty and love; and that blessed word spoken to man by prophets of old, and by Jesus and his apostles; these are supposed to have no agency in turning the heart to God-nothing to do in awakening the slumbering of affections-nothing to do in exciting the love of God and of man. It is only by the special agency of the Spirit, by an interposition as miraculous as that which

created the world, that man can be regenerated. But is this so? We think not. We believe, on the contrary, that every thing which God has done that comes within the compass of our knowledge-all the dispensations in life; all the variety in circumstances, in talents and advantages; all the institutions of religion, the sabbath and its sacred rest and solemn service, the supper and its hallowed associations, prayer and its power to absolve from earth and bind to heaven ;all God's revelations of grace and mercy, are designed and adapted to regenerate the sinner. We believe that the kingdom of God cometh not with observation; that the holy spirit, if we open our souls to receive it, may be wafted to them upon the breeze; that it comes down from the firmament, springs up from the earth, rises out of the sea. We believe that the spirit of God pervades the pages of his word; that there is in them, in the Scriptures of truth, a divine power; a power to purify and make happy; a power to give energy to moral imbecility, strength to moral weakness, life to moral death.

We believe, moreover, that there is in the human soul a spirit identified with the spirit of God; that there is in our breasts an ever-working agent of the Most High, inciting us to improvement, urging us to the pursuit and practice of virtue, calling us to union with the Father, inviting us to his worship, and prompting us to our duty. We have not to wait a moment for the Spirit. It is all around us. It is at the door of our hearts seeking for admission. It sustains and animates all things.

We believe, however, that the Holy Spirit is not resistless in its operations. We can shut our hearts against it as we can our eyes against the light. We can grieve it by not receiving it. It does not force its way contrary to our wills. It does not take from us our liberty and make us holy whether we will or not. According to the doctrine of a 'special agency,' we are considered merely as passive beings; according to the opposite doctrine we are considered as co-workers with God and Christ in our salvation. Which view is most rational and scriptural, the judgment of our readers will determine.

2. Our second objection to the common doctrine of the special agency of the Spirit in regeneration,' is, that it gives a false idea of God's character. It does not allow us to contemplate him as the impartial Ruler and Governor of men. The very term special, denotes something limited, something not general. It leaves us to the chilling conception of a God ruling according to a blind pleasure, singling out an individual here and an individual there for the display of his sovereign and almighty power. There is nothing enkindling, nothing elevating, in such a conception. It may have the effect to make us fear and tremble and bow down in timid servility, but never to produce a genuine love and pure benevolence.

There is something in the very idea unbenevolent, a want of love and good-will. But the worst effect of considering the Deity a partial sovereign, confining his choicest gifts to a few, is to make us, whose duty it is to imitate him, partial beings, restricting our charities and sympathies to a few. For the belief that God is

the Father of all and disposed to do good unto all, does as much as any thing else to make us just and merciful and kind and generous. It does as much as any thing else to excite our veneration and love of his character, and to form us to his likeness. But if we believe that God's best favors are bestowed only on a few, and without regard to their character-that he enters our town or our habitation and offers his spirit to one and not to another, both being unworthy, we ask with solemn earnestness, can we love him as a kind and just Being whose tender mercies are over all his works? And if we chance to be the ones selected for his grace, what then? We are grateful. Grateful for what? That God has saved us. But how must the ardor of that gratitude be quenched, when we reflect that he has passed by others dear to us as our own souls!

We say, then, that in our apprehension the character of the Deity is essentially lowered by admitting the doctrine under consideration. We love to contemplate God as good and gracious unto all his creatures. We cannot believe him to be an inflexible tyrant. We require some other reason for his election of some and his reprobation of others, than that he has a right to do what he pleases with his own. He has such a right, but the exercise of it must never clash with his perfect justice or perfect benevolence. No. God offers the aids of his spirit to us all. It is that which nourishes and sustains our moral faculties. It does not fall in drops, but it runs in streams. It does not fertilise my soil alone, but yours, and that of all who will receive it.

[To be Concluded.]

T. N.