larger measures of the Spirit than the law of Moses;] for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." "Thy word hath quickened me ;" explained by this other clause in the context, "I will never forget thy precepts, for with them thou hast quickened me.' Take another set of texts in which the same thing occurs in relation to both objects. "If any of you do err "The law of These forms of from the truth and one convert him, let him know that he which converteth the sinner-shall save a soul from death." Here no account is made of the word, but only of the man who utters it. In the next that I shall cite, all account is made of the word and none of the Spirit. the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." expression are analagous to others of every day's occurrence. We say for instance, that Peter and John healed the lame man at the Beautiful gate of the temple, and it is so expressed in the Contents of the chapter; but Peter said to the wondering multitude, "Why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk ?"t Thus far, I think, there is nothing that either sets aside the efficient action of the Spirit or explains the mode of his operation. Indeed where the Spirit is not mentioned it behooves our brethren to supply the defect as well as us ; for they, no less than we, hold to the necessity of the Spirit's operation. *Ps. 119. 50, 93. Isai. 55. 11. John 6. 45, 63. and 8. 32, 34. Acts 19. 20. 1 Cor. 2. 14. 2 Cor. 3. 6, 8. Gal. 2. 8. 1 Thes. 2. 13. 2 Tim. 2. 9. + Ps. 19. 7. Acts 3. 12. James 5. 19, 20. We now come to two texts which, taken in any thing like a literal sense, would seem to favour our brethren; but upon that construction they would contradict several hundred texts which hold a different language, as we shall have occasion to see. They speak of the word as the seed by which the children are formed in the second birth, and the act of the father as merely introducing that seed. The two passages are these: "Born again, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, by the word of God." "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth." There is a third text which speaks of the seed without explaining the reference, but from the other two we must conclude that the reference is to the word. "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God."* I do not say that these are all the texts which thus speak, but I say, they are all that I could find; and I have taken great pains to collect the whole. At present I must believe that these are the only texts which have given countenance to the doctrine which is so triumphantly sounded in every street, that we are begotten and born again through the word. Now for the meaning of these texts. As truth is that in view of which the intellect and heart act, and without which there could be no active life; in other words, as all the exercises of the new man grow, as it were, out of truth; this is spoken of as the seed which is wrought up into the living man. But this is strongly figurative upon every * James 1. 18. 1 Pet. 1. 23. 1 John 3. 9. construction. Truth does not grow up into a Christian. ▾ Every body sees that. And when the language is ascertained to be figurative, we are at full liberty to inquire of other texts how far the figure swells or varies the literal meaning. That it does vary it in some degree is certain ; but how far, cannot be settled by the texts themselves, but must be learnt from the general tenour of Scripture and from We have already seen that truth is introduced to the view of the mind by an action, not on truth, but on the mind itself. This is one important variation from the literal import of the figure. Let another similar one be supposed, namely, that by an action on the heart God causes it to love as well as see the truth, and it is all we ask. common sense. 66 There are three other texts which have been brought to support the literal meaning of this figure, which do not apply. Men are said to beget by establishing the figurative relation of father and son. Thus Paul begat his son Onesimus, and he begat the Corinthians "through the Gospel." But this was not God begetting; nor does it express God's power in regeneration. Not God but Paul is the father in this figure. But even Paul claims to have begotten them THROUGH THE GOSPEL;" which fully shows that this memorable phrase, in the other cases, can denote only a general instrumentality; for Paul could not introduce truth into the mind, as the sticklers for the literal meaning of this figure represent God as doing. If this great moral change is called a new birth, the Gospel, regarded as the means of making the living, active man, may well enough be called the seed; but the resemblance must not be pressed too far. By another modification of this general figure Paul becomes the mother. "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you;" referring to the agony of prayer for the descent of the Spirit upon them; which looks like any thing but a generation by the word without the life giving Spirit. How regeneration is effected by light, and what the meaning is of all those passages which speak of this, may be gathered from a single text. "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."* After all then it is a new crea tion. In the days of the apostles there was an unction of the Spirit which communicated a knowledge of the truth; but it was the Spirit of inspiration.+ We have now passed regeneration. When we come to the process of sanctification, we find it to be a law of the new creation that, while the Christian is gazing intently upon God in the glass of his word, the Spirit takes that occasion to transform him progressively into the divine likeness. And by the same figure by which efficiency is ascribed to light, we say that views of God are transforming. "We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." "Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth.-For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified * 2 Cor. 4. 6. † 1 John 2. 20, 27. through the truth." But this very prayer for sanctifying influence was made to God. "Christ-loved the Church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word;" the word being the water in which it is cleansed by the divine Purifier; or literally, the word furnishing the considerations by which the holy affections are called forth by the causal influence of the Spirit of Christ.* 66 Thus There are several texts which have been thought against us, which have no such bearing. The enjoined action of the creature is so exactly in a line with the action of the Spirit, that the two coincide in bringing forth the exercises of a new heart; one causally, the other actually. On this account both are called by the same name. men are commanded to make to themselves new hearts and to circumcise their hearts; which means only that they must cease to hate and begin to love. If Christians 'quench not the Spirit," but co-operate with the Spirit, as they ought to do, they will be "transformed by the renewing of" their "mind;" they will "be renewed in the spirit of" their "mind;" they will "stir up the gift of God which is in" them; they will be partakers "of the afflictions of the Gospel according to the power of God;" they will "be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might;" they will pray "in the Spirit;" they will "be filled with the Spirit;" they will "put off the old man with his deeds, and-put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him,""which after God is created in righteousness and true * John 17. 17, 19. 2 Cor. 3. 18. Eph. 5. 25, 26. |