DISCOURSE XIII. 1 COR. chap. xii. latter part of ver. 3. "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." THROUGH ten long Discourses have I been labouring to establish the truth of Christianity upon the foundations of reason. I have taken the subject of religion as I would have taken a subject in philosophy; and, viewing it in all its different bearings, have considered the principles of Christian evidence, and the objections of unbelievers, as if every thing that is valuable in this world and the next, the faith of every Christian, -the very existence of the Gospel itself-depended upon the force of my answers, and the truth or untruth of my own peculiar views. I have spoken as to unbelievers, and reasoned as with unbelievers; and gathering the various weapons of warfare from the writings of the most powerful divines, would trust, that infidelity, when comparing the strength of the argument on both sides, can have no very great cause to triumph in her superior strength. Such inquiries and occupations as these, are most holy and most useful, when applied to those who believe not, and belong not to the Gospel; because they may teach them the necessity of distrusting the firmness and beauty of the temple of Reason, when brought into competition with the temple of Christianity. They may also be satisfactory to ourselves, as believers, because they tend to improve our conduct, and increase our faith, by giving us a means of appreciating the security of our trust, and furnishing us with a shield against those arrows of the enemy, which, however severely and frequently defeated, he still continues, whilst flying, to throw back, like the Parthian, against his pursuing conquerors. But never, never should we forget, that the perpetuity of the Gospel depends not, for its defence, upon carnal weapons alone. That the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church, is a promise and a prediction of the Lord which will be fulfilled; not because the defenders of the Church are able and eloquent, and their reasonings deep and sound-not because it stands in the words of man, but because it is built upon the rock of ages, and standeth in the power and in the wisdom of God. By reflections like these, I would humble my own understanding, and I would humble yours. I would quench every feeling of selfconfidence. I would bring down the pride of man's heart. I would teach him that the safest reliance is not upon the profound arguments of learning, nor upon the force of philosophical trains of thought, nor upon the efficacy of any thing that he can work out in the nature of evidence for himself, however nobly conceived, or sublimely expressed; but upon the arm of the Almighty. I would say that faith a faith by which "with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and through the mouth confession is made unto salvation" is the gift of God; and would both learn and teach the wisdom of a meek and entire dependence upon Heaven, by repeating, by enforcing, and by illustrating the unequivocal declaration of the text, when taken in its most literal sense, that, "no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.' This, to many, is a hard saying, and has been of difficult reception with Christians of every age; but more especially with those whose habit it has been, to regard religion in an intellectual point of view; and to measure the probability and the merit of every opinion solely by the standard of the common processes of ratiocination in other subjects. To acknowledge that faith is the gift of God, is, according to their philosophising and logical views, to take away all virtue and praise from belief, and to strip infidelity of all its guilt. For if we cannot admit or say, that Jesus is the Christ; if we cannot teach or cordially acquiesce in the truth and divine authority of the Gospel, and in the claims of Jesus to be the Christ, without being assisted in arriving at that conclusion by the influence and co-operation of the Holy Spirit; then they contend, that; since God giveth the Spirit only to whom he will, and communicates it only in what measure he will, there can be but little fault in our not being possessed of that quality which depends upon the will of another-not immediately, indeed, but yet ultimately upon the will of another, inasmuch as God alone can endue us with the means of coming to a right conclusion in the matter. But whatever may be the difficulties attending the subject, the absolute necessity of God's assistance, through the Holy Spirit, to inspire us with the faith as well as the feelings of a Christian, is one of the leading doctrines of the Gospel. It is unequivocally and frequently inculcated not only by the Apostles of Jesus after his death, and the full development of the Christian scheme, but with quite as much plainness and certainty by Jesus himself. It may be questioned perhaps by some, whether the context and phraseology of the words which I have placed at the head of the present Discourse, though apparently, and in their literal meaning, confirming the doctrine in its fullest extent, are yet sufficiently clear to support the idea without some other corroboration. But there is abundant proof to be deduced from other and independent passages. St. Paul* informs us that spiritual things are spiritually discerned and that the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him: neither indeed can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.". He consequently considers faith as one of the fruits of the Spirit. Our Lord himself is also equally positive in declaring that without him we can do nothing; and that no man can come to him who is not drawn of God; that is, to whom the power of coming to him is not given by the Father; for that he only who is of God heareth and receiveth God's word. § The doctrine that faith is one of the fruits of the Spirit, and the gift of God, is in reality but a branch of that great and universal principle so distinctly and solemnly laid down by the Apostle, ¶ that "we are not able of ourselves to do any thing, as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God." The same divine origin is attributed without excep+ Gal. v. 22. § John viii. 47. * 1 Cor. ii. 14. || John vi. 44. John xv. 5. ¶ 1 Cor. iii. 5. |