this new revelation, We feel only that plans, and ambi

change, nor explain the origin of this secret influence acting on us. the past is dead to us, with all its tions, and worldly interests; and that we must forthwith begin life anew, and aim at something better, and strive earnestly to get nearer to God and Christ. We do not feel that any miracle has come to us, but that God has spoken to us in a voice we never have heard before; that somehow, by the secret and subtle influences of his providence, we have been brought to a point where new interests have arisen, and the affections are wakened to new life, and we are resolved to follow after righteousness and true holiness, all the days of our life. And then comes the spirit of prayer and of communion with God; then, too, the word of truth, the gospel of salvation, are taken up with earnest study; and all the means of grace and regeneration are improved to the utmost, and with full purpose of heart to be "followers of God as dear children."

And now, the man to whom any one of these varied experiences has come, finds that the whole tone of his character is changed, that the whole effort of his life is heavenly. To use the beautifully descriptive language of Channing: "Once the dictates of conscience might have been heard; now they are obeyed. Once an occasional gratitude might have shed a transient glow through his heart; now the divine goodness is a cherished thought, and he labors to requite it by an obedient life. Once his passions were his lords; now he bows to the authority, and waits to hear the will of God. Once human opinion was his guide, and human favor the reward he proposed

to himself; now he feels that another eye is upon him, that his heart and life are naked before God, and to approve himself to this righteous and unerring judge, is his highest ambition. Once he was ready to repine and despond when his wishes and labors were crossed; now he sees a providence in life's vicissitudes, the discipline of a father in his sufferings, and bears his burdens, and performs his duties, with cheerful resignation to him who assigns them. Once he was sufficiently satisfied with himself, or unwilling to feel his deficiencies; now he is humble, conscious of having sinned, desirous to discover his errors, contrite in his acknowledgments, earnest in his application to Divine mercy, and resolute in his opposition to temptation. Once the thought of a Saviour suffering for his redemption, and rising from the dead to reveal immortality, excited little interest; now the promises, love, cross, and resurrection of Jesus, come home to him with power, and awaken gratitude and hope. Thus, by the precepts, doctrines, motives, promises of Christianity, and by the secret influence of God's Spirit on the heart, he has been raised to a faith, hope, and love, which may be called a new life. He has been born again.'

'CHANNING'S Memoirs, vol. i. pp. 256-258. There is a very valuable paper, by JOWETT, in his Commentary on Paul's Epistles, " On Conversion and Changes of Character." It is suggestive, and shows the results of much thought and study. And it is significant of the direction of the new life which has begun to quicken the dead body of the English Church. The essay may be read also in Noyes' Collection of Theological Essays.

SECTION II.

REGENERATION-NEW CREATURE-NEW MAN-GIVING A NEW HEART

CREATING IN CHRIST JESUS-QUICKENING FROM THE DEAD, &c.

The phrases at the head of this section, and similar expressions in the Old and New Testaments, may seem to demand a special notice, as they appear to set forth more strongly, the direct and irresistible action of the Holy Spirit on the passive heart of man, in the work of the new birth or regeneration. And it must be allowed, that some of the texts cited in this behalf, are worded in very positive language.

"Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them." Ezek. xxxvi. 25-27.

This is certainly put in strong terms; but the same God says, by the mouth of the same prophet, and to the same people: "Cast away from you all your trangressions, whereby you have transgressed; and make ye a new heart and a new spirit; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" Chap. xviii.

'It is to be observed that this language, which is perhaps the strongest in the Bible for the doctrine that "a change of heart” is wholly a supernatural work, is addressed to the "house of Israel," and refers to their return from captivity, the sorrows and sufferings of which led them to turn to God with their whole heart. Of course we cannot suppose a whole nation was instantly converted, by a radical change of nature, through the resistless action of the Holy Spirit.

Here the people are required to do for themselves the very thing which God declares he will do for themviz: to make a new heart and a new spirit. The simple truth is God and man, act together in this renewal, and sometimes it is attributed to one, and sometimes to the other. God gives the means, and man improves them, and the result is the new heart and spirit which obeys the statutes, and keeps the judgments of the Lord. And thus is illustrated the exhortation of Paul to the Philippians: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” ii. 12, 13.

So in Ephesians ii. iv., we have the expression, "We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them," "the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." But in this very connection, the persons themselves are required to "put off the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man," &c. So that if the " new man" is "created," he is required to aid in the work, to do his part toward being renewed in the spirit. It is not resistless grace on one hand, and passive inactivity on the other; but the joint work of the Spirit of God and the spirit of man. There is no change of nature, but a right use of the nature already possessed; nothing supernatural, but the improvement of appointed means to a purposed end.

"If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature ; old things are passed away; behold all things are

become new." 2 Cor. v. 17. The last half of the verse explains the first. He who became a Christian left everything behind, his old faith, and feelings, and practices, and sins; and in all these things became a new man, a new creature in Christ.

The language was common among the Jews. They said, "Proselytes to the true religion (i. e. the Law). have their souls created anew." "He who converts another to the Law, virtually creates him."

"The

priest was made a new creature by the oil with which he was anointed." And of Abraham they said, that on the birth of Ishmael, "he was made a new creature, that he should beget sons, and become great over all."'

These examples show its Jewish usage, and show also how absurd it is to attempt to build up the doctrine of a supernatural change of human nature, on such elastic phraseology. It is certain that the Jews of Christ's time did not use it in this sense.

“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." "And you being dead in sins, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses." Eph. ii.; Col. ii. "Here," it may be said, "sinners are represented as morally dead, and if moral death is to the soul what natural death is to the body, then they could only be quickened into moral life by the absolute will, the omnipotent Spirit of God. They could do nothing toward it themselves. If the figure has any fitness or force, they must have been passive, and powerless to do good, till the Holy Spirit renewed or re-created

SCHOETTGEN, as cited in Expositor ii. 198, First Series.