far less so than that opposite extreme which, by attempting to elevate unduly the moral faculties of man, would teach him to look for salvation to the merit of his own works, and to disclaim that reliance upon the Divine aid which can alone expiate our infirmities, and conduct us to effectual holiness.

CHAPTER XXI.

Of the practical Tendency of the Morality of the Gospel, and of the extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Ir then the preceding remarks are correct, the Christian covenant is, of all the schemes of theology and ethics which have ever been laid open to the apprehension of mankind, that which tends to elevate our nature the most, and to promote most largely a course of pure and energetic action in its followers, whilst at the same time, by a singularly uniform and pervading analogy, it harmonizes with all that the best human philosophy can infer respecting the presumed arrangements of Providence. By the substitution of a vicarious atonement for sin, it may seem calculated at the first glance to encourage laxity of morals, and by the necessity of external spiritual aid which it asserts, it may appear to have a tendency to paralyze our own personal efforts, but, in proportion as we examine it more and more nearly, these objections not only entirely disappear, but its real practical tendency appears to be directly the reverse of what we might have hastily supposed. Whilst referring all things to the free grace, and mercy, and purity of God, it promotes, to a degree perfectly unexampled under any other modification of belief, holiness of heart and action in men. Fervent, practical righteousness; righteousness which in its reverential service of our Maker is perfectly analogous with those feelings of kindliness required of us toward our neigh

bour; righteousness which, from a deep conviction of humility and gratitude, looks firmly and cheerfully and submissively to the protection of a wise and bounteous Providence, hoping all things, enduring all things, and believing all things, is its great aim and object. When that object is obtained (and completely obtained it is not until the great twin doctrines of justification and sanctification, as revealed by Scripture, have become part and parcel of our habitual impressions and given a decided character to our minds,) human nature may be truly said to have arrived at the highest possible moral elevation of which in this world it is capable. The refinements of science may add much to its external appearance in the intercourse of society, as they may add also to the utility and individual comfort of their respective But on these points God, we

possessors.

are

Such accessory

assured, sees not as man sees. qualities are after all, where the main tendency of the mind is right, rather a superaddition of incidental worldly advantage than indispensable constituents of that class of blessings which it is our primary duty to aspire to. The first appeal of Christianity is to our spiritual and moral feelings, because in proportion as these are duly cultivated the faculties of the understanding acquire their relative degree of usefulness. This subjection of merely intellectual to moral excellence, which is so offensive to the vanity of men of this world as to account for no small degree of the petulance with which they regard revelation, is traceable from first to last through the whole tenor of Scripture. That it indeed in right reason ought to be so, is sufficiently obvious; nor should we have deemed it necessary to make the remark in this place, did it not serve to account for what at first sight seems paradoxical in some portions of the sacred writings, with reference to the preternatural gifts of the Holy Spirit alluded to in the books both of the Old and of the New Testament.

We are so apt to be struck with the splendour, and consequent appearance of partial favour in the sight of God, attaching to the miraculous powers of prophecy and language distributed to individuals on peculiar and remarkable occasions, that we feel disposed to undervalue as inferior in importance those graces which, as instruments of salvation, are essential, and have, therefore, been made accessible to the whole Christian world. Hence it is that in every period of religious agitation since the first diffusion of Christianity, individuals have been found who, whether excited by fanaticism, vanity, or other less objectionable motives, but, assuredly, in contradiction to the prudential maxim quoted by our blessed Saviour himself, that we should abstain from "tempting the Lord our God," have laid claim to these extraordinary gifts, forgetting that, after all, the entire submission of the will, with which we defer to the providential arrangements of our Divine Master, is the best proof as well of our favour with him as of the rectitude of our own hearts. It is a salutary lesson, accordingly, which seems purposely to have been given to us by Providence in order to correct this prevailing misapprehension, that what we usually styled the extraordinary operations of the Spirit appear to have been occasionally conferred under both the old and new dispensations upon persons whose moral qualifications have been sometimes more than questionable. Thus, in the Old Testament we read of the profligate and mercenary Balaam, the reprobate Saul, and the vacillating and apparently worldly-minded messenger of God's wrath against the altar of Bethel, as severally endowed with the gift of prophecy: and in the New Testament, to look no further than the case of the litigious members of the Corinthian Church addressed by St. Paul, we find there the instance of a far from exemplary set of members of the Christian community exercising the miraculous faculty of languages, which they

seem undoubtedly to have possessed, for no better purpose than that of personal ostentation and mutual rivalry. It is clear from what we read of the nature of these gifts, from the comparatively short period in which they were allowed to continue, and their complete cessation in the later ages, that they had nothing to do with the essential qualifications of the Christian character, but were intended solely as instruments for affixing the sanction of Divine authority to the doctrines then inculcated, or for the production of some other specific occasional purpose. Such, accordingly, is St. Paul's judgment respecting them. Tongues," he observes, "are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not." They were, therefore, with the other miraculous powers, well adapted for the peculiar condition of an infant Church, which had by its own intrinsic energy to break its way through the strong resistance of prejudice and existing institutions. But, assuredly, they are not suited for the general well-being of human nature under other less critical circumstances. As marks of God's peculiar favour to this or that person, it is evident that they could not long be enjoyed without producing a demoralizing effect upon the character of their possessor by the spiritual vanity which they are so obviously calculated to promote. Consequently, in every instance in which we read of them, they appear never to have been capable of being exercised in any uniform or permanent degree; never, in fact, in such a proportion as to place the parties enjoying them, not even the foremost and holiest men under both dispensations, above the pressure of incidental calamity, or the operation of natural causes. That they did really exist under both the early Jewish and the early Christian covenants is most certain, not only from the contemporary and unanswerable records which have been transmitted to our times, but also from the lingering belief in the continued possession of those

gifts which, as we learn from the writings of the early Fathers of the Church, prevailed even in their days, and which disappeared only after a long negative experience had taught mankind no longer to calculate upon such special interpositions. The circumstance of their having been thus withdrawn is of itself sufficient to convince us that we have no reason

to regret their loss. As gratuitous marks of God's special favour and acceptance of persons, they would be pernicious to the receiver, and contradictory to the impartial tenor of the Gospel covenant; even as proofs of the truth of the doctrines for which they vouch, they would in our times be inefficacious, since at a period when no really new communication of the Divine Will can be or ought to be expected, the fact of their being laid claim to by this or that individual would more naturally justify a suspicion of fanaticism or imposture on his part, than of his real and authoritative mission. That man was not intended for the exercise of powers of this intoxicating quality is evident from the fact that the possession of it has, since the period of the apostolical age, been asserted, for occasional and obviously inferior purposes, only by persons of very excitable minds, or the professed leaders of a party, whilst they have been disclaimed successively by those foremost lights and luminaries, the unassuming sanctity of whose lives has reflected the purest splendour upon the records of the Christian Church. We can, in fact, imagine no possible gifts of Providence which would operate so fatally as that now alluded to, upon that humble and confiding faith which is the best possession of a Christian whilst on earth: that faith which sees not, and yet has believed:" which hopes almost against hope, and remains unshaken in its firm reliance upon the mercies of the Almighty, under the infliction of the heaviest personal calamities, or the most overwhelming causes of mental depression. and which, amid the immoveable uni

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