To those who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, honour, and immortality, God will give eternal life. Rom. ii. 7.

Blessed are they who do his commandments, that they may have a right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. Rev. xxii. 14.

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we be for ever with the Lord.

We have, in this short address, presented the gospel of Jesus Christ as a system of facts, commands, threatenings, and promises. We might have added invitations, which are numerous, and of the most animating and cheering kind. These you will find in the bible. This system came from God-given for our salvation-intended to excite or create in us faith, repentance, fear, hope, love, and obedience; without the possession of which, no person has the least foundation to hope for the enjoyment of eternal blessedness. But it is possible that you have been taught, that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is necessary first to regenerate the heart, to enable you to believe the gospel! This, be assured, is both absurd and false-altogether contrary to the teaching of Jesus and of his disciples. A wicked, disobedient unbeliever cannot receive the Holy Spirit. Jesus said to his disciples, "If ye love me, keep my commandments; and I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, who shall abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of Truth, 'whom the WORLD CANNOT RECEIVE." This ought to be sufficient to convince all that the Holy Spirit is given to none but disciples of Christ. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by

the word of God. But to prove this to the satisfaction of the candid, we shall present, by the request of a brother, a speech delivered on this subject in the year 1844, in the presence of an immense congregation, collected from all denominations of professed Christians. The speaker, in his eleventh and closing address on the influence and work of the Holy Spirit in

CONVERSION,

says-Mr. Rice's allusions to repentance unto life and remission of sins are more for appearance than from any new ideas or new arguments. I have shown it to be not individual and personal, but commensurate with the Gentile world—a rich and glorious tender to all the nations of the earth—a matter alike unexpected by Jew or Gentile.

He says there is a certain power displayed in conversion, and so say I. And does it not come with as good a grace from me as from him? But he says he goes for a power beyond the naked Word, and that, too, an accompanying power. Well, the word accompanying explains not the nature of that power, and for that I have asked more than once, but I have asked in vain. He can neither explain what the "accompanying power" is, or can be, nor how it operates; and, therefore, whether or not we agree, I could not say. I believe the Spirit accompanies the Word, is always present with the Word, and actually and personally works through it upon the moral nature of man, but not without it. I presume not to speculate upon the nature of this power, nor the mode of operation. I believe the Holy Spirit sheds abroad in our hearts the love of God, and dwells in all the faithful; that it sanctifies them through the truth; that "it works in them to will and do," and that it comforts them in all their afflictions.

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But the Spirit of God does not thus enter into the wicked. When

och, Phenice and Cypress. The hand of the Lord was with them. They spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus, and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. See also Acts xiii. 43-48.

Sergius Paulus, deputy governor of Paphos, gives us the twelfth case. When he saw Paul strike Elymas, the sorcerer, blind; and heard Paul preach, he believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord.

Lydia constitutes the thirteenth case. Lydia, a pious lady, a worshipper of God, whose heart the Lord had formerly touched, attended to Paul's preaching, believed, and was baptized.

The Philippian jailor heard Paul; he and all his house believed in God, and were filled with joy. This is the fourteenth special case.

Dionysius, the Areopagite of Athens, Lady Damaris and others with them, heard Paul, believed, and clave unto him and the Lord. These noble Athenians constitute the fifteenth case.

Crispus, the chief ruler of the Corinthian synagogue, and all his family, hearing Paul, believed on the Lord. This is the sixteenth case.

The Corinthians constitute the seventeenth example. Many of the Corinthians hearing, believed, and were baptized. The whole story is here beautifully told in the three words, "hearing, believing, and being baptized."

The Ephesians constitute the eightteenth case. Many of them hearing Paul, believed, came and confessed their deeds, burned fifty thousand pieces of silver worth of books; "so mightily grew the word of the Lord, and prevailed."

To these I may add the cripple at Lystra, as a nineteenth case; the people of Iconium as a twentieth"To whom Paul so spake, that a multitude believed;" and as the twenty-first example, the noble Bereans, "who searched the scriptures

daily, therefore many of them believed." Here are twenty-one clear and distinct cases recorded in one book, containing, in all, probably not less than from thirty to fifty thousand persons; in every one of which they heard, believed, and were baptized. So that, as far as sacred history goes, the Spirit of God never did operate in conversion without the Word.

Now I ask Mr. Rice to bring forward one single case of any one being converted to the Lord without the Word being first heard and believed! If the salvation of world depend on it, he could not give it. It is, then, so far as the New Testament deposeth, idle, and worse than idle, to talk about sanctification or conversion, without the Word and Spirit of God. They are always united in the great work. No one is converted by the Word alone, nor by the Spirit alone.

Having then surveyed the premises, and heard the arguments and objections from the other side, I proceed, with great haste, to place in a miniature view the whole argument before you I. The first of this series of thirteen arguments was drawn from the constitution of the human mind, intellectual and moral. It was shown that the human mind, like the human body, has a specific constitution, which is never to be violated. In no instance does God, in the government of the universe, violate the laws and constitution which he has given, in effecting the ordinary objects of his providence, moral government, or in the scheme of redemption. He always addresses himself to man in harmony with his constitution: first addressing his understanding, then his conscience, then his affections. Miracles only excepted, he has never violated the powers given to man. He gives no new powers, annihilates no old powers, but takes the human constitution as he made it; and by enlightening the understanding, and renewing the heart by the gospel, effects, through

his Holy Spirit, that grand moral change which constitutes a new moral

creation.

II. Our second argument was deduced from the fact, that from the earliest antiquity till now, there never has been found a human being in any country or age, possessed of one spiritual idea, impression, or feeling, where some portion of the Word or revelation of God had not been spoken to him, or read by him. So that it appears, in fact, indisputable, that the Spirit of God rather follows, and in no case precedes, the progress or arrival of his Word. We have the history of man, in the four quarters of the world, in attestation of this most significant aud momentous fact. III. By an induction of many cases of personal experience, from observation, and, I may add, by a general concession, it appears, that amongst christians the most gifted and enlightened, not one idea can be suggested from the most gifted, the most eminently illuminated with spiritual light and intelligence-not one idea can be expressed, not taken from the Holy Scriptures. Not one thought, idea, or impression, truly spiritual, can be heard from any man in Christendom, nor borrowed from that Holy Book, directly or indirectly. These two matter-of-fact arguments, on almost every other subject, would

be deemed all-sufficient.

IV. My fourth argument consisted in the avowal and development of that great law of mind, and of all organic existences, animal or vegetable, viz. that whatever is essential to the production of any specific result, is necessary in all cases. Whatever is essential to the production of any one effect, or offspring, vegetable or animal; any one result, intellectual or moral, is always and invariably necessary to the consummation of the same results. Therefore, whatever is essential to the conversion of one individual, is essential to the conversion of every other individual. It need

not be urged that the same order and arrangement of things is necessary, because that is not implied as always essential; but so much of order, arrangement, and circumstances, as are essential to the production of one ear of corn, are uniformly and invaribly necessary. Just so in the new birth. When called to assert and maintain any fact, we are not obliged to explain the whole nature, reasons, and contingencies thereof I am only obliged to establish the fact itself. Natural birth is always the same thing. So is the spiritual. Baptism is always the same thing. Mr. Rice, without knowing it, or designing it, was constrained to come to this result. While, in fact, seeking to oppose it, he came to the very same conclusion. He first argued for infant regeneration without faith; he then sought to have believers regenerated in some way different, but ultimately he asserted that regeneration was also before faith in adults, and thus, by the force of universal law, he came to my grand conclusion, that whatever is necessary to the new birth, or regeneration, in one case, is necessary in all other cases. And so that point is decided.

V. My fifth argument is deduced from the name, Advocate, given to the Holy Spirit by the Messiah, as his official designation, in conducting the work of conversion, convincing the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He was, then. to use words in pleading this cause; hence it is a moral argument, and a change effected by motives.

VI. My sixth argument is drawn from the commission given to this Advocate in pleading his cause. He was to convince the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, by certain means. The Messiah prescribes the topics. He furnishes the arguments, and states them to the disciples in advance. The first topic is"Because they believe not in me:" the second-“Because I go to my

Father, and you see me no more," the third-"Because the Prince of this world is cast out." In this way, then, the work was to be conducted, and it has been conducted. And so proceeded the apostles through their whole ministry. And useful and successful pleaders, in all ages, have been obliged to adopt this course. And while the human constitution remains as it now is, the same course must be essentially and substantially pursued.

VII. My seventh argument is founded on that most significant and sublime fact, that the first gift the Spirit of God bestowed on the apostles was the gift of tongues. What could have been more apposite to teach that the Spirit of God was to operate through the Word, than, as prefatory to the work, first of all giving to its pleaders the gift of tongues? that, by the machinery of words, he might accomplish his glorious work of regenerating the world. These seven arguments I distinctly stated in my first address on this subject. To some of these there was no reply whatever made. To none of them was a direct and formal refutation attempted. I regard them as I did at first, not only as unassailed, but unassailable.

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VIII. My eighth argument was composed of the direct and explicit testimony of the apostles, affirming regeneration and conversion through the Word of God, as the seed or principle of the new life. The instrumentality of the Word was asserted by James as the will or ordinance of God. We had the united testimony of two apostles directly and positively affirming the very issue in our proposition. James affirming, that of his own will begat he us BY, not without, the Word of Truth. And Peter saying, "We are born again;" or, according to M'Knight, "We are regenerated, or having regenerated us, not by corruptible, but through," not without, "the incorruptible seed

of the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." Here is as clear an indication of the instrumentality of the Word as can be expressed in human language. To explain these passages away is impossible, and you see how my opponent has evaded them. Paul, also, in various forms of speech, gives us similar views of the instrumentality of the Word. He told the Corinthians that he himself had "begotten them through the gospel." Thus making the gospel the indispensable instrument of regeneration. Peter, indeed, asserted before all the apostles in the convention at Jerusalem, that God purifies the heart by faith. But it was reserved to these latter times to assume and teach that God purifies the heart without faith, before faith, and independent of the Word of God.

IX. I elicited a ninth argument from the commission given to the Messiah, as reported in Isaiah, and from the commission given to Paul from the Messiah in person, with respect to the conversion of the Gentiles. The commission is reported by Paul himself in his speech before king Agrippa, Acts xxvi. These commissions show the arrangement of means in reference to conversion, remission, and sanctification, in the Divine mind, purpose, and plan. Illumination through the gospel is always first. The apostle was sent to open the eyes" of the nations. He was "to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, in order to their forgiveness and participation. of an inheritance amongst those sanctified through faith."

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X. My tenth argument consisted of those scriptures which show that, whatever is ascribed to the Holy Spirit in the work of salvation, is also ascribed to the Word; and that what is ascribed to the Word, is also ascribed to the Spirit. The gentle man has not found a single exception to it. Are persons said to be en