Thus the ground of all errors in divinity, various and contradictory as they are and must be among themselves, appears to be in the depravity of reason. People differ upon all subjects, where they employ their reason, to a proverb; and it will be more in vain, under such a guide, to expect universal agreement; than it was by the emperor Charles V. in his retirement, that his great number of clocks, which he strove to regulate for that end, should all continue to strike together in the same moment of time. The truth is, God made man upright, but be bath since followed, as well as sought out many inventions-some of his own, and some even worse than his own-the devil's. Were reason pure, as in its first estate; it would be perfect and concordant in all its conclusions. All men would think alike, in such a state of perfection; but the difference in the faculty demonstrably proves, and upon fact, its own imperfection. But for the fall there would have been no occasion for a divine revelation, which is founded upon this grand principle, " that undone mortals are without sav ing truth, and cannot obtain it by any other channel." The gift of the Bible demonstrates the error of man: And its Tight explains his darkness. It demonstrates too, that his benighted reason, ignorant and perplexed upon lower objects, can never by arguments drawn from itself, conduct him to those sublime truths which relate to God. All experience justifies this doctrine. The wisest heathens knew nothing truly or certainly of God: They confessed him indeed to be unknown: The best of them lived in perplexity, and all of them died in doubt. It was reserved for the book of God, to enlighten the doctrine of immortality, and to give the most convincing evidences for grace and glory through Jesus Christ

Truth, in all things, should be the chief concern of man. In spiritual things, above all, it is of infinite and everlasting

On the other hand, it is equally fair to note, that there are Calainists in principle, denying the liberty of the human will, who yet are seeking nothing in the world but the liberty or licentiousness of that will. Such are freewillers, in the worst sense. In their heads, they understand that grace is free; but, in their hearts, they know not the freedom of grace. They will talk soundly of Christ and the Spirit, and salvation; and feel, at the same time, no more of their power, than if they were fancies or dreams. These are but mere reasoners in their way, and differ only from others in this respect, the one speculating with and according to the Bible, and the other without or contrary to the Bible. It is a solemn and aweful truth to add, that such men are farther from the real possession of the gospel in its life and power, than perhaps all the other tribes of reasoners put together.

importance. And, who can comprehend spiritual things, but he, who is, in some measure, spiritual? And who can enable a man, by nature carnal, sold under sin, to become thus spiritual, but the author and God of spirits himself? God gives to man both discernment and objects to discern. If He speak, He speaks nothing but everlasting truth: And if He give to man the faculty to hear, man will hear nothing from him but this truth. It is the summit of human wisdom then to yield implicit confidence to God. We know, that we ourselves, can err and be deceived; for we err daily. But if God cannot mistake nor delude; what may that bold creature be called, who rejects the counsel of God against himself, and, because he cannot scrutinize the understanding and conduct of the Most High, resolves to follow none but his own? "Teach my best reason, reason," was the language of an ingenious man; and it should be the humble language of every man, in his approaches to God, or to the things of God.* The Bible was delivered for this end; and when a man has grace to understand that blessed book, he possesses a demonstration of truth in it, which all the petty sophisters of human wit are unable to puzzle or confound. He has an understanding, which is true, and is in him, who is both true and the truth itself; and he is led to know eventually according to the promise, that the doctrine is of God, and that God teachetb it to man. John vii. 17. Is. liv. 13.

If the preceding Essays shall be blessed to promote this happy effect in but one believer, or to dispel any of his doubts upon the glorious subject to which they relate, and much more if they are honourd by HIM, of whose essential glory they treat, to produce any solid benefit to the church of God; the author will have attained his utmost end. He abhors all earthly advantages in this matter, and believes, it would be almost a sacrilege in him, as a layman, to receive any, Content with his humble station and retirement, and satisfied that it is enough for a pilgrim and a stranger upon earth; he possesses no ambition but that, which, he hopes without pride, is above the glare and tinsel of this mortal life, or at least above all sordid means to attain them. He believes, that exalted stations may rather be pitied for their snares, and despised for their aims, than solicited for any real advantage to body or mind. As for human glory, it will easily

* Idem qui theologia est auctor, ejus est objectum et finis sine ulla causarum confusione: adeo ut theologia definiri possit-SAPIENTIA ▲ DEO, DE DEO, PE'R DEUM, AD DEUM. RAMBURTII Theses. in Thes. Sedan. Vol. 11. P. 17.

↑ Who can read the mortified declaration of a man who was raised to the highest rank that a subject can enjoy without a reflec

be granted, that, this is a wrong road to its attainment, if it were truly desirable; but the author has seen too much of men, either extremely to value or to wish for it.* Human praise is mere breath in the beginning, has but a short date, and then drops into everlasting oblivion.-To say no more upon so mean a subject as himself, the author will only add,that he believes he can be well satisfied, if he never knows of any profit which God may in this instance vouchsafe by him to

tion upon the vanity of human greatness? After Dr. Tillotson became archbishop of Canterbury, he left this acknowledgment behind him in his common-place book. "I doubt it will prove a melancholy business when a man comes to die, to have made a great noise and bustle in the world, and to have been known far and near, but all this while to have been hid and concealed from himself. It is a very odd and fantastical sort of life, for a man to be continually from home, and most of all a stranger at his own house. It is surely an uneasy thing to sit always in a frame, and to be perpetually upon a man's guard, not to be able to speak a careless word, or to use a negligent posture, without observation and censure. Men are apt to think, that they who are in the highest places, and have the most power, have most liberty to say and do what they please; but it is quite otherwise, for they have the least liberty, because they are most observed. It is not mine own observation; a much wiser man, I mean Tully, says, In maxima quaque fortuna minimum licere: they, that are in the highest and greatest condition have, of all others, the least liberty." To which his biographer adds, "All these and many more are the evils, which attend greatness : but what will not mortals undergo, and what real goods will they not sacrifice, for the sake of gratifying vanity? Biogr. dict. Vol. xi. P. 179. To the same effect is the confession also of a layman of the highest official dignity, Lord Bacon, the chancellor, declares that " men in great place are thrice servants: servants of the sovreign or state, servants of fame, and servants of business. So as they have no freedom, either in their persons, in their actions, or in their times. It is a strange desire to seek power, and to lose liberty: or to seek power over others, and to lose power over a man's self. The rising into place is laborious; and by pains men come to greater pains." Essays, § xi. These are not the declarations of mere philosophers, nor the splenetic or sour effusions of disappointed courtiers, but the sober experience of persons, who had attained the summit of ambition in their respective professions, and whose understandings are beyond all question. The late lord Chesterfield could talk of being "sated with the pompous follies of life;" but these, with minds of a superior form, seemed perfectly disgusted with them.

* Sapientia divina-non pendens ex hominum judiciis, animos deo cdmovet, ob quem pati contumelias honestum est dehonestamentum, & opprobrium splendidius ●mni humana gloria. MOLINEUS de laud. thecl. § 35.

others, or if he be never known himself as the instrument of it, till the perfect consummation of the just. That knowledge then will not hurt him, through the natural vanity which now cleaves inseparably in this life to all men, but serve only to heighten his gratitude, and wonder, and praise, that, out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, God should have been pleased to ordain the least display of his strength.

AND now, reader, upon the close of this work, or of thy perusing it, it may not be amiss to ask thyself, "What is the result of all these things? Are the proofs and authorities collected from the Scriptures sufficient to satisfy my mind in this important article of the SPIRIT's divinity? Have I obtained clearer views, and been led to a closer experience, of the truth in this matter than ever before?" If thou bast; bless God, and pray, that these happy effects may be increased more and more, to his glory and thy edification. But if not, and yet if it be thy wish only to obtain them; there is one way, in which thou shalt never err, and one mode of study, in which thou shalt never be mistaken. Take the Bible constantly into hand, meditate thereon upon all convenient opportunities, and above all PRAY OVER IT, as a poor, blind, and helpless sinner, that God may teach thee his mind and will in that book, and explain to thy understanding all the truths necessary to salvation. If thou hast grace to do this, and grace to persevere in doing it; thy doubts shall gradually vanish, many present difficulties shall be satisfactorily answered, many obscurities happily enlightened, and (what will amount to an argument of fact to thy soul) such comforts, assistances, and mercies shall flow into thy heart, as shall crown every doctrine of salvation with its own proper experience, and give thee to taste, handle, and enjoy the word of life. Then it will cease to be a barren, naked speculation for the head; but it will become food, strength, and consolation to thy very soul. Thou wilt then perceive, that the glerious liberty of the children of God, is neither noise nor nonsense, neither whim nor notion, but a solid inheritance, and a wise as well as most enduring joy. Thou wilt have a sensible and spiritual experience, that the HOLY SPIRIT is indeed 'GOD THE SPIRIT, giving thee that fullness of the blessing of the gospel of CHRIST, which no creature can give, and leading thee on to those sure mercies, which by JEHOVAH only can be enjoyed.*

* Bishop Stilling freet excellently says;" CHRIST crucified is the library which triumphant souls will be studying in to all eternity. This is the only library, which is the true larpsion Juns, that which cures the soul of all its maladies and distempers: other knowledge makes men's minds giddy and flatulent; this settles, and composes

On the other hand, if, wiser than the Author of all wisdom in thine own conceit, thou canst venture to impeach his veracity, or to question his account of his own being, and, in consequence of this, wilt presume to scan him by thy reason, and to measure his word by thine own understanding; thou mayest be left, like thousands before thee, to this poor scanty reason and understanding, which never did and never can find out God nor his truths, and mayest wander on, as heathens in all ages have done, without light, without hope, and with out certainty in any thing. A void, an endless void, dark and inscrutable, will always meet thy views; and thou must take, in a short time, a dreadful plunge into what no air of confidence can make less abhorrent to thy soul. And can it be thought, that a gloom so hateful can proceed from him, who created all light both intellectual and natural, and who is light essential in himself? Is this the best conclusion of humon reason, (if that can deserve the name of a conclusion which is involved in the deepest doubt,) which leads thee only to the insupportable reflection, that thou hast a being without knowing any just or certain end of that being? And doth not all this speak to thy heart, that a principle, which determines in so dark, so horrid a result, must necessarily be abominable in itself, be destitute of all beauty, use, or truth, and be wide also from Him, who could not but create all things for these sublime purposes? Admitting only for a moment,that the Christian may be mistaken,and that the whole of God's revelation is an empty fable; is not that a most wonderful delusion, which can impart comfort in all the exigencies of life, and animate the throbbing heart with unutterable transports in the extremities of death? is it possible,there should be any here? Is it not even sense and enjoyment, which all men desire,and against which there is no arguing ?-On the contrary, view the bold and boasting reasoner. If he think at all upon the subject; it must be, either to feed his vanity by shewing his talents, or to make himself and others miserable by making this vastly wise and profitable discovery, that nothing can be found at all certain either in life, death, or eternity. A man, who proceeds upon his own powers, has but this object or this conclusion. For the proof of this, read the writings of such They abound in the most labored reasonings on these

men.

them: Other knowledge is apt to swell men into high conceits and opinions of themselves; this brings them to the truest view of themselves, and thereby to humility and sobriety; other knowledge leaves men's hearts, as it found them; this alters them, and makes them better. So transcendent an excellency is there in the knowledge fo CHRIST crucified above the sublimest speculations in the world!" Origines Sacra. Book iii. c. 6.