before I conclude that there is one that originated without the word of God having been first sown in the human heart. Will not all the world believe me, that if I prove in one case that without the specific seed, corn, wheat, &c., we cannot have a crop, that it is true in all other cases, without a particular examination of every alleged case. And from every principle of analogy, if I prove the Word in one case of a new heart to be necessary, it needs not that I prove it to be so in every other heart, and in every other case. The mere fact of calling the Gospel the incorruptible seed, is enough. Where that seed is not, the fruit of it cannot be.

The phrase," the incorruptible seed" of any thing, indicates, in the ears of common sense, that is essential to that thing; and if so, then who can be a Christian without being born?—and who can be born but according to one uniform and immutable law? Now, in the theory we oppose, there is no uniformity; there is a plurality of ways of being born, which, to my mind, is most palpably at fault in every particular.

But I will adduce some other testimonies under this head of argument. We shall hear James the apostle, chapter i. 18: "Of his own will begat he us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creation." Hence the truth again appears as an instrument of regeneration. God's will is the origin of it; his Spirit the efficient cause of it; but the Word is the necessary instrument of it. By the Word of Truth, then, we are begotten, and not without it, according to James. We may add testimonies without increasing either authority or evidence; but, for the sake of illustration, if not for authority, we shall offer a few other testimonies to complete this particular argument. We shall hear Paul, as a father, speak to his sons in the faith in Corinth-1 Cor. iv. 15: "As my beloved sons I warn you; for though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you have not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus have I begotten you through the gospel." Paul regards the gospel just in the same attitude in which James represents it. The gospel is here the seed, the instrument of the conversion of the Corinthians.

But the whole oracle of God is unique on this subject. God purifies the heart by faith," that is, the truth believed-not by believing as an act of the mind, but by the truth believed, which constitutes "the faith." Paul also told the Thessalonians that God had, "from the beginning, chosen them to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." Here again SERIES III.-VOL. VI. 36*

the belief of the truth is the instrument of sanctification and salvation. I shall conclude this little summary of a portion of the direct and positive testimony of God, in proof of my grand position on the Holy Spirit's work of conversion and sanctification, by the testimony of the Messiah, in person: "Sanctify them through thy truth, O Father, for thy Word is the truth." Whether, then, we call the truth the Word, the Word of God the gospel, it is called the seed, the incorruptible seed of the new birth; by which a sinner is quickened, begotton, born, sanctified, purified, and saved. I regard this my eighth argument as a host in itself-nay, as a solemn, direct, and unequivocal declaration of God, in attestation of the entire truth and safety of the proposition concerning both conversion and sanctification. Still I will yet add other arguments.

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IX. One shall be based on the special commission given to Paul, as expounded by that given to the Messiah himself. And, therefore, we shall read that to the Messiah, as introductory to that presented to the apostle Paul. I give thee," says Jehovah, "for a covenant of the people; for a light of the gentiles; to open the blind eyes; to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house." "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn." Isaiah xlii. 6, 7; Ixi. 1, 2. We shall now hear Paul relate his own, as he had it from the mouth of the Lord: "I have appeared unto thee for this purpose to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; delievering thee from the People and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee-to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive the forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith, that is in me." Here, then, we have a full development in these grand commissions, of the manner and means employed in the wisdom and grace of God in converting and sanctifying the nations of the earth, through the mediation of the Messiah. The most conspicuous point, or the chief means stated, is-that God would use light, knowledge, the gospel, and that he would OPEN THE EYES of men-turning them from darkness to light, and from the kingdom and power of Satan to God. God, then, who commanded light to arise out of darkness, has used moral spiritual light-that

is, revelation, the gospel-as the means of conversion and sanctification. Illumination is, therefore, an essential prerequisite to conversion and holiness. Without light there is no beauty; for in the dark, beauty and deformity are undistinguishable. Without light there is nothing amiable, because amiability requires the aid of light for its exposition, as much as beauty. The power of Satan is in darkness; the power of God is in light. God, therefore, works by light; and Satan by darkness. Hence, in Paul's commission, it reads, "Turn them from darkness to light;" and the conséquences will be,

from the power of Satan to God;" and the ultimate effect will be remission of sins, and an inheritance among the sanctified. After the study of these, and many such similar documents, found in the Bible, I confess I am wholly unable to conceive of a religion without knowledge, without faith, without an apprehension, an intelligent, as well as a cordial reception of the gospel of Christ. I repudiate, therefore, with my whole heart, a notion of infant, idiot and pagan regeneration-this speculative conversion, without light, knowledge, faith, hope or love. It makes void the whole moral machinery of the Bible, the Christian ministry, and the commission of the Holy Spirit. It is no advocate of Christ; it is no comforter of the soul, on the hypothesis of infant, and pagan, and idiot regeneration.

X. Whatever influence is ascribed to the Word of God in the Sacred Scriptures, is also ascribed to the Spirit of God. Or in other words, what the Spirit of God is at one time, and in one place, said to do, is at some other time or in some other place, ascribed to the Word of God. Hence I argue that they do not operate separately, but in all cases conjointly. We shall give an induction of a number of cases in exemplification of the fact. Are we said to be enlightened by the Spirit of God? We are told in another place, "The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes." Again"The entrance of thy word giveth light, and makes the simple wise." Are we said to be converted by the Spirit of God? we hear the prophet David say, "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." Are we said to be sanctified through the Spirit of God? we hear our Lord pray to his Father, "Sanctify them through thy truth, thy Word is the truth." Are we said to be quickened by the Spirit of God? the same is ascribed to the Word of God. David says, "Thy Word, O Lord, hath quickened me,”,"" Stay me with thy precepts, thy statutes quicken me." This is one of the strongest expressions.

In other forms of speech the same effects and influence are

ascribed to both. Paul, in one text, says, "Be filled with the Spirit;" and when again speaking of the same subject, in another, he says, "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly." In both cases the precepts are to be fulfilled in the same way, "teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody in your hearts to the Lord." "The Spirit," says Paul to Timothy, "speaketh expressly that in the latter days some shall depart from the faith." Again, "Know ye, in the last days perilous times shall come." Again, Paul says he has sanctified the church and cleansed it with "a bath of water and the Word."In another instance he says, he hath saved us "with the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit." Are we said to be" born of the Spirit?" we are also said to be born again, or "regenerated by the Word of God." I might trace this matter much further, but, I presume, as we have touched upon the most important items, we have found such an induction as will satisfy the most scrupulous. Until questioned, I shall strongly affirm it as a conclusion fairly drawn, that whatever effects or influences connected with conversion and sanctification are, in one portion of Scripture, assigned to the Word, are ascribed also to the Spirit; and so interchangeably throughout both Testaments. Whence we conclude, that the Spirit and Word of God are not separate and distinct kinds of power-the one superadded to the other, but both acting conjointly and simultaneously in the work of sanctification and salvation.

XI. My eleventh argument is deduced from the important fact, that resisting the Word of God, and resisting the Spirit of God, are shown to be the same thing, by very clear and explicit testimonies: such as Stephen, the proto-martyr, when filled with the Holy Spirit, and, indeed, speaking as the Holy Spirit gave him utterance, in the presence of the Sanhedrim, said, "You uncircumcised in heart and ears, as your fathers did, so do you. You do always resist the Holy Spirit." What proof does he allege? He adds, 'As your fathers did, so do you," (resist.) "Which of the prophets did they not persecute?" This, then, is his proof. In persecuting the prophets, they resisted the Holy Spirit; because the words spoken by the prophets were suggested by the Spirit. We are said to resist a person when we resist his word. When, then, any one resists the words of the prophets or the apostles, he is said by inspired men to resist the Holy Spirit. This important fact should be more frequently insisted on than it is. Men should be taught, that in resisting the words spoken by apostles and prophets, they are, in truth, re

sisting the Holy Spirit, by whom they uttered those words. May we not, then, consistently say, with Stephen, that when men resist the prophets and apostles in their writings, and will not submit to their teachings, they are resisting the Holy Spirit! This being admitted, follows it not again, that the Spirit of God operates through the truth; and that we are not to suppose that in conversion and sanctification, they do operate separately and distinctly from each other.

A still more impressive instance of this kind, we find in the book of Nehemiah. In his admirable prayer, preserved in the ninth chapter, he has two very remarkable expressions; one in the 20th and one in the 29th verse. In the former, when speaking of the instructions given the Jews by Moses, he said, "Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them;" and in the latter, he says, "Many years didst thou forbear them, and testifiedst against them by thy SPIRIT in thy prophets, yet would they not hear." Here, then, we are taught that God, by his Spirit in Moses, instructed the Jews by his good Spirit, and that in testifying to them by the prophets, God was testifying to them by his Holy Spirit. We are, then, still more fully confirmed in the conclusion that the Spirit of God operates through his Word, and only through his Word, in conversion and sanctification; and that in the Word and Spirit of God, in those spiritual and moral changes and influences of which we now speak, are never to be regarded as operating apart; that whatever is done by the Word of God, is done by the Spirit of God; and whatever is done by the Spirit, is done through the Truth-and certainly he can through that instrument operate most powerfully on the spirit of man, as all Christians experience, and the saints of all time exhibit. XII. My twelfth argument is deduced from the fact-that God created nothing without his Word. "He said, let there be light, and there was light." "By faith," says Paul, "we know that the worlds were framed by the Word of God." All the details of the six days show that, "God made all things by the Word of his pow. er." Of course, then, we have no idea of any new creation or regeneration without the Word of God. It is an overwhelming fact that God does nothing in creation nor redemption without his Word. His creative power has always been embodied in that sublime instrument. Nay, it is the sword of the Spirit. Still, there was through that Word an almighty power put forth, and still there is both in conversion and sanctifieation. God works mightily in the human heart by his Word. The heart of the King's enemies are