on the subject, amounts to this.-The God of truth declares, that such an entire and radical change of men's dispositions and habits,-such a thorough transformation of their thoughts, feelings, purposes and conduct, as to make them. exhibit a new life, (which is therefore, very appropriately termed regeneration, or being born again,) is effected by the DIRECT AND SPECIAL agency of the Spirit of God. Individual sinners add their testimony to that of God, and declare, that such a change has been wrought on them, and furnish, in their sudden conversion and subsequent life, sufficient proof that it is even so.

It will not do for an objector to say, "I have never experienced such a change, and, therefore, there is no such thing." The eonclusion is gratuitous. Ten thousand well attested cases of sudden and extraordinary conversion may be cited. They crowd upon us in every direction. From Saul of Tarsus, down to Newton and Scott, of modern days; and in every of those numerous revivals of religion, which bless the churches in this land, we may meet authentic instances of sudden, entire, and most extraordinary transformations in the moral character of individuals, to account for which, no cause so satisfactory can be assigned, as that which the blessed Saviour states, viz:-the efficacious grace and influence of the Holy Spirit. The fact, that some such changes do take place, cannot be denied. The sceptic, and he who sneers at spiritual religion, devotional frames, and christian experience, cannot resist the evidence of history, and the force of accumulating testimony, as to the fact of some change, whatever may be their theories to account for it. Among the most ingenious devices, by which to resist the evidence of fact, in favour of the Spirit's special and direct influence, is that, which, having clothed itself with the semblance of religion, the garb of sanctity, and possessing a belief in the general infidence of the Spirit, and truthsar

christianity, undertakes to trace the frames and feelings of the converted sinner, exclusively to some natural cause.

The whole strain and spirit of the Saviour's conversa. tion, appear sufficient to show the fallacy of such a procedure. It is a virtual impeachment of his truth and wisdom, to resort to any other supposition, than that which He has stated to be fact. And whoever professes to have extricated the fact of regeneration from all mystery, and to make the thing perfectly plain, does, in that very eircumstance, furnish presumptive, if not positive proof, that the regeneration which he inculcates, is essentially different from that which Christ taught. But, lest it should be said, that we demand too unqualified a submission to the authority of the Scriptures, and reject the light which mental science furnishes, it may not be improper to notice, distinctly, some of the more imposing suppositions, which men of ingenious minds, but enemies of evangelical religion, have framed, to account for sudden and extraordinary conversions, and for the whole of spiritual experience, without admitting the direct and special agency of the divine Spirit. They will all be found inadequate. Laid in the balance of the Sanctuary, they shall be found wanting. But to prevent mistake, it is necessary to make one or two preliminary observations.

The first is, that, however we may be able to trace the workings of our own minds, and ascertain the operation of certain general laws of thought and feeling, in cases of sudden and extraordinary conversion, we must be careful how we attribute effects of a singular character, to causes, continually operating without such effects. That the Spirit of God will not violate any established law, by which God governs mind, in the regeneration of the sinner, but will actually make it subservient to his own design and ageney, is freely admitted. And yet it will, by no means follow

that there is not a special and peculiar agency, over and above that which is implied in such general laws. For, if the agency of the Spirit is only and entirely through, or in the operation of some universal and established law of human thought, then, assuredly, we ought to expect, that the result will be uniform. Transformations of character, such as the Bible describes, and such as take place in conversion, must, in this case, occur, as certainly as these laws exist and are appealed to, or brought into operation.

In the providential government of God, we invariably expect an uniform result from a general law. Let the sceptic show why it is, that the transformations of character, of which we speak, are so rare, if they are to be referred to the regular operation of universal and established laws, or natural causes. He is bound to account for their comparatively unfrequent cecurrence. For, ci her these conversions must result from general laws, or particular accidental combinations of circumstances, if the special and direct agency of the Spirit is denied. If the former, we demand that the sceptic, the scoffing infidel, the hypocritical formalist, the rational divine, (et id omne genus,) shew what it is, that so prevents the operation of general laws, as that their appropriate effects become as rare as exceptions. If the latter, then the providence of God must be denied, or still a special, divine interference in arranging and combining these circumstances, must be admitted, so that nothing is gained by the supposition; for there is still some special agency of God, in the conversion of a sinner.

The next observation, relates to the character of the facts, which are to be referred to the special and efficacious influence of the Holy Spirit, as their appropriate cause. They are such as the following, viz:-children and youth, apparently free from crime, and filled with all the giddy and glittering fancies of puerile imaginations, are suddenly op

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pressed with a sense of their own total depravity, and presently are brought to repent of their sins, and to exercisc a strong and affectionate confidence in God, through the merits of Christ, which fills them with peace and joy, and secures a walk and conversation, according to godliness;-persons, of adult years, who had lived in utter ignoranco and thoughtlessness about divine things, are suddenly affected with the same characteristic exercises, producing the same results;-violent opposers and persecutors of religion, through the same inward process of conviction and faith, are suddenly transformed into its most zealous friends and advocates: proud, audacious, and blaspheming infidels, cold and speculative sceptics, become humble and devoted believers: moralists and religionists, and even acknowledged ministers of Christ, externally free from blame, are awakened, and confessing that they had been deceiving themselves, with outward forms, and utterly ignorant of a change of heart, evince a deep and heart-felt experience of the truth:-and all professing the same oppressive sense of personal guilt, a pacifying confidence in God, through the merits of the blessed Saviour, and the deep feeling of repentance for their sins, and that too, neither in one country, nor among a particular people, nor in a peculiar combination of circumstances, but throughout the world, under a different ministry, and missionaries of different sects, savages of our forests, Hottentots, Caffres, Hindoos, natives of the Sandwich and Society Isles, Greenlanders, Kamtschadales, "all speaking the wonderful works of God," and telling "what He has done for (their) souls." Other classifications of facts might be made, but these are sufficient for our purpose, as they may serve to assist us, in tracing the particular hypotheses, by which the infidel formalist in religion, attempts to waive, the force of the pret they furnish, in favour of the Spirit's work

1. It is objected, that in citing the conversion of children and others, as proof of the Spirit's special and direct agency, we attribute to a supernatural influence, both feelings and conduct, which should, more appropriately, be regarded, as THE EFFECTS OF VERY EARLY EDUCATION. A very ingenious and plausible writer, whose object was, to disprove that there was any regeneration, "distinct from Baptism," and to show, that the high church principles and ultraism of the established Episcopacy in England, were the only safe interpreters and promoters of religion, has endeavoured to expose, what he has gratuitously called, "the evils of making religion consist in abstraction, imaginations and feelings," and thinks that he has found, in the melancholy and occasional hallucinations of Cowper's mind, an ample warrant for his hostility to vital religion, and his most invidious classifications. "The Essene and the Evangelical," he says, "appeal to their natural feelings as to a divine sanction," and "concur in diverting religion from influencing men's conduct, in the business of life, by supplying their consciences with false, or exaggerated principles of self-approbation and acceptance with God." Now this is false, as regards the matter of fact, and betrays, altogether, unpardonable ignorance on a subject, on which the writer, and those that retail his ingenious trifling, ought to be better informed.

The Evangelical does not appeal to his natural feelings, as to a divine sanction, though he does regard feeling, appropriately characterized and estimated, by the infallible standard of Bible truth, to be an essential and indispensable part and evidence of true religion. To trace the influence of natural feelings and susceptibilities, which the Spirit employs and excites, in the conversion of a sinner, or, to discern some remote analogies between them and other transformations of character which take place, and