but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you who believe." In other passages the instrumentality of truth and agency of the Spirit are exhibited in conjunction, as in the following: "Ye have purified your souls by obeying the truth through the Spirit." In accordance with these great facts, the Savior asked for his disciples in his intercessory prayer," sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth," and added, "for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." In conformity with this, we are told by the Apostle, that "Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it, with the washing of water by the word." He accordingly promised his disciples that the Spirit when he came, "should teach them all things, and bring all things to their remembrance."

We are thus clearly taught in the volume of inspiration, that the Spirit does exert an agency on the mind that is employed in the communication to it of truth, and through that medium, convicts, renews, and sanctifies it, and thus produces all the various classes of effects that are ever in the scriptures attributed to his agency; and are taught it in statements and representations-not that are restricted by any references to particular individuals, or circumscribed by applications to subordinate effects, but that are wholly exempt from all such limitations, and that accordingly by all just laws of construction must be received as descriptive of the only influence he employs in producing those effects. The ascription to him therefore of this agency, is no matter of conjecture, assumption, or uncertainty; but is founded on the clear and indisputable declarations of his own revelation. We must thence regard it as the sole doctrine of his word on the subject, unless we would involve ourselves in the conclu

sion that there are two kinds of regeneration, essentially unlike, and two species of moral constitution among the unrenewed, that are fundamentally dissimilar, and in all the endless and inextricable errors and absurdities of such a scheme.

IV. This doctrine receives decisive corroboration from the testimony of consciousness.

The subjects of the regenerating agency, are never sensible of any other change antecedently to, or cotemporaneously with their first obedient acts, besides what is involved in those acts themselves, except in their views of the objects toward which their affections are newly exerted. They are never conscious of the uprooting, as it were, from the depths of their constitutions, of one portion of their susceptibilities, and the implantation in its place, of a "new sense" totally diverse in nature and action, from every thing of which they had before been sensible. They are aware, however, of a vast and radical change in their apprehensions of the objects by which their first obedience is called forth, and are conscious that that change forms the whole ground of the altered character of their affections.

Let the question be put to every child of God on earth, and the answer will come back alike from all, both that they loved and feared, adored and trusted God; or condemned, abhorred, and wept over themselves, in their first obedient acts, for precisely the same reasons as in all subsequent instances, and that those reasons lay wholly in the new and affecting views with which their minds were filled, of the objects toward which their affections were exerted. And such also was the testimony of Paul. It was when the commandment came home into instant contact as it were, with his spirit, and its just exhibitions of his relations,

character and condition, were flashed in resistless light on his conviction, that he sunk beneath their power in selfcondemnation ;-his vain hopes and self-righteousness were extinguished; and penitence, submission, approval of God's character, and joyful acquiescence, in his new discovered salvation, took possession of his mind.

V. This is the only doctrine on the subject, that is consistent with the requirements addressed in the word of God, to the impenitent.

In every injunction of repentance, love, faith, submission, or any other act of obedience, the Most High in effect requires the unrenewed to become new creatures in Christ; and he moreover specifically commands them to make to themselves “a new heart." He plainly treats them, therefore, in all these injunctions, as able and under obligation to yield the obedience which he requires; and the rectitude of his government, is obviously dependent on their possess ing the powers and susceptibilities, that are requisite for it. No such competence however, can possibly pertain to their constitutions, if regeneration, in place of being what the doctrine for which I am contending represents,-consists, as the current theory teaches, in the implantation of a new "susceptibility." No power is lodged in their constitutions like that which is requisite to the production of such an effect. To give birth to it, as an act of obedience, were of course impossible, as that would imply that the susceptibility is itself an act, which the theory denies. And to give birth to it by a voluntary act, its nature plainly must at least be clearly apprehended by the mind, in order to its being an object of specific volition. But it is admitted on all hands, that neither the nature of that supposed susceptibility nor the susceptibility itself, is a subject of conscious

ness. Its nature neither is, therefore, nor can be, apprehended by the mind, and consequently cannot be an object of formal volition. If God then, in enjoining on them to make to themselves a new heart, or yield obedience to his will, required them to give birth to such a susceptibility, his requirement would plainly be unjust. The inference is irresistible, therefore, that no such implantation of a new susceptibility is involved in regeneration; and, consequently, that no such agency, as that which the theory of that susceptibility implies, is exerted by the Spirit in accomplishing that change. It follows then, that his influences are of the nature which the doctrine I am endeavoring to sustain, ascribes to him, and achieve their effect through the instrumentality of moral means.

VI. This view of the divine agency, is recommended by the consideration, that it is consistent with the known nature, and action of the mind, and the only one that can be conceived to possess that character.

That the mind is passive in the reception of no inconsiderable portion, at least, of its perceptions, is a fact of universal consciousness. Innumerable causes from without, are perpetually acting on it, without any previous or intentional cooperation from itself; and conveying to it, notices and apprehensions of external objects. One of the chief offices indeed, of the organized body in which it is lodged, is, that of enabling external objects, if I may so express myself, to convey to it perceptions of themselves.

It is, in like manner to all appearance, scarcely less passive in respect to a vast proportion of the perceptions which take place in it, by reflection and suggestion; or with the acquisition of which the instrumentality of the senses, is not immediately concerned. Tho seclasses of its apprehen

sions are not objects of specific volitions, nor the result of volitions in the same manner as volitions are of perceptions; but spring up in it, at least in innumerable instances, as unexpectedly to itself, and apparently, as independently of its own agency, as do the perceptions excited in it by external objects. On minds especially of quick sensibility and superior cultivation, thoughts utterly unanticipated and often apparently little connected with what had gone before, perpetually flash in seasons of excitement and strenuous effort, like unexpected meteors that dart a radiance across the firmament, and disappear again in the depths from which they had emerged. These perceptions take place indeed in accordance, obviously with general laws, though laws that differ apparently in some respects in different minds; and their causes lie, doubtless, at least chiefly in the nature of the mind itself. Such, indeed, would be the necessary conclusion of philosophy in respect to all, had not the voice of revelation apprised us, that for some of them we are indebted to spiritual agencies without us-the influence of the Creator and of created intelligences.

This power, or susceptibility, is obviously one of the most important, as it is one of the most wonderful and incomprehensible of the attributes of the mind. It is the avenue through which all abstract knowledge and wisdom, gain their access to the soul; the channel by which all subordinate spiritual agencies transfuse their influence; the portal through which God himself enters, when he descends to consecrate it a temple for his dwelling-place.

It is thus a fundamental law of our being, that perceptions shall take place within us, through the action on us of external causes, and it involves accordingly no violation of our constitution, nor infringement of our free