SHALL

SECTION XXVI.

On Divine Attraction*.

HALL we believe our Saviour himself, or fome poor mortal, who has learned a little Greek, Latin, or Hebrew, and upon the ftrength of his fcanty knowledge of those languages †, and a little verbal criticism, picked up in the schools of an univerfity, affumes the pen of a Controverfialist, and denies the evident meaning of words plainly and emphatically spoken by Jefus Chrift? Our Saviour fays, in language particularly direct," No "man can come unto me, except the Father, "which hath fent me, DRAW HIM."

Fauftus Regienfis, Wolzogenius, Brenius, Slichtingius, Sykes, Whitby, Clarke, and many others, endeavour to explain away the meaning of the word DRAW (Eλnʊʊn), because they have taken a fide in the party polemics of Theology, against the doctrine of Divine Grace.

But what have we to do with Fauftus, Wolzogenius, Slichtingius, and the reft, when we have before us the words of JESUS CHRIST? By them it appears that there is an ATTRACTION in the fpiritual world, as well as the natural; and that the

The foi-difant Rationalifts do not like this title; but I must beg leave to inform them that it is taken from Dr. Ifaac Barrow. See the preceding quotation from that great divine.

"There are two ways of embracing Chriftianity; the one is as a SINNER, the other as a SCHOLAR. Some scholars take up the New Teftament to write their obfervations upon it in the fame fpirit as they take up Anacreon, Ovid, Catullus, Martial, Petronius, SHAKESPEARE, COWLEY; and fometimes comment on St. Paul with the fame arrogance and self-conceit as on Sir John Falstaffe and Dame Quickly.

Spirit of God, a benign philanthropic Spirit, unites itself to the foul of man, and communicates to it comfort, fanctity, and illumination.

Men do not controvert the received systems of natural philofophy. They believe in the attraction of gravitation, cohesion, magnetism, and electricity. But in this there is no vifible agency, no fenfible efflux, influx, or impulfe. Yet they believe it, and certainly with reason; but why should they think that God acts thus on matter, comparatively vile, and leaves MIND uninfluenced? Mind, that pure, etherial effence, which must be faid to approach in its nature to Divinity, (if man can conceive any thing of divine,) and which has an inborn tendency to affimilate with its like.

God, we are told in fcripture, is love. But love always attaches itfelf to its object. It is not compatible with love to be felfish and folitary. It delights in affimilation. The fpirit of that God who is love, ftill unites itself with man, for whom it has already fhewn so much affectionate regard, in the creation and redemption. It could not be confiftent with the love and mercy of God to man, to leave him entirely, for ages, without any intercourfe, any light, any communication, but a written WORD, in a language unknown, unread by many, and which, without Divine interpofition, might be corrupted by the wickedness of man, or loft by his negligence. God's Spirit, acting upon the foul of man, at this hour and for ever, is a LIVING, ENERGETIC, AND EVERLASTING GOSPEL.

The promise of God's affiftance by his Spirit, (as St. Peter affured the first converts to Christianity,) was unto them, and unto their children, and to all that WERE AFAR OFF *, their fucceffors to the

remotest ages, even to as many as the Lord their God Should call.

Man must be ATTRACTED to God by the fpirit of love in the Divine nature, or elfe he ceases to be in the Chriftian fyftem; and what may be the confequence to the foul in its aberration, is known. only to him who knoweth all things. But furely every thinking mortal will gladly follow the Divine attraction, fince it will draw him from this low vale, where fin and forrow abound, up to the realms of blifs eternal; and afford him, during his earthly pilgrimage, the sweetest folace.

The human foul affimilating with the Divine, is the drop of water gravitating to the ocean, from which it was originally feparated; and cohering with it as foon as it comes within the sphere of its attraction; it is the child clinging to the bofom of its parent; it is the wandering, weary exile haftening with joy to his native home. Let us endeavour to cherish an inclination for re-union; let us follow all the known means of accomplishing it, and it will be finally and completely effected by the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Love*.

* Let us hear a Heathen philofopher speak on the union between God and good men.

Inter bonos viros ac Deum amicitia eft, conciliante virtute; amicitiam dico? etiam neceffitudo et fimilitudo.-Between good men and God there fubfifts a friendship, under the mediation of virtue; a friendfhip do I fay? It is more. It is an intimate union and refemblance,

SENECA.

SECTION XXVII.

On the Difficulties of Scripture*.

In his folis literis, et quod non affequor, tamen adoro.-In this part of literature alone, even what I do not understand, I yet revere.

IF

F there is any thing in human affairs to be approached with awe, and viewed with veneration, it is the WRITTEN WORD of revelation.

Ac

knowledged

* The following paffage from LE BLANC is worthy confideration. Verum quid SPIRITUS SANCTI teftimonium conferat, et quid momenti habeant argumenta, quibus auctoritas divina Scripturæ fuadetur, adhoc ut illi quam par eft fidem adbibeamus, non poffumus meliùs explicare quam verbis viri celeberrimi qui fic ea de re loquitur.

"Maneat ergo hoc fixum, quos Spiritus intus docuit, folidè acquiefcere in Scriptura, et hanc quidem effe avtonITTOV, neque demonftrationi et ra tionibus fubjici eam fas effe; quam tamen meretur apud nos certitudinem, Spiritus teftimonio confequi. Etfi enim reverentiam, fuâ fibi ultro majeftate conciliat, tunc tamen demum feriò nos afficit, quum per Spiritum obfignata eft cordibus noftris. Illius ergo virtute illuminati, jam non aut noftro, aut aliorum judicio credimus, a Deo effe Scripturam; fed fupra humanum judicium, certo certius conftituimus, non fecus ac fi ipfius Dei Numen illic intueremur, hominum minifterio ab ipfiffimo Dei ore ad nos fluxiffe. Non ARGUMENTA, non verifimilitudines quærimus, quibus judicium noftrum incumbat; fed, ut rei extra æftimandi aleam pofitæ, judicium ingeniumque fubjicimus. Non qualiter fuperftitionibus folent miferi bomines captivam mentem addicere; fed quia non dubiam vim Numinis illic vigere ac fpirare, quâ ad parendum, fcientes quidem ac volentes, vividiùs tamen et efficaciùs quam pro bumana voluntate aut fcientiâ, trahimur ac accendimur. Talis ergo eft perfuafio quæ RATIONES NON REQUIRAT: talis notitia cui optime ratio conftet, nempe in quâ fecurius conftantiùfque mers quiefcit quàm in ullis rationibus: TALIS DENIQUE SENSUS, qui nifi ex coelefti revelatione nafci nequeat."

"But how much," fays Le Blanc, "the teftimony of the Holy Spirit contributes, and what weight mere human arguments poffefs, in contributing to a belief in the divine authority of the Scripture; moreover how expedient it is to give an implicit credit to the Spirit's teftimony; I cannot explain better than in the words of a most celebrated writer, who fpeaks on the subject thus:

"Let this be a fettled truth, viz. that those whom the Holy Spirit hath taught internally, acquiefce in the divine authority of the Scripture,

knowledged fanctity and long duration combine to throw an air of divinity around it. It is worthy to be kept in the holy of holies. But I cannot agree with thofe zealous votaries who pretend either that there are no difficulties in it, or that they are all removeable by the light of learning. I confess that criticism has removed many difficulties; but I am convinced that many still remain, which, I fear, will never give way to human fagacity. There they must remain, with all the majefty of clouds and darkness around them, till the fun of righteousness shall appear in his full glory.

Scripture, without wavering, and on the solidest grounds; that the holy Scripture carries its own evidence with it, and ought not to be fubjected to demonftration and arguments, and that the certainty which it obtains in our minds is obtained by the TESTIMONY of the Spirit. For although it commands our reverence by its own native majefty, yet it then only seriously affects us when it is SEALED on our hearts by the Spirit. Enlightened by the efficacy of the Spirit, we no longer believe, from our own judgment, or the judgment of others, that the Scripture is from God; but above the decisions of human judgment, we conclude with abfolute certainty, just as if we faw the Deity there, that the Scripture came to us (by the inftrumentality of man indeed) from the very mouth of God himself. We no longer feek ARGUMENTS OF PROBABILITIES on which our judgment may rely; but we now fubmit our judgment and our understanding as to a matter placed beyond the fallibility of conjecture. Not indeed as wretched perfons who fubmit their minds enslaved to fuperftitions; but becaufe we feel the energy of the Deity breathing and operating with full force in the Scriptures, by which we are drawn and animated to obey, with our eyes open and our wills inclined, yet in a more lively and efficacious manner than is compatible with merely human will or human knowledge.”

"Such, in the refult, is our FULL PERSUASION, as that it does not require ARGUMENTS; fuch our knowledge, as is confiftent with the most enlightened reafon; as being a fort of perfuafion and a fort of knowledge, in which the mind refts with more fecurity and more conftancy than in any argumentative deductions. And fuch, laftly, is Our FEELING, as cannot arife but from revelation from heaven."

LE BLANC Thefes. p. 30. CALVIN, Inftitut. Lib. I. c. 7.

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