THE UNION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE CHURCH. BOOK I. On the Relations of Divine Influences to Mankind. CHAPTER I. THE SCOPE OF THE WORK. THE penetrations of modern science into the reserves of physical inquiry have discovered animalculæ of such magnitude or diminutiveness, that a million of them would be contained in a globule of water less in bulk than the drop of ink employed in writing the first letter of this work. Out of this countless and undiscernible host, even one expatiating and frisking in solitary littleness through the drop of liquid at the point of the pen, is big with difficulties and mysteries, tendencies and operations, sufficient to engage the ablest intellect of man, and to occupy the most profound inquiries of an age. After the senses have made an effort to discover the existence of this little agent, and to detain it in sight, the mind struggles to compress itself to an investigation of its structure and functions. Under examination, it developes a curious organization, inconceivably minute, consisting of limbs, muscles, sinews, heart, veins, and a circulating fluid; and capable of spontaneous activity and great muscular force. Within this animated particle are found, in full play, all the workings of sensations, emotions, and volitions, together with all the energies of instinct; it has its appetites and gratifications, its passions and its pleasures, its fears and hopes, its loves and vindictiveness. It is a universe poised on a point verse alive in an atom. a uni This little existence, incredibly and painfully little, has an apparatus for fluids, gases, forces, influences, and operations, incomprehensibly subtile, all in action, all at work, all in dependences, relations, and adaptations, so complicated and so secret, as to baffle the most laborious research of the most penetrating intellects. The knowledge of this even is "too wonderful for us;" but the mighty architect of its frame, its Maker, who measured and weighed, and fixed with precise accuracy its tiny machinery, knows how to work it, and has taught the atom-being how to employ it. When we think HOW God does both these things, how he maintains an intimate and perpetual contact with its parts, and plies His Omnipotence to communicate his energy to its diminutive agency, we become oppressed with our emotions of astonishment, we are stunned by the rebounding of our own speculations, and we feel that the GRANDEUR of the Divine Power is as incomprehensible, and as unapproachable in the minuteness, as in the amplitude of his productions. From a prostration so low and so humiliating, the mind finds it distressingly difficult, and almost criminally rash, to rise and to dare soar to a steadfast, vigorous, and enlarged survey of the high and ample doctrine of the influences of God on intelligent spirits. Bewildered in the mysterious agencies of a globule, what shall we do in the swellings of that mighty tide, which issues forth from the secret place of the Most High to baptize the universe, whose sweep is to reach, comprehend, and pervade every world and every atom, and whose vitalizing energies are to be the genial element, in which all are to "live, move, and have their being”—of that powerful, subtle, and bland influence which can roll its billowy floods, with a force that will crumble the proudest obstacle in collision with it, and yet can ripple, in gentle flowings, to lave a broken-hearted spirit, without the crush or the shock of an onset? How can we describe these emanations and influences from God, which brace the faculties, and exercise, in freedom and government, the agency of reasonable and accountable intelligences; and which can restore abused, blasted, and withered powers into a healthful state of vigor, freshness, and beauty. It would be presumptuous to suppress the private conviction, and it would be affectation to withhold the public avowal, of the inscrutableness of the subject, whose products are in the splendor of light, but whose processes are in an unfathomable abyss of darkness; while the vast dimensions of its sphere, the impenetrable intricacies of its combinations, and the momentous dangers incident to speculations in it, would make a mind of the boldest wing flutter and cower with dismay. Amid all these depressions, the mind feels some thrillings of joy in the boundlessness of its range, and would fain hope that, should it even lose itself amid the mysterious currents and inscrutable operations of the energies of the Almighty, it would only lose itself in him in whom it lives, moves, and has its being, for "even there shall his hand lead it, and his right hand shall hold it." May the God, who called Moses to enter into his presence, an insufferable splendor enveloped in thick darkness, aid our approach to this august subject; and let the reader help me by his prayers, sympathies, and candor. Let him go with me, and let us proceed with reverence and godly fear. Conducted, then, and led by revealed truth, and supported by vigorous prayer, we will try to draw near enough to view our God; but not rush too nigh to be consumed. Let us view Him as angels view Him, who in their approaches cover their faces with their wings. While thus veiling ourselves with celestial modesty and angelic humility, may the plumage of our wings exhibit to our Great God all the lovely hues of the graces and the gifts of his Holy Spirit! The intrinsic glory, and the extensive and diversified bearings of this doctrine, demand the close and unwearied attention of the entire church of Christ. Much has been said, and too much never can be said, on the Union between Christ and the Church, in the redemption of the world. On this sublime and inspiring mystery, our writers have kindled into eloquence almost seraphic, and our hymns and spiritual songs have been tuned to raptures akin to those of heaven. The church has considered it as the medium of all its privileges and immunities, and feels eternity to be interesting, only as the season of basking in its ineffable and inexhaustible effulgence. In the circle of scriptural revelation there is room enough for every truth, and in its comprehension no radius infringes upon, or runs athwart another. The Union of the Holy Spirit and the church, in the conversion of the world, then, may be asserted to be a subject equal in interest to the other, and sustaining commensurate relations to God, and to all his works and ways, On this topic, it is confessed by all, too little has been said, and too little is said; and much less still is felt. Of all the perfections in the character of the Blessed Spirit, |