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168 PHILOSOPHY OF THE PLAN OF SALVATION.

exhibited in the Acts of the Apostles. and in their several epistles to the churches.

Thus did God, by the appointment of the living preacher as a means of spreading the gospel, adapt himself to the constitution of his creatures: and the apostles, moved by Divine guidance, likewise adapted the truth which they preached to the peculiar necessities and circumstances of men.

CHAPTER XVIII.

CONCERNING THE AGENCY OF GOD IN CARRYING ON THE WORK OF REDEMPTION, AND THE MANNER IN WHICH THAT AGENCY IS EXERTED.

GOD having thus devised the plan, and manifested the truth, and instituted the means of redemption; the inquiry naturally presents itself-In what way would he put the plan into operation, and give efficiency to the means of grace?

We cannot suppose that God would put his own institution beyond his power, or that he would leave it to be managed by the imperfect wisdom and the limited power of human instruments. God would not prepare the material, devise the plan, adapt the parts to each other, furnish the instruments for building, and then neglect to supervise and complete the structure. God has put none of his works beyond his power; and especially in a plan of which he is the Author and Architect, reason suggests that he would guide it to its accomplishment. The inquiry is-By what agency, and in what way, would the power of God be exerted, in carrying into efficient operation upon the souls of men, the system of saving mercy?

In relation to the character of the agency, the solution is clear. The agency by which the plan of salvation would be carried forward to its ultimate consummation would be spiritual in its nature because God is a Spirit, and the soul of

man is a spirit, and the end to be accomplished is to lead men to worship God "in spirit and in truth"

In relation to the mode of the Spirit's operation, some things belong to that class of inquiries upon which the mind may exert its powers in vain.The mode by which God communicates life to any thing in the vegetable, animal, or spiritual world, lies beyond the reach of the human intellect But although man cannot understand the modus operandi of the Divine mind, in communicating life, yet the manifestations of life, and the medium through which it operates, are subjects open to human examination. Whether the influence of the Spirit be directly upon the soul, or mediately by means of truth, the end accomplished would be the same. The soul might be quickened to see and feel the power of the truth; or, by the Spirit, truth might be rendered powerful to affect the soul. The wax might be softened to receive the impression, or the seal heated, or a power exerted upon it, to make the impression on the wax; or, both might be done, and still the result would be the same. It is not only necessary that the metal should be prepared to receive the impression of a die, but it is likewise necessary that the die should be prepared and adapted to the particular kind of metal-the image and the superscription of the king put upon it—the machinery prepared and adapted to hold the die and apply it to the metal, and after all these things necessary are done, the coin can never be made, unless power is exerted to strike the die into the metal, or the metal into the die. So it is in the processes of the spiritual world; the material [mankind] must be prepared. The die [the truth of the gospel system] must be revealed and adapted to the material; and the image to be impressed upon human nature [the Lord Jesus

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Christ] and the superscription, [glory to God and good-will to men] must be cut upon the die. Then the means of bringing the truth into contact with the material must be provided; and, after all these preparations and adaptations, there must be the power of the Holy Spirit to guide the whole process, and to form the image of Christ in the soul.

The foregoing is a complicated analogy, but not more complicated than are the processes of the animal and spiritual world. Look at the human body, with its thousands of adaptations, all of them necessary to the system, the whole dependent upon the use of means for the supply of animal life; and yet deriving from God its rational life, which operates through and actuates the whole. In like manner, the Spirit of God operates through and guides the processes of the plan of salvation.

The Scriptures reveal the truth clearly, that the Spirit of God gives efficiency to the means of grace. And not only this, but he operates in accordance with those necessary principles which have been developed in the progress of these chapters. Christ instructed his disciples to expect that he would send the Holy Spirit, and when he is come, said Jesus, "He will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment;" that is, the Holy Spirit will produce conviction of sin in the hearts of the unsanctified and impenitent:-the office-work of the Spirit of God in relation to the world, is to convince of sin. In relation to the saints, he exercises a different office. He is their Comforter. He takes of the things that belong to Jesus, and shows them to his people.* That is, he causes the people of God to see more and more of the excellency, and the glory, and the mercy manifested in a crucified

*John xvi. 7-14.

Saviour; and, by this blessed influence, they grow in grace, and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.” Christ, by his ministry and death, furnished the facts necessary for human salvation: the Holy Spirit uses those facts to convict and sanctify the heart. Paul, in a passage already noticed, alludes to the influence of the Spirit operating by the appointed means of prayer, or devout meditation. “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

Further: At what juncture, in the progress of the great plan of salvation, would this agency be most powerfully exerted? We answer, at the time when the whole moral machinery of the dispensation through which the effect was to be produced, was completed. Whatever is designed and adapted to produce a definite result as an instrument, must be completed before it is put into operation, otherwise it will not produce the definite effect required. An imperfect system put into operation would produce an imperfect result. Here a special effect was to be produced; it was necessary, therefore, that the truth should be revealed, and the manifestations all made, before the power was imparted to give them effect.

Under the new dispensation, the greatest and most imposing manifestations were the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus: had the system been put into operation before these crowning manifestations were made, the great end of the gospel would not have been accomplished. It follows, then, that the material would be first prepared, the manifestations made and adapted to the material, the appropriate means ordained, and then the agency of the Spirit would be introduced to

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