we reckon all lost that is given to him, and all saved that is wrenched from his claims, all will be lost, and ourselves will be lost. We cannot give more than his due, for all is his own. He was not backward to give his all for us. What he asks from us is little to give, but much to withhold: what is bestowed upon his foes is employed against him; let us, therefore, give him all, lose everything for him, and find everything in his worth and in his glory.

437

CHAPTER III.

ON THE UNION OF MEANS AND METHODS BETWEEN THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE CHURCH.

SECTION I.

Conversion not Miraculous.

SOME Confusion appears in religious sentiments upon conversion, from the manner in which theological writers speak of it at its different stages, and in its different aspects. Sometimes it is spoken of as a process going on, like leavening, in the mind; and at another time as a phenomenon, the being leavened, the result of that process on the character of its subject. Regeneration is not a process; but the second birth is like the first, a phenomenon the result of a process. The acting, or operation in detail, and the process of Divine influences on the mental and moral constitution of man produce regeneration as the result; the process ends in a product, and that product is new character.

Conversion is a change of mind, that is, the mind changing. Conversion is not an EXCHANGE of mind: it is not a sum of thoughts and mental habits infused

into the place of a dislodged mind. When a man changes his mind, the mind does not alter or exchange its mental elements; it only changes its character, as the farina, when leavened, though completely changed as to its character, is no new farina; nor has it ceased to be the same farina that it was before. The mind may undergo a great change upon merely intellectual subjects, as for instance, in conversion from the ancient theories of the earth to the philosophy of modern geology, or to the Newtonian system of the heavens. This intellectual change is produced by intellectual truth. The change is real, thorough, practical, and permanent. The man who has thus changed his mind is, on the subjects to which the change relates, entirely altered, and is, in the language of some ancient philosophers, regenerated. He is become, not in the essential elements, but in the tastes and practical character of his mind, a new creature, for he has undergone an intellectual conversion. This takes place daily in every instance of conversion from ignorance to knowledge, and from error to accuracy.

The mind also may sustain a great change upon moral subjects, as honesty, chastity, generosity, &c. This change is effected by moral truths. Whatever conscience is, every one feels that it has nothing to do with mathematical demonstrations, nor is it affected by any truth purely intellectual and without moral relations. Here again the change is decided, entire, evident, and lasting. On moral subjects the man is

changed; and where he was once the terror or the disgust of his neighbours, he is now a new creature, completely altered, and another man. This is moral conversion, and is accomplished by means adapted to the moral constitution of his original nature.

The Scriptures reveal to us, that the mind may pass through another great change upon subjects which are spiritual, especially subjects about God, and about the interests of its own immortality. All these spiritual subjects have moral relations: probably it would not be improper to denominate them spiritual morals, to distinguish them from the civil and the natural. This is the highest and the greatest change of which the soul is susceptible. This conversion is not effected by intellectual truths, nor by the moral principles of the law which is written on his heart, but by a class of truths beyond and above all these, truths which are beyond his intellectual and moral constitution, but truths which have been revealed by the Spirit of God expressly adapted to him, not only as an intelligent and accountable, but as a sinful and ruined spirit. The conversion is not about intellectual subjects, nor about social and civil morality only, but upon spiritual matters; it is about revealed subjects. By this change he is decidedly above his original nature as he found it, he is a new creature in Christ Jesus, altered by the new truths presented in the Christian revelation, and not known before revelation was given, or where the revelation has not reached.

Some Christians, for the sake of expressing their high sense of its vast importance, and of impressing the world with its grandeur, have described this spiritual conversion as miraculous. This epithet, which was at first, perhaps, used popularly and oratorically, came, at last, to be interpreted literally. It is indisputable, that miraculous conversions, like that of Saul of Tarsus, for instance, have taken place; but these are not the class or kind of conversions to which the Holy Spirit invites the co-operation of the church. Though many divines assert the miraculousness of conversion, we have no instance of a church acting on that belief. Were a man to propose himself as a candidate for admission into the communion of a church, and assert gravely and soberly that he was converted miraculously, without the use of means, the persons who are most startled at the proposition, that conversion is not miraculous, would be the first to disbelieve him, and to reject his application. The rejection of such a convert would be as apostolic as it is rational, for, the miraculous conversion of Paul was much and long suspected by the primitive church, and it required all the influence and persuasiveness of Barnabas, accompanied by his clear statement of facts, and evidences of the conversion, to bring them to believe its reality until then, "they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple."

There is no ground in the facts of the case, or in Scripture testimony, or in Christian observation and