the field of vision, that the judgment, deceived and
misled, arrives at a partial, though acceptable, de
cision : these are questions which may be left to the
Faith a Gift of the Spirit. 65
metaphysician to solve. It is enough for us, that the
fact is admitted, that everywhere, but in the neces
sary truths of demonstrative reasoning, the conclu
sions of reason are actually modified by the wishes,
interests, or prejudices of the reasoner ; so that
belief is not merely the result of intellect, but is, in
perhaps a large majority of cases, the mixed product
of the moral and intellectual faculties combined.
And if this be true where the feelings and passions
are only remotely affected, and should not be so at all ;
how much more will it have place, when the subject-
matter is religion ; which must touch the tenderest
parts of our moral nature ; which strikes on
hopes and fears which vibrate through eternity ;
which bears directly on. every affection, passion,
motive, habit, and act ; which, if admitted to be true,
requires a complete revolution in the whole inner
man, and in great part of the outward conduct. It
is obvious how many disturbing influences must be
set at work, when the truth or falsehood of such
claims and obligations is in question ; how many
hopes, and fears, and desires ; how great a mist of
prejudice, distorting some facts, magnifying others,
concealing others ; what a phantasmagoria of objec
tions, bright with the borrowed colours of the feeliugs,
ini d refracted to undue magnitude by the wishes of
the heart : and this both when the question is
formally examined by a mind consciously and con
tinuously seeking the truth ; and still more so when,
66 Faith a Gift of the Spirit.
as by most men, it is solved almost unconsciously,
and by fragmentary processes, and the edifice of their
faith is built up gradually by little additions of con
viction, or sapped by degrees by objections caught up
here and there, as it were by hazard, and welcomed
and assimilated by a willing mind. The choice or
arrangement of the materials with which reason is to
work, is much in the power of the will ; and the will is
prejudiced, and cannot, or will not, honestly do its part.
It is not, then, surprising, that our Lord should
have attributed unbelief always to moral, never to
purely intellectual causes. " He that belfeveth on
the Son of God is not condemned : but he that be-
lieveth not is condemned already, because he hath
not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of
G-od. And this is the condemnation, that light is
come into the world, and men loved darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil. For every
one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh
to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved." 1 " Ye
will not (ov OiXere ) come to me that ye might have
life . . . How can ye believe, which receive honour
one of another, and seek not the honour which
cometh from God only ? " "While on the other
hand he declares, " If any man will ( ear TIQ fo Aj?) do
his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be
of God, or whether I speak of myself."
1 John, iii. 1820. - John. v. -!0, 44.
3 John, vii. 17.
Faith a Gift of the Spirit. 67
It will follow too, which is the point more imme
diately before us, not only that in the formation of
a sound and living faith there is room for the agency
of the Holy Spirit, but that without His aid such
faith cannot exist. For if the character of our belief
depends not merely on the correctness of the reason
ing process, but much more on prior operations of the
will, by which the antecedents and materials of rea
soning are selected and arranged ; and if our moral
nature is in our unregenerate state warped and im
paired, so as to have a disinclination to what is good
and a bias to what is evil ; it is evident that the
Gospel, placed before such a tribunal, must be tried
by a prejudiced and incapable judge ; that, being-
wished false, and admitting of objections capable of
being magnified and coloured into refutations, it is
certain to be found false ; and that nothing can
rectify the balance of judgment, and place truth on
an equal footing with falsehood, but the same ex-
ternal and divine power which changes and renews
the will of man, and enables it to love right instead
of wrong, and to desire in all things to know and do
God s will. And thus we arrive at the truth con
tained in our Lord s declaration, " No man can come
unto me, except the Father which hath sent me draw
him ;" and cannot but admit the strict accuracy of
the expression in the inspired narrative of St. Luke ;
" whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended
unto the things which were spoken of Paul."
68 Faith a Gift of the Spirit.
In a similar way it may be inferred that belief, not
only in Christianity in general as a revelation from
God, but in each of the main doctrines of Christianity,
is the work of the Spirit ; so that "no man can say
that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost," and
" every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come
in the flesh is of God." Each doctrine, being practi
cal and involving certain duties, acts upon the moral
choice ; and accordingly as this is warped by natural
pravity, or rectified by divine grace, the presumptions
for and against the doctrine may be partially or
impartially considered, and the conclusion may be
error, or truth.
But this is a subject which we cannot follow up at
present : it must be sufficient to have indicated the
line, on which moral philosophy coincides with the
declarations of Scripture. Let us now, in further
illustration of w r hat has been said, endeavour to trace
in one or two instances the process by which moral
causes, acting on the intellect, may lead to avowed or
practical unbelief.
1. In a certain class of minds infidelity and heresy
alike seem to owe their origin to intellectual pride.
Conscious of mental power, eager to display it by
originality of thought, impatient even of appearing to
follow without inquiry in the track marked out by
others, they are (till disciplined by divine grace) sin
gularly ill-prepared for the reception of religious
truth. In this there is no scope for daring hypothesis
Faith a Gift of the Spirit. 69
or the bold flight of discovery. Its truths are true,
on the very condition of being old. It is a revelation
from God to man ; and was as complete when first
made, as it is now or ever will be. Defended it may
be ; denned it may be ; explained it may be ; but it
cannot be altered, without ceasing to be truth. To
develope, (meaning, to add), is as unlawful as to
detract. To believe, therefore, is to adopt the
same opinions which have been the creed of multi
tudes before, and to be confounded in the mass of
unreasoning minds which have received implicitly the
same traditionary tenets. Objections, on the other
hand, have an air of novelty. There is at least the
appearance of power in striking out difficulties. It
implies strength to swim against the current of tra
ditionary prejudices and the settled conviction of ages,
It is an intoxicating pleasure to feel different from
other men, (that is, in our own judgment, superior to
them), and the brain often reels under it.
Besides this, there is a prejudice against the Gos
pel from the mere circumstance of its being old. In
every science new discoveries are making daily. The
landmarks of knowledge are perpetually being moved
forward. Acknowledged facts are shown to be vulgar
errors ; and popular belief has ceased to be a guaran
tee, or even a presumption, of truth. Hence, by a
natural fallacy, the antiquity of an opinion itself sug
gests a doubt. In history, in politics, in science, men
have long been mistaken ; why not in religion also ?
70 Faith a Gift of the Spirit.
"With such feelings and prepossessions the mind
catches tip objections to Christianity, or to some of
its doctrines, as just what it was expecting to find. It
dwells on them : it magnifies them by the exclusion
of other presumptions, till they fill the field of the
mental vision, and leave no room for truth. Argu
ments on the other side are slightly examined and
gladly dismissed ; and especially if (as must often be
the case) they do not so much solve satisfactorily the
difficulties which occupy the mind, as endeavour to
outbalance them by the weight of evidence, and by
the counter- difficulties which attend on unbelief. A
favourite objection will not be thus dislodged. It has
a powerful ally in the pride which wishes to maintain
it. And thus we too often see the spectacle of men
of strong intellect, acute thinkers, eminent, perhaps,
in literature and science, becoming infidels, sceptics,
or heretics, not because there is not sufficient evi
dence of truth ; not because they had it not before
them ; but because they began with a prepossession
for error; because intellectual pride had secretly
prejudiced their decision ; and the perverted will had
shackled the free processes of reason. "How can ye
believe," said our Lord, " which receive honour one
of another, and seek not the honour that cometh
from God only ? " Humility and faith are kindred
gifts of the same Spirit.
2. Another source of unbelief is even more evi
dently moral. It arises when the soul would hide
Faith a Gift of the tyiYiV. 71
from God, after displeasing Him by wilful sin. I will
take the case of those who have been trained to know
God. Having been baptized into His Church, they
have been taught as they were able to learn, " line
upon line, and precept upon precept," what He has
done for them, and what they have promised to do for
Him. They have been made acquainted with His
dealings with mankind, and with His unspeakable
love in the redemption of the world by Jesus Christ.
They have been early accustomed to draw near to
Him in prayer ; and conscience has at once directed
their thoughts to Him, as they did well or ill. And
they should have gone on, cherishing the spark of
grace by watchfulness and self-control and the use of
all the appointed means, growing in holiness, and
drawing daily nearer to God.
But temptation under some form or another came,
temptation to some known sin : not without plausible
excuses indeed, (for when did Satan ever want a veil
to throw over sin s deformity?) but still excuses
which never really satisfied their better mind. They
parleyed with it, hesitated, yielded, and sinned. Im
mediately their eyes were opened. They knew that
they were fallen ; that they had offended God. The
peace of their bosom was gone. They were restless
and dissatisfied with self ; and a cloud, as it w r ere, had
settled between their souls and the light of God s
countenance. They were ashamed to come before
Him. And here is the fatal step. Had they forced
72 Faith a Gift of the Spirit.
themselves to " arise and go to their Father, and say
unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and
before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy
son i" 1 had they sought His pardon at once in unre
served confession, sorrowful repentance, and earnest
prayer ; He would have " hidden his face from their
sins, and blotted out all their iniquities ;" would have
"restored unto them the joy of His salvation, and
upheld them with His free Spirit." 2 But it was not
so. They wanted honest courage to probe the shame
and guilt ; or they secretly loved the sin, even while
they writhed under the sting of conscience ; or the
proud heart would not bend to the humiliation of
confession and penitence ; or to retrace their steps
would interfere with their worldly prospects, or sub
ject them to ridicule, and the reproach of men. They
tried to hide from Grod. They drowned, as best they
might, the whispers of His Spirit. They shrank from
thinking of Him. Communion with Him in prayer
was neglected, or gladly omitted on any excuse, or
became a mere form of words without the heart,
pressed down by an incubus against which they did
not care to struggle.
This is a painful state ; and men will not rest long
in it without seeking an anodyne. Some, for example,
smother accusing thoughts in worldly amusements
and the dissipation of frivolous gaiety. Uneasy in
themselves, they involve themselves in a whirl of
1 Luke, xv. 21. 2 Ps. li. 9, 12.
Faith a Gift of the Sjjirit. 73
pleasures which take them out of self. And doubt
less they succeed. The mind cannot be filled with
two objects at once. But what a wretched success !
to cheat the perishing soul with a false security,
which will probably desert it, just when it is most
needed, in sickness, sorrow, and the death-bed, and
will assuredly fail it at the judgment day.
But many, far more, probably, than can be known
till the secrets of all hearts are disclosed, take
refuge in a kind of partial unbelief. There are dif
ficulties in revelation, and in some of its doctrines,
light as a feather, indeed, when weighed impartially
in the balance against the accumulated evidences of
truth, but not, of course, without weight when poised
and pondered over by themselves. Such the writhing
soul is glad to seize. He wishes to escape from G-od :
at any rate from the Grod of the Grospel, the Grod
of his baptism. Suppose the Grospel should not be
true, his obligations are imaginary, and his guilt and
ingratitude are unreal. He almost wishes it were
so. In this state he imbibes readily some one or
more of the objections to Christianity which have
never wanted agents to disseminate them, and which
are supplied abundantly in the popular literature of
the day, hinted in an allusion, or suggested by a sneer.
The poison works. He does not, perhaps, follow up
the train of thought thus opened, nor trace the
tortuous mazes of reasoning infidelity. He has found
enough to satisfy him. for the present. The Gospel
74 Faith a Gift of the Spirit.
way not be true. He may not be the ungrateful and
inexcusable offender against a God of love, which
conscience has told him he is. There may not be the
stern eye of a Father s displeasure fixed upon him.
There may be no judgment to come : all may be well
hereafter. Reason is soon satisfied, where the
feelings are already engaged. Though not, perhaps,
confessing infidelity even to himself, he accepts the
doubts he feels and cherishes, as an answer to the
accusations and an excuse to the demands of con
science. "Why should he be disquieted about what,
after all, may not be true ? Meanwhile his outward
life is perhaps little changed. He remains upright in
his dealings with men, respected even and beloved.
He may not even omit the forms of religious duty :
nay, (mysterious as it is) he may be the instrument
of leading others to righteousness. But the jewel is
gone from the casket : the soul of religion is dead.
There are many and weighty reasons, brethren,
why the Christian should be watchful and anxious
indeed not to grieve the Spirit, and dim by sin the
light that is in him. Let the considerations on which
we have been dwelling, add one more earnest
warning to vigilance and self-control. On a con
science void of offence and the consequent continued
presence of the Spirit may depend the faith on which
depends eternity. Every admitted sin, every passion
indulged, every selfish habit gratified, every vain
thought encouraged or unchecked, is not only leaving
Faith a Gift of the Spirit. 75
its stain upon the soul, to be washed off (if washed oft*
at all) only by the blood of the Lamb from the
sincerely penitent ; but it is sapping the foundations
of a sound belief; strengthening the prejudices and
feelings which warp the moral judgment ; dimming
the eye of reason ; and preparing, gradually it may
be, but surely, what the Apostle calls, "the evil heart
of unbelief." As the light of the Spirit is withdrawn,
the shadows of doubt and error darken. Scared by
difficulties of its own seeking, or following reasons it
wished to find sufficient, the inind, misled by sin or
over-balanced by presumption, runs into some deadly
heresy, or settles into fatal unbelief. Kot to Timothy
merely ; not to ministers of the Gospel only ; but to
each of us, according to the grace given us, should
the Apostle s words have a warning voice : " This
charge I commit unto thee according to the prophecies
which went before on thee, that thou by them
mightest war a good warfare ; holding faith and a
good conscience, which some having put away, con
cerning faith have made shipwreck." l
1 1 Tim. i. 18, 19.
76
SERMON V.
FAITH A GIFT OF THE SPIRIT.
ACTS, xv. 8, 9.
And God, which knonueth the hearts, bare them witness,
giving them the Holy Ghost, e*ven as he did unto us ;
and put no difference between us and them, purifying their
hearts by faith.
THE faith which is the work of the Holy Spirit, and
which must therefore be consulted by the soul as an
element in the reply to be made by herself to that
solemn question, Have I the Spirit of Grod? must
possess two qualities. It must be sound, and it must
be practical. The Holy Grhost is not the author of
error ; nor, on the other hand, can His energy be
inferred from the mere assent given by the under
standing to speculative truth. It has, indeed, been
denied, that moral influences have any effect on the
conclusions of reason and the formation of opinion ;
and consequently, as the Holy Spirit, as far as we are
taught, acts only morally, 011 the affections and will,
not on- the reason and judgment, it is held that
belief, as far as it is the apprehension of truth and
assent given to doctrines, lies without the circle of
His ordinary operations. We have seen, however, on
Faith a Gift of the Spirit. 77
a former occasion, that, in point of fact, the process
of believing is affected extensively by moral in
fluences ; and that, too, not merely in religion, and
in other subjects which touch most closely the
passions, affections, and prejudices, but also in
matters which, one would think, are or ought to be,
indifferent ; and we found, that, though the will may
not invalidate the purely logical operation of drawing
the conclusion from the premises, yet in the formation
of those premises, in selecting and grouping the
evidence, in throwing a partial light on the presump
tions for or against the truth, and in directing the
attention to the arguments or objections on the one
nide rather than to those on the other, the feelings
and wishes of the heart have very great power over
the results of reasoning, which in fact they usually
modify, and often mould. It follows, therefore, that
the Holy Spirit, even though working merely on the
moral part of our constitution and influencing the
affections and the will, may be the main agent in de
termining and forming our belief; and Scripture
repeatedly testifies that He is. It will follow too,
that, as the Spirit of truth cannot be the Author of
anything but truth, so a sound faith alone can be
recognised as His work. And, therefore, as " no man
can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy
Ghost, so no man speaking by the Spirit of God
callcth Jesus accursed," * and " every spirit that con-
1 1 Cor. xii. 3.
78 Faith a Gift of the Spirit.
fesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is
not of Grocl." 1
It is not necessary, however, to conclude, that the
presence of the Spirit is incompatible with every
error, even in spiritual things, or that he who is led
by the Spirit of God, is in every respect infallible.
This conclusion would well-nigh close the kingdom
of heaven, and would render the seal of the Spirit
almost impossible to be recognised. It was the
promise, indeed, made to the Apostles, that " when
he, the Spirit of truth was come, he would guide
them into all truth," the whole truth ; 2 a pro
mise, which in their case was necessary, not for the
salvation of their own souls, but to the infallibility of
that universal rule of faith which was to be embodied
from their inspired teaching, secured in written docu
ments, and handed down together with the canon of
the Old Testament, as the only faultless standard of
truth and falsehood, even to the consummation of all
things. But to other Christians, to whose errors no
such consequences attach, grace is doubtless given to
establish them in all truth necessary for their salva
tion ; and this is the work of the Holy Ghost : but if
there be revealed verities, as doubtless there are,
which we may mistake or be ignorant of, and yet be
saved, it must not be inferred that where these are
not, there cannot be the presence of the Spirit, "who
divideth to every man severally as he will." 3 And
J John, iv. 3. a Ei g -naaav rt}v a\i]9siav. John, xvi. 13.
3 2 Cor. xii. 11.
Faith a Gift of the Spirit. 79
even as in the renovation of the moral character, " the
infection of nature doth remain, yea in them that are
regenerate," and many a foible and fault mars the
holiness of God s own saints, and the inward struggle
which attests the life of sin in the members, is so far
from being a proof of the absence of the Spirit, that
it may rather be the token that His energy is striving
there ; so it is very possible for the main truths of
the Gospel to be grasped and held fast in His
strength, and the soul s salvation to be anchored on
the rock, even though some errors may be held in the
same embrace, and we may yet be tossed on some un
quiet wave of doubt. The foundation may be rightly
laid, though " wood, hay, stubble," may as yet be
built upon it.
This remark may be necessary for the comfort of
those, who, while they have received with a living
faith the promises of God in Jesus Christ, and are
endeavouring to adorn the doctrine of God their Sa
viour in all things, are yet harassed with difficulties
and doubts in minor points (which however assume
an importance precisely because they harass), and are
tempted to question the presence of the informing
Spirit, as if they were reprobates ; or to long for
some external infallible authority on which to throw
themselves and be at rest, and, therefore, to " believe
the lie" of that Church, which professes to be, what
God has never given, an unerring interpreter of His
revealed word. The love of truth. God s truth, where-
80 Faith a Gift of the Spirit.
ever it may be found, is an indispensable criterion of
the teaching of the Spirit ; but the possession and
enjoyment of all truth, is not.
And it is also important to bear this distinction in
mind, when we judge of others. There are, indeed,
broad truths involving salvation, and marked out as
such in Scripture, the denial of which is not compa
tible with the Spirit of Christ ; and there are errors,
therefore, the holders of which we are to " save with
fear, pulling them out of the fire," l and to the
teachers of which we may not " bid Grod speed." " But
where other minor errors are held in the meekness
of a holy life ; where the fruits of the Spirit are un
deniably manifest, though the tares of some mistaken
doctrine may be among- them ; who are we that we
should deny the presence in such weak brethren of
the spirit of holiness, or reject them as members of
that invisible body of Christ, the parts of which are
knit together by the one invisible Spirit ? If they
are led by the Spirit of Grod, they are the sons of
G-od ; and we may not banish them from His family.
"We cannot, perhaps, worship with them on earth : we
may yet hope to hold happy communion with them in
heaven.
"We might now pass on from the consideration of
soundness of faith as an essential feature in the wit
ness of the Spirit, but that one or two practical con
sequences lie on the surface, which it will be neces-
1 Jucle, 23. 2 2 John, 10.
Faith a Gift of the Spirit. 81
sary only to indicate. It is, indeed, sufficiently
obvious (would that it were sufficiently borne in
mind !) that the first requisite for the attainment of
religious truth is an obedient life. " If any man will
do His w T ill, he shall know of the doctrine whether it
be of G-od." l Not only are the main obstacles
removed, which impede the impartial search after
truth ; not only is that dislike to holiness diminished
which makes sensual and selfish men almost long for
unbelief; not only are those passions and affections
moderated, which, when indulged, throw into such
undue prominence every argument and objection
against the truth, and the will is brought more into
harmony with the tone of the Grospel ; but the Holy
Spirit, the Teacher and Guide, will not dwell with
the unholy. If a sound faith is His work, it must be
sought in the habitual submission of the desires and