it to the young persons under your care? You would say, 'You must give me credit for it: you are young and uninformed: at your age I might have thought so too. Why am I to teach you, if I do not know better than you? When you have learned more, you will understand that which you now cannot. The objections will vanish: but you are not capable of receiving and making a proper use of the explanations and reasonings, which a few years hence, if you be teachable, will be quite easy to you.'-My dear Sir, the wisest of us is a mere child in heavenly things. But vain man would be wise; though an apostle has said, If any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. "Man is generally allowed to be body, soul, and spirit; yet these three are one. Explanations and illustrations only darken the subject [of the Trinity]. Divine perfections and operations are ascribed in scripture to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: yet there is but one God. If I believe the scriptures to be the word of God, I must believe that these are three in one sense, and one in another-three Persons and one Deity. -Either the Bible is not the word of God; or this doctrine is not contained in it; or it must be consistent, though incomprehensible. I have said a little on it in my Essays; and I am not disposed to add. 'Where reason fails With all her powers, -I trust I have natural powers for reasoning; and I am sure I am prone enough to it: but on such subjects the ipse dixit of my [Divine] teacher is every thing; the way of believing, not of reasoning and, if you do not find this satisfactory, I wish you to inquire the cause. I have this day preached upon the subject of your first inquiry; that I might try to understand it, before I attempted to write about it: and I thank you for the topic: I trust it has given occasion to an useful discourse on 1 John v. 3. This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, &c. The love of men, of sinners, to God must be the effect of regeneration: for, as born in sin, and carnal, we are enmity against God. It is the effect of reconciliation: it is by faith, and is exercised in proportion to our faith. It is the love of Christ, or love to the discovery of the glory of the perfections of God in the person and redemption of Christ. It is produced by the Holy Spirit taking of the things of Christ, and showing them to us. It is, in its highest attainment on earth, exceedingly imperfect: how much more, in the lowest degree in which the grace of God can exist? It is admiration and adoring love to the perfections of God; mourning and hungering desires after the happiness to be found in him; joy and delight and complacency in him ; gratitude for unspeakable benefits; zeal for his glory. There must be an inward feeling and consciousness of these things, or some of them, where there is true love of God; for an imperceptible love is nothing: yet, compared with the object, and our obligations, our warmest feelings are cold, and we are apt to think them as nothing. Our most sensible and fervent affections are occasional, but they form the judgment; and, when we cannot reach them, we mourn, and cannot rest without them: -they have left an aching void The world can never fill.' The medium through which they are excited, even faith, is different from sense: this meets us every where, but that must be sought by retirement, prayer, meditation, &c. Yet, at last, though all worship, prayer, praise, thanksgiving, must be form, nay hypocrisy, without some feeling of desire, love, gratitude, and zeal, the reality and vigour of the principle must be shown by its effects in producing unreserved, self-denying, disinterested obedience, and the disposition to count all God's commandments right and good, to delight in them, and to count nothing grievous, but the sin that dwelleth in us, and hinders us from doing the things that we would.-Mr. Wilberforce has some good thoughts on the love of Christ, applicable to this subject. I am not disposed to enter on the question, whether repentance and faith may be begun without any love to God, as it relates to the case of an individual; for I am called to state truths, not 1 Or, our settled judgment accords to them on this subject, though our feelings vary. 212 to decide on characters: but humiliation, and the simple receiving of Christ, must precede the comfortable exercise of love to God: yet nothing truly good can exist without the Spirit of Christ. -As I fear your reasoning turn of mind has kept you from this comfort, I have spoken more fully on that subject: but I will spare a little time for the discussion of this latter, if you think it will be useful.-My paper is full. Your's affectionately, THOS. SCOTT. This letter may be referred to page 250; but it was received too late for insertion in its place. 1 INDEX. A. 'Act, Declaration, and Testimony,' book so entitled, 215. Afflictions, and consolations intermixed, 52: lessons to be learned Age, effects of on ministers, 305. American Theology, 128, 131, 132. Anderson on Faith, 188, 189. Antinomian in harmony with the Pharisee, 197. Antinomianism, 145, 172: covert, 199. Apostacy, warnings against, 35. Arms, training to, 150, 152. Assent and Consent to the Prayer Book, 266, 269. Assurance, confounded with faith, 49; and made the cause of Aston Sandford, 225, 228, 306, 307. Asylum, Lock, 99, 100, 107, 119, 192. BL, Esq. 15-17. B. Backsliding, warnings against, 34, 35. Baptism, vows of, 219: its value as a public profession, 468. |