IT is the design of the following treatise to present the teaching of Scripture, in reference to the work of the Holy Spirit, in the salvation of men. It is not its purpose to enter minutely into all the questions connected with this important subject, but, while considering such of these as have an immediate practical relation to the present wants of religious society, to give a clear and distinct view of the entire office of the Holy Spirit, as this relates both to the Church and to the World. Conscious of no bias in favor of any particular theory, the author bespeaks, for the views he has to present, a fair examination in a candid and truth-loving spirit, and in the light of the Scriptures to which reference is made taken in their proper connection and meaning.

      The author has for many years contemplated, with much regret, the extremes into which men have fallen in relation to the subject of the Holy Spirit, nor has he failed to use his endeavors to correct these--especially those of them which rest on rationalism, a form of error to which certain religious reformers, who profess to take the "Bible alone," seem to be peculiarly liable. Such are the infirmities of human nature, that a mere maxim, a denominational watch-word, a party-phrase, will sometimes so occupy the mind as to leave no room for the entire truth of which it is itself but a fragment, and the partial and imperfect conceptions thence resulting will lead inevitably to the most serious mistakes, both theoretical and practical. It would be impossible to estimate, for instance, the injury that has been done to religious society by the constant reiteration of the unscriptural expression, "Justification by faith alone," which has led men to contemn not only the works of the Jewish law, but the ordinances of the Gospel itself, and the very obedience which faith itself requires in order to its own perfecting. Nor can it be determined how much of evil has, in like manner, proceeded from the brief but equally unscriptural phrase, "The Bible alone," employed in a sense and for a purpose altogether alien to its true significance, and its original application. And yet how true are both these utterances! How precious the truth that we are "justified by faith alone," when we refer only to the principle or ground of justification! How [iii] credible the famous saying that "the Bible, the Bible only, is the religion of Protestants," when understood, as first employed, to signify that "the Bible is a perfect rule of their faith and actions."¹ How readily, however, the former truth may be transformed into an error when "faith" is resolved into an abstraction, and set in opposition to its own works, as if by these it was vitiated and annulled! How marked the potency of this extreme over even the mind of Luther, when he was led to call in question the genuineness of the epistle of James, because, in contradiction of the above assertion, it said that "by works a man is justified and not by faith only!" And how false the declaration that "the Bible only is the religion of Protestants," if this he made to mean that the book so termed, or even the professed acceptance of the truth of its teachings, constitutes, in point of fact, the religion of the Protestant world! Yet how many there may be who mistake a reverence for the things of religion for religion itself! How many who may amuse themselves with the idea that in possessing the word of truth, they possess also the truth! How many professed reformers may there be to whom the Gospel has truly come "in word only," and who seem unable to make their way out of the cocoon of formalism, which enwraps them and their religion in perpetual immaturity!

      A true religious Reformation, however, will restore Christianity not only in letter but in spirit; not only in principle but in practice. The Gospel has not been given to men to be broken into pieces for the amusement of those who are but children in understanding, but that it may present to the weary and the thirsty soul, in its unsevered and sacred chalice, the "living water" of a divine salvation. If it fails to do this, it is because it is no longer entire, but has been rendered fragmentary and imperfect by the unfaithfulness or incapacity of those to whose charge it has been committed. History, indeed, reveals that the unhallowed ambitions of lordly prelates, the arrogant decretals of councils and of popes, the increasing corruptions of ignorance and superstition amidst ages of darkness, had indeed almost wholly obscured and perverted the Divine truths of the primitive gospel, when the reformation of Luther rescued in part, the church from bondage and the Bible from the priests. But it likewise shows that an undue reliance upon human leaders, and a false confidence in human systems, speedily induced a state of things scarcely less fatal to Christianity. Leaving the doctrine of Christ which teaches men to do right, Protestants allowed themselves to be carried away by a blind zeal for doctrines and religious theories in hopes to make men think right. Some favorite opinion, coined in the brain of an aspiring teacher, was permitted to acquire unjust authority, and to array in its support a forced and unwilling troop of scripture "texts." Opposing systems marshaled their respective battalions placing opinion against opinion and scripture against scripture. Those who [iv] should have been united in a common brotherhood contending earnestly for "the faith once delivered to the saints have wasted their resources, embittered their lives, and misused their opportunities in unhallowed conflicts with each other. Party names, party standards, party watch-words have been matters of chief concern while charity, unity, righteousness and peace have been left to perish. Some mere fragment of Divine truth, eked out by empty speculation, and decked in the flimsy trappings of human imagination, has been allowed to usurp an absolute authority soon to be questioned and perhaps overthrown by some rival pretender to ecclesiastical dominion. Thus the history of Protestantism is little else than the history of the rise and fall of sects, the record of religious revolutions and eager struggles for denominational supremacy.

      The chief cause of this unhappy, divided, and distracted condition of religious society has been the assumption by the "clergy" of the exclusive right of interpreting the Scriptures. "He," says Chillingworth, "that would usurp an absolute lordship and tyranny over any people, need not put himself to the trouble and difficulty of abrogating and disannulling the laws made to maintain the common liberty; for he may frustrate their intent and compass his own design as well, if he can get the power and authority to interpret them as he pleases, and add to them what he pleases, and to have his interpretations and additions stand for laws--if he can rule his people by his laws, and his laws by his lawyers."² In this way one of the fundamental principles of Protestantism, "the right of private judgment," has in a good degree been rendered null, and the gift of the Bible to the "laity" unavailing.

      Against these evils and their causes the peace-loving and truth-loving among the Protestants have indeed again and again protested. "This presumptuous imposing," said the author just quoted, "of the senses of men upon the words of God, the special senses of men upon the general words of God, and laying them upon men's consciences together, under the equal penalty of death and damnation; this vain conceit, that we can speak of the things of God better than in the words of God; this deifying our own interpretations, and tyrannous forcing them upon others; this restraining the word of God from that latitude and generality, and the understandings of men from that liberty wherein Christ and the apostles left them, is and hath been the only fountain of all the schisms of the church, and that which makes them immortal. Take away these walls of separation, and all will quickly be one. Take away this persecuting, burning, cursing, damning of men for not subscribing to the words of men as the words of God; require of Christians only to believe Christ, and to call no man master but him only; let those leave claiming infallibility that have no title to it, and let them that in their words disclaim it, disclaim it likewise in their actions. In a [v] word, take away tyranny, which is the devil's instrument to support errors, and superstitions, and impieties in the several parts of the world, which could not otherwise long withstand the power of truth; I say, take away tyranny, and restore Christians to their just and full liberty of captivating their understanding to Scripture only; and as rivers, when they have a free passage, run all to the ocean, so it may well be hoped, by God's blessing, that universal liberty, thus moderated, may quickly restore Christendom to truth and unity."³

      These weighty words were uttered nearly two centuries and a half ago, and though they have been so long unheeded, there is now reason to hope that the important truths they affirm are beginning to pervade the Protestant world, and that the hour is not distant when a successful effort may be made to unite all believers under one Divine Leader, and to extend the triumphs of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. The signs of the times clearly indicate that a more liberal feeling is extending itself among those who profess Christianity, and that they are becoming awakened to a sense of the evils of disunion, and of the great benefits likely to result from co-operation in the cause of Christ. Nor are the workings of Divine Providence less marked in the rapidly increasing facilities for introducing the gospel among nations heretofore buried in ignorance and idolatry, and in the humbling of those proud dynasties which have heretofore resisted all religious progress, and endeavored to maintain the rule of superstition. In the swift changes now occurring, may the people of God be wisely guided, and may the Good Spirit of our God, through whose pervading presence alone unity can be established in the body of Christ, direct the hearts of all believers into the love of God and of each other, to the furtherance of the truth and the salvation of the world! [vi]

[OHS 3-6]