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round the sun but to exercise his faith, patience, and humility, I at first let him only "know in part;" I revealed the fact to him, but did not reveal what would have explained the difficulties of it. This is just what God has done to us. has revealed as much as he sees good for us; but he has kept so much back, that the whole is enveloped in mystery; we only see a few separate links of the chain, which stretches from eternity to eternity-"It is the glory of God to conceal a thing."*

But we are here met by another objection; namely, that "doctrines confessedly mysterious cannot be operative;” that is, of course, cannot affect the heart or life. Take another illustration; and remember what our Lord says about receiving the kingdom of God as little children. I show a child a particular bottle containing some liquid, of which I tell him he must never touch a drop, assuring him that if he does he will die immediately. "How very mysterious!" he says, "I can't conceive why I should die by just tasting that liquor, which looks only like water; but I'm sure I shouldn't have been told so, if it wasn't true, and therefore I'll take care never to touch it.” So that the revelation I made to the child about that bottle is a perpetual mystery to him, but it operates so much as to prevent him ever tasting it, and so keeps him from being poisoned. How the doctrines of the gospel operate, this is of course not the place to show: all that has been proved at present is that their being mysterious does not necessarily make them either "incredible" or "inoperative." We therefore fall back upon the apostle's declaration, "Great is the mystery of godliness," and draw from it this important factThat any gospel which is not a mystery cannot be the gospel St. Paul preached. See Gal. i. 8. Further proof can scarcely be required; but it may be as well just to quote the following passages. "Now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part," &c. 1 Cor. xiii. 12."O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God; how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out." Rom. xi. 33.-"The unsearchable riches of Christ. Eph. iii, 8.-"That ye being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God" Eph. ii. 17—19,

Here we must notice two texts, which are brought on the opposite side. The first is St. Paul's expression, 2 Cor. xi. 3, "The simplicity that is in Christ." To which it need only be

Are not the existence of a God, the resurrection of fhe body, &c., &c. revealed doctrines? And is there no mystery in them?

answered, that the word "simplicity" in English may either mean the reverse of mystery, or the reverse of duplicity, but that the original word in the Greek means simplicity in the latter serse, not in the former; as may be seen immediately from another text, where it occurs-" He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity." Rom. xii. 18. It refers chiefly to uprightness, and purity of motive; but has nothing whatever to do with things being mysterious or not mysterious.―The second argument is taken from Isaiah xxxv. 8: "The wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein." Now if I was to remind you that the prophet is here speaking of the millennium, you would say, that Christians have always been in the habit of applying it to the gospel during the present dispensation. So they have; and the propriety of thus using it, by way of application, we admit. But what then is the meaning of it? You won't say it means that no wayfaring men will ever err, because some wayfaring men are trinitarians, and others athe. ists. The most, I suppose, you will contend for, is that none need err because they are wayfaring men or fools. This we quite agree to but the question is, why need not their ignorance make them err? It cannot be because the doctrines of the gospel are "plain, simple, natural truths," for (not to mention the proofs already given to the contrary) "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him."* Then why is it? The conclusion of the last mentioned text gives you the answer, "neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Cor. ii. 14. Here we get at the truth. As long as a man remains in his "natural" unrenewed state, the gospel is "foolishness" to him, whether he be a wayfaring man or not: he may have a certain head knowledge of it from education or other causes, and he may think he believes it; but he has no more power "spiritually" to " discern" it, than the professed unbeliever. Still, however foolish and ignorant he may be, he need not "err therein "; and why? Because God "gives his Holy Spirit to them that ask him." How plainly are we here shown the cause both of faith and unbelief! One man goes to the Bible trusting to great learning, another to common sense, both thinking that nothing more than human reason is wanted to understand it; but neither great learning nor common sense can discern spiritual things-it requires a spiritual sense to do that. The strongest glasses would'nt help a man to see, who was born blind; eye sight must first be given him, and then he can get some assistance from them. You may pore over the bible all your life, and never find out the way of salvation; you may be "ever learning, aud never

* Observe from this, that no gospel can be from the "Spirit of God," which is not "foolishness" to "the natural man."

able to come to the knowledge of the truth;” for “no man can say that Jesus is the Christ, but by the Holy Ghost." If you will trust to the strength of your own understanding to fathom the depths of God's word, if you will not acknowledge your own blindness, and humbly pray for the Spirit to enlighten you, "to take of the things of Christ and show them unto you," you'll remain in utter darkness, notwithstanding all your professions of "truth-seeking;" for "the meek," and the meek only, "will he guide in judgment." Ps. xxv. 9. Truth must not only be sought in God's book, but also from God's Spirit, and in God's way; and if you are too proud or indifferent to seek it in that way, you'll never find it in any other. Let real "truth-seekers" consider the following passages, besides what have been already mentioned, and they will see how it may be found even by "wayfaring men, though fools." "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." Psalm cxix. 18. "Then opened he their understandings, that they might understand the scriptnres." Luke xxiv, 45. "Whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul." Acts xvi. 14. Unitarians tell us they don't set up their reason above the scriptures, they only use it to understand the scriptures; and they ask, whether we don't do the same? No doubt we do; but we first pray that our blind reason may be enlightened from above. In the prayer, “Open thou mine eyes," we confess that our eyes want opening, and that it is only by the Spirit shining upon his own word and into our hearts, that we can savingly discern the "deep things of God." Having done this, we then apply the whole power of our mind to “search the scriptures," believing that God, in answer to our prayer, will bless the effort, and show us wondrous things out of his law." We could no more expect to learn "the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven" without exercising our reason on God's word, than we could without feeling our natural blindness and praying for Divine light. "These things ought ye to have done, but not to leave the other undone." Oh that every unconverted person here, whatever be his professed belief, would meditate and pray over these words, "Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

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When a

But another question arises here, which is this. man thus humbly and earnestly seeks for Divine light, is he to expect that every difficulty will be removed, and every mys. tery cleared up? By no means. Many things no doubt that seemed at first quite dark will be gradually unfolded to him, he will of course "grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ;" but if he should reach to the spiritual attainments of St. Paul, he will still have to exclaim, "Oh the depth!" The

effect of the Spirit's teaching is to shew him what is the truth, to give him faith to receive it, and grace to adorn it. Whatever mystery or difficulty there may appear in anything which he finds revealed, he has no difficulty in believing it: he can believe the greatest mystery just as easily as the simplest fact. The following passages of scripture, besides strengthening our main argument, will shew, that it is not by its mysteries being removed, but by our becoming willing to bend to them, that the gospel enters our understandings and our hearts. "If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise." I Cor. iii 18, 19. "Do you think I'm going to be such a fool as to believe the Trinity," &c.? No; you will not "become a fool," and therefore you can never "be wise." Again; "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh : (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong-holds;) casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." 2 Cor. x, 3—5. One specimen of the way in which St. Paul casts down man's "imaginations." we have already noticed in the case of a physical difficulty, 1 Cor. xv. 35-38; and that in the case of a moral difficulty will be noticed in a future lecture, Rom. ix. 19, 20. For the present we may observe, that the gospel does not argue with man's imaginations and high thoughts, it makes no compromise with them, it just casts them down. He imagines that a Trinity is impossible; he imagines that a God of love would never do this and the other; but the gospel casts down all such imaginations, and until they are cast down it can never be really embraced. The choice is before you then: will you have your imaginations cast down and accept the gospel, -or let your imaginations stand, and reject the gospel? The next passage we have to bring forward is a most important one; "Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein." Mark x. 15. In the lecture on Original Sin it will be clearly proved, (if proof be required on such a matter,) that our Lord does not mean by this, that no one will be saved, unless he become in this life absolutely innocent; all that is necessary for our present purpose is to remind you that he is here speaking of the disposition with which the gospel privileges and blessings, called here as in many other places "the kingdom of God," are to be "received,"--namely, in the humble, confiding, teachable, unhesitating spirit of "a little child." A little

* To prevent any quibbling about "imaginations" the unlearned reader is informed, that the word in the original is the same which is usually and correctly translated "reasonings."

child believes just what his father tells him, and simply because he tells it him; he never doubts or disbelieves because he can't understand the how and the why: he may ask for an explanation of this or the other, but if it is too high a thing to be explained, or if his father thinks proper not to explain it to him, he doesn't on that account deny it, but he believes that his father has some good reason for concealing it, and that at some future time the difficulty may be removed, and he will be able to understand it. If there can be any doubt as to our Lord's meaning here, his expression in Matt. xviii, 4 must at once remove it; "Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." It is true St. Paul tells us not to be "children in understanding,"-but a discerning mind will easily see the consistency of this with our Lord's words; for it is the want of a teachable child-like spirit which prevents our understanding Divine things. Let us try to illustrate the way in which this spirit should be exercised. With regard to physical difficulties, (that is, where we cannot understand how such and such a thing can be) the illustration which was used before is quite to the point. You tell a child that the sun never moves, and yet he sees it move apparently every day of his life from one side of the heaven to the other: here are two revelations made to him; his own eyesight reveals to him that the sun shone on one side of the house in the morning and on the other in the evening; and you reveal to him that the sun has never moved during the whole time: can anything appear more perfectly irreconcilable than these two facts? And yet he believes them both; feeling sure that there is some way of reconciling them, though he cannot find it out, and his father does not choose at present to tell him. So are we to receive "the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven." In another world God may clear up to your mind the greatest mysteries, just as easily as you could explain that difficulty to the child, by telling him, that the earth itself turns round.*

The same kind of reasoning applies also to moral diffi

It may be thought perhaps that such an argument as this would justify belief in the Romish doctrine of transubstantiation; that is, the bread and wine being changed into the body and blood of Christ. To this we reply, first, that the expression "This is" so and so, is perpetually used in Scripture to mean "This represents" or "This is like" ("all flesh is grass"): and secondly, that to say Christ's body is ever on the earth now, directly contradicts Scripture, which says, that "the heavens must receive him until the times of the restitution of all things," which have not yet come. In this case therefore we should be disbelieving the evidence of our senses, not on, but against the authority of Scripture. Besides, who cannot see the difference between judging ourselves able to grasp the mysteries of the Infinite Jehovah, and judging ourselves able to tell whether what we have in our mouth is a piece of bread, or flesh and blood? When the Romanist produces "a little child," who, after seeing, feeling, smelling and eating, a piece of bread, can be made to believe that it was all the time a piece of Besh-meat, we will give up arguing against Transubstantiation.