RAL SUASION. The agency of the Spirit in both, requires our special attention. In what does spiritual illumination consist? The reader will excuse us if in replying to this inquiry, we may seem to repeat some ideas already brought into view. We do not aim to be concise, but are anxious to be understood. 1. Spiritual illumination does not consist in any change wrought on the essence of the human mind. Such a change would make us no longer human beings. Let the essential mind be converted into that of an angel, or seraph, or new order of intelligent creatures, and it will no longer be a human soul, for by the very terms of the suppo sition, it is essentially changed. 2. Neither docs spiritual illumination consist in some newly created disposition anterior to, but the appropriate cause, or immediate original of the mind's perceptions of the truth. In so saying we do not mean, that feelings elicited have not an influence on the mind's perceptions; but simply, that there is no peculiar foundation, or fons actionis, laid in, or superadded to, the constitutional capacities, and susceptibilities of the moral creature man, by any exercise of creative power on the part of God. This too would be to change the constitutional nature of the being, were such a thing in reality to take place. When the real nature of what are called dispositions is examined, they will be found to be habits of feeling; and every one who has attended to the exercises of his own mind, knows that a powerfully and permanently influential feeling, may be awakened by a simple combination of circumstances adapted to the mood of the individual's mind at the time. One strong and vivid emotion or feeling, ripening into purpose, secures, by virtue of the very laws of mind, the easy and frequent indulgence of the same; and unlike our mechanical habits, the very first impulse of such feeling assumes for years afterwards a de termining character. But in all this, there is no new foundation laid in nature, by any creative act-no production of a new principle or cause of action sui generis, but simply the eliciting of constitutional susceptibilities in new exercise, and of such sort-so vivid, so strong, so influential, as to secure their easy and frequent repetition. It is philosophy that talks of some peculiar adaptation of created nature, that is the specific cause of those acts and exercises, which as they are strung together in series, or become habitual, we denominate dispositions. And it is, as we apprehend, an improper use of the term-one which common sense will not sustain, to designate, as a disposition, a mere modification of created nature; for such according to the philosophical use of the term just noticed, it must mean. We use it commonly, to denote any particular class of acts, and exercises towards given objects as they operate on our constitutional capacities and susceptibilities, and not as efficient causes per se, lodged in the structure of the soul, or super added to its properties. 3. Neither does spiritual illumination consist in the communication of any new faculty, or sense, or instinct, to the soul. For if so, then it follows, as in the former case, that the subject of it ceases to be a human being. We may be unable to know what they might do with it, yet we can conceive it possible that there should be creatures, whom the power of God may create, having all our senses, and one or more superadded. The addition of these new senses, would constitute them creatures of a different constitutional nature from ourselves; and should we, by any exercise of divine power, become similarly endowed, we should cease to be human beings. The same things hold true, with respect to our intellectual, as well as to our sensitive nature. Say that our minds have been rendered ca pable of new, or angelic modes of thought, and we have ceased to be men. Beside, if illumination consists in per ceptions, through a new sense, or by means of a new fa culty, or instinct, created in the soul, the unregenerate man is no more under obligation to understand and approve of spiritual things, and act accordingly, than the blind man can be, to perceive and understand colors, or the deaf man -sounds. Without the capacity or faculty, requisite to perceive and understand the truth, all moral obligation would cease; and, accordingly, the Saviour has authorized us to believe, that the ignorance and blindness of men, on spirit. al subjects, is not owing to the destitution of any of the natural faculties or capacities for mental action, employed in the perception of truth. Whatever derangement sin may have produced in our moral nature, one thing is certain→→→ it has not robbed us of any distinctive power, or capacity, with which we were originally endowed by our great Cre ator. It is not a necessary consequence of the fall, that any of the natural operations of the human mind should be destroyed. Instances, it is true, do occasionally occur in the case of idiots and lunatics, where the rational powers are withheld, suspended, or not developed, --sad proofs, indeed, of the havoc which sin has made, but not the necessary and infallible consequences of the fall. For, he that would conclude from such facts, that the fall of man has deprived us of any mental faculty, must, by the very same mode of reasoning, infer from the fact of some being born blind, and others being naturally deformed, or deaf mutes, that it has also deprived us of corporeal powers. The absurdity of this last idea 1s obvious; and, therefore, by a parity of reasoning, we are forbidden to conclude, that the fall has divested the human mind of any of its natural capacities or powers, and, consequently, that illumination no more consists in restoring the lost capacity, than in imparting new. Man is still possessed of all those powers, which are necessary to constitute him a moral agent. To deny this, is 10 deny human accountability. 4. Nor does spiritual illumination consist, in removing any natural imbecility of mind, or "depravation of the faculty" of understanding, which may be supposed to prevent the exercise of the intellectual powers, in the perception of spiritual truth. Dr. Owen speaks of "a two-fold impotency on the minds of men, with respect to spiritual things. 1. That which immediately affects the mind, a natural impotency, whence it cannot receive them, for want of light in itself. 2. That which affects the mind by the will and affections, a moral impotency, whereby it cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God, because, unalterably, it will not." This is a legitimate inference, from the doctrine of physical depravity. To present truth to the mind of man, thus disabled, would be just as absurd, as to reason with an idiot. If, however, the mind is not physically disabled,→ created defective,-spiritual illumination cannot consist in restoring, by a new creative process, what had not been lost. 5. Neither does illumination consist in any new and peculiar mode of mere intellectual perception of truth. For both the renewed and the unrenewed, possess the same essen▾ tial capacities, and are governed by the same general laws of thought. And the former, sustaining no change in the essence of their being, nor receiving any superadded faculty or sense, their intellectual operations cannot differ, essentially, from those of the latter. How far the exercise of the intellectual powers, on the part of the unrenewed, may be impeded by the corruption of their hearts, is a question we shall not undertake to solve. That in regard of spiritual and moral truth, the perceptions of men of quick understanding have been greatly blunted by the disordered state of their hearts-by the prevalence of corrupt inclinations, is a fact, of which there is abundant proof. And, 1. Owen on the Spirit, vol. 1, P. 417. inasmuch as almost all our intellectual knowledge has, or may be made to have, some bearing on moral and spiritual things, the man of depraved taste, who is not only destitute of a relish for holiness, but actually disrelishes it, labours under the influence of prejudices, which may, and often do prevent him from perceiving truth perfectly obvious. He is actually, in this state of mind, disqualified for impartial investigations, so that the very energies of his mind may be employed, in the miserable attempt to confirm and illustrate, what is absolutely false. The apostle has told us, that "the world, by wisdom, knew not God-They became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened; professing themselves to be wise, they become fools,"" and he gives us the most palpable proof of it in the fact, that they "changed the glory of the incorruptible God, into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and to four-footed beasts, and creeping things." The christian man, whose mind is free from the prejudices against' God and holiness, engendered in a depraved heart,' is unquestionably, all other things being equal, more likely to make the most rapid and extensive acquisitions in valuable science. And facts will confirm the assertion. Any advantage, however, which a renewed man may possess, in this respect, is not to be attributed to the removal of any constitutional or peculiar obliquity, or imbecility of intellect, but to the healthful exercise of all the moral powers, secured by the Spirit of Life. The advantage, in respect of moral and divine truth, is undeniable. But this is not owing to any thing in the truths of the Bible, beyond the natural capacities of the human mind, or requiring peculiar modes of intellectual perception. We are distinctly told, that, as it regards the great truths of the Bible, "the way-faring men, though fools, shall not err 1. Rom. i, 21-23. |