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REMARKS UPON

THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE ONE LORD,

THE

ONLY TRUE GOD.

MAN is very fond of being thought knowing. Perhaps few in Christendom would be willing to allow they know not God. Yet many, who treat with ridicule the notions of the ancients respecting their divers false gods, are, nevertheless, ignorant of the one true and living God.

We find in scripture the possibility of swearing falsely, even in declaring that the Lord liveth; and that none can truly and savingly call Jesus Lord, but by the holy ghost. What then is the real, substantial, and soul-saving knowledge of God? How is it obtained, and wherein does it consist?

Is that simple conviction that attends every rational mind, that, since something is; since matter exists under various forms. and modifications; since many masses of it are revolved, in wonderful order and harmony, without jar or confusion, from age to age, around other masses of it; since in the vegetable world are displayed such wonderful marks of intelligence and wisdom; şince in the animal, are evidently seen such indisputable tokens and proofs of an infinite knowledge and ability existent; since in the rational, such multiplied and indubitable demonstrations of the being of an all-wise almighty and omnipresent productive cause, ruler, and upholder of men and all things appears, therefore there is, there must be, and it is irrational to suppose there is not, an eternal God. Is this rational conviction the saving knowledge of God? Nay, verily; thousands have this conviction, arising from the foregoing, and from innumerable considerations, and yet live without God in the world, as to the saving

knowledge of him, and are aliens to the commonwealth of Israel.

"The world by wisdom knew not God:" 1 Cor. i. 21. and it knows him no more now, by any natural abilities or creaturely wisdom, unassisted by divine internal light, than ever it did. Worldly wisdom is as inadequate to this knowledge in one age as in another. In every age God has confounded, and will ever confound the wise; he will "destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent,” 1 Cor. i. 19. that so no flesh, no creaturely faculties, no natural sagacity, shall glory in his presence.

God, and the things of God, knoweth no man, but by the spirit of God that is in him. 1 Cor. ii. 11. The natural man cannot know them; they are foolishness unto him; they are only spiritually discerned. 2 Cor. ii. 14. God has hid them from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes. Matt. xi. 25. "Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" 1 Cor. i. 20.

Can man, by searching, even to the utmost extension of human comprehension, find out God? Can he, by all the investigations of finite ability, find out the Almighty to perfection? Nay: "it is as high as heaven, what canst thou do? deeper than hell, what canst thou know?" Job xi. 7, 8.

The saving knowledge of God is not learned, either by reading, reasoning, or searching ever so anxiously after it, in the mere strength and wisdom of man. It will forever elude his utmost penetration, till he comes to submit all his boasted abilities to the rectification and illumination of a superior principle. Men may search the scriptures, and think to have eternal life in them, and yet, not coming unto" Christ, the light of the world," miss of that real knowledge, which alone is, or can give eternal life to their souls!

The scriptures truly testify of him; but without his own illuminations, cannot possibly reveal him. No man can truly call him Lord but by the holy ghost. The letter, without the life and light, ever will kill, ever will tend to stifle that immortal birth, that babe, to which the Father revealeth the mysteries of

his own heavenly kingdom. It was not in one age only that it might truly be said, "the letter killeth," 2 Cor. iii. 6. but it does, and will do it, in all ages and nations. It has slain the babe of life in tens of thousands, by building up, substituting, and establishing notions and opinions in the stead of the one true faith, which is the gift of God, and is only of his own production, and immediate operation in the soul. He alone begets it. He alone is the author and finisher of it.

A zealous attachment to the letter, without the openings of pure life, tends also powerfully to kill and suppress the small budding and beginning of the new life, the second birth, by bolstering up the creature in a round of lifeless performances, in his own time and ability. Thus because he reads, that the saints, who acted in and by the openings and influence of the life, did so and so practise; and because he finds here and there an exhortation or injunction to this and the other duty, the natural man falls to doing as they did; and though he that believeth shall not make haste, yet so great is the haste which this searcher of the letter, in his own unenlightened understanding, is making, that he is frequently calling upon God, and talking a great deal about him, before he has ever rightly known him; as if the scriptures would give him to know what a God requires of him, with whom he is unacquainted, or inform him when and how to wor ship a Being of whom he is ignorant!

O man! thou knowest not what to pray for as thou ought, nor how to pray, but as the spirit helpeth thy infirmities. This the spirit often does, for those who really know God, with groanings that cannot be uttered or expressed. How widely then do they err from the line of their duty and of divine appointment, who at their own set times, importune the Almighty. in vocal supplications and prayers, when all that the spirit does for them amounts only to the begetting of inward groanings, which cannot be uttered! As sure as we attempt the vocal expression of such inward and spiritual groanings, we lose the lively sense, and dry up the little springs of life, which accompany them, and nothing is then left but words without life, and sounds devoid of substance. Thus eminently "the letter killeth." Whereas the spirit, if singly attended to, even in these unspeak VOL. II.-37

able groanings, without any creaturely additions, giveth life; and doubtless would frequently not only give a small beginning of real divine life, even to those who are thus unwisely dissipat ing it by hastily rushing into words, but were they quietly to wait on that inward operation, whereby the spirit is at seasons thus helping their infirmities, they would witness a glorious degree of the arisings and increase of divine life in their souls; yea, many times till death would be swallowed up of victory, and life and light triumph over death and darkness, to their unspeak able consolation. This is the real and happy experience of many, who dare not presume to add of their own to the word of the Lord, inwardly operative and revealed; dare not be rash to utter any thing before God; dare not make such haste as to force themselves into the vocal expression of what God intended should operate only to the production of inward groanings and divine life, and there to terminate. These do most joyfully find, that as they are thus careful to act the part of true.believers, who must not make haste, but abide in the patient waiting, in that whereby they feel the spirit helping their infirmities, and are willing to be limited to, and by, the measure and manner thereof, either in inward groanings or vocal solicitations; that as these are truly unspeakable, and cannot be formed into words, without great loss of the inward life and energy attending them, so also is the divine and soul-felt consolation, arising from dwelling in the depths of this inward exercise and stillness, as truly unspeakable, as are the groanings through which it is attained.

But they who will make haste, who will be always ready, outrun their little portion, dry up the small spring of life, their words fall to the ground, and they wonder why they are so cold and lifeless in their devotions; whereas had they been limited by the degree of inward help and life, and content with inward breathings and groanings, they might have increased with the increase that is truly of God; might have mounted upwards in living and silent approaches toward his throne and presence, "with wings as eagles;" might run and not be weary, or walk, and not faint.

As this is the certain effect of waiting upon God, so directly

the reverse is the consequence of running before him: for, perhaps it will bear to be again repeated, "the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." Here ends the race run of many in man's own wisdom and ability, în flat formality, if not in degeneracy into the bondage of sin and corruption, from which the Lord by the inward working of the spirit, had in some degree redeemed them.

The operation of the spirit in the soul, is that which, in all ages, countries, and persons, began and begins the work, wherever any thing really good and truly religious, is brought forth; and nothing else can do it. Man once dead in sin, would, without this quickening influence, forever remain so, having no more ability of himself to quicken his own or another's soul, or to change his own or others' inclinations and pursuits from bad to good, than the Ethiopean has power to change his skin, or the leopard his spots. But God, ever gracious, visits and revisits the souls of men, by the operations of his spirit; this begins the work, and nothing can carry it on, without the constant assistance of his holy efficient principle, this divine agency of the spirit, in and through every step, movement, and perform. ance of religious life.

The work begins in the spirit, effecting a change, or alteration in our inclinations, dispositions, views, enjoyments, and pursuits, and is carried on by its continued operations, advancing and more and more establishing this change, till a conversion and settlement in the divine life is effected: and our advancement is in proportion to the degree of our submission to, and co-operation with it: that is, the work of redemption goes on no faster or further, than in exact proportion to the degree in which we are influenced by, and through this efficient operation of the spirit or grace of God, whereby he worketh in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure.

And notwithstanding the necessity of our submission to the divine operation, and working out our own salvation in and through it; yet he that thinks he can add any thing of his own, he that thinks he can take one step in any stage of the race, without the spirit's assistance, will find himself mistaken; will find he has been trusting in flesh and blood, a mere broken reed,

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