The Power of the Divine Spirit.

York Minster, 1842.

JOHN i. 12.

"AS MANY AS RECEIVED HIM, TO THEM GAVE HE POWER TO BECOME THE SONS OF GOD."

IN

N the preface which St. John prefixed to his Gospel, he laid down, as the foundation of it, this doctrine—that the same Divine agent who filled the world with light and life in the beginning had come from the bosom of the Father, and, uniting himself with his creatures in the person of Jesus Christ, had communicated to them a new life of the soul, and a new illumination within. The Evangelist clearly represents the light as shining freely and impartially on all, though it meets with a different reception according to the disposition of those on whom it shines, some imbibing the illumination, and some comprehending it not; some rejecting the Author of light and life, and some receiving him; and he adds, that they only who admitted the light were warmed and enlightened by it; to them who received the first begotten of the Father and believed on his name "to them gave he power to become the sons of God."

The choice which lies in us of either stifling that light in our souls or receiving it, so as to be enlightened by it and to reflect it, the awful responsibility which such a choice implies, the personal conduct of the individual by which the power offered to all of becoming the sons of God may be rendered feeble or unavailing, the human means and precautions by which the influence of the divine power may be appropriated and realized; these subjects, brethren, when the foundation of the belief and knowledge of divine things has once been laid, cannot but be the most important of all studies to him who aspires to profit by the light of Christ and to become one of the sons of God.

It stands first, however, as in connection with the train of thought which we have already pursued, and as part of the foundation of our religious knowledge, to enter into some further considerations of the efficacy of the true light itself regarded as the energy of Divine grace acting upon us through the medium of the eternal Son of God.

The intrinsic nature and operation of such a power or energy who shall venture to scrutinise? Of things behind the veil it becomes us not to inquire either too curiously or too sceptically; "How can these things be?" It was in reference to the very subject on which we are now touching that a ruler of Israel put this question to Him who best could answer it; and you remember the reply-"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the

sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit."

Had that subject been thenceforward left where the Light of the world was pleased to leave it-a mystery reserved and sequestered from the intrusion of irreverent curiosity and ignorant superstition, we should never have heard of attempts to fix a local habitation for the true light of the Spirit in its material symbols, and to unite, as the Church of Rome have united, the power of the spirit of Christ with the substance of the creatures of bread and wine and of water and salt.

But though the endeavour is vain and presumptuous, to bring down to our comprehension the mystery of the divine influence by thus mixing and confusing physical with spiritual ideas, the attentive reader of Scripture will nevertheless not fail to discover therein revealed some few particular circumstances, respecting the method and measure wherein the "power" of the Spirit is present to the soul of the believer, which it is of the greatest practical consequence that we should fully understand.

The first of these particulars is, that the power of the Lord is at all times and in all places near at hand to those who devoutly approach to him"Draw nigh to God," says St. James, "and He will draw nigh to you;"-but especially in the act of prayer, when it is offered from a pure heart, in the manner which he has appointed and for the

objects which he approves, by the believer who adds obedience to faith. "This," says St. John, "is the confidence which we have in the Son of God, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us," and, "whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do those things which are pleasing in his sight."

The second particular is, that the power of the Lord is emphatically present in the united congregations of the faithful, "Where," said he himself, two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of you."

The third and last particular is, that the sacraments which he has ordained are accompanied by the "power" of his Spirit, and that in the sacrament of the Lord's supper he enters into fellowship with believers—“ Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God"-"The bread which we break is it not the fellowship (or communion) of the body of Christ?" the wine which we drink, "is it not the fellowship (or communion) of the blood of Christ ?"

In the expressions employed in these three cases of the spiritual power of Christ in private, public, and sacramental prayer, you may discern a gradation of force; and that of "fellowship" or "communion with his body and blood," is the strongest expression of all. Nor is there less emphatical strength in the words of our Saviour himself

on this subject-"Verily I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood ye have no life in you"-" He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him." "As the Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me."-"This is the bread that came down from heaven; not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead; he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever." For though this is doubtless figurative language, including a great width of meaning, and denoting the reception of all the principles of the Gospelthe trust in Christ's atonement-the walk in Christ's commandments,-yet would our interpretation of these expressions be critically incomplete, were we to leave out the allusion, on which the figure is founded, to the eating that bread in remembrance of him in the sacrament of the Lord's supper. The words I have quoted cannot but be taken in connection with the analogous words used by him in founding that sacred institution-"Take; eat; this is my body which is given for you," and in that connection can imply no less than that the faithful reception of the symbolical bread is accompanied in a peculiar degree by the gift of that "power" by which we become the sons of God."

But it may be asked what difference there can be supposed between the presence of the Spirit and power of God on one occasion and its presence on another, in the closet, in the congregation, and at