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S'j St Paul tells them the chosen positl of light whieh they had enjoyed had been the grift of Gc SiriCf; they turned to the darkness of the letter instead of takii the li;^ht of the spirit in Christ, this better light would be 1 the nations at large. Wlioever embraced this better gift woi be; a part henceforth of the chosen people. Thus mankind stc int^i the place of Israel. You see, the apostle's doctrine is no narrowing, but a widening. It is a protest against national Hacf;rdobil exelusivenesfl. There may be something of hum metaphor in ascribing such choice to God; but do we not f that we could have no gift without an adequate Giver ? AMi ever light, then, we enjoy, or whatever calling comes to through teaching, we ascribe it to a forethought of God, as a human act to a man's thought. If some have larger gifts tli others, they are in a way more chosen. Thus St Paul, liavi power to turn many hearts to God, was a chosen vessel. So the apostles of Christ were chosen, though one of them tim NATURAL DIFFICULTIES OF FREEWILL. 437 out an enemy. But if even bodily gifts are of God, much more those of the soul. The more, then, any man has right faith, and truth of heart, and goodness, the more he will ascribe such de- liverance to God. But this ascription is in looking back with thankfulnessj^when we have received, not in presuming before- hand that we shall. We see the side of human performance, and our faith infers the inner side of Divine grace. Perhaps our language on such points may be innocently tinged by those difficulties which are felt throughout the world in all attempts to reconcile * Fate and Freewill,' or Divine purpose and human agency. For as our freedom is both limited by vaster forces, and prompted by natural motives, we seem at once agents, and yet instruments. We are conscious of choice ; yet we choose not without reason. We will; but our will had antecedents. Our will goes forth, but yet in act it falls short of its object. Again, it is biassed by inclinations hardly its own. Circum- stances again give us power, or fetter us. We say for ourselves, we are free ; yet the bystander foresees what we will do. Per- haps every individual man is in his own will properly free, and manifests his character by spontaneous choice; yet the conduct of a mass of men in given circumstances of mind and body is not doubtful ; and we do not doubt that a higher and spiritual Governor wields the whole at His will. Such difficulties, how- ever, whether they come of two truths which seem to contradict each other, or rather, as I should say, of limitation to our free- dom, are at least not peculiar to Christianity. They were felt in Greece and India before the Gospel was preached in the world. Their connexion with our faith is quite accidental. Only, as we do magnify soul above body, and motives above circumstance, and will above deed, or character above results, so we magnify the secret teaching which comes of the grace of God. Whoever has this so as to use it, is so far chosen as to have cause of thanksgiving. But such a gift is no proof that the like was not offered to others: for we teach favour, but not favorit- ism. Take the doctrine of election as a way of ascribing all we 438 PKEDESTIXATIOX. have received In humilitv to God. and it is wholesome. Tun it into an argument for presumption, or exclusiveness. and it i uo longer Christian. It is the aspect of the speaker, and th feeling of the words, which makes the difference. We are save by grace ; but the grace of God appears, says St Paul, bringin salvation to all men*. And again, God commands all me everywhere to have a new mindf. Not few, but all, yon hea Nor do we fetter human action : for the more we know 01 power of action is a gift, the more earnestly we use for fear < forfeiting it. Work out, the A|X)stle says J, your salvation; for is God that icorketh in you. (4) " What you object to Predestination has been now ani cipatcd. For by this word we mean only that, whatever t] eternal God is doing now. He intended to do. Christianity not a new idea in His counsels, but one entertained from of ol and i)er>'ading the Old Testament, though unveiled in t New§. How human action is compatible with Divine foi knowledge is, as you justly observed, only part of a wid mystery. Some may think that the Divine foreknowledge I reason and method, being by prevision of circumstance a motive rather than by vague omnipotence ; but this we need 1 discuss. For whatever may be tlic rationale of such things, a whether few are saved, or many, Christ offers His salvation every man; and whoever rejects it does so of free will. 1 metaphysics of such rejection, in respect of spontaneity or nee sity, concern Christianity no more than any scheme of hun life ; and they may be settled, as metaphysicians think best, unsettled. For tlic Gospel, like human life, stands on one a of them. Wliat God offers in Christ is life and health ; x what we assert eternity of, is His purpose to offer them. (5) " More iniportiuit than metaphysical questions, wli only affect tlic Gosi>el as they do everything else, is your f objection. For certainly we read, that Jesus spake as never i • TituM ii. II. + Acts xvii. 30. t Philippians ii. n, 13 § Ephesians i. j i Corinthians ii. 10, where read " revealed IT," i. e. the pun DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 439 spake. He wrought works such as never man wrought. He rose from the grave as never man rose. He lives by His spirit, in a temple of breathing minds, with such a life as never man has been able to infuse for generations into a commxmity of all nations and tongues. He makes holy and humble men of heart, even now, one in spirit with Himself, and through Himself with the Father. He renews our humanity after the Divine likeness, and the world after the Divine thought. We cannot think that this life comes of less than God ; or that through any less than heavenly Truth we are tlius led to the highest Being. We think, then, that it has pleased God, who as the Father is invisible, to shew Himself, by giving His lively image, in Christ, who is Son of God, and Son of Man. Thus, not like those systems, which deny Man's Fall, and leave him to fall lower, our faith takes away sin which separated, by bringing near God who heals. Nor is such only our inference; but Jesus declared Himself one with the Father*. His Apostles teach that the Wisdom (or Word) of the Father dwelt in Himf, and speak of His emptying Himself of a greater glory by being bom Man, instead of retaining equality with God J. Here we find a true Incarnation, better than your poets have fancied ; and it is by tliis outsliining of Deity embodied in Man, that Humanity has fulfilled in it the thought of God. Thus all our life is hallowed, as its true pattern is shewn, and a power given to fulfil it. Thus, as members of Christ, we become in spirit children of God, and are baptised into the name of the Father, the Son, and tlic Holy Ghost. Then, when the Churcli in later times con- sidered how the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit could be One, and the Word manifest in flesh, yet not the Father, and the Spirit distinct from both, and dwelling in men, yet one with God, she found no statement more probable than that of the Trinity, or the doctrine of Three and One. But she gives this fuller statement as correct reasoning from the elements of our faith, rather than as the very faith. What the missionary meant, • Ev. St John X. 30. t Ev. St John i. t Philippians u. 6. 440 THE TBINITY. was to tell yon, that, if you reasoned correctly, such conclusion would follow from what we read of the Father, the Word, an the Holy Spirit, in that scheme by which the grace of Go offers to deliver us from evil. How far you would so conclude we are willing you should consider hereafter. What is fin important, is, that you should come through the Spirit of tl Son to the Father. But when I remember what you said < Dharma, and Sanga*, your law and congregation, I think should not seem strange to you, for Christians joined in oi body of Christ, to become partakers of the Word, and hai fellowship through one Holy Spirit with each other, and wil Christ, and with God.