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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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pernaturai knowledge were communicated by Christ to the apostles , and through them to mauy of their fellowchristians . If , because Christ declared to his apostles that the spirit of truth should guide them into all
truth , ( i . e . all gospel truth , ) we infer that his sincere disciples , in the present day , will , in like manner , by supernatural influence , be led into all truth , we must upon the same principles of interpretation , and not more in opposition to fact and experience , maintain , that the believers of the
present day shall speak with new tongues , shall take up serpents or drink poisons unhurt , or cure the sick by laying ou them their hands * 2 . Many passages in which the Spirit , or even the Spirit of God or the Holy Spirit , is spoken of , have no
direct reference to the ordinary or extraordinary ^ operations of divine agency , further than is included in the general principle , that every good gift and every perfect cometh down from the Father of lights . This is the case in a variety of instances ,
where the word stands for the spiritual part of our nature , in opposition to the flesh , i . e . the animal appetites and passions ; or for that holy mind or godly disposition , which is produced by the sanctifying principle of the gospel . And to the same head may
be referred those passages in which spirit is used to denote the internal dispositions , iu opposition to the external services of devotion ; as in that expression of the apostle ' s ( 1 Cor .
xiv . 15 ) : " I will pray with the spirit , and 1 will pray with the understanding also : I will sing with the spirit , and I will sing with the understanding also . "
3- Many expressions occur , particularly in the Old Testament , implying the influence or agency of God , where yet its ' operation is , in part at
least , through the common operations of his providence . For instance , when Jehovah , speaking by the prophet Ezekiel , ( xxxvi . 24—91 " , ) declares to the house of Israel , that he would
restore them to their own land , and cleanse them from their idols , and give them a new heart and a new spirit , and remove the heart of stone , and give them a heart of flesh , and put his spirit within them , and cause them to walk in his statutes ; can
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there be a doubt that he refers , in part at least , to the natural influence of that sore chastisement which they experienced in the seventy years * cap * tivity , and to the effects produced by the customary operations of his providence on the hearts and consciences
of men ? There is nothing in the sacred history to authorize the belief that the people of Israel underwent any sudden and miraculous change ; or that , as individuals , they were preserved from gross vices , though they never again fell into idolatry . Once
more—• 4 . That peculiar agency or influence of God , distinct from miraculous power and knowledge , which is sometimes denoted by the Spirit , or the Spirit of God , is never represented as overpowering in its operation , or as superseding our own exertions and
watchfujness . if any expressions , separate from their connexion , appear to speak a different language , in justice to the sacred writers , in justice to religion , let them be interpreted in consistency with those plainer and continually occurring precepts and declarations , in which the Christian
is required to strive to enter in at the strait gate , to do the will of his Father who is in heaven , to present his body a living sacrifice , to put on the Lord Jesus Christ , to walk in the spirit , to put on the whole armour of God , to purify himself from all defilement of m ^ te . a _ . *_ ^»> MA
^^ ^ ^ ^ flesh and spirit , to be sober and watch unto prayer , to set his affectionn on things above , to put on bowels of mercy , kindness , humbleness of mind , meekness , long-suffering , &c , to press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus , and , to sum up the whole , to work out his own salvation with fear and
trembling . If these simple principles ( in my apprehension indisputable ) had been carefully maintained as the anchor of the soul , and the security of that hope which maketh not ashamed , the
doctrines of limited and irresistible grace , and of final perseverance , on the one hand , or of supernatural conversion and assurance on the other , would never have gained ground in the Christian world .
But in relinquishing these opinions , because as unfounded in the Scriptures as they are injurious in Christian
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548 "" &r » Carpenter on Divine Influences *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1819, page 548, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1776/page/24/
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