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practice , I give up nothing which is requisite to encourage the humble disciple of Jesus , and to urge him to work out his salvation with fear and trembling . That the Father of our spirits does influence the human mind
I cannot doubt . That he influences the heart in ways which we often cannot explain , and which it is not , perhajvs , desirable that we should , in this imperfect state , be able clearly to understand , I gtadlv admit . But in receiving this as the encouraging and consoling doctrine of revelation , I
cannot further admit , that he does give his spirit or influence , in any way that caii supersede the necessity of using , faithfully and activety , the powers and faculties and opportunitievS which God hath granted to each of us to know and do his will .
1 am fully satisfied that he who formed man , and added to the wonderful fabric of the human body , the still more wonderful principle which we call mind , has provided means of influencing and aiding the being whom he designed for immortality . That
all the powers of life and thought and affection , as well as the various powers of the inanimate creation , are only the operations of his spirit or agency , I think is a sound principle ' of philosophy ; but I am not referring to the powers themselves , but to the direction
of them , to the employment of them by man as a moral and accountable being . Now , desirous to refer all to God , as I believe the Scriptures do , ( whether his agency be more secretly or more openly employed , whether through means , or without any intermediate agency , ) 1 gladly extend the
idea of divine influence to every means by which ^ ood desi res , holy purposes , devout affections , pure and upright dispositions are produced and fostered in the human heart : S gladly extend A . I * 1 * the idea of divine aid to every means by which our heavenly Father fortifies
the heart under t ^ rrmtatinn . sun . ncs the heart under temptation , supports it under affliction , cheers it in the discharge of duty , animates it for the greater trials of faith , and urges it on to activity and watchfulness in the
divine life : i gladly extend the idea of divide guidance to every fiieans by which the way of duty is cleared , by which divine truth enters and illuminates the heart , by which that wisdom
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is communicated which is profitable to direct , by which that path m cleared which leads to life everlasting * Aud whether that influence , that aid 9 that guidance is communicated
according to the obvious and customary dejlings of his providence , or by immediate agency on the human heart , it is not less owing to the goodness and mercy of . the Father of our spirits j it is not less from his hand that the
blessing proceeds ; it calls for no less lively tribute of gratitude . Every good and perfect gift , I desire gratefully to refer to him in whom we live and move and have our beings who knoweth everv secret movement
of the heart , whose agency continually operates in our various powers of body and of mind , without whom we are nothing , and can do nothing , by whose gracious goodness we are what we are , and upon whom we are every moment depeudent .
I see and 1 desire gratefully to ac * knowledge , that he has , in various ^ ways , made rich provision for the comfort , the direction , the strength , the spiritual welfare of those who humbly and earnestly and steadily seek his aid with full purpose of heart :
I see , too , that he has provided for those who in the midst of light sit in darkness . In that principle which he hath implanted within us , often neglected , often disobeyed , but never entirely extinguished , which often has an unobserved influence in
leading back the wanderer to the house of his Father , and which often is excited by causes which we cannot perhaps explain , to rouse the fears , and force to fly for security and fop safety from impending ruin , —in the warning voice of his providence , which so often awakes our reasonable
alarms , and calls upon us to prepare to meet our God , since soon and suddenly we too may be called hence , — in the more general impulses of both , fostering good desires , weakening the influence of the world ,, and often leading us onward when we ourselves do not perceive it ,: —in the merciful chastisement of affliction , —in the
counsels , the discipline , the example of parents and friends , —in the instructions of his word , often received with thoughtlessness , often treated , with neglect , brought to mind by the faith *
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Dr . Carpenter on Diviri * Influences . ' 549
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VOL , XIV * 4 D
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1819, page 549, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1776/page/25/
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