PREFACE.

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THE design of this series of works, with the reasons which weighed with his mind in prosecuting it, the Author has stated at length in the preface to the first volume now before the public.* That the Lord should have honoured, to the extent which he has done, so lowly an attempt to present his truth in its experimental character and practical tendency, was but in harmony with the general principle of his procedure, which has ever been, to choose the "foolish things, and the weak things, and the base things, and things which are despised, yea, and things which are not," to accomplish the great purpose of his wisdom and love, "that no flesh should glory in his presence." The great importance of the principle pleaded for and discussed in these works, the necessity of experimental religion, and the simplicity of their execution, more than ever commend themselves to the Author's conscience and judgment. And that the blessed Spirit should have spoken through his writings, winning to himself a glory so great, through an instrumentality so feeble, fills the heart with brokenness, and the mind with tender, loving, and admiring thoughts of his condescension and grace. It has been the aim of the writer to adhere closely to his original plan, of presenting a gentle crush of Scripture,' unconnected with any peculiarity of individual sentiment, unadorned by human ornament, and untrammelled by scholastic or theological technicalities.

"The Inquirer Directed to a View of the Atonement."

To the subject discussed in the following pages, he earnestly bespeaks the prayerful consideration of the Christian reader. It cannot occupy a position too prominent in our Christianity, nor can it be a theme presented too frequently for our contemplation. All that we spiritually know of ourselves, all that we know of God, and of Jesus, and his word, we owe to the teaching of the Holy Spirit; and all the real light, sanctification, strength, and comfort, we are made to possess on our way to glory, we must ascribe to him. To be richly anointed with the Spirit, is to be led into all truth; and to be filled with the Spirit, is to be filled with love to God and man. The gift of the Spirit he has not felt it his duty to plead for in these pages. It is already given. God has given the Spirit to the church, dwelling in, and for ever abiding with her. "I will pray the Father," says Christ to his disciples, "and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." God has never revoked this gift. He has never removed his Spirit from the church-He is still her Divine, personal, and abiding Resident. And to plead for the bestowment of that which God has already so fully and graciously given, seems to mark an unbelief in, and an overlooking of the mercy, as ungrateful to the Giver, as it is dishonouring to the Gift.

But for a larger degree of his reviving, anointing, and sanctifying influences, we do most earnestly plead. The Spirit, though the ever-blessed and abiding Occupant of the church of Christ, and of the individual believer, may not always be manifestly present. The prayerless, unholy, and trifling walk of a believer, will cause him to withdraw his sensible presence. The coldness, formality, worldliness, and divisions of a church, will compel him to withhold the plentiful rain or the gentle dew of his precious influence. He may be so disowned, dishonoured, wounded, and

grieved, as to retire within the curtains of his secret glory, leaving for a while the scene of worldliness and strife to the curse and the reproach of barrenness. To impress the mind more deeply with the glory of his person, and with the necessity and value of his work; and to awaken a more ardent desire, and more earnest and constant prayer for a greater manifestation of his influence, and a more undoubted evidence of his glory and power in the church and in the believer, are the object of the writer in the following treatise. All we want, brethren beloved in the Lord, is, a richer and more enlarged degree of the reviving, sealing, and witnessing influence of the Holy Ghost. This will sanctify and bless the learning, the wealth, and the influence, now so rich an endowment of Christ's redeemed church, and without which, that learning, wealth, and influence, will but weaken her true power, impede her onward progress, and beget in her a spirit of human trust and vain glory. This, too, will consume in its holy fire, the unhallowed spirit of jealousy and party strife now the cankerworm of the one body; and, without asking for the compromise of truth, will yet, in the love it shall enkindle, so cement the hearts of the brotherhood, and so throw around them the girdle of a heaven-born and uniting charity, as will establish an evidence of the truth of Christianity,—the last that Christ will give, — which all its enemies shall not be able to gainsay or resist. Descend, holy and blessed Spirit, upon all thy churches, thy ministers, and thy people! Descend thou upon Jew and Gentile; everywhere, and among all people, manifest thy glory, until the church, scattered up and down the earth, shall acknowledge, receive, and welcome thee, her ever-blessed and ever-abiding Indweller, Sanctifier, and Comforter!

It is with much reluctance that the Author, in consequence of the unexpected size to which this treatise has grown under his hand, has been compelled to omit some important aspects of the Spirit's work; two subjects especially, the one on "Grieving the

Spirit;" the other on the "Outpouring of the Spirit." It is his intention, however, to introduce them in a work now in preparation, to be entitled, "Personal Declension and Revival, a plea for the Outpouring of the Spirit," to appear in a short period, if the Lord permit. The third volume in this series will be entitled, "THE INQUIRER DIRECTED TO AN EXPERIMENTAL AND PRACTICAL VIEW OF THE GLORY OF CHRIST."

The Author would only add, that it would afford him peculiar pleasure to communicate with any to whom the Spirit may make this humble unfolding of his work a blessing; and to ask, in return, a personal interest in their intercessions at the throne of grace, that the truths he opens to others, may be increasingly the sanctification, consolation, and support of his own soul; and all the glory shall, through time and through eternity, redound to the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.