which does not make manifest. "All things that are reproved," says the apostle Paul, "are made manifest by the light; for whatsoever doth make manifest, is light;" Eph. v, 13. Since, then, Christ, or the Spirit of Christ, in those operations which are altogether internal and independent of an outward revelation, is light, it is plain that this Spirit in such inward operations makes manifest-communicates an actual moral sense-teaches what is right and what is wrong, in a perceptible or intelligible manner. Thus the Psalmist prayed as follows: "O send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill and to thy tabernacles;" Ps. xliii, 3. The light and the truth, for which he thus offered up his petitions, could not be the written law, of which he was already in possession: the expressions are rather to be understood of the light of God's countenance, and the truth revealed by his Spirit: and these, according to the views of the Psalmist, were at once perceptible and powerful; for they were to lead him in the way of righteousness, and to bring him to the holy hill and tabernacles of God.

Under the Christian dispensation, the Holy Spirit is poured forth in preeminent abundance, as has been already observed, and as the Scriptures testify, on the souls of true believers in Jesus Christ. Of the operations of divine grace, under this new covenant, none of the inspired writers appear to have enjoyed a clearer view than the apostle Paul. Often was he led to expatiate on the Spirit who "dwells" in the children of God, and who enables them, on the one hand, to mortify their carnal affections, and, on the other, to bear the peaceable fruits of righteousness. It is in or after this Spirit that the apostle commands us to walk: "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit;" Gal. v, 25: and again, to the Romans, he says, "there

is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit;" Rom. viii, 1. Now, to walk in or after the Spirit, who dwells in us, can be nothing less than to conform our life and conversation to his dictates; and this we could not do, unless those dictates were perceptible to the mind. On the same principles the apostle has, on two occasions, described Christians as persons who are led by the Spirit. "If ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law;" Gal. v, 18. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God;" Rom. viii, 14. Any one, who impartially examines the two chapters from which these quotations are derived, will easily perceive that the leading, of which Paul is here speaking, is not the instruction derived from inspired preaching, or from divinely authorized Scripture, but an internal work carried on by the Spirit in the soul of man. If, then, there be given to us an internal communication of the Spirit of Truth, by which we are to be led, it is surely very plain that such communication must be made manifest to our mental perception, or otherwise we could not follow it.

The Spirit, whose practical influence the apostle thus describes, is the Spirit of Christ. With this inspired writer the declarations, that the Spirit is in us, and that Christ is in us, appears to be equivalent. "But ye," says he, "are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you." Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead, because of (or as it relates to) sin; but the Spirit is life, because of (or as it relates to) righteousness;" Rom. viii, 9, 10. Since, then, the apostle teaches us that we are to be led by the Spirit, and that the Spirit, by whom we are to be led, is the Spirit of Christ, we

may, without difficulty, understand the principle on which Christ is denominated the "Shepherd and Bishop of souls;" I Pet. ii, 25.

The character of Jesus, as the Shepherd of his people, was unfolded in very touching expressions by our Lord himself. "I am the good Shepherd," said he, "and know my sheep, and am known of mine,.... other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one Shepherd."-" My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand;" John x, 14. 16.27, 28. The disciples of Jesus, who were gathered to him during his short abode upon the earth, undoubtedly enjoyed the privilege of being instructed by his outward voice; but that voice of Christ, which was to be afterwards heard by his sheep, who were not of the Jewish fold, and which is still heard by his faithful followers, whom he leads "in the way of righteousness," we may conclude to be the voice of his Spirit-a voice inwardly communicated to the soul of man. Such a view of our Lord's pastoral office, and of the method by which it is conducted, is perfectly accordant with the promise which he made to his disciples on a subsequent occasion:—“I will pray the Father, 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."...." But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you; John xiv, 16, 17. 26.-"Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of Truth, shall come, he will guide you into all truth;

for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak; and he shall shew you things to come. He shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you ;” John xvi, 13, 14.

These passages contain a plain description of the perceptible guidance of the Spirit of Christ: and the same doctrine was declared, with equal clearness, by the apostle John, at a period when the promises thus made by the Lord Jesus had been graciously fulfilled in the experience of his disciples. "But ye," says the apostle," have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things."... ..." The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him;" I John ii, 20. 27.

It may, indeed, be remarked, that the disciples, who personally received these promises, and many of those primitive Christians whom the apostle was thus addressing, were endowed, for special purposes, with miraculous powers, and with a correspondent extraordinary measure of the Holy Spirit; but it cannot, I think, with any reason, be denied, that the promise of the Holy Ghost, the fulfilment of which is described in this passage of the apostle John, was addressed to all who might believe in all ages of the church of Christ. "He that believeth on me," said the Saviour, "out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters," John vii, 38; and, in a passage already cited, he expressly declared that the Spirit, whom he thus promised to believers, should abide with them "for ever." "Repent," cried the apostle Peter to the listening multitude, "and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive

the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you and unto your children, and to all that are afar off, even unto as many as the Lord our God shall call;" Acts ii, 38, 39. Hence, therefore, it follows that the true believers in Jesus, of every description, and in all ages, are, in a peculiar and preeminent manner, visited and guided by the Comforter. No longer are they to depend on the teaching of their fellow-creatures; for the anointing which they have received of Christ abideth in them, and teacheth them of all things, and is truth, and no lie.

Such was indeed one of the most striking characteristicks of that new dispensation, under which all real Christians are living; and I cannot better conclude this selection of scriptural evidences on the perceptible inward guidance of the Holy Ghost, than by citing a well-known prophetical description of that dispensation:-"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake though I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord; but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more;" Jer. xxxi, 31-34. comp. Heb. viii, 8-13.

Thus explicit are the declarations contained in both