considering what spirit they are of, or conceiving it possible that they should be misled ; we cannot but confess that they are the unhappy victims of satanic agency.
Now we come to the point proposed, to consider how faith repels these fiery darts.
Faith, provided it be a true and living faith, receives the word of God simply on the authority of him that revealed itn. It staggers not at any difficulties either in the dispensations of his providence, or the decla- rations of his grace. Conscious of man's inability to comprehend even the most common matters in their full extent, the believer submits his reason to God, and receives without gainsaying whatsoever divine wisdom has revealed0. Now the interference of God in the government of the world, even in the falling of a sparrow p, or of the hairs of our headq, is most clearly asserted in the inspired volume ; and, on that account, no occurrence whatever is suffered to weaken the conviction, that all things are under his immediate and entire controul*. Nor do the difficulties that are in Scripture at all lessen its authority in the believer's eyes : whatever he cannot account for as arising from the circumstances under which the Scriptures have been handed down to us, he puts to the score of his own ignorance, and contentedly says, " What I know not now, I shall know hereafter5." And, as to all the heresies that have been broached in the Christian Church, he has one way of repelling all : he " com- pares spiritual things with spiritual1;" not hastily rejecting any plain declaration of God, because he cannot discern its harmony and agreement with some other declaration : he rather looks to God for the teachings of his Spirit ; and keeps his mind ready to embrace whatever may tend to his own humilia- tion, or to the glory of God. If it be thought that still he will be as open to receive error as truth, we answer, that God has promised to " guide him into all
n 1 Thess. ii. 13. ° Jam. i. 21. p Matt. x. 29.
<i Matt. x. 30. r lsai. xlv. 7. s John xiii. 7.
* 1 Cor. ii. 13.