their impiety. As they " changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator .... God gave them up unto vile affections .... As they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a repro- bate mind." (Rom. i. 25-28.) " My people would not hearken to my voice : and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lusts : and they walked in their own counsels." (Ps. Ixxxi. 11, 12.) As men are warned against grieving the Spirit ; as they are taught to pray that God would not take his Holy Spirit from them ; as Avithdrawing the Spirit from any individual or people is represented as a direful judgment, the fact that the Spirit of God does operate on the minds of all men, to a greater or less degree, is clearly taught in Scripture.
4. The Bible therefore speaks of men as partakers of the Spirit who are not regenerated, and who finally come short of eternal life. It not only speaks of men repenting, of their believing for a time, and of their receiving the Word with joy, but still further of. their being enlightened, of their tasting of the heavenly gift, and of their being made partakers of the Holy Ghost. (Heb. vi. 4.)
Argument from Experience.
What is thus taught in Scripture is confirmed by the experience of every man, and of the Church in the whole course of its history. God leaves no man Avithout a witness. No one can recall the time when he was not led to serious thouglits, to anxious inquiries, to desires and efforts, which he could not rationally refer to the operation of natural causes. These effects are not due to the mere moral influence of the truth, or to the influence of other men over our minds, or to the operation of the circumstances in which we may be placed. There is something in the nature of these experiences, and of the way in which they come and go, which proves that they are due to the operation of the Spirit of God. As the voice of conscience has in it an authority which it does not derive from ourselves, so these experiences have in them a character which reveals the source whence they come. They are the effects of that still small voice, which sounds in everv human ear, saying. This is the way; walk ye in it. This is much more obvious at one time than at others. There are seasons in every man's life, when he is almost overwhelmed with the power of these convictions. He may endeavour to suppress them by an effort of the will, by arguments to prove them to be unreason- able, and by diverting his mind by business or amusement, without
670 PART III. Ch. XIV. — vocation.
success. God reveals Himself as distinctly in the workinijs of our inward nature as He does in the outward world. Men fee) that they are in the hands of God ; that He sj^eaks to them, argues with them, expostulates, reproves, exhorts, and persuades them. And they know that they are resisting Him, when they are striving to stifle tliis mysterious voice witliin them.
During the apostolic period the Spirit, in fulfilment of the ])roph- ecy of Joel, was poured out on all classes of men. The effects of his influence were, (1) The various spiritual gifts, whether miraculous or ordinary, then so ahundantly enjoyed. (2.) The regeneration, holiness, zeal, and devotion of the multitudes added to the Church. And (3.) The moral conviction of the truth, the e.xcitement of all the natural affections, temporary faith, repent- ance, and reformation. The latter class of effects was just as consjjicuous and as undeniahle as either of the others. And such has been the experience of the Church in all ages. Whenever and wherever the Spirit has been manifested to a degree in any measm-e analogous to the revelation of his presence and power on the day of Pentecost, while many have been truly born of God, more have usually been the subjects of influences wdiich did not issue in genuine convei'sion.
The evidence therefore from Scripture, and from experience, is clear that the Holy Spirit is present with every human mind, and enforces, with more or less power, whatever of moral or religious truth the mind may have before it.
The Effects of Common Grace.
The effects produced by common grace, or this influence of the Spirit common to all men, are most important to the individual and to the world. What the external world would be if left to the blind o]>eration of physical causes, without the restraining and guiding influence of God's providential efficiency, that would the world of mind be, in all its moral and religious manifestations, without the restraints and guidance of the Holy Spirit. There are two ways in which we may learn what the effect would be of the withholding the Spirit from the minds of men. The first is, the consideration of the effects of reprobation, as taught in Scrip- ture and by experience, in the case of individual men. Such men have a seared conscience. They are reckless and indifferent, and entirely under the control of the evil passions of their nature. This state is consistent with external decorum and polish. Men may be as whitened sepulchres. But this is a restraint wdiich a
§3 J COJkmON GRACE. 671
wise recrard to their greatest selfish gratification places on the evil jjrinciples wiiicli control them. The effects of reprobation are de- picted in a fearful manner by the Apostle in the first chapter of his Epistle to the Romans. Not only individuals, but peoples and churches may be thus abandoned by the S[)irit of God, and then unbroken spiritual death is the inevitable consequence. But, in the second place, the Scriptures reveal the effect of the entire withdrawal of the Holy Spirit from the control of rational creat- ures, in the account which they give of the state of the lost, both men and angels. Heaven is a place and state in which the Spirit reigns with absolute control. Hell is a place and state in which the Spirit no longer restrains and controls. The presence or ab- sence of the Spirit makes all the difference between heaven and hell. To the general influence of the Spirit (or to common grace), we owe, —
1. All the decorum, order, refinement, and virtue existing among men. Mere fear of future punishment, the natural sense of right, and the restraints of human laws, would prove feeble bar- riers to evil, were it not for the repressing power of the Spirit, which, like the pressure of the atmosphere, is universal and power- ful, although unfelt.
2. To the same divine agent is due specially that general fear of God, and that religious feeling which prevail among men, and which secure for the rites and services of religion in all its forms, the decorous or more serious attention which they receive.
3. The Scriptures refer to this general influence of the Spirit ttiose religious experiences, varied in character and degree, which so often (K'cur where genuine conversion, or regeneration does not attend or follow. To this reference has already been made in a general way as a proof of the doctrine of common grace. The great diversity of these religions experiences is due no doubt partly to the different degrees of religions knowledge which men possess ; j)artly to their diversity of culture and character ; and jjartiy to the measure of divine influence of which thev are the S'abjects. In all cases, however, there is in the first jiluce a con- viction of the truth. All the great doctrines of religion have a self-evidencing light ; an evidence of their truth to which nothing but the blindness and hardness of heart produced by sin, can ren- der the mind insensible. Men may argue themselves into a theo- retical disbelief of tlie being of God, of the obligation of the mora.. law, and of a future state of retribution. But as these truths address themselves to our moral constitution, which we cannot
672 PART III. Ch. XIV.— vocation.
change, no amount of sophistry can obscure their convincing hght, if our moral nature be aroused. The same is true also of the Bible. It is the Word of God. It contains internal evidence of being his Word. All that is necessary to produce an irresistible conviction of its truth is that the veil which sin and the God of this world have spread over the mind, should be removed. This is done, at least sufficiently to admit light enough to produce con- viction, whenever the moral elements of our nature assume tlieii' legitimate power. Hence it is a matter of common observation that a man i)asses suddenly from a state of scepticism to one of firm belief, without any arguments being addressed to his under- standing, but simply by a change in his inward moral state. When, as the Bible expresses it, " the eyes of the heart " are thus opened, he can no more doubt the truths perceived, than he can doubt the evidence of his senses.