said to believe in virtue of the same power which wrought in Christ, when God raised Him from the dead. (Eph i. 19, 20.) The Apostle Paul elaborately sets forth the ground of faith in the second chapter of First Corinthians. He declares that hs relied for success not on the enticing words of man's wisdom, but on the demonstration of the Spirit, in order that the faith of the people might rest not on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. Faith was not to rest on argument, on historical or philo- sophical proof, but on the testimony of the Spirit. The Spirit demonstrates the truth to the mind, i. e., produces the conviction that it is truth, and leads the soul to embrace it with assurance and delight. Passages have already been quoted which teach that faith rests on the testimony of God, and that unbelief con- sists in rejecting that testimony. The testimony of God is given through the Spirit, whose office it is to take of the things of Christ and show them unto us. The Apostle John tells his read- ers, " Ye 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." (1 John ii. 20, 27.) This passage teaches, (1.) That true believers receive from Christ (the Holy One) an unction. (2.) That this unction is the Holy Ghost. (3.) That it secures the knowledge and conviction of the truth. (4.) That this in- ward teaching which makes them believers is abiding, and secures them from apostasy.
1 Corinthians ii. 14.
Equally explicit is the passage in 1 Corinthians ii. 14, " The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ; for the$- are foolishness unto him : neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man." The things of the Spirit, are the things which the Spirit has revealed. Concerning these things, it is taught : (1.) that the natural or unrenewed man does not receive them. (2.) That the spiritual man, i. e., the man in whom the Spirit dwells, does receive them. (3.) That the reason of this difference is that the former has not, and that the latter has, spiritual discernment. (4.) This spiritual dis- cernment is the apprehension of the truth and excellence of the things discerned. (5.) It is spiritual, as just stated, both because
72 part m. Ch. XVI. — faith.
due to the operation of the Spirit, and because the conformity of the truths discerned to the nature of the Spirit, is apprehended.
When Peter confessed that Jesus was the Christ the Son of the living God, our Lord said, " Blessed art thou, Simon Bar- jona : for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." (Matt. xvi. 17.) Other men had the same external evidence of the divinity of Christ that Peter had. His faith was due not to that evidence alone, but to the inward testimony of God. Our Lord rendered thanks that God had hidden the mysteries of his kingdom from the wise and pru- dent and revealed them unto babes. (Matt. xi. 25.) The ex- ternal revelation was made to both classes. Besides this external revelation, those called babes received an inward testimony which made them believers. Hence our Lord said, No man can come unto me except he be drawn or taught of God. (John vi. 44, 45.) The Apostle tells us that the same Gospel, the same objective truths, with the same external and rational evidence, which was an offence to the Jew and foolishness to the Greek, was to the called the wisdom and the power of God. Why this difference ? Not the superior knowledge or greater excellence of the called, but the inward divine influence, the kA^o-is, of which they were the subjects. Paul's instantaneous conversion is not to be referred to any rational process of argument ; nor to his moral suceptibility to the truth ; nor to the visible manifestation of Christ, for no miracle, no outward light or splendour could change the heart and transform the whole character in a moment. It was, as the Apostle himself tells us (Gal. i. 15, 16), the inward revelation of Christ to him by the special grace of God. It was the testimony of the Spirit, which being inward and supernatural, enabled him to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The Psalmist prayed that God would open his eyes that he might see wondrous things out of his law. The Apostle prayed for the Ephesians that God would give them the Holy Spirit, that the eyes of their souls might be opened, that they might know the things freely given to them of God. (Eph. i. 17, 18.) Every- where in the Bible the fact that any one believes is referred not to his subjective state, but to the work of the Spirit on his heart.
Proof from the Way the Apostles acted. ± As the Scriptures thus expressly teach that the ground of true or saving faith is the inward witness of the Spirit, the Apos- tles always acted on that principle. They announced the truth,