"This spiritual Birth of Christ in us is not so to be understood, as if the spirit or life itself did then begin to be or subsist; for the same Spirit and Life hath been from the beginning, having its subsistence in the heavenly manhood of Christ, who was from the beginning: yea, it had also its being in us, even since we had a being; but by reason of our sins it lay hid or wrapped up, or imprisoned in us." Ibid. 255. 2. THAT THIS DIVINE SEED AND BIRTH IS DISTINCT FROM THE SOUL. "I do indeed believe-that the Birth of God in us, or the Divine Birth which the apostle Paul calleth Christ formed in us,' Gal. iv. 19, is another thing than our souls, even as the soul is another thing than the body, although as the soul and the body of a living man are united together and not divided nor separated, so the soul of him that is regenerate is united with the Divine Birth in it. -This Seed and Birth of God in us hath a sense and discerning-by itself. It were a great mistake to affirm, either that Christ formed in us is nothing else but our own souls, or that he hath no sense or discerning by himself." Keith, Imm. Rev. not ceased, pp. 248. 249, 252. "As a soul within a soul." Id. Way to the City of God, p. 92. 3. THAT THIS DIVINE SEED AND BIRTH BECOMES THE ORGAN OF DIVINE AND SUPERNATURAL SENSATIONS IN THE SOUL, A CERTAIN SUPREME FACULTY BEING THEREIN EXCITED. "If they did once apprehend or conceive aright of this Birth, as a substantial principle, giving unto man as real sensations and feelings of divine and supernatural things, as the outward substantial natural birth giveth him of outward things, or as the principle of his own natural understanding [or reason, ibid. 7, 8,] giveth him an infallible natural knowledge of things naturally intelligible, whereof there are many instances in the sciences of the Mathematics and Metaphysics so called, they could the more easily-be convinced-that such had an infallible knowledge of God, and his requirings and leadings, and the things of his kingdom, who have attained unto this-Birth, to see, taste, and feel divine and supernatural objects therein-The divine and supernatural birth and principle which giveth unto man's mind, by way of organ, as of seeing, hearing, tasting, &c. the spiritual and supernatural knowledge of spiritual and supernatural objects, is no less, if not more, infallible [than either the external senses or natural reason] at least more evident in respect of its objects. Keith, Imm. Rev. not ceased, pp. 37, 38. "The way and manner of immediate revelation concerning God, aud other Germans, pp. 290. 294 b. He quotes George Whitehead saying, in his Book entitled "Judgment fixed," &c.-This Birth is not Christ Jesus, for he is that incorruptible Seed and Word of Life which begets, forms, and brings forth the soul of man into his own nature and image; and so Christ may be said to be formed in us, as in a mysterious and elegant way of speaking, the property and effect being put for the cause.-Whitehead, "Judgment fixed." &c. p. 330. But the whole scope of the passage might be looked at. b Weigelius died in 1588. There is much respecting him in Arnold's Ecclesiastical History (Gottfried Arnold's Kirchen und Ketzler Historie.) and the things of his kingdom-which we plead for-is that alone manifestation and revelation which is discovered and given from the Lord's Spirit unto the mind of man, in the Seed and Birth of God in him, and which the mind in that Seed and Birth alone, receiveth. This Seed and Birth of God is only that suitable and proportionate organ, instrument, or principle, in which divine and supernatural things can be sufficiently and satisfyingly, that is to say, intuitively known-the mind that is clothed with the Seed and Birth of God, is the spiritual man that is able to understand and discern spiritual things -This Seed and Birth of God hath only the true spiritual senses of seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and feeling the word of life." Ibid. pp. 8, 9. 12 - "As our souls are partakers of this spiritual Body of Christ, and of his life and Spirit therein and thereby, there is indeed a new faculty awakened in them, of which we had not experience before our regeneration; in virtue of which new awakened faculty we have real spiritual sensations of God and divine things, and this divine faculty 13 of the soul itself-which hath the spiritual sensations in it, I call,— the true inward man; which I distinguish from the natural man, I mean from the natural faculties of the soul, such as natural reason and imagination—of which true man, in the same sense, the Platonists do speak, understanding thereby the supreme or highest part and faculty of the soul, otherwise called the mind or spirit of man, as it may be distingnished from the natural faculties of the soul." Ibid. p. 258. “The spiritual discerning is held forth under the names of all the five senses [of which instances are here adduced from Scripture]. "In like manner the things of God themselves are held forth in Scripture under the names of sensible things-as Light-Oil, Wine,Marrow and Fatness, Bread, Flesh and many other such like names. But says the natural man, these are only but metaphors and figures. To which I say, albeit these names be so, yet that hinders not but that the spiritual mysteries, represented under them and signified by them, are real and substantial things, as really affecting the spiritual senses of the spiritual man with joy, refreshment, and pleasure, as the outward things affect the natural or animal senses of the natural man. And indeed these outward things are but figures 14 of the inward and spiritual, which as far exceed and transcend them in life, glory, 12 To the same effect is what Barclay says in his Apology, Prop. v. and vi §. 14. ¶ 1. sub finem. 13 Here the soul itself is made to have spiritual sensations. Elsewhere, as these extracts show, the Divine Seed and Birth is said alone to have the true spiritual senses; but then it is also represented as giving unto the mind of man, by way of organ, the knowledge of spiritual things. 14 This, and probably not a little besides, may be referred to the Platonists."The Platonists," remarks Abp. Leighton, "divide the world into two, the sensible and intellectual world; they imagine the one to be the type of the other, and that sensible and spiritual things are stamped as it were with the same stamp or seal." Abp. Leighton's Lectures, Lect. XV. Brucker's Historia Critica Philosophia might also be consulted. 14 EXTRACTS ELUCIDATORY OF PASSAGES IN BARCLAY'S APOLOGY. beauty, and excellency, as a living body doth the shadow, so that this whole visible world, with all the glory of it, is but a shadow in respect of the spiritual and inward signified thereby." Ibid. pp. 14-16. "Can the best orators tell a blind man what the sun is?"—" Can they describe to him the beauty of a lily in the field?-Do not those of the meanest capacity-who have their eyes—have a better and more satisfying knowledge thereof, than the blind man though quick of understanding?-Now if the knowledge of these natural things cannot be had sufficiently by any words, how much less can these things spiritual, and God who is a Spirit, be known by words 15?"—Ibid. 60, 61. 4. THAT IT IS BY THIS INWARD BIRTH OF CHRIST IN THE SOUL, THAT MAN IS JUSTIFIED. Vid. Barclay's Apology, Prop. VII. passim. CONCLUSION. Enough may perhaps now have been brought forward to show, that this hypothesis or system relating to the "Seed and Birth of God in the Soul," which makes it a distinct being or substance as the Vehiculum Dei, &c. was merely adopted by R. Barclay, but did not originate with him. And, it may be permitted to the most sincere believers in the reality of the influence and guidance of the Holy Spirit, to query, whether the Apology, excellent as it is, would not have been still more valuable, if this hypothesis had not been introduced into it. An endeavour to explain, where Scripture is silent, the nature of things that are beyond the reach of human comprehension, has been, it is scarcely necessary to observe, a very frequent error, and one to which men of a vivid imagination, such as George Keith appears to have possessed, may be considered as particularly prone.-It may be here added, that were an attempt made to assign the particular causes which, in different ages, have given rise to distorted views of Christian doctrine, it would probably not be wrong to refer much to a want of properly distinguishing between literal and figurative language, and to a disposition to carry analogical reasoning beyond its just limits. 16 Although there can be no doubt that amongst those who have entertained some of the views which have been just alluded to, and especially amongst the Mystics, many truly pious characters could be enumerated; yet we shall not on that ground be warranted in considering the tenets or notions, themselves, as being otherwise than prejudicial to the spread of genuine Christianity. Prejudicial they must be, so far as they obscure plain Scriptural truth, and lead away from an attention to it; and they must also be injurious, in that, not being founded on Holy Writ, or at least not on a correct interpretation of its contents, they will often be found in opposition to what may perhaps be called the 15 "All good Christians, as well as the Church of England, do agree, that the inward operations, fruits, and the effects of the Spirit, can never be sufficiently known by mere words; but that it is requisite that the things themselves be inwardly felt and experienced." Keith's Answer to the Apology, p. 106. 16 See some remarks on this in Reid's Essays, vol. iv. pp. 448 and 449. sound Philosophy of the human mind; and hence an unnecessary occasion of stumbling is laid in the way of a cordial reception of Gospel truth. ART. III.--Remarks on Scripture Passages. Continued. 1 Sam. x. ii. And it came to pass, when all that knew him [Sau!] beforetime saw that, behold, he prophesied among the prophets, then the people said one to another, What is this that is come unto the Son of Kish--is Saul also among the prophets? And one of the same place [with Saul] answered and said," But who is their father? Therefore it became a proverb, Is Saul also among the prophets? Here is plainly something deficient in the sense as we have it rendered in consequence of which, that which was undoubtedly a pointed speech, perhaps a severe sarcasm, loses its force and is overlooked by the reader. To what purpose was it for Saul's countryman to ask who was father to the sons of the prophets, unless there were something of disrepute intended towards them? 6 The quesBut who is their The Vulgate Latin, in Chap. x, of 1 Kings (corresponding in that arrangement with this text) has it Quænam res accidit filio Cis: Num Saul inter prophetas ? Responditque alius ad alterum dicens, Et Cis pater ejus! But in the margin we have quis' and 'eorum'-the latter corresponding to our sense; the former making, What, and Kish his father! Cis is mentioned in Ch. ix, as a mighty man of power-fortis robore, perhaps meaning a substantial Land-owner. And the wonder was, according to this version, how the son of such a man could fall in with such a crew as he was found with! But the sense of our own version comes out still worse. tion, and that put in Saul's behalf by his townsınan, father,' implied at once that they were of parentage so obscure as that he needed fear no one's answer. And the solution amounts to this, That many, or most of these attendants on the prophets, their servants and guards in those perilous times (and who also occasionally caught the spirit of prophecy) were either foundlings, committed to their charge to feed and clothe out of the gifts of the people, or such offspring of their own, as they would in no other than as such humble attendants acknowledge! The marriage of a priest, and his contracting the care and responsibility of a family was in Rome's eyes, at the time of our English reformation, the unpardonable sin. And if ever (which may God of his great mercy avert) she should prevail here once more, we shall see substituted for that connexion which, duly observed, is honourable in all, a mysterious and most insufferable licence—a celibacy dishonourable to all parties, and the marriage bed defiled ! Matt. i. 1. Should be read, The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.' I take this title to have been prefixed merely to the Extract from the public registers, containing the genealogy, and not (as Purver seems to suppose) to the entire gospel of Matthew. way Matt. iii, 1. Now in those days cometh John the Baptist, preaching in the desert of Judea." In what days? If we refer to Luke iii, 1, we shall find a precise historical date to the beginning of John's ministry: but here is nothing put before that corresponds. Possibly there may have been such a date as that in Luke, but which is now lost. At any rate, they who suppose the whole second of Matthew, with Ch. i, 17-25, to be an interpolation, will find it impossible fairly to connect this passage with what would in that case precede; or to account for the manner of this opening of the account of John. ART. IV.-FABLES, &C., IN PROSE AND The Fox on the Bramble. VERSE-CONTINUED, Æsop. 7. The Best of them is a briar, the most upright a thorn hedge. Micah vii, 4. They who in difficulties run To Usurers are, oft, undone : The Law's vague remedy, when sought The purse, much sooner than disease. Impatient o'er a fence to scramble, A Fox, at least, should prove more wise |